After Fallout and Fallout 2 marathons, I started seeing the barter screen at the drive through booth at McDonalds. When I did finally make it to work, I had the urge to rifle through every bookshelf and cabinet I saw for ammo.
I also had trouble driving home after marathon sessions of GTA2. My first instinct was to drive like a maniac.
In Everquest, there is virtually no control of the money supply. And since very little of the things EQ money is spent on are consumable, there is nothing to take money out of the economy.
Well, I don't know about EQ, but when I was playing Earth and Beyond there was plenty of money draining out of the economy. All items had a durability and quality, and every time your ship got blown up, these values declined, and the item's potency declined with it, until it was either worthless or destroyed. Players would sell their items back to NPC's when they became too damaged or worthless. Also, the crafting system ensured that a lot of money bled out... it was incredibly expensive to learn new blueprints, and even more expensive destroying the raw materials required to build a great item.
Being underemployed sucks. But being undercompensated sucks much worse! If someone were to offer me a job shovelling horse dung 50 hours a week for $120k, you'd better believe I'd jump on it.
Computers are great and all, but at the end of the day I have bills to pay. I think a lot of people have this false idea that "oh well I'll get a job with computers, I like those, so I will be working but it won't feel like work!" Maybe that trick works for some people, but not most. At the end of the day, work is work. If you can trick yourself into enjoying it, that's just super for you. All the rest of us can hope for is decent compensation for our sacrafices.
My current supervisor had a PhD, in Botany I think. He was a college professor who taught as an adjunct at a few local community colleges.
In the 1980's he just dropped it all and started working for AT&T Bell Labs as an engineer. Nobody knows why, and if pressed he says he doesn't want to talk about it.
Now telecom, especially here in NJ, is in dire straits. We've endured pay cuts, reduced benefits and very long hours just to hold onto our jobs. A lot of failing telecom companies are just a stones throw away from our building - Tyco, Tellium, among others, and we know for a fact that there are about 4,000 well-qualified engineers out there who would love to move into our nice warm cubes if we don't watch our backs.
But, I digress. My point is, he switched from a career in Academia to software engineering and now I'm pretty sure he cries himself to sleep every night.
Dude, you are a doctor, what are you thinking?! Unless you want to be one of those physician-consultants who help nail down requirements for medical equipment like MRI machines or something, don't ruin a good thing!
The answer may be in starting a small, local business. Something that can't be exported. Like a restaurant or bar, or an auto repair/detailing outfit. I have my job in technology, but I see the way the wind is blowing.
You build the game first, and then the player economy grows on top of it. You can't build the economy first. You need to start with a fun game, that people enjoy playing. Once you have that, then they will start thinking about "making money on the side". Additionally, you need a large player base to support the market of virtual goods. Building neat stuff is all well and good, but you need people who want to purchase it. Megadeth said it best, "Peace Sells (but who's buying?)"
Building the mechanism into the game is novel, but encouraging producers and trade is only part of the equation. Consumers play just as an important role!
Anyway, I didn't bother to RTFA, but it looks like this is a gimmic. Trade and sale of virtual goods is verboten in most MMORPG's, but unenforced. You can go to Ebay and sell 100 Million Earth and Beyond Credits or 20 Million Platinum Pieces on any Everquest server, and get real US currency in return. Like, the kind you can spend on things. Not some "subscription discount". Screw that. I want cash for my hard in-game toils!
1 4m a 15 yr 0ld h4X0r/cr4ckX0r, 4nd i th3nk th4t th3s 4rtuka1 t0tal1e SUXXZZ0ORZ!!!! i 4m more s/\/\a4tur then 4ll j00 0lde phart PUNKX0r S1S-4DMINZ c0mbinde!#% JOO PH33R MY 133t \/\/r1t1ng 5K33LZ, i w1ll p1ngn00k joo and fr4ggX0r jur ARSE in c0uNtArStRiEk!!! i am 1337.. 4LL J00R B4S3 R B3L0NGZ 2 US!!!!!
---===[[[{{{N33T-0 31337-0}}}]]]===---[xRc]
st00pid 20 s3kond w4t3.. i wuz dun in 6
Re:Is there time for negative reviews?
on
ChronoSpace
·
· Score: 3, Funny
You didn't have to waste time reading the WHOLE review. Just do what I did... skip to the summary. I saw the rating (1/10 - Boo! Hiss!) and skipped right to the comments to get my troll on!
My company has a cash flow problem. So they started a Salary Deferrment program. All upper managers had to take a 15-20% pay cut for 6 months. The difference will be paid back at the end of the 6 months, when it is assumed that skies are brighter and we can attract some new investors.
It was optional for other employees to participate. I did, donating 10% of my paychecks for 6 months. That was 5 months ago, so I can expect a nice chunk of my money back in about a month. To further motivate us, any non-management who particpated volountarily get a decent chunk of stock. So it's win-win, I help my CEO cut his costs for two quarters, and I get a little equity in the company (which will further motivate me to work hard and keep us from going under).
The only thing that bugs me is it's been almost 2 years and I haven't had a wage increase. If I get to my 2 year anniversary date, they'd better give me at least some sort of wage increase, or I'm walking. Or they can pay for my grad school, that would work too!
Any old-timers who played Tradewars 2002 should take a mosey on down to tradewars.com and browse the screenshots and forums for the new game in development, named Tradewars: Dark Milennium. Hopefully, by this summer, we should have a AWESOME space game will be reborn into this new genre. I can't wait.
Tentatively titled ``Firefly,'' the new ensemble series takes place 500 years in the future and revolves around the crew of a ``small, incredibly mobile spaceship whose aft end lights up,'' Whedon said -- hence the name.
Anyone else smell a rip off?
Seriously though, I really liked this show. The FIRST time I saw it, when it was called RED DWARF!! And the ship was STARBUG, not f#^#$'n FIREFLY, and it was 3 million years in the future and not 500. And the dark place was a nebula full of GELFS!!
The guy who wrote this, whoever he is, is completely pathetic. Yeah, sometimes I get stuck in a game, but I don't let it RULE MY LIFE.
Just a few days ago I was playing FF3, and I accidently let my ninja character get killed by not waiting for him when my party escaped from the floating continent. Yeah, I was bummed, but I didn't start the game over, which is what this chump would have done.
Hey! Man! Play the game once. Books are much more enjoyable if you just read them once through, then put them away. You don't have to focus on every word of every paragraph of every chapter and get it PERFECT to have a good experience.
You're on to something here. Maybe Symantec will sell protection from FBI virii to its Canadian customers. After all, the FBI has no jurisdiction in Canada ...
...that would use a pneumatic launcher to shove a launch vehicle out the back of a military transport aircraft at high altitude (40,000 feet/12,000 meters).
Shoving is the answer!
Shoving will protect you from the terrible secret of space.
Ha ha.. I've heard that joke so many times, it's started to be really funny. I even say it at bars... someone points out the nice rack on this girl who walks in and I yell out "IMAGINE A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THOSE!" and everyone gets real quiet and stares at me like I'm crazy or something....
Wow, does anyone else remember those from Masters Of Orion II research tree? They took forever to research, but they give your ships beam weapons +125% chance of hitting their targets! Man, now I have to crank MOO 2 up again for another go!
Re:No wonder America is viewed as corrupt
on
Message from Kabul
·
· Score: 1
Hey, they don't HAVE to watch those three shows in particular. I don't. They can watch the Hughlies or Weakest Link or the emotionally uplifting stories featured on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. We give them what they want, it's not OUR fault if they want to see scantily clad frolicing and what not.
Slashdot Mirror
Come on people, who here really thinks that Kazaa is going to pay that kind of money to the RIAA?
An even better question is, do they even have that kind of money in the first place?!
More likely Kazaa will just divest themselves of all their assets, loot what they can from the cofers and then declare bankruptcy.
After Fallout and Fallout 2 marathons, I started seeing the barter screen at the drive through booth at McDonalds. When I did finally make it to work, I had the urge to rifle through every bookshelf and cabinet I saw for ammo.
I also had trouble driving home after marathon sessions of GTA2. My first instinct was to drive like a maniac.
In Everquest, there is virtually no control of the money supply. And since very little of the things EQ money is spent on are consumable, there is nothing to take money out of the economy.
Well, I don't know about EQ, but when I was playing Earth and Beyond there was plenty of money draining out of the economy. All items had a durability and quality, and every time your ship got blown up, these values declined, and the item's potency declined with it, until it was either worthless or destroyed. Players would sell their items back to NPC's when they became too damaged or worthless. Also, the crafting system ensured that a lot of money bled out... it was incredibly expensive to learn new blueprints, and even more expensive destroying the raw materials required to build a great item.
I don't care what kind of job I have.
I care about what kind of compensation I get!
Being underemployed sucks. But being undercompensated sucks much worse! If someone were to offer me a job shovelling horse dung 50 hours a week for $120k, you'd better believe I'd jump on it.
Computers are great and all, but at the end of the day I have bills to pay. I think a lot of people have this false idea that "oh well I'll get a job with computers, I like those, so I will be working but it won't feel like work!" Maybe that trick works for some people, but not most. At the end of the day, work is work. If you can trick yourself into enjoying it, that's just super for you. All the rest of us can hope for is decent compensation for our sacrafices.
My current supervisor had a PhD, in Botany I think. He was a college professor who taught as an adjunct at a few local community colleges.
In the 1980's he just dropped it all and started working for AT&T Bell Labs as an engineer. Nobody knows why, and if pressed he says he doesn't want to talk about it.
Now telecom, especially here in NJ, is in dire straits. We've endured pay cuts, reduced benefits and very long hours just to hold onto our jobs. A lot of failing telecom companies are just a stones throw away from our building - Tyco, Tellium, among others, and we know for a fact that there are about 4,000 well-qualified engineers out there who would love to move into our nice warm cubes if we don't watch our backs.
But, I digress. My point is, he switched from a career in Academia to software engineering and now I'm pretty sure he cries himself to sleep every night.
Dude, you are a doctor, what are you thinking?! Unless you want to be one of those physician-consultants who help nail down requirements for medical equipment like MRI machines or something, don't ruin a good thing!
- kengineer
The answer may be in starting a small, local business. Something that can't be exported. Like a restaurant or bar, or an auto repair/detailing outfit. I have my job in technology, but I see the way the wind is blowing.
This game won't fly.
You build the game first, and then the player economy grows on top of it. You can't build the economy first. You need to start with a fun game, that people enjoy playing. Once you have that, then they will start thinking about "making money on the side". Additionally, you need a large player base to support the market of virtual goods. Building neat stuff is all well and good, but you need people who want to purchase it. Megadeth said it best, "Peace Sells (but who's buying?)"
Building the mechanism into the game is novel, but encouraging producers and trade is only part of the equation. Consumers play just as an important role!
Anyway, I didn't bother to RTFA, but it looks like this is a gimmic. Trade and sale of virtual goods is verboten in most MMORPG's, but unenforced. You can go to Ebay and sell 100 Million Earth and Beyond Credits or 20 Million Platinum Pieces on any Everquest server, and get real US currency in return. Like, the kind you can spend on things. Not some "subscription discount". Screw that. I want cash for my hard in-game toils!
Not many good ones to choose from anymore. Me, it's a tossup between law and finance. Technical sales maybe.
:(
I feel like a Sim, quitting his job to start on a better careerpath
h3110 l4mUrz,
1 4m a 15 yr 0ld h4X0r/cr4ckX0r, 4nd i th3nk th4t th3s
4rtuka1 t0tal1e SUXXZZ0ORZ!!!! i 4m more s/\/\a4tur
then 4ll j00 0lde phart PUNKX0r S1S-4DMINZ c0mbinde!#%
JOO PH33R MY 133t \/\/r1t1ng 5K33LZ, i w1ll p1ngn00k joo
and fr4ggX0r jur ARSE in c0uNtArStRiEk!!! i am 1337..
4LL J00R B4S3 R B3L0NGZ 2 US!!!!!
---===[[[{{{N33T-0 31337-0}}}]]]===--- [xRc]
st00pid 20 s3kond w4t3.. i wuz dun in 6
You didn't have to waste time reading the WHOLE review. Just do what I did... skip to the summary. I saw the rating (1/10 - Boo! Hiss!) and skipped right to the comments to get my troll on!
My company has a cash flow problem. So they started a Salary Deferrment program. All upper managers had to take a 15-20% pay cut for 6 months. The difference will be paid back at the end of the 6 months, when it is assumed that skies are brighter and we can attract some new investors.
It was optional for other employees to participate. I did, donating 10% of my paychecks for 6 months. That was 5 months ago, so I can expect a nice chunk of my money back in about a month. To further motivate us, any non-management who particpated volountarily get a decent chunk of stock. So it's win-win, I help my CEO cut his costs for two quarters, and I get a little equity in the company (which will further motivate me to work hard and keep us from going under).
The only thing that bugs me is it's been almost 2 years and I haven't had a wage increase. If I get to my 2 year anniversary date, they'd better give me at least some sort of wage increase, or I'm walking. Or they can pay for my grad school, that would work too!
- Kengineer
Any old-timers who played Tradewars 2002 should take a mosey on down to tradewars.com and browse the screenshots and forums for the new game in development, named Tradewars: Dark Milennium. Hopefully, by this summer, we should have a AWESOME space game will be reborn into this new genre. I can't wait.
- Kengineer
Thanks for the quick review, you saved me the pain of having to read it myself.
.sig!
Also, Jon Katz sucks!
- for great justice take off every
Not a drug store...
So what! Drug laws are unenforced in Amsterdam!
Tentatively titled ``Firefly,'' the new ensemble series takes place 500 years in the future and revolves around the crew of a ``small, incredibly mobile spaceship whose aft end lights up,'' Whedon said -- hence the name.
Anyone else smell a rip off?
Seriously though, I really liked this show. The FIRST time I saw it, when it was called RED DWARF!! And the ship was STARBUG, not f#^#$'n FIREFLY, and it was 3 million years in the future and not 500. And the dark place was a nebula full of GELFS!!
- insert witty line here
The guy who wrote this, whoever he is, is completely pathetic. Yeah, sometimes I get stuck in a game, but I don't let it RULE MY LIFE.
Just a few days ago I was playing FF3, and I accidently let my ninja character get killed by not waiting for him when my party escaped from the floating continent. Yeah, I was bummed, but I didn't start the game over, which is what this chump would have done.
Hey! Man! Play the game once. Books are much more enjoyable if you just read them once through, then put them away. You don't have to focus on every word of every paragraph of every chapter and get it PERFECT to have a good experience.
- kengineer
We sure do. But then Katz will just post his stories as an AC to protect his Karma!
Me? I love Katz. Half my karma comes from mocking him and being a total karma whore. I love slashdot.
- error! cannot find coldbeer.can
Sounds like an Onion headline to me:
Jon Katz Quotes Self
- insert witty phrase here
All these gadgets at our disposal, and we can't even record Bruce's exact words for all to see. A tape recorder could have done it. A sad day.
You're on to something here. Maybe Symantec will sell protection from FBI virii to its Canadian customers. After all, the FBI has no jurisdiction in Canada
...
...
...
... yet.
- kengineer
...that would use a pneumatic launcher to shove a launch vehicle out the back of a military transport aircraft at high altitude (40,000 feet/12,000 meters).
Shoving is the answer!
Shoving will protect you from the terrible secret of space.
Do not trust the pusher robot.
- insert witty sig here
1. Imagine a BEOWULF cluster of these!!!
Ha ha.. I've heard that joke so many times, it's started to be really funny. I even say it at bars... someone points out the nice rack on this girl who walks in and I yell out "IMAGINE A BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THOSE!" and everyone gets real quiet and stares at me like I'm crazy or something....
- kengineer
Wow, does anyone else remember those from Masters Of Orion II research tree? They took forever to research, but they give your ships beam weapons +125% chance of hitting their targets! Man, now I have to crank MOO 2 up again for another go!
- kengineer
Re:Jon Katz Suck Ass!
He's so right.
- kengineer
Hey, they don't HAVE to watch those three shows in particular. I don't. They can watch the Hughlies or Weakest Link or the emotionally uplifting stories featured on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. We give them what they want, it's not OUR fault if they want to see scantily clad frolicing and what not.