1. Currently in a class with Aurenheimer. 2. Currently in a class with Seki 3. Had Yeung early on 4. Had classes with Reed for the past 2 semesters (not counting now)
Yep, all those instructors are there. And I'm surprised to see housing costs getting so high here. My own apartment has indeed gotten more expensive, but remain at a cost I can manage - when I considered attending San Jose a couple years ago, housing off-campus was impossible.
I always liked the fact that PC games were different from console games; I hope the fact that consoles are becoming more like PCs doesn't destroy the diversity that video games have thus far enjoyed. Unfortunately, with the "consolification" of various PC franchises, that may be wishful thinking.
It's not a case of one becoming another - it's a case of moving to common ground. Console games are not only becoming more PC-like in hardware, but also in games. Games like Gran Turismo are the kind of simulation-heavy titles that were once exclusive to PCs. RPGs are no longer limited to Japanese console RPGs, but produce things like Knights of the Old Republic, and heartily welcome a port of Morrowind.
Sports titles are beginning to have the level of features and sophistication that PC sports titles were known for "back in the day".
There is still a division between them, and it's not likely we'll see a Falcon 4.0 on a console anytime soon. But consoles have come back in the PC's direction in more than just hardware, and are much better off because of it.
BTW, this is coming from a self-proclaimed PC gamer, who is waiting to see consoles live up to a System Shock 2 or a Fallout or a Total Annihilation. Consoles are producing a lot of good games, though.
For that matter, even here in California you'd have a hard time hiring 100 programmers in Fresno, which is only a few hours from Silicon Valley and has 500,000 people living there.
As a Computer Science major at Fresno State, let me jump in here.
You're pretty much right on the dot. Here we are, just south of the Bay area (it's not even a full 3 hours from here to San Jose, barring excessive traffic near SJ). Our department is rather well respected - we're one of the few CS departments in the CSU system that pulls in recruitment from Microsoft, HP, etc.
And not only are we a tiny department, but the vast majority of the students that are there aren't Fresno natives. Most aren't even United States natives.
Rather, we get a ton of students from India, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, etc. Only a select few of us are Valley (that's San Joaquin Valley) products.
Virtually none of us will remain in Fresno come graduation. The overseas students will largely return to their home countries. The non-Valley natives will head back to their areas of the country, and most of us Valley natives will leave the Valley (which is fine with me, but I'm sure a few would rather stay in their home).
Funny thing is, Mayor Alan Autry (better known to most as "Bubba" from "In The Heat of the Night", our Arnold before Arnold) really was seeking to pull some Silicon Valley business down here, where cost of living is far lower. Unfortunately, things haven't remained rosy in the tech sector, and there's a lack of homegrown talent here waiting for the jobs. I'm sure there'd be a number of out-of-work programmers willing to head here, but California's business climate is just not allowing much of anything to happen right now.
If you're a person that says "I can get 11GB more fo..." (no need to even finish the sentence), then you are not the market for this product.
To a great many people, 4GB (if they even understand the concept of a gigabyte, some people actually don't bother themselves with such things!) is a number sufficiently high that a higher number is needless. For someone that isn't going to fill 4GB, buying a 15GB player is spending money on features they don't need/want.
However, for many of these same people, small form factor is desirable, as are colors.
It's funny how many geeks don't get that not every potential iPod customer thinks in terms of data storage.
He noted that for every 10 high potential artist a major label promotes, only 1 makes it. Typically, it costs a large label around 1 million to promote, pay, and produce a single artist (I once worked for a label, I can confirm this).
So this means, it cost about 10 million dollars to find one needle in a haystack. Those artist who do "make it" have to, essentially, pay for the giant losses made by the 9 other artists who didn't make it.
Talk about reaping what you sow.
When you turn the industry into something about trendiness and glitz and everything except actual quality of product, this is what you get.
Of course, of the 10, all 10 are just glitz products, and the actual skilled musicians, pot-bellies and ugly faces and all, sit at home and release quality albums in batches of 1000 on independent labels. Or they play in small jazz clubs and such.
I don't think most gamers realize that Falcon 4.0 is one of the current crowning achievements in all of electronic gaming.
It is the most intricate, complex, massive, and realistic simulation ever released to the gaming public. There is no second place - whatever second place is is a galaxy away. The fact that this game was achieved in 1998 is still mind-boggling. Here we are in 2004, and no simulation has even attempted to do what Falcon does, let alone tried and fell inevitably short.
Unlike Daikatana and (probably) Duke Nukem Forever, Falcon 4.0's endless years in development created a true achievement. The game was flawed - oh, there were bugs, and things to fix, which is where all this open source development is happening - but it's also a major testament to home computing power. It is what gaming should stand up and point to as, "this is what we are capable of". It's awful close to bringing military-use simulations into the home. Almost scarily so, as the game essentially teaches you how to pilot a true blue F-16.
Cause as soon as that figure moves to 99 percent then some doofushead is gonna argue that the object recognition feature takes the responsibility of running something over out of there hands and into the car manufacturers hands.
But won't it? I mean, once we get to the point where parking is achieved by pressing the "Park" button, isn't there a reasonable expectation of such a system not laying tread to the neighbor's pooch? Or ramming the car behind you?
When you offer automation, it has to come with a level of reliability and safety that the manufacturer could be held accountable if failure leads to damage.
Who do you blame if you set your cruise control at 65, and your car accelerates to 130 and causes a wreck? You didn't HAVE to use the automation, so does the blame lie on you? Or did you have a reasonable expectation of non-failure? Or at least non-damaging failure? It's one thing if the cruise control stops working, and your car starts to coast, forcing you to manually gas it to continue driving. It's quite another thing if the cruise control takes the car at incorrect and dangerous speeds. Likewise, if an automated parking sequence fails by refusing to finish the sequence, then you manually park yourself. But if it fails by ramming something, then would you not be in the same realm as the possessed cruise control?
Nearly every RTS is based about combat. First person shooters are naturally going to involve shooting. Even most computer RPGs have a large combat element. This doesn't make them evil or bad, I'm just noting that violence is quite common.
OK, but are you going to apply the same scrutiny to every other entertainment medium? Looking at games in this light is akin to looking at Lord of the Rings as a "violent movie". It's missing the point, and giving undue focus to the wrong thing.
The argument that publishers won't support titles they won't think will sell, still stands.
This sentence can be applied, unaltered, to every other entertainment medium. You're not saying much of note.
The argument instead is that violence, even extreme violence, has appeal.
Are we talking about Kill Bill? Oh no, still talking about games. My point here is that your point really is not unique, or even more valid, for video games, and does not deserve to single out games.
Secondly, a game doesn't have to be a best seller to be successful.
No, but my point is that Night Trap was not successful. Manhunt's success has been limited. Guess what? The success of these games, and many like them, is roughly equal to the actual quality of the game. Manhunt's quality is maybe average, and sales reflect this. Night Trap was trash, sales reflect this. GTA was superb, sales reflect this. You're trying to show a link, if not necessarily a direct relationship, between violence and sales, when variable amounts of violence show little influence on sales.
>> And so in turn, it must be that violence sells, even really nasty stuff.
By this token, games like Manhunt oughta be selling better. After all, Manhunt is from the same company as Grand Theft Auto, and is FAR more violent!
But it's not. And with the exception of Grand Theft Auto and, to a lesser extent, Mortal Kombat, most of the games that received notoriety in cruased against video games have not been best-sellers. Joe Liberman's old pet game, Night Trap, sold about 5 copies. Thrill Kill was yanked off the market, and the underground distribution of leaked beta copies didn't spark must interest, because the game sucked goat balls.
A lot of violent games, even exceedingly violent games, really pass unnoticed, because they suck. Most attempts to correlate game sales with violence blatently ignores this. Most attempts also come from non-gamers, removing the possibility of judging and classifying games by quality - yet they still feel qualified to try and come up with "the answer".
Slashdot Mirror
1. Currently in a class with Aurenheimer.
2. Currently in a class with Seki
3. Had Yeung early on
4. Had classes with Reed for the past 2 semesters (not counting now)
Yep, all those instructors are there. And I'm surprised to see housing costs getting so high here. My own apartment has indeed gotten more expensive, but remain at a cost I can manage - when I considered attending San Jose a couple years ago, housing off-campus was impossible.
It's not a case of one becoming another - it's a case of moving to common ground. Console games are not only becoming more PC-like in hardware, but also in games. Games like Gran Turismo are the kind of simulation-heavy titles that were once exclusive to PCs. RPGs are no longer limited to Japanese console RPGs, but produce things like Knights of the Old Republic, and heartily welcome a port of Morrowind.
Sports titles are beginning to have the level of features and sophistication that PC sports titles were known for "back in the day".
There is still a division between them, and it's not likely we'll see a Falcon 4.0 on a console anytime soon. But consoles have come back in the PC's direction in more than just hardware, and are much better off because of it.
BTW, this is coming from a self-proclaimed PC gamer, who is waiting to see consoles live up to a System Shock 2 or a Fallout or a Total Annihilation. Consoles are producing a lot of good games, though.
As a Computer Science major at Fresno State, let me jump in here.
You're pretty much right on the dot. Here we are, just south of the Bay area (it's not even a full 3 hours from here to San Jose, barring excessive traffic near SJ). Our department is rather well respected - we're one of the few CS departments in the CSU system that pulls in recruitment from Microsoft, HP, etc.
And not only are we a tiny department, but the vast majority of the students that are there aren't Fresno natives. Most aren't even United States natives.
Rather, we get a ton of students from India, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, etc. Only a select few of us are Valley (that's San Joaquin Valley) products.
Virtually none of us will remain in Fresno come graduation. The overseas students will largely return to their home countries. The non-Valley natives will head back to their areas of the country, and most of us Valley natives will leave the Valley (which is fine with me, but I'm sure a few would rather stay in their home).
Funny thing is, Mayor Alan Autry (better known to most as "Bubba" from "In The Heat of the Night", our Arnold before Arnold) really was seeking to pull some Silicon Valley business down here, where cost of living is far lower. Unfortunately, things haven't remained rosy in the tech sector, and there's a lack of homegrown talent here waiting for the jobs. I'm sure there'd be a number of out-of-work programmers willing to head here, but California's business climate is just not allowing much of anything to happen right now.
To a great many people, 4GB (if they even understand the concept of a gigabyte, some people actually don't bother themselves with such things!) is a number sufficiently high that a higher number is needless. For someone that isn't going to fill 4GB, buying a 15GB player is spending money on features they don't need/want.
However, for many of these same people, small form factor is desirable, as are colors.
It's funny how many geeks don't get that not every potential iPod customer thinks in terms of data storage.
They're releasing extended edition DVDs of the prequels?? MEESA SAY ROCK!!
Certainly not popular on the merit of music!
Talk about reaping what you sow.
When you turn the industry into something about trendiness and glitz and everything except actual quality of product, this is what you get.
Of course, of the 10, all 10 are just glitz products, and the actual skilled musicians, pot-bellies and ugly faces and all, sit at home and release quality albums in batches of 1000 on independent labels. Or they play in small jazz clubs and such.
Was not first one posted
Mod up anyway!
I paid for silver
But you dicks gave me copper
I kick your balls now
It is the most intricate, complex, massive, and realistic simulation ever released to the gaming public. There is no second place - whatever second place is is a galaxy away. The fact that this game was achieved in 1998 is still mind-boggling. Here we are in 2004, and no simulation has even attempted to do what Falcon does, let alone tried and fell inevitably short.
Unlike Daikatana and (probably) Duke Nukem Forever, Falcon 4.0's endless years in development created a true achievement. The game was flawed - oh, there were bugs, and things to fix, which is where all this open source development is happening - but it's also a major testament to home computing power. It is what gaming should stand up and point to as, "this is what we are capable of". It's awful close to bringing military-use simulations into the home. Almost scarily so, as the game essentially teaches you how to pilot a true blue F-16.
But won't it? I mean, once we get to the point where parking is achieved by pressing the "Park" button, isn't there a reasonable expectation of such a system not laying tread to the neighbor's pooch? Or ramming the car behind you?
When you offer automation, it has to come with a level of reliability and safety that the manufacturer could be held accountable if failure leads to damage.
Who do you blame if you set your cruise control at 65, and your car accelerates to 130 and causes a wreck? You didn't HAVE to use the automation, so does the blame lie on you? Or did you have a reasonable expectation of non-failure? Or at least non-damaging failure? It's one thing if the cruise control stops working, and your car starts to coast, forcing you to manually gas it to continue driving. It's quite another thing if the cruise control takes the car at incorrect and dangerous speeds. Likewise, if an automated parking sequence fails by refusing to finish the sequence, then you manually park yourself. But if it fails by ramming something, then would you not be in the same realm as the possessed cruise control?
I'd settle for it berating ticket-writing meter maids when I run out of time.
Ya think?
You're welcome.
Highest consumer of porn, baby.
Right. Because the New York Times, fabricated stories and all, has no bias. *jerk-off motion with hand*
On the order of "Ellis Bell", I say.
OK, but are you going to apply the same scrutiny to every other entertainment medium? Looking at games in this light is akin to looking at Lord of the Rings as a "violent movie". It's missing the point, and giving undue focus to the wrong thing.
This sentence can be applied, unaltered, to every other entertainment medium. You're not saying much of note.
Are we talking about Kill Bill? Oh no, still talking about games. My point here is that your point really is not unique, or even more valid, for video games, and does not deserve to single out games.
No, but my point is that Night Trap was not successful. Manhunt's success has been limited. Guess what? The success of these games, and many like them, is roughly equal to the actual quality of the game. Manhunt's quality is maybe average, and sales reflect this. Night Trap was trash, sales reflect this. GTA was superb, sales reflect this. You're trying to show a link, if not necessarily a direct relationship, between violence and sales, when variable amounts of violence show little influence on sales.
By this token, games like Manhunt oughta be selling better. After all, Manhunt is from the same company as Grand Theft Auto, and is FAR more violent!
But it's not. And with the exception of Grand Theft Auto and, to a lesser extent, Mortal Kombat, most of the games that received notoriety in cruased against video games have not been best-sellers. Joe Liberman's old pet game, Night Trap, sold about 5 copies. Thrill Kill was yanked off the market, and the underground distribution of leaked beta copies didn't spark must interest, because the game sucked goat balls.
A lot of violent games, even exceedingly violent games, really pass unnoticed, because they suck. Most attempts to correlate game sales with violence blatently ignores this. Most attempts also come from non-gamers, removing the possibility of judging and classifying games by quality - yet they still feel qualified to try and come up with "the answer".
Great recommendation. Now next Christmas, every kid will want a Fruit Fucker 2000
Wow, this broad just likes writing articles that she has to apologize for, eh?
Wow. It takes 200 pages to say "she got fat and won't give head anymore"??