D2 mods were pretty bad, imo, mostly because of the limit of what they could actually modify, since it was not at all supported by the game. Even the really popular ones like Eastern Sun, etc. weren't really different enough to hold my attention for more than like a day.
Fun = profit. If they make a change that makes the game less fun but attempts to generate more revenue from the auction house, then players will stop playing due to the game being less fun and there will be less items on the auction house and revenue will go down.
I imagine if they had created WoW today it would have the exact same system. It's really the only way to combat black market gold/item selling. I bet 99% of account hacking in WoW is directly due to gold sellers/buyers, and Blizzard has probably spent millions of dollars fighting it through things like the Authenticator, lawsuits, customer service time, gameplay changes, etc.
You clearly never actually used a Virtual Boy. It did not produce a red/blue flat image. It had two little LCD screens and two mirrors and each screen produced a unique image and you wore the whole thing like a giant set of goggles. Both the images were monochrome red with about 4 variations in color. This is functionally identical to how stereoscopy works now (delivering 2 distinct flat images to each eye that are slightly different to create a perception of depth). All that's changed over time is the delivery mechanism. Hell in the movie theater the delivery method hasn't even changed in like 30 years.
It still does not work perfectly for the exact reasons the AC mentioned. No two people's eyes line up exactly the same or are exactly the same distance apart. stereoscopy never creates a "real" image only a "virtual" one that puts strain on your brain and eyes to look at. Even if you have a perfectly calibrated screen and projector, sit in the exact ideal position in the theater, and have glasses that aren't bent or deformed in any perceivable way, and you still won't get a perfect image and your brain and eyes will still be working much harder to process the image (although the amount of extra work might not be enough to bother you especially if you become really engrossed in the movie).
High graphic fidelity and "realism" are not the same thing. Doom3's human characters were pretty stylized/exaggerated. That should have been a clue. The plot was literally a horror/slasher flick plot. That should have been the second clue.
And the points I'm talking about in Portal 2 where there are lights illuminating portal locations are in the "between zones" and "escaping areas" sections of the game.
The fact is, some people just didn't like the game/gameplay, or were expecting something different from what they were given, despite Id never really portraying the game as anything other than it was: a re-imagined Doom game using a state-of-the-art graphics engine (for the time). Anyone expecting anything different than a goofy horror-FPS that emphasized frantic, arcade gameplay over realism was simply expecting the wrong game. That's what Doom was (although you could argue the "horror" part was less emphasized, but really the original game had dark areas, had monsters pop out of nowhere to scare you, and had satanism and gore everywhere, too) and that's what should have been expected from Doom 3.
99.9% of indie games are fucking garbage. Like actually complete, unplayable garbage. Some of them have really cool concepts but don't flesh them out well or don't implement them well, or some of them try something really new and innovative but it ends up just not working in practice, but the vast majority of them are just absolute shit. They take a shitty, derivative concept and completely fail to execute it in every way. Just because that 1/1000 game turns out to be awesome and made by 2 guys in their spare time doesn't excuse the rest of the assholes calling themselves indie developers from claiming they can do better than professional developers when they demonstrably cannot.
I never understood the problem with "monster closets". You're on mars. In space. With demons from hell teleporting in. And you're concerned about the "realism" of a monster appearing from a small, previously closed corridor behind you? You're concerned about the guy in a costume popping out behind you in the fun house for a cheap scare? What the hell game do you think you're playing? Do you get mad at Portal 2 for usefully illuminating the area they intend you to shoot a portal at? That's just about as realistic, and equally gameplay-serving, as the "monster closet".
I read the entire article and still have no idea what the upskirt/pantyshot libraries actually do. Seems like a bit of critical info to leave out of the article.
Uh, the game industry has been moving in this direction for at least 3 years, and it doesn't really have much to do with the U.S. (at least, no more than any other country) nor EULAs (no one's going to bother making a new account for every game and then include the account info with the game when they sell it to Gamestop anyway, so the EULA prohibiting this type of thing is completely moot).
If I make a really great pie and give it to you, then you make me promise not to make that pie for anyone else so it can be special between just you and me, and (importantly) I agree to this arrangement, then you have every right to get pissed off if you catch me secretly making this pie for other people.
When two people enter an agreement based on trust, it doesn't matter what the arrangement is. It's wrong for one of them to violate the agreement. And exclusivity in sexual partner selection (and the anger and jealousy created by violating that exclusivity) has a lot of history and biology behind it that is not based on religion at all.
No. the problem is when someone is cheating and they input it into their device to track their fitness and their significant other finds out about it through Google. Even without religious hangups or whatever, once you've made a commitment to one person it's wrong to break that commitment.
Not to mention that no new nuclear power plants have been allowed for like 4 years, so nearly all our increased demand since then has been met by non-renewable natural gas and coal. This milestone is fucking meaningless. Wake me up when it surpasses coal.
All we needed to add to the old system was locked, reinforced doors for pilots and a change in passenger mentality to resist rather than acquiesce. We've got both of those. Air marshals probably help, too.
Everyone seems to be focusing on the new unlimited trial period, when the real news is that the first expansion is now included for free when you purchase the base game, and that the base game is now $20, and that Recruit-a-Friend benefits (triple experience and the ability to teleport to your friend and grant levels) now extend to level 80 (from 60).
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D2 mods were pretty bad, imo, mostly because of the limit of what they could actually modify, since it was not at all supported by the game. Even the really popular ones like Eastern Sun, etc. weren't really different enough to hold my attention for more than like a day.
By your logic, anyone who watches TV, a movie, pays for internet service, etc. is a slave. You're an idiot.
Fun = profit. If they make a change that makes the game less fun but attempts to generate more revenue from the auction house, then players will stop playing due to the game being less fun and there will be less items on the auction house and revenue will go down.
I imagine if they had created WoW today it would have the exact same system. It's really the only way to combat black market gold/item selling. I bet 99% of account hacking in WoW is directly due to gold sellers/buyers, and Blizzard has probably spent millions of dollars fighting it through things like the Authenticator, lawsuits, customer service time, gameplay changes, etc.
You're missing the point. Projecting two flat images with slightly different perspectives to a person's eyes will never truly work right.
You clearly never actually used a Virtual Boy. It did not produce a red/blue flat image. It had two little LCD screens and two mirrors and each screen produced a unique image and you wore the whole thing like a giant set of goggles. Both the images were monochrome red with about 4 variations in color. This is functionally identical to how stereoscopy works now (delivering 2 distinct flat images to each eye that are slightly different to create a perception of depth). All that's changed over time is the delivery mechanism. Hell in the movie theater the delivery method hasn't even changed in like 30 years.
It still does not work perfectly for the exact reasons the AC mentioned. No two people's eyes line up exactly the same or are exactly the same distance apart. stereoscopy never creates a "real" image only a "virtual" one that puts strain on your brain and eyes to look at. Even if you have a perfectly calibrated screen and projector, sit in the exact ideal position in the theater, and have glasses that aren't bent or deformed in any perceivable way, and you still won't get a perfect image and your brain and eyes will still be working much harder to process the image (although the amount of extra work might not be enough to bother you especially if you become really engrossed in the movie).
That was basically my point.
High graphic fidelity and "realism" are not the same thing. Doom3's human characters were pretty stylized/exaggerated. That should have been a clue. The plot was literally a horror/slasher flick plot. That should have been the second clue.
And the points I'm talking about in Portal 2 where there are lights illuminating portal locations are in the "between zones" and "escaping areas" sections of the game.
The fact is, some people just didn't like the game/gameplay, or were expecting something different from what they were given, despite Id never really portraying the game as anything other than it was: a re-imagined Doom game using a state-of-the-art graphics engine (for the time). Anyone expecting anything different than a goofy horror-FPS that emphasized frantic, arcade gameplay over realism was simply expecting the wrong game. That's what Doom was (although you could argue the "horror" part was less emphasized, but really the original game had dark areas, had monsters pop out of nowhere to scare you, and had satanism and gore everywhere, too) and that's what should have been expected from Doom 3.
Portal is not an FPS. It's a first person puzzle game.
99.9% of indie games are fucking garbage. Like actually complete, unplayable garbage. Some of them have really cool concepts but don't flesh them out well or don't implement them well, or some of them try something really new and innovative but it ends up just not working in practice, but the vast majority of them are just absolute shit. They take a shitty, derivative concept and completely fail to execute it in every way. Just because that 1/1000 game turns out to be awesome and made by 2 guys in their spare time doesn't excuse the rest of the assholes calling themselves indie developers from claiming they can do better than professional developers when they demonstrably cannot.
They don't make puzzle games. They make first person shooters.
I never understood the problem with "monster closets". You're on mars. In space. With demons from hell teleporting in. And you're concerned about the "realism" of a monster appearing from a small, previously closed corridor behind you? You're concerned about the guy in a costume popping out behind you in the fun house for a cheap scare? What the hell game do you think you're playing? Do you get mad at Portal 2 for usefully illuminating the area they intend you to shoot a portal at? That's just about as realistic, and equally gameplay-serving, as the "monster closet".
I read the entire article and still have no idea what the upskirt/pantyshot libraries actually do. Seems like a bit of critical info to leave out of the article.
$95,000 reserve.
Uh, the game industry has been moving in this direction for at least 3 years, and it doesn't really have much to do with the U.S. (at least, no more than any other country) nor EULAs (no one's going to bother making a new account for every game and then include the account info with the game when they sell it to Gamestop anyway, so the EULA prohibiting this type of thing is completely moot).
If I make a really great pie and give it to you, then you make me promise not to make that pie for anyone else so it can be special between just you and me, and (importantly) I agree to this arrangement, then you have every right to get pissed off if you catch me secretly making this pie for other people.
When two people enter an agreement based on trust, it doesn't matter what the arrangement is. It's wrong for one of them to violate the agreement. And exclusivity in sexual partner selection (and the anger and jealousy created by violating that exclusivity) has a lot of history and biology behind it that is not based on religion at all.
No. the problem is when someone is cheating and they input it into their device to track their fitness and their significant other finds out about it through Google. Even without religious hangups or whatever, once you've made a commitment to one person it's wrong to break that commitment.
Yeah, that's what I meant. Typo. :(
Not to mention that no new nuclear power plants have been allowed for like 4 years, so nearly all our increased demand since then has been met by non-renewable natural gas and coal. This milestone is fucking meaningless. Wake me up when it surpasses coal.
Fascism is a radical, authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists advocate the creation of a totalitarian single-party state that seeks the mass mobilization of a nation through indoctrination, physical education, and family policy including eugenics.
Trolling, or hypocrisy? You be the judge.
All we needed to add to the old system was locked, reinforced doors for pilots and a change in passenger mentality to resist rather than acquiesce. We've got both of those. Air marshals probably help, too.
Anyone who bothered to put some thought into it has known the earth was round for the past 4000 years or so.
Uh, all they did was remove the 10 day limit. Change field "10 days" to "recurring". Code complete.
Everyone seems to be focusing on the new unlimited trial period, when the real news is that the first expansion is now included for free when you purchase the base game, and that the base game is now $20, and that Recruit-a-Friend benefits (triple experience and the ability to teleport to your friend and grant levels) now extend to level 80 (from 60).
The level cap for trials has always been 20.