Well, the Terms of Service specifically forbid using any name for a character that is trademarked, copyrighted, etc. by a third party, with loss of your account as a penalty for doing so anyway.
Mind you, when I first started playing, there were a lot of comic-book clones, but they are extremely rarer now because most players, it seems, would rather make something that is uniquely theirs rather then be the 18th or 63rd Tick rip-off.
The thing is, I wouldn't play a Marvel Comics based MMORPG even if they did have one out (which they don't, and I seriously doubt we'd see one before 2006).
I don't want to play a super-hero who is second banana to Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. I don't want to have to deal with people wanting to be able to storm the Avengers Mansion because they think they should be able to.
I want to make a hero who is as unique as I can make him, and is not burdened down by years of comic book history, much of which is crappily written. (I refer you to the Clone Saga, in particular, and most titles that start with the letter 'X'.)
If there are no contracts (verbal or written), then what the Hell is the point of signing something to that effect? Doesn't that negate the point of no written contracts?
Kierthos
Re:clean interface, too few pages indicized
on
MSN Search Roundup
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Yeah, and they have pathetically few porn sites indexed. How do they seriously expect to knock off Google without porn sites?
What gets me is who buys these fucking games? I don't know about you, but if I already had, say, a copy of NBA Live 2003 or 2004, what's my incentive to buy 2005?
Of course, I don't buy console games at all, so I'm definitely not the "average" customer for games, but really... I mean, I can at least understand the collective orgasmic response to the latest FPS game, but sports games? Eh....
The university (right across the street from me) recently (last summer) and finally implemented a system where if students want to use the university's connection/bandwidth, they have to install certain software (AV stuff mostly) and adhere to the guidelines stated by the university. (Which mostly boils down to "No file sharing programs" and "No spam servers".) They also set the firewall settings on the student's computers, and tell the students not to change them.
They've had a bunch of students complain, but to no avail (thank God, as these students aren't bright). The CS department loves the fact that the number of calls for dealing with virus-infected computers has dropped by like 85% or more.
I knew an admin who put a password on a sticky on his monitor. The password didn't work, and he logged all attempts to get into his account, and dealt with people who tried to do so appropriately. (Usually with a warning and cutting their print quota in half for the first attempt.)
Look at your standard paperback novel. You don't see a lot of advertisements in there, do you? (Okay, maybe at the end of the book, a plug for the next book by the same author or other books from the same publisher...)
Look at your standard newspaper. Full page advertisements, or alf page ones, or quarter page ones. Sure, the front page of each section might be free of them, but second page on is fair game.
That pays a lot of the costs involved.
Next, the classifieds. I don't think the paper here lets you put _anything_ in the classifieds for free. That also pays for a lot of the costs involved.
Bullshit. If I buy the DVD of a movie, I can use the damn thing as a frisbee or a drink coaster. I can nail it to the wall, or chop it into small bits and flush it down the toilet.
What gets me is that this would make it illegal to skip the ads (by fast-forwarding or modifying the DVD player to let me FF through the "non fast-forward" parts) but it wouldn't be illegal to watch the ads and fast-forward through the movie.
No, it doesn't make it meaningless. Under the current plan, in most states, it doesn't matter whether you beat your opponent(s) for President by 1% or 20%, as long as you beat them. It's a winner take all situation, which means if you know you're going to win that state AND it's not worth that many electoral votes, you tend to stay out of it to focus on "swing states".
Now, under this proposed plan, it matter how much you beat your opponents by. Instead of trying to get a bare 1% over your opponent, you want as many votes as possible. Thus, you have to appeal to as many voters as possible and get them to vote. You'd see greater drives for voter registration, an attempt to acquire and retain the voters interest, and possibly actually talking about issues instead of hyping whatever factoid your campaign staff has determined would get you that 1% over the other guys.
Here's another example. In the 2000 Presidential election, California, which is worth a whopping 55 electoral votes, went to Gore. Out of 10,530,073 votes cast, Gore got 5,861,203 of them, which worked out to 55.66%. Bush got 4,567,429 votes, or 43.37%. Under the current rules, Gore got all the electoral votes, which means that those 4.5 million people might as well not have voted at all. Under a proportional system, Gore would have gotten 31 electoral votes, and Bush would have gotten 24.
It's a fairer system for making votes count. It also means that it is possible (although, inarguably still not likely) to vote for a third party candidate and not "throw your vote away".
If your assumption is correct and EQ is gone, what makes you think that most of the players won't migrate over to EQ2?
Sure, some people play more then one MMORPG, but a lot of people can't afford the time or money to play more then one. (Time being the larger concern, because if you're spending 8+ hours a day playing EQ/EQ2, then you're not spending that time playing other games.)
Also figure in the other MMORPG games that are already out or still likely to be running strong, such as CoH, WoW, etc.
Finally, given how badly SWG bombed in comparison to the hype that was generated around it, do you really think that a ST MMORPG stands much of a chance?
I myself am waiting for wireless "eyetop" computers that you wear like a set of sunglasses (with the appropriate weight), so I can relax on the beach and check my e-mail at the same time.
Or perhaps he just likes being able to call other people whenever he needs to, but does not feel the need to have J. Random Family Member ring him every three minutes to tell him the joke of the day.
I know a number of people who carry cell-phones out of need for certain tasks, but turn them off when they don't want to be disturbed (like, say, at a movie theater).
I've also seen a lot of people look at the caller ID on their cell-phones and say "I'll call them back later."... so a number of people like that line between the convienence and the drudgery.
As for me. No cell-phone, no plans to get one. I hate the damned things. The last thing I want is to get a phone call in the middle of the grocery store, the mall, wherever.
The numbers I am using are from the CIA World Factbook. So, yes, that would be something like 494 people per square km.
And the size of the country and the population (and population density) do play a part. South Korea, ~48 million people. ~32 million cell phones. Gee, could that be an indication of something? (so for every three S. Koreans, two will have cell phones)
United States: ~293 million people. ~140 million cell phones. (~2:1 ratio here).
When you have a smaller country, and/or the majority of your populace can be found in certain parts of the country (major cities), then it easier to wire those cities for broadband, then, say compared to wiring every village in the boonies.
The same thing applies to the U.S. We just have more boonies. There are a number of states that are, outside of a couple major cities, sparsely populated. It makes it much harder to wire those sparsely populated areas, just as it is in South Korea. We have about six times the number of people as South Korea, but over 90 times the land to put them in.
South Korea: 98,190 square km. Sweden: 410,939 square km. United States: 9,161,923 sq km.
Population:
South Korea: 48,598,175 (July 2004 est.) Sweden: 8,986,400 (July 2004 est.) United States: 293,027,571 (July 2004 est.)
Hrm... could it just be that much easier to get broadband to a population an order of magnitude or two smaller, in a country that is roughly the size of California (that would be Sweden) or Indiana (that would be Korea)?
Nah... it's got to just be the monopolies.
Now, I'm not going to argue that Comcast service doesn't suck liquid monkey ass, because, well, it does. But to solely place the burden on the big, bad businesses is a bit of a fallacious arguement. We have a much larger population, and a much larger country. That has to be taken into account for why Uncle Jim Joe Bob Cletus (affectionately known as Junior) doesn't have broadband running to his shack in the Ozarks, much less the still out back.
Ah, so you watched that episode of "The Daily Show" as well?
Yeah, none of the veterans served on the same boat as Kerry. The doctor they have talking about his first Purple Heart apparently didn't treat him at all for the wound, so that doctor commenting on whether it was a minor wound or not is irrelevant.
Where are the "I went to Harvard with GWB ads", I ask you?
At this point, you probably shouldn't short any of their stock. Given how low their stock is currently valued, you would have to buy a lot of shares in order to make any money at all once you deal with the broker's fees and whatnot.
Kierthos
Re:Bad music?
on
TMBG on DRM
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I've noticed very similar prices for most new releases in major stores and record chains. In the second-hand stores, you generally have to wait a couple of weeks to a couple of months before that same CD will show up at half price.
Plus, I'm not about to drive all over the city (much less the state) to save money on CDs. (Yes, I could call, and it's always possible that the people at the stores won't be incompetent, but I know for a fact that they are, in fact, incompetent in the music section of Best Buy, so why waste time calling?)
$10-$12 only if it's in the bargain bin or it's a second-hand store. (Come to think of it, there's a second-hand store a few blocks away...)
I mean, Wal-Mart might run a bit cheaper, but then I have to actually go into Wal-Mart. Best Buy runs $17 and up, and so do most chain record stores.
And it's not going to die because one guy stops buying. But the record companies keep saying sales are going down (and blaming piracy), so obviously, it's more then just Joe Beer-Belly.
And frankly, with the DRM, or not being able to play the CD in the car/stereo/computer/wherever, it tends to upset the customers. And upset customers don't stay customers for long, or they look for ways to get what they want.
Slashdot Mirror
What's driving this change?
Brown acid and a ouija board.
Kierthos
Well, the Terms of Service specifically forbid using any name for a character that is trademarked, copyrighted, etc. by a third party, with loss of your account as a penalty for doing so anyway.
Mind you, when I first started playing, there were a lot of comic-book clones, but they are extremely rarer now because most players, it seems, would rather make something that is uniquely theirs rather then be the 18th or 63rd Tick rip-off.
Kierthos
The thing is, I wouldn't play a Marvel Comics based MMORPG even if they did have one out (which they don't, and I seriously doubt we'd see one before 2006).
I don't want to play a super-hero who is second banana to Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. I don't want to have to deal with people wanting to be able to storm the Avengers Mansion because they think they should be able to.
I want to make a hero who is as unique as I can make him, and is not burdened down by years of comic book history, much of which is crappily written. (I refer you to the Clone Saga, in particular, and most titles that start with the letter 'X'.)
Kierthos
If there are no contracts (verbal or written), then what the Hell is the point of signing something to that effect? Doesn't that negate the point of no written contracts?
Kierthos
Yeah, and they have pathetically few porn sites indexed. How do they seriously expect to knock off Google without porn sites?
Kierthos
What gets me is who buys these fucking games? I don't know about you, but if I already had, say, a copy of NBA Live 2003 or 2004, what's my incentive to buy 2005?
Of course, I don't buy console games at all, so I'm definitely not the "average" customer for games, but really... I mean, I can at least understand the collective orgasmic response to the latest FPS game, but sports games? Eh....
Kierthos
I can't seem to delete it (or f!cking Windows Messenger), but I don't use 'em. They have the stink of evil and stupidity on them.
Kierthos
The university (right across the street from me) recently (last summer) and finally implemented a system where if students want to use the university's connection/bandwidth, they have to install certain software (AV stuff mostly) and adhere to the guidelines stated by the university. (Which mostly boils down to "No file sharing programs" and "No spam servers".) They also set the firewall settings on the student's computers, and tell the students not to change them.
They've had a bunch of students complain, but to no avail (thank God, as these students aren't bright). The CS department loves the fact that the number of calls for dealing with virus-infected computers has dropped by like 85% or more.
Kierthos
I knew an admin who put a password on a sticky on his monitor. The password didn't work, and he logged all attempts to get into his account, and dealt with people who tried to do so appropriately. (Usually with a warning and cutting their print quota in half for the first attempt.)
Kierthos
So it's just the two parts? Part one on Sunday, part two on Monday? (Note: Get out blank tapes)
Wish it were longer, but if it wraps up the series a bit better then the "last" episode, I'm all for it.
Kierthos
One thing... Advertising.
Look at your standard paperback novel. You don't see a lot of advertisements in there, do you? (Okay, maybe at the end of the book, a plug for the next book by the same author or other books from the same publisher...)
Look at your standard newspaper. Full page advertisements, or alf page ones, or quarter page ones. Sure, the front page of each section might be free of them, but second page on is fair game.
That pays a lot of the costs involved.
Next, the classifieds. I don't think the paper here lets you put _anything_ in the classifieds for free. That also pays for a lot of the costs involved.
Kierthos
Bullshit. If I buy the DVD of a movie, I can use the damn thing as a frisbee or a drink coaster. I can nail it to the wall, or chop it into small bits and flush it down the toilet.
What gets me is that this would make it illegal to skip the ads (by fast-forwarding or modifying the DVD player to let me FF through the "non fast-forward" parts) but it wouldn't be illegal to watch the ads and fast-forward through the movie.
Makes no damn sense.
Kierthos
No, it doesn't make it meaningless. Under the current plan, in most states, it doesn't matter whether you beat your opponent(s) for President by 1% or 20%, as long as you beat them. It's a winner take all situation, which means if you know you're going to win that state AND it's not worth that many electoral votes, you tend to stay out of it to focus on "swing states".
Now, under this proposed plan, it matter how much you beat your opponents by. Instead of trying to get a bare 1% over your opponent, you want as many votes as possible. Thus, you have to appeal to as many voters as possible and get them to vote. You'd see greater drives for voter registration, an attempt to acquire and retain the voters interest, and possibly actually talking about issues instead of hyping whatever factoid your campaign staff has determined would get you that 1% over the other guys.
Here's another example. In the 2000 Presidential election, California, which is worth a whopping 55 electoral votes, went to Gore. Out of 10,530,073 votes cast, Gore got 5,861,203 of them, which worked out to 55.66%. Bush got 4,567,429 votes, or 43.37%. Under the current rules, Gore got all the electoral votes, which means that those 4.5 million people might as well not have voted at all. Under a proportional system, Gore would have gotten 31 electoral votes, and Bush would have gotten 24.
It's a fairer system for making votes count. It also means that it is possible (although, inarguably still not likely) to vote for a third party candidate and not "throw your vote away".
Kierthos
So if it went from glossy brochues to vaporware, would it be product sublimation?
Kierthos
Yes we can. We're hypocrites.
Kierthos
If your assumption is correct and EQ is gone, what makes you think that most of the players won't migrate over to EQ2?
Sure, some people play more then one MMORPG, but a lot of people can't afford the time or money to play more then one. (Time being the larger concern, because if you're spending 8+ hours a day playing EQ/EQ2, then you're not spending that time playing other games.)
Also figure in the other MMORPG games that are already out or still likely to be running strong, such as CoH, WoW, etc.
Finally, given how badly SWG bombed in comparison to the hype that was generated around it, do you really think that a ST MMORPG stands much of a chance?
Kierthos
Oooooooooooo.......
Yup, that gets added to the "if I ever win Powerball and have scads of money to be foolish with" wishlist.
Kierthos
I myself am waiting for wireless "eyetop" computers that you wear like a set of sunglasses (with the appropriate weight), so I can relax on the beach and check my e-mail at the same time.
Kierthos
Or perhaps he just likes being able to call other people whenever he needs to, but does not feel the need to have J. Random Family Member ring him every three minutes to tell him the joke of the day.
I know a number of people who carry cell-phones out of need for certain tasks, but turn them off when they don't want to be disturbed (like, say, at a movie theater).
I've also seen a lot of people look at the caller ID on their cell-phones and say "I'll call them back later."... so a number of people like that line between the convienence and the drudgery.
As for me. No cell-phone, no plans to get one. I hate the damned things. The last thing I want is to get a phone call in the middle of the grocery store, the mall, wherever.
Kierthos
The numbers I am using are from the CIA World Factbook. So, yes, that would be something like 494 people per square km.
And the size of the country and the population (and population density) do play a part. South Korea, ~48 million people. ~32 million cell phones. Gee, could that be an indication of something? (so for every three S. Koreans, two will have cell phones)
United States: ~293 million people. ~140 million cell phones. (~2:1 ratio here).
When you have a smaller country, and/or the majority of your populace can be found in certain parts of the country (major cities), then it easier to wire those cities for broadband, then, say compared to wiring every village in the boonies.
The same thing applies to the U.S. We just have more boonies. There are a number of states that are, outside of a couple major cities, sparsely populated. It makes it much harder to wire those sparsely populated areas, just as it is in South Korea. We have about six times the number of people as South Korea, but over 90 times the land to put them in.
Are you seeing the pattern yet???
Kierthos
Here are some other good reasons:
Size:
South Korea: 98,190 square km.
Sweden: 410,939 square km.
United States: 9,161,923 sq km.
Population:
South Korea: 48,598,175 (July 2004 est.)
Sweden: 8,986,400 (July 2004 est.)
United States: 293,027,571 (July 2004 est.)
Hrm... could it just be that much easier to get broadband to a population an order of magnitude or two smaller, in a country that is roughly the size of California (that would be Sweden) or Indiana (that would be Korea)?
Nah... it's got to just be the monopolies.
Now, I'm not going to argue that Comcast service doesn't suck liquid monkey ass, because, well, it does. But to solely place the burden on the big, bad businesses is a bit of a fallacious arguement. We have a much larger population, and a much larger country. That has to be taken into account for why Uncle Jim Joe Bob Cletus (affectionately known as Junior) doesn't have broadband running to his shack in the Ozarks, much less the still out back.
Kierthos
Ah, so you watched that episode of "The Daily Show" as well?
Yeah, none of the veterans served on the same boat as Kerry. The doctor they have talking about his first Purple Heart apparently didn't treat him at all for the wound, so that doctor commenting on whether it was a minor wound or not is irrelevant.
Where are the "I went to Harvard with GWB ads", I ask you?
Kierthos
At this point, you probably shouldn't short any of their stock. Given how low their stock is currently valued, you would have to buy a lot of shares in order to make any money at all once you deal with the broker's fees and whatnot.
Kierthos
Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I've noticed very similar prices for most new releases in major stores and record chains. In the second-hand stores, you generally have to wait a couple of weeks to a couple of months before that same CD will show up at half price.
Plus, I'm not about to drive all over the city (much less the state) to save money on CDs. (Yes, I could call, and it's always possible that the people at the stores won't be incompetent, but I know for a fact that they are, in fact, incompetent in the music section of Best Buy, so why waste time calling?)
Kierthos
$10-$12 only if it's in the bargain bin or it's a second-hand store. (Come to think of it, there's a second-hand store a few blocks away...)
I mean, Wal-Mart might run a bit cheaper, but then I have to actually go into Wal-Mart. Best Buy runs $17 and up, and so do most chain record stores.
And it's not going to die because one guy stops buying. But the record companies keep saying sales are going down (and blaming piracy), so obviously, it's more then just Joe Beer-Belly.
And frankly, with the DRM, or not being able to play the CD in the car/stereo/computer/wherever, it tends to upset the customers. And upset customers don't stay customers for long, or they look for ways to get what they want.
Kierthos