SimCity3000 (u/SimCity3000)

SimCity3000 commented on What it's like to spend 40-50 hours in VR every week blog.immersed.team/workin... · Posted by u/eflowers

lodovic · 4 years ago

I'd be very afraid to fry my eyes. I can't imagine strapping a bright display at 10cm from your eyes, for hours on end, won't lead to eye issues later on in life. I already feel strained after using a headset for an hour.

SimCity3000 · 4 years ago

I feel like people had the same worries when television, computers and video games invaded homes everywhere in decades past. I'm thinking the problems (if any) won't be as bad as you think they will be.

And to your last point I think that's where common sense comes in. If something is painful, if it causes you discomfort, stop. You're body is decently good at protecting you from things that are harmful to it (except sugary sweets for me...)

SimCity3000 commented on Here’s the story of a game I made in 1994, when I was 12 twitter.com/rickbrewpdn/s... · Posted by u/danso

cpach · 6 years ago

It was! :) But things are mostly better now. One striking difference is that in the PC world back then, getting a sane programming environment was quite hard if you didn’t have someone to show you how to do it. Many compilers/IDEs were commercial and too expensive for kids who just wanted to try out programming. I had a PC but I had no idea that Perl, Python or Scheme/Common Lisp even existed.

SimCity3000 · 6 years ago

I had that exact experience. I was playing Half-Life (1998) and I learned that you could download the source and modify it (I was not a programmer, just some little kid with a computer). I somehow figured out how to download a free/trial of Borland C++, setup my dev environment, and recompile the entirety of the source code after making a one-character change (changed the friendtype of grunts from one integer value to another) so that they would treat the player as "friendly" and focus on shooting aliens instead. It was a very painful process.

This was before Half-Life: Opposing Force was released.

SimCity3000 commented on Here’s the story of a game I made in 1994, when I was 12 twitter.com/rickbrewpdn/s... · Posted by u/danso

SimCity3000 · 6 years ago

When I was around 10 years old I made Use Map Settings (UMS) maps for Starcraft. Freeze tag, Aeon of Strife clones etc. I lost them all and don't think I'll find them again.

I also made maps for Half-Life and Counter Strike. I had them uploaded to my Geocities page but have since lost them. Never found my webpage (cool_kirby77) in the various Geocities archives either.

Those creations only exist in my memory now (and maybe others who played them at the time). Sometimes I wonder if what I created was really as spectacular as I thought it was.

The only thing I have saved from my childhood is a single-player map I made for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. The only reason I have it is because I searched years later, and apparently someone took many of the custom maps from the community over the years and uploaded them to some German website. So I could download the .bsp, but the original .map was lost so I couldn't make changes if I wanted to.

I downloaded the map, installed MOHAA and recorded a playthrough so I'd never have to worry about losing it again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhPK__EgsC4

I made that map because I hated how in MOHAA (and most other games like Quake, Soldier of Fortune etc) you were 1 man vs a million. I wanted an FPS where you actually had (useful) allies that helped you throughout the game. Not much longer after I released the map, a number of employees left "2015" (the company that made MOHAA) and started a new company, Infinity Ward. Their first game, Call of Duty, was very similar to MOHAA, but you were actually surrounded by friendly troops that fought with you!

So I like to think that my map was a pioneer that launched a multi-million dollar franchise and cultural phenomenon ;)

SimCity3000 commented on A Tarahumara woman won a Mexican ultramarathon in sandals (2017) elpais.com/elpais/2017/05... · Posted by u/JetSpiegel

flyGuyOnTheSly · 7 years ago

I love the concept behind this.

I have thought for a while now that we are not necessarily guaranteed to see the best basketball players in the world perform in the NBA, nor are we guaranteed to see the fastest runners in the world win the 100 meter dash in the Summer Olympics.

We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money, and the fastest runners who are motivated by fame.

SimCity3000 · 7 years ago

> We can only be sure that we are witnessing the best basketball players in the world who are motivated by money

I wouldn't say that. As an NBA fan, I feel that players that are motivated by money fall off once they make it to the league. They lose their passion, fall out of shape, and waste their potential. The best players are the ones that are so passionate about basketball that they don't know what they would do without it, are able to stay out of legal trouble, and are able to stay relatively injury free.

American football is much the same way, but with more emphasis on staying injury free. Sadly when they retire, if their body is wrecked from the sport and they don't have anything else they're passionate about, they often turn to suicide.

Also for decades now, many NBA players have mentioned in interviews and whatnot that they know players that are better than players in the league, but never made it because of drugs/crime/other off the court issues.

On a side note, auto racing has a different problem. We don't necessarily see the best drivers in each racing series because it takes a lot of talent AND funding to get to that point. There are likely many drivers that are more talented but never had the funding to reach the highest levels.

SimCity3000 commented on The Spacing Effect: How to Improve Learning and Maximize Retention fs.blog/2018/12/spacing-e... · Posted by u/yarapavan

SimCity3000 · 7 years ago

This sounds a lot like learning an instrument. You should be practicing consistently in short bursts every day. You don't have to practice for more than an hour or two. The consistency is what's key. You'll develop better technique faster if you practice 30 minutes a day as opposed to 3.5 hours every Sunday.