As I recall, they dropped the tree-based storyline in later games (WC4?) because players did not like it... Well, I liked the idea, but they received all the feedback about WC, so I guess they had a good reason to abandon the approach.
In Deux Ex there were different ways how to tackle a problem (you know, like Perl, there's more than one way to do it). The storyline did not really chance that much.
Another good example I think is Baldurs Gate, where the main plot progressed, but the sideplots varied with your character and you could also pursue them at your own leisure.
I always wondered why there never was a mainstream Shadowrun RPG. Certainly has the potential! And the success and quality of Baldurs Gate proved that RPGs are not dead and can sell well.
Wouldn't it be cool if all the up-and-coming (and currently available) wireless input devices using IEEE802.11something could work with any access point/wireless card in infrastructure mode? You could play all your games from your neighbours house while the xbox is safe in your livingroom....
Errr.....
It *would* be cool! IPv6 force feedback gamepads! Yay!
And sometimes shit just happens... I think it's ok to make a mistake once, learn from it, and never make it again.
On the other hand, if lifes are at stake, it's better not to screw up, although it's not a perfect world, so it's inevitably bound to happen.
game developers could have some hidden educational incentive
Hmm... Anything you do creates knowledge. You can not influence that. And yes, if a developer is aware of this, and has the necessary psychological background, the game can in fact - under certain circumstances - alter your beliefs/values.
This does not mean that after playing "SimCity" you want to live in a city, or that after playing "Zeus" or "Cleopatra" you will start to worship greek or egyptian gods. But you will know who Zeus is. And - if he treated you well in the game - you might start to 'like' him. If that is a good or bad thing is debatable.
With regard to violent video games: people that play those games do not automagically become gun-toting fanatics. Games are part of an individual education, there are other influences (hopefully), like parents, friend, books, TV, the real world in genereal. So if you live in a peaceful environment, FPS won't make you agressive. If you live in an agressive environment, FPS will partially contribute to that - and the Teletubbies can not outweigh the other factors.
You are right. It would be possible to assume the structure of the document from the style names, but this is a pretty dirty hack unless all your documents follow strict formatting rules (assign the correct paragraph 'style definition' to each paragraph).
IIRC, the first Unreal Tournament demo was released exclusively for 3DFX. At least there were several server where you could download the file, and it was possible to run it in software rendering mode, so you could play it without a Voodoo card.
Of course it made sense, since it was released for debugging purposes: narrowing down the hardware makes it much easier. I think Q3 had a similar pre-demo-debugging release.
Creating such a restriction for marketing purposes is not smart, IMHO. After all, you want to spread the demo. Everyone should play it. And everyone should like it (and buy the full game). A gamer that doesn't have the demo - because FilePlanet screws up or he doesn't like it or he doesn't want to wait - is one less potential buyer of the final product...
- $199 for Lego Mindstorm kits (MSRP and the price you see in every store.)
- $19-$199 handheld vacuum cleaner.
- $30 - For additional sensors which are need to do everything the Roomba already does.
- The face of your cat when it's sucked in by a bunch of Legos: priceless.
Learning with games is basically "problem based learning" as advocated by the constructivistic learning theory. The game creates a problem and leaves the solution up to the player. The more realistic the problem is, and the more freedom the player has for the solution, the better is the learning result. Sims like "Capitalism" or "SimCity" are good examples for this.
Studies show that students have problems applying knowledge to real problems (knowledge transfer) when the knowledge has been acquired by "traditional" learning processes, e.g. sitting in class and listening to a teacher. Learning with realistic problems (case studies) eases the transfer process. So if you are about to plan a city, "SimCity" would help you much better than "Age of Empires". Even though the latter has some aspects of placing buildings, "SimCity" is closer to the real problem.
I'm sure this is not a perfect example, but right now I can't think of a better one. Hopefully it's sufficient;)
Using an XML based (and documented!) file format has additional advantages. First and foremost, the documents can be easily used by other applications, e.g. full text indexer. Generating meta data has never been easier;)
Or use a stylesheet on the document and adopt it for, say, mobile devices (my favourite topic, I must admit). XML->HTML, XML->WML, XML->cHTML... no problem. It's even possible to extract an abstract, collect hyperlinks from the document and present them seperately, leave out the graphics (or convert them)...
Is this possible with.doc? I'd guess so. As easy as with XML? Don't think so.
I thought so, too - at first. But the article mentions that the Pro Elite (the 'flagship', other models might be even cheaper) will sell at $250. And that is - to my mind - an acceptable price. A good vacuum cleaner won't be much cheaper.
I really have to start thinking about getting one. Earlier models sold for several hundred or even thousand dollar. A test would be nice though, because my robo would have to deal with 2 cats (bonus points for hovering up to the sofa and cleaning all the hairs off it)...
As I recall, the original reasons for shutting down FreeCraft were that the name was too similar to WarCraft and that the engine borrowed a few too many ideas from WC. With this in mind, the new games and the engine have a different names, thats good, but what about the engine functionality?
From the Stratagus FAQ: [...] since the Warcraft2 support is already there we don't indent break it [...]
Does this mean it's still close to the original? If so, is the new name enough to keep Blizzard at bay?
Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder among children and affects anywhere between 3 percent and 10 percent of the population.
And in some cases, parents urge doctors to diagnose dyslexia so the child gets 'special' treatment (e.g. more time at exams) at school resulting in better grades...
Yes, I know, there are children that really suffer from dyslexia, and yes, there are doctors who refuse to give a false diagnosis. But sometimes I get the feeling that the percentage of kids suffering from dyslexia is somewhat higher than 10% -- or is this a local phenomenon or my misconception?
Give the woman a $1,000 tin ring and she will just think you are idiot.
Tin ring for $1000? Hm, she's probably right then...
It's does matter what it is worth not what you spent.
It's worth what you spend. The $5 ring is worth $5. And the $1000 ring is worth $1000. And the 'real' (= DeBeers) diamonds will (can) never sell for $5, because the costs to extract them are much higher. Maybe the prices for those 'real' diamonds will fall, but not the extend that they are priced comparably to the lab diamonds. It is more likely that the lab diamonds will be sold at a higher prices, increasing the profit span quite nicely.
[...] both companies control distribution of products in their respective markets with an iron fist [...]
I'd say that this comparison is a bit inaccurate. DeBeers can reduce the number of diamonds offered on the market - supply drops, demand raises the price of the good. Simple. Raising the price and keeping the amount of goods offered at the same level will lead you nowhere, because customers will wait for the prices to drop since they know that a surplus of goods will build up over time (which decreases the price).
Now, does the RIAA really reduce the number of CD in the stores? Because only this would compare to the influence DeBeers has on the market... No, they just raise the price. And guess what - customers buy less CD and turn to P2P.
P2P music sharing distributes a good (mp3) that is nearly equal to the original good (CD). While the $5 diamond may be equal in the quality compared to a 'real' (= DeBeers) diamond, the price is part of the value of the 'real' diamond. Give a $10 ring to a woman, and she'll like it. Give the exactly same ring for $1000 to a woman, and she'll feel appreciated. Diamonds are a girls best friend, after all.
Upon reading this, I pulled the old ST:TNG Technical Manual from the shelf, which dates back to 1991 (I wonder if this has any collector value). And in the introductions, I find this:
"The Starship Enterprise is not a collection of motion picture sets or a model used in visual effects. It is a very real vehicle; one designed for storytelling. [...] Documents such as this Technical Manual help give some background to the vision we work so hard to create on Star Trek. Rick [Sternbach] and Mike [Okuda] have obviously had a lot of fun filling in the gaps and trying to find technical 'explanations' for some of our mistakes." -- Gene Roddenberry
There you have it, folks: story comes first, physical accurate explanations come later. The list of credits has a lot of names from NASA, Boeing, Rockwell and so on. Those scientists (or people in the know) were constantly asked from advice - but if the story demanded some excuse, then the scientific background was set aside (according to the comments scattered throughout the manual).
My first thought upon reading this was team based games, mostly FPS or RTS
I imagine you have to be very careful with bad losers if you go team vs. team - people can be very touchy about this, especially when they lose publically. A better option could be teamplay vs. the computer. Totally depends on the people you are playing with.
This isn't some big icon of popular culture that's going to go down in history as a symbol for the age
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Ask anyone on the street if they know a figure from a computer game. I guess that the two most frequent answers are "Mario" and "Lara". Perhaps "Pac-Man". Or "Gordon Freeman". Or "Duke Nukem".
I think Eidos went the obvious way. The first game received so much media attention (for those two obvious reasons) which focused on Lara, and not the game. So the logical choice is to build a brand based on the character Lara Croft, not on the game.
This makes it much easier to market products - all they need is Lara. And with that, you can sell movies, games, soft drinks, action figures, magazines, condoms...
The question which figure (digital Lara or Angelina Jolie) is perceived as Lara is valid, but not necessarily relevant. If a product features a picture of either digi-Lara or A. Jolie doesn't really matter, a consumer will accept both of them and think of the product as an official Lara-product.
But, hey, this tutorial is free and certainly useful for new users (who don't know how to handle tar- or gzip/bzip2-files). I think the chapter on what problems may occur and how to solve them could be a bit longer than just one page...
BTW, I don't know why they skipped the part on how to edit the Makefile by hand. It's much more fun:) And while they are at it, they can add a section on how to analyse core dumps, too! (SCNR)
Slashdot Mirror
As I recall, they dropped the tree-based storyline in later games (WC4?) because players did not like it... Well, I liked the idea, but they received all the feedback about WC, so I guess they had a good reason to abandon the approach.
In Deux Ex there were different ways how to tackle a problem (you know, like Perl, there's more than one way to do it). The storyline did not really chance that much.
Another good example I think is Baldurs Gate, where the main plot progressed, but the sideplots varied with your character and you could also pursue them at your own leisure.
I always wondered why there never was a mainstream Shadowrun RPG. Certainly has the potential! And the success and quality of Baldurs Gate proved that RPGs are not dead and can sell well.
ftp and telnet were your best friend
:)
Don't forget good'ol gopher. And IRC, or, if you're into hardcore stuff, 'talk'
The main problem with e-mail was that there were very few people who had an address. Today, everyone has three or more...
Wouldn't it be cool if all the up-and-coming (and currently available) wireless input devices using IEEE802.11something could work with any access point/wireless card in infrastructure mode? You could play all your games from your neighbours house while the xbox is safe in your livingroom....
Errr.....
It *would* be cool! IPv6 force feedback gamepads! Yay!
And sometimes shit just happens... I think it's ok to make a mistake once, learn from it, and never make it again.
On the other hand, if lifes are at stake, it's better not to screw up, although it's not a perfect world, so it's inevitably bound to happen.
Ah, yes, they still nibble a few points off the top now and then. Karma whoring results in fat cats, I guess...
game developers could have some hidden educational incentive
Hmm... Anything you do creates knowledge. You can not influence that. And yes, if a developer is aware of this, and has the necessary psychological background, the game can in fact - under certain circumstances - alter your beliefs/values.
This does not mean that after playing "SimCity" you want to live in a city, or that after playing "Zeus" or "Cleopatra" you will start to worship greek or egyptian gods. But you will know who Zeus is. And - if he treated you well in the game - you might start to 'like' him. If that is a good or bad thing is debatable.
With regard to violent video games: people that play those games do not automagically become gun-toting fanatics. Games are part of an individual education, there are other influences (hopefully), like parents, friend, books, TV, the real world in genereal. So if you live in a peaceful environment, FPS won't make you agressive. If you live in an agressive environment, FPS will partially contribute to that - and the Teletubbies can not outweigh the other factors.
You are right. It would be possible to assume the structure of the document from the style names, but this is a pretty dirty hack unless all your documents follow strict formatting rules (assign the correct paragraph 'style definition' to each paragraph).
IIRC, the first Unreal Tournament demo was released exclusively for 3DFX. At least there were several server where you could download the file, and it was possible to run it in software rendering mode, so you could play it without a Voodoo card.
Of course it made sense, since it was released for debugging purposes: narrowing down the hardware makes it much easier. I think Q3 had a similar pre-demo-debugging release.
Creating such a restriction for marketing purposes is not smart, IMHO. After all, you want to spread the demo. Everyone should play it. And everyone should like it (and buy the full game). A gamer that doesn't have the demo - because FilePlanet screws up or he doesn't like it or he doesn't want to wait - is one less potential buyer of the final product...
- $199 for Lego Mindstorm kits (MSRP and the price you see in every store.)
- $19-$199 handheld vacuum cleaner.
- $30 - For additional sensors which are need to do everything the Roomba already does.
- The face of your cat when it's sucked in by a bunch of Legos: priceless.
Learning with games is basically "problem based learning" as advocated by the constructivistic learning theory. The game creates a problem and leaves the solution up to the player. The more realistic the problem is, and the more freedom the player has for the solution, the better is the learning result. Sims like "Capitalism" or "SimCity" are good examples for this.
;)
Studies show that students have problems applying knowledge to real problems (knowledge transfer) when the knowledge has been acquired by "traditional" learning processes, e.g. sitting in class and listening to a teacher. Learning with realistic problems (case studies) eases the transfer process. So if you are about to plan a city, "SimCity" would help you much better than "Age of Empires". Even though the latter has some aspects of placing buildings, "SimCity" is closer to the real problem.
I'm sure this is not a perfect example, but right now I can't think of a better one. Hopefully it's sufficient
Using an XML based (and documented!) file format has additional advantages. First and foremost, the documents can be easily used by other applications, e.g. full text indexer. Generating meta data has never been easier ;)
... no problem. It's even possible to extract an abstract, collect hyperlinks from the document and present them seperately, leave out the graphics (or convert them)...
.doc? I'd guess so. As easy as with XML? Don't think so.
Or use a stylesheet on the document and adopt it for, say, mobile devices (my favourite topic, I must admit). XML->HTML, XML->WML, XML->cHTML
Is this possible with
[...] but it's still a bit pricey [...]
I thought so, too - at first. But the article mentions that the Pro Elite (the 'flagship', other models might be even cheaper) will sell at $250. And that is - to my mind - an acceptable price. A good vacuum cleaner won't be much cheaper.
I really have to start thinking about getting one. Earlier models sold for several hundred or even thousand dollar. A test would be nice though, because my robo would have to deal with 2 cats (bonus points for hovering up to the sofa and cleaning all the hairs off it)...
Or better yet: MBone multicasting (that would surely prevent slashdotting). I'd prefer a RealVideo stream.
;)
Just kidding
As I recall, the original reasons for shutting down FreeCraft were that the name was too similar to WarCraft and that the engine borrowed a few too many ideas from WC. With this in mind, the new games and the engine have a different names, thats good, but what about the engine functionality?
From the Stratagus FAQ:
[...] since the Warcraft2 support is already there we don't indent break it [...]
Does this mean it's still close to the original? If so, is the new name enough to keep Blizzard at bay?
Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder among children and affects anywhere between 3 percent and 10 percent of the population.
And in some cases, parents urge doctors to diagnose dyslexia so the child gets 'special' treatment (e.g. more time at exams) at school resulting in better grades...
Yes, I know, there are children that really suffer from dyslexia, and yes, there are doctors who refuse to give a false diagnosis. But sometimes I get the feeling that the percentage of kids suffering from dyslexia is somewhat higher than 10% -- or is this a local phenomenon or my misconception?
Give the woman a $1,000 tin ring and she will just think you are idiot.
Tin ring for $1000? Hm, she's probably right then...
It's does matter what it is worth not what you spent.
It's worth what you spend. The $5 ring is worth $5. And the $1000 ring is worth $1000. And the 'real' (= DeBeers) diamonds will (can) never sell for $5, because the costs to extract them are much higher. Maybe the prices for those 'real' diamonds will fall, but not the extend that they are priced comparably to the lab diamonds. It is more likely that the lab diamonds will be sold at a higher prices, increasing the profit span quite nicely.
[...] both companies control distribution of products in their respective markets with an iron fist [...]
I'd say that this comparison is a bit inaccurate. DeBeers can reduce the number of diamonds offered on the market - supply drops, demand raises the price of the good. Simple. Raising the price and keeping the amount of goods offered at the same level will lead you nowhere, because customers will wait for the prices to drop since they know that a surplus of goods will build up over time (which decreases the price).
Now, does the RIAA really reduce the number of CD in the stores? Because only this would compare to the influence DeBeers has on the market... No, they just raise the price. And guess what - customers buy less CD and turn to P2P.
P2P music sharing distributes a good (mp3) that is nearly equal to the original good (CD). While the $5 diamond may be equal in the quality compared to a 'real' (= DeBeers) diamond, the price is part of the value of the 'real' diamond. Give a $10 ring to a woman, and she'll like it. Give the exactly same ring for $1000 to a woman, and she'll feel appreciated. Diamonds are a girls best friend, after all.
Considering it's still in print
Whoa... either they are reprinting this like crazy, or they measure the inventory by bulk weight. 12 years, and still going strong. Whoa...
I'll ask again in another 12 years.
Upon reading this, I pulled the old ST:TNG Technical Manual from the shelf, which dates back to 1991 (I wonder if this has any collector value). And in the introductions, I find this:
"The Starship Enterprise is not a collection of motion picture sets or a model used in visual effects. It is a very real vehicle; one designed for storytelling. [...] Documents such as this Technical Manual help give some background to the vision we work so hard to create on Star Trek. Rick [Sternbach] and Mike [Okuda] have obviously had a lot of fun filling in the gaps and trying to find technical 'explanations' for some of our mistakes." -- Gene Roddenberry
There you have it, folks: story comes first, physical accurate explanations come later. The list of credits has a lot of names from NASA, Boeing, Rockwell and so on. Those scientists (or people in the know) were constantly asked from advice - but if the story demanded some excuse, then the scientific background was set aside (according to the comments scattered throughout the manual).
Do you honestly think this has hurt the series?!
Uh ... next time they tell us there is no TX and all our dreams about her are futile...
Yeah, right.
My first thought upon reading this was team based games, mostly FPS or RTS
I imagine you have to be very careful with bad losers if you go team vs. team - people can be very touchy about this, especially when they lose publically. A better option could be teamplay vs. the computer. Totally depends on the people you are playing with.
This is surely a good way to get a raise...
This isn't some big icon of popular culture that's going to go down in history as a symbol for the age
./-poll.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. Ask anyone on the street if they know a figure from a computer game. I guess that the two most frequent answers are "Mario" and "Lara". Perhaps "Pac-Man". Or "Gordon Freeman". Or "Duke Nukem".
Hmmm... sounds like a
I think Eidos went the obvious way. The first game received so much media attention (for those two obvious reasons) which focused on Lara, and not the game. So the logical choice is to build a brand based on the character Lara Croft, not on the game.
This makes it much easier to market products - all they need is Lara. And with that, you can sell movies, games, soft drinks, action figures, magazines, condoms...
The question which figure (digital Lara or Angelina Jolie) is perceived as Lara is valid, but not necessarily relevant. If a product features a picture of either digi-Lara or A. Jolie doesn't really matter, a consumer will accept both of them and think of the product as an official Lara-product.
Although there a other opinions, I still manage to compile most programs with the simple
./configure
:) And while they are at it, they can add a section on how to analyse core dumps, too! (SCNR)
make
checkinstall make install
But, hey, this tutorial is free and certainly useful for new users (who don't know how to handle tar- or gzip/bzip2-files). I think the chapter on what problems may occur and how to solve them could be a bit longer than just one page...
BTW, I don't know why they skipped the part on how to edit the Makefile by hand. It's much more fun