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Does anyone think this name might be a bit of a problem? Being a programmer obviously I get it, but I can imagine it being a problem for average-joe: "Hey, I sa

Does anyone think this name might be a bit of a problem? Being a programmer obviously I get it, but I can imagine it being a problem for average-joe: "Hey, I saw this really cool game the other day, it was called, erm... zero one, c, x? One zero? Uh, something like that. Anyway..." - will the person they were talking to be able to find it?

Maxious 14y ago
No more complicated than a car name - RX8, S40 etc. Also if you spell out the numbers as words, Google will still find those cars.
ANTSANTS 14y ago
The game is about programming a spaceship in a fictional CPU's assembly language. I don't think they have to worry about what non-programmers think of the name.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  AFAIK programming is only one aspect of the game, hopefully it will have a more mainstream audience too.
  - thedufer 14y ago
    He's talked about systems for sharing code so that non-programmers can find code that does what they want without actually needing to dive in. Not sure how well this will work out.
    - eupharis 14y ago
      There have been a few companies that have tried this with computers in the past: http://www.apple.com/ http://www.apple.com/ http://www.microsoft.com/ http://www.microsoft.com/ I think it just may work out!
      - jiggy2011 14y ago
        Joking aside, it will be interesting to see how the defacto sharing of source code ends up. Will it be open source in nature with people freely sharing code or will people guard their source to gain a competitive advantage?
      - eupharis 14y ago
        Reply to jiggy: A great point. I can't wait for the first trojan that takes control of your ship and transfers control to a different player. Will people be able to share binaries or just source?
        jiggy2011 14y ago
        IIRC the game emulates a CPU (either 8 or 16 bit can't remember), which means that at a basic level the binaries and source will be the same thing since the only language supplied with the game will be a form of assembler. Of course we can expect people will create compilers (I believe some already have) to compile other languages down to the assembly used in the game. The viruses/trojans will be an interesting thing, I believe notch said that it will be up to players to protect themselves from these. There's a risk here though for essentially turing complete griefing, so hopefully there will be something to help protect newbies from accidentally running some horrible code.
        eupharis 14y ago
        Well, I'm sure Norton will put out something. Of course, when running it, your ship's hyperdrive will become 50% slower. (Sidenote: Ah ok. So that's how to reply on HN once a comment thread has reached a certain depth: click link then reply.)
        lmm 14y ago
        >(Sidenote: Ah ok. So that's how to reply on HN once a comment thread has reached a certain depth: click link then reply.) I don't think it's about depth; you can't reply to very new comments (presumably to give people a chance to delete mistakes?) but if you refresh the page a minute or two later the reply link will be there as normal.
lifeformed 14y ago
I'm sure once it gets popular, people will come up with an abbreviation. I bet this one will be 0x, pronounced "Zero X".
- srik 14y ago
  It's being referred to as "Oh-X" here.
  - Lord_DeathMatch 14y ago
    Trillek was confirmed though.
derleth 14y ago
Even among 'normal people' (non-programmers, etc.) a lot of sharing is done via the Internet, where most people are already quite adept at sharing URLs via copy-paste. Besides, giving the game a name that really is kinda technical (if only in a shallow sense) gives it a certain cachet it wouldn't otherwise have.
reustle 14y ago
0x10c = Zero extancy = No survival

Maxious 14y ago

No more complicated than a car name - RX8, S40 etc. Also if you spell out the numbers as words, Google will still find those cars.

ANTSANTS 14y ago

The game is about programming a spaceship in a fictional CPU's assembly language. I don't think they have to worry about what non-programmers think of the name.

jiggy2011 14y ago
AFAIK programming is only one aspect of the game, hopefully it will have a more mainstream audience too.
- thedufer 14y ago
  He's talked about systems for sharing code so that non-programmers can find code that does what they want without actually needing to dive in. Not sure how well this will work out.
  - eupharis 14y ago
    There have been a few companies that have tried this with computers in the past: http://www.apple.com/ http://www.apple.com/ http://www.microsoft.com/ http://www.microsoft.com/ I think it just may work out!
    - jiggy2011 14y ago
      Joking aside, it will be interesting to see how the defacto sharing of source code ends up. Will it be open source in nature with people freely sharing code or will people guard their source to gain a competitive advantage?
    - eupharis 14y ago
      Reply to jiggy: A great point. I can't wait for the first trojan that takes control of your ship and transfers control to a different player. Will people be able to share binaries or just source?
      - jiggy2011 14y ago
        IIRC the game emulates a CPU (either 8 or 16 bit can't remember), which means that at a basic level the binaries and source will be the same thing since the only language supplied with the game will be a form of assembler. Of course we can expect people will create compilers (I believe some already have) to compile other languages down to the assembly used in the game. The viruses/trojans will be an interesting thing, I believe notch said that it will be up to players to protect themselves from these. There's a risk here though for essentially turing complete griefing, so hopefully there will be something to help protect newbies from accidentally running some horrible code.
        eupharis 14y ago
        Well, I'm sure Norton will put out something. Of course, when running it, your ship's hyperdrive will become 50% slower. (Sidenote: Ah ok. So that's how to reply on HN once a comment thread has reached a certain depth: click link then reply.)
        lmm 14y ago
        >(Sidenote: Ah ok. So that's how to reply on HN once a comment thread has reached a certain depth: click link then reply.) I don't think it's about depth; you can't reply to very new comments (presumably to give people a chance to delete mistakes?) but if you refresh the page a minute or two later the reply link will be there as normal.

lifeformed 14y ago

I'm sure once it gets popular, people will come up with an abbreviation. I bet this one will be 0x, pronounced "Zero X".

srik 14y ago
It's being referred to as "Oh-X" here.
- Lord_DeathMatch 14y ago
  Trillek was confirmed though.

derleth 14y ago

Even among 'normal people' (non-programmers, etc.) a lot of sharing is done via the Internet, where most people are already quite adept at sharing URLs via copy-paste. Besides, giving the game a name that really is kinda technical (if only in a shallow sense) gives it a certain cachet it wouldn't otherwise have.

reustle 14y ago

0x10c = Zero extancy = No survival