You know, if this was just about bad management and the company going under for normal reasons, I might agree. Lots of game companies go under, that's life.
But to me this is different, because what dealt the near-death blow was a betrayal of trust, and embezzelment. That's just not right.
RPGs have never been a lucrative business. Most companies are lucky to make a profit and even if you prosper you're probably never going to be rich. You don't publish RPGs to beomce rich, you do it because you love the game.
For that reason alone, I think they deserve the help of the fans past and present. If this was a movie, it should be the part where everyone puts aside their differences and grudges and stands together to help a common cause.
Palladium was the first RPG system I ever played. TMNT, Ninjas and Superspies, Robotech, and Heros Unlimited were all great games. I may have drifted from it later on in favor of non-leveled systems that I thought were more "realistic", but I've since gone back to games like d20 and HackMaster, so I'll be visiting Palladium again real soon.
I also do an RPG webcomic called Fuzzy Knights ( http://www.fuzzyknights.com/ ), and this situation moved me enough that Friday's strip is going to be about the Palladium situation. I hope I can do my bit to spread the word about this unfortunate situation and help Palladium out.
Kevin's always been in it for the love of the game, so I think those who are part of the game should give him back a little love.
As much as I'd like to see this take off, I'm willing to bet it will either die from lack of interest, or too much differing interest. Sucks to be capitalists.
I'm simply addressing what is an inevitability. You WON'T get rid of hackers. Ever. So rather than get rid of them, let them know there is an area where they can roam free and explore and exploit all they want. Heck, you can use the information gathered from this to improve your next version. Meanwhile the fair play players can have fun within the world as it is.
1) Do they have women? 2) How big are their breasts? 3) How many breasts do they have? 4) Has Captain Kirk slept with them yet?
(If so, check for STDs)
There should be two sets of servers out there for these kinds of games. One where hackers are allowed to do whatever they want, and one for people who want to play by the rules. Both of them would have to be exactly the same in every detail otherwise there would be that temptation of "what am I missing out on over here?".
Do I think this will stop people from hacking the system for the "fair play" players? Heck no. But I'm reading here about how some people think hacking and cheating is part and parcel of the game, that it's not about wrecking the game for others, but pushing the system to the limit.
That's as well as may be, but if you run two identical systems like this, at least you can separate the "adventuring enterprising hackers" from the regular jerks who just enjoy wrecking other people's days.
about how Hollywood is complaining about losing profits due to file sharing programs... yet the reason they are told they are losing profits is because of the high prices. Then along comes someone telling them they can get those prices down, while Hollywood get the same price for showing it, and they thumb their nose at it?
After all, by studying how viruses are made, you can better understand them and thus make better anti-virus software. The kids going here are not going because they want to learn to be L33T cyber hackers or whatever, but knowing the tools of the trade (white and black hat) will help them in the computer programing/protection field.
What gets me is how some people go out of their way to nippick the movie to pieces "oh this is stupid, this makes no sense" and others love it so much that they read WAY too much into it.
Take all the religous and phylosphical stuff about it. Yes, there is a lot of connections in there, it was put in the same way that other good story tellers use myth to make their world and stories feel more real and grander. The first Star Wars trilogy comes to mind. But then you have people who think every little thing is an intentional reference to something or other.
One example. I heard that Neo dies for 72 seconds before he comes back to represent the 72 hours (3 days) Jesus died. I timed it, and it's crap. You can find 72 seconds in there, sure, but there is no place you can say "okay logically you start Neo's death here and his coming back to life here" and it adds up to 72 seconds. Very fuzzy logic going on there. But it is symtimatic of how much people want to find meaning in things like this.
Is this a bad thing? Perhaps. One of the complaints I've heard of the sequal is that it's trying even harder to sound psudo-religious-phylosophical as a result of this faction of the fandom base.
Tolkien said it best when he got annoyed at how people thought The Lord of the Rings was an analogy for World War 2 (and would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how people tried to equate the movies with September 11 and the war against terrorism).
"I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'alegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author"
Hey, didn't Morpheus himself say "free your mind"? Stop thinking every gawd damn word is meant to be spiritually profound!:P
Which is the same strategy used by Back to the Future (as you mention) as well as the first Star Wars trilogy. Too much money at stake to invest in a whole Trilogy (except for LOTR, but then they planned it well), so it's safter to go this route.
You want a REALLY fresh idea for Star Trek, something new and different? Well, they shouldn't have blown it from the get go. Come on, we're talking about the BEGINING of decent exploration from Earth for crying out loud! What is more interesting than the idea of being true pioneers?
Only one problem, everything here feels the same as every other show. They still have transporters, they just don't use them on people much. They don't have tractor beams, but that's an excuse so they can have a cool lookin toilet plunger launcher instead. Their phasers aren't as powerful as later shows, but big whoop, they're still phasers. Same shit, different smell, music by a Ron Stweart wannabe.
A show I WOULD have watched eagerly would have been one BEFORE all this technology (save the ability to travel at warp). NO transporters, NO phasers, NO tractor beams, heck no artificial gravity even (though that could be a problem cost wise and quailty wise, unless you have rotating sections like B5, though that doesn't mesh with its own "history"). And if you think that no longer makes it Star Trek, then you really are brainwashed about that show.
Give us something different instead of the same and simply changing it a little to seem different while giving writers the exact same conventions to fall back on under different guises.
This would help.
Well, that and having decent writers that don't simply add the "alien with the cigarette burn on the forhead of the week" each episode.
Oh yeah, and water polo? Who the hell watches water polo?
Glasser said civil liberties advocates should instead focus on pointing out proven problems in proposed surveillance systems. "You cannot go out and argue that privacy is important when everyone is afraid," he said. "But point out where the scams are, why these proposals will not make anything safer, and people will listen."
This is probably the sanest bit of advice I have heard in a long time. Bottom line is neither side is going to agree wholely with the other. The Privacy Freedom folks will see any collection of such information as invasive, and the Security and Safety folks will always think that the Privacy people don't see the big picture and some sacrifices must be made. Looking at the situation from a realistic point of view, without the personal moralities and agendas is the only way anything will get done.
I've seen video phones being used here all the time... of course, cell phones have been big in Japan since... well the turn of the 18th century I think.... they all had mobile tin cans and very long lengths of string. Seriously, you'd wonder how they lived without it.
Anyways, advertising here is heavily promoting the use of 3G phones, the fear is despite the techno-addiction of most people here, there might not be enough people using it to be commercially viable. Some people ("gasp") get buy with JUST email on their phone and don't need to see crotch shots of their friend's pet dog sleeping!
Why not just attatch a GPS tracking system into them or something? Then when your daughter turns 16 and you're worried about young Billy going to second base with her you can make sure they really are going to the library and not MakeOut-Point. Maybe it can set off a proximity alert if his hands get to close to her bra?
When Enterprise first came on, I thought this was going to essentially be "pre" Star Trek. But essentially it feels the same as every other Star Trek series. They have all the same stuff, only crappier. The only good thing that has happened is a mild limitation of the techno-babble deus-ex mechina that plauged the later series. Mild.
Well, I don't think there is any chance Cartoon Network will use the subtitled version... but is it my imagination or is dubbing getting better overall (perhaps not in Trigun, but overall). I remember when Akira first came out dubbed in English and half the voices sounded like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... then the DVD came out recently with much better voice acting.
I used to prefer subtitles because the dubbed versions always sounded like cheezy crap, but I think now it's getting a bit better. Part of me still prefers subtitles, though, since you can hear what the original actors were trying to emote.
a) I'm used to having FREE email b) Once you start charging for something, it's only a matter of time before the fees go up and up as high as it can "sustainably" go, and like stamps we'd be seeing it rise every couple of years.
Slashdot Mirror
You know, if this was just about bad management and the company going under for normal reasons, I might agree. Lots of game companies go under, that's life.
But to me this is different, because what dealt the near-death blow was a betrayal of trust, and embezzelment. That's just not right.
RPGs have never been a lucrative business. Most companies are lucky to make a profit and even if you prosper you're probably never going to be rich. You don't publish RPGs to beomce rich, you do it because you love the game.
For that reason alone, I think they deserve the help of the fans past and present. If this was a movie, it should be the part where everyone puts aside their differences and grudges and stands together to help a common cause.
Palladium was the first RPG system I ever played. TMNT, Ninjas and Superspies, Robotech, and Heros Unlimited were all great games. I may have drifted from it later on in favor of non-leveled systems that I thought were more "realistic", but I've since gone back to games like d20 and HackMaster, so I'll be visiting Palladium again real soon.
I also do an RPG webcomic called Fuzzy Knights ( http://www.fuzzyknights.com/ ), and this situation moved me enough that Friday's strip is going to be about the Palladium situation. I hope I can do my bit to spread the word about this unfortunate situation and help Palladium out.
Kevin's always been in it for the love of the game, so I think those who are part of the game should give him back a little love.
Any time someone finds a new way to have fun
Any time someone wants to share it
Any time people really start to enjoy something...
Some jerk has to come along and bugger it all up.
It's like that Major from Monty Python always shows up and says "Stop that! Stop this silliness!"
... DISAPPEAR!
As much as I'd like to see this take off, I'm willing to bet it will either die from lack of interest, or too much differing interest. Sucks to be capitalists.
Ever thought of what might happen if you dropped a VERY large moon rock on America? Let's see a Missile Defence System take that out.
I'm simply addressing what is an inevitability. You WON'T get rid of hackers. Ever. So rather than get rid of them, let them know there is an area where they can roam free and explore and exploit all they want. Heck, you can use the information gathered from this to improve your next version. Meanwhile the fair play players can have fun within the world as it is.
1) Do they have women?
2) How big are their breasts?
3) How many breasts do they have?
4) Has Captain Kirk slept with them yet?
(If so, check for STDs)
There should be two sets of servers out there for these kinds of games. One where hackers are allowed to do whatever they want, and one for people who want to play by the rules. Both of them would have to be exactly the same in every detail otherwise there would be that temptation of "what am I missing out on over here?".
Do I think this will stop people from hacking the system for the "fair play" players? Heck no. But I'm reading here about how some people think hacking and cheating is part and parcel of the game, that it's not about wrecking the game for others, but pushing the system to the limit.
That's as well as may be, but if you run two identical systems like this, at least you can separate the "adventuring enterprising hackers" from the regular jerks who just enjoy wrecking other people's days.
Good for commercialization not in an independant contractor sense, but in the sense of other countries more actively competeting with the U.S.
Bad for world peace not in the fact it is being done, but WHY it is being done (a symptom rather than a cause)
... of that spiderlike mobile holoprojector used by Darth Sideous in The Phantom Menace?
about how Hollywood is complaining about losing profits due to file sharing programs... yet the reason they are told they are losing profits is because of the high prices. Then along comes someone telling them they can get those prices down, while Hollywood get the same price for showing it, and they thumb their nose at it?
Something doesn't add up.
After all, by studying how viruses are made, you can better understand them and thus make better anti-virus software. The kids going here are not going because they want to learn to be L33T cyber hackers or whatever, but knowing the tools of the trade (white and black hat) will help them in the computer programing/protection field.
What gets me is how some people go out of their way to nippick the movie to pieces "oh this is stupid, this makes no sense" and others love it so much that they read WAY too much into it.
:P
Take all the religous and phylosphical stuff about it. Yes, there is a lot of connections in there, it was put in the same way that other good story tellers use myth to make their world and stories feel more real and grander. The first Star Wars trilogy comes to mind. But then you have people who think every little thing is an intentional reference to something or other.
One example. I heard that Neo dies for 72 seconds before he comes back to represent the 72 hours (3 days) Jesus died. I timed it, and it's crap. You can find 72 seconds in there, sure, but there is no place you can say "okay logically you start Neo's death here and his coming back to life here" and it adds up to 72 seconds. Very fuzzy logic going on there. But it is symtimatic of how much people want to find meaning in things like this.
Is this a bad thing? Perhaps. One of the complaints I've heard of the sequal is that it's trying even harder to sound psudo-religious-phylosophical as a result of this faction of the fandom base.
Tolkien said it best when he got annoyed at how people thought The Lord of the Rings was an analogy for World War 2 (and would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how people tried to equate the movies with September 11 and the war against terrorism).
"I think that many confuse 'applicability' with 'alegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author"
Hey, didn't Morpheus himself say "free your mind"? Stop thinking every gawd damn word is meant to be spiritually profound!
Which is the same strategy used by Back to the Future (as you mention) as well as the first Star Wars trilogy. Too much money at stake to invest in a whole Trilogy (except for LOTR, but then they planned it well), so it's safter to go this route.
he still FORGED a signature in order to get the domain back. Right or wrong that's still breaking the law, isn't it?
that's just plain weird ;)
You want a REALLY fresh idea for Star Trek, something new and different? Well, they shouldn't have blown it from the get go. Come on, we're talking about the BEGINING of decent exploration from Earth for crying out loud! What is more interesting than the idea of being true pioneers?
Only one problem, everything here feels the same as every other show. They still have transporters, they just don't use them on people much. They don't have tractor beams, but that's an excuse so they can have a cool lookin toilet plunger launcher instead. Their phasers aren't as powerful as later shows, but big whoop, they're still phasers. Same shit, different smell, music by a Ron Stweart wannabe.
A show I WOULD have watched eagerly would have been one BEFORE all this technology (save the ability to travel at warp). NO transporters, NO phasers, NO tractor beams, heck no artificial gravity even (though that could be a problem cost wise and quailty wise, unless you have rotating sections like B5, though that doesn't mesh with its own "history"). And if you think that no longer makes it Star Trek, then you really are brainwashed about that show.
Give us something different instead of the same and simply changing it a little to seem different while giving writers the exact same conventions to fall back on under different guises.
This would help.
Well, that and having decent writers that don't simply add the "alien with the cigarette burn on the forhead of the week" each episode.
Oh yeah, and water polo? Who the hell watches water polo?
Glasser said civil liberties advocates should instead focus on pointing out proven problems in proposed surveillance systems. "You cannot go out and argue that privacy is important when everyone is afraid," he said. "But point out where the scams are, why these proposals will not make anything safer, and people will listen."
This is probably the sanest bit of advice I have heard in a long time. Bottom line is neither side is going to agree wholely with the other. The Privacy Freedom folks will see any collection of such information as invasive, and the Security and Safety folks will always think that the Privacy people don't see the big picture and some sacrifices must be made. Looking at the situation from a realistic point of view, without the personal moralities and agendas is the only way anything will get done.
What happens if a genetically engineered life form has an unforseen effect on the real world? Or a mutation?
I've seen video phones being used here all the time... of course, cell phones have been big in Japan since... well the turn of the 18th century I think.... they all had mobile tin cans and very long lengths of string. Seriously, you'd wonder how they lived without it.
Anyways, advertising here is heavily promoting the use of 3G phones, the fear is despite the techno-addiction of most people here, there might not be enough people using it to be commercially viable. Some people ("gasp") get buy with JUST email on their phone and don't need to see crotch shots of their friend's pet dog sleeping!
Why not just attatch a GPS tracking system into them or something? Then when your daughter turns 16 and you're worried about young Billy going to second base with her you can make sure they really are going to the library and not MakeOut-Point. Maybe it can set off a proximity alert if his hands get to close to her bra?
;)
Remember, folks, Big Brother begins at home
Now I can download porn faster than I can oggle it!
When Enterprise first came on, I thought this was going to essentially be "pre" Star Trek. But essentially it feels the same as every other Star Trek series. They have all the same stuff, only crappier. The only good thing that has happened is a mild limitation of the techno-babble deus-ex mechina that plauged the later series. Mild.
Well, I don't think there is any chance Cartoon Network will use the subtitled version... but is it my imagination or is dubbing getting better overall (perhaps not in Trigun, but overall). I remember when Akira first came out dubbed in English and half the voices sounded like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... then the DVD came out recently with much better voice acting.
I used to prefer subtitles because the dubbed versions always sounded like cheezy crap, but I think now it's getting a bit better. Part of me still prefers subtitles, though, since you can hear what the original actors were trying to emote.
Yes, it does seem reasonable, but
a) I'm used to having FREE email
b) Once you start charging for something, it's only a matter of time before the fees go up and up as high as it can "sustainably" go, and like stamps we'd be seeing it rise every couple of years.