"This article gives a few scant details at the bottom about how it's accomplished. Apparently they plan to 'offload' part of the work the server does over the internet to your computer's anti-lag card."
Offload what? There's absolutely no reason why you need a specialized card for a fictitious "lag-causing work" function.
"Might be useful in a MMO where 'server lag' does happen."
Again, if there's a function that can be performed on a user's PC, it can be performed on a user's PC already. Any server function of that importance should not trust the client's PC, regardless.
This reads to me like a chiropractor's reliance on "subluxations" as the cure to every disease and disorder known to man.
"I played SWG for over a year. I joined late because I didn't know that Sony is the only MMO company that does not think Credit Cards are the only form of payment in the world."
Good. Credit Cards are another filter for the obnoxious kiddies. It's not foolproof by any means, but if you *really* don't want to pay via credit card you can go to any gaming shop and purchase timecards with cash or check.
I'm sick to holy hell of the series of urban legends perpetuated through myspace. All the kids who didn't go through the FWD: FWD: FWD: BILL GATES TO GIVE 100$ for 1000 forwards> THIS COULD WORK, GUYS! days of email are now interested in the internet through Myspace, and forward all sorts of hoaxes. C'mon people, Bonsai Kitten? "Progesterex the sterilization date-rape drug"?!
At least with email, when I responded to a thread about a hoax the person became so offended that they stopped forwarding me the urban legends they sent to everyone else. I'm not so lucky when it comes to retarded bulletins.
From the article: "If I had to point out a single aspect that keeps the pre-30 game fun, I would have to say that it's the totally eliminated down time between fights. Potion use, or "potting" as the locals put it, is a vital part of the game and the reason why healer classes are unnecessary enough for only one faction to get them. Potions are sold on NPC vendors for bargain prices, enough that it's easy to afford to keep 99-potion piles."
If that's the best they can come up with to attract me to the game, i'm not going to bother. Sure, a change of mechanics would always be appreciated, but it's not the one thing that comes to mind every time I play the current crop of MMORPGs.
"This switch is an investment in the future and will not really pay off fully until the next next gen console at which point everyone else will be playing catch up."
At which point will the developers start taking well to the Cell processor again? It doesn't matter if it's faster on the books if the speed's never properly utilized.
"Still, I doubt I'll be able to get the same experience from the XBOX 360 as I would from a system I've patched, debugged and worked my ass off to get stable and enhanced performance. (Several weeks of device driver hunting, etc)."
Coming from someone who works for a PC OEM, the "experience" you'll be getting will consist of patching, debugging and working your ass off, let alone the device driver hunting.
"I don't mean to piss in your cheerios but I've never even heard of Meridian 59, and I suspect if I poll my [gamer] friends they'll have the same response."
Ask any MMORPGer with experience before Wow and the newer generations and you'll get many more hits.
Oops, they weren't required to pay wages, but the possibility was certainly enough to scare AOL and other companies away from volunteer administration.
"In 1999, Kelly Hallissey and Brian Williams, former Community Leaders and founders of an anti-AOL website filed a class action lawsuit against AOL citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its usage of CLs. The Department of Labor investigated but came to no conclusions, closing their investigation in 2001. In light of these events, AOL drastically began reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000."
Myself, I can certainly understand your points, I help administer a large webforum and have done free services for the good of the community for several years now.
Yeah, I just wish they hadn't appealed to the MMORPG poopsock crowd with "virtual marriages". Keep the awkward sexuality and attached politics out of a simple, fun, and dumb game, for the love of god.
"My point in tongue in cheek comment is that after the first failure, they can go one and release 2.0 which in turn they will release 3.0. Ms version 3.0 is always the first usable version. NT 3, Windows 3.0, Word 6, Explorer 3.0 etc."
Xbox 1.0 was perfectly usable, using the console as a loss-leader is not a "failure". Not to mention that this the console was also driven by Microsoft's need to please stockholders by diversification, growth into other markets. It succeeded with flying colors, even if they haven't made a significant blip on the Japanese market yet.
"What are the chances that a Microsoft will buy Gizmondo North America to enter the handheld market."
Zero.
"To those that say why would MS buy garbage like the Gizmondo. Its because MS doesn't do things very well in their first interation."
? They didn't do significantly bad. There are a lot of great games for the Xbox, and the hardware was certainly competitive. Microsoft has a history of shoddy first incarnations of software, but their hardware divisions have made very quality devices for as long as I can remember.
"Xbox lost a lot of money"
It takes a lot of money to enter an unfamiliar (and unfriendly) market. I don't see how investing in a poorly-run company with questionable practices is the solution to this.
"and things that were not quite right in the first generation got rectified in the Xbox 360 namely the size of the console and size of the controller."
Firstly, while the dual-shock is a great controller for fighting games, the Microsoft controllers have been near the top-of-the-line for PCs for quite some time now. Even though the original controllers were omgsohuge, they were always comfortable. The new gen controllers are top of the heap at this moment.
Seriously, I have no idea why you think this company's worth investing in, and your attacks on Microsoft are laughable. Not that they don't have their own problems, inefficiencies, or reasons for concern, but please pick a functional criticism next time.
"This *might* be one of the greatest games we've ever seen."
I don't think you've been following this story from the start. They don't burn through teams of developers on a regular basis because they're bleeding quality.
Because prejudging a company or a person for their previous actions *is* perfectly acceptable. I'll see how it acts when it's released, and have a clear mind at that point. For now, I have skepticism because of their previous marketing bloat.
Slashdot Mirror
They wouldn't get attention if they were your usual irc buttertrolls.
"This article gives a few scant details at the bottom about how it's accomplished. Apparently they plan to 'offload' part of the work the server does over the internet to your computer's anti-lag card."
Offload what? There's absolutely no reason why you need a specialized card for a fictitious "lag-causing work" function.
"Might be useful in a MMO where 'server lag' does happen."
Again, if there's a function that can be performed on a user's PC, it can be performed on a user's PC already. Any server function of that importance should not trust the client's PC, regardless.
This reads to me like a chiropractor's reliance on "subluxations" as the cure to every disease and disorder known to man.
"I played SWG for over a year. I joined late because I didn't know that Sony is the only MMO company that does not think Credit Cards are the only form of payment in the world."
Good. Credit Cards are another filter for the obnoxious kiddies. It's not foolproof by any means, but if you *really* don't want to pay via credit card you can go to any gaming shop and purchase timecards with cash or check.
Good god these people are shady. Let alone the managers "selling" their stock on ebay.
Good god, yes. I wish there was some wat to vote down these stories.
Hell, some preorders are probably *still* waiting for theirs.
I'm sick to holy hell of the series of urban legends perpetuated through myspace. All the kids who didn't go through the FWD: FWD: FWD: BILL GATES TO GIVE 100$ for 1000 forwards> THIS COULD WORK, GUYS! days of email are now interested in the internet through Myspace, and forward all sorts of hoaxes. C'mon people, Bonsai Kitten? "Progesterex the sterilization date-rape drug"?!
At least with email, when I responded to a thread about a hoax the person became so offended that they stopped forwarding me the urban legends they sent to everyone else. I'm not so lucky when it comes to retarded bulletins.
"Halo 2 is one of the best selling console games ever,"
But it is "one of", regardless of whether it's the best selling ever. 6.4+ million copies is nothing to scoff at.
From the article: "If I had to point out a single aspect that keeps the pre-30 game fun, I would have to say that it's the totally eliminated down time between fights. Potion use, or "potting" as the locals put it, is a vital part of the game and the reason why healer classes are unnecessary enough for only one faction to get them. Potions are sold on NPC vendors for bargain prices, enough that it's easy to afford to keep 99-potion piles."
If that's the best they can come up with to attract me to the game, i'm not going to bother. Sure, a change of mechanics would always be appreciated, but it's not the one thing that comes to mind every time I play the current crop of MMORPGs.
iD software did a bang-up job releasing Wolfenstein ET for free, but examples like that are few and far between.
Binaural recording is done by placing two matched microphones in a simulation of the human head, ear canals and all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural
"This switch is an investment in the future and will not really pay off fully until the next next gen console at which point everyone else will be playing catch up."
At which point will the developers start taking well to the Cell processor again? It doesn't matter if it's faster on the books if the speed's never properly utilized.
"Still, I doubt I'll be able to get the same experience from the XBOX 360 as I would from a system I've patched, debugged and worked my ass off to get stable and enhanced performance. (Several weeks of device driver hunting, etc)."
Coming from someone who works for a PC OEM, the "experience" you'll be getting will consist of patching, debugging and working your ass off, let alone the device driver hunting.
"I don't mean to piss in your cheerios but I've never even heard of Meridian 59, and I suspect if I poll my [gamer] friends they'll have the same response."
Ask any MMORPGer with experience before Wow and the newer generations and you'll get many more hits.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Online#Commun ity_Leaders
Oops, they weren't required to pay wages, but the possibility was certainly enough to scare AOL and other companies away from volunteer administration.
"In 1999, Kelly Hallissey and Brian Williams, former Community Leaders and founders of an anti-AOL website filed a class action lawsuit against AOL citing violations of U.S. labor laws in its usage of CLs. The Department of Labor investigated but came to no conclusions, closing their investigation in 2001. In light of these events, AOL drastically began reducing the responsibilities and privileges of its volunteers in 2000."
Myself, I can certainly understand your points, I help administer a large webforum and have done free services for the good of the community for several years now.
"The GMs are volunteers from the among the players I think... in return for GMing, they get snarky name signs."
n ity_Leaders_Program ), any MMORPG larger than yours (sorry) would have to pay at least minimum wage for GMing.
Thanks to the suit from jerky AOL volunteers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_Online_Commu
"Details like backwards compatibility that Microsoft almost didn't include with the 360 (still didn't - depending who you ask)"
Do you know that the PS3 will support all past games out of the gate? The PS2 doesn't fully support every PS1 game either, you know.
Yeah, I just wish they hadn't appealed to the MMORPG poopsock crowd with "virtual marriages". Keep the awkward sexuality and attached politics out of a simple, fun, and dumb game, for the love of god.
"My point in tongue in cheek comment is that after the first failure, they can go one and release 2.0 which in turn they will release 3.0. Ms version 3.0 is always the first usable version. NT 3, Windows 3.0, Word 6, Explorer 3.0 etc."
Xbox 1.0 was perfectly usable, using the console as a loss-leader is not a "failure". Not to mention that this the console was also driven by Microsoft's need to please stockholders by diversification, growth into other markets. It succeeded with flying colors, even if they haven't made a significant blip on the Japanese market yet.
"What are the chances that a Microsoft will buy Gizmondo North America to enter the handheld market."
Zero.
"To those that say why would MS buy garbage like the Gizmondo. Its because MS doesn't do things very well in their first interation."
? They didn't do significantly bad. There are a lot of great games for the Xbox, and the hardware was certainly competitive. Microsoft has a history of shoddy first incarnations of software, but their hardware divisions have made very quality devices for as long as I can remember.
"Xbox lost a lot of money"
It takes a lot of money to enter an unfamiliar (and unfriendly) market. I don't see how investing in a poorly-run company with questionable practices is the solution to this.
"and things that were not quite right in the first generation got rectified in the Xbox 360 namely the size of the console and size of the controller."
Firstly, while the dual-shock is a great controller for fighting games, the Microsoft controllers have been near the top-of-the-line for PCs for quite some time now. Even though the original controllers were omgsohuge, they were always comfortable. The new gen controllers are top of the heap at this moment.
Seriously, I have no idea why you think this company's worth investing in, and your attacks on Microsoft are laughable. Not that they don't have their own problems, inefficiencies, or reasons for concern, but please pick a functional criticism next time.
"Tiger is a toy company famous for those little portable lcd football games."
Informative? You're talking about Tiger Electronics, not Tiger Telematics.
"This *might* be one of the greatest games we've ever seen."
I don't think you've been following this story from the start. They don't burn through teams of developers on a regular basis because they're bleeding quality.
Could have just been nonsensical marketing-speak.
"Xbox360 sucks because it can't do that."
And the PS3 sucks because it won't do that either. God, you people guzzle down unfulfillable marketspeak like cheap wine.
Because prejudging a company or a person for their previous actions *is* perfectly acceptable. I'll see how it acts when it's released, and have a clear mind at that point. For now, I have skepticism because of their previous marketing bloat.