Gloves

She should be able to go to a nearby hospital to request some sani... Oh wait, America.

It's actually kinda shitty, to be real here, that we're all doing what I'd consider BASIC hygiene because of a pandemic. We'd actually be a far more healthy global society overall if people would be as serious about hygiene as they're being right now. Like you should already be washing your hands when you get home from being out in public, stuff like that. I'm hopeful that if nothing else this causes people to form some better habits. Stores too, as you've alluded to. Suddenly now that their business is on the line (customers won't go to a non-clean store/restaurant) everybody is implementing cleaning protocols that should already be the norm.

All the stores around me yesterday were out of TP. Went in today and they had all restocked. Crisis averted, everybody can go home (and poop).

Good mmmmm

Mmmmmm...

Journey on PS3/4.

1) I'm in support of parking it. Even if it's not something that is transferred via packages like this, it still requires each person in the line to go to the post office at least once, and I think it'd be best to avoid sending people out to interact with others like that for something like this that is just supposed to be fun. Postponed doesn't mean cancelled. 2) I don't see anyone saying anything Hateful so let's not jump to conclusions or take things personally. If you think someone is being negative or Hateful or whatever, I'd suggest clarifying with them, especially if you can do so privately. The majority of the people on this site are pleasant folks, and I'd generally err on the side of misunderstanding over malice.

My work outing got cancelled. It's officially panic time.

They have, yes.

$150 for C&C is absolutely stupid.

Damn. The photos on the listing don't make that clear at all. I can just about guarantee ebay will have your back on this one. Interestingly, it looks like by your photos there's some minor damage to the letters, and that's not shown on the photo AT ALL. I'm almost inclined to say that they photoshopped it or sent you a different box. That said, the box you got and the one in the listing both have a minor tear at the top-right of the face, so it does LOOK to be the same box. Just, what you received is in worse shape for sure than what was in the listing's photos.

No need for multiple threads with the same question; other one is better placed so closing this one.

Got an email from Nicalis, and at the end of it they say there is an Ikaruga announcement coming soon! Exciting!

I dunno how much the companies are worth no can't speak to that, but I can say with relative confidence that setting up a machine learning ai is not particularly expensive. That said, I agree it's not likely to happen. I'm just saying that it would be better for the consumer if there was a more consistent system, and I'm proposing that an AI would be an appropriate solution. In much the same way that you can look at 60 graded games and get a sense from that experience when looking at a 61st game what it might grade at, a machine learning ai learns in exactly the same way. You'd feed it many photos of games, tell it what grade they are and why, and it'll learn and adjust and eventually be better than you at establishing grades. You almost literally just feed it many many photos, that's about it.

Moonraker is my favorite, personally.

Yeah, they seem to be at least putting up a fight rather than going the Blockbuster route of saying "people will always rent!".

If it's any consolation, I'm only 31.

Certainly, but humans err even on their own rules, as we have seen. At the very least an algorithm programmed with humans will be able to repeat the steps better than the human who programmed it. That's all I mean. Of course some data entry upfront has to happen, and bias will happen. But even that bias can be documented and even shared as it will be forever encapsulated within the program and thus could be open to scrutiny. Not quite same diff, thus. A human when presented with the same game in the same state years apart may grade them differently. A robot would not.

Again, I'd say you're using arguments that would be perfectly valid on the other side. Yes, of course a Miss Universe pageant would be better judged by robots; I'd trust that a machine algorithm doesn't make racist judgements over a human judge, for instance. My opinion is irrelevant, flawed, and subject to my own quirks. I might not agree that the winner is the hottest to me, but she'd certainly be the most perfect. I don't think subjectivity belongs in grading, that is my stance. It's always somewhere between perfect and a pile of ash, and everything in between is entirely quantifiable.

Half or more of the arguments you make sound to me to be in favor of automation, you seem to be just ignoring it. To answer your question, I own zero graded games, and only one sealed game which I plan to keep sealed, and may consider grading. I'm not in a rush however to grade as long as the grading companies remain as imperfect as they are, because to me it's almost pointless if it's subjective. Consider me unswayed, and still disagreeing. This could absolutely be automated. I can tell with an algorithm whether, for instance, a tear is over a face vs over some writing vs over a mountain. Obviously it has to be programmed by humans. And sure, consider a final handoff to a human to verify the machines work. You're making odd arguments about rounding though. There would BE no "is it an 87.5 or should it be a 90?" if we had decimal place accuracy. It sounds like you're saying accuracy is... A detriment? This isn't "how does this make me feel" it's "how not perfect is this game?".

I completely disagree that it can't be automated. In fact grading video games (or anything else) is something that machine learning would be absolutely perfect for. @jonebone calling it subjective is to me lazy. There of course could be very specific, predictable rules put in place that could be followed exactly and perfectly. How bad is a hole in the wrap? Let's say it's based on size and position. Let's say a 1cm long cut constitutes a -5 to a grade. Is that cut on the front? Multiply the negative by 1.1 if on front, 1.05 on back. Just an example with simple, made up numbers, but it's a start and far better than giving the grading folks the benefit of the doubt as the experts. I don't know that it will ever happen, but here's a free idea for any smart folks out there - get your ass on machine learning and set it to making a grading system for games & comics. My money's on you'd straight up kill VGA and Wata in one fell swoop, and if neither of those companies are looking into machine learning they are being foolish IMO. We live in an age of technology and it IS there RIGHT NOW; this is possible TODAY. I'd trust a machine that's been set to the specific task of grading games over a human any day.

I'm gonna give up Lent for Lent.

If it wasn't disclosed in the listing then I'd return it for sure. (personally)

"Touched up" is equivalent to defaced, IMO. I'd personally value it the same as a beaten up box. I dunno how that equates to the market though.