No rude people asking you for money. No people inviting you to parties constantly without asking you if you're interested. No people throwing insults at you when you decline their multiple duel requests. No people trying to scam you. No people shouting racist/sexist crap.
And the list could go on and on.
It's nice being able to experience the content of the game without being surrounded by assholes. I mean seriously, all of the above happened on a daily basis.
To each their own my friend. I'd rather spend the money on a DVD. I'll get more enjoyment out of that than endless hours running around like a twat trying to find Murloc penises.
Just because a game is MMO doesn't mean it isn't a fun single player experience. The way I see it, it just provides life to the world.
To be honest, I enjoy WOW just as much on my own private server (if not more so because I can engage in shenanigans that would get me banned from the official version like visiting forbidden places etc...) then I had online.
Only part that does suck obviously is the trading side. I miss trawling the auction house for bargains. But really, that and raiding aside, it's ostensibly a lot of single player experiences happening at the same time. And the game punishes you if you party by lessening the experience you get for killing stuff, completing quests etc...
Download the client. (Perfectly legal.) Download and run your own Mangos server. (Perfectly illegal.) Deprive Blizzard of money they don't need. I mean seriously NOBODY, ANYWHERE, needs to earn the $75+ million a month they make for their stupid little game.
WOW is a great game.... When it's free. For $15 a month it's a complete ripoff.
I can't remember if it was Will Wright or Sid Meier who said it, but one of those gaming legends said WOW was the best single player RPG they'd ever played.
At the store across the street, they're selling multiple copies of a particular MMO title that shutdown in 2007. Of course there's no indication on the box about this. No, it just says "First month of play free!"
It's only a few bucks. Not sure whether it's an actual deliberate ploy by the store to shift unwanted stock, or they simply just don't know it's shutdown.
This game is Oblivion with guns and radiation. Not that that is a bad thing in any way.
I have to say the opening 20-30 minutes of the game are incredibly innovative in its narrative structure. Usually tutorials are horrible, but this one was really fun.
Sadly as soon as I hit the wasteland, the VATS system made the game crash and I've not reloaded it since.
But... They include copy protection on their games, and continue to make it more and more aggressive.
How is this software piracy of which they speak even possible? I mean they wouldn't include the protection and ruin gaming for their legitimate customers if it didn't work... Would they?
*quietly waits for the sarcasm tag to be added to the html standard*
What a racket the copy protection business is. What other industry could thrive so much on failure?
Crazy isn't it. It's like they've looked at the RIAA, seen the public attitude toward them and said "Yes! We want a slice of that animosity and hatred!"
Stuff like this is why I've largely stopped buying anything from mainstream publishers. I refuse to enable their greed and avarice anymore.
*spoilery if you've not seen season 3 of the new Who. (AKA the 2007 season.))
Troughton to Pertwee was before my time so I don't remember. Could be that the documentary I saw it in engaged in revisionism and referred to it as a regeneration.
I don't know why people keep going on about how he only has X number of regens left. This is a science fiction show. It would take a mere ONE scene to set up more.
Plus with the Timelords gone in the Time War (one of Russell T's only good ideas I think), was it ever stated it was a HARD rule that he only had that many, and it was sort of voluntary. (Like The Master choosing not to regenerate last season.) As in he could do it that much, and if he did more he'd be spanked by the Timelords?
If THAT was the case it's even easier. "Fuck 'em, they're dead" BOOM! Infinite lives.
Given the ridiculous revisionism and retarded crap RTD engaged in, seriously, it's not like this is a particular hard situation for Moff (or whoever is in charge then) to rectify.
I've got NEW EA games with serials that don't work! Battlefield 2, I have NEVER gotten the bonus packs or whatever semantics they used to describe them working. I wrote to EA and they never replied.
I bought Spore. Really wish I hadn't. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I EVER buy one of their titles again. Even if they wind up with licenses I like, my hatred for that company far outweighs anything else.
Not always younger. Or at least that's not part of the canon, but it does seem to go that way. (At least until you get up around Baker/McCoy).
If I remember my lore, the only non-death regen was Troughton/Pertwee where the regen was forced on the Doctor by the Timelords. May be remembering that wrong though.
Just hope RTD has no say in the casting given that fuckwit has said he wanted to cast JK Rowling AND Price Charles in the show.
God bless you for getting the show back on the air Russell, but you are a fucking moron. "Midnight" was awesome. Take the rest of your lame scripts with you and shove them up your arse. (And you'd probably enjoy you big gay ball of Welshness.)
Baker had been WAY more typecast though. Plus with the success of the show I'm fairly sure Tennant's career is on a far better trajectory.
And Tom Baker is an arse anyway. Refusing to appear with other Doctors at conventions etc... Always loved him, but given what I've read and heard recently, Baker was, and will always, an arse.
Sad Tennant is leaving. He has been a fantastic Doctor. Not as big a wrench to me though as my kids. I've had eight Doctor regenerations now when this one happens. My eldest has only seen Eccleston (but never had time to get attached) and my youngest has only ever known Tennant.
So you're saying we should all but the game, even if we have no interest? I mean seriously, if I was actually fan of Penny Arcade, I might have, but I'm not, and have MORE than enough games sitting here unplayed that I really don't need to add yet another one to the fray.
Because I don't always have internet for starters. Plus the online scanners tend to have a file upload limit and that aside, in the case of large installers I don't particularly want to have to UPLOAD the file I just downloaded and wait half an hour for it to do so before I can use it.
I had this with fucking Norton. My old laptop came with it installed, and I ran the uninstall, but it's like cancer. Once it gets on there it's hard to remove. For about six months, I couldn't use Windows Update until I figured out how to disable that shit for good, as SOMETHING Norton left behind locked an important file and it took many many hours of hunting the internet for info to sort the issue out in the end.
I never did when I ran it either. I just tired of the system overhead. Plus I recently got infected by something which got past both A-Squared and Clamwin when I scanned it, so even running those in the background would have been pointless.
And while you may not have had antivirus interfere with a game, there are cases where it does. For the LIFE of me I can't remember what the game was (it was earlier this year), but having antivirus running was the explicit cause of the problem and turning if off was the solution. (I want to say Out of the Park Baseball, but I'm not 100% sure that was the one.)
I'm sure you're right in many cases that it's a scapegoat, since all support is there for really is to pass the buck as much as possible, but there are legitimate cases where antivirus software running in the background interferes with games. Either the patching mechanisms, or the actual execution of the game.
What a pretty colour the sky must be in your world. "Stop doing things that put you at risk for viruses".
So that'd be unplugging your computer and never using it then. Seriously, what kind of crazy logic are you using here? There is ALWAYS a risk, however minimal.
Even if you're security conscious, you can wind up infected. I did recently. I downloaded something from a legitimate website. The site had been hacked and the exe trojaned, but there was no evidence to indicate this. And both Clam and A-Squared flagged the file as clean, and when I ran it what notified me something was amiss was Winpatrol telling me something had been added to my services.
And I'm someone who knows what they're doing. If a virus can get past MY defenses, when I deliberately follow the "stop doing things that put you at risk" policy, then really, what hope does the average user have?
On a sidenote, what Amiga virus was it? I had two encounter with viruses. One funny, one not.
Funny one: Lamer Exterminator. Archon would not run on my 1.3 Amiga UNLESS that virus was in memory! Chuck Archon in, you got a guru. When I loaded up my caged version of Lamer Exterminator, Archon would work.
Not funny: SADDAM virus wiped out over 100 disks in my collection in the early 90's. Only repair program at the time required an external drive to use, and I didn't have one. Came in on a dodgy copy of F15 Strike Eagle II.
The only problem with blocking ALL incoming connections is doing that WILL screw over some programs. I know in the past it's caused issues with Bit Torrent. And while I doubt the people you're talking about would be 1337 w4r3z downloaders, they may be World of Warcraft players at some point, and Blizzard use BT by default to distribute patches.
I NEVER run background scanning on a virus program. It's a needless system overhead. When I get something new that might be suspicious, I simply run it on that specific program.
Only time I ever got a virus on the PC was about nine years ago when the virus program I used was running in the background, and let the CIH virus through.
Not to mention the many MANY issues virus programs cause with games. First thing any support message will tell you is make sure your anti-virus is disabled.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks. Nicely put. I prefer my own server.
No rude people asking you for money.
No people inviting you to parties constantly without asking you if you're interested.
No people throwing insults at you when you decline their multiple duel requests.
No people trying to scam you.
No people shouting racist/sexist crap.
And the list could go on and on.
It's nice being able to experience the content of the game without being surrounded by assholes. I mean seriously, all of the above happened on a daily basis.
To each their own my friend. I'd rather spend the money on a DVD. I'll get more enjoyment out of that than endless hours running around like a twat trying to find Murloc penises.
They're still selling multiple copies of that game in the store across the street from me. I pity the poor suckers who buy it.
Just because a game is MMO doesn't mean it isn't a fun single player experience. The way I see it, it just provides life to the world.
To be honest, I enjoy WOW just as much on my own private server (if not more so because I can engage in shenanigans that would get me banned from the official version like visiting forbidden places etc...) then I had online.
Only part that does suck obviously is the trading side. I miss trawling the auction house for bargains. But really, that and raiding aside, it's ostensibly a lot of single player experiences happening at the same time. And the game punishes you if you party by lessening the experience you get for killing stuff, completing quests etc...
Download the client. (Perfectly legal.) Download and run your own Mangos server. (Perfectly illegal.) Deprive Blizzard of money they don't need. I mean seriously NOBODY, ANYWHERE, needs to earn the $75+ million a month they make for their stupid little game.
WOW is a great game.... When it's free. For $15 a month it's a complete ripoff.
I can't remember if it was Will Wright or Sid Meier who said it, but one of those gaming legends said WOW was the best single player RPG they'd ever played.
At the store across the street, they're selling multiple copies of a particular MMO title that shutdown in 2007. Of course there's no indication on the box about this. No, it just says "First month of play free!"
It's only a few bucks. Not sure whether it's an actual deliberate ploy by the store to shift unwanted stock, or they simply just don't know it's shutdown.
This game is Oblivion with guns and radiation. Not that that is a bad thing in any way.
I have to say the opening 20-30 minutes of the game are incredibly innovative in its narrative structure. Usually tutorials are horrible, but this one was really fun.
Sadly as soon as I hit the wasteland, the VATS system made the game crash and I've not reloaded it since.
hehehe And I wasn't even a fetus. I think I was about two years from my "release date" when Troughton became Pertwee.
But... They include copy protection on their games, and continue to make it more and more aggressive.
How is this software piracy of which they speak even possible? I mean they wouldn't include the protection and ruin gaming for their legitimate customers if it didn't work... Would they?
*quietly waits for the sarcasm tag to be added to the html standard*
What a racket the copy protection business is. What other industry could thrive so much on failure?
Crazy isn't it. It's like they've looked at the RIAA, seen the public attitude toward them and said "Yes! We want a slice of that animosity and hatred!"
Stuff like this is why I've largely stopped buying anything from mainstream publishers. I refuse to enable their greed and avarice anymore.
Support the independent game developers!
*spoilery if you've not seen season 3 of the new Who. (AKA the 2007 season.))
Troughton to Pertwee was before my time so I don't remember. Could be that the documentary I saw it in engaged in revisionism and referred to it as a regeneration.
I don't know why people keep going on about how he only has X number of regens left. This is a science fiction show. It would take a mere ONE scene to set up more.
Plus with the Timelords gone in the Time War (one of Russell T's only good ideas I think), was it ever stated it was a HARD rule that he only had that many, and it was sort of voluntary. (Like The Master choosing not to regenerate last season.) As in he could do it that much, and if he did more he'd be spanked by the Timelords?
If THAT was the case it's even easier. "Fuck 'em, they're dead" BOOM! Infinite lives.
Given the ridiculous revisionism and retarded crap RTD engaged in, seriously, it's not like this is a particular hard situation for Moff (or whoever is in charge then) to rectify.
I've got NEW EA games with serials that don't work! Battlefield 2, I have NEVER gotten the bonus packs or whatever semantics they used to describe them working. I wrote to EA and they never replied.
I bought Spore. Really wish I hadn't. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I EVER buy one of their titles again. Even if they wind up with licenses I like, my hatred for that company far outweighs anything else.
Davies leaving is an awesome thing. The man has written ONE decent script for the new show. ("Midnight").
I will never forgive him for his meddling with the "Gay Daleks on Broadway" one from season 3, and the fucking farting Slitheen.
I read that the BBC can't cast anyone over 40 due to insurance reasons.
Don't know if there's any truth to that.
Not always younger. Or at least that's not part of the canon, but it does seem to go that way. (At least until you get up around Baker/McCoy).
If I remember my lore, the only non-death regen was Troughton/Pertwee where the regen was forced on the Doctor by the Timelords. May be remembering that wrong though.
Just hope RTD has no say in the casting given that fuckwit has said he wanted to cast JK Rowling AND Price Charles in the show.
God bless you for getting the show back on the air Russell, but you are a fucking moron. "Midnight" was awesome. Take the rest of your lame scripts with you and shove them up your arse. (And you'd probably enjoy you big gay ball of Welshness.)
Baker had been WAY more typecast though. Plus with the success of the show I'm fairly sure Tennant's career is on a far better trajectory.
And Tom Baker is an arse anyway. Refusing to appear with other Doctors at conventions etc... Always loved him, but given what I've read and heard recently, Baker was, and will always, an arse.
Sad Tennant is leaving. He has been a fantastic Doctor. Not as big a wrench to me though as my kids. I've had eight Doctor regenerations now when this one happens. My eldest has only seen Eccleston (but never had time to get attached) and my youngest has only ever known Tennant.
So you're saying we should all but the game, even if we have no interest? I mean seriously, if I was actually fan of Penny Arcade, I might have, but I'm not, and have MORE than enough games sitting here unplayed that I really don't need to add yet another one to the fray.
I guess it's fairly easy to use Twitter to say "BLOW SHIT UP!"
I want to know how in the world they think anyone, especially terrorists, can plan anything in such a short space, there's only 140 characte
Because I don't always have internet for starters. Plus the online scanners tend to have a file upload limit and that aside, in the case of large installers I don't particularly want to have to UPLOAD the file I just downloaded and wait half an hour for it to do so before I can use it.
I had this with fucking Norton. My old laptop came with it installed, and I ran the uninstall, but it's like cancer. Once it gets on there it's hard to remove. For about six months, I couldn't use Windows Update until I figured out how to disable that shit for good, as SOMETHING Norton left behind locked an important file and it took many many hours of hunting the internet for info to sort the issue out in the end.
Norton should be flagged as Malware IMO.
I never did when I ran it either. I just tired of the system overhead. Plus I recently got infected by something which got past both A-Squared and Clamwin when I scanned it, so even running those in the background would have been pointless.
And while you may not have had antivirus interfere with a game, there are cases where it does. For the LIFE of me I can't remember what the game was (it was earlier this year), but having antivirus running was the explicit cause of the problem and turning if off was the solution. (I want to say Out of the Park Baseball, but I'm not 100% sure that was the one.)
I'm sure you're right in many cases that it's a scapegoat, since all support is there for really is to pass the buck as much as possible, but there are legitimate cases where antivirus software running in the background interferes with games. Either the patching mechanisms, or the actual execution of the game.
What a pretty colour the sky must be in your world. "Stop doing things that put you at risk for viruses".
So that'd be unplugging your computer and never using it then. Seriously, what kind of crazy logic are you using here? There is ALWAYS a risk, however minimal.
Even if you're security conscious, you can wind up infected. I did recently. I downloaded something from a legitimate website. The site had been hacked and the exe trojaned, but there was no evidence to indicate this. And both Clam and A-Squared flagged the file as clean, and when I ran it what notified me something was amiss was Winpatrol telling me something had been added to my services.
And I'm someone who knows what they're doing. If a virus can get past MY defenses, when I deliberately follow the "stop doing things that put you at risk" policy, then really, what hope does the average user have?
On a sidenote, what Amiga virus was it? I had two encounter with viruses. One funny, one not.
Funny one: Lamer Exterminator. Archon would not run on my 1.3 Amiga UNLESS that virus was in memory! Chuck Archon in, you got a guru. When I loaded up my caged version of Lamer Exterminator, Archon would work.
Not funny: SADDAM virus wiped out over 100 disks in my collection in the early 90's. Only repair program at the time required an external drive to use, and I didn't have one. Came in on a dodgy copy of F15 Strike Eagle II.
The only problem with blocking ALL incoming connections is doing that WILL screw over some programs. I know in the past it's caused issues with Bit Torrent. And while I doubt the people you're talking about would be 1337 w4r3z downloaders, they may be World of Warcraft players at some point, and Blizzard use BT by default to distribute patches.
I NEVER run background scanning on a virus program. It's a needless system overhead. When I get something new that might be suspicious, I simply run it on that specific program.
Only time I ever got a virus on the PC was about nine years ago when the virus program I used was running in the background, and let the CIH virus through.
Not to mention the many MANY issues virus programs cause with games. First thing any support message will tell you is make sure your anti-virus is disabled.