Maybe it's just my affinity for Middle Earth-based fantasy, but I can't think of any other character in modern motion pictures who is as hot as Liv Tyler as Arwen.
What I really don't get are the freaks who think Trinity (Matrix) is hot...
"Idiots guide to email viruses that used a spoofed From: field"
This way, we can kindly send the URL to this guide to the mail admins who have not yet shut off the fscking auto-responders!
The problem I'm facing is explaining to the admins that I *REALLY* do not have a virus on my computer and that it is a SPOOFED "From:" address!
Optimally, this guide should have (again VERY simple) language-neutral diagrams which explain the process CLEARLY, sort of like those guides you get on the airlines which explain what to do in the case of an emergency....
I got home tonight, and my mailbox was 174% full, and I'm very upset that a good sizeable amount of that is these brain-dead autoresponders.
Unfortunately we are conditioning an evolutionary system which is slowly forming better and better spammers as time goes on.
I have a feeling that if/when a particular spammer quits, there becomes more incentive for the remaining spammers to get even more aggressive because they will then have a greater share of the idiot pie to feed from.
I don't think there is any "magic bullet" solution to this problem. It's probably going to be with us for a long time.
My solution to this is to simply set up an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF. I've been doing it for nearly two years now, and I recall that it was fairly easy to set up.
I agree. I think they should have added more than 17 steps to each profession (4 tiers of 4 steps each + master).
Perhaps a grid more like 8x8 or 4x16 would have been far more interesting for character development. However, I can understand that they can only do so much to get the game off the ground.
What will be challenging is how they will maintain the long-term interest of achiever players, since once you reach master and run out of skill points, it becomes quite painful to give up the skills you worked so hard for just to advance in a new profession to keep experiencing new content.
RK: [...] So architects is one of the commonly advanced Masters. Weaponsmith, because the market for weaponsmiths is huge. But when you're talking Squad Leaders or Commandos, there is one Master Commando in the entire game right now. One!
UGO: Isn't Master Commando the class where you get to wield flame throwers and rocket lauchers?
RK: Yeah.
UGO: You'd think more people would be interested in that.
RK: [laughs] Well, it's hard, is what it is.
Wow.
Anyone who knows the true nature of the Commando profession knows that it's time to "let the flames begin".
There are not a lack of Master Commandos by choice. People can't get Master because of bugs preventing Commando characters from advancing... And there's some *very* angry players due to this. I'm sure comments like this will definitely will not help.
It's a lot like a local government official going on the news stating "Nobody ever uses the park! Even after we've added all kinds of fun facilities! Isn't that odd!" while at the same time neglecting to mention that they never assigned anyone the job to unlock the gate into it.
I don't have any interest in the commando profession myself, but I can see this stirring things up a bit...
I do not call this a skill. If I make a filter (not a spam filter, an EMAIL FILTER), then I do not want what I am filtering.
Sales/Marketing types don't understand this at all. It doesn't fit into their perception of reality.
Here's a short demonstration of what goes on in their minds:
"But I'm not selling junk like everybody else. The customer would be pleased to know about my product. It's a shame all those spammers make it harder for me to legitimately advertise my product."
Basically, they think they are a special case, and that they are justified in sending unsolicited email, where everybody else is not.
Maybe not lives, but they can certianly save money, and can help with depression.
Since I started on my MMO addiction back in November I've been able to finally start saving money since I'm not spending my time out driving around buying junk I don't need anyway.
I started playing MMO games when I was withdrawing from anti-depressants (be cautious about starting on Paxil -- it is evil).
These games did a faily good job of keeping me distracted from the withdrawl symptoms. Lately, I'm still a bit dysthymic, but I'm not nearly as depressed as I was before taking the anti-depressants. I have at the very least something to look forward to at the end of the day.
How did you manage to avoid Sircam, Nimda, Klez, Bugbear, and the rest of the worms
- Set Outlook Express to "High" security zone - Turn off preview pane - Quarantine messages with attachments using mail rules - Critical Update Notification - Don't be stupid (most important)
I've been using OE since it came out and never had my computers infected with a virus from it.
While it's a shame to see it dropped, it has been *mostly* stagnant since IE4 anyway, so this announcement really doesn't change anything.
The average geek's desktop PC will be something close to the following:
- 4 64-bit CPUs running at 18GHz
- 32 GB of very low-latency very high-bandwidth SRAM-type memory
- 2 TB of low-latency solid-state persistent storage, used mostly for applications and small-ish data files.
- 64 TB of non-solid-state storage, used mostly for media and other large data.
- 26 inch "thin" display device at 2560x2048
- 512GB removable re-writable storage
But the thing is, most non-geek people will probably not use desktops anymore. Desktops will be still used, but mostly only by the computer geek and the hardcore gamer types. Most people will have a personal network device which works as a very sophisticated PDA.
This "PDA" device will be about 2.5 x 3.5 x 0.5 inches in size. When you come home, it will initiate a wireless VNC-like connection to your desktop monitor, keyboard, mouse, sound system, and other input/output devices.
- The screen on the device itself will be about 3 by 2.25 inches and will be able to display up to 1024x768 at 300 dpi. It's CPU would be equivalent to a 4GHz Pentium 4, and it would store about 16GB of MRAM-style memory.
- It would be always connected to the Internet, and will adapt to several different wireless protocols.
- It would work as your (video)phone, and would be the primary phone line for most people.
- It can browse the web and will be able to handle nearly all plugins, java applets, scripting languages, etc.
- It can stream audio and video from the network.
- It can record audio, video, and take pictures (with a 2 megapixel camera). You can send live streams to the net.
- It will allow you to watch any of thousands of "tv" stations or listen to radio stations.
- It can receive and send faxes.
- It can record and playback audio.
- It can record and display multi-megapixel images.
- It can tell you roughly your current latitude and longitude, and give you the option to share that information on the net with your friends if you want.
- Data will be stored persistently on the network, and synchronized with a local copy in memory.
- It will be aware of other wireless devices nearby in it's environment and be able to interact with them (you could use it to place your fast food order while waiting in the drive-through, for example).
- It will respond to verbal cues, and will do a fair job of speech recognition. A form of verbal "Graffiti" will be useful to learn to improve communication accuracy.
- Placing the "PDA" on top of a special pad on your desk will magnetically recharge it's battery which should last about 2-3 days on a two hour charge.
- It would probably run a commercial operating system for most people, but you will be able to easily choose to install another OS of your liking.
- You can send payments for face-to-face or vending machine transactions immediately. The device would wirelessly obtain a vendor ID from the person you are making a payment to, then authorize a specified amount of money be sent to that vendor ID, after you type in a PIN number or some other personal authorization code. The recipient would get a notification within seconds if transaction was successful.
Ok, I'm getting a bit carried away =) Maybe that last one will take 20 years, but I'm estimating that a very large percentage of the items I've listed here should become quite commonplace in 10 years, all based on the ubiquity of a very small, well connected, and powerful PDA device.
One thing to keep in mind is that the environment in a 2D game is not a full pre-generated 2D bitmap. It is composed of 2D elements which are placed in specific locations, and are rendered into the scene as they scroll into view.
This is basically how 3D games are working now. We re-use 3D objects within a scene, and we only render what's immediately within viewing distance.
A full-voxel scene would be quite wasteful, in the same way as it would be wasteful for a 2D game to store the entire level as one big bitmap (imagine saving the image that you would see as "maps" in the gaming mags in full resolution)
We switched from vectors to bitmaps becuase we wanted the items to look better. Vectors were usually only one color outlines. Bitmaps gave us full color objects to look at.
The thing is, given enough polygons, you can simulate anything a voxel space can display, since at worst-case, you could represent each voxel with a polygon. And that worst-case scenario would for all practical implementations, never even come close to being a threat.
Also note, that 2d vector graphics have not gone extinct. Quite the contrary, just look at macromedia flash.
Finally, vector graphics are a lot better for modeling a scene that needs to be dynamic. They have no inherent resolution, can be resized without loss of quality, and can describe specific mathematical relationships within their geometry which are suited well to a changing environment.
So you fire up your DMC chariot, head back to 1965, and pick up some computer scientists.
You then take them back to the present and start showing them things.
I can just see it now...
"... and so now that we've finished installing the operating system and some basic tools, you can see that we are *only* using 1.21 gig of the available disk space..."
The problem is that the subtle aspects of speech often rely upon the context of the content.
The thing is, if we *could* get computers to accurately interpret the context of a string of text, we would have solved one of the fundamental problems of artificial intelligence.
Speech recognition will probably not be "good enough" in our lifetimes. The best approach in the iterim is probably some language adaptations with an analogy to the Palm Graffiti handwriting system.
What would be interesting is if it incorporated more acousticals that we don't normally use in verbal languages, such as clicks, whistles, hums, and other "onomonopia"-type sounds.
These could be useful for situations which require distinct confirmation, for example where a yes/no prompt would mean lost data if misinterpreted. So "clicking" your tongue twice could indicate "yes" and a long hiss could represent "no".
Its one more step towards mankind's ultimate dream , bouncy world! Car crash? No problem, you're in bouncy world! Airplane fly into a building? Boing! Ha, Ha, Ha, everybody OK!
I don't know how or why, but the parent post inspired me to babelfish-recycle it through various languages just for fun. I have some karma to burn, so enjoy at my expense =)
Chinese: It is more step toward humanity's final dream, has the elastic world! Traffic accident? Without the question, you are in have in the elastic world! The airplane flight enters the building? Boing! Ha, Ha, Ha, hello!
French: Its more stage towards the final dream of humanity, world bouncy! Car accident? No problem, you are in world bouncy! Fly of plane in a building? Boing! Ha, ha, ha, everyone WELL!
German: Its more step toward for the crucial dream of mankind, bouncy world! Autoabort? A problem, are not you in bouncy the world! Airplane fly into a building? Boing! Hectar, hectar, hectar, each o.k.!
Italian: Relative a new point towards the last dream of the humanity, world bouncy! Arrest of the automobile? C$r-nessun.problema, you are in world bouncy! Moscow of the airplane in one construction? Boing! It has, it has, it has, everyone GOOD!
Japanese: Final dream of the mankind, the world where there is an elasticity many steps than the 1 of that! Automobile accident? There is no world where there is a problem and an elasticity! Growing of airplane to building? Boing! It is good everyone of ha, ha and ha!
Korean: With mankind ultimate dream, it phase 1 of the world which is cheerful compared to! Car crash? Problem, it is an inside the world which is cheerful spreads out,! At building airplane flight range? Boing! The ha, the ha and the ha all it is good!
Portuguese: Its one more stage for the final dream of the humanity, world bouncy! Electric noise of the car? No problem, you is in the world bouncy! Fly of the airplane in a building? Boing! Ha, Ha, Ha, all ARE WELL!
Spanish: His a more passage towards the last dream of the humanity, world of bouncy! Collapse of the car? No problem, you are in world of bouncy! Fly of airplane in a building? Boing! It has, it has, it has, all VERY WELL!
I gave AO a try a few months ago. I got to about level 20 before I gave up due to boredom and a very poor socialization system.
The people who played AO were the lease conversive group I've ever encountered. I could get no questions answered by anyone, and if you weren't already part of some clique, people just ignore you. The only people I talked to in the few weeks I played were other newbies, who were just as lost as I was.
The only thing I found to do in the game was endless missions. I think the mission system was kind of cool, but it got boring fast and I had no guidance to tell me what else the game offered.
I also enjoy crafting in most of the MMO games i've played and I could not for the life of me find anything resembling a resource gathering + crafting system in AO.
My conclusion based on a couple weeks of play is that AO is an MMO game where people powerlevel by doing missions until they reach the top and then they just PvP all day.
Being an Explorer-Achiever-Socializer type player does not fit well with AO. However a Bartle Killer-Achiever-Explorer types will probably find it to be a great game.
I still think Earth & Beyond has the most wasted potential. I haven't played it as much as SWG in the past few months, but I keep going back to see how it's progressing.
Slashdot Mirror
"She is not that hot."
Eek! *gasp*
Maybe it's just my affinity for Middle Earth-based fantasy, but I can't think of any other character in modern motion pictures who is as hot as Liv Tyler as Arwen.
What I really don't get are the freaks who think Trinity (Matrix) is hot...
ya know, maybe there should be a mandatory server crash every once and awhile.
SWG already has this "feature".
Don't get me wrong though, I like SWG =)
I see the RIAA/MPAA have already brainwashed you.
It's not literally "stealing".
It's called copyright violation.
To be defined as "theft" would require depriving the original owner of possession.
Here's what we need:
...
A very * SIMPLE * to understand guide on the web:
"Idiots guide to email viruses that used a spoofed From: field"
This way, we can kindly send the URL to this guide to the mail admins who have not yet shut off the fscking auto-responders!
The problem I'm facing is explaining to the admins that I *REALLY* do not have a virus on my computer and that it is a SPOOFED "From:" address!
Optimally, this guide should have (again VERY simple) language-neutral diagrams which explain the process CLEARLY, sort of like those guides you get on the airlines which explain what to do in the case of an emergency.
I got home tonight, and my mailbox was 174% full, and I'm very upset that a good sizeable amount of that is these brain-dead autoresponders.
Unfortunately we are conditioning an evolutionary system which is slowly forming better and better spammers as time goes on.
I have a feeling that if/when a particular spammer quits, there becomes more incentive for the remaining spammers to get even more aggressive because they will then have a greater share of the idiot pie to feed from.
I don't think there is any "magic bullet" solution to this problem. It's probably going to be with us for a long time.
My solution to this is to simply set up an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF. I've been doing it for nearly two years now, and I recall that it was fairly easy to set up.
I agree. I think they should have added more than 17 steps to each profession (4 tiers of 4 steps each + master).
Perhaps a grid more like 8x8 or 4x16 would have been far more interesting for character development. However, I can understand that they can only do so much to get the game off the ground.
What will be challenging is how they will maintain the long-term interest of achiever players, since once you reach master and run out of skill points, it becomes quite painful to give up the skills you worked so hard for just to advance in a new profession to keep experiencing new content.
RK: [...] So architects is one of the commonly advanced Masters. Weaponsmith, because the market for weaponsmiths is huge. But when you're talking Squad Leaders or Commandos, there is one Master Commando in the entire game right now. One!
UGO: Isn't Master Commando the class where you get to wield flame throwers and rocket lauchers?
RK: Yeah.
UGO: You'd think more people would be interested in that.
RK: [laughs] Well, it's hard, is what it is.
Wow.
Anyone who knows the true nature of the Commando profession knows that it's time to "let the flames begin".
There are not a lack of Master Commandos by choice. People can't get Master because of bugs preventing Commando characters from advancing... And there's some *very* angry players due to this. I'm sure comments like this will definitely will not help.
It's a lot like a local government official going on the news stating "Nobody ever uses the park! Even after we've added all kinds of fun facilities! Isn't that odd!" while at the same time neglecting to mention that they never assigned anyone the job to unlock the gate into it.
I don't have any interest in the commando profession myself, but I can see this stirring things up a bit...
I find the combination of an eBay banner with this article, as shown in this screenshot to be quite amusing.
In a recent interview, a SCO representative was quoted as saying:
"Wesa no like da Ganoo! Un dey no like uss-ens. Da Ganoo tink day so smarty den us-ens. Day tink day brains so big."
I tried to post it here, but lameness filter would not allow it...
Star Wars 419 Scam
"Bah", to the lameness filter, I say.
I do not call this a skill. If I make a filter (not a spam filter, an EMAIL FILTER), then I do not want what I am filtering.
Sales/Marketing types don't understand this at all. It doesn't fit into their perception of reality.
Here's a short demonstration of what goes on in their minds:
"But I'm not selling junk like everybody else. The customer would be pleased to know about my product. It's a shame all those spammers make it harder for me to legitimately advertise my product."
Basically, they think they are a special case, and that they are justified in sending unsolicited email, where everybody else is not.
d) Expose a geiger counter to a source of radioactivity for one minute (shielding yourself) and use the units digit of the resulting count
You're correct that it won't do much good, but the apparatus can still be used to get decent random numbers with an algorithm like this:
long t,d1,d2,l;
start_geiger_counter();
wait_for_click();
l=exact_time_now();
wait_for_click();
t=exact_time_now();
d1=t-l;
while(1){
l=t;
d2=d1;
wait_for_click();
t=exact_time_now();
d1=t-l;
if(d2>d1) printnum(1);
else printnum(0);
}
It's not perfect, but it's good enough. The higher the temporal resolution exact_time_now() can return, the better the result.
Maybe not lives, but they can certianly save money, and can help with depression.
Since I started on my MMO addiction back in November I've been able to finally start saving money since I'm not spending my time out driving around buying junk I don't need anyway.
I started playing MMO games when I was withdrawing from anti-depressants (be cautious about starting on Paxil -- it is evil).
These games did a faily good job of keeping me distracted from the withdrawl symptoms. Lately, I'm still a bit dysthymic, but I'm not nearly as depressed as I was before taking the anti-depressants. I have at the very least something to look forward to at the end of the day.
How did you manage to avoid Sircam, Nimda, Klez, Bugbear, and the rest of the worms
- Set Outlook Express to "High" security zone
- Turn off preview pane
- Quarantine messages with attachments using mail rules
- Critical Update Notification
- Don't be stupid (most important)
I've been using OE since it came out and never had my computers infected with a virus from it.
While it's a shame to see it dropped, it has been *mostly* stagnant since IE4 anyway, so this announcement really doesn't change anything.
I'll register my prediction for 2013 here...
The average geek's desktop PC will be something close to the following:
- 4 64-bit CPUs running at 18GHz
- 32 GB of very low-latency very high-bandwidth SRAM-type memory
- 2 TB of low-latency solid-state persistent storage, used mostly for applications and small-ish data files.
- 64 TB of non-solid-state storage, used mostly for media and other large data.
- 26 inch "thin" display device at 2560x2048
- 512GB removable re-writable storage
But the thing is, most non-geek people will probably not use desktops anymore. Desktops will be still used, but mostly only by the computer geek and the hardcore gamer types. Most people will have a personal network device which works as a very sophisticated PDA.
This "PDA" device will be about 2.5 x 3.5 x 0.5 inches in size. When you come home, it will initiate a wireless VNC-like connection to your desktop monitor, keyboard, mouse, sound system, and other input/output devices.
- The screen on the device itself will be about 3 by 2.25 inches and will be able to display up to 1024x768 at 300 dpi. It's CPU would be equivalent to a 4GHz Pentium 4, and it would store about 16GB of MRAM-style memory.
- It would be always connected to the Internet, and will adapt to several different wireless protocols.
- It would work as your (video)phone, and would be the primary phone line for most people.
- It can browse the web and will be able to handle nearly all plugins, java applets, scripting languages, etc.
- It can stream audio and video from the network.
- It can record audio, video, and take pictures (with a 2 megapixel camera). You can send live streams to the net.
- It will allow you to watch any of thousands of "tv" stations or listen to radio stations.
- It can receive and send faxes.
- It can record and playback audio.
- It can record and display multi-megapixel images.
- It can tell you roughly your current latitude and longitude, and give you the option to share that information on the net with your friends if you want.
- Data will be stored persistently on the network, and synchronized with a local copy in memory.
- It will be aware of other wireless devices nearby in it's environment and be able to interact with them (you could use it to place your fast food order while waiting in the drive-through, for example).
- It will respond to verbal cues, and will do a fair job of speech recognition. A form of verbal "Graffiti" will be useful to learn to improve communication accuracy.
- Placing the "PDA" on top of a special pad on your desk will magnetically recharge it's battery which should last about 2-3 days on a two hour charge.
- It would probably run a commercial operating system for most people, but you will be able to easily choose to install another OS of your liking.
- You can send payments for face-to-face or vending machine transactions immediately. The device would wirelessly obtain a vendor ID from the person you are making a payment to, then authorize a specified amount of money be sent to that vendor ID, after you type in a PIN number or some other personal authorization code. The recipient would get a notification within seconds if transaction was successful.
Ok, I'm getting a bit carried away =) Maybe that last one will take 20 years, but I'm estimating that a very large percentage of the items I've listed here should become quite commonplace in 10 years, all based on the ubiquity of a very small, well connected, and powerful PDA device.
One thing to keep in mind is that the environment in a 2D game is not a full pre-generated 2D bitmap. It is composed of 2D elements which are placed in specific locations, and are rendered into the scene as they scroll into view.
This is basically how 3D games are working now. We re-use 3D objects within a scene, and we only render what's immediately within viewing distance.
A full-voxel scene would be quite wasteful, in the same way as it would be wasteful for a 2D game to store the entire level as one big bitmap (imagine saving the image that you would see as "maps" in the gaming mags in full resolution)
We switched from vectors to bitmaps becuase we wanted the items to look better. Vectors were usually only one color outlines. Bitmaps gave us full color objects to look at.
The thing is, given enough polygons, you can simulate anything a voxel space can display, since at worst-case, you could represent each voxel with a polygon. And that worst-case scenario would for all practical implementations, never even come close to being a threat.
Also note, that 2d vector graphics have not gone extinct. Quite the contrary, just look at macromedia flash.
Finally, vector graphics are a lot better for modeling a scene that needs to be dynamic. They have no inherent resolution, can be resized without loss of quality, and can describe specific mathematical relationships within their geometry which are suited well to a changing environment.
So you fire up your DMC chariot, head back to 1965, and pick up some computer scientists.
You then take them back to the present and start showing them things.
I can just see it now...
"... and so now that we've finished installing the operating system and some basic tools, you can see that we are *only* using 1.21 gig of the available disk space..."
"1.21 GIGABYTES?? Great scott!"
I wonder if switching from 64-bit binary to 64-bit trinary would create a greater performance boost than going from 64-bit binary to 128-bit binary.
I agree with the fast food comment. They're slowing working their way to automation as it is now.
I would be surprised if there were *not* a few 100% automated fast food drive-throughs within 10 years.
The problem is that the subtle aspects of speech often rely upon the context of the content.
The thing is, if we *could* get computers to accurately interpret the context of a string of text, we would have solved one of the fundamental problems of artificial intelligence.
Speech recognition will probably not be "good enough" in our lifetimes. The best approach in the iterim is probably some language adaptations with an analogy to the Palm Graffiti handwriting system.
What would be interesting is if it incorporated more acousticals that we don't normally use in verbal languages, such as clicks, whistles, hums, and other "onomonopia"-type sounds.
These could be useful for situations which require distinct confirmation, for example where a yes/no prompt would mean lost data if misinterpreted. So "clicking" your tongue twice could indicate "yes" and a long hiss could represent "no".
Would give new meaning to "double clicking" =)
would it be a DMCA violation as well as a terrorist act?
Some organizations who's abbreviations end with double-vowels may claim that there is no difference between the two.
I don't know how or why, but the parent post inspired me to babelfish-recycle it through various languages just for fun. I have some karma to burn, so enjoy at my expense =)
Chinese:
It is more step toward humanity's final dream, has the elastic world! Traffic accident? Without the question, you are in have in the elastic world! The airplane flight enters the building? Boing! Ha, Ha, Ha, hello!
French:
Its more stage towards the final dream of humanity, world bouncy! Car accident? No problem, you are in world bouncy! Fly of plane in a building? Boing! Ha, ha, ha, everyone WELL!
German:
Its more step toward for the crucial dream of mankind, bouncy world! Autoabort? A problem, are not you in bouncy the world! Airplane fly into a building? Boing! Hectar, hectar, hectar, each o.k.!
Italian:
Relative a new point towards the last dream of the humanity, world bouncy! Arrest of the automobile? C$r-nessun.problema, you are in world bouncy! Moscow of the airplane in one construction? Boing! It has, it has, it has, everyone GOOD!
Japanese:
Final dream of the mankind, the world where there is an elasticity many steps than the 1 of that! Automobile accident? There is no world where there is a problem and an elasticity! Growing of airplane to building? Boing! It is good everyone of ha, ha and ha!
Korean:
With mankind ultimate dream, it phase 1 of the world which is cheerful compared to! Car crash? Problem, it is an inside the world which is cheerful spreads out,! At building airplane flight range? Boing! The ha, the ha and the ha all it is good!
Portuguese:
Its one more stage for the final dream of the humanity, world bouncy! Electric noise of the car? No problem, you is in the world bouncy! Fly of the airplane in a building? Boing! Ha, Ha, Ha, all ARE WELL!
Spanish:
His a more passage towards the last dream of the humanity, world of bouncy! Collapse of the car? No problem, you are in world of bouncy! Fly of airplane in a building? Boing! It has, it has, it has, all VERY WELL!
-
"The ha, the ha and the ha all it is good!"
I gave AO a try a few months ago. I got to about level 20 before I gave up due to boredom and a very poor socialization system.
The people who played AO were the lease conversive group I've ever encountered. I could get no questions answered by anyone, and if you weren't already part of some clique, people just ignore you. The only people I talked to in the few weeks I played were other newbies, who were just as lost as I was.
The only thing I found to do in the game was endless missions. I think the mission system was kind of cool, but it got boring fast and I had no guidance to tell me what else the game offered.
I also enjoy crafting in most of the MMO games i've played and I could not for the life of me find anything resembling a resource gathering + crafting system in AO.
My conclusion based on a couple weeks of play is that AO is an MMO game where people powerlevel by doing missions until they reach the top and then they just PvP all day.
Being an Explorer-Achiever-Socializer type player does not fit well with AO. However a Bartle Killer-Achiever-Explorer types will probably find it to be a great game.
I still think Earth & Beyond has the most wasted potential. I haven't played it as much as SWG in the past few months, but I keep going back to see how it's progressing.
It was all very two dimensional,
I guess you didn't see Treehouse of Horror VI... =)