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Either that or she wants a hat made of money

significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement.

Keyword potential. In the wise words of penny arcade: SHITCOCK!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

EA taking a chance with MassEffect.

Bzzzzzzt, wrong. Bioware took the chance, EA just bought Bioware. Mass Effect was released only a month after EA purchased Bioware for a whopping 860M$. (I know people who'd sell their soul for much much less) EA basicly bought a winning ticket with Mass Effect, and with it yet another franchise they can milk. The actual risk was on the side of Bioware at the time, but they knew since E3 2006 that they'd won the lottery.

The only thing EA has done so far (that I know of) with anything from Bioware is port Mass Effect to the PC, and that was easily one of the most horrible ports I've ever played.

Or the only PC single-player RPGs this decade which _weren't_ yet another medieval theme?

What a novel idea, I'm sure nobody didthis. Oh, fuck it, have an index of RPGs from the '80s until today, notice that some of them contain the words "sci-fi" in their genre, which means the likelyhood for elves and dwarves is negligable.

So did EA screw Spore? Or maybe Spore wouldn't even have existed, if not for EA?

Will Wright! Please pee on us! I'm pretty sure someone else would've picked up Will Wrights titles. If EA didn't want it, I'm sure someone would've cupped their hands and uttered that sentence at some point.

EA might not be perfect, but it seems far less risk-averse when it comes to trying new things.

I doubt it. Spore might've been a risk for them to take, but again not a very large one.

From it's very inception they've hyped it. In the past 2 years, Spore has been hyped by ALL possible means. They even hired Robin Williams to promote it, used the "from the hands of Will Wright, the creator of Sim City and The Sims" stamp in press releases. It's like going into a DVD shop and finding an entire rack full of DVDs labeled with "From the director of the Lord of the Rings", which I'm pretty sure boosted the sales of Bad Taste and Braindead.

Companies the size of EA don't like risks. They don't like gambling with revenue when their major shareholders could turn on them at the first sign of their shares losing value.

Having said that, I bought Spore. I was pleasantly surprised until I reached space age, got annoyed and lost interest. Sure, I've messed around with the editors a couple of times after that, and I've actually played through it a few times to explore the differences between being peaceful and warlike, etc etc. But after that, the gameplay is rather meh...

Actually surprisingly fun:
DnD4

Though they did forget the camera.

I'm pretty sure this must still happen in things like wow

The problem with such stuff in WoW and such games is that the really great loot drops when you're not around. You hear about how a friend of a friend recently got [insert awesome item] and drool. Even if you didn't get that item, the fact that you're reminded that it's around, and that OTHER people are finding it keeps your hopes up. We're like rats in a big room lever pressing for snacks. Other rats getting one is a "reward" of sorts for us, and keeps us working hard in the hopes of being similarily rewarded.

Totally not his fault. That shaman was all Win Omen.

I think the reference you were looking for was...

World of Warhammer Onlinecraft.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20060410.jpg

It was worse than that. Halo was originally going to be a Mac game with the Windows version coming out the same day. Bungie made their rep as game developers for the Mac, most notably the Marathon franchise.

Halo got revealed at Macworld in 1999 I believe. Then MS bought Bungie and then there was no Mac version at all. It got immortalized in a PA strip.

The GP has a point, but games is about the only thing I use Windows for these days. Without 'em, I have even fewer reasons to hop on the Windows upgrade mill.

That discussion can't help bring this to mind:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/05/28/

Pardon?
How is this jumping through hoops?

1) "Run" the torrent.
2) Unpack the .rar files.
3) Unplug your network cable.
4) Mount the .ISO.
5) Install.
6) Copy over the cracked .EXE. (Included in the package!)

TBH, I'm tired of paying for shitty AAA games. (I've gotten burned recently on:
  *Sins of A Solar Empire
  *Unreal Tournament 3
  *Supreme Commander)

And, as of this moment, I'm glad that I have not purchased Spore. I'll give it another run-through this weekend on hard, but I doubt that my opinion will change from this:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/05/27/

iChokeU

I think the guys from Penny Arcade already knew this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/8/1/

Fine. s/Crysis/Doom3.

I'm basing my criticism of Crysis largely on this comic -- is the narrative actually better than that?

Quote:
A maladaptive pattern of substance use, leading to a clinically significant impairment or distress, asmanifested by three (or more) of the following, occurring at any time in the same 12 month period;

**tolerance, as defined by either of the following: a need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxification or desired effect, or

**markedly diminished effect with continued use of the substance

people who play MMO's for extended periods find the need to branch out into "alts" to achieve the same amusement, and/or increase the intensity of both the content and rewards through regular raiding, even then the effective happiness derived diminishes, yet they continue playing.

withdrawal as manifested by either of the following:

*the characteristic withdrawal syndrome for the substance, or

*the same(or closely related) substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms

people moving to other MMO's from the first one, people feeling compelled to get back in game when "inconveniences" such as meals, interaction with spouses, jobs get in the way.

* the substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended

people "call in sick" for WoW for instance because they must have that next level, that last bit of rep.

* there is a persistent desire or unsuccesful efforts to cut down or control substance use

A - "didn't you quit?"
B - "yeah"
A - "why are you here then?"
B - "No comment, when's the next raid?"

* a great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance (e.g., visiting multiple doctors (or driving long distances), use the substance (e.g., chain smoking), or recover from its effects

please refer to the penny arcade strip on the burning crusade for reference.

* important social, occupational or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of substance use

if you haven't read a story about such a thing with MMO's you've been under a rock. Even my grandmother who has no internet knows about that.

* the substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a perstent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance (e.g., current cocaine use despite recognition of cocaine-induced depression, or continued drinking despite recognition that an ulcer was made worse by alcohol consumption) Unquote

people lose their jobs, their academic positions, their spouses to MMO's. They know it's happening and don't stop.

A Brief Index Of Difficulty

Actually, this is the biggest obstacle to online play. Lag would be a close second, though.

The most obvious pander since Ferraro.

Zero foreign-policy experience.

Already scandal-tainted.

This is who we want one heartbeat away from the presidency? With the relevant heartbeat being that of a 72-year-old, multiple cancer victim?

I knew McCain would do anything to get elected, but I didn't think he was completely unhinged. I guess that explains why he hired the same goons who ran the smears against him in South Carolina. In the immortal words of Penny Arcade: batshit fucking loco.

-Esme

No, but they're working on something similar.

I don't think that's exactly what they are talking about. I'm thinking more of games like Hellgate or that asian MMORPG / Shooter GUN, where you have to pay to get better gear than the *normal* players.

PA says it all.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/3/26/

I refer you to Tycho's review of "Shadow Of The Colossus", wherein he starts feeling pretty creepy about genociding peaceful giants. As far as I can tell, that "um...what am I doing this for?" feeling is the point of the game.

it's not meant for you.

Are you trying to tell me its not for critics ??

Such things would require a prohibitively high number of actual persons playing NPCs, and the amount of coordination between them would make this extremely buggy.

The bigger issue is the "Internet Fuckwad Theory".

Which basically means that you WILL have players who figure out how to ruin events and storylines for other people. That's why a lot of quests are persistent, and ever un-changing.

Precisely. Since it takes much more time to create than destroy, and the MMO world is full of fuckwads, whatever "world" exists will quickly just become whatever the lowest model-able state is; ashes, protons, vandalized castles, whatever.

Such things would require a prohibitively high number of actual persons playing NPCs, and the amount of coordination between them would make this extremely buggy.

The bigger issue is the "Internet Fuckwad Theory".

Which basically means that you WILL have players who figure out how to ruin events and storylines for other people. That's why a lot of quests are persistent, and ever un-changing.

Might as well get it out of the way.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/02/16/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/4/14/

Might as well get it out of the way.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/02/16/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/4/14/

I've always considered ID to be an engine development house first, and a game developer second.

as seen here.

A comment further down got me to reading old Penny Arcade comics, and then I hit this one. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/5/31/

What? Do you think Id Software makes UT?

Id Software does NOT make UT, and that suggestion in itself is highly offensive.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/12/15/

Id has ported all (?) of their games natively to linux.

Reference.

Obligatory P-A: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10/

... makes the jokes funnier.
Like...
"They've made 140 million of those things and they still can't get them right. Drumroll...

But seriously...
Despite the popular opinion there are quite a few Zunes out there. Even the brown ones.
In fact brown Zune 30 was at the top of the Amazon's sales rank during the November of 2007 - because of the price drop.
So, no matter what the herd think is cool, cheaper sells better.

Oh and... No Zunes in Japan.
Or anywhere outside North America.
So I guess we'll have to wait with those statistics to determine which one is safer on a crowded Tokyo subway line.

Technology does not change people.

Yes it does, it's called the "greater internet fuckwad theory".

And shame on Activision.

I hate to support EA under any circumstances, but they've proven they know when to leave the hell alone - not like Activision, who get their hands on a franchise and pretty much universally ruin it.

Look at Guitar Hero. Harmonix's first two were awesome; 3 was passable. Then we were hit with "Rocks the 80s", and even worse, "Aerosmith edition" - I mean, what is this shit? Halfway through the 31 songs and I've barely played 5 actual Aerosmith songs? They taunt me with "The band covered X song on Y early tour date" info and that song's not even on the menu?

"Exclusivity" agreements explain why Rock Band's only Aerosmith song was the piece of junk "Train Kept a-Rollin" instead of a good one. They probably also explain why the "Best of the Who" download set included the crappiest cover I've ever heard of Amazing Journey, and left Sensation and Pinball Wizard completely out.

The less exclusives we see, the better. Unfortunately for Harmonix, you know for a fact Activision isn't going to play fair on this. They're desperate to get anything to get people to buy the next Guitar Hero after being 2 and a half times burned (one for 80s, one for Aerosmith, 1/2 for GH3 for the crappy boss battle setup).

Your mom is a classy lady!

Reminds me of Monday's Penny Arcade strip. Doing that to CoD3 is like making Gears of War family friendly. Just can't wrap my mind around how it's possible without ruining a great game.

Stacked up against Manhunt 2 I can't see how people are saying *this* will ruin the family friendly nature of the Wii.

Oblig. Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/11/02/

You have to give some soft spoken girl the answers... ROFLMFAO

Damn, they know our weakness. I bet that's what sex feels likeç

He thinks people like Steam for convenience. Maybe. Me, I am just afraid of giving my CC number to an unknown vendor.

Those things combined, yes. But you do have to start somewhere.

While I'm at it, I use Paypal with Steam -- so there's that additional layer. But I would say, interface with every vendor and with every payment system out there.

He needs to explain to people how his games are original. What sets Kudos apart from the Sims?

Well, your response suggests he needs to simply shorten that to a catchphrase that he can plaster everywhere, so that people like you will actually notice. But here:

Kudos is a turn based strategy game where you control someone's life.

The Sims is many things, but it is not turn based. There are other differences, but that was the most obvious, and took me maybe 20 seconds to find.

Now, excuse me while I hijack (pirate!) your thread to respond to the rest of TFA:

People think demos are too short. My demos *are* short, because the marketing man in me sees that you can't give away too much. I've wanted people to feel a bit annoyed when the demo cuts out, so they buy the game to keep playing.

I would say, the solution is to make the game longer, but also to make the demo long enough. The point of the demo isn't to irritate them so that they go buy the game -- it's to lead them on. It's to get them hooked so that they can't easily just stop there.

Take the WoW 10-day trial. Can you really stop after 10 days, abandon your character, and go do something else, if you played at all during those 10 days?

A LOT of people cited the cost of games as a major reason for pirating.

I would say, that is a factor, but it's nowhere near as much a factor as how easy it could be to buy those games. Take Penny Arcade's comments -- honestly, at $20 or so, it's not huge.

Then again, lowering his price may help -- after all, Portal cost $20. Let's see -- do I want to play Kudos, or the best game of last year?

I get the impression that if I make Kudos 2 not just lots better than the original, but hugely, overwhelmingly, massively better, well polished, designed and balanced, that a lot of would-be pirates will actually buy it.

Somewhat, yes. But that's not really why you want to make a better game.

You want to make a better game, because if it's good enough, pirates really won't be a dent in the kind of profit you'll be bringing in -- and people will be satisfied. And a satisfied customer is, quite possibly, a repeat customer.

http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/7/12/a-wider-perspective-on-flavor/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/8/8/

Gabe and Tycho hit the nail on the head with this comic. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/24/

Who $hall decide the winner$ and lo$er$? The $oviet Union had te$t$ to $egregate people ba$ed on ability. They were abu$ed for politic$ and who do you know kind of $tuff. The National $ociali$t wanted to $egregate people ba$ed on their idea of racial purity. When you build two $y$tem$, one for "$mart" people and one for "dumb" people what you ultimately create i$ a cla$$ divi$ion and give $omeone the power to decide what kind of education people get.

There i$ no longer a need to be $tingy with education, $o your main motive$ no longer apply. Electronic publication make$ it po$$ible to $hare knowledge with everyone and no one intere$ted $hould ever be denied. Wealth come$ from the freedom to exploit re$ource$. Artificial re$triction$ and $carcity create poverty and re$entment. Hoarding knowledge i$ a crime.

There - fixed it for you. I felt something was missing...

--
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/7/22/ms/

Sure we wang!

He has a permit to carry concealed weapons and is so used to doing so that he simply didn't notice. Neither did the TSA. There's one data point for your experiment.

Here's another one. (No, not the one with the bat ... the other one.) News post is here.

I love anecdoes, don't you? They're so terribly useful ... and scientific.

He has a permit to carry concealed weapons and is so used to doing so that he simply didn't notice. Neither did the TSA. There's one data point for your experiment.

Here's another one. (No, not the one with the bat ... the other one.) News post is here.

I love anecdoes, don't you? They're so terribly useful ... and scientific.

It doesn't really disclose anything that is news to the /. community, but it does seem to confirm what many of us suspected. The trolls and chaotic crackers who take action that is actually harmful, whether physically (e.g. the epilepsy attack) or mentally (e.g., the depraved trolls targeting the parents mourning their son) exhibit symptoms commonly associated with NPD, delusional disorder of the grandiose variety, and in some cases APD (the somewhat Orwellian term now used to encompass sociopathy and pyschopathy). This particular variety of troll or cracker (let me call them c-trolls) is self-aggrandizing, viewing himself or herself as vastly superior to the majority of the world's population, rising at times to the level of self-deification (see the comments in the article attributed to Weev). They show little to no remorse when injuries occur, suggesting that they consider their victims as a lesser being, a sort of animal that the c-troll may do with as they please. They defend their actions by blaming the victims for not recognizing their vulnerability. The very idea of warning the victims in a less harmful fashion (perhaps notifying them of the vulnerability rather than using it to crack their skulls) either has not occured to them, or has been considered and dismissed. In either scenario, the actions of the c-trolls show that their purpose is entirely self-serving despite the warped quasi-altruistic motive that they proffer in defense. It is easy to view these persons with revulsion due to their visible lack of empathy and their desire to manipulate basic human emotions to cause harm. Still, these c-trolls are themselves deserving of pity, in that they have personally experienced traumatic events which have harmed their psyche, or suffer from psychological disorders that prevent them from interacting normally with other persons. However, unless the disorder is severe, these persons cannot shed themselves of moral responsibility for their actions.
 
This of course assumes that the persons interviewed in the article gave truthful responses to the reporter's questions. Given that many of these c-trolls seem to wish for admiration for their deeds while maintaining their anonymitity, it is unlikely that the majority of those interviewed gave false answers about the philosophy behind their actions.
 
Also, I would like to point out that Tycho and Gabe explained the phenomena of your average irritating yet harmless troll in only three panels, while the New York Times required several paragraphs.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20070125.jpg

I thought it was funny the first time I read it, it's scary that it may be more true now. )=

Otherwise known as the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

Obligatory John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory link:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

This has been posted many times on Slashdot but is worth repeating.