ATI has never wanted to trouble themselves with Drivers. Historically they have abandoned hardware as quickly as they thought they could get away with. I got bit by this back with the introduction of the "new" windows driver model. A card less than two months old was "unsupported". I made the mistake of buying an ATI PCI TV Wonder while experimenting with HTPC setups. Fortunately that one is still quite useful in Linux. ATI dropped windows support for IT over a year ago. Shortly after I purchased one NEW. The ATI Windows apps still don't work right. Every time they invoke Windows scheduler to set up a scheduled show, they GPF.
I will never forget or forgive that blatant attempt to obsolete brand new hardware. The fact that they can't be bothered to stay current with Xfree doesn't help their case in my eyes.
The only windows box I have left is the one that I play most of my games on. Every machine I own runs only NVidia hardware. The fact that NVidia's drivers support every piece of hardware they've made back to the original GeForce (and I think the Riva) makes me much more comfortable in investing in hardware from them.
Well, that's where I got the "shoot for the Mud crowd first" idea. If you can generate a core group of players who enjoy and evangelize the game, you can have success with a model like what you describe.
Seriously, I think you have some great ideas. I'm just not optimistic about the current publishers' ability/willingness to follow through on them in a manner that will actually make a good game.
I'll grant that your ideas have merit. I've yet to see a game company capable of actually implementing them. Also, a "mass market" kind of game has to at least partially pander to the lowest common denominator (AKA AOLers).
If it were possible to implement what you describe in a more informal, neo-mud type setting, it would be very interesting.
I would NEVER play ANY PD MMORPG game if it was also PVP. Too much potential for griefing.
Another reason for keeping the scope of PD smaller is that for the reasons you mentioned (being alone is stupid in that context) it almost requires groups of RL friends. I don't trust strangers on the street, I'm hardly likely to trust them in game with those kind of "stakes" on the line. With the market splintering with all the choices, I have a hard time getting more than one other of my friends in the same game at the same time. some are playing Planetside, some EQ, a couple Toontown, I play DaOC co-op, one is holding out for SWG.
I'm one of those guys who NEVER played UO until the dreadlords were smacked down. I don't play to be a victim, and I don't have the urge to be a victimizer. A game that forced me to be one or the other didn't have anything for me. Sadly, by the time those elements were removed, the other games I was already playing had surpassed UO. I tried it, it was amusing, but I was already subscribed to AC and EQ at the time (have since left them for DAOC) and couldn't afford to add another.
No MMORPG with Permanent Death will EVER sell enough copies to make it. Most people don't pay a subscription fee if they can "have it all taken away".
Besides, with Turbine's record in making stable clients, I wouldn't want to play a game where a complete BLACKSCREEN reboot of my machine would result in my losing months worth of progress. Happened to me many times in Asherons' Call. Only had to happen ONCE in Asheron's Call 2 for me to say "Never Again".
I've never had such a horrible and jarring software fault caused problem with any other game, never mind MMORPG.
I dunno. A 12-guage shotgun blast to the face would stop one pretty good.
(that's meant as a joke, folks, go ahead and take those two or three big points of karma away for trolling anyway though, I'm sure it'll really hurt me)
I like the idea of financialy annihilating them though. I like that alot. facial tatooes of "I'm a spamming piece of shit. I wasted your money and the money of your children. Please punch me in the face until I pass out and spit teeth into the gutter" would be acceptable as well.
And Enterprise is actually filmed in Hi-Def widescreen. (which will be good when the DVDs come out). The reason it's broadcast at standard def letterbox is because most affiliates don't have hi-def capability. The "review copies" available over Usenet via wild-feed satelite appear to have hi-def source so who's to say when it will be broadcast that way...
I saw an interview over the weekend with the space Tourist guy where the fact that this particular capsule was one of the first Soyuz with a "glass cockpit", similar to what has recently been installed on the shuttle fleet.
As a software QA guy, I know what kinds of havok a UI defect can cause in a software package. Is it possible that insufficient QA is going into the interface software for these "Glass Cockpits"? There's a time and place for everything, and at the moment, I'd feel a lot better with hardware switches for most spacecraft function (particularly with something as old as Soyuz) than with the kinds of UIs that I've seen in terrestrial software...
"It's of questionable legality to shoot someone who's come into your house in the middle of the night."
Not in the state I live in. Come into my home illegally in the middle of the night, and if I even think you're armed, you've breathed your last breath.
There is no equivalency here that would benefit the RIAA. The only equivalency would be that THEY are the unauthorized intruder in any action of the nature described. I sincerely hope they are treated as such.
I have lost data to ReiserFS as well. Drive was so badly wacked out from a power outage during a write that I'll have to completely zero write it again just to get a filesystem on.
Bad time for a UPS to fail. I'll never use ReiserFS for anything again.
I hope IBM not only buries SCO, but completely annihillates the professional careers of the individuals that perpetrated this. I want to see Darl McBride bussing tables at a greasy spoon in East Buttfuck, Arkansas for the rest of his natural life.
That's actually one of the ways that I do get demos, if I care to. I long ago lost the "I gotta have it the day its out" urge.
They don't necessarily pay to have the game reviewed, but the magazine is always looking for content for its cd, and will pretty much put anything on it that doesn't cost them anything, if they think it will sell a few issues.
I suppose you support SPAMmers too. After all we should always pay the bill for companies who want to advertises to us, right? That IS what a demo is for, you know. Advertising.
And yes, people are going to charge for their services. The still have to do the math and figure out that as more and more services want a piece of the pie, well, the pie is only so big.
Speaking up can change things.
Trolling (which is what you are doing) will not. Your posting history speaks for itself...
Off Topic: btw, I did go vote for that Mozilla bug for you. I don't use FreeBSD at the moment, but I can see other areas where that could cause issues, and I'd like FreeBSD to remain an option:)
McBride is also my last name. Every time I read a post that puts it in such a negative light, I resolve to kick this particular McBride once more in the Jimmy with steel toed work boots.
I really hate having my name dragged through the mud by an ethics-devoid fuckwit.
Also, as I have stated elsewhere in this thread, $6 a month for something that I personally would use once in a blue moon is NOT "VERY little money" once everyone who provides a service like that starts expecting it.
The problem is (at least with FIleplanet) I have to allow them to run a Java app, and I have ot wait in line. Now the line thing wouldn't be a big deal, if it would start the download when my place in line arrived, but LAST time I tried to get something from fileplanet, I went away and did something else. Because I wasn't sitting in front of my computer watching the advertisements in the queue window, when my time came, I wasn't there, and it eventually timed out. I lost my place and had to start over.
Not acceptable. The publisher should be paying for this (in this case bug fixes).
File Planet has its place. There is NO excuse, however for publishers that grant them an exclusive on a demo, a patch, or a beta. THat's clearly aimed at generating revenue by denying other options. That didn't happen in this particular case, but there are plenty of others in which it does or did (Planetside, Asheron's Call 2).
I wouldn't say "FPS games aren't fun". I haven't bought one in a long time (although I just picked up Postal 2 today), but I spent a couple years playing Quake and its sequels, did the Clan thing, kicked some ass, had some fun. Tested some big mods for some good guys (Hi Monstro Brukes). The only reason that I don't play anymore is I simply don't have the TIME to stay in competitive form.
As much as people will deny it, being competitive in your typical FPS requires as much preparation as any traditionally athletic sport. You can still have fun with less preparation, but not if you go onto public servers (unless you like getting your ass handed to you).
With those games the Multiplayer is the thing (at least for me) which is why I'm waiting for the multiplayer for Postal 2, the best single player shooter since Redneck Rampage.
No, honestly, I don't download much gaming related stuff anymore. I'm willing to forgo demos, if they're on my dime. I'm pretty pissed about being expected to foot the bill for BUG FIXES, though.
I'll agree that 3dgamers seem to be pretty decent, but I still object to paying for the publisher's advertising, and bug fixes that they're obligated to provide (at least if they ever want repeat business).
Yes nobody WANTS to foot the bill for bandwidth, but I think publishers should consider it part of the cost of doing business.
I'd be a bit less miffed if things like FilePlanet were metered. I'd rather pay less for downloading one file every 6 months (or 120 megs worth of patches) than little skippy "downloads everything he can get his hands on wheter he wants it or not".
I'm not willing to subsidise others' downloads, which is how it would work currently...
Are you saying then that Anonymous posting is completely disabled? because if not, it's not too difficult to keep a spare browser that's NOT logged in for that purpose.
I'd rather do without the AC's for the most part but...
I never experienced either of those. I had lots of long distance bills for BBS's back in the day, but I'd class them with my ISP charge today, rather than as a specialized and seldom needed service like what FilePlanet wants to provide.
By the time Quake was being demoe'd, I had internet access. I never ordered a demo disk once.
Seems to only apply to the games.slashdot.org posts. probably just as well. There's significantly less need for anonymous trolls here than on Slashdot proper (even I will admit they serve some purpose, however minimal in the more socially significant discussions that take place there).
I actually managed to find a download stream from 3dgames.com, but once I thought about it a minute, I cancelled the download. I'm not interested in looking at the demo if I'm going to have to endure a dog slow download because the publisher is too cheap to pay the "postage". Unreal 2 is off my list of games to even consider, much less look at.
Slashdot Mirror
ATI has never wanted to trouble themselves with Drivers. Historically they have abandoned hardware as quickly as they thought they could get away with. I got bit by this back with the introduction of the "new" windows driver model. A card less than two months old was "unsupported". I made the mistake of buying an ATI PCI TV Wonder while experimenting with HTPC setups. Fortunately that one is still quite useful in Linux. ATI dropped windows support for IT over a year ago. Shortly after I purchased one NEW. The ATI Windows apps still don't work right. Every time they invoke Windows scheduler to set up a scheduled show, they GPF.
I will never forget or forgive that blatant attempt to obsolete brand new hardware. The fact that they can't be bothered to stay current with Xfree doesn't help their case in my eyes.
The only windows box I have left is the one that I play most of my games on. Every machine I own runs only NVidia hardware. The fact that NVidia's drivers support every piece of hardware they've made back to the original GeForce (and I think the Riva) makes me much more comfortable in investing in hardware from them.
Well, that's where I got the "shoot for the Mud crowd first" idea. If you can generate a core group of players who enjoy and evangelize the game, you can have success with a model like what you describe.
Seriously, I think you have some great ideas. I'm just not optimistic about the current publishers' ability/willingness to follow through on them in a manner that will actually make a good game.
I'll grant that your ideas have merit. I've yet to see a game company capable of actually implementing them. Also, a "mass market" kind of game has to at least partially pander to the lowest common denominator (AKA AOLers).
If it were possible to implement what you describe in a more informal, neo-mud type setting, it would be very interesting.
I would NEVER play ANY PD MMORPG game if it was also PVP. Too much potential for griefing.
Another reason for keeping the scope of PD smaller is that for the reasons you mentioned (being alone is stupid in that context) it almost requires groups of RL friends. I don't trust strangers on the street, I'm hardly likely to trust them in game with those kind of "stakes" on the line. With the market splintering with all the choices, I have a hard time getting more than one other of my friends in the same game at the same time. some are playing Planetside, some EQ, a couple Toontown, I play DaOC co-op, one is holding out for SWG.
I'm one of those guys who NEVER played UO until the dreadlords were smacked down. I don't play to be a victim, and I don't have the urge to be a victimizer. A game that forced me to be one or the other didn't have anything for me. Sadly, by the time those elements were removed, the other games I was already playing had surpassed UO. I tried it, it was amusing, but I was already subscribed to AC and EQ at the time (have since left them for DAOC) and couldn't afford to add another.
No MMORPG with Permanent Death will EVER sell enough copies to make it. Most people don't pay a subscription fee if they can "have it all taken away".
Besides, with Turbine's record in making stable clients, I wouldn't want to play a game where a complete BLACKSCREEN reboot of my machine would result in my losing months worth of progress. Happened to me many times in Asherons' Call. Only had to happen ONCE in Asheron's Call 2 for me to say "Never Again".
I've never had such a horrible and jarring software fault caused problem with any other game, never mind MMORPG.
I dunno. A 12-guage shotgun blast to the face would stop one pretty good.
(that's meant as a joke, folks, go ahead and take those two or three big points of karma away for trolling anyway though, I'm sure it'll really hurt me)
I like the idea of financialy annihilating them though. I like that alot. facial tatooes of "I'm a spamming piece of shit. I wasted your money and the money of your children. Please punch me in the face until I pass out and spit teeth into the gutter" would be acceptable as well.
And Enterprise is actually filmed in Hi-Def widescreen. (which will be good when the DVDs come out). The reason it's broadcast at standard def letterbox is because most affiliates don't have hi-def capability. The "review copies" available over Usenet via wild-feed satelite appear to have hi-def source so who's to say when it will be broadcast that way...
I saw an interview over the weekend with the space Tourist guy where the fact that this particular capsule was one of the first Soyuz with a "glass cockpit", similar to what has recently been installed on the shuttle fleet.
As a software QA guy, I know what kinds of havok a UI defect can cause in a software package. Is it possible that insufficient QA is going into the interface software for these "Glass Cockpits"? There's a time and place for everything, and at the moment, I'd feel a lot better with hardware switches for most spacecraft function (particularly with something as old as Soyuz) than with the kinds of UIs that I've seen in terrestrial software...
"It's of questionable legality to shoot someone who's come into your house in the middle of the night."
Not in the state I live in. Come into my home illegally in the middle of the night, and if I even think you're armed, you've breathed your last breath.
There is no equivalency here that would benefit the RIAA. The only equivalency would be that THEY are the unauthorized intruder in any action of the nature described. I sincerely hope they are treated as such.
I have lost data to ReiserFS as well. Drive was so badly wacked out from a power outage during a write that I'll have to completely zero write it again just to get a filesystem on.
Bad time for a UPS to fail. I'll never use ReiserFS for anything again.
I hope IBM not only buries SCO, but completely annihillates the professional careers of the individuals that perpetrated this. I want to see Darl McBride bussing tables at a greasy spoon in East Buttfuck, Arkansas for the rest of his natural life.
That's actually one of the ways that I do get demos, if I care to. I long ago lost the "I gotta have it the day its out" urge.
They don't necessarily pay to have the game reviewed, but the magazine is always looking for content for its cd, and will pretty much put anything on it that doesn't cost them anything, if they think it will sell a few issues.
I suppose you support SPAMmers too. After all we should always pay the bill for companies who want to advertises to us, right? That IS what a demo is for, you know. Advertising.
And yes, people are going to charge for their services. The still have to do the math and figure out that as more and more services want a piece of the pie, well, the pie is only so big.
Speaking up can change things.
Trolling (which is what you are doing) will not.
Your posting history speaks for itself...
>plonk
That would work well. Kind of like the MMORPG model, which seems to have a fairly good success rate.
OMG, not with a silent second "y" I hope? because that's how what I said was meant to be spelled, and I hate being an insensitive clod...
Off Topic: btw, I did go vote for that Mozilla bug for you. I don't use FreeBSD at the moment, but I can see other areas where that could cause issues, and I'd like FreeBSD to remain an option :)
McBride is also my last name. Every time I read a post that puts it in such a negative light, I resolve to kick this particular McBride once more in the Jimmy with steel toed work boots.
I really hate having my name dragged through the mud by an ethics-devoid fuckwit.
Also, as I have stated elsewhere in this thread, $6 a month for something that I personally would use once in a blue moon is NOT "VERY little money" once everyone who provides a service like that starts expecting it.
The problem is (at least with FIleplanet) I have to allow them to run a Java app, and I have ot wait in line. Now the line thing wouldn't be a big deal, if it would start the download when my place in line arrived, but LAST time I tried to get something from fileplanet, I went away and did something else. Because I wasn't sitting in front of my computer watching the advertisements in the queue window, when my time came, I wasn't there, and it eventually timed out. I lost my place and had to start over.
Not acceptable. The publisher should be paying for this (in this case bug fixes).
File Planet has its place. There is NO excuse, however for publishers that grant them an exclusive on a demo, a patch, or a beta. THat's clearly aimed at generating revenue by denying other options. That didn't happen in this particular case, but there are plenty of others in which it does or did (Planetside, Asheron's Call 2).
I wouldn't say "FPS games aren't fun". I haven't bought one in a long time (although I just picked up Postal 2 today), but I spent a couple years playing Quake and its sequels, did the Clan thing, kicked some ass, had some fun. Tested some big mods for some good guys (Hi Monstro Brukes). The only reason that I don't play anymore is I simply don't have the TIME to stay in competitive form.
As much as people will deny it, being competitive in your typical FPS requires as much preparation as any traditionally athletic sport. You can still have fun with less preparation, but not if you go onto public servers (unless you like getting your ass handed to you).
With those games the Multiplayer is the thing (at least for me) which is why I'm waiting for the multiplayer for Postal 2, the best single player shooter since Redneck Rampage.
agreed, I do the same, but occasionally someone in my office would want to post something, and it was easier to check the Anonymous box than log out.
No, honestly, I don't download much gaming related stuff anymore. I'm willing to forgo demos, if they're on my dime. I'm pretty pissed about being expected to foot the bill for BUG FIXES, though.
I'll agree that 3dgamers seem to be pretty decent, but I still object to paying for the publisher's advertising, and bug fixes that they're obligated to provide (at least if they ever want repeat business).
Yes nobody WANTS to foot the bill for bandwidth, but I think publishers should consider it part of the cost of doing business.
I'd be a bit less miffed if things like FilePlanet were metered. I'd rather pay less for downloading one file every 6 months (or 120 megs worth of patches) than little skippy "downloads everything he can get his hands on wheter he wants it or not".
I'm not willing to subsidise others' downloads, which is how it would work currently...
Are you saying then that Anonymous posting is completely disabled? because if not, it's not too difficult to keep a spare browser that's NOT logged in for that purpose.
I'd rather do without the AC's for the most part but...
I never experienced either of those. I had lots of long distance bills for BBS's back in the day, but I'd class them with my ISP charge today, rather than as a specialized and seldom needed service like what FilePlanet wants to provide.
By the time Quake was being demoe'd, I had internet access. I never ordered a demo disk once.
Seems to only apply to the games.slashdot.org posts. probably just as well. There's significantly less need for anonymous trolls here than on Slashdot proper (even I will admit they serve some purpose, however minimal in the more socially significant discussions that take place there).
Exactly.
I actually managed to find a download stream from 3dgames.com, but once I thought about it a minute, I cancelled the download. I'm not interested in looking at the demo if I'm going to have to endure a dog slow download because the publisher is too cheap to pay the "postage". Unreal 2 is off my list of games to even consider, much less look at.