#Leaked Information

[askagamedev]

Some thoughts on the GTA6/Rockstar leaks

I’ve gotten a bunch of questions about the leaked GTA6 footage and I thought I would address them today. First, I want to say that I sympathize with the team. This is not how it was supposed to go and it really sucks that the leak happened. There are plenty of things worth getting mad at Rockstar and Take Two over, but this is not one of them. It really sucks when people rush to judgement on your work, especially based on wrong or out-of-date information. This is why publishers usually don’t announce games until there’s something to show. Every game in early development stages generally looks pretty awful.

Second, I encourage you all to read this post if you haven’t: 

[What are the negative impacts of leaks? How damaging can they be for the game?]

Leaks suck for the team because we can’t control the message and there’s always missing context that the leak doesn’t provide. You might see some videos of in-progress work, but you don’t know what the goals for each part of the game are, or how this feature is there to lay the foundation for a much bigger system to be built on top of what you see. There’s a ton of planning, discussion, prototyping, reviewing, and improving of the ideas, designs, art, and technology that happens over the course of the game. Without that context, there’s no way that any outsider would be able to understand what they’re even supposed to be looking for, let alone whether what they’re seeing is good. And there’s no way for us to give outsiders that context without basically showing everything including our discussions, our meetings, our dealings with licensors whose IP we’re using, our technical, scheduling, legal, and budgetary considerations, and so on. That isn’t feasible for a multitude of reasons.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is how the leaks got out. Given the nature of the leaked data - a large number of short video clips of in-development demonstrating features and the like - I suspect what happened was a breach of some kind from Rockstar’s chosen messaging app. I suspect this for a few reasons:

Messaging apps aren’t directly behind the company VPN. A lot of companies use Slack or Microsoft Teams for internal messaging, but they do not require the VPN to connect. I need to connect to my company VPN to sync the project, but I don’t need it for email or messenger. I can also access the company messenger app via my phone. This also means that somebody who steals my phone can open up my messenger app and have access to the full content there. It’s also a lot easier to steal a phone than it is a workstation.

Internal messaging is a necessity because many of us are still working from home and a requirement to coordinate teams in different time zones. GTA is an enormous project with hundreds of developers working on it, they are likely scattered across the globe.

The video clips weren’t only of bugs, but a lot of demos for features. If it were lifted from the bug database, the vast majority of videos would be of bugs. Short video clips shared to various channels in the messenger to show off new features coming online happens a lot. 

I will remind you that I am no security expert. This is 100% speculation. It is only one possibility that fits the set of facts and is nowhere near the only possibility. It could be this or it could be something else entirely. 

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#Leaked Information #Working in the game industry #consequences #the business of video games #technical stuff

[latestofscienceandtechnology]

The Crew Motorfest Leaks: An Exciting Glimpse into the Future of the Popular Racing Franchise

The Crew Motorfest, the highly anticipated next installment in the popular racing franchise, has recently made waves in the gaming community due to a series of leaks. Read More

#upcoming #leaked information #The Crew Motorfest Leaks

[sakuraluck]

when i said i wanted to understand whatever’s going on in ivan’s head, i didn’t mean like this 😭😭

#alnst ivan #alnst till #ivantill #alien stage #ooooh boy turns out ivan’s self esteem is pretty low in terms of love #makes total sense but it’s not what i expected from someone who looked so in control of what he wanted and was willing to pursue from till #he loves humbly which was my first intepretation of him before we even got round 3 #it’s changed since then with more (mis)information leaked by vivinos to misdirect our understanding of him #so to get this clear dialogue of his final thoughts is really… clarifying #and terribly sad in a way #ivan loves till so much and is entirely aware that he hasn’t been the most gentle of suitors #god i have many thoughts about this #ahhh ivan baby your feelings aren’t shallow at all

[qsmpbutwithsignlanguage]

I don't know how to phrase this any better, but I seriously think that Léa needs to get a lawyer or legal advisor and step away from Twitter for a moment. I get that she feels a moral obligation to provide fans and former fans with a constant flow of all the information that she has available (which is an important thing, and she has been the main source of inside information since this all happened), and I know that she likely cannot pay for a lawyer herself on account of the fact that this whole issue arose because she (alongside others) were not getting paid.

However, regardless of whether or not leaking Quackity's personal information was a purely human mistake rendered lesser on account of the labor laws broken by him and his studio (in her own tweets, as her own argument), it should not have happened. Bottom line is that she rushed to provide the internet with information about the situation, and she made her argument, her voice, and her credibility lesser as a result of that.

Not only did she do what could be argued as a crime in more than one nation (though I am a bit iffy here; I am not a law graduate or student of any sort), but she directly harmed Quackity, and possibly his family, who had no part in this situation.

Her need to get information out as quickly as she can as the inside force led to this massive mistake, and no matter how you want to frame it (because it is still a mistake), it really should not have happened. It harmed both Léa and Quackity (though I would stand to argue one more than the other), and it could have been avoided if there was someone else working behind the scenes, or if Léa had simply checked the screenshot over a few times before posting it.

I'm not certain how to end this post, but I've thought this for a long time. This is a legal situation in which she is one of the primary witnesses. With such a large part of this playing out on Twitter, in a borderline trial of public appeal (not sure how much better I can phrase this, because such a massive part is involving the opinion of fans) she needs to understand how important and influential her words are, and how catastrophic it can be to both her cause and Quackity's if she messes up.

#if anything is based off a fundamental misunderstanding of this situation: I am sorry #but this is my understanding of this situation and I cannot get past it #regardless of the fact that the information leak was a mistake that people only ran with to dox Q's personal information #it should not have happened #because mistakes are just that: mistakes; but they can be avoided #that's half the point #and I genuinely think she needs to get a legal advisor #I know it isn't easy but reaching out to the Union or the public in general should be done if she can't by herself #because this kind of thing degrades her credibility and reliability even when it is not on purpose #qadmin situation #qsmp admin situation #admingate #quackity #qsmp

[wangbotam]

quick millennialcacao that actually took a few hours because i kept procrastinating

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #dark cacao cookie #millennial tree cookie #millennialcacao #this is also because of uhhhh certain leaks.... that we have been informed of #and i am not very happy about them at all! oh well #at least i dont play this game i just watch from a distance

[mcytblrsexymen]

How the Sexyman Bracket Will Work

AKA, oh god, why did you people choose a 96-man seeded single-elimination bracket and what do we do about it?

So, as you all know, originally the plan was for a simple, 64-man bracket. However, we got a wild number of nominations, and after looking at the list ourselves, we didn't want to leave it off at 64 - there were some really interesting people just below the cutoff, and also this way we didn't have to heavily tiebreak, whereas with the 64-man tournament we would have needed to tiebreak for the bottom seed.

After some discussion, we determined that the field was too wide if we went all the way out to 128, and began discussing byes. It was determined we'd go out to 96. How a 96-man bracket works as is follows: the 64 lower-seed players are paired, and will face each other. Then, after the winners of those matches are determined, the top 32 players, who each have a bye, face the winners of the first round. After that, it is structured like a normal tournament. This means there will be two rounds of 64, and that the most popular sexymen will not compete in the first round. So keep an eye out!

This introduces some new advantages to how the bracket will work, as well as lets us pull in a few more of the weird and fun guys you all rallied behind, instead of just the big names! Plus, since this is not a power of 2 and therefore gives the highest seeds a bye, it means those little guys are guaranteed a somewhat closer matchup at the beginning - you don't have to worry your small streamer had to face Scar round one. We save that for round two.

Additionally, why are we doing seeded, as opposed to randomizing the matchups or choosing bespoke matchups? For one, we had easy seeds - the nomination rankings determined where we seeded each nominee. If we already had everyone ranked, may as well use it!

Additionally, we here believe that a seeded tournament leads to the most interesting sexyman matchups, as it is designed to make sure the most exciting matches, between the most evenly-matched players, will be last, as opposed to happening early and then allowing someone to cruise to an easy victory (or be robbed of their chances). It also prevents us from being able to attempt to make our personal favorite guys have an easier time of it, makes sure each side of the bracket is approximately evenly matched, and makes the underdog stories more spectacular when they happen, as those underdogs will have had to have competed in a real battle to win!

So there you have it: the reasoning for why we're using a slightly unusual tournament structure, and what to expect tomorrow when the actual bracket is released.

the TL;DR is: expect a bracket that looks like the below, but much prettier, because we have gotten some help making a more readable version of this!

[image ID: a 96-man bracket. /end ID]

#faq #we have a slightly better-looking challonge bracket that's the one we're actually looking at #but you didn't think i'd actually leak the ranks yet did you? #this is also probably more information than yall need ESPECIALLY since we aren't QUITE ready yet but i wanted to ramble about brackets

[chaos-and-recover]

Hey, c'mere a minute. Listen to me. I know it's been a bit of a day what with the Sleep Token Instagram being wiped clean in the midst of all the doxxing bullshit going on, but I think we're maybe getting a little hysterical. There is so, so much evidence that wiping the Instagram is part of a calculated move to launch a new era, and not a signal that they're walking away. Let's lay it out.

II, III and IV revealed new looks at the Wembley show; Vessel didn't

They posted a link to Ascensionism on YouTube today, and while people are drawing a line between the doxxing and "you make me wish I could disappear" I would like to instead draw your attention to the line "You're gonna watch me ascend"

Sundowning, This Place Will Become Your Tomb and Take Me Back To Eden tell a story. They're a trilogy. The end of Euclid calls back to The Night Does Not Belong to God. It's full circle, end-of-an-era stuff. But if the end of the era was the band itself it would be absolute nonsense to put all that work into designing new aesthetics for 3/4 of the band for ONE SHOW.

The website is still up and the Twitter is still active. It's only Instagram that got cleared out, and even then the saved story highlights are all still there

As has certainly been pointed out by others this is not uncommon. Paramore has done this at leas twice. I feel like Hayley does it semi-regularly on her own account, as well as periodically just leaving social media in general. All members of AFI and their official account changed their profile images to just black ahead of the release of their 2017 album. It's a Thing.

Tour dates!! They still have tour dates. They're going to Australia with Bring Me The Horizon in April (Australia I am SEETHING WITH JEALOUSY). They have Radio City Music Hall, Red Rocks and Sonic Temple

This Tweet:

This now-deleted post from a radio station in Iowa:

This also-removed listing on Ticketmaster (screenshot taken today, Jan 16, 2024:

(The removal of these two items is NOT an indication that they've been cancelled but rather an indication that someone posted them too early)

Yeah, the doxxing sucks. It's got to be stressful for them. But there's also been radio silence from the band and their camp on it and I think that's absolutely the right call -- there are potential legal consequences and it very well could be something lawyers are dealing with. Remember that this is the music BUSINESS and they are not defenseless little meow meows in this. A line has been crossed, boundaries violated, that sucks, that's unforgivable, but I genuinely don't believe we're gonna see the end of the band over it. I mean they are WAY too committed to the bit to let this slow them down.

I think instead we are going to get a tour announcement, and I think we're going to get it as early as this week. Maybe early next week.

We might even get new music or a new reveal from Vessel between now and the Australia dates.

Now let my depressed ass go back to crying to Atlantic on repeat and let's all calm down.

#sleep token #i'm here for you bbs #but i truly think it's gonna be ok #i genuinely think this is a 'don't feed the trolls' situation #don't engage with anyone sharing the leaks #don't acknowledge the leaks at all #let the leakers see we genuinely do not care what their real identities are #and they'll have no power; the information they stole will be worthless

[robobarbie]

a bot just dmed me and I think it might actually be hypebot because… “✨ HI GORGEOUSXY [USERNAME] 💋🌺🥵” “[LINK] SEXY G [USERNAME]GS”

oh my god HE GOT ONLINE

#SOMEONE SHUT THIS DOWN #HES GONNA LEAK PRIVATE INFORMATION #bp ask #anon ask #hypebot

[gentrychild]

GENTRY PLEASE WHATS GOING ON DID BAKUGOU KILL AFO WHERE ARE YALL GETTING YOUR SPOILERS 😭😭😭

I get my spoilers from people screaming in my inbox. Thanks for asking. And, to clarify things, while Bakugou did fight a baby for at least half a chapter, what got AFO was the Rewind quirk that eventually turned him into an egg cell.

#Do you feel better now that you have those information? #bnha manga spoilers #bnha leaks

[shirkers2018dirsanditan]

#lets not let this get buried by him filing a complaint against his accuser #and then his legal team leaking information implying she’s going to be arrested

[amiracleilluminated]

#successiondaily #succession #successionedit #hbo succession #tomgreg #*gifs #tom is grasping at straws and having a meltdown and greg is like '🧍🏻‍♂️ better leak some confidential information and h@rrass more women'

[shortbreadly]

the fall of a prince

#after three long months i’ve finally been assed to finish this #before the new episode too hell yeah #this either age incredibly well or incredibly poorly #but stolas and andrealphus’ dynamic fascinates me #i can’t wait to get some more information to put towards it after the new episode #also i’ve seen the new sneak leak and all can focus on us moxxie’s funky little hat #he looks lovely #and a bit like a pimp #helluva boss #helluva boss fanart #helluva boss stolas #stolas goetia #stolas goetia fanart #helluva boss andrealphus #andrealphus #andrealphus fanart #my art

[incorrect-hs-quotes]

SOLLUX: feeling bored iim goiing two dox a fii2h

SOLLUX: ok here goe2

SOLLUX: ocean

ERIDAN: wwhat the fub

#submission #source: tumblr #homestuck #sollux captor #eridan ampora #incorrect homestuck quotes #mod terezi #you can't just leak people's personal information like that dude #even if it is funny

[jjs-brainrot]

When you're in a Shooting-Yourself-In-The-Foot contest and your opponent is Nijisanji who is pouring gasoline over themselves and a bunch of freelancers tied to them and lighting a match.

#like maybe don't use your talent as human shields #or do illegal shit like leaking personal and medical information only meant for lawyers #nijisanji #dokibird

[lecliss]

Misha nicknamed the horrifying monster that's been killing everyone in the dream!!!! Misha!!! Misha!!!! They're not pets!! That's a killing machine!!! Gallagher has been killing people with it!!! Gallagher isn't human either!!!! Mishaaaaaa!!!!!! He has no fucking idea what's going on does he???? It's all a little pet daycare simulator to him!!! He doesn't know!!!! Misha listen!!!!!

#MISHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! #imagine the leak about ratio giving him a stellaron was just ratio like 'here random child. hold this for me.' and mishas like 'okay! :D' #and ratio walks away and misha has no idea whats about to happen like one week from then #MISHA DOESNT KNOW!!! HE LACKS CRITICAL INFORMATION!!!!! #hsr 2.2 spoilers #hsr spoilers #hsr leaks #cuz i mentioned the stellaron thing

[total-drama-brainrot]

Saw this somewhere and wanted to throw it your way, sorry if you’ve been asked this before but what do you think of the concept of Noah always having been an assistant (even before the first season)/never playing as a contestant would look like?

The thing about Noah as a contestant is that he's, for all intents and purposes, kind of useless. And by that I mean Noah as a character isn't important to the plot at all in the grand scheme of things. He's barely important from an episodic point of view either; Noah does very little throughout Total Drama in terms of story relevance, and just in general. (Lazy king 👑.)

So taking him out of the equation wouldn't really affect too much in the grand scheme of things, save for probably preventing his friendship with Owen and, from a fanon standpoint, the rest of team E-scope. He'd be pretty much the same person, just behind the camera instead of on it.

But that's kind of a boring answer, and not at all what you were looking for, right?

So, let's say that Noah lands himself a job working as the personal assistant for some hot-shot A-list celebrity through one of his many siblings' various contacts; is it nepotism? Probably. But who's Noah to look a gift horse in the mouth? A fairly easy job following some pretentious asshole around all day and grabbing him the occasional coffee sounds like a pretty sweet gig, especially with the salary and various benefits that come with the job description. So Noah takes the job without question.

And that's how he finds himself stuck in the middle of nowhere, Muskoka, on an undisclosed island owned by said A-lister whilst he films the first season of his new Reality TV show, Total Drama Island.

Being Chris' personal assistant was supposed to be an easy pay check. "Supposed to be" being the point of interest there; Noah didn't anticipate Chris being as sadistic or as childishly needy as he was. If he wasn't running around like a headless chicken trying to accommodate for Chris' oftentimes outlandish whims and fancies, he was stuck answering to the producers in the host's stead- and the producers were pissed with Chris more often than not for his frivolous use of the show's budget. Something about having a genius level IQ and enough snark to make grown men cry apparently made him qualified enough to deal with the industry big-wigs. Noah was far too overworked to question it.

So much for an easy pay check.

Noah's not bad at his job by any means. In his professional opinion, the whole show and Chris' career would be in the dumps without his personal input keeping everything afloat. That doesn't mean he doesn't loathe his job with every sleep-deprived inch of his being.

And, inevitably, Noah ends up spending a lot of time around the campers themselves. Mostly as a consequence of always having to remain "on set" so to speak, since Noah's pretty much contractually obligated to linger around Chris' vicinity and wait for his boss to assign him some menial task to do. Most of the campers are just as egocentric and insufferable as he'd first assumed- and honestly, what else would he expect from people who singed up for a Reality TV show?- but a select few turn out to be decent company; namely Owen and Eva (and Izzy, but Noah refuses to admit that the "Psycho Hose Beast" is actually bearable to be around).

He'd even go so far as to claim they were friends good acquaintances.

Of course, his job takes precedent over frivolous things like relationships, platonic or otherwise, so Noah doesn't exactly have the free time to hang out with them. Which is probably for the best considering if he did spend a lot of time around his friends acquaintances, the other contestants would have a solid enough foundation for accusations of foul play in the competition, and that's a headache Noah really doesn't want to deal with.

Consequently, Noah floats through the filming of Island, and later on Action, maintaining cordiality with his little group and cold indifference towards pretty much the rest of the cast. Not that he doesn't keep close tabs on the campers; of course he does, not only is Noah incredibly observant by nature, but he's also the one in charge of accommodating for these weirdos... plus, Chris is oddly invested in his "prize cast of ratings jewels", whatever that means. So Noah knows these people, probably more than some of them know themselves, thanks to a combined sixteen-ish weeks of observation and forced proximity.

In turn, the competitors know of Noah, though for the most part he's regarded as little more than a spectre on set- Chris' elusive personal assistant who the cast will occasionally see the barest glimpse of, usually hidden behind an impassive pair of mirrored sunglasses and, more often than not, rushing off to do whatever it is a PA does. Chris does get a little lazy in Action and on a few occasions does get Noah to make a "guest appearances" on screen- mostly just to deliver him a coffee and a gluten free muffin during the downtime of that day's challenge- but he's still practically non-existent to he majority of the cast.

Which is fine by him.

What isn't fine by him is the surprise addition of two people he knows nothing about, come the third season.

One of those contestants happens to know a lot about the cast, and a concerning amount of information about him. It's uncanny, just how much Sierra seems to know about everyone around her, even more so because of the way she practically worships the ground they walk on. Sure, Noah's encountered the odd super fan here and there- not fans of himself, of course, but in this time as Chris' assistant he's had to chase off more than enough rabid fans from trying to sneak their way onto the set of whatever show Chris was working on (or more accurately sic the on-scene security on them)- but Sierra's brand of crazy takes it to a whole new level. Noah doesn't like her on principle and is both incredibly vindicated and incredibly concerned when her stalkerish behaviour rears its ugly head. Not that he's allowed to do anything about it; the producers are adamant that Sierra's outlandish behaviour is entertaining enough for the audience to ignore the immorality, and given how much Chris has been allowed tog et away with in the past Noah's inclined to begrudgingly agree.

And the other new contestant? The one who qualified for the apparently non-existent Total Drama Dirtbags (and Noah totally isn't salty about that show being an elaborate ruse that he spent countless sleepless nights working on)? Noah's just as concerned about his friends acquaintances ignorance to Alejandro's inherent sliminess as he is about Sierra's blatant disregard for others' privacy, but again it's not like he can do anything about it. He's not even supposed to be on the show, so any sort of interference would be a big no-no.

Oh, what's that? They want him on the show?

Fuck.

Turns out, Noah's brief appearances during Action (characterised by his usual level of sass and snide comments) really resonated with their audience; they like him for some inexplicable reason, and want to see more of "Noah, Chris McLean's mysterious personal assistant".

So he's pretty much forced into acting as a co-host of sorts, much like Chef had done for the first two seasons, all whilst carrying out his usual tasks. Is he happy about this? Not a chance in hell, and he lets the producers know exactly how he feels about the sudden change in his contract. Not that it changes anything.

And the best part? World Tour is a musical themed season. If they expect him to sing, they've got another thing coming.

But, as a small part of him chimes in, spending more time on camera would give Noah plenty of opportunities to spend time with his friends acquaintances. There's a non-zero chance that he could have fun, even if it's at the expense of his valued privacy.

His new status as part of the show does allow Noah some opportunities to skew the competition in the favour of his friends acquaint- no, screw it, his friends. That's one silver lining of the whole situation.

Better yet, he can tilt things out of Alejandro's favour, since the former Dirtbag seems to have a knack for manipulating the competition anyway- Noah might as well make things more challenging for him, as it seems this game is too easy for him thus far.

#that's just my take on it i guess #in short: noah's a tad bit more isolated and a lot more vindictive. mostly against the producers though. #i imagine a noah who didn't sign up for total drama would value his anonymity a lot more. THIS noah isn't looking for fame or notoriety. #he's just looking for Cash Money. #as such being forced into the limelight would make him grumpier than usual. #he spends the majority of world tour trying to get alejandro eliminated because he's the producer's favourite. no other reason. #al the while being as unhelpful and outright antagonistic as possible as a “co-host”. #mostly to make himself as unmarketable and unlikable as possible so the audience don't want him to stay around. #ironically this only makes him more popular. noah hates it. #he also spends the majority of world tour trying to prevent sierra from leaking people's private information to varied results. #noah's a voice of reason in a cacophony of screaming. no matter how loud he shouts he'll never be heard. #can't decide whether i want him and blaineley to team up post-merge or for them to be enemies on sight. #total drama #td noah #assistant noah au #others' ideas #silly ideas #ophe's ranting in the tags again #long post #replies #kinda drafty in here (posts from the drafts)