Blizzard was one of the pioneers in a new category of game - massively multi-player online role-playing games. Um...I can think of at least 4 MMOs off the top of my head (I'm sure there are way more) that came out WAY before WOW. What place do you have to be in to be considered a pioneer?
UO gets the pioneer badge for MMOs, IMHO.
EQ gets the 3D pioneer badge for MMOs, IMHO.
Shadowbane was probably the first to do massive battles in a working manner. WOW still doesn't have anything like this - and they actively prevent it actually. I do so miss the nightly attacks on Southshore. They use to crash the server - and that's a problem, so blizz did everything they could to basically push people away from world PVP. And they did a very good job of it. Now it exists as mostly people running around griefing a few people. There's no such thing as an epic PVP battle anymore - BGs/Arenas have turned even PVP into a grind. *snoore*.
So yeah, WOW is pretty cool and they definitely got the glue of MMOs down, but pioneers? Not really. They are behind the curve on several items actually (housing, character customization, mentoring) and the PVP is pretty unbalanced. The UI customzation is awesome however and has set a VERY high watermark for other games to reach.
And actually that puts at the heart of what makes WOW tick - gear. Everything in WOW is way too gear dependent - but this is one of the primary ways they keep people coming. They are the masters of the treadmill - if you just raise your faction to here, you can get that one piece of armor/weapon that will help you to do better in the arenas. So you can get some more weapons and armor. For the Arena.
And before you beat me up, I'm a pretty active WOW player with two accounts and 4 70's. The game can be fun, but they have basically perfected the treadmill.
If I had mod points, I'd have modded you down for feeling the need to bring war politics into everything.
Pity - some of you libs are quite intelligent, most of the time, but end up getting ignored due to your need to inject your Bush hatred into everything you say. It's really pathetic.
He won the election. We went to war. Get over it. Seriously. It's pathetic.
When you have three new stations that are so far left it's funny, one station slightly to the right looks on the extreme.
BTW, given your point of view that Fox is far right (at least that seems to be your point), why is it that it consistently kicks the other three stations into the dirt? Or to ponder another point, why liberal talk radio can never keep ratings? Air America had a silly amount of money poured into it...DOA.
Never ceases to amaze me how three news stations AND a publicly funded radion station (NPR is so far left it's NOT funny - it has no bussiness being funded by the government) aren't enough for the libs. Oh, that's right, the liberal idea of free speech is shutting down the ability of the right to speak. Sorry, I forgot.
Yah this theory has been around a while - and I think it has a lot of merit. If we assume there has GOT to be some intelligent life out there, why haven't we been visited?
- There is no such thing as FTL travel or a way to do suspended animation. Just because we want there to be a way doesn't mean there is
- Every civilization that has become advanced has managed to kill themselves via infighting (IMHO, there will NEVER be world peace)
- Every civilization that has become advanced has managed to blow themselves up/created a black hole/etc before they ever manage to create a way to leave their solar system
I mean, let's equate China's wholesale, government backed duplication of music and software CD/DVDs with whether artists get paid for music played by workers in a garage.
Let's paint this what it really is - another cheap shot at the US.
As opposed to what other countries do. Exactly WHICH country is it that doesn't look out for it's own interests? What exactly is your point? A LOT of the EU counties actually have thier government involved with the very companies they are pushing. So save it.
Yet another case of US bashing. It's so easy, everyone plays. Let's ignore what the other countries do - the US is evil blah blah blah.
You realize most of that evidence came from the British government which believed in evidence they had about the WMDs.
Soooooo...you are submiting that if Bush thought the information was correct, presenting it somehow made it incorrect? Exactly what negligence was there? You realize to lie you have to say something you know to be incorrect. So when Clinton says 'I didn't have sexual realtions', see that's a lie. He knew it was incorrect. There is NO PROOF - period - that the intelligence up to that point was incorrect. So I fail to see where the lie comes into this, other than some political swaggering.
Look I'll say up front I'm a conservative. I find the knee jerk bush bashing funny. All that said, I'm still on the fence whether going in was a good idea or a bad idea. I suspect had we NOT gone in, we'd be beat up for not doing enough - I've noticed that no matter what we do (the US), we are wrong.
Personally I'd like to see term limits in on EVERYONE. I think both partys pretty much suck and have put their personal power goals in front of what is truly good for the US. (Watching Hilliary attempt to buy votes with the mortgage bail out bullshit comes to mind much less Bush suddenly going for open borders).
Anyway, we aren't ever going to see eye-to-eye on this.
To the muslim invasion. Once again, we can stop people from insulting muslims, but let fly the attack web sites on Christanity. It's insane.
Again I urge any of you that are currently buying into this 'peaceful' religion BS to do some research.
Unlike Christanity, where the ten commandments apply to dealings with everyone, Islam's versions of the commandments only apply when dealing with other Muslims. Think I'm lying? Good. Don't trust me. Don't trust the muslims. Go read it for yourself. It's there in black and white in the Koran.
Right. Thank you for the usual 'linux is perfect' BS. Linux has never had to deal with a million customers demanding that some old piece of software from 1990 still function on new relases of the OS. Why? Because linux doesn't HAVE a million desktop users. (pulling the numbers out of my butt - but you get the point).
In fact, it's usually the opposite 'oh, that doesn't work on this new rev? Better break out a text editor and fix it'. It's actually kind of amazing how many pieces of extemely old, crappily written software you can still fire up on XP. Was it a good idea? Hell no. But when you pretty much own the desktop, you do what you gotta do to keep it. I don't use Vista - I am NOT here to defend Vista - I think it sucks - but most of you guys aren't being remotely fair. Of course, this is slashdot and this is not suprising. Sort of like expecting CNN (Communist News Network) to give a republican candidate a fair shake. Not going to happen.
So whatever on 'Ubuntu can do it'. So what. When Ubuntu has 80%+ of the desktop market, then you can compare it. When Ubuntu has ANYWHERE near the amount of software available, then you can compare it. Until then, you may as we be saying 'MY car can start'. It's irrelevant.
As pointed out by the first poster (you beat me to it) the new story itself is obviously biased as well.
I think the answer to this really depends on whether you are just expanding your horizons (I'm very curious about ruby) or do you need to make a living (if it's windows, your better off learning a.NET language like C#).
I mean..scala? I've never heard of it but I am a bit busy with my clients (doing all sorts of work in C# - that is one very cool thing about it - works great in web or apps) That said, I think I will go check it out.
Perhaps popularity * use in a site that I want to get on = exploited.
MySQL is free - this is why it's more 'popular'. But more 'popular' in this case means every little installation by any coder messing around. Wonder what the number of installations would be if you said 'only count those where the company has 1000+ employees and has data that someone would want to steal'.
The reality is if you want to hit a target that actually has something you want, you are better off attacking SQL Server.
What I see here is a bit of a smack in the face of the open-source security myth. (The idea that all these people spend their spare time looking at other peoples code - that's just funny - most really good coders aren't going to have time to do this - and what's the point of a bad coders looking for security flaws) Here you have a piece of software, PHPBB, that is very popular and open source. And it is constantly being hacked, year after year. What I find interesting here is that it's because it's popualar and every joe blow around has written an extension for it - unfortunately most of them aren't very good coders.
You are simply choosing to remember things incorrectly. There were credible sources of intelligence, namely the british intelligence community to believe that WMD's existed - and quite honestly there's still no proof he wasn't working on them. It's been show just how in bed the UN was with Saddam - you think they weren't warning him everytime and inspection came? He had plenty of time to ditch/hide/kill anything remotely connected with it.
But I digress - the point is there were clear reasons to believe things were this way. You can chose to ignore this - but that doesn't make your point of view true. You clearly have a beef with Bush so your reasoning is tainted in any case. Your POST is what is based on emotion - as is most liberals versions of the 'facts'.
Because it long ago threw out common sense or fair play when it comes to deciding who or what to defend. It's pretty much a liberal enforcement machine now and has long since lost track of what it was originally created for.
For instance, they are quick to come to muslim's defense for any perceived slight, but should a christian suffer the same thing (which happens a lot more often) they are silent.
That's simply a liberal agenda at work. They are no longer a civil rights protector - they haven't been in a long time.
See, the hatred is irrational. No one is suggesting take away the joystick controllers. I'd just like to see more options. Yet, you see how they are - this post is typical of what you will see if you post a mouse suggestion on a PS3/X360 forum. (It's actually fun to flamebait them - they start kicking and screaming)
Lol no we wouldn't get along at all - you sound like an asshole. At the very least, you have a problem.
If the console say, came with a mouse and some sort of layout controller (ala a nostromo for instance) then there would be more defacto support. I am not saying force the devs ( and whatever on content control - the devs are currently 'forced' to a standard controller) to be forced - if a mouse/keyboard was a standard part of the consoles it would take care of itself.
And yah, sometimes I don't know why I bother to post here *smile*.
1. Never said remove the joystick. Would like an option for either - I certainly agree on the recliner 8)
2. So what.
3. So what.
Recliner thing is great - No idea what the point of 2 and 3 are.
You're just nitpicking and ignoring my point. In BF1942, I regular switched to a joystick when I hopped in a plane. Vehicles are easir to control with the mouse.
I don't call what Sony does 'support'. If you mean you can plug in a mouse and it works, ok yeah, I guess it has support. If you mean 99% of the games can be calibrated to use said mouse, well that's NOT the case, now is it? Have you actualy looked over the sony forums when a mouse is brought up? Put on your fire pants cause it's hot there. So, no, there isn't really mouse support on the PS3.
Not trying to turn this into a 'can I hook my PC to my TV'. I'm fully aware of how to do this. Not the point.
Which doesn't change the fact the hit areas are enlarged or whatever. My point isn't that every games is dumbed down in the same way - or if you perfer another point of view, they harden it for the PCs (Gears of War actually discussed this as it was too easy on the PC to begin iwth).
And dude - easy on the Halo fanboi stuff. I'm not saying the consoles do not have a smart AI. I'm saying if you compare the PC and consoles versions of a game, SOMETHING wil have been adjusted as it will either be too hard on the console or too easy on the PC.
and stop having an anuerism everytime someone tries to add a mouse, I'd pretty much stop using my PC to game with.
I will NEVER use a joystick to play an FPS. Period. It's inferior. Period. A good mouser can beat the best joysticker everytime, given a level playing field (and before you start, it's almost NEVER a level playing field - so don't tell me how good you are on a console. The target areas are programmatically larger. The AI is dumbed down. Etc, etc. These are facts - look it up)
If you even START to suggest adding a mouse option to consoles, the kiddies starting pitching a fit and immediately begin insulting your mother. It's pathetic - the fear of having their asses handed to them in combat is funny. I really enjoy my 360 - but not having a mouse as an OPTION prevents access to a lot of what is cool on it.
Until that time, the PC platform will remain strong. Consoles need a mouse. It's just silly they don't have them. If M$/$ony will EVER gets some balls and support a mouse, I think you'll see the PC side take a huge hit. I'd rather play on my 65" HD.
Let me guess - you are a jaded co-op/intern that picked a bad company to work for? Or are you just narrow-minded? This sort of stupidity has a root from somewhere. Ah...devalue the programming profession. Now I see - you must have gotten downsized at some point or something along that lines. You sure got some bitterness coming from somewhere.
Co-op programs are the BEST way to get ahead. You come out of college with real experience (assuming you pick a good employer) To suggest it is a one-way street is simply absurd. Seriously, dude, where in the WORLD do you get your information?
First off, they are going to be naive of things whether they take a co-op program or not. So that's irrelevant. In fact, I'd counter that getting a job at a corporation (I co-oped at IBM back in the 80's) gave me a great view of the real world (I learned I didn't want to work at IBM) and allowed me develop inter-personal skills in the real world. It didn't hurt to have IBM on the resume either.
Cheap labor...I don't where he said 'Start a co-op program and don't hire any of them.' In fact, he said the opposite - cherry pick them. And that's a completely valid idea - I mean, wow, let's reward the hardworking intelligent folk. I realize that seems to go against the grain these days, but hey, try to keep an open mind.
Your entire premise is flawed. Co-op/internships bring something to the table for both sides and are good for the industry.
Slashdot Mirror
UO gets the pioneer badge for MMOs, IMHO.
EQ gets the 3D pioneer badge for MMOs, IMHO.
Shadowbane was probably the first to do massive battles in a working manner. WOW still doesn't have anything like this - and they actively prevent it actually. I do so miss the nightly attacks on Southshore. They use to crash the server - and that's a problem, so blizz did everything they could to basically push people away from world PVP. And they did a very good job of it. Now it exists as mostly people running around griefing a few people. There's no such thing as an epic PVP battle anymore - BGs/Arenas have turned even PVP into a grind. *snoore*.
So yeah, WOW is pretty cool and they definitely got the glue of MMOs down, but pioneers? Not really. They are behind the curve on several items actually (housing, character customization, mentoring) and the PVP is pretty unbalanced. The UI customzation is awesome however and has set a VERY high watermark for other games to reach.
And actually that puts at the heart of what makes WOW tick - gear. Everything in WOW is way too gear dependent - but this is one of the primary ways they keep people coming. They are the masters of the treadmill - if you just raise your faction to here, you can get that one piece of armor/weapon that will help you to do better in the arenas. So you can get some more weapons and armor. For the Arena.
And before you beat me up, I'm a pretty active WOW player with two accounts and 4 70's. The game can be fun, but they have basically perfected the treadmill.
EK
This is slashdot. People don't read the posts before they reply to them.
If I had mod points, I'd have modded you down for feeling the need to bring war politics into everything.
Pity - some of you libs are quite intelligent, most of the time, but end up getting ignored due to your need to inject your Bush hatred into everything you say. It's really pathetic.
He won the election. We went to war. Get over it. Seriously. It's pathetic.
EK
When you have three new stations that are so far left it's funny, one station slightly to the right looks on the extreme.
BTW, given your point of view that Fox is far right (at least that seems to be your point), why is it that it consistently kicks the other three stations into the dirt? Or to ponder another point, why liberal talk radio can never keep ratings? Air America had a silly amount of money poured into it...DOA.
Never ceases to amaze me how three news stations AND a publicly funded radion station (NPR is so far left it's NOT funny - it has no bussiness being funded by the government) aren't enough for the libs. Oh, that's right, the liberal idea of free speech is shutting down the ability of the right to speak. Sorry, I forgot.
EK
Yah this theory has been around a while - and I think it has a lot of merit. If we assume there has GOT to be some intelligent life out there, why haven't we been visited?
- There is no such thing as FTL travel or a way to do suspended animation. Just because we want there to be a way doesn't mean there is
- Every civilization that has become advanced has managed to kill themselves via infighting (IMHO, there will NEVER be world peace)
- Every civilization that has become advanced has managed to blow themselves up/created a black hole/etc before they ever manage to create a way to leave their solar system
It's interesting stuff.
EK
I mean, let's equate China's wholesale, government backed duplication of music and software CD/DVDs with whether artists get paid for music played by workers in a garage.
Let's paint this what it really is - another cheap shot at the US.
EK
As opposed to what other countries do. Exactly WHICH country is it that doesn't look out for it's own interests? What exactly is your point? A LOT of the EU counties actually have thier government involved with the very companies they are pushing. So save it.
Yet another case of US bashing. It's so easy, everyone plays. Let's ignore what the other countries do - the US is evil blah blah blah.
Sorry your country sucks. Fix it yourself.
EK
You realize most of that evidence came from the British government which believed in evidence they had about the WMDs.
Soooooo...you are submiting that if Bush thought the information was correct, presenting it somehow made it incorrect? Exactly what negligence was there? You realize to lie you have to say something you know to be incorrect. So when Clinton says 'I didn't have sexual realtions', see that's a lie. He knew it was incorrect. There is NO PROOF - period - that the intelligence up to that point was incorrect. So I fail to see where the lie comes into this, other than some political swaggering.
Look I'll say up front I'm a conservative. I find the knee jerk bush bashing funny. All that said, I'm still on the fence whether going in was a good idea or a bad idea. I suspect had we NOT gone in, we'd be beat up for not doing enough - I've noticed that no matter what we do (the US), we are wrong.
Personally I'd like to see term limits in on EVERYONE. I think both partys pretty much suck and have put their personal power goals in front of what is truly good for the US. (Watching Hilliary attempt to buy votes with the mortgage bail out bullshit comes to mind much less Bush suddenly going for open borders).
Anyway, we aren't ever going to see eye-to-eye on this.
EK
That analogy only works if you subscribe to the fantasy that the Iraq war was against the law.
When you look at the facts, Clinton did indeed commit PERJURY.
At least as far as the Iraq war, Bush did not. You can say he did. You can say a lot of things. One is a fact, the other is conjecture.
Past that, again the issue here is that backups were not kept. The drives SHOULD have been destroyed.
Please keep your clinton love out of it.
EK
To the muslim invasion. Once again, we can stop people from insulting muslims, but let fly the attack web sites on Christanity. It's insane.
Again I urge any of you that are currently buying into this 'peaceful' religion BS to do some research.
Unlike Christanity, where the ten commandments apply to dealings with everyone, Islam's versions of the commandments only apply when dealing with other Muslims. Think I'm lying? Good. Don't trust me. Don't trust the muslims. Go read it for yourself. It's there in black and white in the Koran.
EK
Right. Thank you for the usual 'linux is perfect' BS. Linux has never had to deal with a million customers demanding that some old piece of software from 1990 still function on new relases of the OS. Why? Because linux doesn't HAVE a million desktop users. (pulling the numbers out of my butt - but you get the point).
In fact, it's usually the opposite 'oh, that doesn't work on this new rev? Better break out a text editor and fix it'. It's actually kind of amazing how many pieces of extemely old, crappily written software you can still fire up on XP. Was it a good idea? Hell no. But when you pretty much own the desktop, you do what you gotta do to keep it. I don't use Vista - I am NOT here to defend Vista - I think it sucks - but most of you guys aren't being remotely fair. Of course, this is slashdot and this is not suprising. Sort of like expecting CNN (Communist News Network) to give a republican candidate a fair shake. Not going to happen.
So whatever on 'Ubuntu can do it'. So what. When Ubuntu has 80%+ of the desktop market, then you can compare it. When Ubuntu has ANYWHERE near the amount of software available, then you can compare it. Until then, you may as we be saying 'MY car can start'. It's irrelevant.
As pointed out by the first poster (you beat me to it) the new story itself is obviously biased as well.
EK
I think the answer to this really depends on whether you are just expanding your horizons (I'm very curious about ruby) or do you need to make a living (if it's windows, your better off learning a .NET language like C#).
I mean..scala? I've never heard of it but I am a bit busy with my clients (doing all sorts of work in C# - that is one very cool thing about it - works great in web or apps) That said, I think I will go check it out.
EK
LOL, this is the logic I expect from here.
Perhaps popularity * use in a site that I want to get on = exploited.
MySQL is free - this is why it's more 'popular'. But more 'popular' in this case means every little installation by any coder messing around. Wonder what the number of installations would be if you said 'only count those where the company has 1000+ employees and has data that someone would want to steal'.
The reality is if you want to hit a target that actually has something you want, you are better off attacking SQL Server.
What I see here is a bit of a smack in the face of the open-source security myth. (The idea that all these people spend their spare time looking at other peoples code - that's just funny - most really good coders aren't going to have time to do this - and what's the point of a bad coders looking for security flaws) Here you have a piece of software, PHPBB, that is very popular and open source. And it is constantly being hacked, year after year. What I find interesting here is that it's because it's popualar and every joe blow around has written an extension for it - unfortunately most of them aren't very good coders.
EK
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
You are simply choosing to remember things incorrectly. There were credible sources of intelligence, namely the british intelligence community to believe that WMD's existed - and quite honestly there's still no proof he wasn't working on them. It's been show just how in bed the UN was with Saddam - you think they weren't warning him everytime and inspection came? He had plenty of time to ditch/hide/kill anything remotely connected with it.
But I digress - the point is there were clear reasons to believe things were this way. You can chose to ignore this - but that doesn't make your point of view true. You clearly have a beef with Bush so your reasoning is tainted in any case. Your POST is what is based on emotion - as is most liberals versions of the 'facts'.
EK
ROFL - more liberal propaganda. How about you get your head out of your ass?
Because it long ago threw out common sense or fair play when it comes to deciding who or what to defend. It's pretty much a liberal enforcement machine now and has long since lost track of what it was originally created for.
For instance, they are quick to come to muslim's defense for any perceived slight, but should a christian suffer the same thing (which happens a lot more often) they are silent.
That's simply a liberal agenda at work. They are no longer a civil rights protector - they haven't been in a long time.
EK
Thank you for proving my point.
See, the hatred is irrational. No one is suggesting take away the joystick controllers. I'd just like to see more options. Yet, you see how they are - this post is typical of what you will see if you post a mouse suggestion on a PS3/X360 forum. (It's actually fun to flamebait them - they start kicking and screaming)
Lol no we wouldn't get along at all - you sound like an asshole. At the very least, you have a problem.
EK
If the console say, came with a mouse and some sort of layout controller (ala a nostromo for instance) then there would be more defacto support. I am not saying force the devs ( and whatever on content control - the devs are currently 'forced' to a standard controller) to be forced - if a mouse/keyboard was a standard part of the consoles it would take care of itself.
And yah, sometimes I don't know why I bother to post here *smile*.
EK
1. Never said remove the joystick. Would like an option for either - I certainly agree on the recliner 8) 2. So what. 3. So what. Recliner thing is great - No idea what the point of 2 and 3 are.
You're just nitpicking and ignoring my point. In BF1942, I regular switched to a joystick when I hopped in a plane. Vehicles are easir to control with the mouse.
I don't call what Sony does 'support'. If you mean you can plug in a mouse and it works, ok yeah, I guess it has support. If you mean 99% of the games can be calibrated to use said mouse, well that's NOT the case, now is it? Have you actualy looked over the sony forums when a mouse is brought up? Put on your fire pants cause it's hot there. So, no, there isn't really mouse support on the PS3.
Not trying to turn this into a 'can I hook my PC to my TV'. I'm fully aware of how to do this. Not the point.
Which doesn't change the fact the hit areas are enlarged or whatever. My point isn't that every games is dumbed down in the same way - or if you perfer another point of view, they harden it for the PCs (Gears of War actually discussed this as it was too easy on the PC to begin iwth).
And dude - easy on the Halo fanboi stuff. I'm not saying the consoles do not have a smart AI. I'm saying if you compare the PC and consoles versions of a game, SOMETHING wil have been adjusted as it will either be too hard on the console or too easy on the PC.
EK
Yes I'm aware of that, however pretty much no game supports it. The support is half-hearted at best and is basically non-support.
And, yeah, it is Sony's (and MS's) fault. Say 'ok you can plug in a mouse' is not 'You must also support a mouse'.
and stop having an anuerism everytime someone tries to add a mouse, I'd pretty much stop using my PC to game with.
I will NEVER use a joystick to play an FPS. Period. It's inferior. Period. A good mouser can beat the best joysticker everytime, given a level playing field (and before you start, it's almost NEVER a level playing field - so don't tell me how good you are on a console. The target areas are programmatically larger. The AI is dumbed down. Etc, etc. These are facts - look it up)
If you even START to suggest adding a mouse option to consoles, the kiddies starting pitching a fit and immediately begin insulting your mother. It's pathetic - the fear of having their asses handed to them in combat is funny. I really enjoy my 360 - but not having a mouse as an OPTION prevents access to a lot of what is cool on it.
Until that time, the PC platform will remain strong. Consoles need a mouse. It's just silly they don't have them. If M$/$ony will EVER gets some balls and support a mouse, I think you'll see the PC side take a huge hit. I'd rather play on my 65" HD.
EK
You mean......he may have to take responsiblity for his actions?
Cool.
EK
Let me guess - you are a jaded co-op/intern that picked a bad company to work for? Or are you just narrow-minded? This sort of stupidity has a root from somewhere. Ah...devalue the programming profession. Now I see - you must have gotten downsized at some point or something along that lines. You sure got some bitterness coming from somewhere.
Co-op programs are the BEST way to get ahead. You come out of college with real experience (assuming you pick a good employer) To suggest it is a one-way street is simply absurd. Seriously, dude, where in the WORLD do you get your information?
First off, they are going to be naive of things whether they take a co-op program or not. So that's irrelevant. In fact, I'd counter that getting a job at a corporation (I co-oped at IBM back in the 80's) gave me a great view of the real world (I learned I didn't want to work at IBM) and allowed me develop inter-personal skills in the real world. It didn't hurt to have IBM on the resume either.
Cheap labor...I don't where he said 'Start a co-op program and don't hire any of them.' In fact, he said the opposite - cherry pick them. And that's a completely valid idea - I mean, wow, let's reward the hardworking intelligent folk. I realize that seems to go against the grain these days, but hey, try to keep an open mind.
Your entire premise is flawed. Co-op/internships bring something to the table for both sides and are good for the industry.
EK