The only GFWL game I own is Fallout 3, and it worked just fine. Achievements appeared on my Xbox, which would be nice if I cared at all about gamer points.
>>Friend of mine is Doctor working for the UK National Heath Service and he's told me about how they can be offered cash incentives for prescribing certain drugs, particularly antidepressants.
Wait, comrade, wait!
I thought nationalized health care was supposed to eliminate greedy doctors working for profit? How can this be true?
But seriously, a lot of times the motivation for a diagnosis is from parents who simply don't want to deal with the high levels of energy coming from their kids. ("Youthful exuberance is at a all-time low, well done, Skinner!")
But I'm sure the drug companies have done longitudinal studies as to what dosing kids with meth for 20 years will do to them. Right?
Yeah. I had to pay a $200 ticket in California earlier this year because of that... It was also in the mountains, and just around the curve after the speed change was a county mounty with radar on. Of course, I live 2000 miles from there, so it was not practical to go back and fight the ticket. FWIW, every time I have fought a speeding ticket over 45 years of driving, I have prevailed. I have only not fought them when I agreed that I was going way too fast and deserved the ticket. Need I say that is not often?:-)
While I've been giving a similar ticket in the mountains (cop waiting after the speed limit oddly dropped to 35MPH on a straightaway, perfect visibility, and four lanes) I can't say I've ever seen a California mounty. Lived here all my life, too. Did he have a bright red coat and wear moose horns like they do in Canada?
Before this post gets modded as a troll or flamebait, it is my humble and sincere view as someone born and raised outside the USA, that Americans are often obsessed by finding a single cause for a problem and the idea that there might be multiple causes is rarely explored.
"The great strength of political Conservatives at this time (and for a generation) is that they are open to the thought that matters are Complex. Liberals got into a reflexive pattern of denying this. I had hoped twelve years in the wilderness might have changed this; it may be it has only reinforced it. If this is so, the current revival of liberalism will be brief and inconsequential." -Senator Patrick Moynihan, 1996.
>>I do question the wisdom in choosing a real and current conflict as a game setting.
So it's okay to play as a Japanese guy dive bombing Pearl Harbor, but not a VC slashing the throat of an American sentry?
There's been so much media and gaming surrounding WWII, I'm astonished that people realize at all that the people in it were just as real (many of whom are still alive today) and died just as painfully. My American grandparents greatly disdained all the WWII video games for that reason (my paternal grandfather was pretty technologically adept). My German relatives, one of who had his jaw blown off in the Battle of the Bulge, probably have similar sentiments, though I've never gathered the courage to ask him.
>>because some players are simply put off by the idea that the game is not fair. Therefore it might not be more profitable.
Indeed. Stronghold Kingdoms is an awesome, awesome game. (You can join the alpha test at http://www.strongholdkingdoms.com/) Think Stronghold, but in MMORPG form. Build up your village, build a castle, attack your neighbors, trade, etc.
However, it's a F2P game that allows you to buy "cards" which do things like tripling your production for a day. Right now the use of cards is unlimited (though because it's an alpha test, you're given an allowance of them instead of buying them with real money.) So the monetization advantage appears to be x3 or so, give or take. *However*, the game also allows you to cash in cards in order to get research points (the main benefit of leveling is that you get 3 research points with which to choose new technologies - think Civ.) Think around $20 per research point, though prices aren't fixed yet.
So for people with open wallets, you can essentially buy as many levels as you want in the game. If it is released in such a state, I refuse to play it since there literally will not be any way to compete professionally without spending just as much money as they do on the game. A person who starts the game by buying $320 of research points will have triple stone and wood production for the entire span of the campaign. A person who spends $480 dollars at launch will also have half-price buildings on everything. A person who spends $640 will have all his buildings constructed twice as fast. Then on top of that, he can play cards to triple again that production and building speed.
So a person with an open wallet will have about a 10x advantage over someone else.
If you've ever played an RTS, you know what a tremendous advantage this is. Worse, campaigns only last about 4 or 5 months, so you get to do this all over again once someone "wins" (by getting elected King of England, presumably.) Drop a K every so often? No thanks. I'd rather not play it at all. Right now, it's only fair because everyone is given an allowance of $80/week to play with.
I was in ACM at UCSD with Mark Baysinger. If he made Bnetd because of how hard it was to connect when at our LAN parties, it had a fully legitimate purpose.
His only real failure was not having a couple million lying around in his pocket to counter Blizzard's lawyers.
>>But aren't these risks, for the most part, kind of obvious?
Yeah. I think everyone that entered the Netflix contest knew, pretty upfront, that Netflix was interested in ideas people would be coming up with, and that nobody would get compensated except the first team to reach the target.
TFA, methinks, is one of those anti-capitalist types that hates anything, whatsoever, to do with helping a company that actually makes money.
Likewise: I was listening to Pacifica Communist Radio yesterday, and they were protesting a $500M alternative fuels institute forming at Berkeley because, *gasp*, the company funding it would get first look at all the patents to come out of it. How dare the company not put up the money up front and demand nothing in exchange!
>>Energy is not a thing; it's a property that things have. Matter is a thing. Non-things cannot turn into things.
Incorrect. If you have enough energy in a vacuum, you can create matter. In fact, even if you don't have a lot of energy, you'll still get particle/anti-particle creation due to vacuum fluctuations.
Besides, conservation of energy doesn't apply across very short time scales - you can borrow energy from the future as long as you pay it back quickly. That's how nuclear decay works - the radioactive atoms are trapped in an energy well; if they couldn't borrow energy from the future they'd never decay. But their energy levels fluctuate, and depending on how deep the well is is how long the half-life of the atom. A shallow well will decay rapidly, a deep well can do a really long time before decaying to a lower energy state. What happens is the atom borrows energy from the future and then immediately repays it when it transitions to a lower energy state.
So if you have a 33% efficient laser of 1MW, you have to be able to dissipate 2MW yourself. This means everyone on the Death Star would cook, and it would blow itself up twice as fast as Alderan. (Assuming Alderan's the DS's thermal properties are the same, etc)
Well, thank goodness we just installed that thermal exhaust port up on the top layer then.
>>If he misappropriates $20,000 worth of company funds, it's equivalent to a peon with a $30k salary stealing $30 worth of office supplies. I'm sure everyone on Slashdot has hit that limit - those post-its and permanent markers add up, you know.
I have never stolen from an office. I think I found a pen at home once and took it back in the next day. At best you could accuse me of breathing air-conditioned air while not actively working on a job, or something trivial like that.
That said, it should have been easy for him to justify $20k in expenses at his level. Even doing things like giving free rides on your corporate jet (which would otherwise not be used) have come under the microscope these days, but those aren't usually firing expenses. I think it more just had to do with him lying about who he was with on his expenses than the actual dollars.
Slashdot Mirror
>>Is this really helping out the environment or just a hidden way to increase taxes?
Recycling doesn't help the environment (except maybe with metals) in the slightest, so I'm pretty sure it's a not-so-hidden way of increasing taxes.
The only GFWL game I own is Fallout 3, and it worked just fine. Achievements appeared on my Xbox, which would be nice if I cared at all about gamer points.
>>Friend of mine is Doctor working for the UK National Heath Service and he's told me about how they can be offered cash incentives for prescribing certain drugs, particularly antidepressants.
Wait, comrade, wait!
I thought nationalized health care was supposed to eliminate greedy doctors working for profit? How can this be true?
But seriously, a lot of times the motivation for a diagnosis is from parents who simply don't want to deal with the high levels of energy coming from their kids. ("Youthful exuberance is at a all-time low, well done, Skinner!")
But I'm sure the drug companies have done longitudinal studies as to what dosing kids with meth for 20 years will do to them. Right?
>>Try saying ROFLMAO out loud, you sound like a pissed cat.
Actually, I used to have coworkers that would say ROFL ("Roffle"). They'd never add the MAO, though, probably for the reason you cite.
>>Ah, the endless capacity of apologists to BS themselves by postulating what's not actually in the text. How cute.
Actually, the GP has it right. The human dung was used as a fuel, not as an ingredient. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+4%3A9-17&version=NIV)
Atheists trying to do theology is a lot more entertaining than lolcats, anyhow.
>>All the zodiacs are based upon greek mythology
There's 1.5 billion Chinese people that would probably argue otherwise.
While I've been giving a similar ticket in the mountains (cop waiting after the speed limit oddly dropped to 35MPH on a straightaway, perfect visibility, and four lanes) I can't say I've ever seen a California mounty. Lived here all my life, too. Did he have a bright red coat and wear moose horns like they do in Canada?
LOL.
And yeah, I've heard people say it IRL. I've also heard people say IRL IRL.
Well, apparently, the guy has patented light switches, turning computers on and off, and wiring buildings for power.
I suppose he can sue anyone he wants, eh?
"The great strength of political Conservatives at this time (and for a generation) is that they are open to the thought that matters are Complex. Liberals got into a reflexive pattern of denying this. I had hoped twelve years in the wilderness might have changed this; it may be it has only reinforced it. If this is so, the current revival of liberalism will be brief and inconsequential." -Senator Patrick Moynihan, 1996.
Take that for what you will.
>>and estimates from 40 million to as high as 70 million people killed in WWII, it's OK to make games glorifying the horrendous loss of life.
And it's perfectly okay to pretend that Socialism/Communism are not the biggest killers of humanity the world has ever know.
Isn't modern society wonderful?
>>I do question the wisdom in choosing a real and current conflict as a game setting.
So it's okay to play as a Japanese guy dive bombing Pearl Harbor, but not a VC slashing the throat of an American sentry?
There's been so much media and gaming surrounding WWII, I'm astonished that people realize at all that the people in it were just as real (many of whom are still alive today) and died just as painfully. My American grandparents greatly disdained all the WWII video games for that reason (my paternal grandfather was pretty technologically adept). My German relatives, one of who had his jaw blown off in the Battle of the Bulge, probably have similar sentiments, though I've never gathered the courage to ask him.
Which is a shame, really, since something like the game is one I've wanted to play or write myself for a long time.
IIRC from reading the verdict on it, the judge ruled against him because he thought it was used only for piracy.
>>if GM started to sue people who made aftermarket accessories for their vehicles, they'd be laughed out of court.
Presumably they'd have better lawyers than a 20-something college student.
>>because some players are simply put off by the idea that the game is not fair.
Therefore it might not be more profitable.
Indeed. Stronghold Kingdoms is an awesome, awesome game. (You can join the alpha test at http://www.strongholdkingdoms.com/) Think Stronghold, but in MMORPG form. Build up your village, build a castle, attack your neighbors, trade, etc.
However, it's a F2P game that allows you to buy "cards" which do things like tripling your production for a day. Right now the use of cards is unlimited (though because it's an alpha test, you're given an allowance of them instead of buying them with real money.) So the monetization advantage appears to be x3 or so, give or take. *However*, the game also allows you to cash in cards in order to get research points (the main benefit of leveling is that you get 3 research points with which to choose new technologies - think Civ.) Think around $20 per research point, though prices aren't fixed yet.
So for people with open wallets, you can essentially buy as many levels as you want in the game. If it is released in such a state, I refuse to play it since there literally will not be any way to compete professionally without spending just as much money as they do on the game. A person who starts the game by buying $320 of research points will have triple stone and wood production for the entire span of the campaign. A person who spends $480 dollars at launch will also have half-price buildings on everything. A person who spends $640 will have all his buildings constructed twice as fast. Then on top of that, he can play cards to triple again that production and building speed.
So a person with an open wallet will have about a 10x advantage over someone else.
If you've ever played an RTS, you know what a tremendous advantage this is. Worse, campaigns only last about 4 or 5 months, so you get to do this all over again once someone "wins" (by getting elected King of England, presumably.) Drop a K every so often? No thanks. I'd rather not play it at all. Right now, it's only fair because everyone is given an allowance of $80/week to play with.
I was in ACM at UCSD with Mark Baysinger. If he made Bnetd because of how hard it was to connect when at our LAN parties, it had a fully legitimate purpose.
His only real failure was not having a couple million lying around in his pocket to counter Blizzard's lawyers.
Silly, poor college students.
>>But aren't these risks, for the most part, kind of obvious?
Yeah. I think everyone that entered the Netflix contest knew, pretty upfront, that Netflix was interested in ideas people would be coming up with, and that nobody would get compensated except the first team to reach the target.
TFA, methinks, is one of those anti-capitalist types that hates anything, whatsoever, to do with helping a company that actually makes money.
Likewise:
I was listening to Pacifica Communist Radio yesterday, and they were protesting a $500M alternative fuels institute forming at Berkeley because, *gasp*, the company funding it would get first look at all the patents to come out of it. How dare the company not put up the money up front and demand nothing in exchange!
>>How much voice control? "Find nearest gas station"
Given how terrible voice recognition is, I wouldn't want to rely on it for voice navigation anyway.
>>Energy is not a thing; it's a property that things have. Matter is a thing. Non-things cannot turn into things.
Incorrect. If you have enough energy in a vacuum, you can create matter. In fact, even if you don't have a lot of energy, you'll still get particle/anti-particle creation due to vacuum fluctuations.
Besides, conservation of energy doesn't apply across very short time scales - you can borrow energy from the future as long as you pay it back quickly. That's how nuclear decay works - the radioactive atoms are trapped in an energy well; if they couldn't borrow energy from the future they'd never decay. But their energy levels fluctuate, and depending on how deep the well is is how long the half-life of the atom. A shallow well will decay rapidly, a deep well can do a really long time before decaying to a lower energy state. What happens is the atom borrows energy from the future and then immediately repays it when it transitions to a lower energy state.
Well, thank goodness we just installed that thermal exhaust port up on the top layer then.
Don't forget the slow pans across photographs of the Organa family while a violin plays softly in the background.
>>I favor "open access" over net neutrality. Open access means telecom providers have to allow other ISPs to use their infrastructure.
It's kind of the same thing, though there's a lot of different stuff being talked about in this debate. (Tubes and such as well, RIP Ted Stevens.)
I favor something like the common carrier laws applied to the railroads. That alone seems to be about all the legislation we need.
>>signed the Kyoto protocol the US took a dump on.
Kyoto is a hideous living abortion of a treaty. :/
If you knew anything about it, you wouldn't say this like it was a good thing.
>>If he misappropriates $20,000 worth of company funds, it's equivalent to a peon with a $30k salary stealing $30 worth of office supplies. I'm sure everyone on Slashdot has hit that limit - those post-its and permanent markers add up, you know.
I have never stolen from an office. I think I found a pen at home once and took it back in the next day. At best you could accuse me of breathing air-conditioned air while not actively working on a job, or something trivial like that.
That said, it should have been easy for him to justify $20k in expenses at his level. Even doing things like giving free rides on your corporate jet (which would otherwise not be used) have come under the microscope these days, but those aren't usually firing expenses. I think it more just had to do with him lying about who he was with on his expenses than the actual dollars.
>>Exponential growth is not sustainable.
The Invisible Hand would like a word with you. Outside.