Posts by Fletch

  • Microsoft gives the little people a chance.......

    And then Microsoft will publish it on XBLA out of the goodness of their heart. Being Microsoft, you'll recieve a fair publishing deal ensuring you won't get screwed out of your IP rights or money.

    Oh wait, that won't happen at all. They'll go Valve on your ass and strip you of your IP for below market value because you're new to the industry an don't know any better. If you try to talk to a lawyer first, they'll threaten to pull their offer for somebody else that is more willing to have their game published on XBLA. You'll walk away with a few grand. Microsoft will walk away with much more. And at the end of the day, they'll be an amusing Slashdot story that is forwarded around people's inboxes about how M$ screwed some young developer and how they should have known better.

  • Deleting files? How to force this..

    Quote from KoKo5oVaR

    haha fletch , you've ever tried to format a HD with a magnet ?

    We accidentally destroyed/reformatted one of the inventory computers at CompUSA when we got one of those super magnets that turns off security tags. It also fucked up the CRT for about a week. No amount of degauzing would correct it.

  • Jack Thompson losing on TV

    That was painful to watch. Sessler came off looking like an idiot, and JT came off looking like the sane one.

    People like Thompson exist for media attention. Giving it to him just keeps him going. He's had zero success in the legal arena as far as game legislation goes. Every state bill he's helped write has beens truck down by the courts. He burns bridges left and right with politicians. He's been barred from giving testimony or filing amicus briefs in numerous video game related lawsuits. The only thing he has success with is getting on TV every few months. Take that away from him and he'll move on to another target.

    And if you are going to take him on, do your freaking research. He cites the same 3 or 4 reports every single time and he always distorts or lies about what the finding are because he knows the other person in the debate doesn't know any better. You can hate everything he stands for, but the man has smarts when it comes to these things. Sessler should have known better. And if you are going to play the "preaching to the choir" card like he did, try to do it without reinforcing every negative stereotype about gamers.

    The industry is going to be a lot better off when it ditches the ESRB in favor of a new system. Regardless of whether or not the ESRB has a good system in place now, it has too much baggage around it. If EA and one other large publisher signed on for a new ratings standard it would give everybody the cover to come on board (much like the comic book industry did to ditch the well meaning but stupidly written Comic Code). Model it after Hollywood or the European rating system, and make it retardedly clear what audiences games are designed for. It allows the industry to start over with a more relevant system, but more importantly it allows them to say "Yeah, the old system kinda sucked. We admit that, and we're being proactive towards a new solution." It takes away one of the chief arguments of people like JT, and allows for a massive educational rollout.

    Of course, this is like step one out of ten on how to cure the ills of the game industry. You still got all that shitty "EXTREME!!!!" advertising, shitty games getting green-lit, celebrities being tied to games for no reason, exploitational views towards females, hyper-violence and hyper-sexualization, and a littany of other problems that make our industry still appear juvenile. We might just have to live with the graves we've dug ourselves.

  • Now playing

    DS:

    Animal Crossing (I don't know why. I just keep playing for some god awful reason.)

    SNES:

    Bomberman

    (and waiting for Mike's copy of Secret of Mana to get in)

    PC:

    AOE3

    BiA:RtH30

    CS:S

    I also just found my original Gameboy. I need to grab some AA batteries and see if it still works.

  • Boundaries of copyrights in game design

    Quote from Polaris

    Copyrighted soundtracks get used alot by those frag/clan video things, but I don't know why level designers don't do the same.

    YouTube has been on record saying that they remove a few hundred videos a day because of musical infringement. It's a matter of what the copyright holder cares about. Most don't give a damn about fan videos and don't want to waste the time and money to stop them. But to put a song in a level would mean you're distributing all or part of that song as a unique file outside of the bsp. That get's into some really sticky issues. I don't know of any levels that have done it, but there have been mods that use msucial tracks that broke copyright and were pulled. Scope of distribution, accessibility of the file, and relative content would be keep points in any civil case, so they're probably the factors any lawyer would be going after these things with.

    Generally, I think the reason you don't see much of this is because Fox took down the Aliens mod for Quake so easily (and later the Simpsons mod). That set down a pretty solid line for the community to be able to say "don't cross this line." Most developers have been smart enough to stay away from the line. The few that don't usually get nailed with a C&D letter at some point or another (Stargate, DBZ, Pokemon, Die Hard, etc), which means every year or so we get just enough negative reinforcement as a community to know not to cross the line.

  • Boundaries of copyrights in game design

    Technically you can't use any because you don't have the right to copy (hence copyright). Even if it's non commercial, using somebody else's copyrighted work usually goes down some bad paths.

    photos/textures: there are so many free ones out there, why steal.

    music: there's a suprisingly large amount available under the GPL for free use

    art: sometimes you can get away with very small scale reproductions as long as it's used in a way that makes it obvious it's not yours (displaying it in a frame, for instance).

    architecture: you're free to emulate architecture as much as you want. You're not directly reproducing their work, just making a rough copy

    tv and movies: stay away, stay away , stay away. so many tv shows and movies have deals for "interactive media" in place, and studios are very happy to sent C&D letters and take people to court.

    other games: see tv and movies. don't mess with people with deep pockets and lawyers on retainer.

    For small thing like borrowed art (from a person, not a different game), it's best to just ask beforehand. Assuming the work in question isn't faamous and the person isn't a dick, they'll usually be flattered as long as your give them credit for their work.

  • Awesome movies (no mainstream)

    Quote from RD

    no mainstream

    Bad Boys 2 was an independent film. :wink: But fine, i'll play by the rules.

    Slamnation - an excellent look into the world of slam poetry and it's national competition. Some great performances pieces and some big egos.

    The War Room - A documentary about the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign. If you want to get an insight about how campaigns are run and the chaos surrounding them, check it out. It's not so much about Clinton as it is his campaign managers.

    Hotel Rwanda - Great movie about what happened during the Rwandan genocide. It will depress you like nothing else, but it is still very good.