We never got any resolution on Roland articles which were FAR worse (the guy was scummy enough to not link to the original site and only linked to his blog), what makes you think we'll get any resolution on this. By the way, does anybody know if there was an editor who tended to post the majority of Roland articles? Wouldn't that be some coincidence if it was also Scuttlemonkey.
You know, its one thing to offer exclusive tickets to a stress test through a sponsor like Fileplanet. Everybody knows its scummy, but its pretty much accepted at this point (unfortunately). But to actually REDUCE THE QUALITY OF THE GAME to people who don't want to pay these corporate whores is mind boggling. They really must have a set of Adamantine Balls +5.
Betatests are an excellent opportunity to find bugs and game issues and fix them, as well as give your testers a taste of what the game will be like.
In this day and age where the MMORPG market is completely saturated and the only way to actually get players is to hook em early and hope you're good enough to topple the current titan (WoW), it is NOT a good idea to be putting an intentionally crippled product into the hands of potential customers, no matter how much IGN/Fileplanet may be paying you.
Not to mention it is a complete slap in the face to every gamer out there who is damn well aware of how easy it is to release a client via bittorrent for a simple stress test.
This isn't a betatest folks, this is a sponsored marketing campaign for IGN and Fileplanet that you have to pay to truly enjoy. I for one won't be playing this game ever, although it is a shame because I'm a longtime player/DM and love NWN. Guess I'll just stick to that game.
Actually we're 4 steps ahead. Getting people to talk about backlash gets people to realize how dumb a lot of sheep really are, which assures us we're getting our money's worth. This story is part of it all.
"They don't like to brag, so this marketing campaign is really unlike Opera to begin with, so my guess is that they'll choose someone who looks decent enough, but probably not someone who could have been a model anyway. Just an average person who doesn't make Opera look really bad."
Ah, but you see, Opera has put themselves in a slight bind. They promote themselves as a real grass roots company who's completely down to earth and real. So now they do this big press event, and people are skeptical that they will put a "normal looking" person on there versus an attractive one. So what will happen is if they put a beautiful person on there, their fans will be pissed because they will feel they have been cheated and didn't stand a chance of getting their own picture up there. If they put a normal looking person up there, most fans will be fine, but there will surely be a vocal minority who will claim that person is way too "perfectly" normal to be on there, and "what does Opera have against ugly people or people with down syndrome, or people with disfigurements etc...etc...etc..." which will really be their way of saying "ooo, I'm so mad they didn't pick me, it must be because I'm too ugly....OPERA HATES UGLY PEOPLE!".
'I guess USA's high internet adoption and usage actually hinder its move."
I also wonder if it is the population density that affects things as well. Remember, thats one of the reasons we're not all on 12mbit connections for $10/month. Its because we're all so damn spread out. But in places like China, you have to change far fewer main lines to get everybody (not that I claim to know what I'm talking about here, but it sounds right in theory at least).
You know, I can't help but notice that whenever some big negative story comes up, there's always a few companies who come out the better from it due to the good press they receive. When everybody is griping about scammers, and people praise your company (BH in this case) it can really do wonders for your image.
Re:Have you ever missed meals or been hungry?
on
The Year in Ideas
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· Score: 1
The situation you described makes me wonder if it was a matter of them knowing about money, or whether it had more to do with their financial self control. People with a gambling problem aren't known to be the most responsible with money even if they have a keen awareness of how little they have left.
And its funny, because even if you are someone who is normally very financially aware, and conservative in their spending, you too can find yourself living paycheck to paycheck.
The kicker is you don't even have to be considered "poor" in the traditional sense to do so.
For example, I come from a wealthy family, father is a succesful lawyer and all that garbage, and I am well supported by them. Having just graduated, I am fortunate enough to never have to worry about my college tuition, and managed to get a decent paying job out of school (for my experience level at least). At the insistence of my parents, I moved into an apartment which is VERY expensive for me, and once it all works out with that, cell bill, electricity, internet, food, transportation and such, I end up fluctuating between saving a little money, and not saving any money.
If I didn't have the support of my family, I'd be screwed, and I hope I'd never let myself be dumb enough to be in that situation. And if I suddenly were to lose that support, I would most likely move to a cheaper place so I could start saving money.
But you see, that support is akin to receiving a large amount of money (like this woman did). You have a false sense of financial security because you are provided with money that makes you feel like you are able to live richer, when in fact your income has not changed and it will eventually even out to where you were at previously.
You know, with all the talk about this Beatles guy and how he's gaming the system for profit...I'm really curious if anybody here has any idea what kind of money he's making doing this kind of thing (without factoring in Scuttlemonkey's payoff of course).
"The guy did this as a prank, and then he left it there for months?? Either he's extremely forgetful, or he doesn't know when to end a prank, or this wasn't a prank at all and he's just covering his ass."
Or he did it as a joke with his friend because he was bored, moved on with his life once he was bored with that, and completely forgot about it until he found out what was happening with it.
I really wish they hadn't done this yet. Zero-G sports WILL happen, but in order for them to take-off (no pun intended) it needs to be less gimmicky than on one of these flights. This is the sort of thing we will have once we have space stations and space tourism where people can easily travel and stay long periods of time in space. And I have no doubt that a new Zero-G sport will develop.
Yet another reason why BT will become more secure and keep prevailing. When people are forced to upload, they have more of an investment in the file transaction, thus, they are more inclined to do their homework to determine if a file is worth downloading or not. Typically its a safe bet that the one with hundreds or thousands of seeds and leechers is safe, but thank god sites like Mininova have active forums where people post about fake files.
Does anybody know if there exist any nifty visualizations of what the earth's continents and oceans might look like in the distant future (that of course takes this recent development into account)? I know they have plenty of ones showing how Pangea became todays world, but I haven't seen any that go past today.
"10^6 earth years from now, there will be someone, who in his(her) infinite pride and stupidity will declare that this planet is only 6000 years old (an arbitrary number, but why not?)"
You say that with an aire of certainty that people with that much pride and stupidity will still be around 10^6 earth years from now. My bet is that we wipe ourselves out LOOOOOOONG before then.
Ok....I gotta say I see quite a few holes in your logic, feel free though to discuss as I'm more interested in debate than mod points.
1. The no guns thing - People like guns in FPS. Thats why they're called first person SHOOTERS. Now, don't get me wrong, there are a few great examples of melee combat done fairly well, the Jedi Knight series being at the top. And I know there are a few new Fantasy FPS in the works right now that look promising. But people want guns. And they want variety of guns. And they want bigger and badder guns. And of course, vehicles. That was the reason the Battlefield series became such a success, the vehicles. Is it any surprise that vehicles are some of the most desired things in MMORPGS as well (can you say mounts)?
2. Clans - Agree with ya there
3. Not a bad idea either, definitely important to make the scheduling flexible.
4. Ah, see, here is the thing. The vast majority of players don't necessarily want balance in a FPS. They want to find the right weapon/vehicle, and use it to blast the shit out of the other helpless players. Yeah, they want some challenge, but they sure don't want everything to always be evened out. And NOBODY likes to be forced into using certain weapons. And as BF2 showed, the experience system to unlock weapons works, but people get frustrated when there is no clear elevation in power in the weapons you unlock when you level up. Its like lvl 1, unlock gun, lvl 2, unlock gun with same power as lvl 1 unlocked gun, etc. In addition, when you have such RIDICULOUS experience requirements as BF2 does, casual gamers get VERY frustrated VERY quickly that they are at such a disadvantage to other players who have no lives outside of the game. You'll find that a lot of the casual gamer crowd flocks to FPS because of the "pick-up" nature of it. Skill levels the playing field, not equipment. And thats the way the majority of players like it, and thats why the good players are able to get knife kills.
5. Fair fights are NOT always fun, see above. Fairness is a concept that people like in RPGs because they don't want to be at a disadvantage when squaring off against someone at their level. But keep in mind RPGs are a numbers based game whereas FPS are a skill based one. People want to have a huge advantage if their skill warrants it. They don't want to run into Planetside situations where just because a player has played forever and has a certain vehicle, they are helpless against them.
6. Virtual material possessions are good. But I think in order to strike a good balance between FPS and RPGs, the majority of game altering equipment/weapons should be stuff that you mostly have access to at the beginning with a few high end things reserved for people with the experience. But it is proven time and time again that people LOVE to customize their character's appearance, and in an MMOFPS, it is absolutely essential to be able to distinguish teams and individuals, and an excellent way to do that is via cosmetic upgrades. For example, in Guild Wars, you have your regular set of armor, and then you have your 15k set which costs an insane amount of money, and has exactly the same stats. Only difference is appearance, and it gives the more dedicated/experienced players a chance to show off. Another thing I'd love to see is vehicle customization. If you get in a vehicle, you might have upgrades to it based on your experience. Are you a good pilot? Then get the Ace paintjob that lets people know not to fuck with you.
7. I like the instanced idea, I think it is essential, however the number of people in the instance should be around 64 or so, like normal FPS today. There should also be uninstanced areas where you can have absolutely MASSIVE battles on the scale of Planetside.
8. Crafting rocks, people should be able to harvest resources and craft things, and also farm them, but it shouldn't be the grind that it currently is in MMORPGs. MMOFPS are all about action, NOT grind.
You know, I often wonder if we're looking at this whole issue in too much of a shortsighted way.
Take a step back to Roman and Medieval times. Think about how much of a role God played in society back then, and how powerful the church was.
I have to say, we've come a LONG way since then. Science has continuously stuggled against religion, but as it keeps progressing, we're gaining the upper edge slowly but surely. These types of changes do not happen overnight. And while some of us may be skeptical of the current state of affairs, I am confident that in the end Intelligent Design will be weeded out as the myth it is. Just don't expect that it will necessarily happen in the next decade.
I mean, we will inevitably reach a point technologically where we cannot progress further unless we stop believing in God once we start getting into technology that gives us the power of God. Think creating new forms of life. You think we've seen some major religious arguments now? Wait till we prove evolution by creating brand new forms of hitherto unimagined life forms and prove evolution through them. We can do it now with fruit flies to see evolution in action, but of course those are created by the Intelligent Designer. No, in order to really shake them up it would have to be something man made.
Well actually I was getting it confused, although a quick Google shows that Jamdat is having a hard time fighting this confusion, and in fact went so far as to sue Verisign/Jamster over the name confusion.
But I guess it seems from the person who posted before you that Jamdat isn't not exactly an angel itself.
You couldn't be more correct. I mean, I'm not exactly expecting there to be an article popping up about how guys are unrealistically portrayed in games, and thus are demanding more realistic ones to appeal to us.
If we don't like a game, we don't bitch at them to change the characters, we just don't buy the game.
Its funny how women always say they want equality, yet don't realize that there are MAJOR differences in how we view and react to things (as a whole, I realize there are plenty of exceptions) and thus we cannot truly see eye to eye on issues such as these.
And ladies...it really doesn't help your image any more if you constantly whine about this. You don't see guys whining about all the male models in games they could never be as attractive/athletic/cool/rich as. GET OVER IT! These are the same girls bitching as the ones who punch you for looking at another womans butt, but then see some hot guy and make a comment about wishing you looked more like him.
"40 percent of our time is spent thinking about and implementing what we think would be fun.
40 percent of our time is spent thinking about and implementing what we think would look cool.
And 10 percent of our time is spent think about and talking about where we are going to have lunch."
And the remaining 10% is spent masturbating in our cubicles over bouncing breast physics in games.
Bingo. The only way a company like Sony (especially Sony since they are more into DRM and lock-in than all of the other labels combined) will stop this nonsense is with MASSIVE fines that way more than any minor setback from bad PR and a friggin court order preventing them from releasing DRMed discs.
"All marketing can find out from consumers is what they want to see more of the same of."
Spoken like someone who has never sat in on a gaming focus group. Believe me, people have no shortage of new concepts that they wish they could see made into a game. I swear, it almost seems like everybody fancies themselves as a professional game designer these days.
Well, while I do think I'm getting screwed out of SOME of my money, I'm not exactly claiming I'm innocent and justified in what I do. But I do it anyway. If that pisses you off then so be it.
And for the record, even though I'm a recent college grad, I'm fairly successful, so that is not the main reason. I just feel like it, and most of the time it is the most convenient way for me to get these things.
Especially for music since what I listen to (mostly full electronic DJ sets) is not purchaseable.
Great...the biggest, most unethical, most annoying company in one industry just bought the biggest, most unethical, most annoying company in another. I predict only good things coming of this.
Slashdot Mirror
Betatests are an excellent opportunity to find bugs and game issues and fix them, as well as give your testers a taste of what the game will be like.
In this day and age where the MMORPG market is completely saturated and the only way to actually get players is to hook em early and hope you're good enough to topple the current titan (WoW), it is NOT a good idea to be putting an intentionally crippled product into the hands of potential customers, no matter how much IGN/Fileplanet may be paying you.
Not to mention it is a complete slap in the face to every gamer out there who is damn well aware of how easy it is to release a client via bittorrent for a simple stress test.
This isn't a betatest folks, this is a sponsored marketing campaign for IGN and Fileplanet that you have to pay to truly enjoy. I for one won't be playing this game ever, although it is a shame because I'm a longtime player/DM and love NWN. Guess I'll just stick to that game.
Actually we're 4 steps ahead. Getting people to talk about backlash gets people to realize how dumb a lot of sheep really are, which assures us we're getting our money's worth. This story is part of it all.
Ah, but you see, Opera has put themselves in a slight bind. They promote themselves as a real grass roots company who's completely down to earth and real. So now they do this big press event, and people are skeptical that they will put a "normal looking" person on there versus an attractive one. So what will happen is if they put a beautiful person on there, their fans will be pissed because they will feel they have been cheated and didn't stand a chance of getting their own picture up there. If they put a normal looking person up there, most fans will be fine, but there will surely be a vocal minority who will claim that person is way too "perfectly" normal to be on there, and "what does Opera have against ugly people or people with down syndrome, or people with disfigurements etc...etc...etc..." which will really be their way of saying "ooo, I'm so mad they didn't pick me, it must be because I'm too ugly....OPERA HATES UGLY PEOPLE!".
Of course, this is all hypothetical...
I also wonder if it is the population density that affects things as well. Remember, thats one of the reasons we're not all on 12mbit connections for $10/month. Its because we're all so damn spread out. But in places like China, you have to change far fewer main lines to get everybody (not that I claim to know what I'm talking about here, but it sounds right in theory at least).
And its funny, because even if you are someone who is normally very financially aware, and conservative in their spending, you too can find yourself living paycheck to paycheck.
The kicker is you don't even have to be considered "poor" in the traditional sense to do so.
For example, I come from a wealthy family, father is a succesful lawyer and all that garbage, and I am well supported by them. Having just graduated, I am fortunate enough to never have to worry about my college tuition, and managed to get a decent paying job out of school (for my experience level at least). At the insistence of my parents, I moved into an apartment which is VERY expensive for me, and once it all works out with that, cell bill, electricity, internet, food, transportation and such, I end up fluctuating between saving a little money, and not saving any money.
If I didn't have the support of my family, I'd be screwed, and I hope I'd never let myself be dumb enough to be in that situation. And if I suddenly were to lose that support, I would most likely move to a cheaper place so I could start saving money.
But you see, that support is akin to receiving a large amount of money (like this woman did). You have a false sense of financial security because you are provided with money that makes you feel like you are able to live richer, when in fact your income has not changed and it will eventually even out to where you were at previously.
Or he did it as a joke with his friend because he was bored, moved on with his life once he was bored with that, and completely forgot about it until he found out what was happening with it.
You say that with an aire of certainty that people with that much pride and stupidity will still be around 10^6 earth years from now. My bet is that we wipe ourselves out LOOOOOOONG before then.
1. The no guns thing - People like guns in FPS. Thats why they're called first person SHOOTERS. Now, don't get me wrong, there are a few great examples of melee combat done fairly well, the Jedi Knight series being at the top. And I know there are a few new Fantasy FPS in the works right now that look promising. But people want guns. And they want variety of guns. And they want bigger and badder guns. And of course, vehicles. That was the reason the Battlefield series became such a success, the vehicles. Is it any surprise that vehicles are some of the most desired things in MMORPGS as well (can you say mounts)?
2. Clans - Agree with ya there
3. Not a bad idea either, definitely important to make the scheduling flexible.
4. Ah, see, here is the thing. The vast majority of players don't necessarily want balance in a FPS. They want to find the right weapon/vehicle, and use it to blast the shit out of the other helpless players. Yeah, they want some challenge, but they sure don't want everything to always be evened out. And NOBODY likes to be forced into using certain weapons. And as BF2 showed, the experience system to unlock weapons works, but people get frustrated when there is no clear elevation in power in the weapons you unlock when you level up. Its like lvl 1, unlock gun, lvl 2, unlock gun with same power as lvl 1 unlocked gun, etc. In addition, when you have such RIDICULOUS experience requirements as BF2 does, casual gamers get VERY frustrated VERY quickly that they are at such a disadvantage to other players who have no lives outside of the game. You'll find that a lot of the casual gamer crowd flocks to FPS because of the "pick-up" nature of it. Skill levels the playing field, not equipment. And thats the way the majority of players like it, and thats why the good players are able to get knife kills.
5. Fair fights are NOT always fun, see above. Fairness is a concept that people like in RPGs because they don't want to be at a disadvantage when squaring off against someone at their level. But keep in mind RPGs are a numbers based game whereas FPS are a skill based one. People want to have a huge advantage if their skill warrants it. They don't want to run into Planetside situations where just because a player has played forever and has a certain vehicle, they are helpless against them.
6. Virtual material possessions are good. But I think in order to strike a good balance between FPS and RPGs, the majority of game altering equipment/weapons should be stuff that you mostly have access to at the beginning with a few high end things reserved for people with the experience. But it is proven time and time again that people LOVE to customize their character's appearance, and in an MMOFPS, it is absolutely essential to be able to distinguish teams and individuals, and an excellent way to do that is via cosmetic upgrades. For example, in Guild Wars, you have your regular set of armor, and then you have your 15k set which costs an insane amount of money, and has exactly the same stats. Only difference is appearance, and it gives the more dedicated/experienced players a chance to show off. Another thing I'd love to see is vehicle customization. If you get in a vehicle, you might have upgrades to it based on your experience. Are you a good pilot? Then get the Ace paintjob that lets people know not to fuck with you.
7. I like the instanced idea, I think it is essential, however the number of people in the instance should be around 64 or so, like normal FPS today. There should also be uninstanced areas where you can have absolutely MASSIVE battles on the scale of Planetside.
8. Crafting rocks, people should be able to harvest resources and craft things, and also farm them, but it shouldn't be the grind that it currently is in MMORPGs. MMOFPS are all about action, NOT grind.
9. I've already dis
Take a step back to Roman and Medieval times. Think about how much of a role God played in society back then, and how powerful the church was.
I have to say, we've come a LONG way since then. Science has continuously stuggled against religion, but as it keeps progressing, we're gaining the upper edge slowly but surely. These types of changes do not happen overnight. And while some of us may be skeptical of the current state of affairs, I am confident that in the end Intelligent Design will be weeded out as the myth it is. Just don't expect that it will necessarily happen in the next decade.
I mean, we will inevitably reach a point technologically where we cannot progress further unless we stop believing in God once we start getting into technology that gives us the power of God. Think creating new forms of life. You think we've seen some major religious arguments now? Wait till we prove evolution by creating brand new forms of hitherto unimagined life forms and prove evolution through them. We can do it now with fruit flies to see evolution in action, but of course those are created by the Intelligent Designer. No, in order to really shake them up it would have to be something man made.
But I guess it seems from the person who posted before you that Jamdat isn't not exactly an angel itself.
If we don't like a game, we don't bitch at them to change the characters, we just don't buy the game.
Its funny how women always say they want equality, yet don't realize that there are MAJOR differences in how we view and react to things (as a whole, I realize there are plenty of exceptions) and thus we cannot truly see eye to eye on issues such as these.
And ladies...it really doesn't help your image any more if you constantly whine about this. You don't see guys whining about all the male models in games they could never be as attractive/athletic/cool/rich as. GET OVER IT! These are the same girls bitching as the ones who punch you for looking at another womans butt, but then see some hot guy and make a comment about wishing you looked more like him.
40 percent of our time is spent thinking about and implementing what we think would look cool.
And 10 percent of our time is spent think about and talking about where we are going to have lunch."
And the remaining 10% is spent masturbating in our cubicles over bouncing breast physics in games.
Spoken like someone who has never sat in on a gaming focus group. Believe me, people have no shortage of new concepts that they wish they could see made into a game. I swear, it almost seems like everybody fancies themselves as a professional game designer these days.
And for the record, even though I'm a recent college grad, I'm fairly successful, so that is not the main reason. I just feel like it, and most of the time it is the most convenient way for me to get these things.
Especially for music since what I listen to (mostly full electronic DJ sets) is not purchaseable.