General Discussion [ Page 40 ]

GOG Now Sells DRM Free Films

GOG.com just launched an interesting new feature: DRM free films. Starting with a few movies like "Indie Game: The Movie", "Minecraft: The Story of Mojang", "Gamer Age" & "The Startup Kids." If you head over to GOG right now you can download two films for free "TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard" and "The Art of Playing."

Movies, coupled with Linux support and the upcoming GOG Galaxy, GOG is really becoming a first class digital game service. I hope the DRM free films movement takes off and we see more great content come to it.

http://www.gog.com/movies

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable - Listening

Every other Wednesday, a few of us here in the Cheerful Ghost community come together and talk about video games and the industry that produces them. This week, with the events that have transpired in our country, we felt it necessary to focus our attention on bigger issues. However, as we discussed the episode as a group, we were humbled by the weight of it all, our thoughts heavy on what the family of Michael Brown, and the city of Ferguson, are going through. We concluded that it would be much more productive to push that focus away from our own voices, and listen closer to those, not just in Ferguson, but around the country, that need to be heard. We hope that you... Read All

My Name Is Max, My World Is Fire And Blood

"Oscar-winning filmmaker George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” revisits his own post-apocalyptic trilogy featuring the anti-hero known as Mad Max. Tom Hardy stars in the role of Max Rockatansky, alongside Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley."

As someone that grew up loving Mad Max I was delighted to watch the new Mad Max: Fury Road trailer. It mixes the right amount of post-apocalyptic biker punk ascetic with the dry wasteland vibe we've come to love seeing in games like Fallout 3. That said, Mad Max did all of it first and the original director of the series, George Miller is back with a new saga... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Roundtable: S2 E11 The Rise of Game Streaming

In this episode of the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable we talk about the latest video game craze, Video Game Streaming. We talk about Let's Plays, E-Sports streaming & the recent Twitch.tv acquisition by Google for a cool Billion. This episode features Portland Indie Game Squad's (PIGSquad) Will Lewis as he live streams the show on the new PIGSquad Twitch.tv channel.

http://www.twitch.tv/pigsquad
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/24/5934695/google-buying-twitch-youtube
http://blog.twitch.tv/2014/08/update-changes-to-vods-on-twitch/

What do you think about video game streaming and Google's recent acquisition of Twitch.tv?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/07/2014 at 04:05pm

One thing we didn't touch on (or I totally wasn't paying attention) is the advent of Twitch Plays, and what that means for both games and the streaming of them. It's a brilliant use of the technology, though I don't know how practical it is. With services like Twitch, the primary pull, outside of watching a stream, is being able to interact with a streamer, as well as the rest of the audience. In Twitch Plays, it seems that there is less room to interact with each other, as everyone is focused on getting the character in play to do their bidding.

Also interesting, that DMCA enforcement that we expected is here, and quite jarring:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/08/thousands-of-twitch-videos-silenced-as-streaming-site-mutes-copyrighted-audio/

I think it's worth pointing out that Twitch has had these guidelines in place prior to the Google buyout, they just put the onus on the copyright owner to take action. (http://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/questions/987917-playing-music-in-stream)

Now, it seems that Google is nipping any future lawsuits in the bud; it's a move to CYA. This is only affecting archived streams, for the moment, but I'm sure that Google is hard at work to figure a way to mute live streams, as well.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 08/07/2014 at 04:55pm

Ha, I was just coming over to post about twitch muting videos with copyrighted audio. Looks like you beat me to it Scrypt! I'll still share my link though: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2014/08/07/twitch-muting-video-contains-copyrighted-audio

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/08/2014 at 07:01pm

Reddit AMA with Twitch CEO Emmett Shear: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2cwfu2/i_am_twitch_ceo_emmett_shear_ask_me_almost/

Via Joystiq, it is pointed out that the muting of in-game musics is a "mistake". "We have zero intention of flagging original in-game music." Shear says.

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Cheerful Ghost Roundtable Prompt: Video Game Streaming

http://www.pri.org/sites/default/files/story/images/tpp2.png

The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable films next week and the topic will be "The Rise of Video Game Streaming." While we film the episode, Will Lewis from PIGSquad will be live streaming the episode on his Twitch.tv channel as we live stream the episode on Google Hangout.

That said, I had the idea to start a new thread a week before the show to start the discussion. What do you think of video game Streaming, Twitch.tv and Let's Plays? What do you think about the news that Google just bought Twitch.tv for a billion dollars? What kinds of game streaming do you watch?

I want to take everyones comments to possibly use as a springboard for the roundtable. Fear not, if we use... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 08/01/2014 at 03:05am

I have no interest in just watching people play. There seems to be this big industry these days where you can watch someone play any game on the planet live. If there's a hook to it, like speedrunning Mario 64 or something awesome like Twitch Plays Pokemon, I love it. But I really don't care that you're streaming Diablo 3, I'm playing it over here, which is way more fun that watching you, no matter how awesome you are at it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/01/2014 at 03:12am

I really enjoyed watching the recent DOTA 2 International. I had a co-worker over and we both watched a bit of the League of Legends tournament that was fun. I had little understanding of what was happening, but it was a fun experience.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/01/2014 at 03:19am

That's definitely one of those awesome moments. A tournament, especially a major one, is cause to watch. I watched the Starcraft tournaments on ESPN 3 back in the day and loved it.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 08/01/2014 at 05:20pm

Sometimes I'll watch if it's a game I haven't played before, to see what it's about. Tournaments are fun, especially the League of Legend games, since I know a bit more about the game and the scene. There are also times when I'll have a stream - someone that I'm following just because I like...whatever: their perspective, communication, etc - playing in the background as I draw or design. I've always liked having music, or some environmental noise, on while I work.

There are games that I can't watch because it's annoying not being able to grab the controls. It can also be annoying watching someone play a game that you've already "mastered", but then with Twitch, you can actually chime in and say "Hey, look behind that building" or "Just do this instead of what you're doing, it's easier." Streamers will sometimes poll the chat for what to do, or what to play next. I don't know. I find the whole thing pretty fascinating.

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Steam Music Beta Open For Everyone

Valve has opened up the Steam Music Beta to everyone and the steps for enabling it are below. Currently Steam Music only supports MP3's but they plan on adding other files as the beta progresses. After enabling the beta I pointed Steam at my music library and it spent some time listening to a few albums.

If you are looking for a spartan way to play music, Steam Music is it. That said, over the years I have been spoiled by certain features like playlists and the ability to look at your collection by album cover art(This mode is available in Big Picture but not Desktop, yet). I imagine Valve will work on adding some of these features but if you are looking for a simple... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/28/2014 at 02:58am

OK this may be a dumb question. I'm in the Steam beta channel, I pretty much live there. I've made Steam check for beta updates, and I'm up to date. Where is the music?

Travis Admin wrote on 07/28/2014 at 03:02am

Never mind, I found it. You have to trim down your library to show music in the filter. That's an awkward way of getting there.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/28/2014 at 03:10am

No support for network locations yet. You have to map a network drive. That's fine on Windows, and Linux mounts stuff in the filesystem by default. It's a bit trickier on Mac.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/28/2014 at 03:14am

I was messing around with this a few months ago, and found it to be functional, but lacking. I'm sure they've made some improvements since then. Too comfortable in my bed to check it out right now, though...

Travis Admin wrote on 07/28/2014 at 03:23am

A few months ago? Wow, where have I been?

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/28/2014 at 02:37pm

You've been working hard! There was an option to join the Steam Music user group early on, and they were granting early beta access that way. I was hoping it would be a viable solution to iTunes, which I usually love, but seems to be lacking in support on "the bastard platform" (i.e. Windows). WinAmp would be my next choice, but it's in corporate-buyout limbo. It still works, but man is it in need of a good designer.

Has Valve said that they would integrate music purchasing through a third party service?

Timogorgon Member wrote on 07/28/2014 at 04:35pm

I'm glad they're adding this since this will help flesh out the Steam OS a bit more. However I can't really see myself using this much. I primarily listen to music through Spotify (laptop or iPod) or I use my iPod plugged into a speaker to listen to the music I own.

I have iTunes but I only ever load it up when I need to sync my iPod to it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/29/2014 at 01:44am

scrypt: No music purchasing yet SAVE the soundtracks you can already get through Steam. Interesting you mention WinAmp because the bare bones aspect of the Steam Music beta reminds me heavily of WinAmp.

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GOG Now Supports Linux

"The first 50+ titles we've have in store for you come from all the corners of our DRM-Free catalog. Note that we've got many classic titles coming officially to Linux for the very first time, thanks to the custom builds prepared by our dedicated team of penguin tamers. That's over twenty fan-favorite GOG.com classics, like FlatOut&Flatout 2, , Darklands, or Realms of the Haunting we've personally ushered one by one into the welcoming embrace of Linux gamers. That's already quite a nice chunk of our back-catalog, and you can expect more from our dedicated Linux team soon!"

Linux is becoming more of a first class game platform and this news from GOG seems to... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/24/2014 at 07:44pm

Next up: Origin! :)

Travis Admin wrote on 07/24/2014 at 08:14pm

I say that jokingly, but I wouldn't be surprised if Origin has Linux support in a year or two.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/24/2014 at 10:02pm

Hmmm, it's really possible but I wonder what EA would have to gain there. Unless they want to get into their own console business which would be interesting.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/25/2014 at 02:26am

Well, the same thing anyone has to gain I suppose. Steam Machines are happening and people are reacting, albeit slowly. EA does have some indie titles they publish. I won't say it's a great fit for EA but I think the extra funds to develop Linux versions of their games would be made up by profits. Origin is out for Mac already so they're branching out.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 07/25/2014 at 03:53am

I think it's less about having their own console, and more about getting out from under Windows, which is more or less where everything is going.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/25/2014 at 05:06am

I hope EA gets behind "something other than windows" and the answer to that is Linux. That would be great.

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The Early Access Excuse

"Is it always a valid excuse for a game to be poor? Well it just may depend on how you the game is labeled. Like and subscribe for more content on early access games!

In this video I go over a very large issue that has to do with early access games. Basically, a large majority feel that these games do not deserve any criticism. You can't complain about something that's not done. The fact is, depending on how the game is labeled (alpha or beta) there are certain objections you can make. "

We have talked about problem Early Access games before and this video seems to add to that conversation. Do you think that certain people let certain elements slide because the game is... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/21/2014 at 06:10pm

This is a great breakdown of the development process for us laypeople. I've always thought of Alpha releases as a combination of the Integration and System Testings, so that's what' I've expected. I generally don't buy games at the Alpha stage, as I'm not very interested in playing partial games, so I'm not familiar with how developers introduce Alpha stages to players, but communication sounds like it's the main issue that is causing problems. Consumers of Alpha builds need to better understand what exactly to expect from a game when they're playing it. Just because something is labelled as "alpha," it shouldn't be assumed what that exactly means for the specific game. If I were a developer, I think I would take the time to inform customers as to exactly what is currently in the build, what is being worked on, and what is coming in the future. And I would avoid the phrase "It's not done yet."

But perhaps developers are doing that and customers just aren't informing themselves.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/21/2014 at 09:19pm

It's a catch 22. Starbound shows this quite a bit. People expect constant updates even when they're working on back end stuff, so Chucklefish started doing purely optional nightly builds to show off what's going on with the dev process. To clarify, you have to intentionally go download these, they aren't included in Steam updates.

They included the caveat that things will definitely be horribly broken in these, since they're snapshotting it every night regardless of the condition it's in, and yet people are still complaining at how every nightly update seems to break something.

I think finishing the complete game with all features complete tomorrow is the only way people will stop complaining, but then they'd find something else to complain about :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/21/2014 at 10:41pm

Travis, thanks for that Starbound update! I've apparently been out of the loop.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/22/2014 at 02:01am

Adam: I agree, the difference between Alpha and Beta is HUGE and i'd rather catch something in the final throws of development than an early Alpha.

Travis: I could say a bunch about Starbound, but the main point is that they said the game was Beta when it was clearly in the "We are going to change huge aspects of the game, including progressing, leveling and just about everything." Had the devs said Alpha OR tech demo or whatever then I think things would be a bit better. That said, I don't really think people are wrong in what they are upset about, I just don't choose to rage about it.

Travis Admin wrote on 07/22/2014 at 02:08am

Sure, I agree that this shouldn't be called beta yet, but complaining about nightly builds breaking things is ludicrous. Nightly builds on software that's far past release are going to have major showstopper bugs, so alpha/beta should be expected to be far worse.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 07/22/2014 at 02:10am

Yup. I agree.

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Dorkly loves "the next big idea" in gaming

http://0.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/41/53/69c05d3aef6aa58977e6061e714dc90c.jpg

This made me laugh. I hope you enjoy it.

100 Amiga Games in Ten Minutes

I had friends that owned Amigas but my PC history started with the Commodore and then moved to DOS. That said, this video shows off 100 of the best games from the Amiga system and many of them shared ports with DOS.

Did anyone in Ghost land have an Amiga?