Videochat April 2016

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Here's the latest videochat, many topics discussed! Also in this video is a followup to the Ross Rants: Robot Jobs video from not long ago if you want to hear more about that (it starts at 6:07). As for the highlights, the next Game Dungeon will hopefully be out in a few days, then I'll be working on the Planetside 2 Recruitment video. I also hope to make a huge dent in emails and getting other projects underway this month. It's possible I'll have an additional Game Dungeon this month, but I can't say for certain yet. More stuff coming either way!

 

COMMENTS

Also, you can post your questions for the May video chat here or you can post your questions to [email protected] and I'll be sure Ross gets them. If you post a question for Ross for the May video chat here, please put "Question for Ross" at the top of the post so I can differentiate them from other posts about what Ross said in the April video chat.

 

Thanks!

Question for Ross

 

Sorry if you've answered this before, which is why I'm asking here. Have you given thought to making a steam curator list to point out gems that you think went unnoticed?

Questions for Ross

 

1.Hey Ross,do you know how to play chess and do you ever play it?

2.Did you ever read any of the Dan Browns books like The Da Vinci Code,if you did,whats your opinion?

3.Ross did you watch Dexter,Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul,these are one of my favorite tv shows,so I would really like to hear your opinion about them?

ROSS !!! PLEASE AID OUR SITUATION IF POSSIBLE !

Sorry for the unusual "rant/help-yelling" post ,but there is sort of a crisis going on that started earlier yesterday. There is a "legendary"(in my humble opinion) World of Warcraft server (don't know if you've heard of it ,or even a fan) it's called Nostalrius (heavy emphasis on the "nostal" part of the name). First off it's a private "vanilla" server dedicated to re-living "the old gamer days" of WoW. A team of around 30 people (yes! just 30 humans) worked day and night to get this server going over a period of around 2 years (if I remember correctly and if you include planning and not just server uptime) to make it a [virtual] reality. This is where I should point out that as far as I and the whole community of around 200k [ACTIVE!] accounts know is that the team is non-materially motivated to do all the work on the server. Maybe they get some donations but they definitely do NOT give out rewards such as custom gear and stuff like that because of a donation. SO, they are basicly volunteers in this epic battle for a classic, running, almost bug-free and community based vanilla WoW server (they were working on releasing the raid instance of A.Q. which was to be launched next month). And now I should probably get to the REAL point because I don't wanna waste any more of your precious time with bullshit you may not care about but I'm a fan of your work since about the 20th Freeman's Mind episode and I've noticed that recently you've started talking about companies killing games so I guess it's kind of the same topic, only difference is that Blizzard is killing something that technically isn't really even theirs anymore. I don't know how much you know about WoW but that's basically what's happening there.

 

OFFTOPIC: This is the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE that I've ever asked for this kind of help in any way but any light on the subject or mention in one of your videos could probably SAVE this server. And I know that this doesn't really fit well enough on your personal "war-list" but it's a huge issue for the 8k average players that used to be online at any given moment in the game. Which I want to add ,have almost "dropped dead" in the last 10 hours to the pitiful 3-4k. And it will probably go down to zero after the 9th of april.

 

So back to "Nostalrius", long story short ,it launched about a year ago and made GIGANTIC progress ,since then everything was going perfect except for one small detail. Blizzard didn't like seeing a server with just 1 seriously populated realm that DOES NOT DROP BELOW 6k at any given moment and maxes out to about 13k (or so I've seen ,playing the last 2-3 weeks) not to mention the other 4-5 realms that are mainly test realms. All that changed YESTERDAY. Blizzard has convinced the Nostalrius team (I imagine through lawsuits and maybe even actual threats) to back down and shut down their servers on the 10th this month or earlier. Even though they absolutely do not provide the same service as Blizzard does AND they do it for FREE! So I've basically made my sharpest point ,lastly I just want to add that if ANYONE wants to help out ,there is a petition going on right now about giving this server a legacy of sorts status ,so if someone wants to give a hand I'll post the link below. That's pretty much all I had to write minus my short-story, and this is probably my first serious post ANYWHERE ,so I guess that counts as something ,who knows. On an end point I just wanna mention my experience from about 3 hours ago ,when most of the players learned what was happening to the server.

 

EPIC INTERFACTIONARY STORY

 

I was on my way to Ironforge to see about a serious chat spam and flood going on there. While walking there from Wetlands on foot ,inside the first tunnel I saw a group of 3 Hordes (I'm from the Alliance faction) that were walking out of it and coming my way. In that moment I was fighting some NPC orc 10 lvls above me (long story). When I saw them I thought that they were some kind of an old NPC patrolling group I didn't know about or was custom made. I freaked out because I already had low HP because of the orc I was trying to get by. When they emerged from the tunnel ,I realized ... they were lvl 60 hordes with 3-4 legendary items and AT LEAST a total of 4 straight weeks of in-game playing. They were marching ... I felt chills down my spine that I've never felt in my gaming life. Once more ,they did not attack me. On the contrary ,they even helped kill the orc that had almost killed me. I /bow -ed to them and one of them just /cry -ed on my shoulder as they continued to march. I've never seen anything like this before. Even if they were making a video about the server going down ... it was still an epic moment in gaming no one will NEVER get to see or feel in retail WoW gaming.

 

Thank you all SO MUCH for the time if you got to read my entire post. It's mostly just me rambling and trying to save a virtual world. But I would be DAMNED and would rather go full retard on the entire internet then just sit on my skinny ass and just let this go like everything else good in my life that just got torn to pieces as me and my fellow comrades watch helplessly as the hell progressed.

 

Cheers ,from Nazzariel [Community Leader of the Original Eclipsed] [An Original WoW guild formed 2004-2006(retail) that has made long lasting internet gaming friendships that are still strong and alive today]

 

P.S.: Once I got to Ironforge [the capital city of the dwarf race] I took 2 screenshots of the already decaying large group of highly pissed off players gathering for one last epic raid on Orgrimmar [the capital city of the orc race and faction]. Well ... most of them were just spamming but you will definitely not witness something like this in any other existing classic WoW private server. Enjoy!

That long post now makes me long for the pre-WotLK WoW days... Back when a friend and I would run people through Deadmines. We were level 30+, I was a Dwarf Hunter with a Nightsaber Stalker pet, and my friend was a Night Elf Warrior. I would take control of my cat, and run through the level to agro everything, then bring it back and let my friend tank them while I did massive AoE. Our record time in that was actually when we were level 32, and we completed the entire run in under 8 minutes. (2 players, all green/white items, no special stuff)

 

Or the time I swam halfway around the southern part of the Eastern Kingdoms, only to die in the swamp as a dozen level 60's with epic gear tried to save me...

 

Or the many times where we went in with 3-4 people from our purely casual Guild, and decimated the hardcore PvPers in the various battlegrounds. (I was still remembered for that 8 years after I stopped playing, I set the standards for stat stacking in that server)

 

I really hope that Blizzard backs off the Vanilla servers, or opens up one of their own. I would love to see them set up a server for each expansion, and have it have the exact same functionality of the game at that point. (probly have more people playing Burning Crusade and Vanilla than all the rest combined if they did that though)

I honestly don't see a situation in which Robots actually try to take over, even if they do become sentient. Whose to say they won't see it better off as doing they're jobs, which they were created for, and which they would pretty much be used to.

 

But yeah I can't say I'm too pleased about robots entering the economy. Unless I'm able to invest in my own personal robot worker that I can hire out to a company and have him do my job for me. That's an interesting idea. Then again, since I hope to be a full time novelist in the upcoming years, hopefully this won't even factor in.

 

For the Black Mesa thing, that's why I loved your joke episode so much after you left Lambda labs, where you literally just drove off in a jeep. It seems rather realistic as opposed to purposefully going after the Nihilanth, which killing that turned out great for Earth anyways, right? Que Civil Protection.

 

Also, anyone that does play Guild Wars 2 still, friend me some time, if you feel like it. Konrad Xeroth.4192.

Windflow: I'll bring this up for the next videochat. I think it's a complicated situation, though of course I like players having the option to play the game how they want.

Yo ross, i hope you read this, i actually was thinking about to come here to talk about the nostarius server.

 

Some info that Windflow didnt made very clear:

 

It is in a gray zone, at least from the perspective you usually claim in your videos.

 

WoW is technically being sold and is "playable", i will refraim from criticizing several bad game design decisions (there are MANY, but some are open to discussion), and just criticize the completelly objective bad changes in the game:

 

As the lore changed, several locations changed too. Some quests, itens, skills, and even zones are no more available in the retail game, no matter what you do. That i guess is the largest red flag. Together with the questionable design changes make the game available VERY different.

 

Waiting for the next videochat.

Jontron made a video regarding the Nostalrius server shutdown. It Looks like this incident is getting some traction.

 

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Hey Ross. Just wanted to come ask for your thoughts on the whole Blizzard situation currently going on like a few others already have asked on the forums. Mainly just wanted to link the video where the guy acted like a total jerk to someone who wanted the option to experience the old game again from an official source. It goes a bit beyond just the small clip from the JonTron video.

 

30:04 - 30:48

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Also this picture for reference on how many showed up to the server's last minutes of being up:

 

(Source:https://twitter.com/NostalgiaWow/status/719276548403159040)

Reitz is a misanthrope in the same way Bill Hicks and George Carlin were. She likes plenty of individuals, but has lost hope for the species. She's said that's her stance quite explicitly. I guess if one thinks that flavor of misanthropy is unforgivable, then fair enough, but if that's the case one should probably stop watching all stand up comedy, listening to music, reading books, playing video games...

===Question for Ross / Questions for Ross===

 

(These are for the next video chat.)

 

---Old/Skipped Questions---

 

Hi guys. Ross, thanks for answering questions. I requested that these be answered on the last chat, but I don't think I heard them being read. If they were read, sorry for not noticing, and if anyone wants to point me to the time at which they were read, that would be very helpful of you. If they were intentionally skipped, then please feel free to skip them again. Otherwise, would you please answer these:

 

1) Do you prefer to use FLOSS (free, libre, open source software)? What are some FLOSS programs or apps which you use? (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, VLC) What do you think about the philosophy behind the GNU GPL?

 

2) What do you do to verify the benevolence of the CD and DRM cracks that you use? Do you have any recommendations for alternatives to Game Copy World?

 

---New Questions---

 

1) What are the books / stories that HLPrincess is looking to have published?

 

2) You're the king of Valve. What are your orders?

 

3) Would you please make your raw Twitch.tv "past broadcasts" available for viewing? While I appreciate you cleaning up the audio/video after the live stream, some of us such as myself would prefer to just watch the video sooner. The only work required to make this happen is to check a checkbox on Twitch.tv!

Have you ever thought of uploading your videos in a better format on a site other than Youtube? Having H.256 / HEVC versions of your videos available to download would be pretty awesome. And if you don't want to bother with file hosting you can always use torrents.

 

Also I really liked this videochat, lots of interesting topics discussed. I have always loved just listening to people talk for hours on end.

Time index

 

Announcements

00:45 – next Game Dungeon is coming soon

01:20 – after next Game Dungeon, next video will be a Planetside 2 recruitment video

02:05 – Ross participated in GOG podcast

02:58 – Ross will spend next 3 months on stuff he neglected lately, like answering e-mails

04:17 – next video after the Planetside 2 recruitment video will be a Game Dungeon

04:52 – Ross planned to make a follow-up on the Robot Jobs video, but the footage got screwed up again, so instead he'll cover the highlights right now

26:12 – do not ask questions in the chat until Ross answers all pre-submitted ones

27:19 – Ross's girlfriend won't appear in this videochat

38:50 – a Game Dungeon on Deus Ex is coming

46:45 – people experienced in user interface design are welcome to give Ross suggestions about his website redesign

1:45:58 – suggestion to make videochat timestamps

 

Robot Jobs follow-up

06:13 – how there can be more connections in the brain than particles in the Universe

07:40 – why we are unable to create artificial intelligence

10:17 – debate on presented data, e.g. Real Unemployment Rate

11:52 – whole economy may collapse before robots take over the jobs

12:20 – potential solutions are too communist

 

Pre-submitted questions

14:42 – exactly how crappy the Source Filmmaker is

18:50 – some fans are reverse engineering Need for Speed: World

20:04 – opinion about some game

20:21 – how would Ross escape from Black Mesa if he was there during Resonance Cascade

21:10 – will The Movie have the same motion blur effect as Freeman's Mind

21:23 – opinion on Pentakill

22:22 – Medal of Honor: Allied Assault had its multiplayer killed

24:28 – how was Ross introduced to Cthulhu and other Lovecraft mythos

26:33 – what book Ross's girlfriend is planning to write

27:45 – opinion on Guild Wars

28:09 – “Ross, what do you think about ?” question

28:16 – one of the creators of Boppin' (Jennifer Diane Reitz) is a misanthrope, did it affect Ross's perception of the game

29:39 – opinion on Phil Fish and Fez

30:37 – Ross's plans to fix civilization problems

34:34 – what Ross doesn't like about cooking

34:58 – hosting Unreal Tournament 2004 Onslaught match

35:29 – Ross's experience with firearms + opinion on hunting and gun control

38:10 – will Ross cover more well-known games in Game Dungeon

39:26 – how Ross became aware about Peak Oil

40:46 – plans to make something like Galaxy Gulp in Unreal

41:24 – is Ross in touch with other “Mind” makers

42:03 – did Ross find the movie from which the screaming face in the Bip Bop II was taken

43:02 – what emulators Ross uses for running games

44:40 – opinion on modern web design

47:42 – FusionFall was shut down

48:30 – how Ross feels about getting questions that have nothing to do about games, like political questions etc.

52:28 – “what Polish people think about ?” questions

53:35 – how much Ross cares about artificial intelligence in games

54:27 – are we entering a renaissance of sim games + what game genres Ross prefers

56:16 – “Ross, what do you think about ?” question

56:20 – how much of Ross's work is backed up

57:15 – custom music for Ross's videos, including The Movie

58:05 – problems with the Twitch stream

1:00:00 – best and worst cities Ross lived in

1:02:08 – making a section on Ross's website listing all his games or sharing his Steam profile or setting up a system that would allow exactly one donation of a game

1:06:25 – will there be a consistency problem with The Movie because of Ross taking assets from different places

1:07:50 – opinion on resurrection of rogue-like games

1:08:12 – opinion on the war on drugs

1:10:22 – “Ross, what do you think about ?” question

1:10:27 – games with good story and bad gameplay or vice versa

 

Live chat questions

1:13:26 – if Ross was a weapon, what he would be?

1:14:10 – opinion on early access

1:14:47 – Ross's favorite director

1:15:40 – opening up an arcade in the name of Game Dungeon

1:16:38 – opinion on SCP foundation

1:17:20 – featuring the Future Ross in Moon Gaming

1:17:31 – “Ross, what do you think about ?” question

1:17:50 – opinion on What's Up, Tiger Lily?

1:18:36 – does Ross play any instruments

1:19:51 – is Eddie from Freeman's Mind inspired by a real person

1:20:03 – opinion on YouTubers advertizing themselves on bigger channels

1:21:23 – why Ross didn't use HEV and health dispensers in Freeman's Mind

1:22:14 – is Ross currently in the writing or recording stage of The Movie production

1:23:40 – why using === instead of tagging Ross in the Twitch chat

1:23:55 – next Game Dungeon Follow-up episode

1:24:42 – cloud backup suggestions

1:25:49 – what character Ross identifies himself with

1:27:28 – how much of programming Ross knows

1:27:55 – opinion on augmented reality

1:28:50 – Ross's favorite president of USA

1:31:16 – will Ross allow people create subtitles for The Movie

1:32:04 – what Ross got detention for in high school (ventilation shaft episode)

1:34:10 – recommendations on medieval fantasy movie

1:35:25 – how the assistance writing is going

1:35:56 – when will we see some form of The Movie

1:36:42 – how many unread e-mails Ross has currently

1:37:13 – opinion on the Syrian conflict

1:37:32 – has Ross ever been to Norway

1:37:44 – opinion on Obsidian Entertainment

1:38:00 – old games that Ross hates

1:38:22 – favorite and hated tropes

1:38:54 – any part of Ross's work that he wishes he did better

1:40:10 – opinion on Bloodborne released as console exclusive

1:41:35 – NoblePoptart shout out

1:41:52 – when will Ross grow a full beard

1:42:37 – Freeman's Mind anniversary is coming

1:43:00 – opinion on YouTubers advertizing themselves on bigger channels

1:44:00 – Ross's favorite movies

1:45:24 – opinion on Doom 4

1:45:35 – opinion on social games like Second Life

1:45:53 – opinion on Doom 4

1:46:17 – recommendations on games based on Lovecraft

1:47:31 – opinion on game ROMs + piracy

1:50:00 – movie based on a book that is better than the book

1:50:21 – would having more money increase the quality and/or speed of Ross making movies

1:51:43 – when the Planetside 2 recruitment video will come out

1:52:25 – making videos about The Movie updates

1:53:35 – in Freeman's Mind Ross mentioned a burglar breaking into his house and gutting himself, did it actually happen

1:54:38 – does Ross feel like he can't use donation money on anything except living expenses

1:55:45 – collaboration videos with other YouTubers

1:56:11 – game from Ross's childhood that holds up to this day without nostalgia goggles

1:56:58 – was Moon Gaming an April Fools joke

1:57:13 – how long did it take to grow a beard for Moon Gaming

1:57:52 – can we speak to Ross if we see him in public

1:58:08 – request for Ross to yell

1:59:03 – genre of music that Ross absolutely despises

 

1:58:48 – conclusion

2:00:04 – final word