Okay, let's say for hypothetical sake that we buy the argument that the lawyer is making. There might be a connection.
What sort of character did the perpetrator roleplay? Was he a spellcaster? A warrior? If he was anything other than a thief, he probably never bothered with knives, much less stabbing. When you think D&D, most people think "Hack & Slash" not "Poke & Stab." And heck, even if he was a thief, D&D thieves are more stealth than anything else.
Now it could turn out that his character had nothing but knives - Tons of knives in a variety of shapes and colors. It could be that he had carefully built up his "stabbing" skill. It might be that he had posters of knives, subscribed to knife magazines, collected knives, and had the word "stab" written across his knuckles. Does that sound like someone who was messed up by a fantasy roleplaying game, or someone who is just obsessed with knives?
Why doesn't someone do something about the far less imaginary threat of baseball. We've all seen baseball-bat related violence, and there's certainly no denying the link there. Ban baseball!
Seems they could just about pass the entire series off as building up to just the online game. Even having the game be the final plot twist, which would explain everything else in the series: It was all just in a game.
The architect, the other "ones", Neo developing powers in the "real" world... All because the whole thing was an entertainment simulation for our level of reality.
It explains everything. It also nullifies any point the franchise had.
Which completely loses its point by namecalling at the front end.
My post was not meant as a jab at OIT people in general (although it was badly phrased to sound like it was). It was primarily targeted at my own university's OIT, who, for clarity's sake, are imbeciles. Just because you're intelligent, don't assume that all OIT people are.
And, backing up the claim that my local OIT are not quite on par, intelligence-wise: When I cited that claim regarding IRC, that wasn't entirely correct. They claimed that 1/3 of their traffic was occuring on port 6667, saying that IRC was causing this. DCC transfers don't take place on 6667. It was later shown that they were lying about the bandwidth issue.
Further, the kiddie-porn thing is a non issue here. There's too many other methods of obtaining such content that P2P isn't the real contender.
So, Scott, apologies to you and your fellows, but please don't stand up for other OIT people just because they are OIT people. They could be OIT and still be jerks/morons/malevolent demons from a dimension of suffering.
Of course, this still leaves the original question ("Is bittorrent 4.0 mostly unblockable?") unanswered.
I recall some time ago, the author of BitTornado penned an open letter to University IT offices, to the effect of, "Stop blocking bittorrent, or else the next version of the bittorrent standard will be next to impossible to block."
Do any of the new features provide for this non-blockability? I'm particularly interested, as mine is one of the Universities which dislikes BT in general. (Official quote from our OIT dept: "Sorry about Bittorrent. We have to block that site.")
Interesting claim that BT accounts for 1/3 of all internet traffic. My University OIT recently claimed that IRC was taking up 1/3 of their traffic, and blocked it. Apparently, OIT people like having piles and piles of unused bandwidth.
Well, somewhat near perfect. I keep getting an odd error which causes the elevating platform to be stuck in the "up" position, with the Davros target glitched, and all three Dalek gates glued shut. Everything else works fine, but that blasted platform randomly goes kaput.
And I still haven't figured out exactly what causes the "Transmat Oops" payoff. Sometimes, when you hit the Transmat target, instead of getting a new doctor, the display briefly shows the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) morph into a cow. The bonus is called "Transmat Oops" and it remains a mystery even to those who are obsessive about such things.
It's not a question of "Can Sci-Fi fans cope?" Sure, we can cope. We just have to put up with far more crap than any other kind of niche market. If there's a decent Sci-Fi show on the air at any given time, chances are it A) Isn't advertised, B) Isn't in a consistent timeslot, and C) Frequently gets preempted for other things (like sports - See Firefly, or actually, any Fox-based SF show for a good example).
This is largely due to the fact that TV executives don't like science fiction in the first place. Even the Sci-Fi channel has recently been frighteningly short on actual Sci-Fi, and pretty heavy on Monster-of-the-Week and Fantasy.
It's also a matter of the networks keeping their word. Farscape fans were particularly upset at the cancellation of Farscape because the fifth season was meant to be the final season. This was pretty clearly stated by Rockne & Co fairly early on, and cancelling at the end of the fourth season was a clearly antagonistic move. Firefly fans got ticked because the show was never given a fair chance at all (Ask Rupert Murdock why) despite excellent writing, effects, and direction.
Perhaps the best example of this problem was the Fox series Sliders, starring John Rhys-Davies as Professor Maximilian Arturo. The show was very clever and well thought out, right up until the third season, when each episode became a copycat of a recent movie. The writers were under pressure from the executives to tone down the science of the show, and amp up the "x-tremeness." So, midway through the third season, Rhys-Davies, disgusted with the direction the show was taking, wrote himself out, killing his character. Of course, the whole time, the show was struggling against poor budgets, floating timeslot syndrome, lack of public awareness, and constant preempting, and finally was canned a few episodes after Rhys-Davies departure. Then there was the SciFi channel's resurrection of the show, which is best left unmentioned.
The problem isn't that SF fans are obsessive. The problem is that the TV executives don't care about SF, don't understand or like SF, and generally aren't willing to put forth any effort to help SF.
The Late Great Sidney Sackson
on
Fun Tabletop Games?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
While I've seen a few mentions of Sid's works here (Most notably Acquire), there are other works by him which are worth looking into. Specifically, I look at this statement:
We have worked through the gamut of games...
And wonder if you are aware of Sid's wonderful book, A Gamut of Games which contains protoypical versions of many of his best games, including Focus and Solitaire Dice, as well as some great discussions on gaming from a gamers POV, from a collector's POV, and from a designer's POV. The book is sadly out of print, but used copies can be found in all the old familiar places.
Next, you'll likely want to pick up a copy of Sid's answer to Clue, that being Sleuth. I find it superior to even Mystery of the Abbey (Which I would probably like better if I could figure out a way to keep track of where stuff is after mass), and it only costs $15 retail.
Another really interesting game by Sid (and currently being published by Face2Face games, who publishes the current versions of Sleuth and Buyword as well) is I'm the Boss, which is purely a dealmaking game, with plenty of cutthroat action.
I'd recommend Buyword too, except I've never played it.
You, sir, have demonstrated that your family is part of the problem! I doubt this will have much of an effect on you directly, as very few teenagers will take the stance of, "Gee, I wish my parents would take a more active role in my life."
Of course, the true litmus test is who you blame for your own actions.
And speaking of Strip clubs, they don't serve food or alcohol, due to zoning laws. WTF?! In Texas, you can go to a nice place, order a big steak, drink a beer, and watch hot women on stage that are of super model quality. Nothing lewd going on, its what mens clubs should be like.
I believe you need to look up the definition of "lewd." You are talking about a strip club here.
Anyway, this one I would support, if for no other reasons than to protect the strippers: Anywhere you have alcohol, you have drunk people. Not everyone, just some. Everywhere you have drunk people, you probably have at least one mean drunk.
Mean drunk + Strippers = Overly grabby mean drunk, and violent when confronted. Sure, the establishment should keep him from getting that drunk, but some can hide it well. Besides, that is, again, placing blame on someone other than the wrongdoer.
See? A Christian who isn't concerned with taking away your right to look at naked (or nearly naked) women. I don't support it, but at least if it's going to be done, the girls should be kept safe.
Don't know why they don't allow food, though. That's a puzzler.
You'd have a better chance (and a more interesting case) suing Stephen King for making you into a demonic ancient evil from beyond the stars, whose very gaze pierces the human soul, and renders the observer an empty shell to be occupied by another such dark entity.
For those who might be wondering, "Gosh, what could GW have done that was so bad?" consider the following:
GW has set up a system whereby hobby-level shops (Mom-n-Pop type independently owned stores) can obtain virtually anything GW makes for 50% retail. That gives the stores a 100% markup, which is good for small stores. So far, so good.
However, when sales in any geographic region reach a certain saturation level, GW moves in, installing a Games Workshop store, undercutting the retail stores they supplied to by about 25%. If Warhammer was the primary source of income for the local Mom-n-Pop stores (which it probably was, if sales reached the saturation level), the Mom-n-Pop stores die. The local Warhammer market dries up, and the GW store moves out.
Add to that the fact that, in competitions, the paint job on your army counts more towards winning the tournament than winning a battle, and it's obvious why many are leery of the whole thing.
Myself, I don't trust any game you need a tape measure to play.
Okay, it's pretty clear that most people in "developing countries" can't even afford a $100 computer, and this thing needs to primarily be given away. After all, it's only being made available for purchase to governments, and you have to buy millions of the things at a time.
So, what are the odds that, once these things find their way into your average Joe Thirdworld's hands, they discover a lot of Americans would happily pay what in some cases far exceeds their own annual income for the little box that they aren't using?
"You want pay one-hundred US-dollar for computer?"
"Yeah."
-long pause- "One fifty?"
"Sure, fine."
Point is, geeks in the developed nations want these things, third world families do not. Third world families want money*, which Geeks frequently have. There's a mutually beneficial solution here which almost makes more sense than dumping millions of bargain computers on nations lacking the infrastructure to use them.
* - Strictly speaking, they want to survive. Money makes this significantly easier.
I've long suspected that somewhere in the dark recesses of the Walt Disney complex, there rests a small room full of activity. In the center stands a device about the size of a photocopier, with a large opening at one end, and a slot at the other. Out of the slot, a constant flurry of movie and television scripts fly, piling up incoherently on the ground. At the other end, a migrant worker of indeterminate origin shovels manure into the large opening, fueling the device.
Also, for some reason, I picture the thing being crank-driven, with a monkey turning the crank.
I suppose I would apply the same thinking to modern music. I just hadn't thought about it that much.
It's reasonable to say that xBox systems outsold PS2 systems in the last quarter, but that's hardware sales. You know, where both companies lose money. MS loses more money per unit than Sony, although I lack the actual figures to determine who that puts ahead.
That said, try comparing Q4-2004 software sales. I suspect that, with both GTA: San Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3 on its side, the PS2 pulls out a heavy lead over the xBox's Halo 2. All of which has null/void to do with the Playstation Portable.
Any time an article regarding kids who do some fool thing and blame it on GTA or Random-Violent-Game-of-the-Day, and Slashdot turns into a great big billboard reading "You're a rotten parent."
A humorous article gets posted regarding blurred lines between games and reality, and we see hundreds of horror stories involving people thinking about how to optimise their drive to work with regards to the rules of GTA3, Burnout 3 (crash mode), Doom, Quake, or other Random-Violent-Game-of-the-Day.
Consider that the intellectuals are generally given to better self-control and introspection than your average human. Consider how close some of these stories got to becoming true horror stories. Consider that teenagers generally find the concepts of self-control and introspection more alien than most people do.
This is starting to sound like the people who say alcohol is harmless, then proceed to tell the stories of the last time they rode home naked in the bed of a weaving pickup truck because they forgot how to put their pants on.
SNK is dead, long live SNK Playmore. Same developers, same properties, same core product focus. Which is to say, they make some of the neatest 2D games in a market where no one makes 2D games.
Patrick McGoohan, star of the 1960's TV series Secret Agent Man (AKA Danger Man) later went on to write, direct, and star in a show called The Prisoner, which basically amounts to a paranoid Orwellian nightmare mixed with the whimsical trappings of Alice in Wonderland.
In one episode, titled Hammer into Anvil, the protagonist, Number Six, who is constantly being spied upon by the sinister forces who control his mysterious prison (called only "The Village), decides to turn the tables on the chief warden (called "Number Two"). He begins to send secret, encoded messages to nonexistant entities, indicating that he is not really a prisoner, but a mole sent to determine the strength of Village security and staff.
Eventually, he drives the current "Number Two" to a nervous breakdown. It's one of the best episodes.
It seemed somehow relevant.
Battery life not the deciding factor at the moment
on
PSP Opened up and Exposed
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Actually, for most prospective handheld customers, battery life is not going to be the deciding factor if they're thinking "Should I get a Nintendo DS or a Sony PSP?" For most people, the deciding factor is the fact that the DS is available right now (sort of) with 400,000 more units on the way. It's already been revealed that there will be a shortage of PSP systems at launch, which isn't going to happen in America for another month or so anyway. This gives the DS a nearly 1,000,000 unit head start, with the PSP starting slow anyway.
I can say with strong certainty that the Nintendo DS will outperform the Sony PSP in terms of sales until at least 2nd Quarter 2005, when the second batch of PSPs will hit the market, and probably for a good time after that, simply because there will be more units available.
That's strange, I could have sworn that an acronym had to form an existing word. DS isn't a word in the English language (or any other language that I'm aware of), so it is not an acronym. On top of that, it [i]is[/i] the product's name.
I see an awful lot of posts saying things like "(My Favorite Game) rocks! They should have included it."
True, your favorite game may indeed rock, but was it first released (or reprinted after a prolonged out-of-print period) this year? That's what these lists are about.
Don't get me wrong. Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence, El Grande, Power Grid, Goa, etc., all make fantastic gifts.
On the other hand, why has there been no mention on either list or here on/. of War of the Ring. Don't be decieved: It is not simply "Lord of the Rings Axis & Allies." This is a very deep, hugely detailed game which can duplicate nearly every situation from the books.
Ummm... The Internet Top 100 Games list uses a sample set of 698 people. Boardgamegeek has thousands of users, and Puerto Rico's Bayesian average rating of 8.73 is based on a sample set of 2855 people (currently, likely to increase as everyone's Board Game Awareness Quotient goes up).
How you think that the IGT100 is more scientific when it uses the basically same methodology (it assumes every game to have a starting score of 3.25, which is averaged with submitted values to keep games from actually reaching 10, but the value of 3.25 is arbitrary) with a smaller sample set is beyond me.
It occurs to me that, since the "what _____ would you bring to a desert island" question has been posed so many times over the years, that the conceptual desert island is now so well stocked with just about every possible _____ as to be a veritable shangri-la of great books, games, music, popular celebrities, beautiful women, and of course, mountains of great food.
I would even go so far as to say it probably has the highest standard of living, lowest taxes, and is neutral in all wars, despite having a stronger defense than all other nations combined, simply by virtue of the fact that people perpetually keep sending them random items of the highest quality, which they can then turn around and sell on eBay. Just ask yourself, how many gun enthusiasts idly wonder, "What assault rifle would you want on a desert island?" How about dictators thinking "What weapon of mass destruction?" You see? They have everything.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, let's say for hypothetical sake that we buy the argument that the lawyer is making. There might be a connection.
What sort of character did the perpetrator roleplay? Was he a spellcaster? A warrior? If he was anything other than a thief, he probably never bothered with knives, much less stabbing. When you think D&D, most people think "Hack & Slash" not "Poke & Stab." And heck, even if he was a thief, D&D thieves are more stealth than anything else.
Now it could turn out that his character had nothing but knives - Tons of knives in a variety of shapes and colors. It could be that he had carefully built up his "stabbing" skill. It might be that he had posters of knives, subscribed to knife magazines, collected knives, and had the word "stab" written across his knuckles. Does that sound like someone who was messed up by a fantasy roleplaying game, or someone who is just obsessed with knives?
Why doesn't someone do something about the far less imaginary threat of baseball. We've all seen baseball-bat related violence, and there's certainly no denying the link there. Ban baseball!
The Matrix... Online.
Seems they could just about pass the entire series off as building up to just the online game. Even having the game be the final plot twist, which would explain everything else in the series: It was all just in a game.
The architect, the other "ones", Neo developing powers in the "real" world... All because the whole thing was an entertainment simulation for our level of reality.
It explains everything. It also nullifies any point the franchise had.
Which completely loses its point by namecalling at the front end.
My post was not meant as a jab at OIT people in general (although it was badly phrased to sound like it was). It was primarily targeted at my own university's OIT, who, for clarity's sake, are imbeciles. Just because you're intelligent, don't assume that all OIT people are.
And, backing up the claim that my local OIT are not quite on par, intelligence-wise: When I cited that claim regarding IRC, that wasn't entirely correct. They claimed that 1/3 of their traffic was occuring on port 6667, saying that IRC was causing this. DCC transfers don't take place on 6667. It was later shown that they were lying about the bandwidth issue.
Further, the kiddie-porn thing is a non issue here. There's too many other methods of obtaining such content that P2P isn't the real contender.
So, Scott, apologies to you and your fellows, but please don't stand up for other OIT people just because they are OIT people. They could be OIT and still be jerks/morons/malevolent demons from a dimension of suffering.
Of course, this still leaves the original question ("Is bittorrent 4.0 mostly unblockable?") unanswered.
I recall some time ago, the author of BitTornado penned an open letter to University IT offices, to the effect of, "Stop blocking bittorrent, or else the next version of the bittorrent standard will be next to impossible to block."
Do any of the new features provide for this non-blockability? I'm particularly interested, as mine is one of the Universities which dislikes BT in general. (Official quote from our OIT dept: "Sorry about Bittorrent. We have to block that site.")
Interesting claim that BT accounts for 1/3 of all internet traffic. My University OIT recently claimed that IRC was taking up 1/3 of their traffic, and blocked it. Apparently, OIT people like having piles and piles of unused bandwidth.
Well, somewhat near perfect. I keep getting an odd error which causes the elevating platform to be stuck in the "up" position, with the Davros target glitched, and all three Dalek gates glued shut. Everything else works fine, but that blasted platform randomly goes kaput.
And I still haven't figured out exactly what causes the "Transmat Oops" payoff. Sometimes, when you hit the Transmat target, instead of getting a new doctor, the display briefly shows the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) morph into a cow. The bonus is called "Transmat Oops" and it remains a mystery even to those who are obsessive about such things.
It's not a question of "Can Sci-Fi fans cope?" Sure, we can cope. We just have to put up with far more crap than any other kind of niche market. If there's a decent Sci-Fi show on the air at any given time, chances are it A) Isn't advertised, B) Isn't in a consistent timeslot, and C) Frequently gets preempted for other things (like sports - See Firefly, or actually, any Fox-based SF show for a good example).
This is largely due to the fact that TV executives don't like science fiction in the first place. Even the Sci-Fi channel has recently been frighteningly short on actual Sci-Fi, and pretty heavy on Monster-of-the-Week and Fantasy.
It's also a matter of the networks keeping their word. Farscape fans were particularly upset at the cancellation of Farscape because the fifth season was meant to be the final season. This was pretty clearly stated by Rockne & Co fairly early on, and cancelling at the end of the fourth season was a clearly antagonistic move. Firefly fans got ticked because the show was never given a fair chance at all (Ask Rupert Murdock why) despite excellent writing, effects, and direction.
Perhaps the best example of this problem was the Fox series Sliders, starring John Rhys-Davies as Professor Maximilian Arturo. The show was very clever and well thought out, right up until the third season, when each episode became a copycat of a recent movie. The writers were under pressure from the executives to tone down the science of the show, and amp up the "x-tremeness." So, midway through the third season, Rhys-Davies, disgusted with the direction the show was taking, wrote himself out, killing his character. Of course, the whole time, the show was struggling against poor budgets, floating timeslot syndrome, lack of public awareness, and constant preempting, and finally was canned a few episodes after Rhys-Davies departure. Then there was the SciFi channel's resurrection of the show, which is best left unmentioned.
The problem isn't that SF fans are obsessive. The problem is that the TV executives don't care about SF, don't understand or like SF, and generally aren't willing to put forth any effort to help SF.
While I've seen a few mentions of Sid's works here (Most notably Acquire), there are other works by him which are worth looking into. Specifically, I look at this statement:
We have worked through the gamut of games...
And wonder if you are aware of Sid's wonderful book, A Gamut of Games which contains protoypical versions of many of his best games, including Focus and Solitaire Dice, as well as some great discussions on gaming from a gamers POV, from a collector's POV, and from a designer's POV. The book is sadly out of print, but used copies can be found in all the old familiar places.
Next, you'll likely want to pick up a copy of Sid's answer to Clue, that being Sleuth. I find it superior to even Mystery of the Abbey (Which I would probably like better if I could figure out a way to keep track of where stuff is after mass), and it only costs $15 retail.
Another really interesting game by Sid (and currently being published by Face2Face games, who publishes the current versions of Sleuth and Buyword as well) is I'm the Boss, which is purely a dealmaking game, with plenty of cutthroat action.
I'd recommend Buyword too, except I've never played it.
You, sir, have demonstrated that your family is part of the problem! I doubt this will have much of an effect on you directly, as very few teenagers will take the stance of, "Gee, I wish my parents would take a more active role in my life."
Of course, the true litmus test is who you blame for your own actions.
And speaking of Strip clubs, they don't serve food or alcohol, due to zoning laws. WTF?! In Texas, you can go to a nice place, order a big steak, drink a beer, and watch hot women on stage that are of super model quality. Nothing lewd going on, its what mens clubs should be like.
I believe you need to look up the definition of "lewd." You are talking about a strip club here.
Anyway, this one I would support, if for no other reasons than to protect the strippers: Anywhere you have alcohol, you have drunk people. Not everyone, just some. Everywhere you have drunk people, you probably have at least one mean drunk.
Mean drunk + Strippers = Overly grabby mean drunk, and violent when confronted. Sure, the establishment should keep him from getting that drunk, but some can hide it well. Besides, that is, again, placing blame on someone other than the wrongdoer.
See? A Christian who isn't concerned with taking away your right to look at naked (or nearly naked) women. I don't support it, but at least if it's going to be done, the girls should be kept safe.
Don't know why they don't allow food, though. That's a puzzler.
You'd have a better chance (and a more interesting case) suing Stephen King for making you into a demonic ancient evil from beyond the stars, whose very gaze pierces the human soul, and renders the observer an empty shell to be occupied by another such dark entity.
Actually, now I want to read that story...
Am I missing something? Valkyrie Profile was definitely released in the US. I had a copy at one point. Played the heck out of it.
For those who might be wondering, "Gosh, what could GW have done that was so bad?" consider the following:
GW has set up a system whereby hobby-level shops (Mom-n-Pop type independently owned stores) can obtain virtually anything GW makes for 50% retail. That gives the stores a 100% markup, which is good for small stores. So far, so good.
However, when sales in any geographic region reach a certain saturation level, GW moves in, installing a Games Workshop store, undercutting the retail stores they supplied to by about 25%. If Warhammer was the primary source of income for the local Mom-n-Pop stores (which it probably was, if sales reached the saturation level), the Mom-n-Pop stores die. The local Warhammer market dries up, and the GW store moves out.
Add to that the fact that, in competitions, the paint job on your army counts more towards winning the tournament than winning a battle, and it's obvious why many are leery of the whole thing.
Myself, I don't trust any game you need a tape measure to play.
Okay, it's pretty clear that most people in "developing countries" can't even afford a $100 computer, and this thing needs to primarily be given away. After all, it's only being made available for purchase to governments, and you have to buy millions of the things at a time.
So, what are the odds that, once these things find their way into your average Joe Thirdworld's hands, they discover a lot of Americans would happily pay what in some cases far exceeds their own annual income for the little box that they aren't using?
"You want pay one-hundred US-dollar for computer?"
"Yeah."
-long pause- "One fifty?"
"Sure, fine."
Point is, geeks in the developed nations want these things, third world families do not. Third world families want money*, which Geeks frequently have. There's a mutually beneficial solution here which almost makes more sense than dumping millions of bargain computers on nations lacking the infrastructure to use them.
* - Strictly speaking, they want to survive. Money makes this significantly easier.
I've long suspected that somewhere in the dark recesses of the Walt Disney complex, there rests a small room full of activity. In the center stands a device about the size of a photocopier, with a large opening at one end, and a slot at the other. Out of the slot, a constant flurry of movie and television scripts fly, piling up incoherently on the ground. At the other end, a migrant worker of indeterminate origin shovels manure into the large opening, fueling the device.
Also, for some reason, I picture the thing being crank-driven, with a monkey turning the crank.
I suppose I would apply the same thinking to modern music. I just hadn't thought about it that much.
It's reasonable to say that xBox systems outsold PS2 systems in the last quarter, but that's hardware sales. You know, where both companies lose money. MS loses more money per unit than Sony, although I lack the actual figures to determine who that puts ahead.
That said, try comparing Q4-2004 software sales. I suspect that, with both GTA: San Andreas and Metal Gear Solid 3 on its side, the PS2 pulls out a heavy lead over the xBox's Halo 2. All of which has null/void to do with the Playstation Portable.
Any time an article regarding kids who do some fool thing and blame it on GTA or Random-Violent-Game-of-the-Day, and Slashdot turns into a great big billboard reading "You're a rotten parent."
A humorous article gets posted regarding blurred lines between games and reality, and we see hundreds of horror stories involving people thinking about how to optimise their drive to work with regards to the rules of GTA3, Burnout 3 (crash mode), Doom, Quake, or other Random-Violent-Game-of-the-Day.
Consider that the intellectuals are generally given to better self-control and introspection than your average human. Consider how close some of these stories got to becoming true horror stories. Consider that teenagers generally find the concepts of self-control and introspection more alien than most people do.
This is starting to sound like the people who say alcohol is harmless, then proceed to tell the stories of the last time they rode home naked in the bed of a weaving pickup truck because they forgot how to put their pants on.
SNK is dead, long live SNK Playmore. Same developers, same properties, same core product focus. Which is to say, they make some of the neatest 2D games in a market where no one makes 2D games.
iddkfa
Ask me again in 10 years.
Santa gets the job done the same way most Slashdotters do: Through distributed networking.
By that token, his personal existance is irrelevant, as the network continues to exist and operate without the central hub.
Patrick McGoohan, star of the 1960's TV series Secret Agent Man (AKA Danger Man) later went on to write, direct, and star in a show called The Prisoner, which basically amounts to a paranoid Orwellian nightmare mixed with the whimsical trappings of Alice in Wonderland.
In one episode, titled Hammer into Anvil, the protagonist, Number Six, who is constantly being spied upon by the sinister forces who control his mysterious prison (called only "The Village), decides to turn the tables on the chief warden (called "Number Two"). He begins to send secret, encoded messages to nonexistant entities, indicating that he is not really a prisoner, but a mole sent to determine the strength of Village security and staff.
Eventually, he drives the current "Number Two" to a nervous breakdown. It's one of the best episodes.
It seemed somehow relevant.
Actually, for most prospective handheld customers, battery life is not going to be the deciding factor if they're thinking "Should I get a Nintendo DS or a Sony PSP?" For most people, the deciding factor is the fact that the DS is available right now (sort of) with 400,000 more units on the way. It's already been revealed that there will be a shortage of PSP systems at launch, which isn't going to happen in America for another month or so anyway. This gives the DS a nearly 1,000,000 unit head start, with the PSP starting slow anyway.
I can say with strong certainty that the Nintendo DS will outperform the Sony PSP in terms of sales until at least 2nd Quarter 2005, when the second batch of PSPs will hit the market, and probably for a good time after that, simply because there will be more units available.
That's strange, I could have sworn that an acronym had to form an existing word. DS isn't a word in the English language (or any other language that I'm aware of), so it is not an acronym. On top of that, it [i]is[/i] the product's name.
I see an awful lot of posts saying things like "(My Favorite Game) rocks! They should have included it."
/. of War of the Ring. Don't be decieved: It is not simply "Lord of the Rings Axis & Allies." This is a very deep, hugely detailed game which can duplicate nearly every situation from the books.
True, your favorite game may indeed rock, but was it first released (or reprinted after a prolonged out-of-print period) this year? That's what these lists are about.
Don't get me wrong. Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico, Princes of Florence, El Grande, Power Grid, Goa, etc., all make fantastic gifts.
On the other hand, why has there been no mention on either list or here on
Ummm... The Internet Top 100 Games list uses a sample set of 698 people. Boardgamegeek has thousands of users, and Puerto Rico's Bayesian average rating of 8.73 is based on a sample set of 2855 people (currently, likely to increase as everyone's Board Game Awareness Quotient goes up).
How you think that the IGT100 is more scientific when it uses the basically same methodology (it assumes every game to have a starting score of 3.25, which is averaged with submitted values to keep games from actually reaching 10, but the value of 3.25 is arbitrary) with a smaller sample set is beyond me.
It occurs to me that, since the "what _____ would you bring to a desert island" question has been posed so many times over the years, that the conceptual desert island is now so well stocked with just about every possible _____ as to be a veritable shangri-la of great books, games, music, popular celebrities, beautiful women, and of course, mountains of great food.
I would even go so far as to say it probably has the highest standard of living, lowest taxes, and is neutral in all wars, despite having a stronger defense than all other nations combined, simply by virtue of the fact that people perpetually keep sending them random items of the highest quality, which they can then turn around and sell on eBay. Just ask yourself, how many gun enthusiasts idly wonder, "What assault rifle would you want on a desert island?" How about dictators thinking "What weapon of mass destruction?" You see? They have everything.