The Age has picked up on the news of the planned sale of Atari Melbourne House by Atari. They cover the financial problems the parent publisher are experiencing which has led AMH towards this predicament, along with some details and history on Atari Melbourne House...
Melbourne is the centre of the Australian video games industry and Melbourne House is one of the biggest developers. It has about 100 staff.The company, originally called Beam Software, has produced more than 160 games since 1980. The company has received millions of dollars from governments for research and development.
Melbourne House is working on the new instalment of the Test Drive series for the next-generation of games consoles to be released before Christmas. "Melbourne House has been the embryo of the Australia video game industry," said Game Development Association of Australia president Evelyn Richardson.....
Mr Bonnell said the studios would finish current projects before they were sold...
another one bites the dust
100 staff. the actual count is around 42!!!
surely 42 is 'around 100' :)
Guys, can we please not let comments degenerate into another personal slinging match? The Electronic Games Australia Logo Contest thread is an example of what I don't really like what's happening in Sumea comments, where a huge spike of comments consist largely of personnal attacks and whatnot.
It's not particulary interesting to read for anyone else, nor is it anyway near on topic, and as the saying goes, "don't feed the trolls".
And writing lengthy posts impersonating someone else being a fool isn't going to be tolerated and will be removed, and I particularly don't want a trend like that to start here.
There is a lesson for you AC's- it looks like Souri is keeping IP address logs these days.
I think the solution is quite simple, make the comments public to read, but only allow those signed into the site to post a comment. This should cut back significantly on "anonymous bulls*t," as well as make it harder for spam to get posted - and should make it easier for people to post links to stuff as well.
Just a thought.
I hope you are Souri.
I think that would be assumed by everyone here.
The problem is most people are behind NATs so you get one IP that can potentially represent hundreds of individuals.
Moving back to the topic. I overheard that our studio is looking to hire as many Atari people as it can. Without AC this wouldn't get posted.
That post was in relation to logging IPs
Last point on this, Souri: I don't know if you realise that many proxy servers can be asked the real IP address of the machine sending the request? :)
It woudln't be an original IP however so what's the point Lorien?
I could just be stupid, I don't pretend to know that much about it.
Interesting about Atari. Those guys will be snapped up very quickly.
I'm not going to go into details here to an anonymous post. I'll tell Souri :) Basically Souri could narrow it down to a single machine in an organisation in most cases if he really wanted to.
Don't panic anyone, unless he's doing it already it can't be done with past posts.
Sumea would actively spy on you when you make a comment post.
Er... no IP's are captured with Sumea comments.
If we have more hassles with people truly abusing the AC *privilege* :) you and I should have a chat about rather more active measures than just logging proxy IPs :)
Lorien, I thought you'd be the first against those kind of measures. The nature of Sumea comments, which allows anyone to freely and quickly comment on news, is (in my opinion) one of the main reasons why the news comment area has been so popular.
I would say that some of the most interesting threads in Sumea comments wouldn't be so informative if there was a login required, and if there were IP logging and other measures. Posters here are guaranteed complete anonymity when they post, and there'll be no IP logging or other measures. Yeh, at times this will get abused, but I'll be more diligant in removing offending posts in the future.
Personally, I think putting up a barrier, or another step for posting, like registering/logging in all the time etc, is a step backwards for Sumea comments. Besides, that it would require registration pages, password reminder, setting up the database, and all that crap. I'd be better of just using Snitz forum instead. And in the end it still wouldn't be completely fool-proof, since people can register and pretend to be anyone they darn like, for example. If people want to get under your skin, they'll find a way.
I think what is required here is for everyone to provide a bit of common courtesy and respect for each other. We all have interests in the same industry here and I hope we all share the same maturity level as well. Don't jump on the defensive if someone disagrees with you. Don't follow it up with a barrage of personal insults. I've seen it happen many times already, and there are more than a few times where the insults were clearly uncalled for. Debate the message, there's no reason to extend insults to the poster. If you're getting baited, why bother wasting your time arguing and getting all worked up the way they want you to?
Normally yes, on the other hand it's not as if any genuine AC is likely to have a problem with you (and only you) knowing it's them posting. People like "Artist" would have a major problem with it however ;)
I'll post that comment from slashdot again later (Souri deleted a post of mine yesterday that made this attitude clear). I'll remove to insults to "Artist" and any industry that creates such idiots this time so you don't have to delete it this time Souri :)
From the comments on slashdot yesterday on the topic "NJ Bill Would Prohibit Anonymous Posts on Forums"
With apologies to Douglas Adams
(Score:5, Funny)
by Tackhead (54550) on Monday March 06, @02:08PM (#14860255)
> This raises some serious issues, such as to what extent local and state governments can go in enacting and enforcing Internet legislation.
Assemblyman Peter J. Biondi: Come off it, Mr. Coward! You can't stand in front of the tanks in Tienanmen Square indefinitely! This law for the information superhighway has got to be built, and it's going to be built!
Anonymous Coward: Why's it got to be built?
Biondi: What do you mean "why"? It's a law! You've got to pass laws! You were quite entitled to make any suggestions or protests at the appropriate time, you know.
Anonymous Coward: Appropriate time?! The first I knew about it was when you pre-filed Assembly Bill No. 1327, the cops showed up and they said they were ready to come and take me away!
Biondi: Have you any idea how much damage the government would suffer if we just let the law roll straight over you?
Anonymous Coward: No, how much?
Biondi: None at all.
Vogon: Apathetic bloody citizenry. I've no sympathy at all.
***********************************
Tackhead has shown us the normal, acceptable role of an AC. It's one that no-one should have any trouble with. The sort of craziness that Artist was indulging in is not acceptable AC behaviour,. The question is really "why is anyone like Artist worth arguing with". Sumea itself is able to ask to some extent, and if people are going truly abuse AC something needs to be done about it.
I think anyone should be allowed to post, without having to log in. It encourages people to get involved, and state their opinion which (in general) is a good thing.
Souri - there is a much simpler solution if people don't behave themselves (actually several). The simplest is to have a simple set of rules for posts, and for any post that breaks them to be deleted. Im sure once a few posts are deleted, everyone will get back to discussing the news at hand.
And on the topic, Im sure my company (NdWare) will be in the hunt for a few employees from Atari (if/when they leave). We have been sizing up considerably over the last few months, and now have about 20 employees.
Problem with that is there may be a genuine AC who needs to break those rules.
Just a note that the comments previously here related to local industry growth has been moved to the current vote "Is the local industry still growing?"
http://www.sumea.com.au/svotes.asp?id=50
I don't think you quite understand the situation, this isn't just some "troll" causing trouble for his/her/their amusement - even if by reading the detailed definition in wikipedia you realise you have probably got a guy that is using all their known tricks to manipulate.
What you have is most likely one main guy with an agenda - even if you have a few others as well.
This person is manipulating these news comments for their own selfish ends for a business purpose - and they have been at it for a long while. In fact as soon as the garbage was all cleaned out, he was almost immediately back at it again - he doesn't feel any remorse for what he has done. It is one thing to stick to your guns as one identity, it is another to represent yourself and your business goals, it is quite another to use multiple personalities with differing orchestrated points-of-view to manipulate a community for profit - for instance, this guy could pose as multiple people having a "debate" on a thread just to start a flamewar or simply just to discredit whatever he wants to discredit.
Take "Artist," after his last post he jumped threads to the Bigworld news comment thread, and posting as an AC, he posted a comment designed to start a flamewar to cover his tracks on this one - not because he honestly believed what he wrote. He did a similar thing with the EGA thread as well, writes an AC post to throw those he attacks off, then jumps thread.
Now, if you guys don't want to do much about it, fine, then don't. I understand that the AC feature to the news comments does bring in a lot of comments not to mention traffic to the site. Just realise that you don't merely have a "troll" as you put it, what you have is an extreme case of one with an agenda - one that revolves around profit.
And, he will never stop - especially if you don't want to do much about him.
That is the last I am going to say on this matter, so don't bother even trying to bait me on this, just know that I have your identity pretty much figured out my "friend" ;)