honesty
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Kickstarter warns creators against calling projects 'the world's best'
Kickstarter is asking its users to tone down the hyperbolic language and to layoff the misleading imagery. In an attempt to promote transparency, the now 10-year-old platform issued new rules and guidelines aimed at "honest and clear presentation."
Science proves people lie for selfish reasons
How honest are you, really? Would you be open to a brain treatment that might make you act a little more truthful? I'm asking because researchers from the ever-productive University of Zurich tried an experiment to see if they could influence behavior with "transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)," a noninvasive type of electrical pulse that apparently makes brain cells more active. The scientists targeted the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (involved with risky and moral decision making) with the tDCS to see how honest people would be when reporting dice rolls.
Texting: the truth serum of the 21st century
The University of Michigan and The New School for Social Research has found that if you want someone to tell you the truth, you should text them. Dispensing with the lie detector for job interviewees, academics found that people gave more honest and detailed answers via SMS than over the phone. The team believes it's due to the lack of time pressure and not having to produce a pleasing answer for your interrogator. If the findings continue to provide similar results, it looks like Steve Wilkos could be replaced with a smartphone.
Ultima Online celebrates 14 years
Happy birthday, Ultima Online! In an era when some games last not even a year and others seek to continually reinvent themselves, the grand-daddy of the genre has made it to 14 years. To usher in the anniversary, Mythic Entertainment released publish 72.0 to the live servers last week. The patch introduces another round of the Clean Up Britannia event, which allows players to trash their junk items (thus cleaning up the servers of wasted data) in return for lucrative rewards. The devs also tweaked the Honesty virtue mechanic and added new anniversary gifts that are claimable through Halloween. Finally, the UO team has promised a high-resolution art update, one of many graphical overhauls in the game's long history. Here's to 14 more, old girl. [Update: After the break, we've embedded an anniversary video by Sosaria Reels over on the official forums at UO Stratics. Enjoy the stroll down memory lane!]
The Daily Grind: How well do you really know your computer?
Ask the average gamer how well they know their computer while in-game, and you'd get the impression that MMO players are technological geniuses able to assemble a working motherboard out of toothpicks and a photo of Richard Dean Anderson. When we're being put to the test, a lot of us feign knowledge that we don't actually possess, and then later ask our friend who really does know something about computers why the hard drive started acting weird when we put our magnets on the case. But here on Massively, you can be at least moderately anonymous when you admit that most of your computer knowledge comes from sticking the cordy-thing in the socket and hoping it doesn't blow up. Or that you really can assemble a working motherboard from toothpicks and MacGuyver promotional stills. So tell us, in all honesty, how much do you really know about the central tool of your hobby? Are you moderately competent, highly skilled, or unabashedly clueless? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
Ready Check: You're fired, redux
Unfortunately, regular Ready Check author Michael Gray is a bit preoccupied this week. I've been told it has something to do with exploring lost pastafarian ruins that may lead to new information regarding raptor Jesus, but that may have just been a bad dream that I had. In the meantime, I am here to save you from all of your raiding woes. There's no case too big, no case too small -- when you need help, just give me a call! Using my patent pending way-back machine, I want us all to travel back in time to November 2009 when Michael released this article dealing with how to terminate a raid member from your team. All of the information and advice in that column are still very relevant to this day; however, there is a small issue that Mr. Gray did not address at that time. I am, of course, talking about what to do when you have a raid member you wish to terminate, but feel that your guild is currently not capable of handling the loss. It's the end of an expansion once again, and the same problems that plagued guilds during the months before The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King are hitting us all now. Raiding guilds by the dozen are finding their member rosters slowly trickling away. As Cataclysm draws ever nearer, many players are losing their interest in the raiding scene – at least temporarily. Recruitment is down across the board, and even some of the high-end guilds are having difficulties finding replacement raiders this late in the game. In such a system as this, it is very easy for any raiding guild to dissolve into anarchy. There isn't going to be another raiding tier released, there won't be another year's worth of content to explore and players are just generally losing interest in raiding.
Drama Mamas: Should you tattle?
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas@WoW.com. For a long time, I looked at the world as if everything were black and white. A lie is a lie and the truth should be told to everyone, no matter how much it hurts. But through the years, this attitude has not proven itself to be good for getting along with people. Yes, I wish everyone were honest, but that just isn't the case, and sometimes dishonesty really doesn't hurt anyone. While I still believe in taking a stand for what is right, I think it is wisest to save your energy (and the resulting drama) for what is really important. This week, we hear from an honest player who wants to do the right thing.
Ready Check: You're fired
Ready Check is a column focusing on successful raiding for the serious raider. Hardcore or casual, Vault of Archavon or Ulduar, everyone can get in on the action and down some bosses. For the last few weeks in Ready Check, we've been talking about some of the more difficult tasks that face raid leaders. We talked first about some tips in communicating with raid members. Then, last week, we covered some ideas about how to coach raid members. But what happens when you've stepped up your communication and provided repeated coaching, but the raid member in question still isn't working out? When you're left with no option except to excise the raid member from your group? We could call it a dozen different things but it all boils down to this: you have to fire your raid member. I want to make it clear that I'm not talking about how to get rid of people. It's probably more in the hands of your guild officers whether or not the raid member is still going to be in your social circle. But how do you tell someone, "Look mate, we like you, but you can't raid with us anymore." Let's talk about it after the jump.
Spiritual Guidance: Thirteen dos and don'ts of a raiding holy priest
Our Priest column is back! Every Sunday, Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is now Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus, and this week he has compiled a list that raiding holy priests may find beneficial whether they consider themselves new or veterans. I've raided for a long time on my priest. My first real raid started with Zul'Gurub before I graduated to Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. Unfortunately, I started late in the game to the point where I never really appreciated AQ 40 or Naxxramas. Years later, I am now working my way towards Illidan after mopping the floor with Archimonde. It's difficult for a holy priest to begin raiding. The learning curve can be steep at times because there are so many options available. That being said, there are a few lessons I've learned from raiding that have proven universal. They had as much application back then as they do now and I wanted to pass them on to any new budding raid priests. Check out all thirteen tips, from reagents to situation awareness, right after the break.
Lying and gadgetry go hand in hand
We've certainly seen our fair share of broken promises when dealing with gadget producers, but a recent UK-based survey claims that "nearly 75-percent of people say gadgets, like Blackberrys for instance, made it easier to fib." While this might not come as any surprise to you, that figure is at least somewhat worrisome, as just over half of the respondents noted that using gadgets to bend the truth made them feel "less guilty" versus pulling the shades face to face. As expected, the workplace was the most favored locale to bust out a techno-fib, with "67-percent" saying they had using technology to fake sick, announce completed work they hadn't even started, or to "cover up a big mistake." Moreover, digitized communication has seemingly made it easier to lie to our very families, as "just over 40-percent" of those surveyed admitted to fibbing to loved ones with the help of their mobile / email. Of course, most folks claimed that their primary intentions were to "spare others' feelings," but we're not so sure these tricksters didn't start lying to the surveyors. Regardless, saving face has never been easier thanks to handheld / wireless communications, but at least someone's already thinking about curbing this purportedly growing problem -- at least, that's what we've been told.[Via TechDirt]
