He wrote all of Press Gang and Coupling. A lot of British shows tend to have a single writer or fixed small writing team, its why their TV-show runs can be so short, because one guy pumping out scripts can become hard to keep up. J. Michael Straczynski's writing on Babylon Five(he wrote much of season 1 and all of seasons 2-5 with the exception of one episode) is one of the few times anyones ever written full hour long 21-23 episode seasons solo.
Moffat also wrote Time Crash(the Fifth and Tenth Doctor cross-over charity special last year) and The Curse of the Fatal Death(another charity special with Richard E Grant, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Broadbent,Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumely all playing the Doctor), I've had a man-crush on him since I watched Press Gang.
RTD did write some horrible episodes(Gridlock, Last of the Timelords(not horrible until the end), the last two Christmas Episodes, , ), , I think his problem was that he had great ideas for huge arcs but didn't believe in the little details that lead up to the later important big picture. His humour has been good, not brilliant, but he's been funny at times and Midnight and Turn Left were two brilliant episodes that I felt will really cement him as a good Who writer looking back (although I sometimes think that Turn Left was only really strong because the actors in it just hit their roles perfectly with a level of intensity that really hit the script for six), also in previous seasons Love & Monsters and to a smaller degree Boomtown(the whole boogie board thing was stupid but it was an interesting look at the doctor facing up to his responsibilities) were pretty good as well.
The Soldiers are actually very effective against the Aliens in the few times you witness the two groups fighting each other, its just the fly in the ointment that is Freeman that prevents them from winning all the time because after they win you show up and kill the wounded survivors. Also Freeman had the major advantage in that he was wearing the HEV Mk VI protective suit for use in hazardous environments which was partially bulletproof and provided better protection in the large variety of dangerous locations in Black Mesa than simple Kevlar did for the soldiers(excluding Adrian Shepherd, who needs to come back at some stage, would it kill Valve to let Shepherd show up in City 4 or something in South America or Australia(given that he went to the South Pole at the end of Opposing Force)).
I disagree, I've had the same system since 2003(might be 2004 its been a while) and other than two new hard drives because I've filled the old ones with movies and games I've not upgraded anything since about six months before HL2 came out, RAM, Video Card and Processor are the same. I've been able to play, BioShock, Quake 4, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Peggle, C&C 3 and Jericho, not always at the highest graphic settings but always been able to play them, you've replied to almost every post in this section about constant hardware updating being the downside of PC gaming, I only update when something breaks, I do buy the best replacement parts possible to future proof my system but when I do I'm usually set for almost four years before I have to replace things(which is rather close to the time between the X-Box and 360 coming out). And I leave my system on 24/7 before you ask. Its never turned off because I'm using it all freaking day and night because I've no social life outside of Slashdot. I don't know where the myth of constantly updating hardware comes from buy the reality is that unless you're a wanker very few people bother going to their local computer store on a monthly basis to squeeze an extra pixel out of Bioshock. I play games because they're fun, I play them on my PC because I've got a decent rig and don't own a TV but my monitor is a good size and I like using a mouse to aim. You sound a little like you want to get the ultimate graphic levels out of games, my suggestion is play a game, enjoy it, in four years time when you've updated your system get that game out, play it at full spec again and enjoy the masterpiece in all its graphical super-shaded glory.
Your idea is stupid mostly because the third parties in the USA are stupid. If the Libertarians want to win the presidency they have to stop running for president. They need to take control of some cities as Mayors and city councils to prove that they can run small governments, then move up to state levels and prove they can run more complex governments whilst building up popular support then move into the houses(senate and congress) proving that they can actually make a difference there before they should even think of running for president. All that their running for president in the last election did was leave them open to mockery and derision for the party as a whole for not having any qualified candidates. The problem with the method I'm outlining is that it takes decades, which is how it should work, it should take a long bloody time to go from a fringe group to the leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth and no-one in politics has the patience to do it that way. Voting for Libertarians in the presidential election or the senate/congress before they've even come close to proving themselves at a local level is stupidity. Sadly given the current state of the US government there isn't much else you can do.
Re:The suprising news though is....
on
The Wii Takes NYC
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The Christmas market isn't as important in Japan as it is in more Christian Western nations? That would be my guess. I think new years is a big deal in Japan so a slightly later release date still gives time for Japanese Consumers to get a Wii for their children.
Re:Don't forget LucasArts
on
Five That Fell
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Lucas didn't think that people would want to buy Star Wars games as much after the movies were finished so he intentionally set up LucasArts to publish and make non-star wars games so that when one source of revenue died up(Star Wars) another would be available to him. Also I think he didn't want to put all his eggs in one basket. Once the earlier Star Wars games began to greatly outsell the rest LucasArts began to withdraw from that area. Oddly enough the non-star wars game Armed and Dangerous was published by LucasArts a few years back and it was brilliant.
Here's a plot outline I did for the Prequels a few months ago, it would have kept the story that Lucas told in them but would have given a lot more depth to the characters. Plus Jar-Jar doesn't suck in my version.
Okay, its only the first two movies of the new trilogy, as I got burned out by the time I hit 11 pages and just needed to sleep.
Basically if Lucas had wanted them to be artistic and not just popcorn it wouldn't have been difficult, he had a good story, just a poor execution, except for the end of the second movie and the end of the third movie, that bloody rocked.
Anyway here it is its as if Frank Herbert wrote them and George Lucas didn't suck enough to ruin them.
The problem I have with that letter is that its far too casual for a suposed lawyer to have written, especially considering that there is a slim chance his legal license may be revoked(its very very slim and we all know it).
I'm in university(Political Science and Economics for anyone interested) and on letters to lecturers, tutors and even some students I'm at least moderately formal in my presentation and clear and concise in my meaning.
If he is meant to be a lawyer he should include case numbers, references to his examples for verification by the Bar Association, some details of the owners of the companies abusing him and his legal actions(claim notices and numbers, filings ect) in response. As a lawyer he should have a clear cut break down of the relationship between himself and Penny Arcade from the first moment they encountered each other to the minute he wrote the letter.
He shouldn't have wasted a third of the letter on some unrelated law firm with connections to George Bush as well. That doesn't fit in the context of the letter and seems to be him just trying to paint himself as a victim of a wider conspiracy. While it works on some people, it wouldn't work on anyone investigating the claims, his career and his future based on that contents of that letter.
Maybe lawyers in America are just more casual in their communications than in Australia.
Also, every letter he ever writes to the police includes the expression "Cop Killer Simulation/Simulator" when describing GTA, I think Cops know a bit more about cop killers than Jack Thompson.
Its not that I don't think he's an idiot, I'd just like someone I could at least respect on some level at least as an opponent to Computer games. I still agree with the idea of stopping kids being able to play the more violent games out there, and I think most people here do as well.
You'll find that the mod scene is bigger than just counter-strike. A lot of the big dev's lead map builders, programers and artists were from the mod scene in the early Doom and Quake days. Without modding a lot of unrealised potential will probably never be found.
...of having a full LAN installed in my house(four-five outlets, one hub on a one story building with plasterwood walls(I think, I know they aren't solid brick)) he said about $700 and it would take about 2 days.
I went and bought some wall mounts, screws, sockets etc, stole some cable from an industrial site(they were junking it and the guy on guard just let me take it before anyone asks) then sent my younger, and thinner, brother up into the roof to drag cables to the random holes I'd drilled into the ceiling inside the cupboards around the house, I had some problems with setting the wall ports(didn't know how to set the coloured wires right) and gave up on the project.
I left it for about five months, went back and using a newly acquired cable tester I set-up the sockets correctly, installed the hub and had a fully working LAN in about two hours.
Overall cost to me was about $70 and $20 for the cable tester which I gave to a friend as a Christmas present. It took about six months from getting the cable to finishing the network but I believe I could have finished it in lest than a day if I'd given a damn about getting it done.
Essentially the asking cost was a rip off.
Another guy I know has a house they spent a summer networking, drilling through solid brick, hanging through air-con ducts and other random adventures until the ten of them and four other rooms were fully networked, their kitchen cupboard is four switches, two webservers/fileservers and some wheatbix no-one want to eat. It cost them a lot of spare time but other than a few drill bits, wall sockets and the cable their costs were non-existant, a cabler would have probably done it faster, but would have charged them at least $2000 for the work as well as a few hundred for the part.
I know about five other people that have networked their houses on almost no budget. Wires stapled to walls, running over rooftops and around the outside of buildings through walls and up attics. Its a hobby and nothing anymore difficult or dangerous than putting up a painting and that you need some kind of certification for it is insane.
I hope someone either mods you up for showing us just some of the places where we have to watch for RIAA/MPAA influence to put these things to sleep before they can grow or mods you down so that no-one in the RIAA/MPAA ever sees this list and thinks about it.
Re:Something I've wondered about for a while...
on
Gaiman Naming Auction
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· Score: 2, Informative
Steam wasn't made only to stop Piracy, fucking get a clue.
Steam offers customers the choice to buy directly from Valve instead of going through a store so that Valve got most of the profits from selling the game instead of Vivendi Universal getting a lot of the money.
Piracy is the secondary reason for Steam being used.
Quake, at least Quake 1, was set in an alternate dimension controlled by the Demon Lord Quake, this dimension existed between the jumpgates that were humanities newest system of transportation and lead to an Earth/Quake war the secret final blow of which was destroyed moments before the first Quake game began(the army was wiped out by Quake while the player was off getting some supplies).
Quake 2 and 3 were set on Strogg world during the human invasion(retribution for an attack on Earth apparently) and the Arena Dimension that Sarge was taken to before dying respectively.
Doom 1, 2 and 3(ignoring the many assorted mission packs, expansions etc) were set on The Mars Moon Phobos, The missing Moon Deimos and finally the dimension of Hell in Doom 1, The invaded Earth in Doom 2 and Mars proper in Doom 3.
I need a girlfriend. And iD needs more stories like these ones.
I'll admit that I've only heard Valves side of the story(Gamespots Article on the History of Half-Life(Both 1 and 2 are very useful for an inside story on game development).
I've also been following HL2's development very very closely since it was announced last may, so most of what I wrote is based on that.
They spent all their money made from the first game on making the second one. If they make more money on this game it is highly probable that they will spend it on future games(like HL3 or even a new franchise).
Valve, unlike almost all other developers out there, are financially independent of their publisher. VU have never given them a cent of money for anything they didn't earn. HL1 was funded out of the founders own savings and HL2 was funded entirely of HL1's profits.
VU has only one task and that is to release the game on Valves terms, they don't own anything or anypart of HL except the rights to publish and release it in stores. Valve started to get screwed when the old management team from Sierra left and Sierra became VU, they were selling HL licenses to Cyber-Cafe's without cutting Valve in on the action(which is still under legal dispute) and Valve demanded a contract re-negotiation(which they got).
Thats why Valve are pushing the Steam platform, they want out from dealing with Publishers and Steam is the most direct way to do it. By using the most anticipated PC Game outside of Doom 3 to promote Steam they have an excellent chance to show other developers that they don't need a publisher to take a cut from their game to sell it to the public.
Slashdot Mirror
I didn't know that. I thought it was everything after Season 1, cheers for the update.
He wrote all of Press Gang and Coupling. A lot of British shows tend to have a single writer or fixed small writing team, its why their TV-show runs can be so short, because one guy pumping out scripts can become hard to keep up.
,Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumely all playing the Doctor), I've had a man-crush on him since I watched Press Gang.
J. Michael Straczynski's writing on Babylon Five(he wrote much of season 1 and all of seasons 2-5 with the exception of one episode) is one of the few times anyones ever written full hour long 21-23 episode seasons solo.
Moffat also wrote Time Crash(the Fifth and Tenth Doctor cross-over charity special last year) and The Curse of the Fatal Death(another charity special with Richard E Grant, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Broadbent
RTD did write some horrible episodes(Gridlock, Last of the Timelords(not horrible until the end), the last two Christmas Episodes, , ), , I think his problem was that he had great ideas for huge arcs but didn't believe in the little details that lead up to the later important big picture. His humour has been good, not brilliant, but he's been funny at times and Midnight and Turn Left were two brilliant episodes that I felt will really cement him as a good Who writer looking back (although I sometimes think that Turn Left was only really strong because the actors in it just hit their roles perfectly with a level of intensity that really hit the script for six), also in previous seasons Love & Monsters and to a smaller degree Boomtown(the whole boogie board thing was stupid but it was an interesting look at the doctor facing up to his responsibilities) were pretty good as well.
The Soldiers are actually very effective against the Aliens in the few times you witness the two groups fighting each other, its just the fly in the ointment that is Freeman that prevents them from winning all the time because after they win you show up and kill the wounded survivors.
Also Freeman had the major advantage in that he was wearing the HEV Mk VI protective suit for use in hazardous environments which was partially bulletproof and provided better protection in the large variety of dangerous locations in Black Mesa than simple Kevlar did for the soldiers(excluding Adrian Shepherd, who needs to come back at some stage, would it kill Valve to let Shepherd show up in City 4 or something in South America or Australia(given that he went to the South Pole at the end of Opposing Force)).
I disagree, I've had the same system since 2003(might be 2004 its been a while) and other than two new hard drives because I've filled the old ones with movies and games I've not upgraded anything since about six months before HL2 came out, RAM, Video Card and Processor are the same.
I've been able to play, BioShock, Quake 4, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, Peggle, C&C 3 and Jericho, not always at the highest graphic settings but always been able to play them, you've replied to almost every post in this section about constant hardware updating being the downside of PC gaming, I only update when something breaks, I do buy the best replacement parts possible to future proof my system but when I do I'm usually set for almost four years before I have to replace things(which is rather close to the time between the X-Box and 360 coming out). And I leave my system on 24/7 before you ask. Its never turned off because I'm using it all freaking day and night because I've no social life outside of Slashdot.
I don't know where the myth of constantly updating hardware comes from buy the reality is that unless you're a wanker very few people bother going to their local computer store on a monthly basis to squeeze an extra pixel out of Bioshock. I play games because they're fun, I play them on my PC because I've got a decent rig and don't own a TV but my monitor is a good size and I like using a mouse to aim.
You sound a little like you want to get the ultimate graphic levels out of games, my suggestion is play a game, enjoy it, in four years time when you've updated your system get that game out, play it at full spec again and enjoy the masterpiece in all its graphical super-shaded glory.
And who do you think built that hill? Out of LEGO blocks no less? Before we went to school every day? In the snow? Yeah, you kids had it easy.
Your idea is stupid mostly because the third parties in the USA are stupid.
If the Libertarians want to win the presidency they have to stop running for president. They need to take control of some cities as Mayors and city councils to prove that they can run small governments, then move up to state levels and prove they can run more complex governments whilst building up popular support then move into the houses(senate and congress) proving that they can actually make a difference there before they should even think of running for president.
All that their running for president in the last election did was leave them open to mockery and derision for the party as a whole for not having any qualified candidates.
The problem with the method I'm outlining is that it takes decades, which is how it should work, it should take a long bloody time to go from a fringe group to the leaders of the most powerful nation on Earth and no-one in politics has the patience to do it that way.
Voting for Libertarians in the presidential election or the senate/congress before they've even come close to proving themselves at a local level is stupidity. Sadly given the current state of the US government there isn't much else you can do.
The Christmas market isn't as important in Japan as it is in more Christian Western nations? That would be my guess. I think new years is a big deal in Japan so a slightly later release date still gives time for Japanese Consumers to get a Wii for their children.
Lucas didn't think that people would want to buy Star Wars games as much after the movies were finished so he intentionally set up LucasArts to publish and make non-star wars games so that when one source of revenue died up(Star Wars) another would be available to him.
Also I think he didn't want to put all his eggs in one basket.
Once the earlier Star Wars games began to greatly outsell the rest LucasArts began to withdraw from that area.
Oddly enough the non-star wars game Armed and Dangerous was published by LucasArts a few years back and it was brilliant.
Jet Set Radio Future.
And it was done better than this dreck will be.
Here's a plot outline I did for the Prequels a few months ago, it would have kept the story that Lucas told in them but would have given a lot more depth to the characters. Plus Jar-Jar doesn't suck in my version.
Okay, its only the first two movies of the new trilogy, as I got burned out by the time I hit 11 pages and just needed to sleep.
Basically if Lucas had wanted them to be artistic and not just popcorn it wouldn't have been difficult, he had a good story, just a poor execution, except for the end of the second movie and the end of the third movie, that bloody rocked.
Anyway here it is its as if Frank Herbert wrote them and George Lucas didn't suck enough to ruin them.
The problem I have with that letter is that its far too casual for a suposed lawyer to have written, especially considering that there is a slim chance his legal license may be revoked(its very very slim and we all know it).
I'm in university(Political Science and Economics for anyone interested) and on letters to lecturers, tutors and even some students I'm at least moderately formal in my presentation and clear and concise in my meaning.
If he is meant to be a lawyer he should include case numbers, references to his examples for verification by the Bar Association, some details of the owners of the companies abusing him and his legal actions(claim notices and numbers, filings ect) in response.
As a lawyer he should have a clear cut break down of the relationship between himself and Penny Arcade from the first moment they encountered each other to the minute he wrote the letter.
He shouldn't have wasted a third of the letter on some unrelated law firm with connections to George Bush as well. That doesn't fit in the context of the letter and seems to be him just trying to paint himself as a victim of a wider conspiracy.
While it works on some people, it wouldn't work on anyone investigating the claims, his career and his future based on that contents of that letter.
Maybe lawyers in America are just more casual in their communications than in Australia.
Also, every letter he ever writes to the police includes the expression "Cop Killer Simulation/Simulator" when describing GTA, I think Cops know a bit more about cop killers than Jack Thompson.
Its not that I don't think he's an idiot, I'd just like someone I could at least respect on some level at least as an opponent to Computer games.
I still agree with the idea of stopping kids being able to play the more violent games out there, and I think most people here do as well.
But not at the cost of banning them all together.
In other news: Nigeria just invaded Mars.
Only Birds? I've hung mine around my house and scared off two thieves, my future mother-in-law, nine mormons and the RIAA's legal team.
AOL: Its a life saver.
You'll find that the mod scene is bigger than just counter-strike. A lot of the big dev's lead map builders, programers and artists were from the mod scene in the early Doom and Quake days.
Without modding a lot of unrealised potential will probably never be found.
...of having a full LAN installed in my house(four-five outlets, one hub on a one story building with plasterwood walls(I think, I know they aren't solid brick)) he said about $700 and it would take about 2 days.
I went and bought some wall mounts, screws, sockets etc, stole some cable from an industrial site(they were junking it and the guy on guard just let me take it before anyone asks) then sent my younger, and thinner, brother up into the roof to drag cables to the random holes I'd drilled into the ceiling inside the cupboards around the house, I had some problems with setting the wall ports(didn't know how to set the coloured wires right) and gave up on the project.
I left it for about five months, went back and using a newly acquired cable tester I set-up the sockets correctly, installed the hub and had a fully working LAN in about two hours.
Overall cost to me was about $70 and $20 for the cable tester which I gave to a friend as a Christmas present.
It took about six months from getting the cable to finishing the network but I believe I could have finished it in lest than a day if I'd given a damn about getting it done.
Essentially the asking cost was a rip off.
Another guy I know has a house they spent a summer networking, drilling through solid brick, hanging through air-con ducts and other random adventures until the ten of them and four other rooms were fully networked, their kitchen cupboard is four switches, two webservers/fileservers and some wheatbix no-one want to eat. It cost them a lot of spare time but other than a few drill bits, wall sockets and the cable their costs were non-existant, a cabler would have probably done it faster, but would have charged them at least $2000 for the work as well as a few hundred for the part.
I know about five other people that have networked their houses on almost no budget. Wires stapled to walls, running over rooftops and around the outside of buildings through walls and up attics.
Its a hobby and nothing anymore difficult or dangerous than putting up a painting and that you need some kind of certification for it is insane.
I hope someone either mods you up for showing us just some of the places where we have to watch for RIAA/MPAA influence to put these things to sleep before they can grow or mods you down so that no-one in the RIAA/MPAA ever sees this list and thinks about it.
Cheers and thanks for that.
How do you pronounce Gaiman?
A girl I know from the US says it was Guy-Man, I always thought it was Gay-Min, its been bugging me ever since.
Steam wasn't made only to stop Piracy, fucking get a clue.
Steam offers customers the choice to buy directly from Valve instead of going through a store so that Valve got most of the profits from selling the game instead of Vivendi Universal getting a lot of the money.
Piracy is the secondary reason for Steam being used.
Quake, at least Quake 1, was set in an alternate dimension controlled by the Demon Lord Quake, this dimension existed between the jumpgates that were humanities newest system of transportation and lead to an Earth/Quake war the secret final blow of which was destroyed moments before the first Quake game began(the army was wiped out by Quake while the player was off getting some supplies).
Quake 2 and 3 were set on Strogg world during the human invasion(retribution for an attack on Earth apparently) and the Arena Dimension that Sarge was taken to before dying respectively.
Doom 1, 2 and 3(ignoring the many assorted mission packs, expansions etc) were set on The Mars Moon Phobos, The missing Moon Deimos and finally the dimension of Hell in Doom 1, The invaded Earth in Doom 2 and Mars proper in Doom 3.
I need a girlfriend.
And iD needs more stories like these ones.
Make sure the first one goes through the heart.
The next 40-odd stakes should be spread around at your disgression.
I'll admit that I've only heard Valves side of the story(Gamespots Article on the History of Half-Life(Both 1 and 2 are very useful for an inside story on game development).
I've also been following HL2's development very very closely since it was announced last may, so most of what I wrote is based on that.
They spent all their money made from the first game on making the second one.
If they make more money on this game it is highly probable that they will spend it on future games(like HL3 or even a new franchise).
Valve, unlike almost all other developers out there, are financially independent of their publisher. VU have never given them a cent of money for anything they didn't earn.
HL1 was funded out of the founders own savings and HL2 was funded entirely of HL1's profits.
VU has only one task and that is to release the game on Valves terms, they don't own anything or anypart of HL except the rights to publish and release it in stores.
Valve started to get screwed when the old management team from Sierra left and Sierra became VU, they were selling HL licenses to Cyber-Cafe's without cutting Valve in on the action(which is still under legal dispute) and Valve demanded a contract re-negotiation(which they got).
Thats why Valve are pushing the Steam platform, they want out from dealing with Publishers and Steam is the most direct way to do it.
By using the most anticipated PC Game outside of Doom 3 to promote Steam they have an excellent chance to show other developers that they don't need a publisher to take a cut from their game to sell it to the public.