Another possibility is that the Matrix and the "real world" are both matrices, as you posit, but that Neo is in fact a program which has been developed to try to reach true AI, including emotions.
Perhaps the inhabitants in the matrices are either real humans used to provide virtual selves for Neo to interact with, or the inhabitants are merely programs themselves meant to push Neo into achieving true AI.
I don't know what the truth is either, but it's fun to guess.
Looks like you got modded up anyway. See, to keep from getting modded up, you should have put the link buried inside of a rant against how the Wachowski's have sold out.
Wait... that'd probably get you to +5 insightful.;)
Or you could have blathered on and on about how hot Morpheus would be in speedos.
Naw, that'd just get you +5 funny.
Hmmm... come to think of it, how do you get modded down?
I know, make really, really, REALLY lame jokes like me!
Ah, well, good to have the record set straight that all the legal problems in this country due to frivolous lawsuits are due to the Democrats. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind during the next election.
1. Make "Final Fantasy"
2. Create sequels to raise suspicion of true finality.
3. ????
4. PROFIT!
Seriously though, the "dur, if it's final fantasy, why ur dere sekwels?" has been so overdone it's as bad as Jeff Foxworthy's redneck jokes.
Nice way to over-generalize, "Kohath". Guess you've got a big stick up your rear if you can't read a thread that has nothing to do with party-line politics without pausing to bash "those gawrsh-durned Commiecrats!"
Pardon my sarcasm and over-generalizing of you... must be contagious.;)
No offense, but it's no more ridiculous to think of machines doing it and taking away our jobs than it is to think of companies outsourcing labor (including computer labor and customer service) to foreign nations.
But that's just what's happening today; many jobs no longer exist in America because companies are outsourcing to India (especially computer jobs), Mexico, etc. Why? Because it's cheaper for companies, and if robots could do it, it'd be even cheaper.
There is no force more powerful in our economy than the greed for profit growth of corporate entities.
Then why do over 6 billion people still play it then? I'm not implying anything, but given the choice of staying in this not very fun game or ending it, the vast majority of people would say that they still want to stay.
Well, if Elizabeth Wooley has anything to say about it, she would probably contend that the very nature of massively multiplayer games forces gamers into addiction. The games are designed from the bottom up to be addictive, regardless of how fun they are.
I have to admit, I myself have fallen into this trap. I find the crafting skills particularly addictive, especially the ones that are profession-oriented. I can't help myself; most mornings after logging in, I head to the office and work on my tech assistance phone skills. Sure, I'm sitting in a cubicle and not moving for 12 hours, but every once in a while I advance a level (which results in more money) or gain some bonus certifications.
Ah well, I suppose it's really the social aspects of the game that keep me addicted. Every once in a while I find a female character (hopefully not really being played by some 55-year-old man living in his mother's basement) who's really into H07 cYb0Rz.;)
I love Blizzard today, and always do. I could care less about whether Blizzard is open or closed source, because I buy their software to do one thing: play it. I don't pay a continual subscription fee (or license renewal fee) to do so; Battle.net is free to use.
Fact of the matter is, I have thoroughly enjoyed every game that Blizzard has created. I can't say that about *any* other developer out there, though some come close. Blizzard's games aren't for everyone, but the one thing they do know is their audience, and every game is polished very heavily for that target group.
Don't get me wrong, I love many other games of all genres; there's very little I don't like (one of the benefits of being easily amused, I suppose). But I have always been able to count on picking up a Blizzard game from the shelf confident that I'd take it home and have a game that installs without compatibility issues and is fun to play.
As for the closed source whining? I doubt anyone is going to use the game engine of Starcraft to run a hospital's server, or use the Diablo II engine as the basis for an open source OS, or something of that matter. And those folks who were working on Freecraft? Hey, maybe they could have done something a little less blatantly obvious and would never have been bothered. ("hey, I know, let's make an open-source RPG that achieves a lot of what Bioware's games do!" "I know, let's call it 'Faldur's Gate!' No one can complain about that, it's not even remotely indicative of a rip-off from the original product!")
Sorry if this seems a bit of a flame; I don't intend it to be that harsh. I just grow weary of everything being either open-source or evil. It's like the hyper-environmentalists who chain themselves to every piece of driftwood because a new beach area is opening up or something. I believe in fighting for a cause, but I also believe in picking battles that really matter.
Actually, the parent comment was NOT offtopic. This relates exactly to one of the book's major points: MMO's are services, not regular games. Too many developers, treating them like games, are releasing them in an incomplete state that's not ready for retail.
In a regular game, we've grown to expect patches. It's why I rarely purchase PC games when they first come out. But with a regular PC game, you pay once, and when it's ready it's ready. The person who bought the game 3 months before me hasn't paid much more than I did (maybe the price drops 5-10 dollars in the meantime), and they've been able to get some enjoyment out of it (unless it's Ultima IX...).
In an MMO, though, the person who is an early adopter will have paid about 20-30 dollars more than me while the game is being repaired and completed.
Unfortunately, many people are either misled or haven't learned from the past, and so companies releasing MMO's continue to benefit from casual consumers going into the store and purchasing the game since it's the "latest and greatest". (Store employees promoting these incomplete games aren't helping the situation)
When the game is finally complete and running fairly smoothly 2-3 months later (or longer in some cases), the initial people who have let their subscriptions lapse don't really hurt the company, who has gotten by with those client purchases for the initial sales period. In fact, they're often able to tout those high sales (and stores place the game prominently in "hot item" categories), which leads to new sales. I would wager that it is the sales from this point forward that constitute most of the ongoing subscriptions; a large portion of the initial subscribers most likely let their subscription expire.
So granted, yes, you could say "well stop buying the incomplete games and the problem will go away!"
To which I say, "yes, I have, but unfortunately it's misinformed customers who have enabled companies to propogate this poor business practice."
Yes, I enjoy MMO's, but this shady practice for new releases is what I have grown weary of. Companies just don't get that the service needs to be ready, not just the client program. You don't open a travel agency just because the pretty office is done but you have no deals with airlines or cruiselines and hope to be successful, do you?
Don't forget as well the people who were in the beta test and honestly tried to learn to like SWG, only to finally quit in disgust or boredom. There are probably a great many people out there who had this happen, only they now have a lot of apathy toward the game and don't even care enough to post negatively against it.
Myself, I already commented on how my biggest beef with SWG is the fact that they are trying to sell a game that isn't remotely retail-ready.
I also found it interesting that even near the very end of beta, there were rarely more than a couple hundred players (out of several thousand beta testers) on the server during prime time. Such a highly anticipated game, with the free time running out soon, wouldn't you think the beta testers would be anxious to make good use of the limited free time they had left?
Granted, the playerbase of EQ isn't as varied as, say, the viewerbase of movies in America or something. However, as far as games go, EQ has a surprisingly varied userbase for a computer game.
Like most computer games, the playerbase is heavily skewed towards the young male student demographic, but also incorporates a more varied cross-section of gamers than most computer games (especially single-player ones). I guarantee you'll find more variety in the player base of EQ than in Counter-Strike or UT2K3. (not bashing those games; they're well-made and enjoyable)
There's also an interesting essay about men and women on the site I've linked to.
As for your Muppet comparison, I'd wager that it's really just the vocal and annoying minority that stand out to give such a bad impression, much like how that one customer who just rips you a new one will ruin your day and stand out more in your mind than the 20 pleasant customers you dealt with.
Then again, I suppose it's just more sensational to rip on EQ gamers with your Animal-like chant of "LO-SER! LO-SER!". You'd fit in at the New York Times, sir.
Legal disclaimer: I play EQ, am a single male in a healthy relationship, earn a decent living, and tend to be online less than most people sit in front of their football or NASCAR (only a handful of hours each week).
Taken from the press release, the playable characters are:
Barbarian Warrior, Dark Elf Shadow Knight, High Elf Cleric, Erudite Wizard, Wood Elf Ranger
Sounds pretty close to the lineup for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2. In fact, Champtions of Norrath sounds so identical to BG:DA2 that it'll be like comparing Gauntlet Legends to Gauntlet Dark Legacy....and yeah, sucker that I am, I'll probably get both, unless the offline portion of Champions of Norrath is as skimpy and bland as the offline portions of the Phantasy Star Online games.
That's just it, and it's a large part of why my comments about the game appear to be so vitriolic. For a long time, I was patient with the shortcomings of SWG, because it was early Beta.
As time went on, however, I began to realize that they were preparing to release an incomplete game on the public. Despite that knowledge, I was taken aback by the announcement this week that the game would go live on June 26th, fully 3 months before I figured they'd be anywhere near ready for retail!
The problem is that the precedent has been set by nearly every online game that people will be forgiving and understanding. It's as if we expect that any online game should be released in a nearly unplayable state, and that it's ok for them to continue finishing the game while on our clocks as paying customers.
Would you find it acceptable if you subscribed for cable television, but they finished working out the kinks in delivering certain channels over your first few months? "Oh, sorry about the Weather Channel cutting out on you. Yeah, you can hear about that tornado warning on the radio at the moment. The Weather Channel router's been on the fritz, and we're taking it offline for a while until it's ready. Your other channels will work fine in the meantime."
Just what is it that makes it acceptable for us as paying customers and subscribers to have to put up with incomplete and unreliable online game releases?
I've been rather negative regarding Star Wars Galaxies due to my experiences in the beta testing since November. Not because I want the game to fail: far from it. I wish the game would actually live up to the hype and be a solid, revolutionary online title. That's what it was originally intended to be, after all.
Unfortunately, as of now, 7 of the 10 planets have yet to be beta tested. The in-game help and reference files are incomplete. Many objects and items in the game don't even have any descriptive text beyond "cha_tabl_2_1_acc" and such. Vast areas of emptiness permeate the game world with nothing to do (or even battle). I've gone literally minutes running across Tatooine without so much as a gundark appearing on long-range sensors.
The game isn't ready for release. June 26th as a release date means that the gold master was pressed as little as a week ago, possible further in the past. The game is not content-ready for release, and with the gold master being that old, prepare for people having a massive patch to download on release day. There will likely be a good amount of initial content for very low level characters, but I anticipate that there will be more problems plaguing this release than we saw with WWII Online and Anarchy Online⦠combined.
Nah, didn't buy the remote. I should think that once you've paid the (at the time) $300 to buy the system, you shouldn't have to pay more to fix a problem that should be repaired/updated for free.
Imagine if Sony sold a dedicated DVD player that couldn't play a major movie correctly, then stated that it was easy to fix if you bought an updated remote.;)
Note that I didn't get all torqued off when this happened to me; it annoyed the crap out of me, but I knew I was eventually going to get a better DVD player anyway, so I just shrugged it off as maybe a glitch in my system. The games played fine, so... eh.
Slashdot Mirror
Another possibility is that the Matrix and the "real world" are both matrices, as you posit, but that Neo is in fact a program which has been developed to try to reach true AI, including emotions.
Perhaps the inhabitants in the matrices are either real humans used to provide virtual selves for Neo to interact with, or the inhabitants are merely programs themselves meant to push Neo into achieving true AI.
I don't know what the truth is either, but it's fun to guess.
That's just because most porn sites only sell MPG's rather than MOV's.
Err, not that I'd know that from personal experience, of course...
Looks like you got modded up anyway. See, to keep from getting modded up, you should have put the link buried inside of a rant against how the Wachowski's have sold out.
;)
Wait... that'd probably get you to +5 insightful.
Or you could have blathered on and on about how hot Morpheus would be in speedos.
Naw, that'd just get you +5 funny.
Hmmm... come to think of it, how do you get modded down?
I know, make really, really, REALLY lame jokes like me!
Ah, well, good to have the record set straight that all the legal problems in this country due to frivolous lawsuits are due to the Democrats. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind during the next election.
1. Make "Final Fantasy"
2. Create sequels to raise suspicion of true finality.
3. ????
4. PROFIT!
Seriously though, the "dur, if it's final fantasy, why ur dere sekwels?" has been so overdone it's as bad as Jeff Foxworthy's redneck jokes.
1. Make "Final Fantasy" 2. Create sequels to raise suspicion of true finality. 3. ???? 4. PROFIT! Seriously though, the "dur, if it's final fantasy, why ur dere sekwels?" has been so overdone it's as bad as Jeff Foxworthy's redneck jokes.
Nice way to over-generalize, "Kohath". Guess you've got a big stick up your rear if you can't read a thread that has nothing to do with party-line politics without pausing to bash "those gawrsh-durned Commiecrats!"
;)
Pardon my sarcasm and over-generalizing of you... must be contagious.
I agree. As George Carlin said (roughly):
Think about the average level of human stupidity. Now think about the implication that half of all the people out there are more stupid than that.
No offense, but it's no more ridiculous to think of machines doing it and taking away our jobs than it is to think of companies outsourcing labor (including computer labor and customer service) to foreign nations.
But that's just what's happening today; many jobs no longer exist in America because companies are outsourcing to India (especially computer jobs), Mexico, etc. Why? Because it's cheaper for companies, and if robots could do it, it'd be even cheaper.
There is no force more powerful in our economy than the greed for profit growth of corporate entities.
Then why do over 6 billion people still play it then? I'm not implying anything, but given the choice of staying in this not very fun game or ending it, the vast majority of people would say that they still want to stay.
Well, if Elizabeth Wooley has anything to say about it, she would probably contend that the very nature of massively multiplayer games forces gamers into addiction. The games are designed from the bottom up to be addictive, regardless of how fun they are.
I have to admit, I myself have fallen into this trap. I find the crafting skills particularly addictive, especially the ones that are profession-oriented. I can't help myself; most mornings after logging in, I head to the office and work on my tech assistance phone skills. Sure, I'm sitting in a cubicle and not moving for 12 hours, but every once in a while I advance a level (which results in more money) or gain some bonus certifications.
Ah well, I suppose it's really the social aspects of the game that keep me addicted. Every once in a while I find a female character (hopefully not really being played by some 55-year-old man living in his mother's basement) who's really into H07 cYb0Rz. ;)
Yes, I do.
*points up to his userid*
Not the exact same, mind you, but a variation on it which is a close resemblance.
I love Blizzard today, and always do. I could care less about whether Blizzard is open or closed source, because I buy their software to do one thing: play it. I don't pay a continual subscription fee (or license renewal fee) to do so; Battle.net is free to use.
Fact of the matter is, I have thoroughly enjoyed every game that Blizzard has created. I can't say that about *any* other developer out there, though some come close. Blizzard's games aren't for everyone, but the one thing they do know is their audience, and every game is polished very heavily for that target group.
Don't get me wrong, I love many other games of all genres; there's very little I don't like (one of the benefits of being easily amused, I suppose). But I have always been able to count on picking up a Blizzard game from the shelf confident that I'd take it home and have a game that installs without compatibility issues and is fun to play.
As for the closed source whining? I doubt anyone is going to use the game engine of Starcraft to run a hospital's server, or use the Diablo II engine as the basis for an open source OS, or something of that matter. And those folks who were working on Freecraft? Hey, maybe they could have done something a little less blatantly obvious and would never have been bothered. ("hey, I know, let's make an open-source RPG that achieves a lot of what Bioware's games do!" "I know, let's call it 'Faldur's Gate!' No one can complain about that, it's not even remotely indicative of a rip-off from the original product!")
Sorry if this seems a bit of a flame; I don't intend it to be that harsh. I just grow weary of everything being either open-source or evil. It's like the hyper-environmentalists who chain themselves to every piece of driftwood because a new beach area is opening up or something. I believe in fighting for a cause, but I also believe in picking battles that really matter.
Actually, the parent comment was NOT offtopic. This relates exactly to one of the book's major points: MMO's are services, not regular games. Too many developers, treating them like games, are releasing them in an incomplete state that's not ready for retail.
In a regular game, we've grown to expect patches. It's why I rarely purchase PC games when they first come out. But with a regular PC game, you pay once, and when it's ready it's ready. The person who bought the game 3 months before me hasn't paid much more than I did (maybe the price drops 5-10 dollars in the meantime), and they've been able to get some enjoyment out of it (unless it's Ultima IX...).
In an MMO, though, the person who is an early adopter will have paid about 20-30 dollars more than me while the game is being repaired and completed.
Unfortunately, many people are either misled or haven't learned from the past, and so companies releasing MMO's continue to benefit from casual consumers going into the store and purchasing the game since it's the "latest and greatest". (Store employees promoting these incomplete games aren't helping the situation)
When the game is finally complete and running fairly smoothly 2-3 months later (or longer in some cases), the initial people who have let their subscriptions lapse don't really hurt the company, who has gotten by with those client purchases for the initial sales period. In fact, they're often able to tout those high sales (and stores place the game prominently in "hot item" categories), which leads to new sales. I would wager that it is the sales from this point forward that constitute most of the ongoing subscriptions; a large portion of the initial subscribers most likely let their subscription expire.
So granted, yes, you could say "well stop buying the incomplete games and the problem will go away!"
To which I say, "yes, I have, but unfortunately it's misinformed customers who have enabled companies to propogate this poor business practice."
Yes, I enjoy MMO's, but this shady practice for new releases is what I have grown weary of. Companies just don't get that the service needs to be ready, not just the client program. You don't open a travel agency just because the pretty office is done but you have no deals with airlines or cruiselines and hope to be successful, do you?
Don't forget as well the people who were in the beta test and honestly tried to learn to like SWG, only to finally quit in disgust or boredom. There are probably a great many people out there who had this happen, only they now have a lot of apathy toward the game and don't even care enough to post negatively against it.
Myself, I already commented on how my biggest beef with SWG is the fact that they are trying to sell a game that isn't remotely retail-ready.
I also found it interesting that even near the very end of beta, there were rarely more than a couple hundred players (out of several thousand beta testers) on the server during prime time. Such a highly anticipated game, with the free time running out soon, wouldn't you think the beta testers would be anxious to make good use of the limited free time they had left?
Arrr, Gaijin! Konnichiwa!
Ach, mein piraten!
Granted, the playerbase of EQ isn't as varied as, say, the viewerbase of movies in America or something. However, as far as games go, EQ has a surprisingly varied userbase for a computer game.
Like most computer games, the playerbase is heavily skewed towards the young male student demographic, but also incorporates a more varied cross-section of gamers than most computer games (especially single-player ones). I guarantee you'll find more variety in the player base of EQ than in Counter-Strike or UT2K3. (not bashing those games; they're well-made and enjoyable)
There's also an interesting essay about men and women on the site I've linked to.
As for your Muppet comparison, I'd wager that it's really just the vocal and annoying minority that stand out to give such a bad impression, much like how that one customer who just rips you a new one will ruin your day and stand out more in your mind than the 20 pleasant customers you dealt with.
Then again, I suppose it's just more sensational to rip on EQ gamers with your Animal-like chant of "LO-SER! LO-SER!". You'd fit in at the New York Times, sir.
Legal disclaimer: I play EQ, am a single male in a healthy relationship, earn a decent living, and tend to be online less than most people sit in front of their football or NASCAR (only a handful of hours each week).
"But Honey, this is actually a training program for some office activities!"
Taken from the press release, the playable characters are:
...and yeah, sucker that I am, I'll probably get both, unless the offline portion of Champions of Norrath is as skimpy and bland as the offline portions of the Phantasy Star Online games.
Barbarian Warrior, Dark Elf Shadow Knight, High Elf Cleric, Erudite Wizard, Wood Elf Ranger
Sounds pretty close to the lineup for Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2. In fact, Champtions of Norrath sounds so identical to BG:DA2 that it'll be like comparing Gauntlet Legends to Gauntlet Dark Legacy.
I refuse to pay to continue to be a beta tester
That's just it, and it's a large part of why my comments about the game appear to be so vitriolic. For a long time, I was patient with the shortcomings of SWG, because it was early Beta.
As time went on, however, I began to realize that they were preparing to release an incomplete game on the public. Despite that knowledge, I was taken aback by the announcement this week that the game would go live on June 26th, fully 3 months before I figured they'd be anywhere near ready for retail!
The problem is that the precedent has been set by nearly every online game that people will be forgiving and understanding. It's as if we expect that any online game should be released in a nearly unplayable state, and that it's ok for them to continue finishing the game while on our clocks as paying customers.
Would you find it acceptable if you subscribed for cable television, but they finished working out the kinks in delivering certain channels over your first few months? "Oh, sorry about the Weather Channel cutting out on you. Yeah, you can hear about that tornado warning on the radio at the moment. The Weather Channel router's been on the fritz, and we're taking it offline for a while until it's ready. Your other channels will work fine in the meantime."
Just what is it that makes it acceptable for us as paying customers and subscribers to have to put up with incomplete and unreliable online game releases?
I've been rather negative regarding Star Wars Galaxies due to my experiences in the beta testing since November. Not because I want the game to fail: far from it. I wish the game would actually live up to the hype and be a solid, revolutionary online title. That's what it was originally intended to be, after all.
Unfortunately, as of now, 7 of the 10 planets have yet to be beta tested. The in-game help and reference files are incomplete. Many objects and items in the game don't even have any descriptive text beyond "cha_tabl_2_1_acc" and such. Vast areas of emptiness permeate the game world with nothing to do (or even battle). I've gone literally minutes running across Tatooine without so much as a gundark appearing on long-range sensors.
The game isn't ready for release. June 26th as a release date means that the gold master was pressed as little as a week ago, possible further in the past. The game is not content-ready for release, and with the gold master being that old, prepare for people having a massive patch to download on release day. There will likely be a good amount of initial content for very low level characters, but I anticipate that there will be more problems plaguing this release than we saw with WWII Online and Anarchy Online⦠combined.
I was wondering about that myself.
I could see it now; birds flying over wimbledon in brightly painted colors when their gangrenous legs and wings start dropping onto the crowds.
Virtua Tennis 2: White meat or green?
Much as I grow weary of all the lawsuits these days, I'd recommend this guy sue Seth for libel, especially since it's causing measurable damages.
Yeah; only 3 comments and the server's already choking. Then again, most of the space agency servers are ALWAYS very slow.
Nah, didn't buy the remote. I should think that once you've paid the (at the time) $300 to buy the system, you shouldn't have to pay more to fix a problem that should be repaired/updated for free.
;)
Imagine if Sony sold a dedicated DVD player that couldn't play a major movie correctly, then stated that it was easy to fix if you bought an updated remote.
Note that I didn't get all torqued off when this happened to me; it annoyed the crap out of me, but I knew I was eventually going to get a better DVD player anyway, so I just shrugged it off as maybe a glitch in my system. The games played fine, so... eh.
Sorry about that; new user here. I didn't notice that it posted in HTML by default, hence no paragraph breaks.
My apologies, won't happen again.