There's FFXI. Now, I have played MMRPG's in the past - Ultima Online, Evercrack, Evercrack 2, and WoW. I've seen/read about FFXI, and decided that I'm not interested, because it has the same problems that plague Evercrack and Evercrack2 - the amount of money needed to buy very rare items that are farmed to death and sold on ebay. That's the same problem that drove me away from the other games... it wasn't about having fun in the game, it was about spending RL cash to get necessary gear.
If this is the only reason that keeps you from playing FFXI, don't let it. Yes, some items can be expensive, including a few very-early on ones. No, you don't need them: only the obsessives who spend more time posting on boards about how much your gear sucks than actually playing think this.
In fact, some things (Astral Rings are a good example) that you would think are highly desirable turn out to be not nearly as useful as much cheaper solutions. Cooking, for instance, is almost universally useful, can boost your stats significantly, and is much cheaper and usable at any level. And you can make some money from it.
I have not, nor has anyone I play with, paid for items or money. Square has even fixed a wide number of rare drops to make them useless to farmers in the last patch.
But money and items aren't what makes the game fun or interesting. You can go out there and camp the items, too. Do quests or craft to get the gear you need. Have the more experienced players help out the newer ones. Finding a group of friends to play with is what makes this game golden.
If I was interested in FFXI, I would've joined awhile back. I don't think there will be a mass influx of players racing to play FFXI on the xbox for that reason.
I doubt there will be an influx too. I would like to see a PS3 port (as I have little reason to get a 360), but you'd be better off playing the PC version if all you want is better graphics. I play the PS2 version, and I don't even notice anymore. Scenery still looks beautiful.
There's just nothing here that makes me go "I must buy this platform! I must own this game!"
The content even in the modded "AO" version of GTA:SA is significantly tamer than the sexual content that which is already present in a very large number of M games.
Seriously. Have any of these people played God of War? Explicit sex scenes, and almost every female character in the game is topless or wearing a sheer top. This is in the pristine, unpatched game and there's no way the ESRB could have noticed it when giving it an M rating.
And the graphics are way better than GTA.
The only reason GTA got noticed is because it's GTA, and Rockstar, and "controversial," and people made a big deal about it already.
I have seen tons of these for 12+ months. Highly annoying. Last week I had one with over 10k connection attempts. What I need is an IDS that will just drop the remote IPs into iptables. Anyone have something like that? Of course if anyone is actually interested in reports on all the IPs, most of which usually are in.cn, I've got back logs for quite awhile.;-P
Anything that hits the airwaves should be considered compromised already. If you're not using secure connections for everything that matters, you're already in trouble.
That said, whether the FBI can or cannot quickly tap in-flight wifi is a different question. Given they're getting court approval, why is this a bad idea? If they can't do it quickly, the point is moot. If they can't do it arbitrarily at whim, our rights are not being trampled upon.
this device will fail for the same reason any number of similar devices have failed: everyone has a different set of eyes with different focusing characteristics.
Other devices have failed because they're bulky, expensive, and crappy. This pair doesn't look bulky, although there is little comment on price and the resolution isn't great, so we'll see.
Unless diopter, eye relief, astigmatism, distance to pupil are completely adjustable (making the device unacceptably expensive) this product will literally result in a big headache as your own focussing mechanism attempt to force themselves to adjust.
Yes, despite an operating budget of millions and multiple engineers on the job, I'm sure they've overlooked what a random anonymous slashdotter came up with 9 minutes after the post.
They promised a lot for PS2 too.
But features got dropped when it was finally released.
Uh, care to cite examples with sources?
They have dropped features from the PS2 -> PS2 Slim, specifically hard drive support and firewire, but then they added the network adaptor and an IR port (for the remote), being arguably more widely-used features. (FFXI being the only hdd user, and GT3 the only thing I can think of that used firewire.)
I cannot find any promised features that were dropped from the PS2 before manufacture. (There were actually features dropped from the original Japanese run, namely the PCMCIA port, but those weren't promised either.)
Hmm too bad, it's pretty easy to get a few optional and highly-powerful things without that many hours of gameplay. Pre-overdriving everyone and using buffs (Haste, Shell, Protect) will also make your life a lot easier. Speaking as someone who did put in the extra hours though, the last boss turned out to be a joke. One hit by Tidus. Poof. Oh well.
Yeah, I used to love long games because they didn't end quickly. I'd see "80 hours!" and think "Yeah!" However, looking at games now, especially with limited time (full-time job will do that to you), I see "only 10 hours" and think "here's one I might actually finish!"
And, honestly, looking back on "short" games (anything around 20 hours or less), some of those have been the best. ICO, the one game that's unquestionably a work of art, clocks in at around 9 hours the first time through, and that's figuring out the puzzles yourself. Jak&Daxter, Jak3, Metroid Prime, and a number of others that are around 20 hours and just awesome leave you on a high note and wanting for more (but not feeling cheated); far better than playing for 40 hours and wanting less.
I've gotten quite annoyed with incessant menu battles in RPGs these days. If battles aren't interesting or fast-paced, I tend to move on to something else. I want to spend my time doing something, not hitting "attack" 500 times to gain a few levels so I can hit "attack" a few more times to beat a boss so I can repeat ad nauseam.
As for episodic, I thought the.hack series was perfect this way. Each episode was about 20 hours, something I could actually finish reasonably, and came with a great anime short. A bit pricey at $50 a pop, perhaps, and the gameplay was a bit dull, as well, but overall it worked well despite these limitations.
One exception or extension to all this is MMORPGs. I play FFXI. If I'm going to spend a lot of time, or sit around levelling, I'd rather do it in an MMO game, where my time investment today is going to still matter in 6-12 months. If I spend time levelling, it's with other players in my Linkshell that I want to socialize with. With expansion packs, it's almost episodic. Plus I only spend $15/mo on it, which is considerably better than spending $150 on 3 new games a month.
What I'd love to see someone do is create a small, subscription, single-player story-game/adventure/RPG that got small weekly updates. Maybe $2/mo.
This is the first time I've heard of any such bans (although I'm not really a big WoW-er, best character I have is like level 15), and it gives me no desire to come back. Blizzard banning people for exploring is just about the stupidest thing ever. There are some people, like me, whose primary interest is poking around the world and seeing hidden stuff. It's fun, it hurts no one, I can use a hearthstone instead of bugging admins, and doesn't have any effect on game balance.
If there are places they don't want people to be, they shouldn't be accessible in their public, production servers. I can't come up with a case where this isn't simply Blizzard being completely idiotic. Either they're too stupid to come up with a proper development/deployment process, or... well, what? I can't come up with an alternative.
I completely, completely agree. Anyone who complains about Windows and Microsoft and yet makes no effort to use something else is simply an idiotic whiner who is the very reason why Microsoft doesn't bother to change. Users whine, but won't switch, so why do anything different?
Apple makes it easy now, too. Anyone who hasn't switched because "Lienux (sic) is hard" is, again, a whiner. I'm not overly impressed with OSX, but it's both easy for casual users and has decent commercial support (i.e. they can go to the store and expect to find stuff). I recommend it or Linux as appropriate. (Linux to the budding developer.)
If the box is just for email/web and nothing else, I just set up a tightly-configured Linux box. No one has complained; people find them very easy to use without instruction. There are plenty of Linux apps for everything from learning to type to making pretty graphics or writing a letter to grandma. This isn't 1993 anymore.
In summary, if you're complaining, not fixing, you're eligible for a Nitwits Anonymous club membership.:-)
Very much. If most analysts were right, Apple, BSD, the Internet, and Linux would be dead.
Assuming Sony doesn't know what MS is doing, doesn't have a strategy, and isn't aware of the market isn't just naive, it's idiotic.
Not to say they can't make mistakes or haven't; but Sony is not completely stupid, and has a bit of experience with this here marketting thing.
Maybe even a bit more than your average slashdot naysayer.
People seem to be taking this for gospel, when both numbers are analyst estimates.
Of course, retailing for $399 on lauch is probable: in Japan, the PS2 retailed for about this. When it came here, it went for... $299. The PS1 retailed for $599. When it came here, it went for... $299.
So let's wait for a real number from someone with a clue, as opposed to an analyst.
Just creating a new game world is not enough. They spent loads of time and money creating the graphics and protocol, on which these other people are piggy-backing.
BS. You pay full retail price for EQ. And expansion packs. And if you want online patches, you need an account, if it's like other MMO's.
Just creating a new game world is not enough. They spent loads of time and money creating the graphics and protocol, on which these other people are piggy-backing.
Not only is it illegal, but it does have a (long-term) financial impact on Sony.
Uh what? As stated above, you already paid them retail, for what's no more than a regular game. If anything is "invalid", it's your line of reasoning. Somehow you jump to "illegal" here. Circular reasoning.
Thus is it wrong with the letter and the spirit of the law.
More importantly, "long-term financial impact on Sony" is absolutely irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the law. You seem to subscribe to the erroneous notion that companies have a "right to profit". There is no right to profit. If it affects Sony's bottom line, it's simply called competition. Contrary to large corporate popular opinion, nothing is wrong with the law here, in word or spirit.
The site says it comes with Win2k/XP software. Anyone have one of these working in Linux? And/or OSX?
I'd love one, at $149 it's a steal, IMO. A controller with a custom layout would work amazingly well for a number of things... not just games. MIDI sequencer controller, GIMP/Photoshop controller, etc. Heck, having a lot of extra custom keys in vim/emacs would be nice, as most of the keyboard is already assigned.
A lot of people are saying "you can already do this in Linux", which isn't true. Sure, I can assign any keycode a unique keysym and map it with my window manager. I do that now. But Linux doens't allow me to make a custom physical layout that's tailored to a given application.
So I want to know: does it work in Linux? (And in OSX?)
If anyone thinks anything else, they're just being silly. The video comparison on IGN between the two had me more suprised than I thought I'd be. At first I thought the GT4 screen was the XBOX game just because it was so much more realistic.
This is why recently I've been comparing PS2 and XBOX games. XBOX stuff hasn't seemed to improve considerably. Compare various shots/videos of GT4, God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, Haunting Ground, Jak3, and others to Halo 2, Forza, etc. and you'll be suprised: the PS2 is actually better looking!
This is somewhat along the lines of what a few of us were saying years ago when the XBOX specs came out: the PS2 may seem to have smaller numbers, but it's a custom system, custom CPU, architected specifically for what it does. Give it a few years to mature and we'll be seeing things that still amaze us. The XBOX is just the same old Intel box; people already know how to get a lot out of it, so what you saw then was about the best you'd ever see.
Since when is a Fedora Core release experimental, development code? This isn't a prerelease, it's the full thing.
Second, while some servers still run RH6.2, it's mostly because if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You're not going to install a brand new server with RH6.2 unless you've got binary compatibility issues and you're adding it to an existing 6.2 cluster. And if you do, you should be working on porting to a new release by now.
However, I'd agree that unless there's a pressing reason to upgrade (2.6 could be both a good reason to upgrade and a good reason not to upgrade), don't fix what ain't broke.
At very least, you should have a separate box to test the install and your setup on before migrating anyway. If it's not important enough to do that, then do whatever, because no one's going to notice anyway.
This has nothing to do with Catch-22. This is more like a tautology. If the study was true, then it was true. If the study was rigged, it was also true.
And: houses have been built for thousands of years. Desktop software for 20-ish.
This has been a point I like to make. Software design, if compared to architecture, is around the level of finding a cave to live in or tying some wood bark and leaves together to form a hovel. That we build skyscrapers of code is laughable: call me back in about ten thousand years and we'll see where we are then.
And for those who claim "but physical engineering is different, information evolves faster", I beg to differ. Look at music history, art history, and any other information-based design work. They've still taken thousands of years to develop. And in thousands of years, I would be suprised if they weren't even more developed.
It is the arrogance of the generation to think we're a pinnacle of anything, that we can't become much, much better and get much, much further. Realize that, and we'll get there faster.
Right, I understand that, but this isn't ignorance of the law per se. It's like having a DVD on, leaving the room, forgetting to lock your door, having some neighbors wander in, then getting sued by the MPAA for public performance.
Now what we need is that proof be required you willingly and knowingly offered and distributed works. Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently, are you not be liable for accidentally leaving an insecure/shared directory where someone downloaded unauthorized copyrighted material from you?
Slashdot Mirror
If this is the only reason that keeps you from playing FFXI, don't let it. Yes, some items can be expensive, including a few very-early on ones. No, you don't need them: only the obsessives who spend more time posting on boards about how much your gear sucks than actually playing think this. In fact, some things (Astral Rings are a good example) that you would think are highly desirable turn out to be not nearly as useful as much cheaper solutions. Cooking, for instance, is almost universally useful, can boost your stats significantly, and is much cheaper and usable at any level. And you can make some money from it.
I have not, nor has anyone I play with, paid for items or money. Square has even fixed a wide number of rare drops to make them useless to farmers in the last patch.
But money and items aren't what makes the game fun or interesting. You can go out there and camp the items, too. Do quests or craft to get the gear you need. Have the more experienced players help out the newer ones. Finding a group of friends to play with is what makes this game golden.
I doubt there will be an influx too. I would like to see a PS3 port (as I have little reason to get a 360), but you'd be better off playing the PC version if all you want is better graphics. I play the PS2 version, and I don't even notice anymore. Scenery still looks beautiful.
Precisely.
Seriously. Have any of these people played God of War? Explicit sex scenes, and almost every female character in the game is topless or wearing a sheer top. This is in the pristine, unpatched game and there's no way the ESRB could have noticed it when giving it an M rating.
And the graphics are way better than GTA.
The only reason GTA got noticed is because it's GTA, and Rockstar, and "controversial," and people made a big deal about it already.
I have seen tons of these for 12+ months. Highly annoying. Last week I had one with over 10k connection attempts. What I need is an IDS that will just drop the remote IPs into iptables. Anyone have something like that? Of course if anyone is actually interested in reports on all the IPs, most of which usually are in .cn, I've got back logs for quite awhile. ;-P
That said, whether the FBI can or cannot quickly tap in-flight wifi is a different question. Given they're getting court approval, why is this a bad idea? If they can't do it quickly, the point is moot. If they can't do it arbitrarily at whim, our rights are not being trampled upon.
Other devices have failed because they're bulky, expensive, and crappy. This pair doesn't look bulky, although there is little comment on price and the resolution isn't great, so we'll see.
Yes, despite an operating budget of millions and multiple engineers on the job, I'm sure they've overlooked what a random anonymous slashdotter came up with 9 minutes after the post.
Uh, care to cite examples with sources?
They have dropped features from the PS2 -> PS2 Slim, specifically hard drive support and firewire, but then they added the network adaptor and an IR port (for the remote), being arguably more widely-used features. (FFXI being the only hdd user, and GT3 the only thing I can think of that used firewire.)
I cannot find any promised features that were dropped from the PS2 before manufacture. (There were actually features dropped from the original Japanese run, namely the PCMCIA port, but those weren't promised either.)
Hmm too bad, it's pretty easy to get a few optional and highly-powerful things without that many hours of gameplay. Pre-overdriving everyone and using buffs (Haste, Shell, Protect) will also make your life a lot easier. Speaking as someone who did put in the extra hours though, the last boss turned out to be a joke. One hit by Tidus. Poof. Oh well.
And, honestly, looking back on "short" games (anything around 20 hours or less), some of those have been the best. ICO, the one game that's unquestionably a work of art, clocks in at around 9 hours the first time through, and that's figuring out the puzzles yourself. Jak&Daxter, Jak3, Metroid Prime, and a number of others that are around 20 hours and just awesome leave you on a high note and wanting for more (but not feeling cheated); far better than playing for 40 hours and wanting less.
I've gotten quite annoyed with incessant menu battles in RPGs these days. If battles aren't interesting or fast-paced, I tend to move on to something else. I want to spend my time doing something, not hitting "attack" 500 times to gain a few levels so I can hit "attack" a few more times to beat a boss so I can repeat ad nauseam.
As for episodic, I thought the .hack series was perfect this way. Each episode was about 20 hours, something I could actually finish reasonably, and came with a great anime short. A bit pricey at $50 a pop, perhaps, and the gameplay was a bit dull, as well, but overall it worked well despite these limitations.
One exception or extension to all this is MMORPGs. I play FFXI. If I'm going to spend a lot of time, or sit around levelling, I'd rather do it in an MMO game, where my time investment today is going to still matter in 6-12 months. If I spend time levelling, it's with other players in my Linkshell that I want to socialize with. With expansion packs, it's almost episodic. Plus I only spend $15/mo on it, which is considerably better than spending $150 on 3 new games a month.
What I'd love to see someone do is create a small, subscription, single-player story-game/adventure/RPG that got small weekly updates. Maybe $2/mo.
This is the first time I've heard of any such bans (although I'm not really a big WoW-er, best character I have is like level 15), and it gives me no desire to come back. Blizzard banning people for exploring is just about the stupidest thing ever. There are some people, like me, whose primary interest is poking around the world and seeing hidden stuff. It's fun, it hurts no one, I can use a hearthstone instead of bugging admins, and doesn't have any effect on game balance.
If there are places they don't want people to be, they shouldn't be accessible in their public, production servers. I can't come up with a case where this isn't simply Blizzard being completely idiotic. Either they're too stupid to come up with a proper development/deployment process, or... well, what? I can't come up with an alternative.
OK, i'm too lazy too look it up; someone want to get some karma by posting her vote on recent controversial issues?
Apple makes it easy now, too. Anyone who hasn't switched because "Lienux (sic) is hard" is, again, a whiner. I'm not overly impressed with OSX, but it's both easy for casual users and has decent commercial support (i.e. they can go to the store and expect to find stuff). I recommend it or Linux as appropriate. (Linux to the budding developer.)
If the box is just for email/web and nothing else, I just set up a tightly-configured Linux box. No one has complained; people find them very easy to use without instruction. There are plenty of Linux apps for everything from learning to type to making pretty graphics or writing a letter to grandma. This isn't 1993 anymore.
In summary, if you're complaining, not fixing, you're eligible for a Nitwits Anonymous club membership. :-)
Very much. If most analysts were right, Apple, BSD, the Internet, and Linux would be dead. Assuming Sony doesn't know what MS is doing, doesn't have a strategy, and isn't aware of the market isn't just naive, it's idiotic. Not to say they can't make mistakes or haven't; but Sony is not completely stupid, and has a bit of experience with this here marketting thing.
Maybe even a bit more than your average slashdot naysayer.
People seem to be taking this for gospel, when both numbers are analyst estimates.
Of course, retailing for $399 on lauch is probable: in Japan, the PS2 retailed for about this. When it came here, it went for... $299. The PS1 retailed for $599. When it came here, it went for... $299.
So let's wait for a real number from someone with a clue, as opposed to an analyst.
BS. You pay full retail price for EQ. And expansion packs. And if you want online patches, you need an account, if it's like other MMO's.
Uh what? As stated above, you already paid them retail, for what's no more than a regular game. If anything is "invalid", it's your line of reasoning. Somehow you jump to "illegal" here. Circular reasoning.
More importantly, "long-term financial impact on Sony" is absolutely irrelevant. It has nothing to do with the law. You seem to subscribe to the erroneous notion that companies have a "right to profit". There is no right to profit. If it affects Sony's bottom line, it's simply called competition. Contrary to large corporate popular opinion, nothing is wrong with the law here, in word or spirit.
If so it's only because you need about 20 Windows servers to 1 unix server.
I'd love one, at $149 it's a steal, IMO. A controller with a custom layout would work amazingly well for a number of things... not just games. MIDI sequencer controller, GIMP/Photoshop controller, etc. Heck, having a lot of extra custom keys in vim/emacs would be nice, as most of the keyboard is already assigned.
A lot of people are saying "you can already do this in Linux", which isn't true. Sure, I can assign any keycode a unique keysym and map it with my window manager. I do that now. But Linux doens't allow me to make a custom physical layout that's tailored to a given application.
So I want to know: does it work in Linux? (And in OSX?)
This is why recently I've been comparing PS2 and XBOX games. XBOX stuff hasn't seemed to improve considerably. Compare various shots/videos of GT4, God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, Haunting Ground, Jak3, and others to Halo 2, Forza, etc. and you'll be suprised: the PS2 is actually better looking!
This is somewhat along the lines of what a few of us were saying years ago when the XBOX specs came out: the PS2 may seem to have smaller numbers, but it's a custom system, custom CPU, architected specifically for what it does. Give it a few years to mature and we'll be seeing things that still amaze us. The XBOX is just the same old Intel box; people already know how to get a lot out of it, so what you saw then was about the best you'd ever see.
I say we nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!
Since when is a Fedora Core release experimental, development code? This isn't a prerelease, it's the full thing.
Second, while some servers still run RH6.2, it's mostly because if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You're not going to install a brand new server with RH6.2 unless you've got binary compatibility issues and you're adding it to an existing 6.2 cluster. And if you do, you should be working on porting to a new release by now.
However, I'd agree that unless there's a pressing reason to upgrade (2.6 could be both a good reason to upgrade and a good reason not to upgrade), don't fix what ain't broke.
At very least, you should have a separate box to test the install and your setup on before migrating anyway. If it's not important enough to do that, then do whatever, because no one's going to notice anyway.
This has nothing to do with Catch-22. This is more like a tautology. If the study was true, then it was true. If the study was rigged, it was also true.
This has been a point I like to make. Software design, if compared to architecture, is around the level of finding a cave to live in or tying some wood bark and leaves together to form a hovel. That we build skyscrapers of code is laughable: call me back in about ten thousand years and we'll see where we are then.
And for those who claim "but physical engineering is different, information evolves faster", I beg to differ. Look at music history, art history, and any other information-based design work. They've still taken thousands of years to develop. And in thousands of years, I would be suprised if they weren't even more developed.
It is the arrogance of the generation to think we're a pinnacle of anything, that we can't become much, much better and get much, much further. Realize that, and we'll get there faster.
No no, G4TV gets the "Special Olympics" award for Best Television Show made by complete retards.
...goes to E3 Critics.
Right, I understand that, but this isn't ignorance of the law per se. It's like having a DVD on, leaving the room, forgetting to lock your door, having some neighbors wander in, then getting sued by the MPAA for public performance.
Now what we need is that proof be required you willingly and knowingly offered and distributed works. Correct me if I'm wrong, but currently, are you not be liable for accidentally leaving an insecure/shared directory where someone downloaded unauthorized copyrighted material from you?