psychological
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Facebook's awkward mood experiment under investigation in the UK
Facebook may have brushed off the furor over a psychological experiment that influenced what users saw in their feeds, but UK regulators definitely haven't. According to the Financial Times, Britain's Information Commissioner and the Irish Data Protection office (Facebook's EU base is in Ireland) are probing the social network's activities to determine if it did anything illegal. Back in 2012, Facebook changed the number of negative or positive comments that a select group of users saw in their feeds, ostensibly to gauge the effect on their moods. As you might expect, people who saw the negative comments were more inclined to write negative posts, and vice versa. While it apologized, Facebook also tried to justify the experiment by saying it benefited users and didn't compromise anyone's privacy. Still, when a UK politician told the Guardian that "if there is not already legislation on this, then there should be," it didn't seem the matter would quietly go away. [Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Army seeking psychologically inspired object recognition system
Yeah, as in, it actually wants a "psychologically inspired object recognition system." What's that, you ask? It's giving robots and mechanical creatures the ability to see objects the way humans do and make reasonable judgments based on those sights. Essentially, the military would love to see bots have something similar to spatial memory, which would enable 'em to "mentally rotate objects in order to match the object to different representations." When looking at the main objective of this here endeavor, however, we can't help but have mixed feelings. We're kosher with increasing "robotic control," but creating "exponential expansion of robotic capabilities and intelligence" might not be the smartest thing to do in the long run.[Via Wired, image courtesy of ACM]
Sadness website does nothing to dispel vaporware rumors
Hold on, what's all this? A Sadness rumor that actually came true? This can't be right -- and it sort of isn't. The website is there, and it's got stuff on it, but the stuff is old and it's a pretty amateur attempt at a website. It's just, you would think that the creators of the most talked-about Wii game pretty much ever would make the effort to put together a good show, but it looks somewhat awful.The screens are old and tiny, the text is formatted all wrong (and translated poorly), and there is no trailer, although it will be "Coming soon (this vacation maybe)." Maybe? Maybe? Whatever.To top it off, the release is scheduled for Fall 2009. That is, over a year from now. On the plus side, Nibris representatives will be attending the Leipzig Game Convention this year, so if nothing turns up at E3 we might find something there.%Gallery-12425%[Via GoNintendo]
Rumor: Alan Wake slips to 2008
TVG reports that US Official Xbox Magazine has published news of further Alan Wake delays. According to the publication, Remedy's psychological thriller has been pushed back to 2008.The first details about Alan Wake surfaced back in April 2005 when Remedy revealed it was working on a new title for PC and "next generation" consoles. Since that time, Microsoft has secured exclusive-console rights to the game.
Nibris hooks publisher for mature-themed Wii title
Nibris has announced that it's found a publisher for its atmospheric horror game, Sadness. However, due to a non-disclosure agreement, the Poland-based developer can't reveal the publisher's name just yet. Here's a hint: with themes like narcolepsy, nyctophobia, and paranoid schizophrenia, it's not Nintendo -- or is it ... ?
