I was semi-hardcore about EQ and later WoW at my worst, but even that took up more time than was reasonable. One of the things I hear MMOG addicts say (and I've said myself at times) is that at least it's better than watching TV. I am not so sure about that anymore. I finally pulled my head out of my ass and walked away from WoW around the time my kids went back to school this year and oddly enough, I find myself spending less time watching television than I did even when I was playing.
MMOGs are fun but they always build in artificial time sinks to keep the most dedicated players from chewing through limited content too quickly. The problem with this is that it is a system that it forces everyone to play the same way, and success in the game becomes a contest of who can spend the most time in front of their computers.
Now somebody go ahead and flame me about saying everyone has to play the same way, and somebody else please elaborate for me about how I should just play for fun. Everybody knows that success in EQ/WoW/Whatever means maxing out every stat you can - it it weren't people wouldn't spend so much time playing.
I got my start in computers because of my love of gaming. Almost everything I learned that got me started in computers I learned because I needed it for gaming. In every job I've ever had working in anything related to computers every helpdesk phone jocky, network admin, network engineer, infrastructure and deployment specialist as well as about 90% of programmers were also gamers. Sure lots of them liked to do other things too, but we all loved to play games.
We are the ones who influence the decision making and purchase choice. We are the ones who have moved up from phone jockies to department heads. What do you think explains what expansion and growth that has occurred in Open Source deployments? We are all dealing with the legacy of MS marketing to our predecessors who based their decision not on technical choices but marketing and the theoretical ROI studies they used to justify those decisions.
Unfortunately game publishers have very little incentive to develop for any OS other than Windows at this point. They are in it to make a buck and they want the biggest market they can find - for now the easy and clear choice is Windows.
What we need is a reason for some big game developers and publishers to get behind a cross platform environment for their games. Imagine if there was a way for Blizzard to develop World of Warcraft so that you could pop it into any computer and have it run, regardless of the OS? Now imagine being able to do that with your 10 favorite programs regardless of their purpose. I'd bet my life that if that happened you'd see the same technology in business use in a matter of weeks.
People say the same thing different ways all the time but the fact is this: I can find a program to do just about anything I want on just about any OS I choose without MS. The one thing I can't do is make it easy to run most of my games on anything other than Windows.
This sounds just like me. I breezed through k-12 hardly cracking a book (well school book anyway.) I was a voracious reader starting around age six. I honestly think any kid who spends more than 30 minutes a day reading just about anything will do fine until they hit college.
Once I hit the University level though I was totally unprepared. Almost flunked out during my first year while I figured out how to study. It's not about how you spend your free time, it's about meeting your responsibilities first. I'm sure would have done much better all the way through had I been monitored more closely.
Oddly enough, it's the prime-time shows that I watch that suffer most. I work from home so I usually eat lunch in front of the tube but I don't record that stuff, I just watch it while I'm eating. The same thing happens in the morning while my wife and kids are getting ready to leave for the day; it's The Weather Channel and news real time. Once again, when I'm up playing WoW half the night it's Adult Swim or some syndicated re-runs and I don't even have the remote nearby.
Now when you start talking about the shows I like to watch, it's a whole different story. I record the shows I actually like to watch like 24, Survivorman, Battlestar Galactica, The 4400, etc...well those are the ones I record and consequently skip the advertising.
Like so many other industries, I think technology has made the traditional broadcast advertising business model obsolete. Fortunately they haven't followed the RIAA's lead and started trying to sue us all into watching the commercials.
Last year after Christmas my son's teacher started complaining about his 'distractablity.' Fear of even appearing to violate the law kept her from coming right out and saying it, but it was clear that she believed he either had or was developing ADHD. I took him to a psychologist who specializes in education for a diagnosis.
As is turned out, and even the teacher later conceded, his 'distratability' problem only arose when he was given writing assignments. His behavior otherwise was in her own words "exemplary." The psychologist diagnosed him with a visual tracking problem and signficantly underdeveloped fine motor control on the first visit. The main therapy he recommended was a program that mostly involved playing catch to a rythm with a beanbag while balancing on a balance board.
While my son would do it, he really didn't enjoy it much and at first progress was slow. Then it struck me that maybe there was a better way. I bought an EyeToy and some dance pads for my PS2 along with some games that used them. When I mentioned this to the psychologist he was very excited and thought it was a great idea.
Well it worked like a charm. All summer long it was Dance Dance Revolution and EyeToy Kinetic every day, along with some summer study that required fair amount of writing. I had him re-evaluated by the psychologist right before he started school last week but I didn't need the evaluation to know it worked. His writing and coordination had dramatically improved even to just a casual observer and, as the psychologist also said we could expect, his reading skills took a huge leap forward. Now he's been back in school for about two weeks and after speaking with the teacher what do you know, suddenly his 'distractability' problem has disappeared.
I'm not saying this sort of thing would work for everyone, but it worked in my son's case. Game therapy using cheap off the shelf solutions is something I think we are going to see a LOT more of in the future.
...Using the hardware without providing Microsoft their profits may not be stealing, but it certainly could be construed as immoral.
That is ridiculous. Microsoft sells the Xbox at a loss hoping and expecting that people will buy the games and peripherals at ridiculous markups. That's their business model and they are welcome to try it, but in no way are they entitled to one dime of 'profit' if their business model is flawed. The only thing immoral about the situation is that our politicians allow our laws to be manipulated to make it possible for a company like Microsoft to ensure that selling their product nets them a profit. That's the risk you take in any business, and it disgusts me that our leaders can be bought off by any company to pass laws that eliminate that risk.
I'm betting you either work for MS, are an MS fanboi or you're a lawyer.
I recently canceled my WoW account although my/played realy wasn't the influence that did it, it was the people. When I quit EQ it was really the same thing.
The problem with WoW and EQ for me was the people I found myself hanging around with in game. Once you reach max level and get into the 'end game' making progress takes longer and longer at each step. Eventually you find yourself in a position where the only people really progressing in the game are basically no-life losers whose lives revolve around the game. I quit after an MC raid when people were comparing/played times.
So, maybe I'm wrong about/played not ending things for me, but it wasn't mine it was the people I was hanging around with. I have ONE level 60 char who I shared with my cousin while I leveled up and between us we had just over half the amount of time on our character as the next closest person on the raid. I also happen to know that most of those people have multiple level 60 characters as their alternate characters are on the guild roster. I had always felt like a bit of an oddball in my guild, never really grasping why people would get so worked up over every little thing - well I guess when it's all you do then playing WoW becomes very important.
I don't have a problem with people playing WoW all day if that's their thing, anymore than I have a problem with people watching television all day. In fact, I think if you are going to sit on your ass that much you are probably better off playing just about any computer game instead of watching TV. I don't hang around people who watch TV all day either though.
I'd love it if I could keep playing the game, but the problem with all MMORPGS is this: most of the people with the who achieve the greatest end game accomplishments are the ones who do the least with their real lives. I don't hang around a bunch of do nothing no life losers in the real world and I don't want to do it online.
You're only half-right. Flouride in the water is a requirement for the space based mind control lasers to work. Why do you think there is a debate over tin foil vs. aluminum foil as the best way to protect yourself?
Don't believe me? Then you're clearly wearing the wrong type of protection.
Re:"fighting for democracy"? Are you joking?
on
iPods at War
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· Score: 1
Sure, because we know how well 'good news' sells. If it bleeds it leads is one of the first things you learn in J-school. There is plenty of good news out there, but when most of it isn't being covered then you have to go search for it. It's not a matter of it being there, it's a matter of what journalists are paid to report.
Yo, it's a play on words - albiet requiring both an appreciation of the Dukes of Hazzard as well as understandng of binary. Personally I give it 10 thumbs up!
Well my guess is that it's modded 'flamebait' because his opening line is
You're a moron.
I'd have modded it the same way if I bothered blowing mod points on taking people down. Slinging insults at the people you are having a discussion with is not the way to have reasonable discourse.
Those "pithy" little quotes apply even more now than ever. The fact that things are different now than they were back then only makes them even more profound, as it requires greater courage to stand up and be counted among those who won't be cowed by the very real threats of terrorists.
Go lock yourself in a bunker isolated from everyone. That's the ultimate in saftey. Nobody ever said freedom equals safety, in fact most would say that freedom is probably one of the most dangerous priciples ever conceived.
The bottom line here is that those quotes apply most aptly to you and people like you.
Perhaps instead of bringing all of it back some (or most even) might end up being used to further develop our off planet infrastructure? It seems to me that if one of the big impediments to space exploration and development is the cost of getting out of the gravity well, then being able to get the resources outside of the gravity well would go a long way toward alleviating the problem.
Taint - There's a small area of skin between your balls and asshole and in the coloquial southern America it is described as such: 'taint yer balls and 'taint yer asshole. Hence the name 'taint'.
Now as for the word taint in and of itself? Contraction of it+ain't, ain't being an incorrect contraction of the words are+is+not.
English (at least U.S. style) doesn't borrow from other languages - it mugs them in a dark alley and goes through their pockets stealing loose participles!
I'm mostly on your side here, but claiming that surveillance has very little to do with the story 1984 is a bit of a stretch. Surveillance is one of the constant themes throughout the story, unless I was reading some other book called 1984...
I used to recycle like you, then one day while home sick from work I watched the tandem 'garbage truck' + 'recycling truck' parade going down my street.
The garbage went into the 'garbage truck.' The materials that I had been so carefully sorting to be recycled all went into the 'recycling truck' which looked amazingly like the 'garbage truck' but painted green. Guess what though?
- The mouth breather clinging to the back of the truck between stops took the cleaned and sorted glass and put it all into one bin. - The carefully sorted and cleaned plastic products went into the same bin. - The carefully sorted and cleaned aluminum products went into the same bin. - The carefully sorted paper products went into the same bin.
In a rush of exasperation I ran outside and confronted the guy about it. First off, he didn't really give a rats ass. Secondly, he informed me that back at 'the yard' where they would unload the truck, it was all going to get mixed back together anyway. Clearly though, this guy wasn't setting policy so I decided to just wish him good day.
I went inside and called my waste removal service. After bullying the poor customer service girl into connecting me with someone who actually dealt with the waste, the answer I got was fairly simple.
The company had contracts with various landfills, with the price per ton already negotiated based on the amount of waste they actually expected to deliver that month. Guess what? If they didn't collect enough landfill waste, recyclables were added because it was cheaper for the waste removal service. The only time they actually recycled was when it cost them less than burying it.
Do I like it? No. In fact, while their environmental footprint may be nearly as large as Americans', Europeans do seem to have a much better handle on recycling but then wait a second - they don't have and have never had nearly the amount of landfill space we have in the U.S.
Oil, garbage, electricity, whatever - human beings will use as much as they want or can afford of whatever costs them the least. Once an alternative becomes less expensive they will switch to using it.
Let's see, 100% of the guys you turn down don't seem to get the message - perhaps you aren't actually turning them down? Anything less than a direct "No thank you, I'm not interested in you" is just an invitation for them to keep asking.
It's not just you, it may in fact be just me and you but let's face it, what you are talking about goes way beyond DRM and digital media.
People in general just don't fight back anymore. I'm going to cut this short as I feel a major rant coming on, but our politicians have failed us horribly. End Users, consumers, customers, whatever you want to call them are not protected; the companies that are paying to get politicians elected are the ones who get protection and the rest of use get screwed.
We all need to fight back, teach our children to do so as well, and encourage others to do more of both.
How about a "Don't ever buy music again, at all, until the RIAA formally announces it's dissolution" campaign? Donate to the bands you like directly and do NOTHING else.
How long will it be I wonder before the RIAA as an entity falls by the wayside? It seems to me that their tactics are getting more and more aggressive, which I take as an indication that they are scared. I just hope it's not too long.
Your comparisons and extrapolations have no basis. I will agree though that $6 billion seems an unrealistically low estimate for what we are talking about.
Slashdot Mirror
I was semi-hardcore about EQ and later WoW at my worst, but even that took up more time than was reasonable. One of the things I hear MMOG addicts say (and I've said myself at times) is that at least it's better than watching TV. I am not so sure about that anymore. I finally pulled my head out of my ass and walked away from WoW around the time my kids went back to school this year and oddly enough, I find myself spending less time watching television than I did even when I was playing.
MMOGs are fun but they always build in artificial time sinks to keep the most dedicated players from chewing through limited content too quickly. The problem with this is that it is a system that it forces everyone to play the same way, and success in the game becomes a contest of who can spend the most time in front of their computers.
Now somebody go ahead and flame me about saying everyone has to play the same way, and somebody else please elaborate for me about how I should just play for fun. Everybody knows that success in EQ/WoW/Whatever means maxing out every stat you can - it it weren't people wouldn't spend so much time playing.
I got my start in computers because of my love of gaming. Almost everything I learned that got me started in computers I learned because I needed it for gaming. In every job I've ever had working in anything related to computers every helpdesk phone jocky, network admin, network engineer, infrastructure and deployment specialist as well as about 90% of programmers were also gamers. Sure lots of them liked to do other things too, but we all loved to play games.
We are the ones who influence the decision making and purchase choice. We are the ones who have moved up from phone jockies to department heads. What do you think explains what expansion and growth that has occurred in Open Source deployments? We are all dealing with the legacy of MS marketing to our predecessors who based their decision not on technical choices but marketing and the theoretical ROI studies they used to justify those decisions.
Unfortunately game publishers have very little incentive to develop for any OS other than Windows at this point. They are in it to make a buck and they want the biggest market they can find - for now the easy and clear choice is Windows.
What we need is a reason for some big game developers and publishers to get behind a cross platform environment for their games. Imagine if there was a way for Blizzard to develop World of Warcraft so that you could pop it into any computer and have it run, regardless of the OS? Now imagine being able to do that with your 10 favorite programs regardless of their purpose. I'd bet my life that if that happened you'd see the same technology in business use in a matter of weeks.
People say the same thing different ways all the time but the fact is this: I can find a program to do just about anything I want on just about any OS I choose without MS. The one thing I can't do is make it easy to run most of my games on anything other than Windows.
This sounds just like me. I breezed through k-12 hardly cracking a book (well school book anyway.) I was a voracious reader starting around age six. I honestly think any kid who spends more than 30 minutes a day reading just about anything will do fine until they hit college.
Once I hit the University level though I was totally unprepared. Almost flunked out during my first year while I figured out how to study. It's not about how you spend your free time, it's about meeting your responsibilities first. I'm sure would have done much better all the way through had I been monitored more closely.
Why isn't this just a new /. poll?
Oddly enough, it's the prime-time shows that I watch that suffer most. I work from home so I usually eat lunch in front of the tube but I don't record that stuff, I just watch it while I'm eating. The same thing happens in the morning while my wife and kids are getting ready to leave for the day; it's The Weather Channel and news real time. Once again, when I'm up playing WoW half the night it's Adult Swim or some syndicated re-runs and I don't even have the remote nearby.
Now when you start talking about the shows I like to watch, it's a whole different story. I record the shows I actually like to watch like 24, Survivorman, Battlestar Galactica, The 4400, etc...well those are the ones I record and consequently skip the advertising.
Like so many other industries, I think technology has made the traditional broadcast advertising business model obsolete. Fortunately they haven't followed the RIAA's lead and started trying to sue us all into watching the commercials.
Last year after Christmas my son's teacher started complaining about his 'distractablity.' Fear of even appearing to violate the law kept her from coming right out and saying it, but it was clear that she believed he either had or was developing ADHD. I took him to a psychologist who specializes in education for a diagnosis.
As is turned out, and even the teacher later conceded, his 'distratability' problem only arose when he was given writing assignments. His behavior otherwise was in her own words "exemplary." The psychologist diagnosed him with a visual tracking problem and signficantly underdeveloped fine motor control on the first visit. The main therapy he recommended was a program that mostly involved playing catch to a rythm with a beanbag while balancing on a balance board.
While my son would do it, he really didn't enjoy it much and at first progress was slow. Then it struck me that maybe there was a better way. I bought an EyeToy and some dance pads for my PS2 along with some games that used them. When I mentioned this to the psychologist he was very excited and thought it was a great idea.
Well it worked like a charm. All summer long it was Dance Dance Revolution and EyeToy Kinetic every day, along with some summer study that required fair amount of writing. I had him re-evaluated by the psychologist right before he started school last week but I didn't need the evaluation to know it worked. His writing and coordination had dramatically improved even to just a casual observer and, as the psychologist also said we could expect, his reading skills took a huge leap forward. Now he's been back in school for about two weeks and after speaking with the teacher what do you know, suddenly his 'distractability' problem has disappeared.
I'm not saying this sort of thing would work for everyone, but it worked in my son's case. Game therapy using cheap off the shelf solutions is something I think we are going to see a LOT more of in the future.
That is ridiculous. Microsoft sells the Xbox at a loss hoping and expecting that people will buy the games and peripherals at ridiculous markups. That's their business model and they are welcome to try it, but in no way are they entitled to one dime of 'profit' if their business model is flawed. The only thing immoral about the situation is that our politicians allow our laws to be manipulated to make it possible for a company like Microsoft to ensure that selling their product nets them a profit. That's the risk you take in any business, and it disgusts me that our leaders can be bought off by any company to pass laws that eliminate that risk.
I'm betting you either work for MS, are an MS fanboi or you're a lawyer.
I recently canceled my WoW account although my /played realy wasn't the influence that did it, it was the people. When I quit EQ it was really the same thing.
/played times.
/played not ending things for me, but it wasn't mine it was the people I was hanging around with. I have ONE level 60 char who I shared with my cousin while I leveled up and between us we had just over half the amount of time on our character as the next closest person on the raid. I also happen to know that most of those people have multiple level 60 characters as their alternate characters are on the guild roster. I had always felt like a bit of an oddball in my guild, never really grasping why people would get so worked up over every little thing - well I guess when it's all you do then playing WoW becomes very important.
The problem with WoW and EQ for me was the people I found myself hanging around with in game. Once you reach max level and get into the 'end game' making progress takes longer and longer at each step. Eventually you find yourself in a position where the only people really progressing in the game are basically no-life losers whose lives revolve around the game. I quit after an MC raid when people were comparing
So, maybe I'm wrong about
I don't have a problem with people playing WoW all day if that's their thing, anymore than I have a problem with people watching television all day. In fact, I think if you are going to sit on your ass that much you are probably better off playing just about any computer game instead of watching TV. I don't hang around people who watch TV all day either though.
I'd love it if I could keep playing the game, but the problem with all MMORPGS is this: most of the people with the who achieve the greatest end game accomplishments are the ones who do the least with their real lives. I don't hang around a bunch of do nothing no life losers in the real world and I don't want to do it online.
You're only half-right. Flouride in the water is a requirement for the space based mind control lasers to work. Why do you think there is a debate over tin foil vs. aluminum foil as the best way to protect yourself?
Don't believe me? Then you're clearly wearing the wrong type of protection.
Sure, because we know how well 'good news' sells. If it bleeds it leads is one of the first things you learn in J-school. There is plenty of good news out there, but when most of it isn't being covered then you have to go search for it. It's not a matter of it being there, it's a matter of what journalists are paid to report.
Yo, it's a play on words - albiet requiring both an appreciation of the Dukes of Hazzard as well as understandng of binary. Personally I give it 10 thumbs up!
I'd have modded it the same way if I bothered blowing mod points on taking people down. Slinging insults at the people you are having a discussion with is not the way to have reasonable discourse.
Those "pithy" little quotes apply even more now than ever. The fact that things are different now than they were back then only makes them even more profound, as it requires greater courage to stand up and be counted among those who won't be cowed by the very real threats of terrorists.
Go lock yourself in a bunker isolated from everyone. That's the ultimate in saftey. Nobody ever said freedom equals safety, in fact most would say that freedom is probably one of the most dangerous priciples ever conceived.
The bottom line here is that those quotes apply most aptly to you and people like you.
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician, & printer (1706 - 1790)
Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), to Archibald Stuart, 1791
Perhaps instead of bringing all of it back some (or most even) might end up being used to further develop our off planet infrastructure? It seems to me that if one of the big impediments to space exploration and development is the cost of getting out of the gravity well, then being able to get the resources outside of the gravity well would go a long way toward alleviating the problem.
Taint - There's a small area of skin between your balls and asshole and in the coloquial southern America it is described as such: 'taint yer balls and 'taint yer asshole. Hence the name 'taint'.
Now as for the word taint in and of itself? Contraction of it+ain't, ain't being an incorrect contraction of the words are+is+not.
English (at least U.S. style) doesn't borrow from other languages - it mugs them in a dark alley and goes through their pockets stealing loose participles!
Clearly you are in law enforcement, what are you trolling /. for?
I'm mostly on your side here, but claiming that surveillance has very little to do with the story 1984 is a bit of a stretch. Surveillance is one of the constant themes throughout the story, unless I was reading some other book called 1984...
I used to recycle like you, then one day while home sick from work I watched the tandem 'garbage truck' + 'recycling truck' parade going down my street.
The garbage went into the 'garbage truck.' The materials that I had been so carefully sorting to be recycled all went into the 'recycling truck' which looked amazingly like the 'garbage truck' but painted green. Guess what though?
- The mouth breather clinging to the back of the truck between stops took the cleaned and sorted glass and put it all into one bin.
- The carefully sorted and cleaned plastic products went into the same bin.
- The carefully sorted and cleaned aluminum products went into the same bin.
- The carefully sorted paper products went into the same bin.
In a rush of exasperation I ran outside and confronted the guy about it. First off, he didn't really give a rats ass. Secondly, he informed me that back at 'the yard' where they would unload the truck, it was all going to get mixed back together anyway. Clearly though, this guy wasn't setting policy so I decided to just wish him good day.
I went inside and called my waste removal service. After bullying the poor customer service girl into connecting me with someone who actually dealt with the waste, the answer I got was fairly simple.
The company had contracts with various landfills, with the price per ton already negotiated based on the amount of waste they actually expected to deliver that month. Guess what? If they didn't collect enough landfill waste, recyclables were added because it was cheaper for the waste removal service. The only time they actually recycled was when it cost them less than burying it.
Do I like it? No. In fact, while their environmental footprint may be nearly as large as Americans', Europeans do seem to have a much better handle on recycling but then wait a second - they don't have and have never had nearly the amount of landfill space we have in the U.S.
Oil, garbage, electricity, whatever - human beings will use as much as they want or can afford of whatever costs them the least. Once an alternative becomes less expensive they will switch to using it.
Let's see, 100% of the guys you turn down don't seem to get the message - perhaps you aren't actually turning them down? Anything less than a direct "No thank you, I'm not interested in you" is just an invitation for them to keep asking.
I sense a joke about
It's not just you, it may in fact be just me and you but let's face it, what you are talking about goes way beyond DRM and digital media.
People in general just don't fight back anymore. I'm going to cut this short as I feel a major rant coming on, but our politicians have failed us horribly. End Users, consumers, customers, whatever you want to call them are not protected; the companies that are paying to get politicians elected are the ones who get protection and the rest of use get screwed.
We all need to fight back, teach our children to do so as well, and encourage others to do more of both.
How about a "Don't ever buy music again, at all, until the RIAA formally announces it's dissolution" campaign? Donate to the bands you like directly and do NOTHING else.
How long will it be I wonder before the RIAA as an entity falls by the wayside? It seems to me that their tactics are getting more and more aggressive, which I take as an indication that they are scared. I just hope it's not too long.
Your comparisons and extrapolations have no basis. I will agree though that $6 billion seems an unrealistically low estimate for what we are talking about.