I think you're overstating things a bit by calling it a nonsense argument. It's more a case of a significant semantic difficulty.
Depression refers to two things. First there's the 'mood.' Feeling sad, lack of energy or motivation. All that kind of stuff. Frankly, everyone has been depressed, in this sense of the word.
However, the second meaning of depression refers to those whose brains are configured differently. Different in such a way that they will enter the first form of depression with unusually high frequency, severity and duration. As for your comparison to brain cancer, it is interesting to note that there have been studies done on the brains of those suffering from this form of depression. Their brains are observably different, principally in that the sections involved with certain chemicals(those acted upon by anti-depressants in fact) are notably less developed.
While pretty much every person has been depressed to some extent in the first sense of the word, the number who qualify for the second are a lot less common. There's a big difference between the two, and people who have only dealt with the first really haven't experienced the second. But, it's the same word for both of them. (It doesn't help that the second form of depression also has the nasty attribute of being non-binary in a sense... the chemical systems in the brain that are involved aren't a 'all working' or 'not working at all' switch, it's a 'normal amount of system throughput' versus 'less than normal throughput'... there's no 100% hard line)
There's more support for Pathways and Marathon being from the same continuity than Marathon/Halo. The most solid evidence to proce the point is the existence of an advanced alien race known as the Jjaro in both, with a minor bit of support that the 'dreaming entity' from PiD strongly resembles the W'rkncacnter from Marathon.
As for Marathon and Halo... there are lots of historical inconsistencies between the two that would prevent them from beomg in the same universe(unless you go with the 'main character from Marathon escapes universe at its closure, new universe comes into being and is the Halo universe' route, which is REALLY stretching things).
Updated PiD and Marathon would be great, but considering significant portions of the core staff from their creation are no longer with Bungie. And Marathon might not translate well into modern FPS engine technology. The nature of the text terminals as means of providing the story allowed for a lot of what made Marathon what it was... modern cut scenes and voice overs would be really lacking in comparison, but I don't think you could get away with an FPS that was THAT text filled these days.
I think the best example I can give is with details like when humanity acquired FTL capabilities, and its first significant encounter with an alien race.
In the Marathon universe, the titular ship was sent out in the year X. The ship was a moon of mars converted into essentially sub-light speed travelling generational extra solar system type vessel. There was no FTL technology available at this time available to humans. Following the events of the first Marathon game, FTL technology is delivered to earth, which is made aware of the pfhor(think of them as the Marathon covenant equivalent... except instead of the religious fanatic bent to align a collection of alien types together, they're a race that has scavenged technology from no longer present advanced races, and enslave other races to work for them...). This is the first major alien encounter in this universe.
In the Halo universe, humanity started colonization by means of FTL technology in year Y. Year Y happens to be either before year X, or during the long time between the Marathon being launched and getting to Tau Ceti, I forgot which but it was definitely one of those options. But either way, the FTL tech was explicitly NOT gifted to humanity the way it was in Marathon, and it occured centuries earlier. On top of that, the Covenant are the first major alien encounter for humanity in this universe.
Giant battles for your species survival or freedom against antagonistic aliens seem a large detail to forget about in the history books.
Set in the same universe? Not exactly.
Their first shooter release was the Shooter/Adventure hybrid Pathways into Darkness. There were never any direct references to occurences in PiD in the Marathon series, but there are some common references (name of one alien race mentioned only in the pregame story in PiD also appears in Marathon, nature of another foreign entity in PiD is very similar to one mentioned in Marathon...). For all intents and purposes, there is nothing contradictory to state that they aren't the same universe, there are hints that they are, and if you dig deep in the "there's hidden meaning in all those terminal entries" aspect of the Marathon plot, there may be a strong tie between the main character in both...
Then came Marathon. If one wanted to nitpick, due to the 'alternate reality hopping' involved in the last installment, technically Marathon itself doesn't entirely occur in one universe...
Finally Halo. Long before the release, there were hints that it might be in the same universe('from game resident' messages that made reference to key aspects of Marathon and Halo, in particular linking Durandal and Cortana(the primary AI characters from both series respectively)). Then the details on the game came out. Time period and technology posessed by humans in Halo are completely out of whack with what the Marathon story and backstory would imply. Technology behind AI's is entirely different. Technology behind cyborgs is entirely different... Unless someone's going to completely rewrite one or the other, too many conflicts to simply merge into one.
However, I will admit there is one slim wierd fan-wanky way to justify a connection despite that. Technically, the main character from Marathon would have been able to 'escape the inevitable closure of the universe' If the Halo-verse is a universe that comes into being after the Marathon-verse closes...
Commuting can be more expensive, but if there's a good mass transit system it might actually be cheaper in the high cost of living/high population density area. Then again, 'good mass transit system' is a rare creature in the USA. Only cities I've seen with anything that comes close would be NYC and Washington DC.
As far as other non-real estate based cost of living expenses... comparing the greater Boston are where I live, with rural upstate New York, middle of South Carolina where family lives and thus I'm familiar with, I find prices are overall notably cheaper in Boston. Groceries, for example are generally at least 10% cheaper, from what I've seen.
Restaurants you can generally find places of comparable quality/price ratio, if not more avantageous if you know where to look in larger metropolis areas. But, if you don't know the area and go in blind, you are likely to get fleeced. But once you know the area, big cities give you as good or better prices for what you get, and a far better selection.
Though frankly, depending on a persons priorities, a lot of it can come down to non-financial issues. Are you the sort who adores living smack dab in the middle of it all, wants to be in the middle of a huge metropolis; are you the sort who likes the opportunities the big cities provide but don't want to be living in the middle of the throng, or are you the sort who doesn't really feel there is any advantage to big cities anyway... Boiling it down to a purely financial question is ignoring quite a few details. There are some people whose priorities are such that it is pretty much the only issue, but how large a population is that?
See the comment a few above...
Originally it was planned for four.
There were issues with the network, possibility of no season 5 when season 4 was going into production.
They compressed things to try and wrap up in season 4.
However, things worked out so there would be a season 5.
So now, season 5 was 'off schedule' since parts of it were pulled into season 4, meaning there was a need for some padding and reworking and whatnot.
The Pandaren are available at two points in W3:TFT. One is during the standard campaign, as a bonus for completing a hidden level. Much like the zerg, a hidden bonus. Easily argued to not be a 'part of the lore.'
The second time was in the quasi-RPG Orc campaign, where it was one of the members of your small party. Definitely not a 'hidden bonus.' Like it or not, Pandaren as of The Frozen Throne are definitely a part of the Warcraft Universe 'for real.' Shoot, there's even a quest that references the Pandaren in WoW already...
Well, different control schema for different games makes sense and really works well.
However, it requires more significant investment on the part of the consumer, and increases complexity... It's not does little Timmy have console A or console B, it's A with controller 1, or A with controller 2 or...
For a portion of the market(including most slashdotters who are into console games) this isn't a big issue. However, from the market as a whole, it would probably be a bigger factor.
It's not an insurmountable hurdle(look at the relative success of the dance pad games), but it is something that those producing the consoles and games need to take into account that the typical 'gaming enthusiast' sort would toss off as inconsequential.
Death penalty, slow rate of XP gain relative to amount of XP needed to level, equipment being available only through farming for immense in game funds to purchase it or waiting long periods of time for rare/infrequent special mob spawns are NOT equal to challenge. All they mean is it takes longer to accomplish tasks, not that it is more difficult to accomplish the tasks.
Difficulty is gameplay that forces you to make decisions between options where there are benefits and drawbacks to all choices, and you need to decide which provides the best benefit in this particular situation. Difficulty is having reflexes related gameplay aspects in regards to having to time things correctly. Difficulty is having to target things correctly(for instance many AoE effects in games). Difficulty is having different class/character skills overlap in such ways that people playing together need to comunicate, understand each others roles and make informed group decisions on the spur of the moment to work together effectively.
Death penalties, I would argue, have no effect on true difficulty of the game. If you have to accomplish Task A, you need the same skills to succesfully accomplish it whether or not there's a penalty for failure.
That said, there are arguments to be made for penalties... primarily that penalties keep people from playing recklessly, and encourage a more careful playing style. However, this doesn't so much change the difficulty of the game so much as attempt to modify the playstyle of the players, I'd argue.
I've not played FFXI, so I can't comment on how difficult it is... but if you're trying to justify how 'difficult' a game it is, examples of actual 'requiring skill to defeat' challenges would probably serve you better than a list of reasons why it's very slow to progress in the game(which seems like a better description of what you listed, to me at any rate...)
Currently at least one of the MMORPG's has a 'test' system. Anarchy Online will let you play the basic game(no expansions), with no purchase, no monthly payment. If you want some of the features from the expansions, you have to purchase those and pay the monthly fee however.
That said, it will give you a very good idea of the game before putting any money down, a lot more than wandering around as a chicken or lizard.
Eh... I think the graphics issue boils down like this:
The actual technical feats of the graphics engine in the game are decent, but not amazing(however, in their defense they do a damn good job of running on lower end hardware...). There are people who's opinion of the graphics in a game are derived almost solely from the technical specs of the game's engine... Badly designed levels, clashing colors all over the place doesn't matter if the poly count is high with lots of sparkly effects. These sorts will not like WoW.
Second, Blizzard has a very distinctive art style. Some people simply won't like WoW because the particular style to it isn't to their liking(there's definitely a vocal group these days who want their graphics as 'realistic' as possible, and Blizzard's style definitely won't appease that group).
Attractiveness of graphics is a very subjective matter... personally, I agree with you that WoW does a really good job overall(they definitely have slipped up a little when it comes to some of the equipment for players, but everything else is really great). Different people will have different takes, and in my experience most of the complaints about WoW tend to follow the two lines I mentioned above...
I'd recomend Millenium Actress over Perfect Blue, particularly for someone who's trying to test the waters. Same director(and the same really well done blending of different realities, perception called into question and what not), and it's not as disturbing, so probably more welcoming to someone who wants a good first movie...
Actually, one nitpick... watched this recently, and the weird guy in the closet got the girl because he was the 'number one brain.' That girl had her own little subplot(she basically wanted to sleep with the supposed top brains(how such things are ranked in such a definitive way is... well, oversimplification for sake of the movie)), she appears first in the scene with the Val Kilmer character at the job interview at the opening, the second time when she comes onto the main character(who pushes her away), and finally snags the so-called smartest man at the end of the movie...
I think the grandparent poster was referring to Zelda... I don't recall if it was present in any of the other Zelda games, but the second one definitely had this same setup.
Actually... they're not really at war. It's a roleplaying game, and according to the story line it's an 'uneasy peace.' The current battlegrounds system might not be the best gameplay implementation from a roleplay standpoint, but from the roleplay standpoint huge battles aren't exactly appropriate either considering plot/current in game political climate and what-not...
"80hz is one update per 12.5ms. Might be enough for tetris, not so much for a first person shooter."
You obviously haven't gotten to high enough levels in tetris.
Actually, the initial cost isn't 100... There's a '10 day guest pass' included in the box, that can be upgraded to a full account without needing to purchase a second copy... Still a 50 dollar startup cost, but at least it's not 100.
I agree with the sentiment, but there is one wrinkle that makes it difficult. There are people who need different vehicles at different times. Should they get one vehicle that can handle everything but may be overkill some of the time? Should they purchase multiple vehicles(which is wastefull and problematic, just in a different manner). Rental may be an option, but depending on location may not be available, and if it is available it still may have its own set of issues(ie, if you need a small car for comuting daily, but your need for a big vehicle is frequent enough that the rental costs are significantly more expensive than ownership of a second vehicle).
While good in theory, I worry you may be underestimating, or perhaps mis-reading the 'lamerz' category.
If the desire for the purchased equipment is simply to make the game easier, be a little more powerful just to kill that one monster that's been bugging you, then the self segregation would work out fine.
However, if the desire for the purchased equipment is rooted in the desire to appear better than the other players, then a problem arises. On the 'wahoo' servers, everyone is playing by the 'buy yourself better' philosophy, so everyone would have the max in their in game gold account, the best weapons and armor. How can you rub people's noses in their inferiority, if everyone winds up equal. If this is the reason players do the real money for in game wealth/power, then they're going to want to play with purists because they require someone to gloat to.
I'm not the most experienced with MMORPG's, but I have dabbled... and between my experience and an innate pessimism regarding human nature, I fear the latter form of 'lamerz' would be, if not the most common, at least common enough to ruin the separate servers tactic.
Depends how you define(or perhaps judge would be the better term) visuals. Technical engine specs is only half the story, the other half is the art department. Having the most cutting edge engine, with a sub par art staff isn't necessarily going to produce the prettiest game.
That said, it's possible to look at computer graphics and focus on and appreciate the technical aspects, in essence trying to ignore the art staff effort. I've done this myself watching CGI movies, I'll find myself momentarily watching the technology rather than watching the movie. I'm less prone to this with games, personally, though I have talked with some people who's entire opinion of game graphics seem to be 'how fancy is the engine,' though I don't fall under that category myself(those sorts wouldn't be particularly fond of WoW). There's also the somewhat related group which follow the 'realism is the be all end all' mantra, since the focus on 'games must be photorealistic' requires advances to graphics engines...
Curious what the breakdown in graphics engine/art quality priority preferences are here at slashdot...
Actually, World Passes didn't really help FFXI much at all. What helped the NA release was the fact that it wasn't the original 'first release.' I remember following stories and there being quite the normal slew of new MMORPG issues(including networking issues) during the Japanese launch. It's just that those issues were resolved and the problems discovered before the NA release(and considering the fact that, from what I recall NA isn't where a majority of the FFXI playerbase comes from...).
There have been two comercial MMORPG launches that went pretty much flawless in their 'first launch.' COH was one, but I forgot the other...
Well, it's not what the 'typical slashdot reader' would think of, but I think most of the 'performance arts' category could wind up in th 80+ hours category(only at schools with good programs in that department, but then again I think that's probably true for CS and physics as well...)
Why performance arts? Required projects and projects for grade. Rehearsal time adds up. Fast. At my school(which didn't have Architecture), Computer Science was towards the top, but theatre was probably the most time intensive major due to the time spent working on department productions. Some people might dismiss this as 'being a hobby' but it was required time that took effort never the less.
Just throwing this in to add a bit of variety to the list... I figure that(at least at schools with more rigorous music/dance/theatre programs) this is probably not that unusual...
Slashdot Mirror
I think you're overstating things a bit by calling it a nonsense argument. It's more a case of a significant semantic difficulty.
Depression refers to two things. First there's the 'mood.' Feeling sad, lack of energy or motivation. All that kind of stuff. Frankly, everyone has been depressed, in this sense of the word.
However, the second meaning of depression refers to those whose brains are configured differently. Different in such a way that they will enter the first form of depression with unusually high frequency, severity and duration. As for your comparison to brain cancer, it is interesting to note that there have been studies done on the brains of those suffering from this form of depression. Their brains are observably different, principally in that the sections involved with certain chemicals(those acted upon by anti-depressants in fact) are notably less developed.
While pretty much every person has been depressed to some extent in the first sense of the word, the number who qualify for the second are a lot less common. There's a big difference between the two, and people who have only dealt with the first really haven't experienced the second. But, it's the same word for both of them. (It doesn't help that the second form of depression also has the nasty attribute of being non-binary in a sense... the chemical systems in the brain that are involved aren't a 'all working' or 'not working at all' switch, it's a 'normal amount of system throughput' versus 'less than normal throughput'... there's no 100% hard line)
There's more support for Pathways and Marathon being from the same continuity than Marathon/Halo. The most solid evidence to proce the point is the existence of an advanced alien race known as the Jjaro in both, with a minor bit of support that the 'dreaming entity' from PiD strongly resembles the W'rkncacnter from Marathon.
As for Marathon and Halo... there are lots of historical inconsistencies between the two that would prevent them from beomg in the same universe(unless you go with the 'main character from Marathon escapes universe at its closure, new universe comes into being and is the Halo universe' route, which is REALLY stretching things).
Updated PiD and Marathon would be great, but considering significant portions of the core staff from their creation are no longer with Bungie. And Marathon might not translate well into modern FPS engine technology. The nature of the text terminals as means of providing the story allowed for a lot of what made Marathon what it was... modern cut scenes and voice overs would be really lacking in comparison, but I don't think you could get away with an FPS that was THAT text filled these days.
I think the best example I can give is with details like when humanity acquired FTL capabilities, and its first significant encounter with an alien race.
In the Marathon universe, the titular ship was sent out in the year X. The ship was a moon of mars converted into essentially sub-light speed travelling generational extra solar system type vessel. There was no FTL technology available at this time available to humans. Following the events of the first Marathon game, FTL technology is delivered to earth, which is made aware of the pfhor(think of them as the Marathon covenant equivalent... except instead of the religious fanatic bent to align a collection of alien types together, they're a race that has scavenged technology from no longer present advanced races, and enslave other races to work for them...). This is the first major alien encounter in this universe.
In the Halo universe, humanity started colonization by means of FTL technology in year Y. Year Y happens to be either before year X, or during the long time between the Marathon being launched and getting to Tau Ceti, I forgot which but it was definitely one of those options. But either way, the FTL tech was explicitly NOT gifted to humanity the way it was in Marathon, and it occured centuries earlier. On top of that, the Covenant are the first major alien encounter for humanity in this universe.
Giant battles for your species survival or freedom against antagonistic aliens seem a large detail to forget about in the history books.
Set in the same universe? Not exactly. Their first shooter release was the Shooter/Adventure hybrid Pathways into Darkness. There were never any direct references to occurences in PiD in the Marathon series, but there are some common references (name of one alien race mentioned only in the pregame story in PiD also appears in Marathon, nature of another foreign entity in PiD is very similar to one mentioned in Marathon...). For all intents and purposes, there is nothing contradictory to state that they aren't the same universe, there are hints that they are, and if you dig deep in the "there's hidden meaning in all those terminal entries" aspect of the Marathon plot, there may be a strong tie between the main character in both... Then came Marathon. If one wanted to nitpick, due to the 'alternate reality hopping' involved in the last installment, technically Marathon itself doesn't entirely occur in one universe... Finally Halo. Long before the release, there were hints that it might be in the same universe('from game resident' messages that made reference to key aspects of Marathon and Halo, in particular linking Durandal and Cortana(the primary AI characters from both series respectively)). Then the details on the game came out. Time period and technology posessed by humans in Halo are completely out of whack with what the Marathon story and backstory would imply. Technology behind AI's is entirely different. Technology behind cyborgs is entirely different... Unless someone's going to completely rewrite one or the other, too many conflicts to simply merge into one. However, I will admit there is one slim wierd fan-wanky way to justify a connection despite that. Technically, the main character from Marathon would have been able to 'escape the inevitable closure of the universe' If the Halo-verse is a universe that comes into being after the Marathon-verse closes...
Commuting can be more expensive, but if there's a good mass transit system it might actually be cheaper in the high cost of living/high population density area. Then again, 'good mass transit system' is a rare creature in the USA. Only cities I've seen with anything that comes close would be NYC and Washington DC.
As far as other non-real estate based cost of living expenses... comparing the greater Boston are where I live, with rural upstate New York, middle of South Carolina where family lives and thus I'm familiar with, I find prices are overall notably cheaper in Boston. Groceries, for example are generally at least 10% cheaper, from what I've seen.
Restaurants you can generally find places of comparable quality/price ratio, if not more avantageous if you know where to look in larger metropolis areas. But, if you don't know the area and go in blind, you are likely to get fleeced. But once you know the area, big cities give you as good or better prices for what you get, and a far better selection.
Though frankly, depending on a persons priorities, a lot of it can come down to non-financial issues. Are you the sort who adores living smack dab in the middle of it all, wants to be in the middle of a huge metropolis; are you the sort who likes the opportunities the big cities provide but don't want to be living in the middle of the throng, or are you the sort who doesn't really feel there is any advantage to big cities anyway... Boiling it down to a purely financial question is ignoring quite a few details. There are some people whose priorities are such that it is pretty much the only issue, but how large a population is that?
See the comment a few above... Originally it was planned for four. There were issues with the network, possibility of no season 5 when season 4 was going into production. They compressed things to try and wrap up in season 4. However, things worked out so there would be a season 5. So now, season 5 was 'off schedule' since parts of it were pulled into season 4, meaning there was a need for some padding and reworking and whatnot.
Would the more complicated hack involve a pump system, and a small reservoir of pea soup?
Sounds like the closing line of a cheesy ghost story, "Get out of the house... the spam came from inside!"
The Pandaren are available at two points in W3:TFT. One is during the standard campaign, as a bonus for completing a hidden level. Much like the zerg, a hidden bonus. Easily argued to not be a 'part of the lore.'
The second time was in the quasi-RPG Orc campaign, where it was one of the members of your small party. Definitely not a 'hidden bonus.' Like it or not, Pandaren as of The Frozen Throne are definitely a part of the Warcraft Universe 'for real.' Shoot, there's even a quest that references the Pandaren in WoW already...
Well, different control schema for different games makes sense and really works well. However, it requires more significant investment on the part of the consumer, and increases complexity... It's not does little Timmy have console A or console B, it's A with controller 1, or A with controller 2 or... For a portion of the market(including most slashdotters who are into console games) this isn't a big issue. However, from the market as a whole, it would probably be a bigger factor. It's not an insurmountable hurdle(look at the relative success of the dance pad games), but it is something that those producing the consoles and games need to take into account that the typical 'gaming enthusiast' sort would toss off as inconsequential.
You took the high road. Around here I would have expected jokes involving their petroleum jelly or hand moisturizer products...
Death penalty, slow rate of XP gain relative to amount of XP needed to level, equipment being available only through farming for immense in game funds to purchase it or waiting long periods of time for rare/infrequent special mob spawns are NOT equal to challenge. All they mean is it takes longer to accomplish tasks, not that it is more difficult to accomplish the tasks.
Difficulty is gameplay that forces you to make decisions between options where there are benefits and drawbacks to all choices, and you need to decide which provides the best benefit in this particular situation. Difficulty is having reflexes related gameplay aspects in regards to having to time things correctly. Difficulty is having to target things correctly(for instance many AoE effects in games). Difficulty is having different class/character skills overlap in such ways that people playing together need to comunicate, understand each others roles and make informed group decisions on the spur of the moment to work together effectively.
Death penalties, I would argue, have no effect on true difficulty of the game. If you have to accomplish Task A, you need the same skills to succesfully accomplish it whether or not there's a penalty for failure.
That said, there are arguments to be made for penalties... primarily that penalties keep people from playing recklessly, and encourage a more careful playing style. However, this doesn't so much change the difficulty of the game so much as attempt to modify the playstyle of the players, I'd argue.
I've not played FFXI, so I can't comment on how difficult it is... but if you're trying to justify how 'difficult' a game it is, examples of actual 'requiring skill to defeat' challenges would probably serve you better than a list of reasons why it's very slow to progress in the game(which seems like a better description of what you listed, to me at any rate...)
Currently at least one of the MMORPG's has a 'test' system. Anarchy Online will let you play the basic game(no expansions), with no purchase, no monthly payment. If you want some of the features from the expansions, you have to purchase those and pay the monthly fee however.
That said, it will give you a very good idea of the game before putting any money down, a lot more than wandering around as a chicken or lizard.
Eh... I think the graphics issue boils down like this:
The actual technical feats of the graphics engine in the game are decent, but not amazing(however, in their defense they do a damn good job of running on lower end hardware...). There are people who's opinion of the graphics in a game are derived almost solely from the technical specs of the game's engine... Badly designed levels, clashing colors all over the place doesn't matter if the poly count is high with lots of sparkly effects. These sorts will not like WoW.
Second, Blizzard has a very distinctive art style. Some people simply won't like WoW because the particular style to it isn't to their liking(there's definitely a vocal group these days who want their graphics as 'realistic' as possible, and Blizzard's style definitely won't appease that group).
Attractiveness of graphics is a very subjective matter... personally, I agree with you that WoW does a really good job overall(they definitely have slipped up a little when it comes to some of the equipment for players, but everything else is really great). Different people will have different takes, and in my experience most of the complaints about WoW tend to follow the two lines I mentioned above...
I'd recomend Millenium Actress over Perfect Blue, particularly for someone who's trying to test the waters. Same director(and the same really well done blending of different realities, perception called into question and what not), and it's not as disturbing, so probably more welcoming to someone who wants a good first movie...
Actually, one nitpick... watched this recently, and the weird guy in the closet got the girl because he was the 'number one brain.' That girl had her own little subplot(she basically wanted to sleep with the supposed top brains(how such things are ranked in such a definitive way is... well, oversimplification for sake of the movie)), she appears first in the scene with the Val Kilmer character at the job interview at the opening, the second time when she comes onto the main character(who pushes her away), and finally snags the so-called smartest man at the end of the movie...
I think the grandparent poster was referring to Zelda... I don't recall if it was present in any of the other Zelda games, but the second one definitely had this same setup.
Actually... they're not really at war. It's a roleplaying game, and according to the story line it's an 'uneasy peace.' The current battlegrounds system might not be the best gameplay implementation from a roleplay standpoint, but from the roleplay standpoint huge battles aren't exactly appropriate either considering plot/current in game political climate and what-not...
"80hz is one update per 12.5ms. Might be enough for tetris, not so much for a first person shooter." You obviously haven't gotten to high enough levels in tetris.
Actually, the initial cost isn't 100... There's a '10 day guest pass' included in the box, that can be upgraded to a full account without needing to purchase a second copy... Still a 50 dollar startup cost, but at least it's not 100.
I agree with the sentiment, but there is one wrinkle that makes it difficult. There are people who need different vehicles at different times. Should they get one vehicle that can handle everything but may be overkill some of the time? Should they purchase multiple vehicles(which is wastefull and problematic, just in a different manner). Rental may be an option, but depending on location may not be available, and if it is available it still may have its own set of issues(ie, if you need a small car for comuting daily, but your need for a big vehicle is frequent enough that the rental costs are significantly more expensive than ownership of a second vehicle).
While good in theory, I worry you may be underestimating, or perhaps mis-reading the 'lamerz' category.
If the desire for the purchased equipment is simply to make the game easier, be a little more powerful just to kill that one monster that's been bugging you, then the self segregation would work out fine.
However, if the desire for the purchased equipment is rooted in the desire to appear better than the other players, then a problem arises. On the 'wahoo' servers, everyone is playing by the 'buy yourself better' philosophy, so everyone would have the max in their in game gold account, the best weapons and armor. How can you rub people's noses in their inferiority, if everyone winds up equal. If this is the reason players do the real money for in game wealth/power, then they're going to want to play with purists because they require someone to gloat to.
I'm not the most experienced with MMORPG's, but I have dabbled... and between my experience and an innate pessimism regarding human nature, I fear the latter form of 'lamerz' would be, if not the most common, at least common enough to ruin the separate servers tactic.
Depends how you define(or perhaps judge would be the better term) visuals. Technical engine specs is only half the story, the other half is the art department. Having the most cutting edge engine, with a sub par art staff isn't necessarily going to produce the prettiest game.
That said, it's possible to look at computer graphics and focus on and appreciate the technical aspects, in essence trying to ignore the art staff effort. I've done this myself watching CGI movies, I'll find myself momentarily watching the technology rather than watching the movie. I'm less prone to this with games, personally, though I have talked with some people who's entire opinion of game graphics seem to be 'how fancy is the engine,' though I don't fall under that category myself(those sorts wouldn't be particularly fond of WoW). There's also the somewhat related group which follow the 'realism is the be all end all' mantra, since the focus on 'games must be photorealistic' requires advances to graphics engines...
Curious what the breakdown in graphics engine/art quality priority preferences are here at slashdot...
Actually, World Passes didn't really help FFXI much at all. What helped the NA release was the fact that it wasn't the original 'first release.' I remember following stories and there being quite the normal slew of new MMORPG issues(including networking issues) during the Japanese launch. It's just that those issues were resolved and the problems discovered before the NA release(and considering the fact that, from what I recall NA isn't where a majority of the FFXI playerbase comes from...).
There have been two comercial MMORPG launches that went pretty much flawless in their 'first launch.' COH was one, but I forgot the other...
Well, it's not what the 'typical slashdot reader' would think of, but I think most of the 'performance arts' category could wind up in th 80+ hours category(only at schools with good programs in that department, but then again I think that's probably true for CS and physics as well...)
Why performance arts? Required projects and projects for grade. Rehearsal time adds up. Fast. At my school(which didn't have Architecture), Computer Science was towards the top, but theatre was probably the most time intensive major due to the time spent working on department productions. Some people might dismiss this as 'being a hobby' but it was required time that took effort never the less.
Just throwing this in to add a bit of variety to the list... I figure that(at least at schools with more rigorous music/dance/theatre programs) this is probably not that unusual...