Messages

It's very simple. If everybody disagrees with you, does that mean that (1) it's a conspiracy, or (2) you're wrong?

I haven't weighed in on this one yet as it is way to political for me. But, I have to ask, isn't the commonly accepted conspiracy theory (I'm from Canada bear in mind) that the U.S. Gov't merely allowed the tragety to happen in order to get a good ol' war started?

While I'd hate to call any conspiracy theory "commonly accepted", it is certainly true that the notion that the government is corrupt is substantially more plausible than the wild idea that the government has some kind of laser weapon that breaks the laws of physics and that has never been seen before or since, and that is put down as patently absurd by anyone with actual expertise in physics, architecture, or demolitions.

So when is the Bake Sale III going to happen?

... For the people still reading this thread after 2.5 months,

Yeah, somebody has to start a new and equally entertaining thread about something else. 

I know, we should find another equally ridiculous proposition. Maybe something about green-eyed aliens, or the Flat Earth theory.

For the people still reading this thread after 2.5 months, check out more conspiracy theories in this list and that one. One of them is from actual conspiracy theorists, the other is parody; but thanks to Poe's Law it's hard to tell which is which. Both are, of course, extremely silly. Three guesses as to whether the topic of this thread is listed....

And, also, can a adventure game be "too big" to be good?

Absolutely. It's possible for a game to start dragging, to the point where fatigue sets in and a player thinks "isn't this over yet?"  This is personal, of course; to me, the main offenders are Ultima VII Serpent Isle (technically an RPG but it plays mostly like an adventure), The Colonel's Bequest, and of course King's Quest V.

- Number of rooms.

Probably not the most useful metric, but Snowball has about seven thousand rooms.

I believe OROW traditionally has several categories that a game could "win" in? There is a famous contest that has a tongue-in-cheek "worst abuse of the rules" award... we could have something like that for people that do the silliest thing to include the theme

I'm getting tapa ads again whenever I log into our forum via mobile, I thought that had been resolved?

It's not about cheating, it's about having a theme. Setting a nice theme will encourage more people to join than just a "yeah, do whatever" event.

Yeah, if it's during Mittens then clearly the Mittens team will win Let's try a week later.

I'm in favor of having a topic. But something short and straightforward, like "pirates" or "pocket monsters" or "calligraphy" (this is not at all inspired by the avatar images in this thread ), not something that requires several paragraphs to explain.

I said you can talk about anything you like, but I'd prefer to focus on these three points for now.

Yes, we get that. The point is that you if you purport to be interested in the science behind this, you can't just avoid discussing anything that contradicts your pet theory. Science doesn't work that way.

Here's an interesting read. Please take the time to read this monkey. I know that it's not something Dr. Judy Wood wrote, so you'll probably just dismiss it, but for the rest of us, I find it very interesting.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a6384/debunking-911-myths-world-trade-center/

Indeed. Monkey, please make an effort to look at the information you are directed to, before adding to the discussion. Don't be lazy. Do some research!

LOL.

Again, Monkey, you don't get to demand that people address your specific points when you've been systematically ignoring their points.

Huh.

Systems scan reveals that the malware spent a substantial amount of time encrypting my recycle bin and my google cache, and has left most of my personal files alone, although I have no idea why. Several folders contain the "hey everything is encrypted now" warning file, without any of the files having been changed.

It's worth noting that this kind of malware has a list of file extensions that it looks for (e.g. TXT, DOC, JPG; this is because encrypting AVI files takes like forever) and that AGS projects tend not to contain any of these, so generally speaking these appear to be safer than most. That's good to know.

So anyway, I'm guessing I wasn't hit by the real thing, but by a mockup made by some script kiddie. Maybe. Or perhaps my security software did manage to somehow block most but not all of the damage. Not that I'm complaining, mind you

It's cryptowall 3, in case people were wondering.

Well, I woke up this morning to a big red screen on my computer stating "they" have encrypted all my files so that I can't use them any more, and if I would please go to such-and-such website and enter my credit card data to get my files back.

Of course, I didn't actually do that; I did a reboot and a system restore, and started updating my security software (apparently I was a few updates behind). Plus being the geek I am, I actually have several other computers in my house, plus backupsof all the important stuff (i.e. game design). I didn't notice any documents missing or unreadable so far; clearly the hack can't encrypt my whole hard drive because that would stop windows from working (and then I couldn't send them my credit card), I'm not sure if it only does the My Documents tree which I never use, or that I rebooted my computer before it could actually finish.

Still, pretty weird situation. Has anyone encountered something similar? Any tips, other than the obvious ones of (1) keep backups and (2) update your security software?

I'd be up for a little OROW at some point.

Likewise!

So what's up with the June mags? Do we have a subject for that?

Crystal Shard games are usually a sure thing in my experience, although I'm not sure if they ever ventured in to comedy territory??

Thanks! And yes, we did. For example, Warthogs and Oceanspirit Danish are comedic games.