Yeah, the Turing's test should be only used to create badass AIs, not merchants who want to sell the new hottest nike shoe at a discount.

Why can't it create badass merchants who want to sell Nike shoes at discount? It could be like RoboCop, if you don't buy the shoes online he shows up to your house and gives you a sales pitch (at gunpoint).

I've heard about Conservapedia. What about it? are there rants everywhere or something

http://conservapedia.com/Causes_of_Homosexuality
http://conservapedia.com/Barack_Hussein_Obama

Basically, it's a hilarious wiki which distorts facts to further the editors' agenda. Kind of like Kotaku! *rimshot*

Women are just as uncontrollable as storms.

Oh fuck, she's a Category 5! Wait a sec, I gotta get my storm-chasing van.

But man, these spambots are beginning to become indistinguishable from regular forum posts. Soon enough we'll get bots talking about Cave Story and Fez.

Just played the demo, it's good stuff. The atmosphere is great and the pixel art is gorgeous (though sadly a lot of it was ruined by the incredibly ugly nearest neighbor pixel scaling). The level design seemed a bit empty though (quite a few long/high corridors with nothing in them), and most of the puzzles had pretty obvious solutions. Basically it just needs to be tightened up a bit, maybe make the action a bit faster too (though I played with a gamepad instead of a mouse+keyboard so maybe that helped make it easier for me).

Everything I've seen of SM3DL so far really just points to it being a coldly calculated cash-in. I mean, environments are basically plasticy cubes (lol at the small bonus room where the challenge is to hit a ? block as fast as you can), they recycled all their music from SMG (and with the SMB3 remixes it's like double recycling), the level designs barely even use the third dimension (especially when compared to previous titles like SM64 or SMS, whereas with this level you could beat it barely even moving at all on the Z axis), Mario seems to move extremely sluggishly, and the amount of nostalgia throwbacks is over-the-top (the Tanooki suit, Boom Boom, SMB3 remixes, even the title and logo). I also really dislike the graphical style, but that's a problem (among others) which started with the NSMB series. I don't mind the more linear structure at all, and I've always wanted to see something like SMW's structure (linear levels with one central goal and possibly multiple exits) or even SMB3's in a 3D Mario game (since star collecting is getting old for me); it's just that everything seems to be blanded up to level 11 (with a nostalgia icing on top). The problem isn't that it's challenge-based, the problem is that the challenges seem extremely boring.

Assuming you're talking about a JRPG: keep things as terse as possible. Many JRPGs are basically filled with bland, repetitive, easy filler battles in between the real highlights of the game, to the point where in most of the ones I've played I don't feel like slogging through the filler to get to the good parts. I'd suggest trying to cut those out and keep only the highlights, even if it means a short (but tight) game. Chrono Trigger kind of tried to do this with its preset battle scenarios (which is a good idea you can steal), but even then the battle system was fairly shallow and many of the regular battles were pretty boring.

If you're talking about a real RPG (i.e. a game in which the player plays a direct malleable character role instead of "directing" the roles of predetermined characters) then yeah, I'll just echo what Core Xii said about choice. Making the player feel like he has a choice when he actually doesn't is much worse then just not giving him a choice at all upfront (But Thou Must, etc.)

As far as webcomics go, SMBC is cool but I think that's it. XKCD is dumb but it led to XKCDExplained so I guess that validates its existence. All gaming comics or gaming humor in general (including any Cracked articles about the subject) are bad. Also I'm reading what I'm typing and why do all webcomics have convenient letter-vomit acronyms.

Some original resolution screenshots, since the ones at the SEGA site are badly upscaled (though the last 2 here are JPGs):

Looks pretty great IMO, though the faces on the bottom screen kind of bother me for some reason. Either way, I'll definitely be getting this.

Peter Vesterbacka, head of Rovio Mobile Ltd, told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference that Rovio isn't a games company.

"What we are building is a next-generation entertainment franchise," he told attendees.

"I think we're the fastest growing consumer franchise ever. We're working on new Angry Birds experiences and we'll expose a bit more of the Angry Birds story."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-08-11-rovio-were-not-a-games-company

Truly, the Angry Birds experience is one that transcends the videogame medium and shares insight into our common humanity. The story, at first, seems simple; the birds are angered at the green pigs stealing their eggs, and destroy their fortresses in order to retrieve them. However, as the player goes on, he realizes the full magnitude of what he is doing; he is helping the resentful and weak birds commit genocide against a group of stronger animals who want nothing but to be left alone (as is evident from the resignation with which they accept their fates; death must come to us all in the end, and Angry Birds realizes this). The underlying themes all coagulate and form a tapestry of symbology, resonating emotionally with us and placing one sole historical event into our minds: the Holocaust. The birds are the Nazis, the pigs are the Jews, and the eggs are the money which Germany and later Richard Nixon thought all the Jews were stealing. With this in mind, we can conclude that Angry Birds is the new Life is Beautiful, an old story retold for this modern generation through the power of the newest interactive-artistic phone-gamificated medium.

What the fuck.

Is there any more evidence than just this? I'm kind of skeptical given how she's been retweeting every quote calling her a cunt, bitch, etc. on her Twitter feed; it seems like a buildup to a big hoax reveal or something. I wouldn't think that anyone would be stupid enough to say they stabbed a police officer over Twitter either, but then again criminals have done stupider things.

I would like to point out that the guy the police shot was a drug dealer who had a loaded gun. The police shouldn't have shot him as apparently he didn't draw the weapon, but honestly one less drug dealer in the world isn't a bad thing.

Also, people are just jumping on the bandwagon with the whole "Waah we don't have jobs" crap. They aren't rioting because of that, they are rioting because they are idiots who just want an excuse to smash things up and get free stuff.

I can pretty much guarantee that most of the people rioting don't even want a job, and that they are on benefits.

[Citation needed]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14459516

Mr Duggan, 29, whose death sparked the first riots in Tottenham, died from a single bullet wound, an inquest heard.

The police watchdog said ballistic tests showed "no evidence that the handgun found at the scene was fired".

BBC News understands firearms officers discharged their weapons in the belief there was a threat to human life.

Their guidelines allow them to open fire in such circumstances.

...

Forensic officers have told the IPCC it may not be possible to "say for certain" whether the handgun found near Mr Duggan was fired.

Further tests on the weapon, which had been converted from a blank-firing pistol to one that shoots live rounds, are being carried out to establish this.

The IPCC said it was not a replica and was an illegal firearm.

Further tests are being carried out on a "bulleted cartridge" found in the magazine.

http://news.yahoo.com/britain-burns-riots-spread-uk-cities-013736610.html

"The violence we have seen is simply inexcusable. Ordinary people have had their lives turned upside down by this mindless thuggery," police commander Christine Jones said.

London's police said 14 people were injured, including a man in his 60s with life threatening injuries.

The riots appeared to have little unifying cause — though some involved claimed to oppose sharp government spending cuts, which will slash welfare payments and cut tens of thousands of public sector jobs through 2015.

But many appeared attracted simply by the opportunity for violence. "Come join the fun!" shouted one youth in the east London suburb of Hackney, where shops were attacked and cars torched.

AFAIK the only part of the riots that was in any way related to the shooting were the initial peaceful protests in Tottenham. From there it just seems to be the dregs of society rebelling without any unified cause, as an excuse to steal and fuck up shit. Some people have used "big business" and "sticking it to the man" as an excuse but they're only burning down and shitting up small local chains. It basically seems like an ego rush, an excuse to feel powerful when they'd never be able to otherwise.

Could you post the full .gmk (or give one where the problem can still be regulated with everything irrelevant removed)? I can't really see anything wrong with the particular section of code you posted that could be causing that.

Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight

I always thought a rail shooter or 2D shmup (or any other game with forced scrolling/movement) which was designed so that the entire level design synchronizes perfectly to the background music would be cool (and I don't mean a shitty Audiosurf-esque algorithm kind of thing either, I mean that the music and level are designed/chosen specifically to complement each other). Imagine a bullet hell game where the level followed the structure of even this random song, for example (build ups, climaxes, pauses, etc. and all). You could even put in theater nods with the graphics, e.g. show a bunch of people pushing the boss character into the play area (or have a person be revealed underneath every enemy the player destroys), put curtain transitions and shuffling noises between levels, etc. (Dynamite Headdy had a sort of theater aesthetic going on, though it wasn't styled like a musical.)

Discovered that Richard Nixon had an even more hilariously skewed worldview than I thought.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zghv3Fm7zwU

All that really needs to be said about Angry Birds, right in this video.

(image)

It's not bad, but the 4x pixelation is really extreme and (to me at least) makes things lose a bit of definition. Maybe add scanlines or something to compensate?

EDIT: Switched em' up! Look better now?
(image)

Looks cool, though I wouldn't mind a subtle sky gradient like Nugsy suggested. It kind of reminds me of Scrap Brain Zone for some reason (probably due to the color choice).

Hearing that there's an Angry Birds cartoon in production.

You mean this? Yeah, it looks awful.

I still can't get over how bad the Angry Birds character designs are. It's basically sticking some eyes on a shape and calling it "quirky personality."

[B0B7]

 

moi's avatar reveals a fundamental truth about the fragility of human existence, and its relation to art. Its cyan-esque (in reality, the RGB color #59B0B7; this is a clear message, or "shout-out" if you will, from moi to his good friend Blademasterbobo) large pixels provide a contrast of an outside natural sky (for, as centuries of science and reason have pointed out, the sky is blue) against a meaningless black void; it is color not for its own sake, but color that serves a higher purpose, the purpose of the artist (moi) and his constant hungering for self-expression in a world of conformity. The blank expression of the black eyes in the center of the image remind us that we, too, become void in the end; whether we like it or not, the majority of us, years from now, will only be remembered as cold marked graves, identified by a name instead of a personality. But -- and here is the true genius of the artvatar piece -- moi's avatar has a name. Its nearest-neighbor-scaled gray pixels near the bottom of the image coagulate, undergoing a grand apotheosis in our brains from individual color elements to a larger form, and this form spells out one thing: "MOI."

But there is more significance to be found here than even what I have mentioned above. Note that the "MOI" in the image is all capital letters. It is as if the artist is screaming to us, yelling at us, trying to tell us one thing: "this is who I am, this is me, this is what I do!" And so we finally come to understand that this is not only what moi does, but what moi is -- moi expresses, moi communicates, moi shares, and the pixel is his medium. The square dot on an LCD screen, the same square dots that you or I or Paul Eres are using to read this message, is a canvas of infinite possibilities. And moi, in his artvatar piece, has not only used those possibilities for his own purpose, but has also expanded our horizons and informed us of new purposes, purposes we were unaware of, purposes that we had no idea even existed before today. And moi should be congratulated for this achievement; his piece is an unparalled success, in a modern world without royal succession.

[Famitracker (VRC7):]

Quick dump of some selected stuff I've made since I last posted in this thread ages ago.

Famitracker (VRC7):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/playerRoom.ogg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/introStage.ogg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/boss1.ogg

Stuff for a kind-of-but-not-really-a-JRPG game I'm (kind-of-but-not-really) working on with some friends:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/neighborhood.ogg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/tHij.ogg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/outsideFactory.ogg

Stuff for a puzzle-platformer I'm working on: (I tried to make these sound kind of FM-ish, using VOPM)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/level.ogg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29310043/cave.ogg

None of it is really that great but I'm still proud of some of these.