But I guess confronting real problems isn't as much fun as kicking religious people, is it? Depends on whether that religion's sky-daddy forbids them from kicking back...
You don't understand what I was saying. I was not writing in support of religion. "Law" has no real meaning in science. Things fall, we know that. Why do they fall? That is a theory. Now, I ask you, which "Law" are you referring to? Newton's, or Einstein's? And here is an even more interesting question, which is more correct? And finally, the most interesting question of all: which is used more, day to day?
You've never heard of the theory of intelligent falling? God makes things fall. Duh.
Seriously, though, Gravity is not a fact. Things falling is a fact. Gravity is a theory that explains why things fall. Which theory of gravity do people use? Mostly, Newton's, even though we know that is incorrect. Nobody uses relativity except in special circumstances, because it is a more complex calculation and yields the same results as the 'incorrect' theory of Newton in most circumstances. Newton's theory is 'wrong' but it is still useful. Do you understand now?
Theory means something different in the language of science than it does in everyday speech. All of science is theory. Gravity is a theory. The 'law' of supply and demand is a theory. Theories do not pretend to be fact, but good theories accurately predict outcomes. It doesn't matter whether they are true or not, they provide us with information. Creationism is not a theory because it can not be used to predict useful information. Theories can never be proven 'true' but they can be proven not to predict things correctly. As creationism makes no predictions that can be shown to be false, it can not be disproved like a real theory can. Therefore, it is useless mental masturbation. Evolution is not, it makes useful predictions, and so far, all of them have been shown to be true. So evolution has utility, whereas creationism has none.
Nice attempt at the standard neo-con "But Clinton did it!" defense, but the truth is murkier than you make it out to be. From the wiki article on Sandy Berger:
After a long investigation, the lead prosecutor Noel Hillman, chief of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, stated that Berger only removed classified copies of data stored on hard drives stored in the National Archives, and that no original material was destroyed. I know facts are utterly unimportant to people like you, and perception is everything, but you could try a little harder than that, it took me all of a minute to debunk.
Haaaar, matey, ye be wantin' none o' that mafiaa booty, yer be getting the drippy pox thataway! Thar mafiaa captains be spendin all thar ill gotten gains on ladies o' ill repute, I hear.
I played MUSHs for a long while. I like nice graphics, though. What I'd really like is an MMORPG with elements of a sim and a multi branching plot system with an emphasis on role playing. Any business plan would be speculative, no one's done anything like that so you can't accurately predict how it would work. What you could do, with a good multi branching plot system, is start out smart but dumb it down if its not making money... The key would be marketing it to the right demographic. I'd target traditional role players and aficionados of sims rather than the hordes of mouth breathing action/platformer fans who seem to inhabit MMORPGs nowadays.
That's the current audience. It's what's keeping me, and many more people like me off of these games. If there were a game that really catered to role players, those of us who cut our gaming teeth on tabletop games, I would pay upwards of $30 a month for it.
In TV land, there is Fox, the WB, and Lifetime on the one hand; and IFC, HBO, and the BBC on the other hand. I believe there is a market for upscale, intellectual, and character driven MMORPGs. It just needs to be developed.
That its only Christians and conservatives who are intolerant... Its not like a rational scientist or tolerant liberal would shout down someone they disagree with.../sarc SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!
Awww, man. That bummed me out. But audiences can be educated to enjoy more sophisticated forms of art. With a dynamic quest system using multi-branching, triggered plots , quests could be tailored to the intelligence level of the player.
Are you trolling or are you really that bad at reading comprehension? The GP was talking about SOXX & HIPAA, not FCC approval. And he was in no way implying Apple should be sued. He was stating that the iPhone is not set up to suit corporate environments because it can not be name/password protected and thus can not satisfy SOXX & HIPAA.
That's not insightful. You need to convince the citizens that the outcome is legitimate or there will be rioting in the streets. Tampering with ballots preserves the illusion of legitimacy. Buying electoral college votes puts the fraud right out in the open, it's basically a big "fuck you!" to the American people. That's the last thing anyone in power wants, the entire electorate questioning their legitimacy.
I know they are, but the quests I've seen are hard wired, and that is what I'm suggesting they change. Write generic quests that can be activated at various points, filling in the blanks with relevant details at the time of activation. Everyone gets a different quest.
Also, with more sim elements in MMORPGs, there could easily be real impact on the game world. Not every quest has to be epic, some could result in minor changes, such as new shops opening up, new cities being founded, factions gaining or losing support, and so forth.
Will someone throw a chair at us? Maybe Bill Gates will "buy us out" a la The Simpsons? Sounds scary, I think I'll believe something less risky. "Little crumb donuts are delicious," that's not a risky belief, is it?
I've never understood why MMORPGs didn't do stories the way romance novels do. Basically, romance novels are written based on a flowchart. The first kiss comes by page x, first love scene by page y, and so on. Adventure stories are at least as hackneyed. It's all fill in the blanks: "Find the magical _______ that will destroy the evil _______ and save the _________ !"
"What will we do today, Wheezenerd?" "Well, Big Dumb Tank, today we must find the magical rutabaga that will destroy the evil gopher and save the princess' vegetable garden!"
Do you remember the android fencing game? It flickered pixels on and off as quickly as was possible in order to simulate grayscale. What was it's resolution, 128x48 black & white pixels? The character set was quite a bit higher resolution than that, though. The graphics on that beast were weird.
Don't the telomeres change in the cloning process? From the wiki page on telomeres:
The telomere length varies in cloned animals. Sometimes the clones end up with shorter telomeres since the D.N.A. has already divided countless times. Occasionally, the telomeres in a clone's D.N.A. are longer because they get "reprogrammed". The clone's new telomeres combine with the old ones, giving it abnormally long telomeres. Now, what does this mean for cloned animals? I don't know, but they do kind of work as end caps on the DNA and if the telomeres wear out, the DNA starts to lose genetic information from the ends. This undoubtedly means the sheep will eventually turn into flesh eating zombie sheep whose meat turns humans into brain sucking zombies as well. Australia will be the first continent to go.
Well, maybe not. Heck, I'm not too worried. Modern breeders of every sort of food animal or pet already have plenty of experience with the effects of too much inbreeding on their stock, I don't think the addition of this tool to their kit will confuse them to the point that it damages the species or anything. If the stock becomes non-viable, they will discontinue the method and reintroduce other genetic lines.
In my opinion, absolute worst case scenario, world wide sheep production dips for a few years when some horrible side effect is first noticed. The price of lamb, mutton, and wool goes up for a while. Then wild and heirloom stocks are reintroduced, the problem is solved, and we move on.
But you have to admit, now there's a teeny tiny part of you that's worried about zombie sheep.;-)
Your story sounds much like mine. My dad and I wrote an adventure game for the TRS-80 Model 1, but by that time we had the expansion interface with more memory and floppy drives.
It's computers that are worlds of pure imagination. That's exactly how I feel.
Slashdot Mirror
The Problem of Induction.
Grue and Bleen.
Theory, as used in science.
4 out of 5 sky-daddies recommend censorship to followers confronted by mockery. The other one recommends stoning.
You don't understand what I was saying. I was not writing in support of religion. "Law" has no real meaning in science. Things fall, we know that. Why do they fall? That is a theory. Now, I ask you, which "Law" are you referring to? Newton's, or Einstein's? And here is an even more interesting question, which is more correct? And finally, the most interesting question of all: which is used more, day to day?
You've never heard of the theory of intelligent falling? God makes things fall. Duh.
Seriously, though, Gravity is not a fact. Things falling is a fact. Gravity is a theory that explains why things fall. Which theory of gravity do people use? Mostly, Newton's, even though we know that is incorrect. Nobody uses relativity except in special circumstances, because it is a more complex calculation and yields the same results as the 'incorrect' theory of Newton in most circumstances. Newton's theory is 'wrong' but it is still useful. Do you understand now?
Theory means something different in the language of science than it does in everyday speech. All of science is theory. Gravity is a theory. The 'law' of supply and demand is a theory. Theories do not pretend to be fact, but good theories accurately predict outcomes. It doesn't matter whether they are true or not, they provide us with information. Creationism is not a theory because it can not be used to predict useful information. Theories can never be proven 'true' but they can be proven not to predict things correctly. As creationism makes no predictions that can be shown to be false, it can not be disproved like a real theory can. Therefore, it is useless mental masturbation. Evolution is not, it makes useful predictions, and so far, all of them have been shown to be true. So evolution has utility, whereas creationism has none.
Haaaar, matey, ye be wantin' none o' that mafiaa booty, yer be getting the drippy pox thataway! Thar mafiaa captains be spendin all thar ill gotten gains on ladies o' ill repute, I hear.
Don't forget to pay your $6,990,000 Novell court fees, you cock smoking teabagger.
I played MUSHs for a long while. I like nice graphics, though. What I'd really like is an MMORPG with elements of a sim and a multi branching plot system with an emphasis on role playing. Any business plan would be speculative, no one's done anything like that so you can't accurately predict how it would work. What you could do, with a good multi branching plot system, is start out smart but dumb it down if its not making money... The key would be marketing it to the right demographic. I'd target traditional role players and aficionados of sims rather than the hordes of mouth breathing action/platformer fans who seem to inhabit MMORPGs nowadays.
That's the current audience. It's what's keeping me, and many more people like me off of these games. If there were a game that really catered to role players, those of us who cut our gaming teeth on tabletop games, I would pay upwards of $30 a month for it.
In TV land, there is Fox, the WB, and Lifetime on the one hand; and IFC, HBO, and the BBC on the other hand. I believe there is a market for upscale, intellectual, and character driven MMORPGs. It just needs to be developed.
MMORPGs do not need to be a race to the bottom.
Awww, man. That bummed me out. But audiences can be educated to enjoy more sophisticated forms of art. With a dynamic quest system using multi-branching, triggered plots , quests could be tailored to the intelligence level of the player.
Are you trolling or are you really that bad at reading comprehension? The GP was talking about SOXX & HIPAA, not FCC approval. And he was in no way implying Apple should be sued. He was stating that the iPhone is not set up to suit corporate environments because it can not be name/password protected and thus can not satisfy SOXX & HIPAA.
66% of NYU students, many of whom probably don't vote anyway, is not "most people." And GDP is gross domestic product. Not net.
That's not insightful. You need to convince the citizens that the outcome is legitimate or there will be rioting in the streets. Tampering with ballots preserves the illusion of legitimacy. Buying electoral college votes puts the fraud right out in the open, it's basically a big "fuck you!" to the American people. That's the last thing anyone in power wants, the entire electorate questioning their legitimacy.
I know they are, but the quests I've seen are hard wired, and that is what I'm suggesting they change. Write generic quests that can be activated at various points, filling in the blanks with relevant details at the time of activation. Everyone gets a different quest.
Also, with more sim elements in MMORPGs, there could easily be real impact on the game world. Not every quest has to be epic, some could result in minor changes, such as new shops opening up, new cities being founded, factions gaining or losing support, and so forth.
Will someone throw a chair at us? Maybe Bill Gates will "buy us out" a la The Simpsons? Sounds scary, I think I'll believe something less risky. "Little crumb donuts are delicious," that's not a risky belief, is it?
I've never understood why MMORPGs didn't do stories the way romance novels do. Basically, romance novels are written based on a flowchart. The first kiss comes by page x, first love scene by page y, and so on. Adventure stories are at least as hackneyed. It's all fill in the blanks: "Find the magical _______ that will destroy the evil _______ and save the _________ !"
"What will we do today, Wheezenerd?"
"Well, Big Dumb Tank, today we must find the magical rutabaga that will destroy the evil gopher and save the princess' vegetable garden!"
If your battles rely on the RNG too much, you aren't playing the game very well. The battles should be relying on terrain and time of day.
Do you remember the android fencing game? It flickered pixels on and off as quickly as was possible in order to simulate grayscale. What was it's resolution, 128x48 black & white pixels? The character set was quite a bit higher resolution than that, though. The graphics on that beast were weird.
Well, maybe not. Heck, I'm not too worried. Modern breeders of every sort of food animal or pet already have plenty of experience with the effects of too much inbreeding on their stock, I don't think the addition of this tool to their kit will confuse them to the point that it damages the species or anything. If the stock becomes non-viable, they will discontinue the method and reintroduce other genetic lines.
In my opinion, absolute worst case scenario, world wide sheep production dips for a few years when some horrible side effect is first noticed. The price of lamb, mutton, and wool goes up for a while. Then wild and heirloom stocks are reintroduced, the problem is solved, and we move on.
But you have to admit, now there's a teeny tiny part of you that's worried about zombie sheep.
Hey! Yer the fella what sold me that burrow owl!