... killing the online porn industry. Well sure people could still download it, but that'll fall off as people dare not risk the all-seeing monitor watching. Ha, 'fall off'.
While you're fed up with network troubles of your current game, now might be the opporunity to try some of the other MMORPGs. Yes, I *do* play WoW, but for those times when I'm sick of dealing with (fill in the blank), I have City of Heroes & Villains. And out in the last week: AutoAssault, which has satisfied my craving for a vehicles-with-mounted-weapons game.
Offtopic? Maybe! Proudly so. Come on over, it'd be cool to see some new capes & cars in both games.
So Linden Labs gets an infusion of cash (see http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/ 1727255) to do more development on their "game," and this just sounds like part of the marketing feed. Don't get me wrong (a cursory check will find I am Second-Life-critical, really just a hardcore cynic), it may be yet-another-good-story about virtual economies crossing the reality border, but smells like it was paid for with that VC.
Cool, a *lapboard*! I've wanted to join the throngs of users who don't sit at a desk anymore! Finally I can rid myself of the large, cumbersome desk!...So after this first offering, when are they going to come out with the hardware for holding my drink?
During the day I do my 8-and-some-odd hours of programming, designing, planning, surfing, email, meetings, 2~4 IM conversations, etc. etc., so I have the multitasking requisites.
And in the evenings, I do a lot of running. Run down the hall, up the stairs, jump the ledge and pickup the rocket launcher, chase down the guy with the railgun heading for his fave camping spot, and then to the four corners of the map to frag the others. Then I was running up and down the main road of Durotar I don't know how many times, and then a lot of swimming off the coast of Desolace. And not done yet, I even ran around Paragon City- which I might add is not pedestrian-friendly!
I... I can't explain what it is. It's like the core of my being was somehow attuned to a cosmic shift, like the poles were flipping, like a Sith was redeemed and came back to the Lightside.. like a glacier just broke through a wall in hell.
If these words are truly Gates'.. Oh, oh! I think I'm going to say it- I daresay I'd *agree* with them! *GASP* Forgive my blasphemy!..Or he was caught in a lucid moment between mind-control sessions of the MS-PR-FUD-spin-witchdoctors.
You know the saying, and probably some variations thereof. "An infinite number of monkeys typing at an infinite number of typewriter will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare." My favorite is actually monkeys, shotguns, stopsigns, and the works of Shakespeare in Braille. But I digress..
As pointed out by others, a lot of this 'content' that LL didn't have to produce isn't all that great. It's amateur, not professionally developed 'content'. (Yes, the quote marks are indicating sarcasm, or that the word isn't the best choice.)
But more importantly, a lot (~99%) of all this created stuff all over the place is static. Nothing to interact with. Scenery. That hardly makes it count as content because there's nothing to do with it. So back to the original figure of hours of work put into creating stuff and dollars saved.. take just 1% of that, because only 1% of the monkeys in the sandbox are creating stuff anybody else would want to play with.
How many changes have gone into the game that need to be undone for it to go back to a state that a majority of people are happy with? A month? Three? Six? A year or more? And even then, would people who liked the game then want to return to it?
I think I liked the game best sometime after Publish 10.. I liked the Combat Upgrade. Right about then was when my interest in the game peaked. And the very next patch I cancelled.
Maybe an option not explored in the focus groups would be the "sunset" of SWG, and the development of its replacement.
We never miss someone's article/review/rant when it's time to whine, but rarely hear about when an online game shines. The 6 million mark was a little extra piece, but hey- the gates of Ahn'Qiraj were opened on my server! *crickets* they've announced some cool improvements to priest talents! *crickets* Paladins and Shamans will be able to carry something useful in their ranged slot! *crickets* "zomg, teh Q to git in iz 40 min! Qwik, blog n link 2/. !!!" Light forbid there's anything to do in front of a computer but stare at the screen and watch the numbers tick down.
Since people need to have an idea of what Second Life as a MMOG is, in a nutshell, it's a sandbox game. And not like early-SWG or UO where there's content and game mechanics and whatnot- there's what content other players have modeled, textured, and scripted in-game. You'll spend a lot of your time flying around a world filled with player-created sculptures and buildings, and you might even run into other players. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a 'game' to play while you're there. It's like Myst, without the puzzles or story.
That's the objective, non-negative stuff I could say about the game. Anything else would be modded troll or flamebait.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." -H. P. Lovecraft
Re:Quality .. has sunk? Done sank, has barnacles!
on
Most Stars Are Single
·
· Score: 1
Ahem. As one with the lower number, I'll let you know that people start counting from small numbers and work their way up to larger ones. Another not-new concept that you seem to be unfamiliar with.
Quality .. has sunk? Done sank, has barnacles!
on
Most Stars Are Single
·
· Score: 1
It's been here a while. Are you new here? Because well, a bunch of tech geeks finding humor in headlines, especially with regards to sex & dating, is not a recent trend. With the proper choice of words and phrasing, it's still funny, too!
Some "Chinese Gold Farmers" are probably better members for PUGs (Pick-Up Groups) than the common WoW player. I mean, they play a lot, right? As a form of income? They're probably more well-read on the guides to playing their class, group dynamics, and play strategies than the body of 'casual' players. They might only be 'easily' identified by their poor language skills, if such applies.
The term, "Chinese Gold Farmer" is probably just a derrogatory term for any undesirable character; The "'leet dudes" whom fail the alleged language test, the loot-ninjas, and the casual-playing foreigner who doesn't speak any English.
I've even fallen into this categorization: an un-guilded rogue (must be a ninja), and a name that at two syllables could just be an actual name in Chinese. And maybe I fell into it on both sides; instead of the common acronyms of the game, "LFG 2 BRD, PST" (Looking For Group to BlackRock Depths, Please Send/Tell), I have to use the embellished, "Seasoned adventurer seeks likeminded group to Blackrock Depths, please send tell."; And I've also been contacted by Chinese players (with characters with Chinese names) with greetings and messages in Chinese, and could only reply, "Nihao ma. That's the only Chinese I speak, sorry."
There's probably been a report issued in China about the attempts by the US military to crack their networks, but it probably got filtered by the Great Firewall of China.
Maybe I forgot to add this idea in there somewhere too: What, you only have one system? Someone else frags their drive, you inherit the hardware, reconfigure a few things and bam, secondary system with old drive running something other than your college desktop machine....Which if it took 3 years to fill up must mean you either scrupulously only did schoolwork on it, or you didn't have 'net at your U. ^_~
I can understand selling a computer system.. but with the drive still in it? Are they mad? Save the drive! You'll *need* the space, plus you get to keep what you had on it anyway! If you need more space, you buy a new, bigger drive (and maybe a system around it), and put the old one in the system. Then, at least if you do ever decide to part with the drive, you've moved your files off it and reformatted it anyway.
Or you fragged the drive, in which case you can only sell it as a paperweight.
There are dozens of places that currently are just eye candy, some only when flying over the landscape. The airfield NE of Ironforge, the lake above the tram to Stormwind, the Venture Co. camp mountain-locked between Stonetalon Peak and the Charred Vale, the Graymane Wall, southern Silithus, Dalaran, Quel'Thalas, Mount Hyjal... Was all that just meant to be in-flight entertainment? Created-but-cut content? Under construction for later to make it all seem 'fresh and new'? Bait for explorers to lure them into places for which they are banned for seeing early? Please, impart some insight into these holes in the world!
With those photo-paper printers now, DIY. I mean, if you're a "serious amateur" and have a 8MP camera, get a good printer to go with it. The old analogy would have been that you developed film yourself, too.
That is, I don't write down or save anything sensitive I don't want read by anyone else. I keep it in my head. It's so important, I don't forget it.
...But I have yet to get so much information that I can't remember, or else I'd probably go further than the poster to keep it safe on computer hardware.
..but it was *just* published on the net. "Published?" I'm sure I got it by right-clicking a link and choosing 'save as,' too. Is this 'publish' somehow more legitimate than that? Is this one endorsed by Apple?
Slashdot Mirror
... killing the online porn industry. Well sure people could still download it, but that'll fall off as people dare not risk the all-seeing monitor watching. Ha, 'fall off'.
While you're fed up with network troubles of your current game, now might be the opporunity to try some of the other MMORPGs. Yes, I *do* play WoW, but for those times when I'm sick of dealing with (fill in the blank), I have City of Heroes & Villains. And out in the last week: AutoAssault, which has satisfied my craving for a vehicles-with-mounted-weapons game.
Offtopic? Maybe! Proudly so. Come on over, it'd be cool to see some new capes & cars in both games.
So Linden Labs gets an infusion of cash (see http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/28/ 1727255) to do more development on their "game," and this just sounds like part of the marketing feed. Don't get me wrong (a cursory check will find I am Second-Life-critical, really just a hardcore cynic), it may be yet-another-good-story about virtual economies crossing the reality border, but smells like it was paid for with that VC.
Cool, a *lapboard*! I've wanted to join the throngs of users who don't sit at a desk anymore! Finally I can rid myself of the large, cumbersome desk! ...So after this first offering, when are they going to come out with the hardware for holding my drink?
During the day I do my 8-and-some-odd hours of programming, designing, planning, surfing, email, meetings, 2~4 IM conversations, etc. etc., so I have the multitasking requisites.
And in the evenings, I do a lot of running. Run down the hall, up the stairs, jump the ledge and pickup the rocket launcher, chase down the guy with the railgun heading for his fave camping spot, and then to the four corners of the map to frag the others. Then I was running up and down the main road of Durotar I don't know how many times, and then a lot of swimming off the coast of Desolace. And not done yet, I even ran around Paragon City- which I might add is not pedestrian-friendly!
All that running had my heart beating plenty! ^_~
I... I can't explain what it is. It's like the core of my being was somehow attuned to a cosmic shift, like the poles were flipping, like a Sith was redeemed and came back to the Lightside.. like a glacier just broke through a wall in hell.
..Or he was caught in a lucid moment between mind-control sessions of the MS-PR-FUD-spin-witchdoctors.
If these words are truly Gates'.. Oh, oh! I think I'm going to say it- I daresay I'd *agree* with them! *GASP* Forgive my blasphemy!
You know the saying, and probably some variations thereof. "An infinite number of monkeys typing at an infinite number of typewriter will eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare." My favorite is actually monkeys, shotguns, stopsigns, and the works of Shakespeare in Braille. But I digress..
As pointed out by others, a lot of this 'content' that LL didn't have to produce isn't all that great. It's amateur, not professionally developed 'content'. (Yes, the quote marks are indicating sarcasm, or that the word isn't the best choice.)
But more importantly, a lot (~99%) of all this created stuff all over the place is static. Nothing to interact with. Scenery. That hardly makes it count as content because there's nothing to do with it. So back to the original figure of hours of work put into creating stuff and dollars saved.. take just 1% of that, because only 1% of the monkeys in the sandbox are creating stuff anybody else would want to play with.
Using this as an opportunity to remove 'Ask Slashdot' from my preferences, since we can't mod the questions.
Let's stop referring to it as a programming language too, please.
Next question.
How many changes have gone into the game that need to be undone for it to go back to a state that a majority of people are happy with? A month? Three? Six? A year or more? And even then, would people who liked the game then want to return to it?
I think I liked the game best sometime after Publish 10.. I liked the Combat Upgrade. Right about then was when my interest in the game peaked. And the very next patch I cancelled.
Maybe an option not explored in the focus groups would be the "sunset" of SWG, and the development of its replacement.
We never miss someone's article/review/rant when it's time to whine, but rarely hear about when an online game shines. The 6 million mark was a little extra piece, but hey- the gates of Ahn'Qiraj were opened on my server! *crickets* they've announced some cool improvements to priest talents! *crickets* Paladins and Shamans will be able to carry something useful in their ranged slot! *crickets* "zomg, teh Q to git in iz 40 min! Qwik, blog n link 2 /. !!!" Light forbid there's anything to do in front of a computer but stare at the screen and watch the numbers tick down.
Stop trying to glean life lessons from video games.
If you're drawing parallels between video games and reality (including for purposes of lawsuits), you're delusional.
The better lesson to learn is *why* video games are *different* from reality.
Since people need to have an idea of what Second Life as a MMOG is, in a nutshell, it's a sandbox game. And not like early-SWG or UO where there's content and game mechanics and whatnot- there's what content other players have modeled, textured, and scripted in-game. You'll spend a lot of your time flying around a world filled with player-created sculptures and buildings, and you might even run into other players. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a 'game' to play while you're there. It's like Myst, without the puzzles or story.
That's the objective, non-negative stuff I could say about the game. Anything else would be modded troll or flamebait.
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." -H. P. Lovecraft
Ahem. As one with the lower number, I'll let you know that people start counting from small numbers and work their way up to larger ones. Another not-new concept that you seem to be unfamiliar with.
It's been here a while. Are you new here? Because well, a bunch of tech geeks finding humor in headlines, especially with regards to sex & dating, is not a recent trend. With the proper choice of words and phrasing, it's still funny, too!
Some "Chinese Gold Farmers" are probably better members for PUGs (Pick-Up Groups) than the common WoW player. I mean, they play a lot, right? As a form of income? They're probably more well-read on the guides to playing their class, group dynamics, and play strategies than the body of 'casual' players. They might only be 'easily' identified by their poor language skills, if such applies.
/Tell), I have to use the embellished, "Seasoned adventurer seeks likeminded group to Blackrock Depths, please send tell."; And I've also been contacted by Chinese players (with characters with Chinese names) with greetings and messages in Chinese, and could only reply, "Nihao ma. That's the only Chinese I speak, sorry."
The term, "Chinese Gold Farmer" is probably just a derrogatory term for any undesirable character; The "'leet dudes" whom fail the alleged language test, the loot-ninjas, and the casual-playing foreigner who doesn't speak any English.
I've even fallen into this categorization: an un-guilded rogue (must be a ninja), and a name that at two syllables could just be an actual name in Chinese. And maybe I fell into it on both sides; instead of the common acronyms of the game, "LFG 2 BRD, PST" (Looking For Group to BlackRock Depths, Please Send
There's probably been a report issued in China about the attempts by the US military to crack their networks, but it probably got filtered by the Great Firewall of China.
Maybe I forgot to add this idea in there somewhere too: What, you only have one system? Someone else frags their drive, you inherit the hardware, reconfigure a few things and bam, secondary system with old drive running something other than your college desktop machine. ...Which if it took 3 years to fill up must mean you either scrupulously only did schoolwork on it, or you didn't have 'net at your U. ^_~
I can understand selling a computer system.. but with the drive still in it? Are they mad? Save the drive! You'll *need* the space, plus you get to keep what you had on it anyway! If you need more space, you buy a new, bigger drive (and maybe a system around it), and put the old one in the system. Then, at least if you do ever decide to part with the drive, you've moved your files off it and reformatted it anyway.
Or you fragged the drive, in which case you can only sell it as a paperweight.
There are dozens of places that currently are just eye candy, some only when flying over the landscape. The airfield NE of Ironforge, the lake above the tram to Stormwind, the Venture Co. camp mountain-locked between Stonetalon Peak and the Charred Vale, the Graymane Wall, southern Silithus, Dalaran, Quel'Thalas, Mount Hyjal... Was all that just meant to be in-flight entertainment? Created-but-cut content? Under construction for later to make it all seem 'fresh and new'? Bait for explorers to lure them into places for which they are banned for seeing early? Please, impart some insight into these holes in the world!
With those photo-paper printers now, DIY. I mean, if you're a "serious amateur" and have a 8MP camera, get a good printer to go with it. The old analogy would have been that you developed film yourself, too.
..but it was *just* published on the net. "Published?" I'm sure I got it by right-clicking a link and choosing 'save as,' too. Is this 'publish' somehow more legitimate than that? Is this one endorsed by Apple?
Nope, it can be setup point-to-point, and so you can simulate multicast by having all nodes connect to a repeater.