The big problem with Final Fantasy games getting worse with age, the way I see it, is that the series, and many classic turn based RPGs, didn't evolve enough where many other genres and series have.
Twenty years ago when Final Fantasy had such a strong following despite tiny pixellated graphics, they had something other games didn't. In an age where points were what mattered and most games had but the simplest of plots, Final Fantasy had characters with personality and background (relatively speaking to other games at the very least), and there was drama. While the rest of the game was spamming "Fight" over and over and healing when necessary, there was a story with endearing characters traveling together and meshing in odd ways.
Fast forward to the turn of the century and Final Fantasy still tries to make their games this way. However, the other games have grown up by now. Castlevania, Grand Theft Auto, even Metroid and Super Mario are fleshing in their characters and trying to create a story. Except these series were already actual games. The end result is that pretty much any game you pick up will attempt Final Fantasy's dramatics alongside actual gameplay.
Now I'm sure some will argue that some people don't want to play games that require cat like reflexes or hold greater chances of failure, but the classic RPG engine doesn't necessarily have to evolve towards action. Strategy RPGs continue the turn based tradition of Fight/Magic/Item/etc but with added depth that keeps random encounters or grinding or whatever from being the monotonous chore that it usually winds up being. Final Fantasy Tactics went this route as a matter of fact.
Now while I haven't played FFXIII word has it that they made it linear, took away from the town going experience, and I know that as far back as FFX the World Map stopped being a thing. That sounds to me like a step backwards from precisely the thing that gave FF its magic.
I see this sentiment thrown around a lot on the issue of robots making jobs obsolete but would the ratio of maintenance workers to robots honestly be 1:1? Would it honestly stay 1:1? If someone wasn't going to be displaced from this developments what would be the point of switching to robots?
Socializing functions on a steep curve. The people who are already loved and surrounded by plenty of friends maintain sharp social skills and tend to continue on building up more and more love/friendship while the people who are lonely and isolated tend to be more prone to rejection or neglect which in turn makes their probably already poor social skills grow worse. While there are stories of people turning that around, a good number of people who wind up in the latter position wind up staying there and/or growing worse as their lives go on.
Christianity collapses entirely without the Creation story.
I wonder. The big paradox is that despite ages of squabbling over how true god's existence and biblical miracles were, Christianity is about faith, faith no matter what doubts the Christian might come across, and a reward at the end of the line for believing. And true enough to that, I know far too many people, evangelical and unrelated, that will plug their ears or conveniently forget/ignore painfully inconvenient revelations or debunking. I guess there's no way to raise this question without sounding like a troll: wouldn't the Christian thing to do be to rationalize how the creation story had to have happened despite evolution and whatever science might come up with?
I have no mod points so yeah frigging THIS. Between right clicking only working half the time, offsite links never working anymore, needing to open up all the parent posts to view post scores, and so much more, the redesign has been quite the pain.
I suspected a model like this would be the logical conclusion of the way Capitalism is currently going when I read this. Indeed, with the wealthiest at the very top refusing to budge an inch as they gain and cling to more and more of the wealth, who will be able to buy and spend except them?
Urban Dead is a free text based zombie survival MMO that gives its characters Action Points at a rate of once every half hour, capped at 50. Unless you've donated, you only get 160 IP hits a day too so for the people who create multiple accounts there are still limits to how much they can even check in on their characters.
Excellent post, and very courageous might I add. More than ever these days it feels as if feminism demands that women get all of the benefits of being treated as equals while simultaneously keeping any special treatment they would have gotten under the old world social model. If women wanted the old patriarchy that would be okay and if they wanted genuine equality that would be okay too, but the double dipping these days is getting out of hand.
This. The definition of 'geek' has been extremely shallow and slanted up until recent years and the things that used to be accessories to geeks have been simplified enough to become mainstream.
A decade or two ago computers were for the knowledgeable, precise, and most of all the enthusiastic, but now that the GUI has replaced DOS and computers are adequately drool proofed (not to mention necessary for socializing and business) they are fit for consumption by the masses.
A decade or two ago video games had shabbier controls, graphics that required imagination, and blips for a soundtrack, but now that the technology allows for detailed graphics and symphonic background music, they are fit for consumption by the masses.
Classic tabletop fantasy games needed an understanding and management of math and a lot of little numbers just to create a character sheet, much less understand how to play. Now that there are MMOs that have the dirty work covered (not to mention voices and graphics to cover for the unimaginative) they are fit for consumption by the masses.
So really being a "geek" originally had more to do with how enthusiastic/obsessive one is willing to be with niche hobbies the common person wouldn't appreciate, with a strong tendency towards hobbies that one didn't need to be especially sociable to enjoy. This is the reason why people who go to football games covered in nothing but merchandise of their favored team or will sit out in the snow shirtless and painted in their team's colors are less likely to be considered geeks than a quiet kid with a microscope. And yet for pop culture to digest the idea of the geek, the hobbies more associated with the unsociable and unpopular became part of the geek identity.
How about avoiding the internet altogether at that age? Even if you avoid all the porn, there are still a bajillion other things to think about. The trickery and deception of the gullible and naive. The hostility and ruthlessness people so viciously unleash upon each other. the way u see this fuckin ppl right on teh interwebs!!!! Although we no longer have quite the Wild West vibe of the pioneer days these still aren't friendly streets. While I don't see the problem with a boy that small having his own computer, I think your boy's laptop should just stay off the internet, and that he should use another computer (with your supervision preferably) if you want him to learn web related stuff.
That article managed to completely miss Simultronics' text based games and the massive, fanatical player bases that followed them in the 90s. I played Gemstone III a year before they detached themselves from the service providers and adopted a pay web service model, and even for a couple of years after that. But a veteran DragonRealms player I know still plays DR even now.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but mashing right-click seems to eventually make something happen.
No, it doesn't "say" that anywhere. The only time you hear the assertion that a blowjob isn't sex is from a guilty husband or boyfriend.
Don't forget Dante Hicks' girlfriend!
Perishables may also be sent by UPS.
They've got quite the rep for that by now.
What about Tubgirl brand butterscotch?
The big problem with Final Fantasy games getting worse with age, the way I see it, is that the series, and many classic turn based RPGs, didn't evolve enough where many other genres and series have. Twenty years ago when Final Fantasy had such a strong following despite tiny pixellated graphics, they had something other games didn't. In an age where points were what mattered and most games had but the simplest of plots, Final Fantasy had characters with personality and background (relatively speaking to other games at the very least), and there was drama. While the rest of the game was spamming "Fight" over and over and healing when necessary, there was a story with endearing characters traveling together and meshing in odd ways. Fast forward to the turn of the century and Final Fantasy still tries to make their games this way. However, the other games have grown up by now. Castlevania, Grand Theft Auto, even Metroid and Super Mario are fleshing in their characters and trying to create a story. Except these series were already actual games. The end result is that pretty much any game you pick up will attempt Final Fantasy's dramatics alongside actual gameplay. Now I'm sure some will argue that some people don't want to play games that require cat like reflexes or hold greater chances of failure, but the classic RPG engine doesn't necessarily have to evolve towards action. Strategy RPGs continue the turn based tradition of Fight/Magic/Item/etc but with added depth that keeps random encounters or grinding or whatever from being the monotonous chore that it usually winds up being. Final Fantasy Tactics went this route as a matter of fact. Now while I haven't played FFXIII word has it that they made it linear, took away from the town going experience, and I know that as far back as FFX the World Map stopped being a thing. That sounds to me like a step backwards from precisely the thing that gave FF its magic.
You'd win all of the mod points if I had any.
This is what happens.
Well how else are they going to win a tank of gas?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvyOsYjWJlA
I see this sentiment thrown around a lot on the issue of robots making jobs obsolete but would the ratio of maintenance workers to robots honestly be 1:1? Would it honestly stay 1:1? If someone wasn't going to be displaced from this developments what would be the point of switching to robots?
Socializing functions on a steep curve. The people who are already loved and surrounded by plenty of friends maintain sharp social skills and tend to continue on building up more and more love/friendship while the people who are lonely and isolated tend to be more prone to rejection or neglect which in turn makes their probably already poor social skills grow worse. While there are stories of people turning that around, a good number of people who wind up in the latter position wind up staying there and/or growing worse as their lives go on.
Christianity collapses entirely without the Creation story.
I wonder. The big paradox is that despite ages of squabbling over how true god's existence and biblical miracles were, Christianity is about faith, faith no matter what doubts the Christian might come across, and a reward at the end of the line for believing. And true enough to that, I know far too many people, evangelical and unrelated, that will plug their ears or conveniently forget/ignore painfully inconvenient revelations or debunking. I guess there's no way to raise this question without sounding like a troll: wouldn't the Christian thing to do be to rationalize how the creation story had to have happened despite evolution and whatever science might come up with?
I have no mod points so yeah frigging THIS. Between right clicking only working half the time, offsite links never working anymore, needing to open up all the parent posts to view post scores, and so much more, the redesign has been quite the pain.
...wouldn't the cap being in place make it easier for them to tighten the grip over time? 150GB becomes 125GB becomes 110GB becomes 100GB?
I suspected a model like this would be the logical conclusion of the way Capitalism is currently going when I read this. Indeed, with the wealthiest at the very top refusing to budge an inch as they gain and cling to more and more of the wealth, who will be able to buy and spend except them?
Urban Dead is a free text based zombie survival MMO that gives its characters Action Points at a rate of once every half hour, capped at 50. Unless you've donated, you only get 160 IP hits a day too so for the people who create multiple accounts there are still limits to how much they can even check in on their characters.
A bunch of Clueless who haven't lanned the Cant or the chant.
Excellent post, and very courageous might I add. More than ever these days it feels as if feminism demands that women get all of the benefits of being treated as equals while simultaneously keeping any special treatment they would have gotten under the old world social model. If women wanted the old patriarchy that would be okay and if they wanted genuine equality that would be okay too, but the double dipping these days is getting out of hand.
This. The definition of 'geek' has been extremely shallow and slanted up until recent years and the things that used to be accessories to geeks have been simplified enough to become mainstream.
A decade or two ago computers were for the knowledgeable, precise, and most of all the enthusiastic, but now that the GUI has replaced DOS and computers are adequately drool proofed (not to mention necessary for socializing and business) they are fit for consumption by the masses.
A decade or two ago video games had shabbier controls, graphics that required imagination, and blips for a soundtrack, but now that the technology allows for detailed graphics and symphonic background music, they are fit for consumption by the masses.
Classic tabletop fantasy games needed an understanding and management of math and a lot of little numbers just to create a character sheet, much less understand how to play. Now that there are MMOs that have the dirty work covered (not to mention voices and graphics to cover for the unimaginative) they are fit for consumption by the masses.
So really being a "geek" originally had more to do with how enthusiastic/obsessive one is willing to be with niche hobbies the common person wouldn't appreciate, with a strong tendency towards hobbies that one didn't need to be especially sociable to enjoy. This is the reason why people who go to football games covered in nothing but merchandise of their favored team or will sit out in the snow shirtless and painted in their team's colors are less likely to be considered geeks than a quiet kid with a microscope. And yet for pop culture to digest the idea of the geek, the hobbies more associated with the unsociable and unpopular became part of the geek identity.
This whole thread needs to be shown some mod point lovin'.
How about avoiding the internet altogether at that age? Even if you avoid all the porn, there are still a bajillion other things to think about. The trickery and deception of the gullible and naive. The hostility and ruthlessness people so viciously unleash upon each other. the way u see this fuckin ppl right on teh interwebs!!!! Although we no longer have quite the Wild West vibe of the pioneer days these still aren't friendly streets. While I don't see the problem with a boy that small having his own computer, I think your boy's laptop should just stay off the internet, and that he should use another computer (with your supervision preferably) if you want him to learn web related stuff.
Don't worry, we're getting closer and closer.
Clearly Mr. Cranick forgot to pay for garbage disposal too.
That article managed to completely miss Simultronics' text based games and the massive, fanatical player bases that followed them in the 90s. I played Gemstone III a year before they detached themselves from the service providers and adopted a pay web service model, and even for a couple of years after that. But a veteran DragonRealms player I know still plays DR even now.
...and five missiles, we can finally kill a Metroid.