I think there's definitely room for games to become spectator sports. As graphics start to get better, there will definitely be an interest in it. I just think people will be watching it live on their computers though rather than on TV.
Imagine your current favourite sport, but instead of just watching the picture the broadcaster sends you, you can have the main action in a little window, and be exploring as much of the game as you want in your main window. Getting in as close as you want. Or maybe just watching the whole thing from four angles at once...
An earlier poster was right that spectator sports need a centre of attention like a ball or a puck, but there is plenty of room for current sports games to be watched (FIFA Football, Madden NFL) or for mods of FPSs that involve an object (like capture the flag, or any of the sports mods for FPSs like bombing run for UT2K3).
The ideal would be a 3D version of Blood Bowl. It's understandable to current sports fans, but it's also violent and fantastical (or at least more so than real life sports).
The guy doing the rebuttal makes a terrible job of it. When he agrees with the original rule, he uses clever arguements such as "Well, duh". When he disagrees, he does so just for the sake of it, and generally entirely misses the point, or picks up on some minor point and makes his entire rebuttal about that. For example:
You're trying to provide as many modes of expression as possible in your online world. Character classes are just modes of expression, after all.
Say it with me: "MMORPGs require more time and effort to create than pen and paper games."
This law is flawed - heavily. It doesn't matter how many different classes you have - because there are only four base classes - fighter, spellcaster, rogue, and crafter....(continues)
He misses the point about about having differant forms of expression and instead picks up on the secondary point that classes are modes of expression. Koster never mentioned that you should have lots and lots of clasess, but instead the rebutter rambles on for a very long and tedious paragraph about how you don't need lots of classes, when he's actually agreeing with the guy. He even says "It's about time we left the character design up to the player". What's that you say, increase the amounts of expression available to the player? You're agreeing with him, you idiot!
To be fair I couldn't bring myself to finish the article. Koster's laws are very interesting, but the rebuttal is just pointless and annoying. maybe it finishes well, but I really, really doubt it.
I've been playing games using a stylus for years on my Palm. Mainly just Rogue/Nethack and Breakout clones, but also some card games and stuff. It's a nice control system but hardly revolutionary.
Personally, I am looking forward to using it with a few strategy RPGs. I'd love a handheld version of Disgaea that's controlled with a stylus, but it doesn't look like I'll get it.
For me the most important feature would be Save to Memory, so that I can save a game at any point, and then resume it at my next journey.
The other sad thing is, there are companies that use Alexa's page rankings to decide how much they'll pay for ads. Go figure.
Of course, they do. If they find out that a site has a large number of idiots looking at it, they will want to advertise. That's their target audience.
No, they start from the beginning and work their way through. That's why they can be hard to finish sometimes. As soon as people have finished downloading they close the connection, so there are fewer sources for the last part of the file than there are for the beginning.
Yes, and yes. A lot of people do want to make mainstream what is currently illegal.
An MP3 player with a good button layout might be good, but you need one that doesn't really rely too much on being able to read the screen. An iPod might not be very good because that jog wheel might not be much use. I think the Neuros might be good option.
You can download a lot of talking books from the filesharing networks like eDonkey, and AFAIK it would be legal as long as you also bought the hardcopy. The RNIB site has links to some more legitimate suppliers.
BBC Radio 4 lets you listen online to most of their programmes from the last week, and they have a lot of dramas and book readings (and some great comedy). Unfortunately it's currently in RealMedia format, but that is due to change.
Lastly, if any of your friends are web designers, encourage them to follow the WAI guidelines otherwise she might not be able to access their websites (not that she will neccessarily want to, but it's always good to get more people interested in accessibility).
Links is a brilliant golf game, and Topspin is the best tennis game I have ever played. Amped was also fairly good (it was a bit like a chill out version of SSX. More relaxed).
Smacking your kids is illegal in the UK now (very recently). That's going to bring about a whole world of trouble.
As far as I see it, there are better ways to punish a child. A good parent should be able to sit down with a child and explain things in a sensible manner, and so forth. However there are very, very few good parents in the world. Most people are retards and violence is the only way they are going to keep their kids anywhere near under control.
Having sat next to kids rustling crisp packets and sweet papers in the cinema, I'd be quite happy to club a few of them unconcious with the butt of a gun.
(and what's with speaking in a normal voice to the person next to you during a film. Do they not teach whispering in schools these days?)
I suspect that Microsoft would be able to cope with most fines levied against them. Even a few billion a year could be relatively easily written off, much like some of the oil companies who get fined the maximum amount per day for polluting and just consider it a pollution tax, and raise their price by a tiny amount to cover it.
..but I don't see that people with a list of several million address really care whether yours is correct or not.
I would guess that if the headers seem reasonabley genuine, then unscribing might work, as it could just be something you accidently signed up for in the old days.
The best way to stop spam would be if people stopped buying viagra and porn from the companies that send out the spam.
That way the spammers would stop making money and would stop sending spam.
Under capitalist principles, the spammers are doing the right thing. We need to make it unprofitable for them.
(Also, I think the spammers should start sending poems, jokes and stuff out. That way people would start reading their spam and be more susceptible to the offers).
Slashdot Mirror
I think there's definitely room for games to become spectator sports. As graphics start to get better, there will definitely be an interest in it. I just think people will be watching it live on their computers though rather than on TV.
Imagine your current favourite sport, but instead of just watching the picture the broadcaster sends you, you can have the main action in a little window, and be exploring as much of the game as you want in your main window. Getting in as close as you want. Or maybe just watching the whole thing from four angles at once...
An earlier poster was right that spectator sports need a centre of attention like a ball or a puck, but there is plenty of room for current sports games to be watched (FIFA Football, Madden NFL) or for mods of FPSs that involve an object (like capture the flag, or any of the sports mods for FPSs like bombing run for UT2K3).
The ideal would be a 3D version of Blood Bowl. It's understandable to current sports fans, but it's also violent and fantastical (or at least more so than real life sports).
He misses the point about about having differant forms of expression and instead picks up on the secondary point that classes are modes of expression. Koster never mentioned that you should have lots and lots of clasess, but instead the rebutter rambles on for a very long and tedious paragraph about how you don't need lots of classes, when he's actually agreeing with the guy. He even says "It's about time we left the character design up to the player". What's that you say, increase the amounts of expression available to the player? You're agreeing with him, you idiot!
To be fair I couldn't bring myself to finish the article. Koster's laws are very interesting, but the rebuttal is just pointless and annoying. maybe it finishes well, but I really, really doubt it.
I've been playing games using a stylus for years on my Palm. Mainly just Rogue/Nethack and Breakout clones, but also some card games and stuff. It's a nice control system but hardly revolutionary.
Personally, I am looking forward to using it with a few strategy RPGs. I'd love a handheld version of Disgaea that's controlled with a stylus, but it doesn't look like I'll get it.
For me the most important feature would be Save to Memory, so that I can save a game at any point, and then resume it at my next journey.
Of course, they do. If they find out that a site has a large number of idiots looking at it, they will want to advertise. That's their target audience.
So what's the difference between the way torrents work and eDonkey?
An MP3 player with a good button layout might be good, but you need one that doesn't really rely too much on being able to read the screen. An iPod might not be very good because that jog wheel might not be much use. I think the Neuros might be good option.
You can download a lot of talking books from the filesharing networks like eDonkey, and AFAIK it would be legal as long as you also bought the hardcopy. The RNIB site has links to some more legitimate suppliers.
BBC Radio 4 lets you listen online to most of their programmes from the last week, and they have a lot of dramas and book readings (and some great comedy). Unfortunately it's currently in RealMedia format, but that is due to change.
Lastly, if any of your friends are web designers, encourage them to follow the WAI guidelines otherwise she might not be able to access their websites (not that she will neccessarily want to, but it's always good to get more people interested in accessibility).
PS. Tell her 'Hi' from Slashdot!
so it has (zillion - a few) unuseful extentions? That's not a great selling point...
IE is buggy to the point of being dangerous; inaccessible; and almost devoid of useful features.
It is also damaging the web for everyone by preventing designers from having to use open standards and by allowing them them to write buggy code.
Wow, thanks. That's pretty near to me and I have considered doing a degree in Maths there.
I'll look into it.
It really is a nice idea, but the concept of BT managing to do anything in a timely (or even successful) manner is entirely incomprehensable.
It took them ten years to get to the current stage of broadband, and that hardly involved much work. This won't be completed until around 2099.
Have to say I disagree with that.
Links is a brilliant golf game, and Topspin is the best tennis game I have ever played. Amped was also fairly good (it was a bit like a chill out version of SSX. More relaxed).
I want to be able to check my scores on the web without having to sign up to that damned Passport thing.
Actually these days they make most of their money from MS settlements... ; )
Don't Opera make money from web browsers?
(I agree with your general point though...)
A geeky pedant on Slashdot? Now there's a surprise! ;)
I can currently only get 512Kbps even though I live near Canary Wharf (which has some huge connections running through it).
I'll definitely consider Bulldog if/when I move though (if I remember it's 6Mb off peak, 1 Mb on peak, which would suit me fine).
Smacking your kids is illegal in the UK now (very recently). That's going to bring about a whole world of trouble.
As far as I see it, there are better ways to punish a child. A good parent should be able to sit down with a child and explain things in a sensible manner, and so forth. However there are very, very few good parents in the world. Most people are retards and violence is the only way they are going to keep their kids anywhere near under control.
Having sat next to kids rustling crisp packets and sweet papers in the cinema, I'd be quite happy to club a few of them unconcious with the butt of a gun.
(and what's with speaking in a normal voice to the person next to you during a film. Do they not teach whispering in schools these days?)
I suspect that Microsoft would be able to cope with most fines levied against them. Even a few billion a year could be relatively easily written off, much like some of the oil companies who get fined the maximum amount per day for polluting and just consider it a pollution tax, and raise their price by a tiny amount to cover it.
That way everyone is happy.
Leave some raw pork and fresh tuna out in the sun for week, and then eat it.
You'll be spraying the weight out of you from both ends.
Do that once a month and you'll easily lose a few stone.
Yes, but the addition of jailtime doesn't stop people from being hitmen.
There are still hitmen in the world.
..but I don't see that people with a list of several million address really care whether yours is correct or not.
I would guess that if the headers seem reasonabley genuine, then unscribing might work, as it could just be something you accidently signed up for in the old days.
The best way to stop spam would be if people stopped buying viagra and porn from the companies that send out the spam.
That way the spammers would stop making money and would stop sending spam.
Under capitalist principles, the spammers are doing the right thing. We need to make it unprofitable for them.
(Also, I think the spammers should start sending poems, jokes and stuff out. That way people would start reading their spam and be more susceptible to the offers).