Erm, not to invalidate most of your points, but it -is- possible to have servers set up which can be joined from the front end menu:
I'm currently in a Group (the Steam equivalent of a clan), who have a few dedicated servers set up. When I start L4D, it shows these servers in the front end menu, from which you can immedeately join them.
I admit there is still a lot to be worked on (and it's a shame that they made such a step back from their earlier games/server-models), and most of your points are valid, but I just wanted to point this out.
With piracy you can't play the game as nice on-line as with a legally bought copy.
No, instead the Australians will go to one of their overseas mates living in an unrestricted country, ask them to buy it for them as a gift, and then enjoy the full gore as they play the game (see my previous comment on this ban).
Besides Natural Selection (as mentioned below here), there's also a game called 'Savage' (made by S2 Games), which can be downloaded for free since the release of the sequel, Savage 2.
Savage has this RTS element for both sides (beasts vs. humans), and is an awesome game.
I don't know if S1 still has any multiplayer servers at the moment, but if not, if you're into these kind of games, Savage 2 can be bought for a tenner or something (and you'd support an indy studio with it).
At my day job in the software industry, I often feel like a musician who has to make a living writing advertising jingles.
You wish you were: A friend of mine is a musician who does these jobs once and awhile, and he gets paid multiple times for it, either every time it gets used/played on the television/radio, or each year that the jingle is used.
This is quite a lot of money (think of 20.000 euro in the first year, and 8.000 in each consecutive year where they can also 'buy it off' after X amount of years for a sum of about 15.000 euro).
Him having two to three of these jobs a year can let him focus on the stuff he -does- enjoy (such as making his own personal music).
Steam can disable certain games from being sold in your country, or only let you download the censored version (as is being done with the German version of L4D). The weird thing is that there is a way around that: If someone from another country buys the game for you (and gives it as a gift to your account), it will only have the restrictions for the country it's bought in. I've bought L4D for someone in Germany, and they can now enjoy the full experience (as it should be anyways...)
I don't really see the problem with this to be honest: If you don't like it, don't download/play those games.
I'd rather have a selection of free games available, than none at all.
Having ads in front of it is only logical for them to make some money out of it.
Microsoft has been doing the same with Live-Messenger for quite some time: If you start up a webcamchat, you first get to see an ad for about 20 seconds.
I got very annoyed by this, so since then I've been doing my (webcam)chats through Skype. It's all about having the choice.
Nice move by them, but I can see how it's in their own advantage to do so, as it would be more feasible for the students to use it later on.
I'd rather have universities focus on using a -real- open engine though, such as id's Tech3 (Quake 3) GPL'ed engine: More documentation, bigger community, and an, imo, better engine overall.
If someone has managed to become the number one bad-ass on the server, is it really worth going after them when they almost certainly did it specifically to attract people into a trap/gank?
But what happened to good ol' telling them not to use their mobiles, and if they -do- use it, apply punishment?
I obviously didn't RTA, but what a waste of money... (if not the possible consequences)
I imagine the cost to society from smoking may well be greater than the income, thanks to universal healthcare.
You're imagining wrong: As smokers are often to die earlier than non-smokers (heart diseases, cancer, less lung capacity), the costs at the last stage of someone's life are less. In a typical universal-healthcare-system, the last stages of someone's life is where the most costs are incurred.
So smoking actually -saves- money there.
Sorry, I can't be arsed to Google the (Dutch) research that had this result as the actual outcome.
Well done to them.
If the game(s) are executed well, and you still can play the same game when -not- paying for it (or not get a severe advantage), I'll be playing it... and I might even buy some virtual stuff.
I've recently started playing Battlefield Heroes, and whereas I thought I wouldn't be fooled into buying silly virtual clothes, I've recently -did- do that, if not only because I think giving back five pounds of my money is a reasonable amount for the enjoyable content they delivered.
So yeah, let more free games come along, and I might try to compensate a company for their work (my main motivation for buying those items).
Mmm, hard choice: Choose to use my modpoints to mod you down (or the GP up), or reply: Let's go for reply.
The GP is not saying that he can't see how it would not affect him: He's saying he wonders why it's on Slashdot: I, for one, agree.
Whereas there have been other stories in Idle which are rubbish, most of the times they at least have -some- relevance to Slashdot (eg. tech-related). This has none whatsoever.
This doesn't mean it's not news at all, since it is: Just not Slashdot news imho.
Stuff like this (and the whole Idle section) makes Slashdot more and more like Digg, where each bullshitty story gets frontpaged if only enough people choose to digg it.
The shame here is that an actual editor selected it to be displayed on the front page: Once again, not something that's supposed to be there.
Now cue the 'You can filter out Idle or choose not to read the article'-comment, but the only reason why I read this article was because I was curious what relevance it had to technology.
'To me the problem is the Wikipedia rule of public use,' says Jerry Avenaim, a celebrity photographer. 'If they truly wanted to elevate the image on the site, they should allow photographers to maintain the copyright.'
Then you better be sure to stay off Wikipedia, Mr. Avenaim.
He just fails to understand the concept of Wikipedia, whereas everyone should be able to copy-paste a whole article, -with- the photos included, if deemed necesary.
I couldn't care less if a picture of a celebrity is not up-to-date, glamorous, or whatever: As long as the provided information is correct. And -if- the celebrity (or their management) cares... Well, supply a freaking photo with a Creative Commons license: Is this so hard?
Mr. Avenaim would just love it to keep the copyright over his work, so probably in the future he could ask for some money for using his work.
I like this: I don't think this is intruding at all, and is indeed something that most people don't realise the consequences of. Making people aware of something is never bad in my opinion.
I also hope there's room for people who, after being warned, are also free to note that they leave it open on purpose (and as such, won't get a second visit): I like my free hotspots!
There are some (quite important) things missing from the video:
- Why no mention of what connection he is on? Or for that matter, why no mention of where the server is located? (besides some vague "Oh, I've never been as far from a server as I am at the moment!")
- Where's the fullscreen? I can see how it would be quite hard to properly stream current screensizes (such as 1680x1050, or even 1280x1024)
Other than that, I noticed a few odd things, such as:
- When playing MarioKart 64, at the end he all of a sudden crashes into a wall, which he tells is because "he hasn't been playing the game for quite some time"; Seems quite odd, and looked more like it had to do with the actual command not properly coming through.
- Howcome he's allowed to have MK64 running on an emulator anyways? I thought it was illegal to do so (even if you have the game yourself); though I might be wrong on that.
Whereas I like the idea (but can't see myself using it in the next decades), I think the price has to be really low for people to actually use it. Though I can definitely see a use for it for some new sort of console (Phantom, anyone?:D ), where one would be using a subscription service to be able to play a big library.
Still, I always wondered how this would scale if it got really popular: I can't imagine a computer being able to stream multiple high-graphics game for multiple clients.
I can see how the ads would be the bottleneck in serving a site... if not only because it's the same case for users with most sites on normal days too.
Very often I'm stuck waiting for the ads to load, before the actual site shows up on computers where I don't have the luxury of an adblocker; And even with an adblocker I sometimes see my computer still using some resources to get the ads down.
How about they start to release the code so proper modifications can be made? I find it quite strange that TF2 (after a few years), still hasn't released any of their code so people can start properly modding the game. Whereas there's a sortof other way to go about it (by using a plugin, called SourceMod), but using that is still severely limiting the possibilities to what you can do.
I find it quite strange how Valve, who can only be praised for their open attitude towards the modding community in their previous games, has now so severely shut down their latest games on these fronts (Don't misunderstand me; I'm a leveldesigner myself, and -love- their support they've been giving me for both TF2 and L4D), and find it odd that no clear answer on this question has yet been given.
Some of my own speculation of why they aren't releasing the mod-source for both TF2 and L4D are:
- The stats/achievement thing: I can imagine someone with access to the source would be able to make a certain mod which can fool the stats/achievement system, and as such someone can 'cheat': For myself, I don't put too much pleasure in unlocking them that way, but I can see how people would to cheat with enhancing their E-peen (so imo, a half-valid option).
- Afraid of people actually creating new content that can rival their next product: This is especially the case with L4D, whereas I can see that some of the things they're talking about in releasing in L4D2, has been stuff that me and a couple of my mates have been planning to actually do with L4D (but got severely disappointed at not seeing the source released). If this is one of their motivations behind this move... I can only be very disappointed.
- Valve considering the HL2-source to be enough to release to the public, as in the end, simply said, TF2 and L4D are only enhanced modifications of the Source-engine. Again, if this would be the case, I severely disagree, as L4D has several components which are fairly unique to that game, but beg to be enhanced/explored in modifications.
As noticed before, I'm a leveldesigner myself, so not too much into the whole coding-bit: But since the release of L4D we've been planning a certain mod/total modification for it, which is not possible to recreate using the SourceMod-plugin, and would even be more fudged up to create from scratch.
Other than that, the tools and documentation that they -did- release for the mapping community, is excellent, and a great help.
The whole point why successful dating services (yeah who would have throught MMOs and Dating Services had something in common) charge is to create a cost-of-entry that separates serious participants from the rest of the population.
I would like to point out that one of the most succesful datingsites at the moment is Plenty of Fish... which is free.
I've used it for quite some time now (not necesarily looking for a relationship, but also for some extra friends), and I got to say that the amount of fake profiles, or rude behaviour is few and far between.
Chet (a Valve employee) has already confirmed that any map made for L4D will also work for L4D2 without any problems.
The only real problem I can see is people who start making maps for L4D2 (and the new AI Director) in mind, and not releasing them for L4D.
Slashdot Mirror
Erm, she is called Neelie Kroes.
Erm, not to invalidate most of your points, but it -is- possible to have servers set up which can be joined from the front end menu:
I'm currently in a Group (the Steam equivalent of a clan), who have a few dedicated servers set up. When I start L4D, it shows these servers in the front end menu, from which you can immedeately join them.
I admit there is still a lot to be worked on (and it's a shame that they made such a step back from their earlier games/server-models), and most of your points are valid, but I just wanted to point this out.
With piracy you can't play the game as nice on-line as with a legally bought copy.
No, instead the Australians will go to one of their overseas mates living in an unrestricted country, ask them to buy it for them as a gift, and then enjoy the full gore as they play the game (see my previous comment on this ban).
Besides Natural Selection (as mentioned below here), there's also a game called 'Savage' (made by S2 Games), which can be downloaded for free since the release of the sequel, Savage 2.
Savage has this RTS element for both sides (beasts vs. humans), and is an awesome game.
I don't know if S1 still has any multiplayer servers at the moment, but if not, if you're into these kind of games, Savage 2 can be bought for a tenner or something (and you'd support an indy studio with it).
At my day job in the software industry, I often feel like a musician who has to make a living writing advertising jingles.
You wish you were: A friend of mine is a musician who does these jobs once and awhile, and he gets paid multiple times for it, either every time it gets used/played on the television/radio, or each year that the jingle is used.
This is quite a lot of money (think of 20.000 euro in the first year, and 8.000 in each consecutive year where they can also 'buy it off' after X amount of years for a sum of about 15.000 euro).
Him having two to three of these jobs a year can let him focus on the stuff he -does- enjoy (such as making his own personal music).
Steam can disable certain games from being sold in your country, or only let you download the censored version (as is being done with the German version of L4D). The weird thing is that there is a way around that: If someone from another country buys the game for you (and gives it as a gift to your account), it will only have the restrictions for the country it's bought in. I've bought L4D for someone in Germany, and they can now enjoy the full experience (as it should be anyways...)
I don't really see the problem with this to be honest: If you don't like it, don't download/play those games.
I'd rather have a selection of free games available, than none at all.
Having ads in front of it is only logical for them to make some money out of it.
Microsoft has been doing the same with Live-Messenger for quite some time: If you start up a webcamchat, you first get to see an ad for about 20 seconds.
I got very annoyed by this, so since then I've been doing my (webcam)chats through Skype. It's all about having the choice.
Nice move by them, but I can see how it's in their own advantage to do so, as it would be more feasible for the students to use it later on.
I'd rather have universities focus on using a -real- open engine though, such as id's Tech3 (Quake 3) GPL'ed engine: More documentation, bigger community, and an, imo, better engine overall.
Nonetheless, nice move by Crytek.
If someone has managed to become the number one bad-ass on the server, is it really worth going after them when they almost certainly did it specifically to attract people into a trap/gank?
If the reward is high enough; yes, it's worth it.
But what happened to good ol' telling them not to use their mobiles, and if they -do- use it, apply punishment?
I obviously didn't RTA, but what a waste of money... (if not the possible consequences)
I imagine the cost to society from smoking may well be greater than the income, thanks to universal healthcare.
You're imagining wrong: As smokers are often to die earlier than non-smokers (heart diseases, cancer, less lung capacity), the costs at the last stage of someone's life are less. In a typical universal-healthcare-system, the last stages of someone's life is where the most costs are incurred.
So smoking actually -saves- money there.
Sorry, I can't be arsed to Google the (Dutch) research that had this result as the actual outcome.
Why would I want to participate in the for-pay DS economy when the pirate experience is far superior?
Because you like the game, and want to support the developer creating more of those in the future?
Just a wild guess here...
Well done to them.
If the game(s) are executed well, and you still can play the same game when -not- paying for it (or not get a severe advantage), I'll be playing it... and I might even buy some virtual stuff.
I've recently started playing Battlefield Heroes, and whereas I thought I wouldn't be fooled into buying silly virtual clothes, I've recently -did- do that, if not only because I think giving back five pounds of my money is a reasonable amount for the enjoyable content they delivered.
So yeah, let more free games come along, and I might try to compensate a company for their work (my main motivation for buying those items).
Mmm, hard choice: Choose to use my modpoints to mod you down (or the GP up), or reply: Let's go for reply.
The GP is not saying that he can't see how it would not affect him: He's saying he wonders why it's on Slashdot: I, for one, agree.
Whereas there have been other stories in Idle which are rubbish, most of the times they at least have -some- relevance to Slashdot (eg. tech-related). This has none whatsoever.
This doesn't mean it's not news at all, since it is: Just not Slashdot news imho.
Stuff like this (and the whole Idle section) makes Slashdot more and more like Digg, where each bullshitty story gets frontpaged if only enough people choose to digg it.
The shame here is that an actual editor selected it to be displayed on the front page: Once again, not something that's supposed to be there.
Now cue the 'You can filter out Idle or choose not to read the article'-comment, but the only reason why I read this article was because I was curious what relevance it had to technology.
'To me the problem is the Wikipedia rule of public use,' says Jerry Avenaim, a celebrity photographer. 'If they truly wanted to elevate the image on the site, they should allow photographers to maintain the copyright.'
Then you better be sure to stay off Wikipedia, Mr. Avenaim.
He just fails to understand the concept of Wikipedia, whereas everyone should be able to copy-paste a whole article, -with- the photos included, if deemed necesary.
I couldn't care less if a picture of a celebrity is not up-to-date, glamorous, or whatever: As long as the provided information is correct. And -if- the celebrity (or their management) cares... Well, supply a freaking photo with a Creative Commons license: Is this so hard?
Mr. Avenaim would just love it to keep the copyright over his work, so probably in the future he could ask for some money for using his work.
I like this: I don't think this is intruding at all, and is indeed something that most people don't realise the consequences of. Making people aware of something is never bad in my opinion.
I also hope there's room for people who, after being warned, are also free to note that they leave it open on purpose (and as such, won't get a second visit): I like my free hotspots!
WTF?! The princess is in another castle?!
Why did people have to spoil that? I didn't freaking get to stage 1-4 yet!
There are some (quite important) things missing from the video:
:D ), where one would be using a subscription service to be able to play a big library.
- Why no mention of what connection he is on? Or for that matter, why no mention of where the server is located? (besides some vague "Oh, I've never been as far from a server as I am at the moment!")
- Where's the fullscreen? I can see how it would be quite hard to properly stream current screensizes (such as 1680x1050, or even 1280x1024)
Other than that, I noticed a few odd things, such as:
- When playing MarioKart 64, at the end he all of a sudden crashes into a wall, which he tells is because "he hasn't been playing the game for quite some time"; Seems quite odd, and looked more like it had to do with the actual command not properly coming through.
- Howcome he's allowed to have MK64 running on an emulator anyways? I thought it was illegal to do so (even if you have the game yourself); though I might be wrong on that.
Whereas I like the idea (but can't see myself using it in the next decades), I think the price has to be really low for people to actually use it. Though I can definitely see a use for it for some new sort of console (Phantom, anyone?
Still, I always wondered how this would scale if it got really popular: I can't imagine a computer being able to stream multiple high-graphics game for multiple clients.
I can see how the ads would be the bottleneck in serving a site... if not only because it's the same case for users with most sites on normal days too.
Very often I'm stuck waiting for the ads to load, before the actual site shows up on computers where I don't have the luxury of an adblocker; And even with an adblocker I sometimes see my computer still using some resources to get the ads down.
I somehow didn't make myself too clear, but I wasn't meaning the source-code itself, but the source which can be used to make mods.
How about they start to release the code so proper modifications can be made? I find it quite strange that TF2 (after a few years), still hasn't released any of their code so people can start properly modding the game. Whereas there's a sortof other way to go about it (by using a plugin, called SourceMod), but using that is still severely limiting the possibilities to what you can do.
I find it quite strange how Valve, who can only be praised for their open attitude towards the modding community in their previous games, has now so severely shut down their latest games on these fronts (Don't misunderstand me; I'm a leveldesigner myself, and -love- their support they've been giving me for both TF2 and L4D), and find it odd that no clear answer on this question has yet been given.
Some of my own speculation of why they aren't releasing the mod-source for both TF2 and L4D are:
- The stats/achievement thing: I can imagine someone with access to the source would be able to make a certain mod which can fool the stats/achievement system, and as such someone can 'cheat': For myself, I don't put too much pleasure in unlocking them that way, but I can see how people would to cheat with enhancing their E-peen (so imo, a half-valid option).
- Afraid of people actually creating new content that can rival their next product: This is especially the case with L4D, whereas I can see that some of the things they're talking about in releasing in L4D2, has been stuff that me and a couple of my mates have been planning to actually do with L4D (but got severely disappointed at not seeing the source released). If this is one of their motivations behind this move... I can only be very disappointed.
- Valve considering the HL2-source to be enough to release to the public, as in the end, simply said, TF2 and L4D are only enhanced modifications of the Source-engine. Again, if this would be the case, I severely disagree, as L4D has several components which are fairly unique to that game, but beg to be enhanced/explored in modifications.
As noticed before, I'm a leveldesigner myself, so not too much into the whole coding-bit: But since the release of L4D we've been planning a certain mod/total modification for it, which is not possible to recreate using the SourceMod-plugin, and would even be more fudged up to create from scratch.
Other than that, the tools and documentation that they -did- release for the mapping community, is excellent, and a great help.
So Juno can now also finally start twittering?
The whole point why successful dating services (yeah who would have throught MMOs and Dating Services had something in common) charge is to create a cost-of-entry that separates serious participants from the rest of the population.
I would like to point out that one of the most succesful datingsites at the moment is Plenty of Fish... which is free.
I've used it for quite some time now (not necesarily looking for a relationship, but also for some extra friends), and I got to say that the amount of fake profiles, or rude behaviour is few and far between.
It has been out since a couple of weeks...
Hell, it was even posted on Slashdot.
And even before that, it was possible to create maps with a little tweaking of the Hammer editor.
Chet (a Valve employee) has already confirmed that any map made for L4D will also work for L4D2 without any problems.
The only real problem I can see is people who start making maps for L4D2 (and the new AI Director) in mind, and not releasing them for L4D.