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jay pettitt

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Everything posted by jay pettitt

  1. This stuff is vaguely interesting - a neuroscientist poking at the edges of our sense of self. It's possible that our sense of self is transient and only seems constant because it's continuously reinforced. That person you see in the mirror - if it was someone else, you'd notice right?
  2. Somewhat interesting perhaps is that quite a few things we'd consider moral or humane behaviour can be explained by a clumsily evolved sense of empathy. Where we might expect generosity to evolve due to benefits from reciprocation or to be attractive to mates - well apparently we don't know where to stop and empathise with anything and everything. People on entirely other continents, different species etc etc. Torture also requires a well developed sense of empathy. Or so I heard.
  3. Clearly morality isn't universal. There's variation between societies. And what people find acceptable can change over time. But it's probably useful for a social species to have empathy for each other and natural for a social group to develop some expectations for behaviour. I'd not be confident that other social species don't do something similar ~ though obviously not with the writing it down in books.
  4. This is nice for me. I use Linux as a preference for just about everything except, of course, Windows gets some video game exclusives. An HTPC type thingy running linux with better support for gaming thanks to Valve & Steam & Nvidia etc etc makes my life a little neater.
  5. Except that average users don't end up in those situations ~ you need to be, err, non average, to bugger about enough to get in a pickle with that stuff in the first.
  6. Dude, that's a guy speculating (wildly) on a blog. Maybe there's something to it, but really - Valve sent scrabbling to Linux in a panic because people would be able to transfer their achievements from Xbox if they use a competing store front? Seriously? (Jay notes that in the year since that blog post was written foretelling how Valve's number was up, Steam sales have gone up 30% or something) Anyway I've not given this any thought yet - but generally speaking I think Desktop PCs and people's homes are an uncomfortable marriage. Maybe it's okay if you've got a home office, or in your teenage son's bedroom or something - but it's a pretty inelegant way of sticking a computer in a home. So yeah, if you can make the PC less obtrusive and access it from thin clients (the telly, laptops, tablets etc etc) then I can see that working.
  7. It wasn't a feature, so much as a direction Windows is being taken as part of Microsoft's aspiration to transition to an Apple style hardware and services company. Maybe MS will surprise everyone and turn out not to be the next Blackberry, but that space is already pretty sewn up. And the OS of choice by a massive margin for consumer devices is 'nix. Just like the OS of choice for back room applications is 'nix. Desktop PCs are looking kinda creaky and kinda isolated. And they're not selling. Valve are just covering their bases. 'Cos you gotta ask, other than PC gaming (which is pretty niche) what's Windows for? ~~edit~~ ooh er
  8. Sure, but as I've tried to explain a few times, being a PC gaming enthusiast is kind of a niche activity. Most folk don't care to tweak individual parameters for their mouse. Most folk don't want to tweak their mice at all, and if they have to they want the mouse/trackpad to be a bit less/more whizzy and that's it. Most folk would think that demanding individual acceleration and sensitivity sliders to be front of house and exclaiming that 'this OS sucks' if it's not so to be a bit weird. You having a frustrating time getting some experimental Beta software up and running (and let's be clear, absolutely no one is saying that right now Linux is as well supported for PC gaming as Windows is) is no different at all from someone else having a frustrating time with any other aspect of computing ~ something that happens a lot. Yeah, it does suck when it happens and more so when you're somewhere new and a bit lost, but some perspective kinda helps here.
  9. Now Mr Gabe Newell says Linux is the future of PC gaming. Ooh err.
  10. I'm firmly of the opinion that onboard sound is plenty good for listening to stuff, so unless you've got some problem that needs fixing or specific need for xlr inputs or pre amps or something... The other hardware matters a bit. Head phones, speakers etc etc. But once you've avoided really bad ways of producing noises the pluses are inconsequential. And if you've got rubbish speakers, a separate sound card won't help you. Part of my justification for thinking this way boils down to the fact that even though you might be able to measure (and possibly hear) the differences with special equipment, human brains aren't special measuring microphones - you interpret what you hear +- everything else going on that'll colour your world view. I've got a semi decent external sound card and some mid range studio kit and if I'm really keen I can probably tell that it's different to the onboard sound coming out of the same speakers. But I honestly wouldn't want to tell you which sounded 'better'. And after a few moments of listening and any difference is lost in the moment. So get yourself some okay speakers/headphones and get on with enjoying it.
  11. A Machine For Pigs is a kind of offshoot venture. It's another team (The Chinese Room) behind it and doing their own thing - they've borrowed the tech, but it's their idea of what they want to make rather than Frictional Games' (who made The Dark Descent). I'm sure Frictional are busy working on their next big thing and it'll be a Frictional Games project proper. I've yet to try Pigs, but I think you've got to take it for what it is: a small team experimenting with what can be done with story telling and mood in that new fangled interactive video game format. Probably the puzzles aren't the best and the tech isn't exactly next gen, but it's not like you're paying $60. So sit back and try to enjoy the story and sound design instead.
  12. Shadowhide hates it? That's recommendation enough for me
  13. What, and nobody has ever had a frustrating time trying to get something working on windows? One example of a frustrating time is not the same as OSS drivers don't support hardware features or are just bad. It's one example of a frustrating time on a PC, a complex open architecture legacy device. Not your fault of course, but basically I think you're spinning a very rosey eyed view of Windows and a very negative view of 'Nix.
  14. I'm sure I've said it already, but I think the system you're used to will be the one with least annoying bugs/issues/tribulations - and that has more to do with what you're used to and grown comfortable with rather than some kind of quantifiable measure of bugs / issues. [says Jay remembering the giggles getting Windows 7 to talk to a printer on a network.] If you're a computer enthusiast, then you've probably learnt to tame windows / linux - but you also probably forget that most people aren't enthusiasts and don't have that level of knowledge/skill/patience. Most people's experience of (Windows) PCs are that they spend 3 months bothering you with nag screens and pop ups and getting ever slower before grinding to a halt. Generally I've found that 'nix works pretty much seamlessly straight out the box perhaps 90% of the time (rough guess) + maybe a tiny bit of one time help with spit and polish & getting a few things just so - but once you're there, that's it. Windows on the other hand is working out the box (heck, it's preinstalled) maybe 100% of the time, but the UI is a dog and for most people the general experience then goes down hill rapidly. Most of all, I think PCs are highly complex, multi purpose legacy devices. You pay your money (or not, both are effectively free) and takes your choice. --edit-- Actually, I've got a thing or two to say about drivers. err, which open source drivers are 'just bad'? Seriously, name 'em. And what the hell is great about Windows and its drivers? All drivers suck, and companies that demand that you install special software to make their products work suck. Most hardware simply doesn't need a special software driver to make it function (honestly, you really don't need anything a computer can't already do to send a postscript file to a printer and you certainly don't need a driver to use a mouse or a USB stick). The advantages are almost always for the producer (exclusive contracts, software patent wrangles, installing company branding on your PC etc etc) and almost never for the consumer. Drivers are the scourge of shit consumer peripherals. To hell with them.
  15. Yes. Now Matt Hooper joins Oculus. Matt Hooper is (was) id's creative director.
  16. But apparently still at id in some part time capacity.
  17. pfft... Garrett was always sexy - just ask Dia. Anyways, is that the lass who did Elisabeth? Awesome costume making skills. And it's gotta make EM wonder if they shouldn't have run with Garrett's apprentice.
  18. Nope. It's a multiplier, not a binary visible/invisible thing. The bugginess is that wall hug is too effective in the dark - guards can bump into you and do a little AI bark that they've got you, then lose you again straight away and go back to searching. If you're lit to some extent or other, wall hug works pretty much as intended.
  19. AC edged out Thief, by a surprisingly narrow margin. Maybe T4 is doing a better job of attracting a new audience than it is courting old timers..?
  20. They're calling out what they think are the salient points. They provide the audio of the interview unabridged. It's hardly an effort to mislead.
  21. Sneaky Bastards have finally published a write up of their T4/E3 experience. We can have a long chat about whether scripted sequences like the burning bridge might be behind Eidos Montreal ditching Stephen Russell, whether they're expensive on developer resources generally and whether those are smart decisions - but I sorta don't care otherwise about them punctuating the game here and there, I'm okay with departures from the original formula if (and it is an if, see the next paragraph) it's still recognisable as Thief elsewhere. What does interest me, and what Sneaky Bastards get to which other write ups haven't so far is the degree of systems simulation and the scope for exploration. And in both cases they fail T4. Rather than infiltrating a mansion that's a cohesive system you progress from one distinct challenge/area to the next, ala Splinter Cell, and the scope for exploration is similarly limited/non-existent. 15 years later, we've gone backwards. My take is, though they're clearly trying hard to be open minded and have provided the most candid insights into Eidos M's development rationale so far, the sneaky crew have delivered the most damning verdict on T4 yet.
  22. So developers are a trustworthy source of facts, except for when they're not. ~~edit~~ actually, sod this. The only thing we've got that's close to a source of facts is science, which only achieves its status as a source of reliable knowledge through painstaking baby-steps, obsessively testing the ground each time and constant iteration. Which is hard work and takes time, and even then it gets complicated. The rest of the time (and possibly even then) we're all befuddled by cognitive and other biases, conflicting interests and god knows what else. You, me, fans, developers, journalists alike. Do I trust a selection of fans that Eidos hand selected and paid to go on an all expenses paid jolly? Maybe. Do I trust the developers who need millions of people to buy their product? As far as it goes. Do I trust RPS, Giant Bomb & Sneaky Bastards, all of whom have fostered a reputation for being on the ball and writing frank, independent views? With caveats. Result: As far as I can tell Theif [4] gets a mixed reaction at E3. Take that how you will. Should you trust me? No.
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