There are 3 differences between the premium account that you can't do or are limited with a free account.
1. Land ownership. Free accounts can't own land. But anybody can rent land if they have the money for it. So if you figure out a way to make enough money, you can rent with a free account. 2. Weekly stipend is minute for free accounts. For the basic premium account, it comes out to about a month's fees. 3. L$ to US$ exchange is limited for free (And even low level premium) accounts. But you can get around this by going to websites like slexchange.
None of that prevents you from making and selling items. Or really prevents you from doing anything inside SL.
I run a sort of SWG fan site. Not that I play anymore, but people find the site useful so I keep it running.
Before the NGE, I saw around 1200 unique hits a week. It never went more than 200 away from that, for the nearly two years I had been running it up to that point.
As soon as NGE was announced that started dropping. Now it's somewhere between 300-500 unique hits a week.
I was just looking at my company's job listings the other day to see if we had anything I could recommend a friend for. We didn't, but I found a position very close to mine. I fell so short of the requirements it wasn't even funny.
What is funny is that I think I am being considered for a promotion, and I KNOW most of the company (We're really small) thinks very highly of my work.
I usually scale down specific requirements of time spent doing something when looking through job listings. Also, anything that says "requires X degree" I ignore. I've never found it to stop me if I can actually make it to the hiring manager and talk to some technical people who know what is really required.
I think the difference is a racing game vs a racing simulator. Contrast Mario Kart/F-Zero with very game like mechanics to Gran Turismo/PGR with with more realistic racing simulator environments.
The style of play is also different. In Mario Kart, eliminating other players is a way to win, and in a competitive environment, you'r expected to use whatever you can to your advantage. In more simulator type games, hitting another player generally hurts you both, so it's in your and their best interest not to hit someone. (This assumes more than 1 on 1. In 1 on 1, more aggressive play can help.)
I don't mind cinematics so much as long as they are not intrusive, and you only have to watch them once. (Including replaying the game. If a game makes you watch a cinematic, it should let you skip it if you've been through there in a different savegame.)
Tutorial cinematics should ALWAYS be skippable. I got frustrated with the Batman Begins games because I got to a spot where you went through a tutorial that took a few minutes then you had to do two fights with no chance to heal between them. The fights were not too hard but it wasn't easy either, and each failed attempt meant going through the tutorial again. And you couldn't skip it.
Personally I think MMORPG is more fitting term for those games than what you call "classic MMORPG". In fact I've seen the opposite trend, people dropping the RP from games that really don't have any and just calling them "MMOG". Of course it hasn't stuck yet.
I still stand by my point though. I get what you are saying about combat, and got that from the article too, but I still disagree that makes it any less a MMORPG.
That was my impression too. That and most arcades that have a dancing game only have one. I think every D&B I've been to (It would take both hands to count them) has Pump it Up. Which I'm fine with because I prefer it to DDR. But they don't take care of the machines and most of them sound like they have a blown speaker.
That aside, I don't go to D&B anymore, but it's not really their fault. I used to go for the Virtual World games, until Virtual World "upgraded" their mech simulator by making it (literally) just MW4, and ditched the unique martian racing game completely.
From the article and other players comments it sounds like they have it. Rape and murder are tracked and considered crimes, then other players can solve those crimes.
Not a direct reply to your comment, but you mentioned Jack Thompson. If you believe his recent mostly level headed interview, he would not have any reason to go against this game, because it isn't being marketed to minors, and you have to be 21 to join.
Re:As someone who participated in the beta...
on
Sex and the Modern MMOG
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I'm not going to comment on most your post (Having little knowledge in the game) but I take issue with:
It is purely a social game that has combat to taunt people into believing it is a MMORPG.
What do you think MMORPG means? "Massively Multiplayer Combat Game"? Traditionally most MMORPGs have been combat because it's the easiest to do, and most computer RPGs involve combat. But there is nothing that says MMORPG must be combat. Computer RPGs are about story and character development and, well, playing a role. I don't see this game as any different. And it's not like it's the first non combat MMORPG. There have been many others, including the likes of Club Caribe (Technically not a MMORPG only because the term didn't exist then), Second Life and The Sims Online.
I have a friend that has 3-phase to his house as well. He had to pay an arm and a leg for it because his neighborhood just had a single phase delivery since it was residential, and residential is based on a single phase power. Yes, most residence are single phase power. While it is true there are two seemingly different phases that give a potential of 240 volts between them, that is still one phase. It's called Split Phase. The fact that the differential voltage is exactly twice normal voltage is how you can tell. Using 2 phases of a 3 phase system gives you 207 volts. A true 2 phase system (As opposed to just using 2 phases of a 3 phase system) have the phases 90 degrees out of sync, which is completely different.
That is not two phase power in the same sense that there is three phase power. That is what is called Split Phase power, but it is still technically one phase.
I'm not sure that would have helped. Note the grandparents mention of the cheapy detector saying everything was fine. I read that as being one of those things with the 3 lights. Those only really help with obvious stuff, like open circuits (On any wire) or reversed wiring. I don't think it would show anything abnormal where the neutral and ground wires were both connected, but not properly wired at the box as mentioned in the grandparent.
Success (Or lack thereof) will depend deeply on the power supply. If you have a big beefy power supply that is much more than the machine needs, then it likely won't be as big a problem than if you are running a power supply close to the required level for the load in the system.
The thing is, when a power supply is running on low voltage, it has to make up for the lacking by drawing more current. This also stresses the power supply components as they have to do more work. Many power supplies will not operate beyond a certain threshold as a safety matter, hence the comment about 100 volt minimum.
Slightly OT but the main reason for self modifying code on the 6502/6510 CPU (C64) was not due to limited register space, but limited indirect memory access, which is necessary for anything that uses pointer type access, partly due to the fact that it used 8-bit registers. The C64 had indirect indexing only within a "page". Each page is 256 bytes, and part of the opcode was what page it was indexing off of. So if a program needed to loop over more than 256 bytes, or if a loop in any way needed to cross a 256 byte boundry, the program needed to either unroll the loop, or modify the opcode to modify which page it is writing.
In that case it was not done for optimization, but rather out of necessity to keep program size down. Unrolling the loop would be more optimized, but the code would be larger, and it would be impractical for something that didn't know how big the range it was working on ahead of time was. On a system with only 64k address space (Not all of it even being usable for code) code size is important.
This isn't an example of self modifying code anyway, it's an example of code in data. The code itself isn't changing, but data is being used as code. It's no more self modifying code than DLL loading is self modifying code. Less so, actually, since some dynamically loaded code is fixed up by the loader.
We don't even know if Apple IS collecting the information, and if it is, if the information is kept individual.
I'll use google as an example. Google tracks searches for the purpose of calculating the cost of words for adwords. But that doesn't mean they record everything you personally searched for. If all their data says is that they had 1000 people search for "comunist manifesto" yesterday, the data would be useless to identify who was searching for it.
Similarly, even IF Apple is actually collecting the data (Of which there is currently no proof either way, so we must entertain equally the possibilities) it is entirely possible that the collection would not extend past "50000 people listened to N'Sync yesterday".
I just get tired of people sensationalizing on these things based on only having half information, then filling in the other half with worst case scenaraio like it's fact, and calling it a horrible invasion of privacy.
As an example, the same thing happened when someone monitored what TiVo transmits when it calls home, and noticed it reported everything you watched. But in that case it is information transmitted anonymously (No personal identifying information with it, and sent to a different server than what actually deals with account information) and TiVo only deals with the data in aggregate.
I see the potential for the same thing here. Sure, there is a worst possible case where all the data is being collected for whatever sinister means, but I also see a case that I think is more likely that they are just using a single song to select something similar rather than tracking your personal habits. More likely is that it is somewhere in the middle.
I just don't see that companies are automatically evil, and their actions must be sinister if at all possible. While it's not "because it's Apple" (I don't really use Apple products at the moment) I do think that this case should be weighed against the company. Apple has a history of trying to make the best possible user experience, and why should this be any different?
Is it too much to ask that these people finish researching something before trying to jump out and sensationalize something as a breach of privacy?
Well said. (Where's a mod point when you need it?) I'm still not even convinced that Apple is even tracking data rather than just using each selection as an individual point of reference to suggest songs. Even if they are, and I used iTunes, I'd have no problem with it.
So? BFD. Certainly there are cases where privacy is a concern, and companies are harvesting personal data for ill gains. But is this really one of them? Calling it malware makes it sound like Apple was so sinister. It's no worse than Amazon tracking your purchase habbits and using it to suggest what other shoppers must buy, or the fact that you have to register with CDDB now, so they could potentially track what music you listen to. Of course the article doesn't even offer proof that the data is even retained by Apple, nor that there it is directly associated with your personal information. It could just be using the immediately selected song to suggest similar music, not a full history.
And what exactly sinister use will Apple have for this horribly damaging data, anyway?
Plus, it's so easy to disable. Get over it already.
Okay I will eat some of my words on this one. I did a little more reading and apparently photovoltaic cells are designed to reflect light they don't use, though I found no reference as to exactly how much they reflect.
Commercial power generation tends to use the heat from the sun rather than the light directly, so my point still stands there.
Slashdot Mirror
It's worse than that it's physics, Jim!
I think M.U.L.E. had to be my favorite game back in it's time. That game rocked. Though the Nintendo port never quite lived up to the C64 original.
There are 3 differences between the premium account that you can't do or are limited with a free account.
1. Land ownership. Free accounts can't own land. But anybody can rent land if they have the money for it. So if you figure out a way to make enough money, you can rent with a free account.
2. Weekly stipend is minute for free accounts. For the basic premium account, it comes out to about a month's fees.
3. L$ to US$ exchange is limited for free (And even low level premium) accounts. But you can get around this by going to websites like slexchange.
None of that prevents you from making and selling items. Or really prevents you from doing anything inside SL.
You know Second Life is free, right?
I run a sort of SWG fan site. Not that I play anymore, but people find the site useful so I keep it running.
Before the NGE, I saw around 1200 unique hits a week. It never went more than 200 away from that, for the nearly two years I had been running it up to that point.
As soon as NGE was announced that started dropping. Now it's somewhere between 300-500 unique hits a week.
I was just looking at my company's job listings the other day to see if we had anything I could recommend a friend for. We didn't, but I found a position very close to mine. I fell so short of the requirements it wasn't even funny.
What is funny is that I think I am being considered for a promotion, and I KNOW most of the company (We're really small) thinks very highly of my work.
I usually scale down specific requirements of time spent doing something when looking through job listings. Also, anything that says "requires X degree" I ignore. I've never found it to stop me if I can actually make it to the hiring manager and talk to some technical people who know what is really required.
I think the difference is a racing game vs a racing simulator. Contrast Mario Kart/F-Zero with very game like mechanics to Gran Turismo/PGR with with more realistic racing simulator environments.
The style of play is also different. In Mario Kart, eliminating other players is a way to win, and in a competitive environment, you'r expected to use whatever you can to your advantage. In more simulator type games, hitting another player generally hurts you both, so it's in your and their best interest not to hit someone. (This assumes more than 1 on 1. In 1 on 1, more aggressive play can help.)
From my vague memories of doing admin work on Sparc...
le (Lance Ethernet) was the 10mb chip, bm (Big Mac) was 100mbit only, and hme (Happymeal) was 10/100.
I don't mind cinematics so much as long as they are not intrusive, and you only have to watch them once. (Including replaying the game. If a game makes you watch a cinematic, it should let you skip it if you've been through there in a different savegame.)
Tutorial cinematics should ALWAYS be skippable. I got frustrated with the Batman Begins games because I got to a spot where you went through a tutorial that took a few minutes then you had to do two fights with no chance to heal between them. The fights were not too hard but it wasn't easy either, and each failed attempt meant going through the tutorial again. And you couldn't skip it.
Personally I think MMORPG is more fitting term for those games than what you call "classic MMORPG". In fact I've seen the opposite trend, people dropping the RP from games that really don't have any and just calling them "MMOG". Of course it hasn't stuck yet.
I still stand by my point though. I get what you are saying about combat, and got that from the article too, but I still disagree that makes it any less a MMORPG.
That was my impression too. That and most arcades that have a dancing game only have one. I think every D&B I've been to (It would take both hands to count them) has Pump it Up. Which I'm fine with because I prefer it to DDR. But they don't take care of the machines and most of them sound like they have a blown speaker.
That aside, I don't go to D&B anymore, but it's not really their fault. I used to go for the Virtual World games, until Virtual World "upgraded" their mech simulator by making it (literally) just MW4, and ditched the unique martian racing game completely.
From the article and other players comments it sounds like they have it. Rape and murder are tracked and considered crimes, then other players can solve those crimes.
Not a direct reply to your comment, but you mentioned Jack Thompson. If you believe his recent mostly level headed interview, he would not have any reason to go against this game, because it isn't being marketed to minors, and you have to be 21 to join.
I'm not going to comment on most your post (Having little knowledge in the game) but I take issue with:
It is purely a social game that has combat to taunt people into believing it is a MMORPG.
What do you think MMORPG means? "Massively Multiplayer Combat Game"? Traditionally most MMORPGs have been combat because it's the easiest to do, and most computer RPGs involve combat. But there is nothing that says MMORPG must be combat. Computer RPGs are about story and character development and, well, playing a role. I don't see this game as any different. And it's not like it's the first non combat MMORPG. There have been many others, including the likes of Club Caribe (Technically not a MMORPG only because the term didn't exist then), Second Life and The Sims Online.
I have a friend that has 3-phase to his house as well. He had to pay an arm and a leg for it because his neighborhood just had a single phase delivery since it was residential, and residential is based on a single phase power. Yes, most residence are single phase power. While it is true there are two seemingly different phases that give a potential of 240 volts between them, that is still one phase. It's called Split Phase. The fact that the differential voltage is exactly twice normal voltage is how you can tell. Using 2 phases of a 3 phase system gives you 207 volts. A true 2 phase system (As opposed to just using 2 phases of a 3 phase system) have the phases 90 degrees out of sync, which is completely different.
That is not two phase power in the same sense that there is three phase power. That is what is called Split Phase power, but it is still technically one phase.
I'm not sure that would have helped. Note the grandparents mention of the cheapy detector saying everything was fine. I read that as being one of those things with the 3 lights. Those only really help with obvious stuff, like open circuits (On any wire) or reversed wiring. I don't think it would show anything abnormal where the neutral and ground wires were both connected, but not properly wired at the box as mentioned in the grandparent.
Success (Or lack thereof) will depend deeply on the power supply. If you have a big beefy power supply that is much more than the machine needs, then it likely won't be as big a problem than if you are running a power supply close to the required level for the load in the system.
The thing is, when a power supply is running on low voltage, it has to make up for the lacking by drawing more current. This also stresses the power supply components as they have to do more work. Many power supplies will not operate beyond a certain threshold as a safety matter, hence the comment about 100 volt minimum.
Slightly OT but the main reason for self modifying code on the 6502/6510 CPU (C64) was not due to limited register space, but limited indirect memory access, which is necessary for anything that uses pointer type access, partly due to the fact that it used 8-bit registers. The C64 had indirect indexing only within a "page". Each page is 256 bytes, and part of the opcode was what page it was indexing off of. So if a program needed to loop over more than 256 bytes, or if a loop in any way needed to cross a 256 byte boundry, the program needed to either unroll the loop, or modify the opcode to modify which page it is writing.
In that case it was not done for optimization, but rather out of necessity to keep program size down. Unrolling the loop would be more optimized, but the code would be larger, and it would be impractical for something that didn't know how big the range it was working on ahead of time was. On a system with only 64k address space (Not all of it even being usable for code) code size is important.
This isn't an example of self modifying code anyway, it's an example of code in data. The code itself isn't changing, but data is being used as code. It's no more self modifying code than DLL loading is self modifying code. Less so, actually, since some dynamically loaded code is fixed up by the loader.
We don't even know if Apple IS collecting the information, and if it is, if the information is kept individual.
I'll use google as an example. Google tracks searches for the purpose of calculating the cost of words for adwords. But that doesn't mean they record everything you personally searched for. If all their data says is that they had 1000 people search for "comunist manifesto" yesterday, the data would be useless to identify who was searching for it.
Similarly, even IF Apple is actually collecting the data (Of which there is currently no proof either way, so we must entertain equally the possibilities) it is entirely possible that the collection would not extend past "50000 people listened to N'Sync yesterday".
I just get tired of people sensationalizing on these things based on only having half information, then filling in the other half with worst case scenaraio like it's fact, and calling it a horrible invasion of privacy.
As an example, the same thing happened when someone monitored what TiVo transmits when it calls home, and noticed it reported everything you watched. But in that case it is information transmitted anonymously (No personal identifying information with it, and sent to a different server than what actually deals with account information) and TiVo only deals with the data in aggregate.
I see the potential for the same thing here. Sure, there is a worst possible case where all the data is being collected for whatever sinister means, but I also see a case that I think is more likely that they are just using a single song to select something similar rather than tracking your personal habits. More likely is that it is somewhere in the middle.
I just don't see that companies are automatically evil, and their actions must be sinister if at all possible. While it's not "because it's Apple" (I don't really use Apple products at the moment) I do think that this case should be weighed against the company. Apple has a history of trying to make the best possible user experience, and why should this be any different?
Is it too much to ask that these people finish researching something before trying to jump out and sensationalize something as a breach of privacy?
Well said. (Where's a mod point when you need it?) I'm still not even convinced that Apple is even tracking data rather than just using each selection as an individual point of reference to suggest songs. Even if they are, and I used iTunes, I'd have no problem with it.
So? BFD. Certainly there are cases where privacy is a concern, and companies are harvesting personal data for ill gains. But is this really one of them? Calling it malware makes it sound like Apple was so sinister. It's no worse than Amazon tracking your purchase habbits and using it to suggest what other shoppers must buy, or the fact that you have to register with CDDB now, so they could potentially track what music you listen to. Of course the article doesn't even offer proof that the data is even retained by Apple, nor that there it is directly associated with your personal information. It could just be using the immediately selected song to suggest similar music, not a full history.
And what exactly sinister use will Apple have for this horribly damaging data, anyway?
Plus, it's so easy to disable. Get over it already.
Reminds me of the days of BBSs. One BBS I frequented crashed once, and the owner posted news that she was installing windows and the BBS crashed.
Deliberately being misleading, in that she was installing windows in her house at the time it crashed.
Okay I will eat some of my words on this one. I did a little more reading and apparently photovoltaic cells are designed to reflect light they don't use, though I found no reference as to exactly how much they reflect.
Commercial power generation tends to use the heat from the sun rather than the light directly, so my point still stands there.