Nethack has a mostly linear series of dungeons you go through, but most of the levels and items you encounter in them are algorithmically generated... and what's more, there are so many different combinations of items that you're constantly discovering new ways to do things.
I think we need something like that, except, in place of just many combinations of item usage, we could have algorithmically generated character interaction, generated dialog.. I think that'll be the key to busting open the range of storytelling possibilities.
This is hardly a new phenomenon. Although, I discovered that the easiest way to beat Oregon Trail was to start off with no food, starve out the rest of your party so you're the only one left, then buy some food at the next stop, and it's smooth sailing from there!
Perhaps you're not aware that David Hasselhoff is famous in Germany not for Knight Rider, but for SINGING. One of his albums went triple-platinum there, according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hasselho<nobr>f<wbr></wbr></nobr> f">his Wiki article</a>.
They should change the format and get a much younger anchor if they really want to attract a different demographic.
Have you ever seen Brian Williams on talk shows? He's got a hilarious deadpan sense of humor. Too bad that side of him can't show through much when he's doing the evening news.:P
Oh come on... This is/.! This has nothing to do with left or right. It has to do with Microsoft and Linux. That's what this website was founded on! Of COURSE this article is ridiculous, but it's hilarious and just about as/. as you can go. I love it!:)
Last time I was back in China, I was amazed... You see, people there tend not to blow lots of little money in bars, etc... Instead, they tend to save up for big purchases, so that you often see people who make something like US$150 a month with a $250 digital camera just because they're "in".. I mean, that'd be like someone here paying a few thousand dollars for a digital cameara... Most people wouldn't do it here, but you could imagine it being affordable if you saved up. Well, in China, people are willing to save up for stuff like that.
Now, granted, consoles are somewhat rare in China because people tend to save up to get a PC instead, since it's easier to get "free" software for it, but it's certainly not unthinkable.
The other thing is that the average wage might be low, but there's a pretty significantly sized upper middle class in China these days that can afford consoles with a little effort, and even if the upper middle class is a minority, a minority of 1.3 billion people is still a lot of people.
Exactly. Even in the old days, with a classic like Contra, a lot of people played with 30 lives, but you could choose not to, and the game becomes much harder.
And people do still care about this today. Witness the endless debates over hard-coded save points (ala Halo) vs. save-any-time. In fact, even in Halo, there's that differentiation in co-op mode between respawning once you're clear of enemies, and starting back at the save point once either player dies.
I do agree that games are easier in general, though. I get frustrated by the fact that I've never gotten past the first few levels in games like Galaga, and I'm curious about what the later stages look like.:)
Of course, but in the case of youth violence, for instance, the fact that the crime numbers went down DOES mean that IF video games increased violence, their effect was not significant enough to offset whatever factors decreased it, so at the very least, unless there were very significant factors having a positive effect, video games did not have a significant negative effect.
As for those stats, all I could find was that carjackings went down in the years leading up to 2002.. but 2002 is when GTA3 was released, and I haven't seen any stats for after that.
Um, that's only a problem if you NEED 3rd button emulation. I'd imagine that, as with most scrollwheel mice these days, middle-click would be mapped to scrollball click by default. No need for chording.
The thing I'm most curious about is: <a href="http://subjunctive.net/klog/2003/06/13/what<nobr>e<wbr></wbr></nobr> ver_happened_to.html">whatever happened to the three mysterious ships</a> reported during the war?
The/. summary is misleading. He didn't just express views; he actually ran a tracker at one point and was sued over it.
Now, you can argue about whether or not it was right of the employer to fire him for that, but they did NOT fire him merely because he spoke out in support of file sharing.
Re:Anti-Cold
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How Ice Melts
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· Score: 4, Informative
If you don't think that matters, then you certainly don't qualify as a "nerd".:P Basic science is all about finding out how the world works, without necessarily having any obvious utility for that knowledge. A couple of days ago was the 100th anniversary of Einstein's publication of the theory of special relativity. Did that "matter" at the time?
Re:NO, Apple was VIOLATING the letter of the LGPL
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Apple Releases WebKit
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· Score: 1
All I'm saying is, even the KDE developers complaining about Apple's behavior felt that Apple was adhering to the letter of the law.
Now, IANAL, and I'm guessing neither are you, so let's defer the fine print interpretation to the people who DO have lawyers to consult, shall we? And they seemed to believe that source code without history was what "preferred form" meant.
You know, there's probably a ton of legal precedent for that specific phrase. You can't just go and interpret legal documents however you personally feel is intuitive. That's the whole point of lawyers.
Slashdot Mirror
And voila, from your link: How to get FEAR to support widescreen.
And this system merely controls your steering wheel. It doesn't set your speed. :)
That it's not that bad, even if the rate is doubled.
So if cell phones double the rate of brain cancer, it is still about on par with the risk of death in car accidents.
Nethack has a mostly linear series of dungeons you go through, but most of the levels and items you encounter in them are algorithmically generated... and what's more, there are so many different combinations of items that you're constantly discovering new ways to do things.
I think we need something like that, except, in place of just many combinations of item usage, we could have algorithmically generated character interaction, generated dialog.. I think that'll be the key to busting open the range of storytelling possibilities.
This is hardly a new phenomenon. Although, I discovered that the easiest way to beat Oregon Trail was to start off with no food, starve out the rest of your party so you're the only one left, then buy some food at the next stop, and it's smooth sailing from there!
:P
I'm not sure what lesson that taught me.
This is what asteroid mining is for! :)
Perhaps you're not aware that David Hasselhoff is famous in Germany not for Knight Rider, but for SINGING. One of his albums went triple-platinum there, according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hasselho<nobr>f<wbr></wbr></nobr> f">his Wiki article</a>.
These posters were all over London when I was there a couple of years ago. No joke.
The terrorists could still put snakes on a plane!
Have you ever seen Brian Williams on talk shows? He's got a hilarious deadpan sense of humor. Too bad that side of him can't show through much when he's doing the evening news. :P
Oh come on... This is /.! This has nothing to do with left or right. It has to do with Microsoft and Linux. That's what this website was founded on! Of COURSE this article is ridiculous, but it's hilarious and just about as /. as you can go. I love it! :)
Last time I was back in China, I was amazed... You see, people there tend not to blow lots of little money in bars, etc... Instead, they tend to save up for big purchases, so that you often see people who make something like US$150 a month with a $250 digital camera just because they're "in".. I mean, that'd be like someone here paying a few thousand dollars for a digital cameara... Most people wouldn't do it here, but you could imagine it being affordable if you saved up. Well, in China, people are willing to save up for stuff like that.
Now, granted, consoles are somewhat rare in China because people tend to save up to get a PC instead, since it's easier to get "free" software for it, but it's certainly not unthinkable.
The other thing is that the average wage might be low, but there's a pretty significantly sized upper middle class in China these days that can afford consoles with a little effort, and even if the upper middle class is a minority, a minority of 1.3 billion people is still a lot of people.
Exactly. Even in the old days, with a classic like Contra, a lot of people played with 30 lives, but you could choose not to, and the game becomes much harder.
:)
And people do still care about this today. Witness the endless debates over hard-coded save points (ala Halo) vs. save-any-time. In fact, even in Halo, there's that differentiation in co-op mode between respawning once you're clear of enemies, and starting back at the save point once either player dies.
I do agree that games are easier in general, though. I get frustrated by the fact that I've never gotten past the first few levels in games like Galaga, and I'm curious about what the later stages look like.
Um, and where's your link to numbers? Saying something don't make it so. :P
Of course, but in the case of youth violence, for instance, the fact that the crime numbers went down DOES mean that IF video games increased violence, their effect was not significant enough to offset whatever factors decreased it, so at the very least, unless there were very significant factors having a positive effect, video games did not have a significant negative effect.
As for those stats, all I could find was that carjackings went down in the years leading up to 2002.. but 2002 is when GTA3 was released, and I haven't seen any stats for after that.
We all know the stats on how violent crime and violent crime among children/teens have gone down since Doom was released.
Does anyone have any stats on what actual carjacking rates have been since GTA3 was released?
Um, that's only a problem if you NEED 3rd button emulation. I'd imagine that, as with most scrollwheel mice these days, middle-click would be mapped to scrollball click by default. No need for chording.
Yeah, but then someone's bound to accidentally reverse the polarity!
Um.. The whole POINT of this article is that this is a GUI, not a CLI!
The people demand screenshots!
I agree.. Same reason I never bought into Sherlock: I just find it easier to use the actual web page.
The only Dashboard widget I really use is the one for the Oxford American Dictionary, and that's because it's not available (for free) on the web.
The thing I'm most curious about is: <a href="http://subjunctive.net/klog/2003/06/13/what<nobr>e<wbr></wbr></nobr> ver_happened_to.html">whatever happened to the three mysterious ships</a> reported during the war?
The /. summary is misleading. He didn't just express views; he actually ran a tracker at one point and was sued over it.
Now, you can argue about whether or not it was right of the employer to fire him for that, but they did NOT fire him merely because he spoke out in support of file sharing.
If you don't think that matters, then you certainly don't qualify as a "nerd". :P Basic science is all about finding out how the world works, without necessarily having any obvious utility for that knowledge. A couple of days ago was the 100th anniversary of Einstein's publication of the theory of special relativity. Did that "matter" at the time?
All I'm saying is, even the KDE developers complaining about Apple's behavior felt that Apple was adhering to the letter of the law.
Now, IANAL, and I'm guessing neither are you, so let's defer the fine print interpretation to the people who DO have lawyers to consult, shall we? And they seemed to believe that source code without history was what "preferred form" meant.
You know, there's probably a ton of legal precedent for that specific phrase. You can't just go and interpret legal documents however you personally feel is intuitive. That's the whole point of lawyers.