*cough* Warcraft 1,2, AND 3 *cough* *cough* Starcraft 1 and Broodwars *cough* *cough* Diablo 1 and 2 *cough*
If anybody can make an awesome MMORPG in a time when the MMORPG market is saturated with crap and ripoffs, its Blizzard. They have a history of bringing us innovative games that are *gasp* fun to play! I have stayed out of the MMORPG fray for a while now after having become jaded by EQ and its ilk, but if any of the new MMORPGs coming out gives me any hope, it is World of Warcraft, and if anybody can pull it off, it sure as hell is Blizzard.
This is very important. This ALMOST sounds like a modified version of the RIAA's "amnesty". You sign up with SCO verifying you will switch away from Linux for some money. Then you do, then they have proof that you WERE using their IP without paying for it (assuming they win), and they then have all the evidence they need to collect payment....um....with their discount of course.
Its funny. I work in advertising/marketing. Now, I'm as much of a privacy/whatever advocate as the next person on Slashdot, but from everything I've read on Slashdot, I can say I have a very good idea of exactly what I can do to A. eliminate privacy and B. increase spending by average consumers while only pissing off a few geeks who are smart enough to recognize the problem and not just take whatever their given.
Now, I'm ethical enough to not do this, and in fact to fight it whenever I'm given the chance, but its scary how much information on how to be evil can be gained while learning how to be good.
What I don't appreciate, and I'm not sure if this happened with LoTR or Starwars, I forget, but the commentary and special features were different on the two editions. Not just added material on the special edition. So if you truly wanted all of the special goodies, you HAD to buy both the regular and extended edition.
" Instead of coming up with "new" "cool" ways to use this, why don't we use the technology to help the people that need it? The people that surround us everyday?"
I don't mean to sound cold-hearted, but I have no doubt that the devices you want WILL be developed. Its just not going to be developed first.
Sorry, suck it up. Thats the way the world works. This has much more potential aside from just correcting someone's vision. To whine about the fact that that isn't the first application for it is like whining that when cavemen were first developing the wheel, they didn't invent it for all the handicapped cavemen out there. I know its not the best analogy, but my point still stands.
"ah yes, "news for marketing professionals,"
if your focus group is slashdot you're in serious trouble, my lad.
Actually, as someone who works in marketing/advertising, I can honestly say that there is a lot of insightful information to be gained from the comments on Slashdot.
Despite the jokes, and the nature of the community, there are indeed some very intelligent people on here from all over the globe. And while I would certainly never rely on someone's Slashdot post for something, there is definitely some information to be gained.
Especially in regards to when a new technology comes out that has the potential to really help advertising/marketing.
I feel I am MUCH more informed about the ethical/privacy concerns about those things than if I didn't read Slashdot.
Since I'm also a geek at heart, it is interesting to look at the new technology that comes out, and see how it can apply to new products in the marketplace. If you know what you're looking for, Slashdot can be a very good research tool. But you're right, I'd never use it as a focus group;)
Lol, honestly, I used to know it. I wanna say it was an old japanese engrish thing. But then it turned into just a saying my friends and I used with each other and I eventually forgot its origins.
(conspiracy theory cap on) Well, I think its obvious how CNN knew this. The RIAA probably uploaded one of those viruses to Kazaa that delete all your music files. They also have a team who keeps track of every machine it affects, along with the persons name, street address, and credit card info (for automatic billing of the $90B fine). CNN simply said they wanted to do an article about how the RIAA was winning their battle against the EVIL pirates. So they supplied them with the info showing how many people the virus had actually affected. (/conspiracy theory cap off)
Nothing to see! You may all go about your business!
Wow, I'm sorry for having offended you oh great master of japanese. As I stated I am LEARNING japanese. As your derivation of the word comes from the actual kana, it would make sense that I would not know that because I cannot translate the kana of it yet. And just so you know, many people pronounce it as romanji, so while it may not be technically correct, it is certainly acceptable.
The site is amazing. I was thinking about a vibrator...and eventually it gave me this. And while ultimately it did not say that it was a vibrator...it then has at the bottom of this page some uncommon info about a vibrator. Scary? Yes. Endlessly amusing? WIthout a doubt.
I won't argue your point solely because as a troll, that is your desired result. I will state however that I know many successful people who play MMORPGs, including myself in the past. Just because you know people who have no self-control does not mean that that is the rule. Like all other potentially addictive things, when done in moderation, they can be beneficial and entertaining. It is only when you have weak willpower that it becomes a problem.
You might have gotten one more thing out of it. The inherent competition that will follow which can only benefit the consumers in the long run. I look forward to as many players in this field as possible.
What I've really been waiting for has been a way to purchase songs that I hear at clubs during a live mix. For those of you who like electronic music, you may be familiar with the frustration of hearing a bangin tune, and not knowing the name, and nobody else around you does. So unless someone was kind enough to post a tracklisting online (which doesn't usually happen for small events) you're screwed. If I had a way to dial something on my cellphone and purchase the song and get an email link to it at home, I would use it VERY often.
Wow, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who recognized this. I was reading and it seemed VERY familiar. Luckily, you recognized it as yours and posted so, cuz I was too lazy to look up the original. Mod the clone down I say!!
"Surely the consumers had opted-in with a business partner."
What I hate even more than this is when they insist that you yourself opted-in with them. I used to get spam from a nightclub because they had OBVIOUSLY harvested my email from a rave website, which in the privacy policy stated basically that i wouldn't be spammed by anybody, and that i wasn't opting in to anything.
Oddly enough, when I emailed the club complaining, I got an annoyed response back from someone who claimed that I DID in fact opt in with them. Yet he could provide no record of it and seemed to ignore the fact that since I obviously don't want spam, that I would NEVER have opted in to this in the first place.
This is actually one area where I feel fansubbers are making strides. Not only do they tend to have more informative notes, usually regarding japanese culture specific things that non-japanese might not understand, but they also do something incredible in the opening and end songs.
Almost all of the decent fansubbing groups now have the romanji (transliterated japanese) on the top, the kana (japanese characters) below that, and then on the bottom of the screen they have the english translation.
I've been teaching myself for a while now, and have just recently started tackling the hiragana, but already I know several, and several kanji as well soley thanks to the way they subtitle those songs.
It is also useful because they usually have some karaoke-like indicator that visually shows you where you are in the text, so for example, if someone was singing the word "hoshi" the single kanji for that would be highlighted, whereas if a word was in hiragana and several characters long, it would sink up the highlighting of the characters to the words.
This is INCREDIBLY useful for people who still have a tough time telling when a word is written in kanji or in one of the kana's.
Does anybody know of any software or learning programs out there that use similar techniques to teach Japanese?
"When I raise a level in a skill, I want it to be because I actually learned and got better at something. "
You've hit the nail on the head. Very well written BTW. I will expand a little further.
Games have tried to create systems where you have to learn something to advance. Asheron's Call's spell system anybody? THe problem is that it really only takes ONE person to learn it for everybody else, because the knowledge appears on a website shortly thereafter. Now, you could just not look at the website, but the only people who are able to enjoy and succeed at the game are those with the knowledge of how to do those spells.
What I think will help solve the problem of "raising a skill by actually getting better at it" would be the incorporation of some twitch-gaming mixed in with the traditional MMORPG-gaming. What if you had a simulation of an actual hammer and the item you were trying to forge? What if you had to figure out where to hit it, how hard to hit it, and how long to let it cool? What if you had to actually move the hammer with the mouse?
Now apply this to other trade skills. It then becomes a challenge of not just learning the information necessary to accomplish the task successfully, but it also becomes a challenge of getting your physical motor skills up to the task of actually performing the craft well.
In real life, you couldn't become a good blacksmith just because you knew how long to let something cool and how long to heat it. You also had to be good with your hands.
In the end, that is what trade skills in video games attempt to satisfy, the desire of the gamer to manipulate the game on a deeper, tactile level.
Slashdot Mirror
*cough* Warcraft 1,2, AND 3 *cough*
*cough* Starcraft 1 and Broodwars *cough*
*cough* Diablo 1 and 2 *cough*
If anybody can make an awesome MMORPG in a time when the MMORPG market is saturated with crap and ripoffs, its Blizzard. They have a history of bringing us innovative games that are *gasp* fun to play! I have stayed out of the MMORPG fray for a while now after having become jaded by EQ and its ilk, but if any of the new MMORPGs coming out gives me any hope, it is World of Warcraft, and if anybody can pull it off, it sure as hell is Blizzard.
I suppose you're the person who hated Star Wars because the Jedi's powers didn't make sense to you either.
Now, I'm ethical enough to not do this, and in fact to fight it whenever I'm given the chance, but its scary how much information on how to be evil can be gained while learning how to be good.
I don't mean to sound cold-hearted, but I have no doubt that the devices you want WILL be developed. Its just not going to be developed first.
Sorry, suck it up. Thats the way the world works. This has much more potential aside from just correcting someone's vision. To whine about the fact that that isn't the first application for it is like whining that when cavemen were first developing the wheel, they didn't invent it for all the handicapped cavemen out there. I know its not the best analogy, but my point still stands.
And this is different from surfing the net in the privacy of your home in what way?
Actually, as someone who works in marketing/advertising, I can honestly say that there is a lot of insightful information to be gained from the comments on Slashdot.
Despite the jokes, and the nature of the community, there are indeed some very intelligent people on here from all over the globe. And while I would certainly never rely on someone's Slashdot post for something, there is definitely some information to be gained.
Especially in regards to when a new technology comes out that has the potential to really help advertising/marketing.
I feel I am MUCH more informed about the ethical/privacy concerns about those things than if I didn't read Slashdot.
Since I'm also a geek at heart, it is interesting to look at the new technology that comes out, and see how it can apply to new products in the marketplace. If you know what you're looking for, Slashdot can be a very good research tool. But you're right, I'd never use it as a focus group ;)
You've obviously never seen Weird Science. Trust me, you'll like the outcome.
Well, I think its obvious how CNN knew this. The RIAA probably uploaded one of those viruses to Kazaa that delete all your music files. They also have a team who keeps track of every machine it affects, along with the persons name, street address, and credit card info (for automatic billing of the $90B fine). CNN simply said they wanted to do an article about how the RIAA was winning their battle against the EVIL pirates. So they supplied them with the info showing how many people the virus had actually affected.
(/conspiracy theory cap off)
Nothing to see! You may all go about your business!
Now they throw this into the picture and fuck everything up. Thanks a lot Sony. Bastards.
P.S.
Don't worry, you'll still probably be getting my parents money.
And for a nominal fee I will be willing to act as spell-checker.
What I hate even more than this is when they insist that you yourself opted-in with them. I used to get spam from a nightclub because they had OBVIOUSLY harvested my email from a rave website, which in the privacy policy stated basically that i wouldn't be spammed by anybody, and that i wasn't opting in to anything.
Oddly enough, when I emailed the club complaining, I got an annoyed response back from someone who claimed that I DID in fact opt in with them. Yet he could provide no record of it and seemed to ignore the fact that since I obviously don't want spam, that I would NEVER have opted in to this in the first place.
Almost all of the decent fansubbing groups now have the romanji (transliterated japanese) on the top, the kana (japanese characters) below that, and then on the bottom of the screen they have the english translation.
I've been teaching myself for a while now, and have just recently started tackling the hiragana, but already I know several, and several kanji as well soley thanks to the way they subtitle those songs.
It is also useful because they usually have some karaoke-like indicator that visually shows you where you are in the text, so for example, if someone was singing the word "hoshi" the single kanji for that would be highlighted, whereas if a word was in hiragana and several characters long, it would sink up the highlighting of the characters to the words.
This is INCREDIBLY useful for people who still have a tough time telling when a word is written in kanji or in one of the kana's.
Does anybody know of any software or learning programs out there that use similar techniques to teach Japanese?
You've hit the nail on the head. Very well written BTW. I will expand a little further.
Games have tried to create systems where you have to learn something to advance. Asheron's Call's spell system anybody? THe problem is that it really only takes ONE person to learn it for everybody else, because the knowledge appears on a website shortly thereafter. Now, you could just not look at the website, but the only people who are able to enjoy and succeed at the game are those with the knowledge of how to do those spells.
What I think will help solve the problem of "raising a skill by actually getting better at it" would be the incorporation of some twitch-gaming mixed in with the traditional MMORPG-gaming. What if you had a simulation of an actual hammer and the item you were trying to forge? What if you had to figure out where to hit it, how hard to hit it, and how long to let it cool? What if you had to actually move the hammer with the mouse?
Now apply this to other trade skills. It then becomes a challenge of not just learning the information necessary to accomplish the task successfully, but it also becomes a challenge of getting your physical motor skills up to the task of actually performing the craft well.
In real life, you couldn't become a good blacksmith just because you knew how long to let something cool and how long to heat it. You also had to be good with your hands.
In the end, that is what trade skills in video games attempt to satisfy, the desire of the gamer to manipulate the game on a deeper, tactile level.