Don’t let your sleeves dangle. Don’t stand up too fast.
Something we’ve seen in the suggestion box since the day we launched (and in blog posts and forums all over) was a request to make our opening splash video in the Deluxe Player a little more quiet. In 1.8, we let you bypass the intro video with the ESC key.
Today, we bring you a new, quiet intro.
Open the tap. Squeak. Play.
Or is it inattentional blindness? And just the other day I was talking about ‘experiencing to believe’. This time I experienced and had to be told what to see. Hmm. So that’s what magicians and illusionists take advantage of!
(for best video quality shrink to size)
[thanks, Brice]
Everyone talks about this Hitman series. So I guess I’ll be a bald guy character for a while now. And I’m actually pretty pumped about getting this early Cyan game The Manhole. Last time I played this game it was in black and white and I was in color the 8th grade! It’ll be both a nice trip down nostalgia lane AND something fun to play with the kids.
New games:
New on GameTap TV:
Die hard or live:
While it’s pretty much just an interation of that Miranda July site, Michael Lopp’s Managing Humans promo site still got me. ‘Specially that last shot.
There was an interesting article in the New York Times the other day about how one long line and many check-outs results in less wait time than many shorter lines to individual check-outs. (Of course they do, for me - I always choose the line with the longest wait, no matter how many people are in it. Don’t you?)
Anyway, the queuing theory behind the model is far from new. No, what was interesting to me was that most people had to actually experience it to believe one LONG line could result in a shorter overall wait.
Earlier this year we implemented on-demand image fetching in the GameTap Deluxe Player - mainly to make the initial download smaller. For instance, you go to a game infocard, you might very well see an “Image Loading” where the picture is supposed to be. Okay, no problem. But we didn’t implement on-demand images everywhere. Why not? We had to experience it to know that even though our goal was met (reduced initial download time) the actual user experience felt all kinds of broken.
Just try spinning the Wheel of Destiny (Gotta Getta Game) in the search ring when there are no GamePlates loaded. Talk about meeting a goal and failing at the same time. And it took experiencing it to know it.
How does this relate to long lines? I dunno, just made me think of it.
And the moral of the story is: when it comes to lines - you can’t make a wrong choice if there’s no choice at all. 
Well, I’m just back from a vacation at the beach, where leaky sacks are usually something nasty (like somebody put the sack of frozen bait in the same cooler with the sandwiches). Heh, you thought it would be worse, didn’t you? C’mon, admit it.
But this little leak is tasty indeed.
art courtesy of TheRedEye, himself