Blah, blah blah. You're turning out to be a real schmuck. Let me help the cold water of reality wash over you, physics boy, and fill in a few details they apparently didn't teach you in all those colleges you wasted all your money on:
1. Physics and mechanical engineering have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with computer science. Zilch. Nada. Zip. And, I've studied both, so get the idea that you're impressing me right out of your head. Minoring in something means you have a couple dozen credits in it -- you haven't studied it in depth, so your computer engineering minor doesn't impress, either. You DON'T know your shit. You've just convinced yourself you do, and you need to pull your head out of your ass before you run around Slashdot proclaiming that you're the high priest of "you can't do that".
2. I, on the other hand, have a degree in COMPUTER SCIENCE and over 165 credits (I lost count, I'd have to check out my transcripts and count 'em up), not counting corporate training. I've been working as a senior-level software developer for five years, and worked part time while in college (that's another few years). I've worked in several languages, C, C++, Java, Perl, Visual Basic, Vax Basic, UniBasic, MASM, all the boring web crap like HTML, Javascript, and XML, and a few Unix scripting tools, I know Linux, FreeBSD, VMS, and Windows, AND I do hardware and can write my firewalls by hand under Slackware AND FreeBSD. I've built projects with tens of thousands of lines of code, SOLO. I'm working on one right now that heavily uses web services and.Net, and will probably come in around 25,000 lines. SOLO. Just to put it in perspective, the whole Quake II project came in between 50,000 lines and 100,000 lines according to some web page I came across. And, that had a whole team working on it. So, fuck YOU very much, I'm in my element. By the way, the 25K line project is going to take me exactly two months of coding. I'm fucking FAST. Which is why they assigned it to me.
Now, I don't usually spend my time spanking little know-it-all shits like you, but you really ought to go STFU now. You're throwing down with the wrong guy, pal. I'm strictly top-shelf. So when I say I can pull off what I'm talking about, you'd best believe it.
Now, beat it, you've finally gotten on my nerves, you arrogant little fuck.
Well, I did rtfa and I still can't figure it out. It looks like they're trying to match an encrypted key between some protected memory controlled by the BIOS and the CD install. But, how does this let anyone track anything? Maybe through a product activation scheme? Or a networked snitch program? I have no idea. I think that maybe this whole thing is a flim-flam...
Well, before we get started, let me say that I found your attempt at expert status very amusing. Listen, just in case this has escaped you, building a modified character for a videogame doesn't make you John Carmack, ok? You're just some hobbyist. So your opinions are of entertainment value only, alright? There. Glad we could clear that up.
Now, moving right along, the rest of your post is utterly and completely full of shit. Do you really believe this crap you're pedalling? Do you think Carmack would have listened to you if you'd gone to him in '92 and told him that he could never build Doom on his own, and shouldn't bother trying, except as a hobby thing he should never show anyone? I think he would have beaten the crap out of you before you finished talking, but then, I don't know him, so who knows. Maybe he would have just laughed. Or: do you think Wozniak would have believed you if you told him that computers are only built by engineers in laboratories? Do you think ANYONE is going to fall for this wimpy, defeatist nonsense? My GOD, man, listen to yourself. You sound like an old lady. A CONSTIPATED old lady. With PILES.
Or, more accurately, you sound like one of those broken-down old blue-collar guys who've been in some shit job for twenty years and try to crush the spirits of their college bound kids because they can't bear the thought that their kids are going to escape Allentown, or whatever other blue-collar hell the old wreck is haunting.
Fuck, you're depressing.
Never mind my advice. You're not being Mike, you ARE Mike. You're doomed. Well, in reply to your pathetic attempt to tell me I can't do it, from the Bobs of the world, to you, I say: "No, YOU can't do it! I'm doing it!" And, you can't see it, but I'm giving you the finger.
I think that on one hand, you'll never stop warez guys and other nefarious types from distributing your stuff. I just don't think it's possible; even companies that use dongles to control who can run their code are susceptible to workarounds, and I don't think you want to tinker with product activation. Even products which have successfully used key codes in the past, like Winzip and WSFTP eventually get cracked, and some warez kid tells everyone what key values work.
So what are you going to do? You have to treat warez and other cheats as part of the "cost of doing business", and hope that the majority of your users are honest (I know how bad this sounds, but if you think about it, it's true).
Instead of putting download versions of your code on the website, why not just let people order a CD? Imprint each install file with a unique, long, embedded serial number which doesn't do anything (thus won't be as likely to be detected) and keep track of your users by serial number. When a warez copy shows up, download it, fetch out the serial number, and get the warez guy on the horn. You might not be able to prove anything, but at least you can annoy him. Got a rape whistle? Blow the thing into the phone. Start calling him at all hours of the night. Be annoying. It won't do any good but it'll be satisfying.
And, offer a nicely done CD with the software. Maybe print up a little manual, and ship in a DVD case. Make it nice enough, and people will prefer having the CD to having a pirated download. At least you'll have some sales, right?
But as long as you're letting people download from your site, they'll be tempted to download it from someone else's. I say sell CDs. And, get that rape whistle.
First of all, ID Software released the entire Quake II source GPL. Which means we're totally free to use that as inspiration in creating a new game, as long as we don't use the copyrighted Quake II game data (e.g. their artwork, sounds, level designs, etc). So, if you think that the Quake II engine is good enough for your game, and I think it's world class, you've already got the hard part out of the way thanks to John Carmack and ID Software. You can study the source code, learn how it works, and use it as a base for a new, different game. Which is what they WANTED you to do with it. All you have to do is release all your changes GPL'ed as well. And, who wouldn't? The GPL is a Good Thing. Ok, moving right along...
So you can use QuakeII as a base for your new game, which saves you a whole lot of wheel reinventing (Thanks, ID, we love you). What does this leave? The modifications to the game engine to support whatever changes in gameplay you're looking for, level designs, character designs, sounds, and animation. Storyline, certainly.
All of these things are FUN to build. It's very hobby-worthy material. Glorious, in fact. All the tools you need to build these things are available as shareware, with a very reasonable licensing fee if you like the tool (YES, I've done my research -- did you think I was just playing at this?). One person who really likes what he's doing can build a game in a year or two using the collection of tools that are available, right now, for free, on the web. This is NOT like sending up a space shuttle, ok? There is plenty of room for independents to get busy and start building fun stuff.
Here's the fun part. As an individual hobbyist just tinkering in my home lab, I have NO OVERHEAD. NO COSTS. It's just me and whatever strange things I can pull out of my head. And, the beauty of all this is, I can turn my fantasies, my weird future predictions, and my conspiracy theories, into a great game I'll enjoy playing -- then turn around and sell it to other people like me. For me, the sale of 10,000 units is a king's ransom; for commercial companies that level of sales is death. Getting the picture yet? All I have to sell is a single unit for the endeavour to be a success, because even one unit sold is profit.
Now expand on this. More people like me get the same idea and start turning stuff out. THEN, we get the nice cottage industry I was talking about. Are we competing with "real" game companies? Of course not. No one is going to buy our stuff *instead* of a commercial game. But they will probably buy it as a fun thing, after they've got the commercial game they wanted.
It's not a zero sum game, there's no barrier to entry, and you're looking at the whole situation in the wrong way.
And, THAT is my full response. Again, be Bob -- don't be Mike.
Amen to that -- the multiplayer is just amazing. FFA, Death Star, 20 bots, all Jedi Master, sabers only. Use Force Speed and open up a can of whoop ass! Fan-tastic.
Jesus, Christmas, am I the only person with a digital camera? Taking pictures of a computer screen is a piece of cake if you turn the flash off. Sheesh.
If I were a secretary and I came across a document proving that my boss was releasing toxins into a river (for example), I would whip out my digital camera and start taking pictures of the computer screen. Anything that has to be viewed by a human can be photographed, DRM or no DRM. I'd put my wristwatch into the picture, as well as having the office in the background.
What would be the difference between showing that to a court and showing a printout? None. And, with the document's full text available as a digital image, the company could be pressured to release the original to a court. Or, more likely, a federal marshall could come in and seize their server as evidence and duplicate the hard drive lock, stock and bits, using a subpoena to get Microsoft to help them get the printouts they need ("Federal marshall? Subpoena? Ok, let me look that DRM key up, just a minute...").
Whistleblowers just have to be smarter than their bosses. Not terribly difficult...
Let me see if I understand your argument: "Waaah, it's too hard for one person to create a game, so don't bother trying, just live your little life and never try to be anything more than what you are". That IS what you're basically saying, right? If so, man, I feel sorry for you. Instead of making excuses for not doing something, why not try your hand at it? You might surprise yourself.
Let me tell you a story. I used to know two roommates, back in college. One was a pretty cool guy from Chicago, with a can-do attitude who was basically taking the world by the balls and making something of himself. The other was this doofy Irish kid who had zero self esteem, and I mean ZILCH (probably because he was the middle of seven kids). As an example, he'd been a "bar-back" (basically a bartender's assistant) for two and a half years, watching bar-back after bar-back get hired, then promoted and never doing anything to change his fate. We'd tell him "Come on, man, you've been there two years already, you should get out of there" and he'd say "If all I can do in life is be a bar back, at least I'll be a good one" and keep scrubbing the floor. The man was a doormat.
Ok, back to the story. Roommate number 1 was Bob, number 2 was Mike. Now, Bob was always coming up with some new way of making something cool happen for himself. We'd compare notes, and before too long, Mike would chime in with "You can't do that!" to which Bob would say, "NO, YOU can't do that. I'm doing it!" And he would go out and do it.
You're being Mike. Be Bob.
Re:Good news for Mandrake users.
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Ok, you can look at Slackware's not choosing to dump a zillion software packages onto your PC as a bad thing if you want, but I personally prefer it that way. I can install a Slackware system, then go to Sourceforge and get whatever else I need, and end up with a small, tight, fast system that works exactly the way I want it to. I see this as a feature, not a bug. For a long time I've been annoyed by commercial Linux's tendency to install everything and the kitchen sink by default. It's not just a disk hog, it's a security problem, you know? All those open ports and setuid scripts? Think about it.
Slackware is a nice system for this exact reason. You know exactly what you're getting, and you're in control of it. You know what I mean?
Re:Good news for Mandrake users.
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Mandrake 9.2 RC1
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Slackware's hardly "aging". I think it's pretty up to date. Besides, maybe he's got something against it, but still, he just left it out of his final analysis entirely, which I felt seemed somewhat unfair.
It seems to me that Slackware has a lot going for it. Maybe he was using a really old version...
What makes you think the "golden age" was one period only, far back in history? Currently, several open-source game engines are being made available, along with a load of solid engines based on the Quake II (gpl'ed) source. We could be moving into a whole new golden age, and why not? All the raw materials are there...
Wow... I didn't realize consoles were so tough. I think I'll stick to Linux and Windows games, myself. Here's how I'm looking at game development, as an independent:
First, I'll spend a year or so of nights and weekends familiarizing myself with a good graphics and sound engine (still looking at different projects, although I like Ogre and Crystal Space, and a lot of the projects based on the (GPL'ed) Quake II source look really good).
Next, I'll spend some time figuring out how to customize the work for my own stuff, playing around with small sample levels and such.
Finally, I'll use third-party shareware tools to build an actual game. I'll do all the graphical design and photography myself, do my own animation and etc. The only thing I can't do is background music. Maybe I'll hire a local band to make me a soundtrack, or trade them the exposure for the rights, I don't know. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If worse comes to worst, I'll skip the music entirely, or do something deliberately corny with a keyboard.
When the game is ready to roll, I'll sell it online for twenty bucks (plus 5.00 shipping and handling). It'll include the entire game development system, including whatever shareware I have the rights to pass along, and I'll sell it as a game development environment with all source code for my work (GPL'ed of course). Not only will users be able to play the game (and hopefully have a kick-ass time), they'll be able to start rolling their own games and jump into the market with me. I figure, the more the merrier! The more games they make, the more games I can play, too, so it's all good.
It's all about small scale development. 5,000 units = 100,000 dollars gross. Minus taxes, that's 50,000 bucks -- more than enough for a programmer, especially in this market. And, it's all gravy, on top of my current job's salary.
What surprises me is that with all the programmers who are hurting in the current job market, more people aren't throwing their hats in this ring. Game programming is like a gift from God, sent to help us after the death of the IT industry. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? We should all be working on homebrew game engines, passing them around, and helping each other build a cottage industry. Think of it as a sort of high-tech hippie co-op. Only with railguns. And, LUDICROUS GIBS!;)
You seem to think that having everyone using the same graphics, sound, and game engine is a bad thing. To the contrary, I think it is a liberating thing which will free developers up to concentrate on storyline and the actual art behind their games. For example, doing your own graphics engine could take years, time in which you could have released several games and gotten a lot of exposure. Using a pre-existing, GPL'ed game engine gives you a hell of a head start, and lets you focus on building your maps, your meshes, working on your AI... It's a godsend.
When you look at the game engines that are being made available open-source, don't think "everything will be the same", think "now everyone is a potential game developer" and realize what that means. The imaginations of zillions of gamers could potentially be put to use, creating many new truly twisted games for you to play. The fact that they're all using, say, Ogre or the Quake II engine with modifications is irrelevant. What matters is the gameplay, the art, and the unique, twisted point of view of the developer, because that's what you're going to remember, not "wow, look at that volumetric fog, it's different from game X's volumetric fog"...
At the end of the day, does it really matter whether one game engine is different from another? What do you care, if the graphics are good enough to support the fantasy, and the gameplay is interesting and fun?
I fired up Quake II last night, just to play around a little, and it STILL rocks all these years later. Think about it.;)
Re:Good news for Mandrake users.
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"Only Gentoo"??? But you used to use Slackware! Ooh, I'm telling Bob Dobbs!
But, seriously, though...
Don't you think that Slackware is as close to a pure-geek Linux as you can get? Small, clean, up to date, low memory and disk requirements, fast as hell... I haven't tried Gentoo, but leaving Slackware out seems kinda harsh, doesn't it?
This one's kind of ok. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/a nswer s/970603.html
It's cool stuff. The bottom line: If you get out of high vacuum within ten seconds, or someone else gets you out of it within thirty, you'll probably be okay. If not, well, no more taxes!
Well, if you want to get technical, Nasa has a lot of hard research on what happens to the human body during exposure to high vacuum. Much of this data comes from unfortunate souls who were testing spacesuits in zero-pressure chambers and had a seal break. Some died, some lived. Their findings:
1. Your eyes don't blow up or turn into tennis balls. Nothing really happens to them. They might get a little dry, but you can shut them.
2. You don't swell up like a balloon or anything. They found that the connective tissue in your body holds everything together quite nicely.
3. If you hold your breath, your lungs will swell up and burst, causing massive internal injuries. The best thing to do is let the air come out of your lungs -- don't try to hold it. Now, all the air is going to come out, and this isn't going to be comfortable, but at least your lungs aren't going to get ruptured, so it doesn't have to be fatal.
4. Because there's no way of holding your breath, your lungs will have no oxygen in them. Because of this, your lungs will begin taking oxygen back out of your bloodstream! So even if you hyperventilate before you go into high vacuum, you're going to pass out from lack of oxygen very quickly. Most estimates say that if you're very lucky, you'll have TEN SECONDS at MOST to get back into an atmosphere before you pass out. About two to three minutes later, you suffer brain damage, and then you die. If your heart stops, they won't be able to get it going again (unfortunately, this has been verified by a few accidental deaths).
In cases where they were able to get to the person within a minute or so, they were able to save the guy, with no long-lasting ill effects, although they were obviously in rough shape and needed medical attention. In a couple of cases where it took them more than two or three minutes, the person died (In one example, the reason they gave was that the particular pressure chamber they were using was malfunctioning, and it took a couple of minutes to pump the air back in).
It's really interesting stuff. Do a Google search on "High vacuum injuries", "low pressure injuries", etc. There's a lot of info out there.
Silly, most explosions contain EXPANDING GASES which would carry sound, and a shockwave. So, when the spherical cloud of hot, expanding gases reach you, you get a shockwave and a lot of sound. You might not live long enough to "enjoy" it, but you'll definitely hear something...
What I think would be cool (and a lot more realistic) would be if the explosion would be visible, and very bright, but soundless -- up until about three seconds later, when the expanding gases collided with the outside of your own ship and started throwing it around, pelting it with red-hot debris, etc. Ever notice that when the Death Star blew up, there was no debris? In real life, the whole star system would be turned into a debris cloud, and Endor would have meteor showers for years... The Ewoks would be all happy, and celebrating, and "hooray for luke!" right up to the moment when a flaming stormtrooper corpse came blazing in through their dining room window for the twentieth time...;)
Not at all! Those anime twins can be male. And, even the gay crowd is covered. I've been seeing a lot of animes lately where the stars look amazingly gay-chic. It's all in the twin selection, man. Of course, if you shave a guy's pubes into the image of a candidate, things will look a little weird (man! Look at the nose on BUSH!)... But, hey, no plan is perfect.
Ah, but with the CLI and the.Net runtime, all they would have to do is provide the.Net layer for their BSD O/S layer, and they could provide 100% compatability -- NOT using wine -- for all.Net apps. Isn't that slick? You just KNOW they're at least THINKING about it...;)
The only things that would break would be legacy, non-.Net apps. Which would break on newer versions of windows anyway. And, most people are moving towards.Net, so...
Kind of neat where this leads us, isn't it? With.Net Microsoft has ensured that if they ever DO pull an Apple-style FreeBSD stunt, they won't have to lose their development tools. Or their in-house expertise. Another thing to love about.Net.
You walk into the voting booth, which looks remarkably like one of the small rooms in a bangkok brothel. You sit down and wait.
In walk two gorgeous anime-style twins. Their bushes are shaved into the image of one or another candidate, and the name of the candidate is tastefully painted in small letters just above the hairline. Whichever candidate the voter picks gets the vote (and a "right rogering" as the British say). Indecisive voters can nail both candidates, then decide afterwards.
Repeat for N candidates, or until the voter slips into a blissed-out exhaustion coma.
I guarantee this system will increase voter turnout by several thousand percent, what with voters coming back to vote again, and again, and again...
Slashdot Mirror
Blah, blah blah. You're turning out to be a real schmuck. Let me help the cold water of reality wash over you, physics boy, and fill in a few details they apparently didn't teach you in all those colleges you wasted all your money on:
.Net, and will probably come in around 25,000 lines. SOLO. Just to put it in perspective, the whole Quake II project came in between 50,000 lines and 100,000 lines according to some web page I came across. And, that had a whole team working on it. So, fuck YOU very much, I'm in my element. By the way, the 25K line project is going to take me exactly two months of coding. I'm fucking FAST. Which is why they assigned it to me.
1. Physics and mechanical engineering have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with computer science. Zilch. Nada. Zip. And, I've studied both, so get the idea that you're impressing me right out of your head. Minoring in something means you have a couple dozen credits in it -- you haven't studied it in depth, so your computer engineering minor doesn't impress, either. You DON'T know your shit. You've just convinced yourself you do, and you need to pull your head out of your ass before you run around Slashdot proclaiming that you're the high priest of "you can't do that".
2. I, on the other hand, have a degree in COMPUTER SCIENCE and over 165 credits (I lost count, I'd have to check out my transcripts and count 'em up), not counting corporate training. I've been working as a senior-level software developer for five years, and worked part time while in college (that's another few years). I've worked in several languages, C, C++, Java, Perl, Visual Basic, Vax Basic, UniBasic, MASM, all the boring web crap like HTML, Javascript, and XML, and a few Unix scripting tools, I know Linux, FreeBSD, VMS, and Windows, AND I do hardware and can write my firewalls by hand under Slackware AND FreeBSD. I've built projects with tens of thousands of lines of code, SOLO. I'm working on one right now that heavily uses web services and
Now, I don't usually spend my time spanking little know-it-all shits like you, but you really ought to go STFU now. You're throwing down with the wrong guy, pal. I'm strictly top-shelf. So when I say I can pull off what I'm talking about, you'd best believe it.
Now, beat it, you've finally gotten on my nerves, you arrogant little fuck.
Well, I did rtfa and I still can't figure it out. It looks like they're trying to match an encrypted key between some protected memory controlled by the BIOS and the CD install. But, how does this let anyone track anything? Maybe through a product activation scheme? Or a networked snitch program? I have no idea. I think that maybe this whole thing is a flim-flam...
Well, before we get started, let me say that I found your attempt at expert status very amusing. Listen, just in case this has escaped you, building a modified character for a videogame doesn't make you John Carmack, ok? You're just some hobbyist. So your opinions are of entertainment value only, alright? There. Glad we could clear that up.
Now, moving right along, the rest of your post is utterly and completely full of shit. Do you really believe this crap you're pedalling? Do you think Carmack would have listened to you if you'd gone to him in '92 and told him that he could never build Doom on his own, and shouldn't bother trying, except as a hobby thing he should never show anyone? I think he would have beaten the crap out of you before you finished talking, but then, I don't know him, so who knows. Maybe he would have just laughed. Or: do you think Wozniak would have believed you if you told him that computers are only built by engineers in laboratories? Do you think ANYONE is going to fall for this wimpy, defeatist nonsense? My GOD, man, listen to yourself. You sound like an old lady. A CONSTIPATED old lady. With PILES.
Or, more accurately, you sound like one of those broken-down old blue-collar guys who've been in some shit job for twenty years and try to crush the spirits of their college bound kids because they can't bear the thought that their kids are going to escape Allentown, or whatever other blue-collar hell the old wreck is haunting.
Fuck, you're depressing.
Never mind my advice. You're not being Mike, you ARE Mike. You're doomed. Well, in reply to your pathetic attempt to tell me I can't do it, from the Bobs of the world, to you, I say: "No, YOU can't do it! I'm doing it!" And, you can't see it, but I'm giving you the finger.
I think that on one hand, you'll never stop warez guys and other nefarious types from distributing your stuff. I just don't think it's possible; even companies that use dongles to control who can run their code are susceptible to workarounds, and I don't think you want to tinker with product activation. Even products which have successfully used key codes in the past, like Winzip and WSFTP eventually get cracked, and some warez kid tells everyone what key values work.
So what are you going to do? You have to treat warez and other cheats as part of the "cost of doing business", and hope that the majority of your users are honest (I know how bad this sounds, but if you think about it, it's true).
Instead of putting download versions of your code on the website, why not just let people order a CD? Imprint each install file with a unique, long, embedded serial number which doesn't do anything (thus won't be as likely to be detected) and keep track of your users by serial number. When a warez copy shows up, download it, fetch out the serial number, and get the warez guy on the horn. You might not be able to prove anything, but at least you can annoy him. Got a rape whistle? Blow the thing into the phone. Start calling him at all hours of the night. Be annoying. It won't do any good but it'll be satisfying.
And, offer a nicely done CD with the software. Maybe print up a little manual, and ship in a DVD case. Make it nice enough, and people will prefer having the CD to having a pirated download. At least you'll have some sales, right?
But as long as you're letting people download from your site, they'll be tempted to download it from someone else's. I say sell CDs. And, get that rape whistle.
By the way, just to clarify:
First of all, ID Software released the entire Quake II source GPL. Which means we're totally free to use that as inspiration in creating a new game, as long as we don't use the copyrighted Quake II game data (e.g. their artwork, sounds, level designs, etc). So, if you think that the Quake II engine is good enough for your game, and I think it's world class, you've already got the hard part out of the way thanks to John Carmack and ID Software. You can study the source code, learn how it works, and use it as a base for a new, different game. Which is what they WANTED you to do with it. All you have to do is release all your changes GPL'ed as well. And, who wouldn't? The GPL is a Good Thing. Ok, moving right along...
So you can use QuakeII as a base for your new game, which saves you a whole lot of wheel reinventing (Thanks, ID, we love you). What does this leave? The modifications to the game engine to support whatever changes in gameplay you're looking for, level designs, character designs, sounds, and animation. Storyline, certainly.
All of these things are FUN to build. It's very hobby-worthy material. Glorious, in fact. All the tools you need to build these things are available as shareware, with a very reasonable licensing fee if you like the tool (YES, I've done my research -- did you think I was just playing at this?). One person who really likes what he's doing can build a game in a year or two using the collection of tools that are available, right now, for free, on the web. This is NOT like sending up a space shuttle, ok? There is plenty of room for independents to get busy and start building fun stuff.
Here's the fun part. As an individual hobbyist just tinkering in my home lab, I have NO OVERHEAD. NO COSTS. It's just me and whatever strange things I can pull out of my head. And, the beauty of all this is, I can turn my fantasies, my weird future predictions, and my conspiracy theories, into a great game I'll enjoy playing -- then turn around and sell it to other people like me. For me, the sale of 10,000 units is a king's ransom; for commercial companies that level of sales is death. Getting the picture yet? All I have to sell is a single unit for the endeavour to be a success, because even one unit sold is profit.
Now expand on this. More people like me get the same idea and start turning stuff out. THEN, we get the nice cottage industry I was talking about. Are we competing with "real" game companies? Of course not. No one is going to buy our stuff *instead* of a commercial game. But they will probably buy it as a fun thing, after they've got the commercial game they wanted.
It's not a zero sum game, there's no barrier to entry, and you're looking at the whole situation in the wrong way.
And, THAT is my full response. Again, be Bob -- don't be Mike.
You're deliciously evil! I think I like you...
Perhaps this woman just got done playing Tomb Raider?
Amen to that -- the multiplayer is just amazing. FFA, Death Star, 20 bots, all Jedi Master, sabers only. Use Force Speed and open up a can of whoop ass! Fan-tastic.
Want a tow truck? Just go to Ebay!
i ewItem&item=2429803783&category=6729
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V
Jesus, Christmas, am I the only person with a digital camera? Taking pictures of a computer screen is a piece of cake if you turn the flash off. Sheesh.
If I were a secretary and I came across a document proving that my boss was releasing toxins into a river (for example), I would whip out my digital camera and start taking pictures of the computer screen. Anything that has to be viewed by a human can be photographed, DRM or no DRM. I'd put my wristwatch into the picture, as well as having the office in the background.
What would be the difference between showing that to a court and showing a printout? None. And, with the document's full text available as a digital image, the company could be pressured to release the original to a court. Or, more likely, a federal marshall could come in and seize their server as evidence and duplicate the hard drive lock, stock and bits, using a subpoena to get Microsoft to help them get the printouts they need ("Federal marshall? Subpoena? Ok, let me look that DRM key up, just a minute...").
Whistleblowers just have to be smarter than their bosses. Not terribly difficult...
Let me see if I understand your argument: "Waaah, it's too hard for one person to create a game, so don't bother trying, just live your little life and never try to be anything more than what you are". That IS what you're basically saying, right? If so, man, I feel sorry for you. Instead of making excuses for not doing something, why not try your hand at it? You might surprise yourself.
Let me tell you a story. I used to know two roommates, back in college. One was a pretty cool guy from Chicago, with a can-do attitude who was basically taking the world by the balls and making something of himself. The other was this doofy Irish kid who had zero self esteem, and I mean ZILCH (probably because he was the middle of seven kids). As an example, he'd been a "bar-back" (basically a bartender's assistant) for two and a half years, watching bar-back after bar-back get hired, then promoted and never doing anything to change his fate. We'd tell him "Come on, man, you've been there two years already, you should get out of there" and he'd say "If all I can do in life is be a bar back, at least I'll be a good one" and keep scrubbing the floor. The man was a doormat.
Ok, back to the story. Roommate number 1 was Bob, number 2 was Mike. Now, Bob was always coming up with some new way of making something cool happen for himself. We'd compare notes, and before too long, Mike would chime in with "You can't do that!" to which Bob would say, "NO, YOU can't do that. I'm doing it!" And he would go out and do it.
You're being Mike. Be Bob.
Ok, you can look at Slackware's not choosing to dump a zillion software packages onto your PC as a bad thing if you want, but I personally prefer it that way. I can install a Slackware system, then go to Sourceforge and get whatever else I need, and end up with a small, tight, fast system that works exactly the way I want it to. I see this as a feature, not a bug. For a long time I've been annoyed by commercial Linux's tendency to install everything and the kitchen sink by default. It's not just a disk hog, it's a security problem, you know? All those open ports and setuid scripts? Think about it.
Slackware is a nice system for this exact reason. You know exactly what you're getting, and you're in control of it. You know what I mean?
Slackware's hardly "aging". I think it's pretty up to date. Besides, maybe he's got something against it, but still, he just left it out of his final analysis entirely, which I felt seemed somewhat unfair.
It seems to me that Slackware has a lot going for it. Maybe he was using a really old version...
What makes you think the "golden age" was one period only, far back in history? Currently, several open-source game engines are being made available, along with a load of solid engines based on the Quake II (gpl'ed) source. We could be moving into a whole new golden age, and why not? All the raw materials are there...
Wow... I didn't realize consoles were so tough. I think I'll stick to Linux and Windows games, myself. Here's how I'm looking at game development, as an independent:
;)
First, I'll spend a year or so of nights and weekends familiarizing myself with a good graphics and sound engine (still looking at different projects, although I like Ogre and Crystal Space, and a lot of the projects based on the (GPL'ed) Quake II source look really good).
Next, I'll spend some time figuring out how to customize the work for my own stuff, playing around with small sample levels and such.
Finally, I'll use third-party shareware tools to build an actual game. I'll do all the graphical design and photography myself, do my own animation and etc. The only thing I can't do is background music. Maybe I'll hire a local band to make me a soundtrack, or trade them the exposure for the rights, I don't know. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If worse comes to worst, I'll skip the music entirely, or do something deliberately corny with a keyboard.
When the game is ready to roll, I'll sell it online for twenty bucks (plus 5.00 shipping and handling). It'll include the entire game development system, including whatever shareware I have the rights to pass along, and I'll sell it as a game development environment with all source code for my work (GPL'ed of course). Not only will users be able to play the game (and hopefully have a kick-ass time), they'll be able to start rolling their own games and jump into the market with me. I figure, the more the merrier! The more games they make, the more games I can play, too, so it's all good.
It's all about small scale development. 5,000 units = 100,000 dollars gross. Minus taxes, that's 50,000 bucks -- more than enough for a programmer, especially in this market. And, it's all gravy, on top of my current job's salary.
What surprises me is that with all the programmers who are hurting in the current job market, more people aren't throwing their hats in this ring. Game programming is like a gift from God, sent to help us after the death of the IT industry. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? We should all be working on homebrew game engines, passing them around, and helping each other build a cottage industry. Think of it as a sort of high-tech hippie co-op. Only with railguns. And, LUDICROUS GIBS!
You seem to think that having everyone using the same graphics, sound, and game engine is a bad thing. To the contrary, I think it is a liberating thing which will free developers up to concentrate on storyline and the actual art behind their games. For example, doing your own graphics engine could take years, time in which you could have released several games and gotten a lot of exposure. Using a pre-existing, GPL'ed game engine gives you a hell of a head start, and lets you focus on building your maps, your meshes, working on your AI... It's a godsend.
;)
When you look at the game engines that are being made available open-source, don't think "everything will be the same", think "now everyone is a potential game developer" and realize what that means. The imaginations of zillions of gamers could potentially be put to use, creating many new truly twisted games for you to play. The fact that they're all using, say, Ogre or the Quake II engine with modifications is irrelevant. What matters is the gameplay, the art, and the unique, twisted point of view of the developer, because that's what you're going to remember, not "wow, look at that volumetric fog, it's different from game X's volumetric fog"...
At the end of the day, does it really matter whether one game engine is different from another? What do you care, if the graphics are good enough to support the fantasy, and the gameplay is interesting and fun?
I fired up Quake II last night, just to play around a little, and it STILL rocks all these years later. Think about it.
"Only Gentoo"??? But you used to use Slackware! Ooh, I'm telling Bob Dobbs!
;)
But, seriously, though...
Don't you think that Slackware is as close to a pure-geek Linux as you can get? Small, clean, up to date, low memory and disk requirements, fast as hell... I haven't tried Gentoo, but leaving Slackware out seems kinda harsh, doesn't it?
Come on, man... Show some slack!
Here are some good article links...
m .h tml
0 J: www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/vacuum.html+Hum an+exposure+to+high+vacuum&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
a nswer s/970603.html
Here's a good article by Geoffery Landis, who seems to be an expert on the subject:
http://www.sff.net/people/geoffrey.landis/vacuu
This copy is from the Google cache:
http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:OIk04h7kx7
Here's a good one:
http://yarchive.net/med/human_in_space.html
This one's kind of ok.
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/
It's cool stuff. The bottom line: If you get out of high vacuum within ten seconds, or someone else gets you out of it within thirty, you'll probably be okay. If not, well, no more taxes!
Well, if you want to get technical, Nasa has a lot of hard research on what happens to the human body during exposure to high vacuum. Much of this data comes from unfortunate souls who were testing spacesuits in zero-pressure chambers and had a seal break. Some died, some lived. Their findings:
1. Your eyes don't blow up or turn into tennis balls. Nothing really happens to them. They might get a little dry, but you can shut them.
2. You don't swell up like a balloon or anything. They found that the connective tissue in your body holds everything together quite nicely.
3. If you hold your breath, your lungs will swell up and burst, causing massive internal injuries. The best thing to do is let the air come out of your lungs -- don't try to hold it. Now, all the air is going to come out, and this isn't going to be comfortable, but at least your lungs aren't going to get ruptured, so it doesn't have to be fatal.
4. Because there's no way of holding your breath, your lungs will have no oxygen in them. Because of this, your lungs will begin taking oxygen back out of your bloodstream! So even if you hyperventilate before you go into high vacuum, you're going to pass out from lack of oxygen very quickly. Most estimates say that if you're very lucky, you'll have TEN SECONDS at MOST to get back into an atmosphere before you pass out. About two to three minutes later, you suffer brain damage, and then you die. If your heart stops, they won't be able to get it going again (unfortunately, this has been verified by a few accidental deaths).
In cases where they were able to get to the person within a minute or so, they were able to save the guy, with no long-lasting ill effects, although they were obviously in rough shape and needed medical attention. In a couple of cases where it took them more than two or three minutes, the person died (In one example, the reason they gave was that the particular pressure chamber they were using was malfunctioning, and it took a couple of minutes to pump the air back in).
It's really interesting stuff. Do a Google search on "High vacuum injuries", "low pressure injuries", etc. There's a lot of info out there.
Silly, most explosions contain EXPANDING GASES which would carry sound, and a shockwave. So, when the spherical cloud of hot, expanding gases reach you, you get a shockwave and a lot of sound. You might not live long enough to "enjoy" it, but you'll definitely hear something...
What I think would be cool (and a lot more realistic) would be if the explosion would be visible, and very bright, but soundless -- up until about three seconds later, when the expanding gases collided with the outside of your own ship and started throwing it around, pelting it with red-hot debris, etc. Ever notice that when the Death Star blew up, there was no debris? In real life, the whole star system would be turned into a debris cloud, and Endor would have meteor showers for years... The Ewoks would be all happy, and celebrating, and "hooray for luke!" right up to the moment when a flaming stormtrooper corpse came blazing in through their dining room window for the twentieth time... ;)
Not at all! Those anime twins can be male. And, even the gay crowd is covered. I've been seeing a lot of animes lately where the stars look amazingly gay-chic. It's all in the twin selection, man. Of course, if you shave a guy's pubes into the image of a candidate, things will look a little weird (man! Look at the nose on BUSH!)... But, hey, no plan is perfect.
Bush -- get it? I slay me.
Ah, but with the CLI and the .Net runtime, all they would have to do is provide the .Net layer for their BSD O/S layer, and they could provide 100% compatability -- NOT using wine -- for all .Net apps. Isn't that slick? You just KNOW they're at least THINKING about it... ;)
.Net, so...
.Net Microsoft has ensured that if they ever DO pull an Apple-style FreeBSD stunt, they won't have to lose their development tools. Or their in-house expertise. Another thing to love about .Net.
The only things that would break would be legacy, non-.Net apps. Which would break on newer versions of windows anyway. And, most people are moving towards
Kind of neat where this leads us, isn't it? With
You walk into the voting booth, which looks remarkably like one of the small rooms in a bangkok brothel. You sit down and wait.
In walk two gorgeous anime-style twins. Their bushes are shaved into the image of one or another candidate, and the name of the candidate is tastefully painted in small letters just above the hairline. Whichever candidate the voter picks gets the vote (and a "right rogering" as the British say). Indecisive voters can nail both candidates, then decide afterwards.
Repeat for N candidates, or until the voter slips into a blissed-out exhaustion coma.
I guarantee this system will increase voter turnout by several thousand percent, what with voters coming back to vote again, and again, and again...