Gaming

Interesting but ....

Machete — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:39:44 GMT

I just assumed the answer was you both used the same software.

... because there's a category of apps to generate these nowadays, right?

Anyway, I hope you and the other creator didn't exchange cross words.

I apologize; I had to go there.

Why the fuss?

mustireallyweighin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:38:37 GMT

Clearly I am missing something. Given the limitations of grid size, it's inevitable that eventually there will be puzzles that look similar or have a similar theme. So what?

Remarkably interesting, perhaps in spite of itself.

MonsterDog — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:31:46 GMT

<strike>As I pondered weak and weary</strike> (let's not go down that road, thanks)...

There's writing for a niche audience, and then there's holding forth for a thousand words or so in a mainstream media publication about the utter esoterica of crossword puzzle construction.

One could easily dismiss such musings with a "tl;dr" and move on, but I for one am glad there are publications out there that run stuff like this. Good work, Slate.

new COD modern warfare: if only....

steelbucket — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:36:51 GMT

Many a true thing is spoken in jest.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/war/new-'call-of-duty'-to-include-six-months-in-helmand-200911112219/

RE: Can thirtysomethings survive on Xbox Live?

lucusvicious — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:53:10 GMT

I thought this was an excellent article and well done on taking the step into the online world. I completely agree with what you had to say. I'm 19 years old and have only recently began playing online and there is no doubt that it is a completely different experience to playing the normal game. I had the same problem as you, dying within 20 seconds or so due to the other players being far more experienced and just far better (I've improved somewhat and can hold my own for a little longer these days though!). The insults and taunting seem to go hand in hand with whatever game you play. I played Fifa 09 soccer game online and was taunted for being 3-0 down at half time! This from a 12 year old from Mexico who had clearly been playing it a lot longer than myself. There should definitely be a filter where you can choose to be placed with, not only people on the same skill level as you, but people around the same age. I'm only 19 but the high pitched wailing of the younger kids started to grind on me after a while. It's no fault of their own, but the fact they are being placed with older players seems to leave them open to being bullied and picked on.

830 i have beat that!!

montaya — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:30:50 GMT

my husband and i play everynight and on 7/23/09 my final score was 845 so bring it on.

Sincerly,

Allisia Montaya Smith

TRY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rapelay

obse — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:06:40 GMT

rape=bad

rape simulation=bad?

No, I have to disagree. Because you will never be able to stop killing simulation.

Censoring something that's wrong in real life is like acting like it doesn't happen in real life. Is censoring rape games going to stop rape, even a little? No, just like censoring shooting games isn't going to stop murder even a little. There's a glaring distinction between murder and simulated murder. Murder has motivation, someone feels other people deserve to die, or they feel powerless and want to exert their power on others by killing them. Where as the simulation is harmless, victimless fun.

The same can be said of the distinction between rape and its simulation. Do any of you even know about rape and the psychology involved? Rape often includes violence, as it is a matter of aggression and wanting to dominate, not a matter of sexual gratification. Again, it takes some sick motivation to actually do this. The simulation however is again, harmless, victimless fun.

There's also the old standby argument that a victimless simulation can control the urges of people who might otherwise actually go out and commit the crimes.

Indeed, a correlation between sexual material and sexual misconduct has hardly been established, the fact that Japan has a remarkably low rate of rape, and has been decreasing despite increase in the availability of sexual material could even be said to be an inverse correlation

http://www.hawaii.edu/PCSS/online_artcls/pornography/prngrphy_rape_jp.html

Your move closed-minded America and UK

Sounds awful

Bondsman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:12:19 GMT

This was a very useful article. Sounds like a truly AWFUL waste of time. "keep doing ""x"" until you get the right combination" -- no thanks.

You saved me 10 bucks!

Deeply Troubling that you reviewed this game

caribvi — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:29:55 GMT

This game is extremely disturbing and I find it troubling that you reviewed this game without mentioning the subtle and damning treatment of the girls of the game. I was really excited to play this game when it came out and immediatly started playing. However, the longer I played the more concerned I became about were the game was leading the young female character. This game is pure and simple, a slow rape fantasy fame. I play through one time with a sick feeling in my heart and became more and more disturbed, finally I turned it off and then did a little research. If you type in the words "the path, game and rape" in google-numerous accounts from people who played or reviewed the game pop up. They detail the girls meeting men, the game cutting to black and the girls ending up laying on the path and rocking back and forth and then dragging thier bruised and battered body to grandma's house before being killed.

Eventually after writing a letter to Steam ( the company who sold me the game) they refunded my money but I wish they wouldn't sell it and I wish the author of this peice had done a little more research or at lease acknowledged this issue.

San Andreas

BetterThanU — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:26:56 GMT

GTA San Andreas was the greatest game of all time. One could fight, solve puzzles, or just cruise around and listen to the radio (or go see a girlfriend). The game is years old, now, and I've yet to find anything that approaches its greatness (including the GTA that came after it, which I thought was crap).

We'll see more of this, I think

alljake — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:57:50 GMT

So much of gaming over the past decade had been concentrated on using the newest technology to get the best graphics. While we know that there is going to be newer consoles that are faster and have better graphics, I do think we have hit somewhat of a "milestone" in that things look really, really good now. I happen to really enjoy the various NHL games, and if it were not for the HUD projections they can be almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

The point is that now the race for "bigger, faster, prettier" can die down a little bit and we can have some new concepts. Certainly things like Xbox Live allow smaller games with different concepts to get an audience (see: Braid). Obviously, the internet helps as well. The ability to get exposure is once again rising, after quite a steep fall from when games were made by one or two people to now with million dollar budgets. I would think that could mean more variety in the future, at least in small games. The massive budget games from studios, will probably not take those big risks. Just like how every movie seems to be sequel/prequel, you can't blame them for going for the guaranteed money.

It's not a game, it's a movie

Xando — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:59:03 GMT

The Path isn't revolutionary - it's a throwback to spoonfed narrative in an age when sandbox games are actually creating dynamic content experience.

Another LAME Slate game article.

stardude82 — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:24:08 GMT

1) A little company called LucasArts (founded in part by George Lucas) and a company called Sierra made a whole bunch of really excellent games like this back in the late 80's and 90's until they realized they couldn't make money off of them.

Google a little game called "Grim Fandango" or how about even "Myst." While most were very linear they encouraged you to take your time and some were more cinematic than others.

2) Knocking a games performance without posting your specs is bad form. Modern game performance is mostly dictated by your video card, just because you meet Memory and CPU requirements doesn't mean anything.

3) Hard drive stores your files and is not an acceptable term for "the box" that holds it.

4) Nobody who's into gaming cares about the stupid blogs your reference. Try EscapistMagazine.com, Destructoid, Kotaku or Gamespot, something with a little more cache than your bandwagon hipster bloggers. The first two have reviews of The Path and things to say about indie games in general.

5) If you wanted to truely be hip and cool and elitist you'd be all over "Flowers Versus Zombies." (By Popcap Games ::snicker::)

6) If you want to see something cool go see "Video Games Live."

No PowerPC love

Germanicus — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:52:33 GMT

I was intrigued enough to download it, but alas no support for my 3 year old processor.

Indigo Prophecy? nt

canidae — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:33:47 GMT

how to cheat on pokerstars

pokerguyAA — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:59:39 GMT

There is a way to cheat on pokerstars and it's legal. You can find out how to cheat at crackpokerstars.com, they tell you the flaws and patterns with pokerstars algorythm. The book is a great source of information for any pokerstars player looking for an advantage.

Thanks.

Sounds like Brenda Laurel's "Secret Paths in the Forest"

Cranky1000 — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:59:01 GMT

Brenda Laurel, in case you do not know your history, was very important in the late 70's and early 80's for pushing forward the idea of "computers as theatre." An idea which started out great and (sadly) ended up as "clippy"

Anyhow, the game you are describing sounds like "Paths through the Forests" was an early attempt to market video games to girls. The game itself is about the journey of 7 very different girls beginning in a treehouse where weird/magic/time travel things happen. The girls are meant to be appealing to girls and not sexy objects of desire for boys. Much of the game play (puzzle-based) is intended to make the player think about social interactions or other larger themes rather than kickin' butt or blowin' stuff to smithereens.

How to solve advanced kenken

mathmojo — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:49:36 GMT

I don't know if it's endorphins or what, but I get a "rush" when I do puzzles. The latest one I'm hooked on is KenKen. I don't think it's possible that things like KenKen and crosswords don't help your brain stay fit.

I've made a video about how to start solving a 9x9 KenKen in which the operation signs are not given, as well as a simple x4x kenken puzzle.

You can check it out at:
http://mathmojo.com/kenken/

DATA

greenyellow — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:01:46 GMT

DATA (Star Trek TNG) is one which does not obey the rule above!

KenKen Rocks

mathmojo — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:08:41 GMT

I don't know if it's endorphins or what, but I get a "rush" when I do puzzles. The latest one I'm hooked on is KenKen. I don't think it's possible that things like KenKen and crosswords don't help your brain stay fit.

I've made a video about how to start solving a 9x9 KenKen in which the operation signs are not given.

You can check it out at:
http://mathmojo.com/chronicles/kenken/

I'm against censorship

PhysicsGirl — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 08:22:30 GMT

I'm against censorship so I do not think this game should be banned. Simply finding something abhorrent is not enough to censor something from the public. We really need to learn to not read, not listen or not play things that offend us.

missing the point

jaydeyeff — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:10:53 GMT

Isn't all this discussion about the seriousness of rape versus murder sort of irrelevant? When you play GTA, you're not murdering anyone; when you play RapeLay, you're not raping anyone. In both cases, you are manipulating 1s and 0s in the privacy of your home. That's what the writer of this article—not to mention a disturbingly high percentage of posters—is considering making illegal.

I accept that most rapists go through a period of fantasization before taking action. I also accept that some potential rapists might use this game in those fantasies (just as a potential mass murderer might use GTA for his violent fantasies). I might even go so far as to agree that if we banned RapeLay, it could result in a few fewer rapists acting on their fantasies.

Nevertheless, as fantasies, they are protected by the first amendment, and should be. I can think of dozens of examples of other material that might be used in violent or otherwise criminal fantasies that no one would consider banning. Once the law bans one such thing on the basis of its fantasy potential for inciting criminal activity, it tends to be used as a precedent for other bans. That's how the slippery slope works.

But even absent that slope—say, if the law banning this game were written to be very specific, with limited potential for use as a precedent in other cases—I would still say it shouldn't be banned, for the simple fact that I don't view playing this game as a crime in the moral sense of the word. It's a personal act of fantasy that harms no one. You may think that people who play this game are perverts, or that they have a sick sense of humor. Those are personal value judgments that the law has no place taking sides on.

I think advocates of a ban are confusing the use of this game with a planning-type crime, which we do have laws for. You can be prosecuted for making concrete murder plans, concrete robbery plans, etc. Playing RapeLay is not the same thing as getting caught in a particular woman's back yard with a rope, a knife, and a history of sexual assaults. It's that simple.

Of course you can dramatically reduce violent crime by passing draconian laws. The streets of Soviet Moscow were incredibly safe at all hours, I'm told. But, to continue what I hope is an obvious point to most of you, when you give over that kind of control to the government, the government becomes the criminals.

Living in a free society involves certain trade-offs. Games like RapeLay are one of the least concerning of them.

Speech Protection Bullshit

Samujo — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:08:21 GMT

A ban on a rape fantasy game would be upheld by the Supreme Court under current constitutional law. See Miller v. California, Roth v. United States, New York v. Ferber. Obscenity is not protected speech. If you think a rape fantasy game is not obscene, then you don't think anything is obscene.

Japanese RaleLay "Game."

Gustaf26a — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:56:34 GMT

Seems like the Japanese complain plenty when the rapist is an American soldier, sailor or Marine. Maybe they'll have to ban it in Japan before too long. Although maybe they have better luck controlling their lesser impulses at home than other nationalities.

There should be no need to ban video games

Vert — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:25:27 GMT

Banning a rape video game is not a solution. As the article mentioned many other seedy games exist and it is a sad reality that a demand exists for this product. It is awful to imagine the person who searches to download this game and play it, excited to find such a game, at the very least, indulges some perverted, disgusting fantasies. These people are out there, are here among us all. If there was no interest in a rape simulator game, it would not be produced. Businesses only want products that are marketable. This game shows that there is a large enough market of people wanting a rape fantasy game. Banning a game is not going to change that. The people I know who are skilled on the computer can get anything they want from the internet, unfortunatly. This is just another manifestation of misogyny and violence directed at women (and possibly children). The myth that women secretly enjoy rape and 'want it' is as dangerous as it is idiotic. This game deserves to be banned and should be fiercely protested, but that will not be enough to stop the depravity that creates a demand for this type of game.