The Rant Thread. :)

[greypanther]

True.
( How did you find out I freelance for the mail? )

However even the most stereotypical story often has a smidgeon of truth attached. The sorry examples I see at both ends of the social spectrum however, do not make for anything but a fraction of the whole.
Some people's idea of what is admirable is odd though, I agree.

Bloody hell! Look at the time! Offsky!!

[BugMeister]

You know what's more fun than getting a root channel? Having the entire root channel drilled out again because they effed up. And without anesthetics, as "you're a healthy man, you can walk it off". This is gonna be a fun week.

I never have anaesthetic - freaks the dentist no end..
I've even had extractions without injection..

..it's easy - just think about something else while the op takes place..

[Morkonan]

When I was a kid, I had plenty of cavities filled. I never got any anesthetic... I didn't even know there was any such thing.

My dentist was a sick sadist that liked to see little boys squirm and cry. I dunno if he is still alive or not. I wish he was - I'd break his damn jaw.

[Morkonan]

GAME RANT INCOMING!

OK, I just bought a game by a one-man Indie dev who couldn't have had the success he did without a certain game merchandiser and download service that shall remain nameless. This isn't the first purchase I've made of an Indie game that wouldn't have had a market if it hadn't been for electronic download.

I'm tired of crappy games. I'm tired of the market being flooded with ill-conceived, half-baked, unfinished, buggy games.

The game in question is not all that buggy, now that it has been patched up a bit. At least, it has played relatively bug-free, as far as I can tell, for the past day or so. But, that's just it - I can't tell if it's bug free because there's so little information being displayed about WTF is going on that I can't even tell if I'm playing the fracking game or not!

I R PSYCH GUY! I R GOT PSYCH D'GREE. I R GOTZ 'PINION!

OK, first off, there is one overwhelming problem with all of these sorts of Indie games - They should have hired an Industrial Psychologist. I dunno what they call 'em in today's electronic world, but back when I was in SKOOL they called them Industrial Psychologists. See, you went to these guys and asked them to fix the human interface with your product (among other things) and they said "Okie dokie" and did it...

I shall explain - Imagine you're a programmer and you've got all your little game elements running around and doing all the mysterious crap you told them to do. Now, being a gameplayer, you also know that people like snazzy graphics, so you focus on that a bit. Then, you figure that you had better give the player some info about what's going on, so you throw up a couple of menus an' stuff. Oh, don't forget, the player might like to issue orders to the little units you gave them to play with, so you had best figure out a way for them to do that. Great! Now you're done! Release the game and make money.

No, don't worry with a manual! Heck no! Hmm, there are hundreds of units... Bah, no problem, the player doesn't need a way to easily keep track of them! Wow, look at all those production centers an' stuff. I gave 'em a window, but you really can't do much with it. Nah, they won't care, they've got shiny graphics and splosions! They won't notice!

E-distribution is killing quality control, these days. Indie devs are relying more on marketing their "ideas" for a game then they are in producing a solid and well polished product. Sure, they're small and we shouldn't expect too much from them, right? NO, DAMMIT! I you produce something for a consumer, you either produce the best product you can or you just don't produce anything at all. And, if this sort of crap is the best product that devs can knock off these days, we're friggin doomed.

How many games in a genre that you like have come out in the last three years and how many of them suck ass due to bugs, untranslatable, worthless or missing manuals, unintuitive interfaces, little content and even less play life? Now many still get played just because gamers don't have anything reasonably finished that's on-the-shelf to compare it to?

When you compare two crap games against each other, looking for the best one, all you end up with is a slightly better piece of crap. This has got to end and I don't see that "competition" is going to do a darn thing to help with this problem. What competition? All a dev has to say is "LOOK! SHINY!" and they're off with your money before you know what happened. Should we wait to purchase a product, hoping that there is one honest reviewer out there that isn't on someone's payroll who is going to tell us the truth? What truth are they going to tell us? That they're all crap?

These problems keep cropping up, even in highly rated Indie and AAA House titles. The standard is lowering, not getting higher, and nobody gives a damn as long as the cash flows in and they don't have to worry about pushing out support or paying overhead for hard distribution. Gratz us.

It's Battlecruiser 3000, all over again...

[brucewarren]

Battlecruiser had far worse things than poor interface. It had game breaking bugs that the programmer couldn't be bothered to fix - random crash to desktop for no reason whatsoever and an attitude by the developer that any problems with the gameplay were the player's fault for not being able to read his mind.

Surely the product you encountered couldn't have been that bad - some things are just not physically possible.

You do realise that you're making the case for the return of the big studios

[DaddyMonster]

I'm intrigued - although I see you're trying to make a general point - that you chose to withhold the name of said slated title. Are you protecting the innocent?

[greypanther]

Our bloody government!

Energy prices rise because we have no real policy of future energy production in this country! Saw an interview after the rise announcement, of out leading politicians, non of them have a ****** clue! Camoron wants to just frack the hell out of the planet and Siliband wants to have a go at manipulating free markets, by imposing a price freeze!

Meanwhile the majority of our power stations are going to be shut down and whilst the shower of shite in power dither, we become more and more reliant on the French and Russians for power!!

No need for more wind farms, ( A scam if ever I saw one, ) we live on an island, with a huge tidal range! You should build the tidal barrage NOW! bunch of ****** wanking politicians, too obsessed with getting voted back in next time, to make real long term decisions!!

Oh yes Camoron has another card up his sleeve:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... homes.html

Wonderful idea in principal, but not so when you see the farce that is Windscale/Sellafield. Lets just sweep the waste produced under the Cumbrian carpet? ( Yes that seems to be back on the agenda, with Camoron pushing through the legislation, to override public opinion, allegedly. )

[brucewarren]

I blame the RSPB. We could have had the Severn Barrier up and running decades ago but for them, but no we had to worry about the wading birds instead.

[greypanther]

Maybe true, but we could produce more than just the Severn barrage; many rivers would support a barrage. As I have posted several times, the French example has proven nature will adapt. Even if nature did not adapt, what do people think will happen to the birds habitat with rising sea levels?

I find it just too depressing.

Edit: Again I have removed a lower post, because I am tired of banging my head on the wall that people like Chips create. Sorry for any inconvenience.

[Samuel Creshal]

I dunno what they call 'em in today's electronic world, but back when I was in SKOOL they called them Industrial Psychologists.

Human-computer interaction is its own field of study.

Needless to say, it's vastly underrated.

I'm looking at you, Vista. And you, iOS 7. And you, Android 2.

[RegisterMe]

I dunno what they call 'em in today's electronic world, but back when I was in SKOOL they called them Industrial Psychologists.

Human-computer interaction is its own field of study.

Needless to say, it's vastly underrated.

I'm looking at you, Vista. And you, iOS 7. And you, Android 2.

And you, you twit, whoever you are, who "designed" the interface for the Kindle.

[Chips]

Energy prices are really really hot topic. Prices are hugely inflated as we're paying for the "green" energy credentials. Only 1 site in the UK had anyone saying "yes" to nuclear and environmental concerns trump nearly all plans for anything tidal barrage or hydro.

Talk about global warming raising sea levels which would flood those areas that can't be barraged is irrelevant. And then there is the price. The Nuclear option (due to huge outlay) requires a negotiated price on the unit produced, and a tidal barrage across the Severn was priced up and eye wateringly insanely expensive (think HS2 price).

No Government has the balls to do what's needed because... they then get absolutely castigated by us all and vilified.

As for Fracking, they look at the US and see what happened there to Gas prices and hope it'll happen here if it goes ahead. One way of bringing energy prices down for sure... but its kicking said ball down the road again Someone has to take the pain at some point, and we're all squealing because its us. I also think Wind Power is not the answer. But I do think Nuclear is - as long as waste can be dealt with appropriately.

[brucewarren]

I don't.

Even if you can find a safe place to store, the admittedly very small amount ,of very dangerous waste, you've still got the horrendous cost of decommissioning the things fifty years later on. The private sector won't touch them with a barge pole unless the government - ie us foots the bill.

Wind power has the storage problem but I don't think it's insurmountable in principle. I also don't think the technology is anywhere near where it should be. There are other designs of generator, including vertical ones - the rotating shaft is vertical so the wind direction doesn't matter but everyone's fixated on the classic three arm design that has to be turned to face the wind.

IMO part of the problem is vested interests. How can the government move forward when the oil lobby has got former chancellors in their pocket pretending that global warming is a big conspiracy?

Never mind global warming, but about fuel supply? That people are even considering such drastic ideas as fracking in the first place is because we're running out, but no-one wants to here that story. So much easier to pretend it's going to last forever.

[Morkonan]

..Surely the product you encountered couldn't have been that bad - some things are just not physically possible.

True. And, I agree with your assessment of He Who Shall Not Be Named and BC3000.

You do realise that you're making the case for the return of the big studios

I don't have a problem with that. Sure, it's nice that Indies and small studios can produce work. I just want a bit more polishing on that work. There's no reason to fear "Big Studios" if they're producing good products. The market has busted wide open with e-distributing - Indies now have their route to market paved fairly well.

]I'm intrigued - although I see you're trying to make a general point - that you chose to withhold the name of said slated title. Are you protecting the innocent?

Two reasons the name was witheld:

1) I didn't want to get possible conversations distracted by game-specific opinions. Some people love half-polished games. I love the Fall From Heaven mod for Civ IV and one of its successors, Rise From Erubus. But, they're sort of half-baked. (Though, FFH2 is likely a bit more stable than RiFE.)

2) The dev and the game aren't bad enough to single out. It's just half-polished and there could have easily been some key intuitive features that should have been added. This lack of certain features are immediately evident and, thus, hinder enjoyment of what could have been a fully polished product. But, the game isn't so full of suck that it warrants a Public Service Announcement, warning people away from it.

Human-computer interaction is its own field of study.

We had "Ergonomics" when I was in College. There was also some combining of the studies of movement, physiology and behavior going on, in order to improve the Man-Machine interface. But, there wasn't a lot going on with psych and game/information tech. At least, not broadly.[/i]

[Chips]

Royal Mail parcels - 2 issues in just 1 week.

I take a parcel on behalf of a friend, it arrives damaged. It looks like someone drop kicked the box. The contents are being sent back for a replacement as they're damaged and not working.

I also ordered a watch, which was dispatched by a seller via Royal Mail. 2 weeks later it has not arrived, and the seller finds it is Royal Mail who've lost the parcel. There is no longer any stock on the item...

2 parcels, 1 week, both times utterly useless Royal Mail Parcel handling.

RAGE!

[Samuel Creshal]

Bloody hell, even thieves are elitist idiots. Stole a Macbook and two iPads, but left the eight much more expensive ThinkPads in the office.

[greypanther]

That's not elitism Samuel, that's just being pragmatic, even thieves know there is a huge demand for Macs and ipads. Supply and demand I would say...

I need to rant about the latest moronic decision out of Camorons little brain:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24604218

The government has given the go-ahead for the UK's first new nuclear station in a generation.

France's EDF Energy will lead a consortium, which includes Chinese investors, to build the Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset.

Ministers say the deal will help take the UK towards low-carbon power and lower generating costs in future.

Critics warn guaranteeing the group a price for electricity at twice the current level will raise bills.

So the arsehole thinks it is a good idea does he? It will indeed lower carbon emissions for the country, but at an unacceptable cost!

1) The electricity produced will be at a much higher cost than one alternative I can think of.
2) Security of supply? Bollocks! We won't be relying on the Russians for gas anymore, cos it will be owned and run by the French and Chinese! ( How much of EDF does the French tax payer own? )
3) Guaranteed prices for the product produced for what 35 years? meanwhile the British tax payer will pay for disposal of dangerous waste and the decommissioning of the plant! ( Please prove me wrong on this! ) So guaranteed, tax payer subsidised profits to the French shareholders?
4) We still have an appalling record on nuclear waste disposal; see the ongoing farce that is Sellafield/Windscale!

Camoron is a complete and utter idiot! Either he and his cronies are so out of touch with reality, or perhaps they all have an ulterior motive for such ****** decisions?


I think Robin Williams probably had it right, we need our politicians to be more like sports people; they need to have displayed on their shirts, every multinational who sponsors them in one way or another; be that future; past or present sponsors.

[RegisterMe]

/insert rant about greypanther's rant .

Slightly more seriously, perhaps it's worth a thread of its own?

[Stars_InTheirEyes]

@greypanther I completely disagree. To me, the cost is irrelevant if it means taking one more step away from coal/oil/gas dependency.

/insert rant about greypanther's rant .

Slightly more seriously, perhaps it's worth a thread of its own?

I think so.

[Chips]

Thirded