SWG is going to get a huge hit in the arm from this. Last year when Raph was saying the space expasion was "going to be like the ground combat, in space" I figured the game was doomed. The ground combat is... not fun. But now that they've seen the light and are going twitch, I have hope.
This *might* make me re-up my subscription.
The key here is that they're going to have to use the grace period allowed by the influx of dogfighters at the end of the year to fix the game before anyone notices that everything not space related is kinda boring.
I definately have to give them credit, they've done a really good job of turning a barren wasteland of content into a barren wasteland of content with a few dungeons. They're moving in the right direction.
The Jedi Revamp, Corellian Corvette, and Droid Publish are all big improvements to the game.
In some ways, the failures of SWG are interesting to watch as a non-player because you can sit and watch SOE's development process in rapid-fire action. Good luck to them, I say.
PP is an awesome game...however, you and I are the only ones playing it.
It is a very small game, Apreche. Compared with the 400,000 people of EQ, are you surprised Puzzle Pirate didn't show up on the graph there? I would be surprised if PP had even 20,000 subscribers.
PP would be huge if they had money for advertising in real magazines or on TV. But they don't. So instead we see web ads for them on Penny Arcade and the like, where everyone already plays...
That's a really great synopsis of the current MMOG market. Here are a few predictions for you, based on those numbers, for the coming year:
- World of Warcraft, simply put, is going to change everything. Subscription numbers for UO, FFXI, DAoC, AC, AC2, and EQ are going to fluctuate wildly when WoW comes out as people cancel their subscriptions to give Blizzard's game a shot. I don't know how many will stay, but I expect World of Warcraft, by the middle of next year, to be comfortably within the 250,000 - 300,000 area.
- Star Wars Galaxies will continue to hemmoraghe players until this fall, when the space expansion comes out. Regardless of how good it is, their subs are going to skyrocket as people flock to the game that has X-Wings and TIE Fighters. This influx of players will sustain them at least another 2 to 3 years as they continue to patch in new content and....(shhh) fix the game. SWG has passed the point where they could have failed. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
- Anarchy Online is going to be a sleeper comeback kid late this year or early next year. Their upcoming expansion sounds good, Funcom has finally managed to start to move beyond their disaster of a launch, and people are getting tired of Fantasy MMOGs.
- Lineage 2 is not going to do very well at all in the states. US gamers just don't like being ganked.
- AC and AC2, despite losses to WoW, are going to continue on quietly and happily. Jessica Mulligan is no slouch, and despite aging graphics and a tiny playerbase those games just keep getting better.
- City of Heroes is going to be a success...for a while. CoH is going to draw a whole bunch of newbie MMOGers into the fold who have never picked up a MMOG before. 6 months down the line if they don't have villains patched in they're going to start losing people as the fact that there is nothing to do besides combat starts to wear on the playerbase.
- Middle Earth Online is going to be a middling success. Their design concept is only so-so, but they'll attract enough attention via newbie MMOG players lusting after Legolas to stay afloat.
- Warhammer Online.... ?? I don't know where it's going to pull it's playerbase from. Have to wait and see on this one.
- EQ, one year from now, will no longer have such a commanding lead over all other US MMOGs.
- EQ2 is going to do "okay". It's a very different game but the branding alone will be enough to keep it going. Despite what SOE says, EQ is going to lose players to EQ2, futhering the WoW effect on the original Everquest.
- The Sims Online should be put out to pasture. That creepy melting pot of social darwinism was doomed from the get-go. EA should let it die.
- Shadowbane will continue to slowly exist as a team of dedicated and talented developers rescue a game that had almost as bad a launch as AO. People will always want to "Play to CRUSH!" so SB will always have players.
More non-dork celebrities are gamers than the mainstream media lets on. In an environment such as a Massively Multiplayer game the average person is given the opportunity to be other than they are, to live into a fantasy. For those peopel who may be seen as "living the fantasy", I believe a MMOG would do just the opposite. Inside EQ, a baseball player or movie star is just another hafling or troll. Anonymity can work both ways. Now, if more folks started coming out of the Pen and Paper closet I'd be amused. (I'm looking at you, Vin Diesel.)
I am so glad the Puzzle Pirates team won the recognition they so richly deserve.
For those of you not down with the Pirate, Three Rings' game Puzzle Pirates is an online massively multiplayer game (or, in this case, a "mmoarrrrpg") where you take on the role of a character in a world populated with islands. Within this world, your piratical character can take jobs on Merchant ships, Navy boats, and (most fun of all) fellow-pirate crewed ships. On the ships you take on an individual job, such as bilging, carpentry, sailing, or gunnery. Each of these jobs is simulated through the use of (you guessed it) a puzzle. These fun and entertaining mini-games allow you to contribute to your crew, gain booty (no, not that kind of booty), and increase your reputation with the Pirates of the seas. An incredibly fun game with none of the usual hangups or problems inherent in MMOGs.
For more on pirates, check out Talking like a pirate is fun, but annoys people, a writeup I did a long time ago. Includes a link to a most excellent techno mix of the writeup done by a friend of mine.
To be sure, WoW is not a revolution in MMOGs...it is simply the most fun, most polished, best looking massively multiplayer game I've ever seen.
First and foremost, it is a game, not a "world". All the attempts at turning MMOGs into worlds have resulted in boring sand-box style spaces where people have nothing to do. Puzzle Pirates and A Tale in the Desert are another two excellent examples of why massively multiplayer games should be games.
The polish on this game in the Beta stage is better than Star Wars Galaxies was 4 months after launch. By the time it is released for public consumption, it will join Final Fantasy XI in rivaling Everquest for interesting content.
I don't understand why people are scoffing at WoW for not being revolutionary. Of course not! We're only at the Third Generation of MMOGs here. Hell, Everquest is still the game with the largest player population. World of Warcraft is one really big step in the right direction though.
Shameless self promotion:
Check out my first Beta Journal entry at MMORPGDot.
So, this then would be the proverbial "other shoe".
The sound it just made when it hit the floor was pretty resounding.
You know, for a company that insists that they're a on-the-level business with a great product coming down the pipe, they're sure acting like skeezbags.
There are over a half a dozen new MMOGs coming out this year alone. While the field has grown quite a bit since Everquest's first birthday (happy b-day EQ!), I'm still not sure it can support *that* many games.
They make it abundantly clear that the game will be running until September, but how is it a game if they're not going to be adding content for the next 6 months?
This makes no sense to me. Why not kill it now and save money on the server costs? Everyone is going to leave way before September anyway. With no future for the game, actions have no meaning and the (already stale) content will have no appeal.
Of course, they likely have a clause in the EULA that states that they have to give sufficient warning of the game closure.
Regrettably all Around.
If you dig/dug Earth and Beyond, I know some folks who like Eve Online.
I also have some commentary on this sort of thing in my editorial today on MMORPGDot, as well as at my own site.
Back in college as an exercise I wrote a mini-white paper on the Bluetooth technology spec.
It's pretty interesting stuff.
I completely understand why it's dead now though. Lackluster following of the specs (even by people who helped write it), a very complicated model of master-slave interaction, and several different layers of protocols to contend with made Bluetooth a good idea in theory....but not so much in practice.
It was kinda cool while it lasted, though.
re: Transhuman Fun
on
Ask Warren Ellis
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Mr. Ellis, your books entertain to no end. One of the aspects of Transmet that I enjoy a great deal is your poking at the idea of transhumanism. "Uploading", the gene-fad victims, the reanimated cryo folks, all are human, but a humanity that is to one degree or less, removed from the humanity the rest of us experience.
Where do you think our species is going in regards to current "transhumanist" ideas? Do you really think someday we'll be uploading our conciousness to a digital point of view, or swapping out yesterday's cheetah spots for tiger stripes as the mood strikes us?
It sucked.
Maybe I'm just a crotchety old man (at 20), but I remember when the gaming world wasn't summed up by the dark empire of the west. Magic:the Gathering, and Wizards of the Coast buying TSR ruined the gaming world. It used to be the case where TSR(D&D), FASA(Shadowrun/Battletech), White Wolf(Vampire/Werewolf/Mage/Wraith/Changling), Palladium(Rifts/Heroes Unlimited), Steve Jackson(GURPS/In Nomine), and West End(Star Wars) slowly revolved around each other in stately pace, releasing games that most people bought. Smaller companies hung around too, like Atlas and CheapAss. They released quality games that could compete on equal terms released by the big boys. Then Wizards of the Coast(WotC) came along with Magic. Gaming became the domain of creepy little kids whose parents could afford really expensive cards. Then, so they could keep the kids addicted to their products, WotC "saved" TSR by buying them out. D&D was now part of the WotC domain. Geek kids could now be hooked from about 6 or 7 until they died, to WotC products. Then Pokemon came out, adding even more people to their consumer base. Awful management on the part of West End Games resulted in them dying a slow, painful death. Lucas recently releaved the spasming corpse that was West End of the lucrative Star Wars license, and rewarded it to (guess who?) WotC. Now WotC owns two of the five major lines that used to drive the gaming world. The same company that now produces wrestling and baseball Collectable Card Games is making design decisions on one of the oldest gaming lines and on the RPG set in a place a long time ago and far far away. (sigh) And that's not all! An even greater evil has recently befallen the gaming world. WotC was bought out by Hasbro, Inc. As Wizards has done with TSR (those of you who bought 3rd Ed., check your books for a TSR logo or mention. You won't find one.), so Hasbro is planning to do with WotC, or so I'm told. Yes, that's right. D&D will soon by produced by Hasbro. Yuck.
For the sake of honesty, I must confess that I'm part of a small gaming company, so I take these things kind of personal. But Jeez! This years Con was HALF the size of the 98' con. The Wizards Castle was HUGE! You know why? To cover up the fact that there were *very* few small companies there. Those who came rocked, natch, but still. Part of that might have had something to do with the now outrageous prices charged by Andon Unlimited (Guess who owns them?), the company that organizes Gen Con and Origins. Atlas Games and Steve Jackson Games now share a booth because of the outrageous prices. These companies are middle sized fish in this particular pond! If they have to share a booth, what are small businesses supposed to do? So yeah, that's my opinion.
Under the FAQ section of your web site, you ask the question "Will you be expanding your secure colocation and datacenter services to other jurisdictions?", to which you reply that you're interested in looking into that.
Two questions: 1.) How much luck have you had on that front? Are there any other smallish countries that are looking to Sealand as an example of How to make it in the technical age? 2.) Would you be willing to consider stepping back from the level of security exhibited in the Sealand facility, or compromising the level of freedom allowed by that country, if it meant that you could get access to another principality/new customers.
Those questions asked, I'd like to compliment you on the whole concept. Seeing Kinakuta come to life is heartening.
After seeing this movie last night, the thing I was most amused by was the performances by Jack Black (of Tenacious D "fame") and Todd Louiso, the two music geeks that Cusak's character hires to work at the store. Their pompous sneering and amongst-themselves chuckling over the stupidity of their customers was, first and foremost incredibly accurate. If you've ever had snotty music friends, you'll recognize the smirk that comes onto Black's face when smacking down Louiso's "Belle and Sebastian" choice for Katrina Katrina's "Time to Feel Good". A friend of mine pointed out that back in the 80's when they showed off a "Subgroup" in a movie (Real Geniuses, Weird Science, etc..) they always talked them *up*, made them cooler. Now, they just show them for all their faults and defects and good points. Also, their reactions to da norms reminded me more than just a bit of regular geeks chatting amongst themselves. "Dude? You're playing Q3? What thehell? Go home and don't talk to me again until you're playing Unreal.":)
Great movie, all around. Go see it. But you don't have to take my word for it: Salon's Review
Interesting concept, the continents. I thought about it, and they actually compare rather nicely to the real world. (Now, nobody shoot me for sterotypes, I'm just free associating here.)
North America- The Corporate Internet- The United States. Perfectly logical, right? Run almost completely by business interests, with strict policies in place that mostly get ignored. InfoNet- Mexico. Large land mass, very confusing, a lot of mixed messages. Lots of opportunity, lots of room for improvement. TechNet- Canada. This huge, sprawling land that most people look on as "backwards" and "slightly off", but is inhabited by highly intelligent, but quirky people.
Asia - X-Net- China and Russia. Nobody yell, it makes sense. It makes sense. It has the largest area of the world (internet), and is inhabited by peoples with very specific and old customs, methods, and personalities. You know, plus the cheap sex. The Undernet- Japan. Old, old culture. Having a slight setback lately, as the world's eyes are kinda clued to the CorpNet and the growing areas elsewhere, but a backbone of the world, and a place where new suprises come from every day.
BuyNet- Africa. It's a jungle out there. Lots of old cultures meeting new ways of doing things, lots of upheaval, lots and lots of opportunity.
CultureNet- Europe. Another place filled with oldness (movies, TV), but with a lot of young upstarts (Salon, Suck) and new trends making waves.
GameNet- South America. Another jungle, with lots of ways to die. But also, plenty of adventure, with everything from aging ruins (NES, Atari) to dizzying new technological creations (PS2, Dreamcast) to explore.
GodNet- Antarctica. A huge place filled with wonder, that almost nobody thinks about, but elicits a LOT of interest amongst a select few.
Quick comment... I for one say I gotta admire John. He's in here practically every week, writting another article for us folks, amusing us, giving us his perspective on reality. He takes a lot of flak for it, gets a lot of praise, but either way, he's a man who gets noticed. I for one almost always enjoy your posts, John, if you're reading this. If you are, as MrP mentioned, giving in to your detractors, I would say ignore em'. They obviously are not nationally recognized writers, and thus have no reason to poo-poo your work.
I'm suprised no one has mentioned the application of this technology for use in space.
Think about it, if these plastics can expand and conract on such a small scale, then they'd obviously be able to expand on a much larger scale. Realistic inflatable heat sheilds were just mentioned on/. a little while ago. Why not go the next step and make the whole damn ship expandable. Make it nice and small for exits and re-entrys (less drag, surface area, etc..), and once you're out in space you can expand out to be twice, or however much larger you can stretch these plastics. Plus, from the discriptions of these technologies, the synthetics these are being made from will soon be strong enough to withstand multiple re-entries. They'll be no space shuttle, sure, but it's better than the inflatable sheild which probably can only be used once.
Also, then we can start building cool organic looking ships. (See the Mon Cal crusiers of Star Wars for examples.)
I am a participant in a form of expression which parallels this nicely. When the Japanese had control of the Philippines during and just post WWII, they made practicing the traditional Philipino martial art forms illegal. So, in order that they could have a form of defense, the Philipinos made their martial arts into dances, which could then be practiced in a public square. If a Japanese soldier asked why two men were dancing around a courtyard clacking peices of bamboo together, the townspeople would all get serious looks on their faces and go "Oh, it's a traditional dance passed down over the ages. Very sacred." From this has come the martial art I practice, Eskrima, which is arguably one of the most deadly, efficient martial arts forms available today.
Versatility in the face of prejudice and privacy crackdowns are two abilities that the Philipinos and the DeCSS defendants share. Let's hope everything turns out for the best.
You know, he did ask for movie recommendations, too. Also, if you're reading this ohlaadee, you should probably note that Sci-Fi movies, almost without exception, deal with issues more advanced and "adult" than sci-fi books.
The Star Wars Trilogy (duh)
Bladerunner
Sneakers
Contact (also make her read the book, by the man himself Carl Sagan. I can't believe no one mentioned this one!)
Alien/Aliens (Any other in the series is up to you, but these two are great.)
Dark City
Twelve Monkies
The Nightmare before Christmas (not strictly SciFi, but if she's never seen it, the issues it deals with are very SciFi)
Metropolis (oldie but goodie)
The Even numbered Star Trek movies. (2, 4, 6, and First Contact.)
2001 and 2010.
Brazil
Finally, if she's interested in Science Fiction, she May dig Anime as well. Some anime titles which are good n' healthy for someone her age:
My neighbor Totoro
Princess Mononoke (Coming to Video from Miramax "real soon now"
Ghost in the Shell
Ranma 1/2 (a tv series)
Any of the above titles you can find in both subtitled and dubbed formats. I personally prefer subtitles, but whatever she wants.
You know, he did ask for movie recommendations, too. Also, if you're reading this ohlaadee, you should probably note that Sci-Fi movies, almost without exception, deal with issues more advanced and "adult" than sci-fi books.
The Star Wars Trilogy (duh)
Bladerunner
Sneakers
Contact (also make her read the book, by the man himself Carl Sagan. I can't believe no one mentioned this one!)
Alien/Aliens (Any other in the series is up to you, but these two are great.)
Dark City
Twelve Monkies
The Nightmare before Christmas (not strictly SciFi, but if she's never seen it, the issues it deals with are very SciFi)
Metropolis (oldie but goodie)
The Even numbered Star Trek movies. (2, 4, 6, and First Contact.)
2001 and 2010.
Brazil
Finally, if she's interested in Science Fiction, she May dig Anime as well. Some anime titles which are good n' healthy for someone her age:
My neighbor Totoro
Princess Mononoke (Coming to Video from Miramax "real soon now"
Ghost in the Shell
Ranma 1/2 (a tv series)
Any of the above titles you can find in both subtitled and dubbed formats. I personally prefer subtitles, but whatever she wants.
I personally enjoy one female character in StarCraft, the dropship pilot, who is a HUGE rip off of Corporal Ferro from "Aliens". "In the pipe, five by five...."
Another great article on womengamers.com entitled "Searching for the Techie Woman" has a list of resources for getting women interested in Computer Gaming, and Computer Science as a whole. Here are some of the better ones:
I, like most of the people in western washington, watched the riots on tv for most of the afternoon. I would have to say that the police response was definately appropriate to the percieved threat. In EVERY circumstance, the police made repeated efforts to allow "protesters" to disperse before using tear gas or rubber bullets. In many situations, the rioters outnumbered the police presence by and order of two to one. The courage and clearheadedness under pressure the SPD displayed today was commendable.
The real tragedy of todays events is the fact that a few organized, radical elements in the crowd of otherwise peaceful demonstrators would incite and entire city to rioting.
In the later moments of police/civilian skirmishes (which ended about 10, 10:30 pacific time) the civilians were obviously there with NO purpose. They had no signs, no agenda, and were simply out there to stir up the storm. I hope tomarrow has a more peaceful outcome.
Slashdot Mirror
Ahem....give credit where credit is due. :)
New Frontiers Site on Camelot Herald.
This *might* make me re-up my subscription.
The key here is that they're going to have to use the grace period allowed by the influx of dogfighters at the end of the year to fix the game before anyone notices that everything not space related is kinda boring.
I definately have to give them credit, they've done a really good job of turning a barren wasteland of content into a barren wasteland of content with a few dungeons. They're moving in the right direction. The Jedi Revamp, Corellian Corvette, and Droid Publish are all big improvements to the game.
In some ways, the failures of SWG are interesting to watch as a non-player because you can sit and watch SOE's development process in rapid-fire action. Good luck to them, I say.
Guild Wars is a free MMOG, developed commercially. I don't know enough about their business plan to figure out where they're going to make money.
I imagine there will be interest in it if only for the free part of the equation. I don't see it overtaking any of the big guys, though.
Guild Wars Site
PP is an awesome game...however, you and I are the only ones playing it.
It is a very small game, Apreche. Compared with the 400,000 people of EQ, are you surprised Puzzle Pirate didn't show up on the graph there? I would be surprised if PP had even 20,000 subscribers.
PP would be huge if they had money for advertising in real magazines or on TV. But they don't. So instead we see web ads for them on Penny Arcade and the like, where everyone already plays...
So it goes..
- World of Warcraft, simply put, is going to change everything. Subscription numbers for UO, FFXI, DAoC, AC, AC2, and EQ are going to fluctuate wildly when WoW comes out as people cancel their subscriptions to give Blizzard's game a shot. I don't know how many will stay, but I expect World of Warcraft, by the middle of next year, to be comfortably within the 250,000 - 300,000 area.
- Star Wars Galaxies will continue to hemmoraghe players until this fall, when the space expansion comes out. Regardless of how good it is, their subs are going to skyrocket as people flock to the game that has X-Wings and TIE Fighters. This influx of players will sustain them at least another 2 to 3 years as they continue to patch in new content and....(shhh) fix the game. SWG has passed the point where they could have failed. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
- Anarchy Online is going to be a sleeper comeback kid late this year or early next year. Their upcoming expansion sounds good, Funcom has finally managed to start to move beyond their disaster of a launch, and people are getting tired of Fantasy MMOGs.
- Lineage 2 is not going to do very well at all in the states. US gamers just don't like being ganked.
- AC and AC2, despite losses to WoW, are going to continue on quietly and happily. Jessica Mulligan is no slouch, and despite aging graphics and a tiny playerbase those games just keep getting better.
- City of Heroes is going to be a success...for a while. CoH is going to draw a whole bunch of newbie MMOGers into the fold who have never picked up a MMOG before. 6 months down the line if they don't have villains patched in they're going to start losing people as the fact that there is nothing to do besides combat starts to wear on the playerbase.
- Middle Earth Online is going to be a middling success. Their design concept is only so-so, but they'll attract enough attention via newbie MMOG players lusting after Legolas to stay afloat.
- Warhammer Online .... ?? I don't know where it's going to pull it's playerbase from. Have to wait and see on this one.
- EQ, one year from now, will no longer have such a commanding lead over all other US MMOGs.
- EQ2 is going to do "okay". It's a very different game but the branding alone will be enough to keep it going. Despite what SOE says, EQ is going to lose players to EQ2, futhering the WoW effect on the original Everquest.
- The Sims Online should be put out to pasture. That creepy melting pot of social darwinism was doomed from the get-go. EA should let it die.
- Shadowbane will continue to slowly exist as a team of dedicated and talented developers rescue a game that had almost as bad a launch as AO. People will always want to "Play to CRUSH!" so SB will always have players.
My 2 cents. I spoke a little more about this here: Quality over Quantity.
More non-dork celebrities are gamers than the mainstream media lets on. In an environment such as a Massively Multiplayer game the average person is given the opportunity to be other than they are, to live into a fantasy. For those peopel who may be seen as "living the fantasy", I believe a MMOG would do just the opposite. Inside EQ, a baseball player or movie star is just another hafling or troll. Anonymity can work both ways. Now, if more folks started coming out of the Pen and Paper closet I'd be amused. (I'm looking at you, Vin Diesel.)
For more on pirates, check out Talking like a pirate is fun, but annoys people, a writeup I did a long time ago. Includes a link to a most excellent techno mix of the writeup done by a friend of mine.
ARR!
First and foremost, it is a game, not a "world". All the attempts at turning MMOGs into worlds have resulted in boring sand-box style spaces where people have nothing to do. Puzzle Pirates and A Tale in the Desert are another two excellent examples of why massively multiplayer games should be games.
The polish on this game in the Beta stage is better than Star Wars Galaxies was 4 months after launch. By the time it is released for public consumption, it will join Final Fantasy XI in rivaling Everquest for interesting content.
I don't understand why people are scoffing at WoW for not being revolutionary. Of course not! We're only at the Third Generation of MMOGs here. Hell, Everquest is still the game with the largest player population. World of Warcraft is one really big step in the right direction though.
Shameless self promotion: Check out my first Beta Journal entry at MMORPGDot.
So, this then would be the proverbial "other shoe".
The sound it just made when it hit the floor was pretty resounding.
You know, for a company that insists that they're a on-the-level business with a great product coming down the pipe, they're sure acting like skeezbags.
E3 will be most interesting, I think.
Definately, Sarusa.
I forsee the crowd thinning out quite a bit more.
There are over a half a dozen new MMOGs coming out this year alone. While the field has grown quite a bit since Everquest's first birthday (happy b-day EQ!), I'm still not sure it can support *that* many games.
Me, I'm just waiting for WoW.
They make it abundantly clear that the game will be running until September, but how is it a game if they're not going to be adding content for the next 6 months?
This makes no sense to me. Why not kill it now and save money on the server costs? Everyone is going to leave way before September anyway. With no future for the game, actions have no meaning and the (already stale) content will have no appeal.
Of course, they likely have a clause in the EULA that states that they have to give sufficient warning of the game closure.
Regrettably all Around.
If you dig/dug Earth and Beyond, I know some folks who like Eve Online.
I also have some commentary on this sort of thing in my editorial today on MMORPGDot, as well as at my own site.
Back in college as an exercise I wrote a mini-white paper on the Bluetooth technology spec.
It's pretty interesting stuff.
I completely understand why it's dead now though. Lackluster following of the specs (even by people who helped write it), a very complicated model of master-slave interaction, and several different layers of protocols to contend with made Bluetooth a good idea in theory....but not so much in practice.
It was kinda cool while it lasted, though.
Mr. Ellis, your books entertain to no end. One of the aspects of Transmet that I enjoy a great deal is your poking at the idea of transhumanism. "Uploading", the gene-fad victims, the reanimated cryo folks, all are human, but a humanity that is to one degree or less, removed from the humanity the rest of us experience.
Where do you think our species is going in regards to current "transhumanist" ideas? Do you really think someday we'll be uploading our conciousness to a digital point of view, or swapping out yesterday's cheetah spots for tiger stripes as the mood strikes us?
Thanks for your time.
Maybe I'm just a crotchety old man (at 20), but I remember when the gaming world wasn't summed up by the dark empire of the west. Magic:the Gathering, and Wizards of the Coast buying TSR ruined the gaming world. It used to be the case where TSR(D&D), FASA(Shadowrun/Battletech), White Wolf(Vampire/Werewolf/Mage/Wraith/Changling), Palladium(Rifts/Heroes Unlimited), Steve Jackson(GURPS/In Nomine), and West End(Star Wars) slowly revolved around each other in stately pace, releasing games that most people bought. Smaller companies hung around too, like Atlas and CheapAss. They released quality games that could compete on equal terms released by the big boys. Then Wizards of the Coast(WotC) came along with Magic. Gaming became the domain of creepy little kids whose parents could afford really expensive cards. Then, so they could keep the kids addicted to their products, WotC "saved" TSR by buying them out. D&D was now part of the WotC domain. Geek kids could now be hooked from about 6 or 7 until they died, to WotC products. Then Pokemon came out, adding even more people to their consumer base. Awful management on the part of West End Games resulted in them dying a slow, painful death. Lucas recently releaved the spasming corpse that was West End of the lucrative Star Wars license, and rewarded it to (guess who?) WotC. Now WotC owns two of the five major lines that used to drive the gaming world. The same company that now produces wrestling and baseball Collectable Card Games is making design decisions on one of the oldest gaming lines and on the RPG set in a place a long time ago and far far away. (sigh) And that's not all! An even greater evil has recently befallen the gaming world. WotC was bought out by Hasbro, Inc. As Wizards has done with TSR (those of you who bought 3rd Ed., check your books for a TSR logo or mention. You won't find one.), so Hasbro is planning to do with WotC, or so I'm told. Yes, that's right. D&D will soon by produced by Hasbro. Yuck.
For the sake of honesty, I must confess that I'm part of a small gaming company, so I take these things kind of personal. But Jeez! This years Con was HALF the size of the 98' con. The Wizards Castle was HUGE! You know why? To cover up the fact that there were *very* few small companies there. Those who came rocked, natch, but still. Part of that might have had something to do with the now outrageous prices charged by Andon Unlimited (Guess who owns them?), the company that organizes Gen Con and Origins. Atlas Games and Steve Jackson Games now share a booth because of the outrageous prices. These companies are middle sized fish in this particular pond! If they have to share a booth, what are small businesses supposed to do? So yeah, that's my opinion.
Two questions:
1.) How much luck have you had on that front? Are there any other smallish countries that are looking to Sealand as an example of How to make it in the technical age?
2.) Would you be willing to consider stepping back from the level of security exhibited in the Sealand facility, or compromising the level of freedom allowed by that country, if it meant that you could get access to another principality/new customers.
Those questions asked, I'd like to compliment you on the whole concept. Seeing Kinakuta come to life is heartening.
Great movie, all around. Go see it.
But you don't have to take my word for it:
Salon's Review
Interesting concept, the continents. I thought about it, and they actually compare rather nicely to the real world. (Now, nobody shoot me for sterotypes, I'm just free associating here.)
North America-
The Corporate Internet-
The United States. Perfectly logical, right? Run almost completely by business interests, with strict policies in place that mostly get ignored.
InfoNet-
Mexico. Large land mass, very confusing, a lot of mixed messages. Lots of opportunity, lots of room for improvement.
TechNet-
Canada. This huge, sprawling land that most people look on as "backwards" and "slightly off", but is inhabited by highly intelligent, but quirky people.
Asia -
X-Net-
China and Russia. Nobody yell, it makes sense. It makes sense. It has the largest area of the world (internet), and is inhabited by peoples with very specific and old customs, methods, and personalities. You know, plus the cheap sex.
The Undernet-
Japan. Old, old culture. Having a slight setback lately, as the world's eyes are kinda clued to the CorpNet and the growing areas elsewhere, but a backbone of the world, and a place where new suprises come from every day.
BuyNet-
Africa. It's a jungle out there. Lots of old cultures meeting new ways of doing things, lots of upheaval, lots and lots of opportunity.
CultureNet-
Europe. Another place filled with oldness (movies, TV), but with a lot of young upstarts (Salon, Suck) and new trends making waves.
GameNet-
South America. Another jungle, with lots of ways to die. But also, plenty of adventure, with everything from aging ruins (NES, Atari) to dizzying new technological creations (PS2, Dreamcast) to explore.
GodNet-
Antarctica. A huge place filled with wonder, that almost nobody thinks about, but elicits a LOT of interest amongst a select few.
Quick comment...
I for one say I gotta admire John. He's in here practically every week, writting another article for us folks, amusing us, giving us his perspective on reality. He takes a lot of flak for it, gets a lot of praise, but either way, he's a man who gets noticed. I for one almost always enjoy your posts, John, if you're reading this. If you are, as MrP mentioned, giving in to your detractors, I would say ignore em'. They obviously are not nationally recognized writers, and thus have no reason to poo-poo your work.
I'm suprised no one has mentioned the application of this technology for use in space.
/. a little while ago. Why not go the next step and make the whole damn ship expandable. Make it nice and small for exits and re-entrys (less drag, surface area, etc..), and once you're out in space you can expand out to be twice, or however much larger you can stretch these plastics. Plus, from the discriptions of these technologies, the synthetics these are being made from will soon be strong enough to withstand multiple re-entries. They'll be no space shuttle, sure, but it's better than the inflatable sheild which probably can only be used once.
Think about it, if these plastics can expand and conract on such a small scale, then they'd obviously be able to expand on a much larger scale. Realistic inflatable heat sheilds were just mentioned on
Also, then we can start building cool organic looking ships. (See the Mon Cal crusiers of Star Wars for examples.)
I am a participant in a form of expression which parallels this nicely. When the Japanese had control of the Philippines during and just post WWII, they made practicing the traditional Philipino martial art forms illegal. So, in order that they could have a form of defense, the Philipinos made their martial arts into dances, which could then be practiced in a public square. If a Japanese soldier asked why two men were dancing around a courtyard clacking peices of bamboo together, the townspeople would all get serious looks on their faces and go "Oh, it's a traditional dance passed down over the ages. Very sacred." From this has come the martial art I practice, Eskrima, which is arguably one of the most deadly, efficient martial arts forms available today.
Versatility in the face of prejudice and privacy crackdowns are two abilities that the Philipinos and the DeCSS defendants share. Let's hope everything turns out for the best.
The Star Wars Trilogy (duh)
Bladerunner
Sneakers
Contact (also make her read the book, by the man himself Carl Sagan. I can't believe no one mentioned this one!)
Alien/Aliens (Any other in the series is up to you, but these two are great.)
Dark City
Twelve Monkies
The Nightmare before Christmas (not strictly SciFi, but if she's never seen it, the issues it deals with are very SciFi)
Metropolis (oldie but goodie)
The Even numbered Star Trek movies. (2, 4, 6, and First Contact.)
2001 and 2010.
Brazil
Finally, if she's interested in Science Fiction, she May dig Anime as well. Some anime titles which are good n' healthy for someone her age:
My neighbor Totoro
Princess Mononoke (Coming to Video from Miramax "real soon now"
Ghost in the Shell
Ranma 1/2 (a tv series)
Any of the above titles you can find in both subtitled and dubbed formats. I personally prefer subtitles, but whatever she wants.
Hope that helps.
The Star Wars Trilogy (duh)
Bladerunner
Sneakers
Contact (also make her read the book, by the man himself Carl Sagan. I can't believe no one mentioned this one!)
Alien/Aliens (Any other in the series is up to you, but these two are great.)
Dark City
Twelve Monkies
The Nightmare before Christmas (not strictly SciFi, but if she's never seen it, the issues it deals with are very SciFi)
Metropolis (oldie but goodie)
The Even numbered Star Trek movies. (2, 4, 6, and First Contact.)
2001 and 2010.
Brazil
Finally, if she's interested in Science Fiction, she May dig Anime as well. Some anime titles which are good n' healthy for someone her age:
My neighbor Totoro
Princess Mononoke (Coming to Video from Miramax "real soon now"
Ghost in the Shell
Ranma 1/2 (a tv series)
Any of the above titles you can find in both subtitled and dubbed formats. I personally prefer subtitles, but whatever she wants.
Hope that helps.
I personally enjoy one female character in StarCraft, the dropship pilot, who is a HUGE rip off of Corporal Ferro from "Aliens".
"In the pipe, five by five...."
Another great article on womengamers.com entitled "Searching for the Techie Woman" has a list of resources for getting women interested in Computer Gaming, and Computer Science as a whole. Here are some of the better ones:
http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/club/girls. html (has a whole lot more links, too)
www.girlgeeks.com
http://www.mystery.com/WAM/index.html
I, like most of the people in western washington, watched the riots on tv for most of the afternoon. I would have to say that the police response was definately appropriate to the percieved threat. In EVERY circumstance, the police made repeated efforts to allow "protesters" to disperse before using tear gas or rubber bullets. In many situations, the rioters outnumbered the police presence by and order of two to one. The courage and clearheadedness under pressure the SPD displayed today was commendable.
The real tragedy of todays events is the fact that a few organized, radical elements in the crowd of otherwise peaceful demonstrators would incite and entire city to rioting.
In the later moments of police/civilian skirmishes (which ended about 10, 10:30 pacific time) the civilians were obviously there with NO purpose. They had no signs, no agenda, and were simply out there to stir up the storm. I hope tomarrow has a more peaceful outcome.