Hello, Mouse. Here's a device where you push the button and get a fix of the dope you're hooked on. Of course, every hit will put $10 on your credit card . .
I started playing D&D when it came in a white box, and the number one thing I know about role playing games is the quality of the gaming experience does not depend upon the system used. I've had good games using nothing more than Melee rules. The only thing that makes for a good game is the ability of the game master and the players to tell a good interactive story. That's why Gygax introduced the game by relating that the rules were only a guideline, and should be modified as needed to advance the game.
So it is with this "computer as storyteller" that I contend. I'm not saying it could never happen, even well. But I think it unlikely. Good storytelling demands one have imagination, judgement, aestitic sensibility, insight into the charactor of the audience, a wide-ranging foundation in literature, and (believe it or not) a morally sensitive awareness of the underlying import of the story as a whole. All of these thing play to the weakness of computer programming. As yet, I have never seen a computer game I could honestly consider a role playing game in the classic D&D sense.
I'm waiting for the advent of a computer program that assists role playing in the modes in which a computer excels. Crunch the odds, render the characters and monsters into active graphics and sound FX, keep records of character development, draw maps; all these things are great. Good DM's usually find the mechanics of running a campaign a pain the the tush, and taking care of it all will leave the DM to do what DM's do; tell the story.
Look, we're already taxed in every transaction in which the Government has some role. When I buy a gallon of milk, it is shipped to the grocery store and to my house on roads built by State and Federal governments. When I get my paycheck, the Government is involved in handling my Social Security, 401K and such. I understand this. However, no US government has anything to do with my purchasing ten dollars worth of used paperbacks on eBay. That's just silly. The bandwidth on the telephone system is paid for and taxed. The postage for shipping is taxed. Those make sense. But, if you tax little purchases on the web the next necessary step is to tax yard sales and little girls' lemonade stands. The Internet is still an untamed wilderness. Only an idiot is going to try to buy any expensive, tax-worthy item there. If you do successfully score a good deal on a high-end item, you've taken your chances, in a place that has little legal recourse for you. Ain't no Sheriff in this town, pardner. But, the way the West was won was to let the bold and enterprising go into it, without Big Brother's supervision, and duke it out. Many will get scalped. A few will get rich. But, commerce will be stimulated. When commerce gets big enough, then Government can come in and make the place decent and safe for civilized folk. If the Government is truly interested in stimulating small business, leave the Internet the hell alone, for a while more, anyway. If it's just bureaucratic fat-cats looking for another source of revenue with which to line their own pockets . . well . . Tomas Jefferson did not that we, the people, should have a revolution every twenty years. Maybe we're running a little behind schedule.
I wonder what kind of song Woody Guthrie would write in response to all this.
I wrote a song And put it to disk Initial sales Were mighty brisk But soon sales Dropped drastically And I suspected It was piracy
I'll sue, I'll sue Yes that's what I'll do I'll raise a hellatious Hullabaloo Until my recepts are Out the wazoo I take legal action And sue 'till I'm blue
Microorganisms brought out from the jungles have and are causing health problems in people. I wonder about things that eat metals around hydrothermic vents. A bug that consumes a trace metal would probably do much damage if it could survive in blood. The multiplication of disease vectors worries me.
God forfend I should go anywhere without a EMF-microwave-positive ion generator. I'm so saturated with the stuff I would probably drop dead without it.
If everybody has an email address, verified by the government, then the possibility of accurate, electronic voter representation becomes nearer to reality.
Check your email, vote on a few issues, update your resume, log-off and go about your business.
Re:Computer code is like legal code . .
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Hello, Mouse. Here's a device where you push the button and get a fix of the dope you're hooked on. Of course, every hit will put $10 on your credit card . .
I started playing D&D when it came in a white box, and the number one thing I know about role playing games is the quality of the gaming experience does not depend upon the system used. I've had good games using nothing more than Melee rules. The only thing that makes for a good game is the ability of the game master and the players to tell a good interactive story. That's why Gygax introduced the game by relating that the rules were only a guideline, and should be modified as needed to advance the game.
So it is with this "computer as storyteller" that I contend. I'm not saying it could never happen, even well. But I think it unlikely. Good storytelling demands one have imagination, judgement, aestitic sensibility, insight into the charactor of the audience, a wide-ranging foundation in literature, and (believe it or not) a morally sensitive awareness of the underlying import of the story as a whole. All of these thing play to the weakness of computer programming. As yet, I have never seen a computer game I could honestly consider a role playing game in the classic D&D sense.
I'm waiting for the advent of a computer program that assists role playing in the modes in which a computer excels. Crunch the odds, render the characters and monsters into active graphics and sound FX, keep records of character development, draw maps; all these things are great. Good DM's usually find the mechanics of running a campaign a pain the the tush, and taking care of it all will leave the DM to do what DM's do; tell the story.
. . and surround with Creeping Crud.
(Open faceview actress holding egg.)
"This is your CPU."
(Top view of frying pan on stovetop.)
"This is overclocking."
(Hand with egg enters frame and cracks egg into pan. Egg sizzles in hot pan.)
"This is your CPU overclocking. Any Questions?"
(Endit. Credits. Fadeout.)
so I can finally afford a PS2 console and games. /rockin' the PSone
Look, we're already taxed in every transaction in which the Government has some role. When I buy a gallon of milk, it is shipped to the grocery store and to my house on roads built by State and Federal governments. When I get my paycheck, the Government is involved in handling my Social Security, 401K and such. I understand this. However, no US government has anything to do with my purchasing ten dollars worth of used paperbacks on eBay. That's just silly. The bandwidth on the telephone system is paid for and taxed. The postage for shipping is taxed. Those make sense. But, if you tax little purchases on the web the next necessary step is to tax yard sales and little girls' lemonade stands. The Internet is still an untamed wilderness. Only an idiot is going to try to buy any expensive, tax-worthy item there. If you do successfully score a good deal on a high-end item, you've taken your chances, in a place that has little legal recourse for you. Ain't no Sheriff in this town, pardner. But, the way the West was won was to let the bold and enterprising go into it, without Big Brother's supervision, and duke it out. Many will get scalped. A few will get rich. But, commerce will be stimulated. When commerce gets big enough, then Government can come in and make the place decent and safe for civilized folk. If the Government is truly interested in stimulating small business, leave the Internet the hell alone, for a while more, anyway. If it's just bureaucratic fat-cats looking for another source of revenue with which to line their own pockets . . well . . Tomas Jefferson did not that we, the people, should have a revolution every twenty years. Maybe we're running a little behind schedule.
Notice how this article raves redundantly about the 'miraculous Taguchi Approach' without ever once giving any clue as to how the method works?
BTW: the stanza goes to "So Long It's Been Good To Know You". The chorus just kind of goes downhill from there.
I wonder what kind of song Woody Guthrie would write in response to all this.
I wrote a song
And put it to disk
Initial sales
Were mighty brisk
But soon sales
Dropped drastically
And I suspected
It was piracy
I'll sue, I'll sue
Yes that's what I'll do
I'll raise a hellatious
Hullabaloo
Until my recepts are
Out the wazoo
I take legal action
And sue 'till I'm blue
(Sorry Woody)
Microorganisms brought out from the jungles have and are causing health problems in people. I wonder about things that eat metals around hydrothermic vents. A bug that consumes a trace metal would probably do much damage if it could survive in blood. The multiplication of disease vectors worries me.
Coral structures made out of gold might be very beautiful.
Why did Klerck's reply get modded down?
This is a perfectly cogent point of law in this matter.
Why are we write endless legislation to protect the rights of the guilty when law are supposed to protect the innocent?
Nice use of the term, "TANSTAAFL".
What would be the term for this?
"Cryogenizing"?
"Thermoconducting"?
What?
God forfend I should go anywhere without a EMF-microwave-positive ion generator. I'm so saturated with the stuff I would probably drop dead without it.
Common cliche. You know, Pink Floyd and all. Like saying the sun rises. No shame.
overclocking these chips is out of the question.
if we're stuck with a 16.6?
After all, this tale of yesteryear is published in "Physics Today".
(Oh wait, this isn't FARK. Nevermind.)
Centers located at welfare and unemployment offices. Not a bad idea.
We can call it "Minitel".
If everybody has an email address, verified by the government, then the possibility of accurate, electronic voter representation becomes nearer to reality.
Check your email, vote on a few issues, update your resume, log-off and go about your business.
You wish, little man.
"More brains!"
The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
. . the more you amend it, the more holes you create.