It's not that we wouldn't love to go to colonize the moon, but to have a Congressman go "I'm giving you $200 million more in funding each year, I want to see a colony on the moon in 15, and one on Mars in 20, and by the way, here are a bunch of steps I want you to hit on the way," that you realize it's all political bullshit and bluster, not an actual goal.
I like the sound of your setup, but I still think it ignores the importance of setting up a practical, in orbit infrastructure.
As well, use of centrifical force to create gravity sounds like a great idea, but you need utterly massive structures for it to work due to problems with the way the human ear works. You can't do it with tether linked compartments- its not a simple "just spin them fast enough" problem.
I'm not sure how you propose to get the scientists back home from that first manned trip, either.
And every step of this requires years of testing and design.
I work with people that make something from nothing on a daily basis. I work on machines that were obsolete years ago because we can't afford new ones, and we spend our entire budget doing science- gathering data, processing data, and outputting data. We have more data than we know what to do with on our current project, and no budget to analyze it!
Most of my coworkers work for ridiculously low pay, do much of their work off the clock, and still love what they're doing. You want serious accomplishments? Maybe you shouldn't be touting Apollo, the biggest masturbathon in space history. We blew our moon wad on a one shot mission, that set up no platform to do further missions from, that brought back very negligible data, and nothing that couldn't be done by machines. Immediately afterwards, we threw it all away! So much for space as a location to expand into, when we all we've done is throw rocks into it.
You try setting up a moon colony in 15 years with $200 million, develop all those new technologies, safety test everything, and somehow keep your engineers hired on substandard wages. I bet you can't even begin to budget for it.
And the first things my coworkers and I did when we found this out was laugh our asses off.
Habitation on the moon in 15 years? Mars in 20?
Maybe if we devoted the sum output of the entire GDP to doing so! As of now, there's no hope of that happening. We need an infrastructure in orbit around Earth before we can start sending things to the moon. Larger space stations, orbital manufacturing, and perhaps craft designed solely for use in space, to ship people and material to the moon.
That costs money. More money than anyone involved is willing to spend, I bet, especially for the timetable they're legislating.
My bet is that this bunch of politicians has no idea what they're talking about, has discussed the feasability of this with no one, and is looking for some attention from the press in light of the Indian and Chinese space programs.
I'd take his point a bit more to heart if he hadn't listed Max Payne as an example of perfect pacing. The ridiculous dream sequences coupled with getting all the weapons in the game, not once, not twice, but thrice, were pacing killers at their worst.
Much like all other entertainment media, gaming is a subjective art.
All that said, I'd love some of the convenience features that came built in with Disgaea in every game. The New Game+ mode, the dialogue skipping, and the ability to return to old levels on request are so perfectly integrated with the experience that it's a crime that more games don't have them.
So really, what I want is more pacing that I'm in control of, rather than dictated by the developer.
That's a great way of handling it. I'll suggest it to my ex-boss- Im still on good terms with her. We definitely have the know-how to produce idiot-proof CDs with a simple GUI to solve a lot of the problems people are having. I guess somewhere along the line we thought it would be easier to do it on a call-by-call basis.
I worked for my campus Resnet team, and we could tell who was sending what kind of traffic. If someone was hitting the network with Blaster traffic, we could shut down their specific port until they proved they were clean.
Their problem, not the entire network's, after all.
You'll start typing faster immediately! When you have to compete via faster typing, or save your character's ass via faster typing, your speed improves tenfold. From when I started to chat (around age 10 or 11) to now, I've taught myself how to type entirely on my own.
I was too lazy to use Mavis Beacon and the like.... I tried, but I couldn't do it. But years of having to improve my speed in chat and online gaming gave my hands speed and accuracy- after all, if I screwed up I'd get eaten.
With the marines descending into an alien artifact, then get ambushed, then the Master Chief shows up and kicks ass. It had an interesting little storyline, showed off some cool effects, and got me interested in playing the game.
It was great! And they were like "yeah, its running on a P2 400..."
No, I'll give games a chance. I don't give a crap what hardware it's running, or how cool it's wireless networking is supposed to be. Unless it's running games I want to play, I'll pass.
Of course, the fact that the Phantom is probably an elaborate hoax has nothing to do with it- at least I've seen (crappy) games on the Ngage.
The last FPS I really and truly adored single player was Alien Vs. Predator (the first one).
Every one since has been a "Quick save, quick reload" fest, rather than focused on actual play.
The game was ridiculously exciting, especially in the marine levels, because (at least before the save patch) no way to recover if you died, you had to start all over. This led to a style of play very akin the feel of the movie- Jerky glancing back and forth, staring at your motion detecter, firing wildly at any movement. A huge adrenaline rush, and a ton of fun.
Same with most RPGs that don't have save points every five feet- the deeper you get into the dungeon, the more exciting it gets. There's a sense that you will actually suffer a loss if you fail.
I suspect this is part of the reason why MMORPGs are getting more popular. It's more exciting when you're playing a game when you don't have complete control over it. Losses in MMORPGs are permanent (unless the servers crash, rollback, etc). In any case, getting in touch with what makes a game exciting, the sense of danger, that kind of thing, is important to making games fun.
You're absolutely right, we look enough like assholes as it is, picking on female gamers that deign to do something interesting, and perhaps even creative, making a Lara Croft or Yuna costume. We don't need people guessing that, perhaps, there is a larger demographic to gamers than cranky losers who pick on others on internet forums, right?
I'm not sure if its video game fashion catching on, or just Cosplay in general is catching on, and Video Games have cool costumes. My ex-roommate was an avid cosplayer, and she drew from video games, Japanese and American movies, as well as actual anime for her costumes.
All that said, video game characters sport some very cool clothing, some of which you can buy official versions of, like Tidus' pants.
I remember hearing about her... How long before I can run one on my home PC, though? That would be an unhaltable revolution in music, when someone figures out the exact formula for producing bland, poppy beats that are indistinguishable from actual releases.
"I still remember the horrors of being a newbie and trying to get from Qeynos to Freeport (Think of it as a trip from San Fransico to NY) by foot at level 16. "
I remember doing that with my friend at 7. We got mauled by a lion halfway there a few times. When we finally made it we jumped up and cheered. Then the bastard went and drowned in the sewer.
*coughs*
Right, but someone like me, who doesn't have an infinite amount of time to sit on the computer playing a game, who wants to have his fun *now*, not in 4 months, is not served by this level treadmill stuff. I love games like Neverwinter Nights, and take great pride in crafting "The Perfect Character" time and again, and I can pick up one of my characters and fiddle with it. But I want to have a measure of fun throughout my character's life, not just at the end of it.
For a while I tried AO, but I found it too frustrating. Killing hundreds of tiny monsters just to get an incremental upgrade.
I tried Planetside last month. I really, really enjoyed it. It was almost exactly what I had hoped for, and was a great deal of fun even if I wasn't willing to devote hundreds of hours to it. The problem was the lack of new content/high level content.
I'm hoping WoW will fix the problems in both ideas, by giving me fun stuff to do starting at level 1, and giving me more/better things to play with as I level up.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not that we wouldn't love to go to colonize the moon, but to have a Congressman go "I'm giving you $200 million more in funding each year, I want to see a colony on the moon in 15, and one on Mars in 20, and by the way, here are a bunch of steps I want you to hit on the way," that you realize it's all political bullshit and bluster, not an actual goal.
skye
I like the sound of your setup, but I still think it ignores the importance of setting up a practical, in orbit infrastructure.
As well, use of centrifical force to create gravity sounds like a great idea, but you need utterly massive structures for it to work due to problems with the way the human ear works. You can't do it with tether linked compartments- its not a simple "just spin them fast enough" problem.
I'm not sure how you propose to get the scientists back home from that first manned trip, either.
And every step of this requires years of testing and design.
skye
I work with people that make something from nothing on a daily basis. I work on machines that were obsolete years ago because we can't afford new ones, and we spend our entire budget doing science- gathering data, processing data, and outputting data. We have more data than we know what to do with on our current project, and no budget to analyze it!
Most of my coworkers work for ridiculously low pay, do much of their work off the clock, and still love what they're doing. You want serious accomplishments? Maybe you shouldn't be touting Apollo, the biggest masturbathon in space history. We blew our moon wad on a one shot mission, that set up no platform to do further missions from, that brought back very negligible data, and nothing that couldn't be done by machines. Immediately afterwards, we threw it all away! So much for space as a location to expand into, when we all we've done is throw rocks into it.
You try setting up a moon colony in 15 years with $200 million, develop all those new technologies, safety test everything, and somehow keep your engineers hired on substandard wages. I bet you can't even begin to budget for it.
skye
... Because there it is, in my CD player.
skye
And the first things my coworkers and I did when we found this out was laugh our asses off.
Habitation on the moon in 15 years? Mars in 20?
Maybe if we devoted the sum output of the entire GDP to doing so! As of now, there's no hope of that happening. We need an infrastructure in orbit around Earth before we can start sending things to the moon. Larger space stations, orbital manufacturing, and perhaps craft designed solely for use in space, to ship people and material to the moon.
That costs money. More money than anyone involved is willing to spend, I bet, especially for the timetable they're legislating.
My bet is that this bunch of politicians has no idea what they're talking about, has discussed the feasability of this with no one, and is looking for some attention from the press in light of the Indian and Chinese space programs.
skye
But a lot harder to load your porn onto...
Now THERE'S a winning idea, Nokia!
skye
I have the fun factor I want, though, which beats out graphics quality any day.
skye
Hasn't that game already been made?
skye
For starting out with a "mere" 1 million on launch day.
One of the best purchases I ever made.
skye
I'd take his point a bit more to heart if he hadn't listed Max Payne as an example of perfect pacing. The ridiculous dream sequences coupled with getting all the weapons in the game, not once, not twice, but thrice, were pacing killers at their worst.
Much like all other entertainment media, gaming is a subjective art.
All that said, I'd love some of the convenience features that came built in with Disgaea in every game. The New Game+ mode, the dialogue skipping, and the ability to return to old levels on request are so perfectly integrated with the experience that it's a crime that more games don't have them.
So really, what I want is more pacing that I'm in control of, rather than dictated by the developer.
skye
That's a great way of handling it. I'll suggest it to my ex-boss- Im still on good terms with her. We definitely have the know-how to produce idiot-proof CDs with a simple GUI to solve a lot of the problems people are having. I guess somewhere along the line we thought it would be easier to do it on a call-by-call basis.
skye
I worked for my campus Resnet team, and we could tell who was sending what kind of traffic. If someone was hitting the network with Blaster traffic, we could shut down their specific port until they proved they were clean.
Their problem, not the entire network's, after all.
skye
You'll start typing faster immediately! When you have to compete via faster typing, or save your character's ass via faster typing, your speed improves tenfold. From when I started to chat (around age 10 or 11) to now, I've taught myself how to type entirely on my own.
I was too lazy to use Mavis Beacon and the like.... I tried, but I couldn't do it. But years of having to improve my speed in chat and online gaming gave my hands speed and accuracy- after all, if I screwed up I'd get eaten.
skye
If they announced plans to start making good games again.
skye
With the marines descending into an alien artifact, then get ambushed, then the Master Chief shows up and kicks ass. It had an interesting little storyline, showed off some cool effects, and got me interested in playing the game.
It was great! And they were like "yeah, its running on a P2 400..."
Oh man, 2000 was a great year.
skye
And releasing games for the NES would go right along with their business strategy.
skye
"Blah blah blah give the hardware a chance."
No, I'll give games a chance. I don't give a crap what hardware it's running, or how cool it's wireless networking is supposed to be. Unless it's running games I want to play, I'll pass.
Of course, the fact that the Phantom is probably an elaborate hoax has nothing to do with it- at least I've seen (crappy) games on the Ngage.
skye
The last FPS I really and truly adored single player was Alien Vs. Predator (the first one).
Every one since has been a "Quick save, quick reload" fest, rather than focused on actual play.
The game was ridiculously exciting, especially in the marine levels, because (at least before the save patch) no way to recover if you died, you had to start all over. This led to a style of play very akin the feel of the movie- Jerky glancing back and forth, staring at your motion detecter, firing wildly at any movement. A huge adrenaline rush, and a ton of fun.
Same with most RPGs that don't have save points every five feet- the deeper you get into the dungeon, the more exciting it gets. There's a sense that you will actually suffer a loss if you fail.
I suspect this is part of the reason why MMORPGs are getting more popular. It's more exciting when you're playing a game when you don't have complete control over it. Losses in MMORPGs are permanent (unless the servers crash, rollback, etc). In any case, getting in touch with what makes a game exciting, the sense of danger, that kind of thing, is important to making games fun.
skye
I suppose academia is a dangerous addiction too...
skye
"It makes all of us video game players look bad."
You're absolutely right, we look enough like assholes as it is, picking on female gamers that deign to do something interesting, and perhaps even creative, making a Lara Croft or Yuna costume. We don't need people guessing that, perhaps, there is a larger demographic to gamers than cranky losers who pick on others on internet forums, right?
skye
And Gchan recently modelled a DOAX swimsuit.
I'm not sure if its video game fashion catching on, or just Cosplay in general is catching on, and Video Games have cool costumes. My ex-roommate was an avid cosplayer, and she drew from video games, Japanese and American movies, as well as actual anime for her costumes.
All that said, video game characters sport some very cool clothing, some of which you can buy official versions of, like Tidus' pants.
skye
I remember hearing about her... How long before I can run one on my home PC, though? That would be an unhaltable revolution in music, when someone figures out the exact formula for producing bland, poppy beats that are indistinguishable from actual releases.
skye
"I still remember the horrors of being a newbie and trying to get from Qeynos to Freeport (Think of it as a trip from San Fransico to NY) by foot at level 16. "
I remember doing that with my friend at 7. We got mauled by a lion halfway there a few times. When we finally made it we jumped up and cheered. Then the bastard went and drowned in the sewer.
*coughs*
Right, but someone like me, who doesn't have an infinite amount of time to sit on the computer playing a game, who wants to have his fun *now*, not in 4 months, is not served by this level treadmill stuff. I love games like Neverwinter Nights, and take great pride in crafting "The Perfect Character" time and again, and I can pick up one of my characters and fiddle with it. But I want to have a measure of fun throughout my character's life, not just at the end of it.
For a while I tried AO, but I found it too frustrating. Killing hundreds of tiny monsters just to get an incremental upgrade.
I tried Planetside last month. I really, really enjoyed it. It was almost exactly what I had hoped for, and was a great deal of fun even if I wasn't willing to devote hundreds of hours to it. The problem was the lack of new content/high level content.
I'm hoping WoW will fix the problems in both ideas, by giving me fun stuff to do starting at level 1, and giving me more/better things to play with as I level up.
skye
I for one liked the talkie-feelie "Longest Journey" and its attractive heroine.
skye, who, despite his name, is a gamer guy.
So why not make it a bigger, more expensive deal?
100 BILLION DOLLARS! Or all the nations in the world will suffer from 4096 bit encrypted documents!
skye