I think the most challenging aspect of MMORPGS is balancing it enough so that hard core players are challenged, while casual players are not so discouraged that they stop paying. I played MUDs in the 80s, and the ones I played (MUME, for example) had much more challenging gameplay, including permadeath. Trolls would permadie if they got caught out in sunlight, turning into a statue. This was a great concept. Trolls could smash with almost no equipment and I would often spend a night running to Bree to whack on unsuspecting "whities" for shi-s and gi-s. Great stuff!
Also, if you died, your corpse contained all of your eq and could be looted by anyone. Imagine that in WoW! epicced-out toon dies, has to re-equip all over again! This aspect is really what's missing in my opinion. It was easier to do with MUDs because they were free, and everyone that played was pretty much "hardcore".
I haven't seen anything before or since with the depth and challenge of MUME! I would love to see a MMORPG made of it. The coders who wrote the zones often mudlled custom events related to areas too, like Tom Bombadil's forest, the Rivendell Ford, etc..
I started WoW in 2006. I played a lot, then moved. Now, over the course of the next 12 months without WoW I spent an average of $327.00 MORE without World of warcraft. Work.. get off of work, go out, drink, go home, sleep. Now, work, go home, WoW, go to sleep. I still go out on the weekends, but my weekday routine was changed dramatically specifically because I have entertainment I enjoy that does not require me to leave the house and costs less.
Seriously, though, this is no longer the case, in my experience. It is still fun to harass gamers, particularly fantasy gamers, as being virgin geeks, it is simply not true. I play WoW, and many of my guild members and people I group with in general are societally "normal"; married, kids, job, life..
This is also true with most "geeky" activities. 20 years ago when I was starting to play with computers, everyone involved fit the nerd stereotype, hell look at when "Revenge of the Nerds" was made and that is a good indicator. Now, it's all mainstream, and we are on top, as early adopters. World of Warcraft is much the same
IS MUME (mume.pvv.org 4242 from memory) still running? Geez that MUD just about killed my college career back in the mid-80s and was still running into 2000 last I looked.
Wow. Tele-Arena. Quite an old example, let me borrow it for a moment. I believe many are overlooking one powerful gameplay ideal: "realdeath". In Tele-Arena, as well as many muds I played in the 80s and early 90s like "MUME", there were at least some classes who could experience a death to their character that eliminated it from the game, or brought it back down to naked level 1. In MUME, another quality that leveled the playing field was lost of equipment. Even if I am an 80 hour a week player, if I die and my corpse is looted, much of my investment would be lost to others by way of equipment being taken. This is particularly effective in PvP environs. In this new genre of MMORPGS, there is no such thing. There isn't even experience lost for death in WoW, which babifies it enough so as to not discourage subscribers to quit after a fully equipped death. In MUDs and Tele-Arena et al, a really ballsy player would become legendary because of extreme risks and outrageous acts of "heroism". In WoW, there is no real risk, beyond a corpsewalk. I want hardcore worlds, where there is a "real" loss. Unfortunately, because these sites are subscription-based and people are making a lot of money, it doesn't make sense.
Yeah, there are many botnets that are used for purposes of extortion. There was even an article in wired last year about the guy who set up that million dollar page that was just ads; A Blackhat group ordered him to pay 5 grand and when he didnt, his site got hit with a 23000 node dDOS attack.
Actually, I hate to break it to ya, but by-and-large MySpace IS "cool" FWIW. The site definately has grown from a posterboard of bored 18-25 year olds and is being seriously thrust further into the mainstream.
In my humble opinion, it is becoming as ubiquitous as e-mail. A lot of this is fueled by their being owned by NewsCorp. Mass media companies in many ways define cool, and as-such are the driving forces that shape and expand coolness.
I hear every local radio station touting their myspace accounts, I meet local musicians who have myspace sites proudly displayed on their own media and advertisements, and this doesn't seem to be declining.
I have seen an article about this awhile back. Some stanford guy I believe. Had server set up on a roof with wireless connectivity to a headset gadget that parsed reality. One example he used was looking at the cashier in the grocery and having her name emblazoned realtime on her lapel. Also, having his grocery list in his field of vision.
Much more complicated, in my opinion. Why should it be illegal to publish bomb instructions? What does the publishing of bomb instructions do to infringe upon our rights? If one uses the argument that it can be used to infringe upon your rights, and your safety, well there are countless examples of how ridiculous it would be to outlaw everything that can cause harm to another, and would lead us down into that Orwellian future we all fear so much
Yeah, they're using more muscle than what they needed. They really didn't need to seize all of his political literature, unless maybe they consider it evidence of his highly anti-establishment attitude.
In this point I again disagree, the Feds and LAPD used necessary force to ensure that noone was harmed.
It all seems a bit extreme. But didn't he break the law? Isn't the law a good one? I mean, how many of us really want our neighbors and other assorted yokels having the knowledge to construct bombs out of legally available materials? I'm not so sure I want that available to everyone.
Who are you to decide what is a yokel? You say you aren't sure you want that available to everyone, but where is the distinction? Should it be available to you? What about the contruction industry? Stereotypically not the brightest men in the world, but often required to use explosives as a matter of necessity. What if they want to know how the bombs they use work, or the chemistry involved in causing an explosion? All of these are "legitimate" uses for the knowledge.
It's one thing to have and even construct guns. Bombs are a whole new level though. It may infringe on his free speech rights, but his free speech can easily lead to depriving someone else (or many others) of their lives.
This part reeks of troll. guns can't deprive you or many others of their lives? how about SUVs?
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I think the most challenging aspect of MMORPGS is balancing it enough so that hard core players are challenged, while casual players are not so discouraged that they stop paying. I played MUDs in the 80s, and the ones I played (MUME, for example) had much more challenging gameplay, including permadeath. Trolls would permadie if they got caught out in sunlight, turning into a statue. This was a great concept. Trolls could smash with almost no equipment and I would often spend a night running to Bree to whack on unsuspecting "whities" for shi-s and gi-s. Great stuff!
Also, if you died, your corpse contained all of your eq and could be looted by anyone. Imagine that in WoW! epicced-out toon dies, has to re-equip all over again! This aspect is really what's missing in my opinion. It was easier to do with MUDs because they were free, and everyone that played was pretty much "hardcore".
I haven't seen anything before or since with the depth and challenge of MUME! I would love to see a MMORPG made of it. The coders who wrote the zones often mudlled custom events related to areas too, like Tom Bombadil's forest, the Rivendell Ford, etc..
I started WoW in 2006. I played a lot, then moved. Now, over the course of the next 12 months without WoW I spent an average of $327.00 MORE without World of warcraft. Work.. get off of work, go out, drink, go home, sleep. Now, work, go home, WoW, go to sleep. I still go out on the weekends, but my weekday routine was changed dramatically specifically because I have entertainment I enjoy that does not require me to leave the house and costs less.
Seriously, though, this is no longer the case, in my experience. It is still fun to harass gamers, particularly fantasy gamers, as being virgin geeks, it is simply not true. I play WoW, and many of my guild members and people I group with in general are societally "normal"; married, kids, job, life..
This is also true with most "geeky" activities. 20 years ago when I was starting to play with computers, everyone involved fit the nerd stereotype, hell look at when "Revenge of the Nerds" was made and that is a good indicator. Now, it's all mainstream, and we are on top, as early adopters. World of Warcraft is much the same
IS MUME (mume.pvv.org 4242 from memory) still running? Geez that MUD just about killed my college career back in the mid-80s and was still running into 2000 last I looked.
Wow. Tele-Arena. Quite an old example, let me borrow it for a moment. I believe many are overlooking one powerful gameplay ideal: "realdeath". In Tele-Arena, as well as many muds I played in the 80s and early 90s like "MUME", there were at least some classes who could experience a death to their character that eliminated it from the game, or brought it back down to naked level 1. In MUME, another quality that leveled the playing field was lost of equipment. Even if I am an 80 hour a week player, if I die and my corpse is looted, much of my investment would be lost to others by way of equipment being taken. This is particularly effective in PvP environs. In this new genre of MMORPGS, there is no such thing. There isn't even experience lost for death in WoW, which babifies it enough so as to not discourage subscribers to quit after a fully equipped death. In MUDs and Tele-Arena et al, a really ballsy player would become legendary because of extreme risks and outrageous acts of "heroism". In WoW, there is no real risk, beyond a corpsewalk. I want hardcore worlds, where there is a "real" loss. Unfortunately, because these sites are subscription-based and people are making a lot of money, it doesn't make sense.
Yeah, there are many botnets that are used for purposes of extortion. There was even an article in wired last year about the guy who set up that million dollar page that was just ads; A Blackhat group ordered him to pay 5 grand and when he didnt, his site got hit with a 23000 node dDOS attack.
Actually, I hate to break it to ya, but by-and-large MySpace IS "cool" FWIW. The site definately has grown from a posterboard of bored 18-25 year olds and is being seriously thrust further into the mainstream.
In my humble opinion, it is becoming as ubiquitous as e-mail. A lot of this is fueled by their being owned by NewsCorp. Mass media companies in many ways define cool, and as-such are the driving forces that shape and expand coolness.
I hear every local radio station touting their myspace accounts, I meet local musicians who have myspace sites proudly displayed on their own media and advertisements, and this doesn't seem to be declining.
I have seen an article about this awhile back. Some stanford guy I believe. Had server set up on a roof with wireless connectivity to a headset gadget that parsed reality. One example he used was looking at the cashier in the grocery and having her name emblazoned realtime on her lapel. Also, having his grocery list in his field of vision.
24, backwards is 42. they were right!
Much more complicated, in my opinion. Why should it be illegal to publish bomb instructions? What does the publishing of bomb instructions do to infringe upon our rights? If one uses the argument that it can be used to infringe upon your rights, and your safety, well there are countless examples of how ridiculous it would be to outlaw everything that can cause harm to another, and would lead us down into that Orwellian future we all fear so much
Yeah, they're using more muscle than what they needed. They really didn't need to seize all of his political literature, unless maybe they consider it evidence of his highly anti-establishment attitude.
In this point I again disagree, the Feds and LAPD used necessary force to ensure that noone was harmed.
It all seems a bit extreme. But didn't he break the law? Isn't the law a good one? I mean, how many of us really want our neighbors and other assorted yokels having the knowledge to construct bombs out of legally available materials? I'm not so sure I want that available to everyone.
Who are you to decide what is a yokel? You say you aren't sure you want that available to everyone, but where is the distinction? Should it be available to you? What about the contruction industry? Stereotypically not the brightest men in the world, but often required to use explosives as a matter of necessity. What if they want to know how the bombs they use work, or the chemistry involved in causing an explosion? All of these are "legitimate" uses for the knowledge.
It's one thing to have and even construct guns. Bombs are a whole new level though. It may infringe on his free speech rights, but his free speech can easily lead to depriving someone else (or many others) of their lives.
This part reeks of troll. guns can't deprive you or many others of their lives? how about SUVs?