Thompson: Right. The Daily Mail explains that even with this story on the front page of the newspapers in the U.K., they took a kid and were able to walk into retail outlets and buy the game. So everybody knows that the restrictions are a joke.
Okay, right there, you've named the appropriate target for any and all lawsuits. Video games, just because they USED to be aimed at children, aren't necessariliy in the domain of the 12 and under group. It's like periodicals, nobody is going to say (anymore!) that Playboy, Penthouse or Hustler shouldn't be sold at stores. The stores are supposed to be responsible for making sure that nobody unde 18 gets their hands on them. How are MA17 games different?
That's really what we're talking about here, how much content they're putting in these games. GTAIII had probably 20 hours of gameplay, but had 40 hours of additional content in the bonus quests like taxi/police/fire/ambulance, not to mention finding all the hidden junk.
Traditionally, games were measured in hours because for a typical RPG, you had to go linearly, ie from town 1 -> town 2 -> dungeon 1 -> town 3...games these days are breaking that mold. Frankly, I think that the time measurement is outdated for non-linear games like GTA....maybe measure the main quest in hours, then give a size approximation and "amount of stuff to do" measurement additionally.
1) Listen to DVDs...I find it's more interesting than music and not more intrusive. I minimize them and just listen to the sound, flipping over for the good parts.
2) Write code. Ever wanted to learn a graphics library? New language? Check out SDL, neat little cross platform graphics library. Write a PacMan clone to learn it.
3) Read news. I read a lot of news during the slow times.
4) Gameboy. The SP is pretty small, would probably go unnoticed or be mistaken for a PDA.
They designed it so you wouldn't HAVE to load your save game when you died. One of fundamental principles in making a video game is that you want to suck your audience in and not let them go. If you die and you have to reload, that's a perfect time for the player to decide "Well, I just died, time for me to go [do something useful]". That's not what they want. In GTA:III, you came back at the hospital/police station. In GTA:VC you had a taxi waiting to take you to the last mission you were on. It's all very well designed ploys by Rockstar to make sure you never say "This is too time consuming, I'm going to go [do something useful]".
Um, nobody in business, in their right mind, would commit to something that wasn't finalized yet. That's just asking to kicked in the ass when the final document comes out. They'll implement the CSS standard, but in case the consortium decides to put in "And the <monkey> tag will make monkeys fly out of your screen", they don't want to commit to supporting everything yet.
Perhaps "different" was the wrong word to use. I'm guessing he meant "shocking". People often misuse different, explaining that they want to do something different when, in fact, all they want to do is something that registers a reaction.
One of my favorite features of PHP is the ability to define a function, then call it by dynamically constructing a string and using call_user_func. It's great, allows for reduction of code by creating functions/objects that have names that can be easily instantiated.
Along the same lines, the fact that PHP allows you to retrieve and use object variables dynamically is wonderful ($var = "name", $obj->$var is the equivalent of $this->name). It allows for incredibly fast and robust code development. Loose type checking is always an issue in these cases, but the benefits well outweigh the downfalls.
IANAME (mechanical engineer), but I think this works with the foam discs because they are able to compress, thus not only providing a longer contact surface but enough pressure on the rotating cylinders so that they can be accelerated. A stiff body wouldn't work as well, the area of contact would be too small. You would have to build something that accelerated the CD from behind, probably along an arc to maximize space.
in a similar vein to a recent GameSpy article, how many dollars would you actually spend on these NES re-releases for GBA?
Around $100 USD...enough to buy a decent flash ROM and linker. I owned all these games, I'm not buying the exact same game again. I rebuy VHS on DVD because a) the quality is better, b) I always hated rewinding. I don't have that problem here.
Because they realize it's a piece of software, played by an insignificant minority, written by an even less significant software company? Just guessing...
It becomes a gray area to say that blacks should be killed.
I disagree. I think this is perfectly fine. It's an opinion, you're not planning any action. It won't be popular, as hate speech is rarely popular except when the person agrees with what you're saying, so it won't get aired much. Most people who want publicity want to keep getting publicity, so they don't say outrageous things like this.
Perhaps if your average Windows user wasn't continually confronted with poorly worded and needless questions...
That's very subjective. My girlfriend recently installed her first piece of software (Roller Coaster Tycoon). She's no computer newby, she just has never installed software herself. She asked me what she should do *every* *single* *screen*, including the screen where it asks what directory it should be put in. There's really no hope of engineering an installer that asks few enough questions to appease the typical user while also allowing the program to work the way the user wants. Had iTunes not asked the question about reorganizing a users' music, I guarantee they would've gotten 3000 support calls asking "I *KNOW* I have music on here already, why isn't iTunes picking it up?!"
While the professions you mentioned (nurses..teachers) do prevent the weakest links from being eliminated, they provide a service, without much thanks, that keeps our society civilized. That's why we (should) reward them. I think that musicians and athletes serve a purpose as well, though in this day and age they're a more self-serving group.
To quote Dogbert, I'm for anything that gets rid of people, but I do appreciate the nurses and, especially, the teachers in our society.
Newspaper revenue comes from the print ads. So long as people aren't unsubscribing from their paper in favor of the online version, they can put (and do) ALL their content online and still be fine. Case in point, I subscribe to the daily Washington Post even though i read almost the entire thing online. I rarely open up the hard copy, but occasionally, if I didn't get the chance or there's something I really want to keep, I'll crack it open. I don't think too many papers are in dire straits because they have an online version.
But what's important to look at is the birth rate compared to the death rate...if greater than 1 (more births than deats), we're still growing as a population despite our largest generation dying off. If it's less than 1, we have a population reduction which is what the parent poster was worried about. We still are well above 1, I believe the birth to death ratio is something along the lines of 14/8.
Independant labels that will give them a better deal, or promoting themselves.
Look, I've listened to a lot of bands that have performed locally and then made their way up from there. Nothing says you have to get that recording contract immediately...play for awhile on the local circuit, probably holding down other jobs as well. Just because some people make it big/rich quick doesn't mean it's owed to you. Whatever happened to good, hard, honest work?
On the flip side, a great many bands do this. Most of the bands I listen to I got into because of their live shows (Andrew W.K., O.A.R.). These bands sold me on their music without even talking to a record label.
I think Boston may take the prize for the city with the worst street signs. I haven't driven around there in about 4 years, but when I did I couldn't believe it. Roads just end, or turn into other roads, or take turns without notice. And there are NO SIGNS anywhere in that city, I swear to God. I usually just tried to find the highway and get out of town ASAP. Washington D.C., while no directional mecca, is much, much better...it's a big grid.
Actually, if you take a look at the airwaves, conservative talk shows are much, much easier to find than liberal ones. Case in point: O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes (i'm sorry, Colmes takes a backseat on that program), Rush, Dennis Miller. Maybe I just don't watch a lot of liberal shows, but I can't even name one.
If similar growth is projected forward and the baby boomers are subtracted from the labor pool, we're looking at a shortage of over 20 million skilled workers by 2010. This will make the shortage of 1999 look like a picnic.
Um, no. The baby boomers may be a huge generation, but to say that when they die off we're going to have an employee shortage is just missing the most obvious biological fact...they all had children. I don't know the figures, but if we assume that each baby boomer had 2.3 kids, like the average used to be, we're going to have plenty of people for a long time coming.
Slashdot Mirror
Thompson: Right. The Daily Mail explains that even with this story on the front page of the newspapers in the U.K., they took a kid and were able to walk into retail outlets and buy the game. So everybody knows that the restrictions are a joke.
Okay, right there, you've named the appropriate target for any and all lawsuits. Video games, just because they USED to be aimed at children, aren't necessariliy in the domain of the 12 and under group. It's like periodicals, nobody is going to say (anymore!) that Playboy, Penthouse or Hustler shouldn't be sold at stores. The stores are supposed to be responsible for making sure that nobody unde 18 gets their hands on them. How are MA17 games different?
--trb
damn html...
good game with 20 hours of content < good game with 150 hours of content
Let me supplement your theorem:
good game with 20 hours of content content
That's really what we're talking about here, how much content they're putting in these games. GTAIII had probably 20 hours of gameplay, but had 40 hours of additional content in the bonus quests like taxi/police/fire/ambulance, not to mention finding all the hidden junk.
Traditionally, games were measured in hours because for a typical RPG, you had to go linearly, ie from town 1 -> town 2 -> dungeon 1 -> town 3...games these days are breaking that mold. Frankly, I think that the time measurement is outdated for non-linear games like GTA....maybe measure the main quest in hours, then give a size approximation and "amount of stuff to do" measurement additionally.
--trb
1) Listen to DVDs...I find it's more interesting than music and not more intrusive. I minimize them and just listen to the sound, flipping over for the good parts.
2) Write code. Ever wanted to learn a graphics library? New language? Check out SDL, neat little cross platform graphics library. Write a PacMan clone to learn it.
3) Read news. I read a lot of news during the slow times.
4) Gameboy. The SP is pretty small, would probably go unnoticed or be mistaken for a PDA.
--trb
They designed it so you wouldn't HAVE to load your save game when you died. One of fundamental principles in making a video game is that you want to suck your audience in and not let them go. If you die and you have to reload, that's a perfect time for the player to decide "Well, I just died, time for me to go [do something useful]". That's not what they want. In GTA:III, you came back at the hospital/police station. In GTA:VC you had a taxi waiting to take you to the last mission you were on. It's all very well designed ploys by Rockstar to make sure you never say "This is too time consuming, I'm going to go [do something useful]".
--trb
Why can't you comment on them?
Um, nobody in business, in their right mind, would commit to something that wasn't finalized yet. That's just asking to kicked in the ass when the final document comes out. They'll implement the CSS standard, but in case the consortium decides to put in "And the <monkey> tag will make monkeys fly out of your screen", they don't want to commit to supporting everything yet.
--trb
Perhaps "different" was the wrong word to use. I'm guessing he meant "shocking". People often misuse different, explaining that they want to do something different when, in fact, all they want to do is something that registers a reaction.
--trb
One of my favorite features of PHP is the ability to define a function, then call it by dynamically constructing a string and using call_user_func. It's great, allows for reduction of code by creating functions/objects that have names that can be easily instantiated.
Along the same lines, the fact that PHP allows you to retrieve and use object variables dynamically is wonderful ($var = "name", $obj->$var is the equivalent of $this->name). It allows for incredibly fast and robust code development. Loose type checking is always an issue in these cases, but the benefits well outweigh the downfalls.
--trb
The irony of this post following one about Fahrenheit 451...
IANAME (mechanical engineer), but I think this works with the foam discs because they are able to compress, thus not only providing a longer contact surface but enough pressure on the rotating cylinders so that they can be accelerated. A stiff body wouldn't work as well, the area of contact would be too small. You would have to build something that accelerated the CD from behind, probably along an arc to maximize space.
--trb
in a similar vein to a recent GameSpy article, how many dollars would you actually spend on these NES re-releases for GBA?
Around $100 USD...enough to buy a decent flash ROM and linker. I owned all these games, I'm not buying the exact same game again. I rebuy VHS on DVD because a) the quality is better, b) I always hated rewinding. I don't have that problem here.
--trb
Because they realize it's a piece of software, played by an insignificant minority, written by an even less significant software company? Just guessing...
--trb
Nah, his heart GPF'd.
--trb
Fitting Penny Arcade strip. Yet Another Tetris Product.
--trb
It becomes a gray area to say that blacks should be killed.
I disagree. I think this is perfectly fine. It's an opinion, you're not planning any action. It won't be popular, as hate speech is rarely popular except when the person agrees with what you're saying, so it won't get aired much. Most people who want publicity want to keep getting publicity, so they don't say outrageous things like this.
--trb
Perhaps if your average Windows user wasn't continually confronted with poorly worded and needless questions...
That's very subjective. My girlfriend recently installed her first piece of software (Roller Coaster Tycoon). She's no computer newby, she just has never installed software herself. She asked me what she should do *every* *single* *screen*, including the screen where it asks what directory it should be put in. There's really no hope of engineering an installer that asks few enough questions to appease the typical user while also allowing the program to work the way the user wants. Had iTunes not asked the question about reorganizing a users' music, I guarantee they would've gotten 3000 support calls asking "I *KNOW* I have music on here already, why isn't iTunes picking it up?!"
--trb
While the professions you mentioned (nurses..teachers) do prevent the weakest links from being eliminated, they provide a service, without much thanks, that keeps our society civilized. That's why we (should) reward them. I think that musicians and athletes serve a purpose as well, though in this day and age they're a more self-serving group.
To quote Dogbert, I'm for anything that gets rid of people, but I do appreciate the nurses and, especially, the teachers in our society.
--trb
Newspaper revenue comes from the print ads. So long as people aren't unsubscribing from their paper in favor of the online version, they can put (and do) ALL their content online and still be fine. Case in point, I subscribe to the daily Washington Post even though i read almost the entire thing online. I rarely open up the hard copy, but occasionally, if I didn't get the chance or there's something I really want to keep, I'll crack it open. I don't think too many papers are in dire straits because they have an online version.
--trb
But what's important to look at is the birth rate compared to the death rate...if greater than 1 (more births than deats), we're still growing as a population despite our largest generation dying off. If it's less than 1, we have a population reduction which is what the parent poster was worried about. We still are well above 1, I believe the birth to death ratio is something along the lines of 14/8.
--trb
Actually, you too are wrong. Volume is typically measured in Libraries of Congress.
--trb
Independant labels that will give them a better deal, or promoting themselves.
Look, I've listened to a lot of bands that have performed locally and then made their way up from there. Nothing says you have to get that recording contract immediately...play for awhile on the local circuit, probably holding down other jobs as well. Just because some people make it big/rich quick doesn't mean it's owed to you. Whatever happened to good, hard, honest work?
On the flip side, a great many bands do this. Most of the bands I listen to I got into because of their live shows (Andrew W.K., O.A.R.). These bands sold me on their music without even talking to a record label.
--trb
I think Boston may take the prize for the city with the worst street signs. I haven't driven around there in about 4 years, but when I did I couldn't believe it. Roads just end, or turn into other roads, or take turns without notice. And there are NO SIGNS anywhere in that city, I swear to God. I usually just tried to find the highway and get out of town ASAP. Washington D.C., while no directional mecca, is much, much better...it's a big grid.
--trb
Actually, if you take a look at the airwaves, conservative talk shows are much, much easier to find than liberal ones. Case in point: O'Reilly, Hannity and Colmes (i'm sorry, Colmes takes a backseat on that program), Rush, Dennis Miller. Maybe I just don't watch a lot of liberal shows, but I can't even name one.
--trb
One white guy blowing up a building in my lifetime...versus 1 Muslim guy blowing up a car per day. Keep things in perspective.
--trb
If similar growth is projected forward and the baby boomers are subtracted from the labor pool, we're looking at a shortage of over 20 million skilled workers by 2010. This will make the shortage of 1999 look like a picnic.
Um, no. The baby boomers may be a huge generation, but to say that when they die off we're going to have an employee shortage is just missing the most obvious biological fact...they all had children. I don't know the figures, but if we assume that each baby boomer had 2.3 kids, like the average used to be, we're going to have plenty of people for a long time coming.
--trb