Ross Scott

So the Xboner: Revenge of the Xcock has dropped some of its DRM restrictions: http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/19/microsoft-heeds-gamer-feedback-dumps-xbox-one-drm-restrictions/

BOOOOOOO

Hey everyone, my computer is now fully functional again, but spilling water into it did delay the next episode of Freeman's Mind. I'm working to get the next one out as soon as possible, in the meantime, I'm putting up an audio interview I've been meaning to post for a few weeks now. Here are the links:

 

Interview web page

 

Direct link to interview

 

This interview was actually recorded in summer of 2012, before the whole Machinima.com fiasco started, so I don't know how much of what I said is still accurate. It was later posted by the group in late April of this year, which I delayed releasing because Freeman's Mind was coming back, then forgot about it for a couple weeks. But I have remembered and am posting it now while I stall for time in getting more Freeman's Mind done!

 

Also in this interview it sounds like a robot imposter of myself filled in for me; I have no memory of how this happened. I hope it answered the questions correctly.

Actually my soundcard may be screwed too.

Think this is relevant:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0V4R83LSTY

A lot of his issues don't apply to my contract, though the percentage drop in his income is pretty similar. In any event, Machinima has been handling my situation with the same tact and grace as his. Things are going a little slowly, but there is a resolution coming to this.

Hey, good news, all the parts seem to still be working, except the fan to my CPU cooler is shot. I've ordered a new one and should have things fully operational in a few days.

There have been some, uh, complications with the next episode:

 

 

 

 

Yesterday evening I was recording more lines for Freeman's Mind and in my infinite wisdom, I kept a glass of water nearby to drink in between lines, like I have for dozens of episodes. It turns out this was not the best idea I've ever had. The water spilled and some of it splashed into my system, causing it to malfunction. But good news! I was not electrocuted by this because I ran out of the room to shut off the circuit breaker.

 

I'm uncertain of the damage inflicted, right now I have the system disassembled and drying out thoroughly. I plan to start testing parts later today once everything is completely dried out and assess the damage.

 

 

FOR COMPUTER HARDWARE PEOPLE:

 

My guess is I've fried the motherboard, but who knows. The circuit breaker did not trip, the fans kept spinning (much faster, like on boot), and I never saw any sparks or smelled any burning. This suggests there's a chance I haven't completely fried everything, but I won't know that until later. I think most of the water touched the CPU heatsink, with only a few drops going elsewhere. Ironically, I've never done system water cooling because I was afraid this exact scenario could occur. I have parts for a secondary system that is missing a power supply; I plan to use that to test the components one by one later. Worst case scenario I also fried my videocard, soundcard, RAM, RAID expansion card, and power supply, but I think that's unlikely for the amount of water that actually got inside. Also, while I spotted one or two drops on the top of the hard drives, I have no reason to suspect there was any permanent damage to them, and even if there was, I have a mirror RAID set up, so it would have to take out both at once.

 

 

FOR EVERYONE ELSE:

 

 

 

 

Unlike past computer problems I've had, which can mostly be attributed to goblins, this one is just sheer stupidity on my part. I won't know the full extent of the damage until later, there's going to be a lot of testing to do. Despite what you see in the movies, there's no reason to think this caused me to lose all my data. In any event, I know how to fix this, but it will take time, especially if I need to order parts I can't get locally. Best case scenario this won't affect Freeman's Mind from being released next week. Worst case scenario, it will probably delay everything by about a week. Either way, I think I'll use a water bottle with a cap from now on instead of a glass.

 

 

 

EDIT: Amazingly, almost everything still works, although my CPU cooler fan did not survive. I've ordered a new one and it should be here sometime this week.

EDIT 2: Actually my soundcard may be screwed also.

 

 

 

ADHD version: Water and computers are not friends. The next Freeman's Mind might be a little late.

Damn, you are going old school. The first system I built was still cruising along at 40Mhz. Or I guess I should more accurately say "assembled" since I wasn't building the PCB boards myself. I did color correct my used CRT monitor though by opening it up and manually fixing the color balance with a screwdriver since it had way too much green.

Hey Ross, what is the Steam emulator you mentioned in the Youtube comments?

I'm using one called "MiSteamPrep" but it could be outdated by a few years, there's probably newer stuff now, I haven't checked in a long time. I really just use it for Source SDK and HL: Source. Also just to head off the peanut gallery:

 

1. Yes, I have had a lot of bugs over the years. Every time I have, I always check to see if the same bug happens in the regular Steam version and it's not a bug from the emulator. In every instance, the same bug also occurs if not MORE in the legit steam version (like demo playback not working in HL Source).

2. No internet is not required for it to work if you have install files. You are always 100% offline if you want to be.

3. Yes, this totally violates Valve's end user agreement. I don't give a damn, because I think breaking dev tools in the middle of somebody's project with no legal recourse to revert back is unethical.

 

With regards to the loss of memory, that's pretty standard to remember some things later but not others.

Even for people without amnesia.

 

Oh, and Ross, any word on episodes 1-44 making it over to TGWTG?

No, Machinima's legal department is not responding to me even though their actions clearly show they got my message. I'm going to be escalating things soon.

Ah, another excellent episode. You're pandering us ross with this release schedule.

 

Personally I love it when Freeman takes shortcuts in the game, like you did in this episode. It makes things more interesting, and more realistic-like. Often times I find myself thinking "Now why can't I go there? It's well within my reach." The level design of video games tend to break the immersion by putting invisible walls everywhere, which I hate. So having Freeman do the sensible thing now and then feels quite refreshing. Why jump through a complex obstacle course when in real life you could just skip it? It's good that the Half-Life "allows" that kind of freedom.

This area I thought was particularly psychotic in terms of what they're expecting the player to do. In other games, seeing a minefield and barbed wire means you're at an impasse and you need to figure out another solution. In HL apparently you're just supposed to assume you DO go that way and then just "not die" without any sort of reasoning behind it for this part. I mean it IS a minefield, it's not like your suit has a detector. I honestly forgot the solution, I think it's just to spray and pray at the ground and HOPE you got all the ones in your path. I'm usually pretty tolerant of games being rough around the edges, but I thought this spot was just poorly designed.

Any update on the legal issue you're having with machinima?

Yep, but I don't know if I can talk about it. All I can say it's looking promising, even if it may take some time (hey at least I can get new videos out finally).

 

 

Alright between this thread and emails here are the recommendations I've received on gaming headsets:

 

-Turtle Beach Ear Force P11

-Turtle Beach Ear Force X12 Gaming Headset

-Turtle Beach Ear Force X32

-Creative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset

-Razer Blackshark

-Razer Electra

-Razer Carcharias

-Razer Kraken

-Steelseries 5H V2

 

I haven't done any research on these yet, but feel free to chime in. To narrow it down here are some things to consider:

 

Mandatory Requirements:

-Must be resistant to mic puff (I should be able to say "Peter picked a peck of pickled peppers" into it without a problem)

-Must not pick up much besides my voice (so if there's some noise in the same room, it's unlikely to get much of it)

-Must be able to handle me being loud (this is more than just recording levels, some mics simply clip if you're shouting into them at any recording volume)

 

Preferred Items:

-Good headphone quality

-Have some sort of metal core for the headband so it can be reshaped (as opposed to a pure plastic one which inevitably snap on my head)

-Good comfort

-I prefer 3.5mm jacks over USB connection.

-I prefer wired headphones

-Good durability in case they get dropped

 

Blip.tv link (this one helps me more)

 

 

(Downloadable copy will be up a later date)

 

Freeman's Mind continues, this time with no singing. This is a slower episode, since the game directly dictates the pace of them, but I think it came out pretty well. For the purists complaining that one of the game sequences never triggered, you can blame Half-Life: Source, I didn't do anything to disable it. Please continue to spread the word that Freeman's Mind is not dead, it was just being held hostage in a basement at gunpoint, but managed to escape and is now at a new location.

 

I plan to continue the informal schedule of having a new FM episode about every two weeks. In the extra time between releases, I'm still working on multiple side projects, a few of which will come to fruition within a few weeks from now. In any event, you can expect a lot more stuff to come out this summer.

EDIT: Oh and there is one detail that annoys me in this video: Ross didn't mute the default Doom guy's pain grunt, it sticks out like a sore thumb (for me at least).

I tried to find every source I could and wasn't able to mute out the grunt sounds from the WAD. I did mute the secret found sound, the OTHER pain sounds, and the extra brutal doom dialogue.

 

I find it a bit odd you'd use level SIX of episode one to make what is supposedly episode SEVEN.

It's almost like there was a secret level in there or something.

Unverified, but it looks like the Kinect may have the ability to shut down what you're watching / playing if there are too many people in the room and try to charge you for an upgraded license!

 

Source

 

And seriously, XBox One? You couldn't call it the 720 or Infinity?

Before it was announced, I was giving them a 50-50 chance they were going to call the Xbox One just "Xbox." Looks like I wasn't too far off the mark.

Hey people, I have some new updates and a minor promotion to make. As I've mentioned before on the blog, I am still for hire if people want to pay me for voice acting, writing, or something else related. Well one group actually approached me about "hiring" me to play a game with them for a commentary series they're doing.

 

I have to admit, the concept of charging people for me to play a game with them never even occurred to me and it would seem pretentious if I had come up with the idea myself. I would feel guilty about this if I haven't been so busy with various projects that I've had very little time for gaming myself. Also, I decided I am ABSOLUTELY fine with establishing a precedent that I will play games for money if somebody wants to pay for it. I just don't want people to think that I feel entitled to some sort of payment for playing a game. On the contrary, I enjoy interacting with fans (even if I'm months behind on my email replies) and will always do so for free, even though there can be delays. The way I see it, what I'm being paid for is for time I would normally spend working on something else and I'm unfortunately very busy these days.

 

Anyway, part of the deal was some extra publicity for their new series, so here it is:

 

UwOgCKQXgfE

 

 

It's just myself running around with the creator "Loremaster Nojah" and his friend "Sarahon" trying to get through the old mod "They Hunger" running Sven Co-op. It goes on for a few hours, split into different episodes. If you need to kill time, these guys have you covered.

 

This video may also gives you an idea of why Freeman's Mind is not done live. This whole video is extremely casual with a minimum (if any) amount of editing. When doing things impromptu, my ratio of saying something entertaining is more like once every 3 minutes rather than once every 10 seconds the way it is with FM. Also my microphone quality is pretty poor in this video as I normally use a handheld mic to record videos, but I just used a webcam mic I had for this so I could play hands-free. On that note, if anyone has recommendations for a gaming headset with good mic quality for hands-free recording (especially with low mic puff) in the future, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

 

- - -

 

In other news, I've made a lot of updates to the website to the different sections, with updated information the FAQ, donations, subtitles, etc. I've also added an entire "Ross For Hire" section where you can now see some of the jobs I've taken so far freelancing. Not all of the mods / videos are out yet however, but feel free to browse.

 

Finally, I'm aiming to have the next Freeman's Mind out sometime Tuesday. While I am making no promises, it's my aim to have a new FM out approximately every two weeks after that (with more stuff coming out in between later on).

 

 

 

ADHD version: Ross plays games with some dudes! Website has more words on it! Next FM episode will probably be Tuesday!

I've said it before and I'm certain I'll be saying it in the near future - Microsoft has lost their minds.

Thanks for reminding me! I forgot to mention that they're aiming to sell 1 BILLION copies of the Xbox One! Not a joke!

 

Not sure about the Steam Box but it's looking like it's going to be the replacement Xbox for me. Good thing, too, given the name. And if it releases another Half-Life sometime within it's lifecycle, even freaking better.

My opinion on the Steambox is that it will probably be underwhelming at launch. They have a gargantuan task ahead of them trying to convert as many units as possible to Linux. I don't see it being a success right away, but if they just keep at it long enough, the more and more titles they can move over, the better it will start looking. If they're persistent and can make deals with game companies, this could potentially start toppling Microsoft's grip on PC gaming.

 

Also if you're ever inclined, you could literally build a small formfactor system that's more than functional than the Steambox for any price point you're interested in, although that would take some customization and time setting up. One of the advantages consoles have always had over PC's is being able to just start it and go, something Xbox One seems to be losing with all its authentication systems.

 

leading my friends to dub it the OrwellBox

 

 

I've been following the drama regarding the upcoming Xbox One with a lot of interest, almost like some people do towards celebrity gossip. It's ironic since I'm generally just a PC gamer, but it can't be denied how much consoles affect the entire game industry now. For me, the news on the Xbox One has been GLORIOUS. They've alleviated my biggest fears for the platform. My biggest concern was that they Xbox would enforce DRM by requiring online connection to servers with NO PLAN for the games years from now after they shut down. I was worried they were going to do this, but do a great job on all other fronts, so people would grudgingly accept it, creating a precedent for other platforms to do this. I hate this practice and don't like the idea of ANY game requiring a connection with a centralized server in order to play it. With very few exceptions, it's been proven again and again the companies don't care what happens to the game later on once it's no longer profitable to run the servers. I think it's an awful practice.

 

Fortunately, the Xbox One has far exceeded my expectations by pushing so far in this direction that it's like to cause blowback across the industry. Seriously, I give them a B+ for making perhaps the most unappealing console possible. Here's how I see it:

 

Positives:

+Heat and power consumption are likely to be low due the chipset being used.

+improved graphics over the Xbox 360, setting a decent baseline for cross platform games

+x86 architecture is more standardized

 

Negatives:

-Internet connection required every 24 hours (or as I call it, Xbox parole check-in), so offline play will not be a feasible solution

-Unable to loan games to friends

-Unable to get low used game prices (you'll have to pay a premium to Microsoft even if you "own" the used game)

-No backwards compatability with Xbox 360 games.*

-No backwards compatability with Xbox Live Arcade Games.*

-No indie titles will be allowed on it that don't already have a publisher

-Kinect is now mandatory and must be always online for the xbox to function.**

-3GB of the 8GB shared RAM is reserved by the OS (that's more than Windows)

 

*Don Mattrick of Xbox has even gone far as to say backwards compatibility is "backwards thinking." He also says that the backwards compatability market is negligible. I'm assuming he's basing this data on Xbox Original compatibility on the 360, not for the 360 itself, which had the longest console cycle in history. I can't think of a better arrogant statement than calling Xbox 360 loyalists who want to continue playing their games "backwards."

 

**Germany and Australia consider it a surveilance device.

 

And of course the reveal itself couldn't have been better, with it being filled with corporate PR fluff, glossing over gaming, and focusing on the wrong demographics. I DARE you to watch the first 90 seconds of it without groaning or turning it off:

 

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2013/05/21/ign-live-presents-the-next-xbox-reveal

 

Glorious. Anyway, feel free to discuss anything about the Xbox One here, I might be their biggest fan right now, for all the wrong reasons.

 

Some more fun media:

 

Xbox reveal summary:

KbWgUO-Rqcw

 

Angry Joe rant:

9ekOtn7L1N0

 

 

 

Keep it up Microsoft, just keep it up.

You lived in America correct Ross ?

 

So I suppose law students from other countries wouldn't be able to be much help due to diffrent law orders.

 

And I just happen to be a humble Physicist, sorry

Yes, I'm an American citizen. As for different legal systems, that's something to consider, however the issue in question on Machinima's part is relatively straightforward. Without revealing any details (I don't know if I can or not, I'm not sure), I'll say they clearly have violated the contract I have with them, repeatedly, over a period of years, without ever informing me (I only discovered this just recently). This creates a very strong precedent for me regaining the rights back on a lot of my videos, I'm hoping I can get it for all of them.

 

Hey everyone, while I'm guessing most of the people who watch these videos aren't lawyers, I wanted to at least see if there were any out there who would be interested in giving me a hand. I've been trying to contact Machinima.com for about a week and a half regarding some important matters and have not only been unable to get a reply from their legal department (which this concerns), but I can't even get a DATE when I can expect to hear from them. The last time I showed patience with Machinima.com it didn't work out very well, so now I'm trying to expedite the process.

 

I'm not even sure what I can reveal about this situation publicly, but I'm looking for some legal advice regarding my video rights and Machinima.com engaging in what I would call "less than legal" activity that's affected me personally. I am not looking to go to court over anything, in fact I wish to avoid that if possible, however it's looking like I might need some sort of legal notice sent to them otherwise it could be months (again) before anything gets done.

 

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of money, so I would either need some pro bono help or at some sort of discount. Someone who has experience in contract law would probably be best. Anyway, if you think you might be able to help, please contact me at [email protected].

 

Everyone else: I'm still working on more videos!

Works for me. I figure a combination of that and me making more videos will hopefully net as many people as possible wondering where the new episodes are.

Ross, if you wouldn't mind a small suggestion, you might want to change the thumbnail for your youtube copy.

 

Your video doesn't look as "official" not having the same format and I'll admit, I skipped over it the 1st time. It might be easier to find (for fans who don't frequent the forums) if it matched.

 

This is what the video results look like in a search for "freeman's mind 45":

I can fix that at any time, Machinima always made those anyway. It's just one more thing on my "to do" list. Speaking of thumbnails though, I've fixed ALL the links and info on ALL the episode pages and ALL the thumbnails. Took me 6 hours!

Christopher_AC: Just look up "modern major general" for the original song. Here are the lyrics I added:

 

"

I can fire at a target and hit it at least half the time

or graph out an electron path while using only numbers prime

I calculate the fall rate of a bullet shot a thousand yards

and perforate the thick heads of a hundred military guards.

 

I can make a simulation of an atom bomb and build one too

or flank a dozen men and ambush ten of them out of the blue

from SMGs to RPGs I carry quite an arsenal

and skip around a warzone like a subatomic particle

 

every solider out here wants to kill me for my curiousity

I wage war on the whole damn world because of my tenacity

in matters combat tactical and physics theoretical I am the very model of a modern major general

"

 

It was tricky getting the rhythm to match between each line, I think even the original cuts corners there, "about binomial theorem" in particular seeming to break the flow when I was practicing it.

 

When this all started happening you said you would probably have 46 done by the time Machinema sorted it out, is there a back log of episodes to be posted, if so what kind of schedule are you looking at for putting them out. ( I know this is a long shot as you were probably too busy but fingers crossed)

not as many as I'd like, but 46 is done dialogue-wise, just some minor editing needed. I'm going to try and aim for 2 weeks.

 

Was that project your move to TGWTG ? Or is it Christmas already and you have some kind of video to announce?

That's still very much underway and is taking up a good chunk of my time, but has an end in site. And no, I haven't announced it at all yet.

 

I don't know if I was the first person to suggest TGWTG, or one of the first, but I was definitely something.

It could be, I never realized TGWTG had its own network and was accepting people, that was a direct result of what I read here in the forums.

PS: I still want to see that post you said you were gonna make about all the correspondences you and Machinima had.

I may have changed my mind on that since that will be hours or archiving work, plus Machinima didn't go as draconian as they could have regarding me leaving, so I'm thinking it might be best not to rub it in further. I am however, having NEW problems with them regarding them distributing the old videos, collecting money from it, and never informing me, so I'll have to see how that plays out. It won't affect future episodes at all however.

 

Why isn't this showing up on TGWTG?

TGWTG works differently than Machinima. The idea is I submit which day it will go up on and odds are it will go up by then. The thing is that they link to the channel on blip, so it needs to be up before they post it. This means all videos in the future will appear here first before TGWTG. I no longer HAVE to wait on anyone before posting them, though I'll probably try and coordinate it to the same day as TGWTG.

 

Welcome to the longest delayed episode of Freeman's Mind ever made! This video was actually completed last year, but is only just now finally free to go up. If you're wondering why this took so long or if the series had died, you can read more about it here. Future Freeman's Mind episodes will no longer be appearing on Machinima.com. They will go up on my own long-neglected Youtube channel, my new blip.tv channel, and also on thatguywiththeglasses.com. At some point in the future I may delay the newest episodes going up on Youtube, but nothing's decided yet, I'll have to see how this all plays out. In the meantime, please feel free to spread the word of where the new videos will be since I imagine a lot of people will still be looking on Machinima.com.

 

If some of you are watching this series for the first time, be sure to check out the episode page on the site here to see all the previous videos. It's still a work in progress and will look better in the future, but all the links SHOULD be functional by the end of the day.

 

As for the episode itself, I'll warn everyone right now that this one contains some singing. It's not that I especially like singing actually, it's more that the song sung in this video is considered notoriously hard to do, so I thought it would be a good challenge for Freeman, plus it semi-fits the circumstances in the video. In any event, I have NO plans for future videos with singing in them, so you can rest easy.

 

Even though most of the situation was out of my control, you have my apologies for such a long delay on this episode, I plan for something like this to never happen again. Also while I won't promise release dates in general, it's my goal for the foreseeable future to have at least two FM episodes coming out a month from now on. I'm also gearing up to be producing even more videos and other content in addition to that. I'll have all updates here on the site.

Guys this isn't the kind of forum I'm looking for. If you're not mature enough to stop insulting each other, moderators will start banning people.

 

T-6 hours

NEW FREEMAN'S MIND EPISODE WILL BE UP HERE IN APPROXIMATELY 16 HOURS FROM THE TIME OF THIS POST

 

 

I already don't like BlipTV. It's got 60 second adverts that take 90 seconds if you try to disable them with an adblocker.

On top of that they have they're overly picky about things that get uploaded to their site? The fuck?

My stance on the ads is this: I hate ads too and I don't like having to subject people to them. But on the flipside, this will actually pay money and can help me pay rent. For now, the videos will appear on Youtube and Blip.tv, but in the future, ones on Youtube may be one episode behind. And I do intend to keep posting downloadable copies of the videos with a delay, so if you're patient, you'll never have to view any ads to watch the videos. I think that's about the best compromise I can do given the circumstances.