(2017-12-27 02:56:10) HEx: in other news, remember my friend with the gaming obsession?
(2017-12-27 02:56:23) alexfink@jabber.de: *thinks*
(2017-12-27 02:56:27) alexfink@jabber.de: say more
(2017-12-27 02:57:24) HEx: she is often to be found broadcasting herself playing stuff on twitch
(2017-12-27 02:59:26) HEx: 28. August it was I mentioned having met her on a hackspace stargazing trip; I was kinda into her at the time but that's worn off as I haven't spoken to her for months
(2017-12-27 02:59:36) alexfink@jabber.de: oh, is this Illie?
(2017-12-27 02:59:39) HEx: nope
(2017-12-27 02:59:48) alexfink@jabber.de: hm.  well, my memory fails me.
(2017-12-27 02:59:51) alexfink@jabber.de: but go on
(2017-12-27 03:02:52) HEx: today she organised a tabletop gaming session. I figured why not make an attempt to join in
(2017-12-27 03:04:06) HEx: this wasn't the kind of tabletop gaming that features an actual tabletop, sadly, it was the kind where you all log into Steam and play Tabletop Simulator
(2017-12-27 03:04:31) alexfink@jabber.de: oh dear
(2017-12-27 03:04:48) alexfink@jabber.de: did you get good mileage out of all its physics?
(2017-12-27 03:06:22) HEx: I don't know why I thought I might have a hope of joining in, really, but in amongst the games they've done in the past, I participated once in some web-based thing that was clearly designed for one computer hooked up to a telly and n people on smartphones or other web-browser-supporting devices. I imagined this might be like that
(2017-12-27 03:07:40) HEx: it wasn't. turned out they were playing Secret Hitler. this is good, I like SH. but apart from that, jesus christ, what a shitshow
(2017-12-27 03:10:11) HEx: step 1: try and grab a copy of the game. piratebay yay, 1.H gigabytes later I have an executable, and it even runs under wine. but it does claim to be out of date, and the update button does nothing, nor does the server browser
(2017-12-27 03:12:14) HEx: I ask what her IP is so I can try directly connecting, but get nothing useful back, other than a link to the page for purchasing the game. meanwhile, I try torrenting an update, but it aborts with an MD5 mismatch. who the hell uses MD5 anymore?
(2017-12-27 03:13:21) alexfink@jabber.de: (your torrent client?)
(2017-12-27 03:13:22) HEx: I also discover that SH is not among the games offered. further investigation reveals that it's a mod written by someone else. I find the page for the mod, which exhorts me to register so that I can download it
(2017-12-27 03:13:29) alexfink@jabber.de: a mod.
(2017-12-27 03:13:46) alexfink@jabber.de: I thought the thing just let you add polygon models to it and have at it
(2017-12-27 03:14:14) HEx: (not my torrent client. the updater clearly was expecting to update version n to version m. but I had some version other than n)
(2017-12-27 03:14:25) HEx: *confuse*
(2017-12-27 03:14:30) alexfink@jabber.de: oh, fun
(2017-12-27 03:15:56) HEx: anyway, find a mega link for the mod. nothing sketchy here at all. download the mod. run the game through strace to find where the hell it's looking for mods. in my Steam folder? I don't have a Steam folder, this is the entire point of torrenting it *sigh*
(2017-12-27 03:17:01) alexfink@jabber.de: … so was it this bad for everyone?
(2017-12-27 03:17:16) alexfink@jabber.de: or is it just assumed in this group that everyone has a Steam install yadda yadda
(2017-12-27 03:17:50) HEx: it's just assumed that everyone's running Steam on windows and has already spent money on whatever they're playing
(2017-12-27 03:18:20) alexfink@jabber.de: do they realise that that's exclusionary
(2017-12-27 03:20:23) HEx: maybe. the notion of *not* having a Steam install was met with something akin to bafflement last time I poked at that
(2017-12-27 03:20:43) alexfink@jabber.de: I'm on your team fwiw
(2017-12-27 03:22:42) HEx: meanwhile, she's streaming video of her play session and I get to see just how simulated the table is, with completely gratuitous 3D rendering and basically free-form objects you can move around the table. don't think it was making any attempt to enforce rules
(2017-12-27 03:23:00) alexfink@jabber.de: that's precisely what I was trying to snark about above.
(2017-12-27 03:23:06) alexfink@jabber.de: some years ago I was looking for a webapp that simulated a deck of cards.  there weren't any, then; the closest thing I found was a Windows desktop app Thoth, and Tabletop Simulator
(2017-12-27 03:23:19) HEx: apparently you're supposed to pay £15 for this
(2017-12-27 03:23:20) alexfink@jabber.de: people recommended the latter, but no.  I didn't need the facility to build a *house* of cards
(2017-12-27 03:23:40) alexfink@jabber.de: just to have a shuffled pool of things and be able to control who can see certain ones and such
(2017-12-27 03:23:46) alexfink@jabber.de: why hasn't someone just made this?
(2017-12-27 03:24:11) HEx: or, y'know, £45 if you want the extra DLC
(2017-12-27 03:24:59) alexfink@jabber.de: and I betcha it's another £20 extra to turn wind simulation off, so that your game doesn't periodically blow off your table
(2017-12-27 03:27:35) HEx: apparently "Multiplayer physics with objects that collide and interact just how you would expect." is a *feature*
(2017-12-27 03:28:03) alexfink@jabber.de: grumble.
(2017-12-27 03:28:28) HEx: I literally do not understand this world
(2017-12-27 03:29:21) alexfink@jabber.de: well, when 'game engine' mostly in practice means 'physics engine', I'm not entirely surprised that someone would dream this up
(2017-12-27 03:29:51) HEx: "Browse the internet, listen to music, and watch videos in multiplayer, in-game on a tablet." <-- *eyebrows*
(2017-12-27 03:30:00) HEx: (http://store.steampowered.com/app/286160/Tabletop_Simulator/ )
(2017-12-27 03:30:32) HEx: you've actually run into this?
(2017-12-27 03:30:44) alexfink@jabber.de: yes!  the thing about looking for a way to play card games is true
(2017-12-27 03:31:11) alexfink@jabber.de: making a thing like that is somewhere on my copious spare time list
(2017-12-27 03:31:49) alexfink@jabber.de: but as for games, we need more games where you're not physically embodied and going around three-dimensional space doing stuff.  that's so banal.
(2017-12-27 03:31:59) alexfink@jabber.de: and these engines aren't helping matters