Spies among us?

[Dillian]

could there be?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html?_r=0

[myxomatosii]

could there be?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/10/world/spies-dragnet-reaches-a-playing-field-of-elves-and-trolls.html?_r=0

No of course not go back to playing.

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.

[Aarinak]

Glad to see our tax money is being spent on WoW subscriptions :rolleyes:

[Dillian]

I saw this an was like omg. Then i started thinking who i knew on here that could be :eek:

[Dillian]

Chances are they only get the free account up to level 10 or 20, i think it is. Not sure though. But if there are terrorists here, think about what you might be putting your money in to on a RMT. Was your new Fungi worth a bombing some where in the world? Just another good reason RMT's are bad for the gaming community.

[Swish]

They've probably been doing it for years...don't be surprised. There'll definitely be logs of every IM you ever sent on AIM/Yahoo/etc from 10-15 years ago and 1pp says the CIA own them :/

It carries on as long as we let it happen... who's got an Xbox one with the compulsary Kinect? Facial recognition when you walk in the room? You'd be mad to buy one.

[August]

They've probably been doing it for years...don't be surprised. There'll definitely be logs of every IM you ever sent on AIM/Yahoo/etc from 10-15 years ago and 1pp says the CIA own them :/

It carries on as long as we let it happen... who's got an Xbox one with the compulsary Kinect? Facial recognition when you walk in the room? You'd be mad to buy one.

If you knew anything about what the culture is actually like @ MSFT you would realize that your tin hat has caught fire. PII (or Personally identifiable information) is at the very forefront of concern when developing ANY feature. The negative press that comes from even the accidental gathering of this data is so devastating that there are entire sections of specs devoted to making sure that we don't log / collect / consume the data - we use it as a pass-thru to whatever is requesting it in most cases.

If you should be worrying about anything, it's the actual games that you're playing that utilize the technology MSFT provides.

If you're worried about XBOX ONE, I'd suggest reading the terms of service and how MSFT can use that data. Trust me, someone WILL read it and they WILL make sure we are abiding by the ToS through wire-sniffers and what-have-you. A big company like that just can't afford to make such a huge blunder with so much scrutiny.

And before you go blabbing about 'secret back doors' you better believe a developer would know of ANY entry point into their code that scoops data. It's just not possible.

Sorry just really hate spew of misinformation.

[Spitty]

That. This, that and more of that because this -

http://gizmodo.com/popular-android-flashlight-app-straight-up-lied-about-s-1477916270

It's your your Droid that's tracking you, it's the unscrupulous apps that you installed yourself that's doing it.

It's not the Kinect that's censoring your language, it's NBA2K14 that's doing that and tracking your heartrate to study which points of their game excites people the most.

Etc.

[August]

That. This, that and more of that because this -

http://gizmodo.com/popular-android-flashlight-app-straight-up-lied-about-s-1477916270

It's your your Droid that's tracking you, it's the unscrupulous apps that you installed yourself that's doing it.

It's not the Kinect that's censoring your language, it's NBA2K14 that's doing that and tracking your heartrate to study which points of their game excites people the most.

Etc.

Yes, exactly. Now everyone go and read the idea behind an AppContainer and how strict Microsoft is on 'app capabilities'. The app manifest has to request the ability to use location, and the app is denied access unless it actively utilizes API that require such information.

And rest assured if you say 'NO' to an app in the MSFT store when it requests location - the app has two options.

1) Close down
2) Be unable to call into the location stack

Androids loose marketplace (like having 5 unofficial ones) led to that situation, which is a mistake MSFT did not make.

[Kender]

I saw this an was like omg. Then i started thinking who i knew on here that could be :eek:

there's a whole guild of FBI agents

[indiscriminate_hater]

incoming tinfoil hatters

[Ahldagor]

If you knew anything about what the culture is actually like @ MSFT you would realize that your tin hat has caught fire. PII (or Personally identifiable information) is at the very forefront of concern when developing ANY feature. The negative press that comes from even the accidental gathering of this data is so devastating that there are entire sections of specs devoted to making sure that we don't log / collect / consume the data - we use it as a pass-thru to whatever is requesting it in most cases.

If you should be worrying about anything, it's the actual games that you're playing that utilize the technology MSFT provides.

If you're worried about XBOX ONE, I'd suggest reading the terms of service and how MSFT can use that data. Trust me, someone WILL read it and they WILL make sure we are abiding by the ToS through wire-sniffers and what-have-you. A big company like that just can't afford to make such a huge blunder with so much scrutiny.

And before you go blabbing about 'secret back doors' you better believe a developer would know of ANY entry point into their code that scoops data. It's just not possible.

Sorry just really hate spew of misinformation.

this makes me question why microsoft would put the technology on the devices in the first place.

[applesauce25r624]

this might explain all the fuckin bots in random BGs :[

[Spitty]

Because, underneath all the ill-use cases and complete freakout paranoia, there's good and useful applications to realtime telemetry.

Location can be used to optimize matchmaking in FPS games, for instance.

Heart-rate increases can be tied to an increase in volume or change in tempo in a background audio track - a game can mimic the actual intensity felt in realtime, furthering the level of immersion experienced.

And the Kinect can track your location in your living room so you can beat the living fuck out of flying fruit.

It's pretty simple, really.

[planeofdreams]

If you knew anything about what the culture is actually like @ MSFT you would realize that your tin hat has caught fire.

August confirmed spy. :P

[August]

this makes me question why microsoft would put the technology on the devices in the first place.


What Spitty said.

You can extend that logic to almost anything and conclude that nothing is safe and no progress should be made, ever. Then again, we are all playing a 14 year old game.

[Ahldagor]

What Spitty said.

You can extend that logic to almost anything and conclude that nothing is safe and no progress should be made, ever. Then again, we are all playing a 14 year old game.

i understand what spitty said and agree with it. i just don't see the viability of most of the technology other than as a "look at what we did" marketing type of thing, or as a "we'll help you get immersed more so than ever before."

this gen of consoles is going to suck because of the nintendo wii.

[Langrisserx]

this war on terror is really fun.

[Spitty]

this gen of consoles is going to suck because of the nintendo wii.

Do they have Fruit Ninja for the Wii?

CHECK. MATE.

Levity aside, very few of the features on the modern consoles are marketing gimmicks.

Well, let me clarify. They didn't start as marketing gimmicks.

If you've ever been part of a concept-to-market process, there's this step that happens towards the end. After the think-tanks have conceptualized, after the designers have hypothesized, after the engineers have actualized, but before the public has any idea of what's going on.

That step is marketing.

Marketing takes all that cool shit that dozens or hundreds or thousands of people have been working on, and they sit in a room and ask other marketing people The Question.

"It's cool, but how do we sell it?"

Nobody prior to this step has any fucking say in how their ingenuity is presented to the public. If they do, it's on a consultation basis which essentially means "come talk about what you've loved and labored over for a couple years so we validate your work, but don't expect us to actually listen".

This is how the Xbox One reveal ended up being SPORTS x 1000, TV x 1000 and Call of Duty was reduced to neat camouflage and a canine companion.

This happens constantly. All those engineers that made pixel technology capable of displaying a billion colors start grave-spinning early because the only thing you hear about come market time is "LOOK HOW GODDAMN BLACK IT IS".

I'm absolutely sure that the geniuses up north had some fucking amazing ideas when they were slaving over figuring out how to get a 3D rendering of a person to translate to a heartbeat sensor. The result was a brief mention in the reveal, and a shitbox full of paranoia over how They Know™.

[Swish]

If you're worried about XBOX ONE, I'd suggest reading the terms of service and how MSFT can use that data. Trust me, someone WILL read it and they WILL make sure we are abiding by the ToS through wire-sniffers and what-have-you. A big company like that just can't afford to make such a huge blunder with so much scrutiny.

And before you go blabbing about 'secret back doors' you better believe a developer would know of ANY entry point into their code that scoops data. It's just not possible.

Sorry just really hate spew of misinformation.

Riiiight.... you think everyone operates within the confines of legal documentation and smallprint. I'd double check that.

[August]

No, I just understand how software is written and shipped. Just have to call people out who obviously have no clue.

[Ahldagor]

Do they have Fruit Ninja for the Wii?

CHECK. MATE.

Levity aside, very few of the features on the modern consoles are marketing gimmicks.

Well, let me clarify. They didn't start as marketing gimmicks.

If you've ever been part of a concept-to-market process, there's this step that happens towards the end. After the think-tanks have conceptualized, after the designers have hypothesized, after the engineers have actualized, but before the public has any idea of what's going on.

That step is marketing.

Marketing takes all that cool shit that dozens or hundreds or thousands of people have been working on, and they sit in a room and ask other marketing people The Question.

"It's cool, but how do we sell it?"

Nobody prior to this step has any fucking say in how their ingenuity is presented to the public. If they do, it's on a consultation basis which essentially means "come talk about what you've loved and labored over for a couple years so we validate your work, but don't expect us to actually listen".

This is how the Xbox One reveal ended up being SPORTS x 1000, TV x 1000 and Call of Duty was reduced to neat camouflage and a canine companion.

This happens constantly. All those engineers that made pixel technology capable of displaying a billion colors start grave-spinning early because the only thing you hear about come market time is "LOOK HOW GODDAMN BLACK IT IS".

I'm absolutely sure that the geniuses up north had some fucking amazing ideas when they were slaving over figuring out how to get a 3D rendering of a person to translate to a heartbeat sensor. The result was a brief mention in the reveal, and a shitbox full of paranoia over how They Know™.

it's the notion of immersion that i'm getting at with the wii statement. does microsoft offer an option that allows the kinect and any of their console's tech features
to not have to be used?

[Spitty]

I don't know about the XBox One, but if I want to play a game on my 360 and don't want the Kinect watching me I just turn the damn thing around so it faces the wall =D. Hasn't caused any problems yet.

I would hope that having all features enabled is not a requirement of playing games on the One. Not everyone has a living room or space for the Kinect visual tracking - I wonder if that thing goes absolutely apeshit on tour buses.

[Lord_Snow]

I see the Xbox One as just giving up your privacy all together at the expense of entertainment

[Clark]

You only live once. Why would you want your existence and experiences to be a fabrication; spies are pitiful.

[Ahldagor]

they proly found bin laden's wow files.