Opinions on Arc and its incentives?

biffsmackwell · January 2014

wingedkagouti wrote: »

I agree with this sentiment. That small X in the top right is meant to exit the application, the nearby _ bar is the minimize button. That's Windows Application UI Design 101.

Well yeah, for applications that serve no purpose when you're not using them. I think Arc is going to be able to notify you of new messages and promos, as well as doing automatic background downloads for updates, like Steam does.

I know I hate waiting to patch when I get home from work when I just wanna check out new stuff and blow up villains and stuff, so it works for me.

sistersilicon · January 2014

chaelk wrote: »

err, which ones? We have quite a few to choose from. Are you talking about the jumpers or the venomous climbers or m aybe the ones which just build a whopping great web across pathways?
http://spiders.zacharoo.com/

Here's a list to choose from. NO, you are not having a golden orb spider

See, this is why I never bought into Mad Max as a credible post-apocalypse. Mel Gibson cruising the outback in a badass old Ford Australia muscle car? No. Entire continent of giant, mutant, lethally poisonous spiders? ABSOLUTELY.

biffsmackwell wrote: »

Well yeah, for applications that serve no purpose when you're not using them. I think Arc is going to be able to notify you of new messages and promos, as well as doing automatic background downloads for updates, like Steam does.

I know I hate waiting to patch when I get home from work when I just wanna check out new stuff and blow up villains and stuff, so it works for me.

Arc is getting way ahead of itself. There's too many things Arc is doing now because Steam does it, too, but the PWE infrastructure to support it all is far from done. Meanwhile, I have an ArcOSBrowser process sucking down 61MB of memory at all times just to display one browser page. Oh, and at least 2% CPU to keep the carousel section rotating even when the main window isn't visible. I hope PWE is in no hurry to take the beta tag off this app any time soon. The more I look at how it's working, the more I think they need to tighten down.

savagefist · January 2014

quasimojo1 wrote: »

I think we've about wrapped this up. But since you decided to try to turn a technical/security discussion into a character attack, I do feel the need to briefly address that.

You gave an example of a professional inter-team relationship, which is very different from an anonymous consumer-producer relationship. I never said I wouldn't or hadn't worked with professionals from China. I mentioned the fact that PWRD is a Chinese company not because I think professional Chinese developers are less trustworthy, but a) because the regulatory environment is very different there and b) documented reports that certain types of products from China can have higher risk (which is not always just the result of "script kiddies", but systemic and sometimes state-sponsored.)

I don't buy dog treats from China. Maybe in your mind that's an indication of racism/nationalism. But it's actually an indication that I care about my dogs and pay attention when there's substantial evidence of danger. Similarly, my choosing to not drink the tap water in Costa Rica is not an indictment of the PEOPLE, just the state of water treatment infrastructure.

Now, unlike in your example, I don't have any way of knowing who has access to the Arc source code or build/distribution process (subcontractors, etc.), or what kind of security certification policies they have in place. That's completely outside of my control. What is within my control, in this context, is what I choose to install on my machines. And I stand by my original contention that, regardless of whether it's just "lazy programming", letting a network application like Arc run in the background with admin privs is outside of my personal risk tolerance and a bad idea if you are moderately concerned about security. If you're telling people it's perfectly safe, that's on you; I'm just saying I wouldn't do it.

Thanks for that explanation as I was about to let myself be guilt-tripped into installing Arc. The less programs, despite whether my computer can handle them or not, I can install the better imo. Now, if PWE wants to start some truly mind-blowing sales like Steam then I will definitely reconsider but up to this point I've been unimpressed with with CO sales(man, I miss the pricing/value in CoH).

zahinder · January 2014

jonsills wrote: »

Don't feel dumb. The messages you got when you entered the code told you two different things (one of which didn't even pertain to this game), and neither of them was correct. I had to find out in Chat.

Well, QA is consistent, at least.

Opinions on Arc and its incentives?

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