Myself, I would store a cask in my back yard, if I could get a high enough storage fee. However, it is not likely that the city of St. Louis will actually let me begin storing dry storage casks in the middle of a densely populated area, no matter how useful it would be for heating my house in the winter:)
These days, the locals of the places selected to act as storage facilities (low rainfall, low seismic activity, low pop density, low median income) often welcome the opportunity for an increase in the tax base and decent paying jobs that come with these types of industrial facilities. Unfortunately, they are often halted in permitting process, not by the locals, but by people many miles away whose emotional (read - Luddite, or at least scientifically educated) responses carry far more weight then they should. Lets not even get into the issue of national/international special interest groups forcing their agendas upon the process.
Let me throw this scenario at you. I am a casual player. I might play 2 nights a week, and a bit on the weekends if I have the time. I arrive home at 7pm because I have a job. I need to go to bed around 10pm. I attempt to log into my server, Alleria. A 45 minute queue ensues. Already, a third of my potential play time for a given night has been stripped away. Now, if I get disconnected halfway through the queue, as has happened 4 times since the last patch, guess what happens. I go to the back of the queue again, and probably don't get to play at all that night. I am part of the "nobody can get in at all" crowd. And it sucks.
I played D&D, AD&D, and 2nd Ed AD&D (as well as other systems) back in "the day" and had a great time doing it. We used the rules to add structure to the stories we told and to conduct the battles we fought within those stories. If there was a rule that we didn't like as a group, it got changed or discarded. If new rules were needed, we added them. We had a lot of good times.
Now we use DnD 3.5 (with a couple of house rules) and I have to say the mechanics are better in almost every way. The core rules are elegant and allow for almost infinite variations in character construction. We use the new rules to give structure to the story and to conduct our battles. We have a good time.
All that said, DnD 3.5 is a different game with a different flavor that some don't like as well. IMHO, the reason why some are unable to accept changes has far less to do with the old rules being superior, and a lot more to do with people being unable to tap into what made it fun for them in the first place, i.e. the problem isn't with the changes in the game, it's the changes within the player. They are getting old. They are getting crotchety. They remember everything as being more fun, so what came before must have been superior. That and a certain percentage of gamers are fan-boy asshats who must disparage everything not "true to the original vision". Not everyone is like that, but I am sure you can think of some gamers that you know that fit that description.
So, in summary: Try it. You might like it. It's just like in the old days: If you have a good group and a good DM, you will have a good time. And failing that, there are worse ways to spend a few afternoons on the weekend than hanging around with your buddies eating cheetos and drinking too much soda.
If you can't get together with your buddies anymore, try making some new ones. Check out the Living Greyhawk Campaign. Chances are there are gamedays forming nearby. The quality of the players is, on average, a lot higher then you will find in a pick-up game at your comic store, and the stories tie a huge number of players together. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome
I think you might have missed one of the author's points on this one. When WoW came out, Blizzard announced that there would be plenty of things for the solo and the group player to do. While you can get to lvl 60 entirely through solo play, it is pretty damned hard. All of the end game content is for groups. Almost all of the new content added in the last six months has been for groups. When is the last time you saw anything _major_ added for solo play? A solo instanced dungeon perhaps? I don't think so.
In Blizzard's defense, why should they put in a bunch of content for the non-hardcore players? They are not the ones putting in all of the time, or occupying the top ranks of PvP. That is really a business decision. Blizzard is focusing on supplying more end-game content for the hardcore players. And there is nothing necessarily wrong with that. But it does mean that the needs and desires of the folks that match the author's demographic aren't being met. He is free to vote with his dollars and play something else, but for the market leader to make that his only solution, that is a shame.
Sgt. Bullibu
Troll Shaman
Aleria Server
If you RTFA the statement is italicized, thus making it fairly obvious that "day after
" is some sort of work, in this case the movie referred to in the article. As the entire headline blurb is in italics, this helpful clue is not evident. Had the editor taken the extra time to un-italicize (the standard practice when italicizing sections of text with already italicized section) the two words, it would have been a bit more clear.
FYI, in the article GM = PnP Gamemaster, not an in-game GM. Think of it as "GMs are from Mars, Gamemasters are from Venus." Areas of overlap, but substantially different.
I guess my whole point is that I don't think there are enough people to support a MMOG that is 'just like the old days, except without a lot of the hassles'. I will agree with you that the stiff penalties for death in EQ encouraged (read: forced) people to know what the hell they were doing. And playing with smacktards who don't understand how to play their class is frustrating. But if you are going to bring a MMOG to the table these days and make it financially successful, it MUST have something to differentiate it from the other "standard" fantasy MMOGs out there. I just don't see CRs and stiff death penalties as the way to do that. I guess I will just have to wait and see. If these "TONS of these people, eagerly frothing at the mouth" show up and make the thing work, more power to them. But my money says it ain't gonna happen.
Any new MMOG that intentionally includes the worst features of the earlier generation is courting disaster. In fact, I think this is a classic example of not understanding your audience. I believe that there is a small percentage of players who truly crave the hardcore experience, and want death to have a penalty that really "means something". I don't count myself among them. Even when I had 20-30 hours a week to spend on EQ (which I haven't had in a long while), I hated corpse runs and the stiff penalty that death caused. If I think back to how many times I died due to lag or the engine going buggy, and translate that into hours wasted... it just pisses me off. Why would your "average gamer", i.e. the non-super-hardcore or non-masochists, at least, subject themselves to this when superior products are available?
If it were my investment dollars being squandered in this fashion, I would seriously pursue getting the jackasses who think that CRs are a feature fired and installing some project leads that are more in touch with the gaming public.
It's your opinion, and you are entitled to it, but the only person who I *personally* know that would agree with you is my Dad. He liked the remake of "Godzilla" and faithfully watched "Walker: Texas Ranger" to the end.
Everyone else I know LOVED (or at least, enjoyed) "Shaun of the Dead". When 95% of the people that you ask an opinion of disagree with you, that doesn't necessarily make you wrong. But that doesn't exactly give your opinion extra weight.
From a project oversight / reality check for the studios, I love your idea. From a creative/artistic side though, I think it would lead to only the blandest results. Too many cooks spoil the soup, yah know what I mean? I will leave you with this quote: "A camel is a horse designed by committee.
I guess I am one of the minority that LOVED the movie version of "Dune". I am not saying that it is the best thing ever laid down on celluloid, but I am quite fond of it. And yes, I will be buying the new extended version that was recently released on DVD. I was quite pleased when I found out that they had BOTH extended versions included, with the Lynch cut and the TV Mini-series version. But I will give you this: Wierding Modules? Works great in the film, but were they totally made up, or what?
Any idea where to find a copy these days? Even better yet, a playable copy that doesn't come on 5.25" disks? I would think that if someone had the time, you could recreate the whole thing via a java applet, but I would love to get my hands on a version.
I fondly remember this computer. It cost around $1800 US when I purchased it (with $750 pitched in from my parents) in 1991. Endless hours playing Wing Commander I & II, Civilization (DOS version, of course), SimCity. Wackier stuff from the $5 bin too. Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Roadwar 2000 (which I still think of whenever I play an old "Lush" CD), Darkseed (still one of the creepier games I have ever played). I even remembered the night I learned you should turn your computer off before installing a sound card. As I recall, that was also the night I destroyed the math coprocessor of that same computer. Oh well, live and learn. I was highly motivated and in a hurry, you see. I had to install the voice pack for Wing Commander! It was important!
I am going to have to disagree with you on that one. I can't speak to your DJ story, but I myself have had several episodes of hallucinations due to good ole' sleep deprivation. While I have never touched recreational or been prescribed (to the best of my knowledge) any medical amphetamines, I still vividly recall the pink cartoon elephant waltzing through my living room in college as I was pulling yet another all-nighter. No BS, it had a top hat, a cane, and everything. What did I do after seeing this apparition? I took another drink of my long-gone-flat-and-warm 2-Liter of Mt. Dew, and kept typing.
It's pretty simple. Push your body hard enough and eventually parts of it will shut down on you. In the case described above, I was having a waking dream. I was still conscious (mostly) but my mind was putting on a little show.
I worked a 2nd/3rd shift job for two years when I first got out of college. I would work from 3pm to 4am two days, and 4pm to midnight the next two days, and then have three (3) days off. During that two year period I didn't come down with a cold, stopped using my alarm clock (except for days I had to get up early), and was able to drop twenty pounds due to exercising before I left for work every day. I think most workers on the night shift are also aware of a certain reduction of management-inspired BS on the night shift. The reduction in stress cannot be understated as a health benefit. The stress induced headaches that I am prone to went from 1-2 times a week to less then once a month.
While I realize this is entirely un-scientific, working on that shift allowed me to be as healthy as I have ever been in my adult life. All that while eating a terrible bachelor diet of almost entirely fast food.
While my chance for incidence of cancer might have increased slightly (absolue risk), my chace for serious illness and/or death from other causes decreased dramatically due to my increased general (and mental) health. So my total risk went down significatly. Especially if you factor in the car ride to and from work. Not having to drive in rush hour traffic is hard to beat.
My father and I played this game for hours and hours when I was young. It had staying power. In fact, at Christmas last year we pulled the old Colecovision out of it's box and played for a few more hours. The controllers are getting awful worn, but the game was still a lot of fun.
Are you sure it was DRM? A bunch of my delerium CD's are dual use. As in they have music and videos. They never stopped EAC from ripping, but I could see potential conflicts if your drive didn't realize it shouldn't rip the non-music data.
I think I saw that movie once, and it didn't turn out well. Bruce Willis blew a lot of expensive equipment up taking out the leaders of the uprising, all while wearing no shoes;).
Seriously, I think whenever a society sends its criminals and inmates out to do a dangerous/thankless job, it can only lead to cruelty and abuse. Much better to send highly skilled, motiviated, and paid contractors. It will cost less in the long run, and on the bright side, contractors are used to cruelty and abuse. That's why they get per diem:)
We did a similar thing we Subway coupons. Two for one 12" subs from Sophmore through Senior year. Ah yeah. Unfortunately, our thef... collection of the various papers didn't coincide with the student presidental election, but what are you going to do.
Matt Cushman Alumni - University of Missouri Rolla
Yeah, and they could be the mortal enemies of telekinetic pirates that sail flying ships that all have Voltron heads on their bows! And their skull and crossbones flag could incorporate the skull of Jack Thomson, so you know they're really evil!
Just a minor rant here. I have an X-box, a Gamecube, and a fairly updated PC. The last thing I want to do is buy a PS2 a year before the next gen version comes out. Is it too much to ask to be able to play a turn-based RPG on ONE of the systems I own?
Just as an FYI, here in the US the NRC doesn't regulate cyclotrons, individual states do. There is a loophole in the regs about short lived radioactive material. Since all parts of the cylclotron are non-radioactive (or start that way, neutron activation eventually rearing it's ugly head) and most of the products produced by cyclotrons have short half lives, that falls out of the perview of the NRC. The FDA steps in if the products will be used for human consumption, but otherwise it is up to the State Radiation Protection Agency (or equivalent) to regulate the use of cyclotrons. I know that some folks within the NRC aren't happy about it, but that is the situation as I understand it.
When I updated my 486 to a Pentium 200 MMX back in 1998, I put the "Powered by Intel" emblem on the hatchback of my '90 Geo Metro, right in the center. It fit perfectly, right in between a sticker for "The Sugarcubes" and a sticker from Los Alamos that read "Speed Limit 675,000,000 miles per hour".
Hey, it was a long time ago. It seemed cool at the time.
Slashdot Mirror
These days, the locals of the places selected to act as storage facilities (low rainfall, low seismic activity, low pop density, low median income) often welcome the opportunity for an increase in the tax base and decent paying jobs that come with these types of industrial facilities. Unfortunately, they are often halted in permitting process, not by the locals, but by people many miles away whose emotional (read - Luddite, or at least scientifically educated) responses carry far more weight then they should. Lets not even get into the issue of national/international special interest groups forcing their agendas upon the process.
Let me throw this scenario at you. I am a casual player. I might play 2 nights a week, and a bit on the weekends if I have the time. I arrive home at 7pm because I have a job. I need to go to bed around 10pm. I attempt to log into my server, Alleria. A 45 minute queue ensues. Already, a third of my potential play time for a given night has been stripped away. Now, if I get disconnected halfway through the queue, as has happened 4 times since the last patch, guess what happens. I go to the back of the queue again, and probably don't get to play at all that night. I am part of the "nobody can get in at all" crowd. And it sucks.
Now we use DnD 3.5 (with a couple of house rules) and I have to say the mechanics are better in almost every way. The core rules are elegant and allow for almost infinite variations in character construction. We use the new rules to give structure to the story and to conduct our battles. We have a good time.
All that said, DnD 3.5 is a different game with a different flavor that some don't like as well. IMHO, the reason why some are unable to accept changes has far less to do with the old rules being superior, and a lot more to do with people being unable to tap into what made it fun for them in the first place, i.e. the problem isn't with the changes in the game, it's the changes within the player. They are getting old. They are getting crotchety. They remember everything as being more fun, so what came before must have been superior. That and a certain percentage of gamers are fan-boy asshats who must disparage everything not "true to the original vision". Not everyone is like that, but I am sure you can think of some gamers that you know that fit that description.
So, in summary: Try it. You might like it. It's just like in the old days: If you have a good group and a good DM, you will have a good time. And failing that, there are worse ways to spend a few afternoons on the weekend than hanging around with your buddies eating cheetos and drinking too much soda.
If you can't get together with your buddies anymore, try making some new ones. Check out the Living Greyhawk Campaign. Chances are there are gamedays forming nearby. The quality of the players is, on average, a lot higher then you will find in a pick-up game at your comic store, and the stories tie a huge number of players together. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/welcome
In Blizzard's defense, why should they put in a bunch of content for the non-hardcore players? They are not the ones putting in all of the time, or occupying the top ranks of PvP. That is really a business decision. Blizzard is focusing on supplying more end-game content for the hardcore players. And there is nothing necessarily wrong with that. But it does mean that the needs and desires of the folks that match the author's demographic aren't being met. He is free to vote with his dollars and play something else, but for the market leader to make that his only solution, that is a shame. Sgt. Bullibu
Troll Shaman
Aleria Server
FYI, in the article GM = PnP Gamemaster, not an in-game GM. Think of it as "GMs are from Mars, Gamemasters are from Venus." Areas of overlap, but substantially different.
I guess my whole point is that I don't think there are enough people to support a MMOG that is 'just like the old days, except without a lot of the hassles'. I will agree with you that the stiff penalties for death in EQ encouraged (read: forced) people to know what the hell they were doing. And playing with smacktards who don't understand how to play their class is frustrating. But if you are going to bring a MMOG to the table these days and make it financially successful, it MUST have something to differentiate it from the other "standard" fantasy MMOGs out there. I just don't see CRs and stiff death penalties as the way to do that. I guess I will just have to wait and see. If these "TONS of these people, eagerly frothing at the mouth" show up and make the thing work, more power to them. But my money says it ain't gonna happen.
If it were my investment dollars being squandered in this fashion, I would seriously pursue getting the jackasses who think that CRs are a feature fired and installing some project leads that are more in touch with the gaming public.
Everyone else I know LOVED (or at least, enjoyed) "Shaun of the Dead". When 95% of the people that you ask an opinion of disagree with you, that doesn't necessarily make you wrong. But that doesn't exactly give your opinion extra weight.
From a project oversight / reality check for the studios, I love your idea. From a creative/artistic side though, I think it would lead to only the blandest results. Too many cooks spoil the soup, yah know what I mean? I will leave you with this quote: "A camel is a horse designed by committee.
I guess I am one of the minority that LOVED the movie version of "Dune". I am not saying that it is the best thing ever laid down on celluloid, but I am quite fond of it. And yes, I will be buying the new extended version that was recently released on DVD. I was quite pleased when I found out that they had BOTH extended versions included, with the Lynch cut and the TV Mini-series version. But I will give you this: Wierding Modules? Works great in the film, but were they totally made up, or what?
Any idea where to find a copy these days? Even better yet, a playable copy that doesn't come on 5.25" disks? I would think that if someone had the time, you could recreate the whole thing via a java applet, but I would love to get my hands on a version.
I fondly remember this computer. It cost around $1800 US when I purchased it (with $750 pitched in from my parents) in 1991. Endless hours playing Wing Commander I & II, Civilization (DOS version, of course), SimCity. Wackier stuff from the $5 bin too. Leather Goddesses of Phobos, Roadwar 2000 (which I still think of whenever I play an old "Lush" CD), Darkseed (still one of the creepier games I have ever played). I even remembered the night I learned you should turn your computer off before installing a sound card. As I recall, that was also the night I destroyed the math coprocessor of that same computer. Oh well, live and learn. I was highly motivated and in a hurry, you see. I had to install the voice pack for Wing Commander! It was important!
It's pretty simple. Push your body hard enough and eventually parts of it will shut down on you. In the case described above, I was having a waking dream. I was still conscious (mostly) but my mind was putting on a little show.
While I realize this is entirely un-scientific, working on that shift allowed me to be as healthy as I have ever been in my adult life. All that while eating a terrible bachelor diet of almost entirely fast food.
While my chance for incidence of cancer might have increased slightly (absolue risk), my chace for serious illness and/or death from other causes decreased dramatically due to my increased general (and mental) health. So my total risk went down significatly. Especially if you factor in the car ride to and from work. Not having to drive in rush hour traffic is hard to beat.
My father and I played this game for hours and hours when I was young. It had staying power. In fact, at Christmas last year we pulled the old Colecovision out of it's box and played for a few more hours. The controllers are getting awful worn, but the game was still a lot of fun.
Are you sure it was DRM? A bunch of my delerium CD's are dual use. As in they have music and videos. They never stopped EAC from ripping, but I could see potential conflicts if your drive didn't realize it shouldn't rip the non-music data.
Seriously, I think whenever a society sends its criminals and inmates out to do a dangerous/thankless job, it can only lead to cruelty and abuse. Much better to send highly skilled, motiviated, and paid contractors. It will cost less in the long run, and on the bright side, contractors are used to cruelty and abuse. That's why they get per diem :)
It's actually the aliens and the witches. They are working in concurrence with The Man (tm) by attacking our maths in an effort to keep us down.
We did a similar thing we Subway coupons. Two for one 12" subs from Sophmore through Senior year. Ah yeah. Unfortunately, our thef... collection of the various papers didn't coincide with the student presidental election, but what are you going to do.
Matt Cushman
Alumni - University of Missouri Rolla
Yeah, and they could be the mortal enemies of telekinetic pirates that sail flying ships that all have Voltron heads on their bows! And their skull and crossbones flag could incorporate the skull of Jack Thomson, so you know they're really evil!
Thats all I'm saying.
Just as an FYI, here in the US the NRC doesn't regulate cyclotrons, individual states do. There is a loophole in the regs about short lived radioactive material. Since all parts of the cylclotron are non-radioactive (or start that way, neutron activation eventually rearing it's ugly head) and most of the products produced by cyclotrons have short half lives, that falls out of the perview of the NRC. The FDA steps in if the products will be used for human consumption, but otherwise it is up to the State Radiation Protection Agency (or equivalent) to regulate the use of cyclotrons. I know that some folks within the NRC aren't happy about it, but that is the situation as I understand it.
Hey, it was a long time ago. It seemed cool at the time.
On an interesting note though, this really does show what happens when sales numbers are used as an analogy to quality.