In a recent game ALL FOUR of my first 4 named characters got bonuses. In another recent game, 2 of 3 named so far have bonuses.
My understanding for the last decade has been that you’ll get 1 bonus to one of the 8 starters, then expect 1 bonus amongst the 4 next characters available to name off the top. Then random, whatever. But I’ve gotten 6/7 (out of 8) bonuses in these 2 games.
Has the code been altered here?
Brad
If it has been altered, it was just for you.
OR…
Maybe it was altered for everyone but me! :mad:
Hey, RNG, I could just be damn lucky - and in the 1 game the bonuses just ROCK, so I’m not complaining, but this has been alarming here…!
I have 4 relatively new games (T10 or earlier) going with 7 positions Brad, and I can tell you that I DO NOT have anywhere near your luck. Yes my friend, you have been LUCKY. Count your blessings and enjoy it.
Well, blessings for me, not so much for, ahem…them… 
Maybe they thought you needed the help? JK:D
Never heard of that before (expect 1 bonus in the next 4 characters). In my most recent game, 2 of my first 4 got bonuses, while my teammates went:
1/4
1/4
1/4
2/5* (intentionally killed off a character by challenge in order to name a better one the same turn)
2/4
2/4
1/4
2/4
1/4
2/4
1/4
Once I got a bonus with every character I named with a Hispanic name. This was back when the game was in Miami and most of the data entry was done by Hispanics. The next game I loaded up with the Hispanic names. You would have thought Mom had named me ‘Jose Gonzales’. Didn’t get zilch bonus wise.
Harley has said, many times, they have made no changes to the code. One would hope they are aware of the hazards of telling lies to their customers. Besides, it would make ‘noble poses’ difficult for the staff.
LOL. Ed, that’s truly funny.
So now, do you name your characters Elizabeth, William, James, & the like?
<grin>
That’s to funny… I rarely give my characters names… Heck If i tried it would probably be GM’s names but they would take it as me being a smartassand give me secret negative bonus’s! J/K Clint 
One would hope they are aware of the hazards of telling lies to their customers.
Does anyone else find the comments about us telling lies to be inappropriate and out of order? I’m getting a bit sick of it all this constant attack on our veracity, slurring our name and even our nationality not to mention style of GMing, moderation and the like but wondered what others feel before I consider taking further action.
Clint (GM)
For clarity, no changes of code have been made since before we took over GSI, if they were changed before that we had no control over such code so have no information to support or deny any changes that the licensee holders had then. Chatting to Stu, I strongly suspect that no code changes to Character Bonuses were made.
The game has random elements, sometimes you get good stuff sometimes bad. I’ve never yet heard a player complain about camping 6/6, but had many a player complain about 0/6 saying that the code must be broken. It’s normal human responses I guess to such statistical variance. True, the random number alogrythms are not perfect and sometimes you get blips, that’s the nature of computer code I find.
Enjoy the game guys!
Clint (GM)
Clint
I’m not sure if it was considered directed at you… If it was meant that way I of course I would be upset… I never felt at anytime anyone from customer service from any of the current or past moderators of the games was not completely honest…
As for the nationalty issue I have always found the people more gracious and eloquent that myself and some of my nation… I at least hope anything I said in response was more reflective of humor in my harshness of my own language not what you are the staff there thinks of me.
I hope everyone in business is aware of said hazards, including you. Did I just say you were lying to customers? No. I think you might be reading too much into the text because of the past bad blood you have had with Ed.
Now with that being said, maybe you’re not reading too much into it. Subtlety and innuendo are very effective weapons. If I were to say “Ed wasn’t drunk today” while that might be a perfectly true statement, the implication by mentioning it is, it’s the exception rather than the rule.
Personally, I think Ed ought to pipe down, and back off.
Drew
More of a lurker than a poster, but this moved me to speak. I have to say that I think this is bang out of order - Ed, I’ve never met you, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game with you. But this is precisely the sort of attitude that would lead me to request not to be in a team with you.
No, you’re not rude per se - your exquisite courtesy, when you choose to employ it, is a fantastic mask for the venom you direct towards the GMs. You have an axe to grind? Fine. Whatever. Stop poisoning the atmosphere and in so doing detracting from the pleasure I and others get from the game.
I don’t mind debate, difference of opinion and the like. I like it. It brings forward things that we can improve as a company and the like and I use a lot of the feedback and update, improve the game. We’ve got around 5 yahoolists with comments from players on feedback.
From chatting to Stu, he brought up some comments that Ed used to “comment” to GSI as well so I don’t take it personally at all, it’s just that this is a more public forum so the “dirty washing” gets aired more. I just think it detracts from the enjoyment of the game. It’s like being at the end of a spite-campaign, unsubtly subtle, but indirectly direct. Maybe more like a PsiOps or whatever they are called, with the aim of wearing down my patience and eventually removing us from power, bit like a para-military coup I suspect. 
LOL:stab: I understand that it’s part of Ed’s “gaming enjoyment” to do this as well. (Got 3 family members in the forces at present, my sis, uncle and cousin, my dad was in the army so I “get” the military angle here.)
I see part of my job to look after players’ enjoyment of the game so where I find elements, within or outside of the game, I attempt to rectify that to make it more enjoyable. I think it’s a big waste of my time to constantly have to defend and deny these comments though, time that could be better used having a lie down, or doing some KS work for example.
With a bit more sleep, I care not about the national elements, I’m Welsh/British (I think there might be some Romano/Norwegian/Spanish blood in the past as well as rumours of Saesneg) so most are directed at the English anyway… LOL :rolleyes: so if it’s okay I’d like to rescind my comments there?
Have fun guys, just off to play Frustration with my son… ironic uh?
Clint (GM)
Clint, my sincere apology to you. I was trying to point out why you would NOT lie about such a thing such as a code change.
For further clarity, should we change the code, I will bring that up in debate with players, before implementing any such changes. As we have done in every instance where new modules, new ideas and so on are brought forward.
I’m hoping to use KS as a big testing ground of new ideas, new SNAs, new stuff overall and see how they “take”.
Thanks for your time…
Clint (GM)
Clint,
I did not interpret Ed’s remark as a suggestion that you are lying. Sort of the opposite. I viewed it as a funny/witty post about how he thought that spanish speakers in FL were affecting his bonuses only to be proved otherwise ever since. And the fact that things haven’t changed were sort of proof that you aren’t lying. I know the wording is open to interpretation, and I’m glad Ed apologized for any unintended interpretation that it was an insult. But I didn’t read it as an insult, I just read it as funny. Only Ed would think so many “feints” deep in the tree to consider spanish speakers as being able to hand-code bonuses… 
And you’ll note in other threads that I have suggested to Ed that he tone down the rhetoric. So truly I didn’t interpret this one as an insult. My $0.02.
Dave
Drew is correct, in his statement,
“If I were to say “Ed wasn’t drunk today” while that might be a perfectly true statement, the implication by mentioning it is, it’s the exception rather than the rule.”
By bringing up the fact of “lying” over a number of occasions and the like, then it’s sub-consciously comes across to people that you do lie on occasion… :rolleyes: It’s very subtle pyschological word-play, and in a way to be admired. It’s a technique I’ve seen Ed use a large number of times, eg, the “we won’t change anything”, well we might well do so, but if we do so we’ll ask players first if that’s what they want… ! It works, sling enough mud at a person and eventually that mud is associated with that person, despite any pertinence to that actual person, and that then affects the business associated with it. I’m a big boy, someone calling me names I can take, I just don’t like the damage it does elsewhere…
So if we do an edit, and say an assassination fails, then we’ve spent a lot of effort building up that trust that we have, 1) done that edit to see if works, 2) checked out if it’s killed that character, killed a nation or the like and players have to be able to trust us that we’re what we say we are.
I get into trouble for being too truthful on occasion, which is particularly ironic for me in these situations… :D:D:D Now harping on about this causes other damage, “STFU Clint” for example… so…I will.
Have fun guys,
Clint