Based on George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, play A Game of Thrones. It's like Risk but deeper and better. Even better, A Clash of Kings, the expansion.
The books do not have to be read to enjoy the game but you will be missing out on some great books.
I have definitely slammed my fair share of MMORPGs in the past (mostly for the lack of roleplaying).
I tried City of Heroes because it was unique. It got old fast just like -insert any MMORPG here-.
I tried WoW for one reason and I am surprised it is not mentioned more (if at all) in the review: the game rewards you for being a casual player.
When you log out, you build up XP bonuses which can add up to 2x XP per kill. If you rest/logout in a Inn, that bonus per kill can rise to 4x per kill. Mostly, when you log back in, you notice your XP bar is blue with a marker set past your current amount of XP. The more you've rested, the more to the right that marker will be. When you gain experience, it will add bonuses (the most I've gotten was double) to those kills and get your XP closer to the mark. Once you hit the mark, "you feel normal" i.e. not rested.
Blizzard's thought on this is that if you take a lot of rest, you are going to go back out hunting with more energy and zeal... thus more XP.
WoW and EQ2 are incredibly similar in a lot of ways. WoW's clear superiority over any other MMORPG, including EQ2, lies in rewarding casual/rping players. We pay the same amount so why should we get penalized for not logging on as many times as the 13yoa punk next door on his daddy's DSL with the fresh GED.
The practice of "Extra XP" is not a lot but it helps.
Yes, Firefox has made huge strides but when it really boils down to it: nothing but nothing beats the speed of Opera.
Maybe it's a different of nanoseconds but for some reason, watching other browers render is like watching paint dry. I equate the difference in this one issue of X-Factor where Quicksilver was trying to explain to the therapist how maddening it was that the kid behind the register at Burger King could not comprehend "Whopper, no pickles". The difference may be minute in quanity but when your brain is used to one thing, it is hard trying to get accustom to anything else.
As far as rendering with pre-Opera v.7, Opera has made me a better webdesigner because it made me go back and do my stuff right. Thus, if I visited other sites that did not render correctly in Opera, then I feel like they were not professional enough to correct those mistakes to make it HTML/CSS/etc compliant. Why would I visit a website when the site designers did not give a flying fsck?
Until any other browser catches up, I will be running Opera till the end of time.
... but after reading all the reviews and observations of EQ2, I seriously thinking that I may have lost that 5 bucks.
The more and more I read, it reminds me of all the horrors of MMORPGs: no player driven stories, no player driven conflicts, no human DMs controlling and driving the world. No control whatsoever.
MMORPGs are nothing more the a competition to see who can get to the top level the fastest. If I want to compete online, I could play any sport or FPS game. I want RPGs for the story, plot and character development. Apparently that is too much to ask for.
... no one is straight up Liberal or Conservative, Democratic or Republican. If you are, then you have allowed your beliefs and thoughts to be shaped by one political group or another.
100% of people should have beliefs and thoughts in either camps and should not agree with one camp or the other 100% of the time. But we all know what makes the masses the masses, don't we. Simply put, people don't want to think for themselves. At least in this country's short history, we have incredible evidence of such.
Ah yes, perhaps we will hit that great political evolutionary stage where the collective lightbulb will ding on top of everyone's head. I pray to God that will happen in my grandchildren's lifetime.
If someone could please pull that Consumer Reports list of the best Home Electronic companies and tell me where Sony ranks, that would be swell.
The last time I checked, Sony sucks. It has been nearly 10 years since Sony rooled in terms of quality. Now, I consider them to be the Wal-Mart of Home Electronics. Their TVs and PlayStatios may rule but that same craftmanship is lost on all the other stuff they choose to slap their brand on.
Reading rather quickly, I don't see too many SysAdmin in the group. Here is my list.
1. Guitar 2. Bass Guitar 3. The Hockey News 4. SysAdmin 5. 2600 6. Every single car magazine in English publication (via my brother) 7. Dragon 8. Dungeon (both through my weekly RPG get togethers) 9. Maximum PC
Back in the dotcom days of internet supermarket, I was a big customer. I usually did not order produce and kosher meats but everything else I ordered. I felt that having groceries delivered to you was a step into the "future" (with flying cars and moving sidewalks). When all the online grocery stores went belly up, I felt the collective "one step forward, two steps back".
I have waited a long time for online grocery stores to make a comeback. Now, if Peapod could just hurry their ass up and expand to Dallas/Fort Worth, all will be right in this world.
Thank you. I consider myself to be socialist and not a capitalist. It seems quite silly to me to spend most of your life trying to achieve something that is so trivial such as money.
I have considered Regina (straight shot from Texas), Vancouver (absolutely love the city when I visited) and Toronto (culturely speaking). What is odd is that I am all for social medicine but thanks to God, we are all perfectly healthly.
I am trying to get my family of 3 to Canada from the US. This thread has been the most hopeful to me. I have been trying to look for work in Canada for about a year.
I am also saving the required amount of money for a family of 3 to get to Canada if I did not have a job (but I should still come in as Skilled Worker). Since being laid off from the dotcom salaries and having to pick up a job that paid 79% less in less than a month, I have tightened our budgets since then. I have recently started a contract gig with a well-known software company and with that money and our tight budget, I should be able to save the money in no time.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted on this thread. You have made a would-be Canadian (yes I will become a citizen as soon as I can) very happy and even more prepared.
On a lighter note, I think I am prepared socially:
1. Being part of a mixed couple (Korean/Scottish and African-American), Toronto sounds keen.
2. By not a fan of the cannabis achieva but know a lot of people who do, Vancouver sounds keen.
3. With hockey is my favorite sport, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa sounds keen
4. Rush is one of my favorite rock bands of all time.
The question is not will I be at the opening but what garb will I wear?
All my clothes are like Jayne's and Wash's but I leaning towards Suits with Blue Gloves if I can find gloves that blue.
My only thought about missing Wash and Book in their listing of the characters is that it is a long freaking list. I have to think that those two will be in it.
If for nothing else: Book is the most dangerous. He was a good enough shot to only shoot baddies in the knees.
ZOE Preacher, don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?
BOOK Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.
... Napster sucks because it's missing quite a few songs from even common groups like Led Zeppelin.
My biggest complaint about any music store such as Napster, MusicMatch and iTunes is why are the id3 tags locked down? So if some jackass decides to label The Who's "We Won't Be Fooled Again" as Classic Rock, I am stuck with that labeling? Gawd forbid they fuck around and misspell the artist, album or song title.
Slashdot Mirror
Based on George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, play A Game of Thrones. It's like Risk but deeper and better. Even better, A Clash of Kings, the expansion.
The books do not have to be read to enjoy the game but you will be missing out on some great books.
I have definitely slammed my fair share of MMORPGs in the past (mostly for the lack of roleplaying).
I tried City of Heroes because it was unique. It got old fast just like -insert any MMORPG here-.
I tried WoW for one reason and I am surprised it is not mentioned more (if at all) in the review: the game rewards you for being a casual player.
When you log out, you build up XP bonuses which can add up to 2x XP per kill. If you rest/logout in a Inn, that bonus per kill can rise to 4x per kill. Mostly, when you log back in, you notice your XP bar is blue with a marker set past your current amount of XP. The more you've rested, the more to the right that marker will be. When you gain experience, it will add bonuses (the most I've gotten was double) to those kills and get your XP closer to the mark. Once you hit the mark, "you feel normal" i.e. not rested.
Blizzard's thought on this is that if you take a lot of rest, you are going to go back out hunting with more energy and zeal... thus more XP.
WoW and EQ2 are incredibly similar in a lot of ways. WoW's clear superiority over any other MMORPG, including EQ2, lies in rewarding casual/rping players. We pay the same amount so why should we get penalized for not logging on as many times as the 13yoa punk next door on his daddy's DSL with the fresh GED.
The practice of "Extra XP" is not a lot but it helps.
Yes, Firefox has made huge strides but when it really boils down to it: nothing but nothing beats the speed of Opera.
Maybe it's a different of nanoseconds but for some reason, watching other browers render is like watching paint dry. I equate the difference in this one issue of X-Factor where Quicksilver was trying to explain to the therapist how maddening it was that the kid behind the register at Burger King could not comprehend "Whopper, no pickles". The difference may be minute in quanity but when your brain is used to one thing, it is hard trying to get accustom to anything else.
As far as rendering with pre-Opera v.7, Opera has made me a better webdesigner because it made me go back and do my stuff right. Thus, if I visited other sites that did not render correctly in Opera, then I feel like they were not professional enough to correct those mistakes to make it HTML/CSS/etc compliant. Why would I visit a website when the site designers did not give a flying fsck?
Until any other browser catches up, I will be running Opera till the end of time.
... but after reading all the reviews and observations of EQ2, I seriously thinking that I may have lost that 5 bucks.
The more and more I read, it reminds me of all the horrors of MMORPGs: no player driven stories, no player driven conflicts, no human DMs controlling and driving the world. No control whatsoever.
MMORPGs are nothing more the a competition to see who can get to the top level the fastest. If I want to compete online, I could play any sport or FPS game. I want RPGs for the story, plot and character development. Apparently that is too much to ask for.
Why can MMORGPs be like PnP RPGs?
mmmm... hot Indian girl (drools)
Second that.
Everything you want in a store, guess what, they do it.
Different formats, different bitrates... all other music stores need to take heed.
It helps that it is cheaper than dirt however I would pay iTunes prices to get the service that Allofmp3.com gives.
... no one is straight up Liberal or Conservative, Democratic or Republican. If you are, then you have allowed your beliefs and thoughts to be shaped by one political group or another.
100% of people should have beliefs and thoughts in either camps and should not agree with one camp or the other 100% of the time. But we all know what makes the masses the masses, don't we. Simply put, people don't want to think for themselves. At least in this country's short history, we have incredible evidence of such.
Ah yes, perhaps we will hit that great political evolutionary stage where the collective lightbulb will ding on top of everyone's head. I pray to God that will happen in my grandchildren's lifetime.
Am I the only one who thinks this is the biggest non-case ever? Do we even waste the court's time over such dribble?
They actually do that with CEP. CEP allows you to change everything. Someone took CEP and applied the 3.5e rules to NWN.
3.5 is enough for the pure fact that they fix the gorram Ranger class.
So when NWN2 releases, it will have 3.5e and thus will have the Ranger class out of any RPG video game.
Might be time to think about moving North, eh?
Way ahead of you. I am set to move to Canada in May 2005. See ya later.
from-the-no-sh!7-sherlock dept but the dept this is currently assigned to will do the trick.
Even if you are MS, you have got to admit to using other browsers until MS fixes IE. It is pure logic.
If someone could please pull that Consumer Reports list of the best Home Electronic companies and tell me where Sony ranks, that would be swell.
The last time I checked, Sony sucks. It has been nearly 10 years since Sony rooled in terms of quality. Now, I consider them to be the Wal-Mart of Home Electronics. Their TVs and PlayStatios may rule but that same craftmanship is lost on all the other stuff they choose to slap their brand on.
I donated to Trillian when they were in Beta... I felt that my little bit went a long way.
I have purchased Opera and I have never regretted that decision.
I will wait until Firefox is as smooth as Opera then I will donate.
Reading rather quickly, I don't see too many SysAdmin in the group. Here is my list.
1. Guitar
2. Bass Guitar
3. The Hockey News
4. SysAdmin
5. 2600
6. Every single car magazine in English publication (via my brother)
7. Dragon
8. Dungeon (both through my weekly RPG get togethers)
9. Maximum PC
Essentially, guy stuff.
As the team lead, I too was called to interview potential managers all the time.
Shocking as it may be, the people I recommend are still there and the people hired against my recommendation were let go or quit within a month.
Quite frankly, I am not going to play a crappy Hamster Wheel MMORPG in spite of spending time with my loved ones.
It is not even about priorities. It all boils down to this: why are you playing a MMORPG?
Back in the dotcom days of internet supermarket, I was a big customer. I usually did not order produce and kosher meats but everything else I ordered. I felt that having groceries delivered to you was a step into the "future" (with flying cars and moving sidewalks). When all the online grocery stores went belly up, I felt the collective "one step forward, two steps back".
I have waited a long time for online grocery stores to make a comeback. Now, if Peapod could just hurry their ass up and expand to Dallas/Fort Worth, all will be right in this world.
Thank you. I consider myself to be socialist and not a capitalist. It seems quite silly to me to spend most of your life trying to achieve something that is so trivial such as money.
I have considered Regina (straight shot from Texas), Vancouver (absolutely love the city when I visited) and Toronto (culturely speaking). What is odd is that I am all for social medicine but thanks to God, we are all perfectly healthly.
I am trying to get my family of 3 to Canada from the US. This thread has been the most hopeful to me. I have been trying to look for work in Canada for about a year.
I am also saving the required amount of money for a family of 3 to get to Canada if I did not have a job (but I should still come in as Skilled Worker). Since being laid off from the dotcom salaries and having to pick up a job that paid 79% less in less than a month, I have tightened our budgets since then. I have recently started a contract gig with a well-known software company and with that money and our tight budget, I should be able to save the money in no time.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted on this thread. You have made a would-be Canadian (yes I will become a citizen as soon as I can) very happy and even more prepared.
On a lighter note, I think I am prepared socially:
1. Being part of a mixed couple (Korean/Scottish and African-American), Toronto sounds keen.
2. By not a fan of the cannabis achieva but know a lot of people who do, Vancouver sounds keen.
3. With hockey is my favorite sport, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa sounds keen
4. Rush is one of my favorite rock bands of all time.
I think I am ready for Canada.
The question is not will I be at the opening but what garb will I wear?
All my clothes are like Jayne's and Wash's but I leaning towards Suits with Blue Gloves if I can find gloves that blue.
My only thought about missing Wash and Book in their listing of the characters is that it is a long freaking list. I have to think that those two will be in it.
If for nothing else: Book is the most dangerous. He was a good enough shot to only shoot baddies in the knees.
ZOE
Preacher, don't the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?
BOOK
Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.
16-bit OSs will die! Long live 32-bit.
If Microsoft cannot support Windows 98, that means my company cannot support Windows 98. Oh happy days.
I thought Windows ME was also going to be phased as well. Can someone verify this?
... Napster sucks because it's missing quite a few songs from even common groups like Led Zeppelin.
My biggest complaint about any music store such as Napster, MusicMatch and iTunes is why are the id3 tags locked down? So if some jackass decides to label The Who's "We Won't Be Fooled Again" as Classic Rock, I am stuck with that labeling? Gawd forbid they fuck around and misspell the artist, album or song title.
D:\Program Files\Trillian> rename yahoo.dll yahoo.bak
Now I don't have to worry about connecting to Y! any longer.
Second the lameness... I have done this more times than I can count.
If it is not an arm or platter issue (thus logic board issue) then it will work most of the time.
We had to swap logic boards on IBM drives all the dang time (never had to on a Seagate).