Oh would that this software has a 3D graphical interface. I'd love to view this on a huge screen like in Hackers (yes I'm aware that you can download the software used in that movie).
I play online games because I like to play online games. If I wanted a singleplayer experience, I would play singleplayer. Lets face it, bots are less fun to play against than people (unless you're testing cool ways to kill people, then bots are quite fun).
Thank you for suggesting UT2004, unfortunately, I don't have a computer that can handle it, nor is it really my style of gameplay. But it is good that they have made improvements to bot performance. However, I enjoy the social aspects of online gaming as well. Its fun to talk to players.
I feel I can dictate the rules of the game when I have a piece of software that lets be, because guess what, it DOES let me dictate the rules of the game then.
Your example with the Lions is a bad one because these players play non-stop, they train all of the time, and get paid big bucks. If I were paid to play games, I wouldn't cheat, because then it would be a job. As it is now, I'm the one paying for the game, and the hardware, and the net connection. Also, the games I cheat at are ones that I don't have enough time to get good at (I have a very tight schedule and only have time to get decent at a couple games). I'm actually quite good at the games I've developed skills in. I frequently come in first place in bf1942. However, I really don't have time to learn the intricacies of other games.
When games DO offer matchmaking services, I DO use them. My point was that hardly any do, and so I cheat when they don't offer a solution (such as matchmaking or handicaps).
I will retract my insult, however my point was to make you understand that there are other reasons for cheating when you seemed to so firmly believe that only the ones you mentioned existed.
No, you can't change my mind, and I appreciate you not trying to, but I would like you to know that I am NOT just some random griefer. I do this to level the playing field in games I don't have time to develop skill in. If they were to implement features I discussed earlier, I would use those features and stop cheating.
Also, people who don't like cheats should likewise use the options available to them. Punkbuster works quite well, and if you don't use it, you are accepting the risk that there MIGHT be cheaters on your server. Otherwise you can feel pretty safe that its hack free.
Well, despite the fact that I have cheated at a game before (heaven forbid) there is reasoning with me:) Because not all of us cheaters are immature, unintelligent people.
Your point about asking others to understand me when I refuse to try to understand them is valid. I will retract my statement about how he should try to understand this. I really don't care if he understands this.
Now, for the record, I don't cheat at every game. Hardly. In fact, I don't usually play the games I'm not good at because I don't have very much time to play. When it comes to things like BF1942, I never cheat, and find myself coming in 1st place quite frequently. So not all cheaters suck at every game.
I spend time and effort to become better at games too, I just have very limited time to spend doing this so I can only focus those efforts on a couple games.
I'm not saying you have to condone this. Punkbuster exists for a reason. If you don't condone cheating, go to a Punkbuster server. Otherwise, I feel that a solution exists to prevent people from having to play with cheats, and if they don't take it, they have to put up with the chance that people on unprotected servers MAY cheat.
I'm not some ruthless TK cheater who just exists to grief other people. I do it in games which lack features to level the playing field, whether it be handicaps, matchmaking services, etc. Where these games to incorporate these features, I would stop. Hope this gives a little insight.
I personally can't wait to come back to this story a bit later when people have had a chance to try this out. Seriously, it'll be like reading the Darwin Awards for computers!
Increase your harddrive size by 150mb! Women don't like men with small harddrives. Trustmeeee and click this blind link and giveme your CCnfo and I promise thisvkpj&$(*)#Hf89h0eq2987y
My mom used to work for Mel. I talked to her about this and the gist of it was....it won't do any damned good. A better bet would be to pester the people under him as he is only interested in profit. If you can convince them that if they don't fix this, it will mean less profit for Mel in the long run and their jobs would be at risk, it would be much more effective than sending him a letter or calling him, both of which would be answered by his personal assistant and you wouldn't get anywhere.
Where do you get off making blanket statements that you have absolutely no insight into?
"People that cheat are people that either don't want to lose, or they are doing it just to ruin the game experience of others. I would be very surprised if you could find me a below average player that uses a couple of cheats to level the playing field."
Ok, prepare to be very surprised. I've used cheats to level the playing field with games I'm not good at. So does my little brother. Why? Well, because I'm simply a better gamer than him. That is why we enjoy games where you can set a handicap of some sort.
To answer your first question, it IS a reason to cheat. People say that cheating at all is completely unacceptable. Kant would love these people. Fact is, cheating becomes acceptable to me if it enables me to enjoy my game that I purchased. I know it sounds selfish, but I honestly do not give two flying fucks about the gaming experience of the other people on the server, and I'm sure more than a couple feel the same.
The solution, like parent said was to create matchmaking services so that people have the option of playing against people their skill level. It won't completely solve the problem, but it would certainly help. Punkbuster also has helped things. If you want to be able to play with cheats, play on a non-punkbuster server, otherwise get onto one where its enabled and feel much more confident that nobody is cheating (it isn't PERFECT).
Seriously, try to understand that people may share other views than you. To try to pigeon hole them all based on no real first-hand experience on your part is foolish.
I understand the whole Toyota/Lexus argument. I feel this is not the case with the n-gage. Lets face it, it is a poor product. And the taco-factor puts it over the edge. Branding may very well have been part of the problem, as could entering a handheld market already packed full of competitors, but the reason you won't see the PSP flop is because it is going to kick ass, plain and simple. The N-gage does not, I'm sorry, but thats all there really is too it. Gamers are discerning customers who go for performance and the "cool-factor". The N-gage, despite how much their poor advertising tried to convince you, does not have that "cool-factor".
"Maybe they could have a virtual survivor, where they still have to swim and get the flag, but I get to crouch on the beach and snipe at them the whole time."
" Just great... now we're going to get product placement in video games."
You act like this is something new. Product placement in video games has been around for a LONG time. Pick up just about any old racing game and I'm sure you'll see logos adourning the cars and billboards etc.
Product placement is a double-edged sword. It makes the companies more money so they can pass along the savings to the customer (yeah right) and when used correctly, adds realism to a game which would suffer without it. Personally, I don't want to see a Nascar game without the sponsors all over the cars. It wouldn't be true to the real deal. But yes, it can most certainly be abused and will continue to be abused.
You have no idea how truthful your +3 Funny comment is. Allow me to elaborate. I work in advertising and marketing and one of the HUGE issues in our industry right now is WHERE THE HELL IS THE MALE 18-35 DEMOGRAPHIC?!?!?!?!? They've basically disappeared off the radar. There was even a good writeup of this in the NY Times Magazine. The answer? Well, aside from the video games, a lot of them disappear, only to magically reappear when Adult Swim comes on, or the Sopranos.
I saw an episode of the Donny Deutsch (he owns the Deutsch ad agency) where he was discussing this problem with the director of TV Guide. The guy from TV Guide basically said that its they disappear because almost none of the content on tv is targetd at them. Statistics have shown that women make the majority of the purchasing decisions (duh) and thus have all of the purchasing power. Since TV stations get their money from advertisers, they want to run more shows that appeal to the advertisers target audience, thus encouraging the advertiser to give them more money and hopefully getting the advertiser more targeted results.
Since women are now the primary target, we're stuck with tons of programming geared towards women. The smartest thing Cartoon Network ever did was start Adult Swim and they shall most certainly reap their well -earned rewards.
Hope this adds some insight from inside the industry. I'd be happy to answer any questions people may have.
You have no idea how true this is. Junior year of HS I was a complete mess. Severe Social Anxiety Disorder, clinical depression, etc. It was my first year at my new school too. Beginning of senior year I went to my first rave and holy shit did it change my life.
Suddenly, I was in a huge community of street smart kids who liked the same music I did and some of the geeky things as well. But what helped out the most was me discovering that I am actually a good dancer. This confidence boost was HUGE and I had the hottest girl in school come up to me one day and ask me if I'd take her to a rave. She was a bitch and I said no, but it was soooo worth it. Raves do wonders for geeks.
You know....something about this story blurb just made me think. Look at how far we've come. We can now take an EXTREMELY high quality (picture, not content) movie, and place it onto a color computer that can fit in our pocket. Holy Crap. That's all it makes me say. I'm just curious as to what quality these DVD rips are. Perhaps there could be a handheld movie player that you can put divx on?
"Add to this that the rerelease is in a foreign language, with subtitles (which is usually the kiss of death for theatrical showings)...why are they even bothering?"
One of the things that is going to happen is that as the American anime fans numbers grow, so to will the acceptance of subtitles. I don't have statistics to back this up, but by having a very good feel on the pulse of the community I would have to say the most preferred format is subtitled. I know there is some well dubbed anime out there, but it is by far the minority. What is so wrong with subtitles? It conveys the message more accurately because its not constrained to matching up with the mouth movements and can even provide notes about cultural references.
"So go ahead and call small tech companies, a lot of them are in business merely because the principles would never be allowed to work for anyone else, and you have no fucking idea what they might decide to do."
A good thing to keep in mind is that many "small" companies are in your exact same shoes, and may or may not be as bright and as good workers as you. Oftentimes you get what you pay for.
"You could always put the money to work in the stock market and then go get a kick-ass internship."
I would STRONGLY recommend the kick-ass internship route. All bragging rights aside, I landed an internship last summer at a top notch ad agency. It didn't pay, but they offered a transportation stipend. I worked at Blockbuster on the weekend. Yes it sucked, but it got me money, and something to put on my resume that puts me WAY ahead of the pack.
You need to also have either random luck with good contacts, or very good networking skills. I was lucky enough to have the former, but have through those experiences developed the latter. Because of their connections, I skipped the "dreaded resume pile of doom" process and got my resume into the hands of someone ready to take it seriously, and devote attention to it because they were doing someone a favor. Nothing makes people help you more than getting people to WANT to help you.
Because of the top notch internship I had last summer, I now have an interview with an even better ad agency, with my choice of position, in a highly competitive internship program. I also have an interview at their London office (and an interview at a different ad agency's London office, through a different person) while I'm going to be there spring break while I visit my good friend who is studying abroad there.
Networking gets you EVERYWHERE. Some people think its sleazy, but honestly, it only gets you so far in the end, because if you lack skill, it will eventually come to bite you in the ass. Now, none of the internships I'm considering this summer are paid, so understand that it may be a difficult thing to do if you don't have the means to support yourself or someone to support you while you're doing an unpaid internship. I'm lucky enough that my parents would do this London internship thing for me as my 21st Bday gift, but I am still using some of my own savings.
The one thing you forgot is marketing. I'm in advertising/marketing, and I gotta tell you, you're dead wrong on the ROI. You can do a lot for your businesses image with $1000. Nice business cards, a decent suit, stationary, home office, etc. You'd be surprised on how much you can do with so little. My opinion is, people don't buy the product/service so much as they buy the business. There are exceptions, but this tends to be most frequent.
I know most people on here despise marketing and advertising, realize that if all those companies you guys work for lost their entire marketing department, the companies would most likely start to take serious damage.
Marketing drives business just as much if not more so than product/service offered.
You do realize the conflict between these two statements don't you?
"I charged $20/hr. I couldn't charge more than that because it was a blue collar town, but I made a decent living."
and this one
"And the experience has proven invaluable because now I charge $65/hr. to do the same thing, and people don't even blink. They keep asking me to come back."
These are the same people, no? Are they not blue collar anymore?
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you for suggesting UT2004, unfortunately, I don't have a computer that can handle it, nor is it really my style of gameplay. But it is good that they have made improvements to bot performance. However, I enjoy the social aspects of online gaming as well. Its fun to talk to players.
I feel I can dictate the rules of the game when I have a piece of software that lets be, because guess what, it DOES let me dictate the rules of the game then.
Your example with the Lions is a bad one because these players play non-stop, they train all of the time, and get paid big bucks. If I were paid to play games, I wouldn't cheat, because then it would be a job. As it is now, I'm the one paying for the game, and the hardware, and the net connection. Also, the games I cheat at are ones that I don't have enough time to get good at (I have a very tight schedule and only have time to get decent at a couple games). I'm actually quite good at the games I've developed skills in. I frequently come in first place in bf1942. However, I really don't have time to learn the intricacies of other games.
When games DO offer matchmaking services, I DO use them. My point was that hardly any do, and so I cheat when they don't offer a solution (such as matchmaking or handicaps).
I will retract my insult, however my point was to make you understand that there are other reasons for cheating when you seemed to so firmly believe that only the ones you mentioned existed.
No, you can't change my mind, and I appreciate you not trying to, but I would like you to know that I am NOT just some random griefer. I do this to level the playing field in games I don't have time to develop skill in. If they were to implement features I discussed earlier, I would use those features and stop cheating.
Also, people who don't like cheats should likewise use the options available to them. Punkbuster works quite well, and if you don't use it, you are accepting the risk that there MIGHT be cheaters on your server. Otherwise you can feel pretty safe that its hack free.
Hope this clarifies.
Your point about asking others to understand me when I refuse to try to understand them is valid. I will retract my statement about how he should try to understand this. I really don't care if he understands this.
Now, for the record, I don't cheat at every game. Hardly. In fact, I don't usually play the games I'm not good at because I don't have very much time to play. When it comes to things like BF1942, I never cheat, and find myself coming in 1st place quite frequently. So not all cheaters suck at every game.
I spend time and effort to become better at games too, I just have very limited time to spend doing this so I can only focus those efforts on a couple games.
I'm not saying you have to condone this. Punkbuster exists for a reason. If you don't condone cheating, go to a Punkbuster server. Otherwise, I feel that a solution exists to prevent people from having to play with cheats, and if they don't take it, they have to put up with the chance that people on unprotected servers MAY cheat.
I'm not some ruthless TK cheater who just exists to grief other people. I do it in games which lack features to level the playing field, whether it be handicaps, matchmaking services, etc. Where these games to incorporate these features, I would stop. Hope this gives a little insight.
Increase your harddrive size by 150mb! Women don't like men with small harddrives. Trustmeeee and click this blind link and giveme your CCnfo and I promise thisvkpj&$(*)#Hf89h0eq2987y
"People that cheat are people that either don't want to lose, or they are doing it just to ruin the game experience of others. I would be very surprised if you could find me a below average player that uses a couple of cheats to level the playing field."
Ok, prepare to be very surprised. I've used cheats to level the playing field with games I'm not good at. So does my little brother. Why? Well, because I'm simply a better gamer than him. That is why we enjoy games where you can set a handicap of some sort.
To answer your first question, it IS a reason to cheat. People say that cheating at all is completely unacceptable. Kant would love these people. Fact is, cheating becomes acceptable to me if it enables me to enjoy my game that I purchased. I know it sounds selfish, but I honestly do not give two flying fucks about the gaming experience of the other people on the server, and I'm sure more than a couple feel the same.
The solution, like parent said was to create matchmaking services so that people have the option of playing against people their skill level. It won't completely solve the problem, but it would certainly help. Punkbuster also has helped things. If you want to be able to play with cheats, play on a non-punkbuster server, otherwise get onto one where its enabled and feel much more confident that nobody is cheating (it isn't PERFECT).
Seriously, try to understand that people may share other views than you. To try to pigeon hole them all based on no real first-hand experience on your part is foolish.
For $12.5 million they better have gotten Michael Dell to deliver it himself.....oh wait......
I can see it now........
Survivor:1942
You act like this is something new. Product placement in video games has been around for a LONG time. Pick up just about any old racing game and I'm sure you'll see logos adourning the cars and billboards etc.
Product placement is a double-edged sword. It makes the companies more money so they can pass along the savings to the customer (yeah right) and when used correctly, adds realism to a game which would suffer without it. Personally, I don't want to see a Nascar game without the sponsors all over the cars. It wouldn't be true to the real deal. But yes, it can most certainly be abused and will continue to be abused.
I saw an episode of the Donny Deutsch (he owns the Deutsch ad agency) where he was discussing this problem with the director of TV Guide. The guy from TV Guide basically said that its they disappear because almost none of the content on tv is targetd at them. Statistics have shown that women make the majority of the purchasing decisions (duh) and thus have all of the purchasing power. Since TV stations get their money from advertisers, they want to run more shows that appeal to the advertisers target audience, thus encouraging the advertiser to give them more money and hopefully getting the advertiser more targeted results.
Since women are now the primary target, we're stuck with tons of programming geared towards women. The smartest thing Cartoon Network ever did was start Adult Swim and they shall most certainly reap their well -earned rewards.
Hope this adds some insight from inside the industry. I'd be happy to answer any questions people may have.
Suddenly, I was in a huge community of street smart kids who liked the same music I did and some of the geeky things as well. But what helped out the most was me discovering that I am actually a good dancer. This confidence boost was HUGE and I had the hottest girl in school come up to me one day and ask me if I'd take her to a rave. She was a bitch and I said no, but it was soooo worth it. Raves do wonders for geeks.
Why feel bad? From reading your story it appears he wasn't DOING his job and was rude to you to boot. Serves him right.
Perhaps this is true, however it has certainly made me better at identifying what ISN'T the truth when I see it, which is almost an equal tradeoff.
No, he Googled them.
One of the things that is going to happen is that as the American anime fans numbers grow, so to will the acceptance of subtitles. I don't have statistics to back this up, but by having a very good feel on the pulse of the community I would have to say the most preferred format is subtitled. I know there is some well dubbed anime out there, but it is by far the minority. What is so wrong with subtitles? It conveys the message more accurately because its not constrained to matching up with the mouth movements and can even provide notes about cultural references.
A good thing to keep in mind is that many "small" companies are in your exact same shoes, and may or may not be as bright and as good workers as you. Oftentimes you get what you pay for.
I would STRONGLY recommend the kick-ass internship route. All bragging rights aside, I landed an internship last summer at a top notch ad agency. It didn't pay, but they offered a transportation stipend. I worked at Blockbuster on the weekend. Yes it sucked, but it got me money, and something to put on my resume that puts me WAY ahead of the pack.
You need to also have either random luck with good contacts, or very good networking skills. I was lucky enough to have the former, but have through those experiences developed the latter. Because of their connections, I skipped the "dreaded resume pile of doom" process and got my resume into the hands of someone ready to take it seriously, and devote attention to it because they were doing someone a favor. Nothing makes people help you more than getting people to WANT to help you.
Because of the top notch internship I had last summer, I now have an interview with an even better ad agency, with my choice of position, in a highly competitive internship program. I also have an interview at their London office (and an interview at a different ad agency's London office, through a different person) while I'm going to be there spring break while I visit my good friend who is studying abroad there.
Networking gets you EVERYWHERE. Some people think its sleazy, but honestly, it only gets you so far in the end, because if you lack skill, it will eventually come to bite you in the ass. Now, none of the internships I'm considering this summer are paid, so understand that it may be a difficult thing to do if you don't have the means to support yourself or someone to support you while you're doing an unpaid internship. I'm lucky enough that my parents would do this London internship thing for me as my 21st Bday gift, but I am still using some of my own savings.
You must've missed their main problem. They have no ideas.
I know most people on here despise marketing and advertising, realize that if all those companies you guys work for lost their entire marketing department, the companies would most likely start to take serious damage.
Marketing drives business just as much if not more so than product/service offered.
"I charged $20/hr. I couldn't charge more than that because it was a blue collar town, but I made a decent living."
and this one
"And the experience has proven invaluable because now I charge $65/hr. to do the same thing, and people don't even blink. They keep asking me to come back."
These are the same people, no? Are they not blue collar anymore?