As most people know, very few people in America speak Japanese. Many people in Europe would also like to play with people who speak their native language.
Says who? The only reason you hear WoW players complaining about it so much is because theres no built-in translator function so if you can't speak English, you're automatically labeled a gold farmer.
In fact, Blizzard had to add "Australia perferred" servers which are hosted in North America, since peak Australian hours are almost exactly opposite peak NA hours.
Or maybe Australians got tired of playing in a game world where it was virtually constantly night time because the in game clock was set for North American players only.
Between the east coast and the west coast of the US I get, on average, anywhere from a 70ms to a 100ms ping time. Between me and Japan, it's considerably higher.
The FFXI servers are located in Southern California, not Japan.
The update servers are frequently down, and the entire thing is often a mess.
WoW updates have been known to take down the entire system for days at a time.
Compare with World of Warcraft. They distribute a single update file via a custom BitTorrent client. The client has to download the torrent, and then the torrent downloads the potentially large update.
Except even then it doesn't work because you have MILLIONS of people downloading the torrent at once. Mirror sites don't work properly either because updates are often times 100+ MBs, so the whole game is more or less shut down everytime theres an update. At least FFXI has the "We have to cater to the lowest demominator, the PS2" reasoning, what reasoning does WoW try using?
EQ2 is considered to be a failure for one reason. It never surpassed the original EQ's numbers.
Then theres the nitpicking reasons:
It never fully addressed the gameplay issues of EQ1. (EQ1 is considered to be the MMO to start the end-game grind use.) Its graphics/art were not too great of an improvement. (Not to mention the fact that its system requirements at launch were considered to be high-end.) It was still considered to be newbie-unfriendly. (All MMOs are but EQ1 and 2 are two of the biggest offenders.) Since there was such little general improvement, few original EQ1 players made the change to EQ2. As a result, most players didn't make the change for the basic "I don't want to leave my friends and start from scratch for a sub-par improvement." (Translation: Poor initial launch = poor initial impressions due to lack of popularity.)
I'm not even taking WoW into account here. EQ2 SHOULD have at LEAST come close to the 1M mark simply thanks to its brand name recognition in the MMO world. Instead it landed around 500k subscribers, not bad if it was a brand new name, but otherwise a flop given the time it launched and the development of the market at that point.
Except the success of EQ1 was simply because of a lack of alternative. When EQ1 came out there was the PVP-ridden, economy-demolished, server crashing, cheat filled, buggy, #1 anti-newbie, 2D designed Ultima Online. Don't forget, Asheron's Call was once considered to be a main competitor with EQ1 at one time and now its all but forgotten to the most hardcore players. (Not to mention the fact that AC2 has been shut down recently.)
Compared to second-generation MMOs such as DAoC (I consider MMOs such as FFXI and WoW to be third-generation) EQ1 is a piece of crap. Poor graphics, lack of new downloadable content (expansion packs don't count), non-existant PvP, nothing truely innovative or even evolutionary to UO. The crafting system is a joke, the GUI is one of the worst and its grinding is THE worst of all MMOs. The community has more or less turned into a sheltered, isolationist state, the number of subscribers have been in decline for years and Smedley's failure to properly handle the Star Wars name is simply his most recent, notable and biggest failure.
Given the fact that SOE's MMOs have been in a constant state of decline since Smedley took control (EQ2 being a flop, SWG's complete overhaul, EQ1 having virtually no growth sans expansion packs) hes just trying to cover his ass when his head is on fire.
LucasArts isn't exactly Nintendo when it comes to protecting its brand names but they're not stupid enough to continue to let the Star Wars name be burned alive. (SWG is the laughingstock of MMOs these days.)
Twenty years ago you didn't have MMORPG junkies that derive their entire existance from games.
Twenty years ago we DID have MMORPGs, we just didn't have massive worlds capable of serving THOUSANDS of users 24/7.
Twenty years ago you couldn't make your own fun in computer games like you can in HL2 by painting zombies and walls with the grav gun, or in BF1942 where you can forgo the game for acrobatics like detpack jeep boosting and wing to wing transfers.
Uhh... Players have been screwing around inside of game environments since the first attempted murder of Lord British in Ultima. The only difference is the lifting of limitations. (Speed runs? Playing any of the Wizardry games with only 1 character? Beating Final Fantasy 1 with a party of 4 white mages? Beating Doom without using any guns?)
Twenty years ago you couldn't be in a situation where you have a whole city or world to explore with no rules like you do in many of todays games like the GTA franchise.
Again, simply the lifting of limitations. When Ultima first came out, it was HUGE. And there were 'no rules' so to speak. (We've all tried killing Lord British one time or another.)
Generally speaking games 20 years ago were twiddle tests where only ones reflexes are ever challenged. Games today embody strategy, tactics and sometimes even empathy, things that could never by fortold 20 years ago.
20 years ago, most RPGs were virtually considered to be either strategic or tactical turn based strategy games. Playing as a Healer/Healing geared manner basicly meant you had to throw every single strategy guide out the window and write one on the fly (Level caps and woefully balanced stats didn't help.) Most puzzle based games were considered to be TOO difficult since this was pre-GameFAQs. (Lemmings anyone?) A lot of action games actually required a lot of pre-planning since different choices meant having to completely re-think attack patterns. You can nitpick but its largely remained true well into 2006.
Just think of it as an EXTREMELY tactical RTS game (think Ground Control, if you've played it). You get no bases, but you get off the screen support fire (such as artillery and air strikes). Theres no resource gathering, but other than scripted events theres no reinforcements during missions. Since you often times (read: always) go up against superior forces, TACTICS are extremely important (aiming for the weaker, rear armor, using flame weapons against energy and thus prone to overheating enemies, aiming for the legs to decrease mobility and then just bypass/pick off from the distance, etc etc).
Even the forementioned artillery and air strikes took thinking to use. Artillery was fairly inaccurate and air strikes could be shot down if you tried simply trying to air strike an enemy target objective to death. You could get vehicles but they weren't customizable so that made things even harder to plan. You got aircraft but those were pitifully armored compared to the Mechs.
And to top it all off, the Mechs themselves had weight, heat and power limitations. You COULD give a Light Mech one of the biggest weapons in the game, but then it'd be so heavy it could be equiped with anything else. You COULD strip a Mech of its heatsinks in exchange for more weapons, but then it'd overheat in a matters of seconds in combat. You COULD arm a Mech with tons of lasers but then it'd only have enough energy for one volley before overheating and shutting down.
Oh and don't confuse this with MechWarrior (a game where YOU were the pilot.) YOU don't have direct control of the units, the AI pilot statistics played a major role. And I bolded pilots because they COULD be killed, which of course would spelled disaster if you suddenly found yourself on the last mission with no one but rookies to pilot your Mechs.
I believe that he has made mistakes in giving himself supreme veto power over what is shown or added in the movies and I think this attitude has ruined Star Wars for me somewhat.
At least he didn't cede power to the major studios. Given the sheer amount of remakes and sequels of older movies recently (King Kong anyone?), at least George Lucas is keeping a tight rein on things instead of letting the studios run amok with it.
However, despite the fact that they predate episodes 1 2 and 3, they have many glaring inconsistencies.
Timothy Zahn came first, and wrote that part of Vader's history, and Lucas screwed it up.
Oh yeah, George Lucas really screwed things up by not having Anakin in his 20~30's when Episode 1 came around. Timothy Zahn is a great storyteller, but in terms of timeline continuity, you can't fault George Lucas for overriding Timothy Zahn.
Pre-Episode 1, 2 and 3 stories + Anakin != Blame George Lucas
Seriously, the guy places his stories PRIOR to Episodes 1, 2 and 3 and you blame George Lucas for the inconsistancies? Timothy Zahn flat-out screwed up in using Darth Vader in his stories. Anyone who watched the original Episodes 4, 5 and 6 knew Episodes 1, 2 and 3 would simply be 'how it all started' stories. (Where did the Emperor came from? What happened to the Jedis? Where did the stormtroopers come from? How is Darth Vader Luke's father? Etc.)
What about PS2s that are kept and shared on college campuses? LAN centers? Cybercafes?
How do you tell if they own their own personal PS2? What if they have multiple PS2s in different locations (1 at home, 1 at college)? What about people who have 'access' to a PS2, but doesn't play? (Read: parents who still think video games are for kids)
Trying to gauge a userbase beyond sales is simply too complicated and contraversial. Heck, if you argue it enough, you can claim all video game console userbases are at least triple its current claims (owner + 1 immediate family member + 1 friend).
In rural areas, infancide is brutally rampant. Since theres no accountability/no effective police force/everyone knows each other and therefore won't speak out again it, its insanely easy for a baby girl to "fall down a well" or "die in its sleep" and have NO ONE question it.
Hell, even if it happened in the U.S. some people wouldn't question it. "The pillows accidently smothered it in its sleep. We should be sueing the pillow company instead for this tragedy!"
One thing to note: In most RTS games, handicaps really don't help out much if you're a newbie. I know in Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Warcraft 3, handicaps simply lowered the amount of life units had. While this was fine at first, I tried a 1v4 computer fight in Warcraft 3 and simply got SWARMED. The reason: they had the same amount of attack damage and armor without the handicap...
The US plan officially has always been to launch the PS3 "this year."
Actually, no. The plan used to roughly be:
Japan: "Spring" USA: "Fall~Winter-ish but before Christmas" Europe and Australia: "Eventually"
Thats one of the reasons why nearly everyone is throwing fits all of the sudden. You're looking at a WORLDWIDE release in less than a period of roughly 4~5 months. (Fall through Winter and December doesn't count cause its too late into the season.) Unless Sony has been secretly stockpiling PS3 hardware parts, they are NOT going to meet a US launch before the Christmas season. The Japanese are already pissed off at Sony for the delay, American customers are gonna be rioting over what little imports manage to sneak out of Japan.
Also, Microsoft pays Immersion Corp for use of their patent (at least for the Xbox, I don't know about the 360). Sony is really the only one fighting this at this point.
In all seriousness considering you're talking about two generations of gaming, with the exception of the major gems (anything by Squaresoft/Enix/SquareEnix, most Konami and Capcom games), Sony has a horribly small game library. (Of GOOD games, not 'wellllll I MIGHT want to play it again for 5 minutes before I realize how dated it is' games.)
You're right though about Nintendo and Microsoft. Nintendo has at least three generations to go through (NES, SNES, N64) not counting the Gameboy line and Microsoft has LEGAL classic arcade games plus a proven track record (at least for consoles) of handling online services.
Actually that was a political decision. Read up on the subject, the general consensus is that CIA simply acted on outdated info (we know they HAD WMDs in the past) and the Bush administration took that as face value.
- 9/11.
Again, political. Domestic and military security analysts were predicting another attack on the WTC for YEARS after the '93 truck bombing attempt. The U.S. use domestic airliners in simulations for war against Russia for DECADES during the Cold War. It was not a "WTF?! Who woulda thunk of dat?!!?!" scenario.
- failure to anticipate the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Simply given Iraq's weakened military strength (post Iraq-Iran War) and the friendly relations between the U.S. and Kuwait at the time (gotta kiss ass after the oil embargo of '73-'74), you really have to question whether or not diplomacy would have mattered.
I'm not saying they're perfect (they seem to be complete retards when it comes to Iran), but they get a worse rap than they deserve in some cases.
Do you think corporal punishment and rape is an appropriate punishment for a non-violent crime or not? Do you approve of this part of our culture or not?
Parents spanking children used to be legal AND the norm until a few decades ago. Nowadays its LEGALLY classified as child abuse (read: you CAN get jail time). All of the sudden you have juv halls being packed with kids caught for shoplifting, petty theft, juvenile deliquency and graffiti.
Yeah, imprisonment and 'rehabilitation' (which is a hit-or-miss affair admitted even by supporters of the idea) is such a better alternative. Lets wait until Little Jimmy is 18 years old and stuff him into an already overloaded prison because mom and dad were legally forbidden from physically punishing him as a child. [/sarcasm]
How does pointing out other atrocities that were and are being committed in any way mitigate someone here and now advocating and applauding rape?
You protest rape, but you don't protest genocide. It's called priorities. People can't take you seriously if you sweat over the small details while ignoring the big picture.
Maybe we should forgo rape and shift to a gulag prison system like in Russia. Hard time means hard, backbreaking manual labor for several decades at a time with no chance of parole. Screw police restraint, let the cops beat suspects in the streets, I hear that works real well in Russia. In fact, screw the police completely. Lets go to a military dictatorship and put the military in charge of domestic crimes. We'll just lock people up, without trial, without outside contact and simply forget about them. We can reinstate the death penality with execution by firing squad as well. Crime will all but disappear. Rape would be catagorized down there with petty theft. [/sarcasm]
Actually its called 'public transportation' because it IS paid for and financed by the public. Its just 'public' in the sense that schools or colleges are 'public'. YOUR tax dollars pay for your local schools, but YOU as an adult cannot just walk in and demand free admission to those classes.
There are alternate transportation methods rather than busses, so that excuse obviously didn't work back then.
No offense but, name one thats cost and time effective. And subways don't count since those only apply in major cities.
As it stands, the punishment for committing any type of 'cybercrime' these days is a joke. You get off with a slap on the wrist in terms of fines (since theres no real way to calculate how much damage you've done, a good lawyer can shrink it down to the thousands) and MAYBE some jail time (again, no real way to calculate.) Hell you get jackasses who hack into multi-billion dollar companies, get cause and 'punished' for like 6 months and then are rehired upon release by the same company to work for them. What kind of deterrence is that? If break into and steal cars, should I spend less than 5 years in jail only to be released and employed by Toyota designing security systems?
As for punishments in the past, thats generally attributed to racial or religious prejudices. If you want to nitpick, why not protest the genocidal killings in Africa or the imprisonment without trial treatment in China? That happens in MODERN times, most people don't consider it "funny" they flat-out IGNORE it.
That what I want to know. I honestly have no clue.
Re:What exactly is this hurdle Blizzard speaks of?
on
No WoW for the 360
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· Score: 1
I suppose they don't want to give an "advantage" to PC users that console users don't have. Maybe Blizzard has similar reservations, but they don't have the option of crippling their existing game because it'd mean losing lots of customers.
WoW mods have created mods that have made it possible to create a list of every attack, ability and spell and cycle through them using one button. That pretty much screams "advantage" right there. And WoW's interface is considered to be the WORST of all MMOs out there, so Blizzard isn't one to talk.
At sixty feet you start worrying about wind knocking things down, wood rotting and the simple fact that its a fire hazard. Also, wood is fine for short term use, but considering this guy is thinking about keeping the tower up for years, wood isn't going to cut it.
The story is the same with the hard drive. The add on Ps2 hard drive was a dismal failure..few bought it, few companies supported it, and compatability was outright dropped from the unit in later revisions. And this is on what is arguably the most successful selling console of all time with a 100 million user install base. If the Ps2 wants to implement online and blu-ray compatability successfully, they need to be done RIGHT, and done AT launch.
Not necessarily, if you read up far back enough Sony even originally planned to have a LOT of add-ons for the PS2 which they simply never delivered or delivered well. First there was the iLink plug that basically networked multiple PS2 systems together. The number of games that actually supported this were in the single digits. Next, Iomega Zip Drives add-ons were planned and officially announced. Obviously, that never happened thanks to the release of mass produced, mass marketed CD burners. Then they promised a online adaptor and delivered a half-baked product. SOCOM was ok but anyone who played a PC FPS online could see how horribly done it was (poor interface, small number of players, horribly dated graphics). SOCOM 2 and 3 somewhat redeemed it, but by then Xbox Live had come along and buried the PS2 in terms of online console gameplay (MechAssault, Crimson Skies and then Halo 2). Finally, there was the hard drive add-on, which no one but FFXI players bought because it was a requirement. The fact that the Slim PS2s don't support the hard drive add-ons simply nailed the coffin shut on the PS2 hard drive.
Take all this into account that this is all on ONE system and you really have to question Sony's ability to plan in the long term.
Re:Only real answer is free character transfer
on
World of Queuecraft
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· Score: 1
World Passes were relative to the population of your server, so unless you managed to amazingly roll onto one of the original Japanese launch servers, it was insanely easy to afford one. Worst case scenario, you just shouted in the town for donations to pool money for a World Pass. Most people don't even know about World Passes, so people are usually willing to cough up the dough once you explained it to them.
(For the record, if you wanted a World Pass and you were REALLY straped for gil, most FFXI forums will simply let you put up a World Pass request thread with some of the biggest having sections dedicated to making World Pass requests.)
Slashdot Mirror
Says who? The only reason you hear WoW players complaining about it so much is because theres no built-in translator function so if you can't speak English, you're automatically labeled a gold farmer.
In fact, Blizzard had to add "Australia perferred" servers which are hosted in North America, since peak Australian hours are almost exactly opposite peak NA hours.
Or maybe Australians got tired of playing in a game world where it was virtually constantly night time because the in game clock was set for North American players only.
Between the east coast and the west coast of the US I get, on average, anywhere from a 70ms to a 100ms ping time. Between me and Japan, it's considerably higher.
The FFXI servers are located in Southern California, not Japan.
The update servers are frequently down, and the entire thing is often a mess.
WoW updates have been known to take down the entire system for days at a time.
Compare with World of Warcraft. They distribute a single update file via a custom BitTorrent client. The client has to download the torrent, and then the torrent downloads the potentially large update.
Except even then it doesn't work because you have MILLIONS of people downloading the torrent at once. Mirror sites don't work properly either because updates are often times 100+ MBs, so the whole game is more or less shut down everytime theres an update. At least FFXI has the "We have to cater to the lowest demominator, the PS2" reasoning, what reasoning does WoW try using?
Then theres the nitpicking reasons:
It never fully addressed the gameplay issues of EQ1. (EQ1 is considered to be the MMO to start the end-game grind use.)
Its graphics/art were not too great of an improvement. (Not to mention the fact that its system requirements at launch were considered to be high-end.)
It was still considered to be newbie-unfriendly. (All MMOs are but EQ1 and 2 are two of the biggest offenders.)
Since there was such little general improvement, few original EQ1 players made the change to EQ2. As a result, most players didn't make the change for the basic "I don't want to leave my friends and start from scratch for a sub-par improvement." (Translation: Poor initial launch = poor initial impressions due to lack of popularity.)
I'm not even taking WoW into account here. EQ2 SHOULD have at LEAST come close to the 1M mark simply thanks to its brand name recognition in the MMO world. Instead it landed around 500k subscribers, not bad if it was a brand new name, but otherwise a flop given the time it launched and the development of the market at that point.
Compared to second-generation MMOs such as DAoC (I consider MMOs such as FFXI and WoW to be third-generation) EQ1 is a piece of crap. Poor graphics, lack of new downloadable content (expansion packs don't count), non-existant PvP, nothing truely innovative or even evolutionary to UO. The crafting system is a joke, the GUI is one of the worst and its grinding is THE worst of all MMOs. The community has more or less turned into a sheltered, isolationist state, the number of subscribers have been in decline for years and Smedley's failure to properly handle the Star Wars name is simply his most recent, notable and biggest failure.
LucasArts isn't exactly Nintendo when it comes to protecting its brand names but they're not stupid enough to continue to let the Star Wars name be burned alive. (SWG is the laughingstock of MMOs these days.)
Twenty years ago we DID have MMORPGs, we just didn't have massive worlds capable of serving THOUSANDS of users 24/7.
Twenty years ago you couldn't make your own fun in computer games like you can in HL2 by painting zombies and walls with the grav gun, or in BF1942 where you can forgo the game for acrobatics like detpack jeep boosting and wing to wing transfers.
Uhh... Players have been screwing around inside of game environments since the first attempted murder of Lord British in Ultima. The only difference is the lifting of limitations. (Speed runs? Playing any of the Wizardry games with only 1 character? Beating Final Fantasy 1 with a party of 4 white mages? Beating Doom without using any guns?)
Twenty years ago you couldn't be in a situation where you have a whole city or world to explore with no rules like you do in many of todays games like the GTA franchise.
Again, simply the lifting of limitations. When Ultima first came out, it was HUGE. And there were 'no rules' so to speak. (We've all tried killing Lord British one time or another.)
Generally speaking games 20 years ago were twiddle tests where only ones reflexes are ever challenged. Games today embody strategy, tactics and sometimes even empathy, things that could never by fortold 20 years ago.
20 years ago, most RPGs were virtually considered to be either strategic or tactical turn based strategy games. Playing as a Healer/Healing geared manner basicly meant you had to throw every single strategy guide out the window and write one on the fly (Level caps and woefully balanced stats didn't help.) Most puzzle based games were considered to be TOO difficult since this was pre-GameFAQs. (Lemmings anyone?) A lot of action games actually required a lot of pre-planning since different choices meant having to completely re-think attack patterns. You can nitpick but its largely remained true well into 2006.
Gee, wow. Engine demos. Last time Sony showed us an engine demo, they claimed it was real time when in reality it was nothing but a FMV.
Even the forementioned artillery and air strikes took thinking to use. Artillery was fairly inaccurate and air strikes could be shot down if you tried simply trying to air strike an enemy target objective to death. You could get vehicles but they weren't customizable so that made things even harder to plan. You got aircraft but those were pitifully armored compared to the Mechs.
And to top it all off, the Mechs themselves had weight, heat and power limitations. You COULD give a Light Mech one of the biggest weapons in the game, but then it'd be so heavy it could be equiped with anything else. You COULD strip a Mech of its heatsinks in exchange for more weapons, but then it'd overheat in a matters of seconds in combat. You COULD arm a Mech with tons of lasers but then it'd only have enough energy for one volley before overheating and shutting down.
Oh and don't confuse this with MechWarrior (a game where YOU were the pilot.) YOU don't have direct control of the units, the AI pilot statistics played a major role. And I bolded pilots because they COULD be killed, which of course would spelled disaster if you suddenly found yourself on the last mission with no one but rookies to pilot your Mechs.
At least he didn't cede power to the major studios. Given the sheer amount of remakes and sequels of older movies recently (King Kong anyone?), at least George Lucas is keeping a tight rein on things instead of letting the studios run amok with it.
Timothy Zahn came first, and wrote that part of Vader's history, and Lucas screwed it up.
Oh yeah, George Lucas really screwed things up by not having Anakin in his 20~30's when Episode 1 came around. Timothy Zahn is a great storyteller, but in terms of timeline continuity, you can't fault George Lucas for overriding Timothy Zahn.
Pre-Episode 1, 2 and 3 stories + Anakin != Blame George Lucas
Seriously, the guy places his stories PRIOR to Episodes 1, 2 and 3 and you blame George Lucas for the inconsistancies? Timothy Zahn flat-out screwed up in using Darth Vader in his stories. Anyone who watched the original Episodes 4, 5 and 6 knew Episodes 1, 2 and 3 would simply be 'how it all started' stories. (Where did the Emperor came from? What happened to the Jedis? Where did the stormtroopers come from? How is Darth Vader Luke's father? Etc.)
How do you tell if they own their own personal PS2? What if they have multiple PS2s in different locations (1 at home, 1 at college)? What about people who have 'access' to a PS2, but doesn't play? (Read: parents who still think video games are for kids)
Trying to gauge a userbase beyond sales is simply too complicated and contraversial. Heck, if you argue it enough, you can claim all video game console userbases are at least triple its current claims (owner + 1 immediate family member + 1 friend).
Hell, even if it happened in the U.S. some people wouldn't question it. "The pillows accidently smothered it in its sleep. We should be sueing the pillow company instead for this tragedy!"
One thing to note: In most RTS games, handicaps really don't help out much if you're a newbie. I know in Battle for Middle Earth 2 and Warcraft 3, handicaps simply lowered the amount of life units had. While this was fine at first, I tried a 1v4 computer fight in Warcraft 3 and simply got SWARMED. The reason: they had the same amount of attack damage and armor without the handicap...
Actually, no. The plan used to roughly be:
Japan: "Spring"
USA: "Fall~Winter-ish but before Christmas"
Europe and Australia: "Eventually"
Thats one of the reasons why nearly everyone is throwing fits all of the sudden. You're looking at a WORLDWIDE release in less than a period of roughly 4~5 months. (Fall through Winter and December doesn't count cause its too late into the season.) Unless Sony has been secretly stockpiling PS3 hardware parts, they are NOT going to meet a US launch before the Christmas season. The Japanese are already pissed off at Sony for the delay, American customers are gonna be rioting over what little imports manage to sneak out of Japan.
I donno about the downloaded version (I got the boxed version) but you do NOT have to install StarDock to install or play the (offline) game.
Also, Microsoft pays Immersion Corp for use of their patent (at least for the Xbox, I don't know about the 360). Sony is really the only one fighting this at this point.
You're right though about Nintendo and Microsoft. Nintendo has at least three generations to go through (NES, SNES, N64) not counting the Gameboy line and Microsoft has LEGAL classic arcade games plus a proven track record (at least for consoles) of handling online services.
Actually that was a political decision. Read up on the subject, the general consensus is that CIA simply acted on outdated info (we know they HAD WMDs in the past) and the Bush administration took that as face value.
- 9/11.
Again, political. Domestic and military security analysts were predicting another attack on the WTC for YEARS after the '93 truck bombing attempt. The U.S. use domestic airliners in simulations for war against Russia for DECADES during the Cold War. It was not a "WTF?! Who woulda thunk of dat?!!?!" scenario.
- failure to anticipate the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Simply given Iraq's weakened military strength (post Iraq-Iran War) and the friendly relations between the U.S. and Kuwait at the time (gotta kiss ass after the oil embargo of '73-'74), you really have to question whether or not diplomacy would have mattered.
I'm not saying they're perfect (they seem to be complete retards when it comes to Iran), but they get a worse rap than they deserve in some cases.
Parents spanking children used to be legal AND the norm until a few decades ago. Nowadays its LEGALLY classified as child abuse (read: you CAN get jail time). All of the sudden you have juv halls being packed with kids caught for shoplifting, petty theft, juvenile deliquency and graffiti.
Yeah, imprisonment and 'rehabilitation' (which is a hit-or-miss affair admitted even by supporters of the idea) is such a better alternative. Lets wait until Little Jimmy is 18 years old and stuff him into an already overloaded prison because mom and dad were legally forbidden from physically punishing him as a child. [/sarcasm]
How does pointing out other atrocities that were and are being committed in any way mitigate someone here and now advocating and applauding rape?
You protest rape, but you don't protest genocide. It's called priorities. People can't take you seriously if you sweat over the small details while ignoring the big picture.
Maybe we should forgo rape and shift to a gulag prison system like in Russia. Hard time means hard, backbreaking manual labor for several decades at a time with no chance of parole. Screw police restraint, let the cops beat suspects in the streets, I hear that works real well in Russia. In fact, screw the police completely. Lets go to a military dictatorship and put the military in charge of domestic crimes. We'll just lock people up, without trial, without outside contact and simply forget about them. We can reinstate the death penality with execution by firing squad as well. Crime will all but disappear. Rape would be catagorized down there with petty theft. [/sarcasm]
There are alternate transportation methods rather than busses, so that excuse obviously didn't work back then.
No offense but, name one thats cost and time effective. And subways don't count since those only apply in major cities.
As it stands, the punishment for committing any type of 'cybercrime' these days is a joke. You get off with a slap on the wrist in terms of fines (since theres no real way to calculate how much damage you've done, a good lawyer can shrink it down to the thousands) and MAYBE some jail time (again, no real way to calculate.) Hell you get jackasses who hack into multi-billion dollar companies, get cause and 'punished' for like 6 months and then are rehired upon release by the same company to work for them. What kind of deterrence is that? If break into and steal cars, should I spend less than 5 years in jail only to be released and employed by Toyota designing security systems?
As for punishments in the past, thats generally attributed to racial or religious prejudices. If you want to nitpick, why not protest the genocidal killings in Africa or the imprisonment without trial treatment in China? That happens in MODERN times, most people don't consider it "funny" they flat-out IGNORE it.
That what I want to know. I honestly have no clue.
WoW mods have created mods that have made it possible to create a list of every attack, ability and spell and cycle through them using one button. That pretty much screams "advantage" right there. And WoW's interface is considered to be the WORST of all MMOs out there, so Blizzard isn't one to talk.
At sixty feet you start worrying about wind knocking things down, wood rotting and the simple fact that its a fire hazard. Also, wood is fine for short term use, but considering this guy is thinking about keeping the tower up for years, wood isn't going to cut it.
Not necessarily, if you read up far back enough Sony even originally planned to have a LOT of add-ons for the PS2 which they simply never delivered or delivered well. First there was the iLink plug that basically networked multiple PS2 systems together. The number of games that actually supported this were in the single digits. Next, Iomega Zip Drives add-ons were planned and officially announced. Obviously, that never happened thanks to the release of mass produced, mass marketed CD burners. Then they promised a online adaptor and delivered a half-baked product. SOCOM was ok but anyone who played a PC FPS online could see how horribly done it was (poor interface, small number of players, horribly dated graphics). SOCOM 2 and 3 somewhat redeemed it, but by then Xbox Live had come along and buried the PS2 in terms of online console gameplay (MechAssault, Crimson Skies and then Halo 2). Finally, there was the hard drive add-on, which no one but FFXI players bought because it was a requirement. The fact that the Slim PS2s don't support the hard drive add-ons simply nailed the coffin shut on the PS2 hard drive.
Take all this into account that this is all on ONE system and you really have to question Sony's ability to plan in the long term.
(For the record, if you wanted a World Pass and you were REALLY straped for gil, most FFXI forums will simply let you put up a World Pass request thread with some of the biggest having sections dedicated to making World Pass requests.)