Category: Uncategorized

Positech Games is not Intel, I do not make megabucks. However, it does make a small profit, and once I’ve spent my allowance of profits on silly things like robot vacuum cleaners (stopped using it tbh), I have some pennies left over which I sometimes put into a site called Kiva.

If you haven’t heard of kiva, here is the one-line pitch. Kiva is a bank which provides loans to people in the third world. Basically you stick some cash in using paypal (minimum loan is $25) and then you browse the list of people you want to lend money to, and pick one. Over time, the money gets paid back, and you can take your money back then, or re-loan it. Kiva pay you zero interest.

I don’t mind the zero-interest, because that’s one way kiva makes some money to run the site (you can donate too). Also, given current bank interest rates, zero is almost competitive :D

I’ve stuck the odd $25 in kiva for ages now, and have lent money to 24 different entrepreneurs all over the world. Here are some examples:

• Nguy?n Th? Nhân (Pig farmer in Vietnam)
• Francisco Javier Lopez Ruiz (Fruit seller in Nicaragua)
• Sok Kung (Farmer in Cambodia)…

I love kiva because its not just throwing charitable cash and hoping to solve a short-term problem, its investing in countries helping to build up their own economies and become self sufficient. I’m a bit of a politics junkie, and very aware of how first world mega-corps can screw third world producers, so I’m often lending money to farmers in the third world. I like the idea that I help out tiny one-man companies like mine, who otherwise would have to go to some big evil bank, and I like screwing those banks out of business too :D. Also, I’m aware how lucky I am to be born in a wealthy country like the UK. If I was born in Cambodia would I have a nice internet business? I doubt it. I like to see a chance being given to people who want to start a business and live somewhere that makes it difficult.

Kiva is a good site, the loans seem to ALWAYS get paid back (maybe poorer people are more honest than city bankers?). You can give gift certificates, and join groups who all lend money in the name of an organisation (I’m in the indie game developers group :D).

So remember, Somewhere there is a vietnamese pig farmer who feeds her pigs thanks to your purchase of Kudos 2 :D

I’m testing some stuff where after a big cruiser gets blown apart, there is a drifting blackened hulk of it still floating in space (in 2 or 3 big pieces). It still needs some work but it doesn’t look so bad on a grainy video :D

If you like it, rate it :D
Cheers

After reading a lot of American commentary on the story where UK villagers attacked a google streetview car, especially their assumption that we meek brits live in a CCTV-controlled imperialist state, I feel it might be helpful to do a quick summary of the UK for any US readers who have not been here. (Disclaimer: I’ve been to the US only once, years ago, so I’m no great travel expert).

• People in the UK do not generally consider themselves ‘subjects’ of the ‘monarch’. Frankly, the Queen is just one of those anachronisms like teaching latin in schools or the boy scouts. Gordon Brown is the person we blame for running our country. The Queen is someone who wears a crown once a year and reads a speech GB writes for her.
• Most people aren’t too annoyed about CCTV cameras (except speed cameras). A lot of high profile criminals have been caught by them, and even the police get caught on them sometimes (menezez trial).
• It doesn’t rain here as much as people from the US assume it does.
• We take football (soccer to people from the US) VERY seriously. I don’t follow it, but a lot of people do. It’s like a religion.
• We actually quite like the BBC. It has it’s faults, but it’s worth it. Yes, we really have to buy a ‘TV license’ here in the UK. generally it’s not a big deal. We like TV with no adverts.
• We really do not have many guns here. I’m 39 and have only seen guns in the UK twice. Once was a policeman at the airport post 9-11. The other time I went clay pigeon shooting.  Our crime of choice is knife crime, sadly. There is no urge for people to have guns here. We are generally very happy that gun ownership is very low.
• We have a lot of very different, very strong accents. Watching the Queen speak does not prepare you for a Glasgow or Welsh accent. I’m not sure what would. My accent is closest to cockney than anything, but it’s not strong
• Dick Van Dykes cockney accent is not real. My grandfather was a cockney, I know. If you want to hear a proper London (not cockney as such) accent, watch ‘Minder‘.
• Cockneys never say ‘dog and bone’. We say ‘dog’. Only tourists say ‘dog and bone’.
• London is BIG. Some foreigners call it ‘London Town’. Towns are quaint, London is not. It’s flipping huge.
• There is a difference between being Scottish, English, Irish and Welsh. People get very annoyed if you confuse them. There is history involved. You don’t confuse Palestine and Israel, so never confuse Ireland with England. People get very annoyed.
• We don’t get the whole ‘teeth’ thing. people in the US think brits have horrible teeth. In fact, we think we have normal teeth. Tom cruise does not have normal teeth. Only teams of expensive dentists consider that normal.
• We have a state-owned health service that means most health care is free to everyone. We love this. It’s actually a factor that prevents many people emigrating. We don’t understand how western nations cope without one. It’s the one political issue that every party is very wary of changing.
• We drink a LOT of tea. We have a fetish for coffee shops too, but we buy tea-bags by the boxload.
• We have a lot of historic buildings. Unless your house dates back beyond 1800, it’s probably not worth bragging about it here.
• We are obsessed with house prices. Totally, insanely obsessed. Nobody in the UK forgets how much they paid for their house. EVER.
• You won’t really find ‘British’ restaurants here. This isn’t because British food sucks. We call them ‘pubs’ and they are everywhere. The more well-off go to ‘gastro-pubs’ which are just posh pubs.
• We never queue up to vote. that sounds insane. There are never queues.
• We queue for everything else, and we take queue jumping seriously. It’s just not British.

What have I missed?

Sorry to suddenly do this without further lead-up, but NDA’s have meant that I’ve been unable to discuss it until today.

I’ve been offered a very lucrative job doing behavioural modelling for a government agency in the UK. I’m not at liberty to discuss all the details, but it’s an extremely interesting job, and of course the pay and conditions are very attractive.

Obviously this means that my current game (gratuitous Space Battles) will not get made, and I will have no time to support my existing games either. I’ll be making arrangements soon to discontinue the positech games website, as the company will effectively be wound up before I start work next week.

it will be strange wearing a suit and tie and going back into an office again, but the work I’ve been asked to do is so interesting, and so exciting that I’d frankly be a fool to turn it down in the current economic climate.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has bought my games over the years, and hope you have enjoyed reading this blog from time to time.

I’ll post more details on what I’ll be doing once I’ve spoken to HR and worked out what is and is not ok for me to make public.

Cheers everyone!

I like the reviews that concentrate on the serious/educational side of Democracy 2:

http://boomculture.blogspot.com/2009/03/serious-game-democracy-2.html