Yes, it took the Bush Administration three years to decide that, and that was too long. But the UN officially decided it *wasn't* genocide and are helping to paper the whole thing over. This does not strike me as an improvement.
As a pastor, I've worked hard to get my church to adopt a mission statement so that I could then compare anything they want to do with the mission statement and eliminate a lot of the cruft.
Thus validating Dogbert's point that the purpose of a policy is to define what you don't do, so you can tell the customers, "We don't do that."
Case in point, Along the Scenic Route ["Dogfight on 101"], (ss) Adam Aug 1969
And a lot of others have dug into that road-rage vein, there was even a card game by Steve Jackson Games called Car-Wars. And as I recall they mentioned a different story of the same vintage as inspiration.
Er, it's a board game, in the wargame/simulation vein. I still have my copy.
> Linux has the luxury of time, broad acceptance over a large geek audience, and the benefit of > being one of the first successful open source, collaborative endeavors. Anyone trying to jump > start the same thing now is in for astronomical challenges.
But most of all, Linux had a huge pool of Unix freeware to draw on as it launched. Linux is not Unix, but it's just compatible enough to make it possible for it to launch as a pseudo-version of Unix instead of an all-new OS. And Unix, of course, is not new.
> Yes, but in Tennis and Golf, the experienced players don't swoop out of nowhere and frag the > beginning players for shits and giggles.
Which is why unrestricted player-vs-player has almost disappeared from MMORPGs.
> Can anyone reccomend a not-necessarily combat-based game in this genre in which your not > putting in a lot of time won't detract from the experience? Or are they all about shooting and > killing?
Star Wars: Galaxies, from my understanding, can be played without a combat-based orientation, but I think you may still have to put in a lot of time; successful crafting requires you to be there providing goods to your customers on a regular basis. I'm not sure, I don't play it.
WoW, particularly on a PvE server, may be what you're looking for. Low time requirement, no PvP unless you decide to, so you don't have to worry about not being up to snuff with elite character gankers. Combat-based orientation, but the combat is against the game, not other players, and you can progress at your own rate.
Planetside is about 50,000 users. Puzzle Pirates barely tops 10,000. WoW is over 2 million, as are each of the Lineages, FFXI and EQ are about 500,000 each. There doesn't appear to *be* any real "casual MMORPG market". Maybe there will be, but it's not there yet.
No, not really. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth and is having to cope with a continuing Taliban insurgency on top of that. Iran is a theocracy that has ideological problems with being connected to the rest of the world. I'm not sure either nation has *any* real net connectivity aside from isolated satellite uplinks (which are actually not terribly uncommon among wealthier Iranians, but not something you can build a trunk networking line out of, particularly when they're technically illegal).
Now, that's not true. Microsoft *loves* interoperability......as long as they aren't the market leader. That's because interoperability gives them their best chance to catch up. Once they *are* market leader, they pull up the ladder behind them.
Bit of both. To the east is India. No connections through there thanks to political considerations. To the west is Afghanistan and Iran. No connections through there thanks to economic considerations.
I see a lot of problems with a game strategy that results in every single player being bored out of their minds for 45 minutes. I just disagree about where the blame goes. If this is the optimal game strategy for the level, then the level designer has screwed up. It's his fault. It took me thirty seconds of thought to come up with possible fix, too.
> Are you really saying this is a valid strategy, or the fault of the developers?
Yes. It's a valid strategy, and the fault of the developers.
> It's people being assholes, plain and simple.
It's poor level design, pure and simple. An easy fix would've simply had the level end when the clock runs out--nobody gets the point for that last bomb.
> Yes, EQ is declining. That is expected though since EQ2 has been released.
Er, EQ2 is *also* declining.
> EQ2 is still showing strong numbers though.
They're down over 50,000 from their peak numbers. This is "strong"?
> So not all of the games on the access pass are going out.
Well, they may not be going out, but they aren't worldbeaters, either. EQ, SWG, EQ2, are all declining. EQ:OA and PS appear to be holding ground for now but at about 50,000 players each, neither is a major player.
> I doubt that the PS2 version of FFXI "needed" a hard drive.
Uh, yes, it did. Do you *have* the PS2 version of FFXI? Basically what you get on the disk is a driver to download the game--over the course of three years, damn near *everything's* been replaced. I bought it about a month and a half ago and and it took over *three hours* to download all the updates! Trust me, they need that HDD.
Yes, but not a FF MMORPG; FFXII will be single-player. The new SE MMORPG is called "Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion": http://www.playonline.com/fe/
It's planned for release this year in Japan. No plans for an NA release has been announced yet. According to SE, it will include "strategy" elements; your guess as to what this means is as good as mine.
> It was the only MMO where you didn't absolutely have to be a combatant.
I've never played it, but from what I hear, Star Wars Galaxies makes it possible to follow a harvest/craft only path (perhaps that's not surprising considering how many ex-UO developers worked on SWG). Theoretically you could do the same in FFXI after a little combat in the beginning to get your start-up capital, but looking at it realistically I don't think it would be very practical or interesting.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe he was dictating!
Chris Mattern
...shouldn't they be looking at the S. Korean market?
I mean, the China market just tells them they have yuan.
Chris Mattern
Well, I'm sure that to the people who run hotmail, it must seem that way.
Chris Mattern
It's noticeably better quality, it's more expensive, it's backed by Sony...
...yep. It's doomed.
Chris Mattern
Yes, it took the Bush Administration three years to decide that, and that was too long. But the UN officially decided it *wasn't* genocide and are helping to paper the whole thing over. This does not strike me as an improvement.
Thus validating Dogbert's point that the purpose of a policy is to define what you don't do, so you can tell the customers, "We don't do that."
Chris Mattern
Some of his questions in the Ballmer interview:
* Why does Microsoft care about developers?
* Microsoft is a leader in transparency and blogging. Why did you allow blogging?
* Coming up with tough questions for you is hard. If you were in my position what tough questions would you ask Microsoft's CEO?
I'm sorry. That's a man brown-nosing just as hard as he can.
Chris Mattern
Er, it's a board game, in the wargame/simulation vein. I still have my copy.
Chris Mattern
> Linux has the luxury of time, broad acceptance over a large geek audience, and the benefit of
> being one of the first successful open source, collaborative endeavors. Anyone trying to jump
> start the same thing now is in for astronomical challenges.
But most of all, Linux had a huge pool of Unix freeware to draw on as it launched. Linux is not Unix, but it's just compatible enough to make it possible for it to launch as a pseudo-version of Unix instead of an all-new OS. And Unix, of course, is not new.
Chris Mattern
> A few years ago a psychic in florida sued a MRI facility. Her claim was that the MRI had robbed her
> of her psychic abilities.
According to her lawyer, "She had no idea this would happen."
Chris Mattern
> So I'm paying Sony premium prices for access to value that other people are providing, and they're
> paying Sony for the right to provide it?
Sure, why not? You pay the phone company more than this for the same deal, and that doesn't even come with a game.
Chris Mattern
> Yes, but in Tennis and Golf, the experienced players don't swoop out of nowhere and frag the
> beginning players for shits and giggles.
Which is why unrestricted player-vs-player has almost disappeared from MMORPGs.
> Can anyone reccomend a not-necessarily combat-based game in this genre in which your not
> putting in a lot of time won't detract from the experience? Or are they all about shooting and
> killing?
Star Wars: Galaxies, from my understanding, can be played without a combat-based orientation, but I think you may still have to put in a lot of time; successful crafting requires you to be there providing goods to your customers on a regular basis. I'm not sure, I don't play it.
WoW, particularly on a PvE server, may be what you're looking for. Low time requirement, no PvP unless you decide to, so you don't have to worry about not being up to snuff with elite character gankers. Combat-based orientation, but the combat is against the game, not other players, and you can progress at your own rate.
Chris Mattern
Planetside is about 50,000 users. Puzzle Pirates barely tops 10,000. WoW is over 2 million, as are each of the Lineages, FFXI and EQ are about 500,000 each. There doesn't appear to *be* any real "casual MMORPG market". Maybe there will be, but it's not there yet.
chris Mattern
No, not really. Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth and is having to cope with a continuing Taliban insurgency on top of that. Iran is a theocracy that has ideological problems with being connected to the rest of the world. I'm not sure either nation has *any* real net connectivity aside from isolated satellite uplinks (which are actually not terribly uncommon among wealthier Iranians, but not something you can build a trunk networking line out of, particularly when they're technically illegal).
Chris Mattern
Now, that's not true. Microsoft *loves* interoperability... ...as long as they aren't the market leader. That's because interoperability gives them their best chance to catch up. Once they *are* market leader, they pull up the ladder behind them.
Chris Mattern
> aren't there reasonably friendly countries to the west?
To the west are Iran and Afghanistan. Not exactly the most wired of countries.
Chris Mattern
Bit of both. To the east is India. No connections through there thanks to political considerations. To the west is Afghanistan and Iran. No connections through there thanks to economic considerations.
Chris Mattern
Pastamancer? I'm getting this picture of a wizard who enchants spaghetti...
Chris Mattern
"Now you face my macaroni of doom, intruder!"
I see a lot of problems with a game strategy that results in every single player being bored out of their minds for 45 minutes. I just disagree about where the blame goes. If this is the optimal game strategy for the level, then the level designer has screwed up. It's his fault. It took me thirty seconds of thought to come up with possible fix, too.
Chris Mattern
> Are you really saying this is a valid strategy, or the fault of the developers?
Yes. It's a valid strategy, and the fault of the developers.
> It's people being assholes, plain and simple.
It's poor level design, pure and simple. An easy fix would've simply had the level end when the clock runs out--nobody gets the point for that last bomb.
> Yes, EQ is declining. That is expected though since EQ2 has been released.
Er, EQ2 is *also* declining.
> EQ2 is still showing strong numbers though.
They're down over 50,000 from their peak numbers. This is "strong"?
> So not all of the games on the access pass are going out.
Well, they may not be going out, but they aren't worldbeaters, either. EQ, SWG, EQ2, are all declining. EQ:OA and PS appear to be holding ground for now but at about 50,000 players each, neither is a major player.
Chris Mattern
> I doubt that the PS2 version of FFXI "needed" a hard drive.
Uh, yes, it did. Do you *have* the PS2 version of FFXI? Basically what you get on the disk is a driver to download the game--over the course of three years, damn near *everything's* been replaced. I bought it about a month and a half ago and and it took over *three hours* to download all the updates! Trust me, they need that HDD.
Chris Mattern
Yes, but not a FF MMORPG; FFXII will be single-player. The new SE MMORPG is called "Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion": http://www.playonline.com/fe/
It's planned for release this year in Japan. No plans for an NA release has been announced yet. According to SE, it will include "strategy" elements; your guess as to what this means is as good as mine.
Chris Mattern
I don't need large brains to have a good time!
Chris Mattern
> It was the only MMO where you didn't absolutely have to be a combatant.
I've never played it, but from what I hear, Star Wars Galaxies makes it possible to follow a harvest/craft only path (perhaps that's not surprising considering how many ex-UO developers worked on SWG). Theoretically you could do the same in FFXI after a little combat in the beginning to get your start-up capital, but looking at it realistically I don't think it would be very practical or interesting.
Chris Mattern