That makes two of us. I have Steam on my machine for playing Day Of Defeat, but that was a free addition to HL 1. I won't pay 50 Euros for a game that depends on something like Steam to run, especially considering the dubious reliability of steam.
Another point is, what happens if Valve discontinues Steam one day or starts charging a monthly fee?
Once I find HL2 on the rummage table for 10 Euros, I might reconsider, but that is certainly not the sort of revenue Valve had in mind.
But also true for the opposition. If you read, for instance, the forum at http://www.heise.de/ (german IT publisher) you will find plenty of Linux extremists but even more Windows fanboys.
The resulting flamewars range from halfway funny to utterly stupid. Frequently, the standard of the discussion is even lower than on Slashdot, and the Windows fans are just as responsible for the mud-slinging as the Linux crowd.
Heh. If so, it might be an interesting challenge to run a genetic algorithm against the program, trying to "evolve" the paper into a perfect match for Qualrus' preferences.
If done successfully, you might get a good grade in sociology for something that would deserve a good grade in computer science;-)
The Northwood was a good chip, and IMHO the only one in the P4 series that was really worth its money.
But the 90nm Athlons are even better, with real-live power consumption (3500+ at default clock speed) below 40 watts according to some magazines. Performance is by now also better than the Northwood ever was.
I wonder if Intel will ever officially market the Pentium M as a desktop processor (I know that some vendors are pushing it in barebones by now). It is the only chip from Intel that could compete with the Athlon64 in the "cool but fast" department.
For a while, just copying the binaries would work. The EU economy could survive on Windows 2000 in the short run (has no activation scheme that might or might not be successfully cracked). Of course, the pressure to switch to MacOS, Linux or BSD would be enourmous and greatly increase the marketshare of these systems
WoW is the first MMOG to try and blend the successful gameplay of counter-strike and everquest into the same game. [...]. If they do it right...the could dramatically revitalize the game, if they do it wrong WoW will likely fade into history as another MMORPG that failed to execute on a good idea.
Good statement, but about the wrong game: Neocron did this much earlier, creating a MMORPG with strong FPS element. Unfortunately, they are also in danger of fading into history as another MMORPG that failed to execute on a good idea: The FPS action does not quite match that in Half Life or Counterstrike, and the game is still plagued by technical shortcomings. I'm still playing, but as much as I love the concept, Reakktor should shape up soon or it will be quits for me...
First of all, yes, they are not agreeing. However, they are doing more than aknowledging. They are putting you UNDER an agreement with them (maybe they are agreeing; symantics, you know). Their active role is putting together the agreement and upholding it. Obviously, if you don't agree (and legally show this by NOT signing), then you do not warrant the services.
Hmm, what if the university promised network access when you enlisted and presents you with an excessively restrictive agreement afterwards? Let us further assume that you refuse to sign and the university refuses access to the network in return. Would they be breaking the contract by this?
Indeed, they try to make the smallest possible concession. But it might be sufficient: open the document, then save it to another format that is not encumbered by M$ patents.
As a punishment, yes. I would not consider it fair towards a company that does its business in a lawful way, but the opening of the APIs is supposed stop Microsoft from further abusing its market position in operating systems. To that end, I would recommend forcing Microsoft to produce the documentation -without any licence fees -without legal limitations on their use -and with the understanding that failing to comply leads to further punishment
I was thinking more of the way your attacks are performed in most MMORPGs: -point at mob, not much aiming skill required (if any) -click and wait for the attach to play out, playerskill does not play a role in the success of the attack
Also, mobs are often too slow and stupid to be much of a challenge.
Last, some comments on aggro: Adding aggro should be trivial, just shoot at the mob to make it angry. So I consider the ability to "add aggro" a given and not a design weakness. Skills to remove aggro are more problematic, but they might be an interesting alternative to Hack&Slay. The game designer should, however, not make them 100% reliable, otherwise the challenge is gone.
But in the longer term, legitimizing the sale of gold (or other in-game resources) will devastate the MMORPG business model. Players are attracted by 3 factors:
1. Artwork. An initial attraction that doesn't last long.
2. Achievement. The virtual Skinner-box model.
3. Association. The 3d-accelerated chat window.
There could and should be also:
4. Challenge. It takes playerskill to take down a monster.
Unfortunately, all MMORPGs seem to fall short on this one. Even Neocron, which is closest to a FPS among the MMORPGs I've tried so far, could use a somewhat faster and more action-packed PvE gameplay. Maybe on the level of HalfLife 1, which was truly groundbreaking.
If so, the USPTO needs some external pressure. For instance, it could be made liable for legal expenses if a patent is overturned in court, thus demonstrating that the examiners were sloppy.
This would rapidly remove the incentive to approve all sorts of trivial patents.
No one is going to go back to VHS quality just because they can download it faster over the Internet. It ain't going to happen. The download of DVD-quality movies takes hours over most people's broadband connections, and we're going to high-def in 2007, let's say. That's going to add bandwidth and get even slower as we go to high-def.
Even if people don't want to go back to VHS quality, DVD quality might be the point where most say "good enough for me". Right now, I know someone who routinely lets his PC run overnight to get movies from p2p networks. With better codecs for smaller file size and faster broadband connections, this might become even more common.
More exactly, you can sell a program ripped of from GPL project. But then you also have to provide source code and grant your customers the right to re-distribute as specified in the GPL.
If you don't do that, you are violating the GPL and asking to be sued.
If you follow the GPL, others can re-distribute YOUR program which will limit the price you can charge without being undercut by others. Linux distributions are a good example for this: Companies like Novell/SuSE can get away with charging up to 100 Euros for a nice package of installation disks, manuals and some installation support. But you won't find a 1000 Euro distribution without some proprietary software add-ons or extended support included. As opposed to the server versions of Windows, where the OS alone may cost some thousand dollars.
Day Of Defeat (reportedly) started as a free mod, before it was bought by Valve. There are still fans who make their own custom maps and release them for free.
The market functions nothing like you think it does. The companies want to meet a certain target of units moved at the $50 price point - calculated by market research. Once they believe that they've sold all the copies they're going to sell at $50, they'll lower the price.
Exactly: when most customers refuse to buy at $50, the companies will eventually understand that the number of copies they're going to sell at $50 is lower now. Or at least, some of them will understand it. The others might end up bankrupt.
Apparently, this is the "privateer mod" for Vega Strike, which is a good game in its own right. The recent 0.4.3 release shows quite an improvement in artwork, and is certainly worth a try.
".NET is merely thin wrappers to Win32 calls"
[...] I'm a.NET developer and in general, I think it's great
Great as long as you are happy with staying on the x86 platform and Windows. But how difficult will it be to port it to other architectures? I guess this does not matter to Microsoft, since they are obviously committed to x86 and don't have any interest in seeing Windows abandoned. But for those of us who like Apples and Linux, it might be a good reason to avoid anything that smells of.NET
I also don't have a TV, but I still consider it wise to follow the politics around things like mandated copyprotection. Because the same people who clamor for TV brodcast flags today might clamor for mandatory TCPA in computers tomorrow. Which I would really dislike, even if I don't care much about TV. So I'd rather stay informed and, when necessary, support organizations like the FFII http://ffii.org/ who try to prevent such abominations.
Big corporate customers are slow to switch. I expect Intel to lose a few more percent in market share, but eventually they will get over the abomination called "Prescott" and release something that is a real competition for the Athlon64. Maybe a quad-core 64 bit Dothan. At 20 Watt heat dissipation/core such a chip might be viable.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd like to add one more point:
If later research proves that the proposed implementation does not work, the patent should be rejected retroactively.
That makes two of us. I have Steam on my machine for playing Day Of Defeat, but that was a free addition to HL 1. I won't pay 50 Euros for a game that depends on something like Steam to run, especially considering the dubious reliability of steam.
Another point is, what happens if Valve discontinues Steam one day or starts charging a monthly fee?
Once I find HL2 on the rummage table for 10 Euros, I might reconsider, but that is certainly not the sort of revenue Valve had in mind.
But also true for the opposition. If you read, for instance, the forum at http://www.heise.de/ (german IT publisher) you will find plenty of Linux extremists but even more Windows fanboys.
The resulting flamewars range from halfway funny to utterly stupid. Frequently, the standard of the discussion is even lower than on Slashdot, and the Windows fans are just as responsible for the mud-slinging as the Linux crowd.
Heh. If so, it might be an interesting challenge to run a genetic algorithm against the program, trying to "evolve" the paper into a perfect match for Qualrus' preferences.
;-)
If done successfully, you might get a good grade in sociology for something that would deserve a good grade in computer science
The Northwood was a good chip, and IMHO the only one in the P4 series that was really worth its money.
But the 90nm Athlons are even better, with real-live power consumption (3500+ at default clock speed) below 40 watts according to some magazines. Performance is by now also better than the Northwood ever was.
I wonder if Intel will ever officially market the Pentium M as a desktop processor (I know that some vendors are pushing it in barebones by now).
It is the only chip from Intel that could compete with the Athlon64 in the "cool but fast" department.
Heh. I bet we'll see a Gigolo Jane first. With all the required orifices.
For a while, just copying the binaries would work. The EU economy could survive on Windows 2000 in the short run (has no activation scheme that might or might not be successfully cracked).
Of course, the pressure to switch to MacOS, Linux or BSD would be enourmous and greatly increase the marketshare of these systems
WoW is the first MMOG to try and blend the successful gameplay of counter-strike and everquest into the same game. [...]. If they do it right...the could dramatically revitalize the game, if they do it wrong WoW will likely fade into history as another MMORPG that failed to execute on a good idea.
Good statement, but about the wrong game:
Neocron did this much earlier, creating a MMORPG with strong FPS element. Unfortunately, they are also in danger of fading into history as another MMORPG that failed to execute on a good idea:
The FPS action does not quite match that in Half Life or Counterstrike, and the game is still plagued by technical shortcomings. I'm still playing, but as much as I love the concept, Reakktor should shape up soon or it will be quits for me...
First of all, yes, they are not agreeing. However, they are doing more than aknowledging. They are putting you UNDER an agreement with them (maybe they are agreeing; symantics, you know). Their active role is putting together the agreement and upholding it. Obviously, if you don't agree (and legally show this by NOT signing), then you do not warrant the services.
Hmm, what if the university promised network access when you enlisted and presents you with an excessively restrictive agreement afterwards?
Let us further assume that you refuse to sign and the university refuses access to the network in return. Would they be breaking the contract by this?
Indeed, they try to make the smallest possible concession.
But it might be sufficient:
open the document, then save it to another format that is not encumbered by M$ patents.
As a punishment, yes. I would not consider it fair towards a company that does its business in a lawful way, but the opening of the APIs is supposed stop Microsoft from further abusing its market position in operating systems.
To that end, I would recommend forcing Microsoft to produce the documentation
-without any licence fees
-without legal limitations on their use
-and with the understanding that failing to comply leads to further punishment
I was thinking more of the way your attacks are performed in most MMORPGs:
-point at mob, not much aiming skill required (if any)
-click and wait for the attach to play out, playerskill does not play a role in the success of the attack
Also, mobs are often too slow and stupid to be much of a challenge.
Last, some comments on aggro:
Adding aggro should be trivial, just shoot at the mob to make it angry. So I consider the ability to "add aggro" a given and not a design weakness.
Skills to remove aggro are more problematic, but they might be an interesting alternative to Hack&Slay. The game designer should, however, not make them 100% reliable, otherwise the challenge is gone.
IANAL too, but I guess that Congress could make a law that establishes "sue-ability" of the patent office.
But in the longer term, legitimizing the sale of gold (or other in-game resources) will devastate the MMORPG business model. Players are attracted by 3 factors:
1. Artwork. An initial attraction that doesn't last long.
2. Achievement. The virtual Skinner-box model.
3. Association. The 3d-accelerated chat window.
There could and should be also:
4. Challenge. It takes playerskill to take down a monster.
Unfortunately, all MMORPGs seem to fall short on this one. Even Neocron, which is closest to a FPS among the MMORPGs I've tried so far, could use a somewhat faster and more action-packed PvE gameplay. Maybe on the level of HalfLife 1, which was truly groundbreaking.
If so, the USPTO needs some external pressure. For instance, it could be made liable for legal expenses if a patent is overturned in court, thus demonstrating that the examiners were sloppy.
This would rapidly remove the incentive to approve all sorts of trivial patents.
Regedit is not that difficult to use. Knowing what all these obscure registry keys mean, on the other hand...
No one is going to go back to VHS quality just because they can download it faster over the Internet. It ain't going to happen. The download of DVD-quality movies takes hours over most people's broadband connections, and we're going to high-def in 2007, let's say. That's going to add bandwidth and get even slower as we go to high-def.
Even if people don't want to go back to VHS quality, DVD quality might be the point where most say "good enough for me". Right now, I know someone who routinely lets his PC run overnight to get movies from p2p networks.
With better codecs for smaller file size and faster broadband connections, this might become even more common.
More exactly, you can sell a program ripped of from GPL project. But then you also have to provide source code and grant your customers the right to re-distribute as specified in the GPL.
If you don't do that, you are violating the GPL and asking to be sued.
If you follow the GPL, others can re-distribute YOUR program which will limit the price you can charge without being undercut by others. Linux distributions are a good example for this:
Companies like Novell/SuSE can get away with charging up to 100 Euros for a nice package of installation disks, manuals and some installation support. But you won't find a 1000 Euro distribution without some proprietary software add-ons or extended support included.
As opposed to the server versions of Windows, where the OS alone may cost some thousand dollars.
Yep, the picture you see is probably just the noise from the CCD chip and the signal amplifier. Try again when it's day.
Vega Strike http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/ has made a big step ahead artwork-wise in its recent 0.4.3 release.
Day Of Defeat (reportedly) started as a free mod, before it was bought by Valve. There are still fans who make their own custom maps and release them for free.
So things are difficult but not hopeless.
The market functions nothing like you think it does. The companies want to meet a certain target of units moved at the $50 price point - calculated by market research. Once they believe that they've sold all the copies they're going to sell at $50, they'll lower the price.
Exactly: when most customers refuse to buy at $50, the companies will eventually understand that the number of copies they're going to sell at $50 is lower now.
Or at least, some of them will understand it. The others might end up bankrupt.
Apparently, this is the "privateer mod" for Vega Strike, which is a good game in its own right. The recent 0.4.3 release shows quite an improvement in artwork, and is certainly worth a try.
".NET is merely thin wrappers to Win32 calls" .NET developer and in general, I think it's great
.NET
[...] I'm a
Great as long as you are happy with staying on the x86 platform and Windows.
But how difficult will it be to port it to other architectures? I guess this does not matter to Microsoft, since they are obviously committed to x86 and don't have any interest in seeing Windows abandoned.
But for those of us who like Apples and Linux, it might be a good reason to avoid anything that smells of
I also don't have a TV, but I still consider it wise to follow the politics around things like mandated copyprotection.
Because the same people who clamor for TV brodcast flags today might clamor for mandatory TCPA in computers tomorrow. Which I would really dislike, even if I don't care much about TV. So I'd rather stay informed and, when necessary, support organizations like the FFII
http://ffii.org/
who try to prevent such abominations.
Big corporate customers are slow to switch. I expect Intel to lose a few more percent in market share, but eventually they will get over the abomination called "Prescott" and release something that is a real competition for the Athlon64.
Maybe a quad-core 64 bit Dothan. At 20 Watt heat dissipation/core such a chip might be viable.