A couple years ago or so, when many were heralding the imminent doom of PC games when the next-generation consoles (X-Box, PS2, Gamecube) came out, I sneered and jeered along with the rest of them. PC games, affected at all by these upstart consoles? Ha-ha, ho-ho, it is to laugh!
Now comes Starcraft Ghost, and I'm no longer laughing. Sure, they may turn it out for the PC at some point (maybe), but it's obvious the console gamers are now getting first pick at Blizzard's new titles. And this isn't some new Mario title or kart-racing game that I couldn't give a tinker's damn about -- this is Starcraft. That's a big deal.
Not that it will be a selling point for me -- unfortunately, the disposable income to keep up with the technology curve on both the console and PC front is not a luxury I have right now. And so I find myself reacting to the release of a new Starcraft title not with the excitement and joy that I'd hoped, but with mixed disappointment and dread. Gee, thanks, Blizzard.
Dissent? What are you talking about? Post any vaguely Star Wars-related story on Slashdot and you can't swing a dead rat without hitting fourteen Jar Jar jokes, sixty-two statements of outrage over action figures, and eighteen plaintive whines to "free the Phantom Edit."
Dissent implies refusal to conform to the establishment or majority. One look at the moderation totals will tell you that the ranks of the disappointed, the bitter, and the morally outraged exist in far greater numbers.
It doesn't take a brave pioneer to stand up and bash Lucas on his mistakes. Following in the footsteps of a hundred million Usenet posters does not a brave voice of dissent make. Give me a science fiction author who's willing to calmly discuss what Lucas did right. Then you'd have a target for some controversy!
You can't really be that dense. To paraphrase Scott McCloud, this is like lecturing someone who's just been in a car accident for saying "that guy hit me" instead of "his car hit me" or "his car hit my car."
"Big difference between you and your car, pal!" Please. He knew what he meant, and so did you.
The language used is not significant. Mixing one's character up with one's own identity only happens to the mentally ill and in movies adapted from Rona Jaffe.
Editing when it sticks it to George Lucas or other big, evil corporations: Good, and should be legal, because it sticks it to the Man and the Man is evil.
Editing when evil corporations (or organizations) stick it to us: Bad, and should be illegal because we have a right to see the artist's original vision, except when we don't like it, in which case someone should be allowed to edit it, just not corporations, which are evil.
Well, that's it. It's officially cheaper for me to buy an X-Box and Doom III for the X-Box than it will be to upgrade my current machine and buy Doom III for the PC.
My machine is not old or creaky by any means, but looking at the hardware specs, if I really want to play Doom III, it just saves a lot of money to buy the X-Box version instead.
Part of me wonders if that wasn't part of the plan all along.
Or even better, use the money to buy a new book that you haven't read, and add something new and refreshing to your life, instead of filling it up with copies of the same stuff over and over just because your'e a "fan" and therefore "have to have it", which is just an attitude you've been sold so you'll buy their stuff.
I know it's comfortable and intellectually unchallenging to think of everyone who disagrees with you as being mindless sheep who have been "sold" their viewpoints by "the Man," but it's just not so.
I have the book. In fact, I have three editions of the book, and everything else that's been published under his name, and a great deal that's been published ABOUT him as well. Beyond that, my personal library has grown to such prodigious size that I've had to pawn large portions of it off to the local used bookstore more than once. So, I have no problems on that account.
And yes, I bought the LOTR DVD the day it came out. Why? Because I like Lord of the Rings, a lot, and I had a great time watching it. And I am going to continue having a great time watching it until November, when I can see a new version of the film, and have a good time with that, too.
I don't have to purchase any of it, but I choose to because it gives me pleasure. I know it's trendy to feel victimized by entertainment these days, but it's an attitude that's best gotten rid of.
Your choices are your own. New Line is not responsible for how you spend your money, for good or ill.
One is only "screwed and gouged" if they have no choice in the matter of buying one or both. Everyone has the option of buying one, both, or neither. I bought the vanilla version -- I'll buy the other edition in November, because I felt like it. And yes, I went into it with my eyes open and am willing to pay the big, fat, $15 consequences.
Yes, indeed, what WOULD a discussion of Lord of the Rings, Linux, or indeed anything be without a little Lucas-bashing thrown in for -- well, no good fucking reason at all.
I'm not even going to buy it then. I'm going to wait until an asteroid hits the Earth and wipes out most of civilization, then pluck a free copy out of the ashes of one of our once-great video stores. Hey, mathematically speaking, it has to happen eventually.
"Now I like whales and all, but that movie totally sucked... it went from Science Fiction to Freakin' Stupid Fiction."
I disagree, for these reasons:
Spock: Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, "double dumb-ass on you" and so forth. James Kirk: Oh, you mean the profanity? Spock: Yes. James Kirk: Well that's simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word.
Spock: They like you very much, but they are not the hell "your" whales. Gillian: I suppose they told you that. Spock: The hell they did.
Kirk: Spock, where the hell's the power you promised? Spock: One damn minute, Admiral.
It's my personal opinion that Nicholas Meyer is almost single-handedly responsible for the "even numbered Trek movies = good" trend.
Nicholas Meyerwrote and directed Trek II, (co)wrote Trek IV, and directed Trek VI. People who go on about the Moby Dick allegory in First Contact seem to forget that that was first ripped off in II, with Khan as Ahab and Captain Kirk as the great white whale -- a fitting role for Shatner if there ever was one, right? (Oh, come on, what's a Trek post without a mean jab at Shatner?) I think Meyer is half the reason that Trek movies are still getting made at all.
You'll either love it and be blown away, or you'll hate it. I've not met anyone between.
Well, you have now. I watched the first few episodes of NGE and mocked it constantly. I thought it was kind of dopey and slow. By the middle of the series I was hooked; the plot twists and constant complications kept me interested. About two disks from the end I thought I was a die-hard NGE fan.
Then the ending came, and my basic response was: "WHAT THE %$^&*$!?"
Now, yeah, I know all about the problems the NGE crew had with ending it, and all about the two movies that are supposed to explain it all, and all about how a completely incomprehensible Iron John group-therapy session of an ending is more intellectual than your average Dragonball Z spoon-fed fare, yadah yadah yadah. I don't care. I despised the ending, and it made me feel like a sucker for watching the first seven disks of NGE.
So, I didn't like the beginning so much. The middle was terrific. The ending was terrible. So the end result comes out as very lukewarm for me. I DO recommend it (I think that overall, it's good), but I also tell people to stop watching at the seventh disk and just make up their own ending, because it will be better than what they'll see on the screen. Blame whomever you like; the writers, studio heads, or merciless Fate, but NGE is a really good idea with some serious flaws.
And please, don't come out swinging telling me that I "just don't get it." I get it. I just don't like it. And yes, I plan on catching the movies when I can, to see if they can wrap the story up any better.
Why are the mechs in NGE so tall, thin, and dexterous when compared to the echs in other anime series? It's because toy manufacturers have an easier time building short, heavyset mech models.
Yeah, I can attest to that; a friend bought me an NGE model for my birthday a couple years ago, and it wouldn't stop falling apart. It's in a box in my closet right now, in several pieces, collecting dust.
Heh. I've gotten that one too (and about Friends, no less). Though my favorite comes from a girl who was a huge TV watcher. I told her I didn't watch television and she grew outright alarmed. Her response was "What? You don't? How do you LIVE?"
But yeah, I've been accused of being a sanctimonious prick, holier-than-thou, on a pedestal, think I'm better than everyone else, etc. etc. no matter how clearly and often I say I don't give a damn about what anyone else does with their time, up to and including watching all the television they please. I don't really get it.
Slashdot Mirror
A couple years ago or so, when many were heralding the imminent doom of PC games when the next-generation consoles (X-Box, PS2, Gamecube) came out, I sneered and jeered along with the rest of them. PC games, affected at all by these upstart consoles? Ha-ha, ho-ho, it is to laugh!
Now comes Starcraft Ghost, and I'm no longer laughing. Sure, they may turn it out for the PC at some point (maybe), but it's obvious the console gamers are now getting first pick at Blizzard's new titles. And this isn't some new Mario title or kart-racing game that I couldn't give a tinker's damn about -- this is Starcraft. That's a big deal.
Not that it will be a selling point for me -- unfortunately, the disposable income to keep up with the technology curve on both the console and PC front is not a luxury I have right now. And so I find myself reacting to the release of a new Starcraft title not with the excitement and joy that I'd hoped, but with mixed disappointment and dread. Gee, thanks, Blizzard.
Dissent? What are you talking about? Post any vaguely Star Wars-related story on Slashdot and you can't swing a dead rat without hitting fourteen Jar Jar jokes, sixty-two statements of outrage over action figures, and eighteen plaintive whines to "free the Phantom Edit."
Dissent implies refusal to conform to the establishment or majority. One look at the moderation totals will tell you that the ranks of the disappointed, the bitter, and the morally outraged exist in far greater numbers.
It doesn't take a brave pioneer to stand up and bash Lucas on his mistakes. Following in the footsteps of a hundred million Usenet posters does not a brave voice of dissent make. Give me a science fiction author who's willing to calmly discuss what Lucas did right. Then you'd have a target for some controversy!
I know, I know... for God's sake, keep my voice down...
Well, when mobile streaming comes down to where the consumer market can handle it, I may very well agree with you then.
Unless, of course, you want to put some tunes onto your iPod or Nomad and get the hell out of your house for a change.
You can't really be that dense. To paraphrase Scott McCloud, this is like lecturing someone who's just been in a car accident for saying "that guy hit me" instead of "his car hit me" or "his car hit my car."
"Big difference between you and your car, pal!" Please. He knew what he meant, and so did you.
The language used is not significant. Mixing one's character up with one's own identity only happens to the mentally ill and in movies adapted from Rona Jaffe.
That's funny, I'm running PHP on Apache 2.0 and didn't seem to have any problems. Strange.
You mean there's more to the game than fireballing them?
Maybe I should go back and play it again...
So, this issue in a nutshell:
Editing when it sticks it to George Lucas or other big, evil corporations: Good, and should be legal, because it sticks it to the Man and the Man is evil.
Editing when evil corporations (or organizations) stick it to us: Bad, and should be illegal because we have a right to see the artist's original vision, except when we don't like it, in which case someone should be allowed to edit it, just not corporations, which are evil.
That pretty much wrap it up?
ugh, KDE
Well, that's it. It's officially cheaper for me to buy an X-Box and Doom III for the X-Box than it will be to upgrade my current machine and buy Doom III for the PC.
My machine is not old or creaky by any means, but looking at the hardware specs, if I really want to play Doom III, it just saves a lot of money to buy the X-Box version instead.
Part of me wonders if that wasn't part of the plan all along.
How will Playboy and Penthouse stay in business...
You obviously haven't picked up an issue of Playboy lately; their models have been mostly artificial for years.
I know it's comfortable and intellectually unchallenging to think of everyone who disagrees with you as being mindless sheep who have been "sold" their viewpoints by "the Man," but it's just not so.
I have the book. In fact, I have three editions of the book, and everything else that's been published under his name, and a great deal that's been published ABOUT him as well. Beyond that, my personal library has grown to such prodigious size that I've had to pawn large portions of it off to the local used bookstore more than once. So, I have no problems on that account.
And yes, I bought the LOTR DVD the day it came out. Why? Because I like Lord of the Rings, a lot, and I had a great time watching it. And I am going to continue having a great time watching it until November, when I can see a new version of the film, and have a good time with that, too.
I don't have to purchase any of it, but I choose to because it gives me pleasure. I know it's trendy to feel victimized by entertainment these days, but it's an attitude that's best gotten rid of.
Your choices are your own. New Line is not responsible for how you spend your money, for good or ill.
One is only "screwed and gouged" if they have no choice in the matter of buying one or both. Everyone has the option of buying one, both, or neither. I bought the vanilla version -- I'll buy the other edition in November, because I felt like it. And yes, I went into it with my eyes open and am willing to pay the big, fat, $15 consequences.
Good thing I don't preach it, then. I guess I'll leave the preaching to you.
Yes, indeed, what WOULD a discussion of Lord of the Rings, Linux, or indeed anything be without a little Lucas-bashing thrown in for -- well, no good fucking reason at all.
Bitch, bitch, bitch. Whine, whine, whine.
I'm not even going to buy it then. I'm going to wait until an asteroid hits the Earth and wipes out most of civilization, then pluck a free copy out of the ashes of one of our once-great video stores. Hey, mathematically speaking, it has to happen eventually.
"Now I like whales and all, but that movie totally sucked ... it went from Science Fiction to Freakin' Stupid Fiction."
I disagree, for these reasons:
Spock: Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, "double dumb-ass on you" and so forth.
James Kirk: Oh, you mean the profanity?
Spock: Yes.
James Kirk: Well that's simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word.
Spock: They like you very much, but they are not the hell "your" whales.
Gillian: I suppose they told you that.
Spock: The hell they did.
Kirk: Spock, where the hell's the power you promised?
Spock: One damn minute, Admiral.
Nitpicking is how some people enjoy stories. Because they like to pick apart details doesn't mean they don't like it, trust me.
Nicholas Meyer wrote and directed Trek II, (co)wrote Trek IV, and directed Trek VI. People who go on about the Moby Dick allegory in First Contact seem to forget that that was first ripped off in II, with Khan as Ahab and Captain Kirk as the great white whale -- a fitting role for Shatner if there ever was one, right? (Oh, come on, what's a Trek post without a mean jab at Shatner?) I think Meyer is half the reason that Trek movies are still getting made at all.
This is the man they should have given the reins of the badly ailing Trek franchise to. Not, for God's sake, John "The Time Machine / Gladiator / BATS!" Logan. Oh yeah, and the Nemesis director's hasn't got a great pedigree, either.
Free Nicholas Meyer!
John Shirley this, Vernor Vinge that, William Gibson the other... I say the first cyberpunk story is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
You'll either love it and be blown away, or you'll hate it. I've not met anyone between.
Well, you have now. I watched the first few episodes of NGE and mocked it constantly. I thought it was kind of dopey and slow. By the middle of the series I was hooked; the plot twists and constant complications kept me interested. About two disks from the end I thought I was a die-hard NGE fan.
Then the ending came, and my basic response was: "WHAT THE %$^&*$!?"
Now, yeah, I know all about the problems the NGE crew had with ending it, and all about the two movies that are supposed to explain it all, and all about how a completely incomprehensible Iron John group-therapy session of an ending is more intellectual than your average Dragonball Z spoon-fed fare, yadah yadah yadah. I don't care. I despised the ending, and it made me feel like a sucker for watching the first seven disks of NGE.
So, I didn't like the beginning so much. The middle was terrific. The ending was terrible. So the end result comes out as very lukewarm for me. I DO recommend it (I think that overall, it's good), but I also tell people to stop watching at the seventh disk and just make up their own ending, because it will be better than what they'll see on the screen. Blame whomever you like; the writers, studio heads, or merciless Fate, but NGE is a really good idea with some serious flaws.
And please, don't come out swinging telling me that I "just don't get it." I get it. I just don't like it. And yes, I plan on catching the movies when I can, to see if they can wrap the story up any better.
Why are the mechs in NGE so tall, thin, and dexterous when compared to the echs in other anime series? It's because toy manufacturers have an easier time building short, heavyset mech models.
Yeah, I can attest to that; a friend bought me an NGE model for my birthday a couple years ago, and it wouldn't stop falling apart. It's in a box in my closet right now, in several pieces, collecting dust.
Can I have a Mountain Dew?
Yeah. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.
Heh. I've gotten that one too (and about Friends, no less). Though my favorite comes from a girl who was a huge TV watcher. I told her I didn't watch television and she grew outright alarmed. Her response was "What? You don't? How do you LIVE?"
But yeah, I've been accused of being a sanctimonious prick, holier-than-thou, on a pedestal, think I'm better than everyone else, etc. etc. no matter how clearly and often I say I don't give a damn about what anyone else does with their time, up to and including watching all the television they please. I don't really get it.