Interesting Links for 12-07-2021

[andrewducker]

Lothian Drop-in Vaccination Clinic Locations (including the mobile ones)

(tags:vaccination Edinburgh )

Board games companies are completely fucked right now

(tags:boardgames shipping Doom viaSwampers )

Least Religious Countries 2021

(tags:religion )

Doctors Might Have Been Focusing on the Wrong Asthma Triggers

(tags:asthma pandemic )

Can People Still Play the Same Computer Games as They Get Older?

(tags:games age )

Comments

[aldabra]

(Twitter won't give me the board game rant unless I, er, postpend a "/" to the url.)

[andrewducker]

Thank you!

[naath]

ok, it's sad for beard games publishers (and chip manufactures and and and); it is also sad for people stuck for MONTHS in the wrong country, or ON A BOAT because of the stupid pandemic. Pretty sure the containers and ships and sailors are all in the wrong places, and there is a global shortage of cardboard. Lets require shipping firms to charge last years' prices because you, dear author, had never even though that shipping half way 'round the globe (and just how ludicrous is it that we routinely expect to be able to) would never be more than 2k per container in your multi-year business plan. Sure, lets be sad, but I think sailors deserve a living wage and some time off at actual home.

[channelpenguin]

there is a comment from the author later down the thread as to why they ar shipping halfway round the globe - there is literally NOWHERE in the US that has the capability to produce the games.

[naath]

That's ludicrous, it seems like you'd need a really good printer and some model making kit... why do it in China? because the global economic system is broken :(

[andrewducker]

Because decent 3d modelling, like any manufacturing, takes expertise and investment, and no companies in the USA have invested or built up the expertise.

[channelpenguin]

They said there were no printers with the capability. Literally don't exist. I'm sure they must have looked if they say that. 

On 13 Jul 2021 11:08, naath - DW Comment <dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

naath replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry "Interesting Links for 12-07-2021". The comment they replied to was:

there is a comment from the author later down the thread as to why they ar shipping halfway round the globe - there is literally NOWHERE in the US that has the capability to produce the games.

The reply was:

That's ludicrous, it seems like you'd need a really good printer and some model making kit... why do it in China? because the global economic system is broken :(

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[naath]

well, I'm sure there aren't; but this is a failing of a broken system, and railing at shipping companies does not fix it. maybe someone ought start one (not me, I'm not in the us, and I have no relevant expertise anyway).

[channelpenguin]

Agreed!

On 13 Jul 2021 14:49, naath - DW Comment <dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

naath replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry "Interesting Links for 12-07-2021". The comment they replied to was:

They said there were no printers with the capability. Literally don't exist. I'm sure they must have looked if they say that. 

On 13 Jul 2021 11:08, naath - DW Comment <dw_null@dreamwidth.org> wrote:

naath replied to a comment you left in a Dreamwidth entry "Interesting Links for 12-07-2021". The comment they replied to was:

there is a comment from the author later down the thread as to why they ar shipping halfway round the globe - there is literally NOWHERE in the US that has the capability to produce the games.

The reply was:

That's ludicrous, it seems like you'd need a really good printer and some model making kit... why do it in China? because the global economic system is broken :(

From here you can:

• Reply at the webpage
• View all comments to this entry
• Go to the top of the thread this comment is part of
• View the thread beginning with this comment

Reply to this comment by replying to this email. Replies will be formatted using Markdown syntax. Your comment must appear before all other text at the top of the reply email. Do not change the reply-to address. It uses a secret address to identify you. Reset the secret address if you've accidentally shared it with anyone else.

The reply was:

well, I'm sure there aren't; but this is a failing of a broken system, and railing at shipping companies does not fix it. maybe someone ought start one (not me, I'm not in the us, and I have no relevant expertise anyway).

From here you can:

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Reply to this comment by replying to this email. Replies will be formatted using Markdown syntax. Your comment must appear before all other text at the top of the reply email. Do not change the reply-to address. It uses a secret address to identify you. Reset the secret address if you've accidentally shared it with anyone else.

[ninetydegrees]

"Can People Still Play the Same Computer Games as They Get Older?"

Nice article. I really appreciate games with several difficulty levels, particularly when you can switch freely between them whenever you want, assistance and accessibility options. Both for myself because sometimes I don't want to spend hours trying to kill a boss again and again, and for my 70+ parents as I can recommend better games for them. One thing the article doesn't mention, I think, is the difficulty in remembering controls and combos as you age. Games where you have to remember everything are difficult for my parents.

Hopefully, the 'purist' 'this spoils the game' discourse from certain devs and gamers will quiet down as gamers age.

[melchar]

The article works in regards to 'twitch' games, but ... other computers games? Not so much.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri plays exactly the same & is still as much fun. So are the various 'Civilization' games - tho my interests cycle between Civs 3,4,5.

PS1 & 2 games like Final Fantasy? Still fun - plus FFX is now out for the PC. Same with FFVII. Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne -just- came out for the PC and is -wonderful-.

xbox games KotOR 1&2 are out for both PC & ipad. Excellent games.

and PC, still on PC - and now on ipad 'Baldur's Gate' is still as much fun.

What I want are -all- the games I initially played on the PS2 & xbox to be released on PC &/or ipad. The convenience of those platforms is -so- appreciated.

[ninetydegrees]

I don't know what you mean by 'twitch games'.

And I don't really understand what you mean by 'still plays the same'. If you mean nothing has become more difficult for you as an older gamer, good for you, but it's not everyone's experience (just like the article doesn't reflect everyone's experience).

[andrewducker]

Twitch games - games that require reflexes (Doom-like, Dark Souls, etc).

Civilization doesn't require reflexes, because it's turn-based, so slowing down with age won't affect your playing.

[ninetydegrees]

Got it, thanks.

Yeah, the article doesn't mention cognitive losses. It says you're basically smarter as you get older. That's debatable. Abilities to concentrate, memorize, appreciate situations, etc. can decline too.

[andrewducker]

Good point. You learn tactics, but your base cognitive ability may well slow down.

[melchar]

Sorry. A 'twitch' game is any kind of game that is played by reacting to movement on the screen & requires quick reflexes to play. Most 'first person shooter' games are twitch games, as an example.

All of the games that I referenced, OTOH, are games that are turn-based. I can start the turn in 'SM's Alpha Centauri' [as an examples] - and while there will be more and more things that happen in a 'turn', as more forces are deployed & cities are built - the game politely lets you make each choice, one at a time & there is no time pressure to make quick and rapid decisions.

A game like that, or like the game 'Final Fantasy X' [and the rest], can be left at mid decision point, or mid-battle - while I run off to make dinner or visit the loo & I will come back to find the game still waiting for me. With a 'twitch'/aka reflex game, sometimes pausing to blink, sip water or adjust the mouse cord means that you die in a sudden barrage of weapon fire.

My point was that IMO the person making their written claim was speaking about one category of games, while including every other game by inference when they wrote about 'gaming' and 'gamers' as a monolithic thing.

[movingfinger]

I've been playing Breath of the Wild for a bit less than a month, and the controller buttons are incredibly annoying; they are tiny and fiddly, there are a lot of them, and the buttons don't control movement smoothly, and they aren't intuitive at all (also, apparently Nintendo never made control actions consistent across games, so that classes of action can be mapped to different buttons in different games!). There don't seem to be difficulty settings, so everything happens at pounding speed, and the camera view is so limited it's not possible to track and plan in a fight.

The animations mean that getting a character facing in the correct direction with the buttons to line up a shot can be difficult, because the default pose is angled! This is the first game of its type I've tried and increasingly I'm trying to avoid the fight situations in it because getting killed and reset repeatedly is so frustrating. I do like using bigger movements with the controller to aim; if I remember to start from a suitable position that works well.

[ninetydegrees]

It's been a while since I played BOTW so I don't remember much about it, except that I did avoid combat for a good while until I had explored a good portion of the map and found better weapons and more hearts. The game seemed pretty hard at the beginning. If you play on a switch there are other compatible controllers out there, with different grips and layouts. Might be worth looking into if you haven't already.

Immortals Fenyx Rising, which is more recent and very BOTW-like, has at least four difficulty settings. They ain't perfectly balanced but at least they're there. Hopefully, Ubisoft's decision to add story and easy modes to their historical games will inspire other studios to do the same.

[anna_wing]

The whole "do you feel religious" question is a bit strange, and perhaps based on a rather culturally specific attitude towards the supernatural.

In so many contexts, religious practice is social practice; it's something you do, not something that you have strong emotional reactions to.

"Today is the X Festival, we will all go along to the temple and do this traditional thing, and then go home for lunch and eat this traditional food, and then we will play videogames all afternoon", or someone may keep a roadside shrine to a traffic accident victim dusted because it's next to their house and that's just the proper thing to do, or the office administrator will put up a little fence and a "Do Not Disturb" sign around a tree known to be occupied by spirits.

Calling that "feeling religious"...feels odd.

[andrewducker]

Lots of that continued in the UK, with people getting married in churches, going at Christmas, etc, despite not really believing.
And then we passed a critical point where people realised that most of the people around them were also doing it through cultural inertia, and within a few years of that suddenly a lot of churches closed, and the church was suffering from lack of funds.

Because if you don't actually believe in the things you're doing the practice for, then after a while you stop doing them (once you feel okay to do so).

[naath]

You find new practices. I don't believe in Christmas, but we do a big get together at NYE to mark the turning of the year. Humans seem to need reasons to party, and rituals to mark the turning of the year, different life stages (it's the semi ritual photo on the doorstep in school uniform), major events, tragedy... sometimes the new practices look like the old ones with the serial numbers filled off, because 'grandma always', eventually they have new shapes, although they can do that without loosing the belief, I know no-one who actually in practice has their Christmas party in early January, and plenty who believe.

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah, we'll continue to have traditions. But without belief behind them they stop being religious.

I'm not even slightly religious, and my Christmas has not one mention of Jesus or God. And yet it is still Christmas.

So you can't take "believes in things" and "follows the traditions" as being the same at all. And some traditions just stop, because they weren't fun in the first place.

[movingfinger]

"And some traditions just stop, because they weren't fun in the first place."

Thinking of "Beating the Bounds" in which, as I recall from reading, a (probably alcoholic) procession went around parish boundaries and small boys were whipped in certain locations to be sure they'd remember them. As a way to ensure cultural transmission, not much fun for some of the participants (but feels very ancient).