I don't really have the years of MMORPG experience that many others do, so this may come off as naive. In any case, this is my perspective, tastes, and so on. WoW is my first MMORPG, and I signed a guild charter Dec 2nd, and was one of the officers.
The guild started small, recruitment was poor, but levels 1-55 experience do not demand large numbers. There was some small competition evident at first. I was the first to hit 60, with a druid, of all classes. At 60, though, I started to notice that there was a lack of people. I was friends with everyone, the discussion was good, but there was something missing.
We had picked up more members along the way, but not enough high levels to create a 40-man raid, or even a 20-man. The members started going off on their own, doing things with other guilds, and not assisting the other members with pertinent things. The leadership of the guild seemed to stop caring, and the efforts of one officer were not enough to get things done. The other members of the guild have to cooperate, and that was not happening. I realized that if I wanted to do more than just those last lvl 55-60 instances, that I'd need a change of scenery.
As I left, about 13 other people went with me. The old guild deflated, and might not survive. The new guild has a similar mindset to how our old guild started... close knit, friendly, joking, and helpful. We also are big enough to field a full raid, and the leadership is strong. There is some friendly competition as well.
I had attended a couple of raids with the server's premier raiding guild, just to see if that fit for me. They operate with extreme efficiency, and make Molten Core look like Candyland. It was scary in a way, because what I thought was supposed to be hard was made to look trivial. The other thing that I noticed about that guild was the emphasis on items. The members really didn't seem to mesh with each other well, they worked together to the common goal of doing MC and BWL, and getting phat lewt, but I could tell that there was tension. That guild was less of a family/friend environment, and more of a machine.
The personalities in a guild have to mesh first, I think. If there is a strong core of members that enjoy each others' company, then the guild will last. However, if there are enough bad apples, sometimes it only takes one in the wrong position, the guild will not survive.
Hm. Science is an approach to the mysteries, regardless of how it is defined. How it is approached does not matter. If science were completely adequate, then there would be no barrier between QM and GR.
Your allusion to being taught religion is not that far from going to school and taking a science class. The God of a religion has been replaced by knowledge itself, and I see no difference.
Like you, I'll take religion not because I'm converted, but because I am convinced. I also take science, because I am convinced. The two are not mutually exclusive, as much as you may like to think it is. One covers the rational, the other covers the irrational.
A religion is just a system of beliefs that are held to find an underlying meaning. Be it spiritual or not, it is still a religion. Using science to explain everything is very much a religion.
Furthermore, what is truth, who defines it, and why would it exist?
Neanderthals practiced infanticide, and used the "run the elk off a cliff" hunting technique. As resources thinned, I imagine that more babies got killed (they couldn't support babies). Then their women got too old to have babies, and the line ended.
I'm doubtful that they died out. Take a look at Arnold, even pictures of before he really hit the steroids.
Ditto. My shop runs MSSQL Server 2000, and we've never had it crash on us. Make sure that you have decent hardware, and the service itself won't have any problems.
We have had more issues with IIS getting borked by a MS patch/update than with SQL Server.
Computers not really necessary for day-to-day life. If someone cannot or will not grasp how things are supposed to work, then they simply should not use those things.
Students with the 4.0GPAs with CS degrees might come out of school and not know jack about shit, while the self-taught guy with a 2.8 in Liberal Arts might code rings around the former. That's a fact.
Mights are not usuals. I would also expect a self-taught guy to code in rings, as a good CS program will stress that spaghetti should only be served on a plate.
My experience: Self-taught guys do not have a good grasp of algorithmic efficiency, code documentation, and generally code with poor style. They also have a tougher time grasping new concepts, and tend to not understand how the underlying parts work. You may be able to code a pop-up window in VB from reading in a book, but that is not all that impressive.
I bitch about certifications, not because I do not know what is on them, but because people who get certs without a degree will be considered for the same job as someone without a cert, but with a degree. If I were a hiring manager, the first thing I'd look for is a degree (CS, EE, CE, etc). Then I'd look for certs to refine the search.
It pisses me off that many people who go to school for four years or more, who have paid quite a bit of money, and have been taught intellectual adaptability are passed over. Call me an elitist, but I view those with no degree, but have certs, as inferior to those who have degrees.
Best way? Call the individual up and have them come to the bank and set their own pin. Require a couple forms of proper photo identification, and the problem is solved.
Played a good cop who was chasing things in "The Fugitive."
Unfortunately, when an actor does such a good job in a role, and enough money is made from it, that actor HAS to produce ten to twenty more films of increasingly bad quality. Tommy Lee Jones, as a tracker cop who chases bad guys through snow covered Oregon, just seems rehashed and boring now.
Hollywood takes the masses for idiots, and seem to think that "new" is bad. Lucas, at least, wasn't too scared of producing something new and off-the-wall. It is a pity that he fell into that trap recently, as well.
This seems like meaningless posturing for positive HP market spin. I don't see why two other companies would listen to the head of HP, when they haven't really been listening to the community itself for years.
Id hasn't really been a player on the FPS game market in a while. Their recent games (Quake 3, Doom 3) have basically been technology demos. They sell well because we nerds think it is cool, but the actual games leave much to be desired.
We know that Id makes its money from licensing its engines to people. Half-life made Id some money. Keep that in mind. I'm not sure if the Source engine takes anything from one of Id's engines.
How about this one, then?
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=154879 &cid=12985880
The most outspoken people about religion, and the ones that have the biggest axe to grind, are the ones that hate it in general. The majority of athiests that I've met fall into this category.
This site purports to support freedom of speech and expression. Racism is one such freedom that everyone has a right to, though it may be one of the more unsavory freedoms.
The trick to class balancing is making sure that there isn't an uber-class in the first place. There will be issues that pop up, when new base classes are introduced in expansions, as well. Consider that it is an expansion, and that the set of classes up until then have been balanced over time, while the new class has had minimal balancing.
The way to balance shouldn't be to "nerf," but to increase the power of other classes to the point where the overpowered class is not an issue. Sure, there will be envy complaints, but at least they would be the wounded victimized complaints that appear after the nerf has been applied.
Introducing new classes after the release should only be on the order of "hero classes." This increases variety, and requires the original balanced classes to be played until a specific level. After that level, a hero class can be chosen, and though they may be unbalanced, they don't affect gameplay from the beginning.
I'm amazed that enough people thought this tripe was more than flamebait.
It's fine and dandy to have an opinion of Christianity, but it is another to generalize them on account of a few select groups. It also helps to understand what Christian belief truly is, before throwing labels around.
Slashdot Mirror
Bordello of Blood is a modernized vampire western. It is a strange combination, but I think the two can mesh really well if done correctly.
Unfortunately, no one has really done it correctly.
I don't really have the years of MMORPG experience that many others do, so this may come off as naive. In any case, this is my perspective, tastes, and so on. WoW is my first MMORPG, and I signed a guild charter Dec 2nd, and was one of the officers.
The guild started small, recruitment was poor, but levels 1-55 experience do not demand large numbers. There was some small competition evident at first. I was the first to hit 60, with a druid, of all classes. At 60, though, I started to notice that there was a lack of people. I was friends with everyone, the discussion was good, but there was something missing.
We had picked up more members along the way, but not enough high levels to create a 40-man raid, or even a 20-man. The members started going off on their own, doing things with other guilds, and not assisting the other members with pertinent things. The leadership of the guild seemed to stop caring, and the efforts of one officer were not enough to get things done. The other members of the guild have to cooperate, and that was not happening. I realized that if I wanted to do more than just those last lvl 55-60 instances, that I'd need a change of scenery.
As I left, about 13 other people went with me. The old guild deflated, and might not survive. The new guild has a similar mindset to how our old guild started... close knit, friendly, joking, and helpful. We also are big enough to field a full raid, and the leadership is strong. There is some friendly competition as well.
I had attended a couple of raids with the server's premier raiding guild, just to see if that fit for me. They operate with extreme efficiency, and make Molten Core look like Candyland. It was scary in a way, because what I thought was supposed to be hard was made to look trivial. The other thing that I noticed about that guild was the emphasis on items. The members really didn't seem to mesh with each other well, they worked together to the common goal of doing MC and BWL, and getting phat lewt, but I could tell that there was tension. That guild was less of a family/friend environment, and more of a machine.
The personalities in a guild have to mesh first, I think. If there is a strong core of members that enjoy each others' company, then the guild will last. However, if there are enough bad apples, sometimes it only takes one in the wrong position, the guild will not survive.
Hm. Science is an approach to the mysteries, regardless of how it is defined. How it is approached does not matter. If science were completely adequate, then there would be no barrier between QM and GR.
Your allusion to being taught religion is not that far from going to school and taking a science class. The God of a religion has been replaced by knowledge itself, and I see no difference.
Like you, I'll take religion not because I'm converted, but because I am convinced. I also take science, because I am convinced. The two are not mutually exclusive, as much as you may like to think it is. One covers the rational, the other covers the irrational.
A religion is just a system of beliefs that are held to find an underlying meaning. Be it spiritual or not, it is still a religion. Using science to explain everything is very much a religion.
Furthermore, what is truth, who defines it, and why would it exist?
Neanderthals practiced infanticide, and used the "run the elk off a cliff" hunting technique. As resources thinned, I imagine that more babies got killed (they couldn't support babies). Then their women got too old to have babies, and the line ended.
I'm doubtful that they died out. Take a look at Arnold, even pictures of before he really hit the steroids.
As opposed to the living hell on Earth that is everyday life caused by religion passing off plain lies as irrefutable truths.
It is nice to know that your religion is contradictory in nature. How is this crap modded insightful?
Following science to the exclusion of anything else is also a religion. Perhaps you want to ammend your values.
Would you really expect Intel to say "Oh, we're sorry that we're monopolists. Please punish us!"
Who knows. Maybe Intel is right, maybe not. Court will decide.
Ditto. My shop runs MSSQL Server 2000, and we've never had it crash on us. Make sure that you have decent hardware, and the service itself won't have any problems.
We have had more issues with IIS getting borked by a MS patch/update than with SQL Server.
Computers not really necessary for day-to-day life. If someone cannot or will not grasp how things are supposed to work, then they simply should not use those things.
Students with the 4.0GPAs with CS degrees might come out of school and not know jack about shit, while the self-taught guy with a 2.8 in Liberal Arts might code rings around the former. That's a fact.
Mights are not usuals. I would also expect a self-taught guy to code in rings, as a good CS program will stress that spaghetti should only be served on a plate.
My experience: Self-taught guys do not have a good grasp of algorithmic efficiency, code documentation, and generally code with poor style. They also have a tougher time grasping new concepts, and tend to not understand how the underlying parts work. You may be able to code a pop-up window in VB from reading in a book, but that is not all that impressive.
I bitch about certifications, not because I do not know what is on them, but because people who get certs without a degree will be considered for the same job as someone without a cert, but with a degree. If I were a hiring manager, the first thing I'd look for is a degree (CS, EE, CE, etc). Then I'd look for certs to refine the search.
It pisses me off that many people who go to school for four years or more, who have paid quite a bit of money, and have been taught intellectual adaptability are passed over. Call me an elitist, but I view those with no degree, but have certs, as inferior to those who have degrees.
No, that is just the females of Slashdot. I expect most /. males to weigh in between 100 and 115 kg.
Best way? Call the individual up and have them come to the bank and set their own pin. Require a couple forms of proper photo identification, and the problem is solved.
Wee!
Time to respond with our own little wiki: Appealing to Authority!
Played a good cop who was chasing things in "The Fugitive."
Unfortunately, when an actor does such a good job in a role, and enough money is made from it, that actor HAS to produce ten to twenty more films of increasingly bad quality. Tommy Lee Jones, as a tracker cop who chases bad guys through snow covered Oregon, just seems rehashed and boring now.
Hollywood takes the masses for idiots, and seem to think that "new" is bad. Lucas, at least, wasn't too scared of producing something new and off-the-wall. It is a pity that he fell into that trap recently, as well.
^? Bah... spam filter garbage, have to add in more junk here.
This seems like meaningless posturing for positive HP market spin. I don't see why two other companies would listen to the head of HP, when they haven't really been listening to the community itself for years.
It works very well. There is an interpreter for Win32.
Look here
Id hasn't really been a player on the FPS game market in a while. Their recent games (Quake 3, Doom 3) have basically been technology demos. They sell well because we nerds think it is cool, but the actual games leave much to be desired.
We know that Id makes its money from licensing its engines to people. Half-life made Id some money. Keep that in mind. I'm not sure if the Source engine takes anything from one of Id's engines.
How about this one, then? http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=154879 &cid=12985880
The most outspoken people about religion, and the ones that have the biggest axe to grind, are the ones that hate it in general. The majority of athiests that I've met fall into this category.
This site purports to support freedom of speech and expression. Racism is one such freedom that everyone has a right to, though it may be one of the more unsavory freedoms.
Mod parent up.
The trick to class balancing is making sure that there isn't an uber-class in the first place. There will be issues that pop up, when new base classes are introduced in expansions, as well. Consider that it is an expansion, and that the set of classes up until then have been balanced over time, while the new class has had minimal balancing.
The way to balance shouldn't be to "nerf," but to increase the power of other classes to the point where the overpowered class is not an issue. Sure, there will be envy complaints, but at least they would be the wounded victimized complaints that appear after the nerf has been applied.
Introducing new classes after the release should only be on the order of "hero classes." This increases variety, and requires the original balanced classes to be played until a specific level. After that level, a hero class can be chosen, and though they may be unbalanced, they don't affect gameplay from the beginning.
I'm amazed that enough people thought this tripe was more than flamebait.
It's fine and dandy to have an opinion of Christianity, but it is another to generalize them on account of a few select groups. It also helps to understand what Christian belief truly is, before throwing labels around.
Just my $.02
According to Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker...
"Harvard" and "cognitive" are mutually exclusive.