The DMZ

7:35 AM

Hi, just dropping by.

@MechMK1 since we had some fun ranting about unethical / bad mobile game mechanics some days ago, I thought you would like this picture.

It is a graph showing the trend of the reviews over the last few updated to the Animal Crossing mobile game

MechMK1

7:56 AM

@Derpy Wow, that's not a good trend. Even before, the reviews see, to have beecome more and more negative

Derpy

@MechMK1 Oh, I've read about the content of the last update. I am quite surprised the reviews weren't worse

MechMK1

Hello there @forest

I have never played the game, so it's difficult for me to make objective judgements

Derpy

@MechMK1 look, basically it goes like this:

In the game you can get a lot of duplicate items, both from events and from the loot gatcha boxes

MechMK1

And?

Derpy

Before the update, you could give out unwanted items to a specific character. Every 10 items he would go off, return after 6 hours and bring MULTIPLE items in return. Mind you, the item he returned were RESOURCES, not clothes/furniture like the one you had to trade in but still it gave you a chance for dupes

forest

8:01 AM

Hello @MechMK1

MechMK1

I expected "General Kenobi" :D

Derpy

Also, the character (called Gulliver) also would give you special maps that would unlock new characters in the game.

MechMK1

@Derpy So you could give away dupe shirts and get cloth, wood, iron, etc...

Derpy

@MechMK1 basically yes

But the maps were the interesting thing. Every now and then they would add new characters map and if you used Gulliver you were granted to get a map you didn't still have

MechMK1

I assume they removed that?

Derpy

8:05 AM

Post update:
You can no longer choose what to give to Gulliver. He will ask for specific items. Some of those items are normal items you can get, some are Gulliver specific items that you have to craft using RARE resources

the Gulliver specific items (that serve non purpose other than being given to him) use rare resources and are VERY pricey. They have ridiculous build times (like... 10h to build a box).

MechMK1

Wow, I guess that's what free-to-pay economies have become

Derpy

after you fill the ship you get to send it to an island. Each island has a reward pool with a few items and IF YOU ARE LUCKY some character maps

MechMK1

What a scam

I am really sad. I was so excited to be able to play games together with my kid, but I guess I could literally take them to a casino now as well. At least there you have a chance of a real-life reward.

Derpy

Each time you send the ship to a destination by filling it..... you wait about 12 hours. And then you get a SINGLE item

at least, the game tracks the prices you already got from an island.... so over multiple times you can exhaust the reward pool until you are granted to get the map.

Yet....

MechMK1

You know, you could be a lot more grateful. You could wait 12 hours for a chance of getting an item.

You have to see it positively: You are guaranteed to receive an item

forest

8:10 AM

Isn't this a kid's game though?

MechMK1

Of course it is

Because kids don't see how much of a scam all of this is

forest

ah

Derpy

well, if the island uses cargo items... To fill it you probably spent over 60k bells, multiple rare resources and a lot of time....

And the price is.... 5k bells if you are unlucky.

Oh, and please, take notice of the offer to buy another price (without knowing what you get) for Leaf tickets (the game premium currency) so that you don't have to fill the ship again.

MechMK1

This is so scummy.

It actually makes me angry

I know that it's stupid to feel angry about a game that I don't even play

But it's a symptom of a much more widespread disease

Derpy

Based on reddit, you even get a WARNING if you try to close the screen after getting just the "free" price claiming that "If you don't pay leaf tickets now to get another price, you will have to fill the ship again to get one"

MechMK1

8:16 AM

Videogames have always been dear to me, and to see them being turned into what is essentially a get-rich-quick scheme for managers. Because the developers will be kicked to the curb anyways after the game is out.

Derpy

^ and yep, if that's true (will try to get a screen) it is somehow lame

MechMK1

@Derpy It's essentially a dark pattern

Derpy

@MechMK1 and it is not just games...

MechMK1

darkpatterns.org/types-of-dark-pattern/confirmshaming

But games is what really matter to me

Derpy

See how it went with the recent Sonic movie thing... They actually tried to put the blame for the bad Sonic design on the animation studio.

MechMK1

8:17 AM

Sonic is just...I don't even know, man

Sonic Adventure 2 was the last acceptable sonic game. And if I could, I would completely re-write it

Derpy

To be clear - the animation studio is the one that basically did the animation for.... every single one of the last 10 years games....

MechMK1

The whole "Shadow looks exactly like Sonic"-subplot is garbage

@Derpy Easy scapegoat still

Derpy

I wasn't talking about the plot or poor game quality due to rushed launch dates... I was talking about this.

MechMK1

Yes, I saw that

Absolutely weird

Derpy

no way that was a decision made by the animation studio

that was some "smart" manager / CEO that thought the Smurf movie was good.

MechMK1

8:22 AM

That was some board room meeting where people were like "We can't sell cartoon characters anymore. It needs to be sleek! It needs to be modern!"

@Derpy The fact that the Smurf movie costed 60 million USD to make and had about 45 million USD revenue should have been an indicator

forest

@Derpy wtf

Why is Sonic a furry?

MechMK1

Reminds me of SorrowTV: "Pokémon are smooth! With the exception of some obviously furred or feathered Pokémon, all of them are smooth! Ask me what a Bulbasaur feels like, the answer is: Smooth! A Charizard, smooth! A Mewtwo, smooth!"

forest

Of course

MechMK1

I would apply the same rule to Sonic as well

i dunno, the idea of a live action sonic movie is so bizarre

Derpy

@forest When the trailer came out, I actually assumed it was a FAKE trailer, crafted just as some form of weird, viral marketing

forest

8:37 AM

Didn't someone also make a crappy Pokemon movie where one was a furry?

Derpy

I mean, the design is basically based on the Sanik meme

MechMK1

@forest Detective Pikachu?

Apparently, that was quite successful

forest

I don't know what it was. I just saw some Pokemon that looked furry.

Derpy

forest

I died a little inside and went with my day.

MechMK1

8:39 AM

forest

@Derpy GO SANIC FAST

@MechMK1 Yeah that was it. Repulsive.

Pikachu does not have fur, even if it's a mouse Pokemon.

Derpy

@forest split eyes, blue arms, red shows with no white line, human proportions.... yep the one in the movie is Sanic, not Sonic.

MechMK1

Major Characters in the Sanik Universe:
Sanik
Toils
Fister
Overly Sexualized Bat
Dr. Eggplant
Shodder
Coldsteel the Hedgehog (OC do not steal)

forest

*Teleports Behind You* Nothing personnel, kid

MechMK1

Dr. Eggplant is often abbreviated Dr. 🍆

forest

8:43 AM

@MechMK1 You saw that parody Sanic video game, right?

With the glitchy speedometer.

No

This might be it

> Click on video
> /mlp/

Oh dear...

Derpy

@forest I saw that parody Sonic game, the one with the human princess. That was enough trash for the rest of my life, thanks.

MechMK1

SONIC '06

Final Fantasy 06: Gotta Go Fast Edition

forest

8:45 AM

@MechMK1 Gross. But don't worry, it's not from pony******s.

MechMK1

Sanic The Game looks more polished than Sonic '06

forest

Just look at the speedometer. :D

MechMK1

What speedometer?

forest

Is this not the right video? hm... I can't play YouTube videos so I just Googled it.

MechMK1

Has anyone of you played Remnant: From the Ashes?

forest

8:48 AM

Aha

SANIC HEGEHOG GAEM SPEEDRUN (OVER 15 LIGHTSPEEDZ PER SANIC!!!)

►

MechMK1

"Press F1 for Help"

Nobody can help you now

forest

The audio is beautiful.

> YOUR WINNER!!!!!!

MechMK1

My boss is on the other desk. I can't bear myself to enable sound. I need this job to feed my family.

Derpy

@forest Your Winner? Ok, they played Big Rigs

forest

I love the dubs picture in level 2.

MechMK1

8:52 AM

YES

forest

But you can tell this game has a strong smell of 4chan.

Dubs guy, SHIGGY, rustled jimmies...

MechMK1

I recently had to send my bus ticket to HR

It was like 1791046666

And I was this close to making a comment about it

Though I doubt that HR would have appreciated my usual approach

forest

Check dem quads

MechMK1

Only quads can kill gi-------r

forest

Not sure what that is. Never heard that on /a/.

Granted, /a/ isn't much for dubs, only the odd GET.

Derpy

8:55 AM

Anyway, back to the original topic, I will be curios to see how the Animal Crossing post update mess ends out

forest

Wait nvm I think I know what that is. Giga******?

MechMK1

Yes

@Derpy Probably a bit of backpedalling, everyone gets a free shirt and the update is reversed, only for them to pull a Bungie and silently reduce resource gain

Do you guys know the Destiny 2 XP controversy?

forest

No

MechMK1

Basically, in Destiny 2 you would level up until you reached level 20

From that point on, you could still gain XP and "level up", but you would only get a loot box as a reward. You would not get more powerful

You would need 125,000 XP to level up once you reached 20

But what happened was that the game would lie to you about how much XP you would actually get

Like, the game would say you got +8,000 XP for completing an event, but only give you +2,000 XP progress towards your level

Bungie apologized, stating that they wanted to "keep the experience fresh by discouraging players from doing repetitive tasks" - without anything in the game actually telling players they would get reduced XP from such tasks.

Derpy

@MechMK1 the experience you needed was measured in Snake Seconds?

MechMK1

9:01 AM

@Derpy I don't get the reference

But it got from bad to worse

Bungie reversed this measure, so players would always receive the amount of XP that was shown on the screen

But at the same time, they silently doubled the amount of XP needed to level up, from 125k to 250k

Aka. "We act like we are giving you more and want you to see us as benevolent, but we don't give you anything"

Derpy

@MechMK1 reference to an old Nes game called Snake Rattle&Roll. For unclear reasons, the in-game clock was slower than normal. 1 game second equals 2 real seconds for apparently no reason (some say it was probably a timing bug that the dev decided to keep because it was fun).

The game manual called the "double" seconds "Snake Seconds"

I think you can actually get a scan of the manual if you google it

MechMK1

:D

Derpy

it didn't had any influence on gameplay, so...

MechMK1

No, it was just fun

I remember when games were that

Good times

Derpy

@MechMK1 the ability to update the content of a game after launch is one of the greatest curses of this gaming era.

MechMK1

9:12 AM

A blessing and a curse

I honestly believe that those who had the idea "What if we could update our games post-launch" had genuinely good intentions.

"Imagine if we had missed a bug, and we could just patch it out! Imagine if there was a map exploit that we didn't catch in testing, and we could just patch it out! Imagine if there was an unbalanced item and we could just rebalance it!"

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

forest

Oh my god, RMS was forced to resign from FSF not long ago. O_o

Apparently he claimed that some girl was forced to have sex with someone else, and that she was coerced into pretending she was willing. The media took the words "she presented herself as willing" and took that out of the context "because she was forced to present herself that way".

MechMK1

We had such a conversation not too long ago, if I recall correctly

forest

Huh, I wasn't here for that. I just found out about this now.

MechMK1

The court of public opinion only knows one verdict.

You can quote me on this

@forest No, not about GNU/RMS, but about false accusations

forest

ah, yeah

bbiab

MechMK1

9:30 AM

0

Q: have the sshd host strings that are present in /var/log/auth.log been validated by sshd?

Since the log messages are written by the sshd deamon after an established connection then my understanding is that the host strings have already been validated by the sshd deamon since the log records would not be in there since the /var/log/auth.log has messages regarding the sshd login attempt...

What?

Derpy

9:40 AM

@MechMK1 "Imagine if we could sell just half of the game, and then sell them the rest of the content in small, overpriced packages"

MechMK1

@Derpy That's what the managers thought afterwards

I'm surprized "gread" isn't a legitimate spelling yet

Derpy

> "Mayst death find thoseth who canst't updateth their game, theie shall forever liveth with a butchereth releaseth"

MechMK1

Art is a virtue, Money is a vice.

Derpy

10:08 AM

@MechMK1 Day one cosmetic dlc included in the game. Why Y NO ON DISK??

Oh, yeah, right....

DLC cant be resold as used

so, an used game is an incomplete game.

why would a FREE day one dlc be a dlc otherwise?

why should that content not be in the game in the first place? Why should you make the buyer go through additional hops to download a skin that you are giving out for free?

Because that is a single use claimable code, that's why.

MechMK1

@Derpy Because DLC used to be "content the developers could make while waiting for approval of the main game" and has become "content that is removed from the main game and added in at a premium, so that the illusion of 60 USD games could be maintained"

Derpy

10:24 AM

@MechMK1 as I said, it is not just that. Day one DLC included in the box are clearly being used as a way to boycott the used games market.

It is not extra $$ if every version of the game has a "skin pack download code" or "additional quest" code in the box.

It is just "if you redeem it and sell the game, the game will be incomplete"

@MechMK1 Anyway, I have a new gem for your, since it seems we are on the same wavelength in regards to mobile scam games.

This game used to have in app purchases DURING THE BETA PERIOD.

MechMK1

10:55 AM

@Derpy I absolutely hate this

I think it was Warframe, that claimed to be in "Early Access", but had in-app purchases

So many games use "Early Access" like a shield to deflect criticism

Derpy

@MechMK1 I don't know if they went as far as to reset the game status when the beta finished (IF the beta finished, google store web pages aren't really that clear)

MechMK1

"The game absolutely lacks any meaningful content" - Yes, we're early access. Please be patient.

"The game has so many bugs, it's borderline unplayable" - Yes, we're early access. Please be patient.

"The game is extremely unbalanced. If you don't use *this specific build*, you can't play" - Yes, we're early access. Please be patient.

@Derpy What does it even mean for a game to be in beta? That's a serious question by the way

Derpy

@MechMK1 technically, from Google Store point of view two things: restricted number of players and "game may have bugs" disclaimer

but it seems you can still monetize while in beta

MechMK1

Yes, but I was talking from a game developer perspective

Because to the player, the game appears fully functional and is underhandedly being advertised as such

Derpy

No, I mean that if you browse the store from your device there is a warning saying that the game is in early access beta and that if you enter the beta test you may experience bugs.

MechMK1

11:08 AM

I remember when GTFO released their roadmap, they had to explain to players that this is **not** a preview release.

To quote: "If we test the network code, then expect the network code to be buggy. Expect having connection problems, lags, etc. - this is the **point** of a test. We need to figure out what doesn't work and how to fix it. If we knew the networking code was fine, then we wouldn't need to test it"

Derpy

I don't see the warning on the store site so either the game exited the beta or the site doesn't show the full info.

MechMK1

@Derpy Does that mean anything to the player? I would doubt so

Derpy

@MechMK1 well, nowadays many games aren't exactly what I would call smart. I don't know if that is the result of gaming becoming more accessible to a larger group of people or what... but surely back in the '80 gamers were far more knowledgeable.

By which I meant they usually knew what they were doing

today... people go asking how to circumvent piracy protection on the developers forum.

(or accept to live with drm schemas that are borderline illegal - see drm that damaged your DVD player)

MechMK1

DRM is a scam

I bought the game, I can do what I want with it

"You're not allowed to reverse engineer the game" - You're not my real dad, you can't tell me what to do

Derpy

11:24 AM

@MechMK1 I can live with "you can't reverse engineer the game". I can't really accept the "this game installs securom/starlight/[otherDRMSUITE] which will mess up your OS, installed software and may even damage your hardware if you are unlucky."

MechMK1

You want to play a game? Only if you install some malware too

Derpy

I mean, if my memory servers Starforce way of working often ended up in your dvd player to be forced to run in a sort of debug mode, which would result in additional strain put on the laser/lens, in some cases causing actual damage

Don't remember the details, but I think it true info taken from actual analysis made by a piracy group.

MechMK1

You know, I really dislike piracy, but I absolutely support their fight against DRM

Derpy

the second you come to the point that playing an actual original, legit, retail copy of a game causes you more discomfort that playing a piracy copy you know they are doing it wrong.

MechMK1

Yes, absolutely

Derpy

11:39 AM

It is fun because no mater what they try, in the end the drm only end up ruining the experience of the paying players

MechMK1

Pirates already have the very compelling argument that their product is free. Don't also give them the argument that their product is better than yours.

3

Derpy

it is not like the cracked versions will contain an additional software that will mess up your pc.

I mean, how can you even think that people who actually understand what they are doing will accept that the drm tied to the game DISABLES dvd burning softwares???

Some of them are made to block software like Nero or Alchool.... Which for what they know I could be actually using just to store my photos on dvds (not far from the truth, btw - owning a reflex and loving to take 4k pictures in raw format)

MechMK1

Just the fact alone that a software developer tries to tell you what you are allowed to do on your PC or not is enough to show them the finger.

Derpy

to be fair, I switched to console gaming many years ago now. I sometime regret not being able to play with mods (the Elder Scroll games are actually very poor in their vanilla version if you ask me) but it is a price to pay to avoid the mess pc gaming has become

MechMK1

11:56 AM

I have a good gaming PC and a Nintendo Switch

And I almost exclusively play indie games

7 Days to Die, Human Fall Flat, Cultist Simulator, etc...

Derpy

I... don't think I have a favorite genre. I can say I usually don't play many mass "AAA games" that many gamers think are the best-game-ever

If we had to set a genre..... mostly JRPG related?

You know, adventure, exploration, that kind of games.

MechMK1

12:14 PM

Yes, I really liked Final Fantasy X. i think the story was great, even though the english voice acting was terrible

I wish the HD remake would actually have done more than to increase texture resolution

The music was just...so good. I remember playing "To Zanarkand" on piano. It was beautiful

And before you ask: I am a terrible pianist :D

Derpy

I have weird musical taste, which usually means I like (good) game music more than actual songs albums made by many famous artists.

MechMK1

12:32 PM

Music is just distilled emotions in acoustic form.

And it's up to us to interpret these emotions

If you associate the timbre, chords and melody of a particular arrangement with any specific emotion, then that's just as valid as any other interpretation

There is no particular reason why the first two bars of "To Zanarkand" would instill a vague sense of sadness in a person, except that they associate the music with a particular moment in an abstract narrative

Derpy

12:48 PM

@MechMK1 So on point.

anyway, just to discuss something in topic for once....

Just read about the recently? found Simjacker "vulnerability"

MechMK1

What about it?

Derpy

I don't know if you already talked about that before, but it seems pretty bad.

basically, due to a vulnerability in the now obsolete S@T Browser module found in almost every card, it is possible to just send an SMS to a device and trigger the following comands

PLAY TONE
SEND SHORT MESSAGE
SET UP CALL
SEND USSD
SEND SS
PROVIDE LOCAL INFORMATION (including location, battery, network, and language)
POWER OFF CARD
RUN AT COMMAND
SEND DTMF COMMAND
LAUNCH BROWSER
OPEN CHANNEL (CS BEARER, DATA SERVICE BEARER, LOCAL BEARER, UICC SERVER MODE, etc.)
SEND DATA
GET SERVICE INFORMATION
SUBMIT MULTIMEDIA MESSAGE
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION REQUEST

MechMK1

How can I protect myself from that? Aside from taking out my SIM card?

Derpy

basically, it seems that due to this anyone can send a crafted SMS message to a device because the device makes no validation of the sender. So anyone has access to the same commands that the operator has. And did I mention that some of those commands don't even make much sense in the first place?

@MechMK1 that's what I was trying to find out.

MechMK1

Probably something like "You can't. Everything is fucked." again

Derpy

1:04 PM

yep, probably.

But I lack appropriate knowledge in the field.

Based on some reading, this S@T Browser seems something tied to SIM cards. Some articles seem to imply that USIM don't use the S@T module anymore since it has been replaced with more up to date components.

at the same time, all the articles point to one single source, with no form of independent confirmation

Smells a little fishy, like it was deliberate false info spread for marketing purposes.

Maybe @forest can understand a little more.

MechMK1

1:20 PM

It might be, but it doesn't have the "Buy our product"/"Hire us"/etc. vibe to it

Like the one company that claimed to have viable first-preimage attacks for SHA-256

Derpy

seems we may get some news on October, 3rd

virusbulletin.com/conference/vb2019/abstracts/…

in the meantime, I think this guy has some valid points

twitter.com/VessOnSecurity/status/1173625466894393344

MechMK1

It does seem fishy

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