Quoting: fagnerlnHERE WE GO AGAIN...

We don't need the government controlling even more our lives, the parents should moderate what their children are using.

Like it or not, "loot boxes" are a form of gambling and whilst the game industry has not been "ruined" because of them, "loot boxes" have certainly done a lot of damage to the industry (as have "freemium" games - but that's another discussion)... I agree that having the Government take control is not necessarily the best approach, but if it's going to reduce the number of "loot boxes" used in games, then the end absolutely justifies the means.

Of course, nothing has actually happened yet and nothing may even happen - if my understanding of this article is correct, the "Children's Commissioner" has only made a recommendation, which may or may not see results; given everything going on in Britain at the moment, I don't see this being a priority.

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Quoting: EhvisBesides, even if they did make it run natively on Linux, I have no reason at all to trust Microsoft for the future. I'll stick with X-Plane.

This. I trust Microsoft as much as I trust Mark Zuckerberg - which is not at all... Call it "paranoia" if you want, but I don't trust Microsoft in any context.

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Quoting: Mountain ManI agree that competition is a good thing.

Gonna be picky here, but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is not expected to support Linux-based operating systems though, so technically, X-Plane has no real competition...

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Quoting: iiari

Quoting: Ardje

Quoting: SkipperroMan... I'm collecting everything with Vulkan support and I have X-Plane on my wishlist for a long time, but I'm not as big of the simulator fan to pay freaking 65$ for it. I would rather save it for Kerbal Space Program 2.

I have X-Plane also on my wishlist. I did have some fun with Euro Truck Simulator, but I guess X-Plane is more realistic. And I actually don't want that.

Quoting: EhvisCompletely different beasts. ETS2 is still a game. It's open ended, but the simulation level and mechanics are still geared to have fun even without skill. X-Plane is not a game, it is just a simulator. I think most flight simulator enthusiasts will tell you that flight simulation is a hobby. With matching time consumption and expenses. I have many hours in various X-Plane version, but haven't done too much of it lately and I'm getting rusty to a degree where I couldn't even get my B727 started any more. :D

Yeah, absolutely what @Ehvis said above. X-Plane is a hard core sim to the level that flight schools actually use dedicated commercial versions of it to train future pilots. There really is no "game" here unless you buy mission or sim-economy mods, which people say are a lot of fun but I just don't have the time for...

Call it "geeky", but this post just sold me on X-Plane, 100%... Knowing that this Linux supported flight simulator is so in-depth and complete makes me want to rush out and buy it now - except that right now, I only own a laptop with above-average gaming capabilities - so it will sit on my "wish" list for the time being.

Does X-Plane support all those fancy flight simulator input / output devices (such as all the stuff Logitech sells [External Link])? What about virtual reality headsets - are they supported under Linux-based operating systems?

If those things are supported, I could build a pretty slick - Linux powered - flight simulator in my garage... ;-)

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Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: mahThis project really legal?
I seems, they can't clear copyright problems.

OTOH, I can't see anybody suing them over it, either. These games have no commercial value anymore.

There's some pretty big names in there though... LucasArts (now owned by the Walt Disney Company), Sierra (now part of Activision Blizzard), EA (under a dozen different studios, including EA itself), id Software, Ubisoft, Atari (under various studios) and a laundry list of others.

Some of those companies might turn a blind eye - but I highly doubt all of them will.

[quote=Klaus]

Quoting: Kimyrielle

Quoting: mah[...] These games have no commercial value anymore.

Not entirely true. Some of them are being sold by GoG still. (Though in the case of Ultima VII, I think I got that on GoG for free at some point.)

There's a whole heap of them that are still for sale on GOG.com and / or Steam (mostly the former though)...

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Quoting: GamingonLinux.comSystem76 are gradually becoming a bit more like the Apple of the Linux hardware world now.

Well System76 already charge very similar prices to Apple, and that's before shipping or local taxes (e.g. the infamous "Australia Tax")... After factoring-in shipping / local taxes, System76 is well and truly into "Apple" territory, with regards to price.

You could argue that System76 provide their own drivers, extensive support to their customers and so forth... But I'm not convinced that these things are worth such a huge markup, especially when you consider the existing hardware which is generally pretty Linux-friendly (ASUS are a great example here) and the endless stream of technical support for Linux that is available online.

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No GOG.com release?

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This only affects the Steam version though, right? If you bought a copy from GOG.com, it should be fine, shouldn't it?

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Quoting: LungDragoWe truly live in a f*cked up world. Just like in the Orwell game. Destroy someone by publicizing a statement out of context. So easy!

2 + 2 = 5

Slightly off-topic, but ha, you should come to Australia... "1984" is alive and well here.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe way it seems to have gone is, this stylish obviously rich woman would find these dirt poor kids and recruit them on the basis of being basically eye candy/service staff. It's not like there aren't plenty of people who do that with no sex attached. Then once they were on sites, usually distant from their homes and isolated, they'd be expected to do what the other kids were doing; Darth Epstein would be, in a more jolly way than Vader, "I am altering the deal; pray I don't alter it any further." It's not that hard to pressure most people once they're cut off and alone, let alone kids.
Presumably most of them didn't tell their parents just what was going down, just that they were making good (by the standards of dirt poor families) money. It's possible some parents made a stink and successfully got their kids back. It's possible some parents tried and were stonewalled, and if you're a poor person how are you going to expect it to play out if you try to get the cops to go after a billionaire? But sure, some of those parents probably sucked. Some of those parents were probably in jail. Not sure what makes that relevant though--what, it's OK if bad things happen to kids as long as they have bad parents? Predators aren't culpable, it's their victims' fault for not having better parents to defend them? I don't get it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not putting the blame back onto the victims here and whilst we will never be privvy to the full facts, I do believe that at least some of these girls were carefully "encouraged" to participate in sexual misconduct with Epstein and his buddies, if not all of them (the girls)... With so much money and power at your disposal, I suspect it would be pretty easy to nudge people in the "right" direction.

My point that I was saying (at least for that part of my post), is that there are some pretty valid questions which need to be asked, and people are conveniently refusing to seek answers and / or are ignore these facts in favor of the little issues - such as some geek sitting at a desk who should know better than to comment on a highly controversial topic in his position...

Regarding the "parents" thing, I think it is unfair to blanket them all as being in jail or having abandoned these kids and whatnot, though that may be the case for some of them... In saying that, as I explained to my wife, the most likely scenario is that a lot of these parents simply "turned a blind eye" in hopes of rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and the elite - it would not be the first time a parent (from any class of society) has neglected their moral and legal responsibilities in favor of such an outcome.

As a father, the thought of that makes me cringe, but sadly, it happens all the time, and the Epstein thing is not even that bad compared to what some "parents" do in the hopes of rubbing shoulders with the wealthy and the elite.

The other issue is, and this is a tricky one, is the fact that a lot of people are simply ignoring the rather serious accusations against "Prince" Andrew, Donald Trump and various others who are wealthy and / or powerful...

What makes it "tricky"?

Well, look at his suicide... The entire thing is surrounded by "facts" that just don't match up, despite the fact that he was a high-profile prisoner in one of the most "secure" prisons in America.

And the fact that everyone is completely avoiding the topic of Epstein's buddies being participants in some or all of Epstein's activities, instead focussing on the smaller issues, such as a geek / academic who was silly enough to voice some controversial opinions about an already controversial topic.

It would be unrealistic to expect anything to come out of any investigation against Epstein's long list of wealthy and powerful buddies - this stuff happens all the time (you're kidding yourself if you think the wealthy / elite don't do this all the time!) and they don't get away with it for no reason... But that doesn't mean everyone needs to ignore the fact that this sort of thing was happening.

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Quoting: appetrosyanOn a side note: F?CK GNOME . They owe their entire existence to the distinction between copyleft and opensource. I'm alright with them not defending him; the guy has some antics, and defending everything he does is... well.... impossible. But attacking him so actively is something else entirely, it's like if I started railing on my parents and saying that they should move out of the house they built and I grew up in, because of something that my dad said, when he was drunk.

lol

Love the enthusiasm of multiple people attacking GNOME here.

I don't like them (GNOME) and consider them to be a horrible organization, for a laundry list of reasons... Glad to see I'm not alone.

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