I agree. I read the article only because I was curious what kind of system you get for that money but sadly the article was lacking in details. However 18 million is not just for 'building a web app' it appears to be the budget for the project through to 2014.
5 years to build a web app? No this is a way to keep them employed for 5 years...how many web apps do you know which take 5 years and 18 million dollars to produce?
If I only ran the gov't...i swear when I see this wasteful spending I would be out on the lawn telling everyone "18 mil for a site? Yea here you go - I got some company here willing to do it for half a mil".
Yea this is crap..18 million for a web app? Give me a break. This is a total rip off of tax payer money...btw I need to sell the gov't my used wal-mart hammer for $350. Oh it's the gov't, I'll give them a deal...$250...see $100 off the "retail" price. Who in their right mind believes building a web app for $18 mil is a good price?
What percentage of the market is a high end gamer? What percentage of the market are casual users? You're on Slashdot, so you probably have a good idea. If I'm in an office environment and lose my internet connection, I'm not getting email anyway. And if I *do* want to keep working, I'm using apps that use Google Gears or some other local storage/app solution. Times they are a changin'
Has nothing to do with high end gamer. It could be your 5 y/o kid playing with his learning game. It could be you working on your wedding invitations. At work - oh god - yea lose internet connection normally and you just don't have external e-mail...based on this computing now you won't have internal e-mail, access to be able to work on your documents....work productivity just got shot in the face with a 12-gauge.
Times are not really changing. Your points just killed your intent:
1) Losing internet connection with cloud computing = losing more then just access to things outside of your home or office
2) To avoid scenario one you need to install local apps (e.g. OpenOffice, MS Office, MS Exchange/Outlook, Thunderbird, etc).
Unless Internet connectivity can be 100% gauranteed then cloud computing will remain in the cloud. Once they can gaurantee 100% Internet connectivity there are privacy issues we have to think about.
Windows 7 is also going to cost $100-$200 USD. Google Chrome OS is going to be.....free.
$49.99 for the upgrade.
I'd like to see google chrome OS run your favorite high-end game. What happens when you lose connection to the internet...enjoy working in your office environment...oh wait.
Chrome OS will have it's advantages - mainly netbooks - but it has a lot of hurdles. 1) can it accept mainstream programs that won't be in the cloud and 2) what happens when someone loses internet connection
Welcome to/. Do you realize how many posts get modded down and when you read it there is nothing trollish about it? It is modded down because the mod disagrees with the sentiment./. even tells people to mod up more then mod down but some mods are just trolls themselves. It's a crying shame.
That's why i tell mods to mod me down. I post crap anyhow so who cares if it gets modded down. Save the positive points for the good posts:)
So this sounds great and at first I was like "yay on my laptop" but then I was thinking:
1) Can i install my windows apps? There are plenty of apps Google can't/won't simulate. Let's see - my dive watch has proprietary software. World of Warcraft (due to size not even feasible) and other games. Sure they can do an office suite, financial suite, and other utilities but there is so much more.
2) What happens if your net connection goes down? Does that mean your computer becomes a pretty expensive paperweight?
These things are concerns. If Google can acknowledge both items (e.g. yes we can install our latest and greatest computer games and if the net goes down we can still use non-net programs) then it would be worth it for me to switch. Otherwise i will be using windows and mac people will use OS-x
license plates and addresses are not personally identifying information. They can point you to where someone is but just because a license plate or an address was involved in illegal activity does not mean the people associated with it are involved. Someone who had their car stolen (or say their network hacked) and that car (or network) was used in an illegal activity does not mean the owner of said car (or network) was complicite in the crime in anyway.
The use of IP address is to help track someone. So we know the crime came from IP xx.xx.xx.xx. Ok we go there and find out it was grandma who does not have the expertise, or motive to do the crime. She is innocent....oh but we do investigation and find out her grandson used to work for said company and was just fired.
Like all things in life things are situational - i hope the brief is well written.
If this holds up (meaning not overturned) this can hold up in other cases (not all good) such as:
1) RIAA/MPAA sueing people they tracked via IP numbers
2) Pedophiles tracked via IP numbers
3) Online harassment cases tracked via IP numbers (e.g. the mom who harassed some girl until the girl committed suicide)
4) Spammers who are tracked via IP numbers
There are other cases this would effect but basically anything where they link someone via an IP number would be invalidated. I agree with the judge that an IP is not personally identifiable information (my g/f uses my laptop more then i do...which uses my home network...if she does something illegal it does not mean *I* did it or am remotely responsible for what she did.) It's a tricky situation so hopefully the judge wrote a thoughtful brief.
I want to work where you do. My company hires management based on management experience, not experience in the field I work in. Then they quit after two months because they don't know what's going on and all the working stiffs are making fun of them. Hire new manager, rinse, and repeat.
Management need to have the following skills in this order 1) management 2) business 3) technical knowledge in their field. Number 3 is a distant 3. They need to be able to understand overall concepts but they don't need to know the nitty gritty (e.g. how to program) because that is the responsibility of - you guessed it - the techie. Nothing is wrong with this. If your company is hiring people who barely know how to turn on a computer then that is an issue with HR. If your company is hiring people who have some knowledge in technology, but not as extensive as you, then that is what is expected. They are not programming they are managing (projects and/or people). There is a saying I heard years ago "if your manager knew as much as you then you would be out of a job".
I was a project manager in technology - and good at it. I knew enough about technology (a little bit in programming in college, managing tech support environment, a bit of web design, flash design, and some other tech experiences) to work with programmers but I shined in understanding business concepts and methedologies. So my role was to be the middle-man from the business to the programmers (basically a project manager). I would find out what the business needed, drilled down and put in my experience and then gave this to the programmers. They would make it happen. Could I program it - hell no - but I could write a mean SOW which my programmers would use to do what they needed to do with very few questions.
...you maintain relevant. You are in the computer industry - your age plays no role in your ability to code as long as you can see, and type. Your relevance remains based on your tech knowledge. If you enjoy programming more then management then do that - you have to make sure your skills are relevant to the time - constantly learning new languages. If you prefer management go that route...you will still need to maintain skills relevant to the time but not as much. Obviously the more technical knowledge you have the more valuable you are (and respected by your subordinates).
Do what makes you happy (or if you are money hungry go the route which will make you more money).
Soul link felguard before BC was amazing to have. I had my human lock and it always remaind my main out of nostalgia but my rogue/deathknight were more fun..especially the rogue. Pre-bc i would hang out with another rogue in BRM ganking people as they ran by to do an instance (ranging from 5 mans to 40 mans)....it was just expected that me and this other rogue (especially the other rogue) would hang out there. Since we even took on 40 man raids they would kill us once, laugh and run off. Some would just hang out and wave, nobody would camp us. Most of the time we either got 1) newbies to the area so it was a right of initiation for them or 2) someone who was being careless "come on dude you should know better". The best one time we had 5 rogues in a party and we would just maim anyone who walked by...brutal.
Soulshards (and the demonic figurine and the other one) were just ridiculous mechanics that kill bagspace. It forced you to have to stop your BG grind every couple of hours to farm more. They made it slightly better recently but still - they just need to lose it...it doesn't actually help game balance just kills bagspace and severely hampers a lock who doesn't have one (can't summon pet).
WOTF + warrior + blacksmith anti-fear trinket = dead clothy.
why not give XP for successful attacks, combos, or whatever defines your class?
It is difficult to do this. Of the games that I played (not that many, but a few) the best game to do this is warhammer. In most games of that style killing the enemy gives you experience, items, money, etc. If you are in a party everyone gets an even share. In games like warhammer you share evenly in the items/money/experience but there is influence, renown and contribution. You get more of those for doing your role. A healer who heals a lot gets more of those points then a healer who just hangs out. A damage dealer class obviously gets more points for doing more damage. I have an Ironbreaker...an IB's goal is to defend players (not do damage, and in reality \o damage slightly above the healers). So IBs gets points by attacking enemies who are attacking their allies! Most of the IB abilities are about hampering the opponent - making their opponents do less damage, slowing them down, knocking them down, preventing them from getting to their allies, etc. I've topped the experience/renown/influence charts (the rewards) but looking at the amount of damage I did, and kills I did I am ranked as one of the lowest (obviously no healing since IBs can't heal). So games are acknowledging this -but it's a tricky metric.
The problem with too many RPGs is that easy encounters are easy, and hard encounters are impossible until you level up, at which point they are easy. It FEELS like you are gaining skill at the game, which is enjoyable, but in fact your character is just tougher. You didn't learn shit.
Not necessarily true. A level 20 player goes to fight a level 20 mob and dies. Now level 20 player is a level 40 player. They go back to the same level 20 mob and beat it. The player's skill did not improve necessarily, their character is just 20 levels more powerful. But when you are max level and you get to end-game this is where skill shows. Items help a lot (duh) but the difference in games like WoW from say tier 6 to tier 7 is marginal....so what changes? You learned how the boss abilities, you learned your environment, you learned how to work better with your team....you may have gotten better equipment but for the most part it is a marginal change. So your skill increased.
Locks, as far as pvp, were great before BC but after the released the new skills. Felguard locks were OP. I would run the flag in WSG (get all three caps) and still have the highest freaken damage. I did have a pally healing me - but still - the flag carrier should not have the highest damage (mind you i was concerned about running not fighting)...even used my gnomish engineering boots.
Locks in BC were awesome in PVE. Admittedly we had to be careful about aggro, but I would top dps.
Locks in BC were crap in PVP. We were food bait. Every player had at least one way of getting out of fear - be it through items, class or race abilities. Plus fear / seduce stacked so you couldn't use both.
Locks in WoTLK just suck. A half-wit hunter could smash you in dps in pve. I managed to figure out a good fire spec (yuck...locks using fire for their main damage...smells like mages to me) and would top the dps....assuming the hunter was asleep. As for PVP....locks got rolled on.
Locks see the biggest nerfs because people on remember the times they get feared and it lasts for more then.5 seconds... they don't remember all the other times fear doesn't work....they also don't remember a rogue taking anyone not wearing plate from full HP to 0 HP without that player getting to even do a single thing.
I recently bought two event services (one for a concert and two for joining a local city kickball team). Two weeks later I got rolling stone magazine (had my full name, address and e-mail). With no phone number available I had to e-mail the place (via their web form) to find out how they got my information and that I didn't order a subscription to two years of rolling stone. According to them the event pass i bought is what auto subscribed me (unbeknownst to me). I asked them to tell me who did this so I can contact the place and tell them to stop giving my information (afterall I BOUGHT a product). They e-mailed me telling me they do not have this information....
Privacy is dead.
On a side note i will be calling rolling stone corporate and complaining (i told the person in the e-mail to purge my info from their DB but that part of my message got ignored). THen I am calling the two places I bought event passes to (probably the concert) and complain to their corporate...probably all of it will get ignored.
If you are able to do something you have a skill in it. If you can pump gas into your car then you have a skill - pumping gas. Some skills are easier then others (pumping gas vs replacing your breaks). But everything that is not automatically done for you (e.g. your heart pumping) requires a skill.
Now going a step beyond that there is a difference between a person who is skilled at something and a person who is skilled and innovative. A skilled player can go online and read/watch tutorials on how to beat the hardest monsters in a game and then execute those (we call that person a cook). They have a skill - they know the game, they know their characters and the know how to follow instructions. Just like the cook who knows their kitchen (the game setting), knows their tools (there characters), and knows their recipie (the tutorial). Great let them back us a cake. The skilled innovator is the person who goes into an unknown situation, say a boss that nobody has ever encountered, and figures out a way to beat it (we call that the master chef). They have a skill - they know the game, they know their character, and they know how to solve puzzles.
I would rather be the skilled innovator but both types have skill.
The original article is just a way for someone to get posted on/.:)
No it doesn't take skill, in these games, to go from level 1 to whatever. Even in warhammer online where you have ranks (level) and renown ranks (primarly, but not always, levels from pvp) it doesn't really take skill. Even a computer nub can hang out in pvp areas (in the warhammer example) and lose every single game and eventually get a high level. It will take him a long time but he will have it. So no these are not measurements skill but are measurements of level.
Yes the game is button pressing and doing it in the correct order and when to do it - but isn't that the basis of EVERY SINGLE video game? Pacman...when to move left, when to move right....Counter-strike...when to jump, when to crawl, when to duck, when to shoot.
The only way to truely measure someone's skill in these games comes in two area's 1) pve and 2) pvp
1) PVE - Skill...if you can accomplish the quests, missions, raids, etc then you have skill in pve. In the long run (once a mob is on farm status) it is easy. The tactics are the same...just follow the formula and you should win each time (obviously bad electronic rolls can kill you). But to get to that forumla you have to play and in a lot of games (world of warcraft) you have to play well and you have to play well with others. Meaning - you could be the best fighter in the game, but without a good healer you are screwed....same goes the other way....you could be the best healer in the game but if the fighter doesn't know what equipment to use, abilities to purchase, and buttons to press (and when to press them) then you are screwed. A skill player in this category is one who can successfully beat the monsters over and over. Once a monster is on FARM status that player mastered the skull of beating it. From then on it should be easy (as long as the formula is followed)
2) PVP - Skill is a bit trickier here because it not only requires knowledge of your enemies you get a lot of randomness. Even if you play the same opponents every single time (most likely NOT the case) and you realize you are playing that opponent (most likely NOT the case) people are random. They may learn a new trick, or hell even learn YOUR tricks (most likely not the case). They may have a new mod to help them or new gear. Things fluctuate. You obviously will learn that when you, a fighter, encounter a mage there are certain things you can do which help you vs that mage. The mage will try and counter based on the things they learned (e.g. mage should probably not go toe-to-toe with the fighter). Once you have mastered the basic knowledge you have gained a lot of skill - then it is just your ability to act react. The only way to really quantify how good you are is to record your win/loss ratio, kills/death ratio, etc. There are all kinds of meters. A player who just goes into a pvp area and is totally skill-less will probably have way more deaths then kills while a good player will have a better ratio.
These games require a lot of knowledge and a lot of skill...as you play them you gain both until they are second nature. Remember when people look at their playtime for these games it generally is really high (e.g. many players can say they have played over 100 days of their character...that is 2,400 hours of game play).
generation of well-trained consumers who think free information is pure evil.
I agreed with you until this point
1) History has proven that no matter how much brain-washing gov't has done over the years humans have an innate knowledge of what is good and what is evil. It's instinct.
2) Just because information is not free does not make it evil. Not all information has a cost. Also, games/music/movies aren't just information, they are products. Some of them made with the intent of profit. That is OK. Nothing wrong with someone saying "Hey i am going to spend X hours and money to create a product so I can make Y profit". If you want that latest and greatest game from whatever company you like to buy games from you need to realize they are in it for profit. Even if they were in it to just break even they would still need to sell you the stuff (remember they incur costs to create whatever product they are selling).
Pay products are not evil. Free products are not evil. Let the copyright owners/patent owners/etc make the decision of how to distribute their product. You can always opt to not buy/download/take/use it
Seriously though, the first DCTF was happy and upbeat (and for good reason, as many people simply didn't know that copying a floppy was piracy). What happened to that feel?
You just answered it. People, early on, didn't know copying was bad. In fact programmers were taught in school, or home-brewed, to copy code from others (just cite the source of the code in your code or give a link to their website or e-mail address assuming they had one). Now a days practically everyone knows about anti-piracy laws. They are plastered all over.
Don't get me wrong - based on the description of the video (haven't seen it) I think this thing is extreme but there should be a middle ground...showing some 10 y/o kid that his mom will be hauled off and he will be some deviant 30 y/os sexual play thing is excessive.
One question: How is your Japanese?
Because every time--every time--I hear someone blathering on about how racist Japan is, it's someone who can barely carry on a conversation, and who is almost completely illiterate.
Now that's a logical fallacy if I've ever heard one. Not knowing how to speak/write a language does not make you incapable of studying/understanding the society. A lot of people do not know how to read/write ancient hebrew - but they still understand the society. I was born in Israel, I grew up in the US, I know how to speak Hebrew but not how to read/write it. I guess I only understand half of Israeli culture?
There are far worse things to make the population work for than "the greater good".
Whose greater good are we talking about? Christians? Muslims? Jews? US? Russia? China? Bush? Obama? The Supreme Ruler? See the problem. When you force people to serve "the greater good" you have to define what that is. Certain things are basic - you can't go around killing people randomly - but other things aren't so basic - force people to smile because it WILL make them happy.
And it's only crazy to you because you haven't lived their culture, history or know how japanese people have grown to think along the hundreds of years
No - it's crazy because until they show a reason why this may work I will take my communications training (human communication) and realize that forcing people to smile doesn't make them happier...it makes them annoyed.
Your attitude shows the typical american attitude -- if its not like us, its bad or weird.
I also think cutting someone's hands off because they stole an apple is insane. I think stoning a woman for not wearing a full head to toe (including face) covering is insane..guess that's a typical american attitude.....
Oh and BTW - I did study Japanese culture (spent two semesters, with two classes dedicated to it) for my commications major.
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I agree. I read the article only because I was curious what kind of system you get for that money but sadly the article was lacking in details. However 18 million is not just for 'building a web app' it appears to be the budget for the project through to 2014.
5 years to build a web app? No this is a way to keep them employed for 5 years...how many web apps do you know which take 5 years and 18 million dollars to produce?
If I only ran the gov't...i swear when I see this wasteful spending I would be out on the lawn telling everyone "18 mil for a site? Yea here you go - I got some company here willing to do it for half a mil".
Yea this is crap..18 million for a web app? Give me a break. This is a total rip off of tax payer money...btw I need to sell the gov't my used wal-mart hammer for $350. Oh it's the gov't, I'll give them a deal...$250...see $100 off the "retail" price. Who in their right mind believes building a web app for $18 mil is a good price?
What percentage of the market is a high end gamer? What percentage of the market are casual users? You're on Slashdot, so you probably have a good idea. If I'm in an office environment and lose my internet connection, I'm not getting email anyway. And if I *do* want to keep working, I'm using apps that use Google Gears or some other local storage/app solution. Times they are a changin'
Has nothing to do with high end gamer. It could be your 5 y/o kid playing with his learning game. It could be you working on your wedding invitations. At work - oh god - yea lose internet connection normally and you just don't have external e-mail...based on this computing now you won't have internal e-mail, access to be able to work on your documents....work productivity just got shot in the face with a 12-gauge.
Times are not really changing. Your points just killed your intent:
1) Losing internet connection with cloud computing = losing more then just access to things outside of your home or office
2) To avoid scenario one you need to install local apps (e.g. OpenOffice, MS Office, MS Exchange/Outlook, Thunderbird, etc).
Unless Internet connectivity can be 100% gauranteed then cloud computing will remain in the cloud. Once they can gaurantee 100% Internet connectivity there are privacy issues we have to think about.
Windows 7 is also going to cost $100-$200 USD. Google Chrome OS is going to be.....free.
$49.99 for the upgrade.
I'd like to see google chrome OS run your favorite high-end game. What happens when you lose connection to the internet...enjoy working in your office environment...oh wait.
Chrome OS will have it's advantages - mainly netbooks - but it has a lot of hurdles. 1) can it accept mainstream programs that won't be in the cloud and 2) what happens when someone loses internet connection
Welcome to /. Do you realize how many posts get modded down and when you read it there is nothing trollish about it? It is modded down because the mod disagrees with the sentiment. /. even tells people to mod up more then mod down but some mods are just trolls themselves. It's a crying shame.
:)
That's why i tell mods to mod me down. I post crap anyhow so who cares if it gets modded down. Save the positive points for the good posts
So this sounds great and at first I was like "yay on my laptop" but then I was thinking:
1) Can i install my windows apps? There are plenty of apps Google can't/won't simulate. Let's see - my dive watch has proprietary software. World of Warcraft (due to size not even feasible) and other games. Sure they can do an office suite, financial suite, and other utilities but there is so much more.
2) What happens if your net connection goes down? Does that mean your computer becomes a pretty expensive paperweight?
These things are concerns. If Google can acknowledge both items (e.g. yes we can install our latest and greatest computer games and if the net goes down we can still use non-net programs) then it would be worth it for me to switch. Otherwise i will be using windows and mac people will use OS-x
I reject your argument solely on the basis that you post on slashdot, and therefore do not have a girlfriend.
Yes I do. I even have receipts from plasticgirlfriends.com...hmm err i met her at a bar!
license plates and addresses are not personally identifying information. They can point you to where someone is but just because a license plate or an address was involved in illegal activity does not mean the people associated with it are involved. Someone who had their car stolen (or say their network hacked) and that car (or network) was used in an illegal activity does not mean the owner of said car (or network) was complicite in the crime in anyway.
The use of IP address is to help track someone. So we know the crime came from IP xx.xx.xx.xx. Ok we go there and find out it was grandma who does not have the expertise, or motive to do the crime. She is innocent....oh but we do investigation and find out her grandson used to work for said company and was just fired. Like all things in life things are situational - i hope the brief is well written.
If this holds up (meaning not overturned) this can hold up in other cases (not all good) such as:
1) RIAA/MPAA sueing people they tracked via IP numbers
2) Pedophiles tracked via IP numbers
3) Online harassment cases tracked via IP numbers (e.g. the mom who harassed some girl until the girl committed suicide)
4) Spammers who are tracked via IP numbers
There are other cases this would effect but basically anything where they link someone via an IP number would be invalidated. I agree with the judge that an IP is not personally identifiable information (my g/f uses my laptop more then i do...which uses my home network...if she does something illegal it does not mean *I* did it or am remotely responsible for what she did.) It's a tricky situation so hopefully the judge wrote a thoughtful brief.
I want to work where you do. My company hires management based on management experience, not experience in the field I work in. Then they quit after two months because they don't know what's going on and all the working stiffs are making fun of them. Hire new manager, rinse, and repeat.
Management need to have the following skills in this order 1) management 2) business 3) technical knowledge in their field. Number 3 is a distant 3. They need to be able to understand overall concepts but they don't need to know the nitty gritty (e.g. how to program) because that is the responsibility of - you guessed it - the techie. Nothing is wrong with this. If your company is hiring people who barely know how to turn on a computer then that is an issue with HR. If your company is hiring people who have some knowledge in technology, but not as extensive as you, then that is what is expected. They are not programming they are managing (projects and/or people). There is a saying I heard years ago "if your manager knew as much as you then you would be out of a job".
I was a project manager in technology - and good at it. I knew enough about technology (a little bit in programming in college, managing tech support environment, a bit of web design, flash design, and some other tech experiences) to work with programmers but I shined in understanding business concepts and methedologies. So my role was to be the middle-man from the business to the programmers (basically a project manager). I would find out what the business needed, drilled down and put in my experience and then gave this to the programmers. They would make it happen. Could I program it - hell no - but I could write a mean SOW which my programmers would use to do what they needed to do with very few questions.
...you maintain relevant. You are in the computer industry - your age plays no role in your ability to code as long as you can see, and type. Your relevance remains based on your tech knowledge. If you enjoy programming more then management then do that - you have to make sure your skills are relevant to the time - constantly learning new languages. If you prefer management go that route...you will still need to maintain skills relevant to the time but not as much. Obviously the more technical knowledge you have the more valuable you are (and respected by your subordinates).
Do what makes you happy (or if you are money hungry go the route which will make you more money).
Soul link felguard before BC was amazing to have. I had my human lock and it always remaind my main out of nostalgia but my rogue/deathknight were more fun..especially the rogue. Pre-bc i would hang out with another rogue in BRM ganking people as they ran by to do an instance (ranging from 5 mans to 40 mans)....it was just expected that me and this other rogue (especially the other rogue) would hang out there. Since we even took on 40 man raids they would kill us once, laugh and run off. Some would just hang out and wave, nobody would camp us. Most of the time we either got 1) newbies to the area so it was a right of initiation for them or 2) someone who was being careless "come on dude you should know better". The best one time we had 5 rogues in a party and we would just maim anyone who walked by...brutal.
Soulshards (and the demonic figurine and the other one) were just ridiculous mechanics that kill bagspace. It forced you to have to stop your BG grind every couple of hours to farm more. They made it slightly better recently but still - they just need to lose it...it doesn't actually help game balance just kills bagspace and severely hampers a lock who doesn't have one (can't summon pet).
WOTF + warrior + blacksmith anti-fear trinket = dead clothy.
why not give XP for successful attacks, combos, or whatever defines your class?
It is difficult to do this. Of the games that I played (not that many, but a few) the best game to do this is warhammer. In most games of that style killing the enemy gives you experience, items, money, etc. If you are in a party everyone gets an even share. In games like warhammer you share evenly in the items/money/experience but there is influence, renown and contribution. You get more of those for doing your role. A healer who heals a lot gets more of those points then a healer who just hangs out. A damage dealer class obviously gets more points for doing more damage. I have an Ironbreaker...an IB's goal is to defend players (not do damage, and in reality \o damage slightly above the healers). So IBs gets points by attacking enemies who are attacking their allies! Most of the IB abilities are about hampering the opponent - making their opponents do less damage, slowing them down, knocking them down, preventing them from getting to their allies, etc. I've topped the experience/renown/influence charts (the rewards) but looking at the amount of damage I did, and kills I did I am ranked as one of the lowest (obviously no healing since IBs can't heal). So games are acknowledging this -but it's a tricky metric.
Not necessarily true. A level 20 player goes to fight a level 20 mob and dies. Now level 20 player is a level 40 player. They go back to the same level 20 mob and beat it. The player's skill did not improve necessarily, their character is just 20 levels more powerful. But when you are max level and you get to end-game this is where skill shows. Items help a lot (duh) but the difference in games like WoW from say tier 6 to tier 7 is marginal....so what changes? You learned how the boss abilities, you learned your environment, you learned how to work better with your team....you may have gotten better equipment but for the most part it is a marginal change. So your skill increased.
Locks, as far as pvp, were great before BC but after the released the new skills. Felguard locks were OP. I would run the flag in WSG (get all three caps) and still have the highest freaken damage. I did have a pally healing me - but still - the flag carrier should not have the highest damage (mind you i was concerned about running not fighting)...even used my gnomish engineering boots.
.5 seconds... they don't remember all the other times fear doesn't work....they also don't remember a rogue taking anyone not wearing plate from full HP to 0 HP without that player getting to even do a single thing.
Locks in BC were awesome in PVE. Admittedly we had to be careful about aggro, but I would top dps.
Locks in BC were crap in PVP. We were food bait. Every player had at least one way of getting out of fear - be it through items, class or race abilities. Plus fear / seduce stacked so you couldn't use both. Locks in WoTLK just suck. A half-wit hunter could smash you in dps in pve. I managed to figure out a good fire spec (yuck...locks using fire for their main damage...smells like mages to me) and would top the dps....assuming the hunter was asleep. As for PVP....locks got rolled on.
Locks see the biggest nerfs because people on remember the times they get feared and it lasts for more then
I recently bought two event services (one for a concert and two for joining a local city kickball team). Two weeks later I got rolling stone magazine (had my full name, address and e-mail). With no phone number available I had to e-mail the place (via their web form) to find out how they got my information and that I didn't order a subscription to two years of rolling stone. According to them the event pass i bought is what auto subscribed me (unbeknownst to me). I asked them to tell me who did this so I can contact the place and tell them to stop giving my information (afterall I BOUGHT a product). They e-mailed me telling me they do not have this information....
Privacy is dead.
On a side note i will be calling rolling stone corporate and complaining (i told the person in the e-mail to purge my info from their DB but that part of my message got ignored). THen I am calling the two places I bought event passes to (probably the concert) and complain to their corporate...probably all of it will get ignored.
Then it will be time to complain to the BBB.
If you are able to do something you have a skill in it. If you can pump gas into your car then you have a skill - pumping gas. Some skills are easier then others (pumping gas vs replacing your breaks). But everything that is not automatically done for you (e.g. your heart pumping) requires a skill.
/. :)
Now going a step beyond that there is a difference between a person who is skilled at something and a person who is skilled and innovative. A skilled player can go online and read/watch tutorials on how to beat the hardest monsters in a game and then execute those (we call that person a cook). They have a skill - they know the game, they know their characters and the know how to follow instructions. Just like the cook who knows their kitchen (the game setting), knows their tools (there characters), and knows their recipie (the tutorial). Great let them back us a cake. The skilled innovator is the person who goes into an unknown situation, say a boss that nobody has ever encountered, and figures out a way to beat it (we call that the master chef). They have a skill - they know the game, they know their character, and they know how to solve puzzles.
I would rather be the skilled innovator but both types have skill.
The original article is just a way for someone to get posted on
No it doesn't take skill, in these games, to go from level 1 to whatever. Even in warhammer online where you have ranks (level) and renown ranks (primarly, but not always, levels from pvp) it doesn't really take skill. Even a computer nub can hang out in pvp areas (in the warhammer example) and lose every single game and eventually get a high level. It will take him a long time but he will have it. So no these are not measurements skill but are measurements of level. Yes the game is button pressing and doing it in the correct order and when to do it - but isn't that the basis of EVERY SINGLE video game? Pacman...when to move left, when to move right....Counter-strike...when to jump, when to crawl, when to duck, when to shoot.
The only way to truely measure someone's skill in these games comes in two area's 1) pve and 2) pvp
1) PVE - Skill...if you can accomplish the quests, missions, raids, etc then you have skill in pve. In the long run (once a mob is on farm status) it is easy. The tactics are the same...just follow the formula and you should win each time (obviously bad electronic rolls can kill you). But to get to that forumla you have to play and in a lot of games (world of warcraft) you have to play well and you have to play well with others. Meaning - you could be the best fighter in the game, but without a good healer you are screwed....same goes the other way....you could be the best healer in the game but if the fighter doesn't know what equipment to use, abilities to purchase, and buttons to press (and when to press them) then you are screwed. A skill player in this category is one who can successfully beat the monsters over and over. Once a monster is on FARM status that player mastered the skull of beating it. From then on it should be easy (as long as the formula is followed)
2) PVP - Skill is a bit trickier here because it not only requires knowledge of your enemies you get a lot of randomness. Even if you play the same opponents every single time (most likely NOT the case) and you realize you are playing that opponent (most likely NOT the case) people are random. They may learn a new trick, or hell even learn YOUR tricks (most likely not the case). They may have a new mod to help them or new gear. Things fluctuate. You obviously will learn that when you, a fighter, encounter a mage there are certain things you can do which help you vs that mage. The mage will try and counter based on the things they learned (e.g. mage should probably not go toe-to-toe with the fighter). Once you have mastered the basic knowledge you have gained a lot of skill - then it is just your ability to act react. The only way to really quantify how good you are is to record your win/loss ratio, kills/death ratio, etc. There are all kinds of meters. A player who just goes into a pvp area and is totally skill-less will probably have way more deaths then kills while a good player will have a better ratio.
These games require a lot of knowledge and a lot of skill...as you play them you gain both until they are second nature. Remember when people look at their playtime for these games it generally is really high (e.g. many players can say they have played over 100 days of their character...that is 2,400 hours of game play).
But will i be able theorize that one could time travel within their own lifetime, so I can step into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanish?
generation of well-trained consumers who think free information is pure evil.
I agreed with you until this point
1) History has proven that no matter how much brain-washing gov't has done over the years humans have an innate knowledge of what is good and what is evil. It's instinct.
2) Just because information is not free does not make it evil. Not all information has a cost. Also, games/music/movies aren't just information, they are products. Some of them made with the intent of profit. That is OK. Nothing wrong with someone saying "Hey i am going to spend X hours and money to create a product so I can make Y profit". If you want that latest and greatest game from whatever company you like to buy games from you need to realize they are in it for profit. Even if they were in it to just break even they would still need to sell you the stuff (remember they incur costs to create whatever product they are selling).
Pay products are not evil. Free products are not evil. Let the copyright owners/patent owners/etc make the decision of how to distribute their product. You can always opt to not buy/download/take/use it
Seriously though, the first DCTF was happy and upbeat (and for good reason, as many people simply didn't know that copying a floppy was piracy). What happened to that feel?
You just answered it. People, early on, didn't know copying was bad. In fact programmers were taught in school, or home-brewed, to copy code from others (just cite the source of the code in your code or give a link to their website or e-mail address assuming they had one). Now a days practically everyone knows about anti-piracy laws. They are plastered all over.
Don't get me wrong - based on the description of the video (haven't seen it) I think this thing is extreme but there should be a middle ground...showing some 10 y/o kid that his mom will be hauled off and he will be some deviant 30 y/os sexual play thing is excessive.
One question: How is your Japanese? Because every time--every time--I hear someone blathering on about how racist Japan is, it's someone who can barely carry on a conversation, and who is almost completely illiterate.
Now that's a logical fallacy if I've ever heard one. Not knowing how to speak/write a language does not make you incapable of studying/understanding the society. A lot of people do not know how to read/write ancient hebrew - but they still understand the society. I was born in Israel, I grew up in the US, I know how to speak Hebrew but not how to read/write it. I guess I only understand half of Israeli culture?
There are far worse things to make the population work for than "the greater good".
Whose greater good are we talking about? Christians? Muslims? Jews? US? Russia? China? Bush? Obama? The Supreme Ruler? See the problem. When you force people to serve "the greater good" you have to define what that is. Certain things are basic - you can't go around killing people randomly - but other things aren't so basic - force people to smile because it WILL make them happy.
And it's only crazy to you because you haven't lived their culture, history or know how japanese people have grown to think along the hundreds of years
No - it's crazy because until they show a reason why this may work I will take my communications training (human communication) and realize that forcing people to smile doesn't make them happier...it makes them annoyed.
Your attitude shows the typical american attitude -- if its not like us, its bad or weird.
I also think cutting someone's hands off because they stole an apple is insane. I think stoning a woman for not wearing a full head to toe (including face) covering is insane..guess that's a typical american attitude.....
Oh and BTW - I did study Japanese culture (spent two semesters, with two classes dedicated to it) for my commications major.