Not sure why I waited, but I did wait a bit as well. Still, I'm proud of a 5 digit UID. I can't think of the last time I saw a 3 digit before this post, very jealous.
Despite not liking the management, it was always stressed that we weren't supposed to sell inappropriate games to kids. We had the ESRB ratings posted on big signs as well, and we carded people who wanted to buy an M game. They were quite serious about it, and if they had been otherwise, I still would have done it - if only because it is the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, this is a frustratingly inaccurate assumption - parents do not monitor a video game as they might a movie or a television program (and many do not even monitor those enough, but that is another topic). I worked in a GameStop (it was actually a Funcoland at that point) during the GTA3/GTA Vice City period and time after time, parent or grandparent would walk up to my counter buying GTA for a kid who was in his early teens or even younger. This was, in fact, my favorite situation because I get to see the look on their face as I explain.
"Do you realize this is rated M for mature?" "Oh, no, I didn't read the label. Why is it rated mature?" "Because you can pick up a prositute, pay her for 'service', kill her, take the money you just paid her back, drive around running over innocent people, and then wind down by lighting bums on fire and shooting cops."
The look on their face was priceless, but it was also incredibly sad that they didn't even go to the trouble of reading the game's packaging. I just don't understand how a parent can be so unconcerned with what their child is doing, and I don't know why they want to punish the entertainment media for lazy parenting.
World of Warcraft comes from a line of games with not only amazing gameplay, but an incredibly rich backstory (spanning excellent novels, in my opinion, as well as games). How much do you find yourself reaching back into this existing base of content for ideas for quests, zones, etc. and do you feel at all "locked in" by events/ideas that appeared in previous games?
Hey,
I tend to aim my NewsForge articles at different crowds depending on the article - they aren't all for the experienced computer user, and this one in particular wasn't because more experienced users are split into two crowds on this topic, the ones who realize it, and the ones who think it's a silly idea because why spend less on something when it would let someone else have more?:)
As for backscratching, well, I didn't even submit the story to Slashdot, and I didn't imagine it would get on Slashdot - I'm not complaining, just a bit surprised!:)
Hey all,
I realize, and realized when I published the article, that I could not be 100% accurate for a number of reasons. And, I stated many times, that this is preliminary/experimental in every way. This is the results of both prerelease hardware and the fact I could not physically access the box, and had no way of removing or disabling one of the CPUs in order to do accurate testing of the -j switch. I realize that these results, therefore, are not the most accurate, however, I wrote this merely to give people an idea of what Dual Athlon performance would be like. That is why this article is labeled as prerelease, a preview, etc. Trust me, when I get a final release motherboard that supports DP Athlons, I will be doing a full and correct evaluation, but for now I figured that the best thing to do would be to get some results out there, just to give an idea. You can do Single Processor benchmarks of an Athlon on your own, and I would encourage you to do so and post them here.
Thanks for the feedback, 99% of which has been very constructive. I will of course be attempting to get some quality time alone with this thing (*wink wink nudge nudge*), but for now this is the best I was allowed to do. I figured a glimpse would be better than nothing.
Offtopic, however, I don't much care at this point:)
So my town was on the news the other day because of a law passed saying cats have to be on leashes. The news in Philadelphia runs a story about it, and interviews this woman with one nasty blacktooth who has about 20 cats. The point? For some reason it is inevitable that the idiots will have the loudest mouth. That is also evident here, where we find people pointing out such "obvious commercialism" as somebody COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT of Andover.net and Slashdot getting their news posted because they ran a contest and were nice enough to buy a $25 gift certificate from Thinkgeek. You really think timothy gave a rats-posterior about the fact Thinkgeek was in there? If you do, I have a great e-mail where Bill Gates will give you money for forwarding it along. Seriously. It works.
Point is, why don't you people who constantly criticize Slashdot and it's authors create your own site, post your own news, and get your own userbase. Then, when you've done that, you can whine about whatever you wish.
Acctually, you are right, this site doesn't compare to Tom's Hardware, nor do I think Brian or Johan intend to, nor do I or any of a number of people who run the smaller hardware websites. We don't expect to get nearly as many hits, and we have much more current information most of the time. Tom gets a few exclusive things because he is huge, but thats the nature of the beast. I personally read Tom's once a month at most, and read Betanews, Coolinfo, Anand, Aces, JC's, Sharky's and VoodooExtreme daily.
Slashdot Mirror
Not sure why I waited, but I did wait a bit as well. Still, I'm proud of a 5 digit UID. I can't think of the last time I saw a 3 digit before this post, very jealous.
Despite not liking the management, it was always stressed that we weren't supposed to sell inappropriate games to kids. We had the ESRB ratings posted on big signs as well, and we carded people who wanted to buy an M game. They were quite serious about it, and if they had been otherwise, I still would have done it - if only because it is the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, this is a frustratingly inaccurate assumption - parents do not monitor a video game as they might a movie or a television program (and many do not even monitor those enough, but that is another topic). I worked in a GameStop (it was actually a Funcoland at that point) during the GTA3/GTA Vice City period and time after time, parent or grandparent would walk up to my counter buying GTA for a kid who was in his early teens or even younger. This was, in fact, my favorite situation because I get to see the look on their face as I explain.
"Do you realize this is rated M for mature?"
"Oh, no, I didn't read the label. Why is it rated mature?"
"Because you can pick up a prositute, pay her for 'service', kill her, take the money you just paid her back, drive around running over innocent people, and then wind down by lighting bums on fire and shooting cops."
The look on their face was priceless, but it was also incredibly sad that they didn't even go to the trouble of reading the game's packaging. I just don't understand how a parent can be so unconcerned with what their child is doing, and I don't know why they want to punish the entertainment media for lazy parenting.
World of Warcraft comes from a line of games with not only amazing gameplay, but an incredibly rich backstory (spanning excellent novels, in my opinion, as well as games). How much do you find yourself reaching back into this existing base of content for ideas for quests, zones, etc. and do you feel at all "locked in" by events/ideas that appeared in previous games?
I'm glad to see others commenting about Windhaven - that book was fantastic, and just as original as Song of Ice and Fire.
I may have to read it again now that I am reminded of it.
Hey, :)
:)
I tend to aim my NewsForge articles at different crowds depending on the article - they aren't all for the experienced computer user, and this one in particular wasn't because more experienced users are split into two crowds on this topic, the ones who realize it, and the ones who think it's a silly idea because why spend less on something when it would let someone else have more?
As for backscratching, well, I didn't even submit the story to Slashdot, and I didn't imagine it would get on Slashdot - I'm not complaining, just a bit surprised!
-Jeff
Just remember that the last laugh is on you..
Maybe he'll come back as a rabbit.. I've needed a nice bag for a while.
So long, Douglas Adams, perhaps now you'll be able to figure out what the question was.
-Jeff
Hey all,
I realize, and realized when I published the article, that I could not be 100% accurate for a number of reasons. And, I stated many times, that this is preliminary/experimental in every way. This is the results of both prerelease hardware and the fact I could not physically access the box, and had no way of removing or disabling one of the CPUs in order to do accurate testing of the -j switch. I realize that these results, therefore, are not the most accurate, however, I wrote this merely to give people an idea of what Dual Athlon performance would be like. That is why this article is labeled as prerelease, a preview, etc. Trust me, when I get a final release motherboard that supports DP Athlons, I will be doing a full and correct evaluation, but for now I figured that the best thing to do would be to get some results out there, just to give an idea. You can do Single Processor benchmarks of an Athlon on your own, and I would encourage you to do so and post them here.
Thanks for the feedback, 99% of which has been very constructive. I will of course be attempting to get some quality time alone with this thing (*wink wink nudge nudge*), but for now this is the best I was allowed to do. I figured a glimpse would be better than nothing.
Wee,
-Jeff
So my town was on the news the other day because of a law passed saying cats have to be on leashes. The news in Philadelphia runs a story about it, and interviews this woman with one nasty blacktooth who has about 20 cats. The point? For some reason it is inevitable that the idiots will have the loudest mouth. That is also evident here, where we find people pointing out such "obvious commercialism" as somebody COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT of Andover.net and Slashdot getting their news posted because they ran a contest and were nice enough to buy a $25 gift certificate from Thinkgeek. You really think timothy gave a rats-posterior about the fact Thinkgeek was in there? If you do, I have a great e-mail where Bill Gates will give you money for forwarding it along. Seriously. It works.
Point is, why don't you people who constantly criticize Slashdot and it's authors create your own site, post your own news, and get your own userbase. Then, when you've done that, you can whine about whatever you wish.
Later,
-Jeff
Cool :) Perhaps your could write "how to humiliate a large corporation for dummies" or "FUD for Dummies", although I doubt they are interested in it :)
I'm doing to go one step further, I'm going to trademark the term "dummies".
m00 (for dummies),
-Jeff
12-24? Now come on, they wouldn't pick for the world to end on Christmas Eve, that'd just be mean. Hehe.
Acctually, you are right, this site doesn't compare to Tom's Hardware, nor do I think Brian or Johan intend to, nor do I or any of a number of people who run the smaller hardware websites. We don't expect to get nearly as many hits, and we have much more current information most of the time. Tom gets a few exclusive things because he is huge, but thats the nature of the beast. I personally read Tom's once a month at most, and read Betanews, Coolinfo, Anand, Aces, JC's, Sharky's and VoodooExtreme daily.
:)
And Slashdot of course
-Jeff