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It had something to do with the fact that Steve Jackson was producing a Cyberpunk game.

More info:
http://www.boogieonline.com/revolution/express/tec hno/jackson/
http://www.sjgames.com/SS/
http://www.eff.org/Legal/Cases/SJG/

I also think that cyber terrorism is a bad thing

But for now CyberTerrorism is still a fiction, we haven't yet seen any. At most all we've seen is CyberVandalism and CyberPettycrime.

This article brings to mind the hacker crackdown of the late 1980s and early 1990s (Bruce Sterling wrote a fairly good book about this) when the Secret Service was arresting kids for distributing publicly available documents, raiding game publishers and seizing thier computers, and spreading rumor and inuendo about the crash of AT&Ts long distance service that occurred on Martin Luter King Day in 1990.

While the graver danger we face as individuals is the potential loss of our privacy, freedom, civil liberties, and access to (accurate, non-biased) information to an ever growing government/corporate power structure, the media and our elected officials churn out statements such as the Baio's in order to create paranoia and a feeling of powerlessness among the general public, and to engender acceptance of oppressive regulation, control over the distribution of information, and the removal of privacy protections.

The author of the article is helping to set the stage for acceptance of Microsoft's "Trusted Computing" infrastructure, when the real problem is (as it was on MLK day in 1990) the growing monoculture of the internet (and general computing) infrastructure (which in turn is necessary for effective manditory DRM, manditory centralized personal data collection, and un-circumventable user monitoring).

If he can herd those damn neighbor kids off the lawn between laundry loads, so much the better. If he has any spare time after that, he's free to play cards with the neo-ferret who inspects the cable runs and cleans out the air ducts.

Nyahhhh, rotten kids and their goddamn glowing green racing llamas.

Stefan

Their proof is here.

No, it's not a goatse troll.

You never played Car Wars or Top Secret?

It doesn't work for P&P RPG's because they can't adopt the features. Some games use a one dice feature (IIRC Star Wars is D6 only, WhiteWolf is D10 only) should they try to adopt that to D&D.. of course not, it's counter to what it's built on.

If you keep adopting features, the game loses it integrity. In fact D&D's continued success has little to do with features, but is based completely on playerbase. If you need 4 more players to play a game, it is much easier to find 4 D&D players then to 4 people to play RIFTS. This means the D&D books have more utility, since you're more likely to play D&D and new P&P players are more likely to learn D&D.

If the article truly wanted to talk about a game thats based on using competitors ideas, the author should of brought up Steve Jackson's GURPS. There is a lot of original content, but you can play anything in GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) that there is in another system... GURPS failed because it had to much detail, you NEEDED the book to play each genre. Since each genre had it's own modified rules (think inheritence) and long tables of skills, traits etc.

List of Gurps Books ... Waiting for someone to reply saying GURPS isn't a failure

Me and my friends has spent hours playing Munchkin against each others. It's somewhat unbalanced, but it can change a lot during the play. Usually, the sneakiest (or lucky) player ends up winning, but it's great fun, since all cards are very fun in a geek way ;)

For the Video Game Type
Age of Mythology. - Awsome translation of the popular RTS video game. A unique style of play indeed. 2-4 players without expansion
Civilization: The Board Game - Not a direct translation of CIV III but provides players an opportunity for intense military, political and economic strategy. 2-6 players (standard and advanced rules)
Warcraft: The Board Game - Provides all the elements of the RTS Game in a very nice turn based style. The board is dynamic to allow for many different playing scenarios!
Frag! - Take a First Person Shooter like Quake and turn it into a board game. Run around collecting weapons to kill other players. Very fun for a quick game. Capture the flag to deathmatch rules.

For the War Gamer Type
Axis & Allies. - Classic WWII simulation. Will soon be updated with a new rules release. 2-5 players
Risk 2210 AD. - Beefed up version of the original RISK. Not my favorite game, but it is fun. 2-6 players I believe.

For the Formula One Type
Formula De. - Formula One simulation board game with real tracks! Rules for standard and league type play. 2-10+ players.

For the Fun Type
EVO. - Play as a species of dinosaur struggling to survive until the doomsday meteor hits. Great game for all ages. 3-5 Players
Drakon. - An evolving tile based board game that is different every time. The expansion is great! 2-6 Players

And Finally... For the Geek Type
Chez Geek. - This isn't a board game, but it doesn't matter. This is a must have for any gaming geek. Take everything funny (true or not) about geeks, design a wonderful card game and add in some hilarious flavor text and art and you have this game. I've played this game for hours on end with geeks and non-geeks alike. Huge laughs for all. Get this game. Trust me. Do it now. Oh, and the expansions are great too.

And no, I don't work for Steve Jackson Games.

For the Video Game Type
Age of Mythology. - Awsome translation of the popular RTS video game. A unique style of play indeed. 2-4 players without expansion
Civilization: The Board Game - Not a direct translation of CIV III but provides players an opportunity for intense military, political and economic strategy. 2-6 players (standard and advanced rules)
Warcraft: The Board Game - Provides all the elements of the RTS Game in a very nice turn based style. The board is dynamic to allow for many different playing scenarios!
Frag! - Take a First Person Shooter like Quake and turn it into a board game. Run around collecting weapons to kill other players. Very fun for a quick game. Capture the flag to deathmatch rules.

For the War Gamer Type
Axis & Allies. - Classic WWII simulation. Will soon be updated with a new rules release. 2-5 players
Risk 2210 AD. - Beefed up version of the original RISK. Not my favorite game, but it is fun. 2-6 players I believe.

For the Formula One Type
Formula De. - Formula One simulation board game with real tracks! Rules for standard and league type play. 2-10+ players.

For the Fun Type
EVO. - Play as a species of dinosaur struggling to survive until the doomsday meteor hits. Great game for all ages. 3-5 Players
Drakon. - An evolving tile based board game that is different every time. The expansion is great! 2-6 Players

And Finally... For the Geek Type
Chez Geek. - This isn't a board game, but it doesn't matter. This is a must have for any gaming geek. Take everything funny (true or not) about geeks, design a wonderful card game and add in some hilarious flavor text and art and you have this game. I've played this game for hours on end with geeks and non-geeks alike. Huge laughs for all. Get this game. Trust me. Do it now. Oh, and the expansions are great too.

And no, I don't work for Steve Jackson Games.

10. Hacker the deluxe edition (until recently oop)
9. Wizwar
8. Nuclear War (which someone made into a silly computer game of a similar name.)
7. Settlers of Catan/Seafarers of Catan (you can find this at nearly every game store)
6. Eurorails/Empire Builder
5. Family Business
4. Risk and/or the NEW risk (of course)
3. Chess
2. Checkers
1. A set of these

Damn Duel Weilding Munchkin Powergamers!
www.sjgames.com/munchkin/guide/

Orbital
Mind-Control
L^HMasers!

When I was at Berkeley, a few friends of mine worked off-campus at the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics. This was connected to the campus network via a microwave relay mounted on the roofs of two buildings.

The story I was told by one of the sysadmins was that one day, the thing just stopped working, with no technical explanation. After doing all manner of tracing and debugging, they finally went to go check the campus-side transceiver, and found it turned 180 degrees in the other direction, with a note saying something to the extent of I know what you're doing, this is a CIA mind control device, if you try to keep reading my thoughts and fix this, I will find and kill you.

They fixed it and put a nice laminated piece of paper on it, explaining that, no, it's not part of the Orbital Mind Control Lasers, but rather an innocuous network component used for space research, and please don't mess it up, you could fall off the roof and hurt yourself

It never happened again; I guess they could have just ordered a few aluminum foil deflector beanies for the general public.

There is one very evil smiley face, which I believe is part of the Sandman comics: "The Boss appears as a human male in a suit, with a large, perfectly spherical head and an overlarge "smiley-face" expression."

He first appeared in the PREZ comics in the early 1970s from DC.

He's mentioned right here. I don't know why you didn't find it.

I just got Strange Synergy yesterday. I hear it's quite fun, but really I'm just a big Phil Foglio whore.

I'm surprised I haven't seen someone extolling the virtues and replayability of Illuminati. My buddy introduced me to this game back in the early 90's and I've been hooked. Great fun for 3 or more players, highly addictive, great party fun and I've found the girls we hang out with get a kick out of it too (it doesn't take a lot of logic or cutthroat intuition, and there's a bit of diplomacy as well).

--trb

I'll second Steve Jackson games. Although I'm probably preaching to the choir here at /.

I'm trying to get my friend to pick up a copy of Munchkin Fu. I mean who doesn't like a Karate Squid

I also highly recommend Carcassonne

-prator

I'll second Steve Jackson games. Although I'm probably preaching to the choir here at /.

I'm trying to get my friend to pick up a copy of Munchkin Fu. I mean who doesn't like a Karate Squid

I also highly recommend Carcassonne

-prator

(Personally I find table top RPG too slow, except for Toons. I much prefer LRP.)

I get torqued about this kind of thing from time to time, but far less than I used to.

Most SF movies are allegorical; they don't try or even need to get the facts absolutely straight to a) tell the story, and b) get a point across. For example, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence was chock full of silliness, but it got an important moral point across about trivializing sapient creatures. Minority Report had a big plot hole, but it was a thought-provoking allegory about how reliance on a crime-predicition technique could screw over the innocent.

Bad Science is a problem when the story directly warns about a specific problem . . . typically, "awful warning" stories about health or environmental issues. For example, there was an utterly ludicrous TV movie about global warming a year or two ago. No one could possibly learn anything from it that might make than informed citizen.

Stefan Jones

It's out!

We can only hope they've put in those safeguards*.

Worst case scenario: She succeeds in dividing by zero, and suddenly little Tiphany-Amber's bedroom becomes the center of a howling vortex of nonspace, frying the neighborhood with sparkling discharges of zero-point energy.

Stefan It's out! Jones

*The early pocket-calculator manufacturers only cut corners once. Remember that HP plant in Bennettown, CA? Tire fire my ass.

Yes, it works at first.

But then the thing hits that pesky hyper-hypercube configuration, goes second-order sapient, and starts looking to increase its "cultural and technological distinctiveness."

The more pathetic sort of extropian might see getting uploaded into such a gestalt as a Big Win, but really, what's the worth of an ersatz immortality with an IQ of 97 (remember that fourth-order-cube limit) and a voice interface that randomly throws in phrases like "math class is harrrrrd!?

Play it safe. Stick with FurbyNets with 254 or fewer nodes, and keep some spray paint on hand to blank out those IR transcievers, just in case.

Stefan It's out! Jones.

Stefan "It's finally out!" Jones

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

There's a lot of talk here about emulators, but can they handle the really obscure stuff that uses EGA graphics, and audio hardware like the Ad Lib or original Sound Blaster? My limited experiences have not been encouraging.

Last year, I bought an "Ultima Collection." All the games from 1 - 8. But the Ultima 7 games wouldn't run under Win98, and the third party emulator specifically made for the job crashed something awful. I eventually gave up; I had a writing project due and couldn't spend the time troubleshooting the emulator.

I suspect I may eventually just give up and be satisfied with my memories of playing those fine old PC games. After all, I did manage to survive getting rid of my Atari 800 and its collection of worlds (M.U.L.E., Seven Cities of Gold, Archon, et al.)!

Stefan

* I occasionally have to read files off of old floppies. Old WordStar files with RPGame manuscripts and such. But I use the drive so infrequently that I have to blow it out and clean the heads each time!

That's clearly incorrect, the gov't can take your pc and do whatever they want with it, read about how Steve Jackson Games was raided by the Secret Service and had their equipment taken and many files compromised. Sure the SS lost that case, but do you think that ws an isolated incident? I don't.

I have to confess that I am both a a pen-an-paper role player and an avid computer game player. I have noticed this problem is mainly to do with, as people have already said, how you let people go about the tasks they are presented with and also what tasks they have to do. I have been involved with Neocron since it ending its open beta stage. There are elements in Neocron which could allow for more traditional GM (Games Master) situations as there supposed to be players out there which can effect the world by creating and removing problems. The problem is that the majority of on-lien gamers want a more in-depth UT2003 or even just a simply blaster like Quake.

Not many people are ardent enough gamers that they would be willing to put up with those who didn't want to role-play when they did. It is a lot easier not to role-play than to stay in character. I think that there should be be games which take more traditional role-playing elements such as GM's, open ended situation and missions and the like. Dues Ex 2 is promising to maybe such a game, although this is of course not an MMORPG by any means but it does show that FPS lovers and RPG lovers can find a game which they can both play.

I suppose in the long run it's a bit of a pipe dream to have a proper RPG based MMORPG or is it? I guess as always it should be the case of if see something you want done, do it. I think it'll be cool if proper role-players took even GURPS system and using the mod-happy Half Life 2 engine made a free, open ended RPG world. It could work... maybe... ok probably not. I can dream though. ;-)

This is all very ironic, because, of course, the real word for email is "elmay." Fnord.

Back in the 80s and early 90s, it was primarily pen-and-paper and board games that made the leap to the computer game arena (and not the other way around). These include the obvious Dungeons&Dragons games, but also one or two Games Workshop titles and a couple of offerings by Steve Jackson games-- Ogre and Car Wars ("Autoduel").

Later on we started to see conversions go the other way (as a previous poster pointed out).

In this millenium, Steve Jackson games created a board game based on the FPS *genre* (not a specific computer game). The game is called "Frag" and has a number of expansions. There's more on Frag in an article I wrote for Shift.com last year and of course, at Steve Jackson Games' Frag page.

A lot of RPGs nowadays have free versions of the rules.

If anyone is interested in GURPS, you can check out GURPS Lite, a simple subset of the GURPS rules. Some people prefer it to the full GURPS rules.

Microtactix gives away Simply Roleplaying!, and they also make cool printable cardstock stuff.

Guardians of Order will be releasing their Tri-Stat dX system for free tomorrow.

Atlas Games has released Ars Magica for free.

Grey Ghost Press gives away Fudge.

It's a good time to be a gamer.

The Fallout rules were based off of GURPS and by the time Fallout was finally released, they made so many changes they could not release the game under the GURPS license.

I though the final rules in Fallout were so much better then GURPS anyway =)

Heh,
I don't buy this "value add" thing. Even before the internet all the GW stores I went to had surly, greedy propriators. And why is that? I think its because GW intentionally breeds an "its all about the money" attitude. I once got to read the magazine they produce only for retailers, and it had a few telltale sentaces like: "soon your profits will be ballooning faster than your customer's belt sizes!"

I think warhampster is clearly a money collector just like Pokemon. If you really like miniatures wargaming there are several systems out there that do not require $500 + 100 hours to get into. Pernsonally I like Ogre

Games Workshop is once again trying to funnel money to their own retail stores and their own web site, rather than independent retailers. They have a consistent history, from the late eighties, when I started to play their games, of screwing independents whenever possible- for a while they were forcing game stores to become "Chapter Approved" to sell their stuff, which means you sign an agreement giving them more money.
This policy of only them being allowed to sell their merchandise via the Internet is just more of the same.They are doing their best to become the Microsoft of the gaming world, and it's the reason I quit buying things from them ten YEARS ago. It's a damn shame, too, because their creative arm is the best in the business, by far. I made the switch to pen and paper games, like Gurps, and eventually computer games.
I think as Games Workshop continues to alienate their customers with sketchy sales practices, aggressive pricing, and constantly re-releasing newer versions of old models, forcing a collector to re-buy his army every few years to participate in tournaments, they will eventually piss off their players to the point that they will seek other things to do with their spare time. There's no shortage of other options, including intelligent, geek-friendly gaming companies like Steve Jackson Games. [I have no affiliation, I just think they're cool.]

Games Workshop is once again trying to funnel money to their own retail stores and their own web site, rather than independent retailers. They have a consistent history, from the late eighties, when I started to play their games, of screwing independents whenever possible- for a while they were forcing game stores to become "Chapter Approved" to sell their stuff, which means you sign an agreement giving them more money.
This policy of only them being allowed to sell their merchandise via the Internet is just more of the same.They are doing their best to become the Microsoft of the gaming world, and it's the reason I quit buying things from them ten YEARS ago. It's a damn shame, too, because their creative arm is the best in the business, by far. I made the switch to pen and paper games, like Gurps, and eventually computer games.
I think as Games Workshop continues to alienate their customers with sketchy sales practices, aggressive pricing, and constantly re-releasing newer versions of old models, forcing a collector to re-buy his army every few years to participate in tournaments, they will eventually piss off their players to the point that they will seek other things to do with their spare time. There's no shortage of other options, including intelligent, geek-friendly gaming companies like Steve Jackson Games. [I have no affiliation, I just think they're cool.]

Ok, unless I'm missing something here (and I could be), how are they going to prove someone is using a VPN or firewall?

the basic rules are free and SJGames encourages web-based supplements. They even archive some of them.

the basic rules are free and SJGames encourages web-based supplements. They even archive some of them.

Anyway, I don't see anyone complaining about the fact that you have to pay for all of the GURPS character creators, as SJ Games certainly won't let you give thier data away for free.

This is demonstrably false:

http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/utilities/

It can't be "free" in the "libre" sense, no. But from the way you state it ("have to pay") it's very clear that you are talking about "free as in beer", and the very links on SJGames' own site prove that you're incorrect about what they'll let you do.

-Rob

My personal experience is that IOCom is one of the best in responding to/nuking abusive accounts. They are also very heavy into protecting a customer's privacy (so be prepared to prove abuse, not just random accusations). I have been with them for about 7 years now. I was with them when they were still a BBS that offerred internet access. For a good read into WHY they protect customer's privacy read here.

This is a quote from the FAQ of the game site about what the game is like.

The game is a blend between city-building games and games of guile like Diplomacy and Illuminati. There's no combat - you must win by smart management and sharp-witted negotiation, not by weapons. The game has a plot that unfolds in response to player actions, and when the story is over, the game ends.

Illuminati eh?

I've got to give this game a look solely based on the creators being influnced by this game. I didn't think that anyone played this awesome game. Here's the link to the main Illuminati site. Illuminati is, wihtout a doubt, one of the best and most original games ever made.

IMO, ATITD's biggest problem will come from groups like this who band together to solve or easily master games such as this.

Dolemite

Advertisements are also pitched to convince your customers that they made the right choice. M$ has to spend the money to keep their users under the influence of their orbital mind-control lasers.

Why don't they name materials better today?

Oh wait, what you're talking about seems terribly boring. Kind of like fishing, only without nature to distract you while waiting for a bite.

Space games are pretty easy to write. It you have an idea for one that is a bit different, maybe you could whip it up yourself and see if it is fun. That is what I did.

I found it interesting that some outfit called 'Swords and Sorcery Studios' has partnered with Blizzard to put out the Dungeons & Dragons WarCraft RPG too.

Well, WotC already did stuff about Diablo II, so it wouldn't surprise me to see this...

Of course, the company that does the coolest computer-game-to-RPG-supplement conversions is Steve Jackson Games - There's a GURPS supplement for Myth / Myth II, and I heard they're also making a Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri supplement. Not to even mention all of the weird and original supplements for GURPS...

Too bad the GURPS game system pretty damn heavy to row compared to d20System / DnD3e or, the game we're playing right now, Classic D&D. =)

I found it interesting that some outfit called 'Swords and Sorcery Studios' has partnered with Blizzard to put out the Dungeons & Dragons WarCraft RPG too.

Well, WotC already did stuff about Diablo II, so it wouldn't surprise me to see this...

Of course, the company that does the coolest computer-game-to-RPG-supplement conversions is Steve Jackson Games - There's a GURPS supplement for Myth / Myth II, and I heard they're also making a Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri supplement. Not to even mention all of the weird and original supplements for GURPS...

Too bad the GURPS game system pretty damn heavy to row compared to d20System / DnD3e or, the game we're playing right now, Classic D&D. =)

It's a card game though. The thought of that with a combination of the old BBS Hacker just makes me drool.

BZZZT! And thank you for playing. Here's your lovely parting gift.

Don't have any Britney MP3s. My daughters have some CDs, but have (thankfully) outgrown them. She's a no-talent with a lousy voice, IMNSHO.

As a matter of fact there is. IOCOM http://www.io.com does. If you want to know the really interesting story behind WHY they take this stance see thisand some more in-depth info here.

I've been with them since roughly 1996/97 and I have NO complaints...shell access, linux friendly, etc etc...

This is getting more and more like a game of Illuminati every day!

TWW