A game that requires you to complete challenges in order to gain a reward is, in effect, a treadmill.
Tetris is a treadmill - stack shapes, clear, new level, repeat Doom is a treadmill - Kill enemies, find widget, proceed to next level, repeat. The Sims is a treadmill - Manage daily activities, increase abilities, make money, buy stuff, repeat. Ico is a treadmill - Lead the girl, find widget, kill enemies, solve puzzles, unlock next level, repeat. Metal Slug is a treadmill - Go forward, kill enemies, rescue hostages, find vehicles, find weapons, repeat.
I only point this out because the gaming community has a tendency to grasp on to handy derisive phrases and then repeat them without digging into the meaning.
Anywho...the overall perception of the treadmill is what breeds discontent. It always exists, it is the foundation of just about every reward over time based game play system.
But, if the gameplay is bad or mundane, then the treadmill sticks out. There isn't any gameplay aspect compelling enough to distanciate you (i.e suspension of disbelief and all) from the fourth wall of the underlying mechanics.
However, if the game is good, the treadmill recedes from the forefront of your consciousness, and the decent gameplay it enables takes over.
The real issue here isn't the treadmill concept, but how many times the exact same treadmill has been cloned.
After that murderous bastard was taken down the US (and it's Republican administration) looked upon his installation of video cameras at every street corner as an abomination and further evidence of how evil his totalitarian regime was (and how good we were in comparison).
Amazing how things have so quickly changed in the last fifteen years.
Oh well...Maybe's we'll all get kick ass threads like Duvall in THX-1138. That'd rock.
...if you talk to any developer who has tried to work with Steve Jackson they'll all say relatively similar things:
1) Sure, he's brilliant. 2) He's also Crazy Paranoid. 3) Oh, and he wants gajillions of dollars for licensing a franchise that can be cloned with little to no effort.
I love Steve Jackson Games...Absolutely Love Them.
But Mr. Jackson himself is a bit of an extreme eccentric and that usually doesn't lend itself well to deal making.
...Infogrammes went on a massive buying spree and scored an amazing deal when they took Hasbro's properties.
Hasbro figured out it couldn't make video games so they dumped EVERYTHING. For a million cash and a bunch of now worthless stock, Infogrammes tied up the electronic rights to EVERY Hasbro property for nigh on fifteen years (that's Wizards of the Coast (TSR and all), Avalon Hill, Transformers, etc.).
I wouldn't be so irritated if they exploited these brands properly. However, up until this point Infogrammes has treated the treasures at their disposal much like Atari...as nothing more than names.
Oh well, they've been making positive rumblings for the past few months, so here's to Bruno ditching his "If it can't be played on a plane, or doesn't have the same appeal as a TV show then it's out" mentality and getting back to his ultra-nerd roots.
Maybe the switch to Atari is more than a cynical attempt to bundle the same bad decisions with a friendlier wrapper...maybe it marks a real groundshift in how they approach their business...
Here's hoping for the latter, since we have no other choice for more than a decade.
...what will stop MS from taking the Apple route against folks who clone their GUI?
Or have they tried and been shot down?
Just seems like an avenue with precedent that MS could begin pursuing, especially since Lindows is an unabashed copy and now professional competition...but of course, I'm pretty darn ignorant and Walmart does have a whole bunch of lawyers keeping an eye out on this stuff...
GTA3 is coming out on the XBox according to Rockstar Games.
Re:No GTA3......
on
XBox Released
·
· Score: 2, Informative
GTA3 is coming to XBox according to Rockstar games:-)
Know your Source:Top Ten Stories on the Spectator
on
A Map to Nowhere?
·
· Score: 3
It's always good to know where you get your hard science articles. It helps you keep an unbiased eye on the text, unlike me. I'm a biased know-it-all who hates freedom...thus the following top ten article summaries...Now with links!
See Bush likes the environment (and he really hates China)! Jesse Helms in Mexico! 30% of blacks in Mississippi want the Confederate flag! The Greening of George W. Bush
The damned speak! (Quote:Amen, brother. Southern is the last endangered species, the last ethnic group it's still OK to taunt. If we must suffer to stem the tide of political correctness, then the slings and arrows of outrageous Yankees will have been worthily endured. And thank heavens we have a south-mouth in the White House!) Winning in Hainan
Clinton took a trip and paid for it himself. The Clintons damaged the white house carpet. The Bush administration doesn't know how to keep track of resumes. Clinton's Pay the Price
With all those stories I wonder how the genome story will be interpreted? Most likely with the unblinkingly analytical eye of science! Sheesh!
I'd rather read a Salon writer compare sub-atomic particles to Survivor contestants for five pages than this pap.
You're right...He's never burned a cross on a lawn.
However, little things lead me to think a cloak of civility covers rather nasty beliefs..."procedural delays" used to fight desegregation of Missouri schools...Repeated speaking engagements at Bob Jones U. Of course we can't forget his famous civil war quote in the Southern Partisan, "We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda." The right to own slaves was only one of many issues the Confederacy was fighting for...However I can't understand how one couldn't interpret fighting for the right to own other human beings as a rather perverted agenda.
Sure we've all said things we regret...but I don't think I've ever accidentally given my tacit support to slavery, schools with rules like no interracial dating, or enacting an agenda to squelch school desegregation.
Of course, I'm just a puppet for the left, spoon fed what to say in short sound bytes. Everything above is a bald faced manipulation meant to mislead the public. He's actually just a misunderstood arch-conservative with strong ties to the Christian Coalition. And you know how picky they are with whom they allow to join their little party.
And dammit people read the entire ruling before commenting on the summary posted on/.
Personally, I'm all for a little more diversity, new thinking, and imagination out there...but there should always be a place for cartoony violent fun.
Violent conflict is the easiest form of gameplay to represent. It's immediate, doesn't require a rule book to understand, and is damn fun. Shoot blocks, shoot aliens, shoot zombies, throw dodgeball at face. Kids know this. Take, for example, X-Entertainment's funny breakdown of games we used to play. I mean, just because a kid makes a gun out of paper doesn't mean he's the next Charles Starkweather.
If you are of the unbelievably silly belief that a ban of this sort would in any way reduce the number of violent acts...well I don't know what to say to you...It seems pretty obvious that if people are given more reasons to live and let live through attentive/positive parenting, access to education, as well freedom from poverty and a host of persistent social ills we'll see a dramatic increase in the quality of life.
Remember school violence has actually gone down since 1990. Remember that politicians and media ideologues despise confronting the real issues of society...mainly because the solutions require folks to give up some of their self-serving attitudes and resources (time, money).
This Judge is the first to actually present a reasonable mainstream argument against the ignorant, do-nothing, "I'm not responsible for anything" crowd who likes their solutions quick and stupid. Although describing Mortal Kombat as a feminist game is a tad hilarious, it at least shows someone willing to waste several cycles thinking about as many aspects of the big picture as they are paid to.
Now I have to play some Counterstrike to prepare myself for the reckoning that is to come.
Screw the repurcussions of forwarding love letters or meat pie recipes...with this legal bit in their belt expect Aussie corporations to even more agressively pursue individuals who forward the "The Manager of Company X Hates All of You" memos.
I'm terrified to think of what form the US appropriation of all this legislation (rating systems, anti-mod, copyrighted forwarding) will take.
Sen. Tankerbell: "Well look at all of this handy dandy law making a goin' on Down Under. They've done all the writin' for me, and most of it's in Amurican!"
Funny how no one (except some Gaming Sites)has been extensively publicizing the surgeon general's study on youth violence.
Remember? The study that all the reactionary freaks demanded then claimed would validate their position? Fancy that, it didn't. Now no one wants to talk about it.
Violent media plays no role at all in late onset violence (where a record of violent behavior begins in adolescence).
In violent behavior that begins before age eleven(11) media ranks as the 10th most significant factor behind violent parents, bad parenting, poverty, substance use, and natural agressive tendencies.
So before you reactive momos point your judgemental little fingers away from your own slimy skins, go do a little research. I'd have a harder time cursing you out and laughing behind your back if you had ANY empirical backup.
Although random threats of immortality and stem cell research should be taken with a pound of salt, here's a sobering piece of info for any of you with delusions of seeing the Sun blow up one day...
Just so everyone know, the US has a huge aging research center that takes up what was formerly a chemical weapons lab...
Their research shows that if you remove all of the inherent pitfalls of being crammed in a meatsuit (cancer, stroke, etc.) that it is statistically improbable for anyone to live past 200,000 years.
In that time period one of the many millions of fatal accidents waiting to happen are most likely going to get you. Being eaten by cats, crushed by a slushy machine, or choking on a hunk of thumb cooked into meat-pie being several unimaginative possibilities.
No one province/country/region really has a spot on record for Sci-Fi...
The best Sci-Fi involves a heckuva lot more talking than visuals or action, which means the BBC or PBS are going to have a better time of it...since they still follow the old time Hollywood phrase, "Talk is cheap," and have an audience that (for the most part) isn't afraid of listening to more than 80 words at a stretch.
Star Wars - Fantasy (Hidden Fortress) masquerading as Sci-Fi Alien - Horror/Thriller masquerading as Sci-Fi Aliens - Action/Thriller masquerading as Alien Blade Runner - Noir masquerading as Dick
Good movies all, but not Sci-Fi in much more than setting/props.
Truthfully, most hard sci-fi just doesn't translate terribly well to a two-hour format. Dune seems to be more suited given that it's less of a Sci-Fi story and more a retelling of the Bible.
Of course we've only seen Dino De Laurentis and Alan Smithee (Since Lynch hated the damn thing) attempt to represent it.
What I always wanted to see was the aborted Geiger/Mobius designed version from the late 70's...*sigh*...damn pre-blockbuster budgets.
Here's hoping Phil Tippet can make good for all us hard Sci-Fi fans with Ringworld.
No Fremen booty? Awww...
There's nothing quite like the American fear of language and sexuality..."My Baby saw a Booby and started killin' folk! You'd think all those years of emotional isolation, corporal punishment, and unmoderated access to firearms would have kept him from such actions."
Truth is, Sci-Fi is notorious for butchering films. Even when the content would have been considered acceptable by 1970s standards. I've been unfortunate enough to catch their "version" of Evil Dead 2...They actually cut a few instances where people say the main character's name...thinking Ash was something else. If you want to see that in action, just watch the part of the film where good Ash and Evil Ash first face off.
Thankfully they're not attempting to represent that creepy priestess sex we got in Chapterhouse.
"You mother father!"
Slashdot Mirror
No really...someone tell me.
A game that requires you to complete challenges in order to gain a reward is, in effect, a treadmill.
Tetris is a treadmill - stack shapes, clear, new level, repeat
Doom is a treadmill - Kill enemies, find widget, proceed to next level, repeat.
The Sims is a treadmill - Manage daily activities, increase abilities, make money, buy stuff, repeat.
Ico is a treadmill - Lead the girl, find widget, kill enemies, solve puzzles, unlock next level, repeat.
Metal Slug is a treadmill - Go forward, kill enemies, rescue hostages, find vehicles, find weapons, repeat.
I only point this out because the gaming community has a tendency to grasp on to handy derisive phrases and then repeat them without digging into the meaning.
Anywho...the overall perception of the treadmill is what breeds discontent. It always exists, it is the foundation of just about every reward over time based game play system.
But, if the gameplay is bad or mundane, then the treadmill sticks out. There isn't any gameplay aspect compelling enough to distanciate you (i.e suspension of disbelief and all) from the fourth wall of the underlying mechanics.
However, if the game is good, the treadmill recedes from the forefront of your consciousness, and the decent gameplay it enables takes over.
The real issue here isn't the treadmill concept, but how many times the exact same treadmill has been cloned.
After that murderous bastard was taken down the US (and it's Republican administration) looked upon his installation of video cameras at every street corner as an abomination and further evidence of how evil his totalitarian regime was (and how good we were in comparison).
Amazing how things have so quickly changed in the last fifteen years.
Oh well...Maybe's we'll all get kick ass threads like Duvall in THX-1138. That'd rock.
...if you talk to any developer who has tried to work with Steve Jackson they'll all say relatively similar things:
1) Sure, he's brilliant.
2) He's also Crazy Paranoid.
3) Oh, and he wants gajillions of dollars for licensing a franchise that can be cloned with little to no effort.
I love Steve Jackson Games...Absolutely Love Them.
But Mr. Jackson himself is a bit of an extreme eccentric and that usually doesn't lend itself well to deal making.
...Infogrammes went on a massive buying spree and scored an amazing deal when they took Hasbro's properties.
Hasbro figured out it couldn't make video games so they dumped EVERYTHING. For a million cash and a bunch of now worthless stock, Infogrammes tied up the electronic rights to EVERY Hasbro property for nigh on fifteen years (that's Wizards of the Coast (TSR and all), Avalon Hill, Transformers, etc.).
I wouldn't be so irritated if they exploited these brands properly. However, up until this point Infogrammes has treated the treasures at their disposal much like Atari...as nothing more than names.
Oh well, they've been making positive rumblings for the past few months, so here's to Bruno ditching his "If it can't be played on a plane, or doesn't have the same appeal as a TV show then it's out" mentality and getting back to his ultra-nerd roots.
Maybe the switch to Atari is more than a cynical attempt to bundle the same bad decisions with a friendlier wrapper...maybe it marks a real groundshift in how they approach their business...
Here's hoping for the latter, since we have no other choice for more than a decade.
When discussing tax breaks for SUVs...one need look no farther than here:
SUV tax break may reach $75,000
It's on the Internet! It must be true!
...and it's a Republican majority as well.
Unless you think Renquist, Scalia, and Thomas are out there looking out for our best interests...yikes...
So...let's recap our nations political diversity:
Presidency: Republican
Senate: Republican majority
House: Republican majority
Judiciary: Republican majority
Governorships: Republican majority
Yet somehow (crystal ball on) Republicans will find a way to blame our nations ills on Democrats and Clinton during the 2004 election.
...what will stop MS from taking the Apple route against folks who clone their GUI?
Or have they tried and been shot down?
Just seems like an avenue with precedent that MS could begin pursuing, especially since Lindows is an unabashed copy and now professional competition...but of course, I'm pretty darn ignorant and Walmart does have a whole bunch of lawyers keeping an eye out on this stuff...
I love the AOL icon on the Desktop...Sweet Jeebus are some folks gonna be annoyed...
GTA3 is coming out on the XBox according to Rockstar Games.
GTA3 is coming to XBox according to Rockstar games :-)
The Spectator
(I'm paraphrasing...mostly...exclamation points added for effect...mostly):
- DDT is good! It's really good! Rush even talked about it!
- Scripts and Goofs!
- The DNC, Unions, Dem. Davis, and Dem. Hillary are momos!
- Pres. Bush's Arsenic is good for you!
- People for the american way suck! (Psst And they like the Chinese)
- See Bush likes the environment (and he really hates China)! Jesse Helms in Mexico! 30% of blacks in Mississippi want the Confederate flag!
- The damned speak!
- Genes suck! Submit! Submit!
- Clinton took a trip and paid for it himself. The Clintons damaged the white house carpet. The Bush administration doesn't know how to keep track of resumes.
With all those stories I wonder how the genome story will be interpreted? Most likely with the unblinkingly analytical eye of science! Sheesh! I'd rather read a Salon writer compare sub-atomic particles to Survivor contestants for five pages than this pap.Deadly Green
(Mr. Shows "Scams and Flams" comes to mind)
Scripts and Goofs!
Buildings Romance
Poisoner-in-Chief Is Saving Lives
Creepy People for the American Way
The Greening of George W. Bush
(Quote:Amen, brother. Southern is the last endangered species, the last ethnic group it's still OK to taunt. If we must suffer to stem the tide of political correctness, then the slings and arrows of outrageous Yankees will have been worthily endured. And thank heavens we have a south-mouth in the White House!)
Winning in Hainan
Map to Nowhere
Clinton's Pay the Price
However, little things lead me to think a cloak of civility covers rather nasty beliefs..."procedural delays" used to fight desegregation of Missouri schools...Repeated speaking engagements at Bob Jones U. Of course we can't forget his famous civil war quote in the Southern Partisan, "We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda." The right to own slaves was only one of many issues the Confederacy was fighting for...However I can't understand how one couldn't interpret fighting for the right to own other human beings as a rather perverted agenda.
Sure we've all said things we regret...but I don't think I've ever accidentally given my tacit support to slavery, schools with rules like no interracial dating, or enacting an agenda to squelch school desegregation.
Of course, I'm just a puppet for the left, spoon fed what to say in short sound bytes. Everything above is a bald faced manipulation meant to mislead the public. He's actually just a misunderstood arch-conservative with strong ties to the Christian Coalition. And you know how picky they are with whom they allow to join their little party.
And dammit people read the entire ruling before commenting on the summary posted on /.
Personally, I'm all for a little more diversity, new thinking, and imagination out there...but there should always be a place for cartoony violent fun.
Violent conflict is the easiest form of gameplay to represent. It's immediate, doesn't require a rule book to understand, and is damn fun. Shoot blocks, shoot aliens, shoot zombies, throw dodgeball at face. Kids know this. Take, for example, X-Entertainment's funny breakdown of games we used to play. I mean, just because a kid makes a gun out of paper doesn't mean he's the next Charles Starkweather.
If you are of the unbelievably silly belief that a ban of this sort would in any way reduce the number of violent acts...well I don't know what to say to you...It seems pretty obvious that if people are given more reasons to live and let live through attentive/positive parenting, access to education, as well freedom from poverty and a host of persistent social ills we'll see a dramatic increase in the quality of life.
Remember school violence has actually gone down since 1990. Remember that politicians and media ideologues despise confronting the real issues of society...mainly because the solutions require folks to give up some of their self-serving attitudes and resources (time, money).
This Judge is the first to actually present a reasonable mainstream argument against the ignorant, do-nothing, "I'm not responsible for anything" crowd who likes their solutions quick and stupid. Although describing Mortal Kombat as a feminist game is a tad hilarious, it at least shows someone willing to waste several cycles thinking about as many aspects of the big picture as they are paid to.
Now I have to play some Counterstrike to prepare myself for the reckoning that is to come.
I'm terrified to think of what form the US appropriation of all this legislation (rating systems, anti-mod, copyrighted forwarding) will take.
Sen. Tankerbell: "Well look at all of this handy dandy law making a goin' on Down Under. They've done all the writin' for me, and most of it's in Amurican!"
--HG--
Remember? The study that all the reactionary freaks demanded then claimed would validate their position? Fancy that, it didn't. Now no one wants to talk about it.
That report can be found here:
Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General
To sumamrize another summary of the report:
- Violent media plays no role at all in late onset violence (where a record of violent behavior begins in adolescence).
- In violent behavior that begins before age eleven(11) media ranks as the 10th most significant factor behind violent parents, bad parenting, poverty, substance use, and natural agressive tendencies.
So before you reactive momos point your judgemental little fingers away from your own slimy skins, go do a little research. I'd have a harder time cursing you out and laughing behind your back if you had ANY empirical backup.Just so everyone know, the US has a huge aging research center that takes up what was formerly a chemical weapons lab...
Their research shows that if you remove all of the inherent pitfalls of being crammed in a meatsuit (cancer, stroke, etc.) that it is statistically improbable for anyone to live past 200,000 years.
In that time period one of the many millions of fatal accidents waiting to happen are most likely going to get you. Being eaten by cats, crushed by a slushy machine, or choking on a hunk of thumb cooked into meat-pie being several unimaginative possibilities.
No one province/country/region really has a spot on record for Sci-Fi...
The best Sci-Fi involves a heckuva lot more talking than visuals or action, which means the BBC or PBS are going to have a better time of it...since they still follow the old time Hollywood phrase, "Talk is cheap," and have an audience that (for the most part) isn't afraid of listening to more than 80 words at a stretch.
- Star Wars - Fantasy (Hidden Fortress) masquerading as Sci-Fi
Good movies all, but not Sci-Fi in much more than setting/props.Alien - Horror/Thriller masquerading as Sci-Fi
Aliens - Action/Thriller masquerading as Alien
Blade Runner - Noir masquerading as Dick
Truthfully, most hard sci-fi just doesn't translate terribly well to a two-hour format. Dune seems to be more suited given that it's less of a Sci-Fi story and more a retelling of the Bible.
Of course we've only seen Dino De Laurentis and Alan Smithee (Since Lynch hated the damn thing) attempt to represent it.
What I always wanted to see was the aborted Geiger/Mobius designed version from the late 70's...*sigh*...damn pre-blockbuster budgets.
Here's hoping Phil Tippet can make good for all us hard Sci-Fi fans with Ringworld.
No Fremen booty? Awww... There's nothing quite like the American fear of language and sexuality..."My Baby saw a Booby and started killin' folk! You'd think all those years of emotional isolation, corporal punishment, and unmoderated access to firearms would have kept him from such actions." Truth is, Sci-Fi is notorious for butchering films. Even when the content would have been considered acceptable by 1970s standards. I've been unfortunate enough to catch their "version" of Evil Dead 2...They actually cut a few instances where people say the main character's name...thinking Ash was something else. If you want to see that in action, just watch the part of the film where good Ash and Evil Ash first face off. Thankfully they're not attempting to represent that creepy priestess sex we got in Chapterhouse. "You mother father!"