Yeah I posted a link to "Le Stick" back in another article of the same nature - but to be fair it really isn't the same thing. The Le Stick just had mercury filled sensors which activated when you tilted it. It wasn't comfortable for extended use because you had to hold the stick straight in order for it to work properly.
"I think OS X does this much better: programs are stored in [Your hard drive]/Applications. Those are the actual executable files, they're what's actually being run."
The vast majority of the users I support (Windows and OS X) absolutely do not understand a hierarchical file system. Both Explorer and the Finder confuse them. Some of the older users (particularly people who used the Mac in pre OS X days) do understand, but even then OS X's finder and home directory confuse them. Systems with classic and OS X installed are even worse because of the mash up of files in the hard drive. The majority of my users require that they have either a desktop shortcut or a dock item for any application they need to use. They can't find it if it's in the start menu or an executable in the applications folder. I'll tell you what the average office worker DOES understand: the web browser and an email client. Seriously if OS X or Windows just made a "start page" that opened in a web browser providing links to tasks, applications and commonly used folders the average business computer user would be a lot less confused.
$850 would be buying it when it is just released and in short supply. The retailers jack up the price due to high demand. Regular price was supposed to be around $500. I usually go for a card one step down from the top - I still pay $350 or so, which is a lot, but I get a card that will handle new games pretty well for at least 2 years. Of course at the end of that I'll need to start turning off some of the highest end features. A good example is Oblivion which runs like crap on my 6800GT with HDR lighting enabled, turn that off and it works fine.
"but if thats the case why isnt it being exploited?"
Why do you think? Spyware and bot nets are being used to make money. Would you waste your time creating a program for such purposes that had as limited a number of potential targets? For examples sake let's just say there are two bugs - one on Windows and one on Mac. Both are exploitable. Would you target the platform with the small percentage of installed systems? I wouldn't put it past a malicious hacker to do a Mac virus or worm etc. as a challenge. Someday it'll probably happen, but there simply isn't market for it whereas on Windows development of these programs HAS become a market.
That Intel chips were only used for "boring" tasks prior to there inclusion in a Mac. I'd certainly argue Half Life 2 was not exactly boring and that's just one example in entertainment - I'm not even going to get into innovation in open source on the x86 platform. That Intel chips perform better in Macs. Things like direct benchmarking of World of Warcraft on Intel Macs vs XP (I'm talking about the universal binary of WoW) certainly put that in doubt. That PCs are boring, fat people that can only run spreadsheets. Uh huh sure.
When you are hitting that low I think a "just make fun of them" is a fine rebuttal. I'll give them the virus point for sure, but I don't think it's all that wise to tout security as those there is no potential for break ins. Remember Oracle's "unbreakable" ad campaign? Remember the shitload of exploits that came out after that?
The "casual" game market has expanded substantially over the past few years. Companies like PopCap have been publishing lots of little games and seeing great success with ones like Bookworm and Bejewelled. Console networks such as Xbox Live are creating new ways for these little games to get into people's houses. Hopefully Nintendo's Wii and the PS3 will offer the same. Lower development costs also mean lower cost to sell the game. The same goes for distribution - no need for retail packaging and fighting for shelf space. I had a lot of fun playing Oasis last year. It's a great little strategy/puzzle game. It's great for busy people who don't have time to commit to a large complicated game. I think there is plenty of oppurtunity for this type of developement. Interestingly enough a developer can make more money if they have a casual game catch on then they would as a salaried slave for EA.
"The big difference with GW is that they did it with outdoor zones, and the result is 100% absolute magic."
This is your opinion. Making everything except the town an instance does have drawbacks. Yes you don't have to deal with the normal issues like competition over mobs, farming etc. but at the expense of not being able to meet other people out in the game world. I've met most of the online friends I've gamed and guilded with in MMOs out in the zones. You run into someone who is on the same quest as you, you offer to help out someone, someone helps you out. This is what I miss from Guild Wars.
"It seems to me that the only people who can complete the 45-minute Baron runs to get Tier 0.5 gear are people with Tier 1-2 gear -- which is the same deranged logic that drives instances such as ZG and AQ20. The only people who can clear those zone don't need to."
Truer words were never spoken. I quite back in February mostly due to boredom and technical problems such as server stability and the login queue. I had 6/8 tier 0 items after more than 50 instance runs. Let's just say Strath had long since stopped being fun. I did some ZG runs and got turned off by the reward system. The guild I was in was not big enough to do MC so we though ZG would be perfect. Boy was that wrong. When I read about the patch changing the instances the first thought I had was "how the hell is a restoration druid going to get a strath run now". My friends who still play were telling me about 3 man Strath runs with epic equipped characters. Which just makes me wonder - how the hell is Blizzard going to balance the Burning Crusade between epic equipped 60s and toons like mine?
"So from there it goes slowly downhill, and more and more time-sinks are worked in. Gradually you need more time spent travelling, more time farming for your next weapon or recipe, more time waiting for a good group for that instance, etc. But still, you work your way slowly towards that 100% point."
I wouldn't say it goes slowly downhill. While yes it takes a lot longer to get from level 49-50 than it does to get from 19-20 the game still moves along at a pretty quick pace. Once you get into the mid 50s you get a taste of what the rest of your time in WoW is going to be spent doing. Running the same dungeons over and over again to get item X. The level of timesink skyrockets at that point. It's practically like a brick wall. The other options such as PVP and high end crafting require a huge time commitment as well. I would have enjoyed a longer middle game. Sure it's easy to say "Blizzard can't make infinite content" but other MMOs have a lot more quests and things to do than WoW. WoW even has a lot of areas that are completely lacking in quests, or quest chains that appear to have been dropped. Things like the Druid quests ending at lvl 14 (why is there a ghost Cat in Moonglade if there is no cat form quest?) or the Rogue quest line where they made that cool dojo up in the mountains and yet there is nothing there. Or zones like Azshara with almost no content. It sure doesn't seem like Blizzard has any interest in fleshing out the rest of the game now that almost everyone is 60 (some with multiple alts at 60). What are the new races going to bring? One or two low level zones you complete in a few hours? You're right, the game should just say "Game Over Casual Player" when you hit 60. Of course the definition between casual and hardcore somehow seems to solely relate to the ability to endure endless repetition.
"Is it just addiction and carrot-on-a-stick for everyone? I'd say I'm proof enough that it isn't, seein' as I'm not even playing it any more. Can't recall any withdrawal syndrome either. If you _don't_ approach it with some silly idea that it's like a marriage for life, or that you _must_ finish everything before you give up, giving it up is actually pretty darn easy. It's just a game. You've seen as much content as was enjoyable, and when it starts being consistently unenjoyable, it's goodbye and good riddance."
I agree. I gave it up when it got annoying and boring. I stayed perhaps a couple months longer than a should have, mostly because of the camaraderie with guildies and real life friends that were also playing. For me quitting actually had the opposite effect of withdrawal. I got City of Villains for Xmas (used to play City of Heroes) and found hey I was having fun gaming again. It was a pleasure to try something different. Initially I figured I would keep my WoW account and just play CoV for a little while (I knew already that CoH/CoV are very repetitive) but everytime I logged into WoW (when I could stand to wait for a 45 minute queue), I just stared at the crowds in the Iron Forge, chatted a bit with people and logged off. Needless to say I cancelled my account. I love MMOs and I'm usually playing one or the other (I'm playing EQ2 now, and yes I like it - call me weird) but I've learned not to get "married" to the game. Some of my old WoW guildies still play. Some have 3 level 60 characters. Others have started new toons on PVP servers. Some only logon to run MC for the 900th time. Personally I just can't see running through the same content over and over. I'm a content junkie, I like to see new things and WoW can't offer me that anymore. Seriously obsessive compulsives should probably stay away from MMOs - then again they might just be the best players!:D
"That's on par for Blizzard. They take their time, but they do things right. It's their philosophy. And it seems to work. Even though it's a painful wait."
The thing is there is such a huge difference in power between level 60 characters without epic gear and those with. Blizzard has released BWL, ZG and AQ all of which have very powerful items (OK ZG is more pain in the ass than getting epics from MC) and long term raiders have been at it for a year. How will they balance Burning Crusade content for both hardcore epic equipped raiders and casual lvl 60s wearing tier 0 and or DM blue items?
Has this ever been cofirmed? I've heard it stated that this reason was a load of bullshit and that the real reason was that there was too much interest in playing the Pandarens and that it would have lead to further imbalance in Alliance versus Horde numbers. It's obvious that the Blood Elves are a way to attract gamers to the Horde by allowing them to have a "pretty" race.
The hand stress is definately a potential problem some games. The real question is do I have to hold it out in front of me, or can I rest the controller on my lap and use less dramatic movements? It's pretty obvious that a lot of the people jumping around motion in the promo movies is exaggerated. You don't need to hide behind your couch and come jumping out while playing an FPS. One thing that should be noted is that the Wii supports Gamecube controllers and that there is a conventional "retro" controller with a dpad and 2 analog sticks also being made available. Now these are primarily for use with playing older games (GC, SNES, NES etc.) but developers could include alternate control with a standard controller if the game didn't rely on motion specific controls.
"Sony realizes this but the only thing they can do is add some tilt control to their controller which seems awkward at best and rip of at worst."
I thought the tilt control demo was the best part of the Sony conference. That British guy just pops out with it "Oh look it's amazing this computer magic. I've got 6 degrees of freedom, it's so innovative". The developer demo of Warhawk was hilarious. The freaking developer can't control the plane enough to actually line up a shot from the weapons against a big floating fortress. How easy do you think dogfighting would be? That any the Sony exec smiling like he thinks the whole audience is a bunch of jackasses. Thank you Sony, I really needed a good laugh like that.
Back around '93 me and a group of friends embarked on a project like this. Half the fun was actually getting the computers up and running. We were able to scrounge all manner of old computers and videogame consoles. Among our finds was a Commodore 64 with a blown VIC graphic chip. When turned on this computer just displayed a constantly changing flow of colors similar to those "plasma" color demos that were popular at the time. We had computers from houses near the ocean with corroded motherboards from the salty air. Salvage work was fun since these early systems mostly had socketed chips and could be worked on with a standard soldering iron if necessary. We had C64s, TRS-80s, a TI99, a working Bally Astrocade, Ataris etc. And then there was the Mac. This poor beat up Mac Plus had a broken hard disk. We tracked down a 20MB SCSI drive for it and were able to get the operating system up and running. After finally getting it runnning we sat down to watch TV, leaving the Mac on the table behind us. About 10 minutes later we hear a high pitched whining sound. Turning around just in to hear *POP* and see a large cloud of smoke waft up from the Mac. The screen slowly shrank to a single glowing dot . Poor Mac, I guess it realized it was obsolete.
Thanks for laying this out. This topic has been back and forth with posts saying "its the male texture renamed to the female" spouted and modded up. I haven't checked it personally, but it seems like the consensus is coming around that this texture was on the discs as shipped rather than added in. Not that this really makes any of the uproar less silly than it already was, but I guess developers need to make sure they get rid of extra texture assests that aren't going to be used in the game or else face repurcussions. Personally I'm more interested in the violence issue. Judging from people's descriptions the violence and gore should have garnered an M rating.
I didn't mean to imply that the genuine Nintendo Gamecube controller was cheap. I think it's very solidly constructed. Someone crunched one of mine with their foot breaking the c-stick, but that is definately abnormal punishment. I have had a couple of non Nintendo Gamecube controllers and they haven't faired so well. Hip Gear for example makes complete pieces of crap. Those have broken without any encouragement. I've found the Microsoft Xbox controllers to be pretty solid as well. Same deal, the off brand ones may be cheaper but they break easily. The PS2 controllers are about the worst of the bunch being a bit weaker in overall construction and prone to breaking.
Because seeing boobies means you might get a stiffy in your wii. And stiffiness can lead to randy behavior involving one's hand. Which can further lead to blindness, crusty pant stains and a thick layer of wolf like fur on the palms. Think of the children!!!
True. Controllers always get more abuse and are the most likely part to fail. I think the only Nintendo Gamecube controller I had break was stepped on. Compare that to the off brand ones which break if you stare too hard at them. The consoles sure seem to be well designed. I've had the Gamecube fall off the entertainment center mid Mario Party without any impact on the game or the system.
"I mean, we keep buying them, but based on the price, they should be a lot more reliable."
And then the obvious question... why do you keep buying a product if you consider it overpriced and unreliable? I realize the interface is nice and if you have invested in iTunes songs you're shit out of luck using them on another brand mp3 player but still it's amazing how many people have had problems with their iPods and yet keep on buying them.
"WoW is so popular is that it doesn't hate its playerbase the way that "serious and hardcore" MMOGs do"
Login queues, server instability, extended downtime, mind numbing repetitive re-running of the same content over and over, mind numbing repetitive faction quests... lately I'm starting to think WoW does hate its playerbase, just in a different way.
Slashdot Mirror
We can only hope so. However research may prove that the wireless emissions give you a brain tumor.
Yeah I posted a link to "Le Stick" back in another article of the same nature - but to be fair it really isn't the same thing.
The Le Stick just had mercury filled sensors which activated when you tilted it. It wasn't comfortable for extended use because you had to hold the stick straight in order for it to work properly.
"I think OS X does this much better: programs are stored in [Your hard drive]/Applications. Those are the actual executable files, they're what's actually being run."
The vast majority of the users I support (Windows and OS X) absolutely do not understand a hierarchical file system. Both Explorer and the Finder confuse them. Some of the older users (particularly people who used the Mac in pre OS X days) do understand, but even then OS X's finder and home directory confuse them. Systems with classic and OS X installed are even worse because of the mash up of files in the hard drive.
The majority of my users require that they have either a desktop shortcut or a dock item for any application they need to use. They can't find it if it's in the start menu or an executable in the applications folder.
I'll tell you what the average office worker DOES understand: the web browser and an email client. Seriously if OS X or Windows just made a "start page" that opened in a web browser providing links to tasks, applications and commonly used folders the average business computer user would be a lot less confused.
$850 would be buying it when it is just released and in short supply. The retailers jack up the price due to high demand. Regular price was supposed to be around $500.
I usually go for a card one step down from the top - I still pay $350 or so, which is a lot, but I get a card that will handle new games pretty well for at least 2 years. Of course at the end of that I'll need to start turning off some of the highest end features. A good example is Oblivion which runs like crap on my 6800GT with HDR lighting enabled, turn that off and it works fine.
"but if thats the case why isnt it being exploited?"
Why do you think? Spyware and bot nets are being used to make money. Would you waste your time creating a program for such purposes that had as limited a number of potential targets?
For examples sake let's just say there are two bugs - one on Windows and one on Mac. Both are exploitable. Would you target the platform with the small percentage of installed systems?
I wouldn't put it past a malicious hacker to do a Mac virus or worm etc. as a challenge. Someday it'll probably happen, but there simply isn't market for it whereas on Windows development of these programs HAS become a market.
Well let's see the recent Mac ads have implied:
That Intel chips were only used for "boring" tasks prior to there inclusion in a Mac. I'd certainly argue Half Life 2 was not exactly boring and that's just one example in entertainment - I'm not even going to get into innovation in open source on the x86 platform.
That Intel chips perform better in Macs. Things like direct benchmarking of World of Warcraft on Intel Macs vs XP (I'm talking about the universal binary of WoW) certainly put that in doubt.
That PCs are boring, fat people that can only run spreadsheets. Uh huh sure.
When you are hitting that low I think a "just make fun of them" is a fine rebuttal.
I'll give them the virus point for sure, but I don't think it's all that wise to tout security as those there is no potential for break ins. Remember Oracle's "unbreakable" ad campaign? Remember the shitload of exploits that came out after that?
The "casual" game market has expanded substantially over the past few years. Companies like PopCap have been publishing lots of little games and seeing great success with ones like Bookworm and Bejewelled.
Console networks such as Xbox Live are creating new ways for these little games to get into people's houses. Hopefully Nintendo's Wii and the PS3 will offer the same.
Lower development costs also mean lower cost to sell the game. The same goes for distribution - no need for retail packaging and fighting for shelf space.
I had a lot of fun playing Oasis last year. It's a great little strategy/puzzle game. It's great for busy people who don't have time to commit to a large complicated game. I think there is plenty of oppurtunity for this type of developement.
Interestingly enough a developer can make more money if they have a casual game catch on then they would as a salaried slave for EA.
"The big difference with GW is that they did it with outdoor zones, and the result is 100% absolute magic."
This is your opinion. Making everything except the town an instance does have drawbacks. Yes you don't have to deal with the normal issues like competition over mobs, farming etc. but at the expense of not being able to meet other people out in the game world. I've met most of the online friends I've gamed and guilded with in MMOs out in the zones. You run into someone who is on the same quest as you, you offer to help out someone, someone helps you out. This is what I miss from Guild Wars.
"why the hell do they keep making more raid dungeons?"
.1% of the players that have AQ40 on farm status to get bored now would you?
You wouldn't want the
"It seems to me that the only people who can complete the 45-minute Baron runs to get Tier 0.5 gear are people with Tier 1-2 gear -- which is the same deranged logic that drives instances such as ZG and AQ20. The only people who can clear those zone don't need to."
Truer words were never spoken. I quite back in February mostly due to boredom and technical problems such as server stability and the login queue. I had 6/8 tier 0 items after more than 50 instance runs. Let's just say Strath had long since stopped being fun.
I did some ZG runs and got turned off by the reward system. The guild I was in was not big enough to do MC so we though ZG would be perfect. Boy was that wrong.
When I read about the patch changing the instances the first thought I had was "how the hell is a restoration druid going to get a strath run now".
My friends who still play were telling me about 3 man Strath runs with epic equipped characters. Which just makes me wonder - how the hell is Blizzard going to balance the Burning Crusade between epic equipped 60s and toons like mine?
"So from there it goes slowly downhill, and more and more time-sinks are worked in. Gradually you need more time spent travelling, more time farming for your next weapon or recipe, more time waiting for a good group for that instance, etc. But still, you work your way slowly towards that 100% point."
I wouldn't say it goes slowly downhill. While yes it takes a lot longer to get from level 49-50 than it does to get from 19-20 the game still moves along at a pretty quick pace. Once you get into the mid 50s you get a taste of what the rest of your time in WoW is going to be spent doing. Running the same dungeons over and over again to get item X. The level of timesink skyrockets at that point. It's practically like a brick wall. The other options such as PVP and high end crafting require a huge time commitment as well.
I would have enjoyed a longer middle game. Sure it's easy to say "Blizzard can't make infinite content" but other MMOs have a lot more quests and things to do than WoW. WoW even has a lot of areas that are completely lacking in quests, or quest chains that appear to have been dropped. Things like the Druid quests ending at lvl 14 (why is there a ghost Cat in Moonglade if there is no cat form quest?) or the Rogue quest line where they made that cool dojo up in the mountains and yet there is nothing there. Or zones like Azshara with almost no content.
It sure doesn't seem like Blizzard has any interest in fleshing out the rest of the game now that almost everyone is 60 (some with multiple alts at 60). What are the new races going to bring? One or two low level zones you complete in a few hours?
You're right, the game should just say "Game Over Casual Player" when you hit 60. Of course the definition between casual and hardcore somehow seems to solely relate to the ability to endure endless repetition.
Le Stick for the Atari 2600.
(Ok it's not exactly the same thing hehe, but I like to say "Le Stick" as in "grip Le Stick with my Power Glove")
"Is it just addiction and carrot-on-a-stick for everyone? I'd say I'm proof enough that it isn't, seein' as I'm not even playing it any more. Can't recall any withdrawal syndrome either. If you _don't_ approach it with some silly idea that it's like a marriage for life, or that you _must_ finish everything before you give up, giving it up is actually pretty darn easy. It's just a game. You've seen as much content as was enjoyable, and when it starts being consistently unenjoyable, it's goodbye and good riddance."
:D
I agree. I gave it up when it got annoying and boring. I stayed perhaps a couple months longer than a should have, mostly because of the camaraderie with guildies and real life friends that were also playing.
For me quitting actually had the opposite effect of withdrawal. I got City of Villains for Xmas (used to play City of Heroes) and found hey I was having fun gaming again. It was a pleasure to try something different. Initially I figured I would keep my WoW account and just play CoV for a little while (I knew already that CoH/CoV are very repetitive) but everytime I logged into WoW (when I could stand to wait for a 45 minute queue), I just stared at the crowds in the Iron Forge, chatted a bit with people and logged off. Needless to say I cancelled my account.
I love MMOs and I'm usually playing one or the other (I'm playing EQ2 now, and yes I like it - call me weird) but I've learned not to get "married" to the game. Some of my old WoW guildies still play. Some have 3 level 60 characters. Others have started new toons on PVP servers. Some only logon to run MC for the 900th time. Personally I just can't see running through the same content over and over. I'm a content junkie, I like to see new things and WoW can't offer me that anymore.
Seriously obsessive compulsives should probably stay away from MMOs - then again they might just be the best players!
"That's on par for Blizzard. They take their time, but they do things right. It's their philosophy. And it seems to work. Even though it's a painful wait."
The thing is there is such a huge difference in power between level 60 characters without epic gear and those with. Blizzard has released BWL, ZG and AQ all of which have very powerful items (OK ZG is more pain in the ass than getting epics from MC) and long term raiders have been at it for a year. How will they balance Burning Crusade content for both hardcore epic equipped raiders and casual lvl 60s wearing tier 0 and or DM blue items?
Has this ever been cofirmed? I've heard it stated that this reason was a load of bullshit and that the real reason was that there was too much interest in playing the Pandarens and that it would have lead to further imbalance in Alliance versus Horde numbers. It's obvious that the Blood Elves are a way to attract gamers to the Horde by allowing them to have a "pretty" race.
The hand stress is definately a potential problem some games. The real question is do I have to hold it out in front of me, or can I rest the controller on my lap and use less dramatic movements? It's pretty obvious that a lot of the people jumping around motion in the promo movies is exaggerated. You don't need to hide behind your couch and come jumping out while playing an FPS.
One thing that should be noted is that the Wii supports Gamecube controllers and that there is a conventional "retro" controller with a dpad and 2 analog sticks also being made available. Now these are primarily for use with playing older games (GC, SNES, NES etc.) but developers could include alternate control with a standard controller if the game didn't rely on motion specific controls.
"Sony realizes this but the only thing they can do is add some tilt control to their controller which seems awkward at best and rip of at worst."
I thought the tilt control demo was the best part of the Sony conference. That British guy just pops out with it "Oh look it's amazing this computer magic. I've got 6 degrees of freedom, it's so innovative". The developer demo of Warhawk was hilarious. The freaking developer can't control the plane enough to actually line up a shot from the weapons against a big floating fortress. How easy do you think dogfighting would be?
That any the Sony exec smiling like he thinks the whole audience is a bunch of jackasses.
Thank you Sony, I really needed a good laugh like that.
Back around '93 me and a group of friends embarked on a project like this. Half the fun was actually getting the computers up and running. We were able to scrounge all manner of old computers and videogame consoles.
Among our finds was a Commodore 64 with a blown VIC graphic chip. When turned on this computer just displayed a constantly changing flow of colors similar to those "plasma" color demos that were popular at the time.
We had computers from houses near the ocean with corroded motherboards from the salty air. Salvage work was fun since these early systems mostly had socketed chips and could be worked on with a standard soldering iron if necessary.
We had C64s, TRS-80s, a TI99, a working Bally Astrocade, Ataris etc. And then there was the Mac.
This poor beat up Mac Plus had a broken hard disk. We tracked down a 20MB SCSI drive for it and were able to get the operating system up and running. After finally getting it runnning we sat down to watch TV, leaving the Mac on the table behind us. About 10 minutes later we hear a high pitched whining sound. Turning around just in to hear *POP* and see a large cloud of smoke waft up from the Mac. The screen slowly shrank to a single glowing dot . Poor Mac, I guess it realized it was obsolete.
Thanks for laying this out. This topic has been back and forth with posts saying "its the male texture renamed to the female" spouted and modded up. I haven't checked it personally, but it seems like the consensus is coming around that this texture was on the discs as shipped rather than added in.
Not that this really makes any of the uproar less silly than it already was, but I guess developers need to make sure they get rid of extra texture assests that aren't going to be used in the game or else face repurcussions.
Personally I'm more interested in the violence issue. Judging from people's descriptions the violence and gore should have garnered an M rating.
I didn't mean to imply that the genuine Nintendo Gamecube controller was cheap. I think it's very solidly constructed. Someone crunched one of mine with their foot breaking the c-stick, but that is definately abnormal punishment. I have had a couple of non Nintendo Gamecube controllers and they haven't faired so well. Hip Gear for example makes complete pieces of crap. Those have broken without any encouragement.
I've found the Microsoft Xbox controllers to be pretty solid as well. Same deal, the off brand ones may be cheaper but they break easily.
The PS2 controllers are about the worst of the bunch being a bit weaker in overall construction and prone to breaking.
Because seeing boobies means you might get a stiffy in your wii. And stiffiness can lead to randy behavior involving one's hand. Which can further lead to blindness, crusty pant stains and a thick layer of wolf like fur on the palms.
Think of the children!!!
No but it does look green.
Mmmmm. Green. Women. From Orion.
Stop it! Bad Kirk! Bad Kirk!
True. Controllers always get more abuse and are the most likely part to fail. I think the only Nintendo Gamecube controller I had break was stepped on. Compare that to the off brand ones which break if you stare too hard at them.
The consoles sure seem to be well designed. I've had the Gamecube fall off the entertainment center mid Mario Party without any impact on the game or the system.
"I mean, we keep buying them, but based on the price, they should be a lot more reliable."
And then the obvious question... why do you keep buying a product if you consider it overpriced and unreliable?
I realize the interface is nice and if you have invested in iTunes songs you're shit out of luck using them on another brand mp3 player but still it's amazing how many people have had problems with their iPods and yet keep on buying them.
"WoW is so popular is that it doesn't hate its playerbase the way that "serious and hardcore" MMOGs do"
Login queues, server instability, extended downtime, mind numbing repetitive re-running of the same content over and over, mind numbing repetitive faction quests... lately I'm starting to think WoW does hate its playerbase, just in a different way.