Slashdot Mirror


User: archen

archen's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
2,522
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 2,522

  1. Re:People would have been happier? on Microsoft To Announce Jerry Seinfeld Ads Cancelled · · Score: 1

    Sure they had nothing to do with anything

    Which would generally make Seinfeld a poor vehicle in marketing something wouldn't it?

  2. Re:Here, I'll get the basic comments out of the wa on WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Release Date Announced · · Score: 1

    Heh, just a day? Been hearing about people taking off an entire week to play when the expansion hits. I probably play World of Warcraft too much, and I can't say I've got my life priorities strait but I sure as hell wouldn't blow a weeks vacation to play WoW. I sure hope the servers don't totally crash for like 3 days when the expansion hits or some of these people are going to be pretty pissed.

  3. Re:Very Very sad on David Foster Wallace an Apparent Suicide · · Score: 1

    For this reason alone, suicide should be considered a very bad idea -- people just don't die the way they do in the movies.

    That's sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy in our society though. No one ever goes into details on what is the "best" way to go about committing suicide, so people tend to randomly improvise. Obviously no one is going to hand out pamphlets on the most successful ways to kill yourself (being as that would be seen as encouraging suicide), so in the end the methods most people employ are what they see in the movies or hear has worked for others. Having reached a "low point" in my own life I did some research online of the best way to kill yourself. Despite the fact that this is the internet, and there are emo kids on every corner, such information isn't as readily available as you would think.

  4. Re:Too Human knows this very well... on Loot Theory In Modern Games · · Score: 1

    It's interesting that World of Warcraft seems to have directly copied the loot system from Everquest, but is very much trying to get away from it now. Run after run of the same dungeoun in order to get a certain item probably led to burn out of more than a few people. Blizzard then came up with a new system - they give you a sort of token which can be turned in for an item. That reduces the chances of always having caster items dropping when you are melee, now you just have the generic shoulder token that everyone has a chance to turn in. But then they went even farther and started up with the badges. Basically badges drop from bosses, and are a form of currency used to purchase uber loot (requiring for example 20 badges). This can also be seen in the form of crafting materials. When world of warcraft started you could farm for a LONG time in order to get a single "elemental fire". When the expansion hit, the new version was "primal fire", but instead of waiting a lot time for the single rare drop, you got a more common "mote of fire". Once you collect 10 you can combine them. This tends to eliminate the 30 minutes of killing stuff in hope for the drop because you tend to get the item in smaller increments so you can see results.

    So what is to be learned here? Well first of all, no matter how rare you make it; some people will still sit there and camp the thing endlessly. For many it's just way too time consuming and tends to encourage unhealthy behavior. World of Warcraft seems to be working more and more to a "progression" system for its loot as apposed to one pure drop. I think the progressive system is good, but obviously there has to be an incentive to down dungeon bosses so the loot system will never totally go away. I have the feeling that whatever topples World of Warcraft will probably take in some of the better systems employed by Blizzard. The pure Everquest system of loot really just needs to go away.

  5. Re:Warcraft II on Will Modern Games Stand the Test of Time? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Peons would stop working when their resource depleted (and they wouldn't even tell me!).

    Sounds strangely... realistic. At least where I work.

  6. Re:Bias? Probably on Researchers Find Racial Bias In Virtual Worlds · · Score: 2, Interesting

    True, I considered that. However by looking at WoW demographics this is less than 1%. I'm pretty sure that more than 1% of people on the East Coast are "non white". But how many non white people play I wonder? For that matter if they don't play, why is that? Is it a cultural difference, or some other demographic thing at work? Or perhaps non white people generally do not play humans at all, but other races that are so radically different that skin tone doesn't even apply. It's actually an interesting topic to think about.

  7. Bias? Probably on Researchers Find Racial Bias In Virtual Worlds · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm not going into the all out racism thing, but as a World of Warcraft junky I have noticed that there is a certain bias. If you look statistically at the game, the two most common races are Night Elves and plain'ol humans. There aren't a lot of customizations in WoW, but one of them is skin color. I finally decided to make a human for whatever reason, and I decided to give her dark skin - not black as in African, but probably the sort of skin tone the average person in India would have.

    Nearly all other characters in the game are white. And when I say nearly, I've seen two low level "banker toons" (also chose female avitars with white hair oddly enough), and I ran into one level 3 character with dark skin. I have yet to see anyone seriously level a character with dark skin, and I see hundreds of other human avitars in passing every day and not one of them has darker skin?

    I generally mind my own business and I can't say race is much of a concern in my sphere of reality, however the fact that virtually no one in WoW chose a dark skin character really makes me wonder about a few things.

  8. Not news on Learning the Scientific Method From Games · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In any game like this you'll always find a minority that will do all the theory crafting in order to maximize some aspect of the game. For World of Warcraft people usually refer to the elitist-jerks forums that specializes in this. However I'd say far less than 1% really ever does any concrete critical thinking about game aspects in order to improve play.

    I myself have actually gone and done the math on some things, and I actually got into a sort of "discussion" with another person over it. The conclusions I came up with were easily testable and easily verifiable, yet they refused to believe unless they saw "proof" of it somewhere on the web. (For people who don't play WoW, or a rogue this is going to be a crappy example).

    I play an assasination rogue, the staple of which is a move called "mutilate" - an attack with both daggers that awards combo points. However if there is a crit, it will award 3. I couldn't find any information how this actually worked so I started thinking about it myself. I found that each dagger had a chance to do a critical strike independently, and that if only one of them would crit I would get the extra combo point. So what are the chances of me getting the extra point? I just read up on simple probability and found it was a non mutually exclusive probability event and plugged in my critical chance (given on the character stat page). I can say however that out of the 15k people on my server, I'm probably the ONLY one who has bothered to figure this out. And also that not only will people not believe you and do the (scientific) tests themselves, but will blindly follow some random page on the web - even if it's wrong.

    But that's the world we live in.

  9. Re:Can you change the world in MMO's? on Quests · · Score: 1

    How many people actually read the quest text in WoW in detail? Versus how many just skip to the "go here, do this" part? I bet it is at least 10 to one.

    So true. It's sad to say, but people almost make the game boring on purpose. Instead of reading quest text like an interesting book (or extremely short pamphlet) they just do the action and that's it. Then they complain about how the game is boring and that they have to do more of X and Y, instead of realizing that the point of those objectives it to advance a sort of story (well in my view anyway).

    In single player games, some of the same difficulties exist, but at least your actions can change the world in more meaningful ways: you kill Hogger, he stays dead. Maybe a new farm crops up at his old stomping grounds. Maybe new people come in and have new quests.

    Actually Blizzard has already taken steps to address this. They have this new technology integrated into the expansion called phasing. Basically as you do things which advance "the plot" you will see things from a different perspective from others who have not done various things, or have completed them. For instance you may see a building on fire, someone who hasn't started the quest sees the house just fine, and someone who has completed the quest sees the house burnt down. Sounds sort of.. pathetic, until you realize that no other MMO has really attempted that. We'll have to see how it works out though, and I'm sure it's use will be limited at first.

    It is however a good step in making a game / quest where the objective really has results. However in the end those who simply skip the quest text will miss the point entirely and only care that they got XP or loot. =/

  10. Re:Its Marketing ... no information required on Seinfeld-Windows TV Ad Anything But 'Delicious' · · Score: 2, Interesting

    it is providing associations. It presents something enjoyable (here it is assumed that Seinfeld+Gates==Enjoyable

    I suppose that's one take on it. But this got me thinking about how Microsoft is really trying to ride the coattails of something else. Microsoft, the company that makes billions of dollars cannot come up with their own defining sense of brand? I suppose maybe it's always been like that. The Madonna XP campaign, and everyone remembers Start Me Up.

    It's just interesting how Apple makes ads which are themselves considered to be innovative which works well with the products they are tying market, while Microsoft rides on Seinfeld in a directionless add that isn't really about anything. Once again MS is out of touch and lacks focus.

  11. Re:A better headline: on New Racing Simulation Distances Itself From Gamers · · Score: 1

    It's clear that this is a game, they're just targeting it to people who normally sneer at "gamers", and who have a lot of disposable income.

    Very wrong. When I saw the headline I knew it would be about iRacing. These guys have dumped a LOT of money into the physics engine that runs the game. They have also spent a hell of a lot of money surveying real tracks so that they are accurate and detailed.

    My friend brought this up to me about a year ago, and I blew it off as a dotcom scheme. However they have actually persisted and I have to admit it is NOT vaporware.

    Think about this. How many racing simulators are there now? Not "arcade style" race games, but real simulators? My friend suddenly decided to drag me to best buy because he decided he wanted to find a racing game for his PC and buy a new steering wheel. I noted that he probably wouldn't even be able to buy a wheel, and sure enough they didn't have any.

    This isn't geared towards gamers, it's geared towards people who want to race - and in a visualized environment. I can't say much about overpricing, but at this point they have pretty much no competition. For those who really do race, this could be a pretty powerful tool. Not only to get a good feel for how to corner on turns if you've never been on a particular track, but possibly change settings to see how you would fare on the same track with rain for instance. Assuming the realism/physics are all they trumpet them to be. It's a risky niche to try, but they seem to think they can pull this off.

  12. Re:Lie on Password Resets Worse Than Reusing Old password · · Score: 1

    Growing up in hackertown, was it hard learning English as your second language after leet speak?

  13. Re:Math and Science are important on Are US Voters Informed Enough About Science? · · Score: 1

    Probably shouldn't be taking polls with Florida voting machines...

  14. Don't cross the streams on $1,000 Spray Makes Gadgets Waterproof · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hear if you dump this stuff in the middle of a swimming pool, the universe ends.

  15. Re:An the solution is.... on MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support Linux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personally I do not recommend products that do not support Linux/FreeBSD. Because I use those operating systems? That's part of it yes, but mainly because Linux tends to expose crappy products. Look at the board in question here: "Badly written table". I have yet to see a product where they cut corners in ONE place only. Usually if they're sloppy in one respect, there's a whole nest of other problems you're not even aware of. In the windows world manufacturers like to hide behind smoke and mirrors in binary drivers, and people blame windows for instability. Simply put many hardware manufacturers that release drivers/documentation for Linux are not afraid to do so because it's more than likely they're actually releasing quality products or are at least not afraid to admit to errors and will probably be more likely to fix them. Even if you only use Windows that's an important thing to consider.

  16. Re:Class balance finally revealed on Talent Build Examples for Blizzard's New Death Knight · · Score: 1

    Actually they're looking to do something like that. I can't recall the details off the top of my head, but it was something like you could switch between builds or something to that effect. I'm not sure if it would be free, but I seem to remember them saying it would be more or less.

    Blizzard is actually quite perceptive here in my opinion. Some servers are really starting to suffer the talent drain from the gamers who came to World of Warcraft, they played, they conquered, they left for the next challenge in gaming. What I'm getting at here is that the last thing most people need is to have a great player, but then have them play a class that is stuck and can only do one thing. These people are often the grease that allows things to go smoothly and other players to experience content - think of that totally awesome tank that can take on anything, or the great healer who picks up the slack for the rest of the raid. On top of this they push PvP and arena. If they kept shoehorning people into one specific role as they had been they'd end up with players being so stratified that the game becomes dysfunctional because of that alone. So removing the respec penalty is another step in allowing more versatility in play. That was my understanding of an article I read. This is hearsay of course so don't take this post as gospel that this is set in stone and going to happen.

  17. Re:Class balance finally revealed on Talent Build Examples for Blizzard's New Death Knight · · Score: 5, Informative

    Things will be changing however. Currently tanks (and healers somewhat) simply cannot do enough damage to solo things very well. In the expansion everyone will do more damage, and thus have some solo viability. Threat generated will also be changed and it looks like people will be able to tank more with an off spec. And from what I've seen the tank shortage (aside from the large responsibility) often comes down to the fact that when you are spec'd to tank, that's about all you can do, and many would like to do other things.

    The Burning Crusade made a lot of good changes and made many classes viable, but it also seemed to pigeon hole just about everyone into one spec and/or one job. It looks like Blizzard is trying to allow people to have much more versatility in the way they play, while still being viable.

  18. Re:drivers may be a problem on Making the Switch To Windows "Workstation" 2008 · · Score: 1

    I think what he means is that the printer drivers do not install on on Win2003. I've had a lot of problems with HP print drivers lately, and generally they seem much more prone to crashing on 2003. Aside from that we have one terminal server where people connect to remotely from home PCs. Of course these people have general crap dell printers and such, none of which you can use the installer for. In the end you can usually use the XP driver by just forcing them to install via ini files. I really wish they would do something with the print model where everything was forced into a generic postscript type interface and translated back to something like PCL if needed. Funneling everything through CUPS is not an uncommon solution for a business, and a mess that should not be necessary.

  19. Re:I like version numbers that tell me something on Linus on Kernel Version Numbering · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well that is to some extent the point Linus was trying to make. How many people that use Linux currently have ever used a 1.x release? Therefore the 2 in 2.x.x is irrelevant. They're going to stick with the .6 branch in Linux now, so the 2.6 in 2.6.x is also irrelevant. Remember that "major changes" are going to happen in the 2.6 branch as well now, so you would still need to know that the big change happened between 2.6.14 and 2.6.20. So really what we have is Linux 26 or what have you. If we're going for incremental numbers then using a date is as good as some arbitrary number. Although when all is said and done I would actually prefer just to use Linux 26.x and just go from there. Nearly all of us use whatever the distro tells us to use, and really all you need to know is where your kernel lands in the age/stability/cutting edge time line. It's good enough for emacs right?

  20. Re:Sysadmin? on Non-Programming Jobs For a Computer Science Major? · · Score: 1

    Was going to post the same thing myself. I think however this comes down to why he does not like, or is not good at programming. If you have solid logic skills then honestly the entire IT field will work well with your style of thinking, and for that matter most computer related tasks seem to have a very similar mindset. If however you don't like the logic behind programming, chances are you're not going to be all that great at troubleshooting either (which is just more logic).

    A networking job of some sort would get my vote, although a BS in computer science may not open the right doors for that. Jokes aside, doing management might not be such a bad avenue either.

  21. Re:Caps-Lock key on Review of Das Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Not sure why you would want to dump the key completely, it's in a great spot. Every OS I can think of can remap this key. In FreeBSD this can be mapped to ctrl in sysinstall. Xorg (all platforms) can remap this to anything. Mac OS X lets you change this out in the control panel. Windows this can be changed by monkeying with the registry.

    Changing this to a control key has been one of the best changes I've made on most of my computers. Especially laptops where the control key is usually stuck somewhere very awkward.

  22. Re:Time to look into other means of security on Crooks Nab Citibank ATM Codes, Steal Millions · · Score: 1

    "The Crackwhore and the Nerd "

    The next reality tv series?

  23. Re:Barking up the wrong tree on Entertainment Weekly Bemoans Lack of Great Science Books · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    This is going to be one of those "moderated to 5 because I'm first" posts isn't it...

  24. Barking up the wrong tree on Entertainment Weekly Bemoans Lack of Great Science Books · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't this subjective with the term "best read". I can tell you right now that I'm not even moderatly interested in the majority of those books. I could name a few fantasy books I'd say would say most certainly beats many of those on that list but because of my own tastes.

    A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking I actually found to be a great read if they need suggestions on science literature. Again, who considers science a "good read"? Not most people I would say.

  25. Re:Sysadmins mostly honest on 1 In 3 Sysadmins Snoop On Colleagues · · Score: 1

    That isn't news though. There have been more than a few articles showing that the majority of sys admins are actually quite honest and fairly ethical. Not just in computer terms, but also like the admins are highly unlikely to be the person who stole someone's lunch out of the refrigerator for example. (Can't find link for that article)