Questions for Videochat May 2019

[Ross Scott]

Ask questions or topics to discuss here for the next videochat with fans on 5:00pm UTC on May 5th at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast.  This one may be longer than usual since the "games as a service" video made a pretty big splash, so I'm guessing there may be more questions on that.

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[polymerize-finale]

This isn't so much a question as a suggestion. Maybe it's not worth addressing, rather than just thinking about it, but:

 

Have you considered that doing lots of modding and map modification and such in Freeman's Mind is a bad idea? I believe you said once that you started doing Freeman's Mind because it was something you could do more quickly than Civil Protection. In my opinion, that was a really good idea, and something you should stick with, at least more often than not. I don't primarily watch Freeman's Mind because of the weird modifications to Half-Life. In many cases, I probably don't notice them. I primarily like it because it's funny. What makes it funny is the writing.

 

I think you said in one of the videochats that you were blocked on Freeman's Mind due to availability of your modding collaborator, or something like that. If so, that means you're reducing output in order to provide something that I, and any other viewers like me, don't really care about that much. By that I mean, when I notice it, it's kind of neat, but I wouldn't watch a series like Freeman's Mind with similar (or even substantially better) modding where the narrator wasn't funny. I suspect that a lot of your viewers agree with me on this.

 

My suggestion is basically: stop doing nontrivial mods to HL2, or only do them occasionally, and concentrate on writing that works within the base game. Save your modding effort for The Movie or other projects. Freeman's Mind works fine without modding. And if not modding means you're putting out 2 episodes a month, your fans will be substantially happier.

 

In any case, please don't read this like I'm telling you what to do. Obviously, it's your call. I'm giving you my perspective in the hope that it'll make you able to achieve more goals with less effort.

 

EDIT: Should I have put this on reddit and NOT here? 

Edited May 1, 2019 by polymerize-finale (see edit history)

[JackoftheVoid]

Hi! Profound video on fraud. While I’m not a professional that can help in a proper capacity, I do have an idea about a loophole/runaround to submit to y’all to chew on:

 

Historically, it seems the answer to unregulated laisez-faire capitals was to inject a little socialism in it to balance the scales. For example: abusive factories and railroads —> labor unions. 

 

Therefore... instead of suing for legal action (since your resources are likely a little limited in comparison to someone like EA), stage your own workaround. If you were to set up some form of community Kickstarter to offer to purchase those “fix it” codes, THEN they could be archived as a non-profit, co-op owned, public library. From there, if you can find developers willing to sign on to create viable server codes to accommodate the outdated ones, you could re-institute the playability of those games for those who own them. There’d be no way around a fee because the $$ to buy the repair code is a necessity (and maybe the server maintenance and upkeep, etc. can’t fix that) But much of the support or updates could come via a modding community similar to nexus. 

 

Then wouldn’t that fulfill your desire to turn their industry up on their heads, bring justice and playability back to the people’s property and  (as long as it’s a non-profit library/museum). As long as they bought the product from the original company, then none of that co op idea would violate their “rights as a company.” Especially if the funding were done as a membership due (like a library card), instead of any direct property from their IP. 

 

What do do y’all think? Maybe a little more doable than legal fees, and by putting that as a non profit and organized as a public library/museum so it’s a little more protected (and in the hands of the consumers), it’s a bigger nut-slap to their corporate Live Service Structure than an out of court settlement. Especially if it is well-received. 

[William]

What things do you do when you're sad to cheer yourself up?

[ekket]

@polymerize-finale & @William: yeah, those questions are supposed to go in the Reddit thread, sorry for the confusion. Should the comment sections for future videochat question posts be locked?

[ScumCoder]

2 hours ago, ekket said:

Should the comment sections for future videochat question posts be locked?

It used to be, for a long time - exactly to discourage people from smearing their questions over several places.

[William]

5 hours ago, ekket said:

@polymerize-finale & @William: yeah, those questions are supposed to go in the Reddit thread, sorry for the confusion. Should the comment sections for future videochat question posts be locked?

Sorry, first time on the forum - didn't know.

Will post to reddit next time.

[BTGBullseye]

On 5/5/2019 at 7:46 AM, ekket said:

@polymerize-finale & @William: yeah, those questions are supposed to go in the Reddit thread, sorry for the confusion. Should the comment sections for future videochat question posts be locked?

Well, it did show as locked when I first saw the topic, before anyone else commented...