First thing... We all know Blizzard are CD-Key Nazi's... While that's not necessarily a bad thing, they have their reasons (basically user tracking on their online systems... Which allows them to do nice things like ban a key so that anyone using it is banned from their networks, etc.) Which is the main reason why everyone has to buy a copy of the game.
The only reason I can see the topic creator having an issue, is because someone didn't notify Blizzard in the first place that a CD-Key exchange was going to happen. To me that would make the most sense. Unless the CD-Key is kept a lot tighter to user names that it is in most Blizzard games (which is possible since I guess it is probably tied in with billing somehow).
As for the going rate of MMOs.... Most of the new games (TMO, WoW, Guild Wars) are asking for $49.99 as the off the shelf-price. Every thing else thats been around for at least a few months is a few bucks cheaper, and the initial price goes down the older the game. Most games are also hovering around $12 - 15 for the monthly connection fee as well.
P.S - You might want to change the URL in your profile... There's been a few changes in the lab lately;)
There were server issues... It was due to player's crowding a select bunch of the servers and not moving to a different one once Blizzard significantly increased the number of servers out there.
I'm pretty sure thats the going rate for retail MMO games these days. TMO has been announced with a $49.99 price point at retail.
Pretty much the retail price is a deposit on your first month, plus the cost of CD manufacture, manual printing, and retail box manufacture.
and today's lesson is...?
on
SHA-1 Broken
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· Score: 1
Ok, another encryption algo broken. Yay.
The day someone figures out how to break 1-time crypto (ie. one-way encryption w/o a key) is the day I actually become concerned about XYZ algorithm being broken.
You can build better locks, but as long as the crackers have the time and resources to crack, there's not much else you can do (aside from building a better lock).
I'm pretty sure it's the first book like everyone else says...
The other thing is that it's gonna be a bit different too. As one of my friend's pointed out to me (who's bigger Guide fan) that each version contradicts the others... So if there's different stuff, I won't be surprised.
"Writing: Ratchet and Clank 3. Most of the nominees have really terrible writing. HL2? Give me a break. The game was awesome, but the writing? R&C3 was funny and quirky, and did quite a bit to make the overall experience of the game more fun."
How LSL:MCL made the writing list is beyond me. Especially when you consider that the original creator is pretty much disappointed with Sierra's blasphemous creation. The writing was horrid from what i've heard, which is a major departure from the series since it's always had top notch writing and humour.
WoW being on the visual list is impressive considering that it has the least cutting-edge graphics out of everything on that list.
I can attest to this... Unreal Tournament's final bosses (in any of the series) definitely drove this home with me. If you don't know how to control the map, you will be toasted really well by the AI. If you watch the AIs in the final rounds, they will run a loop around the map in order to maintain control of the power-ups, etc.
"Morever, if you think outplanning and out-thinking your opponent is not a significant part of an FPS, then you're talking out of your ass. Anyone who has watched professionals play a game like Q3 knows that the entire game is a chess match which revolves around control of the map and the resources it provides. Anticipation, timing, the ability to adapt quickly, understanding an opponent; those are the skills which make you good at the highest eschelon of skill in "twitch games". Newb players think it is about fast reactions or perfect aim, but it isn't, because at the top level, EVERY pro hits almost every shot. I only played as a warm-up snack for pros, but when owning one of the major open DM servers at qcon '02, I racked up something like 80 straight hits with the railgun on Q3DM17. My aim and movement was pro-level; I'd still get absolutely *owned* against a pro playing 1v1, because they do that sort of thing automatically, but they back it up with beautiful execution, perfect timing, fluent adaptation, and hard-to-crack strategies for controlling a map. Watching pros play that game was like watching chess. They'd feint, move to control resources. They'd fall back and grab secondary objectives while their opponent was busily getting a primary one they thought they couldn't effectively contest. They'd viciously press their advantage; sacrafice several points in order to get a positional or strategic advantage to put them back in the"
Considering that XBox was released well after PS2 i'm not surprised that they'd get better reviews. Of course the newer hardware is goign to look and sound better.
And XBox live is by far the best feature that sets XBox apart from the pack. However, this was something that M$ took the time to design, and implement from the get-go. If Sony had been smart, they would've packaged netplay in with the console.
I have never seen a $350+ machine make it in this market.
I don't care how good Sony is, $700 price tag for a machine is suicide... Neo Geo anyone? I don't think your scenario is going to be the case...
Your scenario also presumes that XBox 2 is going to have a nice line of games... In order for that to work, M$ needs to squeeze Halo 3 and Halo 4 out of Bungie within a year in order to see any success.
Sorry, but when a single title causes your system to significantly increase profits, it really makes me wonder what the system is really being propped up on. Knock Halo out of the equation and honestly, what is XBox left with?
Well... The PS2 is starting to show its age, but its still not dead yet, with companies still putting titles on the market for it.
Gamecube hasn't even hit a ripe age yet.
Let's all remember that the reason M$ is really putting a new console out is to sweep under the rug the original Xbox's poor performance in the areana.
In all honesty, Sony can wait a while to get the PS3 out. Which it looks like they're planning on doing.
Nintendo hasn't said anything, but I'm going to guess they'll wait a little longer as well.
Anyone care to remind Redmond of the Tortoise vs. the Hare story?
They are also losing Epic Games as a major studio that they were publishing for. With Unreal Championship 2 on the horizon, that can't help the situation.
Someone told me $50 an hour was the going rate for what I'm capable of doing...
I usually offer services for less, but I thin a lot of it comes down to how big a problem it is, time, or just how annoying it is. Price is usually determined once the task is done, and i'm more than willing to do "trivial" tasks like flushing virii and spyware for free. Granted I usually am offered something to drink while I do my work.
Someone I knew once made a comment about not doing support unless someone was willing to pay his $50+ rate since he was A+ certified. That attitude made me cringe.
I've also recently recieved alcoholic beverages in exchange for my services. Something I won't deny.
Last time I checked Katamari Damacy was as far away from hyped as you could get. I remember one of my friends going to GDC last year and coming back and talking about it, but we never thought it'd be released here.
The fact that the game pretty much sold as a budget-title and word of mouth alone is pretty impressive.
Slashdot Mirror
Ooops... Forgot to point that out. Well.. From what i've heard its not monthly... But if you want new content, you gotta pay for that...
First thing... We all know Blizzard are CD-Key Nazi's... While that's not necessarily a bad thing, they have their reasons (basically user tracking on their online systems... Which allows them to do nice things like ban a key so that anyone using it is banned from their networks, etc.) Which is the main reason why everyone has to buy a copy of the game.
;)
The only reason I can see the topic creator having an issue, is because someone didn't notify Blizzard in the first place that a CD-Key exchange was going to happen. To me that would make the most sense. Unless the CD-Key is kept a lot tighter to user names that it is in most Blizzard games (which is possible since I guess it is probably tied in with billing somehow).
As for the going rate of MMOs.... Most of the new games (TMO, WoW, Guild Wars) are asking for $49.99 as the off the shelf-price. Every thing else thats been around for at least a few months is a few bucks cheaper, and the initial price goes down the older the game. Most games are also hovering around $12 - 15 for the monthly connection fee as well.
P.S - You might want to change the URL in your profile... There's been a few changes in the lab lately
There were server issues... It was due to player's crowding a select bunch of the servers and not moving to a different one once Blizzard significantly increased the number of servers out there.
At least that's what the word on the street was.
I'm pretty sure thats the going rate for retail MMO games these days. TMO has been announced with a $49.99 price point at retail.
Pretty much the retail price is a deposit on your first month, plus the cost of CD manufacture, manual printing, and retail box manufacture.
Ok, another encryption algo broken. Yay.
The day someone figures out how to break 1-time crypto (ie. one-way encryption w/o a key) is the day I actually become concerned about XYZ algorithm being broken.
You can build better locks, but as long as the crackers have the time and resources to crack, there's not much else you can do (aside from building a better lock).
This is just my opinion on everything.
I'm pretty sure it's the first book like everyone else says...
The other thing is that it's gonna be a bit different too. As one of my friend's pointed out to me (who's bigger Guide fan) that each version contradicts the others... So if there's different stuff, I won't be surprised.
Heh... 800 people? That's it...?
C'mon... Blizzard can whack thousands of people at a time... Get with the program S-E! j/k
That's kindof what I was hinting at in my post. While WoW's graphics aren't nearly as striking as EQ2, the art direction has been utterly amazing.
By the time this is out, Firefox will probably have taken at least another 10% of the market share. Oh well, better late than never.
"Writing: Ratchet and Clank 3. Most of the nominees have really terrible writing. HL2? Give me a break. The game was awesome, but the writing? R&C3 was funny and quirky, and did quite a bit to make the overall experience of the game more fun."
How LSL:MCL made the writing list is beyond me. Especially when you consider that the original creator is pretty much disappointed with Sierra's blasphemous creation. The writing was horrid from what i've heard, which is a major departure from the series since it's always had top notch writing and humour.
WoW being on the visual list is impressive considering that it has the least cutting-edge graphics out of everything on that list.
I think you nailed most of the winners dead on.
I can attest to this... Unreal Tournament's final bosses (in any of the series) definitely drove this home with me. If you don't know how to control the map, you will be toasted really well by the AI. If you watch the AIs in the final rounds, they will run a loop around the map in order to maintain control of the power-ups, etc.
"Morever, if you think outplanning and out-thinking your opponent is not a significant part of an FPS, then you're talking out of your ass. Anyone who has watched professionals play a game like Q3 knows that the entire game is a chess match which revolves around control of the map and the resources it provides. Anticipation, timing, the ability to adapt quickly, understanding an opponent; those are the skills which make you good at the highest eschelon of skill in "twitch games". Newb players think it is about fast reactions or perfect aim, but it isn't, because at the top level, EVERY pro hits almost every shot. I only played as a warm-up snack for pros, but when owning one of the major open DM servers at qcon '02, I racked up something like 80 straight hits with the railgun on Q3DM17. My aim and movement was pro-level; I'd still get absolutely *owned* against a pro playing 1v1, because they do that sort of thing automatically, but they back it up with beautiful execution, perfect timing, fluent adaptation, and hard-to-crack strategies for controlling a map. Watching pros play that game was like watching chess. They'd feint, move to control resources. They'd fall back and grab secondary objectives while their opponent was busily getting a primary one they thought they couldn't effectively contest. They'd viciously press their advantage; sacrafice several points in order to get a positional or strategic advantage to put them back in the"
Considering that XBox was released well after PS2 i'm not surprised that they'd get better reviews. Of course the newer hardware is goign to look and sound better.
And XBox live is by far the best feature that sets XBox apart from the pack. However, this was something that M$ took the time to design, and implement from the get-go. If Sony had been smart, they would've packaged netplay in with the console.
contracts can also be renewed...
square-enix's contract with Sony is set to expire soon too...
Well, there's teh fact that in Japan Nintendo still continues to outsell Microsoft. Of course Sony still trumps both of them.
Don't forget that M$ loses money on each XBox that rolls off the assembly line.
You ain't seen nothing yet...
I have never seen a $350+ machine make it in this market.
I don't care how good Sony is, $700 price tag for a machine is suicide... Neo Geo anyone? I don't think your scenario is going to be the case...
Your scenario also presumes that XBox 2 is going to have a nice line of games... In order for that to work, M$ needs to squeeze Halo 3 and Halo 4 out of Bungie within a year in order to see any success.
Sorry, but when a single title causes your system to significantly increase profits, it really makes me wonder what the system is really being propped up on. Knock Halo out of the equation and honestly, what is XBox left with?
Well... The PS2 is starting to show its age, but its still not dead yet, with companies still putting titles on the market for it.
Gamecube hasn't even hit a ripe age yet.
Let's all remember that the reason M$ is really putting a new console out is to sweep under the rug the original Xbox's poor performance in the areana.
In all honesty, Sony can wait a while to get the PS3 out. Which it looks like they're planning on doing.
Nintendo hasn't said anything, but I'm going to guess they'll wait a little longer as well.
Anyone care to remind Redmond of the Tortoise vs. the Hare story?
Epic's switching publishers, they're with Midway now I think... Or will be starting with the publishing of Unreal Championship 2...
What the heck is OMF?
Kinda like how EA gobbled up other development houses.
That's basically what happened with Maxis.
Just like the White House is insisting that Iran isn't a major concern...yet.
Anyone else feeling like the victim of a jedi-mindtrick?
"This is not the hostile takeover you're looking."
4.) After they own UBisoft, they are only a couple steps away from blocking off everyone from having swat-team based tactical war games.
Wouldn't that just make Valve's day... It's not like Vivendi/Sierra are capable of putting up a fight these days
Anyone remember the end of Titan AE when they discover the ship with the genetic code for every living thing on earth?
They are also losing Epic Games as a major studio that they were publishing for. With Unreal Championship 2 on the horizon, that can't help the situation.
Someone told me $50 an hour was the going rate for what I'm capable of doing...
I usually offer services for less, but I thin a lot of it comes down to how big a problem it is, time, or just how annoying it is. Price is usually determined once the task is done, and i'm more than willing to do "trivial" tasks like flushing virii and spyware for free. Granted I usually am offered something to drink while I do my work.
Someone I knew once made a comment about not doing support unless someone was willing to pay his $50+ rate since he was A+ certified. That attitude made me cringe.
I've also recently recieved alcoholic beverages in exchange for my services. Something I won't deny.
Last time I checked Katamari Damacy was as far away from hyped as you could get. I remember one of my friends going to GDC last year and coming back and talking about it, but we never thought it'd be released here.
The fact that the game pretty much sold as a budget-title and word of mouth alone is pretty impressive.