I, for one, am tired of waiting six to twelve months for games to be localized, and all the while running into little spoilers that diminish my enjoyment of the game when it finally arrives. Though it may be a bit harder to pull off, it would be nice if non-Japanese gamers weren't treated like second-class citizens when it comes to release dates.
Along the same vein, one of the RIAA folks said a while back that file-sharing isn't "sharing" because when you share something, you don't have it anymore.
In doing so, he made the point better than I ever could. Copying files isn't "stealing" because when you steal something, the owner doesn't have it anymore. Go figure.
...set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.:)
Honestly, I'd be happy if people just knew the difference between memory and hard drive space. It doesn't help nowadays that small USB drives and the like are called "memory sticks".
Back in the days of DOS, I had a friend who couldn't run a game because he didn't have enough free memory. So he went and deleted a lot of stuff off his hard drive, and managed to delete something that loaded at boot. Lo and behold, his game worked after that, thereby reinforcing his idea that memory and hard drive space are the same thing. I never could convince him otherwise after that.:)
She lies constantly. I've never seen anyone who is as sick and twisted as she is. I despise her.
Hmm... Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reily, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore...
Some people are paid various people with an agenda to say things that aren't true. You're right about it being sick and twisted, even if you're a little naive to think that she's somehow unique.:)
It lacks maturity, therefore it is a proof of concept. Note the memory management issues listed in previous comments. It's not suitable for a production environment, therefore no valid comparison can be made and Linux (being production-ready) wins by default.
I'm not dismissing microkernel architectures (and I'm not qualified to), but the microkernel side isn't even ready to engage the monolithic side in a debate because there really aren't any real-world examples of production microkernel unix.
...until someone makes a microkernel unix system that's more than just a proof of concept. Linux wins by default right now because it works reliably and has the features people need in order to run in a production environment.
It seems like coding micorokernel systems is a lot harder, since there still isn't really a completely working one.
Everyone knows that the USA is great as long as it's better than China! National wiretapping? That's fine, it's not as bad as China! "Free Speech Zones"? In China, they don't even get free speech, so that's okay too! Imprisoning citizens indefinitely without trial? In China, they do it a lot more!
No, each adult has to work on their own morality and forcing them won't make the right moral changes to fix society.
That says it all. The hallmark of liberalism isn't that we lack moral values, it's that we just don't feel right about shoving them down everyone's throat.
Really, now, if that 32% listened to *anything*, they'd have stopped approving of Bush by now. Colbert didn't imply anything that wasn't already public knowledge.
We're down to the religious nutbags now. It's interesting, really, to see what percentage they make up, and I'm glad it's only 32... at one point I was worried it was in the 40s. Bush will have a really hard time losing these people, because they're the ones who believe that he was sent by God (as opposed to, say, reelected in a questionable and impossible-to-verify manner).
You can do about the same stuff with Javascript that you can do with QBasic.
Furthermore, if you really want to get into things, Perl, Python, and many other versatile and powerful dynamic languages are readily available on the web for Windows. You can use them easily at a console (which is the same thing you were doing with QBasic) or you can jump right into GUI programming. Furthermore, given how readily available libraries like SDL and OpenGL are (even for interpreted languages), you can jump right into game programming, which is something that motivates a lot of teenage programmers.
Hence: The barriers to entry are about the same, and it's easier to do much cooler stuff now.
When Wal-Mart has come in and put a lot of other retailers out of business and you find that the only place you can find work is Wal-Mart, then you're effectively forced to work there. Or move, or be unemployed, neither of which are very practical. Not everyone has the resources to "just quit" their job.
I thought he as a lot more interesting than Cloud. He at least had emotions, even though he wasn't necessarily capable of showing them. Squall's just an example of someone who closed up because they were afraid of losing someone again. He actually becomes pretty likeable by the end of the game, and he shows more character development than any other video/computer game I can think of at the moment.
I hated the draw system, and I didn't much care for the Ultimecia plot. I can think of a lot of RPGs that are less flawed than FF8, but FF8 is still my favorite video game.
I can understand why a lot of people don't like FF8... if you're going to appreciate it, three things are necessary:
1) You have to be playing for the story and not the game system. I didn't sit there repeatedly drawing spells out of enemies because I enjoyed FF8 combat. I did it because I wanted to see what happened next. 2) You have to "get" Squall. There's an interesting personality there, and he starts to change for the better when you first get to Fisherman's Horizon. Liking story more than combat in general doesn't help you if you can't get past Squall's personality on the first disc. 3) You have to realize that the stupid Ultimecia plot is really just a backdrop for the main story, which is Squall's own personal struggle.
All this probably makes it sound like I had to work at liking FF8. Honestly, I just loved it. Also, the music was awesome.
As with all "Class 200000" laser products, care should be taken to avoid looking directly into the laser. Do not point the Airborne Laser into other people's eyes or stare into the beam.
However, these two styles are not incompatable! There is a fantastic middle ground that no one has discovered.
There's a reason for this... Imagine for a moment that your game plot is a tree, with nodes that make up major plot points. Games like Oblivion are very short and wide trees, where you have a lot of choices, but the choices don't lead to very many interesting plot points. Console games (like Final Fantasy) have very tall, thin trees, often with very little in the way of branching (a few short side quests here and there, and maybe an alternate ending or two depending on whether you accomplished some specific objective).
If each "node" on the tree is an interesting plot point, you'll find that both console RPGs and PC RPGs have about the same number of nodes -- they're just arranged differently. PC style RPGs have far less depth and character development because the characters all have little (if any) plot. Console RPGs have a lot of depth, but leave you with very few choices, because all of the effort to make the game went toward the single, main plotline.
This "sweet spot" you're talking about is a plot tree that's both wide and tall. It's not impossible, just very impractical. Let's say each plot point takes some set amount of development time. If a console RPG has n plot points and a PC RPG has n plot points, this "sweet spot" game has approximately n^2 plot points. Hence, developing this game would cost astronomically more than any other RPG.
Look for RPGs like this when (or if!) computers start passing Turing tests. If the computer can dynamically generate the plot on its own, then you can avoid the nasty n^2 development time.:)
There's nothing scientifically wrong with the idea of hot fusion.... and it's certainly reasonable to assume that fusion may have been occurring at those temperatures. I must have missed the part of the article that says they're getting more energy out than they put in, however. If that were the case, it would be really exciting.
Master of Orion 2 Final Fantasy 8 & 10 Xenogears Chrono Trigger Mega Man 1, 2, & 3 X-COM Starcraft Star Control 2 (It's free now, and it even works on Linux!) Master of Magic
Conclusion: For the most part, I enjoy console RPGs and turn-based strategy.
1. Don't mess with a working system if you don't have to. There may be bugs in the new one, and why expose your users to that unless it's absolutely necessary? 2. Maybe the new process requires more computing power on the server end.
Our broadband in the states may be crap compared to parts of Asia, but we've sure got it better than Canada. And Australia, too, if I recall.
Fortunately, there are a number of broadband providers in my area, so if Time Warner ever went mad with power and started shittifying their internet service, I'd just drop them and switch to a different provider.
Re:Although this seems "reasonable" in light of th
on
Google Delists BMW-Germany
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Maybe it would help if you think of it as a slight addition to the pagerank algorithm.
That certainly pushes my limit, but logically there isn't much I can say about it if it's between consenting adults.
On the other hand, if I'm asking people to step away from their own visceral personal reactions to things and look at them logically, I'd be a hypocrite if I did anything different. I can't think of any argument that would apply to consensual homosexuality and not consensual incest, or vice-versa.
The only real difference is that one is considered taboo by less than half of americans, and the other is considered taboo by almost everyone. This is logically irrelevant, but there's always a fear that someone might think that I'm into incest, or that I think incest is a good idea. In reality, I found myself searching for some sort of excuse to differentiate incest from homosexuality so that I could say incest is bad while maintaining that homosexuality is fine. And to be honest, I've never been confronted by someone who admitted to engaging in concensual incest (and I don't really expect to), so I have no idea how I might react.
I guess sometimes we have to accept things that we're uncomfortable with. Put in that light, I don't think I would kick someone out of my WoW guild for implying (as opposed to announcing) in a non-vulgar way that they're into incest (as long as they don't get into detail, which I don't want to hear about regardless of sexual preference). I admit that I'd be weirded out by it, though.
Honestly, I'm not clear on that either, since I don't have a problem with it (consenting adults and all). Perhaps you'd care to offer some insight? Or are you okay with polygamy but not homosexuality? Again, honest answers, please.
Slashdot Mirror
How about simultaneous releases?
I, for one, am tired of waiting six to twelve months for games to be localized, and all the while running into little spoilers that diminish my enjoyment of the game when it finally arrives. Though it may be a bit harder to pull off, it would be nice if non-Japanese gamers weren't treated like second-class citizens when it comes to release dates.
I think you meant to say "NDS for Symbian", not Sybian...
Hmmmm... Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those. That'd be one noisy server room.
"Cthulhu are a race..."
No no. Cthulu Karts is a race.
Along the same vein, one of the RIAA folks said a while back that file-sharing isn't "sharing" because when you share something, you don't have it anymore.
In doing so, he made the point better than I ever could. Copying files isn't "stealing" because when you steal something, the owner doesn't have it anymore. Go figure.
...set him on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. :)
:)
Honestly, I'd be happy if people just knew the difference between memory and hard drive space. It doesn't help nowadays that small USB drives and the like are called "memory sticks".
Back in the days of DOS, I had a friend who couldn't run a game because he didn't have enough free memory. So he went and deleted a lot of stuff off his hard drive, and managed to delete something that loaded at boot. Lo and behold, his game worked after that, thereby reinforcing his idea that memory and hard drive space are the same thing. I never could convince him otherwise after that.
She lies constantly. I've never seen anyone who is as sick and twisted as she is. I despise her.
:)
Hmm... Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reily, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore...
Some people are paid various people with an agenda to say things that aren't true. You're right about it being sick and twisted, even if you're a little naive to think that she's somehow unique.
It lacks maturity, therefore it is a proof of concept. Note the memory management issues listed in previous comments. It's not suitable for a production environment, therefore no valid comparison can be made and Linux (being production-ready) wins by default.
I'm not dismissing microkernel architectures (and I'm not qualified to), but the microkernel side isn't even ready to engage the monolithic side in a debate because there really aren't any real-world examples of production microkernel unix.
...until someone makes a microkernel unix system that's more than just a proof of concept. Linux wins by default right now because it works reliably and has the features people need in order to run in a production environment.
It seems like coding micorokernel systems is a lot harder, since there still isn't really a completely working one.
Everyone knows that the USA is great as long as it's better than China! National wiretapping? That's fine, it's not as bad as China! "Free Speech Zones"? In China, they don't even get free speech, so that's okay too! Imprisoning citizens indefinitely without trial? In China, they do it a lot more!
Yay, go USA! We're Not As Bad As China (TM)!
No, each adult has to work on their own morality and forcing them won't make the right moral changes to fix society.
That says it all. The hallmark of liberalism isn't that we lack moral values, it's that we just don't feel right about shoving them down everyone's throat.
Really, now, if that 32% listened to *anything*, they'd have stopped approving of Bush by now. Colbert didn't imply anything that wasn't already public knowledge.
We're down to the religious nutbags now. It's interesting, really, to see what percentage they make up, and I'm glad it's only 32... at one point I was worried it was in the 40s. Bush will have a really hard time losing these people, because they're the ones who believe that he was sent by God (as opposed to, say, reelected in a questionable and impossible-to-verify manner).
You can do about the same stuff with Javascript that you can do with QBasic.
Furthermore, if you really want to get into things, Perl, Python, and many other versatile and powerful dynamic languages are readily available on the web for Windows. You can use them easily at a console (which is the same thing you were doing with QBasic) or you can jump right into GUI programming. Furthermore, given how readily available libraries like SDL and OpenGL are (even for interpreted languages), you can jump right into game programming, which is something that motivates a lot of teenage programmers.
Hence: The barriers to entry are about the same, and it's easier to do much cooler stuff now.
When Wal-Mart has come in and put a lot of other retailers out of business and you find that the only place you can find work is Wal-Mart, then you're effectively forced to work there. Or move, or be unemployed, neither of which are very practical. Not everyone has the resources to "just quit" their job.
I thought he as a lot more interesting than Cloud. He at least had emotions, even though he wasn't necessarily capable of showing them. Squall's just an example of someone who closed up because they were afraid of losing someone again. He actually becomes pretty likeable by the end of the game, and he shows more character development than any other video/computer game I can think of at the moment.
I hated the draw system, and I didn't much care for the Ultimecia plot. I can think of a lot of RPGs that are less flawed than FF8, but FF8 is still my favorite video game.
I can understand why a lot of people don't like FF8... if you're going to appreciate it, three things are necessary:
1) You have to be playing for the story and not the game system. I didn't sit there repeatedly drawing spells out of enemies because I enjoyed FF8 combat. I did it because I wanted to see what happened next.
2) You have to "get" Squall. There's an interesting personality there, and he starts to change for the better when you first get to Fisherman's Horizon. Liking story more than combat in general doesn't help you if you can't get past Squall's personality on the first disc.
3) You have to realize that the stupid Ultimecia plot is really just a backdrop for the main story, which is Squall's own personal struggle.
All this probably makes it sound like I had to work at liking FF8. Honestly, I just loved it. Also, the music was awesome.
Sure, Real is at number 9, but most of their traffic is to one specific page:
i _uninstall_this_damn_thing.html
http://www.real.com/support/faqs/how_the_hell_do_
As with all "Class 200000" laser products, care should be taken to avoid looking directly into the laser. Do not point the Airborne Laser into other people's eyes or stare into the beam.
However, these two styles are not incompatable! There is a fantastic middle ground that no one has discovered.
:)
There's a reason for this... Imagine for a moment that your game plot is a tree, with nodes that make up major plot points. Games like Oblivion are very short and wide trees, where you have a lot of choices, but the choices don't lead to very many interesting plot points. Console games (like Final Fantasy) have very tall, thin trees, often with very little in the way of branching (a few short side quests here and there, and maybe an alternate ending or two depending on whether you accomplished some specific objective).
If each "node" on the tree is an interesting plot point, you'll find that both console RPGs and PC RPGs have about the same number of nodes -- they're just arranged differently. PC style RPGs have far less depth and character development because the characters all have little (if any) plot. Console RPGs have a lot of depth, but leave you with very few choices, because all of the effort to make the game went toward the single, main plotline.
This "sweet spot" you're talking about is a plot tree that's both wide and tall. It's not impossible, just very impractical. Let's say each plot point takes some set amount of development time. If a console RPG has n plot points and a PC RPG has n plot points, this "sweet spot" game has approximately n^2 plot points. Hence, developing this game would cost astronomically more than any other RPG.
Look for RPGs like this when (or if!) computers start passing Turing tests. If the computer can dynamically generate the plot on its own, then you can avoid the nasty n^2 development time.
Lendrick
P.S. Oblivion is awesome. So is Final Fantasy.
There's nothing scientifically wrong with the idea of hot fusion.... and it's certainly reasonable to assume that fusion may have been occurring at those temperatures. I must have missed the part of the article that says they're getting more energy out than they put in, however. If that were the case, it would be really exciting.
Wow, let's see here...
Master of Orion 2
Final Fantasy 8 & 10
Xenogears
Chrono Trigger
Mega Man 1, 2, & 3
X-COM
Starcraft
Star Control 2 (It's free now, and it even works on Linux!)
Master of Magic
Conclusion: For the most part, I enjoy console RPGs and turn-based strategy.
Two possibilities come to mind:
1. Don't mess with a working system if you don't have to. There may be bugs in the new one, and why expose your users to that unless it's absolutely necessary?
2. Maybe the new process requires more computing power on the server end.
Our broadband in the states may be crap compared to parts of Asia, but we've sure got it better than Canada. And Australia, too, if I recall.
Fortunately, there are a number of broadband providers in my area, so if Time Warner ever went mad with power and started shittifying their internet service, I'd just drop them and switch to a different provider.
Maybe it would help if you think of it as a slight addition to the pagerank algorithm.
if(content_shown_to_google != content_shown_to_user) pagerank = 0;
That certainly pushes my limit, but logically there isn't much I can say about it if it's between consenting adults.
On the other hand, if I'm asking people to step away from their own visceral personal reactions to things and look at them logically, I'd be a hypocrite if I did anything different. I can't think of any argument that would apply to consensual homosexuality and not consensual incest, or vice-versa.
The only real difference is that one is considered taboo by less than half of americans, and the other is considered taboo by almost everyone. This is logically irrelevant, but there's always a fear that someone might think that I'm into incest, or that I think incest is a good idea. In reality, I found myself searching for some sort of excuse to differentiate incest from homosexuality so that I could say incest is bad while maintaining that homosexuality is fine. And to be honest, I've never been confronted by someone who admitted to engaging in concensual incest (and I don't really expect to), so I have no idea how I might react.
I guess sometimes we have to accept things that we're uncomfortable with. Put in that light, I don't think I would kick someone out of my WoW guild for implying (as opposed to announcing) in a non-vulgar way that they're into incest (as long as they don't get into detail, which I don't want to hear about regardless of sexual preference). I admit that I'd be weirded out by it, though.
I concede. Strike "decision about their own" from my post and the point remains intact. :)
That's a much better analogy.
Honestly, I'm not clear on that either, since I don't have a problem with it (consenting adults and all). Perhaps you'd care to offer some insight? Or are you okay with polygamy but not homosexuality? Again, honest answers, please.