Yeah, I think I can agree with that assessment. Taken to its logical conclusion, this can be quite humorous. In EverQuest, they'll have to keep introducing newer and newer items with ever increasing stats dropping from super-uber-godly monsters to keep players interested. Sooner or later these level 60 players will be able to take out the Sleeper (EQ "end-game" mob) in one hit. A level 60 player will have 120 strength naked, 62000 with equipment, and millions of hit points. The uber encounters of the future will involve mobs which hit for damage in the hundreds of thousands, and will have hitpoints in the billions.
This will continue until we reach a machine limitation in the size of an integer that can be stored.;)
The thing is, however, is that as your money becomes more valuable, so does the price of the equipment that is deemed to be "average" for your character's level, because Verant keeps introducing newer and newer items into the game.
In the old, old days, like someone said above, a person could be considered uber for walking around in bronze armor. Today, you *might* see a twinked character running around in bronze armor, but that would indicate to you that the twink owner's main character could not afford to buy anything better.
So, equipment that was revered and held up as 'uber' a year ago is now used as "poor man's twinking equipment" today. You can buy more bronze armor with your money today than you could a year ago, but you wouldn't want to.
Too late now. EQ's been out since 1999; people are used to the fact that their equipment does not wear out. Old habits die hard.
Not only that, but you should read some of the message boards and peruse the numerous accounts of the ungodly amount of man-hours and real dollars that are spent to acquire some of the 'uber' equipment. We're talking some serious time; plane-clearing raids and such that take well over a day's worth of contiguous (i.e. uninterrupted) real time to prepare for and execute. Can you imagine the absolute uproar if some of the items acquired during those raids started to decay?
Sounds like the same problem with any type of computer gadgetry, really. New components outdate older components -- the SuperUber graphics accelerator replaces the older UberPlus model. The iPAQ that I bought in August for $599 is now worth $400 from a vendor, $300-$350 used. The Pentium III I bought two years ago for $1400 is now worth about $600-$700 or so, if that.
I would get better use out of the money by sticking it into a MMF and gaining 4-6% annual interest. But at some point in time, I will absolutely have to upgrade my computer to do everything that I want to do.
So, on some level, the EverQuest economy does mirror a certain segment of the "real" economy.
The closest analogy I can think of would be a hardcore conservative listening to 24 hours of Rush Limbaugh (Not sure who would be a good example for a Liberal stance, so I won't list them. ). Sure they can do it, but in doing so they cut themselves off from the other viewpoints and opinions that might provoke some thought in what they believe in.
"the *USER* himself dosen't want to be responsible for learning anything"
... and in this case I completely agree with the user. Computers need to accommodate the human being, not the other way around. Sure, you and I both have learned the ins and outs of operating in a CLI environment, setting up/maintaining *nix boxes, etc., but it's ludicrous to tell a user that they must read through tons of documentation just to figure out how to get something done in Linux when they know that the same action can be accomplished in 2-3 mouse clicks under windoze, and then somehow call this "the better way?"
Yeah, you and I both understand how powerful, flexible, and useful *nix is compared to windoze, and it seems easy enough to us to administer it, but the average Joe wants nothing more than to get the job done quickly, doesn't want to have to expend a lot of mental energy on the PROCESS of getting the work done (which might be fun or interesting to some of us), but on the actual WORK.
I had the task of bringing my largely computer-illiterate father up-to-speed on both Windows and Linux at the same time. His comment to me was that it seemed that Linux (Mandrake distribution, if it matters) had a ways to go to make the user feel comfortable that they could move around and get things done in the environment, using intuition (his comment was that it seemed that most Windows applications seemed to have the same shortcuts and command accessibility, and general behavior that seemed intuitive to him). And that to do many things in Linux vs. Windows required reading through 5x the amount of documentation.
*nix zealots need to remember that to most individuals, computers are a necessary evil and NOT a lifelong interest/hobby/passion. Some people view the task of learning a new computer interface as quite daunting. The current collection of distros does very little to soften the blow, IMO. Sorry, the HOWTOs and manpages don't cut it.
Re:I'd have a hard time taking this book seriously
on
God's Debris
·
· Score: 1
Ever read The Gospel According to Peanuts? Robert Short did some work in using some of Schulz's strips to illustrate the basic themes of Christianity.
The US has done everything possible to avoid casualties in Afghanistan. The US makes and has made the greatest effort of any country in history to fight a war within the confines of the Geneva convention. Civilian casualties are an unavoidable and truly regrettable outcome of nearly any military operation, especially one where the enemy houses its munitions and troops in residential neighborhoods.
...to the birth of a new industry. These people would like you to believe that they are industry watchdogs but they're only out to make a quick profit. The widespread use (and abuse) of the automobile led to the ambulance-chasing lawyer phenomenon that was much decried in the past. The widespread use of the internet is giving birth to neo-vigilantes who seek out any insignificant or perceived copyright violation, hoping to gain financially by reporting the violators.
If companies are truly concerned about enforcing copyright, they join the relevant organizations or they organize their own enforcement efforts. Companies like Envision are basically contract collection agents who collect before they are actually contracted by a client.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I think I can agree with that assessment. Taken to its logical conclusion, this can be quite humorous. In EverQuest, they'll have to keep introducing newer and newer items with ever increasing stats dropping from super-uber-godly monsters to keep players interested. Sooner or later these level 60 players will be able to take out the Sleeper (EQ "end-game" mob) in one hit. A level 60 player will have 120 strength naked, 62000 with equipment, and millions of hit points. The uber encounters of the future will involve mobs which hit for damage in the hundreds of thousands, and will have hitpoints in the billions.
;)
This will continue until we reach a machine limitation in the size of an integer that can be stored.
The thing is, however, is that as your money becomes more valuable, so does the price of the equipment that is deemed to be "average" for your character's level, because Verant keeps introducing newer and newer items into the game.
In the old, old days, like someone said above, a person could be considered uber for walking around in bronze armor. Today, you *might* see a twinked character running around in bronze armor, but that would indicate to you that the twink owner's main character could not afford to buy anything better.
So, equipment that was revered and held up as 'uber' a year ago is now used as "poor man's twinking equipment" today. You can buy more bronze armor with your money today than you could a year ago, but you wouldn't want to.
Too late now. EQ's been out since 1999; people are used to the fact that their equipment does not wear out. Old habits die hard.
Not only that, but you should read some of the message boards and peruse the numerous accounts of the ungodly amount of man-hours and real dollars that are spent to acquire some of the 'uber' equipment. We're talking some serious time; plane-clearing raids and such that take well over a day's worth of contiguous (i.e. uninterrupted) real time to prepare for and execute. Can you imagine the absolute uproar if some of the items acquired during those raids started to decay?
Sounds like the same problem with any type of computer gadgetry, really. New components outdate older components -- the SuperUber graphics accelerator replaces the older UberPlus model. The iPAQ that I bought in August for $599 is now worth $400 from a vendor, $300-$350 used. The Pentium III I bought two years ago for $1400 is now worth about $600-$700 or so, if that.
I would get better use out of the money by sticking it into a MMF and gaining 4-6% annual interest. But at some point in time, I will absolutely have to upgrade my computer to do everything that I want to do.
So, on some level, the EverQuest economy does mirror a certain segment of the "real" economy.
Perhaps you meant algorithm?
The closest analogy I can think of would be a hardcore conservative listening to 24 hours of Rush Limbaugh (Not sure who would be a good example for a Liberal stance, so I won't list them. ). Sure they can do it, but in doing so they cut themselves off from the other viewpoints and opinions that might provoke some thought in what they believe in.
Here's your example: Noam Chomsky.
"the *USER* himself dosen't want to be responsible for learning anything"
... and in this case I completely agree with the user. Computers need to accommodate the human being, not the other way around. Sure, you and I both have learned the ins and outs of operating in a CLI environment, setting up/maintaining *nix boxes, etc., but it's ludicrous to tell a user that they must read through tons of documentation just to figure out how to get something done in Linux when they know that the same action can be accomplished in 2-3 mouse clicks under windoze, and then somehow call this "the better way?"
Yeah, you and I both understand how powerful, flexible, and useful *nix is compared to windoze, and it seems easy enough to us to administer it, but the average Joe wants nothing more than to get the job done quickly, doesn't want to have to expend a lot of mental energy on the PROCESS of getting the work done (which might be fun or interesting to some of us), but on the actual WORK.
I had the task of bringing my largely computer-illiterate father up-to-speed on both Windows and Linux at the same time. His comment to me was that it seemed that Linux (Mandrake distribution, if it matters) had a ways to go to make the user feel comfortable that they could move around and get things done in the environment, using intuition (his comment was that it seemed that most Windows applications seemed to have the same shortcuts and command accessibility, and general behavior that seemed intuitive to him). And that to do many things in Linux vs. Windows required reading through 5x the amount of documentation.
*nix zealots need to remember that to most individuals, computers are a necessary evil and NOT a lifelong interest/hobby/passion. Some people view the task of learning a new computer interface as quite daunting. The current collection of distros does very little to soften the blow, IMO. Sorry, the HOWTOs and manpages don't cut it.
Ever read The Gospel According to Peanuts? Robert Short did some work in using some of Schulz's strips to illustrate the basic themes of Christianity.
The US has done everything possible to avoid casualties in Afghanistan. The US makes and has made the greatest effort of any country in history to fight a war within the confines of the Geneva convention. Civilian casualties are an unavoidable and truly regrettable outcome of nearly any military operation, especially one where the enemy houses its munitions and troops in residential neighborhoods.
I had absolutely no problems writing this word, along with all the other four letter ones.
Lay off some of the caffeine. =)
I never thought about posting a Biblical reference on /. (heaven forfend), but it seems appropriate...
"Everything is permissible to me, but not everything is beneficial."
...to the birth of a new industry. These people would like you to believe that they are industry watchdogs but they're only out to make a quick profit. The widespread use (and abuse) of the automobile led to the ambulance-chasing lawyer phenomenon that was much decried in the past. The widespread use of the internet is giving birth to neo-vigilantes who seek out any insignificant or perceived copyright violation, hoping to gain financially by reporting the violators. If companies are truly concerned about enforcing copyright, they join the relevant organizations or they organize their own enforcement efforts. Companies like Envision are basically contract collection agents who collect before they are actually contracted by a client.