cliffski - Slashdot User

Submission + - Game developers response to pirates (positech.co.uk)

Submitted by

cliffski

on Wednesday August 13, 2008 @03:51PM

cliffski writes: "A few days ago indie PC games developer Positech publicly called for people pirating their games to explain why, in an open and honest attempt to see what the causes of gaming piracy were. Hundreds of blog posts, hundreds more emails and several server-reboots later, the developers reply is up on their site. The pirates had a lot to say, on subjects such as price, DRM, demo's and the overall quality of PC games and Positech owner Cliffski explains how this developer at least will be changing their approach to selling PC games as a result. Is this the start of a change for the wider industry? or is this the only developer actively listening to the pirates point of view?"

Submission + - Game developer asks to hear from pirates (positech.co.uk) 1

Submitted by

cliffski

on Saturday August 09, 2008 @10:20AM

cliffski writes: "Indie game developer Cliff Harris has long waged war against games piracy, but has issued a call to pirates to tell him why he is wrong. Assuming that developers are missing out on potential sales from disgruntled pirates, Cliff wants to hear specifically from people who have pirated his games. Not to criticize or lecture them, but to answer a simple question. Why? The reasons people give for copyright infringement/piracy are many and varied, but much of the debate has centred around music and movies, with big 'Triple-A' games an occasional consideration. With specific application to the world of small budget 'indie' games like those cliff makes, he wants to know the thought processes behind people pirating the games. What puts people off buying? is it quality, cost, DRM, ease of access? Is there anything that can be done to convert those people to buyers? Why many pirates often make good general points about the reasons for the widespread pirating of PC games, it's unusual to get a chance to address specific developers with specific reasons. If you knew 100% that the developer would read your email explaining why you pirated their game, what would you say?"

Submission + - Going Rogue - Indie game development (escapistmagazine.com)

Submitted by

cliffski

on Wednesday August 06, 2008 @08:57AM

cliffski writes: "Why Indie? Jay Barnson interviews the new crop of indie game developers. How could anybody abandon the steady paychecks, access to the best tools and engines, large teams of skilled colleagues and the glory of working on one of next holiday season's blockbusters for a chance to labor in relative obscurity on tiny, niche titles? Steven Peeler was a senior programmer at Ritual Entertainment. For him, leaving and forming the one-man studio Soldak Entertainment came down to a desire for creative freedom. "I really wanted to work on an RPG, and Ritual only made shooters," he says. "There were some annoying politics going on that was really frustrating, I disagreed with the direction the company was taking, I was really tired of pushy publishers and I just wanted to do my own thing.""

Submission + - Why it's (sometimes) good to let games phone home (positech.co.uk)

Submitted by

cliffski

on Sunday July 13, 2008 @05:27AM

cliffski writes: "PC Games connecting to a central server to send information (outside of MMO's) have got a (deserved) bad reputation in recent years. The huge outcry about Mass Effect and Spore are evidence enough of that. But in gamers hurry to prevent intrusive DRM systems and dubious privacy-breaking data harvesting, are we throwing out the good with the bad? In this column, Indie developer Cliff Harris outlines why in certain cases, letting PC games phone home with hardware and usage data is not only harmless, but a good thing both for the developer, and ultimately the gamer. Have gamers taken hostility to games phoning home too far?"

Submission + - Power consumption of a typical PC whilst gaming (positech.co.uk)

Submitted by

cliffski

on Wednesday June 25, 2008 @06:42AM

cliffski writes: "How much does your PC really draw in terms of power when idle, when in sleep, and when playing a demanding game? I don't trust everything the manufacturers of hardware say, so I thought I'd get myself a watt measuring device and run a few tests on some of the gear I leave on all the time, and the gear I go to the trouble of turning off. The linksys router drew 8 watts, the monitor drew a fairly noticeable 30-31, but what surprised me was how little power the base unit drew, even when playing company of heroes. Also, the variance of power draw for vista seemed minimal, regardless of what you got the machine to do."

Submission + - Worlds biggest wind farm gets the go-ahead

Submitted by

cliffski

on Monday December 18, 2006 @09:24AM

cliffski writes: "According to the BBC website The UK govt has just given the go ahead to two large offshore wind-farm projects. Between them the schemes would produce enough renewable electricity to power about one million households. The larger London Array project covers 144 sq miles (232 sq km) between Margate in Kent and Clacton, Essex and will be the world's biggest when it is completed. The £1.5bn scheme will have 341 turbines rising from the sea about 12 miles (20km) off the Kent and Essex coasts, as well as five offshore substations and four meteorological masts"

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