Obviously the author Geldonyetich has not investigated the origins of World of Warcraft too much.
Unlike all these other "Casual Gamer" friendly MMO that Geldonyetich is quick to point out such as City of Heroes and Planetside, WoW is built upon 10 years of development of the entire Warcraft Universe. This is a genre within itself and one which Blizzard has heavily invested in to create a rich history - including art books and detailed stories that have been previously revealed in the strategy games (there are even novels available through the blizzard website!).
A person's level of involvement and commitment determines a lot within WoW. From a casual gamer who does his own quests with maybe a group with his buddies now and then to the Molten Core Raids lasting entire days as they slowly progress their way through; each time developing better tactics.
There is also a high degree of replay-ability; different classes and races and factions open up new ways to look upon the world to which you interact.
This is a world that can appeal to all levels of players. Whilst the end-game content is currently limited it is expanding and new additions such as the honour system and battleground will allow more engagement for end-game players.
The world is also not static; Blizzard has already hinted at further end-game enhancements such as hero classes and also world-changing events tabulated to be available for players to unlock. Provided they can keep their promises in a reasonable amount of time I can see players coming back time and again to the world of Azeroth.
You obviously haven't been playing the game since launch (or for a lot of us - since at least final stress test).
No-one is arguing that Blizzard has done an amazing job on keeping the servers up despite the sheet magnitude of players hitting them.
When the game is working - it's great. However what has been irking a lot of people off is that since we have gone retail we have had the same canned responses from Blizzard with no information as to why our favourite game has turned into molasses or kicked us off entirely.
We've suffered through rollbacks, extended outages with barely more than a "We are working on the problem" standardised statement.
It has only been since the community has started demanding a response and high visible sites such as Slashdot and PennyArcade have spoken out that we have been getting a full statement as to what the situation is.
You have to be aware that you are talking about hour long (or more) queues and random disconnections; making it near impossible to casually play the game (most 9-5 people I know have had to wait until the weekend to play because of all the issues). That is the reason why Penny Arcade pulled their award - it's hard to play the Best game of the year when you can't even login to it half the time.
Wait for an hour or so to play then get dropped 15 minutes later and see how well your nerves hold up.
Moving servers is not an option for a lot of people (with guilds of 500 members already - would you really want to leave behind that many mates?). People are willing to wait it out a little more; they just needed to know something is being done.
The statement from the President of Blizzard and Tycho's interview helped in this regard.
It is slow if you are walking everywhere and don't plan things a little. There are various forms of transport available in the game which will help you get around all those quests a little faster and with a bit of scouting when you enter each new town you can usually find two or three quests that are after components/materials/monsters from the same area.
WoW is not an intensely complicated system. Blizzard has kept it simple which is perfect for the casual to moderately addicted MMORG player.
The most important key to remember is - there is more than just one class and race here; bored playing that 30lvl paladin dwarf? Go run around as a Tauran shaman for awhile. Sick of mining? Go do some leatherwork. Any game will get boring with constant repetition. There are plenty of other things to do apart from just bashing critters and raiding chests after all.
Then either learn everything they need to and upgrade their drivers/hardware or if they (I'm going to make huge stereo types here, please don't hate me) are older than a teenager or a woman become extremely frustrated with computers and hate computers.
I do not think we need to add the gender bias here anymore; there are quite enough technically capable ladies out there like myself to know how to do a hardware/driver upgrade.
Re:Game or Path to Inner Peace?
on
Biofeedback Gaming
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Oh Indeed! I must have skipped over that!
I read through most of the rest of the website and it does seem to be a tool for meditation more than a game. The screen shots do appear rather nice if lacking in obvious movement (hard to tell from just screen shots granted).
I do have concerns about a doctor called "Whitehouse" though that they use to describe the interface - it makes it sound very official if you only give a cursory glance over the material.
On the plus side it does appear to be going to Mac and PC platforms judging by what is in the download area (downloads for ZIP and SIT formats). Unfortunately this will probably mean only Windows and OSX compatible though.
Game or Path to Inner Peace?
on
Biofeedback Gaming
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
This certainly sounds like interesting technology but I guess I am skeptical until I get to see it first hand. The website itself gave me an impression of one of those 'enlightenment' cults.
Is it a game or a stress-relief tool? A way to inner peace and tranquility perhaps? It's hard to say.
The testimonials are what you would expect from a new product but with no mention of an estimated release date or where to purchase it makes me wonder if this could just end up being a marketing tool without an actual release.
I guess I'm going to have to wait until I see something more tangible.
Thank you for backing up the parent point, "snow pony". Three women mentioned for 2002, none of whom I've heard of, only one of which has a technical position (the other two are "manager" and "CEO").
You really do need to look further into the history of those "managers and CEOs" instead of taking a cheap shot obviously based the limited amount of information you could gleam from a single web page.
Julie Estrin (CEO of Packet Design) holds a B.S. Degree in Math and Computer Science from UCLA and an M.S. in Electric Engineering from Stanford University.
Dr Caroline Kovac holds a Ph.D in Chemistry; and was the head of IBM Research efforts in computational biology.
Like most people of recognition; they have moved up the corporate ladder into executive positions through thier experience and drive.
There is very little publicity of most female technical leaders except when grandstanding takes place (and most people have learned to see through that dribble anyways). You mentioned Lovelace and Hopper.
Both notable women of computing; but considering the time period they come from - I think trying to label them as an alternative to feminism when the feminist movement had not even undergone it's major revival until Hopper was well into her 50s (and Lovelace was deceased for over a centuary) to be a touch out of context don't you think?
I do love how you labelled me as a feminist when merely trying to give you an informed opinion. Gynophobic are we? I am the last person I would consider to be a feminist. However I also know I am a highly technically minded individual; the company I work for recognises this year after year and relies on my skills to solve technical problems.
I do my job and do it well. I don't go running around and demand recognition for my work. You might just find there are many quiet achievers such as myself in the world. Considering you took the time to actually list a few noteworthy technically minded women from history; is it that hard to conclude that there are women like them still around?
WTF does a woman know about computers, anyway . . .
Obviously more than you do if that is your sole argument. Maybe you might want to read up on the subject sometime. There have been many leaders in the IT industry that have been female - maybe you should look some up?
"whitespace" code broken by buffer overflow. Internationalisation of the "space" key blamed. Authorities warn not to use international versions whitespace.
"It was horrible..one minute I was sitting in a counting loop and then the next thing I know someone pushed [TAB][SPACE][TAB][TAB] into the execution queue and all heck broke loose...."
Ahh.. I love the smell of an April Fool's Joke first thing in the morning;) (Seriously people - an EVIL bit and you expect people to honour it? Heh.. I wish! ). While we are at it - can we have a PR0N, VIRUS and SPAM bit as well? I would make my job so much easier;)
It is interesting to see how the marketing techniques have changed. Certainly worth a laugh! For those of us who are not American based it is also a great way of comparing how the style of adds is different between the US and other countries.
It would be great to see some foreign versions of the same products to be able to compare side by side!
Slashdot Mirror
Unlike all these other "Casual Gamer" friendly MMO that Geldonyetich is quick to point out such as City of Heroes and Planetside, WoW is built upon 10 years of development of the entire Warcraft Universe. This is a genre within itself and one which Blizzard has heavily invested in to create a rich history - including art books and detailed stories that have been previously revealed in the strategy games (there are even novels available through the blizzard website!).
A person's level of involvement and commitment determines a lot within WoW. From a casual gamer who does his own quests with maybe a group with his buddies now and then to the Molten Core Raids lasting entire days as they slowly progress their way through; each time developing better tactics. There is also a high degree of replay-ability; different classes and races and factions open up new ways to look upon the world to which you interact.
This is a world that can appeal to all levels of players. Whilst the end-game content is currently limited it is expanding and new additions such as the honour system and battleground will allow more engagement for end-game players.
The world is also not static; Blizzard has already hinted at further end-game enhancements such as hero classes and also world-changing events tabulated to be available for players to unlock. Provided they can keep their promises in a reasonable amount of time I can see players coming back time and again to the world of Azeroth.
You obviously haven't been playing the game since launch (or for a lot of us - since at least final stress test).
No-one is arguing that Blizzard has done an amazing job on keeping the servers up despite the sheet magnitude of players hitting them.
When the game is working - it's great. However what has been irking a lot of people off is that since we have gone retail we have had the same canned responses from Blizzard with no information as to why our favourite game has turned into molasses or kicked us off entirely.
We've suffered through rollbacks, extended outages with barely more than a "We are working on the problem" standardised statement.
It has only been since the community has started demanding a response and high visible sites such as Slashdot and PennyArcade have spoken out that we have been getting a full statement as to what the situation is.
You have to be aware that you are talking about hour long (or more) queues and random disconnections; making it near impossible to casually play the game (most 9-5 people I know have had to wait until the weekend to play because of all the issues). That is the reason why Penny Arcade pulled their award - it's hard to play the Best game of the year when you can't even login to it half the time.
Wait for an hour or so to play then get dropped 15 minutes later and see how well your nerves hold up.
Moving servers is not an option for a lot of people (with guilds of 500 members already - would you really want to leave behind that many mates?). People are willing to wait it out a little more; they just needed to know something is being done.
The statement from the President of Blizzard and Tycho's interview helped in this regard.
WoW is not an intensely complicated system. Blizzard has kept it simple which is perfect for the casual to moderately addicted MMORG player.
The most important key to remember is - there is more than just one class and race here; bored playing that 30lvl paladin dwarf? Go run around as a Tauran shaman for awhile. Sick of mining? Go do some leatherwork. Any game will get boring with constant repetition. There are plenty of other things to do apart from just bashing critters and raiding chests after all.
No-one is saying we don't want to hear about it - what we want to hear is how you find it clunky?
What features of the UI would you like to see changed/added/removed?
Oh Indeed! I must have skipped over that!
I read through most of the rest of the website and it does seem to be a tool for meditation more than a game. The screen shots do appear rather nice if lacking in obvious movement (hard to tell from just screen shots granted).
I do have concerns about a doctor called "Whitehouse" though that they use to describe the interface - it makes it sound very official if you only give a cursory glance over the material.
On the plus side it does appear to be going to Mac and PC platforms judging by what is in the download area (downloads for ZIP and SIT formats). Unfortunately this will probably mean only Windows and OSX compatible though.
The testimonials are what you would expect from a new product but with no mention of an estimated release date or where to purchase it makes me wonder if this could just end up being a marketing tool without an actual release.
I guess I'm going to have to wait until I see something more tangible.
You really do need to look further into the history of those "managers and CEOs" instead of taking a cheap shot obviously based the limited amount of information you could gleam from a single web page.
Julie Estrin (CEO of Packet Design) holds a B.S. Degree in Math and Computer Science from UCLA and an M.S. in Electric Engineering from Stanford University.
Dr Caroline Kovac holds a Ph.D in Chemistry; and was the head of IBM Research efforts in computational biology.
Like most people of recognition; they have moved up the corporate ladder into executive positions through thier experience and drive.
There is very little publicity of most female technical leaders except when grandstanding takes place (and most people have learned to see through that dribble anyways). You mentioned Lovelace and Hopper. Both notable women of computing; but considering the time period they come from - I think trying to label them as an alternative to feminism when the feminist movement had not even undergone it's major revival until Hopper was well into her 50s (and Lovelace was deceased for over a centuary) to be a touch out of context don't you think?
I do love how you labelled me as a feminist when merely trying to give you an informed opinion. Gynophobic are we? I am the last person I would consider to be a feminist. However I also know I am a highly technically minded individual; the company I work for recognises this year after year and relies on my skills to solve technical problems.
I do my job and do it well. I don't go running around and demand recognition for my work. You might just find there are many quiet achievers such as myself in the world. Considering you took the time to actually list a few noteworthy technically minded women from history; is it that hard to conclude that there are women like them still around?
Obviously more than you do if that is your sole argument. Maybe you might want to read up on the subject sometime. There have been many leaders in the IT industry that have been female - maybe you should look some up?
"whitespace" code broken by buffer overflow. Internationalisation of the "space" key blamed. Authorities warn not to use international versions whitespace.
"It was horrible..one minute I was sitting in a counting loop and then the next thing I know someone pushed [TAB][SPACE][TAB][TAB] into the execution queue and all heck broke loose...."
Ahh.. I love the smell of an April Fool's Joke first thing in the morning ;) (Seriously people - an EVIL bit and you expect people to honour it? Heh.. I wish! ). While we are at it - can we have a PR0N, VIRUS and SPAM bit as well? I would make my job so much easier ;)
It would be great to see some foreign versions of the same products to be able to compare side by side!