there's about 65 people on at all times average That's the reason MUDs are so addictive. You don't play them for fun. OK, let me rephrase that: You don't get the fun from playing them (kill monster, get all from corpse, repeat ad infitum). You get the fun from interacting with the rest of the players in a virtual (as in not real, not as in visually similar) world with a sense of belonging.
Otherwise, we would all be playing NetHack instead of playing MUDs. I know what I speak of: I held a record once at college for DikuMUDing 30 hours in a row, with only one snack break.
Of course, this means that the most important part of the game lies in the player's imagination and how the game stimulates it. I recall playing SSI's "Secret of the Silver Blades", which goes back a long time ago, and having weeks of fun. Now, I'm playing Diablo II. And while I have fun with D2, I recall having more fun with "Silver Blades".
So yes, immersiveness is the key to a great game, but better graphics and interaction and whathaveyou is only part of the answer. A good storyline, interesting challenges, giving you more freedom to customize your character, all of these details can creat or destroy a good game.
Hypothetical stuff follows:
During the summer, 200% more people buy ice cream than during the winter.
During the summer, 200% more people drown in public pools than during the winter.
Therefore, ice cream consumption increases the likelihood of drowning in a public pool.
See? Statistics can be played with, and for every smart person that gets the point of this correlation, there are 9 other voters which haven't a clue about the math behind those figures.
You do obtain security by taking freedom away. In a truly free society, anyone would be free to take your freedom away.
That depends then on what you call "being free" and "being secure". First, let's avoid jumping into the "Nazis had no crime" bandwagon at this point.
A society with no rules whatsoever may be called "free", but it's actually an anarchy. And while anarchists have some points for them (such as giving people more, or all, control over their own lives), we're simply not ready for such a society at this point. Not until we decide to practice some serious pruning of our species.
A society with a gazillion rules needs some way to enforce each of those rules. That means that you give up your "rights" in order to feel safe and protected. But then, what's to protect you from the whims of the people who enforce such rules? 1984, anyone?
It's a paradox of sorts, like living in such a truly democratic society that if 50.0001% of the people vote that you should be killed, then you get killed. Of the people, by the people, for the people, right?
I think we should try building an aristocracy, or a feudal society, based on a combination of intelligence, real-life wisdom and human empathy to determine who the leaders are. But I dont think that's gonna happen soon, if ever.
Psionics are a matter of the occult now? I thought summoning "Walls of bone" and "Drudge skeletons" were matters of the occult. But Psionic Storm? That's simply a case of mind over matter.
Back in my days we didn't have these fancy Protoss armies you have nowadays. No, we had to use ASCII chars to play games. And we even had to code our own games. In Assembler. Uphill. In 2 feet of snow. Using sticks and rocks. And... uh, what was the subject again?
- Learn a new language. Or expand your knowledge on the ones you know.
- Start building your own small reusable library. Take a look around, see what everyone else is doing, and start coding small programs and functions that solve some of the smaller problems they're facing. Even if you never use them, at least you'll get to practice your coding.
- Ask other people in your same level (if you're alone, try asking on a different department) about what they're doing, and ask them if you could give them a hand in anything. Even the most basic stuff, like surfing the 'net for some information, can be time-consuming. They'll be glad to have someone giving them a hand, you'll get in their good side, and the company eventually wins.
- You could always, uh, i dunno, pick up a hobby or something. Raise bonsai trees in your cubicle. Or Chia pets.
- Read slashdot all day long and learn all the interesting news about Natalie Portman, hot grits and Beowulf clusters. Raise your karma by posting witty, smartass remarks. No, wait, that's me. Nevermind.
What with people talking out of their asses all the time, I think you're overconcerned. Well that would surely explain "Ave Ventura, Pet Detective" movies.
The first time I get a phone call from someone inadvertantly dialling me while masturbating, DoCoMo is going to have a lot to answer for! Sure gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "phone sex".
Hey! This __ a great idea! But __ you _____ people ____ actually ___ for a patent this obvious? Well, ______ how they ____ for the one-_____ Patent, I ____ they _____. Heh, some people ____ it, some __n't.
and the porn industry will rejuvenate sales by producing and marketing so called 'plug ins'. Well I can see that women and gay geeks all over the world will deffinitely rejoice at this... but I ain't pluggin' nuthin' in!
Post to Slashdot during business meetings. (Be sure your boss doesn't know your ID, in case he's doing the same thing. "Jefferson! Why did you moderate me down for trolling?? Get your ass back to your cubicle and start working on the SygmaTech account! And no coffee breaks until it's finished!"
or troll-ish... but exactly why did this story get posted to/.? I mean, this story, as far as I've seen, has nothing particularly new considering all that the Hubble has discovered / seen better / explained before.
There's a ton of new stories waiting to be posted here. For instance, I particularly liked the one about N = NP and the supposed discovery of the Higgs particle. But this one? I failed to see anything novel. Just another case of "bigger telescope reveals more details of something seen a gazillion times before".
distributing kiddy porn desnt harm anyone either - its just morally offensive. And no, no-one abuses kids just so they post it online.
Well, I think there's a fine line between nudie pics of children, child erotica, and kiddy porn. And yes, it has happened that people abuse kids just to post it online. I don't have a link at hand, but you could search for such info on the web, and find out about several cases of child abuse related to the Internet. Of course, as usual, I think the Internet is more of an effect than a cause; child abuse has been around way before the Web, and still goes on in places where they have no idea what a modem is.
I just hope they don't blame the messenger (the Internet) instead of focusing on the real causes of people behaving like that.
... Havenco Ltd. has just three rules: no spamming - sending bulk, unsolicited e-mail; D'oh! ...no crashing or attacking other computer systems with computer viruses or by other means; D'oh! ...and no transmission of child pornography. D'oh! I mean, woo-hoo!
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm... visions of Duke Nukem 3D come to mind. Pig policemen. Or literal road hog drivers.
But let's hope they're women-lovers: we have enough chauvinistic pigs as it is.
there's about 65 people on at all times average
That's the reason MUDs are so addictive. You don't play them for fun. OK, let me rephrase that:
You don't get the fun from playing them (kill monster, get all from corpse, repeat ad infitum). You get the fun from interacting with the rest of the players in a virtual (as in not real, not as in visually similar) world with a sense of belonging.
Otherwise, we would all be playing NetHack instead of playing MUDs. I know what I speak of: I held a record once at college for DikuMUDing 30 hours in a row, with only one snack break.
Of course, this means that the most important part of the game lies in the player's imagination and how the game stimulates it. I recall playing SSI's "Secret of the Silver Blades", which goes back a long time ago, and having weeks of fun. Now, I'm playing Diablo II. And while I have fun with D2, I recall having more fun with "Silver Blades".
So yes, immersiveness is the key to a great game, but better graphics and interaction and whathaveyou is only part of the answer. A good storyline, interesting challenges, giving you more freedom to customize your character, all of these details can creat or destroy a good game.
So a child dies every X minutes? Wow, that sounds like some really unlucky kid.
Hypothetical stuff follows:
During the summer, 200% more people buy ice cream than during the winter.
During the summer, 200% more people drown in public pools than during the winter.
Therefore, ice cream consumption increases the likelihood of drowning in a public pool.
See? Statistics can be played with, and for every smart person that gets the point of this correlation, there are 9 other voters which haven't a clue about the math behind those figures.
You do obtain security by taking freedom away. In a truly free society, anyone would be free to take your freedom away.
That depends then on what you call "being free" and "being secure". First, let's avoid jumping into the "Nazis had no crime" bandwagon at this point.
A society with no rules whatsoever may be called "free", but it's actually an anarchy. And while anarchists have some points for them (such as giving people more, or all, control over their own lives), we're simply not ready for such a society at this point. Not until we decide to practice some serious pruning of our species.
A society with a gazillion rules needs some way to enforce each of those rules. That means that you give up your "rights" in order to feel safe and protected. But then, what's to protect you from the whims of the people who enforce such rules? 1984, anyone?
It's a paradox of sorts, like living in such a truly democratic society that if 50.0001% of the people vote that you should be killed, then you get killed. Of the people, by the people, for the people, right?
I think we should try building an aristocracy, or a feudal society, based on a combination of intelligence, real-life wisdom and human empathy to determine who the leaders are. But I dont think that's gonna happen soon, if ever.
Psionics are a matter of the occult now? I thought summoning "Walls of bone" and "Drudge skeletons" were matters of the occult. But Psionic Storm? That's simply a case of mind over matter.
Back in my days we didn't have these fancy Protoss armies you have nowadays. No, we had to use ASCII chars to play games. And we even had to code our own games. In Assembler. Uphill. In 2 feet of snow. Using sticks and rocks. And... uh, what was the subject again?
...anyone here knows what's the status on the Merlin Challenge book? Has it been solved yet?
We use Code Murphy-ing here... if any code can go wrong, it will.
Whoops. Typo. My bad.
That should be "Ace Ventura, Pet Detective".
Here's a few ideas:
- Wear sunscreen.
- Learn a new language. Or expand your knowledge on the ones you know.
- Start building your own small reusable library. Take a look around, see what everyone else is doing, and start coding small programs and functions that solve some of the smaller problems they're facing. Even if you never use them, at least you'll get to practice your coding.
- Ask other people in your same level (if you're alone, try asking on a different department) about what they're doing, and ask them if you could give them a hand in anything. Even the most basic stuff, like surfing the 'net for some information, can be time-consuming. They'll be glad to have someone giving them a hand, you'll get in their good side, and the company eventually wins.
- You could always, uh, i dunno, pick up a hobby or something. Raise bonsai trees in your cubicle. Or Chia pets.
- Read slashdot all day long and learn all the interesting news about Natalie Portman, hot grits and Beowulf clusters. Raise your karma by posting witty, smartass remarks. No, wait, that's me. Nevermind.
- Align your chakras.
But trust me on the sunscreen.
What with people talking out of their asses all the time, I think you're overconcerned.
Well that would surely explain "Ave Ventura, Pet Detective" movies.
The first time I get a phone call from someone inadvertantly dialling me while masturbating, DoCoMo is going to have a lot to answer for!
Sure gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "phone sex".
A good domain name for reverse engineering? That's easy: WWW.Gnireenigne.com
Ack. It looks like someone else beat us to it. And, oddly enough, it's a Reverse Engineering site.
Hmm. Seems like great minds do think alike.
...on how much that piece of crap left behind by some careless worker will cost the American people?
And glad you saw it. I started to change it yesterday, but didn't get around to it. I guess I'll leave it a while if people are still noticing.
Leave it. It's quite original, funny, and doesn't mentions Signal 11 or Jon Katz. That's rare here on Slashdot!
Hey! This __ a great idea! But __ you _____ people ____ actually ___ for a patent this obvious? Well, ______ how they ____ for the one-_____ Patent, I ____ they _____. Heh, some people ____ it, some __n't.
...while holding a joystick in his hand, no doubt.
Hot grits? No, that would be someone else...
and the porn industry will rejuvenate sales by producing and marketing so called 'plug ins'.
Well I can see that women and gay geeks all over the world will deffinitely rejoice at this... but I ain't pluggin' nuthin' in!
Post to Slashdot during business meetings. (Be sure your boss doesn't know your ID, in case he's doing the same thing.
"Jefferson! Why did you moderate me down for trolling?? Get your ass back to your cubicle and start working on the SygmaTech account! And no coffee breaks until it's finished!"
or troll-ish... but exactly why did this story get posted to /.? I mean, this story, as far as I've seen, has nothing particularly new considering all that the Hubble has discovered / seen better / explained before.
There's a ton of new stories waiting to be posted here. For instance, I particularly liked the one about N = NP and the supposed discovery of the Higgs particle. But this one? I failed to see anything novel. Just another case of "bigger telescope reveals more details of something seen a gazillion times before".
In that same page, you can find out about NASA aborting Discovery's launch due to some equipment left on the pad. That's something to talk about, spending so much time and money preparing for the launch just to have it all come apart due to someone's carelessness.
That would explain why 18 year olds all over the country were using *both* hands prior to 1991. Way to go!
distributing kiddy porn desnt harm anyone either - its just morally offensive. And no, no-one abuses kids just so they post it online.
Well, I think there's a fine line between nudie pics of children, child erotica, and kiddy porn. And yes, it has happened that people abuse kids just to post it online. I don't have a link at hand, but you could search for such info on the web, and find out about several cases of child abuse related to the Internet. Of course, as usual, I think the Internet is more of an effect than a cause; child abuse has been around way before the Web, and still goes on in places where they have no idea what a modem is.
I just hope they don't blame the messenger (the Internet) instead of focusing on the real causes of people behaving like that.
... Havenco Ltd. has just three rules: no spamming - sending bulk, unsolicited e-mail; D'oh!
...no crashing or attacking other computer systems with computer viruses or by other means; D'oh!
...and no transmission of child pornography. D'oh!
I mean, woo-hoo!