Posts by Furyo

  • dear zynga

    They're very simply continuing to turn the Titanic around. They were once dominant on Facebook, so much so that their stock followed Facebook's through financial deals both parties had signed. They're now trying to become relevant on the mobile market, the only one that is going well for the types of games they know how to make. They had one of two choices in order to do that: the long route is trying to shift everything internally and acquire the knowledge over time, the short route is buying a well established player who can easily transfer all knowledge much faster.


    Given they had the money, they went for the short route, especially with all the pressure they're getting from their investors. The move to cut the workforce is a simple cost-cutting move to instill confidence in their shareholders. Read, the shareholders asked for these cuts to be made so they would back the acquisition of Natural Motion.

  • The Peer Review

    It's one thing to say that one should always welcome feedback, it's an entirely different thing to be able to give it and receive it while respecting every single person's personality and cultural background. I have worked with hundreds of different devs, and you have to be able to discern how the person would like to receive his feedback if you want it to bear fruits. It's very hard, and no one can possibly get it right all the time. Factor in your own level of tiredness and complete frustration after a long day of work and months of crunch, and you can see how you can easily make enemies over nothing.

    I happen to love blunt feedback, I think that comes from the Internet School of the Valve Community, where playtesters would find a new reason to give you shit every other day; but not everyone grew up a modder. In a professional setting, you have to weigh in the years of experience of each individual, your own years of experience within the same company, your seniority level on the team, etc.

    Truth be told, you're bound to piss someone off some day.

  • Gravity

    Quote from [HP]

    I remember reading once about a deep sea scuba diver that ascended hundreds of meters in a couple mere seconds due to an accident with his O2 can, he went into a coma and his body needed years to recover, although I don't think he ever recovered in full, I wish I had the link to that article. Anyway, same principles apply, pressure/depressurize is very important, because space is a vacuum.


    What happens in the case of divers not respecting the proper decompression levels is the air in your lungs expands in your lungs faster than the lungs themselves expand to their normal ATA (atmosphere pressure in open air at sea level). So in severe cases, you literally blow your lungs up (and you know, the veins and every other organ that contains fluids that also get compressed by water pressure.


    That's why you're always supposed to let air out of your nose or mouth as you get back to the surface, even when scuba diving. 1 ATA = roughly 15 psi (air has weight, therefore applies pressure, of about 15 pounds per square inch (psi) at sea level, and every 33 feet (11 meters) of salt water adds 1 ATA to the amount of pressure a diver feels.


    Anyway, went to see Gravity tonight in IMAX 3D and two thoughts immediately came to mind:


    - No one should ever attempt to make a survival movie again, as Gravity just mastered every single aspect of it.

    - For the very first time ever, I felt that 3D made the movie better as opposed to being just a gimmick in all other movies. And that's a huge accomplishment

  • Sleep

    I too share a lot of the same issues you guys have been discussing, or rather I used to. My going to the gym before work in the morning helped me getting a LOT more tired much earlier at night, and with the combined help of a airplane sleep mask that helps me keep my deep sleep pattern when the sun goes up, I am now sleeping better than ever. Actually I only get pissy and tired when I DON'T go to the gym.


    A couple things you guys can consider:

    - Give yourself a cool down period between your last screen activity (PC, tv) and your going to bed time. Otherwise your brain will be in hyper activity from both what you were doing and the bright screen keepng your eyes up and alert way past their bedtime.

    - Have a doctor test you for sleep apnea. It's a far more common problem than you might think, and really destroys the quality of your sleep as well as your healh. Sleep apnea is breathing difficulties during your sleep, which while not waking you up most times, will create a lack of oxygen to your brain while you sleep. Worst cases of sleep apnea last over 30 seconds, multiple times per hour, all night long. Those most prone to having it would generally feel continuously tired even when sleeping 8+ hours. There is no cure for it, but you can get a machine by your night rest that will force oxygen down your lungs while you sleep to force your air ways and lungs fully functioning at night. Works wonders.