...there's 600 posts of how Bush is just doing to distract us from Iraq/look for oil/shovel money to Haliburton.
Unfrickin' believable. You want Star Trek to happen for real?
If the those 600 posts are right, then the new plan has no substance, and therefore will get no funding or further attention after serving it's purpose as a distraction.
I think they are also implying that even if intentions are pure for the space program, the enormous level or corruption or ineptness in other areas will severely detract from the kind of lasting national effort needed to accomplish much in space.
I'm not really left handed, but there was a stretch in college where I would be on the computer so much I'd have to switch mouse between left and right to relieve strain. It's fun trying to play with the left, makes the games really challenging for a while- it's not as hard learning to use the mouse on the other hand as drawing or writing.
in truth, the game was just as linear as any other
I don't think anyone who has played a Medal of Honor or similar and DX would say this. What you mean is that DX has game-level linearity, while it's obvious that individual missions are orders of magnitude more open and free than most other games. MoH has freedom only in how you chose to traverse a corridor a few rooms and open spaces wide.
I hate those keys - I use the numpad 4,6,8, & 2 for that, where they are lined up and easy to use with the right hand if I want to aim with the mouse left handed.
I wish there were some standardized config file that could be setup once that every fps would recognize, and only game specific actions would have to be changed.
That's transparency in the government, not transparency in your bedroom, in your discussions with your lawyer, in your credit-card transactions, whistleblowing, etc.
what harm could there be in turning over copies of one's notes to the FBI
What if those notes contain information irrelevant to the crime but potentially damaging to the individual in question? Should the government have a file with any embarassing or repulsive action or character trait that may be detailed in those notes? Blackmail and extortion aren't out of the question, after all.
If the notes confirm the defendant's guilt, the defendant is more likely to be tried and convicted...[a] Good Thing
You're assuming the law the person being tried under is a just one and the likely punishment appropriate to the crime. For either of those situations, I think the defendants would prefer to get off on technicalities or for lack of evidence rather than rot in jail and hope the case winds its way to the supreme court or that more sensible legislation is passed by congress.
Civil disobedience only works if you're dealing with essentially rational people
The relevant quote:
"If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Ghandi and non-violence. But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer." -Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
(Bonhoeffer being a participant in a plot to assassinate Hitler)
I can't imagine very many over-the-air broadcast events that would justify the use of this much bandwidth. If a single channel takes up as much of the spectrum as a dozen HD broadcasts or potentially hundreds of compressed lower res channels, or any number of internet users using short range frequency sharing schemes, then that single tv show or sporting event or whatever has to be more profitable or useful to society than any of those.
Eventually there will be home theater setups and storage media affordable to average consumers that will be the equivalent of this UHDTV, but barring extraordinary advances in compression technology will this ever be cost-effective to broadcast over the radiowaves?
Widescreen 1080p, 120fps. Now *that's* what I'd like to have.
Since we have all these terabytes to throw around, why not use 16 bits per color channel rather than 8 for increased dynamic range. And 100 KHz audio, non-lossy compression (which will have bandwidth insignificant compared to the video requirements, lossy or no).
are these guys really using uncompressed video? And if they did, WHY?
The best compression ratios are typically yielded by the most processor intensive algorithms, and it's possible these algorithms scale poorly with a 16x increase in image area. Interframe compression schemes might take up much more memory also than just loading one frame at a time, displaying it, and copying over that with the next frame.
Though it seems like the huge bandwidth and storage required to do without compression would be a harder problem to address than memory size or processing speed. But maybe brute force was the fastest development route for the demo and they'll worry about compression later on.
And based on the numbers, you can see that they either didn't use audio, or it was included in the 3.3GB/S figure because 3.5TB / 18 minutes / 60 seconds = 3.3GB/S.
Including audio in the figure is irrelevant, because it's so many orders of magnitude smaller than what the video takes. And as far as compression for audio goes, who the hell cares whether you have.1MB/s or 20MB/s when you have terabytes for a few minutes of video...
the government on Taiwan is the only legitimate government of China. We may be making a terrible mistake not to back it, and not to demand the dissolution of the illegitimate government on the mainland.
I think after 50-odd years you just have to face facts. The government in Beijing is the de facto government of China. They control China- they build roads and public buildings, collect taxes, are party to international treaties and do other sorts of things governments generally do. There's no popular revolution to speak of.
It's extremely doubtful that if China were to were to dissolve its current government that Taiwan is ready and able to add a billion or so new constituents without some serious glitches...
...you don't have to buy the collector's/special editions of games/movies/whatever.
But if the actions of the product distributor are hurting the market as a whole (or even, decreasing the potential for growth), then you have to take issue with that- because if it's less profitable than it could be you'll be less likely to see things like it in the future.
Geniune options are good, but not artificial ones that create resentment, confusion, or waste. If you have to take the game back to the store, that the original trip was a waste of time- or others won't even bother trading up, or will never bother with mods or multiplayer, and Valve will never see the extra profit. They're going to make a pile of money, but I think it's going to be a smaller pile than if they'd just play it straight and sell one version of the game.
Extras and special editions are acceptable when they take additional time to produce, or need funds from selling the more limited edition in order to get made- but Valve's decision here is just stupid.
Re:HL 2 Mighted have changed things
on
No Doom 3 This Year?
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I had no intentions of purchasing HL 2 but after the tech-demo/in game movies I will now buy it.
I feel the same way- and I'm usually patient/apathetic enough to wait for the bargain bin for pretty much everything. It's been a long time since I've ever felt really inspired by a game, but the movies of HL2 are incredible (also, despite the wierd proprietary bink video format, I really liked not having some murky mpeg and actually seeing the game like it will be in play).
There's also DX2 down the road, though I haven't seen more than a few screenshots. And hell, when Halo 2 comes out there will be two reasons to buy an Xbox and the price will have come down more by then.
Of course, what I really want is the facial animation of HL2 with the shadows and detail of Doom 3 with Halo's battle sequences but put in the setting of Deus Ex...
...a really fun game that lacks shitloads of bells and whistles, and full-motion video after every level will make a bigger profit than a boring game that cost a ton of money...
Full motion video?
I think the only major game to use much of that in the last three or four years was the recent Enter the Matrix. There are probably other exceptions, but as a rule it just isn't done any more- the game engines look good enough for convincing cut-scenes and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than video, not to mention more visually consistent.
Bells and whistles like a robust physics engine, convincing character models, decent artificial intelligence, compelling music, detailed environments, and smooth network play are preferential to my tastes than the alternative. Even if the game is boring, I'd rather be wasting my time with a boring game that has a few good superficial things about it than a game that looks like crap and plays like crap.
And then again, shooting someone in the head is acceptable; you just cannot call him "motherfucker" while doing this. Am I the only person who considers it a little bit weird?
I wish you were the only one, but many people seem to be making the same error.
There is no physical difference between hearing "motherfucker" in a movie and hearing "motherfucker" spoken in public. It's all sound waves: the depiction of someone swearing and someone swearing are the same. Though one major difference is that a movie played back in public doesn't respond to varying social norms of the situation the playback is occurring in- if one or more people are offended by swearing, others around them who are aware of this may modify their speech patterns- a recording can't be polite.
Real violence and the depiction of violence only have common sensory components for a third party who is not actually hurting someone or destroying something or being hurt. The simulation of violence is more acceptable than swearing, and actual violence (which movies aren't capable of) is orders of magnitude worse than both.
Was I the only one expecting a shootout that would top the lobby scene from the first movie? Instead, we get a cop-out/cheat with Neo stopping bullets with his mind, or guns being kicked out of hands first thing, or Morpheus and the rest of the bunch just shrugging (no bullet-time shrugging?) a little to ward off the swiss-cheesing of his car by an automatic rifle.
The first/final scene with Trinity and the agent doesn't really suffice, since there isn't much bobbing and weaving, running up the walls, or diving behind pillars to be done while in a free fall.
I think there was a whole aesthetic of little tiles being smashed (followed by slow motion debris flying through the air) from the first film that was partially lost in Reloaded.
I mentioned to my friend it would have been funny to show other Keanu Reeves movies during that scene and we had a laugh (annoying everyone around us in the theater, probably)- but it's actually true?
I agree with you on the lack of character empathy, especially in the first Agent Smith fight- but the later scenes had more of a purpose and limitations of time and environment (it's hard to fly in a little hallway) that made them generate at least some excitement.
Regular action movies work a lot better, especially in the Die Hard vein where the protagonist visibly takes a beating before finally triumphing by a hairs breadth, and only has to bend the laws of nature only slightly to do so. The cleverness required to make action novel and exciting while still obeying physics is also missing from the matrix- Neo simply flies in to the rescue rather than say that otherwise innocuous little item the movie gave a closeup shot of early on suddenly become critical to the survival of the protagonists and the fitting destruction of the bad guys.
The other poster links to a comic that mentions Neo being in 'god mode'- god mode is boring as hell for the average game player, and even more so than people watching non-interactively...
See my last journal entry for some more thoughts in the same vein.
It's this one pitch, this certain frequency, that makes people lose bowel control!
There's an apocryphal story told to audio engineering students, about Hitler generating low frequency noise at certain points during massive rallies to make his speeches all the more moving...
Re:Yes they have advertised.
on
TiVo Basic
·
· Score: 1
Everyone I know that has bought one has bought it because they saw it in person.
So a new tack would be to offer incentives to members for every friend they get to sign up, 'Tivo Parties' (like the Tupperware kind if anyone remembers those), seminars and demos in exotic locations... or maybe just the first idea.
I first thought this was a story about movies made with video games- as seen on Machinima. Not only are there the independant efforts there, but reportedly the Unreal engine was used for 'animatic' storyboarding of Minority Report and maybe a couple of other movies. I can't find a link for that one, so I might have just made it up.
I agree with the parent. Boycotts might work on a level playing field, but in this case especially the other side has much bigger guns.
The loss of sales caused by a boycott would be intrepreted as proof of the effectiveness of online file sharing and whatever else the MPAA is trying to outlaw, and speed their attempt to pass ever more draconian legislation. The boycott would have to be so effective that organization and all it's members effectively ceased to exist overnight. That wouldn't be a boycott, but a tactical nuclear strike. Not that I'm advocating that sort of thing, but I hear if you drop some pamphlets beforehand warning possible innocents in the area, you're morally in the clear.
I'd like to see (or start) a game company with a contract between them, the public, and an escrow service that guarantees that the source code will go GPL within 3-5 years of a game's release. The escrow service would hold a copy of the code and would release it on-time even if the original company no longer exists or wants to renege on the contract.
Most gamers aren't going to care, but it would generate good will among the free software and modding communities ("Mod now, completely rebuild later") that may translate into increased sales- buying would be supporting open source, albeit in a limited and delayed fashion.
Of course, everyone who bought the original Sim City were thinking the same thing, except with Sim and Sin transposed in the opposite way, the joke being that their minds were dirty and not geekish, rather than geekish and not dirty as you propose. Furthermore, it can be shown the two are not naturally opposed but possibly reconciled through a modern synthesis etcetera and so forth ad absurdum ad nauseam...
When the coalition comes, it will spearhead the attack with tanks, and follow with soldiers. I'd tell my troops never to fire at tanks - only shoot at flesh and blood targets. After they open up on the first wave of infantry, I'd have them retreat in pairs to the next block in a running firefight, forcing the invaders to pay for every block of the city.
Bring things back to slightly On-Topic:
This sounds like an extremely cool game concept. Maybe Novalogic's Blackhawk Down could be modded into something like this for FPS, though the AI is so poor it would have to be multiplayer only.
A whole new game is needed that would allow hundreds of defenders and invaders, and destructable buildings would be key to not giving the snipers a permanent advantage. But excessive destruction and civilian death (whichever side causes them) would cost the invaders victory points, and kills earned by the defenders dressed as civilians wouldn't be worth as much as in regular uniforms.
Have lots of civilians, most of which will flood out of the place or cower in basements. Invader forces gunned down a column of refugees on the way in? That'll take their victory point down to zero, so if your invader teammates go psycho you need to friendly-fire them before they lose the battle for you.
Throw in a reporter/cameraman player class, whose presence near a firefight will exaggerate the victory points won or lost by either side (propaganda bonuses), though sometimes with unpredictable results: sometimes filming dead or dying soldiers or civilians will enable the invaders more leeway to do more damage or the opposite, depending on some other factors. Maybe sometimes either side will want to take out a pesky reporter, but it will cost your side if the reporter 'shoots' first...
Last thing: make sure you find some really solid funding for the game development that won't flake out or censor the key aspects.
Unless there is something akin to free trade available, wouldn't the virtual economy fail for similar reasons as government or business based central planning, in the style of the Soviet Union or a capitalist system permeated by monopolies? Or does There think that those systems could work (in their reality, at least) and they can do better?
Sure, essential goods are nonexistent and everything else can be replicated endlessly (by the 'government'), but the bottom line has to be that roleplaying in an open and free-trade style world is going to be more interesting than going to the monopoly-owned store for everything.
Slashdot Mirror
...there's 600 posts of how Bush is just doing to distract us from Iraq/look for oil/shovel money to Haliburton.
Unfrickin' believable. You want Star Trek to happen for real?
If the those 600 posts are right, then the new plan has no substance, and therefore will get no funding or further attention after serving it's purpose as a distraction.
I think they are also implying that even if intentions are pure for the space program, the enormous level or corruption or ineptness in other areas will severely detract from the kind of lasting national effort needed to accomplish much in space.
I'm not really left handed, but there was a stretch in college where I would be on the computer so much I'd have to switch mouse between left and right to relieve strain. It's fun trying to play with the left, makes the games really challenging for a while- it's not as hard learning to use the mouse on the other hand as drawing or writing.
in truth, the game was just as linear as any other
I don't think anyone who has played a Medal of Honor or similar and DX would say this. What you mean is that DX has game-level linearity, while it's obvious that individual missions are orders of magnitude more open and free than most other games. MoH has freedom only in how you chose to traverse a corridor a few rooms and open spaces wide.
I hate those keys - I use the numpad 4,6,8, & 2 for that, where they are lined up and easy to use with the right hand if I want to aim with the mouse left handed.
I wish there were some standardized config file that could be setup once that every fps would recognize, and only game specific actions would have to be changed.
This is Slashdot, aren't we for transparency?
That's transparency in the government, not transparency in your bedroom, in your discussions with your lawyer, in your credit-card transactions, whistleblowing, etc.
what harm could there be in turning over copies of one's notes to the FBI
What if those notes contain information irrelevant to the crime but potentially damaging to the individual in question? Should the government have a file with any embarassing or repulsive action or character trait that may be detailed in those notes? Blackmail and extortion aren't out of the question, after all.
If the notes confirm the defendant's guilt, the defendant is more likely to be tried and convicted...[a] Good Thing
You're assuming the law the person being tried under is a just one and the likely punishment appropriate to the crime. For either of those situations, I think the defendants would prefer to get off on technicalities or for lack of evidence rather than rot in jail and hope the case winds its way to the supreme court or that more sensible legislation is passed by congress.
Civil disobedience only works if you're dealing with essentially rational people
The relevant quote:
"If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Ghandi and non-violence.
But if your enemy has no conscience like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer."
-Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
(Bonhoeffer being a participant in a plot to assassinate Hitler)
I can't imagine very many over-the-air broadcast events that would justify the use of this much bandwidth. If a single channel takes up as much of the spectrum as a dozen HD broadcasts or potentially hundreds of compressed lower res channels, or any number of internet users using short range frequency sharing schemes, then that single tv show or sporting event or whatever has to be more profitable or useful to society than any of those.
Eventually there will be home theater setups and storage media affordable to average consumers that will be the equivalent of this UHDTV, but barring extraordinary advances in compression technology will this ever be cost-effective to broadcast over the radiowaves?
Widescreen 1080p, 120fps. Now *that's* what I'd like to have.
Since we have all these terabytes to throw around, why not use 16 bits per color channel rather than 8 for increased dynamic range. And 100 KHz audio, non-lossy compression (which will have bandwidth insignificant compared to the video requirements, lossy or no).
are these guys really using uncompressed video? And if they did, WHY?
.1MB/s or 20MB/s when you have terabytes for a few minutes of video...
The best compression ratios are typically yielded by the most processor intensive algorithms, and it's possible these algorithms scale poorly with a 16x increase in image area. Interframe compression schemes might take up much more memory also than just loading one frame at a time, displaying it, and copying over that with the next frame.
Though it seems like the huge bandwidth and storage required to do without compression would be a harder problem to address than memory size or processing speed. But maybe brute force was the fastest development route for the demo and they'll worry about compression later on.
And based on the numbers, you can see that they either didn't use audio, or it was included in the 3.3GB/S figure because 3.5TB / 18 minutes / 60 seconds = 3.3GB/S.
Including audio in the figure is irrelevant, because it's so many orders of magnitude smaller than what the video takes. And as far as compression for audio goes, who the hell cares whether you have
the government on Taiwan is the only legitimate government of China. We may be making a terrible mistake not to back it, and not to demand the dissolution of the illegitimate government on the mainland.
I think after 50-odd years you just have to face facts. The government in Beijing is the de facto government of China. They control China- they build roads and public buildings, collect taxes, are party to international treaties and do other sorts of things governments generally do. There's no popular revolution to speak of.
It's extremely doubtful that if China were to were to dissolve its current government that Taiwan is ready and able to add a billion or so new constituents without some serious glitches...
...you don't have to buy the collector's/special editions of games/movies/whatever.
But if the actions of the product distributor are hurting the market as a whole (or even, decreasing the potential for growth), then you have to take issue with that- because if it's less profitable than it could be you'll be less likely to see things like it in the future.
Geniune options are good, but not artificial ones that create resentment, confusion, or waste. If you have to take the game back to the store, that the original trip was a waste of time- or others won't even bother trading up, or will never bother with mods or multiplayer, and Valve will never see the extra profit. They're going to make a pile of money, but I think it's going to be a smaller pile than if they'd just play it straight and sell one version of the game.
Extras and special editions are acceptable when they take additional time to produce, or need funds from selling the more limited edition in order to get made- but Valve's decision here is just stupid.
I had no intentions of purchasing HL 2 but after the tech-demo/in game movies I will now buy it.
I feel the same way- and I'm usually patient/apathetic enough to wait for the bargain bin for pretty much everything. It's been a long time since I've ever felt really inspired by a game, but the movies of HL2 are incredible (also, despite the wierd proprietary bink video format, I really liked not having some murky mpeg and actually seeing the game like it will be in play).
There's also DX2 down the road, though I haven't seen more than a few screenshots. And hell, when Halo 2 comes out there will be two reasons to buy an Xbox and the price will have come down more by then.
Of course, what I really want is the facial animation of HL2 with the shadows and detail of Doom 3 with Halo's battle sequences but put in the setting of Deus Ex...
...a really fun game that lacks shitloads of bells and whistles, and full-motion video after every level will make a bigger profit than a boring game that cost a ton of money...
Full motion video?
I think the only major game to use much of that in the last three or four years was the recent Enter the Matrix. There are probably other exceptions, but as a rule it just isn't done any more- the game engines look good enough for convincing cut-scenes and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than video, not to mention more visually consistent.
Bells and whistles like a robust physics engine, convincing character models, decent artificial intelligence, compelling music, detailed environments, and smooth network play are preferential to my tastes than the alternative. Even if the game is boring, I'd rather be wasting my time with a boring game that has a few good superficial things about it than a game that looks like crap and plays like crap.
And then again, shooting someone in the head is acceptable; you just cannot call him "motherfucker" while doing this. Am I the only person who considers it a little bit weird?
I wish you were the only one, but many people seem to be making the same error.
There is no physical difference between hearing "motherfucker" in a movie and hearing "motherfucker" spoken in public. It's all sound waves: the depiction of someone swearing and someone swearing are the same. Though one major difference is that a movie played back in public doesn't respond to varying social norms of the situation the playback is occurring in- if one or more people are offended by swearing, others around them who are aware of this may modify their speech patterns- a recording can't be polite.
Real violence and the depiction of violence only have common sensory components for a third party who is not actually hurting someone or destroying something or being hurt. The simulation of violence is more acceptable than swearing, and actual violence (which movies aren't capable of) is orders of magnitude worse than both.
Was I the only one expecting a shootout that would top the lobby scene from the first movie? Instead, we get a cop-out/cheat with Neo stopping bullets with his mind, or guns being kicked out of hands first thing, or Morpheus and the rest of the bunch just shrugging (no bullet-time shrugging?) a little to ward off the swiss-cheesing of his car by an automatic rifle.
The first/final scene with Trinity and the agent doesn't really suffice, since there isn't much bobbing and weaving, running up the walls, or diving behind pillars to be done while in a free fall.
I think there was a whole aesthetic of little tiles being smashed (followed by slow motion debris flying through the air) from the first film that was partially lost in Reloaded.
My last JE has some more related notes...
I mentioned to my friend it would have been funny to show other Keanu Reeves movies during that scene and we had a laugh (annoying everyone around us in the theater, probably)- but it's actually true?
I agree with you on the lack of character empathy, especially in the first Agent Smith fight- but the later scenes had more of a purpose and limitations of time and environment (it's hard to fly in a little hallway) that made them generate at least some excitement.
Regular action movies work a lot better, especially in the Die Hard vein where the protagonist visibly takes a beating before finally triumphing by a hairs breadth, and only has to bend the laws of nature only slightly to do so. The cleverness required to make action novel and exciting while still obeying physics is also missing from the matrix- Neo simply flies in to the rescue rather than say that otherwise innocuous little item the movie gave a closeup shot of early on suddenly become critical to the survival of the protagonists and the fitting destruction of the bad guys.
The other poster links to a comic that mentions Neo being in 'god mode'- god mode is boring as hell for the average game player, and even more so than people watching non-interactively...
See my last journal entry for some more thoughts in the same vein.
It's this one pitch, this certain frequency, that makes people lose bowel control!
There's an apocryphal story told to audio engineering students, about Hitler generating low frequency noise at certain points during massive rallies to make his speeches all the more moving...
Everyone I know that has bought one has bought it because they saw it in person.
So a new tack would be to offer incentives to members for every friend they get to sign up, 'Tivo Parties' (like the Tupperware kind if anyone remembers those), seminars and demos in exotic locations... or maybe just the first idea.
I first thought this was a story about movies made with video games- as seen on Machinima. Not only are there the independant efforts there, but reportedly the Unreal engine was used for 'animatic' storyboarding of Minority Report and maybe a couple of other movies. I can't find a link for that one, so I might have just made it up.
I agree with the parent. Boycotts might work on a level playing field, but in this case especially the other side has much bigger guns.
The loss of sales caused by a boycott would be intrepreted as proof of the effectiveness of online file sharing and whatever else the MPAA is trying to outlaw, and speed their attempt to pass ever more draconian legislation. The boycott would have to be so effective that organization and all it's members effectively ceased to exist overnight. That wouldn't be a boycott, but a tactical nuclear strike. Not that I'm advocating that sort of thing, but I hear if you drop some pamphlets beforehand warning possible innocents in the area, you're morally in the clear.
I'd like to see (or start) a game company with a contract between them, the public, and an escrow service that guarantees that the source code will go GPL within 3-5 years of a game's release. The escrow service would hold a copy of the code and would release it on-time even if the original company no longer exists or wants to renege on the contract.
Most gamers aren't going to care, but it would generate good will among the free software and modding communities ("Mod now, completely rebuild later") that may translate into increased sales- buying would be supporting open source, albeit in a limited and delayed fashion.
I read it as "GTA: Sim City".
Of course, everyone who bought the original Sim City were thinking the same thing, except with Sim and Sin transposed in the opposite way, the joke being that their minds were dirty and not geekish, rather than geekish and not dirty as you propose. Furthermore, it can be shown the two are not naturally opposed but possibly reconciled through a modern synthesis etcetera and so forth ad absurdum ad nauseam...
When the coalition comes, it will spearhead the attack with tanks, and follow with soldiers. I'd tell my troops never to fire at tanks - only shoot at flesh and blood targets. After they open up on the first wave of infantry, I'd have them retreat in pairs to the next block in a running firefight, forcing the invaders to pay for every block of the city.
Bring things back to slightly On-Topic:
This sounds like an extremely cool game concept. Maybe Novalogic's Blackhawk Down could be modded into something like this for FPS, though the AI is so poor it would have to be multiplayer only.
A whole new game is needed that would allow hundreds of defenders and invaders, and destructable buildings would be key to not giving the snipers a permanent advantage. But excessive destruction and civilian death (whichever side causes them) would cost the invaders victory points, and kills earned by the defenders dressed as civilians wouldn't be worth as much as in regular uniforms.
Have lots of civilians, most of which will flood out of the place or cower in basements. Invader forces gunned down a column of refugees on the way in? That'll take their victory point down to zero, so if your invader teammates go psycho you need to friendly-fire them before they lose the battle for you.
Throw in a reporter/cameraman player class, whose presence near a firefight will exaggerate the victory points won or lost by either side (propaganda bonuses), though sometimes with unpredictable results: sometimes filming dead or dying soldiers or civilians will enable the invaders more leeway to do more damage or the opposite, depending on some other factors. Maybe sometimes either side will want to take out a pesky reporter, but it will cost your side if the reporter 'shoots' first...
Last thing: make sure you find some really solid funding for the game development that won't flake out or censor the key aspects.
Unless there is something akin to free trade available, wouldn't the virtual economy fail for similar reasons as government or business based central planning, in the style of the Soviet Union or a capitalist system permeated by monopolies? Or does There think that those systems could work (in their reality, at least) and they can do better?
Sure, essential goods are nonexistent and everything else can be replicated endlessly (by the 'government'), but the bottom line has to be that roleplaying in an open and free-trade style world is going to be more interesting than going to the monopoly-owned store for everything.