Really, a good RPG in many ways resembles a good book. If the storyline is well laid out, believable (not in the perspective of currently reality, but of perhaps characters actions/reactions), and flows well, then the game is good.
Then, we throw in playability/complexity. If you're spending 20 hours just to figure out that you had to visit some village in the middle of nowhere and talk to the old man behind the in... playability gets a low grade, unless of course there's lots of hints to that objective beforehand.
Graphics and sound count for a lot nowadays, and especially cinematics. Sometimes when the plot or gameplay has dragged, trying to get to the next cinematic has pulled me through the boredom.
Treasures/gifts/secrets: Treasure boxes, GF's, summons, spells. All those things that RPG geeks say to friend "Hey, I've got the wings of wonder, you haven't found them yet?", or "Check out this spell of almighty flatuation, it does 3000 damage+poison effet".
Still, if the game's story sucks, then no manner of graphics or effects will make it worth playing. RPG's often act as "books/movies you can play", which is what makes them so immersive and oftimes addicting.
Actually, I know a lot of people who will go out of their way to get old 8-tracks or records of older artists. I could never figure this out when the same material is available on CD. For owners of vintage cars, having a 8-track is still somewhat of a cool thing, but record players don't fit in here.
As mentioned in the latter half, yeah, you'll probably get a certain portion who would rather get their cash by less scrupulous means.
Meanwhilst, you would also get some who might just find the incentive to go and take that job at 7-11...
But comparing geeky computer-addicts to drug addicts doesn't quite fit anyhow, some of the habits are the same, but the consciousness-altering effects (both have them) are different, as well as physical dependancies etc.
My question is, doesn't the government realize that they're shooting themselves in the foot too?
How many government agencies purchase recordable CD's. As DVD and CD-R's become more popular (as backup, etc), how will this increase?
How many government organizations are allowed to pirate? I work in schools, and every year one of the schools in the district gets audited/checked by the software police. Anybody I find with Kazaa gets a quick introduction to "add/remove programs" (and then ad-aware). We do use a fair amount of CD-R's, for either backing up data or ghost images, etc etc. As software is bought on a license basis, there can also be copies of the originals (that don't work without a valid key anyways), so that the masters can be kept safe.
So what happens when all the government-run sectors have to pay 4x the amount of recordable media? I think they might notice some problems there.
Jean: Mike, the server crashed again so we'll need to restore the backups.
Mike: Ummm, sorry Jean, ever since the tariffs went up we haven't been able to afford backup discs. We tried going back to tape but then they taxed that too. We still have our backup discs from 1999 though, will those work?
Even though violence may very well stay near the same level, they'll find a way to skew the results. Also, if they're on a big anti-violence kick, they'll probably up things like police response, etc, and other measures which might actually have an effect.
After a bunch of kids get a ride in the blue-and-white, and settle down a bit... violence decreases, but they say "hey look, see banning those video games is working!"
Of course, a very realistic and possible scenario is that kids who previously gamed and/or played violent games, will now find other forms of entertainment that may be less savory. Instead of being distracted, they can go causing fights, etc, because they are bored. This isn't to say that all kids who play video games are bad, but it will likely happen because many lose their "outlet for frustration."
Big? I had an acer mini-notebook once. The internal battery was only about 2.5x2 inches... which was about the size of the AC adaptor. Putting the battery with the adaptor would actually reduce clutter, assuming that it was basically a battery-charger/adaptor combo.
Exempting those who may be good enough to profit from the purchases/sales options, this might be a good thing for addicts. If you can't *afford* to play the game 24/7, then at least we could see them going out and getting a job.
Of course, they could also end up like heroin addicts, breaking into cars and selling stolen stereos to pay for their "Entropia" addiction. (don't think it could happen, you underestimate how some of these people get sucked in).
I still see hackers/cheaters being a big problem though. EG is constantly modifying things to lock out cheaters. Having a game with real money (and by a lot of what I've heard, lacking good programming in areas as the installer/character-anis suck) would be asking for trouble unless it has a very good method of
a) Securing transactions
b) Preventing cheating
c) Still making the game fun/playable.
Man, if they could, that joke deserved it. It's so true, the laws are violating your rights, and frankly dealing with or even reading about scummy companies like this makes me want to take a shower.
Did anyone notice that a lot of these "human" test are also the same ones used for things like hearing/eye tests, color-vision impairment, etc.
This knocks out computers, which lack the intelligence/programming (so far) to differentiate between conflicting objects to make out a letter/numbers.
It also may knock out humans with vision problems though, especially those with colour-vision issues.For those with hearing problems, the sound test isn't good either.
It seems that right now, computers trying to translate these puzzles probably perform along par with old-folks. This also might mean that quite a few seniors may have issues getting a yahoo account though.
I figured that you couldn't just come and pick it up. But then, there was the article about the sewerbots which indicated that companies were using old/forgotten pipes (without seeming to have to pay royalties) from defunct plantations. Assuming somebody bought out these companies, then they would own the fibre. Otherwise, with bankruptcy, it would be the creditors... but they would probably just liquidize the assets and sell to the highest bidder anyways.
Since they're just sitting unused, I'd imagine it wouldn't cost too much to buy ownership
The cost of laying these optics has already been paid. The companies are dead, out of money, flushed... which in most cases indicates the assets would be available for a lower-cost rate.
Definately agreed. I just had to replace a 20Gb Maxtor that died... just before the end of it's warrantee period (1yr). These things have a short warrantee for a reason, mainly because they don't live very long anymore.
As drives get bigger, I think this problem will only get worse until they figure out a way to get more storage with less cram and degredation.
Sometimes they clue in and give you good commercials though. I've found a lot of the ones in the theatre to be funny, or at least have effects.
Commercials on TV often suck because they're repetetive and thus irritating. Having a commercial in a theatre that makes me laugh (seeing it for the first time) is a good thing to me
Perhaps, perhaps not. My girlfriend is from Shanghai and there are a lot of movies out there that you can get that haven't even popped into Kazaa yet... done on DVD with Chinese subtitling even.
Also, while this might be used as an arguement against piracy, their main battle is against the filesharing services, which have nothing to do with this particular case.
roughly half of the companies who laid the fiber are now gone
So how does the ownership of these lines pass on? Can just anybody take the existing lines, plug in, and make use of them - or do they have to be bought?
If there were one large company that could buy out and connect most these unused lines, they could probably make something out of them. Since they're just sitting unused, I'd imagine it wouldn't cost too much to buy ownership
Wedding was held at the Excalibur Hotel, which was nice. If you want to send postal congrats/bundt cake/fondue pots/yet more place mats, I've included the postal address.
Hmmm, one wonders how many nice shiney new toasters they have (possibly with onboard NIC's).
Somebody was also mentioning a collection of AOL CD's, perhaps we could a wedding donation. If I were rich, I'd send them a laptop or two, but I suppose that I will have to think up a suitably geeky-but-affordable present otherwise.
Geesh, couldn't you wait until after the Xmas season to hitch up... you'd get more loot that way anyhow:-)
If we can get a better "forms" implementation on 'nix (windows-like without windows bugs), that would be awesome
Secondly, but verrry important to those who do webhosting, clients requesting ASP pages would be able to run on 'nix servers, no longer requiring special windows dedicated hosts. For those who prefer 'nix servers, and many hosts do, running a windows server in the bunch is a pain in the butt!
If this actually pulls through, I will be amoung many who are very, very impressed.
You keep your gun, they know you have it...
If anybody ever ends up getting shot by a gun matching your serial, or you are accused of shooting somebody but claim you don't have a gun, then you're in trouble. Otherwise, not, except for those paranoid of how much the government knows.
I'm not American, so I've never really understood the gun registration thing, but from what I've been lead to understand it doesn't mean no guns, just tracking?
Perhaps somebody can clue me if I'm wrong. Thanks.
suggested that consumers pay 1 cent per commercial skipped (which is about the same as what advertisers pay). That would be equivalent to $10/thousand commercials skipped
Ummm, how about we're already paying for our cable service (or often, lack thereof). This is one of the reasons I haven't subscribed to cable in the last few years. Ads are increasing, and yet so are my prices... and they keep cutting the good sci-fi shows (although from what I hear of farscape, I would have been into that and it's making a comeback).
This type of mentality is the same as those who call you "thief" for blocking popups, except much worse because we're already paying for the cable subscription.
The old apogee/ID/etc games (Commander Keen and others). By today's standards crappy graphics but really fun and amusing at their time.
Old sierra games: Why don't they bring back "Space Quest?" Those were the best
SQ5: (WD-40, a garbage scow enterprise, a parody of kirk...)
As for the final fantasy sequals... why not remake the old ones in 3d or better graphics. I've often thought that, if I could acquire permission from Square, I'd like to get a team together and remake FF2/FF3 (awesome plots) with modern graphics, instead of just a few new cinematics.
My uncle recently mentioned that he wanted to get DSL... just to download music. He's more or less computer illiterate, but sees that this is the "in-thing" nowadays.
Flame me if you want, I realize that piracy is happening because of the amount of crappy music and crappier pricing, however I believe this is the point at which things get out of hand.
Having a few kiddies downloading the newest tunes, whatever, they wouldn't have likely bought them anyways. But when an adult basically subscribes to a service just for piracy? That's just bad.
Also, all things considered, after the first month or so he'll probably only download music equivilient to what he could have bought for the price of DSL/cable anyways (1-2 CD's a month).
It makes me wonder though, how many people *just* use the internet for piracy? You'd do just as well to buy your music second-hand, rather than poring money into DSL+burner+CD's+etc,etc and pissing (whether they deserve it or not) the music companies off.
OK, first of all, I think that a lot of over-PC type interaction goes in the same boat.
I know a lot of people who play CS, they also used to go out and frag each other in paintball until moving seperated them.
You also get those who play MMORPGS and ignore life in general. How does that compare to those obsessed with Shadowrun or "role-playing" of the non-PC genre. Some of these people are obsessed too, and oftimes it's not healthy.
A lot of the case is, PC's allow a broader availability of interaction. If you go and ring up your Shadowrun/AD&D friend at 3am to yack about your new character/quest/whatever, he's probably going to want to strangle you. If it's some guy in Australia over the internet, he's awake and ready to go.
And internet communication/gaming does have its positive benefits too. For me, I was the #1 geek at school (even before I was into computers). Unpopular as heck, girls wouldn't touch me, etc etc. When, because I was helping maintain the lab PC's, I was able to keep it open after-hours for deathmatches - I got my own little geeky cult (friends!!!). My social standing improved somewhat, and at least I felt like I was appreciated for something (master of Q2 was I).
Later in HS, around the time I got a car, I'd acquired quite a list of local ICQ contacts. I actually ended up hooking up with a lot of these people in real life, and going out for coffee with them, making friends etc. Actually, my best friend is somebody I met online, as is my girlfriend.
lately, I've started playing Starcraft again, and yeah, major addiction. I'd have to say that if I weren't playing SC I probably wouldn't be doing anything more productive. I've a few programming projects I'm working on (contracted on my time, not at my regular job), but the weekend let me burn off a lot of stress. Otherwise, I'd have probably reread a book or watched a show.
So what you have to consider is, if these people weren't plugged in - what would they be doing. Do they have enough of a life (or the ability to get one) that the game is counterproductive, or does it at times actually add a meager element onto an already low social calendar?
On a social, intellectual, and oftimes physical (deprivation, couch-potato-beer-pizza-and-a-PC syndrome) it's often just as bad, possible worse because it's not really a recognised addition but more of a social disease (people don't think of you as an addict, just as a geeky loser).
The effects don't really outcrop as much to other people though, except through neglect though. I've been playing a lot of SC lately, and I know my girlfriend sometimes feels ignored (she's got exams though, and when I do pay attention to her she says I'm distracting - catch 22).
I've never heard of somebody beating the *!@#@ out of somebody because of gaming addiction though, unless it's in an internet cafe together and one person is being a cheat/cheapass/etc/ (happened I think, but no real violence as often enough geek=weak).
Slashdot Mirror
Really, a good RPG in many ways resembles a good book. If the storyline is well laid out, believable (not in the perspective of currently reality, but of perhaps characters actions/reactions), and flows well, then the game is good.
Then, we throw in playability/complexity. If you're spending 20 hours just to figure out that you had to visit some village in the middle of nowhere and talk to the old man behind the in... playability gets a low grade, unless of course there's lots of hints to that objective beforehand.
Graphics and sound count for a lot nowadays, and especially cinematics. Sometimes when the plot or gameplay has dragged, trying to get to the next cinematic has pulled me through the boredom.
Treasures/gifts/secrets: Treasure boxes, GF's, summons, spells. All those things that RPG geeks say to friend "Hey, I've got the wings of wonder, you haven't found them yet?", or "Check out this spell of almighty flatuation, it does 3000 damage+poison effet".
Still, if the game's story sucks, then no manner of graphics or effects will make it worth playing. RPG's often act as "books/movies you can play", which is what makes them so immersive and oftimes addicting.
'Elvis has been good to us. I can't complain
Thank you... thank you very much...
Actually, I know a lot of people who will go out of their way to get old 8-tracks or records of older artists. I could never figure this out when the same material is available on CD. For owners of vintage cars, having a 8-track is still somewhat of a cool thing, but record players don't fit in here.
RTFP:
As mentioned in the latter half, yeah, you'll probably get a certain portion who would rather get their cash by less scrupulous means.
Meanwhilst, you would also get some who might just find the incentive to go and take that job at 7-11...
But comparing geeky computer-addicts to drug addicts doesn't quite fit anyhow, some of the habits are the same, but the consciousness-altering effects (both have them) are different, as well as physical dependancies etc.
My question is, doesn't the government realize that they're shooting themselves in the foot too?
How many government agencies purchase recordable CD's. As DVD and CD-R's become more popular (as backup, etc), how will this increase?
How many government organizations are allowed to pirate? I work in schools, and every year one of the schools in the district gets audited/checked by the software police. Anybody I find with Kazaa gets a quick introduction to "add/remove programs" (and then ad-aware). We do use a fair amount of CD-R's, for either backing up data or ghost images, etc etc. As software is bought on a license basis, there can also be copies of the originals (that don't work without a valid key anyways), so that the masters can be kept safe.
So what happens when all the government-run sectors have to pay 4x the amount of recordable media? I think they might notice some problems there.
Jean: Mike, the server crashed again so we'll need to restore the backups.
Mike: Ummm, sorry Jean, ever since the tariffs went up we haven't been able to afford backup discs. We tried going back to tape but then they taxed that too. We still have our backup discs from 1999 though, will those work?
Even though violence may very well stay near the same level, they'll find a way to skew the results. Also, if they're on a big anti-violence kick, they'll probably up things like police response, etc, and other measures which might actually have an effect.
After a bunch of kids get a ride in the blue-and-white, and settle down a bit... violence decreases, but they say "hey look, see banning those video games is working!"
Of course, a very realistic and possible scenario is that kids who previously gamed and/or played violent games, will now find other forms of entertainment that may be less savory. Instead of being distracted, they can go causing fights, etc, because they are bored. This isn't to say that all kids who play video games are bad, but it will likely happen because many lose their "outlet for frustration."
Big? I had an acer mini-notebook once. The internal battery was only about 2.5x2 inches... which was about the size of the AC adaptor. Putting the battery with the adaptor would actually reduce clutter, assuming that it was basically a battery-charger/adaptor combo.
Exempting those who may be good enough to profit from the purchases/sales options, this might be a good thing for addicts. If you can't *afford* to play the game 24/7, then at least we could see them going out and getting a job.
Of course, they could also end up like heroin addicts, breaking into cars and selling stolen stereos to pay for their "Entropia" addiction. (don't think it could happen, you underestimate how some of these people get sucked in).
I still see hackers/cheaters being a big problem though. EG is constantly modifying things to lock out cheaters. Having a game with real money (and by a lot of what I've heard, lacking good programming in areas as the installer/character-anis suck) would be asking for trouble unless it has a very good method of
a) Securing transactions
b) Preventing cheating
c) Still making the game fun/playable.
Man, if they could, that joke deserved it. It's so true, the laws are violating your rights, and frankly dealing with or even reading about scummy companies like this makes me want to take a shower.
They're raping our rights and our minds...
Ummm, as far as payment I'm guessing time is dedicated for free, as it oftne is, and will be in the future.
But, you seem to be trolling anyhow, I probably shouldn't have fed you.
Yeah, but they might be more funny with a few fake Russian accents and a short skit or two
I asked my girlfriend (who is Shanghaiese) about this:
her email back:
hehe, very interesting, but based on my experience, not only in front of that mall, anyplace where sells the pirate DVDs will have it.
Did anyone notice that a lot of these "human" test are also the same ones used for things like hearing/eye tests, color-vision impairment, etc.
This knocks out computers, which lack the intelligence/programming (so far) to differentiate between conflicting objects to make out a letter/numbers.
It also may knock out humans with vision problems though, especially those with colour-vision issues.For those with hearing problems, the sound test isn't good either.
It seems that right now, computers trying to translate these puzzles probably perform along par with old-folks. This also might mean that quite a few seniors may have issues getting a yahoo account though.
I figured that you couldn't just come and pick it up. But then, there was the article about the sewerbots which indicated that companies were using old/forgotten pipes (without seeming to have to pay royalties) from defunct plantations. Assuming somebody bought out these companies, then they would own the fibre. Otherwise, with bankruptcy, it would be the creditors... but they would probably just liquidize the assets and sell to the highest bidder anyways.
Since they're just sitting unused, I'd imagine it wouldn't cost too much to buy ownership
The cost of laying these optics has already been paid. The companies are dead, out of money, flushed... which in most cases indicates the assets would be available for a lower-cost rate.
Definately agreed. I just had to replace a 20Gb Maxtor that died... just before the end of it's warrantee period (1yr). These things have a short warrantee for a reason, mainly because they don't live very long anymore.
As drives get bigger, I think this problem will only get worse until they figure out a way to get more storage with less cram and degredation.
Sometimes they clue in and give you good commercials though. I've found a lot of the ones in the theatre to be funny, or at least have effects.
Commercials on TV often suck because they're repetetive and thus irritating. Having a commercial in a theatre that makes me laugh (seeing it for the first time) is a good thing to me
Perhaps, perhaps not. My girlfriend is from Shanghai and there are a lot of movies out there that you can get that haven't even popped into Kazaa yet... done on DVD with Chinese subtitling even.
Also, while this might be used as an arguement against piracy, their main battle is against the filesharing services, which have nothing to do with this particular case.
roughly half of the companies who laid the fiber are now gone
So how does the ownership of these lines pass on? Can just anybody take the existing lines, plug in, and make use of them - or do they have to be bought?
If there were one large company that could buy out and connect most these unused lines, they could probably make something out of them. Since they're just sitting unused, I'd imagine it wouldn't cost too much to buy ownership
Wedding was held at the Excalibur Hotel, which was nice. If you want to send postal congrats/bundt cake/fondue pots/yet more place mats, I've included the postal address.
:-)
Hmmm, one wonders how many nice shiney new toasters they have (possibly with onboard NIC's).
Somebody was also mentioning a collection of AOL CD's, perhaps we could a wedding donation. If I were rich, I'd send them a laptop or two, but I suppose that I will have to think up a suitably geeky-but-affordable present otherwise.
Geesh, couldn't you wait until after the Xmas season to hitch up... you'd get more loot that way anyhow
Good thing a:
If we can get a better "forms" implementation on 'nix (windows-like without windows bugs), that would be awesome
Secondly, but verrry important to those who do webhosting, clients requesting ASP pages would be able to run on 'nix servers, no longer requiring special windows dedicated hosts. For those who prefer 'nix servers, and many hosts do, running a windows server in the bunch is a pain in the butt!
If this actually pulls through, I will be amoung many who are very, very impressed.
You keep your gun, they know you have it...
If anybody ever ends up getting shot by a gun matching your serial, or you are accused of shooting somebody but claim you don't have a gun, then you're in trouble. Otherwise, not, except for those paranoid of how much the government knows.
I'm not American, so I've never really understood the gun registration thing, but from what I've been lead to understand it doesn't mean no guns, just tracking?
Perhaps somebody can clue me if I'm wrong. Thanks.
suggested that consumers pay 1 cent per commercial skipped (which is about the same as what advertisers pay). That would be equivalent to $10/thousand commercials skipped
Ummm, how about we're already paying for our cable service (or often, lack thereof). This is one of the reasons I haven't subscribed to cable in the last few years. Ads are increasing, and yet so are my prices... and they keep cutting the good sci-fi shows (although from what I hear of farscape, I would have been into that and it's making a comeback).
This type of mentality is the same as those who call you "thief" for blocking popups, except much worse because we're already paying for the cable subscription.
How about a few more classics:
The old apogee/ID/etc games (Commander Keen and others). By today's standards crappy graphics but really fun and amusing at their time.
Old sierra games: Why don't they bring back "Space Quest?" Those were the best
SQ5: (WD-40, a garbage scow enterprise, a parody of kirk...)
As for the final fantasy sequals... why not remake the old ones in 3d or better graphics. I've often thought that, if I could acquire permission from Square, I'd like to get a team together and remake FF2/FF3 (awesome plots) with modern graphics, instead of just a few new cinematics.
My uncle recently mentioned that he wanted to get DSL... just to download music. He's more or less computer illiterate, but sees that this is the "in-thing" nowadays.
Flame me if you want, I realize that piracy is happening because of the amount of crappy music and crappier pricing, however I believe this is the point at which things get out of hand.
Having a few kiddies downloading the newest tunes, whatever, they wouldn't have likely bought them anyways. But when an adult basically subscribes to a service just for piracy? That's just bad.
Also, all things considered, after the first month or so he'll probably only download music equivilient to what he could have bought for the price of DSL/cable anyways (1-2 CD's a month).
It makes me wonder though, how many people *just* use the internet for piracy? You'd do just as well to buy your music second-hand, rather than poring money into DSL+burner+CD's+etc,etc and pissing (whether they deserve it or not) the music companies off.
OK, first of all, I think that a lot of over-PC type interaction goes in the same boat.
I know a lot of people who play CS, they also used to go out and frag each other in paintball until moving seperated them.
You also get those who play MMORPGS and ignore life in general. How does that compare to those obsessed with Shadowrun or "role-playing" of the non-PC genre. Some of these people are obsessed too, and oftimes it's not healthy.
A lot of the case is, PC's allow a broader availability of interaction. If you go and ring up your Shadowrun/AD&D friend at 3am to yack about your new character/quest/whatever, he's probably going to want to strangle you. If it's some guy in Australia over the internet, he's awake and ready to go.
And internet communication/gaming does have its positive benefits too. For me, I was the #1 geek at school (even before I was into computers). Unpopular as heck, girls wouldn't touch me, etc etc. When, because I was helping maintain the lab PC's, I was able to keep it open after-hours for deathmatches - I got my own little geeky cult (friends!!!). My social standing improved somewhat, and at least I felt like I was appreciated for something (master of Q2 was I).
Later in HS, around the time I got a car, I'd acquired quite a list of local ICQ contacts. I actually ended up hooking up with a lot of these people in real life, and going out for coffee with them, making friends etc. Actually, my best friend is somebody I met online, as is my girlfriend.
lately, I've started playing Starcraft again, and yeah, major addiction. I'd have to say that if I weren't playing SC I probably wouldn't be doing anything more productive. I've a few programming projects I'm working on (contracted on my time, not at my regular job), but the weekend let me burn off a lot of stress. Otherwise, I'd have probably reread a book or watched a show.
So what you have to consider is, if these people weren't plugged in - what would they be doing. Do they have enough of a life (or the ability to get one) that the game is counterproductive, or does it at times actually add a meager element onto an already low social calendar?
On a social, intellectual, and oftimes physical (deprivation, couch-potato-beer-pizza-and-a-PC syndrome) it's often just as bad, possible worse because it's not really a recognised addition but more of a social disease (people don't think of you as an addict, just as a geeky loser).
The effects don't really outcrop as much to other people though, except through neglect though. I've been playing a lot of SC lately, and I know my girlfriend sometimes feels ignored (she's got exams though, and when I do pay attention to her she says I'm distracting - catch 22).
I've never heard of somebody beating the *!@#@ out of somebody because of gaming addiction though, unless it's in an internet cafe together and one person is being a cheat/cheapass/etc/ (happened I think, but no real violence as often enough geek=weak).