Ross Scott

I don't have a deadset view on gun control, but my general thoughts on it are to have a balance between what is practical v. what will lower accidental deaths. I don't really a problem with shotguns or up to semi-automatic rifles. Those are obvious, deliberate weapons with a purpose.

 

Besides law enforcement or special case permit scenarios, I'm not so sure what the advantage is to keeping handguns legal. I think handguns probably increase accidental deaths substantially, plus I think they make impulse shooting easier. I've had times where a driver has thrown a beer bottle at me while I'm on a bicycle that I would have liked a handgun, but probably would regret it later. Does anyone have stats for what kinds of legally registered guns are most used in accidental or heat-of-the-moment shootings? My guess is the majority would be handguns. Moreover, I also think that the number accidental deaths from handguns probably far outweigh the number of scenarios where someone is saved against an assailant by a non law-enforcement individual who happens to have a handgun on them. Unless someone has stats to disprove me, I think you can make the argument that less innocent people will die with handguns being banned than with them not (assuming criminals have access to them either way).

 

For automatic weapons, I'm not really sure of what the practicality is. You can make the "overthrow corrupt government" argument, but if the military or police want you dead, your automatic weapon isn't going to save you. Besides, somebody tell me what the practical application of a TEC-9 is besides shooting up old cars or else murdering somebody in a drive-by?

 

Also before people read into this too much, I don't have a strong opinion on the topic, mainly because I think America has way, WAY bigger problems than gun control.

Do your predictions factor in the Shia-Sunni conflict sweeping the Middle East, Ross?

I'm less familiar with that situation, but I think you're looking at my prediction the wrong way. Peak oil is a certainty. We're talking about steady depletion of a finite resource at a rate that's going to catch up to his sooner or later, I say sooner. A nuclear conflict in the middle east would of course hasten all kinds of things, but I find that something that's very difficult to predict. It would of course move the timetable far up, but I see that as less of a sure thing. Even my 2015-2016 prediction could be wrong, this is just based off the best data I've been able to fine. I would be amazed if we make it out of this decade without some sort of peak oil crisis hitting however.

I'm just going to leave this here. US predicted to become net EXPORTER of oil.

That link doesn't work for me, but I can say this: With shale oil, that might extend our timetable some, but I think these predictions are bogus. Even if with have 1,000 years of oil under the USA, we're not EXTRACTING it fast enough to keep up with consumption. This won't prevent peak oil, it would just make the falling slope a little less drastic.

I kind of consider the USA as whole now to be insane with its priorities. I think neither major political party represents the interest of the people at large anymore and a lot of people are just brainwashed or distracted by topics that are ultimately trivial in the long run as to the course the nation / globe is going to take. I don't see it collapsing without some sort of catalyst. I think if we continue the way we're going, the USA will follow a path similar to Argentina; a massively corrupt government with economics that will essentially eliminate the middle class.

 

In my opinion what COULD cause some sort of collapse in the short term would be finally getting past peak oil (I'm predicting 2015-2016 for that), or some eventual economic implosion from having a debt-based economy.

 

I personally don't see the South seceding prior to something like that. While the tension is real, I see that more as misdirected aggression towards larger problems where a scapegoat is needed. Plus, I feel I have to link to this article regarding their track record on that:

 

http://www.theonion.com/articles/south-postpones-rising-again-for-yet-another-year,377/

 

On the flipside, I see Obama as sort of a puppet politician, like many others, who may be well meaning, but doesn't strike me as especially serious about trying to reform some of our most extreme problems.

I probably would get a little more, but the amount of people doing it intentionally based on a request from me probably wouldn't be significant enough to make it worthwhile. While a certain percentage of people having ads play does help me, I don't wish ads on anyone and wish there was a way around it. Besides, I'm all about sustainability, and me begging people to watch ads isn't really a sustainable situation. Really I just need to make more videos and hopefully give people reason enough to keep watching them.

Hey,

 

Well now that I'm releasing stuff independently from Machinima, the situation has changed some. Since I don't have to go through Machinima anymore, one of my plans was to make a BIG push on subtitles this month. User "danielsangeo" on the forums is pretty much in charge of this. I'd like to respectfully ask that you don't keep putting the videos up on Youtube, because I really could use the views since I'm essentially "rebooting" from leaving Machinima. If you don't mind, please send me or Daniel the subtitles instead. You can put yourself in the subtitle credits, then your subtitles can become the official Czech ones on the videos. I have been horrendously behind on subtitle in the past, but now that I'm getting help, I really think I'm going to make a ton of progress on it. Again, by the end of this month, I'm expecting English subtitles on almost all the videos, and as many foreign language ones as Daniel can process (he won't change the text, but he may have to doublecheck the timing as the new videos no longer contain the Machinima logos).

 

I really do want to support subtitles for as many languages as possible and for once, I think I finally have the means to do it.

There are a TON of graphic adventure games, many coming out every year. Mainstream gaming media almost never covers them now unless they're cross platform, like Walking Dead. Most graphic adventure games don't have tons of money to throw around, thus they don't get the same (or any) coverage in a lot of places. Blame game journalism being on the take, not the genre.

 

Here's a good source on new ones that come out:

 

http://www.adventuregamers.com/

 

Check the new releases and you see there's about half a dozen coming out every month.

I noticed that the links under the movies tab on this site now play from your youtube channel. I'm curious why you went with that instead of the presumably higher revenue blip version.

I might try and change the embedding to blip.tv later, by the time I thought about it, I was about 60% done with the links and din't want to have to mess with it again.

This is just a quick announcement that I've uploaded all my old videos to my own personal Youtube and Blip.tv channel and all the site links have been updated to point to them. I'd like to request people use these links in the future as opposed to the old ones at Machinima.com's Youtube channel. I could go into detail on this, but I've been legally advised not to say more than that for now. They're all streaming versions the highest quality copies of the videos I have available. The download links have also all been updated (except for Stranger In Need and FM48, those are coming later). I've updated hundreds of links, so if you spot any errors, please let me know.

 

Link to Blip.tv Channel

 

Link to Youtube Channel

 

Apparently Youtube spammed a bunch of subscribers when I put the videos back up, my apologies about that; I would have turned that function off if I knew how to. It's a one-time thing though, you shouldn't get spammed with new video links in the future unless there are actually new videos. More news coming this month!

 

Blip.tv link

 

 

(download will be up later)

 

Welcome to what I think is the second-longest episode of Freeman's Mind! My apologies about the delay on this one, all I can say is I'm about as busy as Freeman is in the video, the difference is I'm not getting shot at. This one got rushed a little bit as I promised to have this one out this week, but I'm still pretty happy with how it came out. It does make me NEVER want to promise when something will go up AGAIN. I keep meaning to never say that, then forget. So from this point on I'll just say I'm unlikely to give any hard dates when something will come out for anything. I prefer a "when it's done" approach anyway. That doesn't mean Duke-Nukem-Forever-Style-Wait-15-years-Then-Go-Bankrupt "when it's done" however.

 

On that note, I'm giving no promises when the next Freeman's Mind episode will come out, despite my original intention of doing it every 2 weeks. I intend to submit the Freeman's Mind DOTA 2 voice pack to Valve first, and finish up one other project before resuming. To try and make up for the delay, I am going to attempt to respond to (almost) ALL emails in my inbox. I currently have 632 emails I haven't responded to, many of them months old. I hate not having time to reply to people, so I want to catch up on that. Starting this weekend, I will begin to reply to at least 20 emails a day until I am caught up.

 

More news coming soon!

New FM today or tomorrow!

Unfortunately not, this one is just taking too long (I think it will be the second longest episode so far), but we're only talking about a delay of a day or two. I plan to make a new post tomorrow on some other stuff.

 

EDIT: Actually I won't. The new post is related to legal stuff, which I thought was going to be partially settled tomorrow, but it looks like not. What I can promise is Freeman's Mind this week, and probably an additional post this week also.

Also don't forget to make Mega Kills pack too Ross.

I've already made those, though I didn't make alternates for them (yet). They're done in my best Unreal Tournament announcer style voice for that.

 

perhaps while recording you could nab a part time job for some added financial security.

I've been trying for months man.

Hey Ross, you can't promise which day the next Freeman's Mind would be out, but can you at least promise it would be up next week at all?

Short of getting hit by a meteor, yes. Really I was aiming for Monday, but I think things are tight enough now that Tuesday might be more realistic. It will be ASAP no matter what.

There's a new interview up from Lewis Schofield who runs his own internet radio show and contacted me about having an interview a few weeks back. You can listen to it here:

 

Link to interview page

 

I think I might have come across more awkward with my answers in this interview than some of the others, my brain tends to bottleneck my thoughts on some topics where I'm not sure where to begin. He may have edited some of that down though, I'm not sure. Regardless there's some material in this interview not covered in previous ones and a mention of one of the projects I've been involved with. I'll have more information on that at a later date. Also I did remember later the other OTHER project I'm working on that I couldn't remember during the interview, that's also coming later.

 

In other news, I still plan to have Freeman's Mind out sometime next week, though I can't promise which day yet.

I want to go on to go on the record by saying that I would buy DOTA 2 just so I could get this voice pack.

You're in luck, DOTA 2 is free.

Just out of curiosity, do you play much DotA? By being experienced in the game (well, mildly at least

 

Either way, it sounds like a great idea, and is definitely something i'd vote in.

Ironically no, the MOBA genre in general is a bit slow for me. As long as we're talking about games with Warcraft 3 origins, I was much more of a fan (sort of like arena DOTA, but WAY more action). As for having a knowledge of the game, I have a basic understanding, but I've also been in touch with a few hardcore DOTA players for consultation, so I'm trying my best to know what I'm talking about when writing the lines. Overall, I tried to make the lines funny and make sense to the situation rather than be super-insider lines.

 

So I was reading the announcer info for Dota2 (seen here: http://www.dota2.com/workshop/requirements/announcers ) and it says that there is a general line limit of about 600 lines, which is about where you are. Does this mean you will have to remove a bunch of lines?

Wow, again, new information. So let's go over this:

 

-Valve emphasizes a need for a wide variety in the lines to keep things from getting stale

-They've added literally over 200 mostly optional new events for me to voice since I originally started this (that I have NOT voiced yet)

-I saw one pack from a previous Valve voice actor saying how it had over 1000 lines

-Valve wants submitters to limit their packs to ~600 lines

 

 

 

I'll try my best to figure this out. I don't anticipate removing many, but they're certainly not making this any easier.

I think you'd be stupid not to finish this. You have the opportunity to make thousands of dollars here. Some of the TF2 hat makers have gotten like $50,000 per item.

Well I'm keeping my hopes small. What I don't want is to spend 2 more weeks working on this then have it rejected by Valve. I think I'll finish off the "mandatory" lines (I have lots of extras besides those), with the public promise that people can expect all the "optional" lines AND alternates for them if it gets into the steam store.

 

But yeah, it's a nice fantasy. 50k by itself would not only be enough to support me for at least two years (including taxes), but more realistically, I could use the excess amount in long term investments to maybe have it keep me going indefinitely. It's hard to say, I've never had that kind of money before.

I think it's a great idea, but unfortunately I don't play DOTA. I really hope there is a significant enough part of FM fans that do to convince you!

I maybe should have been more specific. I'm actually not seeing how many people are willing to buy it. Just getting it in the Steam store is ENOUGH. I'm testing the waters to see how many people are interested in helping vote for it once it is submitted and pending approval. I wanted to make sure this isn't something people are resistant to.

Hot damn this would be awesome. I've always been on edge about buying the Kleiner or Bastion announcer packs, but with you shouting at me for failing miserably? I would buy that ten times over!

Actually Freeman will take your side more than not, I saved most of the venom for the enemy. He's also not above accusing them of hacking.

[poll id=9]

 

I was planning on making a news post today, but I just got some last minute news that's changed the tone of everything. A few months back, some fans contacted me about the possibility of making a Freeman's Mind announcer pack for the game DOTA 2. As I've still been scrambling for ways to earn a sustainable income, I thought this sounded like a pretty good idea, as Valve has an infrastructure set up for it to get into the Steam store and I can think up with many, many lines for the game in the same style of Freeman's Mind. I've been working on this off and on for the past few months, making a serious push towards it in the past week or two (this is why the latest Freeman's Mind has been delayed). What I originally was going to post today was to say I was DONE with the first wave of recording for this, all the lines had been edited, and I was going to submit it to Valve this week.

 

The bad news is I just today decided to check Valve's instructions for the voice pack and they've added a LOT of additional instructions and lines that previously were never specified. Their information on this when I first started was awfully spotty, it seems they've approximately quintupled the information provided on what they're looking for since when I first started. This means I'm a lot farther off from being completed than I previously thought and my pack is no longer ready to be submitted. The announcer pack I was planning to submit is currently 634 lines (with 2,074 shortlisted takes I rejected, and 30 sessions worth of recordings), with an ungodly number of hours I've put into doing audio editing on this. I covered all the lines available to announcers (as of a couple months ago), with MANY alternate lines in the Freeman's Mind style of things. Finding out I have a LOT more work ahead of me before this will be complete is a big blow to morale.

 

At this point I'm not sure what to do, so I'd appreciate feedback from people on this. Is this announcer pack something you'll be interested in and willing to help vote on if I can get it submitted? Right now I'm considering finishing off the additional mandatory lines, then saving the new "optional" ones as a promise to add if this gets accepted into the Steam store. If I could get this in the Steam store, I wouldn't think twice about adding thousands of additional lines, but I don't want to pour weeks more work into this if there's a good chance it will just get rejected anyway. If you have any advice along these lines, please let me know.

 

In the meantime, I'll be resuming the next Freeman's Mind and hope to have it up in about a week. More news coming late July and August!

 

 

ADHD version: Ross has been working on a Freeman's Mind announcer pack for DOTA 2, but it's hit a snag! Vote on the poll! New Freeman's Mind episode in about a week!

New petition to bring back all the restrictions!

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57593192-235/petition-seeks-to-bring-back-xbox-one-policies/

 

I signed it

[poll id=8]

 

This is a quick post to address what apparently has become a controversial issue. In the last FM episode (#47), sound editor Daniel Sheehan replaced the standard gun sounds used for Half-Life. I didn't ask him to specifically change these sounds, but I encourage sound editors to embellish things for Freeman's Mind as they see fit. I thought the final ones sounded pretty good (aside from some minor sync issues), so I left them in. People seem divided on this decision, so I wanted to see how divided. Go ahead and vote on the poll above if you have an opinion on this, I'll go with whatever the majority decides. The tank sounds are non-negotiable however, those are staying.

 

EDIT: The "majority" vote has swapped several times by now and is currently still on a very close margin. This is about as divisive as it gets, so I'm going to make an executive decision and revert back to the old gunshots. My reasons for this are that it creates less work for the sound editor, and if someone new comes along later, it makes it easier to transition between people.

 

 

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

The body is still there, but the ragdoll physics will cause it to fall straight through the grating texture. It treats that as non-solid for some reason.

 

Blip.tv link (this one helps me more)

 

 

(Downloadable copy will be up a later date)

 

Freeman's Mind continues, even in the face of dumping water inside my computer. This episode starts off slow, but picks up towards the end. You'll also find the sound effects to be a little more bombastic in this episode as current sound editor Daniel Sheenan (Otto is still helping on other things) took it upon himself to add many new effects that I think came out pretty well. Volume balancing still haunts me as usual however. Even after Daniel's great work, it still took me about 3.5 hours to balance the volume for this episode. If you think you can do a better job than me at volume balancing, go ahead and email me, and you could maybe help with future episodes.

 

I will try my best to have the next FM episode up in roughly two weeks, however I've been very busy with many different things. Dumping water in my computer amazingly did not seem to help the situation. So it's possible episode 48 will be a little late, however, one of the things I'm spending a lot of time on is the secret Freeman's-Mind-related project I mentioned earlier. So in other words, I may be stalling Freeman a little bit to bring you more Freeman. Freeman.

Yeah wow, I don't know what the deal was. I didn't even realize it was that bad until I posted it yesterday.