Slashdot Mirror

Regarding your sig, it seems like any player making an attempt would face really stiff competition: http://vinc.iclod.com/city.aspx?show=shops

Well, I hope whoever will is, that he/she plays nice with that super-monopoly ;)

i'm building a proof-of-concept game (FOUND Desert Island) for casual gamers.

the whole idea is to do away with grinding, in fact grinding will hurt the gameplay, and it does seem to address few of your points, like:

1. the island regrows/heals itself based on player's involvement

2. everyone dies, sooner or later

3. besides the normal hunting/gathering, players can reproduce offsprings

You should have not posted that iClod link. If you would have read their site agreement, you would have noticed the Do-Not-Slashdot ACT. Below is a quote for the punishment:
"Those who did not act swiftly or simply ignored the effectiveness of The Do-Not-Slashdot ACT had suffered the consequences of burnt-down server rooms and employment termination, just to name a few."

I should probably mention that the following sites are bad ideas because they make the ACT void (if anyone actually used them): Corel or Mirrordot.

It might be quite useful for games like our iCLOD if it's covering more parts of the world.

How about under this condition then?

There's more than the "we don't run a central server" defense keeping P2P alive, I think the courts actually see the legitimate side like home video recording, which "we all knew" was only for porn and pirating....

I tried, and failed, to interest some Angel V/C groups in starting a P2P venture just around the time that Gnutella was surfacing (and the .com bubble hadn't quite burst yet.) They had a hard time getting their heads around the legit moneymaking side of it all and passed on the deal - and apparently making legitimate money is still the hard nut to crack. Showing ads to pirates isn't very lucrative, or particularly safe from lawsuits.

--------------

Wealth, Fame, Strength and Intelligence await in iCLOD city.

I spent my life savings ($700) for a 4MHz computer with 16K of RAM.

You're saying that $36 is about 5% of monthly income in working class Brazil - in the US, I'd call poor working class about $24,000 a year - $2000 per month, 5% of that is $100 - which is just about exactly what I see copies of XP home for sale on the shelves of Office Depot. If you make more money, well, then, sir, you really want to upgrade to XP professional, then, don't you?

Remember, also, the OEM system builder resellers get software for something like 10% of list price, so $36 becomes $3.60 in those machines - who wouldn't pay an extra $3.60 to have a "legit" copy of Windows in the box they're selling?

-----------

Wealth, Fame, Intelligence and Strength await in iCLOD city.

It lowers the chance that users will look into Linux as an alternative, and brings in a little revenue stream.

------------

76% don't return after their first day - can you make it in iCLOD city?

----------

ICLOD, a better way to waste your real life....

Of course, news, weather, sports, and all that other stuff has come over the 'net since about '97, on demand, with commercials that don't force me to wait them out.

I think I'll be renting Battlestar Galactica, the series, when it comes out on DVD.

---------------

Have you tried life in ICLOD?

http://spaceward.org/

----------------

Have you tried the ICLOD life?

Just play as a guest then.

Joined the Rock Paper Scissors Tournament yet?

Too complicated, let's just play.

Rock.

You mean I don't need to subscribe to Slashdot to see the Mysterious Future?

Then maybe it can help me to win a few more Rock Paper Scissors games too.

Tell me, which is easier? Upload this image and try to find out where you are via this Visual Google, or enter the street name (street sign in the photo says "Queen Street") in Text Google?

The article also mentioned this thing should start small, like a movie guide, so is it easier to upload a 2K "I,Robot" billboard photo, or just enter "I,Robot" in Google on your cell phone?

As long as human input is still required (i.e. you need to submit something), I don't think this is going to be popular. However, if you have a Oakley that automatically takes photos of what you see and feeds you the location details, that'll be something.

i can certainly relate the advantage of word-of-mouth to a game site that i'm working for. there's a strong community forming and new players are coming from word-of-mouth (or text-of-email) because of existing players' experience in the game.

of course a bit of incentive wouldn't hurts, but it doesn't have to be in monetary term. it can be in the form of being credited or recognized.

the only catch is you need to stay good, because of the old marketing saying - a good mouth told 3, a bad one told 10.

the article mentioned "revealing her (the marketer) identity, she said, would undermine her effectiveness as an agent.".

it's similar to teenagers never listen to their parents about what is good for them, but peers always have a greater influence.

it depends what kind of IT skills you have.

i am working for few online games like iclod and xmoo, they generate a bit of incomes and open up opportunities for other jobs.

the advantage is i don't need to be there physically to carry out works, but with that advantage, i also get the disadvantage of having thousand of similarly skilled people fighting for the same work.

i believe hardware-IT may have more opportunities. just post an ads on local newspaper to "Fix Your Computer Problems At Home" and there bound to be some elderly people who would rather get a local service from a local person at home.

Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

Put spam in your actual sig rather than pasting it in the bottom of your post and avoid pissing off people who turn sig display off to avoid reading spam.

This new finding is based on the optimal temperature range for honeybees and their food source - nectar-rich flowering plants (which share the same optimal temperature range), to survive.

However if your living environment has just been destroyed by a meteor, wouldn't these creatures just "make-do" with less-ideal conditions, maybe in a smaller population?

Honeybees are so much smaller than dinosaurs, I don't think we can really compare their adapting speed, ability and mobility.

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

I almost jumped out of my body when I read "Weirdness", "Dreams", "Optically", "Anomaly" and "Votes".

I thought voters who optically identified themselves via retina scanners have been fed subliminal messages which voted for candidate opposite of their registered party, and have had weird dreams since then.

But ain't those October Surprises like Bin Laden, same-sex marriage sort of swung the votes? Although the percentage changes in E-Touch Voting and Op-Scan are too irregular.

I guess the main question is whether or not these differences are enough to change the outcome. Even Kerry admitted those 150,000 provisional ballots wouldn't help.

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

Are there reports done on the financial benefits (eg in medical bills) of Kyoto Treaty?

And why must reducing gas emission equate to job loss? Couldn't companies be more efficient instead?

In IT outsourcing, which costs a lot of jobs to foreigner countries, there are suggestions that with the increased exports to other countries, outsourcing probably isn't so bad after all.

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

I wonder if we are able to observe this interplanetary tortoise from earth? If it passes the bright side in full moon, we should have quite a clear view of it since it's going so slowly.

Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

Eco-friendly disc is nice, but how many people are going to throw away Blu-ray disc?

25GB is serios amount of data, I (maybe just me) would try to keep it even if it contains very unimportant data, since it's so easy to store a disc, it's not like you need one 5x5 room to store it.

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

I was initially excited about this tom-cruise rock climbing robot until I saw the photo, it is not only book sized, but book shaped too.

Anyhow, the article mentioned "tornado in a cup" technology - "Two vortexes swirl simultaneously, one in a spiral and the other in a toroidal path, like a donut. The forces generated hold the vehicle to the wall and yet allow free movement because the cup never touches the surface." Like a hovercraft that sucks?

However, later in the article, there was mention of magnets - "We tried a wheelie bar to keep the rear end of the robot flat against the wall and prevent the front from lifting up. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing. Time was running out so we had to add magnets and take advantage of the metal."

This makes me wonder if it's the magnets that hold the robot, or the new "tornado in a cup"?

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

I don't know if this is called smart or stupid marketing campaign.

On one hand, it's good to create (even an illusional) high demand on DS, but on the other, it might have missed the golden opportunity to lock consumers in before other rivals starting coming up with new consoles/games.

I read no mention of increased production before the release, they just promised to ship 4 million units by end of March 2005. This could be a good thing, as rushed products are usually bad ideas.

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

I think "Microsoft has also agreed to carry out £40m of research and development to provide guidelines and toolkits that will allow ISVs to deliver an NHS-specific user interface" is the candy here.

MS probably knows it can still compete in customised applications with its almost unlimited resources.

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer [iclod.com] and win Half-Life 2

It seems almost inevitable that Japanese is going to have a Felica after Toyota's Celica and Mitsubishi's Delica :) Where's Google when you need a Gelica (Girly Car)?

The article mentioned "i-mode FeliCa will make your wallet more slim. It can be your cash, credit card, membership ID, and even your house key." Given that many people have mobile phones stolen/lost, or worse, broken in the most unexpected moment, is relying too heavily on one device too much a risk?

I think it's equally annoying to have your cash stolen, house broken into, and not being able to enter your house (and you can't call for help without a mobile phone or cash for payphone!)

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer [iclod.com] and win Half-Life 2

Prosecutors did ask the jury to impose a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Jaynes, and to consider an unspecified prison term for his sister.

However like the article already mentioned, jurors who convicted Jeremy D. Jaynes, 30, and Jessica DeGroot, 28, later sentenced Jaynes to a nine-year prison term and fined DeGroot $7,500 for three convictions each of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.

Now it's a matter of protecting/preserving those sentences because the defending lawyer claims the prison term is an excessive punishment, given that this is the first prosecution under the Virginia law. He also noted that his client, a North Carolina resident, would have been unaware of the Virginia law. If they dare to appeal, prosecutors should appeal to increase the prison term to the maximum too!

--
Play iCLOD Virtual City Explorer and win Half-Life 2

The article has a summary:

Point #1: Virtual worlds live or die by their ability to attract newbies
Point #2: Newbies won't play a virtual world that has a major feature they don't like.
Point #3: Players judge all virtual worlds as a reflection of the one they first got into.
Point #4: Many players will think some poor design choices are good.

iCLOD Virtual City is based (remotely) on a real city. It is turn-based and time-based so that players won't be affected by different time zones and there are enough objectives to keep everybody occupied.

But like the article stated, it's pretty hard to keep everyone happy because they all want something in the virtual world to suit their abilities to win.

Additionally, newbies are always lost in the first instance they arrive in the city, so it requires a lot of tutorials and guides to get them settle in in order to introduce the real depth of the game to them.