Auto-execute seems pretty silly now, but back at the time it wasn't totally stupid. This was back in '95
The principle of not executing something arriving off host had only been established about a decade before. Shar (shell archives and the typical distribution format) was invented shortly after Usenet source groups were invented. Unshar was invented in the mid 1980s because everyone with half a brain was terrified of executing something coming from even the venerated and moderated `comp.sources.unix'.
My point is, if you can't join a random pick-up group and expect a significant majority of the players to act maturely then WoW isn't any better than the 'free' ones and, therefore, the GP's assertion that having a monthly fee improves the level of the community is false.
It's a dumb assertion and it's dumb trying to refute it. People will be people and I defy you to find any self-selected group where you are guaranteed not to come across childish wankers, regardless of their RL age, whether it be WoW, WAR, Aion, or the US House of Representatives or US Senate.
I'm not generalizing against specific groups that have two rules:
Don't be a wanker.
Refer to rule #1.
But even those will have childish wankers try to sneak in, not that they may last for very long.
Sadly, that actually makes more sense in this day and age of incurable STDs. The license states clearly when your last test was done and which (if any) STDs you have.
That should actually be welcome news to the average slashdotter who rarely ventures from his mother's basement - you're now a highly prized date. And even better news to Americans who would now have grounds to sue if they caught an STD from having sex with someone who showed a clean license.
Honestly I'd like to see them create separate tests for Linux, Mac and Windows
That's hardly an inclusive list. I'm not going to bother reading the article, the idea of an internet license has been floated for a long time now, but they probably need to add smart phones too.
If this actually makes sense (I do not think it does), the obvious next step is to require people to purchase internet insurance in case they get into an accident/install malware and spread SPAM or DDOS attacks.
all I've seen about WoW suggests that the community is filled with stat-whores who won't give you the time of the day if you can't do $X of DPS and have at least an $Y level armor, and that a 'casual' gamer has no chance of *ever* finding a good party (defining 'good' as 'can speak proper english and is willing to help newbies with their shortcomings instead of writing "gtfo nub"') withotu joining a mature, respectable guild.
The community is so large that you can find your own niche of mature online players. I'm an MMO n00b (at least when I started) and I managed to find an outstanding guild within a month or so. I think you've never played and just want to WoW-bash.
You make the assumption that the hours in an MMO are entertaining.
You make the assumption that the hour or two (plus any waiting in line) in the theater is entertaining. Whatever.
If you don't like it, don't subscribe. I haven't felt compelled to go to a theater to watch a movie in years. That doesn't mean that I think others who enjoy that sort of thing should be denied the opportunity.
What is it about people that they feel the need to eliminate something that others consider fun?
Unsurprisingly, the PvE servers are more popular then the PvP ones where ganking does exist
Proof or retraction. This claim couldn't be farther from the truth.
(I'm responding only to the bolded part). Yeah, ganking exists even on PvE servers, but you kind of have to ask for it. The first time I was ever ganked was in STV right after killing Samantha Swifthoof (which flags one for PvP) and I was sitting on my horse talking to one of the quest givers in the Nesingwary camp. I got over it.
I've been corpse camped a couple of times too. A call for help to level capped guildies solved that.
"It's better to give than to receive."
And I've ganked myself. Some lowbie who was along for the ride in a raid on The Exodar strayed too far from his herd so I killed him. His mates were on the boat heading back to Auberdine, so I hope he had a fun time retrieving his corpse.
I'm still a carebear. If you or I have done something stupid, I think that makes us fair game and that's why I like PvE servers. So, sue me.
but in this specific case, i would rather these assholes using steroids and destroying the sport of baseball be exposed and embarrassed
the rule of law is important
The rule of the shift key is important too. Capital letters at the beginning of sentences help readability.
This is baseball. An important sport. America's game. Something that many of us grew up playing or watching and are continuing to watch/follow. There's still no point in the US government getting involved.
What next? Will we have umpires banned from the game and replaced by federal judges? Mandatory drug tests at third base after a triple because those are so rare? Pee in the cup at home plate after hitting a home run?
Puhleeze. I agree with you in spirit, but not in execution. Drug tests are not and are never going to be perfect. They spoil life for everyone else.
I *would* agree with drug tests in baseball if it were done on a team-by-team basis. It's their own business after all and if a non-drug tested team won the US/Canada-series everyone could laugh at them.
It doesn't need to be a law and the federal government has utterly no business getting involved.
Interesting that you reference the Patriot Act while talking about the abuses of the "Bush Administration" but fail to mention the fact that the vast majority of Democrats in the House and all but one in the Senate voted in favor of it.
Interesting that you mention this factoid without also mentioning that Obama voted for it and most of it was put forth (and defeated) during the Clinton administration.
Remember the little girl in a recent Olympics who got stripped of a gold medal because she had been given cold medicine (pseudoephedrine) by her trainer. I'm not sure whether this is the one I'm thinking of:-( http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,55970,00.html
This drug testing business has gotten waaaaaay out of hand.
most manufacturers, most construction jobs, all transportation jobs (truck drivers) require drug testing and often background checks.
Manufacturers sort of make sense if the position is out on an assembly line. All of the others though, sound reasonable. Does an employer want a forklift driver whacked out on speed suddenly deciding to turn the workplace into an FPS? I think not.
Maybe it's a red-state-vs-blue-state thing. I've seriously never met anyone that said they were subject to such a thing.
The only employment drug test I was ever required to take was during an interview with Martin Marietta. I didn't get the job, nor would I have taken it if I had gotten it, but I got a free trip to Colorado out of it (and 1st class on the way back when I voluntarily let myself get bumped from my flight).
We've had admitted drug users in the White House for going on two decades now spanning three administrations. There's a serious disconnect somewhere in this war on some drugs.
I would if I could, but I can't. 11 to 14 hours to get home (depending on if there is to be a refueling stop in Guam) versus a boat... is there commercial sea transport across the Pacific?
I should have a right to privacy regardless of what acronyms some jackass decides to use...
Well, you don't.
The "right" to medical privacy has pretty much gone away in the Porkulus bill. The bureaucracy was set up there. The rest of it goes away if that horrible bill now passed by the House ever becomes law.
The "right" to financial privacy has now been defined as Money Laundering and A Bad Thing.
The "right" to identity privacy has pretty much been obliterated (as per the blogger -vs- the skank model).
The "right" to privacy of any part of your body is forfeited when you enter an airport, which means it isn't a right, thanks to the war on some terror.
The "right" to privacy of your body fluids is forfeited when you are required to undergo a drug test, thanks to the war on some drugs.
We're serfs serving our feudal masters. So much has changed and so little has changed.
Bonus points if you also ensure that your state has a primary that allows you to vote for whatever candidate you wish to on a case by case basis ignoring party lines.
That doesn't work either. I voted for that proposition when it came up in California (and won), except that by the time the next elections came around it was nullified. Same with medical marijuana. About the only thing I ever voted for that was successful was the unconstitutional term limits proposition.
Hey, at least it got Willie Brown out of Sacramento and somewhere he wasn't screwing the whole state.
So when was the last time you went to your rep's office and told them about yourself?
Ah, but I'm a wimp. I had a chance to tell Andrea Seastrand off for her idiotic vote on the Telecomm bill that included the CDA when she visited my office after she was out of office, but I had to be on my best behavior. Sigh.
I can't be the only one that finds it absurd that our Government is devoting resources to outing cheating athletes.
There ought to be a law! against putting the go ahead run on base with an intentional walk and then pitching to the other team's best hitter. I am, of course, referring to Lasorda's idiotic strategy in pitching to Jack Clark in game 6 of the 1985 NL Championship series that gave St. Louis the game and the series. I had tickets for game 7 (and tickets for the World Series, if it was to be held at Dodger Stadium), dang it!
In person, it is the best game to go to. When my kids get older, I will go back to watching a lot of our minor league team's games.
Good idea. You can probably get great seats close to the field too...
You'd have a hard time coming up with a better value than that in any other US sport.
Amen!
(The LA Lakers in their showtime era were a very close second. I went to game 7 in their championship series against the Utah Jazz (which they followed up with beating Detroit in 7 games for the title) and it was so cool seeing the Lakers down early in the game, the Forum quiet and then Magic getting a rebound and starting a fast break and then having everyone screaming at the top of their lungs as the Lakers caught up and went ahead. Showtime! And, of course, the OB singing of "I love LA" in the 4th quarter when we knew were going to win.)
You know you've been to a good game when you leave the stadium hoarse and barely able to talk from cheering.
Slashdot Mirror
People do not throw exceptions when English is used incorrectly. They throw other people.
Or maybe chairs.
Steve to developer: OK, you're leaving XEmacs. Fine. Just tell me you're not going to FSF Emacs.
Developer: I'm going to FSF Emacs.
(Throws chair)
Bad hair day. It appears that you and I are arguing exactly the same point.
Peace brother /.er.
Auto-execute seems pretty silly now, but back at the time it wasn't totally stupid. This was back in '95
The principle of not executing something arriving off host had only been established about a decade before. Shar (shell archives and the typical distribution format) was invented shortly after Usenet source groups were invented. Unshar was invented in the mid 1980s because everyone with half a brain was terrified of executing something coming from even the venerated and moderated `comp.sources.unix'.
We made our own mistakes http://www.regatta.cs.msu.su/doc/usr/share/man/info/ru_RU/a_doc_lib/cmds/aixcmds5/uux.htm but competent administrators had learned long before 1995 to disable uux.
Now, get off my lawn!
My point is, if you can't join a random pick-up group and expect a significant majority of the players to act maturely then WoW isn't any better than the 'free' ones and, therefore, the GP's assertion that having a monthly fee improves the level of the community is false.
It's a dumb assertion and it's dumb trying to refute it. People will be people and I defy you to find any self-selected group where you are guaranteed not to come across childish wankers, regardless of their RL age, whether it be WoW, WAR, Aion, or the US House of Representatives or US Senate.
I'm not generalizing against specific groups that have two rules:
But even those will have childish wankers try to sneak in, not that they may last for very long.
You're tilting at windmills.
What's next, a license for sex?
Sadly, that actually makes more sense in this day and age of incurable STDs. The license states clearly when your last test was done and which (if any) STDs you have.
That should actually be welcome news to the average slashdotter who rarely ventures from his mother's basement - you're now a highly prized date. And even better news to Americans who would now have grounds to sue if they caught an STD from having sex with someone who showed a clean license.
Honestly I'd like to see them create separate tests for Linux, Mac and Windows
That's hardly an inclusive list. I'm not going to bother reading the article, the idea of an internet license has been floated for a long time now, but they probably need to add smart phones too.
If this actually makes sense (I do not think it does), the obvious next step is to require people to purchase internet insurance in case they get into an accident/install malware and spread SPAM or DDOS attacks.
Sigh.
all I've seen about WoW suggests that the community is filled with stat-whores who won't give you the time of the day if you can't do $X of DPS and have at least an $Y level armor, and that a 'casual' gamer has no chance of *ever* finding a good party (defining 'good' as 'can speak proper english and is willing to help newbies with their shortcomings instead of writing "gtfo nub"') withotu joining a mature, respectable guild.
The community is so large that you can find your own niche of mature online players. I'm an MMO n00b (at least when I started) and I managed to find an outstanding guild within a month or so. I think you've never played and just want to WoW-bash.
If you want a mature-ish WoW experience. Join a mature guild and turn off all of the public channels.
Ah, I posted too soon. You are exactly correct.
Heck, I'd be willing to pay $20 a month for a WoW-quality game that only allowed you to play if you were over 21 and had a full-time job...
I see your point, but that would make the already miserable family support in WoW worse.
/leave 2
and join an adult guild.
Takes most of the childishness out of the game for me. And I *do* want my sons to play when they get a bit older and certainly before they are 21.
You make the assumption that the hours in an MMO are entertaining.
You make the assumption that the hour or two (plus any waiting in line) in the theater is entertaining. Whatever.
If you don't like it, don't subscribe. I haven't felt compelled to go to a theater to watch a movie in years. That doesn't mean that I think others who enjoy that sort of thing should be denied the opportunity.
What is it about people that they feel the need to eliminate something that others consider fun?
While I would like someone to knock WoW off its high horse (because the game really isn't designed as well as they think it is),
So what's your problem? Unsubscribe! I like endless days of collecting Murloc eyes and sorting through monster dung for Nagrand Cherries.
And WoW works (quite well) on my Mac and Aion does not. It's a no brainer.
Unsurprisingly, the PvE servers are more popular then the PvP ones where ganking does exist
Proof or retraction. This claim couldn't be farther from the truth.
(I'm responding only to the bolded part). Yeah, ganking exists even on PvE servers, but you kind of have to ask for it. The first time I was ever ganked was in STV right after killing Samantha Swifthoof (which flags one for PvP) and I was sitting on my horse talking to one of the quest givers in the Nesingwary camp. I got over it.
I've been corpse camped a couple of times too. A call for help to level capped guildies solved that.
"It's better to give than to receive."
And I've ganked myself. Some lowbie who was along for the ride in a raid on The Exodar strayed too far from his herd so I killed him. His mates were on the boat heading back to Auberdine, so I hope he had a fun time retrieving his corpse.
I'm still a carebear. If you or I have done something stupid, I think that makes us fair game and that's why I like PvE servers. So, sue me.
I disagree that it's the actual steroid abusers who are most to blame for it.
I agree for the most part with your post, but ...
I just want to point out that Babe Ruth's records were as startling for his era as Sosa/McGwire. As was the one year flash-in-the-pan Roger Maris.
Psst. Ruth and Maris used drugs of some sort. A *pitcher* hitting 714 home runs? Get real!
You heard it here first.
but in this specific case, i would rather these assholes using steroids and destroying the sport of baseball be exposed and embarrassed
the rule of law is important
The rule of the shift key is important too. Capital letters at the beginning of sentences help readability.
This is baseball. An important sport. America's game. Something that many of us grew up playing or watching and are continuing to watch/follow. There's still no point in the US government getting involved.
What next? Will we have umpires banned from the game and replaced by federal judges? Mandatory drug tests at third base after a triple because those are so rare? Pee in the cup at home plate after hitting a home run?
Puhleeze. I agree with you in spirit, but not in execution. Drug tests are not and are never going to be perfect. They spoil life for everyone else.
I *would* agree with drug tests in baseball if it were done on a team-by-team basis. It's their own business after all and if a non-drug tested team won the US/Canada-series everyone could laugh at them.
It doesn't need to be a law and the federal government has utterly no business getting involved.
Interesting that you reference the Patriot Act while talking about the abuses of the "Bush Administration" but fail to mention the fact that the vast majority of Democrats in the House and all but one in the Senate voted in favor of it.
Interesting that you mention this factoid without also mentioning that Obama voted for it and most of it was put forth (and defeated) during the Clinton administration.
They're all rotten.
Remember the little girl in a recent Olympics who got stripped of a gold medal because she had been given cold medicine (pseudoephedrine) by her trainer. I'm not sure whether this is the one I'm thinking of :-( http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,55970,00.html
This drug testing business has gotten waaaaaay out of hand.
most manufacturers, most construction jobs, all transportation jobs (truck drivers) require drug testing and often background checks.
Manufacturers sort of make sense if the position is out on an assembly line. All of the others though, sound reasonable. Does an employer want a forklift driver whacked out on speed suddenly deciding to turn the workplace into an FPS? I think not.
Maybe it's a red-state-vs-blue-state thing. I've seriously never met anyone that said they were subject to such a thing.
The only employment drug test I was ever required to take was during an interview with Martin Marietta. I didn't get the job, nor would I have taken it if I had gotten it, but I got a free trip to Colorado out of it (and 1st class on the way back when I voluntarily let myself get bumped from my flight).
We've had admitted drug users in the White House for going on two decades now spanning three administrations. There's a serious disconnect somewhere in this war on some drugs.
If a large enough group refuses to fly
I would if I could, but I can't. 11 to 14 hours to get home (depending on if there is to be a refueling stop in Guam) versus a boat ... is there commercial sea transport across the Pacific?
Flying used to be fun ...
I should have a right to privacy regardless of what acronyms some jackass decides to use ...
Well, you don't.
The "right" to medical privacy has pretty much gone away in the Porkulus bill. The bureaucracy was set up there. The rest of it goes away if that horrible bill now passed by the House ever becomes law.
The "right" to financial privacy has now been defined as Money Laundering and A Bad Thing.
The "right" to identity privacy has pretty much been obliterated (as per the blogger -vs- the skank model).
The "right" to privacy of any part of your body is forfeited when you enter an airport, which means it isn't a right, thanks to the war on some terror.
The "right" to privacy of your body fluids is forfeited when you are required to undergo a drug test, thanks to the war on some drugs.
We're serfs serving our feudal masters. So much has changed and so little has changed.
the supreme court sort of gave up on the constitution back around the '20s.
That would be 1913. When the unconstitutional "Federal" Reserve act and income tax amendment were passed.
Bonus points if you also ensure that your state has a primary that allows you to vote for whatever candidate you wish to on a case by case basis ignoring party lines.
That doesn't work either. I voted for that proposition when it came up in California (and won), except that by the time the next elections came around it was nullified. Same with medical marijuana. About the only thing I ever voted for that was successful was the unconstitutional term limits proposition.
Hey, at least it got Willie Brown out of Sacramento and somewhere he wasn't screwing the whole state.
So when was the last time you went to your rep's office and told them about yourself?
Ah, but I'm a wimp. I had a chance to tell Andrea Seastrand off for her idiotic vote on the Telecomm bill that included the CDA when she visited my office after she was out of office, but I had to be on my best behavior. Sigh.
I can't be the only one that finds it absurd that our Government is devoting resources to outing cheating athletes.
There ought to be a law! against putting the go ahead run on base with an intentional walk and then pitching to the other team's best hitter. I am, of course, referring to Lasorda's idiotic strategy in pitching to Jack Clark in game 6 of the 1985 NL Championship series that gave St. Louis the game and the series. I had tickets for game 7 (and tickets for the World Series, if it was to be held at Dodger Stadium), dang it!
Tommy Lasorda deserved to be put in jail.
In person, it is the best game to go to. When my kids get older, I will go back to watching a lot of our minor league team's games.
Good idea. You can probably get great seats close to the field too ...
You'd have a hard time coming up with a better value than that in any other US sport.
Amen!
(The LA Lakers in their showtime era were a very close second. I went to game 7 in their championship series against the Utah Jazz (which they followed up with beating Detroit in 7 games for the title) and it was so cool seeing the Lakers down early in the game, the Forum quiet and then Magic getting a rebound and starting a fast break and then having everyone screaming at the top of their lungs as the Lakers caught up and went ahead. Showtime! And, of course, the OB singing of "I love LA" in the 4th quarter when we knew were going to win.)
You know you've been to a good game when you leave the stadium hoarse and barely able to talk from cheering.