The Bridge

tzenes

01:32

:4874 I happen to really like zerglings, they win me a lot of games

badp

08:26

7 hours and no new question? Kinda worrying.

tzenes

15:05

gaming.stackexchange.com/tags/game-rec/synonyms

badp

16:00

:4886 1 more to go

badp

16:36

is it me or this week our activity has been decreasing, anyway?

C. Ross

:4888 Done

Have y'all seen an increase in views b/c of Civ 5? I ask because of the views on

34

Q: How do I disable Civ 5's opening movie?

It seems like the opening movie always starts up and won't let me cancel it until it has played for about 10 seconds. Is that because it takes the game that long to load regardless? Is there a way to turn off the movie?

civilization-5

tzenes

17:12

I've seen an increase in certain members rep

WillfulWizard

17:27

:4895 Who do you mean?

:)

alexanderpas

should we synonym [iphone], [pad], [ipod-touch] to [ios]?

WillfulWizard

(Not an owner of any device, but...) I thought they're not 100% identical. Can't you can have different versions of a game on iphone or ipad?

alexanderpas

AFAIK, they're as similar as android devices, different features, different versions of the ios, but AFAIK, those are non-issues when considered for gaming.

tzenes

17:47

:4899 Its worth noting that when there are different versions for different devices (iphone vs ipad) they usually have different names

WillfulWizard

:4901 That works for me. As I said, I don't own such a device so I would not know.

My next suggestion would have been to ask on the new Apple stack exchange, or see if they've come up with a solution.

tzenes

18:08

I don't suppose I could get one more close vote out of anyone: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/8255

badp

:4904 it is closed

4 mins ago

alexanderpas

check who that last vote came from...

tzenes

On my screen it says closed 5 minutes ago and my message was 7 minutes ago

I think there might be a correlation here...

badp

fair enough

@alex could've said something :)

alexanderpas

was distracted by sim tower question.

badp

18:33

►

↑ that stage is awesome

Arda Xi

It's official. TF2 is ruined.

badp

Oh. Right. Steam Wallet in action ;)

For those who don't follow Arda, TF2 got itself a BF:Heroes-like item store.

Arda Xi

Basically, it's an MMOFPS now, complete with micro-transactions.

AKA "Battle of the Disposable Incomes"

badp

still how long do those items last once purchased?

€5 is a shitton for an ingame weapon

Arda Xi

Please excuse me while I use erkie.github.com on the TF2 site.

alexanderpas

18:47

teamfortress.com/mannconomy & teamfortress.com/mannconomy/faq

Arda Xi

Much obliged.

badp

> Team Fortress 2 is not free to play. Robin said they considered it, but “right now the cost of purchasing TF2 again is the main cost that cheaters pay when we catch them.”

That is really a great point :)

Arda Xi

I feel that Valve must really offer some kind of "TF2: Legacy" or something. I want to play the vanilla game, with the vanilla guns.

badp

TF2--;

but I'm shocked by the prices

Arda Xi

TF2-- = TFC.

badp

18:55

For the same price as that knife you can get one of a lot of games on Steam.

Arda Xi

However, I fear the reference to TF2 has been replaced and is forever lost.

alexanderpas

yeah, $4,99 for a knife... heck, a real knife can be cheaper!

badp

Unless that purchase is a one timer that grants you indefinite access to, that item it's just insanely expensive.

Unless it's a one-timer, then it's OUTRAGEOUS.

tzenes

it sounds like its a one-timer, when they talk about trading

Arda Xi

You can't trade bought items.

tzenes

18:57

ah

alexanderpas

bought weapons can't be traded (yet)

badp

I'm not talking about trading, though.

LessPop_MoreFizz

All the purchasable items are cosmetic I thought?

I mean, I know TF players are kinda slightly crazy about hats etc. and all, but I don't really see a problem with micropurchases that don't confer a gameplay advantage?

badp

:4942 All purchasable items that aren't available for random drop, says the FAQ.

If it's up for drop, it can be bought, says the FAQ.

Oh, look. A Steam beta. Who knows what it may be about :D

tzenes

So if there is a free way to obtain it, it has a game play advantage, if there is no free way it is purely cosmetic?

alexanderpas

19:00

some are drop only, some are buy only. all gameplay influencing items are drop.

badp

(a implies b) does not imply (b implies a), @tzenes

tzenes

I was asking if it was the case, not the natural implication

badp

I guess there also are cosmetic, freely available items.

tzenes

while it doesn't imply it, it might coincidentally be true

badp

Just not all of them are.

Oh, I thought you were nitpicking my logic there. Sorry.

I probably mistook you for that @badp guy.

In other news, nothingtoinstall.com

tzenes

19:03

looks like they're not in bootstrap

LessPop_MoreFizz

Yay for Webapps

Arda Xi

Pretty.

So, when are we getting ours :(

tzenes

I really want to add something to the faq about game-rec but I don't figure out what

badp

Turns out the reputation requirements for NTI are different from all other live sites'

Create new tags:
1500 SO
200 SU, SF
150 NTI, public betas

Retag:
500 SO, SU, SF
200 NTI, public betas

So it's some form of bootstrap. The high tiers however are still 2k to edit, 3k to close.

alexanderpas

cheezburger.com/View/4018558208

LessPop_MoreFizz

19:33

area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/21841/…

is this some kind of joke/troll?

FallenAngelEyes

..."dishoused"? O_o

tzenes

I wonder how an "anything goes" SE would work

just to abuse the engine to its fullest

LessPop_MoreFizz

answers.yahoo.com

tzenes

different engine

Arda Xi

Pretty much SE gone wild though.

LessPop_MoreFizz

19:43

Same result though.

tzenes

I think the results might differ

LessPop_MoreFizz

That is how an "Anything goes SE" would work.

:4978 Then you have far more faith in humanity than I do.

tzenes

the presence of the reputation system conferring power would lead to power struggles

alexanderpas

anything goes moves the stuff to the specific SE, off-topic get's moved to anything goes...

tzenes

:4980 or less

:4982 this is probably a better suggestion

a home for orphaned questions

as the relevant SE goes up, the questions get "adopted"

unwanted questions can be moved to the orphanage

I'm more interested in creating a "pseudo" site which attempts to unify a single topic across multiple sites.

for example, I could create a pseudo [java] site, which only referenced questions tagged [java] on SO, SE, Programming, etc

from the perspective of the site it would be a "java" se, however the back end would mean that you were really contributing to other sites

LessPop_MoreFizz

19:50

So really, what you want is more of an "SE Homepage" where you can look at your Interesting Tags across all SE sites?

Because that is actually a pretty reasonable feature request as the network grows IMO.

and the new 'inbox' is definitely a great first step towards that it feels like.

tzenes

I don't know about an SE homepage

I feel like people want more specific SE's than are viable (because of community size) and I want to support that without fracturing the community

this gives people the "feeling" that their community is being supported even while they're part of a larger community

what's more the SE api allows me to do this easily

alexanderpas

:4997 maek it happen

tzenes

I'll work on it some tonight

LessPop_MoreFizz

:4996 Yea, but you're basically just creating a custom 'interesting tag' based SE page. And at that point, I honestly think being able to make my own, custom mixed SE page would be even more awesome than being able to dynamically generate java.se on demand.

i.e. I'm sick and tired of needing to go to gaming.se, apple.se, SU, and NtI, especially when, at the latter two sites, I'm interested in a fairly narrow range of what gets talked about anyway.

tzenes

maybe, but I think I'm solving a different problem from you

your problem is there are too many SE

the problem I'm trying to solve is that there are too few SE

communities grow around an SE

LessPop_MoreFizz

19:56

:5006 Right, but what's interesting to me is that both problems are solvable with the same mechanism.

tzenes

no, I don't think your mechanism solves that problem

the problem with there being too few SE is that the communities are too large and diverse

having a unified site promotes large and diverse communities

I'm trying to create smaller sites to for more concentrated communities

I actually want to show people less information

I'm not saying you aren't creating a useful tool, but I don't think it does what I want

LessPop_MoreFizz

But if all you're creating is a page that indexes a set of tags across multiple SE, you're not really creating a community, since you're feeding off users in 5 directions anyway. You're essentially creating a tourbus for like minded people to drive through SE-ville together, but when they want to interact with a question, they have to get off and end up in the larger community regardless.

and yes, that is a fucking horrible metaphor

alexanderpas

I like the tourbus metaphor.

LessPop_MoreFizz

I guess I'm just not seeing what mechanism you have for fostering an internal community within the site you're proposing.

tzenes

in your example if I set up my tag for [vim] I am going to run into the same people, the "vim" people, but we aren't going to have our own rep, we aren't going to have our own meta, we aren't going to be able to have our own ping pong tables and humidors, we aren't going to feel like "vim" is an SE

if my example I can simulate those thing and make it feel special

because that's the goal, the "feeling"

LessPop_MoreFizz

20:00

:5019 Ah, that's what I wasn't seeing in what you suggested. So basically, you want to be able to aggregate rep within those focused tags essentially, etc.?

tzenes

I create my vim site, and all of a sudden we can have discussions like: should we include [vi] tag

yeah

LessPop_MoreFizz

and provide a whole bunch of tiny meta._ sites

tzenes

it'll be virtual rep (since you can't close topics), but you can use it to vote questions on our off the vim site

LessPop_MoreFizz

basically, some 2/3rds of Area51 proposals just become Meta._____.SE sites

tzenes

well I dont' like the term Meta here (since its over loaded), but lets call them, _.TS

Tiny SE

alexanderpas

20:02

meta.[tag].se

tzenes

sure

I think my first one will be hard coded for one tag, but from there I can have the code dynamically handle the general case

while we can't "close" questions we can vote them off the island

and I can have a special symbol in comments to have them not post to the main site

so you can have [tag] specific comments

LessPop_MoreFizz

On an unrelated note, erkie.github.com has proved to be of enormous use of late. I can surgically remove posts from my internet-enemies from pages that I wish to read.

tzenes

I use it on game-recs

alexanderpas

wii.gaming.stackexchange.com

badp

:5036 It's called "ignoring"

LessPop_MoreFizz

20:04

:5039 Sadly, 'ignore' is not a viable option in certain contexts.

badp

@tzenes I'm just going to say that request (interesting tags only sites and the like) has been turned down so many times it's not even funny

LessPop_MoreFizz

also, it's more satisfying to blow someone up than to just disappear them silently.

tzenes

which request?

badp

@lesspop, get the tag feeds you're interested in and put them in the same folder of a feed reader

tzenes

Its not a request

badp

20:05

Sure, if you go ahead and build it with the API it's an entirely different matter (but then it's read only.)

tzenes

I have access to the API

It doesn't have to be read only, I can support it locally

LessPop_MoreFizz

:5044 Do the RSS feeds show old questions that have been bumped because of edits or new answers? I haven't played around with them at all.

alexanderpas

:5048 dun dun dun

LessPop_MoreFizz

Also, that would require using a feed reader again. I kinda swore off mine as the enemy of my productivity a few months ago. :/

badp

:5050 No, they look and feel precisely like the chat feeds :)

LessPop_MoreFizz

20:07

:5053 that's not an advantage. I like the bump behavior for the way I browse the sites.

badp

Feed readers are a huge productivity boost... if you measure productivity by amount of interesting news read

3

LessPop_MoreFizz

:5055 Sadly, it is no longer my job to simply consume large amounts of interesting news. (though that was the best job ever and I miss it so.)

alexanderpas

:5055 I'd star that if it wasn't on gaming.

tzenes

I'll star it

Macha

I'm sure someone has mentioned it, but using erkie.github.com on a SE site is _fun)

tzenes

20:11

check out this answer: stackoverflow.com/questions/3833634/…

Arda Xi

20:26

The video shouldn't have pixels?

tzenes

...

I can't tell if you're being serious or not

Arda Xi

(Of course I do realise what is meant, but still...)

tzenes

I don't realize what you mean

Arda Xi

I was referring to this question

1

Q: What can I do to record videos of me gaming for free?

Possible Duplicate: How can I record demos of my gameplay? I have looked at a few choices: I liked Fraps, but it's $37 for the full version. dxtory was good but the video quality wasn't clear. I wasn't able to use virtualdub because i did not have the hardware to go with it. Camstudi...

recording

tzenes

in his question he says he wants no pixals (spelling error I assume)

by which he means he doesn't want to be able to visually identify individual pixels

obviously every video has pixels

Arda Xi

20:33

As I said, I do realise what is meant.

tzenes

so I don't understand your question?

Arda Xi

It wasn't a question, just a remark.

tzenes

ah

badp

C. Ross

20:54

:5080 How's that for a provocative title? Not quite "How to pray to god", but ...

tzenes

do you mean lumbermill?

I honestly don't remember logging camps in FFH

C. Ross

crap ...

but yes, lumbermill

tzenes

yeah you can't do that

C. Ross

most disappointing ...

tzenes

that would be a little overpowered

C. Ross

20:58

I can live with that, fellowship can already build some massive cities

tzenes

damn hippy elves

its all about the Calabim

go ashen, just destroy people

C. Ross

:5092 I played some a Sheam (sp?), got to the demons, but it spawned me right next to a powerful civ :-(

tzenes

Sheaim

they can be fun especially if Infernal are out and you have a lot of demon portals

you start spawning tons and tons of units

C. Ross

so in other words, don't switch to Infernal, play on as Sheaim?

tzenes

yeah

oh if you want to go Infernal don't go Sheaim

C. Ross

21:09

I love the fact they made it so much more random than normal Civ 4

you never know if your first city is going to get trounced by some 10+ str barbarian

tzenes

I usually go Luchuirp when I want to go Inferal

I get like 1 City

and a I rush pact

alexanderpas

I just answered How different types of weapons do compare in Dwarf Fortress? http://gaming.stackexchange.com/q/8272/29 I play DF too much...

Tweeted by alexanderpas on September 30, 2010 at 9:11 PM

7

Q: How do different types of weapons compare in Dwarf Fortress?

How do different types of weapons compare? For example, is sword better than a mace, or are they different somehow?

dwarf-fortress

tzenes

I think your answer is better than mine

so I upvoted it

oh man there was this really BS strat I used to use with Luchuirp into Infernal where I did it by turn 70

badp

Here's the victory screen

area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/57/web-applications

Arda Xi

I say yes to 8bitlavapwnpwniesbossstage.com

badp

21:20

So say we all!

alexanderpas

:5113 lol!

badp

@tzenes I just commented I want the opposite of what you thought I did :)

alexanderpas

BTW: Just a few more days until we're out of beta and releasing online.

badp

21:35

:5121 meta.gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/1143/…

tzenes

So you posted on meta to get the attention of Robert? or Juan/Oak/Grace?

badp

:5123 all of the above

Robert mainly, though.

I guess he's the one that really is responsible for this, unless Jeff or Joel feel like chiming in.

tzenes

I think there might be an easier way to contact him...

badp

(It's also an open call to stop the madness)

C. Ross

:5122 I probably missed something, but isn't boss-level the clear victor?

17

A: Last Chance -- Top domain name: pauseforhelp.com. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Boss-Level is also available, (and works as a double-meaning-- the place where bosses, us, the experts, hang out) but I was afraid to suggest it on account of the hyphen (as bosslevel is taken (but then again, has copyright 2001, so it might be for sale)). is available through GoDaddy (either 7...

badp

21:39

:5129 Is that a clear winner over pauseforhelp?

C. Ross

meh, flip a &^&*ing coin

badp

Is bosslevel.com an actually viable choice?

tzenes

anything is a clear winner over pauseforhelp

badp

:5132 Yeah, that's what I'm asking for ;)

:5134 You have my support there, but it doesn't count much.

alexanderpas

nothing to install, pause for help, Do i see a pattern?

tzenes

21:41

bad names?

badp

I'm starting an area51 about domain names

it's going to be called allgoodnameshavebeentakensince1992.com, agnhbts92 for friends.

WillfulWizard

:5133 If I recall correctly, www.bosshelp.com is taken, and www.boss-help.com would be rejected by the SE team due to the dash. I can find the quote that makes me think that is true if you like.

ahem... bosslevel and boss-level.

badp

:5142 pause for boss then?

WillfulWizard

come to think of it, have we checked www.bosshelp.com....

tzenes

that feels less gamey

alexanderpas

21:43

taken and way too much of the same letter: bossstage

:5145 Bosshelp Technical Consultants

tzenes

we could make Boss-Stage be the main site, and have bossstage.com redirect to it

WillfulWizard

:5144 This actually amuses me.

badp

bossstage.com is taken

tzenes

well shit

WillfulWizard

:5150 "A domain name should be readable over the phone. Even on AT&T Wireless. Tricky spellings are always a bad idea. **Similarly, dashes reek of desperation.**"

Stack Overflow Blog: Domain Names

Posted by Joel Spolsky on July 12th, 2010

Let’s say, just hypothetically, that you wanted to learn how to bake a cake. So you go to the bookstore and you have a choice of two books. There’s a generic yellow book that is part of a series:

And there’s another book that stands by itself… it doesn’t look like a part of a series.

If you had no other information, which would you buy?

American audiences, generally, don’t trust series. They tend to believe that they want the best baking book, period, not whatever baking book comes in yellow. When they see a shelf full of yellow dummy books, they mostly say, “yeah, a bunch of second-best books.” …

alexanderpas

21:48

tzenes

penny-arcade.com doesn't reek of desperation

WillfulWizard

Not that we aren't desperate, or that you CAN'T find a good - domain name. Just predicting Jeff would say no.

tzenes

bonjwagamers.com

what about something with arcade in the name?

WillfulWizard

how about CivCraft14-ModernAnswers.com? ;)

tzenes

arcadejunkies

interesting, arcadejunkies redirects to arcade-junkies...

alexanderpas

21:52

readability vs. typeability vs. speakability

tzenes

arcadefanatics.com

woah, don't go to gamingfanatics.com

gamingnuts.com arcadenuts.com gamernuts.lolz

gamingbuffs.com

WillfulWizard

@tzenes ... nothing is standing out at me, but I do like the brainstorming. I would help if I were not otherwise engaged. I will speak up if I see something awesome.

tzenes

arcade buffs

WillfulWizard

pixelbuffs

tzenes

lifelongvirgin.com

pixel buffs feels more like computer graphics designers

I like buffs better than nuts

videogamebuffs.com

gosugamers

badp

22:00

We've been banging our head for 85 days now. What makes you think we'll have epiphany now?

alexanderpas

pressure?

tzenes

what makes you think we'd have one on day 40?

or 37

or 58

I don't have another option so I am exhausting the only resource I have available to me

badp

I didn't say probability(day = 85), I said probability(day > 85)

if all days are equally likely, the chances are pretty slim :)

alexanderpas

bathtub graph

tzenes

unless they're not all equally likely

badp

22:04

I picked a model and went with it. Sue me.

tzenes

well I'd say the days where we brainstorm are more likely than the days where we post stuff on meta which are more likely than the days where we do neither

alexanderpas

:5188 I can't, different juristiction.

badp

:5189 If you notice from the graph, brainstorm spikes are followed by a wave of equal upvoting and downvoting

Downvoting rule first, then upvotes catch up.

At the end of the day we have 1.5k votes with a net value of 12.

Talk about a waste of time...

Anyway, I'll go now compare this with what happened over at NTI

alexanderpas

You mean NtI?

Oak

22:22

Fun fact: we've had hundreds of visits from users who searched for "gaming stack exchange" and "gaming stack". Maybe we should just call ourselves "gamingstack.com" and be done with it. It is available...

badp

Then we might as well stay on our domain.

So four torches around a mob spawner are enough

dunno why people went so far as digging lava in its neighbourhood

alexanderpas

:5197 those were lazy googlers.

Oak

@alexanderpas yea, I guess so too. But maybe one or two were genuinely new...

Oak

Anyway the wind is all out of my sails, I'll go with anything Robert chooses

tzenes

gaming.stackexchange will still redirect to us

even after we have a new site name

Oak

22:37

Yea...

alexanderpas

chat.gaming.stackexchange.com/rooms/7/domain-name

Oak

Also, I think we were all a bit too focused on a gaming-related name

Oak

we should have just gone with "the rhinos" or something

Oak

"upgradedanswers.com" is available, too

badp

Hey, @User3286. I'm sorry, but you need 20 rep to speak.

Oak

22:44

or "highlevelanswers.com"

Arda Xi

10

Q: The site should use a Killscreen image for HTTP/500 Server Error pages

As badp proposed in chat, this site should use a killscreen image for HTTP/500 Server Error error pages:

feature-request top-7 site-attributes error-page

I still think this belongs with the 404 question

Then again, I've never seen a 500 error page on SE before

badp

:5218 workin on ur problemz

alexanderpas

6

A: What should the 404 image be for the site?

Page Not Found We're sorry, we couldn't find the page you requested. However, we did find the release date for Half Life Two, Episode Three:

Nice fixing

WillfulWizard

22:59

:5218 stackoverflow.com/questions/999999999999999999

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