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Comment: It's a design around (Score 1) 68

by tepples (#46496871) Attached to: Steam Controller Drops Touchscreen

The seperate buttons instead of a good D pad is why I hate the all Sony controllers.

I don't have a PS3 or PS4, but the directional pad on at least PlayStation, Dual Shock, and Dual Shock 2 controllers is all one piece of plastic. It has four separate raised segments to avoid Nintendo patents on the cross shape. And in practice, with the thumb lying flat across a PlayStation directional pad, the feel of rolling the thumb from one direction to the next isn't that different from Nintendo's design.

Comment: There are some local multiplayer PC games (Score 1) 68

by tepples (#46496843) Attached to: Steam Controller Drops Touchscreen

Eh, that doesn't really fit many games on Steam though. Local multiplayer is a rare thing on PC games. Damn shame.

I've been collecting links to Slashdot comments that recommend local multiplayer PC games. Mostly the problem has been that very few people are willing to either A. carry a desktop PC back and forth between the desk and the living room or B. buy and maintain a second computer that lacks consoles' advantage in ease of use.

Comment: FB filters spam better than some email providers (Score 1) 225

by tepples (#46496799) Attached to: The Era of Facebook Is an Anomaly

Email is just the same as FB, without inviting FB to be the middle-man

And that's the problem. Internet mail became less useful to people when spammers learned how to defeat Bayesian filters. Facebook has the resources to filter spam centrally and apply an effective death penalty to repeat offenders because making and verifying a new Facebook account means getting a new cell phone number.

Comment: HuffPost and Answers (Score 1) 225

by tepples (#46496773) Attached to: The Era of Facebook Is an Anomaly

And why would I want to verify my identity?

To gain access to forums and comment sections whose operator requires a verified identity as a measure against griefing. Posting a comment to an article on The Huffington Post requires a Facebook account that has been "verified" (associated to a globally unique mobile phone number). Posting to Answers.com requires a Facebook account (or a legacy account which it is no longer possible to create).

Comment: Why sell one copy when you can sell four? (Score 1) 68

by tepples (#46495877) Attached to: Steam Controller Drops Touchscreen

I'd still have bought one but it doesn't support 4 controllers with displays. That was a massive failure.

How many controllers does a typical PC game support, with or without displays? It's been claimed that PC game developers leave out support for split-screen play and spawn installation on purpose, in order to sell multiple copies of a game to one household.

Comment: Both buttons and a touch screen (Score 1) 68

by tepples (#46495851) Attached to: Steam Controller Drops Touchscreen

if people wanted to play games on a tablet they'd probably do so and on one that could travel around with them.

Touch-screen tablets are good for positional input. But some game genres are more suited toward directional input than positional input, especially things like platformers and fighting games. Trying to do directional input with a touch screen is painful, as shown in the demo of Pixeline and the Jungle Treasure. The advantage of Wii U GamePad over a tablet is that it has both traditional gaming controls (a directional control and discrete trigger buttons) and a touch screen. Only a few uncommon mobile devices, such as Sony's Xperia Play, Archos GamePad, and JXD gaming tablets, have both.
