the US space program back in the early days of the shuttle spent several million dollars developing a ballpoint pen that would work reliably in microgravity. The Soviets used a pencil.
First off, it was a private US company that developed the pressurized ballpoint pen. They donated a few samples to NASA long before the space shuttle flew just so they could call it the "space pen". The US space program never paid a penny for it.
Secondly, what do you think happens when you write with a pencil in free fall? Where does all of that highly conductive graphite dust go? What about a broken tip? Does it know what could happen when it works its way into all those control panels full of exposed electrical switches? In an atmosphere which was still over 60% oxygen?
It's not good. What the Soviets used was a _grease_ pencil, and even they switched to the Fisher Space Pen when it became available.
Some people amused themselves by setting off firecrackers in their hands. I didn't have a lot of sympathy when they blamed the firecracker makers for their burnt fingers either.
'You can take risks that aren't safe in the real world'
You sure can. A resident in a real hospital who filled someone's office with gigantic severed penises would probably get sacked and arrested. In Sadville that kind of thing is no more surprising than rain.
Forced grouping works GREAT in certain games, and certain aspects of games. Look at D&D. You KNOW when you're playing D&D that you'll have a group with you, because if you don't.. you're not playing. You don't decide to play and then sit around your table waiting for random people to walk by and ask them if they happen to be the class you need in your group. That happened in EQ and DAOC constantly. It's dumb.
That's because when you wanted to play D&D you usually wouldn't just wander up to your kitchen table, sit down and then wait for random people to join you. Not being a complete moron you would usually contact your friends who also played and invite them to join you first.
But for some reason that seems to be how you were playing EQ and DAOC. Why did you think that would work?
I heard a rumour once that there was a remake of Rollerball, but fortunately I was mistaken.
Along with other classic films like The Manchurian Candidate, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Ocean's Eleven, Psycho, The Shining, Death Race 2000 and even the Thunderbirds, I am happy to say that there was never a remake of Rollerball.
Why bother with miracle drugs when all you need to protect yourself from radiation is to duck underneath a flimsy wooden desk and cover your head with your hands?
Once more I am torn between the desires to either draw the katakana letters 'GO', 'JI' and 'RA' on a very large blackboard or to just give up on humanity entirely.
Why don't you go tell some jokes about how the French would have lost the French Revolution if it weren't for the support of the US Marines and help me make up my mind.
After Apollo Twenty Congress took the manned space program away from NASA and handed it over to the Navy, there are now half a dozen space stations, two moon bases, and Admiral Heinlein never let the Soviets build spacecraft.
The player would have a strong motivation to protect his stuff, and make it as hard as possible to beat.
I think you're overestimating the dedication that the average MMORPG player has to your vision.
Online games are about only two things: Making numbers get bigger and filling up progress bars. That's it. Players who care about "creating content" and "promoting the needs of the community" are the exception, not the rule. They usually burn out pretty quickly once they realize that it's the munchkins who are running the show.
Any time you think of a neat new feature that you think will revolutionize gaming your first question should not be "How cool would this be?" but rather "How are the mouth-breathing cretins who infest the game going to twist this around to make their imaginary numbers get higher and their pointless progress bard fill faster?"
The problem with City of Heroes was not that there was some tiny error in the _way_ that they introduced the Mission Architect feature, it's that the Mission Architect was fundamentally flawed. The players, as a whole, only want to raise their levels and fill their bags with crap. That's their goal, not anything about building exciting new content for their fellow players. If there was any way that they could turn their player-generated content into turkey shoots and Monty Haul Fish-in-Barrel big game hunts, then they were obviously going to. Much to nobody's surprise, that's exactly what they did.
Allowing the inmates to run the asylum is a nice idea but you have to either lock down their options so tightly that they can't possibly exploit the tools you give them, which pretty much sucks all the fun out of it, or limit access to the tools to only a handful of trusted players whose contributions are carefully reviewed, which would have about the same effect for the rest of them. While I would be happy to see a game which was designed around the concept of community content which actually worked, I don't hold out much hope for any existing game built around traditional kill-loot-level mechanics ever successfully supporting it.
Why is it that you Americans instantly react to stories like this with "I could crush that like a bug under my monster truck"? What the fuck is wrong with you people?
I believe that Freud would say it was because they were worried about something else being small.
Slashdot Mirror
To say nothing of the emergency Pirate and Ninja plans.
First off, it was a private US company that developed the pressurized ballpoint pen. They donated a few samples to NASA long before the space shuttle flew just so they could call it the "space pen". The US space program never paid a penny for it.
Secondly, what do you think happens when you write with a pencil in free fall? Where does all of that highly conductive graphite dust go? What about a broken tip? Does it know what could happen when it works its way into all those control panels full of exposed electrical switches? In an atmosphere which was still over 60% oxygen?
It's not good. What the Soviets used was a _grease_ pencil, and even they switched to the Fisher Space Pen when it became available.
Some people amused themselves by setting off firecrackers in their hands. I didn't have a lot of sympathy when they blamed the firecracker makers for their burnt fingers either.
You sure can. A resident in a real hospital who filled someone's office with gigantic severed penises would probably get sacked and arrested. In Sadville that kind of thing is no more surprising than rain.
You have clearly been the victim of an elaborate hoax.
That's because when you wanted to play D&D you usually wouldn't just wander up to your kitchen table, sit down and then wait for random people to join you. Not being a complete moron you would usually contact your friends who also played and invite them to join you first.
But for some reason that seems to be how you were playing EQ and DAOC. Why did you think that would work?
I heard a rumour once that there was a remake of Rollerball, but fortunately I was mistaken.
Along with other classic films like The Manchurian Candidate, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Ocean's Eleven, Psycho, The Shining, Death Race 2000 and even the Thunderbirds, I am happy to say that there was never a remake of Rollerball.
La la la la la...
In the USA Copyright lengths are very simple. Anything older than Mickey Mouse is public domain and everything else is still copyrighted.
Why bother with miracle drugs when all you need to protect yourself from radiation is to duck underneath a flimsy wooden desk and cover your head with your hands?
And a squad of kanagaroos firing RPGs.
Once more I am torn between the desires to either draw the katakana letters 'GO', 'JI' and 'RA' on a very large blackboard or to just give up on humanity entirely.
Why don't you go tell some jokes about how the French would have lost the French Revolution if it weren't for the support of the US Marines and help me make up my mind.
Or it could just be a really big garbage pod.
A smegging garbage pod!
After Apollo Twenty Congress took the manned space program away from NASA and handed it over to the Navy, there are now half a dozen space stations, two moon bases, and Admiral Heinlein never let the Soviets build spacecraft.
Or did I read the wrong article?
I think that was a whole different set of charges on your credit card. You probably won't be able to explain them away as a billing error, either.
All I ever needed to create something repulsive with light was Google Image Search.
Just use a different test.
"You're in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down... "
Hey, I am new here you insensitive clod!
Just go to the store, pick up every mouse you find and speak directly into it.
"Computer?"
The first one that answers you is the one you want.
Come on, don't be afraid to call it by it's proper name. It's a Red Crested Clitmouse.
Okay, have it your way. We'll post the applications on Digg instead.
I think you're overestimating the dedication that the average MMORPG player has to your vision.
Online games are about only two things: Making numbers get bigger and filling up progress bars. That's it. Players who care about "creating content" and "promoting the needs of the community" are the exception, not the rule. They usually burn out pretty quickly once they realize that it's the munchkins who are running the show.
Any time you think of a neat new feature that you think will revolutionize gaming your first question should not be "How cool would this be?" but rather "How are the mouth-breathing cretins who infest the game going to twist this around to make their imaginary numbers get higher and their pointless progress bard fill faster?"
The problem with City of Heroes was not that there was some tiny error in the _way_ that they introduced the Mission Architect feature, it's that the Mission Architect was fundamentally flawed. The players, as a whole, only want to raise their levels and fill their bags with crap. That's their goal, not anything about building exciting new content for their fellow players. If there was any way that they could turn their player-generated content into turkey shoots and Monty Haul Fish-in-Barrel big game hunts, then they were obviously going to. Much to nobody's surprise, that's exactly what they did.
Allowing the inmates to run the asylum is a nice idea but you have to either lock down their options so tightly that they can't possibly exploit the tools you give them, which pretty much sucks all the fun out of it, or limit access to the tools to only a handful of trusted players whose contributions are carefully reviewed, which would have about the same effect for the rest of them. While I would be happy to see a game which was designed around the concept of community content which actually worked, I don't hold out much hope for any existing game built around traditional kill-loot-level mechanics ever successfully supporting it.
"Hey, it looks like you are trying to create an army of flying penises! Would you like some help?"
Having the players make their own content worked pretty well for City of Heroes, didn't it? What could possibly go wrong?
I believe that Freud would say it was because they were worried about something else being small.
it's RIAA-porn.