5 creepy ways video games are trying to get you addicted

It's all in the mind:

>> 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted: David Wong March 2010

#5. Putting You in a Skinner Box

this article is really freaking disturbing. It's written by a games researcher at Microsoft on how to make video games that hook players, whether they like it or not. He has a doctorate in behavioral and brain sciences. Quote:

"Each contingency is an arrangement of time, activity, and reward, and there are an infinite number of ways these elements can be combined to produce the pattern of activity you want from your players."

His theories are based around the work of BF Skinner, who discovered you could control behavior by training subjects with simple stimulus and reward.

This sort of thing caused games researcher Nick Yee to once call Everquest a "Virtual Skinner Box."

Braid creator Jonathan Blow said Skinnerian game mechanics are a form of "exploitation." It's not that these games can't be fun. But they're designed to keep gamers subscribing during the periods when it's not fun, locking them into a repetitive slog using Skinner's manipulative system of carefully scheduled rewards.

#4. Creating Virtual Food Pellets For You To Eat

the highest court in South Korea ruled that virtual goods are to be legally treated the same as real goods. 

just ask the guy who kept collecting items even while naked boobies sat just feet away.

#3. Making You Press the Lever

If you want to make him press the lever as fast as possible, how would you do it? Not by giving him a pellet with every press--he'll soon relax, knowing the pellets are there when he needs them. No, the best way is to set up the machine so that it drops the pellets at random intervals of lever pressing.

They call these "Variable Ratio Rewards" in Skinner land and this is the reason many enemies "drop" valuable items totally at random in WoW. This is addictive in exactly the same way a slot machine is addictive. 

BF Skinner knew. He called that training process "shaping." Little rewards, step by step, like links in a chain. 

#2. Keeping You Pressing It... Forever

Humans need a long-term goal to keep us going, and the world of addictive gaming has got this down to a science. Techniques include...

Easing Them In:

First, set up the "pellets" so that they come fast at first, and then slower and slower as time goes on.

Play It Or Lose It:

This is the real dick move. Why reward the hamster for pressing the lever? Why not simply set it up so that when he fails to press it, we punish him? Behaviorists call this "avoidance." They set the cage up so that it gives the animal an electric shock every 30 seconds unless it hits the lever.

Well, we humans play games because there is a basic satisfaction in mastering a skill, even if it's a pointless one in terms of our overall life goals. It helps us develop our brains (especially as children) and to test ourselves without serious consequences if we fail. This is why our brains reward us with the sensation we call "fun" when we do it. Hell, even dolphins do it:

#1. Getting You To Call the Skinner Box Home

Why do so many of us have that void? Because according to everything expert Malcolm Gladwell, to be satisfied with your job you need three things, and I bet most of you don't even have two of them:

> Autonomy (that is, you have some say in what you do day to day);

> Complexity (so it's not mind-numbing repetition);

> Connection Between Effort and Reward (i.e. you actually see the awesome results of your hard work).

It's less about instant gratification and more about a freaking sense of accomplishment. 

The terrible truth is that a whole lot of us begged for a Skinner Box we could crawl into, because the real world's system of rewards is so much more slow and cruel than we expected it to be. In that, gaming is no different from other forms of mental escape, from sports fandom to moonshine.

David Wong is the Editor of Cracked.com and the author of the comedy horror novel John Dies at the End, currently banned in 72 countries.

5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted
5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted | Huffington Post
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brexit: and punctuation

This 'Proud To Be British' Hoodie On Amazon Has A Small Apostrophe Problem | Huffington Post
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convert youtube to mp4 and mp3 >>> how to download videos

Technology soon gets out of date - especially if you want to save something to listen to or to watch:
Jay Doubleyou: audio: how to...
Jay Doubleyou: video pt1 - how to...
Jay Doubleyou: video pt2 - how to...

Here's something more up to date, from Clip Converter:

Clip Converter is a free online media conversion application, which allows you to reocord, convert and download nearly any audio or video URL to common formats. Currently supported services: YouTube (720p, 1080p, 4K), Vimeo and many more. This free and fast converter allows you to watch your favorite YouTube videos offline on your PC, TV or nearly any other device.

How to convert and download a YouTube video:
1. Paste your YouTube URL at 'Video URL' and press Continue.
2. Select the format (MP3, MP4, M4A) and the options for the conversion. The default options are for most videos a good setting.
3. Press the 'Start' button at the bottom to start the conversion.
4. This may take several minutes. After the conversion is finished you can download the converted file. 

YouTube to MP4 & MP3 Converter and Video Download - ClipConverter.cc
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do you enjoy reading?

Some great questions about reading on the latest Word of Mouth programme on BBC Radio 4:

Reading: The Science and the Pleasure

Word of Mouth

 

As part of the BBC LovetoRead campaign, Michael Rosen talks about his first experience in reading, with Dr Laura Wright, and how and what he reads now. They're joined by cognitive psychologist Professor Kathy Rastle to explain the amazing process by which we read, and to find out how fast the average reader reads, and how many words they know..

Reading: The Science and the Pleasure

It's part of the bigger campaign:
celebrating the pleasure of reading - #LovetoRead
#LovetoRead: Celebrating the pleasures of reading .
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the uk's critical shortage of foreign language teachers

The Brits are not so keen on learning foreign languages
Jay Doubleyou: do the brits really need to learn a foreign language when everyone speaks english?

- which, after Brexit, is going to be even more of a problem:

Plan now to avoid post-Brexit languages crisis, say MPs

By Judith BurnsEducation reporter

• 9 hours ago
 
• From the sectionEducation & Family

Share

Image copyrightTHINKSTOCK

Image captionModern language teachers could be in even shorter supply once the UK leaves the EU

The government must plan now to avoid a post-Brexit languages crisis, say a cross-party group of MPs and peers.

Trade talks after leaving the EU will need more UK officials with language skills, say the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modern Languages.

There is already a languages skills shortage but currently the UK can rely on other EU nationals "to plug the gap", say the group.

Ministers say their reforms are already boosting language learning in schools.

Language checklist

Launching a checklist on Brexit and languages, the group say lack of language ability loses the UK an estimated 3.5% of economic performance.

The country currently relies on the EU to negotiate trade deals but this will no longer be possible once the UK has left the Union, they add.

APPG co-chair Baroness Coussins said: "Brexit must make the UK's language skills a top policy issue.

"Language skills are vital for our exports, education, public services and diplomacy."

Image copyrightTHINKSTOCK

Image captionLanguage skills are crucial to trade, diplomacy and security, say the MPs and peers

Baroness Coussins called for "a national plan to ensure the UK produces the linguists we need to become a world leader in global free trade and on the international stage."

The group identify a need to boost skills in both European and non-European languages for the purposes of trade, international relations and security.

In particular, they fear the loss of European language skills if EU nationals already living in the UK are not guaranteed residency status post Brexit.

They also want the UK to continue full participation in the Erasmus+ scheme, where young people study, work volunteer and train abroad in Europe, some working as language assistants in schools.

The checklist includes calls to:

• Guarantee residency status for EU nationals already living in the UK
• Continue full participation in Erasmus+
• Set up a national plan to boost language education from primary school through to post-graduate level

'Critical shortage'

"It is essential that schools continue to be able to recruit EU nationals post-Brexit," said Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

"There is already a critical shortage of language teachers and the last thing that we need is anything which makes this situation worse.

"We understand that Brexit means Brexit but it is vital that it does not also mean a full-blown crisis in language teaching."

Sara Davidson, head of modern languages at the private Oundle School and chairwoman of the Independent Schools Modern Languages Association, said she did not know of a language department that did not employ native speakers.

"Native speakers are helping us out amidst a major recruitment crisis in modern language teaching.

"We simply do not currently produce enough linguists in this country to fill the modern language teaching vacancies we have."

Ruth Sinclair-Jones, UK director of Erasmus+, said the value of the scheme to the UK "cannot be underestimated".

"Losing UK participation would limit the future prospects of young people and the country as a whole," she said.

And Mark Herbert, head of schools programmes at the British Council, said: "Learning a language isn't just a rewarding way to connect with another culture but boosts individual job prospects, as well as business and trade opportunities for the UK."

A Department for Education spokeswoman said government policies meant the number of students taking one language at GCSE was up from 40% in 2010 to 49% this year.

The spokeswoman added: "The UK's future access to the Erasmus+ programme will be part of wider discussions with the EU.

"Existing higher education UK students studying in the EU will continue to be subject to current arrangements."

Plan now to avoid post-Brexit languages crisis, say MPs - BBC News
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how to write good

Grammar Rules for the Unenlightened or: How to Write Good

• Don't use no double negatives.
• Don't never use no triple negatives.
• No sentence fragments
• Stamp out and eliminate redundancy.
• Avoid clichés like the plague.
• All generalizations are bad.  
• Take care that your verb and subject is in agreement.
• A preposition is a bad thing to end a sentence with.
• Down with categorical imperatives.
• Avoid those run-on sentences that just go on, and on, and on, they never stop, they just keep rambling, and you really wish the person would just shut up, but no, they just keep going, they're worse than the Energizer Bunny, they babble incessantly, and these sentences, they just never stop, they go on forever...if you get my drift...
• The passive voice should never be used.
• When dangling, watch your participles.
• Never go off on tangents, which are lines that intersect a curve at only one point and were discovered by Euclid, who lived in the sixth century, which was an era dominated by the Goths, who lived in what we now know as Poland...
• Excessive use of exclamation points can be disastrous!!!!!
• Remember to end each sentence with a period
• Don't use commas, which aren't necessary.
• Don't use question marks inappropriately?
• Avoid tumbling off the cliff of triteness into the black abyss of overused metaphors.
• Keep your ear to the grindstone, your nose to the ground, take the bull by the horns of a dilemma, and stop mixing your metaphors.
• Avoid those abysmally horrible, outrageously repellent exaggerations.
• Avoid any awful anachronistic aggravating antediluvian alliterations.
• Proofread carefully to see if you any words out. 

With thanks to: RuSource
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in britain we use our history in order to comfort us: this sort of handling of history is dangerous as well as regrettable.

It's our view of history that got us to where we are today:

For the most acute comment on the outlook for Brexit Britain, look neither to bankers nor economists – but to the British Museum’s former director. Speaking in Germany last week, Neil MacGregor described his compatriots’ habit of swaddling themselves in their past as if it were a blanket.

“In Britain we use our history in order to comfort us: to make us feel stronger, to remind ourselves that we were always, deep down, good people,” he said. “Maybe we mention a little bit of slave trade here and there, a few wars here and there, but the chapters we insist on are the sunny ones.” Then came the warning: “This sort of handling of history is dangerous as well as regrettable.”

It seems to me that MacGregor’s comments cut straight to the heart of what is most dangerous in Brexit Britain. What he’s describing is delusional thinking: the red-faced insistence on one’s beliefs despite the mountains of evidence that prove them wrong. Delusional thinking helped tip Britain out of the European Union: the promise of those sunlit uplands of £350m weekly cashback and thousands of trading opportunities. Three months later – even after all the warnings from the European leaders soon to be suing us for alimony, the anxiety from business associations and the repeated broadsides from financial markets – delusional thinking remains rife.

Take the helium-filled unreality of the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. There, the top draws were the Brexiteers, Liam Fox and David Davis. Men whose careers were lost down the political U-bend just two years ago were now the star turns.

At one packed fringe event I heard the MEP Daniel Hannan sketch out Britain’s glorious future (“We can trade with Kenya!”), drawing primarily on the 18th-century economist David Hume. Elsewhere, a colleague saw a businesswoman raise with David Davis her worries about foreign trade. The response from the new Brexit secretary was to cite the example of the Congress of Vienna, the diplomatic carve-up of the continent that concluded in 1815.

Then there was foreign secretary Boris Johnson describing his new offices: “When I go into the Map Room of Palmerston I cannot help remembering that this country over the last two centuries has directed the invasion or conquest of 178 countries.” Ah, the good old days, last seen in Rhodesia! How the conference hall loved that.

The crash in the pound punctures the delusion that Brexit Britain will flourish | Aditya Chakrabortty | Opinion | The Guardian

Here is Neil MacGregor speaking from Germany:

Britain's view of its history 'dangerous', says former museum director

Neil MacGregor, once of British Museum, says Britain has focus on ‘sunny side’ rather than German-like appraisal of past




Neil MacGregor, before the opening of the British View: Germany – Memories of a Nation at the Martin Gropius Bau exhibition hall. Photograph: Adam Berry/AFP/Getty

Kate Connolly in Berlin

Friday 7 October 2016

Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, has bemoaned Britain’s narrow view of its own history, calling it “dangerous and regrettable” for focusing almost exclusively on the “sunny side”.

Speaking before the Berlin opening of his highly popular exhibition Germany – Memories of a Nation, MacGregor expressed his admiration for Germany’s rigorous appraisal of its history which he said could not be more different to that of Britain.

“In Britain we use our history in order to comfort us to make us feel stronger, to remind ourselves that we were always, always deep down, good people,” he said. “Maybe we mention a little bit of slave trade here and there, a few wars here and there, but the chapters we insist on are the sunny ones,” he said.

Neil MacGregor: ‘Britain forgets its past. Germany confronts it’

MacGregor warned: “This sort of handling of history is dangerous as well as regrettable”.

Germany’s approach towards accounting for its Nazi past had been in contrast “rigorous and courageous”, and had earned it admiration around the world, he said, speaking in fluent German.

He said Germans had given expression to their the worst chapter of their history in extensive memorials and Mahnmale (‘monuments to national shame’). “It’s telling that in English we don’t even have a word like ‘Mahnmal’,” he said. “The term is just too alien to us.”

MacGregor said that an example of how Britain was selective with the truth was the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. “We learn in school that it was the Britons who finally, finally beat Bonaparte in Waterloo and got rid of him,” he said. But it was often forgotten that it had been an Anglo-Prussian alliance that defeated him. “As Wellington himself said, without Blücher, (the commander of the Prussian army, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher) we wouldn’t have managed to defeat him ... This was joint German-British effort, but we don’t learn it that way”.

Gereon Sievernich, director of the Martin Gropius Bau where the exhibition is due to open on Saturday, thanked MacGregor and the exhibition’s curator, Barrie Cook, for having “given the Britons another view of Germany, and for giving the Germans their Germany back.”

Memories of a Nation, which showed at the British Museum and was accompanied by a BBC Radio series, explores the memories of a united Germany through 200 diverse objects, including the first motor car, from the 1880s, the entry gate to the Buchenwald concentration camp, and a wet suit used by someone trying to escape communist East Germany via the Baltic Sea.

Appointment of Neil MacGregor as head of Humboldt Forum silences critics

MacGregor said the exhibition was conceived some time before the EU referendum. But he said the exhibition’s glimpse at Germany’s long tradition of decentralisation of power – for hundreds of years it consisted of many kingdoms each with their own currency – highlighted one of the major differences between Britain and Germany. “If you’re looking for reasons for Brexit, just the idea there were no hard and fast borders in Germany explains ... how Europe is shaped today, but makes an island folk like ours panic,” he said.

MacGregor, who is also involved in creating the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, a new German equivalent to the British Museum, said he was curious to see how the British view of German history would be received by the public in Berlin, following the success of its London run. He said he would welcome a similar exhibition about British history from a German perspective, “precisely because it be helpful for us to have our own history explained to us from an outside perspective,” he said.

Britain's view of its history 'dangerous', says former museum director | Culture | The Guardian

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