Because it being illegal will stop those intent on using their phones for nefarious purposes FROM JAILBREAKING THEIR iPHONES? Sorta like how traffic laws will prevent robbers from double parking while pulling a bank heist (double parking the vehicle can speed the getaway!!).
When I was in (US Army 1977-1980), we were restricted to either standard ball(used mostly for practice), and Lake City Match ammo(recommended). We could not use the Sierra Match King bullet(my personal favorite for the.308/.30-06) since it fell in the 'dum-dum' expanding projectile category.
rts008-- Just now saw your other reply quoted above. Sorry for the tone... I took you for one of those who watches a documentary about snipers or reads a Wikipedia article and then spouts information as if they are an expert.
Obviously, things have changed a bit since 1980. The military changed its mind on the Hague-correctness of SMK in the mid-eights, IIRC.
Well, for reliable sniping at 1000 yards you will want something ballistically superior to the 7.62x51 NATO (.308 Winchester) round/M110 package. The.308 Win. bullet transitions from supersonic to subsonic around 625-700 yards, causing the bullet to become unstable and seriously degrading accuracy to unacceptable levels for a sniper/target shooter.
That's what the cartridge/rifle packages in the 7mm-8mm magnums (which includes the venerable.300 Winchester and Weatherby Magnums) are best suited for, which cover 1000 yards quite nicely.:-)
Over 1500-1600 yards is the realm of the BMG.50 caliber/rifle packages.
Stop pretending you know what you are talking about...
Try telling Palma shooters that.308 isn't reliable to 1000, they will get a good chuckle out of that. Further, my pet load, 175gr Sierra Match King + 44.5 grains of Varget is quite safely above transonic at 1k, thank you very much.
Magnums have their place, I love my.300 RUM -- but a vast majority of the time I shoot my.308 --- half as much powder, cheaper bullets, cheaper brass, and I don't have to replace the barrel after 1000 rounds. Plus, if you can hack it at 1000 with the.308, with a Magnum it is easy mode (if you can ever call 1000 easy).
And FYI, there are better rounds than the.50BMG for ELR precision shooting, assuming you aren't worried about damaging vehicles, buildings, armor, etc.
I'd go beyond misleading, and say the the headline is an outright lie. This bill was in no way "planned" by the Whitehouse. The President just signed the thing. The submitter must be drunk on spiked right-wing Kool-Aid.
The way that "brain structure" is used to make claims like this just makes me shake my head. The brain is a dynamic machine that self organizes as we develop based in no small part on the stimulus we give it.
Saying that more men go further in the fields of math and science and then pointing to the brain structure of these particular people versus the not-so-mathy and scientific people really shows nothing other than what a math-and-science wired brain tends to look like. I bet if you look at the brain structure of a highly mathematically/scientifically inclined woman, the same people would say "she's good at this stuff because her brain is structured like a man's".
It's not worth my time at the moment to go off on a "nature v nuture" tangent -- but the whole "brain structure" logic just always annoys the hell out of me because they seem to always look at a brains current structure without considering (or just making assumptions about) how a particular brain came to have that particular structure. In many cases the overlooked how-the-brain-got-this-way question is much more relevant to the case at hand, but doesn't seem to get studied (or referenced) as much.
Firstly, I should disclaim that I'm not the "dating" type -- when I'm on the prowl, it's for a "relationship" -- so the following may or may not apply to you if you're more of a casual dating type. Also this is coming from the perspective of a straight guy -- the experience for other demographic may very widely.
Secondly, my online dating resume: Currently living with my girlfriend of two years (definately not too distant future fiance -- just a timing thing) who I met through match.com. Had several other longer term and relationships with women I met online through such services. Also have had relationships that started "in real life" (we met at the rock concert type stories). My honest opinion is that it really doesn't matter how you make initial contact with somebody -- once you've met a person, the circumstances under which you happened to have come in contact are pretty irrelivant.
Anyway, first some observations:
1) Meeting people online is mainstream these days -- there's a perception that there's a social stigma, and that only freaks meet people online -- but I found both of these, while they may have been true in the past, to no longer hold much water. You definately don't have to make an excuse as to why you've resorted to looking online -- if done correctly, it's one of the best ways to get exposed to a large pool of people in a short amount of time -- and the more people you come in contact with, the greater chance that you'll bump into somebody compatible.
2) My own observation, and confirmed over and over again by women I know who use online singles sites: The experience for women on these sites is radically different from men. Women get TONS of messages from men. So to get a reply you really have to make yourself stand out. The good news is that most of the contact the women receive are either cut and pasted blurbs that some guy sends to a ton of women, from guys that come across as sleazeballs just looking to get laid, or otherwise just generally undesireable messages. Guys on the other hand generally very rarely get messages unless they initiate the contact.
So advice (based on my own experience, and the experience of women who I met online, or friends I know who look for relationships online):
* Your online profile is VERY important. As a guy, it isn't likely to get many people to contact you on its own, but it's vital for making yourself stand out from others when you contact somebody and want to hear back from them -- take the time to really describe who you are as much as possible, and include the things that make you different from other people -- write with a voice that shows your personality, and be honest (but leave out unnecessary self criticism). Everybody says post a picture -- but I think I've had just as much success either way. I think that most cases where having a picture posted would make a difference as to whether you get a reply or not, it's probably not a person something would work out with anyway.
* Be picky about who you contact. You're going to have to spend a significant amount of time preparing a message to them (see below) if you want a response, so find somebody who's profile really interests you and inspires you to write something interesting to them. Also want to try to find people who look like they're interested in somebody like you -- If all somebody talks about is they're love of the outdoors, and you never leave the city-- then you're probably not going to have a lot of luck. You'll server yourself well trying to find profiles that stand out from the generic ones (you'll learn the generic ones pretty quick).
* When you contact somebody, take the time to REALLY write them or your changes of getting a reply are small. Don't just tell somebody that you "liked their profile"-- tell them WHY, what about them interested you-- and be sincere. Also, tell them why you think that they might like you... not generic stuff, but specific things about you that seem to fit who thi
Please mod parent up. The headline of this article is proliferating the MPAAs/RIAAs FUD via implication.
The tool is not illegal, the crime is... at least until we get INDUCE shoved down our collective throats.
P2P is an important tool of free speech. Free "speech" can be restricted in two ways: By restricting the "speech" itself, or by squashing the lines over which it is communicated. Free (as in speech) communication cannot truely occur over a restricted/controlled communications medium.
Seriously though, if you're lucky enough to be at GenCon this week, you can stop and say hi to the film's creators (and see the premier of their newest movie).
This little "stunt" is about as pathetic as anything I've ever heard of... and is just a glowing indication of the inability of the left to engage in the political process in any meaningful way.
While I'll agree that it is pathetic, I fail to see how the actions of a group of wack jobs indicates anything about 'the left'.
But fine, if we want to play that game... The wack jobs that bomb abortion clinics are a glowing indication of the inability of the right to address problems without resorting to bombs!
... and who don't feel like googling in the middle of reading Slashdot posts:
astroturfing:n. The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to newspapers from soi-disant `concerned citizens', paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the term). This term became common among hackers after it came to light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to use such tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust action against the company.
This backfired horribly, angering a number of state attorneys-general enough to induce them to go public with plans to join the Federal suit. It also set anybody defending Microsoft on the net for the accusation "You're just astroturfing!".
Find a young baby. If the kid is a boy, dress him in a little pink outfit and put a pink ribbon in his hair. If a girl, dress her in little overalls or something similarly "boyish".
Then, without telling others the gender of the kid, observe how people that do not know the child's real sex treat him/her-- works best if they are encouraged to interact, and of course if the kids name has to be gender ambiguous enough as not to give away your ruse...
You may be suprised by how the kid gets treated-- and it's not something you'd probably even think twice about if you weren't aware of the kid's real sex.
Anyway, my point is that kids get treated differently based on their sex from day one-- down to the pink vs blue blankets in the hospital. I don't think it's even intentional, its very ingrained in our culture to the point that it is almost subconcious.
I'm not going to make the argument right now that this different treatment is why boys are one way and girls are another, but the degree to which sex effects the way we treat children I think is very easy to overlook without little experiments like this to help us look past our own cultural programming.
It always cracks me up when scientists and such use differing brain layouts and stuff between men and women to make the claim that men and women are therefore innately different. You can't make this claim without taking into account differing stimulus during a persons brain development-- because brain structure changes as we learn and develop.
This is turning into a rant. Posting now, before it's too late...
I called up Microsoft today and told them that the Internet was broken... and the guy was very nice, but he told me it was an "I.D. Ten T" error, and that the only way to fix it was to get a new computer. So I threw my new computer in the trash and bought a new one, but the internet is still broken.
Finally the cute little neihbor kid said that he'd take my computer that has the broken internet and give me his computer that works. I really like how all of the green stuff on the TV makes the room glow! Very high tech!
But surely news on a ""RPG based on comic books" is equally nerd-worthy.
And yes, there have been a couple of/. stories about City of Heroes-- but there are a ton of SWG stories on here, and nobody mentions exciting COH news.
Are comics truely more mainstream and less nerdy than Star Wars these days... or is it SWG that is more nerdy and less mainstream than SWG? I don't get it.
This doesn't help on the Mac end of things, but why worry about having a "linux machine" or dual booting when you can just boot to a live CD distro like Knoppix and test with Konqueror.
As long as your PC hardware isn't too funky, this should be relatively painless.
VGA Planets 3 and it's still-in development sequel Planets 4 probably has all of the micro-management and galactic conquest you'll ever need. They have a bunch of races (mostly blatantly, ahem, borrowing from popular sci-fi) each with fairly unique traits and abilities that make for unique strategies. Nothing like assimilating all of the enemy colonists on a planet with space-cover from your fleet of Cyborg cubes. Or perhaps if you are the "Evil Empire", you'd decide to just destroy the planet with the Super Laser on your Gorbi (AKA Death Star).
The combat is Strategic, not tactical -- you give your fleets their orders, they execute, and you watch the results in the 'VCR' of the combat that occured between turns.
Planets 3 has pretty decent computer players available, and Planets 4 may in the future. Mostly, though, these games are designed to be play-by-email, and are really most enjoyable when played that way. There are lots of automated hosting sites out there to help you find opponents and such.
Planets 4 is still in 'beta', but is rapidly nearing completion. I know that Planets 3 still has a fairly rabid fan base though.
The cool thing about these games is that they are pretty much all the work of one guy. Go Tim!
Anyhoo, Planets 4 can be found here: http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4beta.htm
Well, duh! If you ask the company, nobody is "replaced"-- departments just get downsized, and new divisions open up overseas doing the exact same job, but there is absolutely no corelation between the two... no sir!
About a year ago I was working as a contractor for a certain very large hardware/chip company. My immediate manager (an engineer) and über good guy wasn't "replaced" -- he was just sent to India to train somebody how to do his job, and then was send to the "redeployment pool" (laid off) a few weeks later as part of a massive downsizing of the department... nope, no replacement going on here!
I let my girlfriend create a COH character and play it for a while...
Then we ended up going to the store and buying her a copy of her own...
Her usual idea of computer gaming is Flash puzzle games and stuff. Now she plays COH more than I do (In fact, she's playing now, as I sit here posting on Slashdot).
I'm in danger of her SECONDARY character passing my primary's level... If that happens I'll never hear the end of it!
So try letting the SO create a character and mess around and see what happens.
I must warn you though, there can be a downside...I'm getting way less sleep lately because instead of telling me it's time to go to bed, she stays up late playing with me. I guess I can learn to deal with that!
I understand why most online RPGs have items and money, and therefore economies...
But I have to say that I'm really enjoying the comic book goodness of City of Heroes--
The inventory is limited to a dozen or so slots where you can store power-ups (One-time use powerups called "Inspirations", and longer term but still not permanent powerups that enhance your powers called "Enhancements").
The only currency to speak of is "Influence"-- which can only be gained by defeatomg bad guys, and which can be used to obtain Inspirations and Enhancements to a degree...
But the focus of the game is pretty much to get your your bad (err, "Good" I should say) super-hero self together with some super hero buddies, form a super-hero team, and go beat some evil-doer butt.
Extremely satisfying, and delightfully free (in my opinion) of feeling like you're "level grinding".
Plus, designing your very own super-hero outfit is disturbingly satisfying.
...to bring it back to the discussion about virtual economies, the choice of the developers in this particular game to exclude such things really, for me at least, makes the game more enjoyable, and just seems to work with the comic book theme.
... and you better believe that if this sort of thing ever gets implemented by Micrsoft or the like that it would sound like this:
"Media player agent only allowed to operate if the media it is trying to play is approved by Record Company Cartel..."
A good concept in theory... I just fear what corporate interests would do to such a design (and then force down greater public's throat through monopolistic practices).
Slashdot Mirror
(Not to compare the social harm of double parking to iPhone jailbreaking..... sorry jailbreakers, didn't mean to compare you to double parkers! )
Because it being illegal will stop those intent on using their phones for nefarious purposes FROM JAILBREAKING THEIR iPHONES? Sorta like how traffic laws will prevent robbers from double parking while pulling a bank heist (double parking the vehicle can speed the getaway!!).
When I was in (US Army 1977-1980), we were restricted to either standard ball(used mostly for practice), and Lake City Match ammo(recommended). We could not use the Sierra Match King bullet(my personal favorite for the .308/.30-06) since it fell in the 'dum-dum' expanding projectile category.
rts008-- Just now saw your other reply quoted above.
Sorry for the tone... I took you for one of those who watches a documentary about snipers or reads a Wikipedia article and then spouts information as if they are an expert.
Obviously, things have changed a bit since 1980. The military changed its mind on the Hague-correctness of SMK in the mid-eights, IIRC.
+1000
Well, for reliable sniping at 1000 yards you will want something ballistically superior to the 7.62x51 NATO (.308 Winchester) round/M110 package. .308 Win. bullet transitions from supersonic to subsonic around 625-700 yards, causing the bullet to become unstable and seriously degrading accuracy to unacceptable levels for a sniper/target shooter.
The
That's what the cartridge/rifle packages in the 7mm-8mm magnums (which includes the venerable .300 Winchester and Weatherby Magnums) are best suited for, which cover 1000 yards quite nicely. :-)
Over 1500-1600 yards is the realm of the BMG .50 caliber/rifle packages.
Stop pretending you know what you are talking about...
Try telling Palma shooters that .308 isn't reliable to 1000, they will get a good chuckle out of that. Further, my pet load, 175gr Sierra Match King + 44.5 grains of Varget is quite safely above transonic at 1k, thank you very much.
Magnums have their place, I love my .300 RUM -- but a vast majority of the time I shoot my .308 --- half as much powder, cheaper bullets, cheaper brass, and I don't have to replace the barrel after 1000 rounds. Plus, if you can hack it at 1000 with the .308, with a Magnum it is easy mode (if you can ever call 1000 easy).
And FYI, there are better rounds than the .50BMG for ELR precision shooting, assuming you aren't worried about damaging vehicles, buildings, armor, etc.
Sounds like AMD found a way to get rid of a couple hundred of their bugged Barcelonas.
I'd go beyond misleading, and say the the headline is an outright lie. This bill was in no way "planned" by the Whitehouse. The President just signed the thing.
The submitter must be drunk on spiked right-wing Kool-Aid.
The way that "brain structure" is used to make claims like this just makes me shake my head. The brain is a dynamic machine that self organizes as we develop based in no small part on the stimulus we give it.
Saying that more men go further in the fields of math and science and then pointing to the brain structure of these particular people versus the not-so-mathy and scientific people really shows nothing other than what a math-and-science wired brain tends to look like. I bet if you look at the brain structure of a highly mathematically/scientifically inclined woman, the same people would say "she's good at this stuff because her brain is structured like a man's".
It's not worth my time at the moment to go off on a "nature v nuture" tangent -- but the whole "brain structure" logic just always annoys the hell out of me because they seem to always look at a brains current structure without considering (or just making assumptions about) how a particular brain came to have that particular structure. In many cases the overlooked how-the-brain-got-this-way question is much more relevant to the case at hand, but doesn't seem to get studied (or referenced) as much.
Firstly, I should disclaim that I'm not the "dating" type -- when I'm on the prowl, it's for a "relationship" -- so the following may or may not apply to you if you're more of a casual dating type. Also this is coming from the perspective of a straight guy -- the experience for other demographic may very widely.
Secondly, my online dating resume: Currently living with my girlfriend of two years (definately not too distant future fiance -- just a timing thing) who I met through match.com. Had several other longer term and relationships with women I met online through such services. Also have had relationships that started "in real life" (we met at the rock concert type stories). My honest opinion is that it really doesn't matter how you make initial contact with somebody -- once you've met a person, the circumstances under which you happened to have come in contact are pretty irrelivant.
Anyway, first some observations:
1) Meeting people online is mainstream these days -- there's a perception that there's a social stigma, and that only freaks meet people online -- but I found both of these, while they may have been true in the past, to no longer hold much water. You definately don't have to make an excuse as to why you've resorted to looking online -- if done correctly, it's one of the best ways to get exposed to a large pool of people in a short amount of time -- and the more people you come in contact with, the greater chance that you'll bump into somebody compatible.
2) My own observation, and confirmed over and over again by women I know who use online singles sites: The experience for women on these sites is radically different from men. Women get TONS of messages from men. So to get a reply you really have to make yourself stand out. The good news is that most of the contact the women receive are either cut and pasted blurbs that some guy sends to a ton of women, from guys that come across as sleazeballs just looking to get laid, or otherwise just generally undesireable messages. Guys on the other hand generally very rarely get messages unless they initiate the contact.
So advice (based on my own experience, and the experience of women who I met online, or friends I know who look for relationships online):
* Your online profile is VERY important. As a guy, it isn't likely to get many people to contact you on its own, but it's vital for making yourself stand out from others when you contact somebody and want to hear back from them -- take the time to really describe who you are as much as possible, and include the things that make you different from other people -- write with a voice that shows your personality, and be honest (but leave out unnecessary self criticism). Everybody says post a picture -- but I think I've had just as much success either way. I think that most cases where having a picture posted would make a difference as to whether you get a reply or not, it's probably not a person something would work out with anyway.
* Be picky about who you contact. You're going to have to spend a significant amount of time preparing a message to them (see below) if you want a response, so find somebody who's profile really interests you and inspires you to write something interesting to them. Also want to try to find people who look like they're interested in somebody like you -- If all somebody talks about is they're love of the outdoors, and you never leave the city-- then you're probably not going to have a lot of luck. You'll server yourself well trying to find profiles that stand out from the generic ones (you'll learn the generic ones pretty quick).
* When you contact somebody, take the time to REALLY write them or your changes of getting a reply are small. Don't just tell somebody that you "liked their profile"-- tell them WHY, what about them interested you-- and be sincere. Also, tell them why you think that they might like you... not generic stuff, but specific things about you that seem to fit who thi
...One bird in hand is worth two in bush.
Please mod parent up. The headline of this article is proliferating the MPAAs/RIAAs FUD via implication.
The tool is not illegal, the crime is... at least until we get INDUCE shoved down our collective throats.
P2P is an important tool of free speech. Free "speech" can be restricted in two ways:
By restricting the "speech" itself, or by squashing the lines over which it is communicated. Free (as in speech) communication cannot truely occur over a restricted/controlled communications medium.
The Gamers
Oh wait, this isn't a poll...
Seriously though, if you're lucky enough to be at GenCon this week, you can stop and say hi to the film's creators (and see the premier of their newest movie).
But fine, if we want to play that game...
The wack jobs that bomb abortion clinics are a glowing indication of the inability of the right to address problems without resorting to bombs!
... and who don't feel like googling in the middle of reading Slashdot posts:
astroturfing: n. The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to newspapers from soi-disant `concerned citizens', paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the term). This term became common among hackers after it came to light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to use such tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust action against the company. This backfired horribly, angering a number of state attorneys-general enough to induce them to go public with plans to join the Federal suit. It also set anybody defending Microsoft on the net for the accusation "You're just astroturfing!".
I have a challenge for you.
Find a young baby. If the kid is a boy, dress him in a little pink outfit and put a pink ribbon in his hair. If a girl, dress her in little overalls or something similarly "boyish".
Then, without telling others the gender of the kid, observe how people that do not know the child's real sex treat him/her-- works best if they are encouraged to interact, and of course if the kids name has to be gender ambiguous enough as not to give away your ruse...
You may be suprised by how the kid gets treated-- and it's not something you'd probably even think twice about if you weren't aware of the kid's real sex.
Anyway, my point is that kids get treated differently based on their sex from day one-- down to the pink vs blue blankets in the hospital. I don't think it's even intentional, its very ingrained in our culture to the point that it is almost subconcious.
I'm not going to make the argument right now that this different treatment is why boys are one way and girls are another, but the degree to which sex effects the way we treat children I think is very easy to overlook without little experiments like this to help us look past our own cultural programming.
It always cracks me up when scientists and such use differing brain layouts and stuff between men and women to make the claim that men and women are therefore innately different. You can't make this claim without taking into account differing stimulus during a persons brain development-- because brain structure changes as we learn and develop.
This is turning into a rant. Posting now, before it's too late...
I called up Microsoft today and told them that the Internet was broken... and the guy was very nice, but he told me it was an "I.D. Ten T" error, and that the only way to fix it was to get a new computer. So I threw my new computer in the trash and bought a new one, but the internet is still broken.
Finally the cute little neihbor kid said that he'd take my computer that has the broken internet and give me his computer that works. I really like how all of the green stuff on the TV makes the room glow! Very high tech!
Okay...
/. stories about City of Heroes-- but there are a ton of SWG stories on here, and nobody mentions exciting COH news.
"RPG based on Star Wars" == "News For Nerds"
Sure, I'm cool with that.
But surely news on a ""RPG based on comic books" is equally nerd-worthy.
And yes, there have been a couple of
Are comics truely more mainstream and less nerdy than Star Wars these days... or is it SWG that is more nerdy and less mainstream than SWG? I don't get it.
This doesn't help on the Mac end of things, but why worry about having a "linux machine" or dual booting when you can just boot to a live CD distro like Knoppix and test with Konqueror. As long as your PC hardware isn't too funky, this should be relatively painless.
VGA Planets 3 and it's still-in development sequel Planets 4 probably has all of the micro-management and galactic conquest you'll ever need. They have a bunch of races (mostly blatantly, ahem, borrowing from popular sci-fi) each with fairly unique traits and abilities that make for unique strategies. Nothing like assimilating all of the enemy colonists on a planet with space-cover from your fleet of Cyborg cubes. Or perhaps if you are the "Evil Empire", you'd decide to just destroy the planet with the Super Laser on your Gorbi (AKA Death Star).
The combat is Strategic, not tactical -- you give your fleets their orders, they execute, and you watch the results in the 'VCR' of the combat that occured between turns.
Planets 3 has pretty decent computer players available, and Planets 4 may in the future. Mostly, though, these games are designed to be play-by-email, and are really most enjoyable when played that way. There are lots of automated hosting sites out there to help you find opponents and such.
Planets 4 is still in 'beta', but is rapidly nearing completion. I know that Planets 3 still has a fairly rabid fan base though.
The cool thing about these games is that they are pretty much all the work of one guy. Go Tim!
Anyhoo, Planets 4 can be found here:
http://www.vgaplanets.com/v4beta.htm
I'm really fucking sick
Of Beck and 311,
And Marylin Manson,
I wish someone would break his fucking neck.
And what about Bush
And lame-ass Oasis?
Hey, talk about pretentious,
Why don't they just blow England off the map?
Every now and then
I turn it on again
But it's plain to see that
The radio still sucks.
Every now and then
I turn it on again
But it's plain to see that
The radio still sucks.
Lyrics from "The Radio Still Sucks" by The Ataris
Well, duh! If you ask the company, nobody is "replaced"-- departments just get downsized, and new divisions open up overseas doing the exact same job, but there is absolutely no corelation between the two... no sir!
About a year ago I was working as a contractor for a certain very large hardware/chip company. My immediate manager (an engineer) and über good guy wasn't "replaced" -- he was just sent to India to train somebody how to do his job, and then was send to the "redeployment pool" (laid off) a few weeks later as part of a massive downsizing of the department... nope, no replacement going on here!
I let my girlfriend create a COH character and play it for a while...
...I'm getting way less sleep lately because instead of telling me it's time to go to bed, she stays up late playing with me. I guess I can learn to deal with that!
Then we ended up going to the store and buying her a copy of her own...
Her usual idea of computer gaming is Flash puzzle games and stuff. Now she plays COH more than I do (In fact, she's playing now, as I sit here posting on Slashdot).
I'm in danger of her SECONDARY character passing my primary's level... If that happens I'll never hear the end of it!
So try letting the SO create a character and mess around and see what happens.
I must warn you though, there can be a downside
I understand why most online RPGs have items and money, and therefore economies...
...to bring it back to the discussion about virtual economies, the choice of the developers in this particular game to exclude such things really, for me at least, makes the game more enjoyable, and just seems to work with the comic book theme.
But I have to say that I'm really enjoying the comic book goodness of City of Heroes-- The inventory is limited to a dozen or so slots where you can store power-ups (One-time use powerups called "Inspirations", and longer term but still not permanent powerups that enhance your powers called "Enhancements").
The only currency to speak of is "Influence"-- which can only be gained by defeatomg bad guys, and which can be used to obtain Inspirations and Enhancements to a degree...
But the focus of the game is pretty much to get your your bad (err, "Good" I should say) super-hero self together with some super hero buddies, form a super-hero team, and go beat some evil-doer butt.
Extremely satisfying, and delightfully free (in my opinion) of feeling like you're "level grinding". Plus, designing your very own super-hero outfit is disturbingly satisfying.
It's a space station!
... and you better believe that if this sort of thing ever gets implemented by Micrsoft or the like that it would sound like this:
"Media player agent only allowed to operate if the media it is trying to play is approved by Record Company Cartel..."
A good concept in theory... I just fear what corporate interests would do to such a design (and then force down greater public's throat through monopolistic practices).