in the main atmospheric battle, Hoth, the Rebel Alliance didn't use X-wings (or any other of the space fighters). They used the snow speeders that had very small wings (and seemed to use those airbreak things for maneuvering)...
Ahh...but it was too cold, remember? Something like that where they had to adapt airspeeders to be snowspeeders, but they couldn't take out fighters for some reason (too fast for the tight valleys, maybe?). I could have sworn that was what the case was.
The X-Wings, however, could be used in an atmospheric situation...maybe. Again, I have to rely on the videogames in that aspect, because of the fact that those designers have to worry about physics and such - and they definitely make sure that you cannot take a ship on a mission if it isn't able to handle it (unless you're using cheats).
And, no, I wouldn't worry about the physics because, after all, the ships would never make sound in space, either...
The Falcon is a freighter - it isn't designed for planetary flight (though it can take off and land), but rather hauling stuff to and fro. It just isn't a good ship to have on a planet.
Same with the Slave I - no real wings (those flaps are supposedly a gravity stablizer/gyro of some sort) and I doubt Boba or Jango could properly fight with it on a planet.
The ships with wings seem to be designed specifically for flight in an atmosphere or in space. Thinking about the video games, the only ship without traditional "wings" that I've used in an atmosphere is the Y-Wing (maybe those massive engines make up for that). Or the car, if you've played Rogue Leader with the cheats...;)
Now, why would you want to annoy us? For the record - my choice was Comcast or DirecTV. I chose the one that hasn't been driving me nuts for years - DirecTV.
I am a massive SW fan...you'll find me in places around the net as "darth.binks," I still collect the action figures, I bought a laserdisc player just so I could get the original trilogy on LD, etc. I even have a banner with a large, looming Dath Maul face on my office wall.
BUT...
I'm not sure if I want to play the game. I was excited about it, but then I started reading the posts from the beta testers. I also realized: if this takes place between ANH and ESB, there are only two jedi in the galaxy at that time - Yoda and Vader. Now, I realize that everyone would want to be a jedi, and that I would be part of a large crowd...but I was disappointed by the fact that I couldn't even try for it.
Plus, let's be honest: the storyline is static and stuck considering where this falls in the timeline. If it were after ROTJ then we could: 1) have Jedi since Luke could train a bunch; and 2) have a proper game going on! Wouldn't it be rather cool to see a true online RPG? There could be factions vying for the control of the galaxy - but it would be ongoing. Players would choose their faction and work to move it forward. A dark jedi could walk into a bar and start attacking people - if it brought points to his faction. A Rebel/New Republic force could find out (from spies - actual players acting like spies) about a new weapon and send a force to deal with it.
These aren't difficult things to pull off. Basically, it would have been part The Sims, part Rogue Squadron II, part Jedi Knight II and part Everquest. Conssidering how old some of that technology is, it shouldn't have really been that hard. I could have made the choices for my character that would have meant something in the greater scheme of the game.
Eventually, in the future, when SWG's servers are finally taken down, it would be interesting to see what type of storyline would be created by such a game...but that isn't what is happening. Instead, all I've read about, and seen on a friend's machine, is an empty game that, like one of the GameSpy reviewers said, is a chatroom where you kill monsters. If that does turn out to be the case, then SWG is a failure, because it didn't do what people love the movie for: fulfilling the idea that, in a fantasy, a nobody can become a major force in the world...
My point is - I'll pay much more than what the service price actually translates to here. Like I said: due to cost of living issues there, $21 would be more like $14 or so here. Thus, I would be willing to pay double or so - $30 - to get it.
It's a reference Americans can grasp. The last I checked (with a Japanese coworker of mine, no less) - a couple of years ago, the going rate for a Big Mac in Tokyo was equivilent to somewhere between $6-$8.
And i somehow suspect that it isn't that hard to eat fresh sushi in Helena, at least.
$21/month in Japan should be actually less in the US when you think of exchange rates, inflation and cost-of-living (Big Macs are what? Like $8 over there? I'm too lazy to go look - sorry). $21 here would be chicken feed...
Hell, I would pay $30/month to dump my current cable modem service for something like this.
Somehow, however, I suspect that no one will pull this off in this country. Between the government and the big corporations, I can see this floating like a lead balloon...
This is something the Afghanis need to work out for themselves - we can't attack them for it and we can't make them embrace our social mores. They aren't used to having a country that is open to expression - they need to learn how to deal with it. Some of the hardliners will react - the Afghanis must decide what to do for themselves.
Perhaps they want a more hardline government than we would like them to have. Time will tell. Their elections are scheduled for June of 2004. Let's see what happens then before we condemn them now.
Perhaps a company could take some of the popular women's games from Japan - try out a couple of different genres - and see what happens. That would be my suggestion. Unfortunately, that would mean the rise of women-specific games (dating games, men/men romance games, etc.) that would only serve to further a divide between men and women in the gaming world.
Another observation is that a lot of the women I know, including my wife, really enjoy two player fighters. My wife loves Soul Calibur and is chomping at the bit to play the new one at home (gotta go with the GC version - Link is gonna rock!). She also really enjoys the Street Fighter-derived games (not so much SNK's fighters). DOA is one of the few that I've found that my wife and her friends aren't all that interested in (no, I don't think it's the "bump-mapping"). Perhaps there is something about the competition in those games that the manufacturers need to explore.
I honestly believe that many women are interested in gaming, but there are both social barriers and gender barriers that block them for some reason or another. There's definitely money to be made there...good luck to whomever decides to attack it.
Oh, wait, since this is/.: one thing i know, MS sure as hell won't figure it out. But they may buy the folks that do.;)
Oh, man - the slavery argument is weak. The Civil War was not about feeing slaves - it was about the federal governement exerting control over state governements. I am not anti-centralized governement, but to say that we fought over slavery are the words of the naive.
My point is: when did we become the moral, legal and political barometer for the world? When did we decide that we need to tell other people how to live their lives? It had to be when communism arose because, of course, we didn't want to think that some cultures and societies might work better within it than in democracy.
Think about it: Hussein no longer suited our purposes. That's why we went in for him - not to liberate the people of Iraq. I personally think that, if Hussein had asked permission from the senior Bush back in 1990, that Kuwait would be a part of Iraq today and there wouldn't have been two wars in the gulf (at least not against Iraq). But I think the senior Bush was insulted - thus Desert Storm.
If the junior Bush gets off his ass and does something major (not 1000 peacekeepers) in Liberia (since we have a historical obligation there - it is, after all, a country we, basically, founded in the 1800s for freed slaves), then I'll believe the US government has the best interests of "the people" in mind...
But I somehow doubt this is going to happen.
Until then, I suggest all the Dittoheads, who not only have allowed the wool to be pulled over their eyes but actually pulled it over themselves, remove their blinders and look around. They aren't seeing the entire picture.
Not, mind you, am I saying that this is a Democrat vs. Republican issue, becuase both parties are filled with people who can't see the forest for the trees. Just, in this case, the Democrats are closer to reality than the Republicans are.
Hopefully you Meta-Moderate. I would argue that it is "insightful" because he is making himself an example of taking initiative and working within the system. Doesn't matter the candidate.
Dude, you don't get it, do you? Get off the sanctimonious, jingoistic bandwagon and look around you! Saddam Hussein is a madman - no one will deny that. But he is a madman we kept in power. A madman that Rumsfeld and Cheney have worked with in the past during the Ford, Reagan and senior Bush administrations. A madman we supported in his war with Iran, where we were also repsonsible for supporting the Shah's oppressive regime.
This country, for decades, fed the power structure that kept Hussein right where he was. This most recent war was not about removing Hussein - it was about revenge and oil. G. W. Bush doesn't care about the people of Iraq, nor have any of his predecessors.
We are constantly helping oppresive leaders: Pinochet, Noriega, Papa Doc, the apartheid system in South Africa. We continue to hand trade concessions and the like to the Chinese - who are, arguably, guilty of more than Hussein could ever be. And don't forget that we also readily supported the Taliban and Al-qaeda against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
It's a shame you haven't opened your eyes to see that we did this to ourselves...and we knew what these people were like before. And, watch who you call a lemming, because you sound a great deal like a Dittohead.
Oh, and Chemical Ali was never in a lab - he ordered the gassing, he isn't/wasn't a scientist. Don't try to insult and one-up people when you can't properly form your statement with facts...it makes you sound like the village idiot.
I wrote my thesis on a Mac Classic that I borrowed from work - just because I couldn't afford an 8500. But, since it was English, I didn't need anything other than Word. Word 5.1, to be precise.
However, more to the point - you're an exception. Now, I work for a university and, as many of us know, college-types, especially faculty, get set in their ways. So, perhaps I'm seeing a larger percentage of "scared" people than most. Of course, that also means I can use the education discount to get a much better price on Apple's products, especially things like the OS ($70 or $80 as opposed to $130 is quite worth it).
But, again, OS X has been here for (two months shy of) three years (yes, I count the Public Beta) and some of us have been using it as their main OS for that entire time (I was very happy to leave OS 9, and its crash-prone ways, behind). I can tell you that, while it is still an Apple OS, it isn't the Mac OS of old and that there is some validity in being concerned that the OS will be completely different.
I suspect that Apple will make it worthwhile for people to switch if they keep on bringing better and cooler things to market (the PowerBooks, iPod, iSight, etc.). That will be the point where *nix will make its mark on the desktop...but Apple has to keep plugging away. And users have to upgrade.
True to a point, but there are old-school Mac users who are kicking and screaming about OS X (for no good reason, IMHO). One of them told me that OS X "scares me," another thinks that OS X is a money grab by Apple (I don't consider something I've been using on my desktop for close to three years, since the Public Beta, as a "money grab"...but to each his own).
If Apple succeeds in creating an OS that doesn't scare her and people like her, then you'll be right. Until then (or until Sun realizes that Solaris can be a lot more than it is), *nix will still be for a specialized group of folks (but not just servers and hackers).
Knowing NBA Street and SSX Tricky as well as I do (and chomping at the bit for a good sale on Def Jam Vendetta), if NFL Street is even 2/3 the game that the others are, this'll be a great game...and it's not that far to January...maybe I should go buy NBA Street Volume 2 to tide me over.
By the way - the Street games aren't any more violent than a regular sports game. It's a question of style and tricks - and how smooooooth you can be in the game.;)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to practice my "Refridgerator" Shuffle.
You really should wait until 2005 for Episode III. I personally think that Lucas has viewed these three movies as one unit, thus we really can't slam it until III is out (I keep telling my friends to wait until November with The Matrix Revolutions before they slam Reloaded).
What we also have to keep in mind is:
Primarily, 2005 is still two years away. LOTR will be finished this December, Matrix will be finished in November...Lucas will know what people want from how those two franchises finish up and will have close to 18 months to make Episode III kick-ass (I'm not saying he will, but I'm saying he has the chance).
Secondly, 2007 - the 30th anniversary of the series - is only four years away. A lot of SW fans want to see an "Ultimate Edition" of each of the movies which, hopefully, will make many of us happy (adding the Biggs scenes back into SW, removing Greedo's first shot, excising bits of Jar Jar from TPM, add ewoks chewing on stormtrooper flesh in ROTJ, etc.;). 2007 makes the most sense for him to go back and listen to all the problems and clean them up.
Let's wait and see what happens. After all, nothing can be as bad as the Star Wars Holiday Special, can it?
Oh, and to stay on topic: T3 was dull. The series should have never gone past the first movie.
Slashdot Mirror
in the main atmospheric battle, Hoth, the Rebel Alliance didn't use X-wings (or any other of the space fighters). They used the snow speeders that had very small wings (and seemed to use those airbreak things for maneuvering)...
Ahh...but it was too cold, remember? Something like that where they had to adapt airspeeders to be snowspeeders, but they couldn't take out fighters for some reason (too fast for the tight valleys, maybe?). I could have sworn that was what the case was.
The X-Wings, however, could be used in an atmospheric situation...maybe. Again, I have to rely on the videogames in that aspect, because of the fact that those designers have to worry about physics and such - and they definitely make sure that you cannot take a ship on a mission if it isn't able to handle it (unless you're using cheats).
And, no, I wouldn't worry about the physics because, after all, the ships would never make sound in space, either...
Same with the Slave I - no real wings (those flaps are supposedly a gravity stablizer/gyro of some sort) and I doubt Boba or Jango could properly fight with it on a planet.
The ships with wings seem to be designed specifically for flight in an atmosphere or in space. Thinking about the video games, the only ship without traditional "wings" that I've used in an atmosphere is the Y-Wing (maybe those massive engines make up for that). Or the car, if you've played Rogue Leader with the cheats... ;)
Man...I forgot I have that set...time to go spelunking through my mother's basement. Thanks for the link - it really brings back memories.
Now, why would you want to annoy us? For the record - my choice was Comcast or DirecTV. I chose the one that hasn't been driving me nuts for years - DirecTV.
Wait a second, Sparky. The game takes place between ANH and ESB.
You realize what that means don't you?
YOU CAN'T TAKE THE GAME ANYWHERE! Nothing will change - there is no prgression. Those faction points are meaningless.
Zip.
Zero.
Nada.
Might I suggest thinking before you speak?
BUT...
I'm not sure if I want to play the game. I was excited about it, but then I started reading the posts from the beta testers. I also realized: if this takes place between ANH and ESB, there are only two jedi in the galaxy at that time - Yoda and Vader. Now, I realize that everyone would want to be a jedi, and that I would be part of a large crowd...but I was disappointed by the fact that I couldn't even try for it.
Plus, let's be honest: the storyline is static and stuck considering where this falls in the timeline. If it were after ROTJ then we could: 1) have Jedi since Luke could train a bunch; and 2) have a proper game going on! Wouldn't it be rather cool to see a true online RPG? There could be factions vying for the control of the galaxy - but it would be ongoing. Players would choose their faction and work to move it forward. A dark jedi could walk into a bar and start attacking people - if it brought points to his faction. A Rebel/New Republic force could find out (from spies - actual players acting like spies) about a new weapon and send a force to deal with it.
These aren't difficult things to pull off. Basically, it would have been part The Sims, part Rogue Squadron II, part Jedi Knight II and part Everquest. Conssidering how old some of that technology is, it shouldn't have really been that hard. I could have made the choices for my character that would have meant something in the greater scheme of the game.
Eventually, in the future, when SWG's servers are finally taken down, it would be interesting to see what type of storyline would be created by such a game...but that isn't what is happening. Instead, all I've read about, and seen on a friend's machine, is an empty game that, like one of the GameSpy reviewers said, is a chatroom where you kill monsters. If that does turn out to be the case, then SWG is a failure, because it didn't do what people love the movie for: fulfilling the idea that, in a fantasy, a nobody can become a major force in the world...
Maybe SWG 2...
My point is - I'll pay much more than what the service price actually translates to here. Like I said: due to cost of living issues there, $21 would be more like $14 or so here. Thus, I would be willing to pay double or so - $30 - to get it.
And i somehow suspect that it isn't that hard to eat fresh sushi in Helena, at least.
Hell, I would pay $30/month to dump my current cable modem service for something like this.
Somehow, however, I suspect that no one will pull this off in this country. Between the government and the big corporations, I can see this floating like a lead balloon...
Now, if I were to telecommute from Japan...
Perhaps they want a more hardline government than we would like them to have. Time will tell. Their elections are scheduled for June of 2004. Let's see what happens then before we condemn them now.
Another observation is that a lot of the women I know, including my wife, really enjoy two player fighters. My wife loves Soul Calibur and is chomping at the bit to play the new one at home (gotta go with the GC version - Link is gonna rock!). She also really enjoys the Street Fighter-derived games (not so much SNK's fighters). DOA is one of the few that I've found that my wife and her friends aren't all that interested in (no, I don't think it's the "bump-mapping"). Perhaps there is something about the competition in those games that the manufacturers need to explore.
I honestly believe that many women are interested in gaming, but there are both social barriers and gender barriers that block them for some reason or another. There's definitely money to be made there...good luck to whomever decides to attack it.
Oh, wait, since this is /.: one thing i know, MS sure as hell won't figure it out. But they may buy the folks that do. ;)
My point is: when did we become the moral, legal and political barometer for the world? When did we decide that we need to tell other people how to live their lives? It had to be when communism arose because, of course, we didn't want to think that some cultures and societies might work better within it than in democracy.
Think about it: Hussein no longer suited our purposes. That's why we went in for him - not to liberate the people of Iraq. I personally think that, if Hussein had asked permission from the senior Bush back in 1990, that Kuwait would be a part of Iraq today and there wouldn't have been two wars in the gulf (at least not against Iraq). But I think the senior Bush was insulted - thus Desert Storm.
If the junior Bush gets off his ass and does something major (not 1000 peacekeepers) in Liberia (since we have a historical obligation there - it is, after all, a country we, basically, founded in the 1800s for freed slaves), then I'll believe the US government has the best interests of "the people" in mind...
But I somehow doubt this is going to happen.
Until then, I suggest all the Dittoheads, who not only have allowed the wool to be pulled over their eyes but actually pulled it over themselves, remove their blinders and look around. They aren't seeing the entire picture.
Not, mind you, am I saying that this is a Democrat vs. Republican issue, becuase both parties are filled with people who can't see the forest for the trees. Just, in this case, the Democrats are closer to reality than the Republicans are.
Maybe approaching each of the campaigns would make sense. This isn't a small amount of people sitting around here, after all.
Sounds insighful to me.
This country, for decades, fed the power structure that kept Hussein right where he was. This most recent war was not about removing Hussein - it was about revenge and oil. G. W. Bush doesn't care about the people of Iraq, nor have any of his predecessors.
We are constantly helping oppresive leaders: Pinochet, Noriega, Papa Doc, the apartheid system in South Africa. We continue to hand trade concessions and the like to the Chinese - who are, arguably, guilty of more than Hussein could ever be. And don't forget that we also readily supported the Taliban and Al-qaeda against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
It's a shame you haven't opened your eyes to see that we did this to ourselves...and we knew what these people were like before. And, watch who you call a lemming, because you sound a great deal like a Dittohead.
Oh, and Chemical Ali was never in a lab - he ordered the gassing, he isn't/wasn't a scientist. Don't try to insult and one-up people when you can't properly form your statement with facts...it makes you sound like the village idiot.
The sarcasm in that is great...at least I hope that's sarcasm.
I could go on...but that seems kinda silly to do...
Where would they find 17,000 Network Adaptors?
However, more to the point - you're an exception. Now, I work for a university and, as many of us know, college-types, especially faculty, get set in their ways. So, perhaps I'm seeing a larger percentage of "scared" people than most. Of course, that also means I can use the education discount to get a much better price on Apple's products, especially things like the OS ($70 or $80 as opposed to $130 is quite worth it). But, again, OS X has been here for (two months shy of) three years (yes, I count the Public Beta) and some of us have been using it as their main OS for that entire time (I was very happy to leave OS 9, and its crash-prone ways, behind). I can tell you that, while it is still an Apple OS, it isn't the Mac OS of old and that there is some validity in being concerned that the OS will be completely different.
I suspect that Apple will make it worthwhile for people to switch if they keep on bringing better and cooler things to market (the PowerBooks, iPod, iSight, etc.). That will be the point where *nix will make its mark on the desktop...but Apple has to keep plugging away. And users have to upgrade.
If Apple succeeds in creating an OS that doesn't scare her and people like her, then you'll be right. Until then (or until Sun realizes that Solaris can be a lot more than it is), *nix will still be for a specialized group of folks (but not just servers and hackers).
I would say it's a good thing...God forbid that Mozilla act as porrly as IE...
By the way - the Street games aren't any more violent than a regular sports game. It's a question of style and tricks - and how smooooooth you can be in the game. ;)
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to practice my "Refridgerator" Shuffle.
I think you're hearing things.
What we also have to keep in mind is:
Primarily, 2005 is still two years away. LOTR will be finished this December, Matrix will be finished in November...Lucas will know what people want from how those two franchises finish up and will have close to 18 months to make Episode III kick-ass (I'm not saying he will, but I'm saying he has the chance).
Secondly, 2007 - the 30th anniversary of the series - is only four years away. A lot of SW fans want to see an "Ultimate Edition" of each of the movies which, hopefully, will make many of us happy (adding the Biggs scenes back into SW, removing Greedo's first shot, excising bits of Jar Jar from TPM, add ewoks chewing on stormtrooper flesh in ROTJ, etc. ;). 2007 makes the most sense for him to go back and listen to all the problems and clean them up.
Let's wait and see what happens. After all, nothing can be as bad as the Star Wars Holiday Special, can it?
Oh, and to stay on topic: T3 was dull. The series should have never gone past the first movie.
If you run a larger software house, maybe you can handle a lawsuit (if it occurs), but C&G was just too small to handle such a risky proposition.
I've not looked at their finances, but I hope that they're treating their employees better than a company forced into bankruptcy from a lawsuit.
It's all a question of politics and cash...I can't blame C&G for playing it safe, even though I would have loved to see another product like SoundJam.