Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[majikero]

monkey coconut pickers? ingenious! first the nuts! and then the bananas!

anyway i think its perfectly okay. what do you guys think? the Peta types can go a bit lot overboard on things.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/19/448960760/monkeys-pick-coconuts-in-thailand-are-they-abused-or-working-animals

Why is this an issue? We had beast of burden for like FOREVER. In fact, working animals are better off than in the wilds since there is a very strong incentive to keep them fit and healthy.

[ArKFallen]

It's just kind of weird innit. They're like tiny people but not as smart. A phrase that also describe children pretty well.

Most human children can grow up to become smarter.
And I get why people have pets but when I think about it is unsettling. The above is my rationalized dividing line so I don't have to think further about pets vs people.

[Bohandas]

I just had a De-Ja-Vu.. Except... different?
Because I remembered having an odd precognition of a moment happening in Blood Bowl before I ever bought the game, so I bought the game because, as I said to my roomate 'I had a deja vu about something which can't possibly happen if I don't buy this game, so I'd better get it'.
Skip to now, and it's just happened, down to mine and my roomate's reactions to the thing happening.

Freaky stuff.

Cryptomnesia

[nenjin]

Possibly related, Payday 2 always took an enormous amount of extra hard drive space to patch for me.  Several GB at least, even for tiny patches.  Almost seemed like it doubled in effective size until the patch was done.  I was playing on a SSD and really couldn't reserve that much space, which is one reason I stopped playing a while ago.

did a quick google search on this, apparently the files are packed, then compressed, resulting in them needing to be extracted then unpacked, patched, then repacked/compressed... making it faster to just download the game new every patch if you have enough bandwidth...

why

Wow, if I had a SSD, I'd be kinda pissed. Because the game patches like 10 to 15 times a month, easily. Every time I open Steam and see something downloading, dollars to donuts it's Payday 2.

[scriver]

I definitely have no objections to using monkeys as labour beasts (sounds funny when the macaques are so tiny), but there are two things to keep in mind: firstly "treated like a pet" is a very meaningless statement without knowing how pets are regarded in the society and while a "pet" may mean that they regarded with love it certainly does not mean they are treated well, or with knowledge or respect.

Secondly, while that training school mentioned in the article certainly sound like they have the right idea this does not mean that monkeys in general are trained without violence or cruelty. Given humanity's track record with animal training I would assume the opposite until proven otherwise.

All in all, this certainly is not enough to keep me from buying Thai coconut milk. "Look! These monkeys are in a possibly abusive situation" is not very strong evidence compared to a "Look! These monkeys are being routinely and industrially abused and maltreated in these ways" kind of alarm, like with those angora rabbits in China a few years ago. But I suppose it is something to keep in mind.

Lastly, there's other animals I'd be more inclined to bring attention to, like those elephants kept in the tourist regions for tourists to oogle and take pictures with. Those situations seem a lot more precarious to me.

[Neonivek]

How is it that it has been decades and yet there STILL isn't a game that I feel could honestly replace Theme Hospital in at least a TINY way?

I love theme hospital but I am surprised that it is essentially "perfect" given the lack of even competent copy cats.

[Rolan7]

Totally.  Its UI isn't even especially good, there's a lot of room for improvement.
The same can be said for a lot of Bullfrog's games...  They did pretty well for the times, but that was then.

Even Dungeon Keeper 2, which is mostly good, has a pretty confusing interface for controlling creatures.  And Populous did get a pretty good sequel in Populous: The Beginning, but it too could be even better today.
What I can't believe is that we don't have a Magic Carpet 3 yet.  Or a Syndicate game with a non-awful interface.  Instead we got a Syndicate FPS...  I'd joke that they should make a Magic Carpet real-time-tactics game, but that could actually be great.

Actually I can't believe Bullfrog folded in the first place.  So many amazing original ideas, such a travesty.

[Emma]

Does Satellite Reign count as a Syndicate game with a non-awful interface?

[hector13]

Totally.  Its UI isn't even especially good, there's a lot of room for improvement.
The same can be said for a lot of Bullfrog's games...  They did pretty well for the times, but that was then.

Even Dungeon Keeper 2, which is mostly good, has a pretty confusing interface for controlling creatures.  And Populous did get a pretty good sequel in Populous: The Beginning, but it too could be even better today.
What I can't believe is that we don't have a Magic Carpet 3 yet.  Or a Syndicate game with a non-awful interface.  Instead we got a Syndicate FPS...  I'd joke that they should make a Magic Carpet real-time-tactics game, but that could actually be great.

Actually I can't believe Bullfrog folded in the first place.  So many amazing original ideas, such a travesty.

Didn't EA buy them and now owns the IPs to all those wonderful games?

[Aklyon]

You mean EA bought them and is now hiding all the IP under a pile of rubbish mobile games (or fpses)?
Sorta like how they made a certain rts play like something else and be surprised when people hated the abrupt change in direction.

[hector13]

You mean EA bought them and is now hiding all the IP under a pile of rubbish mobile games (or fpses)?
Sorta like how they made a certain rts play like something else and be surpriseddon't really give a shit when people hated the abrupt change in direction.

FTFY

EA aren't really all that good at making games, but they do know how to sell them, which... well it's certainly in their interests.

So long as people buy the games - which they will if it's a well-known and popular IP - they won't care what their customers think.

[Aklyon]

If they cared that little they should've just made a movie instead, then they could've charged more for it and then cry about piracy when it doesn't make infinite money.

Would've been about as good anyways.

[hector13]

But you can't offer DLC for movies

[Aklyon]

But you can't offer DLC for movies

Special bonus dvd Blu-ray content not on the original disk!

[Frumple]

But you can't offer DLC for movies

Can't you? Isn't that more or less the point behind director's cuts and deleted scenes version? They just don't let you buy the extra content separate, yet. It's only a matter of time. Sooner or later they'll realize they can charge for the base movie, and then charge more than they currently are to buy the extras, and then you will see movie DLC.