3D graphics and engines were present before TA. TA simply used them in an RTS enviroment, nothing special about that. Furthermore at the time of release there was a problem with jacking up unit limits and resolutions, but it didn't take long for processors and graphics cards to fly past that problem.
When I said "engine" I was refering to the gameplay, not the graphics.
Forgot to throw in another comment. I'd include the Total War series, but they aren't exactly a pure RTS. And you could win them with massed forces (unless you were fighting across a river or over a castle), the application of strategy wasn't nessecary but it sure in the hell made more difference in the amount of troops you had left than any other game I've played.
Any other RTS I've ever played I've been able to consistently use overwhelming numbers to beat the other players, be it online or off. Problem is that, yes, there is some strategy involved, and in an evenly matched battle the one who can effectively micromanage special abilities or troops will win. But in all the games I've played (sans the two mentioned, and I've played just about every game called an RTS out there, and some that weren't but still qualified) if you have at least 1.5 times more troops than your enemy, nothing will save you. (I'm talking equally skilled players here, an idiot will lose no matter how many troops he gathers)
Rise of Nations really took the idea of borders to the next level, which made it incredibly hard to effectively attack enemy territory because you could never affect the economy directly (before an assault) of any player with decent skill.
Homeworld because the concept of specific units being effective against other specific units actually mattered. Yes in other games it's been done, and using that to your advantage could mean a win, but it wasn't a critical factor. In Homeworld even basic fighters never really lost their effectiveness against more advanced ships (Fighters ate Ion Frigates for lunch), and combine that with future releases like the Beast infection beam or the cannon you could add to the mining ship, you really had to stop and consider how to make an attack.
I'll throw in two honorable mentions:
#1: Total Annihlation. Although not revolutionary in terms of the engine, the modability and the diverse units (Land, Sea, and Air in a Sci-fi setting) really made this game shine.
#2: Dune 2 and Warcraft 2. These I only mention because they were the games that sparked the RTS industry. Yes others came before them, but these two became so popular that they made the difference. (Just like Half-Life/Couter Strike for FPS, Diablo for dungeon crawls, Falcon series for Flight Combat Sims, etc...)
Actually that depends on how you look at the situation.
A) The graphics card has NOTHING to do with the whole situation. It's constantly rendering graphics, and that never changes, about the only way you can fit it into the picture is you play with graphic settings set beyond what it's capable of handling, and then you always recieve lag even in SP games.
B) I'll grant you that the CPU does have a certain amount of influence, however, any CPU capable of running a game like Quake 3 or any of the recent FPSs won't have a problem keeping up with the load. The CPU doesn't do a whole lot while the game is running, most of the effort is put out by the GPU for the rendering.
So I will concede that you're right, both have an affect, but on the flip side unless he's intentionally creating lag for himself, both of them don't matter in this equation. That also means if they do matter in his situation, I've just been proved right because he's creating his own lag, and not recieving lag by fault of the code.
Wait a second, I see a problem. Do you realize that the OS takes care of a lot of the hard work? Developers don't program in a whole new TCP/IP stack into a game, they use the OS to do all the hard work.
What the hell are you smoking? You outright admitted that MTA is an "unofficial" mod for GTA. Do you honestly believe that they can do a mod to match a release by the developers of the game? Aside from that, there is a thousand and one other things involved in that process which can drag a game down.
Furthermore, the net code in a mod like MTA is a whole helluva lot more complex, since it's not integrated into the games engine.
Do you have any idea at all how a game works, on the code level? I'm not going to admit to being an expert, but I've got at least a bit of room to walk with. Your post seems to imply you've got no clue.
P.S. On another note, I believe I specifically refered to the net code of an FPS. The game itself is (or at least should be) designed to do everything nessecary on the client side. The server is only responsible for being the central location for clients to update their actions and retrive everyone elses actions. That's why it's so easy to cheat on a FPS, because everything is done client side. When you enter in the realm of other games, there are some times when the whole process gets more complicated and the net code is more involved that the transmission of packets.
Maybe you should think of it like this, imagine your singleplayer game acting just like a multiplayer game. The core of the game, the engine, takes in the actions you input through the keyboard and mouse, and then processes them and returns the result (Of course throw in all the graphics processing and what not). In the multiplayer game you just add a middleman to the whole thing, the server. Your actions, along with the actions recieved from the server, are processed on your machine just like in the singleplayer. The only difference being you retrive and transmit the actions of the players (including yourself) to the server.
Again, it gets a lot more complex than that, I know, but it serves as an analogy.
Do you have any idea how inaccurate that assessment would be? Quick lesson:
Lag is generated by the delay in recieving packets from the server updating the client on the progress of the game. One of the main reasons FPSs are so easily made mutliplayer is because there is very little data (in terms of size) that needs to be transmitted because you just have to transmit player locations and actions, everything else is usually client side. All the net code is reponsible for is tracking down servers, listening for packets, recieving packets and transmitting packets. That's pretty much it. Everything else is done by the rest of the game.
Essentially unless a FPS is seriously bugged and has a development team straight out of Kindergarden, it's damn difficult to screw up the net code so bad it will generate enough lag to affect the experience. Based on that alone, you can generally say he's blowing smoke out of his @$$.
But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in that he really believes the net code is his problem. Do you know how many games on the level of Halo have multiplayer lag issues BECAUSE of the game? You can count them on one hand and have extra fingers to work with.
The problem isn't with the game, it's with his god damn computer and his connection. It could be that he hasn't defragged, it could be that his connection is crap, or it could simply be that most of the servers he's played on are several hops away. In case you didn't know each "hop" is a router that a packet stops at between point A and point B, each hop adds in a level of lag. That's not counting the dozens of other problems that could come up to cause a problem.
In case anyone didn't notice, bookstores sell books for the MSRP, which means the bookstores aren't the damn problem. Instead, you should be asking yourselves why in the world publishers jack up the prices like they do?
A) I fail to see how my post should bring about sarcastic comments.
B) I never claimed to be a programmer, the fact that I recommended ISC and GIAC certs should have made that readily apparent.
C) I've actually learned Python, not VB, and that's only because I'm in the Information Assurance aspect of IT, and I needed to know something so I could understand proof of concepts and build my own scripts.
D) I'm assuming you're main gripe is the whole "Get a degree" thing. I don't know where you live, but companies hire people based on resumes. If you go to a company and apply for a job the highest degree level has the best chance. Experience doesn't mean much in the programming field, because more often than not companies want new people who can more readily pick up the company's standard practices as people with more experience (generally) are set in stone.
I'm sorry if you're limited understanding of reality means you can't respond to a post with either maturity or anything revelant to the topic,.
For getting a job, grab up a degree and as many mid to high level certs as you can (especially from ISC and GIAC).
For keeping a job, it all depends on what you want to do. The programming and help desk field isn't all that promising right now due to outsourcing. However engineering, networking, and management positions are still open to be filled.
For focusing on CS: If you don't mind your current job, I'd stick with it and devote some free time to learning a programming language, then see about helping some open source projects for experience. Once you've got that you can move on if you want. Otherwise I'd stick with your current job until the air clears up around the whole out sourcing issue.
I don't care about music in games. I've played Tales of Phantasia, and I agree, good game. Still, to me music doesn't matter, you can apply your own music, you can't apply your own storyline/engine.
Just curious, but how many people here care about the sound in a game? I personally don't give a damn, and really, if I ever get to the point where I decide whether a game is enjoyable or not because of the sound, I hope someone shoots me.
The music is usually just something to provide background noise in a game so you don't sit in an empty quite room playing a game until the next sound effect comes along. All that BS about music setting a mood is ridiculous because if the game can't make you feel like you're in a tense situation (for example) without some good music, the game sucks. Of course that isn't to say music doesn't help that along, just that if a game is good, it isn't nessecary.
Hell, half the time if I have the option to turn the music off, or lower the volume to nothing, I'll do it and run my own.
A) I said we should have a fine for complaining if we weren't running an approved piece of software just for so that people would go out and learn how to use firewalls and spam filtering software.
B) Yes, there is a return on spam, but you said it yourself, sending spam really doesn't cost anything (I imagine with the current setup there is an admin overhead because companies have third parties send out spam, but that's not a nessecary cost), so even if there was no return on spam, spam would still be there. Even if there is no return, that doesn't mean there won't ever be a return, so they'll keep sending it because it's free (or at least cheap as hell) to do so.
99% of all Spam, and malacious attacks can be stopped by anyone with a brain. Easiest way is to enforce a law that states if you don't run some approved method of controlling spam/malacious attacks and you complain about it, you're ass has to pay a fine.
It's not like it's all that difficult, just running a personal firewall blocks nearly any attack that anyone would bother to run against a personal computer. The people with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to exploit a computer at a regular home wouldn't bother with it, because there is very little worthwhile on most home computers.
As for spam, there are tons of options available to stop spam. If you don't want to go through the minor trouble to install your own software to stop spam, use a service like SpamInspector, where all your e-mail is routed through their servers which contain spam inspecint software. They judge whats spam and what isn't, and you get the non-spam, and if you think you're missing a e-mail because it was blocked, you can check your logs and have that sender be approved for sending you e-mail.
Finally, have a free AV program (unless you want to pay for the extra services that pay AV programs offer) set to auto-scan your machine on a daily schedule using background resources.
Literally, 30 minutes of work and you're nearly spam free with a nearly neglible chance of being hacked. It's not perfect, it's definitely not 100%, but it's incredibly easy and stops most problems.
RPGs have been around for a LONG TIME. People have been playing various forms of RPGs for centuries. Those text adventure games were what? The first attempt at RPGs on a computer.
Take an action game. At it's base an action game is a game where a character goes around getting involved in some form of combat. These kinds of games include everything from Devil May Cry to Jak & Daxter, or even Beyond Good & Evil. These games may or may not have extra elements involved, such as puzzles, storylines, whatever. As long as it's third person and it has more than a few combat moments, it's an action game.
A adventure game is pretty much the same thing, only you cut out the combat. Instead you play a character that runs around and mainly solve puzzles (with perhaps a few moments of combat involved) with the purpose to further the storyline.
The only real problem defining an action game and an adventure game is when you get into the realm of games like Omikron. You've got what looks like an adventure game, but still has a fair amount of combat.
Adventure games are not dead either, they simply aren't very popular. Look at Flight Simulators, no one is claiming they are dead, but they aren't popular either. Hell, just in the past few months there have been two new great adventure games, Uru and Broken Sword 3.
Quit whining about Rockstar caving in. It doesn't matter anymore, GTA Vice City is out there, anyone who hasn't boughten the game by now will do so before the censored copies hit the shelves.
Why should Rockstar fight in costly court battles when they could take 5 minutes and fix what people want to them to fix in a product which isn't likely to make them more money. Now that money that would have been invested into GTA Vice City can be invested into GTA Kill the Haitans.
I don't believe the problem of RPGs come with Random Battles, it comes from the fact that there is no challenge. Face it, when was the last time you actually had to think about how to beat a non-boss battle (unless it was against a really hard opponent you really didn't stand much of a chance at winning anyways)? Even some boss battles get pathetically easy.
Especially combined with the lack of options in a fight. In nearly every single RPG out there it all battles end up as either straight weapon combat, or weapon combat with a few of your highest level spells thrown in. I've never found an RPG where items retain their usefullness once you get a character who can cast more than a few heal spells without losing all their mana. Plus throughout an RPG magic is either ridiculously overpowered, or on a fairly similar level with basic weapon combat, making it easier to just attack with a weapon.
Someone mentioned it before, but there has to be limits. No more 9999 hp characters, with stat ratings that would leave divine beings reeling. RPGs should be more like the traditional pen & paper games, where you hps rarely go beyond a 100, and even a group of the weakest monsters can pose a problem to a high level character, but at the same time a similar high level monster is a managable problem. I thought Neverwinter Nights might have finally solved this problem, but even then weaker monsters are nothing but a speed bump in the grand scheme of things.
A) You're supposed to play pen & paper games with other people, otherewise it's quite difficult to really role play. Check around, you can find online games through IRC, e-mail or third-party applications.
B) MMORPGs are even worse than typical console/PC RPGs. I've yet to see an MMORPG that didn't treat the individual characters as invisible people. You character is there to gain experience and that's it, not be a part of the enviroment. The only exception to this (that I've seen, there are a lot of MMORPGs out there) is A Tale in the Desert, but even that is fairly linear and close-minded (relatively speaking). Furthermore with a MMORPG you're typically stuck with idiots who fall into stereotypes, instead of actually developing a background/role for their character.
I gave up on MMORPGs because I reached the point on Dark Ages of Camelot where I couldn't take people speaking in some bastardized old english dailect and started player killing them instantly. When a player seems to think a game like DAoC is a history game, and not a fantasy game, they've got problems.
Story driven games that aren't centered on action huh? Obviously you haven't played a good 50% of the RPGs out there, here is an example, Icewind Dale. It's labeled as an RPG, but it's a game that's focused on the action, and not the storyline. Sure it has a storyline, but if you've played it and still believe it's centered on action, you need help.
You are confusing character growth with character building, make up your mind. The whole purpose of a pen & paper adventure is to create someone not you and become him. Ergo, character building. Character growth is usually defined as leveling up a character to attain greater stats, which is a part of the whole pen & paper experience, but it isn't the defining point unless you are in a dungeon crawl adventure.
If you've never played an pen & paper game (and in case you didn't notice D&D isn't the only system out there, that's one thing I HATE about D&D is because people assume it's the end all be all of pen & paper gaming when in reality it's the most restrictive and one of the systems that actually makes it harder to role play in any scenario other than a dungeon crawl, it's only saving grace is that because it's so similar to a common video game RPG in limits it attracts people who have never played a P&P and wouldn't think too) where the GM was focused on actually role playing your character and not do a dungeon crawl, then you should go out and find someone who's willing to show you what it means to truly role play a character.
For example, in a video game/dungeon crawl the purpose of a Cleric is to heal/assist other party members while being a backup fighter. But is that really the purpose of a cleric if you're assuming the role of a cleric? No, a cleric is a religious icon, its job is to spead salvation to the masses.
A thief is a light-weight fighter who steals items from enemies in a video game. In a role play enviroment a thief is never meant ot take part of combat unless absolutely required, they are supposed to get from point A to point B without notice, accomplish a mission (steal something, assassinate somebody, etc...), then get back to point A with no one the wiser.
Those are just general examples, because in a role play enviroment personality and opinions come into play, but my point is that in a video game or dungeon crawl P&P adventure you are forced to rely on stereotypes and generalizations for your characters. I've played some of my most memorable P&P games that didn't involve an ounce of combat. In a video game without combat you have nothing.
But once you get familiar with a game, and the point of using your mind, instead of relying on the junk in front of you, you can get rid of the rules from (for example) D&D and make up your own set of rules for a brand new world you create. There is no limitations to the pen & paper system because YOU (well, the Game master) is the one that makes up the rules when it comes down to it.
Alright, so I'm playing Final Fantasy X, and I decide I hate Wakka so I want to slaughter him, roash him over a fire until he's nothing but charred ashes, and then use him as a toilet. Can I do that in the game? NO! I do need to make on correction, when I say "pen & paper" I'm refering to the actual system used, because you can use a pen & paper rpg system through other mediums, but it's still the same system used.
Instead of trying to offer examples of why I'm wrong, try actually argueing a counter-point. If I'm wrong about the traits of RPGs, then name another trait that when put into the "RPG" definition, doesn't break the games currently labeled as an RPG.
And I'm sorry, but Final Fantasy doesn't use a truely real time battle system. For one, you still have the option of it being turn based, and for two, certain options you choose in a battle will freeze the action.
You can't define a genre on a storyline. Take a look at Halo, you've got a backstory, progressive in-game quest, an epilogue, and character interaction/building, does that make it an RPG? No, it's a first person shooter because you use the game engine of a first person shooter!
Character growth is not a huge factor in pen & paper systems. Actually correction, to someone who plays an RPG because they want to take on a role, and not simply play a game, it's not a huge factor. The purpose of an RPG is for you to become someone else, anyone else, not nessecarily some swashbuckler hero type. Character building, I will admit is a huge factor, but imagine role-playing a thief. A thief has no use for "character growth" in the sense you're refering to it as, because character growth is meant to improve the abilities of the character. However, by filling a role you are supposed to improve the abilities of the character through actual feats and not by a made up number of experience points awarded. How do you improve your pick pocket skill in real life? You work at it with practice and exercises. How do you do it in a game other than a pen & paper? Kill monsters.
Yes, it's true, several pen & paper formats use experience points as I mentioned. However you have to understand that the rules of a pen & paper system are designed to get you into the game. Once you've become familiar with the process you're supposed to let your imagination take over and rely less and less on the preconcieved rules because they don't work in every situation/enviroment.
Slashdot Mirror
3D graphics and engines were present before TA. TA simply used them in an RTS enviroment, nothing special about that. Furthermore at the time of release there was a problem with jacking up unit limits and resolutions, but it didn't take long for processors and graphics cards to fly past that problem.
When I said "engine" I was refering to the gameplay, not the graphics.
Forgot to throw in another comment. I'd include the Total War series, but they aren't exactly a pure RTS. And you could win them with massed forces (unless you were fighting across a river or over a castle), the application of strategy wasn't nessecary but it sure in the hell made more difference in the amount of troops you had left than any other game I've played.
Rise of Nations and Homeworld.
Any other RTS I've ever played I've been able to consistently use overwhelming numbers to beat the other players, be it online or off. Problem is that, yes, there is some strategy involved, and in an evenly matched battle the one who can effectively micromanage special abilities or troops will win. But in all the games I've played (sans the two mentioned, and I've played just about every game called an RTS out there, and some that weren't but still qualified) if you have at least 1.5 times more troops than your enemy, nothing will save you. (I'm talking equally skilled players here, an idiot will lose no matter how many troops he gathers)
Rise of Nations really took the idea of borders to the next level, which made it incredibly hard to effectively attack enemy territory because you could never affect the economy directly (before an assault) of any player with decent skill.
Homeworld because the concept of specific units being effective against other specific units actually mattered. Yes in other games it's been done, and using that to your advantage could mean a win, but it wasn't a critical factor. In Homeworld even basic fighters never really lost their effectiveness against more advanced ships (Fighters ate Ion Frigates for lunch), and combine that with future releases like the Beast infection beam or the cannon you could add to the mining ship, you really had to stop and consider how to make an attack.
I'll throw in two honorable mentions:
#1: Total Annihlation. Although not revolutionary in terms of the engine, the modability and the diverse units (Land, Sea, and Air in a Sci-fi setting) really made this game shine.
#2: Dune 2 and Warcraft 2. These I only mention because they were the games that sparked the RTS industry. Yes others came before them, but these two became so popular that they made the difference. (Just like Half-Life/Couter Strike for FPS, Diablo for dungeon crawls, Falcon series for Flight Combat Sims, etc...)
Actually that depends on how you look at the situation.
A) The graphics card has NOTHING to do with the whole situation. It's constantly rendering graphics, and that never changes, about the only way you can fit it into the picture is you play with graphic settings set beyond what it's capable of handling, and then you always recieve lag even in SP games.
B) I'll grant you that the CPU does have a certain amount of influence, however, any CPU capable of running a game like Quake 3 or any of the recent FPSs won't have a problem keeping up with the load. The CPU doesn't do a whole lot while the game is running, most of the effort is put out by the GPU for the rendering.
So I will concede that you're right, both have an affect, but on the flip side unless he's intentionally creating lag for himself, both of them don't matter in this equation. That also means if they do matter in his situation, I've just been proved right because he's creating his own lag, and not recieving lag by fault of the code.
Wait a second, I see a problem. Do you realize that the OS takes care of a lot of the hard work? Developers don't program in a whole new TCP/IP stack into a game, they use the OS to do all the hard work.
What the hell are you smoking? You outright admitted that MTA is an "unofficial" mod for GTA. Do you honestly believe that they can do a mod to match a release by the developers of the game? Aside from that, there is a thousand and one other things involved in that process which can drag a game down.
Furthermore, the net code in a mod like MTA is a whole helluva lot more complex, since it's not integrated into the games engine.
Do you have any idea at all how a game works, on the code level? I'm not going to admit to being an expert, but I've got at least a bit of room to walk with. Your post seems to imply you've got no clue.
P.S.
On another note, I believe I specifically refered to the net code of an FPS. The game itself is (or at least should be) designed to do everything nessecary on the client side. The server is only responsible for being the central location for clients to update their actions and retrive everyone elses actions. That's why it's so easy to cheat on a FPS, because everything is done client side. When you enter in the realm of other games, there are some times when the whole process gets more complicated and the net code is more involved that the transmission of packets.
Maybe you should think of it like this, imagine your singleplayer game acting just like a multiplayer game. The core of the game, the engine, takes in the actions you input through the keyboard and mouse, and then processes them and returns the result (Of course throw in all the graphics processing and what not). In the multiplayer game you just add a middleman to the whole thing, the server. Your actions, along with the actions recieved from the server, are processed on your machine just like in the singleplayer. The only difference being you retrive and transmit the actions of the players (including yourself) to the server.
Again, it gets a lot more complex than that, I know, but it serves as an analogy.
Do you have any idea how inaccurate that assessment would be? Quick lesson:
Lag is generated by the delay in recieving packets from the server updating the client on the progress of the game. One of the main reasons FPSs are so easily made mutliplayer is because there is very little data (in terms of size) that needs to be transmitted because you just have to transmit player locations and actions, everything else is usually client side. All the net code is reponsible for is tracking down servers, listening for packets, recieving packets and transmitting packets. That's pretty much it. Everything else is done by the rest of the game.
Essentially unless a FPS is seriously bugged and has a development team straight out of Kindergarden, it's damn difficult to screw up the net code so bad it will generate enough lag to affect the experience. Based on that alone, you can generally say he's blowing smoke out of his @$$.
But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt in that he really believes the net code is his problem. Do you know how many games on the level of Halo have multiplayer lag issues BECAUSE of the game? You can count them on one hand and have extra fingers to work with.
The problem isn't with the game, it's with his god damn computer and his connection. It could be that he hasn't defragged, it could be that his connection is crap, or it could simply be that most of the servers he's played on are several hops away. In case you didn't know each "hop" is a router that a packet stops at between point A and point B, each hop adds in a level of lag. That's not counting the dozens of other problems that could come up to cause a problem.
Wake up genius! Your chip and graphics card have no bearing on the lag you receive when playing online!
In case anyone didn't notice, bookstores sell books for the MSRP, which means the bookstores aren't the damn problem. Instead, you should be asking yourselves why in the world publishers jack up the prices like they do?
A) I fail to see how my post should bring about sarcastic comments.
B) I never claimed to be a programmer, the fact that I recommended ISC and GIAC certs should have made that readily apparent.
C) I've actually learned Python, not VB, and that's only because I'm in the Information Assurance aspect of IT, and I needed to know something so I could understand proof of concepts and build my own scripts.
D) I'm assuming you're main gripe is the whole "Get a degree" thing. I don't know where you live, but companies hire people based on resumes. If you go to a company and apply for a job the highest degree level has the best chance. Experience doesn't mean much in the programming field, because more often than not companies want new people who can more readily pick up the company's standard practices as people with more experience (generally) are set in stone.
I'm sorry if you're limited understanding of reality means you can't respond to a post with either maturity or anything revelant to the topic,.
For getting a job, grab up a degree and as many mid to high level certs as you can (especially from ISC and GIAC).
For keeping a job, it all depends on what you want to do. The programming and help desk field isn't all that promising right now due to outsourcing. However engineering, networking, and management positions are still open to be filled.
For focusing on CS: If you don't mind your current job, I'd stick with it and devote some free time to learning a programming language, then see about helping some open source projects for experience. Once you've got that you can move on if you want. Otherwise I'd stick with your current job until the air clears up around the whole out sourcing issue.
I don't care about music in games. I've played Tales of Phantasia, and I agree, good game. Still, to me music doesn't matter, you can apply your own music, you can't apply your own storyline/engine.
Just curious, but how many people here care about the sound in a game? I personally don't give a damn, and really, if I ever get to the point where I decide whether a game is enjoyable or not because of the sound, I hope someone shoots me.
The music is usually just something to provide background noise in a game so you don't sit in an empty quite room playing a game until the next sound effect comes along. All that BS about music setting a mood is ridiculous because if the game can't make you feel like you're in a tense situation (for example) without some good music, the game sucks. Of course that isn't to say music doesn't help that along, just that if a game is good, it isn't nessecary.
Hell, half the time if I have the option to turn the music off, or lower the volume to nothing, I'll do it and run my own.
A) I said we should have a fine for complaining if we weren't running an approved piece of software just for so that people would go out and learn how to use firewalls and spam filtering software.
B) Yes, there is a return on spam, but you said it yourself, sending spam really doesn't cost anything (I imagine with the current setup there is an admin overhead because companies have third parties send out spam, but that's not a nessecary cost), so even if there was no return on spam, spam would still be there. Even if there is no return, that doesn't mean there won't ever be a return, so they'll keep sending it because it's free (or at least cheap as hell) to do so.
99% of all Spam, and malacious attacks can be stopped by anyone with a brain. Easiest way is to enforce a law that states if you don't run some approved method of controlling spam/malacious attacks and you complain about it, you're ass has to pay a fine.
It's not like it's all that difficult, just running a personal firewall blocks nearly any attack that anyone would bother to run against a personal computer. The people with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to exploit a computer at a regular home wouldn't bother with it, because there is very little worthwhile on most home computers.
As for spam, there are tons of options available to stop spam. If you don't want to go through the minor trouble to install your own software to stop spam, use a service like SpamInspector, where all your e-mail is routed through their servers which contain spam inspecint software. They judge whats spam and what isn't, and you get the non-spam, and if you think you're missing a e-mail because it was blocked, you can check your logs and have that sender be approved for sending you e-mail.
Finally, have a free AV program (unless you want to pay for the extra services that pay AV programs offer) set to auto-scan your machine on a daily schedule using background resources.
Literally, 30 minutes of work and you're nearly spam free with a nearly neglible chance of being hacked. It's not perfect, it's definitely not 100%, but it's incredibly easy and stops most problems.
Actually Disgaea is a sequel. It's from a line of Japanese games, it's just Disgaea is the first to make it over here.
RPGs have been around for a LONG TIME. People have been playing various forms of RPGs for centuries. Those text adventure games were what? The first attempt at RPGs on a computer.
Take an action game. At it's base an action game is a game where a character goes around getting involved in some form of combat. These kinds of games include everything from Devil May Cry to Jak & Daxter, or even Beyond Good & Evil. These games may or may not have extra elements involved, such as puzzles, storylines, whatever. As long as it's third person and it has more than a few combat moments, it's an action game. A adventure game is pretty much the same thing, only you cut out the combat. Instead you play a character that runs around and mainly solve puzzles (with perhaps a few moments of combat involved) with the purpose to further the storyline. The only real problem defining an action game and an adventure game is when you get into the realm of games like Omikron. You've got what looks like an adventure game, but still has a fair amount of combat. Adventure games are not dead either, they simply aren't very popular. Look at Flight Simulators, no one is claiming they are dead, but they aren't popular either. Hell, just in the past few months there have been two new great adventure games, Uru and Broken Sword 3.
Ummmm... no. Adventure games were spawned from RPGs. RPGs have been around for a very long time.
Quit whining about Rockstar caving in. It doesn't matter anymore, GTA Vice City is out there, anyone who hasn't boughten the game by now will do so before the censored copies hit the shelves.
Why should Rockstar fight in costly court battles when they could take 5 minutes and fix what people want to them to fix in a product which isn't likely to make them more money. Now that money that would have been invested into GTA Vice City can be invested into GTA Kill the Haitans.
I don't believe the problem of RPGs come with Random Battles, it comes from the fact that there is no challenge. Face it, when was the last time you actually had to think about how to beat a non-boss battle (unless it was against a really hard opponent you really didn't stand much of a chance at winning anyways)? Even some boss battles get pathetically easy. Especially combined with the lack of options in a fight. In nearly every single RPG out there it all battles end up as either straight weapon combat, or weapon combat with a few of your highest level spells thrown in. I've never found an RPG where items retain their usefullness once you get a character who can cast more than a few heal spells without losing all their mana. Plus throughout an RPG magic is either ridiculously overpowered, or on a fairly similar level with basic weapon combat, making it easier to just attack with a weapon. Someone mentioned it before, but there has to be limits. No more 9999 hp characters, with stat ratings that would leave divine beings reeling. RPGs should be more like the traditional pen & paper games, where you hps rarely go beyond a 100, and even a group of the weakest monsters can pose a problem to a high level character, but at the same time a similar high level monster is a managable problem. I thought Neverwinter Nights might have finally solved this problem, but even then weaker monsters are nothing but a speed bump in the grand scheme of things.
A) You're supposed to play pen & paper games with other people, otherewise it's quite difficult to really role play. Check around, you can find online games through IRC, e-mail or third-party applications.
B) MMORPGs are even worse than typical console/PC RPGs. I've yet to see an MMORPG that didn't treat the individual characters as invisible people. You character is there to gain experience and that's it, not be a part of the enviroment. The only exception to this (that I've seen, there are a lot of MMORPGs out there) is A Tale in the Desert, but even that is fairly linear and close-minded (relatively speaking). Furthermore with a MMORPG you're typically stuck with idiots who fall into stereotypes, instead of actually developing a background/role for their character.
I gave up on MMORPGs because I reached the point on Dark Ages of Camelot where I couldn't take people speaking in some bastardized old english dailect and started player killing them instantly. When a player seems to think a game like DAoC is a history game, and not a fantasy game, they've got problems.
Story driven games that aren't centered on action huh? Obviously you haven't played a good 50% of the RPGs out there, here is an example, Icewind Dale. It's labeled as an RPG, but it's a game that's focused on the action, and not the storyline. Sure it has a storyline, but if you've played it and still believe it's centered on action, you need help.
You are confusing character growth with character building, make up your mind. The whole purpose of a pen & paper adventure is to create someone not you and become him. Ergo, character building. Character growth is usually defined as leveling up a character to attain greater stats, which is a part of the whole pen & paper experience, but it isn't the defining point unless you are in a dungeon crawl adventure.
If you've never played an pen & paper game (and in case you didn't notice D&D isn't the only system out there, that's one thing I HATE about D&D is because people assume it's the end all be all of pen & paper gaming when in reality it's the most restrictive and one of the systems that actually makes it harder to role play in any scenario other than a dungeon crawl, it's only saving grace is that because it's so similar to a common video game RPG in limits it attracts people who have never played a P&P and wouldn't think too) where the GM was focused on actually role playing your character and not do a dungeon crawl, then you should go out and find someone who's willing to show you what it means to truly role play a character.
For example, in a video game/dungeon crawl the purpose of a Cleric is to heal/assist other party members while being a backup fighter. But is that really the purpose of a cleric if you're assuming the role of a cleric? No, a cleric is a religious icon, its job is to spead salvation to the masses.
A thief is a light-weight fighter who steals items from enemies in a video game. In a role play enviroment a thief is never meant ot take part of combat unless absolutely required, they are supposed to get from point A to point B without notice, accomplish a mission (steal something, assassinate somebody, etc...), then get back to point A with no one the wiser.
Those are just general examples, because in a role play enviroment personality and opinions come into play, but my point is that in a video game or dungeon crawl P&P adventure you are forced to rely on stereotypes and generalizations for your characters. I've played some of my most memorable P&P games that didn't involve an ounce of combat. In a video game without combat you have nothing.
But once you get familiar with a game, and the point of using your mind, instead of relying on the junk in front of you, you can get rid of the rules from (for example) D&D and make up your own set of rules for a brand new world you create. There is no limitations to the pen & paper system because YOU (well, the Game master) is the one that makes up the rules when it comes down to it.
Alright, so I'm playing Final Fantasy X, and I decide I hate Wakka so I want to slaughter him, roash him over a fire until he's nothing but charred ashes, and then use him as a toilet. Can I do that in the game? NO! I do need to make on correction, when I say "pen & paper" I'm refering to the actual system used, because you can use a pen & paper rpg system through other mediums, but it's still the same system used.
Instead of trying to offer examples of why I'm wrong, try actually argueing a counter-point. If I'm wrong about the traits of RPGs, then name another trait that when put into the "RPG" definition, doesn't break the games currently labeled as an RPG.
And I'm sorry, but Final Fantasy doesn't use a truely real time battle system. For one, you still have the option of it being turn based, and for two, certain options you choose in a battle will freeze the action.
You can't define a genre on a storyline. Take a look at Halo, you've got a backstory, progressive in-game quest, an epilogue, and character interaction/building, does that make it an RPG? No, it's a first person shooter because you use the game engine of a first person shooter!
Character growth is not a huge factor in pen & paper systems. Actually correction, to someone who plays an RPG because they want to take on a role, and not simply play a game, it's not a huge factor. The purpose of an RPG is for you to become someone else, anyone else, not nessecarily some swashbuckler hero type. Character building, I will admit is a huge factor, but imagine role-playing a thief. A thief has no use for "character growth" in the sense you're refering to it as, because character growth is meant to improve the abilities of the character. However, by filling a role you are supposed to improve the abilities of the character through actual feats and not by a made up number of experience points awarded. How do you improve your pick pocket skill in real life? You work at it with practice and exercises. How do you do it in a game other than a pen & paper? Kill monsters.
Yes, it's true, several pen & paper formats use experience points as I mentioned. However you have to understand that the rules of a pen & paper system are designed to get you into the game. Once you've become familiar with the process you're supposed to let your imagination take over and rely less and less on the preconcieved rules because they don't work in every situation/enviroment.