Because there's always someone that can do it cheaper. There's something about taking taxpayers money that make city workers lazy. When someone is driven to up profits, you can at least write a letter to the owner and tell him that you received horrible service. If you write the city government a letter about how horrible of a job they are doing, they laugh at you.
Think I'm kidding? Go down to your city hall and tell them you'd like to file a customer complaint. They'll give you quizzical stares. Then go to the grocery store and tell them you want to complain. Within two minutes you'll have the manager asking what it is they can do better.
And more importantly, they'll listen.
Contrary to what many would like you to believe, there are many sane and calm individuals that think public lighting, public roads, and public waste disposal is ridiculous. At the very least, these things should be contracted out with a review of support and services every year.
K, here's some sample math assume some variable X: X is just some arbitrary unit of length that makes sense; say 100. I'm sure there's a better increment, but since I don't know space travel, make up whatever seems to fit.
Current probe: Travels at 5X/kph Impacts Mars at 3X/kph
Probe with sail: Travels at 7X/kph Impacts Mars at 3X/kph
Whatever propulsion system is used to travel at 5X can be used at 4X instead to slow from 7X to 3X. You're working under the assumption that this probe has to come to a full stop before it gets to Mars. Current methods of probing planets involve a crapload of smacking into the planet, so I fail to see why a sail is going somehow change this method.
I don't know. Maybe this sail is going to be such a high speed that there is no known way to slow down in time, but I would think that given enough fuel for rocket propulsion, there wouldn't be all that much of a problem. And perhaps these would just be one-way trips.
Simple. Cut the strings. I think it goes without saying that they'll have to use rocket propulsion to get back, though. At least, until they get another microwave beam at the Mars end.
> How do you slow down? Orbital insertion at that speed would be seriously difficult, if not impossible.
There's a million comments already along these lines. Isn't it obvious? You cut the lines. Then you can use any type of propulsion system to slow down before impact. Just like they use similar ways of slowing down with probes right now.
Think of it as a reverse parachute. You cut the line and then burn through your fuel to actually slow down. You don't want to cut the line too late obviously, but you would want to cut it eventually. And the sail itself would be essentially "used up" by the time you arrived to your destination, so it's not like you'd need to keep it.
The only Japanese anime I even care about anymore is Ghost in the Shell. The first season was excellent, and I watched every episode that came out. When it was brought to the US, something happened to their voices. They becames pussies. I've heard of parallels with DragonBall Z and other anime being "pusserized" with voice actors unable to catch the emotion of the characters in their voices.
Ironically, it upsets me more to have a bad voice actor than the fact the anime is in another language. If they could overcome this obstacle, and the time issue (bringing these episodes over to the US within a month), then I might not use fansubs anymore. Until then, I would hope they'd be honored that someone like me enjoys a series so much he is willing to watch it in another language and still buy it when it finally comes over to the US.
There was none. No, I'm not being ignorant, I'm being practical. Name one change the railroad barons pushed through federal law. There aren't any, you're just upset that they were allowed to "work people to death". Ironically, the employees of construction crews today have that same concern to deal with, yet you never hear about it. Why do you suppose that is?
About all the negative comments towards post-nuke
on
Top 10 Apple Flops
·
· Score: 1
I know what you're thinking.
PHP-Nuke and Post-Nuke really aren't that bad, everyone here is just exaggerating, it's obviously just his provider.
I think that perhaps we may have hit a new stage in the evolution of the "slashdot effect". Servers are now anticipating it and balking in fear of impending doom.
You'll be living in a corporate controlled country when you grow up.
I'm sorry, I don't follow the logic. You're telling me that a homosexual senator in the 50s was respresenting corporate policy when he attacked Hollywood liberals and suspected members of the Communist party?
Because IMHO, this last sentence is the only one that seems off. Government != Corporations. I agree, there's a problem with corporate policy working its way into our government, but that is a result of government regulations and restrictions.
Corporations used to not give a crap about who was a senator or representative. At least, not till around the rise of the network broadcasters and anchormen of the 1970s. John Stossel, one of the best scandal uncoverers, now sees what the fruits of all their labor are: people get scared of getting ripped off and then the government steps in, regulates something that shouldn't be regulated, and the companies in that industry use the government to squash each other.
Who makes more profit on a pack of smokes? 1) Federal Government 2) State Government 3) Local Government 4) Big Tobacco
And you wonder why people like myself aren't dumbfounded that there is a "marriage" of corporation and state?
Some unmentioned rules: 1) The game must be played in the dark. 2) Fortunately, it provides a flashlight with unlimited battery power. 3) Unfortunately, you cannot equip yourself with the flashlight while rolling the dice. 4) Yes, the game's designers *intended* for it to be this way.
1. Give a one-button mouse and sell a two-button mouse. 2. ??? 3. Profit!
I don't care what anyone says. The intelligence level required to use a two button mouse does not far exceed the level required to use a one button mouse. Your grandmother and mother can figure out how to use a two-button mouse in relatively the same amount of time as a one-button (On the other hand, convincing someone to single-click instead of double-click when you say "click on..." is extremely difficult for some reason). There is no justification for not shipping with a two button mouse other than apathy and profit.
If you go through my comment history, you'll see I'm fed up with Slashdot's obession with Apple products. Jobs is the devil, basically, and none of you seem to notice that.
HOWEVER, the Cube was a great idea for a computer, albeit a little risky with an open top and the tendency for the plastic sides to crack after about a year of solid use.
The Newton is argubly the reason why we have PDAs nowadays anyway. Sure, someone had to be the first and fail, but Apple's only problem is they were trying to enter a market for geeks at a time when geeks weren't rich. They were about 5-10 years too early.
And the one button mouse? Well, yeah, I gotta be honest, it really sucks that Jobs refuses to wake up about that. But aside from that, there is little else for me to hate about him. Aside from the fact that he is, as I mentioned earlier, the devil.
I personally like the Microsoft Bluetooth mice, 2 buttons, scrollwheel, two thumb buttons. Intuitive design that logically places buttons without just throwing them willy-nilly and hoping the user can figure them out.
So yeah, while the one-button mouse wasn't a big hit, I don't know if the 17-button mice are big hits either.
From Wired: And in early 2003, the same agency banned the Electronic Arts-produced title Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour Expansion for "smearing the image of China and the Chinese army," according to the state news agency.
While I understand that Command and Conquer and it's sequels/expansions could easily be seen as portraying China in a negative light, the premise of the "Generals" series is hardly anti-Chinese:
1. What is Generals' story?
EA Pacific have created a brand new storyline, units and tactics that have all been inspired by the technologies and ideologies of today's tumultuous world. Generals spans between present day and 20 years into the future, and offers up a metaphor for today's version of global warfare. Three very different sides are fighting for supremacy, the superpowers of the United States and China, along with an umbrella terror organization, the GLA. Each employs very different tactics in their war efforts. For example, the United States places a great deal of importance on human life, and thus has a small, but very capable, ground force among its weaponry. The Chinese, on the other hand, has a massive, swarming army that uses their numbers to their advantage. China also has an affinity for fire and uses it in much of its weaponry. Finally, the GLA relies on sneaky tactics and being hard to find... thus hard to kill.
2. How about a more detailed story overview?
Set roughly 20 years into our future, China is no longer governed by old communist beliefs and cold war mentality. While still communist, the new Chinese government are people that grew up on modern culture and things like MTV. These new leaders strive to make China a mainstream world power and part of the G8. The GLA, an umbrella terrorist organization, is stepping up its assaults on the Chinese borders and terrorist attacks inside China. Bent on proving their world super power status, China sets out to combat the GLA in a war against terror. To spite more countries, GLA launched a nuclear strike against Europe and the United States of America. While Europe was hit by the nuclear strike, the USA managed to intercept the missiles and now they have launched their own campaign against the GLA, to eradicate the terrorist organization.
Anti-communist, maybe, but anti-Chinese, certainly not. Perhaps they were "smearing" the dreams of some political leaders? This came from Planet C&C, by the way.
Ahhh.. another "true" tidbit, at 343 hits, it beats 213 to come out as the winner. But not only did Bush "allow" federal funding, he started it. You'd think if the religious right was the one spreading the disinformation they'd be at least a bit peeved about that.
They've been using aborted babies for private stem cell research for years, you never heard about this issue (at least from them) till the idea of federally funding it came up.
You can be pro-choice and still be against federal funding for abortions, you can be pro-life and still not care if some woman you will never meet decides to abort. It's actually a great deal more middle of the road than just saying "pro-choice" and "pro-life". Where's the "pro-whocare'sIjustwanttokeepmymoney" aspect?
Echelon happens to be a pet-peeve of mine. The reason being that those who claim to have a word list for "jamming Echelon" include the following:
1) The word, "forcast" (SIC). 2) The word, "virus". 3) The word, "government". 4) The word, "rain". 5) The number, "69". 6) The letter, "O".
As a libertarian, I'm as anti-federal government on issues even aside from security and agree with you, but I'm not going to buy into a mythical system devised by those that write on a daily basis about the "illumninati" which, incidentally, is yet another word they scan for in Echelon word lists.
What they did was equivalent to paying someone in the media for some consulting time so he/she could explain how best to do press releases. Then the person in the media mentioning it to those that view their "show".
Granted, it's not a huge deal, but I imagine liberals would be throwing a tizzyfit if it was Bill O'Reilly consulting the Republicans. I don't really see conservatives giving crap about two bloggers drumming up support for their favorite candidate, who they happened to also work for. The only people who would get upset about this are pompous liberals.
Is there something wrong with me if I don't see a problem with what these two bloggers did?
Yes, the problem with Darkside right now (AFAIK from what ppl have said on forums) is that Darktide has a vast middle between populations. Right now, there are the 1-20s and the 100s-126s.
Basically, The players that abound in the starting towns get no support unless they already know someone on Darktide that can help them get "in" with some clan on the server.
They were going to introduce a new PvPish server to balance that problem, don't know what all happened with that.
While WeatherBug is not *technically* spyware, it does serve advertisements. But so do a lot of functional websites. Big deal.
The problem *I* have with WeatherBug is the following: 1) It is set to automatically come up on boot. And when it does so, it serves an advertisement. Any program that pops up an advertisement is INDEED "adware" by any definition of the term.
2) The "Typical" installation adds MySearch Toolbar, which is known to cache search terms. Why exactly do they need to store my Internet searches? Why is this installed by default?
3) A Desktop Icon ad for Netscape. This is pointless and worse, IMHO, than popup ads. I now have to MANUALLY DELETE the advertisement automatically placed on my Desktop
4) Ironically, when you go to "Add/Remove Programs" they beg you to reconsider uninstalling, then beg you to keep it, they'll just remove the fullscreen pop-up on boot. Why they don't offer a choice in the first place is beyond me. This is really just a rehash of point #1.
Maybe those of us technical support geeks that loathe the software wouldn't be so offended by it if it somehow knew we were troubleshooting the owner's PC and didn't want to hear about the latest tsumani threat to the state of Iowa, or potential blizzard in San Diego while we're clearing off all the *real* spyware.
As I know there are WeatherBug employees who are actually paid to refute online comments on forums stating that their product is adware, I openly challenge those employee to please post their definition of "adware" in a reply.
Asheron's Call did surprisingly well. It wasn't the cash cow Microsoft wanted it to be, but then again, very few things actually are reliable sources of revenue in the gaming industry.
I'm horribly sorry you had to play the tripe that was AC2 before playing AC1. For your information, the engine of AC2, which IMHO was beautiful and the "shining point" of the game, is currently being worked into the original AC, for a "1.5" of sorts. AC2 suffered from pressure from Microsoft for Turbine to release the first "successor" to a MMORPG, when the first one wasn't over yet. Turbine themselves have finally been able to buy back their property from MS, and will take them great places.
I have only good things to say of Turbine. There is very little that they cannot do, and they provide such a unique perspective into gameplay and interface design that it can be frustrating to try to play brand new games that have yet to properly implement things Turbine has done right for going on 6 years now.
I know of no other developer that has running storylines and engaging lore in their MMORPG. While the quests themselves were never much to speak of, the story and characters really impressed me.
Not only that, but they abandoned the archaic trolls and goblins in favor of unique monsters and races to kill. All in all a *very* impressive show of game design.
As luck would have it, Turbine is also working on these games:
Yup, I played SWG and know exactly what you mean. The way they had it before was the best. To a certain extent, the way Asheron's Call spell casting originally was designed also allowed those willing to take the time to research brand new spells. It was great, but you can only keep secrets for so long before players figure out how to do it and thus everyone has access that knows where to look.
Is it just me, or has GTA clouded the minds of others as well?
Yes, I get this overbearing sense of omniscience, like I'm looking over a city down on what appears to be a 2d terrain. Everything is all pixelated and...
Err wait, did you mean Grand Theft Auto 3?
Contrary to public belief, there was a GTA and GTA2. The multiplayer features in GTA2 were excellent for LAN partying (if you were fortunate enough to have the PC version). Now if only they'd add some TRUE multiplayer to GTA3, then the game wouldn't just be an "expansion" anymore.
Actually, I did play it. I just never *paid* for it. I'm not calling its demise, I'm calling its failure for those that think it's the "next great RPG". It's not, whatever RPG you play first, is the the best.
Slashdot Mirror
Because there's always someone that can do it cheaper. There's something about taking taxpayers money that make city workers lazy. When someone is driven to up profits, you can at least write a letter to the owner and tell him that you received horrible service. If you write the city government a letter about how horrible of a job they are doing, they laugh at you.
Think I'm kidding? Go down to your city hall and tell them you'd like to file a customer complaint. They'll give you quizzical stares. Then go to the grocery store and tell them you want to complain. Within two minutes you'll have the manager asking what it is they can do better.
And more importantly, they'll listen.
Contrary to what many would like you to believe, there are many sane and calm individuals that think public lighting, public roads, and public waste disposal is ridiculous. At the very least, these things should be contracted out with a review of support and services every year.
K, here's some sample math assume some variable X:
X is just some arbitrary unit of length that makes sense; say 100. I'm sure there's a better increment, but since I don't know space travel, make up whatever seems to fit.
Current probe:
Travels at 5X/kph
Impacts Mars at 3X/kph
Probe with sail:
Travels at 7X/kph
Impacts Mars at 3X/kph
Whatever propulsion system is used to travel at 5X can be used at 4X instead to slow from 7X to 3X. You're working under the assumption that this probe has to come to a full stop before it gets to Mars. Current methods of probing planets involve a crapload of smacking into the planet, so I fail to see why a sail is going somehow change this method.
I don't know. Maybe this sail is going to be such a high speed that there is no known way to slow down in time, but I would think that given enough fuel for rocket propulsion, there wouldn't be all that much of a problem. And perhaps these would just be one-way trips.
Simple. Cut the strings. I think it goes without saying that they'll have to use rocket propulsion to get back, though. At least, until they get another microwave beam at the Mars end.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-sail.htm
> How do you slow down? Orbital insertion at that speed would be seriously difficult, if not impossible.
There's a million comments already along these lines. Isn't it obvious? You cut the lines. Then you can use any type of propulsion system to slow down before impact. Just like they use similar ways of slowing down with probes right now.
Think of it as a reverse parachute. You cut the line and then burn through your fuel to actually slow down. You don't want to cut the line too late obviously, but you would want to cut it eventually. And the sail itself would be essentially "used up" by the time you arrived to your destination, so it's not like you'd need to keep it.
The only Japanese anime I even care about anymore is Ghost in the Shell. The first season was excellent, and I watched every episode that came out. When it was brought to the US, something happened to their voices. They becames pussies. I've heard of parallels with DragonBall Z and other anime being "pusserized" with voice actors unable to catch the emotion of the characters in their voices.
Ironically, it upsets me more to have a bad voice actor than the fact the anime is in another language. If they could overcome this obstacle, and the time issue (bringing these episodes over to the US within a month), then I might not use fansubs anymore. Until then, I would hope they'd be honored that someone like me enjoys a series so much he is willing to watch it in another language and still buy it when it finally comes over to the US.
Incentive fool.
There was none. No, I'm not being ignorant, I'm being practical. Name one change the railroad barons pushed through federal law. There aren't any, you're just upset that they were allowed to "work people to death". Ironically, the employees of construction crews today have that same concern to deal with, yet you never hear about it. Why do you suppose that is?
I know what you're thinking.
PHP-Nuke and Post-Nuke really aren't that bad, everyone here is just exaggerating, it's obviously just his provider.
Yes, there's some truth in that. But even Mirrordot couldn't get a copy of the site before it went down.
I think that perhaps we may have hit a new stage in the evolution of the "slashdot effect". Servers are now anticipating it and balking in fear of impending doom.
You'll be living in a corporate controlled country when you grow up.
I'm sorry, I don't follow the logic. You're telling me that a homosexual senator in the 50s was respresenting corporate policy when he attacked Hollywood liberals and suspected members of the Communist party?
Because IMHO, this last sentence is the only one that seems off. Government != Corporations. I agree, there's a problem with corporate policy working its way into our government, but that is a result of government regulations and restrictions.
Corporations used to not give a crap about who was a senator or representative. At least, not till around the rise of the network broadcasters and anchormen of the 1970s. John Stossel, one of the best scandal uncoverers, now sees what the fruits of all their labor are: people get scared of getting ripped off and then the government steps in, regulates something that shouldn't be regulated, and the companies in that industry use the government to squash each other.
Who makes more profit on a pack of smokes?
1) Federal Government
2) State Government
3) Local Government
4) Big Tobacco
And you wonder why people like myself aren't dumbfounded that there is a "marriage" of corporation and state?
Some unmentioned rules:
1) The game must be played in the dark.
2) Fortunately, it provides a flashlight with unlimited battery power.
3) Unfortunately, you cannot equip yourself with the flashlight while rolling the dice.
4) Yes, the game's designers *intended* for it to be this way.
1. Give a one-button mouse and sell a two-button mouse.
2. ???
3. Profit!
I don't care what anyone says. The intelligence level required to use a two button mouse does not far exceed the level required to use a one button mouse. Your grandmother and mother can figure out how to use a two-button mouse in relatively the same amount of time as a one-button (On the other hand, convincing someone to single-click instead of double-click when you say "click on..." is extremely difficult for some reason). There is no justification for not shipping with a two button mouse other than apathy and profit.
If you go through my comment history, you'll see I'm fed up with Slashdot's obession with Apple products. Jobs is the devil, basically, and none of you seem to notice that.
HOWEVER, the Cube was a great idea for a computer, albeit a little risky with an open top and the tendency for the plastic sides to crack after about a year of solid use.
The Newton is argubly the reason why we have PDAs nowadays anyway. Sure, someone had to be the first and fail, but Apple's only problem is they were trying to enter a market for geeks at a time when geeks weren't rich. They were about 5-10 years too early.
And the one button mouse? Well, yeah, I gotta be honest, it really sucks that Jobs refuses to wake up about that. But aside from that, there is little else for me to hate about him. Aside from the fact that he is, as I mentioned earlier, the devil.
I personally like the Microsoft Bluetooth mice, 2 buttons, scrollwheel, two thumb buttons. Intuitive design that logically places buttons without just throwing them willy-nilly and hoping the user can figure them out.
So yeah, while the one-button mouse wasn't a big hit, I don't know if the 17-button mice are big hits either.
And in early 2003, the same agency banned the Electronic Arts-produced title Command and Conquer Generals: Zero Hour Expansion for "smearing the image of China and the Chinese army," according to the state news agency.
While I understand that Command and Conquer and it's sequels/expansions could easily be seen as portraying China in a negative light, the premise of the "Generals" series is hardly anti-Chinese:
Anti-communist, maybe, but anti-Chinese, certainly not. Perhaps they were "smearing" the dreams of some political leaders? This came from Planet C&C, by the way.
1. Bush "cut federal funding" "stem cell"
Interesting. This is a complete lie, yet people love to write about it.
2. Bush "begins federal funding" "stem cell"
Hmm.. The religious right sure seems pissed.
3. Bush "starts federal funding" "stem cell"
The first ever President to start federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research and he doesn't even get mention?
4. Bush "allows federal funding" "stem cell"
Ahhh.. another "true" tidbit, at 343 hits, it beats 213 to come out as the winner. But not only did Bush "allow" federal funding, he started it. You'd think if the religious right was the one spreading the disinformation they'd be at least a bit peeved about that.
They've been using aborted babies for private stem cell research for years, you never heard about this issue (at least from them) till the idea of federally funding it came up.
You can be pro-choice and still be against federal funding for abortions, you can be pro-life and still not care if some woman you will never meet decides to abort. It's actually a great deal more middle of the road than just saying "pro-choice" and "pro-life". Where's the "pro-whocare'sIjustwanttokeepmymoney" aspect?
Echelon happens to be a pet-peeve of mine. The reason being that those who claim to have a word list for "jamming Echelon" include the following:
1) The word, "forcast" (SIC).
2) The word, "virus".
3) The word, "government".
4) The word, "rain".
5) The number, "69".
6) The letter, "O".
As a libertarian, I'm as anti-federal government on issues even aside from security and agree with you, but I'm not going to buy into a mythical system devised by those that write on a daily basis about the "illumninati" which, incidentally, is yet another word they scan for in Echelon word lists.
More old Gate's images (since you're into that kind of thing):p g
- ga tes/allen_gates.jpg (Rotten.com, but clean, imagine that!)
g at es1.jpg
. jp g
L %20GATES%20 NEWSWEEK.jpg
g ates.jpg
http://www.emh.co.kr/images/bill_gates.j
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/business/bill
http://www.cvm.qc.ca/mlaflamme/info/WhoseWho/b_
http://www.ehsandiary.com/archives/bill%20gates
(The image: Actually from Newsweek)
http://www.jmusheneaux.com/WINDOWS/BIL
Nother old image.
http://www.jmusheneaux.com/VERSE-OPINON2/
These were found via Google's image search.
Oddly enough, the AI bot's predicted hit song of 2005? ...
The Laziest Men on Mars - All Your Base
What they did was equivalent to paying someone in the media for some consulting time so he/she could explain how best to do press releases. Then the person in the media mentioning it to those that view their "show".
Granted, it's not a huge deal, but I imagine liberals would be throwing a tizzyfit if it was Bill O'Reilly consulting the Republicans. I don't really see conservatives giving crap about two bloggers drumming up support for their favorite candidate, who they happened to also work for. The only people who would get upset about this are pompous liberals.
Is there something wrong with me if I don't see a problem with what these two bloggers did?
Yes, the problem with Darkside right now (AFAIK from what ppl have said on forums) is that Darktide has a vast middle between populations. Right now, there are the 1-20s and the 100s-126s.
Basically, The players that abound in the starting towns get no support unless they already know someone on Darktide that can help them get "in" with some clan on the server.
They were going to introduce a new PvPish server to balance that problem, don't know what all happened with that.
What they have to say:
http://www.weatherbug.com/aws/NotSpyware.html
While WeatherBug is not *technically* spyware, it does serve advertisements. But so do a lot of functional websites. Big deal.
The problem *I* have with WeatherBug is the following:
1) It is set to automatically come up on boot. And when it does so, it serves an advertisement. Any program that pops up an advertisement is INDEED "adware" by any definition of the term.
2) The "Typical" installation adds MySearch Toolbar, which is known to cache search terms. Why exactly do they need to store my Internet searches? Why is this installed by default?
3) A Desktop Icon ad for Netscape. This is pointless and worse, IMHO, than popup ads. I now have to MANUALLY DELETE the advertisement automatically placed on my Desktop
4) Ironically, when you go to "Add/Remove Programs" they beg you to reconsider uninstalling, then beg you to keep it, they'll just remove the fullscreen pop-up on boot. Why they don't offer a choice in the first place is beyond me. This is really just a rehash of point #1.
Maybe those of us technical support geeks that loathe the software wouldn't be so offended by it if it somehow knew we were troubleshooting the owner's PC and didn't want to hear about the latest tsumani threat to the state of Iowa, or potential blizzard in San Diego while we're clearing off all the *real* spyware.
As I know there are WeatherBug employees who are actually paid to refute online comments on forums stating that their product is adware, I openly challenge those employee to please post their definition of "adware" in a reply.
Whoops, hit submit too soon:
The Lord of the Rings(TM): Middle-Earth(TM) Online and Dungeons & Dragons® Online.
Asheron's Call did surprisingly well. It wasn't the cash cow Microsoft wanted it to be, but then again, very few things actually are reliable sources of revenue in the gaming industry.
I'm horribly sorry you had to play the tripe that was AC2 before playing AC1. For your information, the engine of AC2, which IMHO was beautiful and the "shining point" of the game, is currently being worked into the original AC, for a "1.5" of sorts. AC2 suffered from pressure from Microsoft for Turbine to release the first "successor" to a MMORPG, when the first one wasn't over yet. Turbine themselves have finally been able to buy back their property from MS, and will take them great places.
I have only good things to say of Turbine. There is very little that they cannot do, and they provide such a unique perspective into gameplay and interface design that it can be frustrating to try to play brand new games that have yet to properly implement things Turbine has done right for going on 6 years now.
I know of no other developer that has running storylines and engaging lore in their MMORPG. While the quests themselves were never much to speak of, the story and characters really impressed me.
Not only that, but they abandoned the archaic trolls and goblins in favor of unique monsters and races to kill. All in all a *very* impressive show of game design.
As luck would have it, Turbine is also working on these games:
has run the site, thinksecret.com, since age 13
No offense, but this is the kind of kid/guy that you'd think Jobs would be hiring, not suing.
Why again does everyone see Jobs as some sort of geek pariah that *earned* his way to fame? He just rode on Wozniak's coattails!
Yup, I played SWG and know exactly what you mean. The way they had it before was the best. To a certain extent, the way Asheron's Call spell casting originally was designed also allowed those willing to take the time to research brand new spells. It was great, but you can only keep secrets for so long before players figure out how to do it and thus everyone has access that knows where to look.
Is it just me, or has GTA clouded the minds of others as well?
...
Yes, I get this overbearing sense of omniscience, like I'm looking over a city down on what appears to be a 2d terrain. Everything is all pixelated and
Err wait, did you mean Grand Theft Auto 3?
Contrary to public belief, there was a GTA and GTA2. The multiplayer features in GTA2 were excellent for LAN partying (if you were fortunate enough to have the PC version). Now if only they'd add some TRUE multiplayer to GTA3, then the game wouldn't just be an "expansion" anymore.
Actually, I did play it. I just never *paid* for it. I'm not calling its demise, I'm calling its failure for those that think it's the "next great RPG". It's not, whatever RPG you play first, is the the best.