Fric

As a European I can say this - Xenophobia isn't that big of a problem in Europe between Europeans. On the other hand what drives Xenophobia in Europe is the immigration. E.g. Yes, people in UK or Ireland may not like Poles, but I doubt its Xenophobia. Without saying anything against a particular group - if we look at history - what are the main reasons for wars, conflicts, hate etc.? Its 2 main things: 1) strategic (e.g. war for valuable land, resources etc.); 2) cultural, religious, political differences. Furthermore - how most countries have been forming over the centuries? Its mostly out of nationallity, similar culture. People have always choosen to form societies together with other people who are similar to them. So when you try put 2 very different cultures in one "house" - there will be problems. Before someone says - yes, in small numbers it works ok, because these people will eventually integrate succesfully (simply because there is no alternative). The bigger the number of new people are introduced the less succesful is the integration process. Than we see that - yes there are nice people, who work and adapt to their new environment. Than there are people who are somewhere in the midle - they adapt partially, work and everything is somewhat fine. But they still want keep their culture and would prefer that their different culture would make an impact in the local culture. And finally there are people who totally fail at integration - they choose to live in segregation, they refuse to learn local language, don't want to know anything about local customs etc - but everyone else has to learn their language and have to adapt to them... No wonder we always hear about the troubled districts in cities. Granted, there are always poor people and criminals... But surely mass immigration of both war and economical refuguees in an already stagnating, high unemployment ridden European Union is disastrous. So together economical problems with immigration and problem of crime and segregation that comes with it - there is sure to be a lot of xenophobia... And after New years Eve at Cologne - I don't blame anyone for Xenophobia anymore... Xenophobia between EU and USA?? What? That's something new for me...

Any X-Files fans here? Its now officially back with first 2 miniseries already out. I enjoyed watching it, but critical me started asking:

I never said - keep the old, inefficient industries. I'm up for innovation, productivity increases etc. What I meant is - don't let cheap goods flow in from countries with no (or close to none) environmental, climate policies, very low safety standards, worker living standards (e.g. the good old story about child slave work in Asia for big brands) etc. I'm worried about decent industries being destroyed because of this.

Although I don't like it, its not my business what happens at someone's bedroom. Its just the process and the way its "given to us" that I have something against. But that's not that important tbh, there are a lot more important things around us. Never works? Destroying industrial capacity doesn't work either... I'm still a believer in the fact that you need an x amount of industry (both for local consumption and for export) to support an y amount of services. It may work for very small nations - e.g. Luxembourg has become a financial center. Such small and wealthy states can get rid of industry almost completely. But it will never work for larger states. I didn't say we need 100% protectionism and embargos on goods or against China for example. I'm thinking about more moderate approach. Remove all barriers and watch many industries burn (besides those with very low trade intensity).

Woah, everyone is so liberal?? No idea how a lot of people got sooo radical scores (those -7 are crazy)... Left Libertarian? So its basically corporations are evil, governments are evil, being rich is evil etc. + freedoms (e.g. sex and orientation), immigration and "cultural differences are so enriching for us" are the most important thing ever? here's mine: EDIT: for some people wondering on the questions... I have a feeling many think of the "greater good" like an utopia. For example - Yes, theoretically free trade should be better for the greater good (looking at the Earth in total, not individual states) but in realitity it won't be great for everyone. The real question is - if you know that a certain direction your country is taking WILL lower your living standards (e.g. more immigration - smaller wages because of bigger competition, free trade agreements that will make certain manufacturing sectors move abroad and therefore jobs will be lost etc.) will you lean towards immigration, free trade etc. because its for a greater good (e.g. some Asian emerging markets will benefit on your expense) OR will you defend your rights with laws, protectionism etc.??? Are you willing to lower your standards for others?

Look at Turkey... Technically its a democracy and people for some reason vote a lot for Erdogan, but he is leaning towards an authoritarian regime if you ask me...

As an European and a government employee who works with EU stuff (including participating in Council working parties for legislative acts) I can say that Poland has always been the odd one out (and their buddies from the Visegrad group) that fights hard so something does not apply to them or they get better terms. Which is good to a certain degree. Their previous governments have been very vocal in some subjects in this matter. This new government might be even worse, and we see they are trying to make controversial things in domestic level as well. I'm not familiar on the reasons why poles voted for this government (I heard people saying they were fed up with the previous ones and their policies), but lets hope it won't end up in a bad way - you vote for more radical parties and than get fucked by them in some way. The thing about radical people and radical governments is that yes, a lot of people might agree on certain things. e.g. the hot topic of immigration - yes, a radical government might help you on that point, but they might fuck you over on some other, where you will cry - what the hell are they doing and on what drugs are they on? A topic on which a normal government might not do anything like that. From what I heard one of the issues at the moment is that the government wants to limit press freedoms in some way (maybe (especially someone living in Poland) can elaborate more on this?). That's a serious issue, "democracy" in Turkey is already doing that. What's next? Will you be happy when it will be forbidden to talk bad things about the government, politicians? Or face maybe even jail time? With radical governments anything is possible.

Regarding all these valve fuckups, including stiching together the source engine and HL3 rumors of being halted/frozen/call it whatever (from what I have read, it used to had loads of people working on it, and now its maybe 10 people doing "something" with it) - my guess is that valve lacks 2 things 1) skilled workers; and 2) capital investments. 1) HL3 should be a AAA title, my guess is that they don't have enough high level skilled workers, that could get it done properly; 2) here's a comparission of other sectors - e.g. you are running a manufacturing plant of some products, the plant it self is old, and haven't had much capital investment (although owners have profited "quite a bit" over the years), it is slowly degrading, the actual machines, conveyers etc are getting old, outdated and maybe even not competitive anymore. A company in this situation usually needs a lot of capital investment, to upgrade their facilities, manufacturing capabilities etc. to be able to stay in the business or even to put out new products. So think of the source engine as this aging manufacturing plant and its machines... The source engine problem also goes together with the potential staff issue (aka valve staff aren't capable to make a top notch engine atm) - my bet is that they have serious problems with the engine and thus they have stalled HL3, hoping to get done with the engine first, but its a real pain in the ass.

About the rift price - its sounds somewhat reasonable for the moment. I wouldn't get it at this price because I'm not in a hurry. Its a new tech and early adopters always pays premium, thats the way it is. About them saying it will be around 400 or whatever - its just bad PR, they fucked up that part. Wait a few years, there will be new models, prices will drop. Nobody said it will be a product for the masses from day 1.

India for me does not make much sense. When the alternate timeline starts India is just barely out of colonial rule (although I can't find references what happened to UK colonies in 40s-50s in fallout timeline, so I'm assuming they did seperate as in RL)... Also, its never actually mentioned anywhere, therefore no one really gave it any significance. Ofc, 99% focus is on the USA, but we still know some things about other regions. But not India... Europe (mainly UK) could be interesting - although it is said that Commonwealth collapsed from internal strugle, it still was an important player before the war. Well China is an obvious pick if ask me. It played big role leading up to the Great War.

So its a debate about a definition? In my book if a lot of people die due to the actions of oppressive regimes just because they are "the wrong nationality" or in other means "not trustworthy (read it as not obeying without question and stay in their place)" its a genocide. People are very sensitive with these subjects (so am I...), I guess no one wants to say the word genocide, because than its automatically associated with holocaust (holocaust is basically genocide of jewish people) or other big genocides/civil wars in Africa for example. Oppressive regimes do horrible things. Luckly my closest family hasn't experienced but I have family friends who experienced USSR deportations from multiple eastern Europe countries in 1941 and 1949. Yes, people weren't executed and thrown in mass graves, but does putting people on cattle trains like animals and sending to Siberian work camps just because they were part of the local national intelligence, new land owners (farmers), political activists etc. sounds "normal"? Also their families and small children, and don't giving two fucks who dies on the way from starvation/illness/cold. It might not be classified as genocide, but it was a delibarate attempt to get rid of unwanted people in the newly occupied territories, which depends a lot on nationality. As for Ottomans - well, Armenians weren't the only ones - Greeks and Assyrians also suffered. So I wouldn't call it a one time thing that might be "misinterpreted". And if we look at history - Ottomans have generally been an aggressive and invasive regime. Oh btw don't forget about Cyprus. I bet dict... sorry I meant president Erdogan would love to rename Turkey the Ottoman Empire...

Do you realize that making a GOOD game is still a lots of additional work? Ross has plans already. Why you keep on pushing that topic? I was just asking if he has thought about it (and not suggesting that he should do it) and elaborated a bit more why I asked my question here. I do understand if he had thought about it at some point it would have meant one or another (movie or a game) and not both. Jeez, take it easy.

Thanks for the video chat, was very interesting! Just to follow up a bit on the question about making a game - the point why I asked about it is that I was looking at it like something very similar to a movie (tbh I'm one of those, who says that a lot of modern (shooters especially are guilty of this) games are just sort of interative films). You need a main theme, script, story etc. for it - just like for a movie. You have also mentioned that you would use a game engine (Unreal) for the movie, therefore its even more similarities. And as far as I have seen - A LOT can be made inside UE4 with blueprints and without actual programming skills in its traditional sense. Just like the movie, ofc its a lot of work, but imho its not impossible! I bet you have all kinds of thoughts on what would make certain games better and at least in your mind create a fanstastic game that would be at the top of the list.

I didn't get any of those cached pages from other people, but yeah, I experienced that the shop was down. Its not a security risk in a direct way that, somebody could have edited your account, transfer items, send game gifts etc., BUT there were reported cases of people seeing steam store check out pages (with items in it) and than you could see there full name, e-mail adress, billing adress, and for people using paypal - paypal e-mail adress. This is quite a bit of information - billing adress could be using for all kinds of harassment, spam (also, this could help people getting lost passwords if there is a requirement for adress input). Paypal e-mail adress could become a prime target to try to steal that e-mail password. E-mail with nothing associated with it is no use to people, but an e-mail associated with forums, paypal etc. can be used to retrieve "lost passwords" and than deal more damage.

Yes, I hope so too that this "policy" bites them back as well. Its bad practice all around. Sadly its the world we live in and thus you have to be careful and you must know your rights. A lot of problems arise from not understanding the details and not knowing laws and legislation. People like these are just looking for people who trust them and dont fully understand whats going on. I bet there are quite a few people who try to negotiate their contracts and ends up with no contract because machinima changes their mind and arent interested anymore because they smell that they wont get much profit from this person and just a lot of headaches. In Ross case its just criminal ofc not just unreasonable contract details. In these cases its only legal action. Ofc its not normal but its part of the process - i have worked in governmental institution and seen that its not that rare...

Have you even ever made a youtube video? Asumming that they arent good because they use machinima is absurd. Guess what thinking like this is what makes for people to succeed even harder. What other totally stupid criteria do you use to say something is good?

If you'd read Ross (Scott's) story on his problems with Machinima, you would see that it doesn't matter to them. They didn't want to respect his contract anyways, assumed he had another version, that gave them even more power over him. When he pointed out that he has certain protections in his contract they admitted they "lost" it. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. The contracts themselves can be written such way that you may be tricked anyways, since sneaky, sneaky lawyers formulate sneaky wording that might deceive you. It's not that simple and contract itself MAY give you protections, but it only worked for Ross when he threatened Machinima with a lawsuit, similarly as RossBoomsocks is doing now. Ofc, understanding and using contracts also means being able to enforce them. That's part of the process - if a party ignores the contract you go to court.

My guess is that their business model is OK, if you can get a decent contract terms. E.g. not a 5-10 year contract but a 1-2 year contract without any automatic renewal BS. Because if you have a very small channel you aren't really getting anywhere, so exposure the Machinima gives you for 1-2 years could be just the right amount for you to become known. Theoretically after a year you could become somewhat popular and maybe even have 100k subs or something on your own, without any external help (that's the theory). Think of if as a big marketing campaign where you don't pay up front to the ad agency but you agree to share your future income that will increase from the said marketing campaign. The deal in its essence is not bad - hey you don't have much viewers and we have big viewer base, we will expose your videos to our viewers if you share the income generated from those new views of your videos. Therefore I bet there are many people thinking that no matter how much you don't like the deal, its either this or no youtube channel at all. One year is quite a while and if you're getting exposure from Machinima, people know that you're contracted to Machinima. As mean as it is to say this, you'd think people would stay away from such channels. It would teach people a lesson and it would deal a blow to Machinima. Machinima has 12.7m subscribers, that's quite a lot... Contracting to Machinima isn't bad in itself. Staying away on purpose from potentially good channels just to teach a lesson to Machinima? I'm not sure which is worse - your idea or Machinima's shitty contracts.

My guess is that their business model is OK, if you can get a decent contract terms. E.g. not a 5-10 year contract but a 1-2 year contract without any automatic renewal BS. Because if you have a very small channel you aren't really getting anywhere, so exposure the Machinima gives you for 1-2 years could be just the right amount for you to become known. Theoretically after a year you could become somewhat popular and maybe even have 100k subs or something on your own, without any external help (that's the theory). Think of if as a big marketing campaign where you don't pay up front to the ad agency but you agree to share your future income that will increase from the said marketing campaign. The deal in its essence is not bad - hey you don't have much viewers and we have big viewer base, we will expose your videos to our viewers if you share the income generated from those new views of your videos. Therefore I bet there are many people thinking that no matter how much you don't like the deal, its either this or no youtube channel at all.

Damn... Its everywhere - read your contracts guys what are you signing... No matter, if its machinima, mortgage other loans etc. etc. You don't have to be a lawyer, just read it carefully and think what it might mean, also use google etc.

In spirit of christmas i watched the original die hard. 10/10 for a christmas movie!

For those interested - its currently on sale on steam until 4th of January. Originally costs 5.99 eur, now with 80% off its 1.19 eur for me. As well as Still Life 2 is on sale as well and you can buy them as a package.

Ok, I agree that Finn probably doesn't have training, but his fighting was for a brief moment and as others mentioned he's just swinging. As for Rey i quote came to my mind: A: Who told you how to do that? B: No one. It seemed the proper way. A: That it is. A: (He shall know your ways as if born to them.)

For Finn you could argue that he might have had some melee training - because you see another stormtrooper attacking with the vibroblade. But that's just a guess. For Rey - firstly she showed great athletics and agility (through out the movie) and melee skills (when fighting the scavengers who tried to take BB) in the movie. Also, the movie seemed to show that she is very strong in the force (she learned that mind trick very quickly) therefore lightsaber combat could be just intuitive for her without even knowing. Also - who said its that hard to use the lightsaber? I look at it this way - its a melee weapon, if you can fight with a stick/wand/vibrosword/etc., you should be able to use a lightsaber properly. So I would say - its easy to use but difficult to master it completely.

I haven't had time to research much. I think my main concern with Youtube was that if there were lots of people, comments might fly by too fast and I wouldn't be able to read them in time before they were purged. With twitch I can have it connect to IRC so that I can take comments at my own pace if I need to. YouTube LIVE chat is deleted after x amount of time or y amount of messages? I wasn't aware of that.