Cost is not the only factor. For a criminal, the prospect to creating guns without serial numbers is potentially very appealing. You are right that currently, the tech is very expensive and not practical, but it *will* be only a matter of time before it becomes cheap, reliable, and mass-producible, and when that happens, printed guns become more and more appealing. Depending on how much the Tech ramps up, those $100 Saturday Night specials will be replaced by $100 printed pieces. There will come a time when someone commits a murder with one of these guns, and then everyone will proceed to lose their shit and demand the lawmakers drop the regulation anvil on printed guns.
The WoW killer won't be an MMORPG. That market's pretty much been saturated by WoW already, and unless Blizzard makes a string of ridiculous business decisions, there's just too much barrier to entry for any other MMO game to rival its status as big fish. WoW isn't perfect, but it's done enough things right that even *if* a perfect MMORPG game came along, WoW can probably coast on pure momentum alone and still make a profit for the foreseeable future.
I've heard the "dynamic/generated" content theory before, and my opinion is that it's just a fad. The number one theory of the Internet is that if something *can* be turned into porn, it will be. Add that to the "myspace" factor, and you can imagine countless user-created zones with blinking dancing neon trees, loud obnoxious soundtracks, and weapon and armor made to look like flaming penises and huge boobs. Sure it might be fun for about 15 minutes (okay maybe more), but definitely not grandma-approachable.
What will eventually overshadow (probably not kill) WoW are probably going to be wireless portable web-based games like Puzzle Pirates or Pokemon.
You are right, but this is not relevant to my point. Just because classes aren't balanced does not imply anything about skill. Two Rogue-Mage-Priest teams going against each other will rely on skill to resolve who wins.
2) Other FPS style games do "arena" fights much much better.
Again, irrelevant. "Better" how exactly? I am not, and never was, comparing MMO's to the likes of TF2, anymore than I would compare Pacman to Chess. Different game goals.
3) It takes a stupid amount of time to get to the point you can actually do arenas if all you want to do is PVP.
True, but once again this invalidates my point how? I'm assuming you're talking about WoW, and not some game like Guild Wars, where you actually *can* jump right into PvP. Saying that is like me saying Counterstrike lacks significant character development.
Instead of talking about something which you implicitly have very little experience in, you should check out WoW's PvP gameplay. Try a google for arena 3v3 matches: very skill-based, with an extra emphasis on teamwork and coordination.
I've also been getting sick and tired of all the sino-phobic BS that's been making its way onto slashdot. It's comments like yours that gives me hope that at least some of the posters here actually bother with independent critical thinking instead of jumping on the yellow-scare bandwagon.
The Golden Shield is very much a pipedream, similar to the Missile Defense System or the Mexican Border Wall in the US. It's purpose isn't that it would actually work, but to give the illusion of gov't control to the chinese conservatives in an era where central power is eroding by the day. It's been a common mistake to think the Chinese Communist Party is of one uniform political mind. There are hard-line and reformist factions all deftly playing political skirmishes behind the scenes. You have the aging Long-March-Era hardliners dying off, who still believe in collectivization and socialism, and you have the generation that came of age during the Cultural Revolution, who have been disenfranchised and deeply wary of what a monster blind communist ideology can turn into, but have also seen what a disaster complete anarchy can become.
I think what we're seeing now is a sea-change moment in Chinese politics. You've never seen the Chinese gov't be this open and transparent, and it pretty much amounts to a coup by the Reformists. Rather than banging drums about censorship every opportunity they get, people in the free world should be offering support and encouragement. If Wen Jiabao and the Reformists faction can pull this off (and it looks like they are so far), it will gain them tremendous prestige for continual reforms down the line (more personal freedoms, westernization, anti-corruption measures, etc) and result in a freer, more transparent China. If they are disgraced or the Chinese see what appears to be overwhelming anti-Chinese sentiments from western countries (thankfully this has not been the case), the Hardliners will see this as vindication of the statist iron fist policies, and you'll see the same kind of bullshit that happened during the SARS incident.
Slashdot Mirror
Cost is not the only factor. For a criminal, the prospect to creating guns without serial numbers is potentially very appealing. You are right that currently, the tech is very expensive and not practical, but it *will* be only a matter of time before it becomes cheap, reliable, and mass-producible, and when that happens, printed guns become more and more appealing. Depending on how much the Tech ramps up, those $100 Saturday Night specials will be replaced by $100 printed pieces. There will come a time when someone commits a murder with one of these guns, and then everyone will proceed to lose their shit and demand the lawmakers drop the regulation anvil on printed guns.
The WoW killer won't be an MMORPG. That market's pretty much been saturated by WoW already, and unless Blizzard makes a string of ridiculous business decisions, there's just too much barrier to entry for any other MMO game to rival its status as big fish. WoW isn't perfect, but it's done enough things right that even *if* a perfect MMORPG game came along, WoW can probably coast on pure momentum alone and still make a profit for the foreseeable future.
I've heard the "dynamic/generated" content theory before, and my opinion is that it's just a fad. The number one theory of the Internet is that if something *can* be turned into porn, it will be. Add that to the "myspace" factor, and you can imagine countless user-created zones with blinking dancing neon trees, loud obnoxious soundtracks, and weapon and armor made to look like flaming penises and huge boobs. Sure it might be fun for about 15 minutes (okay maybe more), but definitely not grandma-approachable.
What will eventually overshadow (probably not kill) WoW are probably going to be wireless portable web-based games like Puzzle Pirates or Pokemon.
You are right, but this is not relevant to my point. Just because classes aren't balanced does not imply anything about skill. Two Rogue-Mage-Priest teams going against each other will rely on skill to resolve who wins.
2) Other FPS style games do "arena" fights much much better.
Again, irrelevant. "Better" how exactly? I am not, and never was, comparing MMO's to the likes of TF2, anymore than I would compare Pacman to Chess. Different game goals.
3) It takes a stupid amount of time to get to the point you can actually do arenas if all you want to do is PVP.
True, but once again this invalidates my point how? I'm assuming you're talking about WoW, and not some game like Guild Wars, where you actually *can* jump right into PvP. Saying that is like me saying Counterstrike lacks significant character development.
Instead of talking about something which you implicitly have very little experience in, you should check out WoW's PvP gameplay. Try a google for arena 3v3 matches: very skill-based, with an extra emphasis on teamwork and coordination.
I've also been getting sick and tired of all the sino-phobic BS that's been making its way onto slashdot. It's comments like yours that gives me hope that at least some of the posters here actually bother with independent critical thinking instead of jumping on the yellow-scare bandwagon.
The Golden Shield is very much a pipedream, similar to the Missile Defense System or the Mexican Border Wall in the US. It's purpose isn't that it would actually work, but to give the illusion of gov't control to the chinese conservatives in an era where central power is eroding by the day. It's been a common mistake to think the Chinese Communist Party is of one uniform political mind. There are hard-line and reformist factions all deftly playing political skirmishes behind the scenes. You have the aging Long-March-Era hardliners dying off, who still believe in collectivization and socialism, and you have the generation that came of age during the Cultural Revolution, who have been disenfranchised and deeply wary of what a monster blind communist ideology can turn into, but have also seen what a disaster complete anarchy can become.
I think what we're seeing now is a sea-change moment in Chinese politics. You've never seen the Chinese gov't be this open and transparent, and it pretty much amounts to a coup by the Reformists. Rather than banging drums about censorship every opportunity they get, people in the free world should be offering support and encouragement. If Wen Jiabao and the Reformists faction can pull this off (and it looks like they are so far), it will gain them tremendous prestige for continual reforms down the line (more personal freedoms, westernization, anti-corruption measures, etc) and result in a freer, more transparent China. If they are disgraced or the Chinese see what appears to be overwhelming anti-Chinese sentiments from western countries (thankfully this has not been the case), the Hardliners will see this as vindication of the statist iron fist policies, and you'll see the same kind of bullshit that happened during the SARS incident.