I always thought the ME2 minigames were pretty well designed. (The hacking & bypass). They felt thematically related to what you were actually trying to accomplish, they required a modicum of effort (that could be reduced by in-game purchases), and they generally provided a nice reward for doing them.
Actually, it sounds a lot like gamers (note: I game, a lot) are desperate to associate games as art. He has a point, at the end of his article: why exactly are people insisting games are art? Does it make them better? Does it make you feel like less of a nerd, if it's artistic? Why is an aimless, goal-less pretty-picture-and-motion collection more art than something engaging and fun like Deus Ex (picked from a hat, replace with your game of choice.)
It seems like gamers & developers are creating a kind of cargo cult art. We don't know what art is, but if we make something kind of weird and meandering and clumsily insert some emotive cues, that's art, right? Lots of movies are odd, abstract explorations of who-knows-what, so if we do that, we're doing art.
Yeah, linux is some magical fairyland where everything works and the computers never need to be rebooted or even upgraded as often because it's just so fast.
Honestly, "new versions quietly installing themselves while all the software keeps working" the hugest crock of shit I've heard in a long, long time. New kernels constantly break existing software, especially graphics drivers and virtual machines. No one wants to walk into work and find out all their virtual machines were magically broken overnight and IT is looking into it. Or better yet, three weeks later when they restart they're stuck at a commandline with some cryptic error messages and need to learn to browse the web in lynx while they google for what the hell is going wrong.
I'm not saying Windows is all kittens and puppies and sugar either. But linux is hardly as wonderful as everyone makes it out to be.
There's a remarkable new way of dealing with things like this.
Don't buy it. $180 too much for starcraft 2? Don't spend it. Problem solved! $5 dlc a rip off? You know what to do!
Or just wait 6 months until it drops in price, that works too. (not so much on DLC because they don't seem to put that on sale, but really. Either it's worth a piddling $5 or not.)
It's also a lot easier to say 'You don't actually want privacy' than fix the security and sharing model of facebook. If you don't expect privacy, all the various holes and dirty tricks no longer matter.
"I think that no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, the Internet has allowed you to broaden your horizons"
Or more likely the internet provides a convenient place to get opinions that agree perfectly with mine, so why should I read a newspaper that I sometimes disagree with and that is therefore stupid and wrong and biased?
"They also run what I believe is an illegal international lottery with respect to their "trading" card games in their MMOs."
Wait, what? When did a magic the gathering clone become a way of winning money? Why is trading in quotes?
Helpful hint: your argumentative points have more weight when you don't sound like a complete loon trying to make sinister conspiracies out of mundane card games.
I suspect the issue is that it's a large company. There are bound to be areas that are exciting and interesting and filled with motivated people, and there are going to be areas of the company that... aren't. That feel like people just show up to get the paycheck and go home.
There seem to be two points in the article and summary. The one that makes sense is that the slowness of the merger is murdering Sun's business. The other is that the slowness is causing people to leave. I doubt the latter is true. People do not want to work for Oracle, fast merge or slow merge.
Huh, did you join the goons or their subsidiaries or something? (somethingawful regulars). I've been in a number of corps and no one expects me to help them build their ship, or steals stuff. Most money-making enterprises are beneficial for everyone involved, and there are plenty of basic things you can do to secure guild assets.
This metallic ape speaks the truth. It looks beautiful, and does so even on non-top-end machines. (So no AoC ridiculousness.) It has a few neat gimmicks (wings, somewhat less stupid pvp, amazing customization.)
But it is, at root, the same game as WoW, EQ2, LOTRO, etc. It's a very polished, fun version, but don't expect it to change the game, shake up the boxes, or think outside any paradigmotrons.
Or maybe it's the dozens of people I knew in college addicted to various versions of the game and unwilling to pay money for most anything. So no, I don't think this is just some victimless leetness contest.
Problem is, and all jokes about single engineers aside, that means the spouse has to find something viable in that location as well. Some professions are pretty portable, others aren't. But it's not just about where you can lure a single person.
Plus, if you lose your job, suddenly you're in Toledo where there's not that many other companies. At least in the Bay Area, you know you have multiple options to switch to should you want to. Without having to sell your house which no one wants or needs to buy. (Admittedly this is a chicken-and-egg problem; if enough companies move to Toledo or wherever, this goes away.)
Yeah, why do people complain that you're deriving enjoyment from their labor, their primary way of life, and not compensating them in any way. What selfish jackasses, eh?
So what you're describing is essentially a world where instead of going to work and having The Mainframe that you work on, there's actually a plethora of Mainframes out there, some specialized to different tasks, some competing with others in doing a task better. You can pick and choose the ones that work best for you. With, of course, the option of running it on your reasonably powerful personal computer if that's the easiest way.
Seems like we're actually approaching a reasonable balance in the server vs client swing, rather than swinging back to another extreme.
(In case it isn't clear, I basically agree with you and think it's pretty cool.)
I always thought it would've made a great single-player game. The car-in-wasteland gameplay and engine was pretty cool and fun. But as a mmo it just sort of became same-y real fast.
Slashdot Mirror
I always thought the ME2 minigames were pretty well designed. (The hacking & bypass). They felt thematically related to what you were actually trying to accomplish, they required a modicum of effort (that could be reduced by in-game purchases), and they generally provided a nice reward for doing them.
Actually, Salesforce donates worker's hours. (i.e., you can go volunteer, fully paid, during 9-5 mon-fri). Dunno about other places.
I have a rich contempt for families and the public too, where do I sign up to show my support?
Actually, it sounds a lot like gamers (note: I game, a lot) are desperate to associate games as art. He has a point, at the end of his article: why exactly are people insisting games are art? Does it make them better? Does it make you feel like less of a nerd, if it's artistic? Why is an aimless, goal-less pretty-picture-and-motion collection more art than something engaging and fun like Deus Ex (picked from a hat, replace with your game of choice.)
It seems like gamers & developers are creating a kind of cargo cult art. We don't know what art is, but if we make something kind of weird and meandering and clumsily insert some emotive cues, that's art, right? Lots of movies are odd, abstract explorations of who-knows-what, so if we do that, we're doing art.
I don't think it works like that.
Yeah, stop using technology to make it easier to get involved. That would be wrong, for some reason.
Try looking around. Then try going west, young man.
Yeah, linux is some magical fairyland where everything works and the computers never need to be rebooted or even upgraded as often because it's just so fast.
Honestly, "new versions quietly installing themselves while all the software keeps working" the hugest crock of shit I've heard in a long, long time. New kernels constantly break existing software, especially graphics drivers and virtual machines. No one wants to walk into work and find out all their virtual machines were magically broken overnight and IT is looking into it. Or better yet, three weeks later when they restart they're stuck at a commandline with some cryptic error messages and need to learn to browse the web in lynx while they google for what the hell is going wrong.
I'm not saying Windows is all kittens and puppies and sugar either. But linux is hardly as wonderful as everyone makes it out to be.
There's a remarkable new way of dealing with things like this.
Don't buy it. $180 too much for starcraft 2? Don't spend it. Problem solved! $5 dlc a rip off? You know what to do!
Or just wait 6 months until it drops in price, that works too. (not so much on DLC because they don't seem to put that on sale, but really. Either it's worth a piddling $5 or not.)
It's also a lot easier to say 'You don't actually want privacy' than fix the security and sharing model of facebook. If you don't expect privacy, all the various holes and dirty tricks no longer matter.
Huh? The larger kindle is out now. I saw someone on the train with it. Woudln't get the large one myself, but it's there if you want it.
"I think that no matter where you stand on the political spectrum, the Internet has allowed you to broaden your horizons"
Or more likely the internet provides a convenient place to get opinions that agree perfectly with mine, so why should I read a newspaper that I sometimes disagree with and that is therefore stupid and wrong and biased?
"They also run what I believe is an illegal international lottery with respect to their "trading" card games in their MMOs."
Wait, what? When did a magic the gathering clone become a way of winning money? Why is trading in quotes?
Helpful hint: your argumentative points have more weight when you don't sound like a complete loon trying to make sinister conspiracies out of mundane card games.
I suspect the issue is that it's a large company. There are bound to be areas that are exciting and interesting and filled with motivated people, and there are going to be areas of the company that ... aren't. That feel like people just show up to get the paycheck and go home.
There seem to be two points in the article and summary. The one that makes sense is that the slowness of the merger is murdering Sun's business. The other is that the slowness is causing people to leave. I doubt the latter is true. People do not want to work for Oracle, fast merge or slow merge.
Huh, did you join the goons or their subsidiaries or something? (somethingawful regulars). I've been in a number of corps and no one expects me to help them build their ship, or steals stuff. Most money-making enterprises are beneficial for everyone involved, and there are plenty of basic things you can do to secure guild assets.
"... you suspect that your opponents cheat ... "
In other words, they won.
Go on, try to find an online game where when you win, you aren't accused of cheating.
This site will never work without owning nearly everything about the game experience. And even then it's tricky.
It is, they're saying they should use the $300 million data center that already exists instead of buying a new one.
Why is a basic reading comprehension failure modded insightful?
This metallic ape speaks the truth. It looks beautiful, and does so even on non-top-end machines. (So no AoC ridiculousness.) It has a few neat gimmicks (wings, somewhat less stupid pvp, amazing customization.)
But it is, at root, the same game as WoW, EQ2, LOTRO, etc. It's a very polished, fun version, but don't expect it to change the game, shake up the boxes, or think outside any paradigmotrons.
Actually Aion looks pretty impressive even on modest gpus, and that's with dozens and dozens of people running around. So I hear. :-"
Unsustainable? You've watched too much Dr Strangelove. B-52s don't breed.
Or maybe it's the dozens of people I knew in college addicted to various versions of the game and unwilling to pay money for most anything. So no, I don't think this is just some victimless leetness contest.
Problem is, and all jokes about single engineers aside, that means the spouse has to find something viable in that location as well. Some professions are pretty portable, others aren't. But it's not just about where you can lure a single person.
Plus, if you lose your job, suddenly you're in Toledo where there's not that many other companies. At least in the Bay Area, you know you have multiple options to switch to should you want to. Without having to sell your house which no one wants or needs to buy. (Admittedly this is a chicken-and-egg problem; if enough companies move to Toledo or wherever, this goes away.)
Yeah, why do people complain that you're deriving enjoyment from their labor, their primary way of life, and not compensating them in any way. What selfish jackasses, eh?
So what you're describing is essentially a world where instead of going to work and having The Mainframe that you work on, there's actually a plethora of Mainframes out there, some specialized to different tasks, some competing with others in doing a task better. You can pick and choose the ones that work best for you. With, of course, the option of running it on your reasonably powerful personal computer if that's the easiest way.
Seems like we're actually approaching a reasonable balance in the server vs client swing, rather than swinging back to another extreme.
(In case it isn't clear, I basically agree with you and think it's pretty cool.)
I always thought it would've made a great single-player game. The car-in-wasteland gameplay and engine was pretty cool and fun. But as a mmo it just sort of became same-y real fast.