Lara Croft isn't the Final Girl because she's not simply beset upon by danger like the victims in slasher movies. She is from a family of archeologists and she willingly places herself in dangerous situations in the name of exploration (and perhaps wealth and fame?)
Do they mean track down ALL users or those who have specifically had a warrant filed against them?
Usually any time information is collected, they also file gag orders against the ISPs preventing them from telling anyone what information was taken, or why.
"Oh crap! This movie theater/church is on fire and the door is blocked!"
"Don't worry, I'll call 911 on my cell phone... uh oh... it's not working for some reason."
Sort of a long shot I know, and hopefully people outside would still call for help, but I'm sure sooner or later some sort of "good" transmission would also be blocked.
Is inventing a cell-phone blocking paint really easier than people just taking an ounce of effort in the name of common courtesy in public spaces?
Another state gets added to me "Don't Live There" list!
If enough states make enough different laws and people move to one that matches their values, eventually all like-minded people will live in a state suited to all their whims.
WoW has instanced content. Even if a guild beats Ragnaros before you do, there's nothing they can do to cut your guild off from fighting him as well- you have your own copy waiting for you in your own private copy of Molten Core. If you can't get to him, it's not that other guild's fault- it's because your guild hasn't yet learned the complicated choreography and timing required. The example of Kazzak, Azeuregos, and the green dragons is closer- but those world bosses are only a very small part of the world. You can gear yourself adequately and never fight them at all.
Everyone starts WoW with an equally equipped level one character, just like everyone starts Street Fighter with an equally equipped character. Through the course of the game, decisions will be made that put one side in a better advantage. In WoW, the better decisions could easily include finding 4 people you can cooperate with effectively (a valuable real-world skill) to run the 5man dungeons. You can 5man your way to 60 no problem. At the end-game finding a 40man guild can be a very profitable decision that can give you a major advantage, or perhaps finding a 10man PvP team to play with. The more advantages you have, the more you will gain. If you earn good gear at level 50, you will be better equipped to gain good gear at 60. This isn't really that different than Street Fighter- if you open up with a bold flying fierce jump kick and get your opponent to 50% life while you still have 100%, you'll have a life advantage in that you will be able to simply absorb a few attacks to set up your finishing moves while they will not be able to do the same.
The fact that everyone in WoW starts off equal but some people make choices that give them a better advantage in the long run is the same in both games, the only real difference is Street Fighter can be over in 30 seconds, while WoW could run its course of 3000 hours for hardcore players. Decisions players made in their 2000th hour could give them extreme leverage in their 3000th hour over players who had not been playing as long. But WoW doesn't even have to be competitive unless you choose to PvP. Street Fighter is a zero sum game- you can only win by defeating your opponent. In WoW, you can work together to mutually benefit and succeed. (Example- A priest and warrior team up, and the priest keeps the cloth armor they find and the warrior keeps the plate. They both win.) We could just as ask "What kind of lessons is Street Fighter teaching us, where there isn't even such a thing as a win-win situation?!"
Finally, equating WoW to hitting Fierce 6000 times isn't very apt. The endgame instances require that the seven classes work together extremely well, with proper timing and positioning. It's approximately as complicated as teaching a 40 person choir to sing a song of mid-level complexity- except if too many people sing too many wrong notes (let's say more than 10% wrong notes), they're not allowed to sing anymore and if everyone is silenced you have to start that song over from the beginning. At its most simple, it's at least like having three people repeatedly hit Fierce, five people hitting Medium, two people hitting Weak, three people hitting Low Strong Kic,etc etck.... and if they do it too much, too little, or at the wrong time, everyone dies. (A single person making a single wrong move or failing to make the right move with positioning can end the entire encounter in Blackwing Lair at Vaelastraz and many of the other bosses.)
Let's start by assuming that at least some of the audience of Blizzard games is young, immature, and homophobic. Sound reasonable so far? I can imagine a group of d00ds forming a sort of wolf pack, competing to see who can come up with the most hatefully homophobic comments, and slapping each other on the back each time they managed to say something even worse. Putting down the homosexual people makes them feel like they are strong and fighting for a cause. Sound believable? I know I can imagine it.
Then imagine a guild that openly advertises that all its members are homosexual.
GLBT Guild: "We want to form a guild about Gay/Lesbian acceptance, openly advertising to all the immature and homophobic internet kiddies about how gay we are."
Blizzard:"Uh..... you probably don't want to do that. You seriously, seriously don't want to do that. For your own good, please, please don't do this."
I heard their response not as "it's wrong to promote this" but more as "you guys are going to get reamed by the hordes of kiddies and doods, we can't stop them all, but they can't harass you if you don't advertise. So don't advertise.... please??"
Some of provisions cited in TFA sound like they could affect people's ability to play and record their own original compositions, even if there was no connection to any of the major record labels at all!
There is a bit of a connection- independent compositions represent competition!
It makes sense to me that PC Gamer wouldn't carry adds for WoW gold sellers. Gold selling or doing anything in game to make money in the real world is expressly forbidden in the terms of service, although enforcement varies. PC Gamer advertising for gold-selling services would be like a magazine about olympic sports advertising low-cast steroids to help improve your game.
The country of origin for the gold sellers doesn't much matter compared to the fact that they're not supposed to be offering those services at all.
"The second major portion is the implementation of "Fast Action Combat." We're going to strip out the current SWG "select target, start macros, wait for combat to end" gameplay and replace it with a much more engrossing, entertaining control scheme. "Fast Action combat" controls will be similar to action games that our playerbase is intimately familiar with (Diablo certainly comes to mind, as well as our own Untold Legends game for the PSP)." -John Smedley
"We're going to take down Blizzard's hit new game, World of Warcraft, by making our game feel more like Blizzard's ancient but still enjoyable game, Diablo! You hear that, WoW? You're going dooooooowwwnn!!"
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes
They specifically say you can't make compound names, including adding a rank or title to your name, such as LordBritish or BaronVonChocula. Commander is no different.
There's also the issue that if you are Alliance and you PvP to Rank 11, you will obtain the title of Commander. Commander CmdrTaco, that's just perfect.
My server (Silver Hand!) has a paladin named Obvious. We're all hoping she'll obtain the rank of Captain.
The record labels want a percentage of iPod hardware sales? You can put a lot of things on an iPod besides record label-licensed music. They get money when their particular songs are bought, not from the hardware itself.
I wonder if in their mind they really see themselves as having the only content worth putting on an iPod.
Slashdot Mirror
in other news, the following sites were registered recently:
www.wiitarded.com
www.wiidiculous.com
Lara Croft isn't the Final Girl because she's not simply beset upon by danger like the victims in slasher movies. She is from a family of archeologists and she willingly places herself in dangerous situations in the name of exploration (and perhaps wealth and fame?)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lara_Croft
Do they mean track down ALL users or those who have specifically had a warrant filed against them?
Usually any time information is collected, they also file gag orders against the ISPs preventing them from telling anyone what information was taken, or why.
Toss one of these in the trunk of your car (or hidden in a wheel well or wherever) and it's that much easier to find if your car ever gets stolen.
Similarly, in Mario Kart, Bowser and Donkey Kong, (and lately Wario), have the slowest accelerations, but achieve the highest top speeds!
Will this decision in any way affect World of Warcraft's "Buyout" button on the Auction House?
No? Phew.
"Oh crap! This movie theater/church is on fire and the door is blocked!"
"Don't worry, I'll call 911 on my cell phone... uh oh... it's not working for some reason."
Sort of a long shot I know, and hopefully people outside would still call for help, but I'm sure sooner or later some sort of "good" transmission would also be blocked.
Is inventing a cell-phone blocking paint really easier than people just taking an ounce of effort in the name of common courtesy in public spaces?
Another state gets added to me "Don't Live There" list!
If enough states make enough different laws and people move to one that matches their values, eventually all like-minded people will live in a state suited to all their whims.
WoW has instanced content. Even if a guild beats Ragnaros before you do, there's nothing they can do to cut your guild off from fighting him as well- you have your own copy waiting for you in your own private copy of Molten Core. If you can't get to him, it's not that other guild's fault- it's because your guild hasn't yet learned the complicated choreography and timing required. The example of Kazzak, Azeuregos, and the green dragons is closer- but those world bosses are only a very small part of the world. You can gear yourself adequately and never fight them at all.
Everyone starts WoW with an equally equipped level one character, just like everyone starts Street Fighter with an equally equipped character. Through the course of the game, decisions will be made that put one side in a better advantage. In WoW, the better decisions could easily include finding 4 people you can cooperate with effectively (a valuable real-world skill) to run the 5man dungeons. You can 5man your way to 60 no problem. At the end-game finding a 40man guild can be a very profitable decision that can give you a major advantage, or perhaps finding a 10man PvP team to play with. The more advantages you have, the more you will gain. If you earn good gear at level 50, you will be better equipped to gain good gear at 60. This isn't really that different than Street Fighter- if you open up with a bold flying fierce jump kick and get your opponent to 50% life while you still have 100%, you'll have a life advantage in that you will be able to simply absorb a few attacks to set up your finishing moves while they will not be able to do the same.
The fact that everyone in WoW starts off equal but some people make choices that give them a better advantage in the long run is the same in both games, the only real difference is Street Fighter can be over in 30 seconds, while WoW could run its course of 3000 hours for hardcore players. Decisions players made in their 2000th hour could give them extreme leverage in their 3000th hour over players who had not been playing as long. But WoW doesn't even have to be competitive unless you choose to PvP. Street Fighter is a zero sum game- you can only win by defeating your opponent. In WoW, you can work together to mutually benefit and succeed. (Example- A priest and warrior team up, and the priest keeps the cloth armor they find and the warrior keeps the plate. They both win.) We could just as ask "What kind of lessons is Street Fighter teaching us, where there isn't even such a thing as a win-win situation?!"
Finally, equating WoW to hitting Fierce 6000 times isn't very apt. The endgame instances require that the seven classes work together extremely well, with proper timing and positioning. It's approximately as complicated as teaching a 40 person choir to sing a song of mid-level complexity- except if too many people sing too many wrong notes (let's say more than 10% wrong notes), they're not allowed to sing anymore and if everyone is silenced you have to start that song over from the beginning. At its most simple, it's at least like having three people repeatedly hit Fierce, five people hitting Medium, two people hitting Weak, three people hitting Low Strong Kic,etc etck.... and if they do it too much, too little, or at the wrong time, everyone dies. (A single person making a single wrong move or failing to make the right move with positioning can end the entire encounter in Blackwing Lair at Vaelastraz and many of the other bosses.)
I'm on an RP server, so we say "Lament further, novice!"
Can you imagine the poor child with two Tauren daddies? Or two undead mommies?
Shouldn't that be two undead mummies?
Let's start by assuming that at least some of the audience of Blizzard games is young, immature, and homophobic. Sound reasonable so far? I can imagine a group of d00ds forming a sort of wolf pack, competing to see who can come up with the most hatefully homophobic comments, and slapping each other on the back each time they managed to say something even worse. Putting down the homosexual people makes them feel like they are strong and fighting for a cause. Sound believable? I know I can imagine it.
Then imagine a guild that openly advertises that all its members are homosexual.
GLBT Guild: "We want to form a guild about Gay/Lesbian acceptance, openly advertising to all the immature and homophobic internet kiddies about how gay we are."
Blizzard:"Uh..... you probably don't want to do that. You seriously, seriously don't want to do that. For your own good, please, please don't do this."
I heard their response not as "it's wrong to promote this" but more as "you guys are going to get reamed by the hordes of kiddies and doods, we can't stop them all, but they can't harass you if you don't advertise. So don't advertise.... please??"
Some of provisions cited in TFA sound like they could affect people's ability to play and record their own original compositions, even if there was no connection to any of the major record labels at all!
There is a bit of a connection- independent compositions represent competition!
It makes sense to me that PC Gamer wouldn't carry adds for WoW gold sellers. Gold selling or doing anything in game to make money in the real world is expressly forbidden in the terms of service, although enforcement varies. PC Gamer advertising for gold-selling services would be like a magazine about olympic sports advertising low-cast steroids to help improve your game.
The country of origin for the gold sellers doesn't much matter compared to the fact that they're not supposed to be offering those services at all.
That's a shame, because showing you would have been as simple as hitting Ctrl +R, the FPS hotkey.
Can this "GoogleOS" run World of Warcraft?
"Only" 75% of Sweedish youth eligible to vote do so? I strongly suspect that percentage is sky high compared to american youth voter turnout!
s heets.htm
Googling...
Googling...
Yup! American Voters aged 18-24 come up with numbers like 36%.
http://www.civicyouth.org/research/products/fact_
"Oh, it's not a bomb, it's an... Xbox 360!"
"We'd, uh, we'd better get this back to the lab for.... additional tsting."
"Yeah....testing."
"The second major portion is the implementation of "Fast Action Combat." We're going to strip out the current SWG "select target, start macros, wait for combat to end" gameplay and replace it with a much more engrossing, entertaining control scheme. "Fast Action combat" controls will be similar to action games that our playerbase is intimately familiar with (Diablo certainly comes to mind, as well as our own Untold Legends game for the PSP)." -John Smedley
/ 1559208&tid=101
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/10
"We're going to take down Blizzard's hit new game, World of Warcraft, by making our game feel more like Blizzard's ancient but still enjoyable game, Diablo! You hear that, WoW? You're going dooooooowwwnn!!"
Google's Gmail works so well in "beta" form I could use it the rest of my life as is.
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes
They specifically say you can't make compound names, including adding a rank or title to your name, such as LordBritish or BaronVonChocula. Commander is no different.
There's also the issue that if you are Alliance and you PvP to Rank 11, you will obtain the title of Commander. Commander CmdrTaco, that's just perfect.
My server (Silver Hand!) has a paladin named Obvious. We're all hoping she'll obtain the rank of Captain.
This guy is worried about budget, yet even with the "low power" usage of the petabox it would still use 50kW for one petabyte of storage!
Interesting to think about. My brain probably holds about a petabyte of memories and it uses 20-60 watts. Mostly from sugar.
EA can produce games that millions of people want. Indie teams produce games that thousands of people want.
There's nothing wrong with fulfilling the wants of thousands instead of millions.
The record labels want a percentage of iPod hardware sales? You can put a lot of things on an iPod besides record label-licensed music. They get money when their particular songs are bought, not from the hardware itself.
I wonder if in their mind they really see themselves as having the only content worth putting on an iPod.