Quote from TiskyI think that the people in Ukraine clearly don´t want to be Putins bitches. Who tha hell can blame them?
The most disturbing thing is the snipers picking of people without any guns. People that try to rescue others. Sick fucking bastards.
Ugh... that's happening?
Quote from TaylorAlso, here's something fun: https://twitter.com/visteps/status/436100945668096000
christ
Read that guy's whole feed for even more fun.
lol
I guess this is one of the interesting side-effects of having 'celebrity' game designers. Who really cares about Lionhead any more since Peter Molyneux left? Would anyone be into Valve if Gabe Newell walked? If Deus Ex: Human Revolution or the Uncharted games had some well-known figure at their helm and he left, would people lose interest in those franchises?
Perhaps in some ways it's better that studios be allowed to collectively lay claim for something, after all a lot of people built BioShock Infinite and it's not necessarily that big a deal that Levine even left. That is, the studio wouldn't automatically be paralysed and incapable of coming up with great games. It feels to me like Irrational wasn't even given a chance. Of course, maybe it was so badly managed that virtually everything did hinge upon Levine.
It is nice to have passionate heads in the industry that stand for innovation and amazing ideas. But it seems like it can also be dangerous.
Erm, wow? Didn't see that coming...
Quote from PampersExternal Content www.youtube.comContent embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.Was sacrficing some logs to the porcelain overlords and got a new 55 high score
hahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
The m'lady bit just seals it. Oh god.
lmao! Flappy Bird has now officially become the best thing on the internet.
You kind of accidentally trailed off into French there Koko... 
Quote from FMPONEWOW. WOW. MUCH GOOD THREAD
Thrik: is there a way to make these images load faster? Perhaps thumbnails?
My recommendation would be that you guys use the attachment feature. It auto-generates thumbnails for everything which should make this kind of thread smoother. Just go ahead and upload the full-size versions when using the full reply screen, the attachment bit is just below the main editing area. 
You can even highlight a load of files and upload them at once.
While a mod could go through and edit attachments into everyone's topics, it'd be better if you all did it yourselves as that way you'll be able to manage your own attachments properly. Still, I/someone can tidy up if there are huge images continuing to slow the thread down in a couple of days.
Perhaps you could put a note or quote of this post at the top kikette? 
I don't know what the Red Bull clone is, but it was definitely Flappy Bird that I've seen being accused of it.
There was a pretty in-depth article I saw somewhere at home yesterday that looked through all the reviews, and there was a very sudden surge of reviews about a month ago that didn't seem to make much sense (negative reviews all giving five stars, lots of positive reviews all using the same terms but in different combinations/variations, etc). It was that precise combination of downloads and reviews that caused the avalanche effect leading to the game's genuine success later during the month.
Basically, it very much looked like the work of either bots or lots of people working somewhere like India to write loads of reviews. I suspect the latter, as we've actually had a lot of those posting spam on MapCore at times — because they're human they can circumvent absolutely any anti-spam protection. I know that viral things can grow all by themselves, but this didn't look remotely natural to me.
Quote from Rick_DDisplay Moreyou're part of the problem
a guy makes a shitty game by some things he's inspired by, doesn't want to charge for it because of what it is so he dumps in some ads (common practice) and sets it free, just another turd floating in the cesspool of the marketplace.
a year later, and no doubt $5 made on adverts, something happens purely by chance - and the game blows up. this is way more coverage than he was ever expecting. i mean it's just a game he threw together over a couple of evenings for fun, some simple addictive gameplay that draws inspiration from things he likes and enjoys.
now the hate train is at full steam because people are angry that THEY didn't get lucky, or that he was inspired by some other gameplay or art. sure it's derivative, purile, pointless, etc - but who cares? it's a flash in the pan, and if it pisses you off so much maybe you should either lighten the fuck up, or go and try and emulate his success - if it's as simple as copying other games then anyone can do it, right?
I can't speak for the rest of the internet but I'm not angry at all, as I said I'm no indie game developer. I'm just giving my opinion on the whole matter. This has been the talk of the game nerd internet for the past week so it's a great opportunity for some discussion of the whole cloning topic.
With that said, I don't know if it's some kind of underdog phenomenon but I'm finding it hard to see what you find so defensible about him. You're trying to make out he's some kind of poor mistreated developer when the reality is that he unashamedly cloned an existing game and — while this is impossible to prove, the evidence is almost indisputable — gamed the app store review system to get it to the top of the charts. This isn't some dude whose random project got lucky. It's a dude who somehow very cleverly manipulated the app store, which in all honesty he deserves credit but not admiration for.
Maybe that's the part that those of you defending him don't appreciate. You don't think this weak clone got to the top of the charts through luck and viral sharing alone, surely? As Rick rightly says, if it were that easy then there'd be countless such examples.
It's probably worth highlighting (in case nobody's played them) that the traditional helicopter game is based around holding down the button to make the player vehicle go up, then when you release it drops. That was the only version of the concept I saw prior to Piou Piou, which introduced the idea of tapping instead. Flappy Birds takes that exact same mechanic, while also retaining Piou Piou's broad strokes in terms of art.
For me, Piou Piou is OK because despite being a clear derivative it introduced something new to the concept. Flappy Birds didn't introduce anything new at all that I've seen, in fact it implemented the concept worse than even the weakest of Flash versions I've seen over the years. Indeed, the only thing notable about Flappy Birds is the fact that its art is so blatantly straight from other games. When I kept seeing screenshots of it appearing on Facebook, I honestly thought that Nintendo must have released some mobile game.
It's only because of the game's success that we're discussing this at all, but my opinion would be the same even if Flappy Birds had never broken past the '10 downloads per week' threshold — it's just that if that were the case, nobody would ever have made this thread and I'd have never come across it. I'm just not into overly derivative works, especially when no effort is made to credit those the work was based upon.
To be fair, it's not just a case of art. The whole game was essentially a clone, right down to the exact mechanics. And what unique art it did have was virtually directly ripped from Mario. In a world where Zynga is criticised for cloning games like Tiny Tower and countless others, why is it OK for an individual to do it? I'm not even an indie game developer and it seems very unsavoury to me.
The fact that he put the game through Apple's approval process, monetised it, and probably made quite a nice sum out of it made his intentions quite clear IMO. Sure developers often create little experimental games that are hugely derivative, but they don't put them on the equivalent of a high street game store shelf. I've designed UIs that are essentially complete copies of existing ones just to learn how to build such a thing, but I wouldn't then go and pitch/sell it as a product. If nothing else, I'd feel like a dick.
It's a matter of opinion, but I don't see him taking the game down as evidence of him being some totally innocent guy who's been inappropriately bashed. I see him more like someone who took a chance by releasing a one-evening project to see how it went, (allegedly) used 'score enhancing' services to get some initial traffic to his game, and then once the heat got too intense decided to preserve his reputation by cutting loose and taking his earnings (probably at least $500,000).
Personally, I think that this whole story has exploded so much because it's an extreme example of where the 'clone development' culture of mobile games can lead, and people are expressing their disapproval of the process much like they did with Zynga a year ago. There's been a lot of concern and discussion for a few years now about what constitutes a true clone and where should the line be drawn. IMO, this is a clear example of overstepping the line.
But at the same time, that shouldn't be confused for saying that it's not OK to be heavily inspired by or pay tribute to games. Of course it's OK to build upon existing games, that's what the industry has been doing for 30+ years. This is where human discretion comes in, to define the difference between 'Doom vs Duke Nukem' and 'Tiny Tower vs Dream Heights'. One is an example of building upon an already great foundation to create something new and unique, whereas the other is a shameless move-for-move copy that simply switches a few things up and markets it better. I'm not a fan of the latter.
Tomb Raider was a highlight of last year for me, a very good reboot IMO that was easily most of the most visually stunning games of the last generation. If you like Uncharted-style action with a bit of Far Cry (i.e. huge 'hub' areas) you should really enjoy it.
Unfortunately I also played Deus Ex: HR and Dishonored for the first time last year and they blew my mind, so Tomb Raider kind of loses out to them in my 2013 gaming memories. I'd kind of like to see a better-graphics DX:HR re-release for the new generation, however at this point I guess it'd make more sense to just get an incredible sequel out within the next few years. Dat fuckin' atmosphere...
Let's remember the good times. Still one of my favourite themes of all time...
It wouldn't surprise me if the creator didn't intend for the popularity the game got, it might have just been a shitty side-project that somehow took off. It just so happens that he's been making $50,000+ per day from it. It's probably easy to act modest and innocent to keep the PR positive when you're raking in that kind of sweet cash — I know I would!
I really don't think that this is a coincidence, though:
[Blocked Image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bfn3moMCcAA6FQY.jpg:large]
It's effectively a cascade of unoriginality:
Regardless of the motives of those involved, it must make those who seek to develop truly original games despair. There isn't a single thing that I can point at in Flappy Birds that's original, including its art. It's the equivalent of someone remaking Doom using copies of Half-Life 2's assets and then it becoming a massive hit that makes its creator a millionaire.
I'm sure it says something deep and depressing about the nature of making games that columnists will have a field day over, but as far as I'm concerned it's just kind of crappy. I feel bad for those who spend large amounts of time trying to attain indie success — like our very own Pirates of New Horizons dudes on MapCore — while bullshit like this reigns supreme.
I'd take a bit of HP.
It is now clear to me what we must all do.
Buy the exact number of seconds Carmack has been alive in Bitcoins.
Quote from marks
Are you serious? I wouldn't call enforced state censorship "a bit of a non-event". You just need to look to China to see where that can lead.I know where it could lead, and I've vocally opposed the idea whenever I've had the opportunity — including via correspondence to the Government. But as it stands, unless you're using an internet access point that you have no authority over (e.g. in a coffee shop or when you're a kid), any and all UK filtering is trivial to disable (no underground methods needed).
While I'm no fan of censorship, I'm also no fan of hyperbole. It's important to be clear that the state isn't currently imposing mandatory filtering — the state is completely OK with you not using the filtering because it's aimed at making the web a 'safe for kids by default' environment. And as long as it stays that way I do consider it a small issue. After all, my web activity hasn't been affected at all.
