It's not the fact that the actual gameplay experience is too long, it's the problem that you get to nearly the end and have to spend hours levelling up your characters to defeat the final boss.
Final Fantasy games are notorious for doing this.
In fact, I actually succumbed to buying an Action Replay just to finally finish Final Fantasy X. I had gotten through the entire game without cheating, managing to beat all the bosses and get to the point where I go to the Highroad and battle Sin. Even finished the first few Sin battles on my own.
Then I hit a brick wall, the same one that I hit in Final Fantasy Seven. I just wasn't powerful enough to get the final battle.
You must be joking. Of all the RPGs I've played, FF is one of the FEW that did not maintain this trend of "forced-leveling." Games such as Dragon Warrior and Ultima on the other hand DID require such a thing. Both FF7 and FF10 that you mentioned can be played front-to-back with a limited amount of subquests to victory without stopping to level characters. The point is that if you want to do _everything_ and beat _everything_ the game has to offer, it takes forever. The end boss in FF games is normally a wuss. It's the optional uber-creatures (Ultima Weapon, Ruby/Emerald Weapon, Omega Weapon, etc) that take real leveling to beat.
I really don't want to devote hours to playing Blitzball or Card Games or Raising Chocobos in order to finish the game.
Neither of those activities are required to win...that's why they're called mini-games and subquests. Blitzball gains you almost nothing except Wakka's ultimate weapon (and yes, you can easily win without it), and the main point of Raising Chocobos was to get the ultimate Gold Chocobo and resulting Knights of the Round materia...FF7 can also EASILY be beaten without it (the optional Weapons on the other hand...)
To make matters worse, levelling up in these games is just flat-out tedious. I really don't want to devote hours to playing Blitzball or Card Games or Raising Chocobos in order to finish the game.
You see, I really liked Snow Crash, but lately that crazy Neil Stephenson's books are so darn long! He should write shorter ones!" Please.
There is NO book yet that I couldn't read in under a week (and i frequently read books in the 1000+ page length)...many, if not most games can't make the same claim
Here's a word for you: moderation! (and not the/. kind!) Don't break open the piggy bank for a new game just because the graphics are flashy and the advertising has brainwashed you into believing this is a game that you "can't live without!"
You don't get it man. I buy many games of many genres because I enjoy many games of many genres, not because of marketing hype.
Personally speaking, I play a game...ONE game and that's it, until I'm through with it.
I'm sorry you're such a limited gamer. I believe the article in question explicitly mentioned "committed gamer", a trait of which I'm assuming you've never experienced. Think of your 10 favorite activities, be it movies, or hiking, or biking, or just relaxing at home. Now imagine if you only had time to do 40% of them. Could you give the others up so easily? What are your 10 favorite movies? What if you could only see 5 of them because they were extended over a long period of time? What if your beloved Snow Crash was 12,000 pages long and to enjoy it, you couldn't do anything else you enjoy? What do you do when things are released faster than you can consume them?
shorter and shorter attention spans
Man, you just don't get it. If you're capable of finding ONE enjoyable activity, and doing NOTHING but IT for a period of 3+ months, I'm impressed. But alot of us, including myself, like variety...different activities. When games are turning into 3 month excursions, that becomes nearly impossible.
And if games are long or short whatever they end up being will be because that's the way consumers are voting with their dollars!
Yeah, caus consumer sentiment is always right of course. That's why Microsoft is where it is.
People here bitch and complain when Microsoft develop products that conform well to their own standards and their own correlating software/hardware.
However, Apple does the same thing, and they're singing their praises and claiming the Windows users are just whiners.
You people disappoint me so. This attitude won't bridge the gap between Windows users and Unix users. I'm a primary Windows user, simply because 70% of home-use computing time is spent gaming. So sensibly since I game most of the time, my primary machine is a Windows machine. I have no need (or money) to own a Mac as well. Religious wars aside, it'd be nice to be able to download directly to mp3 and have my Windows music players play my music without need for conversion or hassle. To not do so is certainly Apple's perogative, but imo it's just as frustrating as the crap Microsoft pulls in ensuring no Unix applications will be compatible with their software.
basically the jist of all their gripes is the damned "features" you cannot turn off or get in the way
Cannot? It's hard to think of a default feature in Word that's annoying that cannot be turned off. Spell/grammar highlighting is easily turned off...as is auto-correcting/auto-formatting...that's probably the most annoying feature. Well that or the paperclip (which can also be disabled). Methinks these writers you speak of were either too stupid or too lazy to figure out how to do it. But don't let me stop them from turning to paper and pen. I fully believe that those who don't possess the patience and intelligence to learn to use a computer should in fact not have one.
They bitch about the counter system... what? What is the complaint? Is it too weak? Too powerful? Frustrating? What's frustrating about it? They say it's "flawed" but wasn't really improved in 3. Ok. I still don't know what that means.
It's insane.
First off, don't get me wrong. I own the game, and it's quite fun to play...I love the diversity of martial arts moves they have (particularly in the counters), and the graphics are quite good.
The counter system...my god, talk about a way to unbalance a game. With that around, why bother ever attacking? I think three counters were enough to kill a player...those things did IMMENSE amounts of damage. Worst of all, they made it such that you really couldn't throw any attack against a good player. Lemme put it this way, find a good player (who has quick hand-eye coordination), and try to land _any_ attack on them, without instantly having it thrown back in your face, and I'll be impressed. Me and my friend were addicted to that game. We both quickly learned the keys to winning were certain aerial attacks like the ninja flip kick (which somehow were almost virtually unblockable) and/or counters.
Another way: Smart Pointers. They're simple wrappers around the types that act like pointers, but they can make sure your objects live as long as you need and no longer. The big trick is knowing which kind of smart pointer you want.
I've read from multiple resources that smart pointers don't work with STL containers (due to the way the internal container handles memory)
Games like Sim City on the other hand would let you use your imagintation, and allow you to do things that most people will never get to do in real life are much more entertaining in my opinion.
Surely you jest...Simcity allows you to use your imagination more than The Sims?
First of all, the multitude of objects and variations on object orientation/interaction in The Sims blows Simcity out of the water for imagination/creativity. Secondly, if in reallife you will eventually have a mansion, 7 lesbian roommates, two pools, a couple tvs, a personal dj dance studio, etc, etc...and acquire all that in the course of a few months tops, I'll be impressed:)
The Sims is just another sim game of "start with little, build to more"...it's not for all people, but some people derive fun from that feeling of success in growing. I'm noticed that alot of people who despise the game haven't even given it a shot though. It really is a love it or hate it thing though.
Even Simcity can get dull and monotonous over time (unless you use the cheats to have instant money)
Though I tend to dislike open-ended games. I suffer as a gamer from a need for completion...it brings a kind of closure to the game. I don't get this from an open-ended game. I feel compelled to "do everything" in the game, when "doing everything" isn't always possible. The latest derivations of Final Fantasy have especially been annoying, for they have made it ever increasingly tedious, annoying, and close to impossible to do everything in the game. Baldur's Gate 2 was annoying as well. I got involved in so many different subquests while in the middle of a single main quest that I had to write down a list of all the people I needed to help, where they were, and so on.
Now on the flip-side I happen to immensely enjoy Choose-Your-Own-Path books, where you flip to different page numbers dependent on what you want to do. Why this is I do not know...it feels different for some reason...it's less of a feeling that I'm missing something.
Patriot Act II will never pass, and Patriot Act I will expire in 2005 (its extension will never be approved). As someone pointed out, even many of your beloved Democrats supported the original Patriot act. The few nutjob Republicans that want to try to push this to the next step will be shooed away. Frankly, Hatch is an insane creton...and if everyone doesn't know it, those that count politically do.
What is wrong with people who buy this crap? It's so gaudy. Oh my god, LEDs! That's so cool!
Case modders have the attention spans of 3-year-olds who hit every button in the elevator.
You seem biased.
But let me alleviate your fears that all case modders are like this.
I enjoy modding my case because it adds uniqueness...I've cut two fan holes in my case myself (though those were more for air flow performance). I have some of the LEDs, and have eventual plans to water/lasercut a custom design in the side of my case and back light it.
I don't find it any more gaudy than christmas lights, or halloween decorations, or even basic house decorations like knickknacks and the sort. Sure, its no Monet, but to a geek such things are artful. Sadly, a majority of case modders are kiddies who care only to be trendy. Case modding done right can really accentuate(sp?) a case.
Btw, somehow I feel you can't be a mac user if you have that attitude. The way Apple is with style and creative use of LEDs, I'm surprised you aren't pissed off at them too.
I live in the heavily populated south-east of England, 100 meters off the main road between two large towns each with a population of around 140,000; I'm six miles away from one and ten from the other. The only place I can get any signal on a cellphone in my house is if I stand in the corner next to the window in one of the bedrooms upstairs.
I am ten miles due east as the crow flies from a major TV and radio transmitter mast and I cannot get a strong enough signal on the digital terrestrial channels to even register on a regular set-top box. To get acceptable signals on analog TV I need a carefully aligned roof-mounted fourteen element high gain aerial and a signal booster. I cannot receive FM broacasts on portable radios with telescopic aerials; I need a roof-mounted aerial for that too. I'm not in a dip or hollow either.
It's like something is sucking all the radio waves around here into a black hole.
Would a 10,000 km long razor thin cable, falling 9.8 m/s^2 for 10,000 km towards the earth do just a _bit_ of damage when it landed? How many safety precautions have been taken with this thing? Or would they just build the thing out in the middle of the ocean or something just in case?
Gas mileage is also *heavily* dependant on driving style due to the laws of conservation of energy -- the top things overall that I found increase it are:
1) Standard transmission -- almost all cars with a standard get better gas mileage then an automatic.
2) Drive 55 -- Going from 75mph on the highways to
55 increased gas mileage by 26%!
3) Anticipate lights (let the car roll to slow
down when you see a red light ahead of time
rather then breaking at the last minute) saves
a lot, too.
4) Coast down hills
5) Accelerate slowly
Or hell, why not just go 35mph? Actually, if you never get IN the car, you can cut gas mileage 100%! I really hope you get the hell out of people's ways who have deadlines, places to be, or actual lives they want to spend outside of a moving metal frame. Or do you also cruise in the fast lane because you feel the speed you chose is fast enough for everyone else too?
I don't want better mileage at the EXPENSE of performance. If I did, there's been plenty of technologies out BEFORE hybrids that served the same function (diesel, or any shitty 4 cylinder combined with "grandma" type driving).
Most people don't use flash to "enhance" and "add to" the aesthestic pleasure of a site (either that, or they fail miserably at it).
Instead you get incredibly annoying things, like 5 minute "movies" they force you to watch before allowing access to the content on their website (the nicer folks have a "click-thru" link, some don't). Other annoyances include music in the background you can't shut off, or moving the most basic of features to flash. The point is the web is for information...thus, people seeking information want to be able to access that info as fast as they can w/ as few annoyances as possible. Aesthetics should not trump performance. If someone WANTS the glitz, there should be an option or a different page to go to.
Ever wonder why people hate popups so much? They hate flash for the same reasons...it gets in the way of fast content access, and there's no easy way to avoid it on the modern web without losing content.
The Grateful Dead are a perfect example of why it doesn't matter one single bit if someone is a) out of tune b) forgets the words c) starts humming hoping the rest of the band picks up for it, etc....Jerry would FREQUENTLY forget words and just trail off into no where during songs he had sung 100s of times...They were/are a successful band because they PERFOM for REAL.
Heh, I would claim it's because they AND most of their fanbase were so doped up, they didn't know if they were listening to a band or a dying quail.
Personally I kinda like all the alien languages that you get in "Star Wars". It's a lot funner and makes things a lot richer in the same way that the various languages spoken in "Lord of the Rings" makes things a little more interesting.
Here's [acpropulsion.com] a car that beats Porsches and Ferraris -- and should cost somewhere in between them. It goes 0-60 in 4.1 seconds, and gets the equivalent of 70 mpg.
And here's the reason it [electric] will never feasibly catch on:
[from FAQ]
How long does the battery pack last? What does it cost to replace?
Pack life is on the order of two to three years, or 15,000 to 20,000 miles. At current prices, a set of new batteries costs about $3,000 from Optima.
People replace their tires every 50,000 miles or so for about $600-700...you're gonna tell me people are going to pay $9,000 more in the same time period to regularly replace a battery too? Electric cars will never become the norm for the bulk of society (poor/middle class).
For as great as the books are, and I absolutely love them, they still come down to good vs evil and we all know how that will end we just don't know the details. The point is to make those who don't know anything about the books to fall in love with the simplicity and naivety of the Shire(recalling childhood), the majesty of the elves(the ability to believe that there are benevolent "gods"), the incredible variety and wonder of nature(the absolute silliness but child like qualities of Tom Bombadil, Gandalf's friendship with Shadowfax, Legolas falling in love with Fanghorn, Gimli falling in love with Helm's deep). The idea that man is soooo small in compared to the age of the universe or even the earth, e.g. the Ents are Old beyond imagining but this doesn't come through.
Almost all of this went missing from the films.
You can only fit so much into a 3 hour movie. I think the childish nature of the Shire came across pretty well...the arrogance of the elves certainly got across too. I must say, I hate Bombadill and glad he was excluded. Tho, one of my favorite "details" that was included in the movie was the growing friendship/banter between Legolas and Gimbli. They did a good job developing that.
mobo - Asus P4P800 Deluxe $137.99
cpu - Intel 2.4CGhz Retail $170.00
ram - 2 x 512 MB Kingston HyperX $262.00
HD - 2 WD Raptors (72 GB Raid 0) $272.00
vid - GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128 MB vid ram $131.00
dvdburn Sony DW-U10A-10 $189.99
sound Audigy 2 $78.00
case/power/floppy/kb/mouse/modem ~$200 total
Total ~ 1440.98
Compare that to the $1,999.99 apple system.
The x86 solution has the same video card with DOUBLE the vid ram, multi-drives for RAID w/ 10,000 RPM HD solution. A multi-standard dvd burner (I don't know what the SuperDrive does). It has 4 TIMES as much ram, at DDR400 instead of DDR333, and it's dual-channel. It's hyper-threaded. And you have like 500 dollars of difference in cost to upgrade whatever indivudual parts you want...the audigy could upgrade to a damn m-audio audiophile with that kind of cost leeway. The _ONLY_ thing I see that Apple has going for it is the G5, which is supposedly (and believably) a FAR superior chip to anything out there. But last I checked, processor speed wasn't the main bottleneck in machines nowadays.
Bah to you Mac zealots. I can build a faster x86 for cheaper that will actually run 99% of the software out there.
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However, Apple does the same thing, and they're singing their praises and claiming the Windows users are just whiners.
You people disappoint me so. This attitude won't bridge the gap between Windows users and Unix users. I'm a primary Windows user, simply because 70% of home-use computing time is spent gaming. So sensibly since I game most of the time, my primary machine is a Windows machine. I have no need (or money) to own a Mac as well. Religious wars aside, it'd be nice to be able to download directly to mp3 and have my Windows music players play my music without need for conversion or hassle. To not do so is certainly Apple's perogative, but imo it's just as frustrating as the crap Microsoft pulls in ensuring no Unix applications will be compatible with their software.
If you're on a college campus, simple Windows network shares will get you loads and loads of whatever you might be searching for on Kazaa equivalents.
Heh, and here I thought that was a universal norm.
Cannot? It's hard to think of a default feature in Word that's annoying that cannot be turned off. Spell/grammar highlighting is easily turned off...as is auto-correcting/auto-formatting...that's probably the most annoying feature. Well that or the paperclip (which can also be disabled). Methinks these writers you speak of were either too stupid or too lazy to figure out how to do it. But don't let me stop them from turning to paper and pen. I fully believe that those who don't possess the patience and intelligence to learn to use a computer should in fact not have one.
It's insane.
First off, don't get me wrong. I own the game, and it's quite fun to play...I love the diversity of martial arts moves they have (particularly in the counters), and the graphics are quite good.
The counter system...my god, talk about a way to unbalance a game. With that around, why bother ever attacking? I think three counters were enough to kill a player...those things did IMMENSE amounts of damage. Worst of all, they made it such that you really couldn't throw any attack against a good player. Lemme put it this way, find a good player (who has quick hand-eye coordination), and try to land _any_ attack on them, without instantly having it thrown back in your face, and I'll be impressed. Me and my friend were addicted to that game. We both quickly learned the keys to winning were certain aerial attacks like the ninja flip kick (which somehow were almost virtually unblockable) and/or counters.
HELLS YEAH!
Woo! Let's take it back from the trendy morons and make it a true testament to geekdom again! :)
I've read from multiple resources that smart pointers don't work with STL containers (due to the way the internal container handles memory)
Damn, you really are caught up in all the new fangled hype aren't ya? I laughed out loud at this. To which I retort:
Good programmers realize that "paradigm" is a buzzword meant only for managers to sound smarter than they really are.
Surely you jest...Simcity allows you to use your imagination more than The Sims?
First of all, the multitude of objects and variations on object orientation/interaction in The Sims blows Simcity out of the water for imagination/creativity. :)
Secondly, if in reallife you will eventually have a mansion, 7 lesbian roommates, two pools, a couple tvs, a personal dj dance studio, etc, etc...and acquire all that in the course of a few months tops, I'll be impressed
The Sims is just another sim game of "start with little, build to more"...it's not for all people, but some people derive fun from that feeling of success in growing. I'm noticed that alot of people who despise the game haven't even given it a shot though. It really is a love it or hate it thing though.
Even Simcity can get dull and monotonous over time (unless you use the cheats to have instant money)
Now on the flip-side I happen to immensely enjoy Choose-Your-Own-Path books, where you flip to different page numbers dependent on what you want to do. Why this is I do not know...it feels different for some reason...it's less of a feeling that I'm missing something.
Patriot Act II will never pass, and Patriot Act I will expire in 2005 (its extension will never be approved). As someone pointed out, even many of your beloved Democrats supported the original Patriot act. The few nutjob Republicans that want to try to push this to the next step will be shooed away. Frankly, Hatch is an insane creton...and if everyone doesn't know it, those that count politically do.
But let me alleviate your fears that all case modders are like this.
I enjoy modding my case because it adds uniqueness...I've cut two fan holes in my case myself (though those were more for air flow performance). I have some of the LEDs, and have eventual plans to water/lasercut a custom design in the side of my case and back light it.
I don't find it any more gaudy than christmas lights, or halloween decorations, or even basic house decorations like knickknacks and the sort. Sure, its no Monet, but to a geek such things are artful. Sadly, a majority of case modders are kiddies who care only to be trendy. Case modding done right can really accentuate(sp?) a case.
Btw, somehow I feel you can't be a mac user if you have that attitude. The way Apple is with style and creative use of LEDs, I'm surprised you aren't pissed off at them too.
"SHIT!"
Would a 10,000 km long razor thin cable, falling 9.8 m/s^2 for 10,000 km towards the earth do just a _bit_ of damage when it landed? How many safety precautions have been taken with this thing? Or would they just build the thing out in the middle of the ocean or something just in case?
I don't want better mileage at the EXPENSE of performance. If I did, there's been plenty of technologies out BEFORE hybrids that served the same function (diesel, or any shitty 4 cylinder combined with "grandma" type driving).
Most people don't use flash to "enhance" and "add to" the aesthestic pleasure of a site (either that, or they fail miserably at it).
Instead you get incredibly annoying things, like 5 minute "movies" they force you to watch before allowing access to the content on their website (the nicer folks have a "click-thru" link, some don't). Other annoyances include music in the background you can't shut off, or moving the most basic of features to flash. The point is the web is for information...thus, people seeking information want to be able to access that info as fast as they can w/ as few annoyances as possible. Aesthetics should not trump performance. If someone WANTS the glitz, there should be an option or a different page to go to.
Ever wonder why people hate popups so much? They hate flash for the same reasons...it gets in the way of fast content access, and there's no easy way to avoid it on the modern web without losing content.
You forgot "and run faster"
Jackass.
cpu - Intel 2.4CGhz Retail $170.00
ram - 2 x 512 MB Kingston HyperX $262.00
HD - 2 WD Raptors (72 GB Raid 0) $272.00
vid - GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 128 MB vid ram $131.00
dvdburn Sony DW-U10A-10 $189.99
sound Audigy 2 $78.00
case/power/floppy/kb/mouse/modem ~$200 total
Total ~ 1440.98
Compare that to the $1,999.99 apple system.
The x86 solution has the same video card with DOUBLE the vid ram, multi-drives for RAID w/ 10,000 RPM HD solution. A multi-standard dvd burner (I don't know what the SuperDrive does). It has 4 TIMES as much ram, at DDR400 instead of DDR333, and it's dual-channel. It's hyper-threaded. And you have like 500 dollars of difference in cost to upgrade whatever indivudual parts you want...the audigy could upgrade to a damn m-audio audiophile with that kind of cost leeway. The _ONLY_ thing I see that Apple has going for it is the G5, which is supposedly (and believably) a FAR superior chip to anything out there. But last I checked, processor speed wasn't the main bottleneck in machines nowadays. Bah to you Mac zealots. I can build a faster x86 for cheaper that will actually run 99% of the software out there.