I created a black character on the PC version and my stats were all 5, straight down the board, by default. So I can't tell if you're being serious or not.
Let me wait 5 hours while the other 1200 people on the server take their turns. Yay I walked one square! Oh no! I'm unconscious! Now I have to wait for those 1200 people to take their 10 turns while I sit here unconscious! I'll be back next week.
I was in the gifted program at two different elementary schools. The first school pulled from a slightly higher socioeconomic level and had so many children in the program (almost 40) that they had to split it into two classes.
The second school had 8 children in the program including me, and all the other kids considered me the smartest person in the class.
The schools had about equal total population, and were within 15 minutes driving time from each other.
My brother almost got tricked by one of these scams, not because of greed, but because he was trying to rent a room in his house, and thought he was helping some cute girl from England.
Myself and his roommate (also a long time friend of his) were both wary that it was a scam (mostly because it was taking so long for her to move over, and also because her "excuses" as to why she couldn't move over yet didn't make any sense in context). Finally when he got the "check" in the mail with obvious spelling mistakes in the company name, and from a bank in the middle of nowhere in the midwest, he had to admit he'd been strung along for almost 2 months. Luckily he never lost a dime.
If he had been scammed, it would have been based on his compassion or pride, rather than greed.
The reason they don't support Linux has less to do with it being difficult to code, and more to do with it being expensive to increase their customer support staff by another 30% (or train all of them for an entirely additional platform, or whatever it would take to have full customer support for Linux).
Blizzard (and other companies) does not want to publish a game that they don't have full customer support for. And there are simply not enough Linux customers to justify ANY increase in customer support costs to cover it.
I think that's the real reason no one supports Linux. And players' claims that they don't give a shit about customer support are totally irrelevant/immaterial. Just because YOU don't expect/want customer support doesn't mean Billy Bob across the street is willing to buy a game that doesn't have customer support (god knows why he's running Linux, though).
The comment about "they all end in the same place" from Blizzcon is referring to the branching story within one campaign itself, not all 3 campaigns. The 3 campaigns' stories will (probably) be sequential just like every other RTS Blizzard has ever produced.
Maybe you should actually read Tom "Kalgan" Chilton's post, as linked by the GPP.
To quote:
That being said, the fact that some players feel there is too much emphasis on the arena as a method for getting powerful endgame pvp gear is heard and understood. We'd love for players to be able to get high-end gear from the battlegrounds, and it's something that will definitely factor into our plans for the future. However for now, we don't have a way to measure "skill" in a battleground in a way that getting the "best" items in the game through battlegrounds would feel equitable when compared to what is required as far as co-ordination and success in pve to get items of equivalent power.
And the ever-important followup post made later:
I wish it were that simple. However, for a rating system to reasonably zero in on the skill of a single player in a game with teammates it takes a number of games approximately equal to ten times the number of players participating on that player's team.
So for example, for a rating system to have all the information it needs to know to figure out how "good" of a battleground player you are in Alterac Valley, it needs to take about 400 games to do it (10 times the number of players on your team). Unfortunately, that's without the additional complexities of being able to queue solo versus queueing as a group, etc.
It would be kind of annoying to have to play about 400 games of AV before the system could decide what items you're eligible for. So, there are some complexities in creating a system to work around that problem (among others).
At least READ the man's argument before attempting to rebut it.
There's no technical limitations preventing it. If you put the Doom 3.run file on the disk along with the Mac/Linux installers, it'd work perfectly fine. They don't do that, however, so they can avoid the expectation of needing to provide technical support, and so they don't have to QA it as well.
This has been answered in the past, at least for Diablo 3. There will continue to be a free version of Battle.net, but you can optionally pay for a service that will keep your characters permanently, instead of deleting them after ~30 days like Diablo 2 currently does.
I forget what other features they talked about (if any).
You can already install both Mac and PC from the same disk. They use the same data files and just a different installer and executable. If Blizzard supported Linux, it'd be on the same disk, rather than a separate box.
Like most large companies, they don't *want* to provide a product that doesn't also have full customer support service. That makes Linux too expensive an option. Plus with WoW working 98% in Wine anyway (along with most of their other games, I think), what's the big deal? It'd only be a token gesture, so that less than 1% of their target market can give them a pat on the back, yet it would cost them real developer time and support costs after the fact.
Bending to the will of the populace and looking out for the best interest of the populace do not always go hand in hand. You based most of your argument before on the people being against the bailout rather than providing logical arguments for why it was not best for the people.
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You've got to be fucking kidding me. Who the fuck cares?
First thing that popped into my head, too. He described the situation almost verbatim!
I created a black character on the PC version and my stats were all 5, straight down the board, by default. So I can't tell if you're being serious or not.
You failed to state your thread title in the form of a question.
Let me wait 5 hours while the other 1200 people on the server take their turns. Yay I walked one square! Oh no! I'm unconscious! Now I have to wait for those 1200 people to take their 10 turns while I sit here unconscious! I'll be back next week.
Yeah, definitely a WoW-killer.
I was in the gifted program at two different elementary schools. The first school pulled from a slightly higher socioeconomic level and had so many children in the program (almost 40) that they had to split it into two classes.
The second school had 8 children in the program including me, and all the other kids considered me the smartest person in the class.
The schools had about equal total population, and were within 15 minutes driving time from each other.
My brother almost got tricked by one of these scams, not because of greed, but because he was trying to rent a room in his house, and thought he was helping some cute girl from England.
Myself and his roommate (also a long time friend of his) were both wary that it was a scam (mostly because it was taking so long for her to move over, and also because her "excuses" as to why she couldn't move over yet didn't make any sense in context). Finally when he got the "check" in the mail with obvious spelling mistakes in the company name, and from a bank in the middle of nowhere in the midwest, he had to admit he'd been strung along for almost 2 months. Luckily he never lost a dime.
If he had been scammed, it would have been based on his compassion or pride, rather than greed.
Yeah, the behavior you describe is pretty much identical to The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion.
The logical conclusion of your argument is that BOTH campaigns had reason to run a background check on him and dig for dirt.
You know, if you want, you can just write a check to the federal government if you don't mind giving more.
The reason they don't support Linux has less to do with it being difficult to code, and more to do with it being expensive to increase their customer support staff by another 30% (or train all of them for an entirely additional platform, or whatever it would take to have full customer support for Linux).
Blizzard (and other companies) does not want to publish a game that they don't have full customer support for. And there are simply not enough Linux customers to justify ANY increase in customer support costs to cover it.
I think that's the real reason no one supports Linux. And players' claims that they don't give a shit about customer support are totally irrelevant/immaterial. Just because YOU don't expect/want customer support doesn't mean Billy Bob across the street is willing to buy a game that doesn't have customer support (god knows why he's running Linux, though).
Anyway, that's my theory.
The comment about "they all end in the same place" from Blizzcon is referring to the branching story within one campaign itself, not all 3 campaigns. The 3 campaigns' stories will (probably) be sequential just like every other RTS Blizzard has ever produced.
Oh yeah, for a better comparison, see Half-Life 2 and its "expansions" Episode 1 and Episode 2.
The "strategy game" is the multiplayer component which will be fully playable as all 3 races with the customer only having to buy one box.
Technically you can only call it a jeremiad if it ends with the claim that all the stuff you're bitching about will result in the downfall of society.
Which most rants usually do.
No mod points today. This post needs some +1 informative.
Maybe you should actually read Tom "Kalgan" Chilton's post, as linked by the GPP.
To quote:
And the ever-important followup post made later:
At least READ the man's argument before attempting to rebut it.
Er, Mac/Windows installers.
There's no technical limitations preventing it. If you put the Doom 3 .run file on the disk along with the Mac/Linux installers, it'd work perfectly fine. They don't do that, however, so they can avoid the expectation of needing to provide technical support, and so they don't have to QA it as well.
Yeah, I'm sure a bunch of game designers and programmers know a ton about law and will be able to answer this easily for you.
This has been answered in the past, at least for Diablo 3. There will continue to be a free version of Battle.net, but you can optionally pay for a service that will keep your characters permanently, instead of deleting them after ~30 days like Diablo 2 currently does.
I forget what other features they talked about (if any).
You can already install both Mac and PC from the same disk. They use the same data files and just a different installer and executable. If Blizzard supported Linux, it'd be on the same disk, rather than a separate box.
So that has nothing to do with it.
Like most large companies, they don't *want* to provide a product that doesn't also have full customer support service. That makes Linux too expensive an option. Plus with WoW working 98% in Wine anyway (along with most of their other games, I think), what's the big deal? It'd only be a token gesture, so that less than 1% of their target market can give them a pat on the back, yet it would cost them real developer time and support costs after the fact.
Bending to the will of the populace and looking out for the best interest of the populace do not always go hand in hand. You based most of your argument before on the people being against the bailout rather than providing logical arguments for why it was not best for the people.
You're right about the Tesla, but the Ox falls into the ugly category for me. It reminds me of the Scion Xb which I also think is ugly.