There really are a lot of different definitions for the word "game". Maybe we should be thinking more along these lines:

<mircea_popescu> https://i.imgur.com/wBw2DpJ.png
<mircea_popescu> bwahahaha
<mircea_popescu> ok you buncha scammor wannabes. which of you is cool enough to have his own posters made ? huh ?
<mircea_popescu> i'm like in bruce wagner and amir taaki league here.

Old picture. I've gained weight. -.- Going from eating ramen and rice to actually stuffing myself regularly has taken it's toll.


First off - What deed? (etc)

Also, if I did do something "immoral", wouldn't it make more sense that I simply don't care, rather than I fail to realize that it's immoral? Or that I justify every action I take to myself somehow? I don't even want to imagine what kind of personality disorder would cause someone to literally not realize an immoral action.


Okay.


And that sucks. Honestly.


Some of you. Others are businessmen.


Sure. And some of you buy blocks of shares. Some of you bid on 50 shares @ 2.5 BTC. No. Give me some of that. I have REAL bills to pay, not "investment money" to throw around. Now, given that I'm not a beggar, and that I either work for my money, or take it (which is work, believe me), there's really only one way to get a piece of that action.

Man, do you think that if I could just drop $1,000, lay in the cut, and make out okay I wouldn't? Of course I would. But the fact of the matter is this - I am at that awkward point in Bitcoin investment between "too poor to do it" and "has the capital to make some serious investments". I can buy a chunk, and starve for a month before seeing a payout. No thank you. Rent.


This was a helluva sentence. I don't even...

Do I really want to tell you I don't know that whoever... I don't even.

I'll tell you that if you want to climb mountains, you'll fall every so often. Swim in the ocean, you can get bitten by a shark. Walk down an alley, you could get killed. Play in Bitcoins, you can get scammed. I don't know how else to say it. If I get taken for 20 BTC one day, it's a cost of doing business. It's akin to getting gutshot in a motel when dealing coke. It's part of the business. If you were dealing in diamonds, human suffering would most likely be part of the business. Insider trading is part of Wall Street. Scammers are part of bitcoins. It's not PERFECT, but it's REALITY.

If someone is starving because they lost 2 BTC, then why did they invest their last $200 in BTC? This is a gamble, it's not a sure thing. Anyone could buy bulk drugs and resell them for 200% markup. Most people don't. Why? It's a risk. You NEVER, EVER rely on getting by on risks. That's just irresponsible. The majority of people willing to buy shares aren't buying one at a time. They are buying twenty. They have coins to toss around. They aren't starving. They aren't getting evicted. They're fine.

The only exception I'll make to that statement is the off chance that someone gets hurt/killed because they couldn't explain the loss of BTC to whoever fronted them the coins. An unlikely situation, but it could happen.


I didn't vanish like a Nigerian. I didn't lie to any one at any time about who I am. I made an offer for a diplomatic meeting to any who felt like making the trip. I've been a "man" about this from the beginning. Perhaps a disrespectful and/or immature "man", but a "man" nonetheless.


1: You're implying that I've stolen something. This is not true. I have never stolen anything from anyone in my entire life.

2: If I could toss around money whenever I feel like it, I would fill 60% of the loan requests on the forums, set up charities for people who have been scammed, AND pay back every one in this thread at 150% interest. You can call BS on this, but when LordOfTime and SubZero from OTC loaned me a small amount of BTC for shipping costs on a few items I wanted, I paid back at 200% the MOMENT I had the means to do so. I'm more "honorable" than any of you marks think I am, you just don't know that part of me.

The pecking order in my life goes like this.

1: Myself and my girl.
2: Family.
3: Friends and the needy.
3: Associates and random people.

That's how my money has ALWAYS been spent. I grew up observing totally selfless acts of charity (redneck charity - random deer meat/bologna, pawn hoss, etc) from my family to others. My father always tossed me a little money on the weekends to rent a movie or game, even though he could barely afford his home. Generosity is a part of what I believe in.

That having been said, I'm not selfless. I do not put others before me and mine. I do not believe in depriving myself for the benefit of "justice", "charity", or "honor". As always, this isn't a popular viewpoint, but it's the real world.



I'm sure some are. They should stop doing that, for everyone's benefit.


1: I do not want to scam anyone, nor have I ever scammed anyone, etc.

2: No. Absolutely not.


This is something that I literally cannot just "do". You cannot "have" a conscience one day. I don't have one, to my knowledge. If I do, it hits me at random times, and certainly not regularly. Take the Menig situation for example. I'm a bit of a sadist, but some things do in fact make me sad to see. I dunno. It's something I don't want to get into a huge debate about.


Anyway. I'll tell you what. If I sink my teeth into a good long-term project and pull in my usual ~5-7k/month, I'll toss a few BTC around. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that I'll clear all debts at 120%. Again, you don't HAVE to believe this, but if I'm making stupid money, I get generous. If I'm broke, I get predatory. That's just the way I am, and always will be.


20 bodyguards. Sliding walls. Snipers. Oh, we went wild with security.

There are also massive design decisions which have to be made in terms of game-play.  If you're going with the item-mall idea then you first need to determine which model of it you'll use.  All of these comments are my own views - not based on forum discussions.  I see item-malls as being split into two types:

Why is it preferred? Because it seems more fiscally sound based on what you know about the game industry as of right now, or because it really is the best option?

The RCE model is something most will cite in their essay: "What is wrong with modern video games?" Why MG is pursuing this model when so many reputable industry giants have flat out stated the many flaws in this system baffles me completely.

You're confused because you have never worked for/with a game company. There's no way in hell you can convince anyone with a brain in the game industry that a revenue model is more important than a game that will sell. That's exactly how the Atari brand failed multiple times.

What do I mean by this? You can focus all day on your revenue model, solid business plan, etc. But if your game sucks, no one is going to willingly play it.

You have no way to prove to anyone what you develop won't suck.

It's not particularly divorced, but they hang in a balance for a game company. There will be many a decision that helps the revenue stream, but hurts the fanbase.

They oppose each other by nature. Ideally everyone would love a healthy fanbase and revenue model/stream to refelect one another

You clearly asked, even if rhetorically to deflect "going into detail", "why is it so important to establish conceptually what is or isn't a game?" while spearheading the PR for a game company.

Every year at the GDC, you'll have schmuck saying the same thing when arguing "games aren't art" which has been debated for years, becoming the new micro/monolithic kernel flamewar for the game industry.

+1

This, the coinlab lawsuit & the dwolla debacle are starting to cast a pretty big shadow on Gox.  The fact that Gox has said nothing of consequence publicly about any of these matters is worrying.

I noticed that no one from this community showed up to my party at West End. Most unfortunate. I was pretty wound up - actually only had two shots and two beers to keep myself somewhat grounded in case some shit jumped off.

Pretty disappointing. On the other hand, it was pretty fun. Feeling pretty old now.

An Object Lesson

I had been happily trading on localbitcoins.com for a few weeks when I was ripped off by someone outside of the localbitcoins website. The theft cost me $1500 in cash, permanent lock-out from six family Chase accounts, and perhaps an additonal $6000 (unresolved). Here is what happened.

Between June 3 and June 6, 2013 I conducted about $6,000 worth of smooth online bitcoin trades through localbitcoins.com.

Then I received an email from someone claiming to be Wendelyn K. Brooks-Stuart, 9526 Bayou Lake Lane, Houston, TX 77040, saying that she saw my localbitcoins ad and wanted to buy 12 BTC. I agreed. Without going through the localbitcoins procedure, she directly sent me $1500 via Chase QuickPay. Without going through the localbitcoins procedure, I directly sent her the 12 BTC. She then called Chase, claiming that I had defrauded her. Chase clawed back the $1500 from my account and refunded the money to her. She also kept the 12 BTC. That was the good news.

Based on that single complaint, and without any investigation or warning, Chase then permanently locked me out of: my personal account, our company business account, and two credit card accounts. They also locked my wife out of her personal account and one credit card account, even  though her name was not on any of my accounts, and my name was not on any of her accounts. They refused to tell me why we were locked out. That was the medium news.

Here is the bad news. The following day, I received an automated-alert email that someone had siphoned $6000 from my personal account. The someone was J.P. Morgan Chase Bank itself. They had decided (again without warning) that, since I was accused of fraud for the $1500 transaction (where I was ripped off), that all of the deposits to my account from 5 June on were bogus. So they confiscated all $6000 off them and began sending them all back to wherever they had come from.

My wife and I remain permanently locked out of two personal accounts, a business account, and three credit cards. Chase will not consider relenting on this. On the other hand, Chase has opened the possibility that they may perhaps consider giving us back the $6000 of unrelated deposits  that they confiscated.

The moral of the story: (1) Don't trade BTC/USD outside of the localbitcoins procedures. (2) Don't put any more money into Chase than you are willing to lose without warnng.

Frank W  Sweet (coqui33)
30 Medford Dr
Palm Coast FL 32137
386-316-9769
fwsweet@backintyme.com

I am a CPA in Maryland with over 20 years of experience in the financial industires. 

I have extensive knowledge of Bitcoin, TOR and data encryption.   


To begin, I do a telephone consult with you for one or two Bitcoin to answer your questions and direct your actions.

Second, if you are in need of accounting services, i.e. bookkeeping services, we make more in-depth arrangements to facilitate your business/investments.


Thanks so much for letting me serve you!

BTC besT

What an excellent idea.



You are now all infected, MuahahahahahahahAAARgh*cough**cough**wheeze*

16oUMhi2aQ4LFFCeG5TgoufiUh5Pa1gqoY

Send 1BTC here before the end of the day to reserve your share in our IPO.

Item malls are secondary revenue streams and have failed plenty of times due to this new developer mantra of "Fuck the user as long as we get paid." The reason games such as Team Fortress 2 have been successful in applying the mall-model is due to a previously developed user base surrounding a quality game. Sacrificing quality for revenue always leads to disaster, one may profit initially, however this always catches up to you (see NASDAQ:ZNGA).

If Mircea is trying to develop a game in house, why not start with a quality game first before moving onto revenue models?

Mircea has more than enough capital to compete with AAA titles.

Most designers and developers worth hiring who have the potential to reach this capacity care most about their artistic vision and how those leading them affect the realized version of that vision.

By not making this distinction you are again insulting the player, the one person you'd best not to insult. The player may never know or care about the distinction, but they will feel it in the game. This distinction allows the designer to create an experience that is fun, rather than depending on "brain hacks." It is subconscious by nature.

By ignoring the distinction or an effort to find a distinction, you are not doing your homework, and a disservice to the end user.

Farmville's mechanics can be broken down into a very simple "click the cow" action, whereas a game like Dark Souls or Nethack require strategy, tactics, and skill.

It's in Mr. Popescu's best interest to recruit the best developers/designers possible in regards to game development, and keep them close, perhaps loyal. Maintaining a good relationship with a team that always makes the playoffs is far easier than trying to reconstruct a new team every season.

When I spoke with Mr. Popescu, I asked if a team brought him a game he believed in, would he manage them without compromising their artistic vision, and he said in fewer more concise words, "sure, as long as they have a product."

I hope S.MG takes a more traditional route, and helps to invest in delivering quality products to shelves, and a quality team, rather than trying to invest in profits to impress investors (the EA route).

Developers need management, they aren't managers, hence how could they manage themselves? Many designers and developers realize this, but no leadership team wants to be onboard a company funded by dreams.

You seem to be focused on the revenue plan, and less on the question "will players become fans?"

one more giant lel behind that link. glad I dumped all my S.DICE shares and put them into AM; my BTC30 loss due to napkin accounting was more than recovered.

Scammers don't even bother to make an effort anymore 

ha!

Taken from the BH website, which makes mpex.co look like an art student's final acid trip:

I'm from Bulgaria but I escaped, so I know all about your country and the kind of financial businesses that come from it.

Is there any known person associated with this company who has any experience in the games industry?

I wouldn't invest in this share without knowing what they planned to do and who they had hired.

But then there are plenty of folks who mindlessly put lots of money in an unknown entity.

Even when someone like Warren Buffet promotes a stock you generally lose because he likely promotes stocks which benefit him the most

What about if Erik just uses the secret key to win himself 200btc per day for a month, how do we audit that?

I think the point here is that there is no loan at all. Erik has been compensated fairly via IPO and the shares he holds, and never noted any desire to loan funds to SDICE in the past.

I wonder if there are any other surprise liabilities SDICE has...