I'm wondering if this could eventually be extended to people using their brains and nervous systems to control a robotic limb. Ridiculous expense aside, I'd think it would meet the "fools your brain into believing the limb is really there"-criteria that the mirror trick or this VR thing already fulfills, but with the added bonus of not having to lose the illusion when you take your hand out of the mirror box or turn off the VR.
1. I understand the battlesystem has been streamlined, which is ok by me. But do the boss battles actually involve some strategy?
Oh, do they ever. After I first got gambits (the things that streamline battle) I ran amok in the sewers, killing and maiming far faster than I had been. I leveled about three or four times before I came down from my high and realized I should probably, y'know, advance the plot. So I go where I was supposed to... and enter my first real boss fight with Firemane. "Ha ha!" I thought, "you shall fall before the might of decision trees! Wait, why am I dying OH DEAR LORD MY HEALER IS DOWN WHERE ARE THE ITEMS WHY DIDN'T I PROGRAM ITEMS-"
You get the point. The gambits are great for regular fights, and are a nice baseline in boss fights, but you REALLY need to pay attention. I even find myself slowing down combat just in boss fights, but I can't stand normal battles on anything but the fastest speed. That's another great thing, you can go to the full menu in combat. You can change gambits, buy licenses (the level-up system), even switch out characters as long as they aren't being targeted by anyone.
2. Is the story engrossing enough so that you actually care what is going on? (for instance, I got bored with oblivion after a few hours, but the story of neverwinter nights 2 is engrossing for me so far).
This is a lot more subjective. So far I'm interested, which surprises me when I think about it, because a good portion of the story depends on you paying attenion to-or at least caring about-history, and I normally hate history. Gabe over at Penny Arcade (who has been linked a few times already, go read it) said it's like "Star Wars meets LoTR". I was trying to describe it to myself even, and that works well. Again, I personally love some of the Star Wars-ish parts. Every time someone mentions the name of the first town, which is situated in a desert, I add on "a hive of scum and villainy". I've played Oblivion and I know what you mean, but I haven't gotten to NWN2 yet so I can't relate there. If you can, rent it and get as far as the second town, Bhujerba. If you're not interested by then, you may not ever be.
3. Is your character completely railroaded? I understand j-rpgs are more linear, but sometimes at least the illusion of choice allows me to become more engaged in the story.
Hrmm... this is a tricky one. I totally understand what you mean about j-RPGs, but I thought about it for a while and realized that I don't see Vaan as "my character". Honestly, I don't feel like any one character is "me", they all have a piece I can relate to and a piece that's just totally opposite from how I am. I see them more as a group, an adventuring party with dynamics and conflicts, and I am directing them as they go along. If that kind of abstraction and distancing doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then you might not like FFXII as much. Then again, you might relate more to Vaan than I do, or Balthier, or Ashe, or any of them. You can set whoever you want as party leader, so if you want to pretend you're a bunny/fox girl, you can go with Fran, the resident viera.
As a parting thought, I urge you again to try and rent it. I recommend you play as far as Bhujerba, which took a slow explorer like me about 10-12 hours, I think. At the very least, play up to Firemane to really see how the battle system works. Happy gaming!
First, the people donating are anonymous. Anybody can donate money to this PARTICULAR charity. Donations are anonymous, the charity is an organization. Second, the PA merchandise is not generally the type that's going to be purchased by sympathetic people who buy it "because of that nice charity they sponsored", so I doubt they'll make that much. Third, there's probably a fairly significant organizational cost in running Child's Play, which might be slightly compensated for by a few more Cardboard Tube Samurai shirts sold.
1. In-game ads that detract from gameplay. Acceptable game for placement: Gran Turismo Unacceptable: City of Heroes
City of Heroes? Do you mean the fake company ads, like the law firm that offered to get you money if you got caught in superhero crossfire? Those are mostly jokes, like the game's restaurant name choices (Hero Hoagies and things like that). I'd think those don't detract from gameplay, and if anything add some relevant humor.
NOTE: I haven't played CoH in about 5 months, so if those funny lawyers got replaced by "Subway: Eat Fresh!" in the meantime, I retract this post and am now very sad:(
Is it Libel to fraudulantly claim to be someone else and then claim things that are untrue? In many cases, examples of this sort of thing are found in comedy and other materials as a form of satire.
Most of the time, however, a comedian or actor is not honestly impersonating someone, merely mimicing them, and it's fairly easy to tell that they aren't REALLY the target of their satire. As far as the article says, it seems these teens made a MySpace page actually pretending they were this assistant principal, and then posting the lesbian claims and/or pictures (article doesn't get into specifics there). While I suppose it might not be correct to sue for libel, I sure hope there's some law preventing someone from impersonating me in order to ruin my reputation. Which, according to the article, is EXACTLY what these teens did.
I very much hope that this woman wins this case. Here's why.
1) The teens in question were committing libel
Seems correct, according to most legal libel definitions I've read. The statements about her being a lesbian were, as far as the article says, false and damaging. As those are the main criteria, libel has been committed.
2) The assistant principal is suing both the teens and their parents
I like this part in particular. For all the "OMG violent games make kids kill" cases that ignore parental involvment (or lack thereof), here's one that puts some responsibility on both parties. The teens are responsible directly for creating the fake MySpace, and the parents are responsible for what their children do. Note: this does NOT mean that parents should monitor all of their children's activity online. It means that, as you have raised the child a certain way, you are responsible for how they act based on that upbringing until they are 18.
If you raise your children well, they (hopefully) won't be foolish enough to do things like commit libel on the Internet. I add the hopefully because, well, kids are willful and resourceful. Hence why both the parents and teens are being sued.
That's a benefit of using a modchip even to those who don't pirate software.
You know, there's something else that just occurred to me too. What about import games and the chips that let you play those? Again, I'm fairly uninformed, but IIRC that use of a modchip isn't illegal. Are people going to be getting fines for bringing Lunar: The Silver Star Story over so they could hear the Japanese lyrics? How about my friend's brother, who lived in Japan for a year or so, bought all these great semi-old RPGs for his PS2, and still wanted to finish them at home?
From TFA:
"Once the entire video game file is on the console's hard drive it probably isn't too difficult for a hacker to transfer it to his PC and then illegally distribute it on the web."
PROBABLY? I'm no cracker, so I have no idea how easy or difficult this is, but COME ON. I seriously hope nobody got fined for theoretical damages caused by distributing a game online when the only evidence was that they had copied it to their console's HD.
At first glance, I like this idea, mostly because they're suggesting lowering prices. That's always nice to hear, even knowing that the episodic games might end up costing the same or more overall. Obviously, having to buy 3 games at $20 each costs you $60 for the whole story, but with the episodic plan you might buy the first one, decide you don't like it, and save yourself $40. If you do like it, plenty of games start retailing at $50 or $60 as it is, so it's not like they're cheating you out of money.
Full speed ahead, Valve!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm wondering if this could eventually be extended to people using their brains and nervous systems to control a robotic limb. Ridiculous expense aside, I'd think it would meet the "fools your brain into believing the limb is really there"-criteria that the mirror trick or this VR thing already fulfills, but with the added bonus of not having to lose the illusion when you take your hand out of the mirror box or turn off the VR.
Dupe! I TOTALLY posted this story like, last WEEK man! (I laugh, but I betcha someone might post this in seriousness)
1. I understand the battlesystem has been streamlined, which is ok by me. But do the boss battles actually involve some strategy?
Oh, do they ever. After I first got gambits (the things that streamline battle) I ran amok in the sewers, killing and maiming far faster than I had been. I leveled about three or four times before I came down from my high and realized I should probably, y'know, advance the plot. So I go where I was supposed to... and enter my first real boss fight with Firemane. "Ha ha!" I thought, "you shall fall before the might of decision trees! Wait, why am I dying OH DEAR LORD MY HEALER IS DOWN WHERE ARE THE ITEMS WHY DIDN'T I PROGRAM ITEMS-" You get the point. The gambits are great for regular fights, and are a nice baseline in boss fights, but you REALLY need to pay attention. I even find myself slowing down combat just in boss fights, but I can't stand normal battles on anything but the fastest speed. That's another great thing, you can go to the full menu in combat. You can change gambits, buy licenses (the level-up system), even switch out characters as long as they aren't being targeted by anyone.
2. Is the story engrossing enough so that you actually care what is going on? (for instance, I got bored with oblivion after a few hours, but the story of neverwinter nights 2 is engrossing for me so far).
This is a lot more subjective. So far I'm interested, which surprises me when I think about it, because a good portion of the story depends on you paying attenion to-or at least caring about-history, and I normally hate history. Gabe over at Penny Arcade (who has been linked a few times already, go read it) said it's like "Star Wars meets LoTR". I was trying to describe it to myself even, and that works well. Again, I personally love some of the Star Wars-ish parts. Every time someone mentions the name of the first town, which is situated in a desert, I add on "a hive of scum and villainy". I've played Oblivion and I know what you mean, but I haven't gotten to NWN2 yet so I can't relate there. If you can, rent it and get as far as the second town, Bhujerba. If you're not interested by then, you may not ever be.
3. Is your character completely railroaded? I understand j-rpgs are more linear, but sometimes at least the illusion of choice allows me to become more engaged in the story.
Hrmm... this is a tricky one. I totally understand what you mean about j-RPGs, but I thought about it for a while and realized that I don't see Vaan as "my character". Honestly, I don't feel like any one character is "me", they all have a piece I can relate to and a piece that's just totally opposite from how I am. I see them more as a group, an adventuring party with dynamics and conflicts, and I am directing them as they go along. If that kind of abstraction and distancing doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then you might not like FFXII as much. Then again, you might relate more to Vaan than I do, or Balthier, or Ashe, or any of them. You can set whoever you want as party leader, so if you want to pretend you're a bunny/fox girl, you can go with Fran, the resident viera.
As a parting thought, I urge you again to try and rent it. I recommend you play as far as Bhujerba, which took a slow explorer like me about 10-12 hours, I think. At the very least, play up to Firemane to really see how the battle system works. Happy gaming!
First, the people donating are anonymous. Anybody can donate money to this PARTICULAR charity. Donations are anonymous, the charity is an organization. Second, the PA merchandise is not generally the type that's going to be purchased by sympathetic people who buy it "because of that nice charity they sponsored", so I doubt they'll make that much. Third, there's probably a fairly significant organizational cost in running Child's Play, which might be slightly compensated for by a few more Cardboard Tube Samurai shirts sold.
1. In-game ads that detract from gameplay. Acceptable game for placement: Gran Turismo Unacceptable: City of Heroes
:(
City of Heroes? Do you mean the fake company ads, like the law firm that offered to get you money if you got caught in superhero crossfire? Those are mostly jokes, like the game's restaurant name choices (Hero Hoagies and things like that). I'd think those don't detract from gameplay, and if anything add some relevant humor.
NOTE: I haven't played CoH in about 5 months, so if those funny lawyers got replaced by "Subway: Eat Fresh!" in the meantime, I retract this post and am now very sad
Is it Libel to fraudulantly claim to be someone else and then claim things that are untrue? In many cases, examples of this sort of thing are found in comedy and other materials as a form of satire.
Most of the time, however, a comedian or actor is not honestly impersonating someone, merely mimicing them, and it's fairly easy to tell that they aren't REALLY the target of their satire. As far as the article says, it seems these teens made a MySpace page actually pretending they were this assistant principal, and then posting the lesbian claims and/or pictures (article doesn't get into specifics there). While I suppose it might not be correct to sue for libel, I sure hope there's some law preventing someone from impersonating me in order to ruin my reputation. Which, according to the article, is EXACTLY what these teens did.
I very much hope that this woman wins this case. Here's why.
1) The teens in question were committing libel
Seems correct, according to most legal libel definitions I've read. The statements about her being a lesbian were, as far as the article says, false and damaging. As those are the main criteria, libel has been committed.
2) The assistant principal is suing both the teens and their parents
I like this part in particular. For all the "OMG violent games make kids kill" cases that ignore parental involvment (or lack thereof), here's one that puts some responsibility on both parties. The teens are responsible directly for creating the fake MySpace, and the parents are responsible for what their children do. Note: this does NOT mean that parents should monitor all of their children's activity online. It means that, as you have raised the child a certain way, you are responsible for how they act based on that upbringing until they are 18.
If you raise your children well, they (hopefully) won't be foolish enough to do things like commit libel on the Internet. I add the hopefully because, well, kids are willful and resourceful. Hence why both the parents and teens are being sued.
These firms are being punished in the same way a lockpicking tool company is being punished in that the tools they sell can be used for evil.
I really like that analogy, but has that ever happened? Anyone have a lawsuit link or somesuch?
That's a benefit of using a modchip even to those who don't pirate software.
You know, there's something else that just occurred to me too. What about import games and the chips that let you play those? Again, I'm fairly uninformed, but IIRC that use of a modchip isn't illegal. Are people going to be getting fines for bringing Lunar: The Silver Star Story over so they could hear the Japanese lyrics? How about my friend's brother, who lived in Japan for a year or so, bought all these great semi-old RPGs for his PS2, and still wanted to finish them at home?
From TFA: "Once the entire video game file is on the console's hard drive it probably isn't too difficult for a hacker to transfer it to his PC and then illegally distribute it on the web." PROBABLY? I'm no cracker, so I have no idea how easy or difficult this is, but COME ON. I seriously hope nobody got fined for theoretical damages caused by distributing a game online when the only evidence was that they had copied it to their console's HD.
At first glance, I like this idea, mostly because they're suggesting lowering prices. That's always nice to hear, even knowing that the episodic games might end up costing the same or more overall. Obviously, having to buy 3 games at $20 each costs you $60 for the whole story, but with the episodic plan you might buy the first one, decide you don't like it, and save yourself $40. If you do like it, plenty of games start retailing at $50 or $60 as it is, so it's not like they're cheating you out of money. Full speed ahead, Valve!