Gaming

Did you know there is a stackoverflow for games?

A sta- what?
Basically, a questions and answer site that actually does work.

Why is it better than, say, these forums?
Search actually works.
Answers appear in order or voting.
Good answers are rewarded.
Search actually works.
Answers that can't be answered are closed.
Harder to make duplicates.
Search actually works.
Googleable.
Search actually works.

Does it work?
Sure, just look at its big brother stackoverflow.com

Do I need to login?
No...

C. Ross

shall we say "more welbog" than the normal SE crowd

badp

...and I got a whopping 0 answers!

so I guess I did better! :P

C. Ross

Better than a hate filled flame war

the forum crowd will probably come around once they see they get faster better answers here

nothing like quality service to draw a crowd

badp

"if you have vote-based answers, the top answers will always be a variant of 'kill the elves,' 'flood the world with magma,' or propagated but inaccurate rumours, generally all unrelated to the topic at hand."

:D

well...

C. Ross

oh wait, that's what the forums are already ...

badp

9:11 PM

2

votes

How to kill a bronze colossus?

A: I have done this before, get it to go into a room close the door, build walls over the door and quickly flood the room with magma from my failed fort TowerShot

I guess he was somehow correct anyway

C. Ross

that's a good question ... you should upvote it

badp

oh look

df.stackexchange.com

alexanderpas

seems like 1.0

Mew2468

I don't think it's very active . . . :P

C. Ross

it is

Feeds

9:18 PM

Recent Questions - Gaming Meta - Stack Exchange

1

votes

0

answers

Why has this site got the "visit meta" banner?

The main site still has the "visit meta" banner: got a question about the site itself? meta.gaming is the place to talk about things like what questions are appropriate, what tags we should use, etc. Web A...

support banner

C. Ross

and it unfortunately got just about nowhere ... this is already a better site

Macha

I think we proabably have more DF questions already :P

Mew2468

26 tagged.

And they have 6 over there.

:P

badp

Clearly, nobody knew about the SE 1.0 site

C. Ross

indeed

what do y'all think about this

2

votes

3

answers

Game-specific tags

I've noticed some tags in used that are very specific to the game in question. For example, there's a civilization question which had the tags...

discussion tagging

badp

9:24 PM

it's catch 22

Mew2468

I think they should just be tagged as the game.

badp

oppose - SO is full of language-specific tags

you may argue that you probably could use those five tag slots better

C. Ross

not like Civilization-4 but like settler and worker

I like the idea, but what about game overlap?

Mew2468

Pikachu tag?

1

votes

1

answers

Which is better in Pokémon Red: Swift or Slash?

Which Pokémon attack is better to teach to a Pikachu? Swift or Slash?

strategy pokemon training attack pikachu

C. Ross

2

votes

Game-specific tags

A: There are tons of these. Many tags that are specific for only one game, such as "morrigan" or "lore-master", and many tags which are just too game dependent, such as "priest" or "mutation". You're right, there isn't much value in these tags at all, and they...

Mew2468

9:26 PM

Does anybody know how long it takes for a name change on meta to carry over to chat?

Macha

Nearly all the material online is out of date :( Should I just start on 40d?

@Mew2468 Log out and in, I think

badp

@Mew: try leaving all rooms, logging out and logging in

Mew2468

okay.

C. Ross

@Macha I don't think so

the wiki is pretty up to date

alexanderpas

@Mecha: read the 40d material, and adapt it for DF2010, as it is doable to start this way

C. Ross

9:28 PM

5

votes

4

answers

How should I learn to play Dwarf fortress

I am interested in learning how to play Dwarf Fortress. Where should I start, as an absolute beginner?

dwarf-fortress

see the comments on that thread

Kevin Y

That worked. Thanks. :)

badp

You are wielding a +3, +2 elven dagger of speed

<3

C. Ross

@badp what?

badp

← is playing dungeon crawl and has found an excellent weapon

C. Ross

ah, good luck

anyway, headed out, later y'all

Macha

9:30 PM

@alexanderpa It just told me to farm in a cave, after searching for a while, I found this isn't possible in the latest versions without irrigating it, something I can't find how to d.

alexanderpas

gamers... sigh... guilty!

Macha

@alexanderpa Also, it's M_a_cha not M_e_cha :P

badp

btw

if I asked what games have really epic music

would it get closed?

I love putting together compilations of game music

alexanderpas

@Macha muddy the floor by controlled flooding, and sorry about the Mecha

Macha

@alexanderpa And how do I do that?

badp

9:32 PM

Especially if their bpm matches the rhythm of quick walking, useful to mumble when you're late for your train :D

alexanderpas

floodgate...

but I sense a great question for the site ;)

@badp, yes, it would get closed.

badp

pity.

Macha

"Floodgate: Needs floodgate." Least helpful error ever...

badp

could be worse, could be windows bluescreen error messages

Kevin Y

@badp Auditorium has nice orchestral music. Not really good for compilations but . . .

playauditorium.com

alexanderpas

9:35 PM

you can't build one on the spot, if you haven't created one yet.

Feeds

Recent Questions - Gaming - Stack Exchange

0

votes

0

answers

Dwarf Fortress sound

Every time I start the game the sound is at 255/255. Is there any way to make it start at a different level?

dwarf-fortress

badp

0x949101WTF (0x00000000, 0xFFAA1177, 0xGARBAGE, 0xFUUUUUUU)

arr, Sigmund one shotted <3

Sathya

Is this Gaming stackechange or Dwarf fortress stack exchange :-s

badp

noooo, I've found all the altars except the one of the god I wanted to join

alexanderpas

Dwarf Fortress Stack Exchange 1.0 failed, so this is Gaming Stack Exchange 2.0 which will be a great success!

@badp STOP 0x0000000A (0xBFD14AAC, 0x000000FF, 0x00000000, 0x8000F67C)
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
***Address 8000f67c has base at 80001000 - hal.dll

badp

9:42 PM

← has had "KILLS_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" on his signature for a long time

Macha

Figured flooding in DF out. Finally. Now just need to wait for this to evaporate.

badp

is that joke that horrible? :(

Macha

Nope. Just not a chat room prone to bursts of e-laughter

alexanderpas

@Macha Flooding is fun isn't it...

badp

oh, I thought you were talking about my line. nvm

Macha

9:46 PM

@alexanderpa Well, I only got a little pond into a room and bit of corridor, so..

alexanderpas

just wait until you connect it directly to the river.... with a single floodgate as protection.

badp

a +1 robe of resistance! I'm going to die so horribly.

Arda Xi

What do you do if you get too much upvotes?

badp

You die so horribly.

Sathya

Jump up & down? @Arda

alexanderpas

9:49 PM

you move away for 12 hours to try preventing the mortarboard.

badp

Yeah, it's stackoverflowing at its finest

1. Wait for basic question

Arda Xi

no I mean like

15

votes

Steam says friend is playing Hello Kitty?

A: As Gnoupi said, it's possible to report any game you want to play as a non-Steam game. In this case, it's a joke reference to the episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" of South Park, in which Butters prefers Hello Kitty Island Adventure over World of Warcraft. As far as I know no s...

badp

2. Give half decent answer

Arda Xi

15? seriously?

badp

3. +150 rep!

Macha

9:50 PM

/me is jealous :P

Arda Xi

I didn't even answer the question

Macha

Although I did get 18 for a post simply being funny on SO once

18

votes

What motivates you to document/not document your code?

A: Will I understand this is 6 months? Yes: Go to step 2 Unsure: Go to step 6 No: Go to step 6 Will someone else understand this? Yes: Go to step 3 Unsure: Go to step ...

Arda Xi

gnoupi or cowgod should be getting those upvotes

Macha

Link obviously to his answer in yours?

Arda Xi

>As Gnoupi said, it's possible to report any game you want to play as a non-Steam game.

How do I do the quote thing here?

Macha

9:51 PM

Is a big, bold link?

Copy the answer link

Arda Xi

it's the same question

badp

Macha, compare with:

Arda Xi

the answer is right below it

badp

10

votes

Converting a bash script to python (small script)

A: Answer Let's break it down into pieces. Especially the pieces you got wrong. :) Assignment outfile=ReadsAgain.txt It should come to little surprise that you need to put quotes around strings. On the other ha...

:P

yeah, I know, the real problem is I suck.

← goes back at failing

(no, I didn't link to that to beg for upvotes, I just wanted to prove my points and this was the best example I know of. No, I didn't research much.)

Arda Xi

Funny, you got two upvotes ;-)

badp

9:54 PM

<small>although that 11th upvote should finally get me populist :P</small>

Arda Xi

your score's 12 now

Hey, I suck at SO

Arda Xi, The Netherlands

710 11

php mysql jquery c# wordpress api youtube

badp

Nah, probably you haven't found the right question

Arda Xi

I mean, PHP, seriously

badp

fastest gun in the west is a HUGE part of reputation

I got lucky with that a few times.

Hence 2k rep.

Arda Xi

I got 5 upvotes for a question just because Jon Skeet answered it

badp

9:56 PM

You prolly didn't.

Macha

Go me:

Macha, Ireland

2050 7 23

javascript php jquery subjective python java ruby

j/k - still not even close votes

Arda Xi

5

votes

5

answers

How do you unit test a class that's meant to talk to data?

I have a few repository classes that are meant to talk to different kinds of data, deriving from an IRepository interface laid out like so: In implementations, the code talks to a data s...

c# unit-testing tdd mstest testing-strategies

Macha

And I get the PHP tag too, anyway

badp

heh

Arda Xi

PHP is, sadly, my area of expertise

badp

9:57 PM

badp, Italy

2388 3 16

python beginner c# list .net ide language-agnostic

I get c# but I haven't ever done anything in it really

Jeff Atwood

I changed close votes per day, from 12 to 20 on gaming

Arda Xi

I've done a lot in it, just nothing worthwhile

badp

Thanks, @Jeff

Arda Xi

Thanks Jeff

Jeff Atwood

this might not take effect immediately, I'm not sure

Kevin Y

9:58 PM

I see 19.

It did

same here

ok then it did

So it's in effect. :)

Arda Xi

I got 8 votes, I had 3

pshaw, you're all just not doing a very good job at voting ;-)

alexanderpas

9:58 PM

confirmed!

i've got 8 votes left!

badp

@Arda, I'm no compulsive closer

sorry

Kevin Y

Heh, same.

Arda Xi

hey, I'm not.. trying to be

badp

besides I have 23 kobolds to deal with right now

Arda Xi

:<

it's just.. the community.. and stuff

Macha

10:00 PM

So, what questions were we unable to close?

badp

well okay, they're really 35

alexanderpas

chat.meta.stackoverflow.com/chats/transcripts/46?offset=120

huh?

35 kobolds!

@badp you alright?

10:03 PM

Not really, now I'm out of mana

fuck, a whip of electrocution.

alexanderpas

opinion on this one:

5

votes

5

answers

Free Quality Online Games For Kids/Teens

My kids love to play games online-what are some good online games that are free, safe, and fun?

game-recommendations online

badp

That was my vote today

Macha

I voted to close the iphone one, so I don't see this one being too different

badp

last two large kobolds!

alexanderpas

0

votes

1

answers

Is "Paper Mario" really freeware on PC?

Is the old Nintendo 64 classic RPG "Paper Mario" really available as legally allowed, free download (for N64 emulator on PC) as is claimed by several sites throughout the web? And if so, are there localized versions other th...

pc mario legal nintendo-64 paper-mario

duplicate of

5

votes

2

answers

How do you know whether a game is in the Public Domain?

There's a lot of games out there whose original creators have long gone out of business. How (if at all) do these enter the Public Domain, and how can you tell? Are there other kinds of abandon ware?

legal faq

badp

10:08 PM

not really...

the second question has a generic answer. the first can be answered definitely.

alexanderpas

just like

Arda Xi

More of a duplicate of

2

votes

2

answers

Are emulators of modern gaming consoles legal?

It sure is allowed to use a C64 emulator, but what about a Wii one? And what about the middle-old consoles like the PS1?

consoles emulation legal

badp

@alex, 404

That question must have been deleted

Arda Xi

yep

alexanderpas

was pulling them in from the transcript...

Macha

10:10 PM

Anyway, I'm going. Bye

Arda Xi

good night

alexanderpas

paper mario needs only one more close vote

Grace Note

I seem to have broken my Gaming Meta profile

Jeff Atwood

what's your userid

Grace Note

85

Jeff Atwood

10:15 PM

Grace Note, 6

383 1 10

discussion tagging bug status-bydesign top-7 allowed-questions traffic

Grace Note

I get "Oops" errors any time I try to visit Meta while logged in

Jeff Atwood

what's wrong with it?

random

Flushed your cache?

Grace Note

Tried it once. Let me try again

alexanderpas

seems to work over here.

badp

10:16 PM

by the way

is Steam OpenID still broken?

Grace Note

Oh, my Meta was working earlier, at work. It's only when I got home and decided to logout and log back in that this started to happen

badp

it would be especially great for gaming

Jeff Atwood

log out of gaming, then back in. worst case, clear all gaming.se cookies

random

Or use gift-shopping mode in one of the browsers

Grace Note

Gift shopping mode?

badp

10:17 PM

"porn mode"

8

votes

2

answers

Stack Overflow and Steam Community OpenIDs

Steam now supports using an account as an OpenID. However this doesn't work on any Stack site. For example, I try to log into Area51 just to try out the Steam OpenID in practice. Here's the error returned: ...

bug openid

Yes -- steam openid now works \o/

random

Hey, that's what Scott McCloud says it is in that Chrome intro comic years ago

badp

I take it it would be asking too much to add an openid shortcut for steam?

Grace Note

I still have no clue what that means

badp

at least at this point?

Jeff Atwood

@badp ok I'll mark it completed

Grace Note

10:18 PM

Hm... no, clearing cookies didn't work.

I could nuclearize all browsing history, mayhaps

badp

err, nevermind

unless I did it wrong

Jeff Atwood

@badp doesn't work.. or does work.. :P

badp

a commenter said it worked for him, so I exulted

I'm trying to link mine right now

and obviously -100 to my rep

Invalid claimed_id or identity (Contact: , Reference: )

really sorry about that, @Jeff

I should've checked before saying.

Grace Note

And... nope. Still "Oops, something bad happened" on visiting the Gaming Meta. Baffling.

Sathya

steam has openID now ?

badp

10:25 PM

yes

steamcommunity.com/dev

Sathya

o_0 since when ?

badp

http://steamcommunity.com/openid/id/<steamid>

Arda Xi

They're treating it like oAuth though

Grace Note

Well, I can still browse while not logged in. I guess I just won't be able to post anything

Arda Xi

Well, it's fair with all the people using oAuth as OpenID, like Facebook

Jeff Atwood

10:26 PM

it's not baffling to me: "Child meta sync failed, existing User.GUID does not match SerializableUser.GUID"

I just don't know what you did to get there

alexanderpas

do you know how to fix it?

Jeff Atwood

I'm like House, M.D. the fixing it isn't the interesting part, but how we got there :)

Grace Note

Well, my Gaming profile has been desynced from my Gaming Meta profile (in terms of profile data, not reputation) since day 1 of the private Beta

It's been a cache'd version of my very first edit when I just removed my Meta SO information

Jeff Atwood

did you change GUIDs in that time?

in other words, did you unassociate and reassociate your accounts in the network?

Grace Note

I don't even know how I would accomplish that

I didn't

Jeff Atwood

10:29 PM

user page, accounts tab, clicken button

Grace Note

But Emmett did

Jeff Atwood

?

Grace Note

1

votes

Why aren't some users listed as participating in the Beta on Area 51?

A: Account association is in a semi-broken state at the moment. After clicking "Clear All Associations" from one of the trilogy sites, for example, you can't re-associate your Area 51 or private beta accounts. @Grace Note, as a result, your Gaming account couldn't associate with Area 51, ...

badp

You spit the cyclops like a pig!!! <3

Jeff Atwood

ok so then your GUID did change, which explains it

badp

10:30 PM

speaking of account associations, how is that going to change moving forward?

Jeff Atwood

it'll become more awesome

badp

accounts tab only show sites from SO, SU, SF, MSO currently

oh, I had no doubts about the monotonic increase of awesomeness over time

Grace Note

Okay, so I first was decoupled from Area 51 when I did dissociation funny business to change my display name to the R-9DH Grace Note

Ender

I've purposely avoided Stack Overflow because I was finishing my degree. Now I've come back to Area 51, new members of the team and this.

Grace Note

Then my Gaming profile was synchronized with my Meta SO profile, but not my Area 51, which led to the report. Then, Emmett relinked my accounts, which in turn changed my GUID, but this didn't have any effect for a week until I actually logged out of Gaming to log back in and update my profile.

Ender

10:33 PM

It's a struggle to keep up with all the stuff going on here at the moment

Jeff Atwood

Grace what is your gaming user id NOT META

Grace Note

85

Feeds

Recent Questions - Gaming Meta - Stack Exchange

0

votes

0

answers

Overzealous Admins

I feel that the admins are being too overzealous in closing questions for being "Subjective" or "too localized" at the slightest hint of subjectivity or locality playing a role. Here's some recent examples of what I mean:

discussion closed-questions

badp

quick! close as subjective!

Grace Note

I was waiting for that post from Swiss

alexanderpas

10:35 PM

will respond to that.

Grace Note

Oh, hey, it's a rant

Jeff Atwood

1A18400C-B713-4166-AF7E-88E17A378395

Arda Xi

We actually should close that as subjective. he's got it all wrong too, there's no overzealous admins

random

Okay @jeff bring out the "Close as List of X" already

Arda Xi

We might be overzealous but we're not admins

@random yeah, it's a list of rants

alexanderpas

10:36 PM

just let me answer that question and get a good laugh :D

Jeff Atwood

@grace try going to meta.gaming now

Grace Note

Kaboom

Jeff Atwood

ok so I'll manually set it to your other guid value. I was hoping null would work.

@grace try now

I don't think this should have been closed

0

votes

3

answers

What is the best selling game of all time?

At least up until now. And is there a list somewhere?

sales

that's definitely answerable

the other two the poster cites I agree should remain closed

Grace Note

Now it works!

Arda Xi

I was thinking about that too, I mean with Wii Sports being #1 I don't see it changing soon

random

10:39 PM

Tetris no doubt

Jeff Atwood

I would throw the OP a bone by reopening that one, and leaving the others alone

"list of games playable in linux", feh

"list of easter eggs in game", feh

LIST OF X STRIKES AGAIN

Arda Xi

Already cast the vote

Jeff Atwood

and yet again, users are confused.

Arda Xi

that's why we need a better FAQ

Jeff Atwood

this is why I think LIST OF X would be an educational close reason

Grace Note

10:40 PM

Agreed

Jeff Atwood

we are not here to compile lists of X

TELL US WHY AND HOW!

Grace Note

We're a repository of knowledge, not a repository of repositories.

Arda Xi

Yes, but that should be in the FAQ too

right now nobody knows this when they come to the site, a close reason won't stop them asking the questions

HAL 9000

Any question where the highest voted answer starts with a link to wikipedia probably is pointless.

Grace Note

I think we could fit something like...

random

10:42 PM

It certainly doesn't help when the front page is full of "list of x"

Arda Xi

HAL, there's no policy on a question being easily found on Google, you just have to make sure it isn't on the site itself yet

Grace Note

Hum, I can't think of a way to phrase it well

random

Phrase what?

Grace Note

"Questions that are nothing but lists of games are not allowed. There is no concrete answer, nor a problem to address", or summat...

Arda Xi

@HAL see also

8

votes

5

answers

Should we Link to Content or Contain content?

There have been a number of '[Game] [Craft/Class] Guide questions' today. While I think it'd be appropriate for those questions to be asked organically, I have an issue with the intentional 'seeding' of the questions because they produce a lot of unanswered questions with no indication that t...

discussion guide-questions

Grace Note

10:43 PM

Well, maybe not "of games"

Just "lists"

badp

speaking of lists -- can I please get the list of people who voted to close the most selling consoles question?

I need it to reply to "Overzealous Admins"

Arda Xi

Which?

badp

0

votes

3

answers

What is the best selling game of all time?

At least up until now. And is there a list somewhere?

sales

Grace Note

Post Closed as "too localized" by alexanderpas, Macha, Brandon, marco.ragogna, Mehper C. Palavuzlar

badp

Thanks

Grace Note

10:45 PM

/posts/<id>/revisions

Jeff Atwood

someone should answer the guy on meta. If you want to keep new users around, particularly those smart enough to USE meta (this is big) you want to be nice to the good ones.

Arda Xi

I thought someone was

Grace Note

badp is working on it

random

Takes time to rant back

Jeff Atwood

I mean give the guy credit -- he came over, talked about 3 posts, etc.

HAL 9000

10:46 PM

@Adra sure, but wikipeida is more likley to be updated than a (at present) small se site and wikipeida is more likley to be first in the google ranking. A SE site shouldn't really just copy information from other sources. My opinion.

Grace Note

Also, since I hadn't gotten to it yet, many thanks, Jeff, for the fix

Jeff Atwood

self awareness is worth a little something.

Arda Xi

He wrote entire paragraphs

badp

0

votes

Overzealous Admins

A: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/2120/what-is-the-best-selling-game-of-all-time-closed Closed for being "too localized." [...] There ...

is that too harsh?