You would have said the same about comic book movies about a decade ago. Movies like the first X-Men and Spiderman broke the stigma around comic books and showed the mainstream public that they are full of great stories and characters.
Video games are in the same place - franchises like God of War, Uncharted, Halo, Gears of War, and Half-Life have great stories and characters. All they need is that first trailblazing movie to prove it. My vote goes to Assassin's Creed with Michael Fassbender.
According to this, Leahy claims CNET was incorrect in its original article and that he never supported the warrantless wiretapping. When he tried to clarify this stance, CNET comes out with this article saying that he backtracked because of the backlash caused by their article.
Not going to make the judgment call on which side is right, but it should at least be noted that there are two sides to the story.
I never did understand why Americans were always lamenting about China taking all the manufacturing jobs. Seems like if we weren't losing them to the Chinese then we would have lost them to automation. Although now that automation is starting to replace the Chinese workforce as well, there's really no reason for American companies not to move their manufacturing back to the US and save on overseas shipping and export/import regulations and taxes.
I don't see how Whedon could possibly have time to do Avengers 2 and the Marvel TV show (which are what his current contract is for) and still have time to work on a Star Wars movie in any capacity.
The difference in GW2 is that there are very few spells that just do pure damage. Most have secondary and sometimes very powerful effects attached to them, which means you will want to use them wisely and not just "as soon as your cooldown timer clears".
For example, one spell may have a blind effect which causes your enemy's next attack to miss. Another may have a knockdown effect. Another might launch you forward while leaving a trail of fire in your wake. Hopefully it's obvious how this forces smart use of skills and not just whack-a-mole whatever's off cooldown.
As a side note, I find mana to be a very bad resource system (large pool, slow/cumbersome to regenerate) and it seems to have stuck around only because it's "traditional". It is essentially unlimited in the short-term, and has a hard limit in the long-term, which means that in the heat of battle, you might as well not have a resource unless you are engaged in very long fights. And if you do run out of mana, it's a very unfun mechanic since there's basically nothing you can do except sit there and reflect on your character's poor life decisions that led to this point.
Energy (small pool, fast-regenerating resource) seems like a much more interesting resource for forcing resource management, as it forces smart, controlled skill usage and heavily prohibits button mashing. However, a purely cooldown based system like GW2 basically creates the same thing.
Elementalists do not have a weapon swap, due to their attunement mechanic. 4 attunements with 5 skills apiece = 20 skills, compared to standard classes who just have a weapon swap with 5 skills apiece for 10 skills. If eles also had a weapon swap, they'd have 40 weapon skills which would be obviously overpowered.
I'm guessing you've never played DotA or anything in the genre? The target dummies you refer to have this annoying habit of always ending up on your team. Considering that even one weak link on a team will usually cost the game, this is what creates the rampant noob-hostile community in the genre.
I actually think the opposite of what you said will happen - everyone will game the system to report the terrible players (skill-wise, not personality-wise) from their team, and new players will eventually be turned away because they keep getting reported and having to pay more.
Agreed - the distribution of wealth in China makes 1%-ers look like child's play. As you mention, this is creating a ticking social time bomb as people inevitably harbor envy and resentment.
Another serious problem they have is the one-child policy creating major social issues. The obvious one is the gender ratio, which was something like 56% male last I heard. That means over 20% of guys are left out in the cold. Then there are less obvious things like how you now have 2 parents and 4 grandparents all focusing their attention on raising a single kid. This is creating a generation of incredibly spoiled and entitled children. The flip side of this is that a single person may have to support his parents and grandparents when they are older which is a not insignificant financial burden.
The bottom line is that China might have a promising economy from an outsider's perspective, but their society is massively dysfunctional. They might be able to be successful for a short period of time but in my opinion they are not built for long term success.
It's fairly safe to assume GW2 will be launching some time in the next few months. Maybe not by mid May, but then Blizzard is still first to market which doesn't really disprove my theory.
Also, the whole situation stinks of some suit forcing the devs to cut PvP in order to rush it out the door in time to match up against the anticipated Guild Wars 2 release date.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean the one that they basically decided to start over from scratch a few months ago? http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/report-blizzard-to-overhaul-project-titan-launch-it-in-2016-at-the-earliest/
Sounds kind of like Google Wave...
I think you mean dolphin.
You know you're on Slashdot when a woman says she has naked pictures of herself on the internet and someone criticizes her grammar.
You would have said the same about comic book movies about a decade ago. Movies like the first X-Men and Spiderman broke the stigma around comic books and showed the mainstream public that they are full of great stories and characters. Video games are in the same place - franchises like God of War, Uncharted, Halo, Gears of War, and Half-Life have great stories and characters. All they need is that first trailblazing movie to prove it. My vote goes to Assassin's Creed with Michael Fassbender.
Austin?
You don't seem to have disproved his statement.
According to this, Leahy claims CNET was incorrect in its original article and that he never supported the warrantless wiretapping. When he tried to clarify this stance, CNET comes out with this article saying that he backtracked because of the backlash caused by their article. Not going to make the judgment call on which side is right, but it should at least be noted that there are two sides to the story.
Let's not forget the disaster that is the new "Pending Changes" window...
I never did understand why Americans were always lamenting about China taking all the manufacturing jobs. Seems like if we weren't losing them to the Chinese then we would have lost them to automation. Although now that automation is starting to replace the Chinese workforce as well, there's really no reason for American companies not to move their manufacturing back to the US and save on overseas shipping and export/import regulations and taxes.
Sometimes I wish there was a simple button you could press... to somehow indicate that you no longer stand by what you said.
Maybe you could ask Mitt Romney where he got his!
I don't see how Whedon could possibly have time to do Avengers 2 and the Marvel TV show (which are what his current contract is for) and still have time to work on a Star Wars movie in any capacity.
Doesn't even have to be a foreign power. Just look at how vehement some Americans are in their anti-Obama or anti-Romney stances.
Seems to me that Wreckless Driving is a good thing.
And I suppose the GWAMM title wasn't grindy at all...
Because if global warming was man-made, then presumably it is possible to be man-unmade.
The difference in GW2 is that there are very few spells that just do pure damage. Most have secondary and sometimes very powerful effects attached to them, which means you will want to use them wisely and not just "as soon as your cooldown timer clears".
For example, one spell may have a blind effect which causes your enemy's next attack to miss. Another may have a knockdown effect. Another might launch you forward while leaving a trail of fire in your wake. Hopefully it's obvious how this forces smart use of skills and not just whack-a-mole whatever's off cooldown.
As a side note, I find mana to be a very bad resource system (large pool, slow/cumbersome to regenerate) and it seems to have stuck around only because it's "traditional". It is essentially unlimited in the short-term, and has a hard limit in the long-term, which means that in the heat of battle, you might as well not have a resource unless you are engaged in very long fights. And if you do run out of mana, it's a very unfun mechanic since there's basically nothing you can do except sit there and reflect on your character's poor life decisions that led to this point.
Energy (small pool, fast-regenerating resource) seems like a much more interesting resource for forcing resource management, as it forces smart, controlled skill usage and heavily prohibits button mashing. However, a purely cooldown based system like GW2 basically creates the same thing.
Elementalists do not have a weapon swap, due to their attunement mechanic. 4 attunements with 5 skills apiece = 20 skills, compared to standard classes who just have a weapon swap with 5 skills apiece for 10 skills. If eles also had a weapon swap, they'd have 40 weapon skills which would be obviously overpowered.
Reminds me of this excellent scene from Game of Thrones.
I'm guessing you've never played DotA or anything in the genre? The target dummies you refer to have this annoying habit of always ending up on your team. Considering that even one weak link on a team will usually cost the game, this is what creates the rampant noob-hostile community in the genre.
I actually think the opposite of what you said will happen - everyone will game the system to report the terrible players (skill-wise, not personality-wise) from their team, and new players will eventually be turned away because they keep getting reported and having to pay more.
You are a fool if you don't protect your good ideas in this way as you go about looking for someone to build out your magic application.
What could possibly go wrong?
Sincerely,
The Winklevoss twins
Of course in my experience, some people believe that everything which is written in a slashdot comment is true.
Well that's just silly - obviously only the comments that are +5 are true.
Agreed - the distribution of wealth in China makes 1%-ers look like child's play. As you mention, this is creating a ticking social time bomb as people inevitably harbor envy and resentment.
Another serious problem they have is the one-child policy creating major social issues. The obvious one is the gender ratio, which was something like 56% male last I heard. That means over 20% of guys are left out in the cold. Then there are less obvious things like how you now have 2 parents and 4 grandparents all focusing their attention on raising a single kid. This is creating a generation of incredibly spoiled and entitled children. The flip side of this is that a single person may have to support his parents and grandparents when they are older which is a not insignificant financial burden.
The bottom line is that China might have a promising economy from an outsider's perspective, but their society is massively dysfunctional. They might be able to be successful for a short period of time but in my opinion they are not built for long term success.
It's fairly safe to assume GW2 will be launching some time in the next few months. Maybe not by mid May, but then Blizzard is still first to market which doesn't really disprove my theory.
Also, the whole situation stinks of some suit forcing the devs to cut PvP in order to rush it out the door in time to match up against the anticipated Guild Wars 2 release date.