I was impressed that you didn't play the usual "mistranslation" card so often employed to dismiss reports of the incredible sickness in religious texts, including the bible and the koran and the talmud.
But then I read the rest of your post and realized that you're too stupid to use the word "mistranslation."
I'll forgive you if you promise to try to make the same game in D3D and openGL. As much as I wish I didn't have to admit it, D3D really is a lot better than OpenGL if you're selling a game to a mostly-windows audience. Which most game publishers are.
Yes, that does suck if you were counting on buying 1 copy for more than 1 person to share and play simultaneously. But since that's how the law and the license both currently work, it's not clear how this is a "Steam problem" instead of a "Steam benefit" (from Valve's perspective.)
No one was ever banned for just a no-CD patch. I've used them for years on Valve games with no problem. But it's funny that you complain about steam requiring a CD in the drive for a game bought on CD when steam gives yout the choice to buy the game online with no CD ever needed, unlike all those other publishers/games that don't give you that choice.
I'm going to have to guess that you and your LAN pals had never validated your game installations online, becausse after you do once there's no problem playing in offline mode ever again. It's almost sounds as if someone tried to install one copy of a Valve game on more than one machine for a LAN match. But I know you and your friends would ever try to do that, so there must be another explanation. EBKAC maybe?
Insignificantly small would be my guess, given Valve's tendency to completely ignore you and the two or three other people who experience the same problems. If you mattered to their bottom line, they'd do something to help you out.
While your point is well taken and may apply to some games, you remember incorrectly in the case of Battlefield. A good 2/3 of the private servers, and almost all of the EA servers included at least a few maps from the expansion packs in their map rotations. Many players were displeased, but a few of the maps from each were very good, and unarguably fresh compared to the originals, so they found little support in their bitching. Of course, one or two good maps and a few extra vehicles and armies may or may not be worth $20 depending on your perspective, but overall they were accepted and "original map" servers were the exception rather than the rule. Maybe that's unfortunate, but with games like the BF series, where the desire for POINTS in the stats tracked by centralized servers (which could only be obtained on "official servers") were so desirable to so many, that it's really not very surprising.
The BF statistic tracking feature did more to sell expansion packs and keep people on "official" servers than anything else, regardless of the quality and value of those expansions. EA knows this, and has continued to milk that cow through BF2 and BF2142. My guess is they won't stop milking it. On the contrary, they've started adding in-game advertisements to both of those titles to allow even quicker milking of the cow, so to speak.
By "both points" I mean: (1) it's sad that you can't get a credit card since it's a trivial thing to do unless you're a complete deadbeat who has repeatedly shown his inability to keep a promise and (2) it's sad that you spend your time playing with the boxes for video games, movies, and CDs. Those of us who do leave our homes occasionally consider that odd and more than a little pathetic. I mean this in the nicest possible way: maybe you should consider leaving your mother's basement and getting a job so you can pay your debts, get a credit card, and join the rest of the world. It's really not as scary as it seems, and it can be fun! The boxes will be there for you to play with when you get home. If mommy lets you, that is.
At what? Listing games and selecting one to play? Make a desktop shortcut and don't load Steam at all. Is this a joke? Are you using Steam to type up reports or calculate spreadsheets or something?
Friends network down for about a year. etc.
The "Friends" network thing appeared on the menu before it was finished. It wasn't "down" as much as it was "not yet up." So? It doesn't impact your ability to play a game. It's a bonus feature they added later. This seems like a nitpick at an irrelevant issue.
Compare your framerate in 1.6with 1.5 and notice how even with identical graphics somehow 1.6 is amazingly slower, mostly due to the way the new ingame gui is done
Are you talking about counterstrike (the versions seem to indicate that, since steam is not 1.5/1.6). You do realize that Steam is not equal to Counterstrike, right? And that you can download and install any version of cs you like (and play alone, if you opt for 1.5). How is this in any way a comment about Steam?
On top of that, Steam is capable of something Valve doesn't even attempt to put to good use: Streamed gameplay. Basically in a single player game, imagine you first download all of the core files -- The code, the interface, everything possibly needed to launch the game initially. Now you start downloading the first 3 levels, every model used in them, every sound related, anything that could come up. Now you start playing. While playing, the rest of the game downloads as you need it.
Brilliant. How silly of them not to do this so you can then complain that your gaming experience is "slower, clunkier" and suffers from a "framerate [that is] slower" because of the background downloading and waiting for resources the game needs that aren't available yet. Steam really should do this to give you something else stupid to complain about. I'll ask them to get right on it.
This would let you play a game a lot faster on a fresh install, and is something steam was supposed to allow.
You might start playing a bit faster, but your gameplay would be slower, of course. Steam does support streaming but few games do it because (1) it doesn't take that long to download a full game if you have a decent netpipe and (2) those who don't have a decent netpipe will also probably have a relatively weak system that will suffer and stutter while trying to download and play simultaneously. It'll get more commonly used in the future, but who cares? With most games you can pre-order and pre-download before the release, and then start playing instantly when the game is "officially released" and they unencrypt the files in a few seconds.
An add-on package for those who already have previous releases of Half-Life 2 in their collection, this special edition comes with Half-Life 2: Episode Two, as well as the stunningly complex puzzle game Portal and the online phenomenon Team Fortress 2.
This game was cancelled by Valve in May 2007.
Why would I get this "cancelled" version (assuming I could) when it sounds just like the actual version (which includes all three games, and which I've already pre-ordered?)
As far as I'm concerned, eliminating the blind rush to see who can get the super weapon/power up first is a good thing.
Have you ever actually played TFC (or even TF?) There are no "super weapon[s]" or "power up[s]" that you can pick up. You spawn with all the weapons you can ever have (barring kit change) depending on the class you chose, and anything you might pick up (armor, ammo, grnades) is always in your base, in the spawn/resupply room, which is usually protected by ceiling turrets against enemy invaders. TFC != quake X deathmatch.
I do happen to think this is a good idea, but I don't think it will really reduce the "advantage" those familiar with the maps. It may slow it down a bit, but there's a finite (and reasonably small, like 16ish) number of possibilities, so eventually the hardcore folks will learn the ins and outs of every combo as well as they know 2fort and the "pwning of the noobs" will continue unabated.
Maybe nationalist or, if that carries connotations you don't intend, then describe what you mean in a phrase, or better yet simply leave off the abrasive, inaccurate adjective altogether. It adds nothing to your argument or meaning; rather it detracts and confuses.
Besides all the other spin and outright lies in your post that I don't have time or inclunation to refute, linux on the PS3 can't use the RSX -- the graphics chip.
Uh, sorry -- dailykos is that way. Over there. Way over there.
I don't care about the guy's politics since, you know, they're not in this article. The article that makes good points and has provided a basis for some good discussion. Here on Slashdot (not "mypoliticoblog.com")
While the nearly-illiterate troll you're arguing with is 100% wrong in my opinion, I must correct you on this point:
Even consumer reports expects donated equipment to test on.
Consumer Reports (magazine and website) does not accept loaned or donated products for testing. They purchase every product anonymously and through normal retail channels to avoid being given "superior" or "unusually good" example products.
There is very little that can be concluded about the severity of the signal-integrity issues from either case. Jitter can make either error happen due to offsets in sampling times. Crosstalk can induce voltage spikes or dips. I don't know what an "inductive issue" is (do you mean crosstalk?) A wire shorted to ground "injects" a constant 0 just the same as a short to vdd "injects" a 1; neither is more or less severe than the other. What are you trying to say about 0->1 being "worse" than 1->0? Maybe I just don't understand your point.
There's nothing worse about a "0" level rising enough to look like a "1" than the reverse, which you seem to imply in your post. They're both bit-inversion errors and, unless there's too many of them in a row, easily corrected by error-correction/retransmit.
And unless you're talking about 10GB+ speeds, cable-induced jitter is negligible.
Slashdot Mirror
I was impressed that you didn't play the usual "mistranslation" card so often employed to dismiss reports of the incredible sickness in religious texts, including the bible and the koran and the talmud.
But then I read the rest of your post and realized that you're too stupid to use the word "mistranslation."
I'll forgive you if you promise to try to make the same game in D3D and openGL. As much as I wish I didn't have to admit it, D3D really is a lot better than OpenGL if you're selling a game to a mostly-windows audience. Which most game publishers are.
Interesting anecdote. This has never happned to me, even when steam is down, so I guess my anecdote cancels out yours.
Yes, that does suck if you were counting on buying 1 copy for more than 1 person to share and play simultaneously. But since that's how the law and the license both currently work, it's not clear how this is a "Steam problem" instead of a "Steam benefit" (from Valve's perspective.)
No one was ever banned for just a no-CD patch. I've used them for years on Valve games with no problem. But it's funny that you complain about steam requiring a CD in the drive for a game bought on CD when steam gives yout the choice to buy the game online with no CD ever needed, unlike all those other publishers/games that don't give you that choice.
I'm going to have to guess that you and your LAN pals had never validated your game installations online, becausse after you do once there's no problem playing in offline mode ever again. It's almost sounds as if someone tried to install one copy of a Valve game on more than one machine for a LAN match. But I know you and your friends would ever try to do that, so there must be another explanation. EBKAC maybe?
Insignificantly small would be my guess, given Valve's tendency to completely ignore you and the two or three other people who experience the same problems. If you mattered to their bottom line, they'd do something to help you out.
While your point is well taken and may apply to some games, you remember incorrectly in the case of Battlefield. A good 2/3 of the private servers, and almost all of the EA servers included at least a few maps from the expansion packs in their map rotations. Many players were displeased, but a few of the maps from each were very good, and unarguably fresh compared to the originals, so they found little support in their bitching. Of course, one or two good maps and a few extra vehicles and armies may or may not be worth $20 depending on your perspective, but overall they were accepted and "original map" servers were the exception rather than the rule. Maybe that's unfortunate, but with games like the BF series, where the desire for POINTS in the stats tracked by centralized servers (which could only be obtained on "official servers") were so desirable to so many, that it's really not very surprising.
The BF statistic tracking feature did more to sell expansion packs and keep people on "official" servers than anything else, regardless of the quality and value of those expansions. EA knows this, and has continued to milk that cow through BF2 and BF2142. My guess is they won't stop milking it. On the contrary, they've started adding in-game advertisements to both of those titles to allow even quicker milking of the cow, so to speak.
By "both points" I mean: (1) it's sad that you can't get a credit card since it's a trivial thing to do unless you're a complete deadbeat who has repeatedly shown his inability to keep a promise and (2) it's sad that you spend your time playing with the boxes for video games, movies, and CDs. Those of us who do leave our homes occasionally consider that odd and more than a little pathetic. I mean this in the nicest possible way: maybe you should consider leaving your mother's basement and getting a job so you can pay your debts, get a credit card, and join the rest of the world. It's really not as scary as it seems, and it can be fun! The boxes will be there for you to play with when you get home. If mommy lets you, that is.
What about "conversational English" makes "hands" equal "either hand?"
Slower, clunkier.
At what? Listing games and selecting one to play? Make a desktop shortcut and don't load Steam at all. Is this a joke? Are you using Steam to type up reports or calculate spreadsheets or something?
Friends network down for about a year. etc.
The "Friends" network thing appeared on the menu before it was finished. It wasn't "down" as much as it was "not yet up." So? It doesn't impact your ability to play a game. It's a bonus feature they added later. This seems like a nitpick at an irrelevant issue.
Compare your framerate in 1.6with 1.5 and notice how even with identical graphics somehow 1.6 is amazingly slower, mostly due to the way the new ingame gui is done
Are you talking about counterstrike (the versions seem to indicate that, since steam is not 1.5/1.6). You do realize that Steam is not equal to Counterstrike, right? And that you can download and install any version of cs you like (and play alone, if you opt for 1.5). How is this in any way a comment about Steam?
On top of that, Steam is capable of something Valve doesn't even attempt to put to good use: Streamed gameplay. Basically in a single player game, imagine you first download all of the core files -- The code, the interface, everything possibly needed to launch the game initially. Now you start downloading the first 3 levels, every model used in them, every sound related, anything that could come up. Now you start playing. While playing, the rest of the game downloads as you need it.
Brilliant. How silly of them not to do this so you can then complain that your gaming experience is "slower, clunkier" and suffers from a "framerate [that is] slower" because of the background downloading and waiting for resources the game needs that aren't available yet. Steam really should do this to give you something else stupid to complain about. I'll ask them to get right on it.
This would let you play a game a lot faster on a fresh install, and is something steam was supposed to allow.
You might start playing a bit faster, but your gameplay would be slower, of course. Steam does support streaming but few games do it because (1) it doesn't take that long to download a full game if you have a decent netpipe and (2) those who don't have a decent netpipe will also probably have a relatively weak system that will suffer and stutter while trying to download and play simultaneously. It'll get more commonly used in the future, but who cares? With most games you can pre-order and pre-download before the release, and then start playing instantly when the game is "officially released" and they unencrypt the files in a few seconds.
Was that a joke?
An add-on package for those who already have previous releases of Half-Life 2 in their collection, this special edition comes with Half-Life 2: Episode Two, as well as the stunningly complex puzzle game Portal and the online phenomenon Team Fortress 2.
This game was cancelled by Valve in May 2007.
Why would I get this "cancelled" version (assuming I could) when it sounds just like the actual version (which includes all three games, and which I've already pre-ordered?)
Meh, whatever floats your boat, but to me both of those points are pretty sad. Do you play in the boxes? Make a fort when you have enough?
... and play it alone or with the lame bots wondering why no server had it in rotation.
As far as I'm concerned, eliminating the blind rush to see who can get the super weapon/power up first is a good thing.
Have you ever actually played TFC (or even TF?) There are no "super weapon[s]" or "power up[s]" that you can pick up. You spawn with all the weapons you can ever have (barring kit change) depending on the class you chose, and anything you might pick up (armor, ammo, grnades) is always in your base, in the spawn/resupply room, which is usually protected by ceiling turrets against enemy invaders. TFC != quake X deathmatch.
I do happen to think this is a good idea, but I don't think it will really reduce the "advantage" those familiar with the maps. It may slow it down a bit, but there's a finite (and reasonably small, like 16ish) number of possibilities, so eventually the hardcore folks will learn the ins and outs of every combo as well as they know 2fort and the "pwning of the noobs" will continue unabated.
Most immigrants do learn the language of the country they move to, if only because of the oppurtunities it opens up for them.
Source? Is this worldwide, or just US immigrants?
Maybe nationalist or, if that carries connotations you don't intend, then describe what you mean in a phrase, or better yet simply leave off the abrasive, inaccurate adjective altogether. It adds nothing to your argument or meaning; rather it detracts and confuses.
Besides all the other spin and outright lies in your post that I don't have time or inclunation to refute, linux on the PS3 can't use the RSX -- the graphics chip.
Uh, sorry -- dailykos is that way. Over there. Way over there.
I don't care about the guy's politics since, you know, they're not in this article. The article that makes good points and has provided a basis for some good discussion. Here on Slashdot (not "mypoliticoblog.com")
But yours didn't make sense. ?!
It's easiest to kill evil when it's young and (relatively) wek, you know?
While the nearly-illiterate troll you're arguing with is 100% wrong in my opinion, I must correct you on this point:
Even consumer reports expects donated equipment to test on.
Consumer Reports (magazine and website) does not accept loaned or donated products for testing. They purchase every product anonymously and through normal retail channels to avoid being given "superior" or "unusually good" example products.
Now please, carry on.
Thanks, I get it now -- you were being practical :). Not a problem, sorry for my confusion.
There is very little that can be concluded about the severity of the signal-integrity issues from either case. Jitter can make either error happen due to offsets in sampling times. Crosstalk can induce voltage spikes or dips. I don't know what an "inductive issue" is (do you mean crosstalk?) A wire shorted to ground "injects" a constant 0 just the same as a short to vdd "injects" a 1; neither is more or less severe than the other. What are you trying to say about 0->1 being "worse" than 1->0? Maybe I just don't understand your point.
There's nothing worse about a "0" level rising enough to look like a "1" than the reverse, which you seem to imply in your post. They're both bit-inversion errors and, unless there's too many of them in a row, easily corrected by error-correction/retransmit.
And unless you're talking about 10GB+ speeds, cable-induced jitter is negligible.