General Gaming Article |
- What a Twist: Notch Challenges Bethesda to Quake Match to Settle “Scrolls” Lawsuit
- Victory? – Ubisoft Sort of Changes Driver's Always On DRM
- Future Tense: The Future of Crime
- Toys For Geeks: 20 Great Gifts for any Mini-Nerd
- Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: IM+
- Netflix Expanding into Piracy-Heavy Spain
- Dell Makes Thinnest Monitor Yet with S2330MX
- Sneak a Peek at EVGA's GeForce GTX 580 Classifed (Final Revision)
- The U.S. Patent System Is Killing Innovation
- How To Save Your Game Data When You Change Hard Drives
| What a Twist: Notch Challenges Bethesda to Quake Match to Settle “Scrolls” Lawsuit Posted: 17 Aug 2011 07:27 PM PDT
"Remember that scene in Game of Thrones where Tyrion chose a trial by battle in the Eyrie? Well, let's do that instead," Notch said on his blog. "I challenge Bethesda to a game of Quake 3. Three of our best warriors against three of your best warriors. We select one level, you select the other, we randomize the order. 20 minute matches, highest total frag count per team across both levels wins." "If we win, you drop the lawsuit. If you win, we will change the name of Scrolls to something you're fine with." He added, however, that he'd include a disclaimer in his game that clearly points out the lack of affiliation regardless of the outcome. And, of course: "I am serious, by the way." So, consider the gauntlet thrown. Now then, anyone up for wagering the rights to Firefly on a quick StarCraft II match? This is a brave new world we're walking into. Let's milk it for all it's worth. |
| Victory? – Ubisoft Sort of Changes Driver's Always On DRM Posted: 17 Aug 2011 06:54 PM PDT
"We've heard your feedback regarding the permanent internet connection requirement for Driver and have made the decision to no longer include it. So this means that Driver PC gamers will only need to sign in at game launch but can subsequently choose to play the game offline," a Ubisoft rep told RPS. So then, that's a long-overdue nail in the coffin of the most egregious bit, but Ubi's speedy racer is still taking baby steps. As RPS points out, if you're not able to wrangle a working Internet connection to begin with, you're still out of luck. After all, no launch, no dice. So, Ubisoft, you claim that you finally listened. Can you maybe try listening a little harder next time? |
| Future Tense: The Future of Crime Posted: 17 Aug 2011 04:34 PM PDT Back in the 70s and 80s and well into the 90s, if you had a high-end stereo in your car, it was a target for any thief who could peek in the window. You could come out from the movie or the restaurant and find a window broken and the stereo pried out of your dashboard. Auto-stereo manufacturers responded by building detachable faceplates. Without the code-matched faceplate, the stereo was useless. Stereo thefts dropped. But thefts of other objects—like rims—rose. During those same years, car-theft also became a major crime problem. Chop shops sold parts, or cars were smuggled out of country. So auto-makers started building anti-theft technology into their vehicles. They made it harder to break into a car, harder to hot-wire it, harder to start. Today, the Toyota Prius uses a coded-RFID fob instead of a key. If the fob is in your pocket, the car will unlock and start for you. Putting Lo-Jack into a car makes it possible for the police to track a stolen vehicle almost immediately. But while all this anti-theft technology had the intended result of reducing thefts of newer vehicles, it also had the unintended consequence of increasing car-jackings—because if you can't break into a car, you have to wait till someone else opens it for you. You wave a gun at the person, pull them out of the car, and drive away in it. (And hope you can get to the chop shop before the Lo-Jack starts pinging.) The electronics revolution is changing the nature of enforcement. Security cameras, tracking devices, micro-chips and other anti-theft measures are making it harder than ever to steal things and even harder to profit from that theft.
Security cameras may be the most obvious technological measure. On July 6, 2011, a guy walked into a San Francisco museum and stole a Picasso drawing off the wall. As he hurried away with his prize, he was videoed by the security camera of a nearby restaurant. One of their cameras was focused on the sidewalk and the video of him scurrying off with the drawing under his arm was clear enough to make an ID. He was arrested on July 7. On July 3, 2011, a gas station mini-store was looted by a mob of teens in Riverwest, Wisconsin. The security cameras caught many of their faces. When the video was shown on TV, 8 teens turned themselves in. The mother of two more teens turned them into the police as well. In August of 2010, a teenage girl uploaded a video of herself throwing puppies into a river. By September of 2010, she had been identified and arrested in Bosnia. Police did not release her name for fear of threats to her and her family. And of course, for sheer stupidity, there was that woman in England, also August of 2010, caught on video dumping a neighbor's cat into a trash bin. A lot of this can be found on YouTube, but there are also several fascinating cable-TV shows about people like this: World's Worst Drivers. World's Dumbest Criminals. People who do not realize that cameras are everywhere. Not just security cameras either. Whatever stupid thing you do, there's probably somebody pointing a cell phone at you. It can be uploaded to Facebook or YouTube almost immediately. And with cell phones now capable of HD-resolution video, your misdeeds will be seen by the whole world.
Right now, security cameras are still a pricy add-on to your house or your car, but it's worth remembering that car radios, stereos, air-conditioning, cruise-control, and GPS devices all started as add-ons, evolving into standard equipment over time. Security cameras, Lo-Jack, and On-Star tracking will likely be standard items before this decade is over. Security systems for the home will become more prevalent as prices drop and installation becomes easier. Online validation is another weapon against crime. Suppose a truckload of brand new laptops is hijacked. But if all those laptops will automatically brick themselves the first time they connect to the internet, there's little profit for the thieves and no point in hijacking the machines. (Will users refuse to purchase any electronics until they see them turned on and working?) But this means that your laptop—like much of your software (Windows 7)—will be constantly checking to make sure it's legal. Locater chips will also be an important weapon in the security battle. Imagine a chip that functions as an RFID and a GPS-locater and a 4G transceiver. Suppose you could walk into Fry's and buy a pack of these chips. You go online and enter the serial number of each chip and whatever valuable item you have attached it to, your iPad, your Canon 5D, your Lenovo X1, your Trek bicycle, your Gibson guitar, your authentic tribble prop from Star Trek, and even inside Fluffy's collar or your son's backpack. The chip only activates when it's pinged. Suppose Fluffy goes missing or your daughter stays out too late. You run the locater app on your smartphone and it shows you a map, showing Fluffy's movements in real-time—or your teenager's. While parents would certainly appreciate having such an ability to check on their children, I'm equally certain that privacy advocates will be horrified at this use of the technology. Personal tracking technology will probably be an issue that the courts will struggle with for many years to come. Consider Four Square. Are police required to get a warrant for personal-tracking? Or is that considered publicly available information? What about your personal devices? Your cell phone and your laptop can be pinged, so can your car if it has Lo-Jack. Where will the lines be drawn?
Image courtesy Ikeeda.com Expanding technology is giving us near-universal surveillance, making detection of crimes and apprehension of criminals a lot easier. Crime rates will continue to drop and criminal activities will evolve in response. And that's when the law of unintended consequences kicks in big time. We will likely see criminal enterprises based on blanking, hacking, and even counterfeiting locater chips—hacking the hardware will let them find out where the easy-to-steal Hondas are parked. And oh, yes—all those those little tracking chips will also become a massive database, not only of individual behavior, but also of demographic movements of whole classes of people. If Google or Amazon or Facebook can legally access that information, it will broaden their reach into our private lives. These companies already personalize the ads that you're presented with. What will they do with access to even more detailed tracking? What will the government do? For most of us, that's not going to be an issue. We've already accepted so many of these myriad little invasions as conveniences. But for people who have become persons of interest to the law—convicted criminals, parolees, people on probation, and even those considered high-risk because they're members of a particular demographic—this level of observation will be intrusive, and this is where the courts are really going to struggle with the issues of electronic tracking. We will have to redefine what we mean by "freedom" in a technologically intense urban society. What do you think? ————— David Gerrold is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author. He has written more than 50 books, including "The Man Who Folded Himself" and "When HARLIE Was One," as well as hundreds of short stories and articles. His autobiographical story "The Martian Child" was the basis of the 2007 movie starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet. He has also written for television, including episodes of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Twilight Zone, and Land Of The Lost. He is best known for creating tribbles, sleestaks, and Chtorrans. In his spare time, he redesigns his website, www.gerrold.com |
| Toys For Geeks: 20 Great Gifts for any Mini-Nerd Posted: 17 Aug 2011 04:13 PM PDT Whether you sneak a peak at the toys section while grocery shopping at Target, or get dragged along to the local Toys R' Us with by your own kids, a small part of all of us wants to dig in. Why? Because at some point in each one of our lives, toys ruled our world. But, more importantly, many of them taught us virtues we would carry into our adult lives, and possibly pass on to our very own kids. Model cars and space ships taught us patience and attention to detail, Legos taught us that with the right amount of creativity, anything is possible, and Transformer robots taught us that, well, robots are freakin' cool. With that in mind, we'd like to present to you twenty of our favorite current toys for nerdy kids. We didn't just want to find the coolest toys per say, we wanted to find cool toys that encourage kids intelectually and creatively as well. What did we miss? Maximum PC parents, what toys do you buy for your kids? Let us know in the comments below! |
| Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: IM+ Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:11 PM PDT Internet Chat is still one of the top methods of instantaneous communication between multiple parties. Chat junkies who have been using mobile devices for a while will be familiar with IM+ by Shape Services. IM+ has been one of the leaders in mobile chat software for a very long time, and the software's success across a wide range of platforms is a good indication of the importance Shape Services places on their role in the mobile community.
IM+ for Windows Phone currently comes in two flavors, a free (ad supported) version and a $4.99 Pro version. Both versions will allow you to communicate with your friends using popular chat services like AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook, and MySpace. Though Windows Phone 7 doesn't currently support multitasking (the Mango update is just around the corner) IM+ uses push notifications to alert you to incoming chat messages.
Grab your copy of IM+ (Free or Pro) from the Windows Phone Marketplace, and keep an eye out for the v1.4 update that we hear is already making its way through the approval process. The update adds some new services, but loses support for MSN messenger due to some restrictions Microsoft has placed on Marketplace apps. |
| Netflix Expanding into Piracy-Heavy Spain Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:03 PM PDT
Netflix is expected to reach 30 million US subscribers by the end of 2011, and the Spanish film industry wants a piece of that. Over 400 million illegal downloads are suspected in Spain every year, compared to 100 million movie tickets sold. The opportunity to convert even some of that piracy into legitimate income is sure to be alluring. The odds are against Netflix, though. Even the launch of Apple's iTunes store late last year has been lackluster. Sales in that ecosystem have continued to be below expectations. Spain hopes to clamp down on piracy with the recently approved (and controversial) Sustainable Economy bill. This would allow authorities to close down sites offering illegal downloads. Do you think Netflix sill thrive in this new environment? |
| Dell Makes Thinnest Monitor Yet with S2330MX Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:45 PM PDT
The S2330MX is, and you can probably guess from the name, is a 23-inch monitor with DVI and VGA out. This is a 1920x1080 screen, so expect the 'HD' banding to be all over the place. The panel is LED backlit, which enables its slim profile. Happily, the attractive design doesn't come at the expense of performance. The S2330MX still boasts 2ms response times. Dell didn't let two important detail slip: the price and just how thin that panel is. We're assured that it is the thinnest they've ever made, so take that for what you will. Ordering will start tomorrow, August 18. What do you think this monitor will cost? |
| Sneak a Peek at EVGA's GeForce GTX 580 Classifed (Final Revision) Posted: 17 Aug 2011 02:38 PM PDT
Only a front shot of the final revision is available, but if everything else remains unchanged, the Classified version will ship with triple power input connectors, including two 8-pin PCI-E connectors and a single 6-pin PCI-E connector (hat should give overclocking enthusiasts plenty of power to play with); a 14+3 phase PWM; voltage status LEDs; 3-way and 4-way SLI support; a dual BIOS; and high quality capacitors. In other words, the internal design should be every bit as beastly as its outer appearance, and then some (see photo gallery below). No word on price. Image Credit: EVGA |
| The U.S. Patent System Is Killing Innovation Posted: 17 Aug 2011 12:37 PM PDT
HTC sued Apple over mobile patents today. Again. Pretty soon Apple will likely sue them back. Again. Shrug. Throw it on the pile. And while the patent Cold War continues to heat up, weep for the real casualty: innovation. I'm not a lawyer. Hell, the last time I watched Law & Order, Jerry Orbach was still flashing badges. But I am someone who's watched the tech industry eat away at itself for years now, playing the world's most expensive tower defense game with bought and sold ideas. Patents are hoarded like gold and brandished like swords. Which would be fine and good, if they were protecting old products and not destroying the new ones. As we've said before, the problem today isn't really good ol' fashioned patent trolls. They're shakedown artists, sure, and that's despicable, but at the end of the day all they really want is money. Money that could be better spent by the big boys on R&D, sure, but the Lodsys types are a gnat. The lawsuits that Apple and HTC and Samsung and Nokia and everyone else with skin in the mobile game are throwing at each other, though? Those are dangerous. They're dangerous because Apple doesn't want cash; they've got more than the entire US government. Neither does anyone else, really. What they're all gunning for is market advantage. Which, in the most extreme case, means pulling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 off EU and Aussie shelves altogether. They're not playing Monopoly anymore. They're playing Highlander. I spoke with Venture Capitalist and author of the influential tech blog Above the Crowd Bill Gurley, who pointed out that "The [patent] Cold War aspect basically defines certain markets as 'out of bounds.' You can't do mobile OS now. CPU is likely tough. Video CODECs are a mess." Three crucial areas, cut off from from disruptive progress because of our system's failings. And that's just one consideration. Gurley also noted that equally important factors—non-operating patent filers (the aforementioned trolls) and the patenting of business processes—have done every bit as much to stymie innovation. So why have we gone off the deep end? Why are smartphones an afterthought when Google pays billions of dollars for Motorola's mobile business? Why can't a company even blink a new tablet without lawyers pounding down the door? Simply put, and thoroughly laid bare by Nilay Patel over at TIMN, software patents aren't a real thing. Or rather, they're classified in a way that's totally counter to their actual function, leaving enough of a grey area that nearly anybody can sue over nearly anything. And, as Apple showed when they blocked the Galaxy Tab, they can win. Billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner (and one of the biggest winners of the late-90s tech bubble) Mark Cuban recently suggested that we just scrap software patents altogether. A better answer is probably to write specific language into patent law to cover the unique properties of software. As for litigation, Gurley recommends moving to a system—similar to what the UK and France already have in place—where the losing party pays. That would, ideally, head off countless baseless suits at the pass. Again, I'm no Sam Waterston. I just know who gets hurt in the broken system we have now. And it's a long list: • Small start-ups who either shy away from improving on products in litigious areas, get sued into oblivion before they can actualize a great idea, or get bought up solely for their intellectual property—which ends up not getting made. • Large companies, the Samsungs and Apples and HTCs, who spend billions of dollars on patent acquisition and litigation—which could be better spent on R&D. • You, gadget-lover, whose desire for the latest and greatest runs directly counter to the directives of the patent wars. It slows things down, it limits choice. It destroys the marketplace of ideas in favor of a shadow world, where the only products you get to see are the ones that get past a beleaguered team of IP lawyers. That's essentially every part of the tech ecosystem that's infected by this parasite. What can you do? Ask your representatives for patent reform (if you're looking for an outline of what to say, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos kind of nailed it back in 2000). That, and hope that the great patent Cold War doesn't devolve into a thermonuclear disaster. Gizmodo is the world's most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd. |
| How To Save Your Game Data When You Change Hard Drives Posted: 17 Aug 2011 11:24 AM PDT Don't Leave The Past BehindThere's an old saying that goes "You can't take it with you when you die," but we disagree. Sure, you might suffer an XP loss or have a nifty +3 bastard sword disappear from your inventory, but all in all, your belongings remain intact in the event of an untimely character death. The saying should be "You can't take it with you if you don't save your game data." We can't help with your lack of FPS skills, but we can help you transfer your game data to a new PC or hard drive. Find Your SaveBacking up a save game is easy; finding the location of your save data is the tricky part. Game makers just can seem to settle on a common saved game spot. There are some common locations for saved games in Windows 7 and Vista, though, such as:
Your save games usually hide deep in the recesses of your Windows User folder. C:\ProgramFiles\%Game% C:\Users\%User Name%\SavedGames\%Game% C:\Users\%User Name%\Documents\%Game% C:\Users\%User Name%\Documents\My Games\%Game% C:\Users\%User Name%\Appdata\(either Local or Roaming folder)\%Game%\ C:\ProgramFiles\Steam\steamapps\common\%Game% C:\ProgramFiles\Steam\steamapps\%SteamUserName%\%Game% Sometimes, game developers like to get tricky by hiding a game's folder inside a folder named after the publisher, changing the filepath from,say, Appdata\Assassin's Creed to Appdata\Ubisoft\Assassin's Creed – consider yourself forewarned. Also, games that save to Steam's cloud service, such as Left 4 Dead, save to numbered folders in the C:\ProgramFiles\Steam\userdata\%SteamUserIDNumber%\ folder. Once you're inside the folder for your game, looked for a folder entitled "Save Games," "Userdata" or something along those lines. Backup the save files using the standard methods; flash drives, CDs, FileHost, whatever. If you can't find your saves anywhere, hop online and check out a forum for the game you want to back up – you're bound to find a well-intentioned regular who can help you lay your grubby fingers on your precious save data. Or, you could just check out the massive list of save game locations painstakingly put together by Steam forum-goer Kailieann if you're the less social type. Moving Steam GamesTransferring up your Steam games themselves is almost as important as transferring your save data. Sure, you could log into Steam on your new computer and redownload your entire collection, but that involves a ton of wasted time and bandwidth. Fortunately, moving your Steam games to another hard drive is straightforward.
A Steam folder that isn't quite ready for transfer. Basically, you want to transfer your entire steamapps folder to the new PC. Before you try it, go ahead and back up the contents in the folder. Valve recommends it and so do we. Next, exit Steam and delete everything in the main Steam folder except for Steam.exe and the steamapps folder. Afterward, transfer the entire Steam folder to your new PC using your method of choice (though if you've got scads of 10GB+ games, an external hard drive may be your best option). All you have to do now is sign in to Steam on your new PC; after some quick updates, you'll be back to fragging box-hopping creeps in BRINK in no time.
That's better -- this Steam folder's ready to move. Take note: this transfers your game data, but not your save games themselves. You'll still need to move those over separately. Keep Your CD Keys In OrderIf you've lost the CD keys that came with your non-Steam games, you'll want to download GameKeyRevealer before switching hard drives. The app extracts your installed games' CD keys from the Windows registry. GameKeyRevealer's a bit slow to add updates for new games, but its list of supported games is second to none – it can find the CD keys for over 1000 games.
GameKeyRevealer in action. Image Credit: GameKeyRevealer Using it is simple; download GameKeyRevealer from its website, then unzip the archive. Boot up the GameKeyRevealer and click the "Find Games" button. Boom! Done. GameKeyRevealer will display the CD keys of any supported games it finds on your computer. Jot those keys down and be more careful with them this time! And that should do it. Go forth and conquer with the knowledge that your game data is safe! |
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