I dunno, stuff like Half Life 2 and any other game with rag-doll physics seem to be getting pretty close to this, so saying it is not even "remotely possible" is a bit off. AI is still pretty lame, I grant you that, but having a guard stub his toe on a rock is more than possible.
Does this mean that the next time I have to go on a teambuilding course I can suggest we spend all day playing network games?;-) Gotta be less painful than paintballing, anway.
Your X-Com straregy reminds me of something you could do in its old Spectrum precursor, Laser Squad. On the first mission, you had to go into this guy's house and kill him. He was some sort of arms dealer who had betrayed you, and of course his house was a mansion full of traps and killer guard robots and such like.
HOWEVER - I discovered that you could just tool up your team exclusively on rocket launchers and just spend about 10 turns blasting the ever-living crap out of his house from the outside, and kill him that way. Maybe not the best gameplay, but realistic!;-)
Imagine you got a job in an IT firm, down in the basement. You like your job fine, but smoke spews in though a ceiling vent all day. You ask your boss about it and he says the boiler is broken, and it is too expensive to fix. "Don't like it? Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out."
Banning smoking in public places is the same idea. It's not for the protection of the customers, who have a choice, but the protection of the workers, who may not. Just how dangerous second hand smoking is makes another debate, but the principle is the same. I'd wager it's not a love of liberty that makes your clubs act in this way, it is simple greed.
I didn't necessarily mean the same CD forever. You have the right to burn your own copies, make ISOs and back them up to tape, whatever.
And as for the "someone will crack it" argument, don't you think the companies know this? We're talking 20 years in the future here. If network speeds continue to improve, we could all be playing our games on thin clients, racking up the charges as we go.
I don't think they'll be laughing. They'll be more likely in awe of the fact we actually owned a re-usable, permanent physical copy of the media we purchased rather than having to set up a bank order to transfer a monthly licence fee for the right to continue using it.
Most people have little trouble tuning in for their favorite tv show every week,
If that tv show lasted 8 hours, with limited breaks for eating and going to the toilet, people might have a lot more trouble! Seriously though, the idea of being able to do anything 'epic' in half an hour is anathema to current MMO designers.
I think they should have a special competition - a hardcore permadeath PVP server, open for one week. Whoever has managed to get the highest level at the end of this time wins. They don't even have to be still alive, just whatever the best was in that time. This would be a lot of fun!
And to make it even more fun, you could allow attacks on your own faction as well.;-)
Finally, there are already games for Xbox 360 and PS2 that support USB keyboards
That always cracks me up, when I read that console FPS games support USB keyboards and mice. It's the keyboard part of it - it amuses me to think of people plugging in these relatively expensive input devices just so they can use the WASD keys. Talk about redundant... Maybe some enterprising company could make a mini-keyboard consisting of just these four keys?;-)
"Bio" means bio-break, i.e. a break forced upon you by biology like the need to take a piss, or eat something. I think it is used to say "Hey look, I have to go AFK but it isn't my fault!" to counteract the guilt that might be felt by leaving your buddies for a while. "I would play 24 straight hours a day, but my pitiful body lets me down again - got to go rub ointment on my bedsores!";-)
Blizzard must have been feeling left out, as they have (since the last patch) made WoW pop up a 'launcher' first, which displays a mini-browser with various news items about the game, and has a little sniff round your machine to see if you are running any cheats. It can be disabled by faffing about with shortcuts, but still, it just shows how much these companies love their portals.
EVE is sci-fi, and it does it well. You can save your personality into a clone, and this can live on after you die. Makes even more sense to me than resurrection in a fantasy setting - in WoW, for example, how could there have been a terrible war if people can be resurrected willy-nilly? Or, to paraphrase that list mocking RPG conventions, it's the "Why didn't they use Phoenix Down on Aeris, then?" effect.
Let's take GTA: San Andreas. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to see a Pepsi sign on the billboards vs. some other made-up brand?
I don't think so. Part of the appeal of the GTA series for me was how it took place in a slightly distorted version of our own world. Brands were satirised and mocked, which along with the radio content the game made quite an anti-consumerist statement - people blatantly trying to sell you over the top crap they knew was crap. The game was art, IMHO, making a statement about how modern society is going to hell in a handbasket, simply by exaggerating things that we have in the real world. How could this not have been spoilt by real ads?
For example - if you go into a Cluckin' Bell restauraunt in GTA:SA, chances are it is filthy, the staff insult you and the food is crap. Contrast if it had been a licensed KFC or Taco Bell - it would be pristine and you would have genuine marketing slogans shouted at you. The satire would have been turned into a cheap shill, and by extension the world the game was trying to create would be diminished.
Research and Markets also foresees online gaming becoming an increasingly important part of the gaming experience
Oh come on, they have been trotting out this old chestnut since the launch of the PS2! I just don't think the majority of people are that interested in online multiplayer for consoles - people want good 'party games', or a high-quality single-player experience, Joe Blow doesn't want to be faffing about with wireless networking to get his console online in his living room. The people who are really into multiplayer get PCs.
MMORPGs aren't set up to reward skill, they are designed to reward time spent, and little else. Not knocking WoW, I love it, but I can only shrug at the time requirements for the best equipment and higher PVP ranks. I just have to accept I won't ever be able to compete at that level.
Well, selling holiday homes on the far side would be a bit of a hurdle (not much chance of a tan). Calls for some good advertising, Darth Vader perhaps? "Come to the Dark Side.. for next year's vacation!"
I was using graduates as a shorthand for "smart people". Obviously you don't want Einstein running at artillery with a bayonet. Anyway, to paraphrase Bill Hicks "Anyone stupid enough to want to be in the military...should be allowed in."
Maybe, or maybe it's the fact that a society can lose very large amounts of men and still recover within a generation (as one man can father many children simultaneously) whereas one woman can only produce one child at once, and only for a limited span. Therefore it makes precious little sense to send women to the front lines, in the same way you don't send your university educated males to the front line either.
Slashdot Mirror
I dunno, stuff like Half Life 2 and any other game with rag-doll physics seem to be getting pretty close to this, so saying it is not even "remotely possible" is a bit off. AI is still pretty lame, I grant you that, but having a guard stub his toe on a rock is more than possible.
Does this mean that the next time I have to go on a teambuilding course I can suggest we spend all day playing network games? ;-)
Gotta be less painful than paintballing, anway.
Your X-Com straregy reminds me of something you could do in its old Spectrum precursor, Laser Squad. On the first mission, you had to go into this guy's house and kill him. He was some sort of arms dealer who had betrayed you, and of course his house was a mansion full of traps and killer guard robots and such like.
;-)
HOWEVER - I discovered that you could just tool up your team exclusively on rocket launchers and just spend about 10 turns blasting the ever-living crap out of his house from the outside, and kill him that way. Maybe not the best gameplay, but realistic!
Imagine you got a job in an IT firm, down in the basement. You like your job fine, but smoke spews in though a ceiling vent all day. You ask your boss about it and he says the boiler is broken, and it is too expensive to fix. "Don't like it? Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out."
Banning smoking in public places is the same idea. It's not for the protection of the customers, who have a choice, but the protection of the workers, who may not. Just how dangerous second hand smoking is makes another debate, but the principle is the same.
I'd wager it's not a love of liberty that makes your clubs act in this way, it is simple greed.
I didn't necessarily mean the same CD forever. You have the right to burn your own copies, make ISOs and back them up to tape, whatever.
And as for the "someone will crack it" argument, don't you think the companies know this? We're talking 20 years in the future here. If network speeds continue to improve, we could all be playing our games on thin clients, racking up the charges as we go.
I don't think they'll be laughing. They'll be more likely in awe of the fact we actually owned a re-usable, permanent physical copy of the media we purchased rather than having to set up a bank order to transfer a monthly licence fee for the right to continue using it.
Most people have little trouble tuning in for their favorite tv show every week,
If that tv show lasted 8 hours, with limited breaks for eating and going to the toilet, people might have a lot more trouble!
Seriously though, the idea of being able to do anything 'epic' in half an hour is anathema to current MMO designers.
haven't heard of it, and it certainly hasn't shown up on Slashdot
;-)
You sure?
I think they should have a special competition - a hardcore permadeath PVP server, open for one week. Whoever has managed to get the highest level at the end of this time wins. They don't even have to be still alive, just whatever the best was in that time. This would be a lot of fun!
;-)
And to make it even more fun, you could allow attacks on your own faction as well.
"LF1M for Doomguard quest"
hehe.. guess which one.
Finally, there are already games for Xbox 360 and PS2 that support USB keyboards
;-)
That always cracks me up, when I read that console FPS games support USB keyboards and mice. It's the keyboard part of it - it amuses me to think of people plugging in these relatively expensive input devices just so they can use the WASD keys. Talk about redundant... Maybe some enterprising company could make a mini-keyboard consisting of just these four keys?
"Bio" means bio-break, i.e. a break forced upon you by biology like the need to take a piss, or eat something. I think it is used to say "Hey look, I have to go AFK but it isn't my fault!" to counteract the guilt that might be felt by leaving your buddies for a while. "I would play 24 straight hours a day, but my pitiful body lets me down again - got to go rub ointment on my bedsores!" ;-)
Blizzard must have been feeling left out, as they have (since the last patch) made WoW pop up a 'launcher' first, which displays a mini-browser with various news items about the game, and has a little sniff round your machine to see if you are running any cheats. It can be disabled by faffing about with shortcuts, but still, it just shows how much these companies love their portals.
I think that was intentional.
EVE is sci-fi, and it does it well. You can save your personality into a clone, and this can live on after you die. Makes even more sense to me than resurrection in a fantasy setting - in WoW, for example, how could there have been a terrible war if people can be resurrected willy-nilly? Or, to paraphrase that list mocking RPG conventions, it's the "Why didn't they use Phoenix Down on Aeris, then?" effect.
Why would *text* be clearer in the XBox 360 shots? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me... Can anyone enlighten me?
Let's take GTA: San Andreas. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to see a Pepsi sign on the billboards vs. some other made-up brand?
I don't think so. Part of the appeal of the GTA series for me was how it took place in a slightly distorted version of our own world. Brands were satirised and mocked, which along with the radio content the game made quite an anti-consumerist statement - people blatantly trying to sell you over the top crap they knew was crap. The game was art, IMHO, making a statement about how modern society is going to hell in a handbasket, simply by exaggerating things that we have in the real world. How could this not have been spoilt by real ads?
For example - if you go into a Cluckin' Bell restauraunt in GTA:SA, chances are it is filthy, the staff insult you and the food is crap. Contrast if it had been a licensed KFC or Taco Bell - it would be pristine and you would have genuine marketing slogans shouted at you. The satire would have been turned into a cheap shill, and by extension the world the game was trying to create would be diminished.
Sorry, too busy trying to kill that shaman with 4,000,000 other subsribers otherwise I'd have some kind of snappy reply for you.
Geez, there are four million and one of you and you still can't kill one shaman? Guess they really are overpowered!
Yeah, with that one the longer you hold in the power button the better it gets!
Research and Markets also foresees online gaming becoming an increasingly important part of the gaming experience
Oh come on, they have been trotting out this old chestnut since the launch of the PS2! I just don't think the majority of people are that interested in online multiplayer for consoles - people want good 'party games', or a high-quality single-player experience, Joe Blow doesn't want to be faffing about with wireless networking to get his console online in his living room. The people who are really into multiplayer get PCs.
Beautiful post man, I wish I had modpoints. (And why Anonymous?)
MMORPGs aren't set up to reward skill, they are designed to reward time spent, and little else. Not knocking WoW, I love it, but I can only shrug at the time requirements for the best equipment and higher PVP ranks. I just have to accept I won't ever be able to compete at that level.
Well, selling holiday homes on the far side would be a bit of a hurdle (not much chance of a tan). Calls for some good advertising, Darth Vader perhaps? "Come to the Dark Side.. for next year's vacation!"
I was using graduates as a shorthand for "smart people". Obviously you don't want Einstein running at artillery with a bayonet. Anyway, to paraphrase Bill Hicks "Anyone stupid enough to want to be in the military...should be allowed in."
Maybe, or maybe it's the fact that a society can lose very large amounts of men and still recover within a generation (as one man can father many children simultaneously) whereas one woman can only produce one child at once, and only for a limited span. Therefore it makes precious little sense to send women to the front lines, in the same way you don't send your university educated males to the front line either.