And after following the link in the Consumerist article to a local news story about the incident it says officials are trying to determine the cause of the fire. So which one is the real story?
Part of that account by the owner of the house sounds a bit funny to me:
"Hours later, after investigation the fire Marshall investigator took me aside asked me if I had a laptop computer. Yes -- I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200..."
Since when does the fire department conduct an investigation into a fire that determines the source within hours of the fire taking place. Especially with something that would be hard to determine- such as the fire being started by an electronic device that presumably would have been fairly well destroyed if it was as small as a laptop and made of the less than tough plastic and other materials that laptops are made of. The account seems to be fairly short on details to be pointing the finger at Dell. And as others have pointed out- why isn't this guy calling his insurance company instead of Dell? They are the ones who would be paying him for the house.
So as an IT consultant that doesn't plan for data backups for your clients in the event of a problem, what is it exactly that you do? Your reason for avoiding Dell is just as valid a reason to avoid any of the major manufacturers. When your clients call about a hard drive failure on the whitebox you have built for them do you tell them, "Not my problem, you need to call Seagate?"
I don't think that PC gaming will ever die out for one simple reason:
Everyone will own the platform.
Some people may by an Xbox, some may buy a PS2 and some may buy a Gamecube. When future generations of consoles are released, there will be people who buy them as well.
But nearly everyone is going to have a PC (or a Mac) because they use it for other things as well. Not everyone will stay on the cutting edge of PC gaming, but they will continue to use the PC for years to come.
I think Jason Rubin is longing for the days past when EA tried to market their deveopers like artists. Remember the bios and pictures that were included in every EA game in days past? I think Mr. Rubin and his Naughty Dog partner were featured in at least one of those (Keef the Thief?) as well.
The question of course is, in a dev team of 20+ people who gets the rock star status? Jason Rubin or that guy 3 cubes down who is the genious behind graphics engine?
So how is that unique to iTunes? Seems you can do the same thing with the other sites as well. As long as you can create an audio CD from a track, you can rip it to a non-DRM'ed MP3...
This is the worst thing that could happen. Too many people seem to think that NWN is some sort of MMORPG toolkit, which it is not. It seems obvious that the main idea that the game is based on is replicating the table top experience of a single party of players working with one or more DMs. I sure wouldn't want to pay $9 a month to Wizards of the Coast to have access to the D&D manuals.What we have is a shrink wrapped product that lets us play with what they gave us as well as with creations of our own or those of others. The further companies stay away from the subscription-based model for games, the happier I will be.
You might want to give NWN a try then. Despite the lackluster reviews (most of which centered on the single player campaign) it has become the closest thing to PnP when played with a live DM.I also recommend the follwing site if you want to find live players (and DMs) to play with:www.neverwinterconnections.com
Forget the single player NWN experience (although some user created SP modules are fun).The real joy comes from Multiplayer with a DM... Closest you can come to computerized PnP.
I have to say, this is one of the cooler features I have seen in a game even though I think it is more appropriate to golf than any other game. Unlike other sports, many of us do play golf (although not with the skill that I do on TW2004 unfortunately) and it is nice to be able to play as someone who looks like... well me. Double the fun when you can get your buddies together to play a round at Pebble Beach anytime you want and actually see the group there.The best so far though has been responding to my inquiring wife that I am just playing a few rounds of golf with her- and having her walk in to see her on-screen doppleganger sink a 50 foot chip shot."Nice shot honey!"
Now was it the drug use that caused those deaths or the use of the car? And please save us from your "witty" twists on words that offer no value at all...
Wow, I'm suprised that that article had absolutely no mention of NeverWinter Connections... Quite possibly one of the best site for NWN multiplayer sessions, and one of the main reasons that NWN still resides on my hard drive...http://www.neverwinterconnections.com
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place." Uh, yeah but pulling out a big, goofy looking phone and playing it is?Gameboy has become a common sight among 20-25 year olds and beyond. Hell, I'm 32 and I play my GBA every day during breaks at work and the only response I get is, "What game is that? Cool!"I take it to baseball games to play between innings or when the game is getting ugly (and living in San Diego I get to see my fair share of ugly baseball games). Again, not a shameful or mocking look to be had.
C'mon now. Almost unplayable? Granted, you can't play it indoors in a dimly lit area, but I have logged hundreds of hours on my un-modded, stock, bought on day 1 of release GBA and I still play it every day on my breaks at work.How much fun do you have at the airport trying to find a TV to plug your GCN into? I would be the one snickering at you, but I'm too busy playing Golden Sun: The Lost Age...
Sounds like it should be fun, but the translation of fun in video game vs. fun in RL is often a shaky one. There is a paintball site in my local area that runs a "protect the President" game ala Team Fortress which is fun, but breaks down very fast into a standard paintball shootout. Right up until the Prez gets shot-Hmmm. Maybe it was more fun than I remember...
Why don't they just name the game "Movie Tycoon"? Should guarantee it sells a few copies, and it sounds like it sould be quite appropriate for the game.Bleh.
I'm wondering how many of the enrolled students will go on to actual work in the game industry. This seems like it is a great big sinkhole to lead people astray from getting degrees that they may actually be able to utilize in the real world.Then again, how many degrees are actually used for careers in that field? Time to go break out that Philosophy degree of mine and give it a good dusting off...
Trust me, it's worth it just for 2flower's modules alone (Penultima series, Elegia Eternum), but there are now many many good single and multiplayer modules out there.If your looking for good multiplayer then head on over to NeverwinterConnections (too lazy to link, it's in another post).
Too late- it's been done (sorta) already. The Gameworks chain of arcade/bar/restaurants used to have 8 man stations that had PC games rigged up to play like arcade games (Descent was one, I think Redneck Rampage was another) that were not only linked to each other but to other Gameworks centers.Kinda nifty at the time, but was quickly obsoleted by home PC technology...
One more way for the laws to tell you that you are inferior to those that are a part of the system. Kind of like how a citizen is punished more severely for assaulting a police officer, yet a police officer is not punished more severely for assaulting a citizen (that is if he is punished at all...)
Yeah, Ken Williams does come off sounding a bit arrogant, but this article does give a good idea of what the industry was and will never be again: a small business that can be run by 10 people or less, possibly out of someone's house.Sure, there are still a few out there, but they are not the power they once were (like Sierra Online, Origin, or even id during the commander keen/wolf3d days...)
So how many pen & paper sessions have you played that were "massively multiplayer"?This is terrible. The thing that NWN got right about the D&D experience is that it is best played by a small group of players and a DM. Try some of the persistent worlds people have set up for NWN and you will see that a MMO dungeons & dragons is extremely difficult to do- and on the scale that this game would need to be considered a success I would say it's impossible.How is this any different than Everquest- other than naming conventions?
Slashdot Mirror
And after following the link in the Consumerist article to a local news story about the incident it says officials are trying to determine the cause of the fire. So which one is the real story?
"Hours later, after investigation the fire Marshall investigator took me aside asked me if I had a laptop computer. Yes -- I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200..."
Since when does the fire department conduct an investigation into a fire that determines the source within hours of the fire taking place. Especially with something that would be hard to determine- such as the fire being started by an electronic device that presumably would have been fairly well destroyed if it was as small as a laptop and made of the less than tough plastic and other materials that laptops are made of. The account seems to be fairly short on details to be pointing the finger at Dell. And as others have pointed out- why isn't this guy calling his insurance company instead of Dell? They are the ones who would be paying him for the house.
So as an IT consultant that doesn't plan for data backups for your clients in the event of a problem, what is it exactly that you do? Your reason for avoiding Dell is just as valid a reason to avoid any of the major manufacturers. When your clients call about a hard drive failure on the whitebox you have built for them do you tell them, "Not my problem, you need to call Seagate?"
You just need to find the right people to play NWN with... It sounds like you have been cruising the Gamespy servers, which is hit or miss.
I recommend Neverwinter Connections. You may never go back to single player CRPGs.
http://www.neverwinterconnections.com
I don't think that PC gaming will ever die out for one simple reason:
Everyone will own the platform.
Some people may by an Xbox, some may buy a PS2 and some may buy a Gamecube. When future generations of consoles are released, there will be people who buy them as well.
But nearly everyone is going to have a PC (or a Mac) because they use it for other things as well. Not everyone will stay on the cutting edge of PC gaming, but they will continue to use the PC for years to come.
I think Jason Rubin is longing for the days past when EA tried to market their deveopers like artists. Remember the bios and pictures that were included in every EA game in days past? I think Mr. Rubin and his Naughty Dog partner were featured in at least one of those (Keef the Thief?) as well.
The question of course is, in a dev team of 20+ people who gets the rock star status? Jason Rubin or that guy 3 cubes down who is the genious behind graphics engine?
So how is that unique to iTunes? Seems you can do the same thing with the other sites as well. As long as you can create an audio CD from a track, you can rip it to a non-DRM'ed MP3...
This is the worst thing that could happen. Too many people seem to think that NWN is some sort of MMORPG toolkit, which it is not. It seems obvious that the main idea that the game is based on is replicating the table top experience of a single party of players working with one or more DMs. I sure wouldn't want to pay $9 a month to Wizards of the Coast to have access to the D&D manuals.What we have is a shrink wrapped product that lets us play with what they gave us as well as with creations of our own or those of others. The further companies stay away from the subscription-based model for games, the happier I will be.
You might want to give NWN a try then. Despite the lackluster reviews (most of which centered on the single player campaign) it has become the closest thing to PnP when played with a live DM.I also recommend the follwing site if you want to find live players (and DMs) to play with:www.neverwinterconnections.com
Forget the single player NWN experience (although some user created SP modules are fun).The real joy comes from Multiplayer with a DM... Closest you can come to computerized PnP.
I have to say, this is one of the cooler features I have seen in a game even though I think it is more appropriate to golf than any other game. Unlike other sports, many of us do play golf (although not with the skill that I do on TW2004 unfortunately) and it is nice to be able to play as someone who looks like... well me. Double the fun when you can get your buddies together to play a round at Pebble Beach anytime you want and actually see the group there.The best so far though has been responding to my inquiring wife that I am just playing a few rounds of golf with her- and having her walk in to see her on-screen doppleganger sink a 50 foot chip shot."Nice shot honey!"
Wow- I had no idea that CX was still going since being abandoned by genetic anomolies...
Now was it the drug use that caused those deaths or the use of the car? And please save us from your "witty" twists on words that offer no value at all...
Wow, I'm suprised that that article had absolutely no mention of NeverWinter Connections... Quite possibly one of the best site for NWN multiplayer sessions, and one of the main reasons that NWN still resides on my hard drive...http://www.neverwinterconnections.com
"GameBoy is for 10-year-olds. If you're 20 or 25 years old, it's probably not a good idea to draw a GameBoy out of your pocket on a Friday night in a public place." Uh, yeah but pulling out a big, goofy looking phone and playing it is?Gameboy has become a common sight among 20-25 year olds and beyond. Hell, I'm 32 and I play my GBA every day during breaks at work and the only response I get is, "What game is that? Cool!"I take it to baseball games to play between innings or when the game is getting ugly (and living in San Diego I get to see my fair share of ugly baseball games). Again, not a shameful or mocking look to be had.
C'mon now. Almost unplayable? Granted, you can't play it indoors in a dimly lit area, but I have logged hundreds of hours on my un-modded, stock, bought on day 1 of release GBA and I still play it every day on my breaks at work.How much fun do you have at the airport trying to find a TV to plug your GCN into? I would be the one snickering at you, but I'm too busy playing Golden Sun: The Lost Age...
Sounds like it should be fun, but the translation of fun in video game vs. fun in RL is often a shaky one. There is a paintball site in my local area that runs a "protect the President" game ala Team Fortress which is fun, but breaks down very fast into a standard paintball shootout. Right up until the Prez gets shot-Hmmm. Maybe it was more fun than I remember...
Why don't they just name the game "Movie Tycoon"? Should guarantee it sells a few copies, and it sounds like it sould be quite appropriate for the game.Bleh.
I'm wondering how many of the enrolled students will go on to actual work in the game industry. This seems like it is a great big sinkhole to lead people astray from getting degrees that they may actually be able to utilize in the real world.Then again, how many degrees are actually used for careers in that field? Time to go break out that Philosophy degree of mine and give it a good dusting off...
Trust me, it's worth it just for 2flower's modules alone (Penultima series, Elegia Eternum), but there are now many many good single and multiplayer modules out there.If your looking for good multiplayer then head on over to NeverwinterConnections (too lazy to link, it's in another post).
Too late- it's been done (sorta) already. The Gameworks chain of arcade/bar/restaurants used to have 8 man stations that had PC games rigged up to play like arcade games (Descent was one, I think Redneck Rampage was another) that were not only linked to each other but to other Gameworks centers.Kinda nifty at the time, but was quickly obsoleted by home PC technology...
One more way for the laws to tell you that you are inferior to those that are a part of the system. Kind of like how a citizen is punished more severely for assaulting a police officer, yet a police officer is not punished more severely for assaulting a citizen (that is if he is punished at all...)
Yeah, Ken Williams does come off sounding a bit arrogant, but this article does give a good idea of what the industry was and will never be again: a small business that can be run by 10 people or less, possibly out of someone's house.Sure, there are still a few out there, but they are not the power they once were (like Sierra Online, Origin, or even id during the commander keen/wolf3d days...)
So how many pen & paper sessions have you played that were "massively multiplayer"?This is terrible. The thing that NWN got right about the D&D experience is that it is best played by a small group of players and a DM. Try some of the persistent worlds people have set up for NWN and you will see that a MMO dungeons & dragons is extremely difficult to do- and on the scale that this game would need to be considered a success I would say it's impossible.How is this any different than Everquest- other than naming conventions?
Didn't Microprose already remake Pirates! for Windows 95 platforms? As I recall it was not a big hit...