Grand Theft Auto Vice City is rated Mature for a reason. No, you're not a hypocrite. I wouldn't let my kid play it either, in fact, I don't even play it myself when he is home, I only play it when he's off visiting his grandparents some weekends. I won't let him see it. I won't let him hear it.
Neither would I let him see or hear pornography.
Once he turns 18 though, well, he'll be making his own choices then.
I very much agree with this sentiment and have argued it myself. I don't like the concept of forced upgrades. In EQ, their expansions pretty much ruin the game for you if you don't buy them, lets say you're a level 50 monk, best FD puller around, suddenly Kunark comes out and its either buy it so you can get 10 more levels to keep on top of your game or shelve your character because no one would want a level 50 monk anymore, even in the old world zones that you used to pull. Then another expansion comes out and you HAVE to buy it, then another, then another...
The thing about non MMORPG expansions... well... consider Morrowind. Morrowind is one of my favorite single player RPGs. I own the Tribunal expansion pack and I love it. The thing is, the original game I bought is still playable. My old morrowind characters weren't obsoleted by the new expansion. I didn't HAVE to buy it.. I wanted to.
I still own warcraft 3, and I don't have the frozen throne, and I can go play an online War3 game without the expansion with other people who don't have it if I want to. I am not crippled in any way.
Back when I played EQ I didn't WANT to buy kunark. And in fact, I didn't. So I left the game. It wasn't about a $40 (at the time) expansion pack. It was about a $40 expansion pack this year, another one the next year, and another, and another, and another, all of which were "pay up or quit" type upgrades.
DAoC:SI (Dark age of camelot: Shrouded Isles) in my opinion was a good expansion pack for a MMORPG because it didn't force me to upgrade. My wife's account didn't have SI on it for the longest time, but she could still compete in the old world with every other person weather they had bought the new expansion or not, in Realm vs. Realm combat she could hold her own ground. Sure, she couldn't make one of the new SI classes, nor could she alt-tab ( a feature "added" with SI ), but the game she bought back in October 2001 still worked.
Almost everyone who plays DAoC that I know bought SI even though it was not (in my opinion) a forced upgrade.
In my opinion MMORPG expansions should add good content without going so far as to breaking the dynamics and balance of the game. Game balancing and dynamic changes should always be free updates that retroactively apply back to the original client that the company sold. After all, the people with the original game are the ones who paid $10-$15 per month every month while the new expansion was being made. I was very glad when DAoC made the housing expansion work for the classic client and made it free. Arguably housing changed a lot of dynamics. But it was free, so it was fine. SI didn't change much. SI added new zones, new items, new places to explore, new classes, new races, and better graphics. If you wanted none of those things you could stick with classic and be just fine.
But I still believe the best way to ruin the mmorpg experience is to force people to buy new software. The guy hit the nail on the head dead on when he said, "But is this the goal, to maintain profit margins in spite of the customer, rather than because of them?"
A lot of mmorpgs are like that for one reason or another. Many of us have horror stories we can relate about how some guy lost his wife to Everquest or how people flunked out of college because they were too busy playing a MUD to do their homework.
Is this your friends' first MMORPG? If so, I hope it passes. Many people do in fact play MMORPGs to the extreme at first and then back off later when the "OMG WTF am I doing?" hits... then again, many people don't.
Well, I sold my soul to the devil to get doctor who back on the air.
Of course, that includes having to buy RIAA approved CDs, Install Windows ME on all my computers, and put my name on the telemarketer please call me list.
I didn't put myself on the list, I won't do it either. I said I personally don't care. You may care. Thats ok. The bill passed anyway.
What I'm saying is its stupid to say that he didn't represent his district when some would say the "slight" annoying (how many telemarketer calls do you get anyway) factor can outweigh the fact that 500 jobs will be lost. 500 jobs might not seem like much until you realize that this is in an area that is already economically poor, and in a town where 500 people make up probably 5% of the workforce of the town. It would be very hard on that particular town to lose those jobs.
Thus, he voted against it. More out of show than anything since it obviously won by a landslide. But I admire a person who is willing to go against the grain and take an upopular route to protect the jobs of his constituants.
I don't buy anything from telemarketers. But I don't get as worked up about it when they call me, I simply say no, and hang up.
"Hopefully voters will remember how well the dissenting congressmen "represented" them the next time they go to the polls."
I don't know any of the rest of them but I do know Ted Strickland. Ted Strickland wants to protect peopele's jobs in his area, and yes, there is at least one Telemartking firm located in his district in southeastern Ohio that employs at least 500 people.
Now I have no clue how many of those jobs may or may not be lost by this bill, but the fact is, he is voting to protect those jobs. I personally fail to see how it is some great inconvenience to have telemarketers calling you every so often. Its putting food on someone's table, and is better than them being on welfare. My brother in law worked for the firm for a time. In that impovershed area of the country good paying jobs are hard to come by.
So yes, I think Mr. Strickland represented his area well. He wanted to protect some jobs that some people have, regardless of the slight inconvenience of a few.
Heh, I have met a great many new friends via my gaming exploits. I run a guild of around 90 people, as well as an alliance (group of guilds) that has nearly 1000 people in it.
Not to mention, communtiy sites such as http://www.palomides.net... where they regularly schedule "Fan Meets", a gathering of people.
Maybe playing Halo and Myst all the time like the author you won't meet many people, but I certainly do.
Totally different entities, totally different theories on how to run servers. I don't think the Mythic servers will even accept remote commands from a GM tool or anything.
I am the Cleric Team Lead for Mythic Entertainment, its a volounteer position and I'm not an employee of the company. However, I don't think you have the full idea of the situation, I know I don't. But really, I think the security situation is much different on the US servers than the European servers.
Actually, no, you can see inside from outside, quite clearly actually.
I have no idea what the windows are made of or for, I might try a directional antenna sometime. We've thought about trying the pringles can method to get a signal out.
SoMo5 has a catapult-like device that can be used to trigger intrusive sounds on a nearby user's phone, anonymously alerting them that they are speaking too loudly.
Man the catapult, he's talking too loud!
Muahahahahaha
Ready... aim.... FIRE!
"Todays Lesson: How to protect yourself, against a man, armed with a cell phone catapult"
No cell phones work in the building I work in. The construction of it prevents any signals coming in or out. Its a 1 year old building. I'm told this was done by accident, but I can see its uses. Literally you have full bars when you step outside, but go through the door and you're down to 0. If you stand right by the window sometimes you can get 1 or 2 bars.
The regular GBA isn't really that hard to tote around, the thing slips into my coat pocket, my pants pocket, the pockets in my car door, its slim factor is a lot easier to tote around I think than a cube would be. Try fitting a 3" cube in your pocket. "Is that a SP in your pocket or are you just a pervert?" hehe.
There are however a couple reasons people will want these.
1: The oh cool! factor. This will work for a while until they become more popular.
2: Lighting. One of my biggest complaints on the GBA was the fact that it was incredibly difficult to see the screen very well. Of course, now there's hacks all over to fix this, but most people don't want to mess with aftermarket hacks.
As for me, I'm a pretty big guy. My hands are about 4 sizes too big for a regular GBA as it is. If I got one of these little cubes I'd look like a giant trying to crush a pea.;)
3dMark 2001 is a guestimate on how fast things will work, its meant to torture your card and Game 4 (nature) is just that, the most punishing thing they could come up with.
But it is actual game performance that is important with most people, so while you may get better 3dmark scores, most people aren't running that a whole bunch to see those nifty graphics, they'd rather be running games.
Also, don't forget to mention that all these tests were run with 2xFSAA on.
Not to mention
on
Droning On
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I remember reading a story about using high altitude aircraft for broadband applications, basically getting most of the benefits of a satelite without a lot of the latency issues.
Well, 6 grand *is* a bit of overkill considering you can build something that is about 90% as fast for right about $1000.
But really, its all about image quality. Sure your 2 year old computer will run Unreal Tournament just fine at a framerate thats fast enough that you can't tell the difference if it were higher... but can it do that and run 4x FSAA at the same time?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually I've found in my experience that a lot of female avatars ARE female behind the keyboard, as well as some male avatars are women playing them.
A lot more women play MMORPGs than people think. Just show up at a player meet and you'll meet them IRL and it may surprise you.
... did Pac-Man make me fat?
Grand Theft Auto Vice City is rated Mature for a reason. No, you're not a hypocrite. I wouldn't let my kid play it either, in fact, I don't even play it myself when he is home, I only play it when he's off visiting his grandparents some weekends. I won't let him see it. I won't let him hear it.
Neither would I let him see or hear pornography.
Once he turns 18 though, well, he'll be making his own choices then.
That was a true work of art. I salute you sir.
Maybe after these things die out I'll buy one to place next to my Atari Lynx and Turbo Express.
I very much agree with this sentiment and have argued it myself. I don't like the concept of forced upgrades. In EQ, their expansions pretty much ruin the game for you if you don't buy them, lets say you're a level 50 monk, best FD puller around, suddenly Kunark comes out and its either buy it so you can get 10 more levels to keep on top of your game or shelve your character because no one would want a level 50 monk anymore, even in the old world zones that you used to pull. Then another expansion comes out and you HAVE to buy it, then another, then another...
... well ... consider Morrowind. Morrowind is one of my favorite single player RPGs. I own the Tribunal expansion pack and I love it. The thing is, the original game I bought is still playable. My old morrowind characters weren't obsoleted by the new expansion. I didn't HAVE to buy it .. I wanted to.
The thing about non MMORPG expansions
I still own warcraft 3, and I don't have the frozen throne, and I can go play an online War3 game without the expansion with other people who don't have it if I want to. I am not crippled in any way.
Back when I played EQ I didn't WANT to buy kunark. And in fact, I didn't. So I left the game. It wasn't about a $40 (at the time) expansion pack. It was about a $40 expansion pack this year, another one the next year, and another, and another, and another, all of which were "pay up or quit" type upgrades.
DAoC:SI (Dark age of camelot: Shrouded Isles) in my opinion was a good expansion pack for a MMORPG because it didn't force me to upgrade. My wife's account didn't have SI on it for the longest time, but she could still compete in the old world with every other person weather they had bought the new expansion or not, in Realm vs. Realm combat she could hold her own ground. Sure, she couldn't make one of the new SI classes, nor could she alt-tab ( a feature "added" with SI ), but the game she bought back in October 2001 still worked.
Almost everyone who plays DAoC that I know bought SI even though it was not (in my opinion) a forced upgrade.
In my opinion MMORPG expansions should add good content without going so far as to breaking the dynamics and balance of the game. Game balancing and dynamic changes should always be free updates that retroactively apply back to the original client that the company sold. After all, the people with the original game are the ones who paid $10-$15 per month every month while the new expansion was being made. I was very glad when DAoC made the housing expansion work for the classic client and made it free. Arguably housing changed a lot of dynamics. But it was free, so it was fine. SI didn't change much. SI added new zones, new items, new places to explore, new classes, new races, and better graphics. If you wanted none of those things you could stick with classic and be just fine.
But I still believe the best way to ruin the mmorpg experience is to force people to buy new software. The guy hit the nail on the head dead on when he said, "But is this the goal, to maintain profit margins in spite of the customer, rather than because of them?"
A lot of mmorpgs are like that for one reason or another. Many of us have horror stories we can relate about how some guy lost his wife to Everquest or how people flunked out of college because they were too busy playing a MUD to do their homework.
Is this your friends' first MMORPG? If so, I hope it passes. Many people do in fact play MMORPGs to the extreme at first and then back off later when the "OMG WTF am I doing?" hits... then again, many people don't.
Well, I sold my soul to the devil to get doctor who back on the air.
Of course, that includes having to buy RIAA approved CDs, Install Windows ME on all my computers, and put my name on the telemarketer please call me list.
But hey, its worth it!
I didn't put myself on the list, I won't do it either. I said I personally don't care. You may care. Thats ok. The bill passed anyway.
What I'm saying is its stupid to say that he didn't represent his district when some would say the "slight" annoying (how many telemarketer calls do you get anyway) factor can outweigh the fact that 500 jobs will be lost. 500 jobs might not seem like much until you realize that this is in an area that is already economically poor, and in a town where 500 people make up probably 5% of the workforce of the town. It would be very hard on that particular town to lose those jobs.
Thus, he voted against it. More out of show than anything since it obviously won by a landslide. But I admire a person who is willing to go against the grain and take an upopular route to protect the jobs of his constituants.
I don't buy anything from telemarketers. But I don't get as worked up about it when they call me, I simply say no, and hang up.
"Ted Strickland, D-Ohio;"
"Hopefully voters will remember how well the dissenting congressmen "represented" them the next time they go to the polls."
I don't know any of the rest of them but I do know Ted Strickland. Ted Strickland wants to protect peopele's jobs in his area, and yes, there is at least one Telemartking firm located in his district in southeastern Ohio that employs at least 500 people.
Now I have no clue how many of those jobs may or may not be lost by this bill, but the fact is, he is voting to protect those jobs. I personally fail to see how it is some great inconvenience to have telemarketers calling you every so often. Its putting food on someone's table, and is better than them being on welfare. My brother in law worked for the firm for a time. In that impovershed area of the country good paying jobs are hard to come by.
So yes, I think Mr. Strickland represented his area well. He wanted to protect some jobs that some people have, regardless of the slight inconvenience of a few.
As long as Nintendo has Shigeru Myamoto (sp?) they are perfectly fine.
Heh, I have met a great many new friends via my gaming exploits. I run a guild of around 90 people, as well as an alliance (group of guilds) that has nearly 1000 people in it.
... where they regularly schedule "Fan Meets", a gathering of people.
Not to mention, communtiy sites such as http://www.palomides.net
Maybe playing Halo and Myst all the time like the author you won't meet many people, but I certainly do.
Oh, and Myst sucked, sorry.
Mythic != GOA
Totally different entities, totally different theories on how to run servers. I don't think the Mythic servers will even accept remote commands from a GM tool or anything.
I am the Cleric Team Lead for Mythic Entertainment, its a volounteer position and I'm not an employee of the company. However, I don't think you have the full idea of the situation, I know I don't. But really, I think the security situation is much different on the US servers than the European servers.
A lot of my DvD cases are ex-aol boxes.
Actually, no, you can see inside from outside, quite clearly actually.
I have no idea what the windows are made of or for, I might try a directional antenna sometime. We've thought about trying the pringles can method to get a signal out.
Its a technology company.
Man the catapult, he's talking too loud!
Muahahahahaha
Ready... aim.... FIRE!
"Todays Lesson: How to protect yourself, against a man, armed with a cell phone catapult"
No cell phones work in the building I work in. The construction of it prevents any signals coming in or out. Its a 1 year old building. I'm told this was done by accident, but I can see its uses. Literally you have full bars when you step outside, but go through the door and you're down to 0. If you stand right by the window sometimes you can get 1 or 2 bars.
Cause its easier to download porn off the internet than it is to actually go to the store and buy it.
Hahah, oh yeah, drives that can transfer 90 megs in a second are clunkers right ....
Whoa cool! I'm gonna use that tonight and try to get "Day of the Tentacle" to run.. I've been trying to play that again for years...
I agree with you on the bad form factor.
;)
The regular GBA isn't really that hard to tote around, the thing slips into my coat pocket, my pants pocket, the pockets in my car door, its slim factor is a lot easier to tote around I think than a cube would be. Try fitting a 3" cube in your pocket. "Is that a SP in your pocket or are you just a pervert?" hehe.
There are however a couple reasons people will want these.
1: The oh cool! factor. This will work for a while until they become more popular.
2: Lighting. One of my biggest complaints on the GBA was the fact that it was incredibly difficult to see the screen very well. Of course, now there's hacks all over to fix this, but most people don't want to mess with aftermarket hacks.
As for me, I'm a pretty big guy. My hands are about 4 sizes too big for a regular GBA as it is. If I got one of these little cubes I'd look like a giant trying to crush a pea.
Of course you could just seal up your computer and run a hose to it and fill it with water and turn it on like this guy did.
:)
Is it a joke? Yes. But it was funny.
3dMark 2001 is a guestimate on how fast things will work, its meant to torture your card and Game 4 (nature) is just that, the most punishing thing they could come up with.
But it is actual game performance that is important with most people, so while you may get better 3dmark scores, most people aren't running that a whole bunch to see those nifty graphics, they'd rather be running games.
Also, don't forget to mention that all these tests were run with 2xFSAA on.
I remember reading a story about using high altitude aircraft for broadband applications, basically getting most of the benefits of a satelite without a lot of the latency issues.
Well, 6 grand *is* a bit of overkill considering you can build something that is about 90% as fast for right about $1000.
... but can it do that and run 4x FSAA at the same time?
But really, its all about image quality. Sure your 2 year old computer will run Unreal Tournament just fine at a framerate thats fast enough that you can't tell the difference if it were higher