Despite all the criticism people direct at their country, the fact is that you're allowed to voice that criticism without getting thrown in jail. Incidents like this are a reminder that maybe the country you might criticize so much isn't as bad as it's made out to be, and that it really is a haven for free thought in an often dark world.
One of the justifications I often hear for piracy is that you're revolting against record labels. Are people now saying that they will in fact stop pirating music if the RIAA isn't a factor?
As idealistic as these announcements are, it's almost always established acts who do this--acts that have already benefited and made money from being distributed by a record company.
That's why I wasn't impressed when Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead released music for free, because they sure weren't doing that 10 years ago when they needed the money.
Is Blizzard comfortable with their world PvP system? Arena play is fun for a while, but the dynamic nature of capturing a zone or assaulting a fortress is exciting and would fit right into Warcraft. More importantly, it would give players something to do while waiting in a queue. Turn that broken tower in Hillsbrad into a battlefield objective, whadya say? And let me enter a battleground or Arena queue without visiting a battlemaster so I can return right to where I left off!
But it does not. You can still come under fire and get your health run down to 0 before you can escape.
In a game like Deus Ex, auto-healing would mean you could hide in a box, heal to full, and come out again. It's silly. There's no incentive to play well and take less damage, and there's no incentive for designers to balance their levels.
The narrative is not broken.
The narrative? Of a first-person shooter with auto-healing? This isn't an art-house flick.
When you are stuck with a dinky control system with your eyes right on the centreline of mass, so you have to expose half your damn body to look around a corner - then it just plain sucks. The new cover systems may be pretty generous with the camera angles allowed, but that could be fixed.
Some of my most-used keys when playing Deus Ex were the Q and E keys--the "lean and look around the corner" keys. I remember how my first disappointment with Deus Ex 2 was that you could no longer do that.
That still doesn't make load-save gameplay "facing the prospect of failure", which was the main point.
No, the main point was that regenerative health removes the possibility of failure. In load-save gameplay, you do indeed face failure. If you fail, you must reload and play better.
Regenerating health doesn't mean your character can not die. It just means that escape is a possibility, instead of having to reload.
Both represent an escape from failure, but escape feels more natural and fun, and doesn't interrupt the natural flow of the gameplay.
How is running away, auto-healing for a minute, and coming back at 100% natural? And how is it different from simply reloading a save game? In fact, loading a savegame is faster and less intrusive to the "flow of gameplay" than running away to some corner of the level where the A.I. will forget about you so that you can magically auto-heal for a minute.
It's just not a fit for Deus Ex. If you're low on health in Deus Ex, you use a medkit from your inventory or take advantage of the regenerative health augmentation that already exists in the game. Auto-healing is unrealistic, lazy game design.
I would consider auto-healing and awareness of "game pace" even more of a non-immersive metagaming problem. Apparently, players today will complain if the game is not holding their hand the whole way through. This strange, safe gameplay would have been mocked 10 years ago. The lesson here is to never underestimate the destruction that XBox gamers cause to the rest of the industry.
All games have you do the same thing over and over, so that's not a valid point. Regenerating health makes it so you never get to lose. There's no challenge or threat of your character dying. Essentially, it turns games into big, safe tech demos.
I read a developer interview (it was probably Warren Spector) in which he talked about how one of the things that stuck with people who played Deus Ex was at the end of the first level, if you were aggressive and killed a lot of NSF members, your brother sternly says, "Yeah, well, pace yourself. You killed a lot of people tonight." It was unexpected (other than Paul in the beginning reminding you that you're police, there was nothing in the game to indicate that it cared either way how you handled the enemies) and set the tone for the rest of the game.
I don't understand why developers apparently have a hard time understanding what made Deus Ex great, especially when they could just play the original and see for themselves. The mechanics of the original game were perfect. Why did DX2 abandon them? Why is DX3 doing the same? I think we must accept that Deus Ex was a one-time thing and that the sequels aren't up to the level of quality required to be considered canon.
Removing the effect of stats on markmanship is removing something that was fun and cool from the original game, coping with your character's wobbly sniper shots which disappeared over time as you upgraded his sniper skills--if you decided to play a sniper, of course. I don't even know what to say about recharging health other than, of all games, Deus Ex is not the franchise to implement it in.
Does anyone else get sad at the thought that there are so many weird things in the universe you may not learn the answers to in your lifetime? What if everyone posting here never finds out the reason for the cosmic censor? Sort of depressing.
Is this really new information?
on
HD Wii By 2011?
·
· Score: -1
Of course Nintendo is working on their next-gen console due for release after several years. Of course they're going to be supporting HD by then. They said as much when the Wii was released.
- Blizzard released the WotLK right after Mythic released their new trailer. - Blizzard announced the WotLK release date the week of Warhammer's release. - Blizzard copied the achievements system from the Tome of Knowledge and attempted a world PvP zone with Lake Wintergrasp (I say "attempted" because it's fun for maybe 10 minutes...). - Blizzard is re-running its Shatner and Mister-T commercials.
They do indeed seem surprisingly reactionary. Having played Warhammer's early release this weekend, I think I can understand why--it's a surprisingly good game with the potential of drawing in a lot of players, including casual players, which was what WoW was originally lauded for before it turned into a grindfest. Also, fuck the Arena.
The comparison was about their bias, not their viewer numbers. The comparison makes complete sense. Please don't defend the DailyKos--it's an example of the failure of American politics.
The Sims was promising when it was an architecture editor that simulated virtual lives within what you built, with sometimes amusing results. Now, Maxis is about "user-created stories" which really means a bunch of sandbox editors to mask how shallow the simulator is. SimCity 4 was the last decent simulator from Maxis, and it was followed up by SimCity Societies, so I guess the old days are gone.
Reviewers always liked to claim that games like SimCity weren't games because there wasn't a victory condition, but they were games. You had to play well within the rules of the simulator, or you'd go bankrupt and lose. The victory condition was in getting to continue progressing the city.
If you've spent hundreds of dollars on a games console, games, and the subscription fee to play those games online, I think you're more likely to go along with the problems and keep taking replacement consoles.
Despite that, it says a lot that even the PS3 is outselling the 360 now. Makes me more hesitant to try out a 360.
Re:When did I start using google?
on
Google Turns 10
·
· Score: 0, Informative
Parent was a joke about Google's tracking policies, moderators.
No more disturbed at the thought of how the media donates to Democrats by a factor of 10-to-1, or how media studies show that Obama has dominated coverage for eight straight weeks, or how Obama is more liberal than Hillary Clinton but nobody reports on it.
But yeah, horror of horrors, Palin believes in God! Yuck!
Slashdot Mirror
Despite all the criticism people direct at their country, the fact is that you're allowed to voice that criticism without getting thrown in jail. Incidents like this are a reminder that maybe the country you might criticize so much isn't as bad as it's made out to be, and that it really is a haven for free thought in an often dark world.
One of the justifications I often hear for piracy is that you're revolting against record labels. Are people now saying that they will in fact stop pirating music if the RIAA isn't a factor?
Why do I have a hard time believing that?
As idealistic as these announcements are, it's almost always established acts who do this--acts that have already benefited and made money from being distributed by a record company.
That's why I wasn't impressed when Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead released music for free, because they sure weren't doing that 10 years ago when they needed the money.
Where are you getting your statistics from?
I'm guessing you got banned for using Glider?
Is Blizzard comfortable with their world PvP system? Arena play is fun for a while, but the dynamic nature of capturing a zone or assaulting a fortress is exciting and would fit right into Warcraft. More importantly, it would give players something to do while waiting in a queue. Turn that broken tower in Hillsbrad into a battlefield objective, whadya say? And let me enter a battleground or Arena queue without visiting a battlemaster so I can return right to where I left off!
Racials are being adjusted in patch 3.0. Some races, like Humans, are seeing major changes.
In a game like Deus Ex, auto-healing would mean you could hide in a box, heal to full, and come out again. It's silly. There's no incentive to play well and take less damage, and there's no incentive for designers to balance their levels.
The narrative? Of a first-person shooter with auto-healing? This isn't an art-house flick.
Some of my most-used keys when playing Deus Ex were the Q and E keys--the "lean and look around the corner" keys. I remember how my first disappointment with Deus Ex 2 was that you could no longer do that.
No, the main point was that regenerative health removes the possibility of failure. In load-save gameplay, you do indeed face failure. If you fail, you must reload and play better.
How is running away, auto-healing for a minute, and coming back at 100% natural? And how is it different from simply reloading a save game? In fact, loading a savegame is faster and less intrusive to the "flow of gameplay" than running away to some corner of the level where the A.I. will forget about you so that you can magically auto-heal for a minute.
It's just not a fit for Deus Ex. If you're low on health in Deus Ex, you use a medkit from your inventory or take advantage of the regenerative health augmentation that already exists in the game. Auto-healing is unrealistic, lazy game design.
I would consider auto-healing and awareness of "game pace" even more of a non-immersive metagaming problem. Apparently, players today will complain if the game is not holding their hand the whole way through. This strange, safe gameplay would have been mocked 10 years ago. The lesson here is to never underestimate the destruction that XBox gamers cause to the rest of the industry.
All games have you do the same thing over and over, so that's not a valid point. Regenerating health makes it so you never get to lose. There's no challenge or threat of your character dying. Essentially, it turns games into big, safe tech demos.
I read a developer interview (it was probably Warren Spector) in which he talked about how one of the things that stuck with people who played Deus Ex was at the end of the first level, if you were aggressive and killed a lot of NSF members, your brother sternly says, "Yeah, well, pace yourself. You killed a lot of people tonight." It was unexpected (other than Paul in the beginning reminding you that you're police, there was nothing in the game to indicate that it cared either way how you handled the enemies) and set the tone for the rest of the game.
I don't understand why developers apparently have a hard time understanding what made Deus Ex great, especially when they could just play the original and see for themselves. The mechanics of the original game were perfect. Why did DX2 abandon them? Why is DX3 doing the same? I think we must accept that Deus Ex was a one-time thing and that the sequels aren't up to the level of quality required to be considered canon.
Removing the effect of stats on markmanship is removing something that was fun and cool from the original game, coping with your character's wobbly sniper shots which disappeared over time as you upgraded his sniper skills--if you decided to play a sniper, of course. I don't even know what to say about recharging health other than, of all games, Deus Ex is not the franchise to implement it in.
Does anyone else get sad at the thought that there are so many weird things in the universe you may not learn the answers to in your lifetime? What if everyone posting here never finds out the reason for the cosmic censor? Sort of depressing.
What does any of that have to do with Nintendo?
Of course Nintendo is working on their next-gen console due for release after several years. Of course they're going to be supporting HD by then. They said as much when the Wii was released.
But where's the misplaced emotion and outrage in that?
Consider that:
- Blizzard released the WotLK right after Mythic released their new trailer.
- Blizzard announced the WotLK release date the week of Warhammer's release.
- Blizzard copied the achievements system from the Tome of Knowledge and attempted a world PvP zone with Lake Wintergrasp (I say "attempted" because it's fun for maybe 10 minutes...).
- Blizzard is re-running its Shatner and Mister-T commercials.
They do indeed seem surprisingly reactionary. Having played Warhammer's early release this weekend, I think I can understand why--it's a surprisingly good game with the potential of drawing in a lot of players, including casual players, which was what WoW was originally lauded for before it turned into a grindfest. Also, fuck the Arena.
The comparison was about their bias, not their viewer numbers. The comparison makes complete sense. Please don't defend the DailyKos--it's an example of the failure of American politics.
The Sims was promising when it was an architecture editor that simulated virtual lives within what you built, with sometimes amusing results. Now, Maxis is about "user-created stories" which really means a bunch of sandbox editors to mask how shallow the simulator is. SimCity 4 was the last decent simulator from Maxis, and it was followed up by SimCity Societies, so I guess the old days are gone.
Reviewers always liked to claim that games like SimCity weren't games because there wasn't a victory condition, but they were games. You had to play well within the rules of the simulator, or you'd go bankrupt and lose. The victory condition was in getting to continue progressing the city.
You made a lot of freeloaders happy today. On Slashdot, that makes you "Informative."
If you've spent hundreds of dollars on a games console, games, and the subscription fee to play those games online, I think you're more likely to go along with the problems and keep taking replacement consoles.
Despite that, it says a lot that even the PS3 is outselling the 360 now. Makes me more hesitant to try out a 360.
Parent was a joke about Google's tracking policies, moderators.
No more disturbed at the thought of how the media donates to Democrats by a factor of 10-to-1, or how media studies show that Obama has dominated coverage for eight straight weeks, or how Obama is more liberal than Hillary Clinton but nobody reports on it.
But yeah, horror of horrors, Palin believes in God! Yuck!