I’m still poking around with Farming Simulator 2013. I’ve imported a few simple Blender-created models, and that’s probably where I’ll draw the line. Reverse-engineering its animation system so I can create an actual vehicle with moving parts looks to be too steep a challenge, so I’m checking out other players’ creations.

Mods have addressed the ( Read more... )

There’s a line in the action movie Parker delivered by the eponymous main character: “I don’t hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it.” Here’s the problem with that: he’s also the person deciding who deserves it. With no balance to this check, Parker’s assurance is meaningless. He can hurt anyone at any time because he can arbitrarily decide at any time ( Read more... )

I’ve been oddly fascinated with Farming Simulator 2013. Much of my enjoyment has been over things that weren’t intended to be the focus of gameplay, like climbing electrical towers on foot or hauling trailers of corn down staircases. It makes sense that the corners are so rough. It’s a niche game, intended less for the mainstream audience and more ( Read more... )

Quick games rundown:

Gaming Friday started with three rounds of a Kickstarted werewolf/mafia variant called Fox & Chicken. Round one was with standard rules, rounds two and three had some players with special abilities. It went as well as I could have expected. I’m ordinarily not a fan of purely sociopolitical games because they require a skill I ( Read more... )

So much topsy-turvy this week.

If you regularly portray men as powerful, resourceful, determined, and independent in movies and whatnot, you run into a problem when it comes time to introduce a female character. On the one hand, if you present her as emotional or empathetic or cooperative, you imply that women are inferior to men. On the other ( Read more... )

On June 3rd, Zynga laid off 520 employees. (Coincidentally, that same day, LinkedIn sent me an automated email that Zynga was looking for a senior game designer in my city, though that posting has since been removed.)

Ramin Shokrizade - someone who’s built a small name for himself over the last decade studying monetization plans and virtual ( Read more... )

Utopia Engine. A solitaire board game about locating and assembling an ancient artifact to prevent doomsday. It features several variations on the general mechanic of rolling dice two at a time to fill in multi-digit numbers piecemeal, then getting either good or bad outcomes based on how high or low their difference is.

Seven Grand Steps demo. An ( Read more... )

Nothing much to report.
I got to Gaming Night late and got to watch the tail end of Channel A. Basically, take Cheapass Games’s The Big Idea, mix in a bit of subjective judging like in Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, and make it about pitching anime shows.

Second was a five-person game of Citadels. (That's small. More than one of us ( Read more... )

1. Private citizens do not charge people with crimes. Only the government can do that.
Citizens can only file civil suits against each other. Any charge of a crime, by definition, must come from a government agency - specifically, from a prosecutor. Frequently a prosecutor will decide whether to charge an alleged perpetrator based on whether someone ( Read more... )

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/
Finland’s education system regularly scores best or near-best worldwide, yet the country has no private schools (period, at any level from preschool to doctorate), no government-created teacher evaluations, no uniform grading system ( Read more... )