I too have this problem with Wiki: how can it be used for legitimate citations when Joe Schmoe can wreck havoc on it - when something you cited might not be there tomorrow (for whatever reason, revert war or legitimate change)
I have used Wiki in paper citations before, when I couldn't easily find a more reliable source for general information, but the professors were also pretty clueless about Wiki (for a Biology paper and a Myth Fantasy Science Fiction paper). I didn't misuse the source in anyway, but if they had checked it and what I cited was no longer there, there could have been problems. But as more professors wise up to it, I would be hard pressed to continue using it for citations, because anyone can write in it and because of the ability to change it. Which, in short means, Wiki is a great place to tickle one's brain, but isn't ready for real use yet.
Now, Jimmy mentions working to a 1.0 release of Wiki - a stable version, if you will. That I think could become the "academic" wiki, the frozen one that could be cited. If it had more citations itself and if it could be authoritatively fact checked, then I see Wiki becoming the dominant means of general infomation within my academic lifetime. I could see an authorative version of wiki being put out on a regular basis (yearly? twice yearly?) with citations and fact checking which could incorporate the "nightlies" of the dynamic page.
I really want to love Wiki and for doing general research I think it can't be beat. But I think there's going to have to be an "untouchable" version (even if that version is updated regularly) for it to become really useful.
I call shennigans. My taste in gaming has changed I certainly have been playing less, but I don't see myself not playing video games anymore. If you have kids (who says middle age people must?) then play games with them. I don't see any incompatibility between middle age and gaming.
Why not leave the slashdot posts and play with your kids? I think anything can become an addiction and that can be bad for an adult, but how is golf any different than a video game (the only possible way I could see is that golf can be more social)? I'd much rather play a TRPG than guy on a motorcycle or a boat.
Instead of dictating what is right for a person in his middle age, why not live your life as you feel and let others do the same? I don't think video games are that constructive (then again, is reading novels for fun that contructive?) but in moderation, if a person likes playing video games, why should they stop because they turn 35 or 40 or whatever? Video games are just another hobby, like golf, boating, or keeping tropical fish.
I find this happening to me (I'm no wage slave, but a college student). I used to play every kind of video game under the sun, but in the last two years I don't care as much anymore. My younger brother can spend all day playing a game, but I've missed a lot of games he's gotten (Mario Sunshine, Prince of Persia).
I find myself, however, gravitating towards Tactical RPGs (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Disgaea, Fire Emblem). I think it's because the rules don't suddenly change in a TRPG (you'll never have to do a move the blocks puzzle like Final Fantasy or as I saw my brother do, in Tales of Symphonia). You don't have to wander around looking for the right villager to talk to or anything - you get right into the action. Instead of trying to figure out some convoluted puzzle, you have one level after the next. They have new challenges and rules, but none of the "fluff" of finding the right item, talking to the right person, etc.
This is kind of the argument for retro gaming too - you can play Mario 1, just pick it up and play for 30 minutes or so. You can't really do that with say, 3D Zelda games or Mario Sunshine.
I've actually posted about a game in this series, VM Japan, before on/. When I was trying to find information on VM Japan I stumbled across the free version of VMO and downloaded it. Though the English translation is pretty bad (and the cutscenes aren't even trasnlated), it's a fun game. It's a tactical RPG (along the lines of Final Fantasy Tatics, Tatics Ogre, and it seems to share a lot with the upcoming Phantom Brave). However, you control it with the mouse and it runs as a miniziable windows app (more on that in a sec).
The graphics are dated but its a lot of fun. The system is simple; you control (via mouse, which is a new experience for me, but works real well) a main character who can summon magical familars. The nautiauls have various elemental attributes and one is weak against one other and strong against one other. Your objective is to kill off the enemy boss (by getting through his nautiauls). On the board there are power stones that you can claim for yourself (or your enemy can too) by standing on them. Stones add to your magical power, a big help. Every time you win a battle you win a new summon.
Simple yet fun. And since it runs as without going full screen as a normal Win32 app, you can run Winamp and AOL IM while playing, in and of itself a GREAT feature.
It even has network/internet play, which I haven't fooled around with much yet.
It's a great good will gesture for Falcom to put this out. It's a great download and if you enjoyed games like FFTA or Disgaea, it's defintely worth a download. I'm having a lot of fun with it.
This has already been done a lot in music. A lot of/.'ers might remember the DJ Dangermouse "Grey Album", which mashed Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles White Album.
I remember getting the impression that after the press the Grey Album got mashups would become more popular in the music biz or either they are harder to make than it seems (Dangermouse is a talented guy - check out his Ghetto Pop Life CD for proof) or people are scared of getting sued.
What's the legality of A/V mashups? Could people get in the same hot water Dangermouse did?
Do you have any data to back any of those wild claims out? You sound like another nerdy PC/Xbox gamer looking down his nose at consoles. Both have their place:
Consoles have a number of great qualities, including relative cheapness and easy "install." PCs don't have that because they are so multifunction. A game as to be really good for me to want to bother installing it and configuring it on the PC, whereas on a console I can just drop something in.
Also, PCs may become more ubiqitious, but not everyone wants to play anything more than solitare. "Gamers" like the features of a console and I'm sure they will be along time.
PCs won't exist in 10 years? Where do you get that great fortune telling ability?
There's a bug in Pokemon that causes some problems. Gamers could bring in their carts to have the game updated.
I agree though, console games need much more testing because with CDs there's less room for error.
However, the game companies can be good guys about it: When Super Street Fighter 2 came out for the SNES (yeah, I'm old;)) it would sometimes freezes up the older model consoles. I called Capcom's tech support about it and they shipped me a brand new SNES and asked me to ship mine back. When they got the old machine back the even sent me a little gift (commerative coins with the SF2 characters on it).
Even console game makers can fix bugs and be stand up guys.
I guess that's a reasonable first step but for me (a console gamer since I was a kid) it's not enough, for a number of reasons:
The PC is suited to different kinds of games than a console, most notably RTSes and FPSes.
You still have to upgrade computers (I know my 1.47 Athlon would need a huge upgrade to play Doom, my video card's a POS). With the consoles I can buy a machine and play any game that comes out for it (the console cycle is beginning to go more quickly, which is bad for the industry, but that's another submission entirely).
It just works - I don't have to tweak framerates, graphic modes, whatever - console games just work. PC games have to be tweaked because they have to deal with weird (and sometimes misconfigured) hardware.
My PC is usually doing something else - on IM, downloading, whatever, so this instant on feature doesn't help me much in that regard.
PC gaming is doing well enough in Japan. Try this for exmaple or the very popular Ys series. Why do you expect the Japanese to suck down crappy American games when they can make their own? The Koreans are nuts about American RTSes, but the Japanese have their own industry and titles.
American PC games don't do well in Japan. My girlfriend (as a side job) translated Northland and Deus Ex 2 for Japanese release. They didn't do well nor were the games really that good.
In Nippon Ichi's tactical RPG Disgaea, there's an item world; you "enter" an item and do battle on randomly generated maps. For every 10 levels you beat the item becomes stronger. It adds a lot of replay vale to the game and certain stages (Cave of Trials) require you level up your weapon.
Sometimes you do get a doofy level where you can't beat all the enemies or the exit panel is right next to the base panel (you can exit in one move), but overall it's always give you some way to get out of the level (defeating all the enemies or the exit panel).
Its really one of the big elements that make the game last as long as it does (80+ hours - I'm at 70 something and nowhere near unlocking all the stuff).
I'm sure a lot of people feel differently (more power to them!) but for me, I don't care. I'm not paying ANYTHING for online gaming. I used to play X-Wing Alliance online a bit, didn't enjoy it much, and it was free. I have little interest in playing an MMORPG and paying 10-20 bucks a month, when after a month or two I could buy a 40+ hour console game (and that's at new retail price).
The $50 upfront then 10 bucks a month pricing scheme makes it worse.
I am Nintendo's "not-interested-in-online-gaming" demographic.
Slashdot Mirror
I too have this problem with Wiki: how can it be used for legitimate citations when Joe Schmoe can wreck havoc on it - when something you cited might not be there tomorrow (for whatever reason, revert war or legitimate change)
I have used Wiki in paper citations before, when I couldn't easily find a more reliable source for general information, but the professors were also pretty clueless about Wiki (for a Biology paper and a Myth Fantasy Science Fiction paper). I didn't misuse the source in anyway, but if they had checked it and what I cited was no longer there, there could have been problems. But as more professors wise up to it, I would be hard pressed to continue using it for citations, because anyone can write in it and because of the ability to change it. Which, in short means, Wiki is a great place to tickle one's brain, but isn't ready for real use yet.
Now, Jimmy mentions working to a 1.0 release of Wiki - a stable version, if you will. That I think could become the "academic" wiki, the frozen one that could be cited. If it had more citations itself and if it could be authoritatively fact checked, then I see Wiki becoming the dominant means of general infomation within my academic lifetime. I could see an authorative version of wiki being put out on a regular basis (yearly? twice yearly?) with citations and fact checking which could incorporate the "nightlies" of the dynamic page.
I really want to love Wiki and for doing general research I think it can't be beat. But I think there's going to have to be an "untouchable" version (even if that version is updated regularly) for it to become really useful.
I call shennigans. My taste in gaming has changed I certainly have been playing less, but I don't see myself not playing video games anymore. If you have kids (who says middle age people must?) then play games with them. I don't see any incompatibility between middle age and gaming.
Why not leave the slashdot posts and play with your kids? I think anything can become an addiction and that can be bad for an adult, but how is golf any different than a video game (the only possible way I could see is that golf can be more social)? I'd much rather play a TRPG than guy on a motorcycle or a boat.
Instead of dictating what is right for a person in his middle age, why not live your life as you feel and let others do the same? I don't think video games are that constructive (then again, is reading novels for fun that contructive?) but in moderation, if a person likes playing video games, why should they stop because they turn 35 or 40 or whatever? Video games are just another hobby, like golf, boating, or keeping tropical fish.
I find this happening to me (I'm no wage slave, but a college student). I used to play every kind of video game under the sun, but in the last two years I don't care as much anymore. My younger brother can spend all day playing a game, but I've missed a lot of games he's gotten (Mario Sunshine, Prince of Persia).
I find myself, however, gravitating towards Tactical RPGs (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Disgaea, Fire Emblem). I think it's because the rules don't suddenly change in a TRPG (you'll never have to do a move the blocks puzzle like Final Fantasy or as I saw my brother do, in Tales of Symphonia). You don't have to wander around looking for the right villager to talk to or anything - you get right into the action. Instead of trying to figure out some convoluted puzzle, you have one level after the next. They have new challenges and rules, but none of the "fluff" of finding the right item, talking to the right person, etc.
This is kind of the argument for retro gaming too - you can play Mario 1, just pick it up and play for 30 minutes or so. You can't really do that with say, 3D Zelda games or Mario Sunshine.
I'd just try another stage. I almost always know if I'm going to win within the first 10 minutes.
Yeah, if you lose a battle, try another stage. :D
Maybe when you can speak correct Japanese you should make light.
I've actually posted about a game in this series, VM Japan, before on /. When I was trying to find information on VM Japan I stumbled across the free version of VMO and downloaded it. Though the English translation is pretty bad (and the cutscenes aren't even trasnlated), it's a fun game. It's a tactical RPG (along the lines of Final Fantasy Tatics, Tatics Ogre, and it seems to share a lot with the upcoming Phantom Brave). However, you control it with the mouse and it runs as a miniziable windows app (more on that in a sec).
The graphics are dated but its a lot of fun. The system is simple; you control (via mouse, which is a new experience for me, but works real well) a main character who can summon magical familars. The nautiauls have various elemental attributes and one is weak against one other and strong against one other. Your objective is to kill off the enemy boss (by getting through his nautiauls). On the board there are power stones that you can claim for yourself (or your enemy can too) by standing on them. Stones add to your magical power, a big help. Every time you win a battle you win a new summon.
Simple yet fun. And since it runs as without going full screen as a normal Win32 app, you can run Winamp and AOL IM while playing, in and of itself a GREAT feature.
It even has network/internet play, which I haven't fooled around with much yet.
It's a great good will gesture for Falcom to put this out. It's a great download and if you enjoyed games like FFTA or Disgaea, it's defintely worth a download. I'm having a lot of fun with it.
Fox News Channel is more popular and less vilified than CNN
;)
Zuh?
More popular I might concede (there's no arguing the stupidity of the American people).
But more vilified? That kind of patently wrong statement will wake you up in the afternoon
I can't believe all the idiots on /. ...
:)
You must be new here...
I think consoles thrive on (comparatively) simple games that don't require too much futzing about
Typical PC gamer comment: Have you played a tactical RPG like Disgaea? Those are comples games.
This has already been done a lot in music. A lot of /.'ers might remember the DJ Dangermouse "Grey Album", which mashed Jay-Z's Black Album with The Beatles White Album.
I remember getting the impression that after the press the Grey Album got mashups would become more popular in the music biz or either they are harder to make than it seems (Dangermouse is a talented guy - check out his Ghetto Pop Life CD for proof) or people are scared of getting sued.
What's the legality of A/V mashups? Could people get in the same hot water Dangermouse did?
Given she was 11 at the time and speaks better English than that now, I would say no.
Do you have any data to back any of those wild claims out? You sound like another nerdy PC/Xbox gamer looking down his nose at consoles. Both have their place:
Consoles have a number of great qualities, including relative cheapness and easy "install." PCs don't have that because they are so multifunction. A game as to be really good for me to want to bother installing it and configuring it on the PC, whereas on a console I can just drop something in.
Also, PCs may become more ubiqitious, but not everyone wants to play anything more than solitare. "Gamers" like the features of a console and I'm sure they will be along time.
PCs won't exist in 10 years? Where do you get that great fortune telling ability?
The parent needs to be modded Troll.
It's all fun and games til goatse.cx comes up...
But you can fix console problems, in some cases:
;)) it would sometimes freezes up the older model consoles. I called Capcom's tech support about it and they shipped me a brand new SNES and asked me to ship mine back. When they got the old machine back the even sent me a little gift (commerative coins with the SF2 characters on it).
There's a bug in Pokemon that causes some problems. Gamers could bring in their carts to have the game updated.
I agree though, console games need much more testing because with CDs there's less room for error.
However, the game companies can be good guys about it: When Super Street Fighter 2 came out for the SNES (yeah, I'm old
Even console game makers can fix bugs and be stand up guys.
Don't be jealous, buddy ;)
I guess that's a reasonable first step but for me (a console gamer since I was a kid) it's not enough, for a number of reasons:
The PC is suited to different kinds of games than a console, most notably RTSes and FPSes.
You still have to upgrade computers (I know my 1.47 Athlon would need a huge upgrade to play Doom, my video card's a POS). With the consoles I can buy a machine and play any game that comes out for it (the console cycle is beginning to go more quickly, which is bad for the industry, but that's another submission entirely).
It just works - I don't have to tweak framerates, graphic modes, whatever - console games just work. PC games have to be tweaked because they have to deal with weird (and sometimes misconfigured) hardware.
My PC is usually doing something else - on IM, downloading, whatever, so this instant on feature doesn't help me much in that regard.
PC gaming is doing well enough in Japan. Try this for exmaple or the very popular Ys series. Why do you expect the Japanese to suck down crappy American games when they can make their own? The Koreans are nuts about American RTSes, but the Japanese have their own industry and titles.
American PC games don't do well in Japan. My girlfriend (as a side job) translated Northland and Deus Ex 2 for Japanese release. They didn't do well nor were the games really that good.
Oops, here's the link:
History
This history of Derek Smart's Usenet Flamewar.
The funniest thing I've read in a long time.
The guy's a douche. They say if you say his name 3 times he'll come and start flaming...
Derek Smart, Derek Smart, Derek Smarth!
If someone has an Orkut invite, I'd like one.
:)
I have a few Gmails left
You have to be able to stop someone else from scoring.
Isn't that the definition of masturbation?
In Nippon Ichi's tactical RPG Disgaea, there's an item world; you "enter" an item and do battle on randomly generated maps. For every 10 levels you beat the item becomes stronger. It adds a lot of replay vale to the game and certain stages (Cave of Trials) require you level up your weapon.
Sometimes you do get a doofy level where you can't beat all the enemies or the exit panel is right next to the base panel (you can exit in one move), but overall it's always give you some way to get out of the level (defeating all the enemies or the exit panel).
Its really one of the big elements that make the game last as long as it does (80+ hours - I'm at 70 something and nowhere near unlocking all the stuff).
I'm sure a lot of people feel differently (more power to them!) but for me, I don't care. I'm not paying ANYTHING for online gaming. I used to play X-Wing Alliance online a bit, didn't enjoy it much, and it was free. I have little interest in playing an MMORPG and paying 10-20 bucks a month, when after a month or two I could buy a 40+ hour console game (and that's at new retail price).
The $50 upfront then 10 bucks a month pricing scheme makes it worse.
I am Nintendo's "not-interested-in-online-gaming" demographic.
Bicentennial Man was based on a story of the same name. I know it's in Asimov's "Robot Visions" short story collection collection.