The Ghost of Christmas Future, II

[Potjeh]

Yeah, the worst part about those guys was that the devs were surrounding themselves with yes men who defended every terrible design decision with "this is what makes Salem unique and you're just not hardcore enough to appreciate it", where hardcoreness is basically having high tolerance for tedium. I can understand that positive feedback like that feels good, but it's totally useless as there's nothing to learn from it, and it makes problems with design seem smaller than they actually are. JLo, please don't let yourselves stray like that again, and always keep your eyes on the one true goal of game design - making it fun. Salem is forgivable because it was just for the $, but if you ruin Haven like that you'll have committed a heinous crime against art, because Haven has actual soul.

[Gray]

Where's the like button?

[Jackard]

Man, how can anyone seriously make the claim that devs listened to Salem feedback after the camera debacle?

[Amanda44]

Yeah, the worst part about those guys was that the devs were surrounding themselves with yes men who defended every terrible design decision with "this is what makes Salem unique and you're just not hardcore enough to appreciate it", where hardcoreness is basically having high tolerance for tedium. I can understand that positive feedback like that feels good, but it's totally useless as there's nothing to learn from it, and it makes problems with design seem smaller than they actually are. JLo, please don't let yourselves stray like that again, and always keep your eyes on the one true goal of game design - making it fun. Salem is forgivable because it was just for the $, but if you ruin Haven like that you'll have committed a heinous crime against art, because Haven has actual soul.

Exactly!

Where's the like button?

Perfectly said.

[Trev]

If all else fails, can always just toss Hafen and start up (real) HnH development again.

[Zampfeo]

i hear from reliable sources that all you have to do is only allow one client per IP, have you considered this ????

PC - DSL - 1 IP
Notebook 1 - UMTS (3G) 1 - 1 IP
Notebook 2 - UMTS (3G) 2 - 1 IP
...

it's called pay2win ...

I think it's fairly obvious that Jackard was sarcastic.

Even so though, even better, just use your local IPv6 subnet and use a million different addresses for free.

There's plenty of software developers that successfully restrict one client per computer. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's not something that shouldn't be ignored.

The most common method is simply sniffing for processes already running. Some software just looks to see if program.exe is already running and is easily circumvented by renaming program files. Others look through memory to find identifiers unique to the program and can really only be circumvented through memory editing. This is how it's done client side and either way can be circumvented by using virtual PCs assuming the program isn't a resource hog.

I've seen some software companies do server side authentication instead whether it be for DRM or enforcing bans. Dassault Systemes does this heavily for anti-pirating. Their program sends IP, Mac, hardware setup, driver versions, software versions of common software(microsoft office, directx, flash, java, etc.), email saved in the registry of common software(outlook, thunderbird, etc.). If there's enough of an overlap and one is using two licenses at once or a known pirated license, you'll have a nasty email asking for $10,000 or a court date quickly.

Sony Online Entertainment takes a similar approach for banning in their MMOs. They don't ban IPs, they don't ban accounts, they ban computers which are identified by a similar criteria as above. It works very well for Planetside 2. If the user matches 90% of the criteria, they're blocked from play. Sure, you can circumvent it by using a different system, changing enough of your hardware, or maybe changing your external IP, but all of that is typically enough of a headache to not be worth it.

[painhertz]

SOE doesn't exist anymore. Quit arguing this stupid shit.

[ArvinJA]

Yeah, the worst part about those guys was that the devs were surrounding themselves with yes men who defended every terrible design decision with "this is what makes Salem unique and you're just not hardcore enough to appreciate it", where hardcoreness is basically having high tolerance for tedium. I can understand that positive feedback like that feels good, but it's totally useless as there's nothing to learn from it, and it makes problems with design seem smaller than they actually are. JLo, please don't let yourselves stray like that again, and always keep your eyes on the one true goal of game design - making it fun. Salem is forgivable because it was just for the $, but if you ruin Haven like that you'll have committed a heinous crime against art, because Haven has actual soul.

I don't think the jorbtar measure success on a one-dimensional "fun" axis to be honest. Take the latest dev comment on Ancestral Worship for instance. So really, if the player base are to influence the jorbtar, the playerbase must first understand the underlying assumptions and goals of H&H development. I think taking the full picture into account is seldom done when critiquing the game or giving suggestions, this is probably a soruce of frustration for the jorbtar and leads to the disconnect between the playerbase and the devs getting bigger and bigger. The disconnect is the main issue, and I think the devs are going to have to work hard to bridge the gap. I mean, if we're discussing art, appeasing the audience is just mass production and in the end you'll end up catering to the lowest common denominator (stupid idiom, but w/e). There needs to be some amount of aesthetic vision that goes beyond the reaction of the audience. Basically I think we need to realize that we can't demand to have someone else make the game we want to have, and the jorbtar needs to work harder to study their own artwork. What point is there in creating emergent art, but not studying the actual emergent phenomena? I realize I might come across as a "yes man" here, but I am quite content in playing a game, see if it fits my aesthetics, and then move on when it doesn't anymore. As for the point about tedium, it's not something one has to passively accept if the devs don't want to listen, one can always hack the art into something one appreciates more (deface the Mona Lisa).

[Tonkyhonk]

i dont enjoy "i tola you" argument much.

[TeckXKnight]

i dont enjoy "i tola you" argument much.

Tonky is back! Yay =D
I've missed you.