Decultured

@TideSDK - I’ve been following this project for quite some time, hoping that it would succeed. With the updates from yesterday, however, I have to write it off as dead.

For months, the only communication from the team has consisted of vague hints at a major rewrite, big updates, fixes for the numerous problems that plague the current version. As time has passed, the excuses for the delays and lack of communication have piled up, while the status updates and team communication with the public have dwindled to almost nothing.

http://www.tidesdk.org/blog/2013/04/11/tidesdk-in-numbers/

it’s more excuses. This time, it’s money that’s the problem, and the reason the project is not meeting it’s promised releases is a lack of donations.

The post gathered a lot of attention, and sparked a number of pointed, yet insightful, comments raising legitimate concerns about the state of the project, the lack of communication, and the general attitudes of the development team. At first, a few responses were given, but they dodged the questions raised and only offered more dismissive excuses unrelated to the complaints.

Now, this morning, I see that the comments have been removed entirely.

(I’ve mirrored a screenshot of the removed comments above)

I hate to say it, but in it’s current state I maintain little hope for this formerly promising project. Some big changes in how the project is run are needed to keep this project alive.

A few of the changes that I would need to see are:

• Restore the comments. Sure, some of what they have to say is harsh, but they also raise legitimate concerns and deserve a real response. If nothing else, this would be a great way to show a commitment to change.
• Develop in the open. There have been almost no updates in the public repository for months now, yet there are constant indications development is underway. Let us see the projects, review the commits, and see the progress being made.
• Allow others to help. I’ve offered development time personally on IRC, and have been ignored. Others that have offered have been shot down. The only official response I have seen is insulting: “There is a gap between the skills needed for developing TideSDK and those required to use it.” Implying your users are incapable of coding at your level.
• Communicate. Let the public know what is being developed, be specific. No more excuses, vague promises, and empty updates. If there are delays, fine, that is expected in the development world, but let us know what the hurdles are, maybe someone can help.
• Stop being assholes. Based on your communications so far, especially in twitter replies, you seem to have a strong distaste for your user base. Stop being so dismissive and hostile. There isn’t exactly a flood of comments or posts directed at you, so take a few minutes to give thoughtful, helpful, and useful responses.

TideSDK, if you are listening, your post is inspiring such passionate and frustrated replies not because we hate your work, but because we want you to succeed. I want to see this project work, and have followed it closely since it was open-sourced. But unless you make some real changes to your development process, and treat your community with respect, I don’t expect your post to generate the stampede of donations you are asking for, nor do I expect this project to survive at all.

almanac-of-misc:

dresdencodak:

Inspired by Anita Sarkeesian’s Video Game Tropes vs Women, I wanted to pitch a Zelda game where Zelda herself was the hero, rescuing a Prince Link. 

Clockwork Empire is set 2,000 years after Twilight Princess, and is not a reboot, but simply another iteration in the Zelda franchise. It just so happens that in this case, Zelda is the protagonist. I’m a very big Zelda fan, and worked hard to draw from key elements in the continuity and mythos.

This concept work is meant to show that Zelda as a game protagonist can be both compelling and true to the franchise, while bringing new and dynamic game elements that go farther than being a simple gender swap.

Hope you like it!

I AM DYING THIS SOUNDS LIKE TH BEST ZELDA GAME

(via hamsterlobotomy)

qats:

so a 90’s computer hacker was at walmart today

(via straythought)

On Skeuomorphic Design - 3 Panel Soul

I so hate this trend…

(Source: threepanelsoul.com)

Apple should take heed of the above.  Their rules for password creation are ridiculous:

Password must:

• Have at least one letter
• Have at least one capital letter
• Have at least one number
• Not contain multiple identical consecutive characters
• Not be the same as the account name
• Be at least 8 characters
• Not be a common password
• Not be used in past year
• Not contain spaces

There are also apparently some undocumented rules that sometimes get triggered such as “not complex enough” whatever that means.

If that wasn’t bad enough, they like to rub it in when you forget it:

https://iforgot.apple.com/iForgot/iForgot.html

As much as apple loves simplicity and minimalism, and as focused as they are on mobile devices (those rules suck even worse on a tablet or phone), they should just embrace the above idea from XKCD:

Your password must:

• be four random words, separated by space

I’d even be ok if they picked them for me.

Comic from XKCD

When product designers don’t understand grade school physics.

How could they possibly think this would work?

Open Source Linux-based handheld gaming console, for $135 that i can play classic descent on with motion controls? A kickstarter with a complete prototype and manufacturing chain set up, with expected delivery only 2 months out? Something this awesome is being made here in Kansas City? I’m in!

Find out more:

GCW-Zero: Open Source Gaming Handheld

These guys deserve your money, give it to them:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/talesofgames/barkley-2-an-rpg-sequel-to-barkley-shut-up-and-jam

Heading Home

After an incredible 3 weeks abroad, I am heading to the airport for home in just a couple hours. This has been an amazing experience, far more interesting and exciting than I could have imagined. It feels like I have been gone for months, packing in a weeks worth of experience each day.

I’ve always considered myself worldly, at least more knowledgeable about the world and its cultures than most Americans, but this experience has shown me that I have so much more to learn. The culture here was alien to me, the people having different sensibilities, foreign motivations, unfamiliar attitudes. Life progresses at different paces, often more rushed and impatient, and commonly infuriatingly slow. Transportation and navigation must be relearned, I was scammed by a rickshaw driver my first day in Delhi and got very lost a few times in Kathmandu’s labyrinthine unlabeled streets. Shopping requires new skills not too unlike playing poker, bartering and haggling while trying to read the shopkeeper to determine what the price should be, and how many multiples of that have been added for looking like a tourist. Different shops on the same street may give prices for the same product that differ by orders of magnitude, and the owners are adept and practiced at the psychology of the sale, using guilt, wild stories, invented friendship and outright lies to close a deal .

Values here are different, especially where tourists are concerned. Scams, false beggars, and seemingly generous offers with hidden agendas are constantly thrust at travelers. False holy men pose near monuments, seemingly in prayer, then guilt travelers into paying for taking a picture. I saw a beggar tell a tourist they didn’t want money, only food, pointing at a stand selling packaged snacks. After the tourist bought a feast for her and left, the young beggar returned the goods for cash. A fellow traveler told me how on their first day, their cab driver seemingly called their hotel for directions, was told the reservation was canceled, and instead drove to a hotel he generously recommended. In reality, the call was to an accomplice, the reservation was not canceled, and the driver was paid commission for delivering customers.

Architecture here is varied and exciting, often improvised and cleverly built from inexpensive materials, often made up of ancient and elegant construction hundreds of years old and still in daily use. There are no sprawling strip malls, no stores spread over acres, instead hundreds of small stores, each barely bigger than the back of a U-Haul, each with one type of specialty good, line every street. Temples, mosques and stupas are dotted throughout the cities, some new, some ancient. The only franchises, and the only repeated and familiar buildings are the few western chains gradually gaining ground in the cities. Even those differ from home, Pizza Hut has table cloths and a doorman, KFC is known as a great place to take a date.

For everything that is different, it’s interesting to see those things that are shared between cultures. Kids play familiar looking games in the street, people gather in restaurants to cheer their sports teams (it’s cricket season in India, apparently), people talk about their favorite TV shows and movies, and gossip over celebrity lives.

Every thing about this trip has been an education, and through the short time I have been here, I have become comfortable with things that were difficult at first, and more adept at navigating the culture that daunted me when I first arrived. It would take years to really assimilate and fit the culture, but it has gradually come close to feeling like I could eventually belong.

A large part of me wants to stay, to continue the adventure, but I know too that I need time to relax and process everything I’ve seen. I have thousands of photos to sort, hundreds of stories to share, and uncountable experiences that will no doubt leave a lasting impression on who I am. Though I am returning home, I am certain that I am hooked, and that it won’t be long before I am planning my next trip to some other new and exciting country.

Listening to an Asian interpretation of Jim Morrison at an Irish pub in Kathmandu, ordered bangers and mash, pretty awesome really… My kind of place!