Root Access

bwDraco

00:01

Using microtransactions in a desperate attempt to cover skyrocketing budgets fails to inspire any appreciation of what it takes to create AAA gaming experiences.

The industry needs to step forward and make it clear that game development is expensive so that customers can understand and accept a price hike.

It's about time.

Journeyman Geek

dude, taking it too seriously

and if you think about it - a lot of associated costs are down

Bob

> $60 is too much. $60 is too much. $60 is too much.

Ok, I'll remember that.

Journeyman Geek

microtransactions are more an attempt to get a consistant revenue stream for non subseciption games.

bwDraco

Also, there's the problem of the industry having trouble keeping both dev and marketing costs in check.

Bob

Eh, it's hard to argue that microtransactions are due to decreasing revenue when you look at where they really took off: low-effort mobile games.

Journeyman Geek

00:06

^

bwDraco

That calls something to mind: the perceived value of a game has actually depressed as a result of mobile gaming.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco but but, you don't need to develop engines from scratch per game like you used to.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek They make sense for a certain type of game.

Journeyman Geek

and you got to think of games as something like movies or comics now

Bob

Two I've played a fair bit: CS:GO and Overwatch. Neither take subscriptions. Both get constant content updates over the years.

A higher base price would do absolutely nothing to help.

bwDraco

00:07

People expect mobile games to be free or cheap, and this bleeds into the AAA space.

Perceived value.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco there's alternatives to nickle and diming users tho

DLCs as "cosmetic" content is probably going to work fine

pay to make the game easier or pay to win is terrible.

Bob

^

Journeyman Geek

having a smaller than a full game expansion is probably actually not a bad idea either.

lootboxes are just a money grab

Bob

Possibly the worst invention of the last decade is the whole "energy" thing.

Journeyman Geek

(unless done right. Not needing real money for em, like what gearbox does)

Bob

00:09

@JourneymanGeek Y'know, I think I know what you mean there but it reads funny to me cause in OW lootboxes are purely cosmetic :P

Journeyman Geek

@Bob blizzard gets it ;)

Bob

And they're actually called "loot boxes", sooo.

bwDraco

Implementation matters, too.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek Ya. Valve's also done it right with CS:GO skins.

bwDraco

I think the most important thing is to maintain customer loyalty.

Bob

00:10

Not at all required for gameplay experience.

Journeyman Geek

^

Bob

There's a couple mobile games that do alright too - the base game is more or less a free trial using "energy" but you make a one-off purchase at a reasonable price (~$5-$10 for most mobile games) to completely unlock it.

It's the ones that require you to pay for some limited number of hours that suck.

Journeyman Geek

ahhh

@Bob trial -> pay is fine

bwDraco

Rewarding the player beyond the game for making in-game purchases as a thank-you gesture (e.g. reward points that can be redeemed towards purchases of other games, merchandise, etc.) is a good idea.

Journeyman Geek

especially if its under a tenner (google survery's cover it ;) )

Bob

00:12

@JourneymanGeek unfortunately rare

DLCs themselves aren't necessarily a problem, either. Expansion packs have been a thing for ages.

Journeyman Geek

@Bob most of the stuff on my phone's utilities anyway

@Bob expansion packs that add content, I'm fine with

Bob

But it really depends what is 'locked away'

Journeyman Geek

in fact, if I buy a game new, I tend to buy the season pass too

Bob

If you start cutting parts of what should be the base game off into "DLC", that's horrible.

If it's actually additional content, that's nice to have.

Journeyman Geek

oh and preorder DLCs...

Bob

00:14

@JourneymanGeek I've yet to find a fun mobile game :P

Journeyman Geek

borderlands the presequel has a small arena you cannot get into unless you preordered

bwDraco

If a player spends $100 on premium currency and gets reward points that can take a chunk off of their next game purchase, that would be great.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek Yea, those suck. And make no sense.

bwDraco

That would make microtransactions more palatable.

Bob

"premium currency" usually falls into the "bad" category

bwDraco

00:15

Reward customer loyalty.

Bob

It doesn't (shouldn't) matter what external rewards you get.

What should matter is the actual content you're purchasing.

Journeyman Geek

Yup

Bob

Anyway. Base price.

Journeyman Geek

@Bob pre-order buyers typically pay full price I suppose

but I'm fine with paying a little extra sometimes (did it with AOM - for example) if there's actual content.

Bob

For the subscription-esque ones, raising the base price makes no sense.

bwDraco

00:18

I'm not a fan of MTX but there are ways to make them better. It's vital that the player feels they're getting their money's worth.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek Pre-order exclusives though... might as well make it available as a post-order addon. So pre-order is more a discount than exclusive..

Journeyman Geek

@Bob yup.

Bob

would give them a tad more long-term income too, I imagine

Journeyman Geek

or do what volition does/did with SR

bwDraco

@Bob Yeah. It makes better sense to make it something like "get this DLC, a $5 value, free".

Michael Frank

00:19

This seems quite relevant...

rollingstone.com/glixel/news/…

bwDraco

After all, in the video game industry, every dollar of revenue counts and you need to reward loyalty.

Just like Starbucks Rewards.

Bob

Lots of publishers also seem stuck on a sequel rut

kinda reminds me of certain movies, really

bwDraco

Customer satisfaction is priority one.

Bob

"people liked this, let's throw money at a clonequel"

you also have to question why they're spending so much more. too much, really

it's not all about "customers aren't paying enough"

bwDraco

And this applies in any industry, not just gaming.

Bob

00:23

if they can't control their expenses, that's a problem there

bwDraco

The industry has neglected customer loyalty. Devs need to reward loyalty. When people spend money on games, especially microtransactions, the last thing you want is the player finding that it's not worth it and not buying any more as a result.

Michael Frank

Path of Exile 100% got it right with MTX.

bwDraco

Customers are not simply money bags. They're human beings who are spending money they worked hard to earn.

Reward your customers, and they'll reward you back.

Mar 20 '15 at 19:11, by DragonLord

This is something I was taught in marketing class. You don't just try to make a quick buck by producing a cheap product, you try to satisfy customers' demands so that you get a long-term revenue stream.

Burgi

welp i can't remember what i changed my router admin password to

Michael Frank

00:39

Better find a paperclip!

Bob

@Burgi have you tried admin

Burgi

yes and weirdly it crapped out seconds after i mentioned that

Journeyman Geek

00:59

@bwDraco you're making declarations again ;p

bwDraco

It's under control.

The biggest challenge is checking content as it's written. It's not obvious that you're trying to draw attention unless 1) you stop and explicitly check for that (slow and often impossible in the moment) or 2) you get called out for it.

Any ideas?

@JourneymanGeek There's no need for the ;p. We need to take this---

I'm stepping out.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco mindfullness ;p

allquixotic

hard to give meaningful ideas when you are talking about not doing X by doing X

Journeyman Geek

Read back what you say as if you were someone else.

allquixotic

bwDraco chasing his own tail

bwDraco

01:05

...okay. See, I just caught some bad behavior and took the appropriate action to mitigate it.

Journeyman Geek

@bwDraco you don't need to say everytime you do it

Change must come from within.

bwDraco

The story behind why I take my behavior too seriously

Sep 25 at 3:47, 1 hour 23 minutes total – 76 messages, 3 users, 0 stars

Bookmarked Sep 25 at 5:13 by bwDraco

TL;DR: I'm been brought up to prove everything I do and show all my work because my father refuses to believe I can behave.

I don't want to discuss this again.

Bob

04:56

@DavePhD You have an unlimited ability to find obscure yet incredibly specific facts. What the heck do you google to find historical accounts of people slipping on banana peels? — BobTheAverage 10 hours ago

@JourneymanGeek how's the driving? :P

Journeyman Geek

05:22

couldn't get another slot till late november ;p

Bob

05:44

o.O

that long?

Journeyman Geek

ya ;p

(stuff like that is odd here)

rahuldottech

Hello

Bob

'lo

djsmiley2k

07:25

lessons or test @JourneymanGeek ?

You know that feeling when you've got to work and you're just incredibly tired?

Journeyman Geek

07:41

Lessons

djsmiley2k

none til nov?! damn

Journeyman Geek

Ya.

Lil

djsmiley2k

I mean I had to book my test like 6 months in advance, but there's always instructors ready to go when ever

Journeyman Geek

Lol... Singapore is small and crowded

djsmiley2k

How many lessons you expect to take over there?

On average over here it's like 30 hours. I had 33~ I think

Not including the 2 hours you have to book the instructor for, for the actual test.

> Adobe Flash Player - Version: 26.0.0.151
Status - Component not updated

why is chrome refusing to update to version 27 of the flash player?

Burgi

07:51

morning

djsmiley2k

Morning @Burgi

Journeyman Geek

@djsmiley2k I think it's about 12 minimum

djsmiley2k

12 hours? jeez

Burgi

oh ffs

outlook is broken AGAIN

djsmiley2k

@Burgi :D

mine permantly tells me i have unread emails

Burgi

07:55

mine crashes on startup

djsmiley2k

joys, delete the ost

Burgi

its all office products

djsmiley2k

wtf I manually updated flash, and it still shows the 'old' version in chrome

delete the office

;D

Burgi

chrome has its own sandboxed flash player

djsmiley2k

nod

Burgi

07:59

updating the adobe one will not work

Burgi

08:12

running the office repair tool... again...

i lost an ENTIRE day on tuesday due to office crapping out and the firewall blocking the updates

djsmiley2k

@Burgi k, just found it odd that the adobe site could tlel me the version of the google one

and it seemed to match their versioning

Burgi

coincidence

djsmiley2k

k

wonder if it's because I don't have admin as the user running chrome

/me tries

@Burgi in your chrome://components, what it say?

as mine says Adobe Flash Player - Version: 0.0.0.0

why hasn't that gone bold o_O

Burgi

1 sec

@djsmiley2k double line

djsmiley2k

@Burgi ooo

infact it does list the version, if i don't run it as my admin account

Burgi

08:22

chrome isn't working either

djsmiley2k

xD

ur system be screwed>?

Burgi

yeah

djsmiley2k

hmmmm why won't mine update -_-;

might have to reboot

Burgi

my server MOTD has this:

7 packages can be updated.
7 updates are security updates.

but i'm getting this after running apt-get upgrade:

0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.

what am i missing?

Journeyman Geek

08:38

try "apt dist-upgrade"

djsmiley2k

first apt-get update

then upgrade.

Burgi

@djsmiley2k did that

That Brazilian Guy

@Burgi apt-get dist-upgrade

djsmiley2k

@Burgi possibly kernel updates, and your kernel is pinned so it won't update?

careful, dist-upgrades can break things!

Burgi

i was going to ask...

i'm on 14.04

brb, scrum

That Brazilian Guy

08:41

...it does? Never seen it happen (not saying it doesn't, just surprised)

djsmiley2k

can do :D

That Brazilian Guy

@Burgi Hmmm, scrum, yummy

Scrum sounds like the name of pirate food

Arrr matey, I love some grub and a handful of good scrum

It's 6:43 and I've been awake for an hour :(

Ate a bit too much fried chicken last night at the bar

I went to my first ever programming dojo, met new people, it was quite cool!

Journeyman Geek

09:12

@ThatBrazilianGuy feeling fowl?

That Brazilian Guy

@JourneymanGeek You are a punny dog!

Journeyman Geek

woof!

Burgi

this droplet is taking ages to make a live snapshot

That Brazilian Guy

@Burgi How weird this technobabble must sound to the average layperson!

William Mariager

09:32

Shouldn't this be plenty permission to allow creating a folder?

That Brazilian Guy

This is so cool: If the Moon were only 1 pixel

djsmiley2k

@ThatBrazilianGuy Where's earth?

concidering it'll be like 100 pixels or something?

ah ok

that moon there isn't where it should be, now it all makes sense

That Brazilian Guy

@djsmiley2k Here, you dropped Earth

@djsmiley2k Huh?

The moon shouldn't be orbiting Earth?

bwDraco

reddit.com/r/sports/comments/77asjb/…

djsmiley2k

ooo

wayland by default on new ubuntu :O

wonder how much stuff is just going to inexplicably break.

@WilliamMariager well the 'special permissions' could say no folder creation, but yeah

William Mariager

09:48

Yeah, I figured it out. It as a network share, and there was a global setting I needed to change before the security settings were considered.

djsmiley2k

=)

William Mariager

But it's working!

And I finally have a 1:1 folder structure between my clients and my server.

djsmiley2k

@Burgi it's so rainy and grey, i could actually go back to bed

That Brazilian Guy

@WilliamMariager ...why?!

William Mariager

To make it work with InDesign :P

Now my clients can work on their own machines and I can process it on the server without any issues.

Unfortunately InDesign works in absolute paths, so files have to be in the same locations between systems.

djsmiley2k

09:59

can't just map network drive?

That Brazilian Guy

10:10

...dafuq?

Burgi

THEY ARE WATCHING YOU!

That Brazilian Guy

Politely. They ask first!

YOU HEAR THAT, NSA?

barlop

do you know a good cheap hosting company with 24/7 support?

That Brazilian Guy

@barlop I knew one, then they were bought by EIG.

Burgi

in which country?

That Brazilian Guy

10:16

Also, cheap is relative.

@Burgi ALL OF THEM.

djsmiley2k

@barlop ovh?

you really need to specify more clearly what you want/need

barlop

@djsmiley2k what do you need clarity on?

@Burgi a good company that serves international customers too most companes that serve US customers serve customers in other areas too and are usually based in the US

That Brazilian Guy

Shared hosting, VPS, bare-metal?

Managed / unmanaged?

For a site? A service? Of which scale?

William Mariager

@djsmiley2k That's pretty much what this is. They map the root and get access to their own folders. Everything else is hidden. Clients only see their respective folders.

That Brazilian Guy

@WilliamMariager "process it on the server"? Isn't InDesign local desktop software?

William Mariager

10:29

It can be used with COM interop.

barlop

@ThatBrazilianGuy Shared would be cheapest I suppose.

so shared.

William Mariager

@barlop, I've been very happy with Microsoft Azure. They give a $150 credit per month because I'm a startup.

That Brazilian Guy

@barlop The cheaper you aim for, the worst the support, the limited the things you can do (no SSH, for instance), the more obsolete the PHP version and the OS version, the less frequent (or inexistent) the backups...

William Mariager

And they even offer free web hosting and database.

barlop

what do you think of namecheap hosting? namecheap.com/hosting

like shared hosting there.

William Mariager

10:32

I use Unoeuro.

They're very fast to respond.

That Brazilian Guy

@WilliamMariager Do they charge EUR 1 for their hosting? ;p

...huh! They do!

William Mariager

Yup :P

That Brazilian Guy

Setup charge tho. And limited storage.

Well, those who offer unlimited storage put limits on other things.

It's a balance because no one offers too much for nothing.

You gotta learn to read between the lines and find the catch

Ohai @allquixotic

barlop

Is shared hosting high risk?

like more easily hacked?

That Brazilian Guy

Dependes on how well the host provider sets up their security.

If you go for cheapest, chances are they didn't enforce it that well.

William Mariager

10:38

What do you need to host that makes you question the security?

barlop

nothing important

William Mariager

Generally, you'll never want to use a shared host if it's important.

If it's not important, just make sure they do daily backups so you can restore if hacked.

That Brazilian Guy

That said, I used moderately cheap shared hosting all my life (circa 10 ~ 15 USD) and all the security issues I ever had were always caused by the customer.

djsmiley2k

@WilliamMariager no no no

make sure you have back ups, because they'll likely go bust and disappear off the web before you have time to grab your data.

That Brazilian Guy

> just make sure they do daily backups

just make sure you do daily backups

djsmiley2k

10:41

^^ yes.

William Mariager

Well suuure if you want to do it properly ...

Burgi

10:58

@barlop all the companies we use are UK based

Burgi

11:33

> Hello,

your report was registered, due disciplinary measures about our customer are on the way.

Meanwhile, please accept our apology for Your trouble.

Best regards.

@djsmiley2k see reporting works!

djsmiley2k

> due disciplinary measures about our customer are on the way.

that sounds..... scary

@Burgi \o/

Burgi

it is an italian telecoms supplier.... maybe they are getting the mafia involved

djsmiley2k

it almost sounds like it;D

I can't go for a walk, :/

Mark Yisri

12:09

Anyone here use a Surface RT/2 RT?

Journeyman Geek

@djsmiley2k some like something involving a dominatrix and a cat5 o 9 tails.

djsmiley2k

;)

naughty bot, very naughty bot

Burgi

13:19

speaking of dominatrices, there was a girl in greggs wearing pvc/latex leggings

djsmiley2k

o_O

working there?

Burgi

no a customer

she was two in front of us in queue

DavidPostill

@Burgi Did you get her phone number? ;)

Burgi

lol

> Hi,
Thanks for you help.
We has been blocked this server.
Regards,

djsmiley2k

@Burgi well.... it IS greggs...

Burgi

13:24

FoxCloud.net must be run by lolcats

djsmiley2k

Why oh why did I start reading about IP Multicast?

Burgi

@djsmiley2k is getting a steak bake now considered BDSM or something?

cpx

Looks better on my new 21.5 inch screen.

I never used a screen this big before.

All I ever had was a 15.6 inch laptop.

DavidPostill

In other news, there is a bus strike today. Fortunately I was able to book the day off in advance. Unfortunately there is another strike on Monday which I cannot take as a holiday. It will cost me 3/8 of my daily pay in taxi fares to get to work and back if the strike goes ahead :/

djsmiley2k

@Burgi lol

@DavidPostill :(

No one able to give you a lift?

Burgi

13:38

@DavidPostill do any colleagues drive and live near you?

djsmiley2k

And this is why strikes are dumb

DavidPostill

@djsmiley2k @burgi Not that I know of

djsmiley2k

they don't hit the people you want to hit

Burgi

can you send a group email?

DavidPostill

No.

djsmiley2k

13:39

@Burgi man it's 2017, whatsapp group is where it's at

DavidPostill

Remember I've only been there 6 weeks or so ... I don't know loads of people yet.

Burgi

what about sticking a note up in the break room?

DavidPostill

When you are on the phone all day you don't really get to know your colleagues.

djsmiley2k

nod :/

DavidPostill

@Burgi Hmm. I'll think about that one. I think the notice board is only for official stuff though.

The corporate culture is very weird and impersonal.

Burgi

13:42

there is a £10 discount coupon for uber...

Journeyman Geek

@Burgi for the first time, right?

@cpx size (and pixel density) matter

Burgi

correct

cpx

@JourneymanGeek: I checked here 100.13 PPI

Journeyman Geek

13:58

ooh

22 inch UHD?

cpx

On specs, it said 21.5 but on that link it detected as 22 inch. UHD?

Burgi

ffs

our frontend guy....

djsmiley2k

Need a close reason of 'missing required infomation'

@Burgi got a window near by?

is he in a wheely chair?

if so, I've got some reading for you to do

cpx

@JourneymanGeek: Oh, no. It is truly 22 inch. I checked from official site and FHD.

Burgi

we have 4 email campaigns to be done before the end of the day

yes its crappy dull work but not every job can be amazing whizzy new websites

cpx

14:12

But if you check on UK's site. It is 21.5. Yeah, now I am confused.

Burgi

since his best mate is back in after an illness trying to get him to focus is impossible

djsmiley2k

...

@Burgi are you his boss?

Burgi

@djsmiley2k no

djsmiley2k

Will you be negatively impacted if he fails?

Burgi

it makes the department look bad

djsmiley2k

14:15

not your problem.

Burgi

i want my old minion back

djsmiley2k

I know, we do too :(

Burgi

lol, why?

djsmiley2k

even if he did sneak off for a cheeky pint some times.

Because he didn't make you that mad ;D

and at least when he did, it was amusing

we could make jokes about him needing to stay out of sunlight

Burgi

:)

Journeyman Geek

14:24

@cpx depends on how they measure ;p

djsmiley2k

What's with the 'eyecare' ?

> Interested in .NET, ASP.NET, C#, VB, (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, bjj, snowboarding, mountain biking and Jesus.

One of these is not like the others...

¬_¬

Burgi

snowboarding

Journeyman Geek

what's bjj

Burgi

no idea

cpx

I measured it myself with tape. The screen size is 21.5 and if I include the plastic its 23 inch. Don't know where they are getting 22 inch.

DavidPostill

14:32

@JourneymanGeek BJJ is:

Brazilian jiu-jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (; Portuguese: [ˈʒiw ˈʒitisu], [ˈʒu ˈʒitisu], [dʒiˈu dʒiˈtisu]) (BJJ; Portuguese: jiu-jitsu brasileiro) is a martial art, combat sport system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was formed from Kodokan judo ground fighting (newaza) fundamentals that were taught by a number of individuals including Takeo Yano, Mitsuyo Maeda and Soshihiro Satake. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu eventually came to be its own combat sport through the experiments, practices, and adaptation of judo through Carlos and Helio Gracie (who passed their knowledge on to their...

Journeyman Geek

ahh

Burgi

@cpx rounding error

cpx

Can it be measured via. software?

djsmiley2k

oi guys

DavidPostill

@djsmiley2k That would be Jesus. The rest are not names of $deities ;)

djsmiley2k

14:34

there was something about windows 10 and the calculator not working

anyone able to remember what it was? :D

@DavidPostill ;D

DavidPostill

1

Q: Windows 10 Calculator is gone

I'm trying to open the calculator app on my Windows 10 64 bit machine. When I search for calc in the start menu and click it, I get an error you'll need a new app to open this I tried re-registering my windows ten apps by using this command Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -Dis...

12

Q: How can I reinstall Windows 10's calculator app?

I uninstalled the Calculator app like this in PowerShell: Get-AppxPackage *windowscalculator* | Remove-AppxPackage How do I reinstall it?

windows-10 powershell calculator

1

Q: Windows 10 Search Instant Calculator Not Working

Usually, typing a few numbers with an operator into Windows 10 Search would give an instant calculation, but this doesn't work on my laptop. I don't remember when it stopped working. I have the Creator's Update but I'm not sure that's what broke it. Any help would be greatly appreciated as thi...

windows-10 search windows-search calculator

djsmiley2k

huh mines back

but appently loads of people at work have the same issue

Burgi

i never lost mine

djsmiley2k

Now i can't 'test' the fixes :(

cpx

@JourneymanGeek: How much PPI is good since you said "size and PPI" matters?

Journeyman Geek

14:43

@cpx well, practically? Whatever you're happy with

;p

Less practically, I have a spreadsheet

13

A: Will the pixel density difference be visible between 4K and 2K monitors at 27" size?

IMO "sort of". Its definitely better and sharper, but native 4k content is pretty rare. I'm looking at a 1080p and a 2180p display right now. I do do some sort of upsampling in my video player for 720p video and it looks fine. (Would screenshots be of help here? I dunno). There's a lot of disa...

The story behind why I take my behavior too seriously

Transcript for