Though you are correct, I would say Magic is their best known game as it was invented by Richard Garfeild and developed exclusively at WOTC. D&D however was started by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax at their small TSR company before it went belly up about 6 years ago! Although I really like the direction WOTC took the game with 3.0 and to a lesser extent 3.5, I'd still give the majority of the credit back to TSR where it belongs!
But the fact remains that just because M$ would own the Linux port doesn't necessarily mean they're going to pull it from the net and hey they just might use it if they ever work on Alliance II!!
... and the unfortunate truth is that I have yet to find a game that's 100% safe for her. She's been affected by pretty much everything, with the exceptions being Mahjong and Solitaire. Even Tetris Worlds wasn't completely safe as some levels use different lighting effects than others. One trick she's found is that if the room lights are alot brighter than the computer screen it doesn't affect her nearly as much! Hope this helps and I wish your son a speedy recovery!
The only problem is the games she'll enjoy probably won't have voice comm right out of the box. But if you used Teamspeak or Roger Wilco you'd have your voice channel open no matter what games your playing! I'd reccommend Gunbound as my gf spends more time playing it than I do!! It's essentially a free, online only, Worms/Scorched Earth clone but when you win a match you get gold which can be spent on new gear for your avatar! Wait till she sees some of the dresses she can buy! Anywho... hope this helps man, and good luck!
Actually the US has quite... ummm... stringent rules about crypto. For more information I'd suggest reading this article posted by the OpenBSD team. The OpenBSD team is from Canada thusly why they've done so much research on the issue.
... the word of the article is... Capitolism. There is nothing wrong with this. I'm not saying I condone this guy's right to make a high-traffic pr0n portal, but I would say the fault lies with Ubisoft. And the moral of the story, always check your links before you release them to the general public! Kleedrac
-Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, brought a whole new idea into the Console RPG genre by making the two characters in the party controlled on seperate buttons.
-XIII, WOW.
-Ultimate Baseball Online, first MMOSports game.
-Wario Ware, the best way to waste hours on end.
-Battlefield 1942, took FPS's to a new level by adding planes, tanks and automobiles.
-Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, is kinda a sequel but goes to show how popular and great a free game can truly be!
-GBA eCard Reader, the games were mostly rehashed NES titles, but the idea is unique, plus the add-on levels for SMB3 and the deck of cards that forms Mario Party GBA were really unique idea.
And finally, -Temple of Elemental Evil, yes it could be argued that since this absolutely wonderful game has its roots in an old D&D module it's not as original as above. But this game fixed all the problems I had with Neverwinter Nights! NWN takes a turn based game (D&D) and tries to make it realtime. Temple decided to make a true D&D game and then use that engine to recreate one of the kewlest, deadliest, and interesting "Dungeon-Hack" adventures ever printed for D&D. Anyone who likes D&D will love Temple. And anyone who's never played D&D but who likes NWN will probably bitch because they won't understand how much better the translation in Temple is.
These are just my opinions obviously, but if you're looking for original... these are the ones I liked the most!
The only thing I could argue against that would be that if this did go through it would make the trojans and virii not only more noticable, but it would make infected machines almost impossible to work on, thusly resulting in more of them being fixed (cause you can't use a broken computer) and less relays! This does seem to be a fairly good solution. Though I do have to agree that if MS decides to create the method it better be an open standard that every one else can adopt or it'll go the way of BetaMax & OS/2.
All right... I got a little hot-headed in the previous comment and I apologize... I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Congrats on your PhD in Chem, that's quite an achievement. In regards to Access, however, I still don't see how they can claim to be an Internet Service Provider if they're going to censor the web (read: newsgroups) and punish users who may not be savvy enough to stay away from virii. I agree that ignorance is no defense or reason to spew virii, but because I am the one who's constantly getting begged to fix said computer I would appreciate being able to call a tech desk who actually knows what the fuck they're talking about and be able to say "hey wanna turn on the net for a half sec so I can grab a removal tool?" Most of the time I don't know which virus they've got before I make the 1/2 hour drive over there and as such I can't grab the right tool onto a 3.5" beforehand. Thusly I grab the newest 10 or 20 removal tools and burn the CD. This kinda got old after about the 5th time last month! That's why I complain about Access. Image Cable cuts internet from infected systems as well, but if you call the help desk (and talk to a very nice and intelligent man named Marshall) he'll turn it on so you can grab a removal tool. And really that's all I ask. That and if you're gonna offer a free news server to your paying customers don't censor the shit out of it! Thanks for your patience, and again I'm sorry about snapping earlier.
I think you're missing the point. Since when did ISP's become the internet police? Half the guys working the tech desk at Access don't have any certification. Not even a measly A+! No experience either according to their last "Help Wanted" ad. And these untrained monkeys are telling me how to fix a computer? Not correctly installing/administrating a computer? These are my in-laws. They've had a computer for about two and a half years! You think they know how to administrate it? Plus they've got a 16 year old son who's constantly playing. Why should they be punished for this? What's wrong with you. You're at college... damn straight you should be punished for not adminstrating, it should be on your goddamned final exam!
I'm on Sasktel and have found them to be more than acceptable to the point where I know my TOS agreement prohibits me from running "any server" but I have a small web/ftp server running and they don't mind. However Access Cable in Yorkton services my in-laws and several of my friends and I've taken to calling them Bandwith Nazis! They turn off your internet if you are running Kazaa (they check the ports) as well as if you have any virus that uses bandwith at all! This isn't necessarily a bad thing but when I go over to fix it I have to download all the removal tools at home and burn them onto a CD because if I call them asking them to turn it on to grab a removal tool they tell me that they will not turn it back on until the system is clean and suggest a format!! When my in-laws complain about having to pay for an ISP that shuts them off whenever they feel like it they are told that it's all in the contract and there's nothing they can do about it. Luckily I've convinced them to switch in January but I just hate dealing with these people so anyone in Regina/Yorkton SK area PLEASE DON'T GIVE THEM ANY BUSINESS WHATSOEVER!! I really wanna see this company fail. Every one in Saskatchewan would do well to switch to Sasktel, Shaw, or Image and let's put an end to the Bandwith Nazis!! In a side note, they offer a news server but filter it so horribly that you can't connect to over half the newsgroups! This is just my 2 cents.
Only on/. can a man ask an intelligent question seeking the advice of fellow linux users, and get flamed about hardware on over half the posts!! You people need to grow the fuck up! As far as games go; Diablo II works under WineX Wolf:ET is great on a LAN
I think everything else has been suggested. Kleedrac
Is that you want a "perfect" distro where the users decide what happens. The problem inherint in this idea is that the users with the best ideas may not have the skills necessary to code said idea. And the coders may not want to code said idea. And if you try to force people who aren't getting paid into coding something they don't want to you'll have a broken product in the best case scenario. You're distro will die in the worst.
In response to the miriad of comments about Gnome vs KDE pick one and forget the other; Please don't. If you think about it the linux desktop users are pretty much sitting at 40% Gnome, 40% KDE, 20% Other. So by picking one or the other to support you're pissing off about 60% of linux users. You will also start a flame war on/. as to which one you should do. Plus the obvious arguements on the dev team as to which one should be accepted. Personally I like Gnome, but KDE is good too, then again I use Afterstep on my laptop due to low end CPU. Keep these things in mind.
You have a point, but I do believe most of the/. community is not so much defending IBM, but damning SCO because they aren't following the rules. In a copyright infringement you are supposed to recieve a "Cease & Desist" order first. Not only did Linux users globally get a "Cease & Desist" order, but SCO has never told any of us what exactly we are supposed to Cease or Desist! You can't tell somebody "Stop that" and not answer the obvious "Stop what?" you will get in response. And insofar as IBM's involvement, we're sticking up for them because they're sticking up for us who can't afford to fight this bullshit.
I'm sorry if I sound like a dumbass, and I hope this isn't offtopic, but I've been wondering for a while now. What is Lycoris? They're registered as a distribution on http://www.linux.org/ and yet there is no download and as far as I've read in their own support they don't mention what liscense it's released under. Does this OS use the linux kernel, if so what liscense does it use? If it's LGPLed why is there no downloadable source/version? Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions or start a flame war on my behalf.
You can sneak attack a God if he's flanked. They're not immune to Critical Hits therefore they can be sneak attacked. Just because they can't be surprised is nothing;)
IMHO I would think this is MMO because unlike most Multiplayer Sports games, you upgrade, level up, gain new skills, etc. OK, mebbe they should have kept the RPG and not the MMO but that's just semantics isn't it?
No offense but I do believe you missed my point. I wont' argue the "I hate Microsoft" thing because I don't think I could sway you and I'd probably get moderated down to Troll in the attempt. But I will say that if Windows XP Pro were $10 who the fuck would pirate it? Who can't spare $10 for an OS? Or better... who would risk a lawsuit over $10? You can't bankrupt Microsoft, it doesn't work that way. And even if you did Bill Gates is so set for life he wouldn't care, hell, he'd probably buy the second most evil company in existence, SCO.
I would argue a slightly different point;
Piracy doesn't affect price, price affects piracy!
Here's my explanation. I have Windows XP on my main machine (I play games... sue me) and I would buy Windows XP if it cost $100~$200CDN. But the fact that Windows XP Home costs a ridiculous $300CDN I pirate it. I really don't need support. So why the hell would I buy something when I can pirate it and support it myself? If the price were dropped to a reasonable rate I would buy it. I bought MS Office 2003 because they're new "Student & Teacher" edition that costs $200CDN and liscenses 3 computers is worth it. Why would I pirate it when this is easier and a reasonable price. Of coarse if I wanted access the price shoots up to $600 (MS Office S&T $200 + MS Access 2003 $400) and that is retarded. But I try not to use access anyway. I believe the same can be held true for games. When Freedom Force was new I tried the demo and really enjoyed the game! But at the time it was new it was selling for $80CDN and I couldn't justify that to complete the game. Now that it's in the bargain bin for $15CDN I picked it up and am enjoying it again! I know this is a petty excuse to justify software piracy. But I do believe I have a valid point.
As an avid Role-Player myself this rings true to a debate a friend and I have had for years. I play alot of D&D (3.5) and my friend plays Shadowrun. In D&D they came out with a book of Gods & DemiGods and gave them stats that it would probably take 4 - 50th level PC's to take out. As the game only supports level 20 by default (ie minus the Epic Level Handbook) I am of the opinion that that's enough to make sure they won't die should I bring them into a campaign. My friend however pointed out that in the Shadowrun universe any "plot character" such as Harlequin the Immortal Elven Mage has a character sheet that simply states "Harlequin always wins, Harlequin can do anything and everything" And I've argued that this takes away from the game. It's not even a fair playing field! I used to argue that at least the Gods in my campaign, while uber-powerful, had to follow the rules and roll a die before they accomplished something (though the odds of failure were approximately 1 in 20.) This however gives me a new perspective. And I think should my players ever beat a god... I'll give them good loot.
that really make me renew my faith in open-source. This is what it's truly good for in the private sector. I get annoyed every time I hear some kid say that Half-Life should be open-sourced just because the sequel is coming out and it's based on Quake II which is open-source anyways. This is what Open-Source should be though... the company is defunct and the technology would go to waste otherwise... why not give it away under the BSD liscense so you can still get the kudos. Hell, maybe the original developers will get to finish their dream in their spare time!!
Exactly... another case in point is Trillian. They released one hell of a free (not even OSS but just free) IM client. Now that the Pro version is out and they want $20 barely 40% of their user base has bought it!!
Slashdot Mirror
Though you are correct, I would say Magic is their best known game as it was invented by Richard Garfeild and developed exclusively at WOTC. D&D however was started by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax at their small TSR company before it went belly up about 6 years ago! Although I really like the direction WOTC took the game with 3.0 and to a lesser extent 3.5, I'd still give the majority of the credit back to TSR where it belongs!
Kleedrac
But the fact remains that just because M$ would own the Linux port doesn't necessarily mean they're going to pull it from the net and hey they just might use it if they ever work on Alliance II!!
Kleedrac
Ummm ... hate to break this to you Trelane, but if it were under the GPL you aren't allowed to sell any derivatives either as anything you make is GPL!
Kleedrac
... and the unfortunate truth is that I have yet to find a game that's 100% safe for her. She's been affected by pretty much everything, with the exceptions being Mahjong and Solitaire. Even Tetris Worlds wasn't completely safe as some levels use different lighting effects than others. One trick she's found is that if the room lights are alot brighter than the computer screen it doesn't affect her nearly as much! Hope this helps and I wish your son a speedy recovery!
Kleedrac
Hey man,
... hope this helps man, and good luck!
The only problem is the games she'll enjoy probably won't have voice comm right out of the box. But if you used Teamspeak or Roger Wilco you'd have your voice channel open no matter what games your playing! I'd reccommend Gunbound as my gf spends more time playing it than I do!! It's essentially a free, online only, Worms/Scorched Earth clone but when you win a match you get gold which can be spent on new gear for your avatar! Wait till she sees some of the dresses she can buy! Anywho
Kleedrac
Actually the US has quite ... ummm ... stringent rules about crypto. For more information I'd suggest reading this article posted by the OpenBSD team. The OpenBSD team is from Canada thusly why they've done so much research on the issue.
... the word of the article is ... Capitolism. There is nothing wrong with this. I'm not saying I condone this guy's right to make a high-traffic pr0n portal, but I would say the fault lies with Ubisoft. And the moral of the story, always check your links before you release them to the general public!
Kleedrac
This year I'd say the best original games were;
... these are the ones I liked the most!
-Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, brought a whole new idea into the Console RPG genre by making the two characters in the party controlled on seperate buttons.
-XIII, WOW.
-Ultimate Baseball Online, first MMOSports game.
-Wario Ware, the best way to waste hours on end.
-Battlefield 1942, took FPS's to a new level by adding planes, tanks and automobiles.
-Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, is kinda a sequel but goes to show how popular and great a free game can truly be!
-GBA eCard Reader, the games were mostly rehashed NES titles, but the idea is unique, plus the add-on levels for SMB3 and the deck of cards that forms Mario Party GBA were really unique idea.
And finally,
-Temple of Elemental Evil, yes it could be argued that since this absolutely wonderful game has its roots in an old D&D module it's not as original as above. But this game fixed all the problems I had with Neverwinter Nights! NWN takes a turn based game (D&D) and tries to make it realtime. Temple decided to make a true D&D game and then use that engine to recreate one of the kewlest, deadliest, and interesting "Dungeon-Hack" adventures ever printed for D&D. Anyone who likes D&D will love Temple. And anyone who's never played D&D but who likes NWN will probably bitch because they won't understand how much better the translation in Temple is.
These are just my opinions obviously, but if you're looking for original
Kleedrac
The only thing I could argue against that would be that if this did go through it would make the trojans and virii not only more noticable, but it would make infected machines almost impossible to work on, thusly resulting in more of them being fixed (cause you can't use a broken computer) and less relays! This does seem to be a fairly good solution. Though I do have to agree that if MS decides to create the method it better be an open standard that every one else can adopt or it'll go the way of BetaMax & OS/2.
Kleedrac
All right ... I got a little hot-headed in the previous comment and I apologize ... I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Congrats on your PhD in Chem, that's quite an achievement. In regards to Access, however, I still don't see how they can claim to be an Internet Service Provider if they're going to censor the web (read: newsgroups) and punish users who may not be savvy enough to stay away from virii. I agree that ignorance is no defense or reason to spew virii, but because I am the one who's constantly getting begged to fix said computer I would appreciate being able to call a tech desk who actually knows what the fuck they're talking about and be able to say "hey wanna turn on the net for a half sec so I can grab a removal tool?" Most of the time I don't know which virus they've got before I make the 1/2 hour drive over there and as such I can't grab the right tool onto a 3.5" beforehand. Thusly I grab the newest 10 or 20 removal tools and burn the CD. This kinda got old after about the 5th time last month! That's why I complain about Access. Image Cable cuts internet from infected systems as well, but if you call the help desk (and talk to a very nice and intelligent man named Marshall) he'll turn it on so you can grab a removal tool. And really that's all I ask. That and if you're gonna offer a free news server to your paying customers don't censor the shit out of it! Thanks for your patience, and again I'm sorry about snapping earlier.
Kleedrac
I think you're missing the point. Since when did ISP's become the internet police? Half the guys working the tech desk at Access don't have any certification. Not even a measly A+! No experience either according to their last "Help Wanted" ad. And these untrained monkeys are telling me how to fix a computer? Not correctly installing/administrating a computer? These are my in-laws. They've had a computer for about two and a half years! You think they know how to administrate it? Plus they've got a 16 year old son who's constantly playing. Why should they be punished for this? What's wrong with you. You're at college ... damn straight you should be punished for not adminstrating, it should be on your goddamned final exam!
Kleedrac
I'm on Sasktel and have found them to be more than acceptable to the point where I know my TOS agreement prohibits me from running "any server" but I have a small web/ftp server running and they don't mind. However Access Cable in Yorkton services my in-laws and several of my friends and I've taken to calling them Bandwith Nazis! They turn off your internet if you are running Kazaa (they check the ports) as well as if you have any virus that uses bandwith at all! This isn't necessarily a bad thing but when I go over to fix it I have to download all the removal tools at home and burn them onto a CD because if I call them asking them to turn it on to grab a removal tool they tell me that they will not turn it back on until the system is clean and suggest a format!! When my in-laws complain about having to pay for an ISP that shuts them off whenever they feel like it they are told that it's all in the contract and there's nothing they can do about it. Luckily I've convinced them to switch in January but I just hate dealing with these people so anyone in Regina/Yorkton SK area PLEASE DON'T GIVE THEM ANY BUSINESS WHATSOEVER!! I really wanna see this company fail. Every one in Saskatchewan would do well to switch to Sasktel, Shaw, or Image and let's put an end to the Bandwith Nazis!! In a side note, they offer a news server but filter it so horribly that you can't connect to over half the newsgroups! This is just my 2 cents.
Kleedrac
Only on /. can a man ask an intelligent question seeking the advice of fellow linux users, and get flamed about hardware on over half the posts!! You people need to grow the fuck up! As far as games go;
Diablo II works under WineX
Wolf:ET is great on a LAN
I think everything else has been suggested.
Kleedrac
Is that you want a "perfect" distro where the users decide what happens. The problem inherint in this idea is that the users with the best ideas may not have the skills necessary to code said idea. And the coders may not want to code said idea. And if you try to force people who aren't getting paid into coding something they don't want to you'll have a broken product in the best case scenario. You're distro will die in the worst.
/. as to which one you should do. Plus the obvious arguements on the dev team as to which one should be accepted. Personally I like Gnome, but KDE is good too, then again I use Afterstep on my laptop due to low end CPU. Keep these things in mind.
In response to the miriad of comments about Gnome vs KDE pick one and forget the other; Please don't. If you think about it the linux desktop users are pretty much sitting at 40% Gnome, 40% KDE, 20% Other. So by picking one or the other to support you're pissing off about 60% of linux users. You will also start a flame war on
Kleedrac
You have a point, but I do believe most of the /. community is not so much defending IBM, but damning SCO because they aren't following the rules. In a copyright infringement you are supposed to recieve a "Cease & Desist" order first. Not only did Linux users globally get a "Cease & Desist" order, but SCO has never told any of us what exactly we are supposed to Cease or Desist! You can't tell somebody "Stop that" and not answer the obvious "Stop what?" you will get in response. And insofar as IBM's involvement, we're sticking up for them because they're sticking up for us who can't afford to fight this bullshit.
Kleedrac
I'm sorry if I sound like a dumbass, and I hope this isn't offtopic, but I've been wondering for a while now. What is Lycoris? They're registered as a distribution on http://www.linux.org/ and yet there is no download and as far as I've read in their own support they don't mention what liscense it's released under. Does this OS use the linux kernel, if so what liscense does it use? If it's LGPLed why is there no downloadable source/version? Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions or start a flame war on my behalf.
Kleedrac
But the irony of it all is that if it weren't for /. you wouldn't know about the site!
Kleedrac
You can sneak attack a God if he's flanked. They're not immune to Critical Hits therefore they can be sneak attacked. Just because they can't be surprised is nothing ;)
Kleedrac
IMHO I would think this is MMO because unlike most Multiplayer Sports games, you upgrade, level up, gain new skills, etc. OK, mebbe they should have kept the RPG and not the MMO but that's just semantics isn't it?
Kleedrac
No offense but I do believe you missed my point. I wont' argue the "I hate Microsoft" thing because I don't think I could sway you and I'd probably get moderated down to Troll in the attempt. But I will say that if Windows XP Pro were $10 who the fuck would pirate it? Who can't spare $10 for an OS? Or better ... who would risk a lawsuit over $10? You can't bankrupt Microsoft, it doesn't work that way. And even if you did Bill Gates is so set for life he wouldn't care, hell, he'd probably buy the second most evil company in existence, SCO.
Kleedrac
I would argue a slightly different point;
... sue me) and I would buy Windows XP if it cost $100~$200CDN. But the fact that Windows XP Home costs a ridiculous $300CDN I pirate it. I really don't need support. So why the hell would I buy something when I can pirate it and support it myself? If the price were dropped to a reasonable rate I would buy it. I bought MS Office 2003 because they're new "Student & Teacher" edition that costs $200CDN and liscenses 3 computers is worth it. Why would I pirate it when this is easier and a reasonable price. Of coarse if I wanted access the price shoots up to $600 (MS Office S&T $200 + MS Access 2003 $400) and that is retarded. But I try not to use access anyway. I believe the same can be held true for games. When Freedom Force was new I tried the demo and really enjoyed the game! But at the time it was new it was selling for $80CDN and I couldn't justify that to complete the game. Now that it's in the bargain bin for $15CDN I picked it up and am enjoying it again! I know this is a petty excuse to justify software piracy. But I do believe I have a valid point.
Piracy doesn't affect price, price affects piracy!
Here's my explanation. I have Windows XP on my main machine (I play games
Kleedrac
As an avid Role-Player myself this rings true to a debate a friend and I have had for years. I play alot of D&D (3.5) and my friend plays Shadowrun. In D&D they came out with a book of Gods & DemiGods and gave them stats that it would probably take 4 - 50th level PC's to take out. As the game only supports level 20 by default (ie minus the Epic Level Handbook) I am of the opinion that that's enough to make sure they won't die should I bring them into a campaign. My friend however pointed out that in the Shadowrun universe any "plot character" such as Harlequin the Immortal Elven Mage has a character sheet that simply states "Harlequin always wins, Harlequin can do anything and everything" And I've argued that this takes away from the game. It's not even a fair playing field! I used to argue that at least the Gods in my campaign, while uber-powerful, had to follow the rules and roll a die before they accomplished something (though the odds of failure were approximately 1 in 20.) This however gives me a new perspective. And I think should my players ever beat a god ... I'll give them good loot.
Kleedrac
that really make me renew my faith in open-source. This is what it's truly good for in the private sector. I get annoyed every time I hear some kid say that Half-Life should be open-sourced just because the sequel is coming out and it's based on Quake II which is open-source anyways. This is what Open-Source should be though ... the company is defunct and the technology would go to waste otherwise ... why not give it away under the BSD liscense so you can still get the kudos. Hell, maybe the original developers will get to finish their dream in their spare time!!
Exactly ... another case in point is Trillian. They released one hell of a free (not even OSS but just free) IM client. Now that the Pro version is out and they want $20 barely 40% of their user base has bought it!!
Kleedrac
I freaking wish.
Kleedrac