With/. or any of a hundred other web forums, you can just click your way in and just as easily click your way out.
It was easy back then, too, but not AS easy, so the flame dynamic did not happen AS quickly. Modern forums, Slashdot included, have regulars as well, and it is often these regulars which put forth the most vitriolic of flames, bolstered by their high self-opinion as a 'regular' or an 'old-timer', or simply in quest of entertainment in the face of giddy nonsense posited as exciting fact.
Flame wars are no worse than they used to be, they're just more prevalant and more visible due to the widespread availability of the internet. If http had never been invented, and we all just used text-based email, forums and chat, we'd still see the same result. The "I'm a crusty Internet olde-timer, and I remember when..." bit is getting old. Let it go.
Flaming didn't start with the Internet, BBS's or any other electronic medium. It started with the Editorial page of your favourite newspaper, and before that on over-turned soap-boxes in the center of town, and before that on stumps in rural villiages and so on down the line.
There is nothing new under the sun, and John Katz must not be allowed to improve is image and fiscal worth as a writer by setting himself up as a helpless victim of random 'Internet violence' and trying to convince his readers that they are all victims too.
You speak of 'just travelling in space' as though that really wasn't much of a breakthrough at all! Granted, this is not the technology that will send the Millenium Falcon roaring out of Mos Eisley. It's not supposed to be. In a way, this technology is more exciting than that. This technology makes the idea of a manned trip to Jupiter, etc. much more of a possibility. We can get (roaring, even) into space already, albeit clumsily. Where we go from there and how we survive while doing so is where things get really sticky. This is great news!
I personally hate the idea of digital signatures for the reason illustrated (and yes, oversimplified) in the Subject of this post. For digital signatures to have value means that, like credit-card numbers, there will be steady and skilled attempts to steal and use them.
THIEF is one of those games that's ALMOST great, but is ultimately a total bore due to bugs, an annoying interface and a way-less-than-anywhere-near-state-of-the-art-3d-en gine.
Why everyone waxes on about what a great game it is/was, and how tragic it is the Looking Glass is no longer at the helm is utterly beyond me. It's a cool idea better left executed by folks who can really specialize and perform in 3D immersive game-design.
I hate to sound mean-spirited about this stuff, I found the System Shock demo almost unplayable as well. (I paid good money for the full Thief II, so I earned the rights to a little bitchin' there!)
Bottom Line: Looking Glass did NOT crumble due to any sort of corporate piracy. They crumbled because their games could not compete on any level with their contemporaies or even their predecessors. Next to a Quake, Quake II or a Half-Life, Thief and System Shock look like poorly sketched demos.
It could be argued that Looking Glass games had better 'story', but what good is that if the interface gets in the way?
Hopefully, the Looking Glass folks will get jobs as game designers, where they show obvious strength, and leave the actual coding to the pros.
That a 'talking guitar' trick, where you have your guitar signal going into a small amp ('Pignose') with a cover over the speaker. The cover has a little hole with a long rubber tube sticking out of it which gets attached (usually with duct tape) to a microphone on a mic stand. When the performer wants to do a 'talking guitar' bit, he (she/it) gets the tube in his mouth and plays, shaping the sound with his mouth (like a jew's harp) into the microphone.
Joe Walsh pioneered this technique, although Frampton generally gets credit for making it famous. Aeorsmith, Bon Jovi and countless others have used it since to interesting effect.
It's a good thing I'm not a cop. I don't know how they deal. If someone threw a 'mystery liquid' at me or a friend of mine, I think I shoot first and ask questions MUCH later! I'd be in jail for life or dead after my first week on the job.
And then, after you get all that tasty Karma you can...you can...well...you can do whatever it is that pisses off all those "Karma Whore!" shrieking Anonymous Cowards!
Unless you spend your entire life at bus-stops, it doesn't make a difference. When you leave the house (or classroom, or cafe or workplace or whatever), you have lot's of clocks to visually prompt you to leave. Once your underway, having a watch doesn't change a thing. If you're late for the bus, you'll still be late even with a diamond-studded Rolex.
I forgot to mention what makes Doom and Quake so re-playable, after the sense of urgency and mystery is gone. I think that has to do with the sense of athleticism that comes with mastering the game at higher and higher levels, as well as multi-user play.
Quake II failed excelled at athleticism, but lost in terms of single-play, not because of a poor story, but because the maps and monsters did not create a sense of urgency or mystery. It was too easy to see through the curtain a bunch of hastily thrown-together scenarios.
I never finished single-player Q2 and never will. It bored me to tears once the 'tech marvel' nature of it was gone.
The qualities that made (make?) DOOM/II and Quake so re-playable have almost NOTHING to do with any real sense of 'story'. What keep you going in those games is a sense of urgency and mystery. The payoff for solving one mystery (level) is the unveiling of yet another. Both those games created a sense of place and space like no other, while maintaining an impossibly high level of interface/playability.
The much lauded (by some) System Shock lost me from the get-go due to it's poorly engineered interface. Why they chose to compete with ID on that issue I'll never guess, but they didn't come close enough and got dumped because of it. Their story and sound effects may have been great, but if the interface ain't up to par, people won't play it.
A bad director can take a great script and still make a bad movie.
A great director can take a so-so script and make a really good movie.
Don't even get me going about Thief or Thief II. Great ideas, miserable production. A buggy, unplayable mess as far as I'm concerned. They could have used the Q2 engine and saved themselves a lot of trouble.
Having recently started playing Balder's Gate, I must say, it's fun, but the level of 'storytelling' isn't really that much beyond the level of Quake or doom. It still boils down to 'slay monsters, reap rewards, advance, slay bigger monsters, reap rewards, etc.,'. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing to brag about either.
What about leather shoes? Footballs? Couches? Have you spraypainted someone's couch recently?
How 'bout those biker jacket's your friends wear to the punk shows (or does everyone dress in hemp and listen to Phish these days?) Are you spraypainting them?
Is it because the fur-bearing animals are CUTER or something? It's not okay to kill cute animals? Or is it somehow of the utmost important to stop killing CUTE animals first, and THEN stop killing cows and pigs and stuff?
People have been wearing and eating animals for a LONG time. Is this news to you?
Why the negativity? Because it's a waste of headspace. The project sounds 'bold and visionary' to non-programmers while the bit-heads have all laughed it off and moved on after just reading the headline.
Bold, colorful announcements are a dime a dozen and do not deserve our attention and praise.
Development communities can not be artificially 'created'. They happen naturally wherever interesting and well-thought-out projects arise, and take on a life of their own.
I hope the experiment is a dreadful failure. One dollar for 20 pages is not a fair bargain by any stretch of the imagination. If the man wants to play for tips, fine, but let each person decide how much (if anything at all) the story is worth to them.
True street performers have no guarantee whatsoever that they will cash in regardless of whether or not they succeed in entertaining passers-by. Why should SKing have such a guarantee?
He can refuse to put out the final chapters if he so desires, so he has created an 'experiment' in which HE can't lose. Regardless of what happens he get's lot's of press and his happy little footnote in Internet history. I'm supposed to be impressed? I'm supposed to cheer the man on? F*CK THAT!
Repeat, F*CK THAT!
The only one being served here is Stephen King. Forgive me if I don't weep for joy as he 'sticks it to the Man' by sticking it to his readers, most of whom are undoubtedly loyal enough to fuel his fantasy with their cash.
Put the WHOLE thing out there with "Please Feel Free To Send Tips To:" info and LIVE or DIE by your little experiment.
The 10 hours is significant NOT in the sense that "I can listen to music for 10 hours straight, oh boy!" but rather in the sense of variety. You could spend a week without ever changing that cd, but hearing a tremendous variety of music all the while, even if only in twenty-minute bursts as you ride the bus to and from school or work.
Cost is not even a consideration. You have to look ahead a bit, and see how quickly these devices (cdburners and such) are becoming ubiquitous. Granted, at present it's largely a mid-upper middle class thing, but that is already changing rapidly. It's like when people used to think the idea of a 'personal computer' was laughable. Things with this sort of power get assimilated quickly.
Give DLR's lyrics a good listen. They're FUNNY! He had a great sence of self-depricating humor that went LIGHTYEARS beyond anything the other 'metal' bands were doing. What his voice supposedly lacked in range was made up in triplicate in CHARACTER, which I think is more important and entertaining.
It was the VanHagar era that brought about the utter death of creativity in that band. DLR may well have been an asshole to work with, but sometimes it takes a REAL ASSHOLE to DO THE JOB RIGHT!
The whole random dungeon layout thing really bothers me. While it technically adds 'infinite' variations for gameplay, I prefer to hack and slash in a dungeon or realm which has some semblance of coherency, history and intention behind it. Diablo is good at simulating this, but sometimes it's too damn easy to see the 'randomness' at work.
The "Highlander" sword has to be the all-time favourite.
"Pssst! This was hand-made in the 1500's by a Japanese warrior swordsmith named Tempura Sushiyama, who reportedly died just after it was completed...yours for $85!"
"What's that? You only have $40? Dude...this one here may look like junk, but...(lowers voice to barely perceptible whisper)...it's plus 2 to hit, dude!"
I wonder if layering would be such a good idea on a Claymore/broadsword kind of weapon? The Euros wore a lot of plate metal armor which had to be hacked through in no uncertain terms, wheras the Japanese wore much lighter armor and forged blades which were much better at cutting.
Can you get the best of both worlds in one sword, I wonder, or is it better to specialize one way or the other?
Slashdot Mirror
With /. or any of a hundred other web forums, you can just click your way in and just as easily click your way out.
It was easy back then, too, but not AS easy, so the flame dynamic did not happen AS quickly. Modern forums, Slashdot included, have regulars as well, and it is often these regulars which put forth the most vitriolic of flames, bolstered by their high self-opinion as a 'regular' or an 'old-timer', or simply in quest of entertainment in the face of giddy nonsense posited as exciting fact.
Flame wars are no worse than they used to be, they're just more prevalant and more visible due to the widespread availability of the internet. If http had never been invented, and we all just used text-based email, forums and chat, we'd still see the same result. The "I'm a crusty Internet olde-timer, and I remember when..." bit is getting old. Let it go.
Flaming didn't start with the Internet, BBS's or any other electronic medium. It started with the Editorial page of your favourite newspaper, and before that on over-turned soap-boxes in the center of town, and before that on stumps in rural villiages and so on down the line.
There is nothing new under the sun, and John Katz must not be allowed to improve is image and fiscal worth as a writer by setting himself up as a helpless victim of random 'Internet violence' and trying to convince his readers that they are all victims too.
You speak of 'just travelling in space' as though that really wasn't much of a breakthrough at all! Granted, this is not the technology that will send the Millenium Falcon roaring out of Mos Eisley. It's not supposed to be. In a way, this technology is more exciting than that. This technology makes the idea of a manned trip to Jupiter, etc. much more of a possibility. We can get (roaring, even) into space already, albeit clumsily. Where we go from there and how we survive while doing so is where things get really sticky. This is great news!
I personally hate the idea of digital signatures for the reason illustrated (and yes, oversimplified) in the Subject of this post. For digital signatures to have value means that, like credit-card numbers, there will be steady and skilled attempts to steal and use them.
I think we'll get spanked on this one.
Biomodel.com has been doing this for a while now. For a price (and CAT-scan data) they'll make you a paperweight of your own skull!
Check it out!
"Repacholi, who is now coordinating the WHO's research into the health effects of electromagnetic radiation, says..."
Things really took a turn after Keith Moon died.
THIEF is one of those games that's ALMOST great, but is ultimately a total bore due to bugs, an annoying interface and a way-less-than-anywhere-near-state-of-the-art-3d-en gine.
Why everyone waxes on about what a great game it is/was, and how tragic it is the Looking Glass is no longer at the helm is utterly beyond me. It's a cool idea better left executed by folks who can really specialize and perform in 3D immersive game-design.
I hate to sound mean-spirited about this stuff, I found the System Shock demo almost unplayable as well. (I paid good money for the full Thief II, so I earned the rights to a little bitchin' there!)
Bottom Line: Looking Glass did NOT crumble due to any sort of corporate piracy. They crumbled because their games could not compete on any level with their contemporaies or even their predecessors. Next to a Quake, Quake II or a Half-Life, Thief and System Shock look like poorly sketched demos.
It could be argued that Looking Glass games had better 'story', but what good is that if the interface gets in the way?
Hopefully, the Looking Glass folks will get jobs as game designers, where they show obvious strength, and leave the actual coding to the pros.
That a 'talking guitar' trick, where you have your guitar signal going into a small amp ('Pignose') with a cover over the speaker. The cover has a little hole with a long rubber tube sticking out of it which gets attached (usually with duct tape) to a microphone on a mic stand. When the performer wants to do a 'talking guitar' bit, he (she/it) gets the tube in his mouth and plays, shaping the sound with his mouth (like a jew's harp) into the microphone.
Joe Walsh pioneered this technique, although Frampton generally gets credit for making it famous. Aeorsmith, Bon Jovi and countless others have used it since to interesting effect.
It's a good thing I'm not a cop. I don't know how they deal. If someone threw a 'mystery liquid' at me or a friend of mine, I think I shoot first and ask questions MUCH later! I'd be in jail for life or dead after my first week on the job.
They're doing it for Status and Peer Acceptance.
Idiots.
The paramilitary garb was another stroke of true genious.
He's got his 'war story' now to share with his eco-hippy friends. Good for him.
And then, after you get all that tasty Karma you can...you can...well...you can do whatever it is that pisses off all those "Karma Whore!" shrieking Anonymous Cowards!
Unless you spend your entire life at bus-stops, it doesn't make a difference. When you leave the house (or classroom, or cafe or workplace or whatever), you have lot's of clocks to visually prompt you to leave. Once your underway, having a watch doesn't change a thing. If you're late for the bus, you'll still be late even with a diamond-studded Rolex.
I forgot to mention what makes Doom and Quake so re-playable, after the sense of urgency and mystery is gone. I think that has to do with the sense of athleticism that comes with mastering the game at higher and higher levels, as well as multi-user play.
Quake II failed excelled at athleticism, but lost in terms of single-play, not because of a poor story, but because the maps and monsters did not create a sense of urgency or mystery. It was too easy to see through the curtain a bunch of hastily thrown-together scenarios.
I never finished single-player Q2 and never will. It bored me to tears once the 'tech marvel' nature of it was gone.
Cheers and high hopes for the new Doom!
The qualities that made (make?) DOOM/II and Quake so re-playable have almost NOTHING to do with any real sense of 'story'. What keep you going in those games is a sense of urgency and mystery. The payoff for solving one mystery (level) is the unveiling of yet another. Both those games created a sense of place and space like no other, while maintaining an impossibly high level of interface/playability.
The much lauded (by some) System Shock lost me from the get-go due to it's poorly engineered interface. Why they chose to compete with ID on that issue I'll never guess, but they didn't come close enough and got dumped because of it. Their story and sound effects may have been great, but if the interface ain't up to par, people won't play it.
A bad director can take a great script and still make a bad movie.
A great director can take a so-so script and make a really good movie.
Don't even get me going about Thief or Thief II. Great ideas, miserable production. A buggy, unplayable mess as far as I'm concerned. They could have used the Q2 engine and saved themselves a lot of trouble.
Having recently started playing Balder's Gate, I must say, it's fun, but the level of 'storytelling' isn't really that much beyond the level of Quake or doom. It still boils down to 'slay monsters, reap rewards, advance, slay bigger monsters, reap rewards, etc.,'. Nothing wrong with that, but nothing to brag about either.
What about leather shoes? Footballs? Couches? Have you spraypainted someone's couch recently?
How 'bout those biker jacket's your friends wear to the punk shows (or does everyone dress in hemp and listen to Phish these days?) Are you spraypainting them?
Is it because the fur-bearing animals are CUTER or something? It's not okay to kill cute animals? Or is it somehow of the utmost important to stop killing CUTE animals first, and THEN stop killing cows and pigs and stuff?
People have been wearing and eating animals for a LONG time. Is this news to you?
Just curious.
Why the negativity? Because it's a waste of headspace. The project sounds 'bold and visionary' to non-programmers while the bit-heads have all laughed it off and moved on after just reading the headline.
Bold, colorful announcements are a dime a dozen and do not deserve our attention and praise.
Development communities can not be artificially 'created'. They happen naturally wherever interesting and well-thought-out projects arise, and take on a life of their own.
Is about all this 'project' will ever generate.
Having done that, I'd say they should celebrate their resounding success and pack it in.
I hope the experiment is a dreadful failure. One dollar for 20 pages is not a fair bargain by any stretch of the imagination. If the man wants to play for tips, fine, but let each person decide how much (if anything at all) the story is worth to them.
True street performers have no guarantee whatsoever that they will cash in regardless of whether or not they succeed in entertaining passers-by. Why should SKing have such a guarantee?
He can refuse to put out the final chapters if he so desires, so he has created an 'experiment' in which HE can't lose. Regardless of what happens he get's lot's of press and his happy little footnote in Internet history. I'm supposed to be impressed? I'm supposed to cheer the man on? F*CK THAT!
Repeat, F*CK THAT!
The only one being served here is Stephen King. Forgive me if I don't weep for joy as he 'sticks it to the Man' by sticking it to his readers, most of whom are undoubtedly loyal enough to fuel his fantasy with their cash.
Put the WHOLE thing out there with "Please Feel Free To Send Tips To:" info and LIVE or DIE by your little experiment.
Dick Hardt's role for perl6 will be to...(blah blah blah)
Dick Hardt's?
From Holden?
The 10 hours is significant NOT in the sense that "I can listen to music for 10 hours straight, oh boy!" but rather in the sense of variety. You could spend a week without ever changing that cd, but hearing a tremendous variety of music all the while, even if only in twenty-minute bursts as you ride the bus to and from school or work.
Cost is not even a consideration. You have to look ahead a bit, and see how quickly these devices (cdburners and such) are becoming ubiquitous. Granted, at present it's largely a mid-upper middle class thing, but that is already changing rapidly. It's like when people used to think the idea of a 'personal computer' was laughable. Things with this sort of power get assimilated quickly.
Give DLR's lyrics a good listen. They're FUNNY! He had a great sence of self-depricating humor that went LIGHTYEARS beyond anything the other 'metal' bands were doing. What his voice supposedly lacked in range was made up in triplicate in CHARACTER, which I think is more important and entertaining.
It was the VanHagar era that brought about the utter death of creativity in that band. DLR may well have been an asshole to work with, but sometimes it takes a REAL ASSHOLE to DO THE JOB RIGHT!
KnowwhaddImean?
: )
The whole random dungeon layout thing really bothers me. While it technically adds 'infinite' variations for gameplay, I prefer to hack and slash in a dungeon or realm which has some semblance of coherency, history and intention behind it. Diablo is good at simulating this, but sometimes it's too damn easy to see the 'randomness' at work.
The "Highlander" sword has to be the all-time favourite.
"Pssst! This was hand-made in the 1500's by a Japanese warrior swordsmith named Tempura Sushiyama, who reportedly died just after it was completed...yours for $85!"
"What's that? You only have $40? Dude...this one here may look like junk, but...(lowers voice to barely perceptible whisper)...it's plus 2 to hit, dude!"
I wonder if layering would be such a good idea on a Claymore/broadsword kind of weapon? The Euros wore a lot of plate metal armor which had to be hacked through in no uncertain terms, wheras the Japanese wore much lighter armor and forged blades which were much better at cutting.
Can you get the best of both worlds in one sword, I wonder, or is it better to specialize one way or the other?
In either case, Happy Hacking!
(-_-)