You know there is no proposed SoCal-Vegas HS rail line right? Look at the plan. It's a myth that Republicans are trying to use to bash Harry Reid with.
Regardless of the idea, I loved the 1950's style "World of Tomorow" style rendering they did. Take that you kids and your fancy CAD packages and 3D modeling.
I never played any of the original games, but I've heard good things about them. Hope they'll release them on GOG as a way to drum up interest in the new game.
Regardless of the merits of the case, TPB have done themselves no favors with their behavior and have done nothing to advance the debate over copyright.
I haven't played The Witcher, but if there are no "good or bad" choices, then how is it a moral choice? Morality is the determination of what is good and what is not. If all the choices are morally neutral, then there is no moral choice.
There is no moral choice when the choice has already been made for you. If it's rescue some slaves or catch slaves yourself, one path is obviously good and one is obviously evil (unless you're a sociopath). There is no determination to be made. In the Witcher you have two factions, both with legitimate arguments for why they are in the right and legitimate arguments for why the other side is wrong and you are stuck in the middle with legitimate reasons to sympathize with either side. You have to decide for yourself which side is more right (or less wrong) or decide that staying neutral is the least worse option. That's what makes it interesting and it's something I'd love to see more of.
On a more general note, the problem with using shades of gray in a system that awards points for "good and bad" actions, is that what is "neutral" is going to be a very subjective area and ultimately will reflect more on the morality of the developer than the player.
Which is why giving points for moral choices is stupid and cliched. It's subjective and it should be left up to the player.
It's much easier to simply stick with moral choices which 90%+ of the population see as black and white.
I thought the whole Arefu situation in Fallout 3 had some pretty grey area moral choices, very Witcher worthy.
I'd agree that Arefu was probably the closest it got to being interesting. To a lesser extent Tenpenny towers *warning more spoilers ahead* almost got it right except that the ambiguity introduced in what seems like the "right" path, i.e. getting the residence to accept the ghouls, was a bit of a cop out. Especially since nobody wanted to talk to you about it afterwards.
There were no moral choices in Fallout 3, at least not any interesting ones. You could choose the good path or the evil path and that was it. It's a cliche that really needs to be avoided. Moral choices should not be black and white, it shouldn't be "am I evil or am I good", life is more complicated than that.
For interesting moral choices, I applaud The Witcher. In that game you had three options, choose one of two sides or remain neutral. None of the choices were "good" or "bad" and it is genuinely difficult to pick a side (or not).
Shouldn't they worry more about people outside the university trying to look like they are from the college rather than students and staff who actually are?
This is one of my pet peeves with story telling in games, the reliance of scattered notes, diaries, e-mails, or whatever in order to advance the story. It's cliched and unnatural. For example, in the world of Rapture in Bioshock, apparently people had a habit of recording short (1-2 minute) audio "diaries" and then left them lying around. Who would do that?
Would you kindly come up with a better way to fill in the back story?
For me, the best part of the story in Torment is that it avoided the cliched "you save the world" plot and instead the story was mostly agnostic to the fate of the world and concentrated on the fate of your character. Even at the end of the game, it was about restoring your mortality for no other reason than that was what you wanted.
And I don't doubt that most people would agree with you, right up to the point where you ask them to take their check book out. Or until you ask them to choose this over heated leather seats.
I mean, if I got hit by a car, I might appreciate that they'd paid extra for it, but since I'm not likely to hit myself with my car (unless my wife tries to run me down), why would I pay extra?
Seems to boil down to whether or not his termination was voluntary or involuntary that determines if he could have exercised $27 million (not $24 million) in stock options.
Actually, it boiled down to when not if he could exercise his stock options. If his leaving was "voluntary" he would have to sell his stock options right away or risk them not being honored by NCSoft. If his leaving was involuntary, he'd have until June 2011 to decide when to exercise his stock. Because of his "voluntary" leaving, he had to exercise his stocks in a down market rather than being able to pick the right time to cash in.
Most textbooks are searchable, it's called the index. You'll find it at the back of the book. Also a disadvantage of the Kindle is that's it currently black and white. That's a major restriction for textbooks in some fields where multicolored diagrams and graphs are important. Not to mention the $400 price tag.
I'm not saying there aren't some advantages for some students (with money) in some fields, but if you think publishers did this for the students, I think you are naive.
I bet textbook publishers are all over this. No more reselling your books at the end of the semester and no more picking up cheap second-hand books (for the Kindle) next year.
Also who wants only a 1/100 chance of NOT getting your SO pregnant? For most Americans that would be on the order of once year (assuming the women is only fertile for a few days a month).
Well, I wouldn't switch away from Google no matter what.
Really? No matter what? What if Google announced that they killed a kitten for every search done on Google? Would you still use it? What if every Google search came with a free virus and key logger? Would you still use it?
Saying "no matter what" is always silly, no matter what.
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You know there is no proposed SoCal-Vegas HS rail line right? Look at the plan. It's a myth that Republicans are trying to use to bash Harry Reid with.
Regardless of the idea, I loved the 1950's style "World of Tomorow" style rendering they did. Take that you kids and your fancy CAD packages and 3D modeling.
I prefer not to have DRM, thanks.
I never played any of the original games, but I've heard good things about them. Hope they'll release them on GOG as a way to drum up interest in the new game.
Regardless of the merits of the case, TPB have done themselves no favors with their behavior and have done nothing to advance the debate over copyright.
I haven't played The Witcher, but if there are no "good or bad" choices, then how is it a moral choice? Morality is the determination of what is good and what is not. If all the choices are morally neutral, then there is no moral choice.
There is no moral choice when the choice has already been made for you. If it's rescue some slaves or catch slaves yourself, one path is obviously good and one is obviously evil (unless you're a sociopath). There is no determination to be made. In the Witcher you have two factions, both with legitimate arguments for why they are in the right and legitimate arguments for why the other side is wrong and you are stuck in the middle with legitimate reasons to sympathize with either side. You have to decide for yourself which side is more right (or less wrong) or decide that staying neutral is the least worse option. That's what makes it interesting and it's something I'd love to see more of.
On a more general note, the problem with using shades of gray in a system that awards points for "good and bad" actions, is that what is "neutral" is going to be a very subjective area and ultimately will reflect more on the morality of the developer than the player.
Which is why giving points for moral choices is stupid and cliched. It's subjective and it should be left up to the player.
It's much easier to simply stick with moral choices which 90%+ of the population see as black and white.
Easy? Yes. Interesting? No.
I thought the whole Arefu situation in Fallout 3 had some pretty grey area moral choices, very Witcher worthy.
I'd agree that Arefu was probably the closest it got to being interesting. To a lesser extent Tenpenny towers *warning more spoilers ahead* almost got it right except that the ambiguity introduced in what seems like the "right" path, i.e. getting the residence to accept the ghouls, was a bit of a cop out. Especially since nobody wanted to talk to you about it afterwards.
Actually, I haven't played any of the DLC yet. Stupid MS points. I'm waiting for the whole set on one boxed DVD.
Consider the various moral choices in Fallout 3.
There were no moral choices in Fallout 3, at least not any interesting ones. You could choose the good path or the evil path and that was it. It's a cliche that really needs to be avoided. Moral choices should not be black and white, it shouldn't be "am I evil or am I good", life is more complicated than that.
For interesting moral choices, I applaud The Witcher. In that game you had three options, choose one of two sides or remain neutral. None of the choices were "good" or "bad" and it is genuinely difficult to pick a side (or not).
For me, Fallout 3 missed a huge opportunity.
According to this, Wolfram Alpha is set to launch May 18th.
So we should finally be able to see what it does or doesn't do for ourselves!
That's why I go with gog.com
BTW, there was an update to the previous Wolfram Alpha vs Google post here. The author tried some of the searches suggested by Slashdot readers.
Did you forget to take your meds again?
Shouldn't they worry more about people outside the university trying to look like they are from the college rather than students and staff who actually are?
Oh the humanity!
This is one of my pet peeves with story telling in games, the reliance of scattered notes, diaries, e-mails, or whatever in order to advance the story. It's cliched and unnatural. For example, in the world of Rapture in Bioshock, apparently people had a habit of recording short (1-2 minute) audio "diaries" and then left them lying around. Who would do that?
Would you kindly come up with a better way to fill in the back story?
For me, the best part of the story in Torment is that it avoided the cliched "you save the world" plot and instead the story was mostly agnostic to the fate of the world and concentrated on the fate of your character. Even at the end of the game, it was about restoring your mortality for no other reason than that was what you wanted.
And I don't doubt that most people would agree with you, right up to the point where you ask them to take their check book out. Or until you ask them to choose this over heated leather seats.
I mean, if I got hit by a car, I might appreciate that they'd paid extra for it, but since I'm not likely to hit myself with my car (unless my wife tries to run me down), why would I pay extra?
Unless this is mandated, it won't catch on.
Seems to boil down to whether or not his termination was voluntary or involuntary that determines if he could have exercised $27 million (not $24 million) in stock options.
Actually, it boiled down to when not if he could exercise his stock options. If his leaving was "voluntary" he would have to sell his stock options right away or risk them not being honored by NCSoft. If his leaving was involuntary, he'd have until June 2011 to decide when to exercise his stock. Because of his "voluntary" leaving, he had to exercise his stocks in a down market rather than being able to pick the right time to cash in.
Most textbooks are searchable, it's called the index. You'll find it at the back of the book. Also a disadvantage of the Kindle is that's it currently black and white. That's a major restriction for textbooks in some fields where multicolored diagrams and graphs are important. Not to mention the $400 price tag.
I'm not saying there aren't some advantages for some students (with money) in some fields, but if you think publishers did this for the students, I think you are naive.
I bet textbook publishers are all over this. No more reselling your books at the end of the semester and no more picking up cheap second-hand books (for the Kindle) next year.
Also who wants only a 1/100 chance of NOT getting your SO pregnant? For most Americans that would be on the order of once year (assuming the women is only fertile for a few days a month).
You must not be married.
I know, that's quite frustrating and I could have sworn the other day they had a definite date on there.
Well, I wouldn't switch away from Google no matter what.
Really? No matter what? What if Google announced that they killed a kitten for every search done on Google? Would you still use it? What if every Google search came with a free virus and key logger? Would you still use it?
Saying "no matter what" is always silly, no matter what.