wavey

A study looking at how gender affects the kind of verbal abuse people get in games (specifically Halo 3 multiplayer):

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We show that lower-skilled players were more hostile towards a female-voiced teammate, especially when performing poorly. In contrast, lower-skilled players behaved submissively towards a male-voiced player in the identical scenario.

He left a while ago, and is now working at Bossa Studios. According to Wikipedia:

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He is currently working on an unannounced cooperative game that is "trying to do something new in the narrative space using [artificial intelligence]"

Agreed, loved the

especially. A bit of a coincidence was that I was talking with friends about the trolley problem earlier in the week, and experiments asking what people would do in various permutations of it (I'd just listened to a RadioLab episode about it), and one of my friends suggested that people should be put in a VR simulation of it to see what they would really do.

Anyway if there is a better moral philosophy-based sitcom around at the moment I would like to hear about it.

21 minutes ago, MarkN said:

But if you get the wrong end of the stick - and it still works - and works repeatedly - that's the issue here.

Where you see a bug, I see a feature. It certainly allows - even encourages - you to assume a puzzle-type is obeying a simple rule where a more complex rule is actually the case. Typically you come across a puzzle that contradicts the simple rule, and then you need to construct a rule that satisfies both the new puzzle and the old ones, and experiment. The maze puzzles are one kind of challenge in the game; working out the rules for the mazes is the higher-order challenge, and that for me is what the game is about.

The last few posts seem to be missing what I thought was the whole point of the game. There's not a single instruction in the game, and everything you learn is through induction; part of the puzzle of the game is questioning the assumptions you have made along the way, which I think it does brilliantly. It's a game about inductive reasoning, not the kind of deductive reasoning you would use to fill in a crossword.

I'm really enjoying this, and don't have much else to add except to say that every time Chidi says "What?!" I *will* laugh. I feel the same kind of warmth to the characters as I did in Parks & Rec. I read somewhere that the writers have the first 3 seasons plotted, so I am intrigued to see where they take it.

re spoilers:

On 17/07/2017 at 00:40, BlinkyBear said:

Quick ask: best GoT podcast? Obvs one that doesn't discuss the books ideally.  

 

Cheers.  

Not sure about the best, but the third best is Boars, Gore, and Swords - two American stand-ups recap each episode. It's more of an entertaining review of each episode rather than the kind of in-depth plot analysis you'd get from Cast of Kings, and obviously funny is in the eye of the beholder, but I really like it.

Apparently I have a spare Steam key for SpeedRunners - first person to PM me can have it. 

Gone to @ilpostino

17 minutes ago, VN1X said:

Can anyone post the full list of games here for this month's bundle? At work so can't check. 

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin 

Galactic Civilizations 3

SimplePlanes
Armello 
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter 
Kero Blaster 
Hyper Light Drifter

2000:1: A Space Felony

Next month early unlocks are NBA2K17 and Pillars of Eternity. (I seem to have got two keys for NBA - did this happen to anyone else?)

39 minutes ago, Darhkwing said:

Is it very easy to get lost/stuck whilst playing?

No, it's usually obvious what you do next, due to both how it's all laid out and the camera will occasionally subtly point you in the right direction if there's something important to notice.

Great game, I'd recommend going in knowing as little as possible about it. For purchasing decisions, know that you'll complete it in about 3 hours, and I don't think they'll be any particular value in replaying it, if that's a factor.

7 hours ago, Clipper said:

Any decent VR in sale? (I already have superhot)

 

I had a scan through but it all looked a bit meh (I might get job simulator).

I've bought a couple: Pinball FX2 VR - I'll just say that I'm sure the Mars table is great for people who can cope with spiders constantly in their peripheral vision - and Thumper, a rhythm action game, which is excellent so far and looks really good in VR. (Both seated games, not room-scale)

Job Simulator is fun for a couple of hours, and a good demo to show new people to get used to the controllers etc. It's my kids' VR game of choice when they get the chance.

Might be a temporary glitch, but I got to the end of my discovery queue and got 13 summer sale trading cards - worth a go if you want the badge / pennies?

3 minutes ago, VN1X said:

Please show me the ways of Invisible Inc Master Wavey.

Oh, I enjoyed it - I never said I was any good at it though! It's one of those games I played for a week, enjoyed it a lot - it's super tense for a turn-based game - and then either life or another game intervened and I would now have to relearn it. I keep meaning to go back to it though!

33 minutes ago, gospvg said:

The Tweetbot, Youtube Capture & PhotoPen apps I use won't be though which is a shame, can't see any of these getting updated.

Tweetbot 4 seems fine, it's not on my list - are you using an older version?

Otherwise I have a bunch of kids' apps unsupported, and the only other ones on my phone I'm bothered about are XCOM and Magnetic Billiards (though I suspect there may be more on my ipad, will have to check later).

New episode up!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/consolevania-2-n-8641004

A bit niche, but if anyone enjoys the kind of mellow comfort hidden object games can provide, here are a few spare keys for some Artifex Mundi games (from this bundle):

Clockwork Tales: Of Glass and Ink *G9Q6-T40ET-MATDH

Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride *G35F-E8GGE-WMJ8E

Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan *FJ6T-W9QVT-V0C4G

Mind Snares: Alice's Journey *GQKN-AE7E6-V00ZK

To confound the bots, I've removed the first characters - add the number two to the start of each of them to get a valid key.

23 minutes ago, Luseth said:

When does the payment come out? Just before the games release or the day that you sub and subsequently that day each month?

If you're subscribed, payment is taken a week before the games are unlocked.

Decent Best of 2016 Humble Bundle:

$1:

Else Heart.Break()

Evoland 2

Victor Vran
 

BTA (~$3 atm):

Rust

Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

Stronghold Crusader 2

$10:

Homeworld Remastered Collection

Interesting interview with Epic's Tim Sweeney regarding VR in general. He is not a fan of the relatively closed way Oculus is currently doing things, mentions that HTC Vive is outselling Oculus 2-to-1, and that current PC VR sales in total are "a little more than half a million PC units; I don't know the PSVR numbers".

45 minutes ago, Dudley said:

I don't need spoilers but just a yes/no, are there any actual jump scares in this? If there's not I'll be fine.

As far as I remember, there aren't any jump scares, no. There are parts I definitely found creepy purely due to the environments, sound design and general immersion of VR, but there weren't any cheap tricks.

17 minutes ago, davejm said:

Out of stock now

The 20EUR ones are still in stock - I just bought 3 with the 5% Facebook discount, which currently gives you £50.61 Steam credit for the total cost of £42.72. Slightly less good percentage-wise, but still a decent saving.

If anyone's still wavering, now available at cdkeys for £9.89 (EU-only Steam version, use code CDKEYSPP10 for the extra discount). Just picked it up based on the broadly positive campaign impressions here.