One thing is being confident about yourself, and that's a good thing. Another is pretending you are the best of the best and no one or anything can teach you anything. That's just not intelligent, you don't get better at anything. By learning with the best, you become better.

Judging by this thread I can already spot a few serious shortcomings you have when compared with other game designers. You can't code (read baconman's post); you don't accept criticism (as a game designer, that's a huge flaw) and you are unwilling to learn (thus preventing you from growing and expanding your horizons).
With time, I believe you can surpass these problems. The fact that you lived many years under a completely different atmosphere/world and lived through vastly different life experiences will mean whatever you make will always be different in some way. Trust me, I'd be really curious to play a game you made.
Learning from others however won't erase that or change your philosophy of life, that will be stuck forever with you. You don't even need to conform to the "normal" rules or teaching to get really good at it.

Personally, and even though I've never lived under the circumstances you lived, I can relate to some of the stuff you said.
The difference is, I always tried to find someone to help me start and then I learned everything else mostly by myself from there. I grabbed a game design book, got the basics, left it in a shelf somewhere in my basement. I grabbed a c++ book, got the basics moved on and learned everything else from experience. A friend taught me how to play some basic chords and riffs, I moved on and learned out to play the guitar myself from that. And so on. This way I got the fundamental basics,  without restraining myself to someone else's style or methods. I'd even go as far as say I used other people's knowledge to kickstart my ambitions and then threw it away so to say once I didn't need it anymore.

On a slightly unrelated note, regardless of your personality or what you did that got you locked up, you're no more a monster than me or anyone else. Everyone is fucked up in some way, they just show it differently, often with difference consequences. In the other hand, everyone has a good side to them and you are no different.

I think I understand what Schrompf means. In the beginning of the video I didn't notice the light around the main character because it was so dark. Watching the video in fullscreen made it much more noticeable to I suppose this shouldn't be a problem in the game though.

U sir...  are right!!! Howw to give you kudos?? Oh well here's 9001  lol  :toastR: want a download?

the fuck

Eh, PC it is then. Regardless, I'm definitely looking forward to this

Looking really cool, the atmosphere in particular is very well done.
Any plans for the mac ?

Minecraft with slightly more detail ? REVOLUTIONARY

Kinda odd to see this released for free, ad free and with no paid versions/licenses. I mean construct is opensource software so it's understandable but it appears stencyl was created and is being maintained by a private company so I wonder where they get their profit.

I'm gonna step outside the software for once, and go with the Nintendo 64. It ERADICATED the good 3rd-party support that made up a fairly large portion of what made the SNES cool, and spawned a whole generation of spinoff games, rather than "sequels." Gotta give kudos for them having the balls to try something *that* new; but one thing with risks is that you gotta know when to hold, and when to fold. It took them another 15 years before they produced another good "Mario game." (As opposed to "some other kind of game that happens to feature Mario, I mean.) I can see why they produced so many Mario Party and Smash Bros. games - that's about the only good thing that really came of the era.

The Smash Bros series are fucking good games, though. And you're leaving out stuff like Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Perfect Dark, 1080, the only good StarFox game since the first one etc. Even in terms of third-part stuff there's  Tetrisphere (a criminally underrated game, in my opinion), Wetrix, Body Harvest, Fighter's Destiny, the actually really good version of Doom...the problem wasn't that third-part developers weren't up for it, the problem was that no fucker actually bought what came out for the console. Writing off an entire platform as a terrible sequel is pretty stupid, man.

Couldn't agree more. The only reason the nintendo 64 didn't take off as well as the snes is simple, it's called playstation.

[They completely disconnect the game from the EA network, as said EA network is part of the copy protection scheme for their games that use it]

(Maybe you like inflation porn?)

Fuck yes

I can't believe you are seriously posting this. Really, are you that idiotic? Do you have no concept of what these cracks do? They completely disconnect the game from the EA network, as said EA network is part of the copy protection scheme for their games that use it.

So yes, using a crack does stop you from linking a game to your EA account because it never shows up on your account in the first place. You need a valid key to link EA games to an EA community account, assuming said game uses it (not all EA games do). So you are wrong. So very, very, VERY wrong.

Basically, you were wrong from the beginning, stop being a dumdum.

Hum do you have any idea what a EA account is ?
It has absolutely nothing to do with copy protection. The EA account screen still show in cracked games, and you don't need a valid key for anything. If I'm not mistaken they associate your game with your account when you login in game with your credentials.

Did you quote the wrong post? I never said it was the worst thing (in fact, I said the opposite; see bolded statement in my quote). You seem to be addressing a post that was not actually made.

Nope, I was addressing your post. I wasn't addressing the bold part (which I think everyone agrees with), my point was that since what he said wasn't that serious why did other users who said much more offensive stuff got away without getting their games locked ?

Yeah I do believe it was unintentional behavior. People said shit about them in their forums before and after this debacle, this was the only case someone got his game locked and it's not like what he said was that offensive.
One day later the issue was corrected and they explained it was a mistake/system error/whatever.

What is there to discuss anyway?
If their terms of service bother you so much just stay away from their forums.  
If you really believe they locked the dude's game intentionally because he labeled EA as devils what difference does it really make to you ? Are you thinking about doing the same ?

Also, sorry for saying my opinion and not jumping on the EA hate bandwagon ?

paul: I'm not sure what point you are trying to make but this has never been about how EA treats its customers.
I'd feel worse if I had bought a bad and/or broken game than if I had bought a good game and later learnt that the company can lock my game if I go to their forums and say shit/share warez/criticize obama/whatever, simply because I don't intend to.

y yall mad tho?

No seriously guys, I don't get the outrage. What happened is that someone couldn't play Dragon Age 2 for a day. Yes it was dumb to ban him and I'm not defending EA, but there's really no need to inflate this into some sort of "scandal". I wasn't EA being an Evil Greedy Corporation That Hates Its Customers™, it was a moderator being an idiot.

I wasn't trying to stir outrage by posting this thread or pretending like this little fuck up is a huge deal (it is and it isn't at the same time). But people should be more aware of what companies do to their customers. This dreadful fact about EA's forum and many others in this thread convinced me that Dragon Age 2 won't be worth my time, saving me 60 dollars.

But ya people shouldn't get mad, get even. Spend your money elsewhere 

This.

I think it's important not to downplay what happened here - an entertainment corporation took money from a customer, and then banned that customer from playing it because they dared to criticise the corporation (and didn't even have the courtesy to offer the customer a refund for their troubles). Bull. Shit. If I buy a game, I own it, and I get to play it when and how I want. You want to monkey with the terms and conditions, claim that I'm just licensing the software? Fine - I'll give you like $5 to "rent" your game, but I won't pay $60.

I think the issue is worth getting angry over, but bottling pent-up anger is unhealthy. Best thing to do is not buy the game, and go spend the money on something which will bring joy into your life and which you want to support.

All this drama because a moderator fucked up ?

Like I said EA's terms of service have a logical reasoning behind them. The fact that people actually believe EA will lock your game for saying something bad about them shows how ridiculous this whole anti-EA attitude has gotten.

Not really. If you think about it it does make sense. From what I read that system was put into place so that if one person goes to their forum and say their copy is pirated or share pirate copies of their games they can deactivate it. This system was put into place just in case, from what I read it was never used before. Of course, it's easier to claim that EA are a bunch of nazis who use that system to punish whoever goes to their forums and say something bad about them but if you think about it for a second it's just plain ridiculous.

This is probably the dumbest thing you've ever said. How would EA attempt to deactivate (killswitch) a pirated game when pirated games naturally have that shit removed? They can't. "From what you read" is full of shit and whoever wrote it is dumb and you are dumb for believing them. Or maybe nobody wrote it and you are just pretending somebody did to absolve yourself of the blame.

Jeez, you really need to chill out, you're talking to me like I raped your little sister or something.

From the terms of service:
“EA may also terminate your Account(s) (and access to all related Entitlements) for violation of this Terms of Service, illegal or improper use of your Account, or illegal or improper use of EA Services, Content, Entitlement, products, or EA’s Intellectual Property as determined by EA in its sole discretion. You may lose your user name and persona as a result of Account termination. If you have more than one (1) Account, EA may terminate all of your Accounts and all related Entitlements. In response to a violation of these Terms of Service or any other agreement applicable to EA Services accessed by you, EA may issue you a warning, suspend your Account, selectively remove, revoke or garnish Entitlements associated with your Account or immediately terminate any and all Accounts that you have established. You acknowledge that EA is not required to provide you notice before suspending or terminating your Account or selectively removing, revoking or garnishing Entitlements associated with your Account. If EA terminates your Account, you may not participate in an EA Service again without EA’s express permission. EA reserves the right to refuse to keep Accounts for, and provide EA Services to, any individual. You may not allow individuals whose Accounts have been terminated by EA to use your Account.

If your Account, or a particular subscription for an EA Service associated with your Account, is terminated, suspended and/or if any Entitlements are selectively removed, revoked or garnished from your Account, no refund will be granted, no Entitlements will be credited to you or converted to cash or other forms of reimbursement, and you will have no further access to your Account or Entitlements associated with your Account or the particular EA Service. If you believe that any action has been taken against your Account in error, please contact Customer Support at support.ea.com.“

As far as I know a crack removes the copy protection but using a cracked game doesn't stop you from creating your EA account and accessing it ingame and therefore doesn't stop EA from locking your game, cracked or not.
"illegal use of your account" includes using your account while running a pirated copy. Since many users use the same crack, by locking the game once they prevent many users at once from playing said game using that crack.

Also, just because you post links to pirated games doesn't necessarily mean you don't have the original.

You actually sort of touch on what actually happened in your last paragraph. It was a case of crossed wires. For whatever reason, BioWare's "report post" button does not lead to the forum moderation staff, but the account moderation staff. They then promptly banned him for unbecoming conduct (which is stupid anyway, since "have you sold your souls to the EA devil" is not even remotely that bad). It was stupid of EA and BioWare.

Do you really think "have you sold your souls to the EA devil" was the worst thing someone said in the bioware forums ?
They get constantly bombed by trolls, but nothing ever happened to those. Why did such a innocent remark get such a punishment ?
Believe in whatever conspiracy theories you want, I don't buy it, it just doesn't make any sense.

Not really. If you think about it it does make sense. From what I read that system was put into place so that if one person goes to their forum and say their copy is pirated or share pirate copies of their games they can deactivate it. This system was put into place just in case, from what I read it was never used before. Of course, it's easier to claim that EA are a bunch of nazis who use that system to punish whoever goes to their forums and say something bad about them but if you think about it for a second it's just plain ridiculous.

They aren't stupid, they know if they did that the hate trolls would be all over them and the press would pick up the stories which would generate a lot of backlash.

It's easier to think that it was the evil CEO of evil EA who pressed the "ban" button and locked the game of the martyr who went to their forums say shit about them.
EA has employees who take care of that. I don't think they would get that annoyed if someone criticized the company they work for, mostly because they are used to it and also because I don't think they feel all that emotionally connected to EA so as to do something as drastic as lock the dude's game.

That said I do believe it was a mistake. The reason for that could be miscommunication, someone with a twisted sense of humor, lack of sleep whatever. There are a million reasons, half of which no one will never think of because we don't know exactly how that system works.

Success is subjective, but I think it's impossible for a company to get as big as EA is today without knowing what people want and how to market it. Coincidentally, that's what EA does best.
Anyway, they aren't stupid, when you have so much money it would be kind of dumb not to hire some good marketing and PR experts, I think.

this isn't true: it's gotten big over the course of about 30 years. most of its size increase took place in the 80s and 90s, and it's just coasted on its wealth since then. it could very well be that the people who knew what they were doing have long since left the company (that's my impression of EA anyway).

once a company is of sufficient size and wealth, it can maintain its power just through that size and wealth, not through being better than its competitors at anything in particular. another well-known example of this is microsoft: IE is not better than firefox or google chrome (most web designers and experienced internet users consider it inferior) but it still has market dominance because of microsoft's size and wealth.

I disagree. With the huge investments EA makes in most of their games all that wealth could be gone in no time if their games didn't sell.
The example you gave isn't very good since the success of IE has little to nothing to do with microsoft directly, more people use it because it comes with windows and not everyone is tech savy enough to know of firefox and download it. In addition a lot of people get used to it and don't feel the need to change once they learn about firefox.

Take the example of atari (the real one). At their peak they were one of the biggest corporations if not the biggest when it came to videogames and consoles. It took them one massive failure (ET) and in no time they were facing bankruptcy. Hell even the new atari (infogrames) could be an example.
They were for in the publishers top 5 for some time, but after a couple of commercial failures they were on the brink of bankruptcy too. Right now they aren't even in the top 30 and are still struggling. Midway could be another example among many others.

No, see, you're assuming I disagree with JackieJay. I'm not calling him an idiot because I disagree with him in this thread (I don't even know what it's about, really, other than haranguing on EA and BioWare). I'm calling him an idiot because his post history indicates that he is an idiot. I was not agreeing with BlademasterBobo on his other points, I was saying he should expect nonsense from JackieJay at this point.

No need to get all ad hominem, we got it, you're pissed because of something I said, probably the nicalis thread from like a year ago. Get over it, life moves on.

That being said, going back and looking at JackieJay's post (after you and JackieJay put words in my mouth that were never remotely there), yeah, it's pretty dumb. "They are big and therefore know what they are doing!" is a massively idiotic and fallacious thing to say. It is "too big to fail" in a very literal sense; EA is a large company, therefore it does not do wrong. HURRRRRRRRRRR. Stupid.

So EA got huge, and is still at the very top all these years by mere luck ?
If what I said was dumb, what you just said was simply retarded.
If using your brain is asking too much then at least look up EA's history. It's no coincidence their first employee and founder were marketing experts, not designers, programmers or artists like one could assume.
If you'd rather believe that marketing had nothing to do with their success then well, I don't even know what to say.

Yeah, arguing with someone who would say this is definitely going to have results. It's pointless arguing with people who say things that are that stupid, so I'll just call him an idiot and move on. (I could just ignore him, but that's no fun. The world must know that he's an idiot!)

Sometimes by calling someone idiot you're making yourself looking like a idiot yourself, so perhaps it would have been a good idea to ignore me.
If you disagree just say it and why. "Moron" is not a good argument, sorry.