Considering your line of study, would you say the more difficult issues to deal with regarding life extension are technical ones (how do we do it?) or moral ones (why do we do it?)
Tell me how many people would create an MSN account and use it as their portal if they got to use even a limited version of MS word for free in the deal.
I took High School Algebra a year early, since my test scores the previous year apparently said I didn't need any pre-algebra help. A Junior Highschooler in an unfamiliar class, surrounded by unsympathetic Highschool students, dealing with topics barely touched on, if ever...
I did terrible. It had all kinds of new notations I wasn't used to, and I felt so intimidated by the older students that I held back my questions when it came to unfamiliar concepts such as "factoring".
Barely scraping by, it wasn't until near the end of the semester that I finally had the nerve to ask what it all meant. When it was explained that "factors" were merely the numbers that multiplied up to a number, it was as if a lightbulb went off and I was able to pull my grades up enough to pass with a decent grade.
But my average was terrible so I was allowed to retake the class with my proper grade (who had sat through a year of pre-alg). Now that I knew what was going on and felt comfortable being surrounded by familiar classmates, I aced the class with ease.
TL;DR version (aka, The Moral): putting "the smart" kids in an advanced class doesn't necessarily mean they'll succeed. Putting them in an environment where they can reach their full potential, whatever their aptitude, will be much more rewarding.
Kids don't learn COBOL anymore, either (or, for my generation, Pascal). Latin is great for cunning linguists and those interested in Etymology, but schools these days have enough trouble passing on the PRACTICAL things to students that focusing on marketable job skills is more important than reading the Illiad in it's original format.
Hockey comes to mind. People think hockey is a sport. It's not. Hockey is three activities taking place at the same time: ice skating, fooling around with a puck, and beating the shit out of somebody.
I'm going to go with the Font Size as being the big reason behind most "MMOs" for consoles being glorified shooters.
Final Fantasy XI, which was made for both the PC and the PS2, annoyed me to no end with their Ginormous unified chat box/action box. With combat events, private messages, chats, and system announcements all appearing in the same space, it was tremendously annoying to try to do more than one thing at a time.
Voice chat should help this a bit, but text still dominates most of the MMO UI now and would result in a dumbed-down "Consolized" version that will turn most MMO fans off. Higher resolutions making fonts smaller has only gone on to irritate players (see: Dead Rising).
Perhaps a controller-mounted secondary display system a-la the Dreamcast VMU or the Gamecube's ability to output to a GBA would be a decent solution. AFAIK, the PS3 can "talk" to the PSP and the Wii can send data to a DS, both wirelessly, so maybe it's only a matter of time before some genius figures out how to mate the handheld device as a vital HUD component for a real console MMO.
For me, the real pinnacle of Skill vs. Stat PVP continues to be Planetside.
The "Death Penalty" was measured not in the player's individual stats, but in the strength of the defending/attacking army. Thus one individual would not change the course of events, and would not be ruined by a single death, but the cumulative effect of a bad plan usually lead to the loss of an entire continent. Once that happened, *everyone* took the express bus back to Loserville, which meant that a bigger fight for territory was about to begin.
Of course, the fact that the game was a FPS-based twitch combat game was tempered by the rank and battle level system, which gave veteran players an advantage (But not an insurmountable one) over noobs. Being able to change your stat allocation almost at will meant you never had to grind for a certain fit, and the only real limitation was the empire selection which meant you couldn't spawn the weapons of the enemy (But you could loot them from vanquished foes -- until you got blown up, too)
It's a shame they had some early problems with lag, and made some very poor developmental decisions after the first expansion pack. I was really hoping Tabula Rasa would be the more advanced "spiritual successor" to it, but it wasn't meant to be.
As good as some of the early Metallica tracks were , their reputation with fans is completely shot and TBH their last few albums make them sound washed up and done.
Now, if they made a game where fans could shoot Lars Ulrich in the face with a bazooka, that would probably sell.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering your line of study, would you say the more difficult issues to deal with regarding life extension are technical ones (how do we do it?) or moral ones (why do we do it?)
Are you saying they do what they must, because they can?
Tell me how many people would create an MSN account and use it as their portal if they got to use even a limited version of MS word for free in the deal.
There's even someone they could license it from!
Imagine the irony -- MS paying another company for an online version of office, to give to people for free!
True story:
I took High School Algebra a year early, since my test scores the previous year apparently said I didn't need any pre-algebra help. A Junior Highschooler in an unfamiliar class, surrounded by unsympathetic Highschool students, dealing with topics barely touched on, if ever...
I did terrible. It had all kinds of new notations I wasn't used to, and I felt so intimidated by the older students that I held back my questions when it came to unfamiliar concepts such as "factoring".
Barely scraping by, it wasn't until near the end of the semester that I finally had the nerve to ask what it all meant. When it was explained that "factors" were merely the numbers that multiplied up to a number, it was as if a lightbulb went off and I was able to pull my grades up enough to pass with a decent grade.
But my average was terrible so I was allowed to retake the class with my proper grade (who had sat through a year of pre-alg). Now that I knew what was going on and felt comfortable being surrounded by familiar classmates, I aced the class with ease.
TL;DR version (aka, The Moral): putting "the smart" kids in an advanced class doesn't necessarily mean they'll succeed. Putting them in an environment where they can reach their full potential, whatever their aptitude, will be much more rewarding.
Kids don't learn Latin anymore but
Kids don't learn COBOL anymore, either (or, for my generation, Pascal). Latin is great for cunning linguists and those interested in Etymology, but schools these days have enough trouble passing on the PRACTICAL things to students that focusing on marketable job skills is more important than reading the Illiad in it's original format.
Yahoo peaked when it released Yahoo Mail. They haven't really done anything new or innovative or even relevant since.
They cry about "freedom to smoke" but have no hesitation in taking away their family members' freedom when they get sick with cancer
But neither do they take away their family member's freedom to tell their cancer striken relative to GTFO.
Granted, that's not very nice, but it *is* legal.
Is this serious?
The only way the fans get what they want is for the company to go bankrupt and close down.
Does he really want his fans to be hoping his company fails just so they can get the freedom to play their games offline?
If I haven't gotten you yet, I get you sooner or later.
Not the first time plagiarizing H.P. Lovecraft has been called "creative" (Heck, Neil Gaiman does it all the time)
Good choices, though I was always a fan of the Baseball vs. Football routine.
And he's right on about Hockey:
Hockey comes to mind. People think hockey is a sport. It's not. Hockey is three activities taking place at the same time: ice skating, fooling around with a puck, and beating the shit out of somebody.
RIP man.
It's a pound that's 92.5% pure
Oh well. Cheap music is still ftw.
:(
The only downside is that now CDDB doesn't recognize most of them
That's funny -- buying used promo CDs (3 for $5) in the small local music store is how I got most of my music in college.
Did you work in Hoboken by any chance?
Just pass it as (Void *) and let the reader figure it out on their own.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm Kicking my Ass! Do you mind?"
RFTA.
The line "Although this method..." is used to describe an unquoted review of previous methods for rendering particles.
It has nothing to do with the new system, so please don't assume this is just the old rendering method wearing a new funny hat.
I'm going to go with the Font Size as being the big reason behind most "MMOs" for consoles being glorified shooters.
Final Fantasy XI, which was made for both the PC and the PS2, annoyed me to no end with their Ginormous unified chat box/action box. With combat events, private messages, chats, and system announcements all appearing in the same space, it was tremendously annoying to try to do more than one thing at a time.
Voice chat should help this a bit, but text still dominates most of the MMO UI now and would result in a dumbed-down "Consolized" version that will turn most MMO fans off. Higher resolutions making fonts smaller has only gone on to irritate players (see: Dead Rising).
Perhaps a controller-mounted secondary display system a-la the Dreamcast VMU or the Gamecube's ability to output to a GBA would be a decent solution. AFAIK, the PS3 can "talk" to the PSP and the Wii can send data to a DS, both wirelessly, so maybe it's only a matter of time before some genius figures out how to mate the handheld device as a vital HUD component for a real console MMO.
For me, the real pinnacle of Skill vs. Stat PVP continues to be Planetside.
The "Death Penalty" was measured not in the player's individual stats, but in the strength of the defending/attacking army. Thus one individual would not change the course of events, and would not be ruined by a single death, but the cumulative effect of a bad plan usually lead to the loss of an entire continent. Once that happened, *everyone* took the express bus back to Loserville, which meant that a bigger fight for territory was about to begin.
Of course, the fact that the game was a FPS-based twitch combat game was tempered by the rank and battle level system, which gave veteran players an advantage (But not an insurmountable one) over noobs. Being able to change your stat allocation almost at will meant you never had to grind for a certain fit, and the only real limitation was the empire selection which meant you couldn't spawn the weapons of the enemy (But you could loot them from vanquished foes -- until you got blown up, too)
It's a shame they had some early problems with lag, and made some very poor developmental decisions after the first expansion pack. I was really hoping Tabula Rasa would be the more advanced "spiritual successor" to it, but it wasn't meant to be.
Does she at least make you take off your wizard Hat?
Relax -- it'll only be your favorite game for about a year.
Eventually, they'll find some way to cock it up.
It IS Lucasarts, after all -- they have a reputation to uphold!
Umm, also:
Episode IV: A New Hope
Maybe not in Games, but certainly in Movies:
Witness: House IV
Aren't the 3rd episodes always the ones where they go into space?
Mmm, Bioshock in Space...imagine how awesome that would be!
All this talk about Guitar Heroes -- where's the G3 edition?
-Satriani
-Vai
-Petrucci
-Malmsteen
-Gilbert
-Johnson
These are the REAL Guitar Heroes.
As good as some of the early Metallica tracks were , their reputation with fans is completely shot and TBH their last few albums make them sound washed up and done.
Now, if they made a game where fans could shoot Lars Ulrich in the face with a bazooka, that would probably sell.