RPPVP and PVP servers generally tend to be low population servers simply because people enjoy the predictability of not having the chance to be randomly ganked. PVE servers are, naturally, insanely packed to the brim as a result. Oh and lets not forget about the division effect it has on the community (PVPers are jerks! PVEers are carebears!)
Strap yourself into a metal cage and then drop the metal cage from an altitude of about 50 meters (low enough to negate any significant wind resistance) and see how you feel upon landing. Thats basicly how helicopter pilots feel upon crash landing, helicopters don't exactly come equiped with airbags or crash absorbant materials.
More likely, these (non-decoded) messages were simply marked as 'to be decoded', shelved and then ultimately were never decoded. Once the war ended, there was no need to decode old messages and all efforts were simply forgotten.
What, exactly, is the difference between multicast on the 'net and DirecTV? Both broadcast to everyone, both are only supposed to be used by paying customers.
What, exactly, is the difference between a taxi cab company and an airplane company? Both offer services to everyone, both are only supposed to be used by paying customers.
In a specially selected sample of homes, Nielsen Media Research technicians install metering equipment on TV sets, VCRs and cable boxes (and even satellite dishes). The NielsenTV meters automatically and invisibly keep track of when the sets are on and what the sets are tuned to. These meters are connected to a central "black box," which is actually a very small computer and modem. Information from the meters is collected by the black box, and in the middle of the night all the black boxes call in their information to our central computers.
Quoted from http://www.nielsenmedia.com/whatratingsmean/. That doesn't sound like voluntary participation to me. And besides, it would be impossible to allow people to choose whether or not they have a Nielsen box installed in their TV/VCR/cable box/satellite dish. Every sci-fi geek would be opting-out ("zomg its Big Brother!") and every American Idol watcher would opt-in ("maybe I can be on the show next season!").
Then how do you control it? Its the same problem with radio. At least with radio you make the majority of profit from sponsors and advertisement so theres no need to control distribution (not to mention the fact that its relatively cheap to setup a radio station). So its 'ok' if you have no control of who hears the content. (More ears = more audience = more sponsors)
But when you put it online (multicasting, Bittorrent, whatever) how do you tell whats your audience? You can't track them, hackers would go insane and tear the tracking code out. Centralizing is too cumbersome (bandwidth costs would skyrocket) and de-centralization (Napster) only works if people 'opt-in' to whatever crazy system the company picks. The iTunes store does fairly well as a centralized system, but even Apple has admitted this, their profits are virtually a joke in terms of actual cash amount.
Who says its worth replaying? Historically, Valve games have been painfully linear with very little replay value (not counting mods or add-ons.) Other than replaying to see certain scenes again, theres almost no reason to replay HL1 or 2.
To be fair, Kerafyrm in Sleeper's Tomb was never meant to be defeated.
Perhaps, but putting something in a game and says its supposed to be 'undefeatable' in a game is like leaving the keys to a hotrod on the kitchen table and then expecting a house with 10000+ kids not to take the car out on a 'test drive'.
People were killing/trying to kill Lord British the first day Ultima 1 came out. When UO came out, people STILL tried to kill Lord British (and in one case actually succeeded). And if that isn't recent enough, in WoW you have players sneaking/breaking into uncompleted areas, despite the EULA stating that its a bannable offense, 'because they can'.
I don't know about other companies or games, but Nintendo went warning label-happy because someone tried to sue them. Thats why almost every first-party Nintendo game now has those 'warning video games can cause seizures' notices. Given that and Nintendo's caution towards jackassery online, online warning notices are expected. (See : Pictochat complains, the dick/wang emblems in Mario Kart DS and now eventual abuse of the voice chat features.)
Modern divorces almost always end with the courts siding with the wife. Play the sexist card (women are better parents, its was the mean ol' drunken dad's fault, the woman would NEVER hurt the kids, etc) and its very hard to win modern day divorces if your the husband. Throw in the fact that 'dad' is generally the 'breadwinner', thus generally not home 9-5, and its extremely hard to make a good case for the husband to keep the kids, let alone not pay child support for several decades when you know the wife had squandered most of the savings away.
Unless the ratio of correct predictions to incorrect predictions is high, there is no point believing them "just in case".
So you would rather leave everything to chance and wait things out? Thats nice and peachy, but again when you're dealing with multi-billion or trillion dollar decisions, people don't want to hear you say "well, let's just wait and see what happens."
Because for every 10, 100, 1000, 10000 wrong predictions they make, they make 1 right one. When you're talking about making multi-billion or trillion dollar decisions, you WANT to listen to every single one of those predictions no matter how insane or off-the-wall they sound. (Insurance and security agencies were predicting another terrorist attack on the WTC after the failed '93 truck bombing attempt, but who listened to them? 'They failed once but that doesn't mean they won't try again'? Sound logic to me!)
Hell, they predicted a Hurricana Katrina yet nothing was done and look at all the criticism that came/is coming out of that. Hate analysts all you want, but its their job to figure out what MIGHT happen. What you do with the information is up to you.
in comparison to their neighbors they actually look pretty good. Unstable? By what standard?
Iranian hostage crisis? Knowingly and willfully assisting known terrorists? Having an ELECTED leader saying he wants outright wants Israel outright destroyed? Its an unwritten rule in diplomacy but, you don't outright say you want your neighbor wiped off the map. Thats like going into a police station and saying 'I want to fucking kill my neighbor.' You can do it, just don't expect people to look at you the same afterwards.
Who in the region, except Israel, *doesn't* agree with that?
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, India, Ukraine, Egypt and Russia to a lesser extent. NONE of these countries have a beef with Israel (with the exception of Egypt, but they're not stupid enough to want them flat-out nuked).
The Israelis have tons of nukes, the Iranians are, at best, many years away from having one.
Iran started and stopped their nuclear efforts several times in the past. If they go the dirty bomb route, they could have one up and running within a few months of operation. They already have the delivery system setup (air force, ballistic missle or terrorist hijacking, take your pick). As for Israel having nukes, considering the fact that the U.S. holds Israel by the balls when it comes to actually using them, it would take something VERY SERIOUS for Israel to actually use nukes. (Not to mention the SCUDs being launched by Iraq during the '91 war)
And finally, who says it's up to the US to decide who will be allowed to have nukes?
Russia gave the Chinese nukes. They also tried to give Cuba nukes. Who said anything about the U.S. deciding who can have nukes?
Russia already offered to manufacture the plutonium needed by the Iranians for their 'nuclear power plant' but were turned down. Whos being unreasonable here? Russia's got the smarts, the experience and the backing of the U.N., the U.S. and other Middle Eastern countries who don't want to see any (new) nukes in their backyard.
Actually no, my point is that even with nuclear deterrance both sides are STILL borderline paranoid of one another. All it would take is one big push by the extremists (take your pick of military, political or religious) and the nukes would fly, followed by ground invasion and the eventual dragging in of neighboring countries when the nuclear fallout starts flying all over Southeast Asia.
Iran is one of the LEAST stable countries wanting to get their hands on a nuke. You've got an ELECTED President saying that Isreal should be wiped off the map, fundamentalists in control of the military and the majority of people more or less blaming everything thats wrong in their lives on the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. would probably let Cuba have nukes before they let Iran have them.
Except you completely disregard the political and military situation between India and Pakistan. India and Pakistan fought THREE WARS prior obtaining nuclear weapons (The '47-'48, '65 and '71 Wars), the U.S. had better relations with the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War for crying out loud.
Politically, the whole region is a mess, you've got old, aging war hawks, Islamic extremists and the inability by EITHER country to effective respond to the recent earthquake. Militarily, you've got old generals wanted to 'finish what they started', both sides wondering if the other is going to panic and start lobbing nukes and soldiers out in the middle of the desert staring at one another thinking that someone's ancestor(s) on the other side might be responsible for the killing of your ancestor(s).
That's your priority, but why do you think it has to be everybody's?
Because children are taught from day one to leech off their parents. If you can't move out of your house and live out on your own, what are the chances of you having the responsibility to go to work, pay taxes, pay bills, keep your home/apartment clean, cook your own meals, do your own laundry, etc? Next to zero. Thats where the whole 'rich kid = lazy kid' mentality came from. Why move out of your parent's fancy mansion into a small cramped dorm room for four years when you can leech off your parent's inheritance?
This is true. But we all make mistakes. What's your point?
25 years old and living with his parents. The average American student is expected to graduate from high school by the age of 18. Thats seven years of either being held back grades, completely failing all your courses and/or flat out not attending school. Two, three years I could understand, but seven? Wtf was he doing all that time?
He spends his time creating new viruses, finding new exploits for himself and his friends, covering his tracks, seeking out new zombie PCs or at least creating the tools to do so.
Some people haven't even installed Windows Service Pack 2 let alone anti-virus software, exploits are posted publicly on forums by anti-Microsoft/Windows fanatics, hes already said hes waiting to be caught so he can't be covering his tracks too well and zombie PCs are generally made by automated mass mailings. Try reading up on software security, its more or less ignored by the masses.
You think if he just buckled up and tried harder at school he'd get something better than a meaningless dead-end job in his home-town (forget about even landing a job that paid the same!)?
As I pointed out before : High school drop out, has no character and has way too much free time on his hands.
"Gee, I have no education, I live with my parents and I spend my all time socializing online. I wonder why I can't get a job."
Apathy or not its pretty ignorant to get pissed at someone just for pointing out whats wrong. Employers don't want uneducated, unmotivated, unproven kids. They sure are hell don't want people living with their parents (employers are not impressed when they call your home phone number only to get your parents). Given how many people (even some websurfers) admit that socializing online is generally not healthy, its safe to assume this guy has social issue. Need I continue pointing out the red flags? You're just shooting messenger here.
Define 'fun'. I once RPed with a GM who would throw in random unexpected traps and then have us figure out a way of getting out of the trap Macguver-style. It was annoying at times, but the 'solutions' we came up with sometimes were hilarous. (One time we fell down a random pit hole and 'got out' by blowing out the floor only to fall down into a -pre-arranged- pit hole on the next floor below.)
2. Details matter
Duhh...
3. Travel should be easy
Why? Its bad enough people rush through their lives between work and home, why not take things slow enjoy the adventure rather than simply the rewards at the end?
4. Item management should be simple
Again, why? We've had gamers constanting asking 'how can my character carry 20 different sets of armor in one easy to carry, lightweight, gravity-defying bag?' for years and all of the sudden now we want to get rid of it because WoW lets you do the same thing AND lets you jump? Pick a side and stick with it. (And while you're at it, why does a single, unstacked flower take up the same amount of space as a Two-handed Sword?)
5. Every class should have lots of things to do
Considering some RP groups take into consideration weather conditions (-1 to movement in snow anyone?), building architecture (stone? take cover! rotting wood? get the hell out of there!) and even the lighting conditions of a room (for those rogues out there), some people say theres TOO much to do in table-top RPing.
6. Style should shine through
Uhh, we are talking about table-top RPGs right? Last time I checked, the only 'style' there was in the storytelling and thats completely unique to the individual.
7. Everyone should leave every session jazzed about the game
Again, why? In table-top RPing, one bad saving throw can kill your character. Does this cause players to not 'leave every session jazzed about the game'? Generally, yes. Does this necessarily make the experience bad? No.
8. It's okay to make changes after the campaign begins
No, really? Most people call that reality, where things don't always go as initially planned.
9. Err on the side of being over-the-top
Again, why? If I start off on an adventure to find out what happened to a missing supply wagon of food supplies, why should I run into a goblin army or (worse) a dragon only to be rescued by a patrol of paladins or elven army coming to kill the dragon? (And no, WoW is not innocent of this as even simple 'kill X number of Y enemies' quests have been recorded to start 10+ multi-part quests. Araj the Summoner anyone?)
This guy is either a complete amature at being a table-top RP GM or a flat-out idiot. WoW is one of the WORST example of RPing there is. Alliance and Horde sides cannot communicate due to a built-in text scrambler (and 'cracking' it is a bannable offense), quests are either purposely designed to be done solo or require raid-sized groups to complete and the game is blindingly fast in comparison to any other RPG other there (table-top, console or PC).
The Samsung BD-P1000 the first Blu-Ray player will be first out on the market. It is due out in early Spring and is expected to be priced at around $1000. Assuming Sony somehow managed to pull of a manufacturing miracle and Blu-Ray drives only cost 25% what Samsung is selling it for, it'll still cost around $250 to manufacture.
These $300 or $500 price estimates are nothing more than Sony's hype machine working overtime. A top of the line, brand new PC video card costs about $500 USD manufacturer recommended. The PS3 is expected to have a top of the line Blu-Ray player, the virtually experimental CELL processor and PS1 and PS2 backward compatibility all rolled up into one neat little package.
No, a third party wins simply by scaring the other two major parties into instituting the same change the third party wants. All you have to say 'If you don't do X changes, I'm going to use my mass support to come into power and do the changes myself.' Thats why third parties don't win elections, its easier to bow to the wishes of the third party in exchange of not being pushed out of power.
As for people voting for a third party, thats an issue with people simply being too lazy to keep up with politician's agendas. As it stands people have to figure out what their Congressmen, Senators, Presidents and their staffs have in mind when they come into power. Additionally, they have to figure out what the opposing side wants, what the occasional third party group wants and then figure out which people or groups are being swayed by which interest groups. This is not very easy to do if you're Joe Average whos lucky enough to pull a six-figure income BEFORE taxes let alone people who pull five-figure incomes.
Sounds like he's painted as someone in an economically depressed area with few opportunities, using his skills to make a lot of money for himself.
Economically depressed area? From the article :
the hacker known online as "0x80" (pronounced X-eighty) plops his wiry frame into a tan, weathered couch, sets his new laptop on the coffee table and punches in a series of commands.
The guy is still living with his parents and he buys a new laptop? Hasn't the guy heard of priorities? He's also a high school dropout (read: shot himself in the foot in terms of getting a -real- job). Again from the article :
This is his day job, and his work is finished in less than two minutes.
Two minutes? Ever heard the saying 'idle hands are the works of the devil?' No fucking wonder he can't get a decent job. He's the stereotypical pasty white nerd that lives in his parent's basement writing script kiddy code destroying people's lives. If he thinks he can simply join the Army after being caught, hes got another thing coming.
"Hm, lets see, you were last arrested for hacking and stealing personal information, tax evasion and you're also a high school dropout? You're an ex-spy, you embezzled money and you've got the educational level of someone 5 years younger than you. You're gonna fit in real well with the rest of the rejects out on the front lines."
and soon will be third in the handheld gaming market.
Whoa! Theres a third handheld out there? I thought I was just the Sony PSP vs the Nintendo DS and GBA. I'm pretty sure the Ngage has fallen off the charts already.
Because MMOs that -lose- subscribers is considered to be a failure since it means theres no long term staying power. Once players reach X point, players quit causing subscribers to fall. How you reach X point varies (players get tired/frustrated/bored/etc) but a 'successful' MMO either A) makes X point very hard to reach (see: Everquest or Ultima Online) or B) simply replaces players as fast as they are lost (see: Eve Online or FFXI).
And thats not counting the upcoming competition. The new FFXI expansion, the SWG overhaul, the Guild Wars expansion, (those three are debatable) Auto Assault, Tabula Raza, D&D: Online, RF Online, SUN and Vanguard Saga of Heroes. (All brand new games and are unquestionably direct competition.) The MMORPG market is going to get very, very crowded within the next few years. WoW is still a newcomer considering the fact that MMOs such as Ultima Online and Meridian 59 are still running after nearly 10 years.
If MMO's were designed for the hardcore, WoW would have died long ago.
Except WoW is little over a year old. AC2, which shut down recently, was little over three years old. (AC2 is just the most recent example, other MMOs have gone longer and still shutdown) Give WoW a few more years then we can talk about 'WoW isn't dying' again. Arguably, WoW is simply riding the 'launch hype' that accompanies any major game. If WoW keeps around 5 million users after its second year (or grows even larger), then yes WoW is a video game historical success. If it drops by more than a million (just a 20% turnover rate, not that high in MMOs), then all the naysayers will have been proven right.
Depends on which version you're talking about. I remember in Simcity2000, in the scenario mode, you could manage a city where a random nuclear reactor would meltdown and you had to clean up and restore the city. However, if you simply paused the game as soon as it loaded, bulldozed all your nuclear reactors and built new non-nuclear power plants, no nuclear meltdown would ever occur and you would 'win' a few months later simply because you 'cleaned up' the city so quickly. Lame method but it worked.
At least Doom made an EFFORT to replicate the game on film.
That sums up the majority of most anti-Uwe Boll sentiment. Gamers don't care if 'they don't get it right'. They just care if they actually TRY. Case in point : Final Fantasy The Spirits Within. Where were the swords? The chocobos? The magic? Bahamut? Cid? Moogles? Spirits that travelled on a meteor?! A giant orbital space cannon?!? Way to throw out almost a decade worth of usuable content and come up with some entirely new B.S.
Love it or hate it, Doom is arguably the best 'true' video game to movie transition. You had the BFG, references to John Carmack, monster designs from the artists at ID Software and a 'FPS' scene. If video game movies don't get any better after Doom, we'd only have Uwe Boll to blame given his sheer number of failures.
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RPPVP and PVP servers generally tend to be low population servers simply because people enjoy the predictability of not having the chance to be randomly ganked. PVE servers are, naturally, insanely packed to the brim as a result. Oh and lets not forget about the division effect it has on the community (PVPers are jerks! PVEers are carebears!)
Strap yourself into a metal cage and then drop the metal cage from an altitude of about 50 meters (low enough to negate any significant wind resistance) and see how you feel upon landing. Thats basicly how helicopter pilots feel upon crash landing, helicopters don't exactly come equiped with airbags or crash absorbant materials.
More likely, these (non-decoded) messages were simply marked as 'to be decoded', shelved and then ultimately were never decoded. Once the war ended, there was no need to decode old messages and all efforts were simply forgotten.
What, exactly, is the difference between a taxi cab company and an airplane company? Both offer services to everyone, both are only supposed to be used by paying customers.
Quoted from http://www.nielsenmedia.com/whatratingsmean/. That doesn't sound like voluntary participation to me. And besides, it would be impossible to allow people to choose whether or not they have a Nielsen box installed in their TV/VCR/cable box/satellite dish. Every sci-fi geek would be opting-out ("zomg its Big Brother!") and every American Idol watcher would opt-in ("maybe I can be on the show next season!").
But when you put it online (multicasting, Bittorrent, whatever) how do you tell whats your audience? You can't track them, hackers would go insane and tear the tracking code out. Centralizing is too cumbersome (bandwidth costs would skyrocket) and de-centralization (Napster) only works if people 'opt-in' to whatever crazy system the company picks. The iTunes store does fairly well as a centralized system, but even Apple has admitted this, their profits are virtually a joke in terms of actual cash amount.
Who says its worth replaying? Historically, Valve games have been painfully linear with very little replay value (not counting mods or add-ons.) Other than replaying to see certain scenes again, theres almost no reason to replay HL1 or 2.
Perhaps, but putting something in a game and says its supposed to be 'undefeatable' in a game is like leaving the keys to a hotrod on the kitchen table and then expecting a house with 10000+ kids not to take the car out on a 'test drive'.
People were killing/trying to kill Lord British the first day Ultima 1 came out. When UO came out, people STILL tried to kill Lord British (and in one case actually succeeded). And if that isn't recent enough, in WoW you have players sneaking/breaking into uncompleted areas, despite the EULA stating that its a bannable offense, 'because they can'.
I don't know about other companies or games, but Nintendo went warning label-happy because someone tried to sue them. Thats why almost every first-party Nintendo game now has those 'warning video games can cause seizures' notices. Given that and Nintendo's caution towards jackassery online, online warning notices are expected. (See : Pictochat complains, the dick/wang emblems in Mario Kart DS and now eventual abuse of the voice chat features.)
Modern divorces almost always end with the courts siding with the wife. Play the sexist card (women are better parents, its was the mean ol' drunken dad's fault, the woman would NEVER hurt the kids, etc) and its very hard to win modern day divorces if your the husband. Throw in the fact that 'dad' is generally the 'breadwinner', thus generally not home 9-5, and its extremely hard to make a good case for the husband to keep the kids, let alone not pay child support for several decades when you know the wife had squandered most of the savings away.
So you would rather leave everything to chance and wait things out? Thats nice and peachy, but again when you're dealing with multi-billion or trillion dollar decisions, people don't want to hear you say "well, let's just wait and see what happens."
Hell, they predicted a Hurricana Katrina yet nothing was done and look at all the criticism that came/is coming out of that. Hate analysts all you want, but its their job to figure out what MIGHT happen. What you do with the information is up to you.
Iranian hostage crisis? Knowingly and willfully assisting known terrorists? Having an ELECTED leader saying he wants outright wants Israel outright destroyed? Its an unwritten rule in diplomacy but, you don't outright say you want your neighbor wiped off the map. Thats like going into a police station and saying 'I want to fucking kill my neighbor.' You can do it, just don't expect people to look at you the same afterwards.
Who in the region, except Israel, *doesn't* agree with that?
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, India, Ukraine, Egypt and Russia to a lesser extent. NONE of these countries have a beef with Israel (with the exception of Egypt, but they're not stupid enough to want them flat-out nuked).
The Israelis have tons of nukes, the Iranians are, at best, many years away from having one.
Iran started and stopped their nuclear efforts several times in the past. If they go the dirty bomb route, they could have one up and running within a few months of operation. They already have the delivery system setup (air force, ballistic missle or terrorist hijacking, take your pick). As for Israel having nukes, considering the fact that the U.S. holds Israel by the balls when it comes to actually using them, it would take something VERY SERIOUS for Israel to actually use nukes. (Not to mention the SCUDs being launched by Iraq during the '91 war)
And finally, who says it's up to the US to decide who will be allowed to have nukes?
Russia gave the Chinese nukes. They also tried to give Cuba nukes. Who said anything about the U.S. deciding who can have nukes?
Russia already offered to manufacture the plutonium needed by the Iranians for their 'nuclear power plant' but were turned down. Whos being unreasonable here? Russia's got the smarts, the experience and the backing of the U.N., the U.S. and other Middle Eastern countries who don't want to see any (new) nukes in their backyard.
Iran is one of the LEAST stable countries wanting to get their hands on a nuke. You've got an ELECTED President saying that Isreal should be wiped off the map, fundamentalists in control of the military and the majority of people more or less blaming everything thats wrong in their lives on the U.S. and its allies. The U.S. would probably let Cuba have nukes before they let Iran have them.
Politically, the whole region is a mess, you've got old, aging war hawks, Islamic extremists and the inability by EITHER country to effective respond to the recent earthquake. Militarily, you've got old generals wanted to 'finish what they started', both sides wondering if the other is going to panic and start lobbing nukes and soldiers out in the middle of the desert staring at one another thinking that someone's ancestor(s) on the other side might be responsible for the killing of your ancestor(s).
Because children are taught from day one to leech off their parents. If you can't move out of your house and live out on your own, what are the chances of you having the responsibility to go to work, pay taxes, pay bills, keep your home/apartment clean, cook your own meals, do your own laundry, etc? Next to zero. Thats where the whole 'rich kid = lazy kid' mentality came from. Why move out of your parent's fancy mansion into a small cramped dorm room for four years when you can leech off your parent's inheritance?
This is true. But we all make mistakes. What's your point?
25 years old and living with his parents. The average American student is expected to graduate from high school by the age of 18. Thats seven years of either being held back grades, completely failing all your courses and/or flat out not attending school. Two, three years I could understand, but seven? Wtf was he doing all that time?
He spends his time creating new viruses, finding new exploits for himself and his friends, covering his tracks, seeking out new zombie PCs or at least creating the tools to do so.
Some people haven't even installed Windows Service Pack 2 let alone anti-virus software, exploits are posted publicly on forums by anti-Microsoft/Windows fanatics, hes already said hes waiting to be caught so he can't be covering his tracks too well and zombie PCs are generally made by automated mass mailings. Try reading up on software security, its more or less ignored by the masses.
You think if he just buckled up and tried harder at school he'd get something better than a meaningless dead-end job in his home-town (forget about even landing a job that paid the same!)?
As I pointed out before : High school drop out, has no character and has way too much free time on his hands.
"Gee, I have no education, I live with my parents and I spend my all time socializing online. I wonder why I can't get a job."
Apathy or not its pretty ignorant to get pissed at someone just for pointing out whats wrong. Employers don't want uneducated, unmotivated, unproven kids. They sure are hell don't want people living with their parents (employers are not impressed when they call your home phone number only to get your parents). Given how many people (even some websurfers) admit that socializing online is generally not healthy, its safe to assume this guy has social issue. Need I continue pointing out the red flags? You're just shooting messenger here.
Define 'fun'. I once RPed with a GM who would throw in random unexpected traps and then have us figure out a way of getting out of the trap Macguver-style. It was annoying at times, but the 'solutions' we came up with sometimes were hilarous. (One time we fell down a random pit hole and 'got out' by blowing out the floor only to fall down into a -pre-arranged- pit hole on the next floor below.)
2. Details matter
Duhh...
3. Travel should be easy
Why? Its bad enough people rush through their lives between work and home, why not take things slow enjoy the adventure rather than simply the rewards at the end?
4. Item management should be simple
Again, why? We've had gamers constanting asking 'how can my character carry 20 different sets of armor in one easy to carry, lightweight, gravity-defying bag?' for years and all of the sudden now we want to get rid of it because WoW lets you do the same thing AND lets you jump? Pick a side and stick with it. (And while you're at it, why does a single, unstacked flower take up the same amount of space as a Two-handed Sword?)
5. Every class should have lots of things to do
Considering some RP groups take into consideration weather conditions (-1 to movement in snow anyone?), building architecture (stone? take cover! rotting wood? get the hell out of there!) and even the lighting conditions of a room (for those rogues out there), some people say theres TOO much to do in table-top RPing.
6. Style should shine through
Uhh, we are talking about table-top RPGs right? Last time I checked, the only 'style' there was in the storytelling and thats completely unique to the individual.
7. Everyone should leave every session jazzed about the game
Again, why? In table-top RPing, one bad saving throw can kill your character. Does this cause players to not 'leave every session jazzed about the game'? Generally, yes. Does this necessarily make the experience bad? No.
8. It's okay to make changes after the campaign begins
No, really? Most people call that reality, where things don't always go as initially planned.
9. Err on the side of being over-the-top
Again, why? If I start off on an adventure to find out what happened to a missing supply wagon of food supplies, why should I run into a goblin army or (worse) a dragon only to be rescued by a patrol of paladins or elven army coming to kill the dragon? (And no, WoW is not innocent of this as even simple 'kill X number of Y enemies' quests have been recorded to start 10+ multi-part quests. Araj the Summoner anyone?)
This guy is either a complete amature at being a table-top RP GM or a flat-out idiot. WoW is one of the WORST example of RPing there is. Alliance and Horde sides cannot communicate due to a built-in text scrambler (and 'cracking' it is a bannable offense), quests are either purposely designed to be done solo or require raid-sized groups to complete and the game is blindingly fast in comparison to any other RPG other there (table-top, console or PC).
These $300 or $500 price estimates are nothing more than Sony's hype machine working overtime. A top of the line, brand new PC video card costs about $500 USD manufacturer recommended. The PS3 is expected to have a top of the line Blu-Ray player, the virtually experimental CELL processor and PS1 and PS2 backward compatibility all rolled up into one neat little package.
As for people voting for a third party, thats an issue with people simply being too lazy to keep up with politician's agendas. As it stands people have to figure out what their Congressmen, Senators, Presidents and their staffs have in mind when they come into power. Additionally, they have to figure out what the opposing side wants, what the occasional third party group wants and then figure out which people or groups are being swayed by which interest groups. This is not very easy to do if you're Joe Average whos lucky enough to pull a six-figure income BEFORE taxes let alone people who pull five-figure incomes.
Economically depressed area? From the article :
the hacker known online as "0x80" (pronounced X-eighty) plops his wiry frame into a tan, weathered couch, sets his new laptop on the coffee table and punches in a series of commands.
The guy is still living with his parents and he buys a new laptop? Hasn't the guy heard of priorities? He's also a high school dropout (read: shot himself in the foot in terms of getting a -real- job). Again from the article :
This is his day job, and his work is finished in less than two minutes.
Two minutes? Ever heard the saying 'idle hands are the works of the devil?' No fucking wonder he can't get a decent job. He's the stereotypical pasty white nerd that lives in his parent's basement writing script kiddy code destroying people's lives. If he thinks he can simply join the Army after being caught, hes got another thing coming.
"Hm, lets see, you were last arrested for hacking and stealing personal information, tax evasion and you're also a high school dropout? You're an ex-spy, you embezzled money and you've got the educational level of someone 5 years younger than you. You're gonna fit in real well with the rest of the rejects out on the front lines."
Whoa! Theres a third handheld out there? I thought I was just the Sony PSP vs the Nintendo DS and GBA. I'm pretty sure the Ngage has fallen off the charts already.
And thats not counting the upcoming competition. The new FFXI expansion, the SWG overhaul, the Guild Wars expansion, (those three are debatable) Auto Assault, Tabula Raza, D&D: Online, RF Online, SUN and Vanguard Saga of Heroes. (All brand new games and are unquestionably direct competition.) The MMORPG market is going to get very, very crowded within the next few years. WoW is still a newcomer considering the fact that MMOs such as Ultima Online and Meridian 59 are still running after nearly 10 years.
Except WoW is little over a year old. AC2, which shut down recently, was little over three years old. (AC2 is just the most recent example, other MMOs have gone longer and still shutdown) Give WoW a few more years then we can talk about 'WoW isn't dying' again. Arguably, WoW is simply riding the 'launch hype' that accompanies any major game. If WoW keeps around 5 million users after its second year (or grows even larger), then yes WoW is a video game historical success. If it drops by more than a million (just a 20% turnover rate, not that high in MMOs), then all the naysayers will have been proven right.
Depends on which version you're talking about. I remember in Simcity2000, in the scenario mode, you could manage a city where a random nuclear reactor would meltdown and you had to clean up and restore the city. However, if you simply paused the game as soon as it loaded, bulldozed all your nuclear reactors and built new non-nuclear power plants, no nuclear meltdown would ever occur and you would 'win' a few months later simply because you 'cleaned up' the city so quickly. Lame method but it worked.
That sums up the majority of most anti-Uwe Boll sentiment. Gamers don't care if 'they don't get it right'. They just care if they actually TRY. Case in point : Final Fantasy The Spirits Within. Where were the swords? The chocobos? The magic? Bahamut? Cid? Moogles? Spirits that travelled on a meteor?! A giant orbital space cannon?!? Way to throw out almost a decade worth of usuable content and come up with some entirely new B.S.
Love it or hate it, Doom is arguably the best 'true' video game to movie transition. You had the BFG, references to John Carmack, monster designs from the artists at ID Software and a 'FPS' scene. If video game movies don't get any better after Doom, we'd only have Uwe Boll to blame given his sheer number of failures.