If you were in a low population state and knew your vote counted for more then a higher population one would you go out and vote for who you think should be president?
Conversly, if you're in a high population state and if you want someone to be president would you go out and vote cause you know the state needs as many people to vote as possible?
There are many ways to weight the elections while still being fair and impartial to different geographic areas and social upbringings, including actually allowing the people to have the power to elect their president.
The electoral college is the sole reason I don't vote, cause my vote really doesn't matter in the long run as it can be overthrown by 1 person out of the tens of thousands I'm part of.
Our fore fathers had a lot of insight when building the basis of our country and it lasted for centuries. If fit for the time period it was in and even after it past. I believe there is a time when all things must change and this is one of those that needs to be revised. I don't say that for the sake of just having change though.
Our government needs change and not in the Obama fashion. He's still a puppet dancing on someone elses strings with the guise of change. The core of who we are and what we now stand for needs to be significantly revised as the people have changed even if the stone it was written in hasn't.
I for one applaud Iowa. This isn't a silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction. Steps need to be taken before leaps and bounds.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. There isn't a single main character in the book which does not develop over the course of the entire series and sub characters (usually which are followers of the primary one) develop in response to the primary character.
It's a two tiered character development. It looks more like by the time you get done learning about the sub-character you forget about what it means to the primary. Perhaps that's why there are such polar opposite views on his books.
I'd settle for nothing less then three movies per book, but we all know that's not going to happen.
Honestly I wish this series was picked up by a animation studio in Japan. There are just some things you can't do without it becomming a series and there is more then enough material there to actually have a couple hundred meaningful episodes. There also are just somethings you can't produce in real life. Good anime bridges the gap between stories, art, and a visual picture.
Interesting thing about Robert Jordans books is some of the characters are actually designed to produce that sort of a reaction not only through their character in the book, but how you react to them by the way he writes about them, they're that animate.
I guess it's too real for some if the reaction you're supposed to have if you're in the setting in the book is the same as if you were actually in the setting in real life.
I agree. What we have here seems to be old business practices vs new, better, business practices.
Old bosses still believe employees should slave away at their desk for the entire 8 hours, taking a 15 min lunch break instead of the whole hour is the right thing to do, any distraction will 'tank productivitiy' so you stare at your clock for a good half hour before the answer comes to you, employees are akin to children and have absolutely no time management skills so they have to manage them theirself.
New bosses believe in their employees and was said in the posts above, look for the results rather then the method. Most employees know that if they don't work they'll get fired. If they're overly unproductive then that is the end result and they get fired. They dont believe in the illusional perfect employee and know that they're people, just like them.
I agree though, giving every employee a console is a bad idea. Not because you're giving every single one a console, but because you aren't encouraging socializing. You know how many places you have to socialize after you leave school (college or high school)? Bars and work. Friends usually start to mellow out as they get their own families and lives. It can really brighten your day if you get to spend part of it talking to others and maybe some of that talk will relate to that half hour problem... which is then cut down to 10 mins.
Socializing produces amazing results and productivitiy. Never underestimate the importance of morale.
Now, unlike the above posters I work for a company every summer, a very small company. It has two full time employees, one part time depending on workload, 'the boss', and me during the summer.
The boss is a no show and one of those that believes after they setup a good system they don't need to do anything, but reap the rewards and come in once in awhile to do administrative work.
Which leaves one of the full time employees to do all the work they're supposed to and part of the bosses workload as they either expect them to do the work or they get pushed into doing it over the phone.
Now he has a computer, his desk, a window(!!!!) the usual setup. Nothing outside of the ordinary and makes the day slow as hell. He comes around and talks all the time when he has nothing better to do or is bored. I found out that he used to play games of some sorts so I decided to hook him up with a copy of Flight Simulator X and a joystick for his birthday.
Now our talks everyday usually include where he was and is flying to and what aircraft he is using. Keep in mind the sort of work we do is pretty straightforward and easy to finish when you're on task.
The thing about Flight Simulator, sims in general compared to other games, is you can just let them go and don't require that much interaction. He actually uses the game as a screen saver while he is working becaues it takes time to get somewhere and if you've seen how scenic FSX is, it's a very good dynamic wallpaper that changes.
If you're that concerned about tanking productivity, just start them out with a simulator. It's quite a bit better then working at your desk, but doesn't grab your attention nearly as much as something like a FPS.
I would have to disagree, the company that had people playing AoE at lunch time would be amazing. Even if they go over their lunchtime a bit, miniture lan parties like that will shoot your morale, productivity, and comraderie through the roof. I can almost guarentee they didn't take breaks for the rest of the day if that was at lunch time and I'm sure they didn't before that. Going to work is a drag and usually there isn't much of anything to look forward to in the day. Regardless of motivation, being excited to go to work each day is something rather... extrodinary.
I would also like to point out that if you're on break, regardless of playing games or sipping coffee while browsing slashdot, you aren't required by any means to help customers. I guess that's why you have a break area so it doesn't look like anyones home.
People over generalize 'lots of people with good ideas'. No one seems to be aware that if everyone has a good idea it merely becomes a mediocre idea as people set the baseline.
I'm not worried about the massive caps now, I'm more worried when all ISPs enforce caps and then can start pushing them down till they can yank money out of a good portion of users.
If a desk is infront of them, all it would take is a switch with a battery for power.
The whole idea of being very minimal about it while you're physically there and someone else being able to snoop around at their leisure offsite and out of harm is what gets me.
Even if they find out, the damage will be done and will be a lot less obvious then seeing a janitor sitting at a top secret computer terminal. It completely defeats the purpose of having an entirely different network.
I've seen video games compared to writing a lot. I don't believe it's nearly the samething though.
Last I recall, it didn't take you tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars just to make a piece of work. Of course you have to get it published, but if you put enough energy in you can write it yourself and maybe get some of your friends to look over the work. Video games are not the same way.
If they were you'd be able to write your idea down, major gameplay mechanics, feel, and atmosphere... like a very descriptive book and let the publishers (the game developers) go with it.
Unfortunately it's not that way and you have to publish your work yourself in order for anyone to bat a eye at you, which is being said here... and if that's all done before you get any cash flow it sorta negates the point of getting people to go with your idea.
I believe this doesn't even matter at all. A modeller doesn't need in depth knowledge of the game and it's inner workings, a skinner, coder, Q&A all don't need to actually know what they're working on to a certain extent to accomplish their taks. In affect good video games can be mass produced as long as experienced game developers can cherry pick good ideas (which are out there and aren't dime a dozen, hence why all the big titles right now are iteration 2, 4, and 3) and work with the core mechanics of the game, which someone is able to think up.
IMHO I think game developers or publishers, should have divisions for R&D of ideas. Since they seem to fail at making actual NEW games now and have resorted to blaming their lack of creativity and sales on... other issues. R&D is part of any major industry, why doesn't the gaming industry have it (besides utilizing technical improvements)?
It all starts out with "wouldn't it be cool if...". Busy work for producing a game is nothing like writing filler in a book between the major portions.
The sad thing is 4, 3, and 1 will leave you burned out before you ever start anything and 2 is off the whims of someones free time, which means it will more then likely never manifest itself.
Most people on here are saying ideas are a dime a dozen and while true, good ideas are worth a heck of a lot more then that and they are out there. Such is the reason why Call of Duty 52 is one of the best sellers as is age old games like World of Warcraft.
The industry is starving due to a lack of original content and at the same time they're smothering the very people who can help revitalize it, which are the gamers. Heck, if you want evidence that gamers are starved, the $10 purchasable version of the Spore Creature Creator topped US game sales. http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53387 (sorry for a lack of a embeded link)
I have a few very good ideas as well and a decent amount of time playing any game and I come up with revisements and changes for various parts of the game ranging from gameplay mechanics, to restructuring the GUI, to a TC. I'm sure most hardcore gamers are like this, yet there is no way to actually get these ideas to the developers or to a big company. You can post in a suggestion forum, but that almost always fails completely as they're usually just there as a ornament to make the gamers feel like they have some sort of power over what they're playing. Occasionally game developers listen, but it's only to whoever screams the loudest and the longest - reads majority rule.
This is sad in my opinion. People with great ideas shouldn't need to make tech demos, draw up fancy concept art, and then dance infront of people in order for big companies to profit off of them. Ideally speaking good ideas are very easy to recognize just by discussing the concept, no dressing up is needed. Companies should be paying you for your ideas, especially those from the people they're selling the product to! That's why customer feedback is so important for developing new products, looking at sales is only part of the bigger picture.
I'm suprised big companies like EA or Blizzard haven't introduced some sort of pitch your idea to the big whigs, where you submit your ideas to them in whatever form it takes on, with the oportunity to help co-develop a title with a experienced lead designer. Of course this gives them all the rights to the IP and there would have to be all sorts of legal work in the background, but the general idea is there.
Employing a small force of people to screen through all the crap in the drop box is a small sum compared to almost all the rights on a brand new IP. It isn't that hard to turn a ear to the people buying your products, other parts of the industry (automotive?) have been doing it for decades now.
Chances are if one gamer likes it, if his friends, who are also gamers like it, a good majority of other gamers will also like it.
Who best to know what they want besides the people who are buyng the product?
There is already a game developed like this called Burnout, instead of trying to avoid accidents though the idea is to create as much destruction as possible. I know yours is the opposite, but essentially the same idea and destruction sells better.
Slashdot Mirror
If you were in a low population state and knew your vote counted for more then a higher population one would you go out and vote for who you think should be president?
Conversly, if you're in a high population state and if you want someone to be president would you go out and vote cause you know the state needs as many people to vote as possible?
There are many ways to weight the elections while still being fair and impartial to different geographic areas and social upbringings, including actually allowing the people to have the power to elect their president.
The electoral college is the sole reason I don't vote, cause my vote really doesn't matter in the long run as it can be overthrown by 1 person out of the tens of thousands I'm part of.
Our fore fathers had a lot of insight when building the basis of our country and it lasted for centuries. If fit for the time period it was in and even after it past. I believe there is a time when all things must change and this is one of those that needs to be revised. I don't say that for the sake of just having change though.
Our government needs change and not in the Obama fashion. He's still a puppet dancing on someone elses strings with the guise of change. The core of who we are and what we now stand for needs to be significantly revised as the people have changed even if the stone it was written in hasn't.
I for one applaud Iowa. This isn't a silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction. Steps need to be taken before leaps and bounds.
I'd have to respectfully disagree. There isn't a single main character in the book which does not develop over the course of the entire series and sub characters (usually which are followers of the primary one) develop in response to the primary character.
It's a two tiered character development. It looks more like by the time you get done learning about the sub-character you forget about what it means to the primary. Perhaps that's why there are such polar opposite views on his books.
I'd settle for nothing less then three movies per book, but we all know that's not going to happen.
Honestly I wish this series was picked up by a animation studio in Japan. There are just some things you can't do without it becomming a series and there is more then enough material there to actually have a couple hundred meaningful episodes. There also are just somethings you can't produce in real life. Good anime bridges the gap between stories, art, and a visual picture.
Interesting thing about Robert Jordans books is some of the characters are actually designed to produce that sort of a reaction not only through their character in the book, but how you react to them by the way he writes about them, they're that animate.
I guess it's too real for some if the reaction you're supposed to have if you're in the setting in the book is the same as if you were actually in the setting in real life.
Comcast leading the way.
Everyone knows this is the good old 'foot in the door' technique right?
Library of Alexandria, what?
Plus who wouldn't want all the smartest people in their country? Australia knows how to stroke egos.
I agree. What we have here seems to be old business practices vs new, better, business practices.
Old bosses still believe employees should slave away at their desk for the entire 8 hours, taking a 15 min lunch break instead of the whole hour is the right thing to do, any distraction will 'tank productivitiy' so you stare at your clock for a good half hour before the answer comes to you, employees are akin to children and have absolutely no time management skills so they have to manage them theirself.
New bosses believe in their employees and was said in the posts above, look for the results rather then the method. Most employees know that if they don't work they'll get fired. If they're overly unproductive then that is the end result and they get fired. They dont believe in the illusional perfect employee and know that they're people, just like them.
I agree though, giving every employee a console is a bad idea. Not because you're giving every single one a console, but because you aren't encouraging socializing. You know how many places you have to socialize after you leave school (college or high school)? Bars and work. Friends usually start to mellow out as they get their own families and lives. It can really brighten your day if you get to spend part of it talking to others and maybe some of that talk will relate to that half hour problem... which is then cut down to 10 mins.
Socializing produces amazing results and productivitiy. Never underestimate the importance of morale.
Now, unlike the above posters I work for a company every summer, a very small company. It has two full time employees, one part time depending on workload, 'the boss', and me during the summer.
The boss is a no show and one of those that believes after they setup a good system they don't need to do anything, but reap the rewards and come in once in awhile to do administrative work.
Which leaves one of the full time employees to do all the work they're supposed to and part of the bosses workload as they either expect them to do the work or they get pushed into doing it over the phone.
Now he has a computer, his desk, a window(!!!!) the usual setup. Nothing outside of the ordinary and makes the day slow as hell. He comes around and talks all the time when he has nothing better to do or is bored. I found out that he used to play games of some sorts so I decided to hook him up with a copy of Flight Simulator X and a joystick for his birthday.
Now our talks everyday usually include where he was and is flying to and what aircraft he is using. Keep in mind the sort of work we do is pretty straightforward and easy to finish when you're on task.
The thing about Flight Simulator, sims in general compared to other games, is you can just let them go and don't require that much interaction. He actually uses the game as a screen saver while he is working becaues it takes time to get somewhere and if you've seen how scenic FSX is, it's a very good dynamic wallpaper that changes.
If you're that concerned about tanking productivity, just start them out with a simulator. It's quite a bit better then working at your desk, but doesn't grab your attention nearly as much as something like a FPS.
I would have to disagree, the company that had people playing AoE at lunch time would be amazing. Even if they go over their lunchtime a bit, miniture lan parties like that will shoot your morale, productivity, and comraderie through the roof. I can almost guarentee they didn't take breaks for the rest of the day if that was at lunch time and I'm sure they didn't before that. Going to work is a drag and usually there isn't much of anything to look forward to in the day.
Regardless of motivation, being excited to go to work each day is something rather... extrodinary.
I would also like to point out that if you're on break, regardless of playing games or sipping coffee while browsing slashdot, you aren't required by any means to help customers. I guess that's why you have a break area so it doesn't look like anyones home.
People over generalize 'lots of people with good ideas'. No one seems to be aware that if everyone has a good idea it merely becomes a mediocre idea as people set the baseline.
Red Scare, what?
RIAA doesn't consist of 1 million people.
I'm not worried about the massive caps now, I'm more worried when all ISPs enforce caps and then can start pushing them down till they can yank money out of a good portion of users.
If a desk is infront of them, all it would take is a switch with a battery for power.
The whole idea of being very minimal about it while you're physically there and someone else being able to snoop around at their leisure offsite and out of harm is what gets me.
Even if they find out, the damage will be done and will be a lot less obvious then seeing a janitor sitting at a top secret computer terminal. It completely defeats the purpose of having an entirely different network.
I've seen video games compared to writing a lot. I don't believe it's nearly the samething though.
Last I recall, it didn't take you tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars just to make a piece of work. Of course you have to get it published, but if you put enough energy in you can write it yourself and maybe get some of your friends to look over the work. Video games are not the same way.
If they were you'd be able to write your idea down, major gameplay mechanics, feel, and atmosphere... like a very descriptive book and let the publishers (the game developers) go with it.
Unfortunately it's not that way and you have to publish your work yourself in order for anyone to bat a eye at you, which is being said here... and if that's all done before you get any cash flow it sorta negates the point of getting people to go with your idea.
I believe this doesn't even matter at all. A modeller doesn't need in depth knowledge of the game and it's inner workings, a skinner, coder, Q&A all don't need to actually know what they're working on to a certain extent to accomplish their taks. In affect good video games can be mass produced as long as experienced game developers can cherry pick good ideas (which are out there and aren't dime a dozen, hence why all the big titles right now are iteration 2, 4, and 3) and work with the core mechanics of the game, which someone is able to think up.
IMHO I think game developers or publishers, should have divisions for R&D of ideas. Since they seem to fail at making actual NEW games now and have resorted to blaming their lack of creativity and sales on... other issues. R&D is part of any major industry, why doesn't the gaming industry have it (besides utilizing technical improvements)?
It all starts out with "wouldn't it be cool if...". Busy work for producing a game is nothing like writing filler in a book between the major portions.
The sad thing is 4, 3, and 1 will leave you burned out before you ever start anything and 2 is off the whims of someones free time, which means it will more then likely never manifest itself.
Most people on here are saying ideas are a dime a dozen and while true, good ideas are worth a heck of a lot more then that and they are out there. Such is the reason why Call of Duty 52 is one of the best sellers as is age old games like World of Warcraft.
The industry is starving due to a lack of original content and at the same time they're smothering the very people who can help revitalize it, which are the gamers. Heck, if you want evidence that gamers are starved, the $10 purchasable version of the Spore Creature Creator topped US game sales. http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53387 (sorry for a lack of a embeded link)
I have a few very good ideas as well and a decent amount of time playing any game and I come up with revisements and changes for various parts of the game ranging from gameplay mechanics, to restructuring the GUI, to a TC. I'm sure most hardcore gamers are like this, yet there is no way to actually get these ideas to the developers or to a big company. You can post in a suggestion forum, but that almost always fails completely as they're usually just there as a ornament to make the gamers feel like they have some sort of power over what they're playing. Occasionally game developers listen, but it's only to whoever screams the loudest and the longest - reads majority rule.
This is sad in my opinion. People with great ideas shouldn't need to make tech demos, draw up fancy concept art, and then dance infront of people in order for big companies to profit off of them. Ideally speaking good ideas are very easy to recognize just by discussing the concept, no dressing up is needed. Companies should be paying you for your ideas, especially those from the people they're selling the product to! That's why customer feedback is so important for developing new products, looking at sales is only part of the bigger picture.
I'm suprised big companies like EA or Blizzard haven't introduced some sort of pitch your idea to the big whigs, where you submit your ideas to them in whatever form it takes on, with the oportunity to help co-develop a title with a experienced lead designer. Of course this gives them all the rights to the IP and there would have to be all sorts of legal work in the background, but the general idea is there.
Employing a small force of people to screen through all the crap in the drop box is a small sum compared to almost all the rights on a brand new IP. It isn't that hard to turn a ear to the people buying your products, other parts of the industry (automotive?) have been doing it for decades now.
Chances are if one gamer likes it, if his friends, who are also gamers like it, a good majority of other gamers will also like it.
Who best to know what they want besides the people who are buyng the product?
There is already a game developed like this called Burnout, instead of trying to avoid accidents though the idea is to create as much destruction as possible. I know yours is the opposite, but essentially the same idea and destruction sells better.