That aside, I must say that this is an issue that really irritates me. Many kids won't stay awake through any of their schoolwork, and learn more from games and movies than they do their formal education.
Then thats a failing of the parents and the children themselves. Don't push the responsibility and burden of eductation on the entertainment industry.
Would it be so difficult to portray some of these things accurately...
They do portray ~some~ things accurately, or accurately enough to set up a context for gameplay.
Could you at LEAST get the names, places and geography right?
Games are supposed to be fun and enjoyable. So a LOT of things have to be simplified, scaled or removed to make the gameplay flow in an enjoyable manner.
Demanding the gamemakers get the geography right is a perfect example of something it would be suicidal for the gamemakers to do: How many people would play a RTS game like AOE where it takes your army literally days, weeks or months to march or sail to the enemy's location?
If people want historical accuracy, they should read an encyclopedia. If they want geographical accuracy, read an atlas.
I'd be surprised if anyone here of a certain age didn't learn more about pirates and 15th century politics from Sid Meier's Pirates than any other source.
I never played that, but I can say I learned a metric sh*tload of vocabulary terms from playing D&D back in the day.
I'm not saying games ~can't~ educate, but for the blogger in the original post to imply that game makers have some sort of responsibility to be historically or factually accurate in works designed strictly for entertainment is just stupid goofy.
"With the snowballing of interest in Serious Games and governmental support for the development of games in the classroom, should this be an issue that is seriously debated in development houses?"
NO.
Not with a game that is CLEARLY designed and marketed as ENTERTAINMENT.
If a child's primary source of learning history and historical content if a freakin' computer game, that child is already hopelessly borked.
Who ARE these IDIOTS who demand or even suggest that the entertainment industry shoulder the burden for rearing everyone's children?
Nah. The equivalent of the drivers test for a reproductive license would just be too messy to administer... though the learner's permit phase might be fun.
1) Assume that a comprehensive study clearly shows that violent video games have a harmful affect on children and society in general. 2) Assume that this would not be the case if parents took more responsibility for their children.
I'm confused. Which is it that this assumed "comprehensive study" shows? That the "violent video games have a harmful effect on children and society"? Or that these children are succeptible to this influence by video game because of derelict parents? You seem to be saying both.
In that scenario, "tolerating" means that we shouldn't tolerate the danger to children and society simply because it is technically the parents fault. So someone who maybe enjoys GTA might have to give up a little freedom to correct the situation.
Wait... so you're saying that you're willing to give away ~my~ freedoms in an attempt to solve this hypothetical problem, when you admit that my enjoying my freedom is in fact NOT the root cause of the problem in the first place?
(To be honest, I find it disturbing that people actually enjoy this game.)
You are entitled to your opinion.
To be honest, I find it disturbing that some poeple are so willing to sacrifice their and others' freedoms all in the name of feeling they are "doing something" to address an alleged problem. Thats how we ended up with the *spit* Patriot Act, the *spit* DCMA, etc.
Here's what I'm saying: There are a LOT of things that consenting adults are (and SHOULD) be allowed to view/read/listen to/experience that children are (and should) not. Whether the parents of one, a hundred or a million parents abrogate their parental responsibilities and allow their children to be exposed to this material on a regular basis, not one adult should lose their rights. Blame and legistlate against the parents, not the games.
That would be pointless and wrong. Just as I would not belittle the beliefs of others by referring to those things they hold sacred as "works of mostly fiction".
I wasn't attempting to belittle your beliefs. I was simply indicating that I did not "Believe" as you mentioned you do.
They do not instruct their children as they should. And if this causes harm to society then we should do something about it. Not just tolerate it in the name of freedom.
But what are you "tolerating", the freedom of others to enjoy the game? Or the derelict parents?
Well, then by all means abstain from playing GTA and feel free to keep your children away from it.
As long as you then don't try to tell me this vague verse - from an ancient work of mostly fiction - means ~I~ can't play GTA if I so choose, or that Rock Star can't publish such a game for like minded adults to enjoy, then s'all good.
"It's a competition of different groups racing to release pirated software over the Internet," said Seth Kleinberg, a 26-year-old Los Angeles man who, with a high-school education and a home computer, cracked the computer industry's toughest copyright protections.
Kleinberg, who lives with his dad, faces between five and six years in prison when he is sentenced in July.
An example is: They can fly faster than light but they don't have water filters to recycle water and thus must find some on a planet.
Did you actually watch the show where the water crises started?
The DO have water recycling technology, but a Cylon bomb vented the contents of the tank into space. You can't recycle what you don't have. The water mining efforts of the last few eps (in the US) were aimed at restocking the supplies.
They also explained the "retro tech" look in the miniseries: Galactica is intentionally low tech to avoid takeover by Cyclon viruses, remote control or whatever.
No, congress granted MLB exemption from antitrust laws. Not the same thing.
The St. Paul Saints are AFAIK the only minor league team not affiliated with a major league team. They made a big deal about this when they first started about 10 years ago, but I haven't heard much lately, so there might be more now.
I don't know how they can claim that. There have been independent teams, and entire independent leagues around for quite a while. More now, since MLB contracted its minor league affiliations 10-15 years ago, but IIRC there have always been ~some~ independent teams. The Frontier League, Independent League, Northern League are all (at least mostly) independent teams.
And please let it work on humans. Also, it'd be nice if it didn't have unforeseen longterm effects.
Recipients of the vaccine may develop the following side effects: * An intense desire for bananas. * Repeated urges to hurl their own feces at fellow primates (even when its NOT an election year).
I had to uninstall XP SP2 on both my machines. After installation, the NEC CD and DVD drives on the secondary IDE channels of both machines "dumbed down" to using PIO mode instead of DMA. This killed my disc read and write speeds on both machines. Under no circumstances could I get XP to utilize DMA on these drives, even though DMA worked fine pre-SP2 and after uninstalling SP2.
The HDs on the primary IDE channels had no problem with DMA... only the ATAPI drives on the secondary IDE channels.
MS support confirmed it was an issue, and I've seen other poeple experience similar problems on various forums, but I never heard of a workaround or fix.
M.U.L.E. How many times have I talked my fool mouth off about this thing? It's just the best multiplayer computer game of all time, period. If you have enough mojo you can even play it, with four players, full-speed on an unmodded Dreamcast... or an Atari 800, if anyone remembers that far back.
I can remember that far back... I loved playing M.U.L.E on my modded up Atari ~400~ (Hateful, HATEFUL membrane keyboard! Rot in Hell!).
Me and three buddies used to have marathon M.U.L.E. sessions. Best multiplayer game for the Atari.
The good news: soon we'll discover the radio signals of an advanced alien civilization.
The bad news: their messages will likely be encrypted beyond comprehension so that we don't copy their programming and distribute it on P2P networks.
The worse news: the combined forces of the ET-RIAA and ET-MPAA armadas will immediately singularity-nuke the Earth for illegally downloading the copyrighted ET signals.
Slashdot Mirror
Followed by the prequels:
The Fair-Use Menace
Attack of the Illegal Clones
Revenge of the MPAA
That aside, I must say that this is an issue that really irritates me. Many kids won't stay awake through any of their schoolwork, and learn more from games and movies than they do their formal education.
Then thats a failing of the parents and the children themselves. Don't push the responsibility and burden of eductation on the entertainment industry.
Would it be so difficult to portray some of these things accurately...
They do portray ~some~ things accurately, or accurately enough to set up a context for gameplay.
Could you at LEAST get the names, places and geography right?
Games are supposed to be fun and enjoyable. So a LOT of things have to be simplified, scaled or removed to make the gameplay flow in an enjoyable manner.
Demanding the gamemakers get the geography right is a perfect example of something it would be suicidal for the gamemakers to do: How many people would play a RTS game like AOE where it takes your army literally days, weeks or months to march or sail to the enemy's location?
If people want historical accuracy, they should read an encyclopedia. If they want geographical accuracy, read an atlas.
I'd be surprised if anyone here of a certain age didn't learn more about pirates and 15th century politics from Sid Meier's Pirates than any other source.
I never played that, but I can say I learned a metric sh*tload of vocabulary terms from playing D&D back in the day.
I'm not saying games ~can't~ educate, but for the blogger in the original post to imply that game makers have some sort of responsibility to be historically or factually accurate in works designed strictly for entertainment is just stupid goofy.
"With the snowballing of interest in Serious Games and governmental support for the development of games in the classroom, should this be an issue that is seriously debated in development houses?"
NO.
Not with a game that is CLEARLY designed and marketed as ENTERTAINMENT.
If a child's primary source of learning history and historical content if a freakin' computer game, that child is already hopelessly borked.
Who ARE these IDIOTS who demand or even suggest that the entertainment industry shoulder the burden for rearing everyone's children?
Would be a kickin' name for a rock band.
Or not.
Nah. The equivalent of the drivers test for a reproductive license would just be too messy to administer... though the learner's permit phase might be fun.
1) Assume that a comprehensive study clearly shows that violent video games have a harmful affect on children and society in general.
2) Assume that this would not be the case if parents took more responsibility for their children.
I'm confused. Which is it that this assumed "comprehensive study" shows? That the "violent video games have a harmful effect on children and society"? Or that these children are succeptible to this influence by video game because of derelict parents? You seem to be saying both.
In that scenario, "tolerating" means that we shouldn't tolerate the danger to children and society simply because it is technically the parents fault. So someone who maybe enjoys GTA might have to give up a little freedom to correct the situation.
Wait... so you're saying that you're willing to give away ~my~ freedoms in an attempt to solve this hypothetical problem, when you admit that my enjoying my freedom is in fact NOT the root cause of the problem in the first place?
(To be honest, I find it disturbing that people actually enjoy this game.)
You are entitled to your opinion.
To be honest, I find it disturbing that some poeple are so willing to sacrifice their and others' freedoms all in the name of feeling they are "doing something" to address an alleged problem. Thats how we ended up with the *spit* Patriot Act, the *spit* DCMA, etc.
Here's what I'm saying:
There are a LOT of things that consenting adults are (and SHOULD) be allowed to view/read/listen to/experience that children are (and should) not. Whether the parents of one, a hundred or a million parents abrogate their parental responsibilities and allow their children to be exposed to this material on a regular basis, not one adult should lose their rights. Blame and legistlate against the parents, not the games.
That would be pointless and wrong. Just as I would not belittle the beliefs of others by referring to those things they hold sacred as "works of mostly fiction".
I wasn't attempting to belittle your beliefs. I was simply indicating that I did not "Believe" as you mentioned you do.
They do not instruct their children as they should. And if this causes harm to society then we should do something about it. Not just tolerate it in the name of freedom.
But what are you "tolerating", the freedom of others to enjoy the game? Or the derelict parents?
Well, then by all means abstain from playing GTA and feel free to keep your children away from it.
As long as you then don't try to tell me this vague verse - from an ancient work of mostly fiction - means ~I~ can't play GTA if I so choose, or that Rock Star can't publish such a game for like minded adults to enjoy, then s'all good.
Damn. Dunno where the trailing / came from... here is the correct link:
r y.asp?category=1700&slug=Computer%20Piracy
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_sto
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_sto
One -- mozilla store has a 25% discount to commemorate 25 million downloads.
Does this mean if/when they hit 100 million downloads, the store will have a 100% discount?
Excellent!
The 97%/3% non-working rip software to working rip software ratio will quickly become 97%/3%
Instantly, in fact.
By spreading to everyone in your buddy list, a worm based on this exploit could infect 90% of the world in a couple hours.
I'm doing my part. I don't have any friends.
An example is: They can fly faster than light but they don't have water filters to recycle water and thus must find some on a planet.
Did you actually watch the show where the water crises started?
The DO have water recycling technology, but a Cylon bomb vented the contents of the tank into space. You can't recycle what you don't have. The water mining efforts of the last few eps (in the US) were aimed at restocking the supplies.
They also explained the "retro tech" look in the miniseries: Galactica is intentionally low tech to avoid takeover by Cyclon viruses, remote control or whatever.
Congress has granted a monopoly to MLB.
No, congress granted MLB exemption from antitrust laws. Not the same thing.
The St. Paul Saints are AFAIK the only minor league team not affiliated with a major league team. They made a big deal about this when they first started about 10 years ago, but I haven't heard much lately, so there might be more now.
I don't know how they can claim that. There have been independent teams, and entire independent leagues around for quite a while. More now, since MLB contracted its minor league affiliations 10-15 years ago, but IIRC there have always been ~some~ independent teams. The Frontier League, Independent League, Northern League are all (at least mostly) independent teams.
Every minor-team I know if is affiliated with major-league team.
No, there are many independent minor league teams and leagues.
IIRC congress has essentially granted MLB protection from anti-trust lawsuits, not granted them true exculsive monopoly status.
And please let it work on humans. Also, it'd be nice if it didn't have unforeseen longterm effects.
Recipients of the vaccine may develop the following side effects:
* An intense desire for bananas.
* Repeated urges to hurl their own feces at fellow primates (even when its NOT an election year).
I had to uninstall XP SP2 on both my machines. After installation, the NEC CD and DVD drives on the secondary IDE channels of both machines "dumbed down" to using PIO mode instead of DMA. This killed my disc read and write speeds on both machines. Under no circumstances could I get XP to utilize DMA on these drives, even though DMA worked fine pre-SP2 and after uninstalling SP2.
The HDs on the primary IDE channels had no problem with DMA... only the ATAPI drives on the secondary IDE channels.
MS support confirmed it was an issue, and I've seen other poeple experience similar problems on various forums, but I never heard of a workaround or fix.
Yep. I just verified that too.
...unless his campaign sues and is successful.
No matter what happens, we can assume there will be people whose preachings deviate from the obvious. It's best just to ignore them.
And suddenly Slashdot disappeared in a puff of logic.
But I am the only one who wears glasses and thinks women with glasses are sexy?
Apparently not:
http://www.joyofspex.com/
M.U.L.E.
How many times have I talked my fool mouth off about this thing? It's just the best multiplayer computer game of all time, period. If you have enough mojo you can even play it, with four players, full-speed on an unmodded Dreamcast... or an Atari 800, if anyone remembers that far back.
I can remember that far back... I loved playing M.U.L.E on my modded up Atari ~400~ (Hateful, HATEFUL membrane keyboard! Rot in Hell!).
Me and three buddies used to have marathon M.U.L.E. sessions. Best multiplayer game for the Atari.
The good news: soon we'll discover the radio signals of an advanced alien civilization.
The bad news: their messages will likely be encrypted beyond comprehension so that we don't copy their programming and distribute it on P2P networks.
The worse news: the combined forces of the ET-RIAA and ET-MPAA armadas will immediately singularity-nuke the Earth for illegally downloading the copyrighted ET signals.