Everquest, Asheron's Call and Ultima Online are surely doomed... Dusk has arrived!
Now that/. has moved on, I'm actually able to play the thing...
Liked the typos, javascript errors, inaccessable help page, and the C64-style "graphics"
Seems to me that there are no commercially available microprocessors that are "Open" or "Free" in any sense of the word.
Perhaps we should all stop running software until the GNU/Linux people can craft up some open source hardware to use?
Some concessions have to be made.
In my new job, we use Sun computers. My observation is that they are amazingly slow (US==UltraSlow), have buggy compilers, and clunky GUI tools (which I don't use; I am in a 20 year time warp, back to vi and dbx)
It takes 2-4 hours to compile our CORBA library, depending on which machine I use. In contrast,
the cheap Win98 box I use as a X-client can compile that same library in 20 minutes. (In theory, if I used parallel compiles on our hugely expensive 8-way processor machine, the compile time would be comparable; too bad the compiler will crap out and generate corrupted files)
Well, I would have to say that the ordering and installation by PacBell (in my case, actually subcontracted to COVAD) was quite painless.
The service itself has been atrocious. It seems like every couple of months there are huge problems with email delivery (in one instance, messages were being bounced for almost a week).
A couple times a month I am hit by intermittent problems: unable to access email and/or surf the net.
The other gotcha was the one year contract, and the huge price discount if you use the PacBell ISP (which seems to have been split off or sold, perhaps to avoid anti-trust lawsuits?)
Oh, and when they ask you what OS you use, DO NOT say Windows, or they will try and stick you with a shitty USB modem; say you are using Linux dual boot.
Exactly. The problem I have with MMORPGs is that I don't want to game with 100,000 people; I don't want to game with 2,000 people (the number typically on a server). Numbers that large inhibit the creation of virtual communities, and aid disruptive players (kill-stealers, PKs, con-artists and other types of assholes). In a strong community, assholes can be excluded, killed, ignored, whatever. On Everquest, there are too many to keep track of (and they operate under multiple aliases)
What made the internet special when I started was the virtual community. Time was, in a newsgroup like rec.arts.comics, I "knew" every one of the regular posters. As greater numbers joined the discussions, the newsgroups splintered into smaller and smaller niches. Eventually, my friends and I moved off usenet and onto email lists.
This is because a virtual community can only exist at a certain size (about 50 is ideal).
I am way more interested in Diablo II, despite its limitations, because it is based on small-scale gaming (groups of 1-8 players), rather than 2000 crammed into one world instance.
It is a great idea, but there are two problems related to persistent gaming. The first is that MMORPGs like Everquest, Asheron's, etc do not allow dynamic changes to the game world. The Evil One who lives in the bottom of the dungeon can be killed, but he will re-appear some amount of time later. Each "server" is an instance of the game world, identical to every other instance. Characters die, but they are reborn at their spawn point. Nothing can really change, which means it is impossible to implement territorial objectives, or measure success other than in some abstract way (e.g. points accrued, body-count, whatever).
Secondly, if strategic objectives are implemented in a persistent game, you have the issue of timing. It isn't just a matter of a strategist being forced to wait for a tactical battle to complete. Who will fight the tactical battle, and when? Suppose players in Sweden attack my territory while I am asleep? The "solution" by Verant (designers of Everquest) for their online RTS is to allow players to be paged when their units are under attack (no lie...)
This touches on another issue with MMORPGs, which is that I have a life, and do not wish to be chained to my PC 16 hours a day so that I can keep up with the teenage d00ds that don't have to work for a living.
Problem with Silicon Valley nightlife, is there is nothing in the south bay, from S. SF up through San Jose (unless you are into cover bands, arena rock, or yuppie jazz). Basically, SF is the place, but clubs are being shut down, and bands squeezed out of the warehouses they need for raves and practice spaces. (Check this out:
http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/34/46/vacant.html).
East bay still has some potential, but the writing is on the wall...
Slashdot Mirror
You have pretty well described my typical day at the office.
Well, except for the porn...
Funny. I though the article was about Nader. Silly me...
Everquest, Asheron's Call and Ultima Online are surely doomed... Dusk has arrived! Now that /. has moved on, I'm actually able to play the thing...
Liked the typos, javascript errors, inaccessable help page, and the C64-style "graphics"
Seems to me that there are no commercially available microprocessors that are "Open" or "Free" in any sense of the word. Perhaps we should all stop running software until the GNU/Linux people can craft up some open source hardware to use? Some concessions have to be made.
Uh....
In my new job, we use Sun computers. My observation is that they are amazingly slow (US==UltraSlow), have buggy compilers, and clunky GUI tools (which I don't use; I am in a 20 year time warp, back to vi and dbx)
It takes 2-4 hours to compile our CORBA library, depending on which machine I use. In contrast,
the cheap Win98 box I use as a X-client can compile that same library in 20 minutes. (In theory, if I used parallel compiles on our hugely expensive 8-way processor machine, the compile time would be comparable; too bad the compiler will crap out and generate corrupted files)
Not impressed.
Well, I would have to say that the ordering and installation by PacBell (in my case, actually subcontracted to COVAD) was quite painless.
The service itself has been atrocious. It seems like every couple of months there are huge problems with email delivery (in one instance, messages were being bounced for almost a week).
A couple times a month I am hit by intermittent problems: unable to access email and/or surf the net.
The other gotcha was the one year contract, and the huge price discount if you use the PacBell ISP (which seems to have been split off or sold, perhaps to avoid anti-trust lawsuits?)
Oh, and when they ask you what OS you use, DO NOT say Windows, or they will try and stick you with a shitty USB modem; say you are using Linux dual boot.
Exactly. The problem I have with MMORPGs is that I don't want to game with 100,000 people; I don't want to game with 2,000 people (the number typically on a server). Numbers that large inhibit the creation of virtual communities, and aid disruptive players (kill-stealers, PKs, con-artists and other types of assholes). In a strong community, assholes can be excluded, killed, ignored, whatever. On Everquest, there are too many to keep track of (and they operate under multiple aliases)
What made the internet special when I started was the virtual community. Time was, in a newsgroup like rec.arts.comics, I "knew" every one of the regular posters. As greater numbers joined the discussions, the newsgroups splintered into smaller and smaller niches. Eventually, my friends and I moved off usenet and onto email lists.
This is because a virtual community can only exist at a certain size (about 50 is ideal).
I am way more interested in Diablo II, despite its limitations, because it is based on small-scale gaming (groups of 1-8 players), rather than 2000 crammed into one world instance.
It is a great idea, but there are two problems related to persistent gaming. The first is that MMORPGs like Everquest, Asheron's, etc do not allow dynamic changes to the game world. The Evil One who lives in the bottom of the dungeon can be killed, but he will re-appear some amount of time later. Each "server" is an instance of the game world, identical to every other instance. Characters die, but they are reborn at their spawn point. Nothing can really change, which means it is impossible to implement territorial objectives, or measure success other than in some abstract way (e.g. points accrued, body-count, whatever). Secondly, if strategic objectives are implemented in a persistent game, you have the issue of timing. It isn't just a matter of a strategist being forced to wait for a tactical battle to complete. Who will fight the tactical battle, and when? Suppose players in Sweden attack my territory while I am asleep? The "solution" by Verant (designers of Everquest) for their online RTS is to allow players to be paged when their units are under attack (no lie...) This touches on another issue with MMORPGs, which is that I have a life, and do not wish to be chained to my PC 16 hours a day so that I can keep up with the teenage d00ds that don't have to work for a living.
Thanks. I am a bit uneasy reading MS trial coverage from MSNBC for some reason...
Problem with Silicon Valley nightlife, is there is nothing in the south bay, from S. SF up through San Jose (unless you are into cover bands, arena rock, or yuppie jazz). Basically, SF is the place, but clubs are being shut down, and bands squeezed out of the warehouses they need for raves and practice spaces. (Check this out: http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/34/46/vacant.html). East bay still has some potential, but the writing is on the wall...