Posts by Moving Pictures 19 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2011
"Consoles seem to be most favoured by younger players and casual gamers who are not really interested in PCs ( regardless of OS ), and just want something to work easily. Unfortunately, those same gamers also don't tend to care much for complex gameplay either, which has lead to most console-ported games getting simpler. I would hope that SteamOS consoles don't accentuate that trend."
Ah yes, the good old days when adventure games required you to remember a maze or create a map in a notebook next to your computer. Not like modern games where all dungeons are automapped and are only a straight line with no alternative route anyway. Also very basic puzzles confined to the room that you're currently in. (Looking at you Skyrim)
Of course it did. Dr Asperger investigated groups of children who behaved differently and found a common group of behaviour: Social anxiety, lower empathy that expected, clumsiness (which I think isn't actually a symptom) and high focus to the point of obsession.
Once he identified these traits, he defined "Asperger's syndrome" and published it in a medical journal.
Did the common cold exist before language was invented so that people could say "I have a cold!"?
My wife and I have god-kids with autism that makes Rain Man look normal. As a result of working with them (to give their mum a rest twice a week) for the last 14 years and getting more and more interested in the topic, she's become quite a highly trained special needs teacher and works with all kinds of people on the autism spectrum (Aspergers being a severe sub-set of autism)
Once you get to know the kids and what works for them, you get to understand that they're actually pretty cool behind the walls. If you apply normal rules of society on them you'll get nowhere. They're all different in their triggers and interactions so a post-it smiley will work for some, but not others. You have to tailor your interactions to the individual.
According to her, my dad and I are both "on the spectrum" but not so far that you'd notice without prolonged interaction.
I just wish teachers for normals had the same level of attention to borderline cases like me and my dad as my wife does to her "specials". We were both written off at school as difficult, intractable, stubborn etc and went on to graduate with honors from McGill in Mining Engineering. Once we were exposed to our "thing" and not forced into doing stuff we hated (Shakespeare in particular and anything not physics or engineering or maths) then we really pulled ahead of the crowd.
As for the haters, AS is much much more common than you think. Just about everyone has it and it's not "jumping on the bandwagon" or "being cool". It's just not a big deal for 90% of cases. Not like my god-kids.
I've been working as ICT support in schools for ages (10+ years) and I can tell you that about 90% of the comments here are an accurate reflection of the state of affairs.
From where I stand, it's obvious, common knowledge that computers are just tools, not magic. The application of the tool is what's important. If the teacher isn't trained in how to apply computer use into achieving quality outcomes, then save the money and give the teacher more of what that particular teacher needs to stuff an education into the child's head.
Just as some students are "hands on" learners, some are visual learners and some are verbal learners, so too with the teachers. They all have differing styles and forcing them to use a cookie cutter teaching style that lies outside their comfort zone, area of training or expertise generated from decades of experience is only going to be detrimental to everyone involved.
But never mind. It's all for naught. Nobody ever asks the people at the coalface what they think, need or would like. Politicians and overseers who wish they were politicians will make decrees and then be promoted for their amazing forward thinking and use of buzzwords and won't hang around long enough to see the fuckup they have caused.
Best news I've heard for ages!
As a pretty heavy gamer, I've long since given up buying games from Australian stores. It's always cheaper for me to buy from England, even before the AUD skyrocketed. As an added bonus, it's delivered to my door.
$89 on steam? or $47 delivered to my house.
I even scoured the bargain bins once upon a time for the game NOX. I found it for $20 in Harvey Norman at that time, or 3 pounds for the and 4 pounds delivery. At that time the exchange rate was 1:3 so it actually cost me $21.77 to get NOX delivered to my house from England but I did it anyway.
The only downside is that Skyrim arrived on the 20th of November when the release date was 11/11
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