I wrote a comment some years ago at Gamasutra where I mentioned 13m players was the most players WoW could ever hope to achieve, based on growing trends. I predicted back then that by 2010 Blizzard would launch their new MMORPG, because I thought Blizzard would like to catch those leaving WoW in a new hobby, but I was mistaken, they instead launched an expansion.
It took almost 2 years to cross from 11.5m to 12m subscribers. Many dismiss the 600k drop, but take notice that it took almost 2 years to grow 500k, and they lost more than that in 5 months.
The thing is, it is very hard to keep the players interested for so long about the same game, even with expansions. In its 7th year, most of the areas are by now already known by heart, most of the enemies defeated, most of the quests finished, most of the equipment gathered... what else is left for players? A giant paid chatroom with avatars. But you have the disadvantage of not being able to run it in a minimized screen to do something else (as you would with other instant messengers)... Also, people grow, when World of Warcraft launched you might have been a teenager, but now you are an adult and have other obligations like working and taking care of children. And people who were 6 when WoW launched and are now 13 might not be interested in it at all, but instead prefer to hang in Facebook or Twitter, so the install base stalls and even drops.
They are the ones who said Wii was going to sell less than 15 million units in USA by 2010, while both the PS3 and Xbox 360 would each sell over 20 million units. A pity they missed Wii sales for, say, over 100%. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/File:IDG_chart.png
Yup, I bought it for my Japanese classes and like it. The bad thing is that its microphone is limited, so you need to sit down near the professor (or repeat what the teacher says yourself). Maybe if everyone here buys one we could get a Linux port for the Desktop application, I hate having it linked to my coworker's computer just because he uses XP there (while I use 2K at work and Ubuntu at home).
Nobody takes the industry seriously. I have been employed by a company that develops an EMR for over 6 years. First HIPAA, I remember our boss came once and told us that if we didn't implement HIPAA by April 15, 2003, we would be out of the market. Guess what? Nobody did know what the heck was HIPAA. We added a few passwords here and there, restrictions, things like that, and suddenly were HIPAA compliant. Why? Because you are not forced to make them, just "try in good faith to make them". What kind of regulation is that one?
Now we have CCHIT. One certification per year, since 2006. If you approve CCHIT, you can continue in the market. If you don't... you can continue in the market. Nothing happens. They are trying to consolidate the market, but without ideas. Just throw a lot of requirements you need to follow, and once they all pass them, bring more, and then bring more.
EMR help doctors, but these regulations are aimed at shrinking the market. Will they continue shrinking it until there is a single EMR/EHR so that they don't have portability problems?
I second Genesis, good mixture of several stages (Earthsea, Krynn, Middle Earth and several original ones). Still playing it with the same character after over 8 years (over 748 days old by now). True, many young people now play MMORPGs or consoles, but this is the only game I can play from work while simulating being of use!
Started playing to improve my English (Spanish speaker here). By the time I wanted to leave due school issues, though, I had made so many friends and had so many adventures I decided to stay for good.
If you have never played a MUD, try one out. It wastes no bandwidth, it needs no dedicated software per se (you can install a MUD client, but plain old telnet for trying a MUD out is enough) and will let you, one day, say "I used telnet" just like I can say I used a gopher and archie clients!
The main problem is that sites don't quote Wikipedia when using our information. For example, while working with the list of best-selling video games article, The Independent used our information about the best-selling video game franchises of all time, copying it verbatim, but not referencing us. Soon after, other sites like Gamasutra and GameSpot picked it up. So, we had reliable sources using information from Wikipedia, but not acknowledging it. Thankfully, nobody fell in the "trap". I contacted The Independent about the license breach, but they never answered.
This would be solved very easily: those who use Wikipedia should reference us. Considering the license could be simplified to "link back to the Wikipedia article, where copyright information about the extract can be found", it is a shame journalist, bloggers and miscellaneous editors don't do that.
A quick Google search reveals many sites with similar problems. I like this one, though. You get not only the full query, but the path to the database and the database name =) Not the same, but you find idiots everywhere =)
Actually, we waited for Gizmodo to pick it from Oh Gizmo! to pick it from Hacked Gadgets to pick it from Hack a Wii to pick it from the source. Bureaucracy and fact checking, that is the way newspapers work!
I have noticed that GameSpot, one of the biggest gaming sites in internet, has been using TinyURLs for external links since some months ago. The problem with this is that those site's Page Rank at Google get lowered because they aren't being linked directly. I am not sure why they would do that, though.
Most closing admins do not strike "votes" nowadays, but dismissing them is common. When you give an opinion, you need to back it up with facts. RMG had 78 edits, and personally, I would not have dismissed his opinion like that, but he stated "Checkerboard Nightmare has been a fixture on the web comics scene for years, and is definitely notable." without providing a fact. In true xkcd fashion, we could have added a {{citation needed}} tag to his claim.
The real deal is that our notability policy may be rather strict, but that is only to limit the amount of "celebrities" we can accept. It is something newspapers do as well. I doubt you will find an article about a webcomic in a newspaper unless it is notable.
Dang... to mod or to comment... to mod or to comment... well, let's clear this misconception that is so common for people who is not regular at Wikipedia. Deletion discussions, also known as XFD, aren't "votes" where simple majority wins. It is a search for consensus, where everyone states their opinion, and in the end the best argument is used to close the discussion.
It is the task of admins and other people in the discussion to reveal "single purpose accounts", accounts created just to stockpile in either side of the discussion. It is clear that, somehow, a user of the webcomic found the Wikipedia entry of the comic was being deleted, and "called to arms", posting in a forum or a comment in the webcomic asking others to come and "vote keep". For example, 216.134.160.149 faked a username, "Blackbyrd2". Other than his opinion about the AFD, he never contributed to Wikipedia afterwards. Same for 149.169.88.9, Captainhero, etc. Some become constructive members of the community, of course, but at the time of the discussion, they are considered SPA based on the duck test.
Now, you may ask whether the opinion of someone who arrives asked to stockpile is worth or not. Wikipedia welcomes all opinions, but for the sake of keeping the discussion clean, we mark these accounts with the {{spa}} template. The closing admin is asked to keep in mind these users don't know Wikipedia policies and guidelines for notability, that they are biased (either for the keep or delete side), and that it is possible they won't be able to defend their opinion because SPA don't usually go back to Wikipedia after the first opinion. The template {{afdanons}} is put at the top of these discussions to let them know about the basic rule of XFD: it is a discussion, not a vote. If the deletion reasoning is strong, unless there is a keep reasoning as strong as it, it will be deleted.
Indeed. Two years ago, I pointed in a thread somewhere else that it was a blow directed to the mind. When I saw it, I was boggled for a few seconds, and then it clicked. Apparently, it has clicked on 10 million others as well.
"Once that product is gone from the retailer shelves, then we're back to a $599 SKU only, so it's not like we have a two-price strategy in the US market. We found out very early on how consumers react to having just one SKU as opposed to two."
We don't have confirmation they will drop the SKU price to USD 499 later, so technically the story is right, even though Sony tried their best to swamp it.
I owned Blue, but never managed to find Sabrina. I bought Diamond a couple of weeks ago, and so far I am really enjoying it. Since I live in Argentina, local trading is out of question (it is pretty hard to find anyone with a handheld), however wifi trading is very, very nice, allowing me to, at least, hope to catch 'em all for once.
Besides the known clichés, it is quite good (even though my friend list is empty *sniff*). By the way, the Japanese love female combees. True, they are hard to catch, but I get around 3 per day, and every time I deposit them, they accept the trade (even though I request even rarer items).
Oh, they are availabe here, and should be under USD 2000 (according to some old gaming articles), but apparently you need solid plan and backing to get them:-(
At school, back in 1998, every Linux distro we installed used to have that limitation, a limitation in the encryption routine, and a rationale something like a longer password being easier to crack. It would not surprise me if AOL were still using Slackware 2.0;-)
Slashdot Mirror
I wrote a comment some years ago at Gamasutra where I mentioned 13m players was the most players WoW could ever hope to achieve, based on growing trends. I predicted back then that by 2010 Blizzard would launch their new MMORPG, because I thought Blizzard would like to catch those leaving WoW in a new hobby, but I was mistaken, they instead launched an expansion.
It took almost 2 years to cross from 11.5m to 12m subscribers. Many dismiss the 600k drop, but take notice that it took almost 2 years to grow 500k, and they lost more than that in 5 months.
The thing is, it is very hard to keep the players interested for so long about the same game, even with expansions. In its 7th year, most of the areas are by now already known by heart, most of the enemies defeated, most of the quests finished, most of the equipment gathered... what else is left for players? A giant paid chatroom with avatars. But you have the disadvantage of not being able to run it in a minimized screen to do something else (as you would with other instant messengers)... Also, people grow, when World of Warcraft launched you might have been a teenager, but now you are an adult and have other obligations like working and taking care of children. And people who were 6 when WoW launched and are now 13 might not be interested in it at all, but instead prefer to hang in Facebook or Twitter, so the install base stalls and even drops.
They are the ones who said Wii was going to sell less than 15 million units in USA by 2010, while both the PS3 and Xbox 360 would each sell over 20 million units. A pity they missed Wii sales for, say, over 100%. http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/File:IDG_chart.png
...I I mentioned in a forum that "Multiplayer is actually the best way of not programming a good AI."
Use this Coral Cache link if you are also having problems connecting there like me.
It is not a bug, it is the Sony timer.
Yup, I bought it for my Japanese classes and like it. The bad thing is that its microphone is limited, so you need to sit down near the professor (or repeat what the teacher says yourself). Maybe if everyone here buys one we could get a Linux port for the Desktop application, I hate having it linked to my coworker's computer just because he uses XP there (while I use 2K at work and Ubuntu at home).
No, we want to play Counter-Strike in peace.
Nobody takes the industry seriously. I have been employed by a company that develops an EMR for over 6 years. First HIPAA, I remember our boss came once and told us that if we didn't implement HIPAA by April 15, 2003, we would be out of the market. Guess what? Nobody did know what the heck was HIPAA. We added a few passwords here and there, restrictions, things like that, and suddenly were HIPAA compliant. Why? Because you are not forced to make them, just "try in good faith to make them". What kind of regulation is that one?
Now we have CCHIT. One certification per year, since 2006. If you approve CCHIT, you can continue in the market. If you don't... you can continue in the market. Nothing happens. They are trying to consolidate the market, but without ideas. Just throw a lot of requirements you need to follow, and once they all pass them, bring more, and then bring more.
EMR help doctors, but these regulations are aimed at shrinking the market. Will they continue shrinking it until there is a single EMR/EHR so that they don't have portability problems?
Let's see if Obama is serious or not.
Look at the bright side: it is the fastest fix released by Microsoft. Ever.
I second Genesis, good mixture of several stages (Earthsea, Krynn, Middle Earth and several original ones). Still playing it with the same character after over 8 years (over 748 days old by now). True, many young people now play MMORPGs or consoles, but this is the only game I can play from work while simulating being of use!
Started playing to improve my English (Spanish speaker here). By the time I wanted to leave due school issues, though, I had made so many friends and had so many adventures I decided to stay for good.
If you have never played a MUD, try one out. It wastes no bandwidth, it needs no dedicated software per se (you can install a MUD client, but plain old telnet for trying a MUD out is enough) and will let you, one day, say "I used telnet" just like I can say I used a gopher and archie clients!
Yup, here someone mentioned it.
Incidentally, your query crashes the referenced tool. Talk about a really nasty query ;-)
The main problem is that sites don't quote Wikipedia when using our information. For example, while working with the list of best-selling video games article, The Independent used our information about the best-selling video game franchises of all time, copying it verbatim, but not referencing us. Soon after, other sites like Gamasutra and GameSpot picked it up. So, we had reliable sources using information from Wikipedia, but not acknowledging it. Thankfully, nobody fell in the "trap". I contacted The Independent about the license breach, but they never answered.
It also happened later, when Yahoo! Video Games copied the list (although they updated a couple of numbers).
This would be solved very easily: those who use Wikipedia should reference us. Considering the license could be simplified to "link back to the Wikipedia article, where copyright information about the extract can be found", it is a shame journalist, bloggers and miscellaneous editors don't do that.
A quick Google search reveals many sites with similar problems. I like this one, though. You get not only the full query, but the path to the database and the database name =) Not the same, but you find idiots everywhere =)
Gaming sites report that Toshiba hasn't given up yet. I guess they want to deplete their HD-DVD hardware before killing the format.
Actually, we waited for Gizmodo to pick it from Oh Gizmo! to pick it from Hacked Gadgets to pick it from Hack a Wii to pick it from the source. Bureaucracy and fact checking, that is the way newspapers work!
I have noticed that GameSpot, one of the biggest gaming sites in internet, has been using TinyURLs for external links since some months ago. The problem with this is that those site's Page Rank at Google get lowered because they aren't being linked directly. I am not sure why they would do that, though.
Most closing admins do not strike "votes" nowadays, but dismissing them is common. When you give an opinion, you need to back it up with facts. RMG had 78 edits, and personally, I would not have dismissed his opinion like that, but he stated "Checkerboard Nightmare has been a fixture on the web comics scene for years, and is definitely notable." without providing a fact. In true xkcd fashion, we could have added a {{citation needed}} tag to his claim.
The real deal is that our notability policy may be rather strict, but that is only to limit the amount of "celebrities" we can accept. It is something newspapers do as well. I doubt you will find an article about a webcomic in a newspaper unless it is notable.
Dang... to mod or to comment... to mod or to comment... well, let's clear this misconception that is so common for people who is not regular at Wikipedia. Deletion discussions, also known as XFD, aren't "votes" where simple majority wins. It is a search for consensus, where everyone states their opinion, and in the end the best argument is used to close the discussion.
It is the task of admins and other people in the discussion to reveal "single purpose accounts", accounts created just to stockpile in either side of the discussion. It is clear that, somehow, a user of the webcomic found the Wikipedia entry of the comic was being deleted, and "called to arms", posting in a forum or a comment in the webcomic asking others to come and "vote keep". For example, 216.134.160.149 faked a username, "Blackbyrd2". Other than his opinion about the AFD, he never contributed to Wikipedia afterwards. Same for 149.169.88.9, Captainhero, etc. Some become constructive members of the community, of course, but at the time of the discussion, they are considered SPA based on the duck test.
Now, you may ask whether the opinion of someone who arrives asked to stockpile is worth or not. Wikipedia welcomes all opinions, but for the sake of keeping the discussion clean, we mark these accounts with the {{spa}} template. The closing admin is asked to keep in mind these users don't know Wikipedia policies and guidelines for notability, that they are biased (either for the keep or delete side), and that it is possible they won't be able to defend their opinion because SPA don't usually go back to Wikipedia after the first opinion. The template {{afdanons}} is put at the top of these discussions to let them know about the basic rule of XFD: it is a discussion, not a vote. If the deletion reasoning is strong, unless there is a keep reasoning as strong as it, it will be deleted.
Indeed. Two years ago, I pointed in a thread somewhere else that it was a blow directed to the mind. When I saw it, I was boggled for a few seconds, and then it clicked. Apparently, it has clicked on 10 million others as well.
I owned Blue, but never managed to find Sabrina. I bought Diamond a couple of weeks ago, and so far I am really enjoying it. Since I live in Argentina, local trading is out of question (it is pretty hard to find anyone with a handheld), however wifi trading is very, very nice, allowing me to, at least, hope to catch 'em all for once.
Besides the known clichés, it is quite good (even though my friend list is empty *sniff*). By the way, the Japanese love female combees. True, they are hard to catch, but I get around 3 per day, and every time I deposit them, they accept the trade (even though I request even rarer items).
Oh, they are availabe here, and should be under USD 2000 (according to some old gaming articles), but apparently you need solid plan and backing to get them :-(
At school, back in 1998, every Linux distro we installed used to have that limitation, a limitation in the encryption routine, and a rationale something like a longer password being easier to crack. It would not surprise me if AOL were still using Slackware 2.0 ;-)
Listen to the cowards! Please tag this article with our pride!