I realise that the TFA deals with slightly more programming/develpment type of CM but i'd like to point out something about the more communication related CMs.
Possibly demeaning name (manager, come on) but I think very few people consider how difficult the job is. I have done a similar job for a medium sized MUD but i also speak from experience of wasting my youth reading general forums of Everquest for 5 years and wow for 2 years.
You are dealing with Anonymous. Basically, hundreds if not thousands of bored people with the mental age of kids. These people have little to do, plenty of angst and plenty of time. They generally have little or no education (cuz skool is 4 lozrz) but because they have wasted X number of years playing particular game they think they have a right to be rude. Worse than that, they are absolutely convinced that they are right.
So we have that audience who are pretty much from the word go hostile. Now give them any news, seriously, ANY news. Suddenly they are not only twice as hostile and aggressive, they feel downright wronged! No matter how good the news is, someone will always complain. Buff one class? Well clearly the company hates all the other classes! Introduce new content? Clearly the devs hate casuals/hardcore/veterans/newbies/roleplayers. Introduce new feature? "omg y r u doing that useless stuff when soooo many bugs are not fixed lololol"
Add to that the fact that these CMs are actually working representing a company. They have a certain image to uphold and while they are their own people and are allowed to have their own personality, there are very clearly defined boundaries which CMs are not allowed to cross.
As much as they would like to tell someone that "no you moron you are wrong on every point please go back to school" or "if you hate this game so much you cant see anything positive about it then quit or fscking die".
It is similar to call centre workers. Everyone has a funny story how they got a call from / or called India and got some person on the other line and said some oh so witty stuff to them and i tell it was soo hilarious cause thet stupid robot couldnt think of anything to say because i was so witty and funny i really told them!
No, you weren't funny. You weren't being witty. The person on the other end of the line was working and despite really wanting to, they just couldnt say what they really wanted to say which was "No Idiot Sir, I don't masturbate to Krishna but i do often wonder if all westerners are as dumb as you or are you just a special example?".
Same is with CMs. Quite often they'd love to say what they really think about the latest complaint or threat to "omg my dad's uncle is a lawyer and we r suing u for stealing our childhood. also having undead in your game is offensive to my religion so i am suing u for that 2"
I wish i could say these are isolated, rare examples but unfortunately that is not the case. You have people making wrong assumptions (eg "you make $10 a month off 5million people that is clearly 50million dollars every month you should be able to afford X" or "you never add new content" or "you only nerf and never buff") Problem is that very often these wrong people are very very loud and for some strange reason their wrong BS stays in people's minds a lot more than the actual truth. A very sad but very human phenomenon that i am sure many others have observed in discussions about politics or religions.
And lastly, not all CM's are Developers. Some are, some aren't, it varies. It is their job however to let the players know that their university qualified team of statisticians came with result that ability X is overpowered by 1.2% and therefore the developers have decided to decrease ability X by 1%. The amount of crying and complaining and rudeness and insults and lets face it, plain stupidity is astounding. It is frigging 1% it is not your life and if it is you have much bigger problems than your toon losing 1% of something imaginary.
WW2 first person shooters always make me wonder about something:
The perspective on "great war" (lower case) by common people.
See, my grandparents lived in Poland during WW2 and fought as part of polish resistance. Their perspective of what happened differs vastly from anyone else i have talked to about this. Their recollections, when they were inclined to talk about their experiences were always very guarded, they rarely spoke about what their did, but the impression i always had was one of horror and dread.
Don't get me wrong, they did not sit at home waiting for it all to blow over. They fought, they were members of the resistance. They did what we today see as entertainment. My grandfather once remarked that if you wore two coats of fur you could run in front of "pepesza" (russian el-cheapo submachine gun) and you'd "probably be alright".
When they did speak about their war, they are always saddened, their eyes become downcast. I sometimes get this really strange feeling of regret or embarrassment, of revulsion at the thought that they killed nazi soldiers. It is a little hard to understand perhaps, i mean, that is what war is, nazi soldiers during the occupation of some European countries were absolute animals in so many cases, killing them, in self defense and in defense of your own country, should not create such feelings...but it seems it does. A regret and revulsion at the acts of war. Once again, please note that this is not the same as the Vietnam war where many of the soldiers in many cases realize how manipulated they were by the usa government, how wrong that war was, how they were the brutal, unjust, invaders who committed horrible attrocities against native population that neither wanted them nor needed them. We are talking about people who fought for their country IN their country, for their lives and for the lives of their families.
Fast forward over 60 years into the future.
"We have no great war", to quote tylor durden. We play computer games where we think nothing of gunning down people in these games. We re-play the D-DAY landing in nearly every signle ww2 shooter! The operation "market garden" is probably the 2nd most popular and GLORIOUS mission in many shooters. Myself, a person from Poland, love playing the d-day maps from German side and sniping/operating artillery then towards the end of the map fighting at close range in the trenches, etc.
We see WW2 as an event to which we have to pay lip service, yes, it was bad, we say without any real understanding really how bad it was. We enjoy these games and think of them as fun adventures. We watch reports of death tolls in Durfur or Iraq or Afghanistan or many other places of conflict and furrow our brow thinking "hey, 95 thats 5 less than yesterday... thats a big number...i wonder whats for dinner....mmm ham". It is just figures on the TV.
We start to take "great war" lighter and lighter. "godwin's law" is a common joke, playing as nazis in ww2 shooters is a feature that is pretty much essential from most game titles. Nazi apologizer's and holocaust deniers (seriously wtf), nazi/jew jokes aplenty, etc.
Where is this going ?
Think on this: after WW2, for many many years the sentiment among the people of the world was "never again". As time goes by, we forget the atrocities and horror of a world war. We start to see it more and more often as an adventure, a game almost. This scares me sometimes (no i am not some crusty old fart, i am only 28) because of what it implies for the future. Next time our great leader starts to beat the drums of war, instead of standing up united and saying "oh no you le didnt!" we'll have enough people claiming "wait, did he say we can win fabulous prizes?!" so that these people who are against war will be easily dismissed. Then before you know it we'll be enjoying another great war that will be over by spring..for sure...this time.
Anyways, back my beloved "murder simulators":)
PS, original wolf3d = best ww2 shooter ever... pressing and holding T A B gave a funny message about another id title Commander Keen if i remember correctly.
I love deus Ex 1 and i re-play it every few months:)
I love the atmosphere, i love the story, i love the writing, i love the way the free gameplay.
I love how you can try any mix of skills and still have fun. I love finding new areas or texts even after probably close to 20 full re-plays of that game.
The game is full of little secrets, small references, books, emails. And i am not talking about dumb trash like in Oblivion where they just copied and pasted some background lore into a few books. I am talking about finding an npc in the back alley restaurant of Hong Kong who gets into a full on philosophical debate with you or hacking a pc of an arms dealer to find he has been exchanging emails with an experimental AI that wants to know his thoughts about color orange.
Stuff you can miss the first time, second time, third time, without noticing it. There are TONS of obscure stuff in DX1:)
Some examples:
In the first level, it is possible to finish it without killing anyone, in any way: your brother who normaly tells you "you killed a lot of people today, pace yourself" at the end of that level tells you something different if you don't kill anyone.
In the UNATCO hq, if you walk into the female toilets while Sharon(i think) is in there, she lodges a complaint with Manderley who gives you a talk about it.
Your brother can survive! You have to be caught at just the right moment though, when the agents are outside of his house, you need to be caught before he dies. If you run away from his appartment and get caught later on, he is dead.
Another thing i love about the game is how you can approach every situation from a variety of ways: You can sneak past, you can just run in with a pistol or shotgun, you can set mine-traps, you can lure enemies into turrets or robots, you can use any combination of these! This goes for almost every situation in DeusEx - it is one of very few games that really give you freedom.
I would easily say Deus Ex, with it's smallish levels, set storyline, inability to get back to all levels, gives players more freedom to play how they want to than games that have been heavily marketed as being trully free, eg GTA SA and Oblivion.
Plus it ran great on the hardware it was released for! And nowdays, when you play it on hardware that was only dreamt about when the game was released, DX1 plays fantastic - the graphics scale up to use the new hardware!
Sadly, DX2 was a piece of trash:( Unresponsive (even on top hardware with all patches), mind numbingly boring gameplay where all the possible ways of dealing with set encounters are pre-coded/scripted and neatly pre-chewed for you. Dont get me started on the console interface, console-complexity(lol) character customisation, consolish inventory management (universal ammo? come on). The levels were tiny even compared to original DX1. The only saving grace of dx2 was the storyline - especially the part of the two fiercely competing coffe companies...and then you find that...:) oh yeah, and idoru in dx2 was absolutely incredible:o Oh yeah, one more good thing about dx2: machinae supremacy soundtrack/music.
Landoverbaptist...very informative site...."tongue - tool of the devil":)
Re:slightly off-topic - general post on AI
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Marvin Minsky On AI
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· Score: 1
No, regular Joe defines it as the ability to fetch a beer, and go to the store to buy them if the fridge is out.
That i think is one of the biggest detterants/issues keeping public in their caves:
A database of your habits that predicts what beer you will want next using statistics IS NOT AI - thats database statistics.
A database that compiles your FPS accuracy and your movement patterns vs certain geometric shapes is NOT AI - thats good FPS engine sub-system.
An elevator that that is linked to the swipe card system and comes to your floor when you are about to leave the office is NOT AI - thats just a novelty elevator.
A spam filtering system which is capable of matching new patterns to previously established patterns using a set of progression-parameters is NOT AI - thats an expansive consultant contract:p
A politician that introduces legislations outlawing anything that enough people complain about, thats not AI - that's only Artificial without the I.
In closing: If general masses did not confuse crappy marketing terms with a branch of science maybe the branch of science would get further.
slightly off-topic - general post on AI
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Marvin Minsky On AI
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· Score: 3, Interesting
A lot of people think that the main goal of AI is to create a system that is capable of emulating human intelligence.
However, what about looking at this goal from another perspective:
Creating Artifical Intelligence that can pass the Turing Test which in turn leads towards emulating Human Intelligence in an artificial way? Once you are there, you might be able to use this so called Artificial Intelligence to store human intelligence in a consistent, realible and perfectly-encompasing and preserving way.
You then have intellectual-immortality and one more thing...once you are able to "store" human intelligence, it becomes software. Once it becomes software, you can transfer this DATA.
Once you are there, human minds can travel via laser transmissions at the speed of light:O
Wish i could claim it as my idea but its actually from a book called "Emergence", also touched on in a book called "Altered Carbon" both good sci fi reads.
Yes, I was assuming a rather high level of knowledge on behalf of people using this system against other people.
The reason I did so is because with skill/knowledge level below that level will not get any benefit/adventage due to Armory existing:
1. they are probably not fast enough to alt+tab, look up their opponent/attacker/possible victum, then alt+tab 2. even if they did have the talent/gear build of their opponent, they probably wouldnt know how to counter opponent's abilities 3. Some people are so...hrm, how to put it, out of touch with what they are doing, that seeing someone else's spec/gear will be like looking at a bunch of scattered cryons and lego blocks...um...nice colors ?
The reason for the above was this: only players of certain skill will sucessfuly utilise the Armory and only under these parameters will this new thing have any impact - and even then, this impact will be negligible/irrelevant in most, if not all cases.
This however made me further see Armory as beneficial. Lets take a regular "noob". They get "owned" by a superior player (more time/more skill/better gear/whatever). They take down the name, look it up in the Armory. They study their ganker's gear and spec and learn a bit about what gear is good, what gear is better than theirs, maybe look up that gear and try to get it. Maybe they see a talent build that they didnt think of and decide to explore it/learn more about it.
In the end, the "noob" learns a bit maybe and becomes a better player and feels more confident/informed. He then gives more challange to people trying to kill him, is more useful in groups/raids. asks less annoying questions. really, a win for everyone playing the game!:)
To put it briefly: this information is publicaly avalible - you can get this info in game without trying very hard.
Why?
Talent specs: If you watch them for more than 10 minutes in game, killing things, you easily deduce most of their talent choices - certain builds for certain classes grant certain abilities, other choices make the player use certain spells over other spells. Even if you are on opposing factions, it doesnt matter, you can still easily tell what their spec is.
Gear: You can walk up to any player (on your faction) and inspect them and see their gear. Even if you can't inspect them for some reason (on pvp servers you can only go one faction per server) - a lot of gear has unique graphics. Those that don't...it really doesn't matter.
The only possible thing to complain about with knowing someone's gear is when you are in PVP and want to know what trinkets the opponent has. Ok, there is potential here: trinkets let you do certain stuff and if you are ready for that stuff, you might have a small adventage. Thing is, the data is not real time! It is possible to instantly switch trinkets (out of combat) and whatever info you just got is out of date! To make this point even less relevant/less impact, most trinkets have visual/combat log notification to everyone nearby when they are used!
Another point to consider: In the past (i am not sure if this still happens) there was a number of mods which upon the user inspecting another player, would suck that data and upload it to thottbot. I was quite surprised to find a few of my characters having character's gear profiles on that site - obviously someone insepcted me while running that mod.
So why is this such a huge issue?
People love to whine. Especially people who do nothing important/special whole day, maybe they are bored, they want to feel wronged, then they want to feel like they are doing something, then they want to feel vindicated. It doesnt matter how dumb it is, they just go for it..
Lets look at one of the coplaints from the summary: "they will have difficulty getting into pickup groups now that people can instantly find out everything about them"
This is probably the dumbest thing i have ever heard and i read the WoW general forums:( If you join a group that is super picky/elitist and your gear is crap/you are a newb, you will get booted with this information or without. If the group doesnt care you dont have the best gear or is not picky or can carry your weight or is not elitist, then this Armory thing will not matter one bit.
Quite often, yes, there are elitist groups/guilds/people playing when you approach them to group/quest/join/etc they will scrutinise you. They will ask for your spec and check your gear. With or without the Armory, if you do not meet their expectations, you will lose. I really don't see what the difference between having it or not having it makes.
If you have a non-standard talent build (you have no clue how to play) or non-standard (read:crap) gear you will get kicked out of the group as soon as it becomes apparent - and it will. If your gear is good enough and you are not a newb, this Armory will once again make no difference.
In reply to the article's closing: the question of "In a virtual society, should people be able to present a view of themselves that differs from (virtual) reality, or should all details be exposed?" is irrelevant, borderline sensationalist when their virtual details are virtually exposed to all other virtual people.
Virtually non story about virtual whiners/complainers virtually looking for virtually something to virtually do.
Go outside, get job, girlfriend/boyfriend, learn to code or paint or spear fish. Do something meaningful so that you don't jump on dumb whiner-wagon just to feel improtant/like you are acomplishing anything by puffing up your hairless chest about small stuff like this.
And no, don't talk about "slippery slopies" or "but what about government..." or "
Something to keep in mind is that differences between Console games and PC games are primarily design decision - not technical/programming specs.
Consider how much of the console development is actually done on the PC ? Consoles do not have some magic Console++ programming language - most of the development is done on the PC itself. Sure, the extensions/libraries might be different but we're not talking about a total code re-write just to make a port from console to PC.
What I think is the major difference between a PC game and Console game is how the game looks and plays.
Console games must have support for more limited controller compared to PC keyboard. Console games have simpler interfaces, the saving/loading mechanisms are generally simpler.
In the end, Console games are having difficulty overcoming the "platformer" stereotype. Back in the days of sega genensis and etc, most games were simple 2d scrollers, punch the monkey, kind of simple affairs.
Things have changed since these days but it seems like the spirit of the idea that console games are pac-man and Centrepide lives on.
Look at DeusEx1 vs DeusEx2.
Dx1 was clearly a PC game: it had inventory management, most guns had 2-3 different types of ammo you could switch/change/manage/use vs different opponents. You picked up a lot of information and it was saved in a log which you could edit/change/annotate. As you learned information in game, you had to feed it back into the game: you read someone's email that contains a username/password to another computer, you go over to that computer and you actually have to type it in. The interface was very robust and extensive. You could suffer area specific wounds, and heal them accordingly. It was a fantastic game. It ran perfectly fine the first time around. Many years after its release as newer and newer cards come onto the market, the game on max graphic settings looks better every time I buy a new card.
DX2 on the other hand was a console game that was poorly ported to PC: Universal ammo meant you only had a pool of 1 ammo and different guns burned the ammo at different rates. Usernames/passwords/pin numbers were non-existent - you either had access or you didn't (oh wow that concept was only invented in gaming in like the 80's). There was one type of 'tool' instead of dx1's collection of multitools/lockpicks/etc that you could use on a very limited number of places in the environment. The interface was clunky at best. Inventory management was limited to "you have 10 spots, each item takes 1 spot, you can carry 10 items) The interface was slow and unresponsive even with patches, the game handled sluggishly even years after the game was released and the graphic cards improved many fold.
Same comparison could be made between Morrowind and Oblivion. Granted Morrowind ran like an slug on release and just as bad after months of patching, even on high end systems. However, these days, running Morrowind on a high end system means the game handles incredibly well and all them fanboys who are spazzing about "but look how great oblivion looks you can see sooo far!!!!" should see Morrowind on max settings with a graphic tweak that increases the view distance to match today's hardware.
I could go on about the artistic aesthetics and the countless imaginative/interesting/fun books that morrowind had compared to the plastic crap of oblivion with its dozen of cut-and-paste-from-lore/elderscrolls-background books.
In closing, yes, there is a huge difference between PC games and Console games - it is not the programming, the extensions, the 3-12-months-behind-pc-technology, the controller or the madden-loving-fanboys.
It is the look and feel of these games, the spirit - one is the spirit of early dungeon and dragon text games and geeks learning how to use the acoustic coupler to dial up to their local BSB wondering "how cool would it be if we could play the Red Dragon text game with more than 3 people online!!" and the other one is supermarket plastic toy that gets chucked out every year or two for the newer, shinier one.
Oblivion was not a good game from an RPG point of view:
It did not reward effort put in. And by effort I do not mean doing chores like the OP (Jeff Vogel) suggests. By effort i mean playing intelligently/well. For example:
You are level 1. You start your character so that you are a really good thief (khajit thief). You get your lock picking up a fair bit, and you find a really wealthy looking house in the capital city. You case it, you find when/where the occupants of the house go. You go in during the day to see if they have guards inside and stuff like that. You role-play a perfect thief.
At night, you make your move, you pick an extremely difficult lock, possibly with the help of a potion that increases your thieving skills. You make a really difficult stealth journey through the house, hurrying because the owner is due to come back any second and the other occupant is still asleep.
You find their main bedroom and approach the locked chest! You gulp down another potion to help you with this extraordinarily difficult task and because the gods are smiling on you, you pick the lock and greedily reach for you loot...
RUSTY FSCKIGN DAGGER and 1 gold.
gg.
No seriously, what pretty much describes the much-touted (primarily by marketdroids) scaling in Oblivion.
Mind you, if you grinded some levels, and you were level 20, and you performed the above inside the same chest you'd have found 2 daedric sets of armour and a grand soul gem.
There are many examples of how the scaling in oblivion doesn't work. Just go give one more example: lowly peasants at level 1 are carrying rusty iron swords but at level 15 or so, you attack one and he pulls out a glass long sword. Then he has the gall to tell you he can only spare 100gold for your reward cause he's poor.
One of the more popular oblivion mods was Curios Oblivion Overhaul i think (at work so can't get exact name+link). It drastically reduced the scaling and increased the loot in difficult areas. Also increased the difficult+rewards of mob s as you go deeper in a dungeon. Made the gamer harder, but more fun.
Many people play RPGs for the progression - you start as a lowly son of a peasant at level 1 but eventually, through trails and adventures, you grow to be the supreme slayer of dragons everywhere. If you see that as a chore and CBF, go back to playing Counterstrike: you start as a leet d00d and you finish as a leet d00d.
Slightly unrelated (hey, its Slashdot) but for a while now I have been noticing that the games I come back to play over, and over again are games which give me the freedom to play how I want to. Games where you chose how you solve problems, where you can charge in guns blazing or creep around the edges where you can out-gear/out-manoeuvre your opponents rather than out-twitch them.
Lets look at some examples that best explain what I mean:
Games which did it best:
Deus Ex - Awesome game for many, many reasons, but relevant is the fact that you could approach each problem from many directions - two guards ahead - you can sneak past them using the vents (classic) you can go in guns blazing, you can set up some sort of proximity mine (gas/explosive) you can take control of nearby robots/turrets) you can tranquilise them, you can knock them out, you can find another way to go. Likewise, the way you create your character, you can dump all skillpoints into pistols, or rifles or you can put all your points into engineering/hacking and you can still finish the game. All styles of play are valid - you kill all the terrorists in the first level for example and your peacenik brother tells you off for killing too many people but the cops are cheering you on. Kill no one in that level and your brother praises you but the cops tell you off for being a peacenik.
Morrowind - Huge game with incredible aesthetic value of art, flavour and atmosphere, lots to do and a ton of add on quests to expand it further. However, numerous ways to create and play your character open up the possibilities of actual, real re-playing. You can play a stealthy rogue or a rapid direct damage spell caster, or a demon-summoner or an armoured knight or any weird combination of these! You can catch on-rails transport or you can make ring of jumping or ring of flying or cast these spells yourself. The list goes on and on. If you play this game once and just charge everything with the biggest sword, you're missing out - there are many ways to play and finish this game! There is a kinda famous example of some guy that kept making intelligence potions to boost his int till he became so intelligent he could make potions to make himself invincible - yeah, borderline-bug exploit, but goes to show that even a lowly alchemist can make it in this world.
FarCry - Yes, it is a pretty simple 1st person shooter. You can't bribe your way past the guards, effectively roleplay a "git off my lawn" druid or an evil knife wielding hacker. However, what this game did quite well was having huge open areas with plenty of cover for the player to approach most areas in any way they want. For example, there is a camp full of mercenaries up a head. It has some sniper towers, some guys in tents/buildings, alarm, radio that can call in for helicopter and two fixed position miniguns. You might need a vehicle from that camp, or a keycard, etc. Now this is where the fun starts: you can ride in your car blasting everyone. Or you can use a silenced gun and slowly creep through the camp taking people out 1 or 2 at a time from behind before they can fire a shot. Or you can sneak up into one of the sniper towers and take people out from there. Or you can get up on a nearby hill and sniper or rocket from there. Or you can fire some shots from one direction, run into the forest, run around the camp, then do the same thing from opposite direction, taking a few people out every time. Or you can drag all the mercs into the forest, taking them out as they are chasing you through the trees. Or you can run into the camp and take one of the miniguns and start mowing down everyone. Or find a boat and do bombardment from the nearby river! Or a combination of any of these! Then the helicopter with reinforcements arrives and you have many choices again, from shooting it down yourself to taking up one of the fixed miniguns, etc
Almost made it:
GTA-SA - A lot of missions were basically "use this car, with this gun, to go on these streets, do not deviate"
"Change is always forthcoming, except from a vending machine"
I don't think the main reason why this sort of thing (ODF and open source in general) is not more widely accepted is money (tco, licenses, etc) or political/economic pressure (gates/bush pressuring someone to spend their $ the right way).
I think the main reason why ODF/Open source/etc is not more widely accepted is reluctance to change.
To butcher a Dune quote, "They think in circles. Their minds resist squares"
A lot of businesses (and lets face it, government administration is a business) know that pdf/ms-doc works, they have been using it for a long time. They are used to the crappy interface, they are used to the updates/pop ups/etc. They are used to the fact that it works and they are used to the error messages that pop up. They and their accountants are used to the monthly charges for PDF/office software.
It is very, very hard to beat/argue against that sort of habbit. Yes, to us logical slashdotters (l0lz111) ODF makes perfect sense. Its great, we should bathe in it, eat it and breath it. It has word 'open' in it? great! More please!
But a lot of the established businesses/governments/organisations, it is not the same. An argument "but it is cheaper" or "but it is better" can be meat with "but what we have works well enough" and "but we have always done it this way and there has never been a problem" and then there is of course "why fix it if it isn't broken?" and "ok but what if we change over and it doesn't work?"
It is very hard to argue against established procedures/models/etc. What is plain to technical people is not always so to managers and accountants (often the same person). My point? More technical people in management.
So yeah, big cheers to the French government. they are definitely doing the right thing, in the right way.
I think a while back there was a web site that was going to start collection of aol cd's until they got a nice amount and then they were going to go to aol HQ and toss them at the front door:)
I heard about people using them for target practice:)
Anyways, here's a few I remember * Melt them down and make computer chips * Break them into 4's and tile your pool * Refills for Nerf gun shooters * Break it into little pentagons and Viola!Instant guitar string plucker * Nija Stars
This legislation has been abused like a village bicycle!
Why the heck does it still exist? You know its bad, I know its bad, if you explain it to a regular joe, he will know it is bad.
Whats happening? Anyone who wants someone else on the internet to shut up, uses DMCA.
Is it too broad? Heck yeah! Are lawyers using it whenever they can? Sure,/. is full of stories like that. Needless to say fatwallet is an interesting concept that deservers a fighting chance. I am happy that they decided to show spine. Real spine like that is seriously lacking these days.
I really hope that fatwallet has a clued-in lawyer for this. I hope that the judge will be half as clued-in as the above mentioned lawyer. I hope fatwallet wins fat damages.
I mean, Fat damages, damages so fat, next time greedy_company_01 comes to their lawyers crying, the lawyers instead of saying "yes sir, straight away sir, we will use DMCA sir" will say "erm, you have absolutely no case whatsoever, if you want to continue legal action, this will cost you way more than its costing you now"
Lawyers aint cheap and when court orders someone to pay for the damages/legal costs, it aint cheap. Thus, one of the great ways to defeat DMCA absue in the future is to make it costly for those idiots who pull out DMCA whenever they think they are loosing a few cents to competition/someone smarter.
So, in conclusion of my long-winded post, OG OG fatwallet's lawyer! DIE DMCA, DIE!;)
...Will never strike in the electronic supply chain.
The way I see it, its all about business. To inacurately quote star wars, "The tighter your grasp, the more planets will slip between your fingers". How it relates to this is that if one or two key players try to control the crucial supply, there will be always several smaller guys who will think "hey, i can do it better". And they will do their own thing, fscking up the "overly powerful players".
Just like when a Dark Operating System dominated the desktops, a small but elite operating system began to strike from hidden bases, slowly but surely scoring greater and greater victories against the Dominant Overlord of Operating Systems...The battle continues!
Off track, sorry, right, what i mean is, there's a lot of keen poor people out there who dont like being poor. Those keen folk keep their eyes peeled out for an opurtunity to stop being poor. Key points, weak links in supply chains, areas with little competition are factors which attract new players like lattes attract programers.
Should an established player in a supply chain attempt something shift and/or underhanded, those keen little guys will jump right in to try to get a piece of the apple pie. (refer starwars example above hahha)
Once again, sorry for a long-ass, overdrawn, poorly spelt post but I hope at least some part of it makes sense!:)
You're a big organisation thats been in business for 50+ years. You are in the biz of manufacturing Weezops (or whatever) for the various Gazaah(wtf?!) industries.
10-20 years ago you paid a big buttload of cash for a mainframe.
Today this main frame is chugging away. Occasionaly you need to screw in the vaccum tube, or maybe fill up the cooling liquid and in winter its a little noisy.
However, your little dino is happily chugging away, calculating whatever you want it and doing whatever it was that you got it for.
Its working. Its doing that you paid big cash for. You dont need it to make coffe, play videos, particpate in distributed.net or send spam. You want it to chug along. And its doign it.
Why change? Why pay another buttload of cash because someone is telling you "whoa, what you got here? an oversized heater?! pay another buttload of cash for this new machine that will do everything its doing PLUS play mp3s for you, make coffe, crack encryptions, search for ufos and connect your grandma to the net!"
I dont think so. If a machine, no matter how old, is working, and you paid a lot of cash for it, no business will get rid of it to get something new just because its new/flashy.
Just like banks and credit card companies who still use systems like GlobeStar, 8 colors text based account management software written over 10 years ago. Why? because it does the job. Pull down menus, icons, angry slad shooting out of cdrom drives, live video straming, its all nice and cute, but if you have somethign that works, does the job the way you want it and how you want it, there's no need to change.
Sorry its so drawn out and long, but thats the way i see it. Plus I am sure you enjoyed the sleep:)
In words of a famous comedian, "Those are my ideals, if you dont like them, I have others"
There's no way to fight this without big money or lots of votes, neither of which is easy to come by.
However, Think how long it will take for some leet hax0r d00d make and/or market some sort of mod the make this regulation as irrelevant as the pron ban in australia;)
So, FCC is now goimg to be supporting the electronic industies in Korea, Japan and China?
Sounds like a great win to the VCR manufacturers OUTSIDE america (since from the article it says that it will be illegal to make vcrs without the devioce o' doom IN AMERICA). I mean, patriotism in America is pretty big, but will people buy handicapped devices just because they are made in usa? I doubt it. You'll buy the properly working vcr's from outside usa.
Will someone try to outlaw overseas electronics that are now commonly acceptible (vcrs, computers, players, tvs, etc?)? No. Because of a simple equation:
X > Y
Where X is the overseas companies money and Y is the $ belonging to the folks pushing this proposal.
All politics/regulations are about money and votes. Arguments about technology and whats right and wrong are secondary to the question "will the lowest common denominator of voters like it?"...and of course "will the companies that pay my bribes/donations like this?".
So yeah, while this might pass, it will only be good for overseas vcr manufactuers who will be happy about it:)
Folks in america, dont panic just yet:) Be thankful you are not getting the all the government that you pay for:)
The article mentions about.ORG as being for charities. That really pisses me off..ORG is for non-profit organisations. I am part of a community which uses.org address, and we are definately NOT a charity. What worries me is that more and more people are becomming clueless as to even the existance of non-dotcom addresses. Think about it, all the adds you see, all the advertising you are being pounded with, all the hype in the media, its all about the dotcom. How many dotnets or dotorgs are famous? (yes, yes, i know, people in the know-how visit more.net and.org sites than.com's , but its not our oh-so-great-superiority complex that i am talkign about.)
So the thing is, when people see.org, they barely register what it means, heck it wouldnt suprise me if people started wondering ".net? what the hell is that?! arent all internet addresses ending with.com?". SO i wonder, what will the effect be of those TLD's? Will people recognise them? Or will big companies say "the average Jon Doh only knows dotcom, we dont want to confuse his little brain with.shop or.tel".
Oh damn, i was only supposed to rant about how the writer of the zdnet article is a clueless dork for thinking that.org is ONLY for charities.
Thank you for skipping through my post,
;)
I'll be missing You - Tribute to my HD
on
Linux And Hip Hop
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· Score: 1
by Puff Shadukar,
Seems like yesterday we used to travel the data flow, I controled the the info you loved to show so far from hanging up, my linux box, i got to know that the system aint the same it used to be megabytes cant express what you meant to me even though you're gone, we're still a team getting an upgrade to to fullfill out dreams In the future i cant wait to see if you'll give up any of my data back to me remenesce some time about the night you crashed my friend i try to block it out, but you wont read again when its real data its hard to conceal cant imagine all the pain i feel its kinda hard with you not around knowing you're in the case, disks not spining 'round, watching me while i safe $ for a new hd, every day i save $ for a new. Till the day data flows again, in the case is where i keep you friend, Memmory gives me stength to belive but i need a HD for boot to proceede My thoughts of bakup, reality cant defy, wish i could turn back the hands of time if only i could give you half a spin i know you're still having processes even after crash.
Chorus,
Every jet u oress every dusj u read every file i save every time i pray every fsck i do, I'll be missing you
Thinking of the day when you crashed away what a storage to take what a disk to break i'll be missing you tux please tell my why...
Say one of them other companies, that have the encryption keys and stuff, like xing techs, what if they develop a *NIX dvd player/software ? Then, the bad guys^TM can say that the 'interoperatibibtiility' issue thingig majigi is no longer valid, because there is a dvd software of linux. Then again, maybe i am not making much sense cause i am abit drunk. eehee
Re:Hi, I'm AC. I've said nothing rational for 4 da
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V2 OS
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· Score: 0
Damn fucking right. Spot on. I think your views reflect the views of quite few other people out there. That is all.
Slashdot Mirror
yes but will ID be able to top "New Title II" ?
I realise that the TFA deals with slightly more programming/develpment type of CM but i'd like to point out something about the more communication related CMs.
Possibly demeaning name (manager, come on) but I think very few people consider how difficult the job is. I have done a similar job for a medium sized MUD but i also speak from experience of wasting my youth reading general forums of Everquest for 5 years and wow for 2 years.
You are dealing with Anonymous. Basically, hundreds if not thousands of bored people with the mental age of kids. These people have little to do, plenty of angst and plenty of time. They generally have little or no education (cuz skool is 4 lozrz) but because they have wasted X number of years playing particular game they think they have a right to be rude. Worse than that, they are absolutely convinced that they are right.
So we have that audience who are pretty much from the word go hostile. Now give them any news, seriously, ANY news. Suddenly they are not only twice as hostile and aggressive, they feel downright wronged! No matter how good the news is, someone will always complain. Buff one class? Well clearly the company hates all the other classes! Introduce new content? Clearly the devs hate casuals/hardcore/veterans/newbies/roleplayers. Introduce new feature? "omg y r u doing that useless stuff when soooo many bugs are not fixed lololol"
Add to that the fact that these CMs are actually working representing a company. They have a certain image to uphold and while they are their own people and are allowed to have their own personality, there are very clearly defined boundaries which CMs are not allowed to cross.
As much as they would like to tell someone that "no you moron you are wrong on every point please go back to school" or "if you hate this game so much you cant see anything positive about it then quit or fscking die".
It is similar to call centre workers. Everyone has a funny story how they got a call from / or called India and got some person on the other line and said some oh so witty stuff to them and i tell it was soo hilarious cause thet stupid robot couldnt think of anything to say because i was so witty and funny i really told them!
No, you weren't funny. You weren't being witty. The person on the other end of the line was working and despite really wanting to, they just couldnt say what they really wanted to say which was "No Idiot Sir, I don't masturbate to Krishna but i do often wonder if all westerners are as dumb as you or are you just a special example?".
Same is with CMs. Quite often they'd love to say what they really think about the latest complaint or threat to "omg my dad's uncle is a lawyer and we r suing u for stealing our childhood. also having undead in your game is offensive to my religion so i am suing u for that 2"
I wish i could say these are isolated, rare examples but unfortunately that is not the case. You have people making wrong assumptions (eg "you make $10 a month off 5million people that is clearly 50million dollars every month you should be able to afford X" or "you never add new content" or "you only nerf and never buff") Problem is that very often these wrong people are very very loud and for some strange reason their wrong BS stays in people's minds a lot more than the actual truth. A very sad but very human phenomenon that i am sure many others have observed in discussions about politics or religions.
And lastly, not all CM's are Developers. Some are, some aren't, it varies. It is their job however to let the players know that their university qualified team of statisticians came with result that ability X is overpowered by 1.2% and therefore the developers have decided to decrease ability X by 1%. The amount of crying and complaining and rudeness and insults and lets face it, plain stupidity is astounding. It is frigging 1% it is not your life and if it is you have much bigger problems than your toon losing 1% of something imaginary.
What i am trying to point out
WW2 first person shooters always make me wonder about something:
...but it seems it does. A regret and revulsion at the acts of war. Once again, please note that this is not the same as the Vietnam war where many of the soldiers in many cases realize how manipulated they were by the usa government, how wrong that war was, how they were the brutal, unjust, invaders who committed horrible attrocities against native population that neither wanted them nor needed them. We are talking about people who fought for their country IN their country, for their lives and for the lives of their families.
... thats a big number ...i wonder whats for dinner ....mmm ham". It is just figures on the TV.
..for sure...this time.
:)
... pressing and holding T A B gave a funny message about another id title Commander Keen if i remember correctly.
The perspective on "great war" (lower case) by common people.
See, my grandparents lived in Poland during WW2 and fought as part of polish resistance. Their perspective of what happened differs vastly from anyone else i have talked to about this. Their recollections, when they were inclined to talk about their experiences were always very guarded, they rarely spoke about what their did, but the impression i always had was one of horror and dread.
Don't get me wrong, they did not sit at home waiting for it all to blow over. They fought, they were members of the resistance. They did what we today see as entertainment. My grandfather once remarked that if you wore two coats of fur you could run in front of "pepesza" (russian el-cheapo submachine gun) and you'd "probably be alright".
When they did speak about their war, they are always saddened, their eyes become downcast. I sometimes get this really strange feeling of regret or embarrassment, of revulsion at the thought that they killed nazi soldiers. It is a little hard to understand perhaps, i mean, that is what war is, nazi soldiers during the occupation of some European countries were absolute animals in so many cases, killing them, in self defense and in defense of your own country, should not create such feelings
Fast forward over 60 years into the future.
"We have no great war", to quote tylor durden. We play computer games where we think nothing of gunning down people in these games. We re-play the D-DAY landing in nearly every signle ww2 shooter! The operation "market garden" is probably the 2nd most popular and GLORIOUS mission in many shooters. Myself, a person from Poland, love playing the d-day maps from German side and sniping/operating artillery then towards the end of the map fighting at close range in the trenches, etc.
We see WW2 as an event to which we have to pay lip service, yes, it was bad, we say without any real understanding really how bad it was. We enjoy these games and think of them as fun adventures. We watch reports of death tolls in Durfur or Iraq or Afghanistan or many other places of conflict and furrow our brow thinking "hey, 95 thats 5 less than yesterday
We start to take "great war" lighter and lighter. "godwin's law" is a common joke, playing as nazis in ww2 shooters is a feature that is pretty much essential from most game titles. Nazi apologizer's and holocaust deniers (seriously wtf), nazi/jew jokes aplenty, etc.
Where is this going ?
Think on this: after WW2, for many many years the sentiment among the people of the world was "never again". As time goes by, we forget the atrocities and horror of a world war. We start to see it more and more often as an adventure, a game almost. This scares me sometimes (no i am not some crusty old fart, i am only 28) because of what it implies for the future. Next time our great leader starts to beat the drums of war, instead of standing up united and saying "oh no you le didnt!" we'll have enough people claiming "wait, did he say we can win fabulous prizes?!" so that these people who are against war will be easily dismissed. Then before you know it we'll be enjoying another great war that will be over by spring
Anyways, back my beloved "murder simulators"
PS, original wolf3d = best ww2 shooter ever
I couldn't agree less.
:)
:)
:( Unresponsive (even on top hardware with all patches), mind numbingly boring gameplay where all the possible ways of dealing with set encounters are pre-coded/scripted and neatly pre-chewed for you. Dont get me started on the console interface, console-complexity(lol) character customisation, consolish inventory management (universal ammo? come on). The levels were tiny even compared to original DX1. The only saving grace of dx2 was the storyline - especially the part of the two fiercely competing coffe companies ...and then you find that ... :) oh yeah, and idoru in dx2 was absolutely incredible :o Oh yeah, one more good thing about dx2: machinae supremacy soundtrack/music.
I love deus Ex 1 and i re-play it every few months
I love the atmosphere, i love the story, i love the writing, i love the way the free gameplay.
I love how you can try any mix of skills and still have fun. I love finding new areas or texts even after probably close to 20 full re-plays of that game.
The game is full of little secrets, small references, books, emails. And i am not talking about dumb trash like in Oblivion where they just copied and pasted some background lore into a few books. I am talking about finding an npc in the back alley restaurant of Hong Kong who gets into a full on philosophical debate with you or hacking a pc of an arms dealer to find he has been exchanging emails with an experimental AI that wants to know his thoughts about color orange.
Stuff you can miss the first time, second time, third time, without noticing it. There are TONS of obscure stuff in DX1
Some examples:
In the first level, it is possible to finish it without killing anyone, in any way: your brother who normaly tells you "you killed a lot of people today, pace yourself" at the end of that level tells you something different if you don't kill anyone.
In the UNATCO hq, if you walk into the female toilets while Sharon(i think) is in there, she lodges a complaint with Manderley who gives you a talk about it.
Your brother can survive! You have to be caught at just the right moment though, when the agents are outside of his house, you need to be caught before he dies. If you run away from his appartment and get caught later on, he is dead.
Another thing i love about the game is how you can approach every situation from a variety of ways: You can sneak past, you can just run in with a pistol or shotgun, you can set mine-traps, you can lure enemies into turrets or robots, you can use any combination of these! This goes for almost every situation in DeusEx - it is one of very few games that really give you freedom.
I would easily say Deus Ex, with it's smallish levels, set storyline, inability to get back to all levels, gives players more freedom to play how they want to than games that have been heavily marketed as being trully free, eg GTA SA and Oblivion.
Plus it ran great on the hardware it was released for! And nowdays, when you play it on hardware that was only dreamt about when the game was released, DX1 plays fantastic - the graphics scale up to use the new hardware!
Sadly, DX2 was a piece of trash
Landoverbaptist ...very informative site...."tongue - tool of the devil" :)
No, regular Joe defines it as the ability to fetch a beer, and go to the store to buy them if the fridge is out.
:p
That i think is one of the biggest detterants/issues keeping public in their caves:
A database of your habits that predicts what beer you will want next using statistics IS NOT AI - thats database statistics.
A database that compiles your FPS accuracy and your movement patterns vs certain geometric shapes is NOT AI - thats good FPS engine sub-system.
An elevator that that is linked to the swipe card system and comes to your floor when you are about to leave the office is NOT AI - thats just a novelty elevator.
A spam filtering system which is capable of matching new patterns to previously established patterns using a set of progression-parameters is NOT AI - thats an expansive consultant contract
A politician that introduces legislations outlawing anything that enough people complain about, thats not AI - that's only Artificial without the I.
In closing: If general masses did not confuse crappy marketing terms with a branch of science maybe the branch of science would get further.
A lot of people think that the main goal of AI is to create a system that is capable of emulating human intelligence.
...once you are able to "store" human intelligence, it becomes software. Once it becomes software, you can transfer this DATA.
:O
However, what about looking at this goal from another perspective:
Creating Artifical Intelligence that can pass the Turing Test which in turn leads towards emulating Human Intelligence in an artificial way? Once you are there, you might be able to use this so called Artificial Intelligence to store human intelligence in a consistent, realible and perfectly-encompasing and preserving way.
You then have intellectual-immortality and one more thing
Once you are there, human minds can travel via laser transmissions at the speed of light
Wish i could claim it as my idea but its actually from a book called "Emergence", also touched on in a book called "Altered Carbon" both good sci fi reads.
Yes, I was assuming a rather high level of knowledge on behalf of people using this system against other people.
...hrm, how to put it, out of touch with what they are doing, that seeing someone else's spec/gear will be like looking at a bunch of scattered cryons and lego blocks ...um...nice colors ?
:)
The reason I did so is because with skill/knowledge level below that level will not get any benefit/adventage due to Armory existing:
1. they are probably not fast enough to alt+tab, look up their opponent/attacker/possible victum, then alt+tab
2. even if they did have the talent/gear build of their opponent, they probably wouldnt know how to counter opponent's abilities
3. Some people are so
The reason for the above was this: only players of certain skill will sucessfuly utilise the Armory and only under these parameters will this new thing have any impact - and even then, this impact will be negligible/irrelevant in most, if not all cases.
This however made me further see Armory as beneficial. Lets take a regular "noob". They get "owned" by a superior player (more time/more skill/better gear/whatever). They take down the name, look it up in the Armory. They study their ganker's gear and spec and learn a bit about what gear is good, what gear is better than theirs, maybe look up that gear and try to get it. Maybe they see a talent build that they didnt think of and decide to explore it/learn more about it.
In the end, the "noob" learns a bit maybe and becomes a better player and feels more confident/informed. He then gives more challange to people trying to kill him, is more useful in groups/raids. asks less annoying questions. really, a win for everyone playing the game!
To put it briefly: this information is publicaly avalible - you can get this info in game without trying very hard.
...it really doesn't matter.
Why?
Talent specs:
If you watch them for more than 10 minutes in game, killing things, you easily deduce most of their talent choices - certain builds for certain classes grant certain abilities, other choices make the player use certain spells over other spells. Even if you are on opposing factions, it doesnt matter, you can still easily tell what their spec is.
Gear:
You can walk up to any player (on your faction) and inspect them and see their gear. Even if you can't inspect them for some reason (on pvp servers you can only go one faction per server) - a lot of gear has unique graphics. Those that don't
The only possible thing to complain about with knowing someone's gear is when you are in PVP and want to know what trinkets the opponent has. Ok, there is potential here: trinkets let you do certain stuff and if you are ready for that stuff, you might have a small adventage. Thing is, the data is not real time! It is possible to instantly switch trinkets (out of combat) and whatever info you just got is out of date! To make this point even less relevant/less impact, most trinkets have visual/combat log notification to everyone nearby when they are used!
Another point to consider: In the past (i am not sure if this still happens) there was a number of mods which upon the user inspecting another player, would suck that data and upload it to thottbot. I was quite surprised to find a few of my characters having character's gear profiles on that site - obviously someone insepcted me while running that mod.
So why is this such a huge issue?
People love to whine. Especially people who do nothing important/special whole day, maybe they are bored, they want to feel wronged, then they want to feel like they are doing something, then they want to feel vindicated. It doesnt matter how dumb it is, they just go for it..
Lets look at one of the coplaints from the summary: "they will have difficulty getting into pickup groups now that people can instantly find out everything about them"
This is probably the dumbest thing i have ever heard and i read the WoW general forums:( If you join a group that is super picky/elitist and your gear is crap/you are a newb, you will get booted with this information or without. If the group doesnt care you dont have the best gear or is not picky or can carry your weight or is not elitist, then this Armory thing will not matter one bit.
Quite often, yes, there are elitist groups/guilds/people playing when you approach them to group/quest/join/etc they will scrutinise you. They will ask for your spec and check your gear. With or without the Armory, if you do not meet their expectations, you will lose. I really don't see what the difference between having it or not having it makes.
If you have a non-standard talent build (you have no clue how to play) or non-standard (read:crap) gear you will get kicked out of the group as soon as it becomes apparent - and it will. If your gear is good enough and you are not a newb, this Armory will once again make no difference.
In reply to the article's closing: the question of "In a virtual society, should people be able to present a view of themselves that differs from (virtual) reality, or should all details be exposed?" is irrelevant, borderline sensationalist when their virtual details are virtually exposed to all other virtual people.
Virtually non story about virtual whiners/complainers virtually looking for virtually something to virtually do.
Go outside, get job, girlfriend/boyfriend, learn to code or paint or spear fish. Do something meaningful so that you don't jump on dumb whiner-wagon just to feel improtant/like you are acomplishing anything by puffing up your hairless chest about small stuff like this.
And no, don't talk about "slippery slopies" or "but what about government..." or "
Something to keep in mind is that differences between Console games and PC games are primarily design decision - not technical/programming specs.
Consider how much of the console development is actually done on the PC ? Consoles do not have some magic Console++ programming language - most of the development is done on the PC itself. Sure, the extensions/libraries might be different but we're not talking about a total code re-write just to make a port from console to PC.
What I think is the major difference between a PC game and Console game is how the game looks and plays.
Console games must have support for more limited controller compared to PC keyboard. Console games have simpler interfaces, the saving/loading mechanisms are generally simpler.
In the end, Console games are having difficulty overcoming the "platformer" stereotype. Back in the days of sega genensis and etc, most games were simple 2d scrollers, punch the monkey, kind of simple affairs.
Things have changed since these days but it seems like the spirit of the idea that console games are pac-man and Centrepide lives on.
Look at DeusEx1 vs DeusEx2.
Dx1 was clearly a PC game: it had inventory management, most guns had 2-3 different types of ammo you could switch/change/manage/use vs different opponents. You picked up a lot of information and it was saved in a log which you could edit/change/annotate. As you learned information in game, you had to feed it back into the game: you read someone's email that contains a username/password to another computer, you go over to that computer and you actually have to type it in. The interface was very robust and extensive. You could suffer area specific wounds, and heal them accordingly. It was a fantastic game. It ran perfectly fine the first time around. Many years after its release as newer and newer cards come onto the market, the game on max graphic settings looks better every time I buy a new card.
DX2 on the other hand was a console game that was poorly ported to PC: Universal ammo meant you only had a pool of 1 ammo and different guns burned the ammo at different rates. Usernames/passwords/pin numbers were non-existent - you either had access or you didn't (oh wow that concept was only invented in gaming in like the 80's). There was one type of 'tool' instead of dx1's collection of multitools/lockpicks/etc that you could use on a very limited number of places in the environment. The interface was clunky at best. Inventory management was limited to "you have 10 spots, each item takes 1 spot, you can carry 10 items) The interface was slow and unresponsive even with patches, the game handled sluggishly even years after the game was released and the graphic cards improved many fold.
Same comparison could be made between Morrowind and Oblivion. Granted Morrowind ran like an slug on release and just as bad after months of patching, even on high end systems. However, these days, running Morrowind on a high end system means the game handles incredibly well and all them fanboys who are spazzing about "but look how great oblivion looks you can see sooo far!!!!" should see Morrowind on max settings with a graphic tweak that increases the view distance to match today's hardware.
I could go on about the artistic aesthetics and the countless imaginative/interesting/fun books that morrowind had compared to the plastic crap of oblivion with its dozen of cut-and-paste-from-lore/elderscrolls-background books.
In closing, yes, there is a huge difference between PC games and Console games - it is not the programming, the extensions, the 3-12-months-behind-pc-technology, the controller or the madden-loving-fanboys.
It is the look and feel of these games, the spirit - one is the spirit of early dungeon and dragon text games and geeks learning how to use the acoustic coupler to dial up to their local BSB wondering "how cool would it be if we could play the Red Dragon text game with more than 3 people online!!" and the other one is supermarket plastic toy that gets chucked out every year or two for the newer, shinier one.
Oblivion was not a good game from an RPG point of view:
It did not reward effort put in. And by effort I do not mean doing chores like the OP (Jeff Vogel) suggests. By effort i mean playing intelligently/well. For example:
You are level 1. You start your character so that you are a really good thief (khajit thief). You get your lock picking up a fair bit, and you find a really wealthy looking house in the capital city. You case it, you find when/where the occupants of the house go. You go in during the day to see if they have guards inside and stuff like that. You role-play a perfect thief.
At night, you make your move, you pick an extremely difficult lock, possibly with the help of a potion that increases your thieving skills. You make a really difficult stealth journey through the house, hurrying because the owner is due to come back any second and the other occupant is still asleep.
You find their main bedroom and approach the locked chest! You gulp down another potion to help you with this extraordinarily difficult task and because the gods are smiling on you, you pick the lock and greedily reach for you loot...
RUSTY FSCKIGN DAGGER and 1 gold.
gg.
No seriously, what pretty much describes the much-touted (primarily by marketdroids) scaling in Oblivion.
Mind you, if you grinded some levels, and you were level 20, and you performed the above inside the same chest you'd have found 2 daedric sets of armour and a grand soul gem.
There are many examples of how the scaling in oblivion doesn't work. Just go give one more example: lowly peasants at level 1 are carrying rusty iron swords but at level 15 or so, you attack one and he pulls out a glass long sword. Then he has the gall to tell you he can only spare 100gold for your reward cause he's poor.
One of the more popular oblivion mods was Curios Oblivion Overhaul i think (at work so can't get exact name+link). It drastically reduced the scaling and increased the loot in difficult areas. Also increased the difficult+rewards of mob s as you go deeper in a dungeon. Made the gamer harder, but more fun.
Many people play RPGs for the progression - you start as a lowly son of a peasant at level 1 but eventually, through trails and adventures, you grow to be the supreme slayer of dragons everywhere. If you see that as a chore and CBF, go back to playing Counterstrike: you start as a leet d00d and you finish as a leet d00d.
Slightly unrelated (hey, its Slashdot) but for a while now I have been noticing that the games I come back to play over, and over again are games which give me the freedom to play how I want to. Games where you chose how you solve problems, where you can charge in guns blazing or creep around the edges where you can out-gear/out-manoeuvre your opponents rather than out-twitch them.
Lets look at some examples that best explain what I mean:
Games which did it best:
Deus Ex
- Awesome game for many, many reasons, but relevant is the fact that you could approach each problem from many directions - two guards ahead - you can sneak past them using the vents (classic) you can go in guns blazing, you can set up some sort of proximity mine (gas/explosive) you can take control of nearby robots/turrets) you can tranquilise them, you can knock them out, you can find another way to go. Likewise, the way you create your character, you can dump all skillpoints into pistols, or rifles or you can put all your points into engineering/hacking and you can still finish the game. All styles of play are valid - you kill all the terrorists in the first level for example and your peacenik brother tells you off for killing too many people but the cops are cheering you on. Kill no one in that level and your brother praises you but the cops tell you off for being a peacenik.
Morrowind
- Huge game with incredible aesthetic value of art, flavour and atmosphere, lots to do and a ton of add on quests to expand it further. However, numerous ways to create and play your character open up the possibilities of actual, real re-playing. You can play a stealthy rogue or a rapid direct damage spell caster, or a demon-summoner or an armoured knight or any weird combination of these! You can catch on-rails transport or you can make ring of jumping or ring of flying or cast these spells yourself. The list goes on and on. If you play this game once and just charge everything with the biggest sword, you're missing out - there are many ways to play and finish this game! There is a kinda famous example of some guy that kept making intelligence potions to boost his int till he became so intelligent he could make potions to make himself invincible - yeah, borderline-bug exploit, but goes to show that even a lowly alchemist can make it in this world.
FarCry
- Yes, it is a pretty simple 1st person shooter. You can't bribe your way past the guards, effectively roleplay a "git off my lawn" druid or an evil knife wielding hacker. However, what this game did quite well was having huge open areas with plenty of cover for the player to approach most areas in any way they want. For example, there is a camp full of mercenaries up a head. It has some sniper towers, some guys in tents/buildings, alarm, radio that can call in for helicopter and two fixed position miniguns. You might need a vehicle from that camp, or a keycard, etc. Now this is where the fun starts: you can ride in your car blasting everyone. Or you can use a silenced gun and slowly creep through the camp taking people out 1 or 2 at a time from behind before they can fire a shot. Or you can sneak up into one of the sniper towers and take people out from there. Or you can get up on a nearby hill and sniper or rocket from there. Or you can fire some shots from one direction, run into the forest, run around the camp, then do the same thing from opposite direction, taking a few people out every time. Or you can drag all the mercs into the forest, taking them out as they are chasing you through the trees. Or you can run into the camp and take one of the miniguns and start mowing down everyone. Or find a boat and do bombardment from the nearby river! Or a combination of any of these! Then the helicopter with reinforcements arrives and you have many choices again, from shooting it down yourself to taking up one of the fixed miniguns, etc
Almost made it:
GTA-SA
- A lot of missions were basically "use this car, with this gun, to go on these streets, do not deviate"
"Change is always forthcoming, except from a vending machine"
I don't think the main reason why this sort of thing (ODF and open source in general) is not more widely accepted is money (tco, licenses, etc) or political/economic pressure (gates/bush pressuring someone to spend their $ the right way).
I think the main reason why ODF/Open source/etc is not more widely accepted is reluctance to change.
To butcher a Dune quote, "They think in circles. Their minds resist squares"
A lot of businesses (and lets face it, government administration is a business) know that pdf/ms-doc works, they have been using it for a long time. They are used to the crappy interface, they are used to the updates/pop ups/etc. They are used to the fact that it works and they are used to the error messages that pop up. They and their accountants are used to the monthly charges for PDF/office software.
It is very, very hard to beat/argue against that sort of habbit. Yes, to us logical slashdotters (l0lz111) ODF makes perfect sense. Its great, we should bathe in it, eat it and breath it. It has word 'open' in it? great! More please!
But a lot of the established businesses/governments/organisations, it is not the same. An argument "but it is cheaper" or "but it is better" can be meat with "but what we have works well enough" and "but we have always done it this way and there has never been a problem" and then there is of course "why fix it if it isn't broken?" and "ok but what if we change over and it doesn't work?"
It is very hard to argue against established procedures/models/etc. What is plain to technical people is not always so to managers and accountants (often the same person). My point? More technical people in management.
So yeah, big cheers to the French government. they are definitely doing the right thing, in the right way.
I think a while back there was a web site that was going to start collection of aol cd's until they got a nice amount and then they were going to go to aol HQ and toss them at the front door :)
:)
:)
I heard about people using them for target practice
Anyways, here's a few I remember
* Melt them down and make computer chips
* Break them into 4's and tile your pool
* Refills for Nerf gun shooters
* Break it into little pentagons and Viola!Instant guitar string plucker
* Nija Stars
Got those from some web site a while ago
This legislation has been abused like a village bicycle!
/. is full of stories like that. Needless to say fatwallet is an interesting concept that deservers a fighting chance. I am happy that they decided to show spine. Real spine like that is seriously lacking these days.
;)
Why the heck does it still exist? You know its bad, I know its bad, if you explain it to a regular joe, he will know it is bad.
Whats happening? Anyone who wants someone else on the internet to shut up, uses DMCA.
Is it too broad? Heck yeah! Are lawyers using it whenever they can? Sure,
I really hope that fatwallet has a clued-in lawyer for this. I hope that the judge will be half as clued-in as the above mentioned lawyer. I hope fatwallet wins fat damages.
I mean, Fat damages, damages so fat, next time greedy_company_01 comes to their lawyers crying, the lawyers instead of saying "yes sir, straight away sir, we will use DMCA sir" will say "erm, you have absolutely no case whatsoever, if you want to continue legal action, this will cost you way more than its costing you now"
Lawyers aint cheap and when court orders someone to pay for the damages/legal costs, it aint cheap.
Thus, one of the great ways to defeat DMCA absue in the future is to make it costly for those idiots who pull out DMCA whenever they think they are loosing a few cents to competition/someone smarter.
So, in conclusion of my long-winded post, OG OG fatwallet's lawyer! DIE DMCA, DIE!
Music for this?
:)
Kraftwerk
...Will never strike in the electronic supply chain.
:)
The way I see it, its all about business. To inacurately quote star wars, "The tighter your grasp, the more planets will slip between your fingers". How it relates to this is that if one or two key players try to control the crucial supply, there will be always several smaller guys who will think "hey, i can do it better". And they will do their own thing, fscking up the "overly powerful players".
Just like when a Dark Operating System dominated the desktops, a small but elite operating system began to strike from hidden bases, slowly but surely scoring greater and greater victories against the Dominant Overlord of Operating Systems...The battle continues!
Off track, sorry, right, what i mean is, there's a lot of keen poor people out there who dont like being poor. Those keen folk keep their eyes peeled out for an opurtunity to stop being poor. Key points, weak links in supply chains, areas with little competition are factors which attract new players like lattes attract programers.
Should an established player in a supply chain attempt something shift and/or underhanded, those keen little guys will jump right in to try to get a piece of the apple pie. (refer starwars example above hahha)
Once again, sorry for a long-ass, overdrawn, poorly spelt post but I hope at least some part of it makes sense!
Imagine...
:)
You're a big organisation thats been in business for 50+ years. You are in the biz of manufacturing Weezops (or whatever) for the various Gazaah(wtf?!) industries.
10-20 years ago you paid a big buttload of cash for a mainframe.
Today this main frame is chugging away. Occasionaly you need to screw in the vaccum tube, or maybe fill up the cooling liquid and in winter its a little noisy.
However, your little dino is happily chugging away, calculating whatever you want it and doing whatever it was that you got it for.
Its working. Its doing that you paid big cash for. You dont need it to make coffe, play videos, particpate in distributed.net or send spam. You want it to chug along. And its doign it.
Why change? Why pay another buttload of cash because someone is telling you "whoa, what you got here? an oversized heater?! pay another buttload of cash for this new machine that will do everything its doing PLUS play mp3s for you, make coffe, crack encryptions, search for ufos and connect your grandma to the net!"
I dont think so.
If a machine, no matter how old, is working, and you paid a lot of cash for it, no business will get rid of it to get something new just because its new/flashy.
Just like banks and credit card companies who still use systems like GlobeStar, 8 colors text based account management software written over 10 years ago. Why? because it does the job. Pull down menus, icons, angry slad shooting out of cdrom drives, live video straming, its all nice and cute, but if you have somethign that works, does the job the way you want it and how you want it, there's no need to change.
Sorry its so drawn out and long, but thats the way i see it. Plus I am sure you enjoyed the sleep
In words of a famous comedian, "Those are my ideals, if you dont like them, I have others"
There's no way to fight this without big money or lots of votes, neither of which is easy to come by.
;)
However,
Think how long it will take for some leet hax0r d00d make and/or market some sort of mod the make this regulation as irrelevant as the pron ban in australia
Sigh,
...and of course "will the companies that pay my bribes/donations like this?".
:)
:) :)
So, FCC is now goimg to be supporting the electronic industies in Korea, Japan and China?
Sounds like a great win to the VCR manufacturers OUTSIDE america (since from the article it says that it will be illegal to make vcrs without the devioce o' doom IN AMERICA). I mean, patriotism in America is pretty big, but will people buy handicapped devices just because they are made in usa? I doubt it. You'll buy the properly working vcr's from outside usa.
Will someone try to outlaw overseas electronics that are now commonly acceptible (vcrs, computers, players, tvs, etc?)? No. Because of a simple equation:
X > Y
Where X is the overseas companies money
and Y is the $ belonging to the folks pushing this proposal.
All politics/regulations are about money and votes. Arguments about technology and whats right and wrong are secondary to the question "will the lowest common denominator of voters like it?"
So yeah, while this might pass, it will only be good for overseas vcr manufactuers who will be happy about it
Folks in america, dont panic just yet
Be thankful you are not getting the all the government that you pay for
The article mentions about .ORG as being for charities. .ORG is for non-profit organisations. I am part of a community which uses .org address, and we are definately NOT a charity. .net and .org sites than .com's , but its not our oh-so-great-superiority complex that i am talkign about.)
.org, they barely register what it means, heck it wouldnt suprise me if people started wondering ".net? what the hell is that?! arent all internet addresses ending with .com?". SO i wonder, what will the effect be of those TLD's? Will people recognise them? Or will big companies say "the average Jon Doh only knows dotcom, we dont want to confuse his little brain with .shop or .tel".
.org is ONLY for charities.
That really pisses me off.
What worries me is that more and more people are becomming clueless as to even the existance of non-dotcom addresses. Think about it, all the adds you see, all the advertising you are being pounded with, all the hype in the media, its all about the dotcom. How many dotnets or dotorgs are famous? (yes, yes, i know, people in the know-how visit more
So the thing is, when people see
Oh damn, i was only supposed to rant about how the writer of the zdnet article is a clueless dork for thinking that
Thank you for skipping through my post,
;)
by Puff Shadukar,
Seems like yesterday we used to travel the data flow,
I controled the the info you loved to show
so far from hanging up,
my linux box, i got to know that
the system aint the same it used to be
megabytes cant express what you meant to me
even though you're gone, we're still a team
getting an upgrade to to fullfill out dreams
In the future i cant wait to see
if you'll give up any of my data back to me
remenesce some time about the night you crashed
my friend
i try to block it out, but you wont read again
when its real data its hard to conceal
cant imagine all the pain i feel
its kinda hard with you not around
knowing you're in the case, disks not spining 'round, watching me while i safe $ for a new hd, every day i save $ for a new.
Till the day data flows again,
in the case is where i keep you friend,
Memmory gives me stength to belive
but i need a HD for boot to proceede
My thoughts of bakup, reality cant defy,
wish i could turn back the hands of time
if only i could give you half a spin
i know you're still having processes even after crash.
Chorus,
Every jet u oress
every dusj u read
every file i save
every time i pray
every fsck i do,
I'll be missing you
Thinking of the day
when you crashed away
what a storage to take
what a disk to break
i'll be missing you
tux please tell my why...
Say one of them other companies, that have the encryption keys and stuff, like xing techs, what if they develop a *NIX dvd player/software ?
Then, the bad guys^TM can say that the 'interoperatibibtiility' issue thingig majigi is no longer valid, because there is a dvd software of linux. Then again, maybe i am not making much sense cause i am abit drunk.
eehee
Damn fucking right.
Spot on.
I think your views reflect the views of quite few other people out there.
That is all.
not meant to be offensive, just pitiful attempt at toilet humor. "Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has em. Some are bigger than others"