Why is it that we have to fight shit like this on a seemingly CONSTANT basis? Seriously, they're dredging up oppressive legislation faster than it can be struck down. You can block a thousand of these things, but all it takes is for just one of these pieces of toilet paper to slip past the goalie and it's game over for public, it'll never go away. It seems just short of impossible to get rid of any bad law.
You don't NEED it, you just want it. It's a "nice to have", not a necessity.
If I could only have 1 drive in a system, I'd pick capacity over speed as well. Of the top of my head, I can only think of 4 games that really annoyed me for loading times, 3 of them being the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, and the other being Torchlight.
If you think about it from Valve's point of view, they'd rather you not have to download the same game over and over again.
I picked up a Synology DS1812+ earlier this year. It's expensive (~$1000 without drives), but I couldn't build anything in as small a form factor as they could. It's got an Intel Atom CPU, so it uses very little power. It's been reliable so far and the GUI is excellent.
It's just a Linux-based system that uses mdRAID/ext4 under the hood, but I got tired of maintaining so many systems and just wanted something simple that was small and worked. If you'd rather roll your own, you can obtain the same functionality and reliablity as any of the commercial offerings. Form factor, simplicity, and GUI are really what they are providing.
Great, another reason not to switch to Win8. I disabled hibernation on my Win7 laptop because it was faster to do a straight boot than to recover from hibernation file (8GB RAM and SSD).
Do those SandForce SF-2281 based drives still have that BSOD issue? I've heard from some sources that a firmware update fixed the problem, and I've heard from others that it's reduced in frequency, but not entirely fixed.
Between awkward-ass hardware the console companies shove at them, publishers with unrealistic deadlines and working hours, and the whiny, ignorant, arrogant, overly-demanding bitches that the gaming community is chock full of, I'm surprised there's any developers left at all. I'd have to be starving before I'd even consider working in that industry.
Hats off to you devs who haven't haven't jumped off a bridge or drank yourselves to death yet. You've certainly got more patience than I.
Public unions should not be permitted because these guys are sitting on both sides of the bargaining table. They have massive clout and can influence local elections. This means they'll get a sympathetic ear elected, and when it comes time for contract negotiations, it's them and the guy they basically put in charge.
You can see how this turns out. Public unions reaping all sorts of benefits that aren't found in the private sector, cities literally bankrupt yet still being coerced into giving public employees raises.
Who represents the taxpayer in all this? Nobody, that's who. The main entity that funds all of this doesn't get say, and that's why it should be prohibited for public employees to collectively bargain.
Does Uncharted 3 have to keep track of thousands of inventory items and their locations? Hundreds of NPCs, their items, locations, attitudes towards the player and other NPCs? Does the state of the world change and need to be kept track of?
The pattern says to me "buy these games on the PC, avoid the not-user-patchable console versions."
A big problem is the revenue model for these games. After release, bug fixing is considered non-revenue-generating, and won't get much attention. Of course, that's from the bean counter's perspective and doesn't take into account pissed off users and sales of future products. Of course, that gets into a bigger problem with the world today with respect to short-term thinking, short-term profits, and nobody caring about the future.
Maybe not like this, but NWN certainly had its fair share of bugs. Just look at how many patches were released. Some of them were game breakers too. Bioware was pretty good for patching though.
I don't really fault either of these companies much though. These are big, big, complex games. There's just so much that you can do, and in all kinds of different orders that need to be anticipated.
I swear, the higher the price of the software is, the more upper management just drools all over it, and the bigger the piece of shit it is. Millions of dollars spent per year licensing some of the biggest turds I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Just so management can say that some big vendor is behind it and will "have our backs when it fails".
Guess what, the support is awful too. The vendor never has your back. You'll be left languishing with downtime while they leave you hanging. They don't care because they're so much bigger than your company, and the "license agreement" you signed means you can't hold them responsible for shit. You'd be so much better using some open source software that does pretty much the same thing, and paying some other company to support it on a per-case basis. Take the bags of money you save and hire some devs to code in the missing functionality you need.
So what about old people? You think that 70 year old has the reaction times of a 25 year old? The 25 year old with a bit of alcohol in them probably still has better reaction times than the average 70 year old. What's that say?
If they care so much about safety, why isn't MADD clamoring for periodic retesting of the elderly? Sure, it's easy to garner support for laws to be changed in favour of hunting down drunks. Now try it for a more politically difficult target. That is, if you really care about making the roads safer.
Slashdot Mirror
Unless "you" = George Soros, that is.
Why is it that we have to fight shit like this on a seemingly CONSTANT basis? Seriously, they're dredging up oppressive legislation faster than it can be struck down. You can block a thousand of these things, but all it takes is for just one of these pieces of toilet paper to slip past the goalie and it's game over for public, it'll never go away. It seems just short of impossible to get rid of any bad law.
HES MON 64 is a classic choice.
You don't NEED it, you just want it. It's a "nice to have", not a necessity.
If I could only have 1 drive in a system, I'd pick capacity over speed as well. Of the top of my head, I can only think of 4 games that really annoyed me for loading times, 3 of them being the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, and the other being Torchlight.
If you think about it from Valve's point of view, they'd rather you not have to download the same game over and over again.
The government would love it if the taxes were built into the price as it shields them from view.
You mean like on booze, smokes, and gasoline?
I picked up a Synology DS1812+ earlier this year. It's expensive (~$1000 without drives), but I couldn't build anything in as small a form factor as they could. It's got an Intel Atom CPU, so it uses very little power. It's been reliable so far and the GUI is excellent.
It's just a Linux-based system that uses mdRAID/ext4 under the hood, but I got tired of maintaining so many systems and just wanted something simple that was small and worked. If you'd rather roll your own, you can obtain the same functionality and reliablity as any of the commercial offerings. Form factor, simplicity, and GUI are really what they are providing.
Google's working on it.
Great, another reason not to switch to Win8. I disabled hibernation on my Win7 laptop because it was faster to do a straight boot than to recover from hibernation file (8GB RAM and SSD).
Do those SandForce SF-2281 based drives still have that BSOD issue? I've heard from some sources that a firmware update fixed the problem, and I've heard from others that it's reduced in frequency, but not entirely fixed.
Between awkward-ass hardware the console companies shove at them, publishers with unrealistic deadlines and working hours, and the whiny, ignorant, arrogant, overly-demanding bitches that the gaming community is chock full of, I'm surprised there's any developers left at all. I'd have to be starving before I'd even consider working in that industry.
Hats off to you devs who haven't haven't jumped off a bridge or drank yourselves to death yet. You've certainly got more patience than I.
You won't even need a desk! We're one step closer to the Johnny Mnemonic user interface:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL_8Ugp9zI4
No. That actually makes the competition look a lot more attractive.
Because they Think Different.
The only thing manufacturers are worried about is their gravy train ending.
If by "fix" you mean watch the company outsource the whole center to India and China, you're right.
You're free to not work for the government if you don't like the rules.
Public unions should not be permitted because these guys are sitting on both sides of the bargaining table. They have massive clout and can influence local elections. This means they'll get a sympathetic ear elected, and when it comes time for contract negotiations, it's them and the guy they basically put in charge.
You can see how this turns out. Public unions reaping all sorts of benefits that aren't found in the private sector, cities literally bankrupt yet still being coerced into giving public employees raises.
Who represents the taxpayer in all this? Nobody, that's who. The main entity that funds all of this doesn't get say, and that's why it should be prohibited for public employees to collectively bargain.
Does Uncharted 3 have to keep track of thousands of inventory items and their locations? Hundreds of NPCs, their items, locations, attitudes towards the player and other NPCs? Does the state of the world change and need to be kept track of?
The pattern says to me "buy these games on the PC, avoid the not-user-patchable console versions."
A big problem is the revenue model for these games. After release, bug fixing is considered non-revenue-generating, and won't get much attention. Of course, that's from the bean counter's perspective and doesn't take into account pissed off users and sales of future products. Of course, that gets into a bigger problem with the world today with respect to short-term thinking, short-term profits, and nobody caring about the future.
Maybe not like this, but NWN certainly had its fair share of bugs. Just look at how many patches were released. Some of them were game breakers too. Bioware was pretty good for patching though.
I don't really fault either of these companies much though. These are big, big, complex games. There's just so much that you can do, and in all kinds of different orders that need to be anticipated.
They've done studies, you know. 48% of the time, it works every time.
Someone please mod this guy up.
I swear, the higher the price of the software is, the more upper management just drools all over it, and the bigger the piece of shit it is. Millions of dollars spent per year licensing some of the biggest turds I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Just so management can say that some big vendor is behind it and will "have our backs when it fails".
Guess what, the support is awful too. The vendor never has your back. You'll be left languishing with downtime while they leave you hanging. They don't care because they're so much bigger than your company, and the "license agreement" you signed means you can't hold them responsible for shit. You'd be so much better using some open source software that does pretty much the same thing, and paying some other company to support it on a per-case basis. Take the bags of money you save and hire some devs to code in the missing functionality you need.
I make my doors 35% narrower than most. That way, the fat crooks can't get in. Security through Obesity.
So what about old people? You think that 70 year old has the reaction times of a 25 year old? The 25 year old with a bit of alcohol in them probably still has better reaction times than the average 70 year old. What's that say?
If they care so much about safety, why isn't MADD clamoring for periodic retesting of the elderly? Sure, it's easy to garner support for laws to be changed in favour of hunting down drunks. Now try it for a more politically difficult target. That is, if you really care about making the roads safer.
These days you might be better off with the murder charge than the copyright charge, what with purchased laws and such.