I still know plenty of free email lists. Hell, I recently signed up on several of them.
If the trend IS correct (and I personally think Pirillo is wrong on this), it's probably more case of people not wanting their email address on a list (where it might be abused) rather than any desire to spam filter.
I didn't mean it directly at you. Just that your post seemed like a good place to post my comments (since Slashdot ask for replies, not new comments where possible).
I fail to see how what I wrote is reinforcement of self. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard on here (and that's saying something).
The fact of the matter is, not everyone has the luxury of, say. being able to play through 30 minutes of a game between save points in one sitting. Some people, not just me, plenty of others, take their gaming where they can. 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. The MAJORITY of gamers play for relaxation and fun. They should not be forced to re-do things over and over again just so some hardcore gamer can brag about doing it in one go.
Since you chose to get personal in your reply, fine, your comment about quick saving being cheating was idiotic.
There is NO SUCH THING as too many saves. You should be able to save as much as you want. Many of us have REAL lives that take priority over games, so being able to save when I want, as often as I wantis vital.
Plus the fact, on PC's, games tend to crash without warning, even the most well coded ones, so not only would limited saving "punish you" for not doing well at the game, it punishes you for the piss poor design of the system it's running on.
I've been a gamer for 23 years now. I consider myself above average when it comes to my ability, but I'm still below the hardcore who play games obsessively and don't have wives, children etc...
Why the hell should the gamer be punished for not being good at a game? They paid their money, what they do with the game is their own business.
Besides, witness what happened with other titles that limited saving. Outcry from the buyers, and usually saving anywhere is added in the first patch.
And finally, there is also the fact that a LOT of games, you forget to save if you get caught up in it.
There is NOTHING WRONG with saving as often as you want. YOU paid for the title, you can play it whatever way you want. If you don't like it, then fine, don't save your game, it's as simple as that.
Regardless, I'm sure the mighty Irfanview is just as good, if not better. I've yet to find a graphics viewer to beat that. Awesome program.
And no, I have nothing to do with the program, just a BIG fan (first util I install on any new PC I use).
And at the risk of being modded down, this 2 minute posting delay SUCKS!!! Totally relevant post and I have to sit here kicking my heels. Thanks Commander Jackass.
Having the software phone home is FINE unless you don't tell the user.
As for uncrackable software, you have you looked at ELicence? I'm a fan of Out of the Park Baseball. Paid out my hard earned for it (well worth it), but have ONLY seen OOTP4 cracked in one place on the net, and OOTP5 has yet to be cracked at all. OOTP is pretty popular among baseball stat heads like myself, and ELicence's support is top notch.
Or SCO will report that he used their proprietary code to do it, ergo everyone infected with the virus will now be sued by SCO for illegally using their code.
It's not known among my circle of friends as "Lamespy" for nothing. AWFUL service, though in the case of NWN, if you know the IP address, there IS a commandline shortcut you can feed it to bypass the lameness.
ANY P2P service would be good for releasing demos on. Fileplanet is a HEINOUS site. I hate having to go there for ANYTHING unless I have too.
Releasing your demo exclusively through them is idiocy. I mean speak up if you do, but I don't know ANYONE who has anything but bad things to say about Fileplanet. (I also don't know anyone who is a member either.)
It seems to have slackened off a bit these days, but in the past it was looking like Fileplanet were taking over EVERY download on the net. It seemed no matter what I wanted, ultimately, it all lead to their damn site.
This is a stupid article. The whole point is CHOICE! You try them and see what you like. Of course the average consumer isn't used to being given a choice.
Kinda defeats the point of Linux being free doesn't it.
And I have downloaded ISO's over a 33.6 dialup connection. 600 megs takes a LONG time obviously, but if you don't want to pay anything, and you're the patient type, it'd do-able.
I am certainly NOT a raving Blizzard fan boy. In fact I own a grand total of TWO titles they've released. (Starcraft and Warcraft 3).
If you go back and actually READ what I said, I said blocking an IP address or range of IP addresses wouldn't work. If you block a RANGE of addresses, you would most likely take out other legit players. If you block one IP, fine, just reconnect, bingo, new IP, and go back to cheating. To get a new IP address, all I have to do is unplug my DSL modem and reboot.
CDKey banning is not draconian in the least. Blizzard do not ban keys without evidence. You submit replays of the game for them to check, and if they see there was cheating (like in the case of a maphack, the cheater heading straight for you on a large map) they can take whatever measures necessary. Kudos to them I say. In fact I have to wonder if you've used cheats before since the only people I've ever seen complain about banning CDKEYS cheat themselves.
And I fail to see how you can disagree with my comment about Blizzard losing control of the online experience. Did you even READ what I said? With Battle.net as is there is a cohesive online experience. With bnetd, sure you could set up a small server for just your friend... I don't know about you, but I get bored seeing the same strategies over and over again, so that's a not a good enough reason for it to exist. I still maintain Blizzard did the right thing.
Who would I rather see responsible for online play? A well respected, well funded developer, or the open source community? For a great example of how retarded the situation becomes when the servers are policed by the people who run it, just look into what Playmyth has become. Took the source from Bungienet and started their own server, and it was great, for a while. Now they're power tripping and banning anyone who disagrees with their philosophy.
In short, people running their OWN servers for online play is the equivalent of the lunatics taking over the asylum.
Sure, making a profit on anything is "immoral" to a lot of people on Slashdot, but the fact remains that with Blizzard, they rely on their products to make money. They can't start acting like Nazi's and banning people left and right because it will impact their bottom line. Conversely, any open source server is at the whim of the person who runs it.
Just ask those who have been banned from Playmyth.
Exactly. The name and style of the game was a carbon copy of Warcraft.
As for the open source battle.net server, I can understand why they smacked that as well. They had no control over it. I mean Blizzard are very harsh on cheaters. While the CDKEY means you have to own the game to play it online, there's also the fact that that key is associated with a particular player, meaning if they're caught using a maphack, Blizzard can (and do) nuke their account. Not just the account, but if you're caught cheating, they blacklist your CDKEY so you can't play online. I say more power to them!
With bnetd, they had no control. Basically it was a case of shut the project down before it got to big, otherwise it would have been a case of the project growing and COULD have led to a free Battle.net, so Blizzard would lose both their anti-piracy measures, AND the ability to control the online experience for players. With no CDKEY checks, it would be impossible to police cheating because if you ban one account, they'll just sign up again, and blacklisting their IP address wouldn't work because a lot of people still have dynamic IP address assignment.
I'm all for open source, don't get me wrong, but Blizzard shutting down bnetd was the right thing to do as down the line it could have seriously impacted the way they do business, and as far as online play goes, Blizzard are one of the few companies to take cheating seriously, and provide a decent online matchmaking service. (Whereas most rely on Lamespy.)
Sorry, but this is one case where an open source project needed to be shut down.
Your post seems to have vaguely troll like tendencies, but you make a good point for the most part.
It sucked when they shut down Freecraft, but it was understandable. Hell, the name alone warranted some kind of smack (the developer wasn't smart for choosing *craft as a name).
Blizzard do consistently churn out quality titles. One of the few developers that seems to GET how games should be. IE, NOT RUSHED!
WoW is the first MMORPG that could tempt me. Not sure I could afford it (wait and see how much it costs I guess), but GOD does it ever look tempting!
If you cheat in multiplayer games, YOU ARE SCUM. That's all there is too it, and the planet would be better off without you on it.
As for single player, cheats rule. One thing that SERIOUSLY irks me with todays games is the process of unlocking items. Now, don't get me wrong, I WORKED to unlike everything in Gran Turismo 2. I'm a racing nut, so it was fun to do. However, when you get the likes of Tony Hawk 2, the last THPS game I actually liked, I lost patience before I'd unlocked the third level. I shell out my money for the game, I should NOT have to work to access stuff I've paid for.
On saying that, once I got cheats to unlock everything in THPS2 I was in heaven. And some of the other cheats are fantastic. Low gravity, reverse the levels etc... All good stuff, but that initial process of being forced to unlock stuff SUCKS if you're a casual player. MOST of us have lives and can't invest anywhere near as much time as we'd like into a game. Having the majority of the game locked out punishes the casual player.
The argument is made that unlockables are rewards, but playing the game should be it's on reward.
Okay, so I'm all for having SOME unlockables. Hidden characters and the like, that's fine, but Tony Hawk pushes it TOO far with having every level bar the lowest locked out at the start. Sadly, other games do the same.
Erm... The game WAS released under another title, but I forget what. It was MOST DEFINITELY motion captured the one I'm thinking of as all the Amiga magazines made a huge deal about it. It was around the same time as Prince of Persia (+/- two years:))
"Another World" did the motion capture thing right. Also "Flashback" (both done by the same company) had good motion capture too.
There's a place for both in games I think. Motion capture is great, and a must for 3D games, but hand animated sprites still kick all kinds of ass in the right games.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes.
I still know plenty of free email lists. Hell, I recently signed up on several of them.
If the trend IS correct (and I personally think Pirillo is wrong on this), it's probably more case of people not wanting their email address on a list (where it might be abused) rather than any desire to spam filter.
I didn't mean it directly at you. Just that your post seemed like a good place to post my comments (since Slashdot ask for replies, not new comments where possible).
I fail to see how what I wrote is reinforcement of self. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard on here (and that's saying something).
The fact of the matter is, not everyone has the luxury of, say. being able to play through 30 minutes of a game between save points in one sitting. Some people, not just me, plenty of others, take their gaming where they can. 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. The MAJORITY of gamers play for relaxation and fun. They should not be forced to re-do things over and over again just so some hardcore gamer can brag about doing it in one go.
Since you chose to get personal in your reply, fine, your comment about quick saving being cheating was idiotic.
There is NO SUCH THING as too many saves. You should be able to save as much as you want. Many of us have REAL lives that take priority over games, so being able to save when I want, as often as I wantis vital.
Plus the fact, on PC's, games tend to crash without warning, even the most well coded ones, so not only would limited saving "punish you" for not doing well at the game, it punishes you for the piss poor design of the system it's running on.
I've been a gamer for 23 years now. I consider myself above average when it comes to my ability, but I'm still below the hardcore who play games obsessively and don't have wives, children etc...
Why the hell should the gamer be punished for not being good at a game? They paid their money, what they do with the game is their own business.
Besides, witness what happened with other titles that limited saving. Outcry from the buyers, and usually saving anywhere is added in the first patch.
And finally, there is also the fact that a LOT of games, you forget to save if you get caught up in it.
There is NOTHING WRONG with saving as often as you want. YOU paid for the title, you can play it whatever way you want. If you don't like it, then fine, don't save your game, it's as simple as that.
Supposedly, Sid Meier is working on updating this and re-releasing it.
There was also "Air Sea Battle" as well that had bombers vs submarines etc...
Combat was a marvelous game. Spent many hours playing that.
My favourite Atari 2600 game though was "Maze Craze". Graphically lousy but DAMN was that game fun!
Regardless, I'm sure the mighty Irfanview is just as good, if not better. I've yet to find a graphics viewer to beat that. Awesome program.
And no, I have nothing to do with the program, just a BIG fan (first util I install on any new PC I use).
And at the risk of being modded down, this 2 minute posting delay SUCKS!!! Totally relevant post and I have to sit here kicking my heels. Thanks Commander Jackass.
Having the software phone home is FINE unless you don't tell the user.
As for uncrackable software, you have you looked at ELicence? I'm a fan of Out of the Park Baseball. Paid out my hard earned for it (well worth it), but have ONLY seen OOTP4 cracked in one place on the net, and OOTP5 has yet to be cracked at all. OOTP is pretty popular among baseball stat heads like myself, and ELicence's support is top notch.
First usage I heard of the word was in Red Dwarf back in the early 90's.
Didn't even notice it in Reloaded.
Or SCO will report that he used their proprietary code to do it, ergo everyone infected with the virus will now be sued by SCO for illegally using their code.
The first expansion is good, especially if you're a fan of "Band of Brothers" which it's a total ripoff of.
The most tense gaming experience I've EVER had is the level in MOHAA set at the D-Day landings. Scary!
"Gamespy Enhanced"
Seems like a warning label to me:)
It's not known among my circle of friends as "Lamespy" for nothing. AWFUL service, though in the case of NWN, if you know the IP address, there IS a commandline shortcut you can feed it to bypass the lameness.
ANY P2P service would be good for releasing demos on. Fileplanet is a HEINOUS site. I hate having to go there for ANYTHING unless I have too.
Releasing your demo exclusively through them is idiocy. I mean speak up if you do, but I don't know ANYONE who has anything but bad things to say about Fileplanet. (I also don't know anyone who is a member either.)
It seems to have slackened off a bit these days, but in the past it was looking like Fileplanet were taking over EVERY download on the net. It seemed no matter what I wanted, ultimately, it all lead to their damn site.
To prior poster: GNOME, KDE, Enlightenment, Ice... It's all good.
To moderator: BRING IT ON!
This is a stupid article. The whole point is CHOICE! You try them and see what you like. Of course the average consumer isn't used to being given a choice.
Kinda defeats the point of Linux being free doesn't it.
And I have downloaded ISO's over a 33.6 dialup connection. 600 megs takes a LONG time obviously, but if you don't want to pay anything, and you're the patient type, it'd do-able.
Since when is /. journalism?!:)
I am certainly NOT a raving Blizzard fan boy. In fact I own a grand total of TWO titles they've released. (Starcraft and Warcraft 3).
If you go back and actually READ what I said, I said blocking an IP address or range of IP addresses wouldn't work. If you block a RANGE of addresses, you would most likely take out other legit players. If you block one IP, fine, just reconnect, bingo, new IP, and go back to cheating. To get a new IP address, all I have to do is unplug my DSL modem and reboot.
CDKey banning is not draconian in the least. Blizzard do not ban keys without evidence. You submit replays of the game for them to check, and if they see there was cheating (like in the case of a maphack, the cheater heading straight for you on a large map) they can take whatever measures necessary. Kudos to them I say. In fact I have to wonder if you've used cheats before since the only people I've ever seen complain about banning CDKEYS cheat themselves.
And I fail to see how you can disagree with my comment about Blizzard losing control of the online experience. Did you even READ what I said? With Battle.net as is there is a cohesive online experience. With bnetd, sure you could set up a small server for just your friend... I don't know about you, but I get bored seeing the same strategies over and over again, so that's a not a good enough reason for it to exist. I still maintain Blizzard did the right thing.
Who would I rather see responsible for online play? A well respected, well funded developer, or the open source community? For a great example of how retarded the situation becomes when the servers are policed by the people who run it, just look into what Playmyth has become. Took the source from Bungienet and started their own server, and it was great, for a while. Now they're power tripping and banning anyone who disagrees with their philosophy.
In short, people running their OWN servers for online play is the equivalent of the lunatics taking over the asylum.
Sure, making a profit on anything is "immoral" to a lot of people on Slashdot, but the fact remains that with Blizzard, they rely on their products to make money. They can't start acting like Nazi's and banning people left and right because it will impact their bottom line. Conversely, any open source server is at the whim of the person who runs it.
Just ask those who have been banned from Playmyth.
Exactly. The name and style of the game was a carbon copy of Warcraft.
As for the open source battle.net server, I can understand why they smacked that as well. They had no control over it. I mean Blizzard are very harsh on cheaters. While the CDKEY means you have to own the game to play it online, there's also the fact that that key is associated with a particular player, meaning if they're caught using a maphack, Blizzard can (and do) nuke their account. Not just the account, but if you're caught cheating, they blacklist your CDKEY so you can't play online. I say more power to them!
With bnetd, they had no control. Basically it was a case of shut the project down before it got to big, otherwise it would have been a case of the project growing and COULD have led to a free Battle.net, so Blizzard would lose both their anti-piracy measures, AND the ability to control the online experience for players. With no CDKEY checks, it would be impossible to police cheating because if you ban one account, they'll just sign up again, and blacklisting their IP address wouldn't work because a lot of people still have dynamic IP address assignment.
I'm all for open source, don't get me wrong, but Blizzard shutting down bnetd was the right thing to do as down the line it could have seriously impacted the way they do business, and as far as online play goes, Blizzard are one of the few companies to take cheating seriously, and provide a decent online matchmaking service. (Whereas most rely on Lamespy.)
Sorry, but this is one case where an open source project needed to be shut down.
Your post seems to have vaguely troll like tendencies, but you make a good point for the most part.
It sucked when they shut down Freecraft, but it was understandable. Hell, the name alone warranted some kind of smack (the developer wasn't smart for choosing *craft as a name).
Blizzard do consistently churn out quality titles. One of the few developers that seems to GET how games should be. IE, NOT RUSHED!
WoW is the first MMORPG that could tempt me. Not sure I could afford it (wait and see how much it costs I guess), but GOD does it ever look tempting!
Right on!
If you cheat in multiplayer games, YOU ARE SCUM. That's all there is too it, and the planet would be better off without you on it.
As for single player, cheats rule. One thing that SERIOUSLY irks me with todays games is the process of unlocking items. Now, don't get me wrong, I WORKED to unlike everything in Gran Turismo 2. I'm a racing nut, so it was fun to do. However, when you get the likes of Tony Hawk 2, the last THPS game I actually liked, I lost patience before I'd unlocked the third level. I shell out my money for the game, I should NOT have to work to access stuff I've paid for.
On saying that, once I got cheats to unlock everything in THPS2 I was in heaven. And some of the other cheats are fantastic. Low gravity, reverse the levels etc... All good stuff, but that initial process of being forced to unlock stuff SUCKS if you're a casual player. MOST of us have lives and can't invest anywhere near as much time as we'd like into a game. Having the majority of the game locked out punishes the casual player.
The argument is made that unlockables are rewards, but playing the game should be it's on reward.
Okay, so I'm all for having SOME unlockables. Hidden characters and the like, that's fine, but Tony Hawk pushes it TOO far with having every level bar the lowest locked out at the start. Sadly, other games do the same.
"Out of this World" was it's other title. Screenshots here.
Erm... The game WAS released under another title, but I forget what. It was MOST DEFINITELY motion captured the one I'm thinking of as all the Amiga magazines made a huge deal about it. It was around the same time as Prince of Persia (+/- two years:))
When you fell, you fell like a 600 pound man:)
"Another World" did the motion capture thing right. Also "Flashback" (both done by the same company) had good motion capture too.
There's a place for both in games I think. Motion capture is great, and a must for 3D games, but hand animated sprites still kick all kinds of ass in the right games.
Maybe so, maybe no. There are options to turn OFF autoupdating, and since Kerio Personal Firewall is FREE, it's not like there is any legality check.