Serious synchronicities

[Mr G]

Hello Mr X and all, sorry I was MIA but it looks like I'm not alone in that.

Just had to say thank you for introducing me to this game, haven't had much time to play but put in a solid weekend. I thought I was never going to get anywhere but things are looking up. That Ring of Binding makes a huge difference.

Anyway, just reporting in as alive and kicking (undead and kicking in DS2), don't be strangers, strangers.

Cheers!

[Mr X]

hello mr g,

i have been checking the forum most days but otherwise distracted during this mia period, but today got the urge to post something, funny to see you had too.
ive gotta say, where is merlin, he has been mia for ages now.

i played at least many hours before i found the lady with the estus flask/level up lady. i wore the ring of binding for the entire game as i was often hollow and died lots. just started newgame+. once i started to upgrade my bastard sword and got an tower shield things started to look up. i happy you like it, the souls games are and great experience. after beating ds1 i looked up all the media about it, i liked this article -
http://www.destructoid.com/the-sad-reality-of-dark-souls-215398.phtml

when i posted that jeff video, that day i watched his first live stream of ds2 on twitch, as i was far enough ahead there would be no spoilers. he ended the stream with plans to go watch the new episode of orphan black. i was waiting for the stream to end so i could watch that episode as i was downloading while i watch. of course - that episode introduced "the birdwatchers" and had one hell of a hands at the dinner table scene. was no meaning or info to that sync but i thought it was worth an mention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbDmI_2IVQ8 (ds2 trailer for reference incase mr j is wondering what on earth we are talking about, but warning mr g it shows some bosses you havent seen yet)

mr x.

[Mr G]

Hello again, this really is the most rewarding game I've probably ever played. And that includes Mass Effect, to which I have essentially given my actual soul. It's funny to be talking about games like this again, I kind of thought I was done with it.

Anyway, congratulations on finishing the game, I'm still far away from that and I have my doubts if I ever will. Still, just having played it is an experience worth remembering. It brings out emotions that I didn't think I still possessed. I still have this glow in my chest that I haven't felt since... I can't really remember. I know I'm overselling it, it's just the adrenalin buzz, but that alone is worth it's weight in sublime bone dust. Yeah.

Peace be upon you, I must go think of an appropriate image to respond to Tosk's post at the Paperclip thread. I think I have it. RIP Mr Giger.

[Mr X]

it took me just shy of 100 hours to beat it, i averaged about 7 hours a day, some days less some more. but i had planned for it, cooked up lots of food and frozen meals, gathered an considerable stash of wine and pot, made sure my girlfriend was suitabley addicted to netflix shows and seasons of shows i had downloaded, made sure i had no outstanding social obligations. dark souls 2 for me was like a combo of chasing the dragon (seeking the awesomeness of my first experience with dark souls) and an grudge match. i knew what i was in for and i dived into it.

but i havent beaten it yet, there was 2 optional bosses that try as i did, i couldnt beat. so i will face them in ng+ even though they will be stronger.

i dont think you are overselling it, i think to wax lyrical about dark souls is completely appropriate. when i read "glow in my chest" i instantly thought "adrenaline!". when i am really into an show or movie, i sit forward in my seat, anticipating what comes next. and then at the end i think "that was great!, fantastic". but even the very best of tv/movies, 10/10 stuff, doesnt leave me with my heart beating out of my chest, actual real adrenaline going through my body and sometimes a flop sweat.

i think you will beat it. praise the sun.

i very much and generally put vid games in the catagory of tv an movies, general entertainment. they are mainstream and normal avenues to enjoy in spare time. sometimes i feel like doing an engaging activity such as an game over the passive watching of entertainment, in the same way people would prefer to do an crossword puzzle than watch an show where the puzzle is solved on screen without any effort. sometimes i dont feel like it. but i dont think i will ever be done with it. it is not an age thing in same way people dont age out of finding tv and movies entertaining.

mass effect was excellent. the chest glow followed by chest burster made me laugh.

mr .x

[ju4o]

Quote from this morning, "I've got entirely fed up of the nightingales they make such a racket"

Now they are giving music lessons to their chicks and it is no joke.

[Mr X]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkc8Mor9RTc

its funny, before mr g re joined the forum, i was aware i would not be here due to distractions during the middle of the year, similar to your infrographic in reply#7. but then mr g was here and i thought i would stick around when i would normally go quiet, but due to ds2 hype i went quiet anyway (hype that was boosted by mr g being hyped).

but i have been thinking about this place.

mr x.

[ju4o]

Did you know that playing some of these games can help a higher purpose?  For example, there are games that embody the logic of computer programs so that people playing the game can help check that the program is correct.

Consider for example a program for re-setting forgotten passwords.  The program might be quite simple but it is vital that it does the right things in the right order.  By making each thing an element in a game and letting people play the game, the game's creators can learn where the security flaws might be.

For example, "read scroll then rescue maiden" could be made to correspond to "send an email with a password re-set link, then accept a new password from the user"

while doing it the other way round, "rescue maiden then read scroll", could correspond to "let the user change her password, then send a validation link in email for the user to click in order to validate it".

One of these ways may have a terrible security flaw that no one has yet noticed, while the other way may be correct.

So by encouraging lots and lots of people to play the game, and seeing what ingenious ways people come up with to slay the dragon, feedback gets sent to the software engineering team about loopholes in the security protocol.

Perhaps you think I'm making this up.  Well I'm not.

http://www.verigames.com/aboutUs (http://www.verigames.com/aboutUs)

The Problem

Formal Verification is the process of rigorously analyzing software to detect flaws that make programs vulnerable to exploitation. Performing this analysis requires highly skilled engineers with extensive training and experience. This makes the verification process costly and relatively slow.

The Proposed Solution

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Crowd Sourced Formal Verification (CSFV) program seeks to replace the intensive work done by the domain experts by greatly decreasing the skill required to do Formal Verification, and therefore allow more people (who do not need to be domain experts) to perform the analysis in a more efficient manner.

How might we achieve this? By creating fun and engaging games that represent the underlying mathematical concepts, we empower the non-experts to effectively do the work of the formal verification experts - simply by playing and completing the game objectives.

[Mr X]

hello mr j,

i dont think you are making up it, things like this have been an around for and while -
http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/play-to-cure-genes-in-space
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/video-game-cure-hiv.htm

realistically the problem is that games are just another entertainment business, so it all comes down to the bottom line. hollywood action movies could be designed to teach the audience latin, but they wont. the video games that have access to huge audiences (due to huge development and marketing budgets) are made by corporations that only care about making dollars.

funnily enough, it does seem an trend that developers release unfinished games or do beta tests with thousands of people, so the huge  amount of crowdsourced information helps them finish the software. as there will always be people that find ways to break or exploit the software. while it took me close to 100 hours to beat ds2, there are videos on youtube of people beating it in around 20 minutes, without hacking or cheating. just very creative exploits that were eventually patched out.

including logic to solve problems just wouldnt happen due to the dollar driving every ounce of energy spent on development.

it does seem like it could be an good way to both solve problems and raise funds, maybe in an few decades after the new age of virtual reality kicks in.

mr x.

[ju4o]

Fascinating.

So if you and G had been playing the right video games you would both be fluent in Latin by now,

and video games could have saved Carlos Castaneda from misusing the word "cohort".

[Mr X]

hypothetically, it seems more likely an person would come to be very familiar with all latin words over time, fairly easily. in order to be fluent, the software would have to teach grammer and sentance structure, which i supposed could be done. if the "right" video games existed.

you will have to explain to me castaneda misuses of cohort, i dont get it.

mr x.

[Mr G]

 

[Merlin]

...you will have to explain to me castaneda misuses of cohort, i dont get it.

mr x.

He consistently abuses the term as a plural in eagles gift and active side of infinity.
An almost unimaginably unacceptable profanity.

[Mr X]

are you saying that every time castanedas used the word cohort in the eagles gift or active side of infinity, he was not referrering to and ancient roman phalanx ?

or that when he used the word cohort it was false because there was never an group of warriors, just the insides of his own brian ?

by the way, welcome back mr merlin.

mr j, the recent discuss made me realize i know about as much about the video game industry as an milk drinker knows about being an dairy farmer, and i did some looking of things up.
on the day i looked things up, this video was released on the internet. i thought you might like it, if you dare to be an pirate.

http://movreel.com/j0lq61ojdgzv  (have adblock installed in your chrome browser, click continue to video, click on "download link" in red text inside box under the video screen. play the file with "vlc" player.)

hello mr g, how are you ?

mr x.

[ju4o]

Zany coincidence coming up, I just got an email which says (when translated from italian)

Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2014 at 12:21 PM
From: [email protected]
To: giulio*****@*****.com

Dear Giulio,

Thank you for your online pre-order.

This email message confirms your pre-order.  Payment will be taken from your portfolio nearer the release date and and you will then receive an email confirming the purchase.

Il team di Sony Entertainment Network
Sony Network Entertainment Europe Limited

Details:
Customer name: someone (who I've never heard of)
Item: pre-order of Battlefield™ Hardline Deluxe Edition (Oggetto di gioco)
Expected release date: 24/10/2014 @ 12:00 AM

So what should I do?

[ju4o]

Maybe I didn't say enough to explain why it was a coincidence, but basically it was because I don't have anything to do with video games, and the moment I start talking about them here, along comes that email.

You might think that's not really much of a coincidence.

But the level has now deepened.

Because, I decided the best thing to do would be to reply to the message and tell them they had sent it to the wrong email address.  But the email couldn't be replied to, instead it wanted me to log in to their system using my email address as login id.  So I tried that.  Next thing, as I didn't know the password, it offered to send a password re-set link to my email address!  And did!!  Without any security checking at all, along came another email containing a password re-set link.

So I tried saying I didn't want to re-set the password because I didn't have an account anyway.  But it said I had only two choices, either re-set the password on my existing account or create a new account.  So I tried creating a new account, with my email address as id, and it said I couldn't do that as I already had an account.

Now take a look back to what I was saying about security flaws in password protocols, and their link with video games, in post #36 in this thread.

I think this synchronicity is well up to Mr G's standards.