Ascii What You Did: Syndicate Dev's Message To Pirates
The humble .nfo file is a business card, instruction manual, and score-setting rap song in ascii form. They're the files that the piracy scene drops into their releases to claim bragging rights for that particular chunk of nefarious code. So why the hell did Syndicate Developers Starbreeze stick one in the legitimate release of their first-person shooter? Redditor MikkelManDK spotted the file in the game's directory: it's there to partly to mock the scene a little — the install notes read: '1) Insert disc 2) Play ;)' — and partly to bring the Warez groups into the games industry: Starbreeze's .nfo asks them to apply for jobs.
The file points out the time it took to make the game, how many people were involved and then gets all huggy and suggests that if you're good enough to crack the game then you might have the skills to make it in games. I'd be keen to know if anyone does take them up on the offer.
If you must have that .nfo legitimately, Syndicate is out today (in the world of crumpets and fog; the colonies received it earlier this week) and Alec's WiT is imminent. In fact, here's a spoiler from the text: "n". While we wait, lets all watch the launch trailer. Now the game's actually out, we can play it and not feel lied to.
