back to article Unlucky Luckey: Oculus developers invoke anti-douchebag clause, halt games for VR goggles

A number of game developers have decided to end their support of the Oculus virtual reality headset over reports that its founder Palmer Luckey is actively funding "Trump trolls." Kokoromi, Polytron, Scruta Games, Tomorrow Today Labs and developer Augustin Cordes are among those who have publicly denounced Luckey's actions and …

  1. Tommy Pock

    Oculus' Ratner moment. There's no way back from this.

    1. Starace

      You think this was that moment?

      The guy has always been an arsehole, and Oculus have been doing stupid things for a while now.

      This latest bit doesn't really add much beyond what we were already very well aware of; he's an obnoxious guy with too much money from not actually doing very much at all.

      His politics don't really matter to me as I couldn't have thought much less of him than I already did.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oculus' Ratner moment. There's no way back from this.

      You'd do well not to overestimate the intelligence of voters. If you screw over an educational system it becomes very easy to waylay the stupid ones with pandering to the inevitable bigotry as they will believe your promises, even when there is no logic behind them. Trump is the clearest evidence of that (and, some would argue, Brexit).

      That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

        The idea that scientists and engineers should stay out of politics is one of the best weapons the PPE people have for getting their way. Technology is intensely political because it affects people's lives directly. The word political simply means to do with the city (polis). It's impossible to discuss Facebook or Twitter without considering the politics of engagement and manipulation, for instance.

        1. Paul Crawford Silver badge

          Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

          We should engage in politics, all of us with all view points. But sadly it seems many are swayed by the sound bites and general picture+lies shit that gets shared on Facebook these days.

          However, Luckey is simple a douchbag for his methods of spreading his political views.

          1. Sir Runcible Spoon

            Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

            Without taking a stance either way on Luckey's actions, I will say that it is a remarkable demonstration of modern Democracy in Action on behalf of the publishers threatening to boycott Oculus.

            Just because someone (who I will admit does happen to be famous and linked to the Oculus brand) supports a particular political view, to respond by threatening to put other people out of work if they don't bow down to their demands is, in my view, worse than donating to a group who are using smear tactics in a US political campaign (as if that's somehow new!?!).

            Just as an aside, I wonder if they would be taking this action if the smear campaign was directed against Trump. I'm gonna guess not.

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

              1. Sir Runcible Spoon

                Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

                @Voyna, I can't be sure whether you are deliberately putting words in my mouth or if you just didn't understand what I posted.

                At no point did I say that they didn't have the right to boycott Oculus, I just said I thought that that was worse than supporting a group engaging in political in-fighting.

                1. DropBear

                  Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

                  Bollocks. A client of a business has exactly zero responsibility to keep being a client of that business for the sake of said business's employees - they are the responsibility of the BUSINESS OWNER, not of the client. Not only do the developers have the _right_ to boycott whoever they feel like but they have precisely zero _moral obligation_ of any sort to not do so. Suggesting otherwise is no less distasteful than any "think of the children"-type misdirection.

                2. sabroni Silver badge

                  Re: threatening to put other people out of work

                  That's not what they're threatening. This argument is trotted all the time whenever an unethical business is in the spotlight. (Not that oculus is unethical, just that the argument is the same.)

                  It's Oculus' responsibility to get support for their product. If this bloke wasn't so full of himself no-one would know about his politics and it wouldn't be a problem. He is the one threatening people's jobs by pissing off so many people in the development community.

                  1. MSmith

                    Re: threatening to put other people out of work

                    If the game developers want to play this game, then all the Donald Trump supporters should refuse to buy any games THEY develop. Of course, if that happened, they would claim that this infringes on their free speech because only liberals have rights. Do you really think it is appropriate to go after a company because you don't like who one of the owners voted for? Do we really want to get into this game? If you do, everyone needs to be allowed to play.

                    1. YARR
                      Flame

                      This article doesn't explain what Palmer did that is "unacceptable". Americans are free to support whoever they want in an election provided what they do is lawful. I fail to see anything unlawful or immoral about his actions, could someone please explain?

                      OTOH the action of the accusers (Kokoromi, Polytron, Scruta Games, Tomorrow Today Labs and Augustin Cordes) of initiating discrimination against an innocent party (Oculus) is inflammatory and has no moral justification. Such action will achieve nothing positive: it is an attempt to escalate political differences into the commercial realm and will result in a backlash unless rightfully ignored. Do these people think they have a right to deny others their own freedom of choice?

                      Trump is being falsely accused of "bigotry, white supremacy, hate". If you are going to accuse someone of those then you must support your accusations with evidence that he espouses those views. Do not let false allegations influence how to vote.

                      Defending America for the American people is the only discrimination legally permitted at a national level. Denied that right, America has nothing to defend against, so may as well disband it's armed forces, open it's borders and allow any foreign people, religion, ideology or crime syndicate to take over. It's contradictory for anyone to support foreign ethnic groups who want their own homeland like the Kurds in Syria (racial discrimination), or support Israel as a Jewish homeland (religious discrimination), yet believe that American people have no right to their own homeland (discrimination by birthright). Either everyone has a right to homeland (an exclusive place to live) or no-one does.

                      1. Anonymous Coward
                        Anonymous Coward

                        Trump is being falsely accused of "bigotry, white supremacy, hate". If you are going to accuse someone of those then you must support your accusations with evidence that he espouses those views. Do not let false allegations influence how to vote.

                        That's easy - listen to some of the thousands of minutes recorded of him speaking.

                        Defending America for the American people is the only discrimination legally permitted at a national level. Denied that right, America has nothing to defend against, so may as well disband it's armed forces, open it's borders and allow any foreign people, religion, ideology or crime syndicate to take over.

                        Ah, so are you one of those 'Merkins who will go and shoot all the muslims? or Jews? or Pastafarians?

                        yet believe that American people have no right to their own homeland (discrimination by birthright). Either everyone has a right to homeland (an exclusive place to live) or no-one does.

                        So, you want 'Merika to be exclusive to those born there? Completely anti-immigrant then?

                        No need to point out that the Europeans who originally invaded America were not born there?

                      2. Tom 38

                        Trump is being falsely accused of "bigotry, white supremacy, hate". If you are going to accuse someone of those then you must support your accusations with evidence that he espouses those views. Do not let false allegations influence how to vote.

                        Trump provides the evidence almost every single time he opens his pie hole or fires up twitter.

                      3. Truckle The Uncivil

                        Please define "homeland". Your post is somewhat confusing.

                        Me, I am a bitzer. As far as I am concerned, I am a being this earth and my homeland is the entire earth and I resent that anyone that suggests I am not free to travel at my own accord anywhere on the face of the Earth. It is not a practical view to espouse or assume and I do not. But that is my view.

                        When (and if) people label Trump as a bigot, white supremacist, hate monger etc. they are technically incorrect. This does not stop them being emotionally correct. Trump is contemptuous of all (and who) he does not agree with. Contempt can look like hat and bigotry and supremacy because it simply is. Trump's personality and behaviour is that of a hateful white supremacist bigot. That is patently obvious by the words he chooses to use about people and groups. "enemy of the people" (are they no longer people?), "blood coming out of her...." (she is a woman, she is irrational, not worth considering?), "you can do anything when you are famous". let alone all the fucking tweets. His pure contempt of others (as being worthless) unless they toe _his_ line is pretty much much on record.

                        Trump has shown his colours. To deny it is to be as blind as he is.

                      4. This post has been deleted by its author

            2. Indolent Wretch

              Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

              Your right, no software developer nor any of the people who work and code for it should have the right to decide or even express an opinion as to what to do with their own nascent software.

              It doesn't matter how vile the opinions or how well known the mouthpiece, regardless of whether it's company policy or just hate filled spew coming from the private mouth of a man intimately linked to and massively enriched by the company.

              They should be forced to support the platform and keep their stupid mouths shut. How dare they think they should speak up. Just keep quiet and wait for the wall to be built you liberal commies.

              >> Just as an aside, I wonder if they would be taking this action if the smear campaign was directed against Trump. I'm gonna guess not.

              I doubt it very much. In my experience rational people tend to be less repelled by smear campaigns directed against white bigoted arsehole billionaire racist hatemongers.

              You seem to find that surprising. But then if you can find calm equivalence between the policies of Trump and Clinton and the people they are directed to then I'm not surprised at all.

        2. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

            ViM. "The word political simply means to do with the city (polis)"

            No, that's where the word came from originally. Now it means something else. Don't fall victim to the etymological fallacy or you'll decimate the language...

            http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/Etymological-Fallacy.htm

            http://xkcd.com/1012/

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

          "The idea that scientists and engineers should stay out of politics is one of the best weapons the PPE people have for getting their way."

          In science, engineering or medicine, if the observed evidence doesn't fit your view of the world you have to change your view - it's about getting things right, not pandering to someonee's pet ideas. In politics if you don't like the evidence that's being presented because it doesn't fit your agenda you just fire the scientists who brought you the evidence and badmouth them to the press. For a UK example just look at what they did to Prof. David Nutt.

          The politicians have nothing but contempt for scientists, engineers (and medics) because we get in their way, as logic, reasoning and fact-based discourse threaten to derail their ideological and corruption-based scheming. If you stay out of politics you're just pandering to their wishes to carry on doing what they want, and to hell with what's good for the country.

          1. Elf
            Pint

            Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

            This one is for you, sir.

            Bah.

            Bartender! All around mate, please? Thanks!

        4. Elf
          Pint

          Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

          Really? I find that the only people I can talk politics with and not be mentally engineering a number of horrific BOFH endings for the people I'm talking with**. Rather, even with someone who has an opposed political viewpoint (which is impossible, as I am a 'Moderate' or analog in a retardedly digital political spectrum) in a Tech forum, the conversation devolves into "It comes down to a shitload of money being thrown at {Political/Social/Monetary/Regulatory}$SYSTEM which we regard as horribly concieved/planned/engeered/implimented (because it clearly is) due to people with no clear understanding of the actual problem but with an acute awareness of Pork in The Pie.

          Look at that. No name calling. No blame on any single entity. Money wasted on solving a problem with shitty engineering because Other Departments are Empire Building. Politics are nothing but a single order of magnitude increase (mandlebrot style) in the exact same crap I see from the V-and-C Suites in any organization I've done IT in in the last quarter-century.

          Nah. I think Tech Forums (Tech Folks, actully) and Political discussions are just fine.

          ** In fact, Engineers often put their personal differences aside to engineer, say, a better LART, together, as friends, possibly at the pub. (Tech people: Rational, clued, pickled.)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I would argue "opposition to Brexit" is evidence of this actually.

    3. John G Imrie

      Ratner Moment

      Actually Ratner did make a come back see www.geraldonline.com

  2. G Mac
    FAIL

    What an idiot

    He should of got a SuperPAC setup and donated anonymously like everyone else that wants to buy a piece of the action:

    https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/01/31/nine-things-you-need-know-about-super-pacs/

    1. DavCrav

      Re: What an idiot

      "He should of [sic] got a SuperPAC setup and donated anonymously like everyone else that wants to buy a piece of the action:"

      I think you mean a 501(c)(4). SuperPACs have to disclose their donors, and can campaign. 501(c)(4)s don't have to disclose their donors but cannot campaign. But 501(c)(4)s can donate to SuperPACs.

      As evidenced by Stephen Colbert's 501(c)(4) "Colbert Super PAC SHH Institute", previously known as "Anonymous Shell Corporation" (the official name).

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "Palmer acted independently in a personal capacity"

    Looks very much like PR disaster-management to me. Saying such things do not hold water next to declarations such as "I will fly my jet one minute less".

    First of all, if one minute of your jet costs less than one glass of Scotch, your jet ain't worth boasting about. Second, you can hardly fly a jet (unless it's a virtual one, in which case I'll take you on any time).

    Public opinion is a thing since Vietnam. A crash course seems to be required for the board at FOculous, because they're going to get it in the rear now. And I have to say I am not sorry. I hated the day I read that Facebook, of all things, had got its grubby mitts on what promised to be a great product.

    This is just another step into oblivion.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge
      WTF?

      Re: "Palmer acted independently in a personal capacity"

      I hated the day I read that Facebook, of all things, had got its grubby mitts on what promised to be a great product.

      There is a law in chemistry: "like dissolves in alike".

    2. Roj Blake Silver badge

      Re: "Palmer acted independently in a personal capacity"

      "First of all, if one minute of your jet costs less than one glass of Scotch, your jet ain't worth boasting about."

      Or it could mean that your Scotch is really worth boasting about...

      1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

        Re: "Palmer acted independently in a personal capacity"

        Or then again, maybe someone seriously ripped you off for your Scotch.

        I like the odd classy single malt (simply love Talisker Port Ruighe, or some of the Ardbeg offerings), and I have seen some eyewateringly high prices on bottles (always wonder if they could possibly be worth it), but if you pay more per tot than the cost of flying a jet for a minute, I feel you may well have been ripped off, and bought the bottle for some false prestige, rather than having superior taste buds. Might be wrong of course, but I suspect not

      2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        Re: "Palmer acted independently in a personal capacity"

        > Or it could mean that your Scotch is really worth boasting about...

        Hmm.. Chapter 7 from the English Whisky Comany..

        (Which, while expensive, isn't *that* expensive!)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

    So the rest of the world has to suffer because you've got yourself into a place where your only options are a Federal-level criminal who shouldn't even be eligible to run for this office and the comedy act with the daft hair

    Whoever wins, you're fucked. Stop ruining things for the rest of us.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

      I've been thinking of it more as "Nixon vs. Hitler"...

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

        "I've been thinking of it more as "Nixon vs. Hitler"..."

        Nah, the Nightmare Vs. the Liar... You pick which is which.

        As an aside; Anyone for a "Vote Cthulhu, the lesser of three evils!" campaign?

        1. 's water music

          Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

          "Vote Cthulhu, the lesser of three evils!"

          O R'lyeh?

          1. WraithCadmus
            Alien

            Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

            "O R'lyeh?"

            Iä, R'lyeh!

            Icon: Some colour from space

        2. evilhippo

          Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

          There is no "lesser evil" in the next US election, just two qualitatively different Greater Evils

      2. FelixReg

        Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

        Someone told me "Eva Peron or Biff".

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

      In fact, I do realize. Can I be a refugee and maybe get a job somewhere kinda far away? I know which end of a soldering iron to hold, at least.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

        Come to think of it, you're pretty much there when it comes to conditions for asylum: the country you're fleeing has no longer functional law & order, and your life is constantly at risk of people with a gun (which appears to include said law & order if you're black). Your challenge, however, will be to get rid of the US passport as soon as possible, but I think you should probably get a new one on pure humanitarian grounds (wasn't there a country that was selling cheap citizenship?).

        Not to make light of the reasons people flee a country, of course, but the US no longer strikes me as an interesting place to be. It's a shame, and IMHO a massive waste.

        1. Updraft102

          Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

          You need to get your news from a less biased source.

          The vast majority of America's murders (with and without guns) are committed by a busy cadre of criminals, mostly killing other criminals. If you're not engaged in criminal enterprise, your odds of being murdered are pretty low indeed. In a country of a third of a billion people, it's not hard to find the exceptions for the "if it bleeds, it leads" news cycle, but we never hear about 99% of them on the news.

          Blacks are not being killed by police in any remarkable numbers. They're actually less likely to be shot and killed by the police on any given encounter than whites. Not only that, but most of the police shootings of people of any race are justified.

          Downvote away, as I am sure people will, but think about what it means when you're downvoting actual verifiable facts just because they don't match your preconceived notions. Confirmation bias can be a real pain!

          1. DavCrav

            Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

            "Blacks are not being killed by police in any remarkable numbers. They're actually less likely to be shot and killed by the police on any given encounter than whites. Not only that, but most of the police shootings of people of any race are justified."

            Oh goody. Another misuse of statistics. It's not that blacks are being killed more often in any given encounter, it's that these encounters are much more likely to happen to blacks than whites. So if a black person has as much chance of being shot per encounter as a white person, but is ten times more likely to have an encounter, can you please tell me how much more likely he is to be shot?

            "...most of the police shootings of people of any race are justified."

            OK, so that means that up to 50% of police shootings are not justified? I would bloody well hope that most police shootings are justified. In fact I'd be concerned if any at all are not, and if one is not justified, then the police involved would go on trial. (Not necessarily convicted of course, but a full, public investigation involving a judge and lawyers, just as when non-police shoot people in an unjustified manner.) But who decides if the shootings are justified? Oh yes, the police.

          2. fruitoftheloon
            Happy

            @UpDraft102: Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

            UpDraft,

            You could be right, would you be so kind as to provide a link to statistically valid studies thereof?

            Btw the NRA must not be in anyway responsible for funding of, defining sample criteria, or 'editing the final draft' of such studies.

            I await your response!

            Cheers,

            Jay.

          3. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

            @Updraft Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

            Although I disagree with your conclusion, it's fair to say any conclusion is going to depend on which metric and news sources you choose.

            If you're interested in who the victims of gun violence actually are, rather than who you think they are, you won't get much better than piece in the Guardian by Gary Younge.

            He picked a random day and wrote about every child in America killed that day by guns. There were ten, by the way. No massaging of statistics, no editorial opinions, no selective quoting. Just a typical day in America. He's a superb writer but it's a tough read.

    3. Paul Shirley

      Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

      the comedy act with the daft hair who still thinks he can give himself a presidential pardon just before that November court appearance, fire the judge if that fails or rewrite the law to get off the hook.

      Forgetting the last Clinton couldn't manage that, despite being 10x more slippery and not having pissed off the entire legal system.

    4. oiseau
      WTF?

      Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

      .

      "Whoever wins, you're fucked. Stop ruining things for the rest of us."

      Unfortunately, we've already been fucked and things are already ruined.

      Have been (fucked and ruined) for a good while now.

      To get to *this* point, things have just gotten much worse than they seem to be at first sight.

      All the crap that will ensue after the US elections will have dire effects on the rest of the American continent (yes, it's a continent) which inevitably will also reach the European continent.

      As things stand today, I don't think there's a way around that.

      We'll *all* pay the price of (even more) corporation backed incompetence taking hold of the Oval Office, yet again.

      Remember Ronald (Reagan), his handler Donald (Regan) and how we are still paying the consequences of their actions today?

      Cheers.

    5. MSmith

      Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

      Why not 'American Liberals' stop ruining the world around you? The real problem with the last 3 elections is that Democrats have been able to choose all the candidates. The news media has completely lost all pretense of being impartial and is hell-bent on electing a Democrat. To further this aim, they are the ones who determine which Republican candidates are allowed in the debates and get press. Any Republican who seems competent gets destroyed by ridiculous accusations that the press hype to the sun until the candidate is forced to withdraw. If you don't believe me, didn't Rick Perry have to withdraw from his Presidential bid because someone said his dad once rented a place for vacation that at one time had something spray-painted on a rock that might have been a racial slur? Hillary Clinton commits a variety of criminal acts, then the FBI director refuses to press charges because he says laws are for little people and the press cheers! You wonder why Donald Trump is the Republican nominee? The press wanted him because he was the only one Hillary Clinton has a chance of beating, so don't blame all the American people, blame the liberals. You can really blame them when we default because we can't ever pay back the $13 trillion Obama has borrowed for all his giveaways (for comparison, Bush only borrowed ~$4 trillion for all his military actions). Hillary with her free college, free healthcare, etc, will continue to borrow and we won't make it through her first term until we have to default or print all those $1 trillion platinum coins Obama was considering.

    6. Elf

      Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

      *Sets Beer Down*

      Brah, as an American I got two things to say to that:

      1. For the love of all, I really wish we *would* stop leading the damned world around. We're in teh Teenage Boy stage of development as a country. Belligerent, rude, loud, horny, stupid, arrogant, just physically developed enough to be a serious problem, and Absolutely Certain that our parents know jack-and-shit and we'll show em' won't we. And if we get through shit-head phase in the next 50 years without the rest of the world (correctly) kicking our asses down, might actually make a Reasonable Adult Country some day. Stranger things have happened.

      2. Could you be bothered to tell YOUR leadership that OUR leadersbip is batshit crazy and please stop encouraging them? I seem to recall the only sane country at the start of the Iraq stuff was France. FRANCE! I mean...really.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

        We're in the Teenage Boy stage of development as a country

        Absolutely true, but the main issue with that is that you're a teenage boy with Weapons of Mass Destruction at your fingertips which makes it kinda hard for the rest of the world to give you the spanking you deserve. That's why the Chinese have started to work on taking your pocket money away (the CNY is becoming a reserve currency for a reason), but they have their own problems right now. I really hope you grow up at some point because there's a lot of potential wasted.

        1. Elf
          Meh

          Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

          Well, it's a hell of a lot harder to haul our toys (The CORRECT term is "Chemical/Biological/Nuclear Tactical and Strategic Weapons", I'm a military brat from the Cold War, I insist. WMDs is an acronymn to scare the South and Midwest in the US into stupidity turnip in the Oval Office that can't pronounce "Nuclear". I'm an engineer, *literally* my pocket knife and calculator could be WMDs.) around in the '57 Chevy when we got no pocket money, that's for sure.

          Again, electing leadership on your side of The Pond that are somewhat more willing to say "No, so, you can't go out this Friday night." and take the Political and Economic keys away would be good. The British Prime Minister at the time was checking the oil and air in the tires. For real? That sort of parenting isn't helping. The United States (have a look around, we're not) could really use some tough love, and a right kick in the ass on the world stage.

          Saying we Had Potential was very kind. Thanks for that.

          I intentionally misspelled "the" before teenagers, for the record. ;)

          (No beer icon today, headcold.)

  5. ecofeco Silver badge

    Deeply sorry?

    The only thing he's deeply sorry about is the impact this is having on future sales.

    I'd bet good money him and Zuck had a come to Jesus talk.

    1. The First Dave

      Re: Deeply sorry?

      Yeah, that was a "Politician's Apology" if ever I heard one!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When Trump wins

    President Trump will kick these companies asses when he wins the election.

    1. inmypjs Silver badge

      Re: When Trump wins

      "will kick these companies asse"

      More realistically will these companies refuse to sell their product to Trump voters?

      I think not and see pretty huge douchebags on both sides of this farce.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: When Trump wins

      President Trump would be so fucking retarded he wouldn't know which way round to put the goggles on. That's what the people are saying. Believe me.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: When Trump wins

        He might be as you say 'retarded' but people are gonig to vote for him in their millions.

        his rhetoric has made them beleive that there is indeed a 'terrorist under every bed, on every sttreet corner etc' and that the 'Mexicans are going to invade next week'.

        Repuplican voting friends of mine are going to go into the pollings station in november and vote for Hillary. They don't like her but at least they have the sense to know that DT will be bad for the USA.

        Now if Hillary does get elected, one or two are expecting that the GOP controlled Senate and Congress to start impeachment proceedings before next April.

        There truly is something rotten in the colonies.

        1. steve 124

          Re: When Trump wins

          Two more attacks last weekend in the States and there are still people saying this isn't an increasing problem?

          Retarded? I've been a MENSA member since 1987 and I'm voting for Trump. You should really rethink your stance on American politics... and if you're not a citizen, just stop commenting because you not only don't know what you're talking about but you also don't have a dog in the race.

          1. Elf

            Re: When Trump wins

            Hold the line ... Europe does not have a dog in the United States Political Race...Really? Ok.

  7. goldcd

    I actually feel for the guy

    I've had a drink, I'm here on the internet, I've said stuff I regret and stuff people don't agree with (including myself in the cold light of day).

    And what of it? I appreciate the internet for allowing me to barf my lizard brain onto it and I'll take my knocks for doing so.

    I appreciate what he did to reboot VR, I was leaning towards a Vive, but..well I dislike the idea that others might be swayed by his personal views.

    I dunno. Look at the world around you. Look at where your monthly direct debits and taxes go.

    Luckey's own personal views are insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and if you think they are. then we're doomed.

    You're honestly looking to buy a "Democratic VR headset?"

    1. Tommy Pock

      Re: I actually feel for the guy

      No, but we can choose simply to not fund idiocy.

      1. Katie Saucey
        Meh

        Re: I actually feel for the guy @Tommy

        'No, but we can choose simply to not fund idiocy.'

        Ever drive a Ford, use an IBM device, Siemens, Bayer or BASF product, Hugo Boss etc? Companies with decent products have long supported some form of idiocy or disagreeable ideals. I'd claim you'd have to leave the planet behind to avoid being a hypocrite, but that tech started with some questionable characters as well.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I actually feel for the guy @Tommy

          Good point, but Oculus the company have been pulling some dickbag moves, as well: The kit is waaay more expensive than promised but -more importantly- they attempted to take all the work people had contributed and lock it down for themselves.

          I don't care about political views of executives although -frankly- I find anyone who speaks out in favour of either of the current US candidates pretty suspect. I wouldn't vote for either one of them in any job at all.

        2. Rich 11

          Re: I actually feel for the guy @Tommy

          Companies with decent products have long supported some form of idiocy or disagreeable ideals.

          But we can't change what they did in the past. What we can do is learn from that and walk away from companies which are being arseholes now.

          1. Sir Runcible Spoon

            Re: I actually feel for the guy @Tommy

            "walk away from companies which are being arseholes now"

            Since we are talking about Oculus, care to mention how they are being arseholes just for having someone in their employ who happens to hold a point of view you don't agree with (or how he expresses it)?

            Overreaction, much.

  8. Jan 0 Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Trump Trolls?

    Ahem, if they're trolling Ms. Clinton then they're either Clinton Trolls or Trump's Trolls, not Trump Trolls.

    Frankly I'd hope that the Communist Party of the USA has a good candidate for this demented election.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Trump Trolls?

      How is it trolling to depict Mrs.Clinton as "too big to jail?" It's the literal truth. Little people spend decades behind bars for doing what she did. Too bad they aren't big and powerful like her.

      1. MrDamage Silver badge

        Re: Trump Trolls?

        No, the literal truth of "too big to jail" would be she is a virtual planetoid, and there are insufficient resources to construct a gaol around her.

        How about the constipated babboon with funny hair? He's siphoned money out of charity to pay personal debts, incited violence against Clinton, has fallen afoul of hate-speech laws, and yet he still runs around unleashing brain-farts upon the world.

        If you're going to complain that one hasnt been jailed, be careful what you wish for, as both have done enough to be slammed in the pokey (after being slammed in the pokey).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Trump Trolls?

          How about the constipated babboon with funny hair? He's siphoned money out of charity to pay personal debts, incited violence against Clinton, has fallen afoul of hate-speech laws, and yet he still runs around unleashing brain-farts upon the world.

          If his past bankruptcies are anything to go by, Trump would pull a Tony Blair on the US: invent lots of expensive projects to funnel tax money to himself and cronies, and then leave a "funny" note that there's no money left when they leave office. It's a good thing gold is at a too high value to sell off right now, but that too can be manipulated.

          The only thing that Trump would bring to the party is a certain independence that would rip the power structures in Washington, but he has so little a clue that he'd be a marionette in the hands of those who do. I'm no fan of Clinton either, but she has at least *some* idea what she's doing. I wouldn't call her the best choice, more like a least worst..

          1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

            Re: Trump Trolls?

            > I wouldn't call her the best choice, more like a least worst..

            <IT Mode=On>

            Like selecting BT as a telecoms provider then? You feel unclean doing it but at least they still have some vague pretensions to capability, unlike most of their competitors..

            </ITM=Off>

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Trump Trolls?

              Like selecting BT as a telecoms provider then? You feel unclean doing it but at least they still have some vague pretensions to capability, unlike most of their competitors..

              You nailed it with admirable precision :)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vendor specific support? Wat?

    Why does a game need to specifically support Oculus, anyway? Why isn't there a vendor neutral API that can get head tracker and prop position/orientation and fire stereoscopic frames to a compliant hardware implementation? Extensible for future stuff like focal-point position and focal length detection, limb sensing, 3D audio, etc? Or would that have required cooperation for the greater good, and scupper everyone's plans to get exclusive patents and a monopoly on the tech?

    1. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: Vendor specific support? Wat?

      Same problem as gaming consoles. There is no technical reason why games couldn't work between them (With a little re-compiling for the differing ISAs), its the manufacturers that want to wet their beaks and have total control over what the consumers can do with the hardware that they bought.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vendor specific support? Wat?

      Hardware abstraction = overhead both in performance and support, at a guess. Microsoft will surely want to pull that into the Direct stables though.

    3. User McUser

      Re: Vendor specific support? Wat?

      Why isn't there a vendor neutral API[...]?

      There are two currently: OSVR and OpenVR.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vendor specific support? Wat?

      Why does a game need to specifically support Oculus, anyway? ... would that have required cooperation for the greater good, and scupper everyone's plans to get exclusive patents and a monopoly on the tech?

      Yes.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SJWs make lousy games anyway. A consume boycott could be a bigger concern, but there are better reasons to boycott Oculus.

  11. inverse137

    Tubby

    It's a good thing tubby is rich or he'd never get laid.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    I'm a little concerned about boycotts based on political views, even if those views are brash or can be discredited.

    1. sabroni Silver badge
      Happy

      I bet you are. The sugar boycott played a massive part in making slavery illegal in the UK and Nestle are still having trouble clearing their image from the baby food scandal. Political boycotts, unlike marching, rallying and most other forms of protest, can actually work.

    2. Steve the Cynic

      :puzzled: What other kind of boycott did you think existed? :puzzled:

  13. oldtaku Silver badge
    Trollface

    Oh, so Social Hitler buying Oculus wasn't a big deal, but finding out that a doughy white techbro billionaire is funding Trump PACs to keep white bros on top is just a total, TOTAL shock to these blokes.

  14. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

    VFR

    "I will fly my jet one minute less".

    Borrowing the VFR acronym from aviation and applying it to Facebook owned Oculus:

    Virtual Friends and Reality

  15. Paul Westerman
    Unhappy

    Shame

    I had high hopes for Oculus - started by a bright kid in his garage, joined by some cool people and then successful crowdfunded, I had high hopes for this back in 2012. Now look at it. Ugh.

  16. Updraft102

    " Do not let bigotry, white supremacy, hate and fear win."

    Fortunately, none of the candidates stand for any of these. (It's a caricature concocted by the people who bring you the "unbiased" news, not reality.) Trump may have a buffoonish persona, but the injection of racial politics is purely a project of his political foes.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not a racist bone in his body....and I'm sure none of his supporters who might be racist find validation in anything he's said or done:

      "“If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me,” Trump said in an interview "

      “He’s a Mexican,” Trump told CNN of Curiel. “We’re building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings — rulings that people can’t even believe.”

      "1973, the Justice Department sued [Trump Management Corporation ] for alleged racial discrimination against black people looking to rent apartments...Trump called those accusations “absolutely ridiculous” and sued the Justice Department for $100 million in damages for defamation...the Trump Management Corporation settled the original lawsuit two years later and promised not to discriminate against black people, Puerto Ricans or other minorities."

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-racist-examples_us_56d47177e4b03260bf777e83

      1. Indolent Wretch

        Trump is a 100% white rich bigoted old man.

        The people who post online saying that he isn't simply share the same prejudices and are desperate for others not to realise them for they are.

  17. tiggertaebo

    I generally think that people's private opinion's and actions shouldn't be used against them in a work context - but in this case they weren't even close to private really and when the "public face" of a company commits public acts of douchebaggery you can't expect it not to have an impact on the company. And like it or not they either need to drop him like a hot potato or accept that people will consider NOT doing so to be the company tacitly condoning his behavior and some of those people will choose not to do business with them. And really it's worth saying that IMO it's not his politics per se that are the big problem rather it's the way he went about it.

    I'd already concluded that Oculus weren't likely to be getting any of my money anyway after they sold out to Facebook and while I bore no ill will towards them for that (after all $2bn is a lot of money - I'd probably have done the same and I loathe Facebook and I'm about half convinced that Zuckerberg is sustained by consuming the souls of small children and cute puppies) but this leaves a really nasty stink.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    He could have used his money more constructively....

    ...to pay for better manufacturing & logistics for the consumer launch instead of the cluster f**k that it ended up being, twat.

  19. Indolent Wretch

    >> "In addition to the donation, which Luckey confirmed he made, the 24-year-old also posted a number "You can't fight the American elite without serious firepower. They will outspend you and destroy you by any and all means."

    He and people like Trump are the American elite. The only things that distinguish the elite from the other is the fact they have money and the way they are prepared to spend it.

    >> "For the next 48 hours, I will match your donations dollar for dollar."

    And this is a good example of a member of the elite with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank trying to buy power at 50% off.

    The strange thing is the Libetarian fools who buy into this conspiracy nonsense are pretty much the most paranoid people on Earth. How do they get fooled so easily.

  20. steve 124

    Who? Huh?

    Kokoromi, Polytron, Scruta Games, Tomorrow Today Labs and developer Augustin Cordes? Who the hell are they? Can you provide a complete list of those who developers who have decided to put politics before business? I'd love to make sure they never get my money for any other platform.

    These are nobody companies anyways. It's not Ubisoft of any big developers are dumb enough to do this.

    I think it's hilarious that they would cut their own throats on Hillary's sword. Most of the small dev games I've bought on Oculus are trash and I'm glad I haven't spent more than about 10$ for those titles. I've started being much pickier about my Oculus titles to avoid supporting trash developers going forward. I guess I can add stupidity just under bad design/programming to my list of people not to give money to.

    It's really amazing to me that these people would cut themselves from 1/4th of the VR market (1/2 for now, but soon 1/4). These same people don't boycott using ATM machines just because Diebold and Halliburton (it's parent company) kill people all around the world. Guess there's a limit to their morals. You can always find something your money gets spent on that you don't like, if you follow your bills far enough (gonna stop tipping the stripper at your local bar because she might use your dollars for an abortion?) Ludicrous.

    Anyways, feel free not to develop for Oculus. The void will be filled with another programmer and they will get my money instead of you.

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