PA Comic: Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 - The Conflux, Part Seven

Munkus Beaver

kingworks

"Between realms."

My current employment situation.

David J Prokopetz

I kinda suspected that would turn out to be the case. There's something to be said for adversarial GMing, but interpreting any semantic ambiguity in the rules as an excuse to no-saving-throw your players isn't being adversarial - it's just being a dick. Adult gamers tend not to have the patience for it.

TychoCelchuuu

The news posts are of course always amazing, but this one I particularly enjoyed:

It’s not especially hard to force a system update on the Xbox, provided there is one to get: going into Network Settings and testing your connectivity to Live is enough. But what if you don’t actually like what you get? Then, there is no recourse. Well, you can buy a PS3, I guess. They update that system every thirty-three seconds, but they rarely “improve” it in such a way that it becomes completely alien.

I liked the screenshots I saw beforehand. Brenna, like most sentients, likes what technology can enable but has no patience or enthusiasm for pure novelty. “Newness” is a concept with no currency. So when you remove Netflix, and you remove Hulu, and then you replace them with versions that are demonstrably less useful, you impact my life in a negative way. This new Netflix app in particular is brutal and user aggressive, replacing the lavish DVD covers with endless rows of chomping shark-teeth. Most dangerously for their partners, I opened up the store to familiarize myself with it and decided I didn’t have time to learn how to pay them money. I retreated from their user experience at a full run, routed, taking shelter in Modern Warfare.

Yes, it’s true. I would rather be aerially bombarded than suffer through another round of Soviet reeducation.

Syphyre

On a rating of one to seven, I rate the 5th strip (to saaaaaaand) the highest of this continuum.

I liked the screenshots I saw beforehand. Brenna, like most sentients, likes what technology can enable but has no patience or enthusiasm for pure novelty. “Newness” is a concept with no currency. So when you remove Netflix, and you remove Hulu, and then you replace them with versions that are demonstrably less useful, you impact my life in a negative way. This new Netflix app in particular is brutal and user aggressive, replacing the lavish DVD covers with endless rows of chomping shark-teeth. Most dangerously for their partners, I opened up the store to familiarize myself with it and decided I didn’t have time to learn how to pay them money.

Truth. So much truth. Updating for the sake of updating is sometimes taking steps backwards.

GreasyKidsStuff

I agree with Tycho, I updated my XBox yesterday and Netflix was... a struggle.

Rehab

Hooray, now we can move away from dreaded continuity again!

The ending is decent enough though and the news post is indeed enjoyable.

Aurich

Going straight from Gabe's lonely "you guys were supposed to order pizza" to Tycho's satisfied pizza nomming is very funny to me. The pizza seems somehow poetical.

Slothboy

I was in the beta for the dashboard update so I've had a bit more time to get used to it, but I still find it clunky by comparison to the previous dashboard. They have sacrificed useability to the gods of Looking Pretty and I hate them for it. At what point in your UI testing do you decide that requiring MORE button presses to reach content is better? And when do you decide that seeing more options on the screen at once is bad? "Why should we show you a list of your games? It is better to fill each screen with just three "box covers" so you have to navigate to the right towards infinity."

Netflix though, man. That shit is wrecked. They added 5.1 support (good) and completely ruined the user experience (bad).

jackal

It's more like they are sacrificing to the gods of making their phone and OS and game system look the same. It seems kind of silly though since no one knows if they like Windows 8 yet, and everyone knows they don't like Windows Phone.

ArcSyn

For those of you who use Netflix/Hulu/etc, don't forget about Quickplay! On the home screen, right under the disc option, it shows your most recent selections, so if you use Netflix or anything else very often, you can easily get to it from there instead of going down to apps and then loading it.

Black_Heart

hah, I knew it would turn out this way.

Tycho's motivations are always to erode people's souls, he sees DMing as a means to crush the human spirit and frustrate others.

Gabe just wants people to have a fun time and be challenged.

Chickeen

Slothboy wrote:

Netflix though, man. That shit is wrecked. They added 5.1 support (good) and completely ruined the user experience (bad).

I was in the preview too, but hadn't xbox netflixed for over a year before then. How was it better before? Doesn't seem that different from what I remember. But I'm old...

EvilBadman

My main issue with the new Netflix is the unannounced removal of Party viewing.

Crimsondude

I was really hoping that the third panel would have involved Gabe brutally murdering Tycho.

Slothboy

Chickeen wrote:

Slothboy wrote:

Netflix though, man. That shit is wrecked. They added 5.1 support (good) and completely ruined the user experience (bad).

I was in the preview too, but hadn't xbox netflixed for over a year before then. How was it better before? Doesn't seem that different from what I remember. But I'm old...

Fewer titles visible on screen. Replacing the "cover" with a random frame from the last episode you watched in a series, lack of visual reference when you fast forward or rewind, lack of a list view for the episodes in a series, autoplay when you select a movie or series, removal of "watch with party", and reduction in streaming quality, weird system for starting the next episode in a series - the screen shrinks down to a box in the corner before the episode is even complete, and then all kinds of options pop up at the bottom of the screen.

These are the things I have noticed so far.

Turambar

Crimsondude wrote:

I was really hoping that the third panel would have involved Gabe brutally murdering Tycho.

It's implied

Crimsondude

Fuck that. I demand blood.

Rehab

Who has the watch right now anyway?

Peccavi

Oh, is this where I can complain about the new Netflix app for Xbox?

Fuck you, Microsoft. How much did Comcast pay you to screw over Netflix with that goddawful new UI?

Edit: As I was typing that, I realized that didn't make sense. Netflix makes their own apps for platforms. Guess they're really trying to screw themselves over.

The Good Doctor Tran

Peccavi wrote: »

Edit: As I was typing that, I realized that didn't make sense. Netflix makes their own apps for platforms. Guess they're really trying to screw themselves over.

Their semi-recent rash of announcements and 'divestings' certainly implies a trend toward self-destruction.

mare_imbrium

Slothboy wrote:

lack of a list view for the episodes in a series

How can they take that out? I don't watch Top Gear in order, I watch whichever episode I fancy watching at the time. How can I do that now?

agilemania

You click "Top Gear" and it starts buffering and playing whatever it decides is the next episode. While it is buffering or playing, you can select a "more episodes" option, which opens a horizontal list of screenshots of episodes.

I only played with it a little bit so I may not have all the details right. Short version: the auto-play is great for movies but sucks for TV shows.