THE FEDERATION AGAINST Software Theft (FAST) relies on the kindness of strangers in its effort to short-circuit pirates selling illegal software over the Internet, so in its effort to encourage the reporting of such pirating, the organization wants to make whistle-blowing as simple as the push of a button.
Early next week, the London-based nonprofit will launch a software plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), that when installed will put an "F" button on a user's browser, said lawyer and FAST representative Julian Heathcote Hobbins. The "F" stands for "fast," not "fink." The software will be free and available at the FAST Web site, http://www.fast.org.uk/.
"The software makes reporting instances of illegal software piracy very straightforward and simple. In the past, people would have to go to our Web site and fill out a form to do so and the process was rather complicated. That's completely changed with this software; it's free, easy and you can even make an anonymous report if you'd like," Heathcote Hobbins said.
If a user finds him or herself on a Web site that sells illegal software -- be it music, games, movies or programs -- one click on the "F" will pull up a box. A person can fill in their name, a fake name or no name at all, answer a few other questions, and then click send.
"Included in FAST's software is Webcam software that captures a live example of the site for evidence as well as other basic information about the site," Heathcote Hobbins said.
FAST was set up in 1984 by the British Computer Society's Copyright Committee and works in a fashion similar to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Washington, D.C. "The BSA also investigates reports of software privacy, but its reporting process is very complicated," Heathcote Hobbins said.
Companies' revenue losses due to software piracy were nearly $11.8 billion worldwide in 2000, according to the BSA's annual report. The organization's report for 2001 is expected to be published next month.
FAST, which does not concern itself with peer-to-peer file sharing, had been receiving a steady stream of e-mail and telephone calls reporting the sale of illegal pirated software until recently, he said.
"Since between December and this spring, our e-mails have fallen to about 10 on the weekends and one or two a night on the weekdays. That works out to about 1,000 reports a year, which is about a fifth of what it had been. I don't know if that's because pirates have gone more underground or perhaps our old system was a bit of a pain. That's why we created the new reporting software, which we believe is the first of its kind," Heathcote Hobbins said.
Once FAST receives a tip-off about pirated software, it investigates the claim. If FAST is satisfied that the report is valid, Heathcote Hobbins sends a letter to the ISP (Internet service provider) hosting the Internet software pirates' Web site, informing the ISP of the problem and requesting the site be shut down or that similar action be taken.
"ISPs have been very responsive to this issue, and once they are made aware of anything illegal, are generally keen to put a stop to it. FAST is about stopping illegal software but we also work with the other enforcement bodies, covering music, movies and games," Heathcote Hobbins said.
FAST has also been developing a close relationship with the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) in Washington, D.C. "Obviously, the Web is global and the problem isn't just confined to the U.K. In fact, I just got a tip-off from the States this week. We are looking to broaden our horizons, but that takes time and money," Heathcote Hobbins said.
FAST is also developing plug-in software for the Netscape browser but is uncertain what the time frame for its release is.
The company makes money through corporate and industry membership fees. Companies like the international engineering, construction and services group, Balfour Beatty PLC, and Yorkshire Electricity Group PLC pay yearly fees beginning at $863, depending on the size of the company, to have FAST audit the company to ensure that all of the software the company is using is legal.
FAST not only monitors for software sold illegally over the Internet, but for unregistered software that is being used by companies. About 37 percent of business software used worldwide in 2000 consisted of illegal copies, according to the BSA report.
"There are different types of people that report different types of things. For example, people reporting the sale of illegal software over the Internet may have been burned when they bought illegal software in the past that was ripped badly. Or an IT manager in a company may want to make sure his employer isn't inadvertently doing something illegal. Or in both cases, people may be reporting instances of illegally pirated software simply out of the goodness of their hearts," Heathcote Hobbins said.
How to make this work.
on
e-Denounce
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
In order for this to work, each time you give a site an "F", you should be contractually bound so that if it turns out that the site is legit, then you are the one that gets in trouble: you would have to pay a fine.
Then, in order to give people a motive for using this plug-in, the company should pay bounty money to the vigilante via a Paypal type system.
This fine/bounty system would turn the internet into the wild west, but it might just work. You would end up with roaming internet cowboys who made a living by busting pirates.
However, the system should be more sophisticated, give the user more tools: IRC, USENet, and other protocols are often used for piracy. The report tool should be able to legally document those types of sources.
If noone could pirate software, far more people would end up using free software. Think about it.
The Bush Administration has already launched a War On Nude Statue Boobies, and therefore their resources are already being strained. The War On Video Games must wait.
Think of the teenage Everquest addict's likely profile--a smart geek with a lot of ability but no respect in real life. Our society--particularly our highschool society--accords brainless people with athleticism limitless respect, and people with tremendous minds but not so impressive bodies almost none. It's therefore understandable if one falls into the lure of finding that respect in a make-believe world, since the real one refuses to provide it.
This isn't entirely true. First off, athleticism isn't even a requirement. You don't have to be smart, you don't have to be athletic, but as long as you are good-looking and mainstream - you gain popularity. The thing is, this completely makes sense. I won't go into it, but use a little reasoning, and you will see why this happens. Is it evil? No. Is it an optimal basis to structure a society on? Hell no!...but we are talking about High School here;-)
The aspect of our society that bothers me is how this extends out of High School into daily life: politics and the workplace. Wait, is there any difference to those two?
The most important thing that a smart nerd or geek can do about all of this is to not give it any credit. Don't bitch about it, don't put others down because of it, and don't feel down about it. Let people be popular, hip, cool, good with the ladies, parties, fights... If you try to go against it, if you bitch about it, put people down because of it, or if you feel down because of it... you only give credit to the institution.
The best way to discredit an institution that you disagree with is to ignore its existence, and create your own alternative institution. Take the FSF, Linux, Id Software, or *cough* Microsoft. Are these "geek empires" worthy of time, effort, respect, or maybe even fear? Build a geek empire of your own, or chip in to a geek empire already being built! Its possible as long as you don't get too hung up on the N'Sync or Britney Spears = Cool Popular Good-looking People Empires.
Also, remember to not knock another person because they are good-looking, athletic, or something you are not. Such things don't make a person a bad person, but putting someone down because they are (or are not) good-looking or athletic... that makes for a bad person. Destroying makes for a bad person. Creating makes for a good person. There is room for both institutions.
...just publish your tech reports, research papers, etc, on your own University web page. Use your own University's department to organize conferences and other get-togethers.
Technically, since the Lindows source code wasn't distributed along with the binaries, the source code must be made available to ALL THIRD PARTIES! Rules are rules, and they must be enforced.
Why do American film producers always see the need to take great anime and turn it into live-action? It doesn't make it better. I mean, if you could turn an apple into an orange, is it a better fruit?
Exactly, so then you must agree with me that RPM and DEB are extremely easy to use as it is. Maybe people just want needless eye-candy added to the process.
What exactly do you mean that RPM and DEB need to get a tad easier? I run Debian Linux, and installing software, say an ssh client and server is as easy as typing "apt-get install ssh". Installing a the Mozilla Web Browser is as easy as typing "apt-get install mozilla". I don't even have to go searching for the software, as apt-get does all that for me automatically. I tell it what I want, and it gets and installs it for me. It can't get any easier than that!
However, I cannot comment on RPM and its associated tools. I hear there is apt-get for RPM, but that it isn't as robust as apt-get for DEB.
It is a simple fact that certain interfaces are more efficient a certain tasks compared to other interfaces applied to the same task. In my opinion, it is a good idea for a computer user to be able to use graphical and command-line interfaces. There are many instances where a command-line interface is more efficient/productive to use compared to a GUI. User-friendly = GUI is a logical fallacy.
There is a good book written on this concept of "No Duty to Retreat", when someone threatens your life or tresspasses on your property. For example, if someone enters your house, home, land you actually own, like those Scientologists did, you coulda shot and killed them.
So yeah, parts of the USA still have that wild west mentality.
Give me a break! Everyone knows that the web isn't the hardcore way to get porn. USENET, binaries newsgroups are full of porn, and with an intelligent client, you can pull down porn (spam filtered) from your favorite fetish groups at a healthy 1Mbs on ATTBI cable modem. Before the forced switch to ATTBI, I would get something like 3Mbs of piped porn straight to my harddrive.
Now, the real question should be: who needs that much porn, that fast?
How many people would buy a new car, if they realized that you couldn't sell that car later on down the road? What about a house? When people buy a house or a car, they put allot of weight on the value the house or car will have 10 years from now. So, people buy to use, but they also buy to invest. There is no reason that buying a book shouldn't be the same way. I buy it to use it, and then I sell it once I have gotten all of the use out of it that I can.
Mathematical concepts age very well, and therefore a mathematics book written 50 years ago can be more useful than ever! So why is it, then, that the good math books go out of print? It seems that people are afraid of buying a math book that has been in print for over 20 years... and if not that, the book must be an extremely recent reprint with tons of added eye-candy and useful content removed.
Sorry if I am ranting, but it seems that most of the references I follow in my Theoretical Computer Science books are to out-of-print books. If these books are referenced allot, you'd think there was a demand for them, which makes me wonder why THEY AREN'T IN PRINT!!! Arggg...
Well, you would hope that even though sins have been committed in the past, that we could try to compensate for these sins through humanitarian based charities AND by trying our best to not allow these sins to be committed again.
If you want fast, high-intensity deathmatch, then Quakeworld (Quake1 Internet Client) is your best bet. It's open source, and even after being released way back in 1996, it is still actively played today (updates, mods, levels, and skins are still being made for it too). Team Fortress made its debute with Quakeworld, as did CTF, Rocket Arena, and many other great mods.
Typically, on free for all servers, the frag limit is set at 50, and the matches last for 2 minutes because the top player ends up getting 50 frags within that 2 minutes. That works out to a constant sustained frag rate of about 1 frag every 2 seconds for the top player. I know that in other deathmatch games, there are small bursts of high-intensity fighting, but only in Quakeworld does the fighting stay at that fast pace for the entire match!
Half-Life, Quake2, and Quake3 are a day in the park compared to QuakeWorld deathmatch. You really have to get in a zone to come out on top of free for alls like that. I totally agree with you that realism is of no concern. Give us fun play. Stories, realism, graphics, etc... those are all second place to fun fast play.
Of course, when I want something slow, I play Starcraft or something like that.
...it's Arafats fault. Why won't he stop the violence? They are all terrorists. What? No weapons? Don't worry about that, uhhh, we, uhhh yeah, they were throwing rocks at us. Anyway, nothing to see here, don't look, don't listen, don't think, just accept what you have been told.
Over 5 billion dollars a year is given to Israel from the USA. This doesn't take into consideration the millions of dollars donated by tax deductable charities in the USA.
Anyway, next time we (the USA) are attacked, and our leaders say "its nothing to do with our foreign policy"... think for a moment. You might just be getting lied to, and yes history tells us that our government lies to us... I am not trying to evoke some conspiracy theories or anything. Sometimes the lies are lies by ommission, commission, white lies, small lies, biases... anyway, its all to socially condition us to buy into what the professional politicians want us to think.
Take Iraq for example... we are and have been under a light subtle conditioning for the past few months. We are being conditioned to think that another war is justified. Innocent people will be killed, and our government wants us to know that we aren't terrorists... we just kill allot of people for peace's sake. For those who don't know:
Tit for tat makes about as much sense as "war for peace". Also, you know that Nazis would use similar excuses for the execution of Jews? "Big deal, for all you know those Jews are responsible for the murder of dozens of Aryan children.
Israel is the modern day Nazi Germany. Go read a good book called "The Scarlet Letter", to see an example of how this kind of thing happens.
I agree completely, but if you are talking to someone in the USA, most likely they are so brainwashed, they believe whatever they read in the newspaper, see on TV, or a USA based news website. Let me put it this way: the USA media is just as biased as Al Jazeera.
...is when the USA TV reporters got Arafat on the phone, as he was pinned in his building by Israeli tanks, soldiers, etc... Israelis were killing Pals left and right... and the USA TV reporter asked him why he won't stop the violence....... Uhhh, if that alone doesn't show you the USA media bias against Arafat and the Palestinians, then I don't know what will.
Also, since when was killing police officers NOT considered terrorism? Oh, the second Israelis did it? Is that it?
When Israel does it, its a military acting in self defense, but when Palestinians do it, its terrorism. Duhhhh, I thunk I saw a putty tat.
One thing that bugs me about modern games is that people think that games have to have storylines. Asteroids had no storyline, neither did Defender, Pacman, Pong, Tetris, Super Mario Kart, Metroid, Qix, Quake Deathmatch, and many other games. Games are supposed to be about play, not about interactive movies, interactive books, interactive stories, etc...
In my opinion, the best games are those based around a simple premise. Story based games lose their replay value once the story is over. Games like Tetris, Nethack, etc... those games have a simple premise and near unlimited replay value.
Scripting and stories are turning games into movies. See the final fantasy series for example. Started out great. Peaked with Final Fantasy 6... and then the games turned into movies that require button pressing to advance the story. *yawn*
Slashdot Mirror
THE FEDERATION AGAINST Software Theft (FAST) relies on the kindness of strangers in its effort to short-circuit pirates selling illegal software over the Internet, so in its effort to encourage the reporting of such pirating, the organization wants to make whistle-blowing as simple as the push of a button.
Early next week, the London-based nonprofit will launch a software plug-in for Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), that when installed will put an "F" button on a user's browser, said lawyer and FAST representative Julian Heathcote Hobbins. The "F" stands for "fast," not "fink." The software will be free and available at the FAST Web site, http://www.fast.org.uk/.
"The software makes reporting instances of illegal software piracy very straightforward and simple. In the past, people would have to go to our Web site and fill out a form to do so and the process was rather complicated. That's completely changed with this software; it's free, easy and you can even make an anonymous report if you'd like," Heathcote Hobbins said.
If a user finds him or herself on a Web site that sells illegal software -- be it music, games, movies or programs -- one click on the "F" will pull up a box. A person can fill in their name, a fake name or no name at all, answer a few other questions, and then click send.
"Included in FAST's software is Webcam software that captures a live example of the site for evidence as well as other basic information about the site," Heathcote Hobbins said.
FAST was set up in 1984 by the British Computer Society's Copyright Committee and works in a fashion similar to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Washington, D.C. "The BSA also investigates reports of software privacy, but its reporting process is very complicated," Heathcote Hobbins said.
Companies' revenue losses due to software piracy were nearly $11.8 billion worldwide in 2000, according to the BSA's annual report. The organization's report for 2001 is expected to be published next month.
FAST, which does not concern itself with peer-to-peer file sharing, had been receiving a steady stream of e-mail and telephone calls reporting the sale of illegal pirated software until recently, he said.
"Since between December and this spring, our e-mails have fallen to about 10 on the weekends and one or two a night on the weekdays. That works out to about 1,000 reports a year, which is about a fifth of what it had been. I don't know if that's because pirates have gone more underground or perhaps our old system was a bit of a pain. That's why we created the new reporting software, which we believe is the first of its kind," Heathcote Hobbins said.
Once FAST receives a tip-off about pirated software, it investigates the claim. If FAST is satisfied that the report is valid, Heathcote Hobbins sends a letter to the ISP (Internet service provider) hosting the Internet software pirates' Web site, informing the ISP of the problem and requesting the site be shut down or that similar action be taken.
"ISPs have been very responsive to this issue, and once they are made aware of anything illegal, are generally keen to put a stop to it. FAST is about stopping illegal software but we also work with the other enforcement bodies, covering music, movies and games," Heathcote Hobbins said.
FAST has also been developing a close relationship with the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) in Washington, D.C. "Obviously, the Web is global and the problem isn't just confined to the U.K. In fact, I just got a tip-off from the States this week. We are looking to broaden our horizons, but that takes time and money," Heathcote Hobbins said.
FAST is also developing plug-in software for the Netscape browser but is uncertain what the time frame for its release is.
The company makes money through corporate and industry membership fees. Companies like the international engineering, construction and services group, Balfour Beatty PLC, and Yorkshire Electricity Group PLC pay yearly fees beginning at $863, depending on the size of the company, to have FAST audit the company to ensure that all of the software the company is using is legal.
FAST not only monitors for software sold illegally over the Internet, but for unregistered software that is being used by companies. About 37 percent of business software used worldwide in 2000 consisted of illegal copies, according to the BSA report.
"There are different types of people that report different types of things. For example, people reporting the sale of illegal software over the Internet may have been burned when they bought illegal software in the past that was ripped badly. Or an IT manager in a company may want to make sure his employer isn't inadvertently doing something illegal. Or in both cases, people may be reporting instances of illegally pirated software simply out of the goodness of their hearts," Heathcote Hobbins said.
In order for this to work, each time you give a site an "F", you should be contractually bound so that if it turns out that the site is legit, then you are the one that gets in trouble: you would have to pay a fine.
Then, in order to give people a motive for using this plug-in, the company should pay bounty money to the vigilante via a Paypal type system.
This fine/bounty system would turn the internet into the wild west, but it might just work. You would end up with roaming internet cowboys who made a living by busting pirates.
However, the system should be more sophisticated, give the user more tools: IRC, USENet, and other protocols are often used for piracy. The report tool should be able to legally document those types of sources.
If noone could pirate software, far more people would end up using free software. Think about it.
This is exactly what I meant. Why have a middle-man? It only costs you... no benefits.
The Bush Administration has already launched a War On Nude Statue Boobies, and therefore their resources are already being strained. The War On Video Games must wait.
The aspect of our society that bothers me is how this extends out of High School into daily life: politics and the workplace. Wait, is there any difference to those two?
The most important thing that a smart nerd or geek can do about all of this is to not give it any credit. Don't bitch about it, don't put others down because of it, and don't feel down about it. Let people be popular, hip, cool, good with the ladies, parties, fights... If you try to go against it, if you bitch about it, put people down because of it, or if you feel down because of it... you only give credit to the institution.
The best way to discredit an institution that you disagree with is to ignore its existence, and create your own alternative institution. Take the FSF, Linux, Id Software, or *cough* Microsoft. Are these "geek empires" worthy of time, effort, respect, or maybe even fear? Build a geek empire of your own, or chip in to a geek empire already being built! Its possible as long as you don't get too hung up on the N'Sync or Britney Spears = Cool Popular Good-looking People Empires.
Also, remember to not knock another person because they are good-looking, athletic, or something you are not. Such things don't make a person a bad person, but putting someone down because they are (or are not) good-looking or athletic... that makes for a bad person. Destroying makes for a bad person. Creating makes for a good person. There is room for both institutions.
...just publish your tech reports, research papers, etc, on your own University web page. Use your own University's department to organize conferences and other get-togethers.
Technically, since the Lindows source code wasn't distributed along with the binaries, the source code must be made available to ALL THIRD PARTIES!
Rules are rules, and they must be enforced.
Why do American film producers always see the need to take great anime and turn it into live-action? It doesn't make it better. I mean, if you could turn an apple into an orange, is it a better fruit?
Exactly, so then you must agree with me that RPM and DEB are extremely easy to use as it is. Maybe people just want needless eye-candy added to the process.
What exactly do you mean that RPM and DEB need to get a tad easier? I run Debian Linux, and installing software, say an ssh client and server is as easy as typing "apt-get install ssh". Installing a the Mozilla Web Browser is as easy as typing "apt-get install mozilla". I don't even have to go searching for the software, as apt-get does all that for me automatically. I tell it what I want, and it gets and installs it for me. It can't get any easier than that!
However, I cannot comment on RPM and its associated tools. I hear there is apt-get for RPM, but that it isn't as robust as apt-get for DEB.
It is a simple fact that certain interfaces are more efficient a certain tasks compared to other interfaces applied to the same task. In my opinion, it is a good idea for a computer user to be able to use graphical and command-line interfaces. There are many instances where a command-line interface is more efficient/productive to use compared to a GUI. User-friendly = GUI is a logical fallacy.
There is a good book written on this concept of "No Duty to Retreat", when someone threatens your life or tresspasses on your property. For example, if someone enters your house, home, land you actually own, like those Scientologists did, you coulda shot and killed them.
So yeah, parts of the USA still have that wild west mentality.
Give me a break! Everyone knows that the web isn't the hardcore way to get porn. USENET, binaries newsgroups are full of porn, and with an intelligent client, you can pull down porn (spam filtered) from your favorite fetish groups at a healthy 1Mbs on ATTBI cable modem. Before the forced switch to ATTBI, I would get something like 3Mbs of piped porn straight to my harddrive.
Now, the real question should be: who needs that much porn, that fast?
How many people would buy a new car, if they realized that you couldn't sell that car later on down the road? What about a house? When people buy a house or a car, they put allot of weight on the value the house or car will have 10 years from now. So, people buy to use, but they also buy to invest. There is no reason that buying a book shouldn't be the same way. I buy it to use it, and then I sell it once I have gotten all of the use out of it that I can.
Mathematical concepts age very well, and therefore a mathematics book written 50 years ago can be more useful than ever! So why is it, then, that the good math books go out of print? It seems that people are afraid of buying a math book that has been in print for over 20 years... and if not that, the book must be an extremely recent reprint with tons of added eye-candy and useful content removed.
Sorry if I am ranting, but it seems that most of the references I follow in my Theoretical Computer Science books are to out-of-print books. If these books are referenced allot, you'd think there was a demand for them, which makes me wonder why THEY AREN'T IN PRINT!!! Arggg...
Well, it doesn't beat my Playstation 2! It's 100 times for powerful than a super computer!
Well, you would hope that even though sins have been committed in the past, that we could try to compensate for these sins through humanitarian based charities AND by trying our best to not allow these sins to be committed again.
If you want fast, high-intensity deathmatch, then Quakeworld (Quake1 Internet Client) is your best bet. It's open source, and even after being released way back in 1996, it is still actively played today (updates, mods, levels, and skins are still being made for it too). Team Fortress made its debute with Quakeworld, as did CTF, Rocket Arena, and many other great mods.
Typically, on free for all servers, the frag limit is set at 50, and the matches last for 2 minutes because the top player ends up getting 50 frags within that 2 minutes. That works out to a constant sustained frag rate of about 1 frag every 2 seconds for the top player. I know that in other deathmatch games, there are small bursts of high-intensity fighting, but only in Quakeworld does the fighting stay at that fast pace for the entire match!
Half-Life, Quake2, and Quake3 are a day in the park compared to QuakeWorld deathmatch. You really have to get in a zone to come out on top of free for alls like that. I totally agree with you that realism is of no concern. Give us fun play. Stories, realism, graphics, etc... those are all second place to fun fast play.
Of course, when I want something slow, I play Starcraft or something like that.
She had a nose job and a small "late-teens" face lift, but Entertainment Tonight claims that it will settle in within the next few weeks.
...it's Arafats fault. Why won't he stop the violence? They are all terrorists. What? No weapons? Don't worry about that, uhhh, we, uhhh yeah, they were throwing rocks at us. Anyway, nothing to see here, don't look, don't listen, don't think, just accept what you have been told.
Over 5 billion dollars a year is given to Israel from the USA. This doesn't take into consideration the millions of dollars donated by tax deductable charities in the USA.
Anyway, next time we (the USA) are attacked, and our leaders say "its nothing to do with our foreign policy"... think for a moment. You might just be getting lied to, and yes history tells us that our government lies to us... I am not trying to evoke some conspiracy theories or anything. Sometimes the lies are lies by ommission, commission, white lies, small lies, biases... anyway, its all to socially condition us to buy into what the professional politicians want us to think.
Take Iraq for example... we are and have been under a light subtle conditioning for the past few months. We are being conditioned to think that another war is justified. Innocent people will be killed, and our government wants us to know that we aren't terrorists... we just kill allot of people for peace's sake. For those who don't know:
"killing people" is not equal to "peace"
or in C:
killing != peace
Tit for tat makes about as much sense as "war for peace". Also, you know that Nazis would use similar excuses for the execution of Jews? "Big deal, for all you know those Jews are responsible for the murder of dozens of Aryan children.
Israel is the modern day Nazi Germany. Go read a good book called "The Scarlet Letter", to see an example of how this kind of thing happens.
I agree completely, but if you are talking to someone in the USA, most likely they are so brainwashed, they believe whatever they read in the newspaper, see on TV, or a USA based news website. Let me put it this way: the USA media is just as biased as Al Jazeera.
...is when the USA TV reporters got Arafat on the phone, as he was pinned in his building by Israeli tanks, soldiers, etc... Israelis were killing Pals left and right... and the USA TV reporter asked him why he won't stop the violence. ... ... Uhhh, if that alone doesn't show you the USA media bias against Arafat and the Palestinians, then I don't know what will.
Also, since when was killing police officers NOT considered terrorism? Oh, the second Israelis did it? Is that it?
When Israel does it, its a military acting in self defense, but when Palestinians do it, its terrorism. Duhhhh, I thunk I saw a putty tat.
One thing that bugs me about modern games is that people think that games have to have storylines. Asteroids had no storyline, neither did Defender, Pacman, Pong, Tetris, Super Mario Kart, Metroid, Qix, Quake Deathmatch, and many other games. Games are supposed to be about play, not about interactive movies, interactive books, interactive stories, etc...
In my opinion, the best games are those based around a simple premise. Story based games lose their replay value once the story is over. Games like Tetris, Nethack, etc... those games have a simple premise and near unlimited replay value.
Scripting and stories are turning games into movies. See the final fantasy series for example. Started out great. Peaked with Final Fantasy 6... and then the games turned into movies that require button pressing to advance the story. *yawn*