In this example, I don't blame the players for choosing the laser/turret route -- after all, the hallway, though obviously deadly, is logically passable.
Most games don't have a full interactive environment where doors and windows can be used. How many times have you gone through game levels with structures full of obviously fake, useless doors? Or played a game that has useable doors, the majority of which are purposely and permanently locked?
Windows are often just (you're looking for a pun here, aren't you?) wall candy. Most games don't allow you to open or use open windows, so why bother? I think that's something gamers have learned over time. Avoid wasting time on Windows, it's useless.
Programmmers and level designers don't have the time or resources to make completely detailed levels with useable doors/windows. Most are rushed to the market ASAP to satisfy some parent company's money hunger-- so who has time to make real, working levels?
Maybe we've learned to live with limited-environment games to the point where we look for the obvious 'working' door, the hidden switch, or even the linear route. (linear... that's a different topic)
It makes me wonder whether the workplace was so volatile that they couldn't wait to split (maybe nobody could get along with Warren, ergo Randy Smith's departure), or whether everybody was just a 'hired gun' for the the two projects.
On the hired gun theory, maybe future Ion Storm projects will be from 'Ion Storm India'.
It also leaves me wondering if there is a snowball's chance in hell for a Thief 4 title, or even whether Thief: Deadly Shadows will have any of it's bugs addressed.
Boy, that announcement has got to be frying Billy Gates' kippers & giving him sleepless nights. To have the most high-profile DB vendor switching to Linux for development is a setback in the World Domaination plan...
Don't forget to subtract:
1 gig for swap
3 gigs for specialized M$ Windows OS flab
1 gig for Phantom's own software blotation
1 gig for ad storage (why not?)
1 gig for previews, demos, game catalogs, promo crap
1 gig for user storage, save games etc.
---
32 gigs left over. 25% lost to administrativa.
That leaves space for about 16 games at 2 gigs each.
Somehow the logistics of streaming games over broadband doesn't add up. It's going to take a sizeable delay to get the core pieces of a game engine, core graphics etc. down, then more for each level. Some of the Thief Fan Missions I've downloaded are 8 megs each. I can't see titles being instantly playable, but maybe start the download and go have dinner...
There's a simple workaround for security (situation posed was: hack3r walking around mall with portable 'scanner')... if the RFID device you're carring is a key fob or card or something, incorporate a spring-loaded slide switch. You frob the switch when you want the thing to be read. When read, let go and it disables the device.
Or take a clue from that USB key that includes a fingerprint scanner to activate/unlock it. Put your finger on your RFID fob/cad/whatever to enable it.
You could always get a life and leave the keyboard once in a while.
Seriously, as someone who also has carpal tunnel... rearrange your life a bit. Different keyboard, mouse, chair height. See your doctor or hook up with someone else who has CTS/RSI and get some advice. Then there are exercies etc. Advil and cold compresses work best for me.
But nothing beats getting away from the keyboard for periodic rest periods. Just don't do equally strenuous activities on your away periods.
Developers take as long as they like to make their product and then add up the number of hours and expected sale units and price each unit accordingly. There is no incentive to conceive and code whole new classes of development tools that will give order-of-magnitude in productivity.
No. Developers are rushed to get code out the door so publishers a.k.a. middle men a.k.a. the 'software mafia' can start making profit. Think RIAA, you'll get it. Oh, or the release of a new crappy hollywood film necessitates a rushed 'officially licensed' game for more profit. [mel brooks] Moichandizing, moichandizing, moichandizing! [/mel brooks]
And the problem isn't always incentive to innovate but lack of time. Who has time to write an engine when the (Doom, Quake, whatever) engine can be licensed, hacked up, and something spit out quickly.
The one B&M bookstore in my town sold everything at retail prices, sometimes higher. Yes, they would sticker over the price on the back cover/jackets if the item was hot or was a special order. Speaking of, special orders took a couple weeks as they batched orders to save themselves money. And selection of fantasy, sci-fi, and especially those computer or technology related was laughable.
With the internet you can find just about anything, find it in-stock in places, and get consumer reviews before ordering. You can call me an jackass for buying books online, but I've got better titles in my library and more cash in my wallet to boot.
Finally, what do consumers owe B&Ms? The right to pay retail to keep you in business, or the right to get the best value for their money? Think of the economy, the jobs we're losing overseas, the tech jobs being outsourced to india, before you start getting critical about how people choose to spend their buck.
...and in third place was Warren Specter who, in an attempt to redefine the topic to be marketable on both PC and console platforms, debuted a rather monochromatic story full of unified weapons...
(it's a JOKE for cripes sake...)
First of all, are all spammers bad? I mean, there ARE some people that buy crap advertised in spam. And is it all bad, or a ripoff? There was an link on Fark a week ago to an article about some guy that actually looks forwards to receiving spam, and had bought a lot of things from spam mails. Weird things, like a carpet cleaner, but things.
On the other hand, do people want AOL to shelter them from the web, from the real world? I can't mail some friends on another ISP because their ISP has blacklisted Roadrunner Email. We already have a government 'sheltering' us from things, such as the real truth behind assassinations, aliens, and the disappearance of Elvis.
Finally, the more things AOL blocks, the more reason for people to take the red pill, wake up to the monopoly, and get on a real ISP. Then those stupid CDs will stop showing up in my mailbox.
I want to see the web, the whole web, the whole glorious ugly sex-ridden spam-filled seething mass of crap, and naught else.
States collect taxes on the re-sale of items such as cars, which seems stupid because it's already been taxed... but...
Anyway, I can see dim bulbs in the RIAA's pea-brain flickering briefly then the new lines on tax returns appearing:
57. Purchases of new, used, copies, horrible copies of any music CDs, records, tapes or other media ________
58. Multiply by 150% _________ (incl. penalty for not buying authentic original media)
59. Make check payable to RIAA for amount on line 58.
As much as I dislike the Micrsoft monopoly (Microsopoly? Whatever...), I dislike everything Real-associated.
Besides the Spyware, besides having to go through heck to even find the free Realplayer on their site.... the galling part is anything you put into a Real format is stuck there. Just try and find some apps that convert their sound or video formats to some other format.... it's a challenge.
I've given up on multiplayer. Counterstrike, AA, BF1942 --- aimbots and Punkbuster hacks are all over those games. It really sucks the root to be shot through mountains, through buildings, by impossible shots. Cheats are used by kiddies to make up for their lack of skills.
I know a beta tester for a current popular game who told me they have found people cheating on the private beta game servers!
That's because some people just want to USE a computer and not have to get an associate's degree in Windows Security Hole Management and Script Kiddie Defense just to own one.
All of the people in my office building are the same way. They just want the computers to help them do their jobs. They don't have time to be computer experts. Even though the Email attachment says 'funny song - click me!', they don't completely understand it could be a virus or a trojan.
Constant Vigilence!! [pounds fist on table] Take Moody's advice!
When you buy in to these plans, you're buying insurance to receive upgrades for free or at subdued charges. You're not buying anything tangible.
It's like buying an insurance policy. You pay the money but never realize the benefit. But because everybody buys insurance, you do as well. The loopholes coded in to their logic ensures that you are able to benefit in the most minimal way possible.
I'm not getting ANY hopes up after Ion Storm's miserable Deus Ex 2: Invisible War fiasco. I don't think there is a need to list DX:IW's shortcomings because everybody who's wallet has been irreparably "touched" by DX:IW already knows, or have already warned their friends how badly it sucked.
All signs point to Thief: Deadly Shadows being not much more than a DX:IW "mod", despite the pretense that it's "new and improved". Warren Storm tanked a microsecond after they sold out compatibility for console compatibility.
Meanwhile, for everybody else, enjoy the Unified Arrows for ammo.
I bought the 10-in-1 last Christmas because it has my all-time favorite 2600 game: Adventure. The conversion wasn't quite 100% though. After finding the "invisible dot" and taking it to the key screen to reveal the Easter egg (credits), I found the credits weren't there but instead some graphic glitch was.
Maybe it was something (code?) crunched out during the process of making the ROMs fit into whatever guts makes up the thing.
Maybe they just haven't figured out how the rootkit on the new one is stealthed?
Seriously, I don't like seeing products PR'd as 'enhanced security' or having the marketing feebs use the 'this version has not been hacked yet!' slogan as some weird mating call for upper management with large budgets ripe for sucking. The more security-minded things get implemented, the harder it is to get real work done.
New LockD-UP LiNUX. It's so secure, even WE don't know the 10,000 character root password!
Back when I was a boy, my grandfather and I used to walk down the tracks, just for a walk. Grandfather used to work for the railroad in a way; he worked for a company that built engines. In our walks he would tell me things about the rails, cars, engines, how the railway system worked etc. Cool stuff.
Today you can't get near any railroad property without being arrested. I can't even walk my dog down the wide strip of grass between the rails and the end of the city blocks, a strip that is a good 100 feet wide. I know because I was told to leave the property two summers ago. It's not like I was on the tracks -- I walked as far away as possible, along the narrow strip of woods separating the blocks from the railroad property.
It's obvious this is due to legalease, due to our litigious society causing all of the hokey laws to be made these days. We're no longer people, no longer neighbors, but suspicious, protective and paranoid. We're all out to get each other.
Finally, the tongue in cheek reply: maybe the HostileEULA(tm) on that site has something to do with the railroad's shrinking domain, and they need some sort of revenue mechanism 'just in case' ?:) Be careful, because flashing your eyes over the photos on that site too many times constitutes excessive usage and you could be charged a fee!!
Deus Ex 2 was a pile of steaming butt nuggets. The unified ammo, lack of localized damage, console interface, grade-school voice acting and cartoon physics were all foreshadowing the fscking Ion Storm was preparing for Thief-genre fanatics. Don't forget that at some point Warren Specter was quoted as saying that he "didn't get it" referring to the Thief genre of stealth over combat.
Somewhere, in some country, it was finally realized that "Ion Storm" could be translated to "incompetent sellouts"
Slashdot Mirror
In this example, I don't blame the players for choosing the laser/turret route -- after all, the hallway, though obviously deadly, is logically passable.
Most games don't have a full interactive environment where doors and windows can be used. How many times have you gone through game levels with structures full of obviously fake, useless doors? Or played a game that has useable doors, the majority of which are purposely and permanently locked?
Windows are often just (you're looking for a pun here, aren't you?) wall candy. Most games don't allow you to open or use open windows, so why bother? I think that's something gamers have learned over time. Avoid wasting time on Windows, it's useless.
Programmmers and level designers don't have the time or resources to make completely detailed levels with useable doors/windows. Most are rushed to the market ASAP to satisfy some parent company's money hunger-- so who has time to make real, working levels?
Maybe we've learned to live with limited-environment games to the point where we look for the obvious 'working' door, the hidden switch, or even the linear route. (linear... that's a different topic)
It makes me wonder whether the workplace was so volatile that they couldn't wait to split (maybe nobody could get along with Warren, ergo Randy Smith's departure), or whether everybody was just a 'hired gun' for the the two projects.
On the hired gun theory, maybe future Ion Storm projects will be from 'Ion Storm India'.
It also leaves me wondering if there is a snowball's chance in hell for a Thief 4 title, or even whether Thief: Deadly Shadows will have any of it's bugs addressed.
Boy, that announcement has got to be frying Billy Gates' kippers & giving him sleepless nights. To have the most high-profile DB vendor switching to Linux for development is a setback in the World Domaination plan...
Don't forget to subtract:
1 gig for swap
3 gigs for specialized M$ Windows OS flab
1 gig for Phantom's own software blotation
1 gig for ad storage (why not?)
1 gig for previews, demos, game catalogs, promo crap
1 gig for user storage, save games etc.
---
32 gigs left over. 25% lost to administrativa.
That leaves space for about 16 games at 2 gigs each.
Somehow the logistics of streaming games over broadband doesn't add up. It's going to take a sizeable delay to get the core pieces of a game engine, core graphics etc. down, then more for each level. Some of the Thief Fan Missions I've downloaded are 8 megs each. I can't see titles being instantly playable, but maybe start the download and go have dinner...
There's a simple workaround for security (situation posed was: hack3r walking around mall with portable 'scanner') ... if the RFID device you're carring is a key fob or card or something, incorporate a spring-loaded slide switch. You frob the switch when you want the thing to be read. When read, let go and it disables the device.
Or take a clue from that USB key that includes a fingerprint scanner to activate/unlock it. Put your finger on your RFID fob/cad/whatever to enable it.
You could always get a life and leave the keyboard once in a while.
Seriously, as someone who also has carpal tunnel... rearrange your life a bit. Different keyboard, mouse, chair height. See your doctor or hook up with someone else who has CTS/RSI and get some advice. Then there are exercies etc. Advil and cold compresses work best for me.
But nothing beats getting away from the keyboard for periodic rest periods. Just don't do equally strenuous activities on your away periods.
Developers take as long as they like to make their product and then add up the number of hours and expected sale units and price each unit accordingly. There is no incentive to conceive and code whole new classes of development tools that will give order-of-magnitude in productivity.
No. Developers are rushed to get code out the door so publishers a.k.a. middle men a.k.a. the 'software mafia' can start making profit. Think RIAA, you'll get it. Oh, or the release of a new crappy hollywood film necessitates a rushed 'officially licensed' game for more profit. [mel brooks] Moichandizing, moichandizing, moichandizing! [/mel brooks]
And the problem isn't always incentive to innovate but lack of time. Who has time to write an engine when the (Doom, Quake, whatever) engine can be licensed, hacked up, and something spit out quickly.
The one B&M bookstore in my town sold everything at retail prices, sometimes higher. Yes, they would sticker over the price on the back cover/jackets if the item was hot or was a special order. Speaking of, special orders took a couple weeks as they batched orders to save themselves money. And selection of fantasy, sci-fi, and especially those computer or technology related was laughable.
With the internet you can find just about anything, find it in-stock in places, and get consumer reviews before ordering. You can call me an jackass for buying books online, but I've got better titles in my library and more cash in my wallet to boot.
Finally, what do consumers owe B&Ms? The right to pay retail to keep you in business, or the right to get the best value for their money? Think of the economy, the jobs we're losing overseas, the tech jobs being outsourced to india, before you start getting critical about how people choose to spend their buck.
And a 01 and a 10 and a 11....
...and in third place was Warren Specter who, in an attempt to redefine the topic to be marketable on both PC and console platforms, debuted a rather monochromatic story full of unified weapons... (it's a JOKE for cripes sake...)
I've got mixed feelings about that.
First of all, are all spammers bad? I mean, there ARE some people that buy crap advertised in spam. And is it all bad, or a ripoff? There was an link on Fark a week ago to an article about some guy that actually looks forwards to receiving spam, and had bought a lot of things from spam mails. Weird things, like a carpet cleaner, but things.
On the other hand, do people want AOL to shelter them from the web, from the real world? I can't mail some friends on another ISP because their ISP has blacklisted Roadrunner Email. We already have a government 'sheltering' us from things, such as the real truth behind assassinations, aliens, and the disappearance of Elvis.
Finally, the more things AOL blocks, the more reason for people to take the red pill, wake up to the monopoly, and get on a real ISP. Then those stupid CDs will stop showing up in my mailbox.
I want to see the web, the whole web, the whole glorious ugly sex-ridden spam-filled seething mass of crap, and naught else.
States collect taxes on the re-sale of items such as cars, which seems stupid because it's already been taxed... but...
Anyway, I can see dim bulbs in the RIAA's pea-brain flickering briefly then the new lines on tax returns appearing:
57. Purchases of new, used, copies, horrible copies of any music CDs, records, tapes or other media ________
58. Multiply by 150% _________ (incl. penalty for not buying authentic original media)
59. Make check payable to RIAA for amount on line 58.
As much as I dislike the Micrsoft monopoly (Microsopoly? Whatever...), I dislike everything Real-associated.
Besides the Spyware, besides having to go through heck to even find the free Realplayer on their site.... the galling part is anything you put into a Real format is stuck there. Just try and find some apps that convert their sound or video formats to some other format.... it's a challenge.
Pot... kettle... black!
I've given up on multiplayer. Counterstrike, AA, BF1942 --- aimbots and Punkbuster hacks are all over those games. It really sucks the root to be shot through mountains, through buildings, by impossible shots. Cheats are used by kiddies to make up for their lack of skills.
I know a beta tester for a current popular game who told me they have found people cheating on the private beta game servers!
That's because some people just want to USE a computer and not have to get an associate's degree in Windows Security Hole Management and Script Kiddie Defense just to own one.
All of the people in my office building are the same way. They just want the computers to help them do their jobs. They don't have time to be computer experts. Even though the Email attachment says 'funny song - click me!', they don't completely understand it could be a virus or a trojan.
Constant Vigilence!! [pounds fist on table] Take Moody's advice!
When you buy in to these plans, you're buying insurance to receive upgrades for free or at subdued charges. You're not buying anything tangible.
It's like buying an insurance policy. You pay the money but never realize the benefit. But because everybody buys insurance, you do as well. The loopholes coded in to their logic ensures that you are able to benefit in the most minimal way possible.
Sell your soul. It's cheaper.
... noted for politically correct interviews and shamless posterior kissing...
Didn't GS do a pretty rosey review of DX:IW?
I'm not getting ANY hopes up after Ion Storm's miserable Deus Ex 2: Invisible War fiasco. I don't think there is a need to list DX:IW's shortcomings because everybody who's wallet has been irreparably "touched" by DX:IW already knows, or have already warned their friends how badly it sucked.
All signs point to Thief: Deadly Shadows being not much more than a DX:IW "mod", despite the pretense that it's "new and improved". Warren Storm tanked a microsecond after they sold out compatibility for console compatibility.
Meanwhile, for everybody else, enjoy the Unified Arrows for ammo.
Anger management? Me? ANGRY? WTF!! STFU!!
Everything was OK until I used my all-in-one remote with my HD-DVD and invoked WPA.
Vigara, viiagra, viagara, veragra, v1agra, viaagra...
All were taken from the 2004 edition of the SPAMmers's Dictionary.
Don't vote, it only encourages them.
(I should talk. After all, I'm politically agnostic)
I bought the 10-in-1 last Christmas because it has my all-time favorite 2600 game: Adventure. The conversion wasn't quite 100% though. After finding the "invisible dot" and taking it to the key screen to reveal the Easter egg (credits), I found the credits weren't there but instead some graphic glitch was.
Maybe it was something (code?) crunched out during the process of making the ROMs fit into whatever guts makes up the thing.
But it was still cool as all getup!
Maybe they just haven't figured out how the rootkit on the new one is stealthed?
Seriously, I don't like seeing products PR'd as 'enhanced security' or having the marketing feebs use the 'this version has not been hacked yet!' slogan as some weird mating call for upper management with large budgets ripe for sucking. The more security-minded things get implemented, the harder it is to get real work done.
New LockD-UP LiNUX. It's so secure, even WE don't know the 10,000 character root password!
Back when I was a boy, my grandfather and I used to walk down the tracks, just for a walk. Grandfather used to work for the railroad in a way; he worked for a company that built engines. In our walks he would tell me things about the rails, cars, engines, how the railway system worked etc. Cool stuff.
:) Be careful, because flashing your eyes over the photos on that site too many times constitutes excessive usage and you could be charged a fee!!
Today you can't get near any railroad property without being arrested. I can't even walk my dog down the wide strip of grass between the rails and the end of the city blocks, a strip that is a good 100 feet wide. I know because I was told to leave the property two summers ago. It's not like I was on the tracks -- I walked as far away as possible, along the narrow strip of woods separating the blocks from the railroad property.
It's obvious this is due to legalease, due to our litigious society causing all of the hokey laws to be made these days. We're no longer people, no longer neighbors, but suspicious, protective and paranoid. We're all out to get each other.
Finally, the tongue in cheek reply: maybe the HostileEULA(tm) on that site has something to do with the railroad's shrinking domain, and they need some sort of revenue mechanism 'just in case' ?
C'mon, we all saw this coming.
Deus Ex 2 was a pile of steaming butt nuggets. The unified ammo, lack of localized damage, console interface, grade-school voice acting and cartoon physics were all foreshadowing the fscking Ion Storm was preparing for Thief-genre fanatics. Don't forget that at some point Warren Specter was quoted as saying that he "didn't get it" referring to the Thief genre of stealth over combat.
Somewhere, in some country, it was finally realized that "Ion Storm" could be translated to "incompetent sellouts"