I totally agree with you, SS2 and Deus Ex were two of the greatest games ever. I loved the way they combined RPG mechanics with FPS mechanics, in roughly equal amounts. They even let the player choose which of these two aspects to focus on, to some extent. When I first played those games, I thought we were due for a revolution in gaming. Why would anyone want to play a simple FPS or a simple RPG, when they could play this fabulous hybrid?
It seems that the rest of the world disagreed with me. Deus Ex 2 was terribly dumbed down, and Bioshock even more so. Stalker had some similar ideas, but stopped short of incorporating true RPG-esque concepts. All of these were fun games in their own right, but none of them approached the brilliance System Shock 2 or Deus Ex. I wonder if we'll ever see their like again?
I thought you'd invented a new word there, but sadly you've been beaten to it. You'd think someone submitting their PhD thesis would know how to use a spell checker, or do things not work that way at the University of Michigan? It probably didn't help that her parents couldn't decide if she was a boy or a girl. Rebecca Nathan Brannon, we salute you.
Yeah but OP got first post - you know, he wrote something before anybody else! This is such a feat that we must all vote him up to +5 Insightful right away, despite the fact that what he wrote was worthless nonsense.
Ledonne and his title stopped short of providing a direct interpretation - neither artist has been especially specific about 'what it means,' or in instructing players on how they should interpret their work or what 'message' should be taken away.
On the other hand, while we may not be quite so advanced as our glorious cousins on the other side of the Atlantic, most of us in the UK do in fact have heating in our houses.
The problem with a touch screen on a remote control, although it looks very cool, is that it's just not very usable. Most interaction with a remote (after the first week or two) is carried out without even looking at it. The locations of the buttons are mostly memorised, but you still need to feel where the buttons are in order to press them accurately. I've searched long and hard for a high-end universal remote control with a sensible button layout, which still looks cool, but isn't compromised by the inclusion of a touch screen.
The iPhone suffers from the same problem, to a certain extent. But with phones there is a clear choice. You can have any two out of these three things:-
A large screen for web browsing and video.
A decent tactile keyboard built in.
A compact, slim and cool-looking device.
For most consumers, 1 and 3 are the most important, and it's worth sacrificing 2 for that (apart from those people who don't care about any of the above and just want a phone, of course). For business users, 2 is often more important, so you lose 1 (the Crackberry and clones).
Personally I love almost everything about the iPhone, but I won't buy one with the whole Apple lock-in thing. Oh, and that crappy camera that would be more at home on a 5 year old budget cellphone doesn't help!
Okay mods, it appears I need to explain the joke. The OP was referring to con artists that take cheap crappy speakers, then modify them so they look cosmetically like a far more expensive brand. I, with my witty one-word reply, compared this activity to the activities of audio manufacturer Bose, who make (some say) fairly bad sounding hi-fi equipment, but then try to promote it as high-end equipment in order to sell it for high prices. In summary, the moderation option you were looking for is not "redundant" but "funny". Thank you for your time.
Maybe it would be fun to have a Slashdot Archive topic, where special news items from ~5 years ago can be discussed again (with the old comments also available), so you can see how technology has progressed...
Then there's the opposite. I've looked at a beautiful simple lawn sculpture of a rabbit, thinking I've never seen one that detailed before in my life... then it twitched. And then it was so perfectly still again I thought I might have imagined the twitch. It would let you get within 5 feet before it decided you were too close. It wouldn't even turn its head to keep you in sight.
Goddammit man, was it real? Don't keep us in suspense!
I take it you didn't read the links I posted (hey, this is Slashdot after all!) Far Cry 2 is a work in progress which has very little in common with the original Far Cry (which was, you're right, a pretty standard shooter with a minimal and very linear storyline).
What they're trying to do with the new game is address all of the issues you bring up about creating a good storyline. Effectively, they're attempting to create the huge "good story" algorithm, as you put it. That doesn't mean they'll necessarily succeed, but at least they're trying, which is more than can be said of most of the gaming industry. They even recognise that they might fail, saying in the article: -
And honestly, if we mess this up, it will be one of the most useful epic failures of all time, because the shrapnel will be useful. There will be a lot of good forensics to have on this. Other developers, with whom we hopefully have a pretty decent relationship, just informally, they know what we're trying to do. We talk to them a lot about it. They appreciate that we're doing something that's risky, and that's ambitious, and also, hopefully, to the benefit of games as a whole.
The article, which describes in a fair amount of depth how they're trying to achieve all this, is a really interesting read, if you're into this sort of thing.
Tell you what - you hang on to the pony, while the OP and I play Far Cry 2 and Spore.
Moving beyond the linear storyline in games might be an ambitious goal, but some game developers are giving it a go. The links above, especially the first, show just how they're trying to achieve it. They might not pull it off quite yet, but at least they're giving it a try.
No-one in this industry is interested in ideas. Ideas are anathema to the people in control. A project that is based on "an idea" is a project that could fail. Better to base a project on a film tie-in, or a mechanic from a previous game, or preferably both. That way you can be sure it will sell.
Slashdot Mirror
OMG PNY!!!
I totally agree with you, SS2 and Deus Ex were two of the greatest games ever. I loved the way they combined RPG mechanics with FPS mechanics, in roughly equal amounts. They even let the player choose which of these two aspects to focus on, to some extent. When I first played those games, I thought we were due for a revolution in gaming. Why would anyone want to play a simple FPS or a simple RPG, when they could play this fabulous hybrid?
It seems that the rest of the world disagreed with me. Deus Ex 2 was terribly dumbed down, and Bioshock even more so. Stalker had some similar ideas, but stopped short of incorporating true RPG-esque concepts. All of these were fun games in their own right, but none of them approached the brilliance System Shock 2 or Deus Ex. I wonder if we'll ever see their like again?
I get dsl through sonic.net. They are a AT&T reseller, but with huge advantages.
Like tech support from a hedgehog with blue spiky hair?
If your fashion is that bad, I'm surprised you want to get in front of one webcam.
an assurpation of power
I thought you'd invented a new word there, but sadly you've been beaten to it. You'd think someone submitting their PhD thesis would know how to use a spell checker, or do things not work that way at the University of Michigan? It probably didn't help that her parents couldn't decide if she was a boy or a girl. Rebecca Nathan Brannon, we salute you.
Yeah but OP got first post - you know, he wrote something before anybody else! This is such a feat that we must all vote him up to +5 Insightful right away, despite the fact that what he wrote was worthless nonsense.
It's okay, if you get a blue screen mid-mission you simply have to land and then take off again.
I'm sorry Davester, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Ledonne and his title stopped short of providing a direct interpretation - neither artist has been especially specific about 'what it means,' or in instructing players on how they should interpret their work or what 'message' should be taken away.
Ahem...
On the other hand, while we may not be quite so advanced as our glorious cousins on the other side of the Atlantic, most of us in the UK do in fact have heating in our houses.
The problem with a touch screen on a remote control, although it looks very cool, is that it's just not very usable. Most interaction with a remote (after the first week or two) is carried out without even looking at it. The locations of the buttons are mostly memorised, but you still need to feel where the buttons are in order to press them accurately. I've searched long and hard for a high-end universal remote control with a sensible button layout, which still looks cool, but isn't compromised by the inclusion of a touch screen.
The iPhone suffers from the same problem, to a certain extent. But with phones there is a clear choice. You can have any two out of these three things:-
For most consumers, 1 and 3 are the most important, and it's worth sacrificing 2 for that (apart from those people who don't care about any of the above and just want a phone, of course). For business users, 2 is often more important, so you lose 1 (the Crackberry and clones).
Personally I love almost everything about the iPhone, but I won't buy one with the whole Apple lock-in thing. Oh, and that crappy camera that would be more at home on a 5 year old budget cellphone doesn't help!
Okay mods, it appears I need to explain the joke. The OP was referring to con artists that take cheap crappy speakers, then modify them so they look cosmetically like a far more expensive brand. I, with my witty one-word reply, compared this activity to the activities of audio manufacturer Bose, who make (some say) fairly bad sounding hi-fi equipment, but then try to promote it as high-end equipment in order to sell it for high prices. In summary, the moderation option you were looking for is not "redundant" but "funny". Thank you for your time.
Kind of like those guys who sell crappy speakers dressed up as the expensive ones
Bose?
Maybe it would be fun to have a Slashdot Archive topic, where special news items from ~5 years ago can be discussed again (with the old comments also available), so you can see how technology has progressed...
...and how commenting has regressed.
This story is complete nonsense. We're all dumber after having read it.
speke for urself!!1!
Then there's the opposite. I've looked at a beautiful simple lawn sculpture of a rabbit, thinking I've never seen one that detailed before in my life... then it twitched. And then it was so perfectly still again I thought I might have imagined the twitch. It would let you get within 5 feet before it decided you were too close. It wouldn't even turn its head to keep you in sight.
Goddammit man, was it real? Don't keep us in suspense!
I take it you didn't read the links I posted (hey, this is Slashdot after all!) Far Cry 2 is a work in progress which has very little in common with the original Far Cry (which was, you're right, a pretty standard shooter with a minimal and very linear storyline).
What they're trying to do with the new game is address all of the issues you bring up about creating a good storyline. Effectively, they're attempting to create the huge "good story" algorithm, as you put it. That doesn't mean they'll necessarily succeed, but at least they're trying, which is more than can be said of most of the gaming industry. They even recognise that they might fail, saying in the article: -
And honestly, if we mess this up, it will be one of the most useful epic failures of all time, because the shrapnel will be useful. There will be a lot of good forensics to have on this. Other developers, with whom we hopefully have a pretty decent relationship, just informally, they know what we're trying to do. We talk to them a lot about it. They appreciate that we're doing something that's risky, and that's ambitious, and also, hopefully, to the benefit of games as a whole.
The article, which describes in a fair amount of depth how they're trying to achieve all this, is a really interesting read, if you're into this sort of thing.
Tell you what - you hang on to the pony, while the OP and I play Far Cry 2 and Spore.
Moving beyond the linear storyline in games might be an ambitious goal, but some game developers are giving it a go. The links above, especially the first, show just how they're trying to achieve it. They might not pull it off quite yet, but at least they're giving it a try.
Notepad, Internet Explorer, Windows ME, Janeway... okay, shoot me now.
Hold on... you mean this isn't a story about some Americans on YouTube freeing a video about Tibet?
An American?
The movie opens with an employee undergoing a substance test.
"So's your face"
That's what your mom said.
No-one in this industry is interested in ideas. Ideas are anathema to the people in control. A project that is based on "an idea" is a project that could fail. Better to base a project on a film tie-in, or a mechanic from a previous game, or preferably both. That way you can be sure it will sell.
Sure I could just Google every potential person I plan to hire. But a lot of employers don't do that.
Sure. But most do.