Facebook Railroad Game: Railroad Empire

[dramus]

Hello everyone,

My name is Michael Robellard and I am the author of Train game on Facebook called Railroad Empire. It is a Railroad Tycoon style of game where you Buy Stations, connect the stations and build and buy trains. There is also a reasearch part of the game where you have to research new technologies in order to build better engines.

The game can be found here:
http://apps.facebook.com/railroadempire

[nedfumpkin]

I'm looking at it, but not sure if I will get into it...seems like you have to socialize and I am a misanthrope so not sure how that will work out. :)

[General_Popeye]

I'm looking at it, but not sure if I will get into it...seems like you have to socialize and I am a misanthrope so not sure how that will work out. :)

misanthrope: someone who dislikes people in general
I had to look that one up but im close to that and im on facebook and have tried the game... I dont think it agrees with my computer took ages to load but then again so does the facebook homepage. but the concept aint that bad.

[Hawk]

Personally I won't go anywhere near Facebook. I like my privacy too much.

[General_Popeye]

Personally I won't go anywhere near Facebook. I like my privacy too much.

So do I, Im probably the most private person on facebook, I really dont post much of anything nor do I let people other then my actual friends see anything thats not already public knowledge.

[Hawk]

The problem with Facebook, from what I've read, is that you have to dig really deep in the settings to assure yourself any real privacy. Even then it seems that Facebook seems to think they know better than you about what you actually want. The Facebook app, by default, will try to grab every iota of info on you and attempt to make it as public as possible.

I know I'm not explaining myself very well. I'll see if I can dig up the articles I've read about it. Facebook does strike me as being akin to what Microsoft is doing with their Live garbage in that if you have a Hotmail account and Messenger, Live will associate all your Messenger and Hotmail info together, to "help you get your associations all together, in your best interest", kind'a like what the Beltway gang are trying to do to the US.

[Knave]

I do not need this game or facebook in my life.

[General_Popeye]

The problem with Facebook, from what I've read, is that you have to dig really deep in the settings to assure yourself any real privacy. Even then it seems that Facebook seems to think they know better than you about what you actually want. The Facebook app, by default, will try to grab every iota of info on you and attempt to make it as public as possible.

no argument there but i have been on it long enough to dig my way down and set every privacy setting to only people i choose to see it and i also dont use any game or really any app on it for the privacy reason. but really all that they would get from me is i like to fish, im a metal head and a smartass so if they can get anything usable from that good for them

[Hawk]

I just heard on the news this afternoon that over 100 million Facebook users identities have been made public, although Facebook wasn't hacked. The information, such as usernames, user ID's, phone numbers, birthdays, etc. was easily found by a security agency.
Here's a link to the news article: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/ ... s-exposed/

Also, here's a link to an article I read back in May of this year about Facebook's privacy issues. http://windowssecrets.com/2010/05/20/01 ... gs/#story1

[nedfumpkin]

Many replies here....

I tried the game and it would not allow me to set up train routes. It would only allow me to add on station. So the game is broken.

I will not likely try this game again because it is basically a RT variation on Facebook games which forces socialization to achieve the game. I think most railroad people tend to prefer to work alone and only interact with other railroad people who may actually understand them. :)

I'm on Facebook for a few reasons, the primary one was because my employer is promoting social networking for collaboration so it makes sense for me to know what is going on with FB. Other reasons are peripheral, such as I can offer access to pics of my kid to my family without actually interacting with any of them. I can chat with my gf.

That being said, there's no real personal information about me, and the privacy settings are relatively easy to navigate now. I've been on computers connected to ther computers for near 20 years now. I know that everything the is ever transmitted electronically is in a form the will exist forever. So I just don't put any real information about myself. PS...if anyone wants to be my friend, I am of course nedfumpkin ....the shades should give me away. :)

Facebook is a piece of low tech garbage. In comparison to other sites like Myspace, it is very poorly designed, and doesn't allow for any visual modifications so every page looks the same, and you can't even make the fonts bigger. The whole system is designed for advertising, although I seem to have messed that up since I only get the same 4 ads all the time and three of them are for singles sites.

Most of the crap on Facebook seems to be announcements related to the games. I have a very hard time listening to people complain about privacy when they have 1500 "friends" which if you are playing the games, you have to make friends with all these people to achieve the game goals. The games themselves all seem to be variations on the same things.

So anyways...the game is broken.

[Nilmadae]

I tried the game and it would not allow me to set up train routes. It would only allow me to add on station. So the game is broken.

I had no problems setting up routes. When you've built a station you also have to pay for the connection. Then you buy a train and set it up. Anyway, I intend to play it without getting any friends (or Board of Director's points). I will probably become tired of it soon and quit playing, but for now it will do.

[Blackhawk]

I just heard on the news this afternoon that over 100 million Facebook users identities have been made public, although Facebook wasn't hacked. The information, such as usernames, user ID's, phone numbers, birthdays, etc. was easily found by a security agency.
Here's a link to the news article: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/ ... s-exposed/

Also, here's a link to an article I read back in May of this year about Facebook's privacy issues. http://windowssecrets.com/2010/05/20/01 ... gs/#story1

The 100 million people's identities is now available for download on The Pirate Bay and other torrent websites as well from some of the stories I've read.

The privacy concerns have gone on since almost the creation of Facebook, back when it was only available to college kids with a college email. While not really hard in facts, the video "The Truth About Facebook" is an interesting watch on youtube. It's sort of like the "6 degrees of separation" of facebook and how some people/investors related to facebook have had connections relating back to the government and DARPA.

Zuckerberg also allegedly called his first users an inappropriate name, if true, it shows he never really cared about people's privacy to begin with: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14 ... rust_dumb/

I also just stumbled across this today as well: Google and the CIA working together to "predict" things. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07 ... oogle-cia/

Not entirely related, but similar. Apparently the US thinks it shouldn't even have to get a warrant anymore to see who sends you emails, who you email etc. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100729/pl ... itsecurity

Perhaps google and the CIA have predicted that with my search habits that I would share these links. Although by sharing the links maybe I'm going into an evil watch list of google's. Maybe I'll be time to switch to cuil.com or some other search engine. (cuil.com apparently is an engine created by former google employees)

[Hawk]

I haven't used Google for a couple of years now, due to it's spooning relationship with the feds. I've been using Ixquick or Startpage (basically both the same company - both claim they don't log IP addresses and don't place cookies on your hard drive), but I'll have to check out that cuil.

Edit 1: OK! I just checked out cuil. I believe I'll stick with Startpage.

[nedfumpkin]

The information from those 100 million users was harvested from the public portion of Facebook, there was no breach of privacy since it was stuff that is available to anyone who went to the pages in question. This is a red herring story.

Having said that, I don't doubt for one minute that FB is a product of the Israeli intelligence services the same was that ICQ was. Not saying that it is bad or good, just my opinion on what is behind it. I'm sure other services like that are run by other intelligence services since what better way to spy on people than to operate their VOLUNTARY communication system.

[Blackhawk]

The information from those 100 million users was harvested from the public portion of Facebook, there was no breach of privacy since it was stuff that is available to anyone who went to the pages in question. This is a red herring story.

I don't think it's necessarily a red herring, although possibly an exaggerated story. True it was all public information, but I think it's just the fact that the public information was all collected in one convenient location on torrent sites rather than a search on google. So for someone harvesting emails, it might be a convenient place to get some. Although why anyone would leave their email public on facebook anymore, I have no idea.

I remember ICQ... once AOL bought it it seemed to have gone way down hill. But early on it seemed like one of the "better" and more advanced messaging programs. You could fill out a profile with your information, phone numbers, etc. and message people when they were offline. In some ways it seemed advanced for its time compared to other messaging programs. Although being started by Israelis maybe it was an early data mining tool for them.

[Hawk]

The information from those 100 million users was harvested from the public portion of Facebook, there was no breach of privacy since it was stuff that is available to anyone who went to the pages in question.

If you read the story at the link I posted, that's pretty much what it said.
The point the guy that gathered the info was trying to make was that all those people had left that information in the publicly accessible area of their profile, which is not good.