Had palm, sold palm right after I couldn't return it.
I must fully agree that paper is superior. Palms are only for people who want to call themselves "techies", with no clear benefit over paper. Great, I can loose both, and depending on my notation style, a palm may store more, with more bloat, mind. But... My handy-dandy notebook (damn childrens television!) is FLEXABLE, CHEAP, and FOOL-PROOF. Flexable in two senses, meaning I can sit on it, through it across the room when I'm pissed, and I can hit people with it, all without worrying about breaking it, or having to replace it. Cheap meaning less than a dollar for a small one, and less than two for a big one. And fool-proof, because... well... Anyone with over a 3rd grade education can use one, without relearning how to write!
Not to mention COMPATABILITY. Yes, anyone who speaks english can understand me, without any special software or downloads.
Oh, and then again there is that one rule, IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT! I know this is anathema in todays consumer-electronics society, where some engeneer is some marketing-development center is busy trying to replace a bunch of perfectly usefull things, with things that are needlessly complex and expensive, just to make a buck. My note book and pen WORK, and are ERROR PROOF (not sp error, but it won't crash). So no need to 'upgrade' to 'keep-up-with-the-jones''
then again this is coming from a person who refuses to own a cell-phone.
Said review board would throw your case out, no questions asked. Actually that complaint wouldn't ever each a review board. By policy, the class is the PROFESSORS domain, they get to rule. Why do you think that (almost) every prof. in America tells everyone to turn off their pagers and cell-phones? It is a distraction, not only to them, but to the learning enviroment. I'm sure that many profs. find the click-clack of keys a distraction to the learning enviroment of the class-room, and hence can ban their use. I personally find people sitting next to me with lap-tops annoying, both for the noise, and for the visual distraction.
Also, it doesn't matter is a class-room is public domain (which it isn't), but it is the PROFESSOR as a person talking. You cannot just record and distribute me, my voice, or my image, without my permission, and so it is with professors. Basically, what they say is implicitaty copyrighted. Also it is just crass to record someone without their permission. Just as it is crass to have a cell-phone on in a learning enviroment. It is a shame that manners must be enforced, and that some people think that they have a "right" not to have manners. (IMHO, we need less rights, more responcibilities)
Also, many schools have a policy towards tape-recording lectures, where you must have PERMISSION, even if you have some form of 'learning disability'. One of the Comm. Colleges I've experienced even had a down-right ban on recordings, but some professors would allow it, if asked.
And some people don't want to spend twice the time organizing notes, as they would just writing it all down.
That is the problem I have with using a computer (or PDA) for notes, to much tweaking, not enough... er.. noting. Why go for 5 types of software/formats for various forms of information, when crude sketches, and rapid jotting works just as good?
Sure, my handwriting is completely illegible, even to myself sometimes, but I get the point across, in no time. Also, if your not trying to quote the prof. verbatum, you pay more attention to class. This is a problem I've noticed in several of my freinds from Comm. College and H.S., nice/pretty verbatum notes worked at lower levels, but quick flow-charting, and little pictures work at higher levels. Kinda stream of thought note-taking. No thought about what I'm jotting down is required, it just happens, and being that I'm paying full attention to lecture, I have perfect association with my notes to the actual lecture.
The only problem is that when I'm in several classes of roughly the same genre, (i.e. philosophy - pysch - soc. - anthropology- history) I sometime find my self cross referencing my notes. Thus causeing me to bomb exams, being that the average prof. doesn't want that degree of abstract though.
Another problem is, I can't share notes with the proverbial "hot chick"... Since my crude flow-charts make no sense to anyone but me. And some of my hasty comments might offend people not privy to my morning-math-class head space.. ("Damn fat bovine math people!")
The only use for a computer on a college campus is papers, research, and programming. And of course UT and Diablo. Oh.. and forcing dorm-mates to look at rotten.com, or goatse.
Actually EVERY game store in my area takes back both PC and console games. Meaning both EB and Gamestop. For cash, not transfer. I recently took back Unreal 2, so I could upgrade my compy, to play Unreal 2. Meaning the I got my nice $50 back as cash.
I think they may not do this for console returns, but being that I don't own a console, I don't care.
Actually, the hanging focus is set on wires, by adding tension they can change the angle of the focus, hence in effect moving the dish. At least this is what my geeky freind says, he may be wrong, but it makes sense.
I'm guessing that it would still have a limited area of observation, though.
Um.. I went to school for Philosophy, and quit because I COULDN'T get payed. The only jobs with a solid philosophy background is writing. Oh.. and... er... ethics.
Now everyone join hand, and pray that the Great Admin in the sky isn't using Windows.
Re:THAT'S considered an acceptible release bug???
on
Mozilla 1.4 RC1
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· Score: 1
A previous post mentioned the ATI bug as well. Happily I have not noticed it on any Radeon chipsets, though I'm only going on my old 7500, and my freinds 8500, with all the latest drivers and such.
I haven't run RC1 very long (hour or so), but haven't noticed any real nasty oddities while running the gemult on it.
Also, please note, that this is to test for SPECIFIC STABILTY ISSUES, meaning that they probably nkow that there are stability problems, but they fixed it as good as they can without a test. I used to do this with my web-apps, put up a prerelease page and try to get as many people to misbehave as possible, just to find out SPECIFIC bugs. Hence my installing RC1 on a partition, in my testing copy of win2k, not as my primary browser.
I hunt-and-peck, A very fast hunt and peck, without looking, but still I know how to type with a finger. This skill has led to me aquire the habit of eating/drinking/smoking with my other hand, I lift weights, I pet my cat, I bounce a raquet ball of the wall, I play with toys. Whatever. So this is NOT an improvment, I actually loose abilities, and INCREASE wrist movement.
Also, my only problem spot from typing is my fingers, my knucles are trashed. I found a simple logictech trackball (optical) almost completely removed strain. Also it is very durable (about 2.5 yrs worth of nonstop use)and very cleanable. Also with some practice, it is a better gaming interface than any mouse I have met.
If someone really wants to improve my input abilities, they would force computer store to sell left-handed perifreals[sic], nice optical trackballs, with scroll bar, and 3rd button... oh-yeah.
You comment of Blizzards quality is COMPLETELY unfounded. Warcraft IIIs quality is supurb, very pretty, very runable, kinda playable. Let me explain the last line there, I am used to playing TA, where I never need worry about resources, and I can make 100 units in five minutes, with two factories, so all blizzard RTS's are kinda slow paced to me.
IMHO Starcraft kicked TA's ass only because the Blizzard name. While starcraft had a very nice story, and good concept art, TA was technically superior, and was much funner to play/mod. TA has had the best engine in RTSs up until C&C Generals.
Blizzard is good for story. Cavedog was good for inovation (notice my ignoring TA:K).
Also look at the Blizzard titles coming out AFTER Starcraft, Diablo II, LoD, WarIII. How are these bad quality? Please explain this?
Read some Thomas Pynchon, Like The Crying of Lot 49, one of the best multi-layered conspiracy novellas out there. Gravity's Rainbow is also a very good, albeit confusing, novel.
In the same line you can read The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea, and R.A.W., like taking drugs but cheaper. Kinda makes you think about Rummy too, him and that damn Pentagon, IA! Azathoth!.
Bringing me to Lovecraft, good books, great appeal. Much bad pulp, at its best.
Or you can do what I did my last summer, read ALL of the Dune books, by Herbert and his son. I mean EVERYONE of them, in order. He really is the best scifi author out there, the scifi analouge to Tolkein.
Read all the Jeff Noon you can get. Some of his recent books are hard to get stateside, but definatly worth the search (amazon.co.uk?). I'd read Vurt, Pollen, then Pixel Juice. Kinda like psychodelic cyberpunk with feathers. Must be my favorite obscure author. Falling Out of Cars is also good, but impossible to find. Americans have no taste (being an american I am offended by my own statement!)
Right now I am reading a very good book, called Six Degrees, by Duncan Watts, its about the science of networks, from a semi-sociological POV, very good.
Another good book is The End of the American Era, by someone or another. Don't have it in front of me because I'm moving. Very good polisci book. Or Jihad vs. McWorld, by someone else located in a cardboard box right now, also good reading.
Or you could just go for the classics, read some philosophy. Kant, Kierkriegard, Nietzsche, Plato.
Innovation is as big as its ever been. You cannot have a market with infinite innovation, it is simply impossible. Lets say you start with 1 inovative game (or movie, or music, or book), meaning innovative in a "catch the popular imagination" sence, and not in the self-masterbatory "look I'm creative" sense. From there people will copy that forumla, meaning it is no longer innovative, it infact becomes a cliche, including the orignal game.
So now you have 1000 games, one innovation, and 999 variations, some of which EVOLVE and MUTATE the original innovation (better rendering, less clunky engine/system, better plot), but all following on the one original concept. Then the 1001st game is another true innovation, then the cycle repeats until the 2001st game... And so on. So in your hypothetical market you have 3000 games, and 2 actual full inovations, and probably another 500 almost-innovative-but-following-a-theme titles. And some odd number of games that combine various elements.
Look at CS and the HUGE market of clones. First you get the whole "stealth" genre started with CS, and Tom Clancy decides "bring out the clones", and the market gets innundated with CS wannabes with better graphics, better controls, better play systems, yadda yadda yadda. Then come sub-innovation, team controls! Then comes another grip of CS clones with team controls, with continueing improvment (or not) in AI and such. Somewhere in there WWII sims become big thanks to MoH, then the genres combine and mutate together.
This is how it will be from now on. We're all suffering from back-in-the-day syndrome. The problem is, "back in the day" commercial video games were young, and not fully developed. Look at a biological system for an analogy. When a enviroment opens up, evolution EXPLODES, until every niche is full, after that it is just variations on themes, building better adaptions to the pre-existing niches, and against competition.
Back in the day video games were the new enviroment, the possibilities were endless, all we could see is new niches waiting to be filled, inovation ran rampant, everything was new. But as time went on, these niches filled with tried and true forms, and the amount of new niches started to decline rapidly, inovation slowed, variation increased. Bringing us to today, where pretty much every niche has been tried, there may be some new ones, down in the bottom of the entertaiment ocean yet to be tried, but the prime real estate is pretty much full.
Yeah, Bad Trip. Used to be hosted on Battlegroundz. com... or somesuch... badtrip.battlegrounds.net 6969, no? One of my old BBSer freinds moved to Texas to marry one of the admins.
Re:Everquest?
on
Saving MUDs?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
MUCH! MUDs had the nice property that they were for the most part self-limiting, meaning that you didn't have the average EQ person playing on them. Also muds, do to lower player amounts, could evolve their own personality, either for good or ill.
Also on MUDs, the line between Admin, and "end-user" was much more blurred, since the Imp of the mud was usually a player, and hence accessable to comments and suggestions. If you schmoozed enough, you could become a builder, or and admin yourself. Not so in todays MMORPGS.
Also being that there was a body of MUDs (as opposed to a handful of MMORGS) you had CHOICE in what you wanted to play. Today I could be playing Alter Aeon, tomorrow Vurt, the next day a nice Shadowrun MUSH. I'm not stuck in the swords and socerty crap forever.
Oh... and they were (mostly) FREE. Yep, no $50 to buy the game, then $20/mounth to have the privalege to hang out with the average MMORPG folk. Back in the day I paid $10/m for MBBS access, this MBBS had Tintin,telnet, and dialup support. Plus random inane chat possibilities.
Also muds had a sence of family, and fond memories, they weren't just another profit driven game, they were labors of love, a union between players and admin. Ask any old school MUDer and they will recount their favorite MUDs, with a gleam of nostalgia in their eyes, and how many of us will be doing that for EQ. I dare say most of us will try to keep that little phase in the closet ten years from now, with damn good reason.
Also, MUDs invented clans. REAL clans, clans that mattered.
For the record, I used to play on Bad Trips, Alter Aeon... And of course my two favorites, Genocide, and the ripped port NeoGeno. Plus I built on verious muds (including NeoGeno), and MUSHes.
I really hope that they keep the same sprite graphics, that is one of the things that made the game good, was the fact that MECHANICS took precidence over graphics and flash. The main reason I bought the series is that it was a good table-top engine.
I hope that they make the NPCs controllable during combat with the Tactics system, allowing me to control where my fat guy in a wife-beater shoots his Panzor or CAWS. The AI in Fallout2 was TERRIBLE, Vic (my npc of choice) really liked to target THROUGH my head.
Also I hope they better balance the game, so just picking high perception and agility isn't a true path to winning, everytime. If you want to win Fallout2 in under 30hours, simply tag Small Guns, Steal, and Energy Weapons, have over 8 perception, and over 9 agility. Poof. You 0wn. Make melee and hth more fruitful.
Oh... And we need more dogmeat.
(aside: I'm digging the Fallout Fantasy thing, my and my freind used to wish that Square and Black Isle would join forces, and make either Final Fallout, or Fallout Fantasy... Now through some Id into the mix, and you got Final Fallout Doom)
He forgot the defrag! How can anyone call there computer clean without:
1. Spybot (and/or ad-aware) 2. reboot 3. Uninstall all unused crap/windows stuff 4. reboot 5. Check for new drivers/uninstall old drivers 6. reboot 7. Run windows silly "clean-disk" util 8. manually delete windows/temp directory 9. clear Mozilla or Firebird cache 10. delete all old useless penis enlarger spam 11. reboot 12. run a DLL scanner/remover 13. reboot 14. run regcleaner, followed by MS's regclean 15. reboot 16. full scandisk (w/ surface scan) 17. clear reboot (disable win swap, and all startups, and SCREEN SAVER!) 18. defrag 19. Goto taco bell, see a movie. 20. done.
Or the simple route, "shutdown to DOS prompt" "format c:", "Y"
Kinda offtopic, but interesting.../. is usually the bastion of privacy paranoia, until it comes to their evening game of CS or Diablo. Then they stop all of the privacy banter and bring up unique ID's, Real Name registration systems, and all incompasing databases.
Oh... the nonstop, nocongruent[sic] hours wasted playing Outpost 2. "Wow, I have some memories about Outpost 2!" An hour later, after install, "MORAL IS TERRIBLE"... 10 seconds later, "THIS GAME IS CRAP!"...
Now... Diakatana is the one game that I will NEVER install.... EVER... Damn Frog Wonderland.
You spoke like a true post-modernist. First you pick what you want to say, then you find a source, then you procede to find what you want. Big woop, political correctness, sans science. Please notice your use of semi-qualifiers, such as "seems to be", and "sounds like"... Not quite the grounds for any form of objective proof, no?
Also, observe the Freudian conotations, "this particular female voice is derided and mocked for having male attitudes but being unable to act them out.", why not just say "PENIS ENVY" and get it over with.
From what I've read of your comment, you make it sound like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition. If the female character is assertive, she get's mocked, and is a bad image. If the female is passive, it is a bad image. Great, no famales in video games then.. Oh wait.. then your a sexist pig, nevermind.
As a gamer of a long time (sometime in the mid/early 80's), I have yet to actually form an opinion of any class of person from video games, television, or movies. And most of the people I know are the same, relying on PERSONAL experience to form opinions. Hell, you could even say that the KKK and the Nazis formed their opinions from non-media experiences. Meaning familial/societal.
In my experience, most of these "covert media discriminatory conspiracies" are formed by media savvy liberals looking for office, and not by rational experience. These "descriminatory memes" are then spread by a sensationalist media, mostly for ratings. Just like all those silly sociological "theories" that claim that there are no inate differences between sexes, utter crap, proven wrong in hundreds of actual scientific studies. But opinion is more colorful.
Also, if media IS sexist (strong if), then shouldn't we be looking for the actual cause? Media does not form itself, it is based on that which sells. Things sell because a majority of consumers find it desirable. Just like violent games, and sex on TV, people must watch it before it becomes ubiquitous.
I agree. While I really like my gaming to be very pretty (look ma, see that pimple on that Skarj's ass?), I also don't really find it necissary to buy a new card for $200, every 6 months. Mostly I upgrade to keep up with development, and not to "weewee-wave". (okay the 1gig of DDR wasn't STRICTLY necissary)
I just did a full upgrade of my box, because I didn't meet the min requirments for a couple games. Mind you I was still a proud owner of a Voodoo2 16meg, which allowed me to play Warcraft3 with full textures, and get a decent FPS from UT. But Morrowind and Unreal2 told me to upgrade.
Though, if I had a larger disposable income, I would probably be buying a 256 ATI. Just so I don't need another card for another 2 years.
Kay, I concede some points. Total Annihilation was the first RTS with 3d untis, and terrain, and is still the best RTS out there, if you can find it, and/or stand the community. The "Hero" system is a bit of a borrow, the fantasy world is, yes, a copy of all the other Warcraft series, which is to be expected for a sequel.
I personally like micro in War3, TA is my other game, and it has NO micro, just horde tactics, and overkill. So micro is a nice change, having to think about unit choice is also nice.
But what Blizzard is good for is WORLD. Not story, mind, it is good, but not groundbreaking. But the Warcraft WORLD is wonderfully crafted, and planned. Same thing with Diablo, someone put a lot of thought into making the universe colorful. Like the LoTR or Dune of video games, there is more than just what you see going on.
Yeah, I almost broke down and bought a GC, when metroid came out. Though Zelda isn't really my taste anymore, I wouldn't have minded Zelda64, but I still did't like it as much as the SNES one, or the original. Ditto for Windwalker.
But my problem is the opposite, after the upgrading I can't afford jack. But also I'm going to be able to play DoomIII as its meant to be played. Also I do FPS and RTS gameing, and consoles are not the medium for them, unless I want a confusing network adapter, and a keyboard. I guess I'm an old gamer dog, no new tricks for me.
Two reasons. I can't pick which one, all three have good games... Xbox is graphically superior, PS2 had square and some other good series, and GC has Metroid, Zelda, and Contra.
Second; there is nothing wrong with my PSX, Dreamcast, and NES. They aren't broken, the DC is showing signs though:( Also with both Nintendo and Sony talking already of GCII, and PS3 already, it makes me wonder why I should bother.
Also, I am a PC person. I had a C64 before I could walk, I grew up on an 808x. I like my compy, I think it has better graphics. That and, MODS. I had counterstrike before any of these silly console kiddies ever heard of it. I get to play Tribunal, no Xbox gamer does, I'm also gonna be able to play the next Morrowind Expansion, before any Xbox person. Same for all the UT2k3 mods, no community for Championship.
I agree, the server patch was pretty henious. And come to think of it, 1.08 was REALLY nasty. But the server patch is pretty much okay in my books, since I really dislike bnet, nice in theory, but in practice, you get what you pay for, a bunch of '1337" lamers. And the server patch was trying to semi-fix this problem, and if it went to far, GREAT, at least their trying. Most gaming companies wouldn't care, you already bought the product, so who cares about the enviroment, I mean DII isn't marketed like evercrack, online atmosphere isn't important to marketshare. But then again, it must pay off, since Blizzard has millions of chronic repeat customers, they see the blizzard logo, and buy it, no thought. (I was unemployed and broke when LoD, and War3 came out, and gambled (literally) to buy LoD, and sold shit load of old hardware for LoD, and called in ALL my old debts)
And 1.08... well, sucked. Changing the game to something that people didn't payfor, AFTER they paid for it sucks, ethically. But you don't have to patch... The path to whatnot, and something about good intentions.
But then again, you BOUGHT D2X? No? Even after what they did in 1.08.
Slashdot Mirror
Had palm, sold palm right after I couldn't return it.
I must fully agree that paper is superior. Palms are only for people who want to call themselves "techies", with no clear benefit over paper. Great, I can loose both, and depending on my notation style, a palm may store more, with more bloat, mind. But... My handy-dandy notebook (damn childrens television!) is FLEXABLE, CHEAP, and FOOL-PROOF. Flexable in two senses, meaning I can sit on it, through it across the room when I'm pissed, and I can hit people with it, all without worrying about breaking it, or having to replace it. Cheap meaning less than a dollar for a small one, and less than two for a big one. And fool-proof, because... well... Anyone with over a 3rd grade education can use one, without relearning how to write!
Not to mention COMPATABILITY. Yes, anyone who speaks english can understand me, without any special software or downloads.
Oh, and then again there is that one rule, IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT! I know this is anathema in todays consumer-electronics society, where some engeneer is some marketing-development center is busy trying to replace a bunch of perfectly usefull things, with things that are needlessly complex and expensive, just to make a buck. My note book and pen WORK, and are ERROR PROOF (not sp error, but it won't crash). So no need to 'upgrade' to 'keep-up-with-the-jones''
then again this is coming from a person who refuses to own a cell-phone.
Said review board would throw your case out, no questions asked. Actually that complaint wouldn't ever each a review board. By policy, the class is the PROFESSORS domain, they get to rule. Why do you think that (almost) every prof. in America tells everyone to turn off their pagers and cell-phones? It is a distraction, not only to them, but to the learning enviroment. I'm sure that many profs. find the click-clack of keys a distraction to the learning enviroment of the class-room, and hence can ban their use. I personally find people sitting next to me with lap-tops annoying, both for the noise, and for the visual distraction.
Also, it doesn't matter is a class-room is public domain (which it isn't), but it is the PROFESSOR as a person talking. You cannot just record and distribute me, my voice, or my image, without my permission, and so it is with professors. Basically, what they say is implicitaty copyrighted. Also it is just crass to record someone without their permission. Just as it is crass to have a cell-phone on in a learning enviroment. It is a shame that manners must be enforced, and that some people think that they have a "right" not to have manners. (IMHO, we need less rights, more responcibilities)
Also, many schools have a policy towards tape-recording lectures, where you must have PERMISSION, even if you have some form of 'learning disability'. One of the Comm. Colleges I've experienced even had a down-right ban on recordings, but some professors would allow it, if asked.
And some people don't want to spend twice the time organizing notes, as they would just writing it all down.
That is the problem I have with using a computer (or PDA) for notes, to much tweaking, not enough... er.. noting. Why go for 5 types of software/formats for various forms of information, when crude sketches, and rapid jotting works just as good?
Sure, my handwriting is completely illegible, even to myself sometimes, but I get the point across, in no time. Also, if your not trying to quote the prof. verbatum, you pay more attention to class. This is a problem I've noticed in several of my freinds from Comm. College and H.S., nice/pretty verbatum notes worked at lower levels, but quick flow-charting, and little pictures work at higher levels. Kinda stream of thought note-taking. No thought about what I'm jotting down is required, it just happens, and being that I'm paying full attention to lecture, I have perfect association with my notes to the actual lecture.
The only problem is that when I'm in several classes of roughly the same genre, (i.e. philosophy - pysch - soc. - anthropology- history) I sometime find my self cross referencing my notes. Thus causeing me to bomb exams, being that the average prof. doesn't want that degree of abstract though.
Another problem is, I can't share notes with the proverbial "hot chick"... Since my crude flow-charts make no sense to anyone but me. And some of my hasty comments might offend people not privy to my morning-math-class head space.. ("Damn fat bovine math people!")
The only use for a computer on a college campus is papers, research, and programming. And of course UT and Diablo. Oh.. and forcing dorm-mates to look at rotten.com, or goatse.
Actually EVERY game store in my area takes back both PC and console games. Meaning both EB and Gamestop. For cash, not transfer. I recently took back Unreal 2, so I could upgrade my compy, to play Unreal 2. Meaning the I got my nice $50 back as cash.
I think they may not do this for console returns, but being that I don't own a console, I don't care.
Actually, the hanging focus is set on wires, by adding tension they can change the angle of the focus, hence in effect moving the dish. At least this is what my geeky freind says, he may be wrong, but it makes sense.
I'm guessing that it would still have a limited area of observation, though.
Um.. I went to school for Philosophy, and quit because I COULDN'T get payed. The only jobs with a solid philosophy background is writing. Oh.. and... er... ethics.
Now everyone join hand, and pray that the Great Admin in the sky isn't using Windows.
A previous post mentioned the ATI bug as well. Happily I have not noticed it on any Radeon chipsets, though I'm only going on my old 7500, and my freinds 8500, with all the latest drivers and such.
I haven't run RC1 very long (hour or so), but haven't noticed any real nasty oddities while running the gemult on it.
Also, please note, that this is to test for SPECIFIC STABILTY ISSUES, meaning that they probably nkow that there are stability problems, but they fixed it as good as they can without a test. I used to do this with my web-apps, put up a prerelease page and try to get as many people to misbehave as possible, just to find out SPECIFIC bugs. Hence my installing RC1 on a partition, in my testing copy of win2k, not as my primary browser.
I hunt-and-peck, A very fast hunt and peck, without looking, but still I know how to type with a finger. This skill has led to me aquire the habit of eating/drinking/smoking with my other hand, I lift weights, I pet my cat, I bounce a raquet ball of the wall, I play with toys. Whatever. So this is NOT an improvment, I actually loose abilities, and INCREASE wrist movement.
Also, my only problem spot from typing is my fingers, my knucles are trashed. I found a simple logictech trackball (optical) almost completely removed strain. Also it is very durable (about 2.5 yrs worth of nonstop use)and very cleanable. Also with some practice, it is a better gaming interface than any mouse I have met.
If someone really wants to improve my input abilities, they would force computer store to sell left-handed perifreals[sic], nice optical trackballs, with scroll bar, and 3rd button... oh-yeah.
You comment of Blizzards quality is COMPLETELY unfounded. Warcraft IIIs quality is supurb, very pretty, very runable, kinda playable. Let me explain the last line there, I am used to playing TA, where I never need worry about resources, and I can make 100 units in five minutes, with two factories, so all blizzard RTS's are kinda slow paced to me.
IMHO Starcraft kicked TA's ass only because the Blizzard name. While starcraft had a very nice story, and good concept art, TA was technically superior, and was much funner to play/mod. TA has had the best engine in RTSs up until C&C Generals.
Blizzard is good for story. Cavedog was good for inovation (notice my ignoring TA:K).
Also look at the Blizzard titles coming out AFTER Starcraft, Diablo II, LoD, WarIII. How are these bad quality? Please explain this?
Read some Thomas Pynchon, Like The Crying of Lot 49, one of the best multi-layered conspiracy novellas out there. Gravity's Rainbow is also a very good, albeit confusing, novel.
In the same line you can read The Illuminatus! Trilogy, by Robert Shea, and R.A.W., like taking drugs but cheaper. Kinda makes you think about Rummy too, him and that damn Pentagon, IA! Azathoth!.
Bringing me to Lovecraft, good books, great appeal. Much bad pulp, at its best.
Or you can do what I did my last summer, read ALL of the Dune books, by Herbert and his son. I mean EVERYONE of them, in order. He really is the best scifi author out there, the scifi analouge to Tolkein.
Read all the Jeff Noon you can get. Some of his recent books are hard to get stateside, but definatly worth the search (amazon.co.uk?). I'd read Vurt, Pollen, then Pixel Juice. Kinda like psychodelic cyberpunk with feathers. Must be my favorite obscure author. Falling Out of Cars is also good, but impossible to find. Americans have no taste (being an american I am offended by my own statement!)
Right now I am reading a very good book, called Six Degrees, by Duncan Watts, its about the science of networks, from a semi-sociological POV, very good.
Another good book is The End of the American Era, by someone or another. Don't have it in front of me because I'm moving. Very good polisci book. Or Jihad vs. McWorld, by someone else located in a cardboard box right now, also good reading.
Or you could just go for the classics, read some philosophy. Kant, Kierkriegard, Nietzsche, Plato.
Innovation is as big as its ever been. You cannot have a market with infinite innovation, it is simply impossible. Lets say you start with 1 inovative game (or movie, or music, or book), meaning innovative in a "catch the popular imagination" sence, and not in the self-masterbatory "look I'm creative" sense. From there people will copy that forumla, meaning it is no longer innovative, it infact becomes a cliche, including the orignal game.
So now you have 1000 games, one innovation, and 999 variations, some of which EVOLVE and MUTATE the original innovation (better rendering, less clunky engine/system, better plot), but all following on the one original concept. Then the 1001st game is another true innovation, then the cycle repeats until the 2001st game... And so on. So in your hypothetical market you have 3000 games, and 2 actual full inovations, and probably another 500 almost-innovative-but-following-a-theme titles. And some odd number of games that combine various elements.
Look at CS and the HUGE market of clones. First you get the whole "stealth" genre started with CS, and Tom Clancy decides "bring out the clones", and the market gets innundated with CS wannabes with better graphics, better controls, better play systems, yadda yadda yadda. Then come sub-innovation, team controls! Then comes another grip of CS clones with team controls, with continueing improvment (or not) in AI and such. Somewhere in there WWII sims become big thanks to MoH, then the genres combine and mutate together.
This is how it will be from now on. We're all suffering from back-in-the-day syndrome. The problem is, "back in the day" commercial video games were young, and not fully developed. Look at a biological system for an analogy. When a enviroment opens up, evolution EXPLODES, until every niche is full, after that it is just variations on themes, building better adaptions to the pre-existing niches, and against competition.
Back in the day video games were the new enviroment, the possibilities were endless, all we could see is new niches waiting to be filled, inovation ran rampant, everything was new. But as time went on, these niches filled with tried and true forms, and the amount of new niches started to decline rapidly, inovation slowed, variation increased. Bringing us to today, where pretty much every niche has been tried, there may be some new ones, down in the bottom of the entertaiment ocean yet to be tried, but the prime real estate is pretty much full.
Pretty much a universal.
My 2c.
Yeah, Bad Trip. Used to be hosted on Battlegroundz. com... or somesuch... badtrip.battlegrounds.net 6969, no? One of my old BBSer freinds moved to Texas to marry one of the admins.
MUCH! MUDs had the nice property that they were for the most part self-limiting, meaning that you didn't have the average EQ person playing on them. Also muds, do to lower player amounts, could evolve their own personality, either for good or ill.
Also on MUDs, the line between Admin, and "end-user" was much more blurred, since the Imp of the mud was usually a player, and hence accessable to comments and suggestions. If you schmoozed enough, you could become a builder, or and admin yourself. Not so in todays MMORPGS.
Also being that there was a body of MUDs (as opposed to a handful of MMORGS) you had CHOICE in what you wanted to play. Today I could be playing Alter Aeon, tomorrow Vurt, the next day a nice Shadowrun MUSH. I'm not stuck in the swords and socerty crap forever.
Oh... and they were (mostly) FREE. Yep, no $50 to buy the game, then $20/mounth to have the privalege to hang out with the average MMORPG folk. Back in the day I paid $10/m for MBBS access, this MBBS had Tintin,telnet, and dialup support. Plus random inane chat possibilities.
Also muds had a sence of family, and fond memories, they weren't just another profit driven game, they were labors of love, a union between players and admin. Ask any old school MUDer and they will recount their favorite MUDs, with a gleam of nostalgia in their eyes, and how many of us will be doing that for EQ. I dare say most of us will try to keep that little phase in the closet ten years from now, with damn good reason.
Also, MUDs invented clans. REAL clans, clans that mattered.
For the record, I used to play on Bad Trips, Alter Aeon... And of course my two favorites, Genocide, and the ripped port NeoGeno. Plus I built on verious muds (including NeoGeno), and MUSHes.
I really hope that they keep the same sprite graphics, that is one of the things that made the game good, was the fact that MECHANICS took precidence over graphics and flash. The main reason I bought the series is that it was a good table-top engine.
I hope that they make the NPCs controllable during combat with the Tactics system, allowing me to control where my fat guy in a wife-beater shoots his Panzor or CAWS. The AI in Fallout2 was TERRIBLE, Vic (my npc of choice) really liked to target THROUGH my head.
Also I hope they better balance the game, so just picking high perception and agility isn't a true path to winning, everytime. If you want to win Fallout2 in under 30hours, simply tag Small Guns, Steal, and Energy Weapons, have over 8 perception, and over 9 agility. Poof. You 0wn. Make melee and hth more fruitful.
Oh... And we need more dogmeat.
(aside: I'm digging the Fallout Fantasy thing, my and my freind used to wish that Square and Black Isle would join forces, and make either Final Fallout, or Fallout Fantasy... Now through some Id into the mix, and you got Final Fallout Doom)
He forgot the defrag! How can anyone call there computer clean without:
1. Spybot (and/or ad-aware)
2. reboot
3. Uninstall all unused crap/windows stuff
4. reboot
5. Check for new drivers/uninstall old drivers
6. reboot
7. Run windows silly "clean-disk" util
8. manually delete windows/temp directory
9. clear Mozilla or Firebird cache
10. delete all old useless penis enlarger spam
11. reboot
12. run a DLL scanner/remover
13. reboot
14. run regcleaner, followed by MS's regclean
15. reboot
16. full scandisk (w/ surface scan)
17. clear reboot (disable win swap, and all startups, and SCREEN SAVER!)
18. defrag
19. Goto taco bell, see a movie.
20. done.
Or the simple route, "shutdown to DOS prompt"
"format c:", "Y"
Kinda offtopic, but interesting... /. is usually the bastion of privacy paranoia, until it comes to their evening game of CS or Diablo. Then they stop all of the privacy banter and bring up unique ID's, Real Name registration systems, and all incompasing databases.
Oh... the nonstop, nocongruent[sic] hours wasted playing Outpost 2. "Wow, I have some memories about Outpost 2!" An hour later, after install, "MORAL IS TERRIBLE"... 10 seconds later, "THIS GAME IS CRAP!"...
Now... Diakatana is the one game that I will NEVER install.... EVER... Damn Frog Wonderland.
I have a couple of points to bring in....
You spoke like a true post-modernist. First you pick what you want to say, then you find a source, then you procede to find what you want. Big woop, political correctness, sans science. Please notice your use of semi-qualifiers, such as "seems to be", and "sounds like"... Not quite the grounds for any form of objective proof, no?
Also, observe the Freudian conotations, "this particular female voice is derided and mocked for having male attitudes but being unable to act them out.", why not just say "PENIS ENVY" and get it over with.
From what I've read of your comment, you make it sound like a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition. If the female character is assertive, she get's mocked, and is a bad image. If the female is passive, it is a bad image. Great, no famales in video games then.. Oh wait.. then your a sexist pig, nevermind.
As a gamer of a long time (sometime in the mid/early 80's), I have yet to actually form an opinion of any class of person from video games, television, or movies. And most of the people I know are the same, relying on PERSONAL experience to form opinions. Hell, you could even say that the KKK and the Nazis formed their opinions from non-media experiences. Meaning familial/societal.
In my experience, most of these "covert media discriminatory conspiracies" are formed by media savvy liberals looking for office, and not by rational experience. These "descriminatory memes" are then spread by a sensationalist media, mostly for ratings. Just like all those silly sociological "theories" that claim that there are no inate differences between sexes, utter crap, proven wrong in hundreds of actual scientific studies. But opinion is more colorful.
Also, if media IS sexist (strong if), then shouldn't we be looking for the actual cause? Media does not form itself, it is based on that which sells. Things sell because a majority of consumers find it desirable. Just like violent games, and sex on TV, people must watch it before it becomes ubiquitous.
I agree. While I really like my gaming to be very pretty (look ma, see that pimple on that Skarj's ass?), I also don't really find it necissary to buy a new card for $200, every 6 months. Mostly I upgrade to keep up with development, and not to "weewee-wave". (okay the 1gig of DDR wasn't STRICTLY necissary)
I just did a full upgrade of my box, because I didn't meet the min requirments for a couple games. Mind you I was still a proud owner of a Voodoo2 16meg, which allowed me to play Warcraft3 with full textures, and get a decent FPS from UT. But Morrowind and Unreal2 told me to upgrade.
Though, if I had a larger disposable income, I would probably be buying a 256 ATI. Just so I don't need another card for another 2 years.
Kay, I concede some points. Total Annihilation was the first RTS with 3d untis, and terrain, and is still the best RTS out there, if you can find it, and/or stand the community. The "Hero" system is a bit of a borrow, the fantasy world is, yes, a copy of all the other Warcraft series, which is to be expected for a sequel.
I personally like micro in War3, TA is my other game, and it has NO micro, just horde tactics, and overkill. So micro is a nice change, having to think about unit choice is also nice.
But what Blizzard is good for is WORLD. Not story, mind, it is good, but not groundbreaking. But the Warcraft WORLD is wonderfully crafted, and planned. Same thing with Diablo, someone put a lot of thought into making the universe colorful. Like the LoTR or Dune of video games, there is more than just what you see going on.
Yeah, I almost broke down and bought a GC, when metroid came out. Though Zelda isn't really my taste anymore, I wouldn't have minded Zelda64, but I still did't like it as much as the SNES one, or the original. Ditto for Windwalker.
But my problem is the opposite, after the upgrading I can't afford jack. But also I'm going to be able to play DoomIII as its meant to be played. Also I do FPS and RTS gameing, and consoles are not the medium for them, unless I want a confusing network adapter, and a keyboard. I guess I'm an old gamer dog, no new tricks for me.
Two reasons. I can't pick which one, all three have good games... Xbox is graphically superior, PS2 had square and some other good series, and GC has Metroid, Zelda, and Contra.
:( Also with both Nintendo and Sony talking already of GCII, and PS3 already, it makes me wonder why I should bother.
Second; there is nothing wrong with my PSX, Dreamcast, and NES. They aren't broken, the DC is showing signs though
Also, I am a PC person. I had a C64 before I could walk, I grew up on an 808x. I like my compy, I think it has better graphics. That and, MODS. I had counterstrike before any of these silly console kiddies ever heard of it. I get to play Tribunal, no Xbox gamer does, I'm also gonna be able to play the next Morrowind Expansion, before any Xbox person. Same for all the UT2k3 mods, no community for Championship.
I also dig strategy, and console don't play that.
I agree, the server patch was pretty henious. And come to think of it, 1.08 was REALLY nasty. But the server patch is pretty much okay in my books, since I really dislike bnet, nice in theory, but in practice, you get what you pay for, a bunch of '1337" lamers. And the server patch was trying to semi-fix this problem, and if it went to far, GREAT, at least their trying. Most gaming companies wouldn't care, you already bought the product, so who cares about the enviroment, I mean DII isn't marketed like evercrack, online atmosphere isn't important to marketshare. But then again, it must pay off, since Blizzard has millions of chronic repeat customers, they see the blizzard logo, and buy it, no thought. (I was unemployed and broke when LoD, and War3 came out, and gambled (literally) to buy LoD, and sold shit load of old hardware for LoD, and called in ALL my old debts)
And 1.08... well, sucked. Changing the game to something that people didn't payfor, AFTER they paid for it sucks, ethically. But you don't have to patch... The path to whatnot, and something about good intentions.
But then again, you BOUGHT D2X? No? Even after what they did in 1.08.