..dont' forget the best part: it's taking more and more developers to make a "GOOD" game. More coding, art, sound, CONTENT.. This gradual increase of developers has assuredly thinned out their pay and enforces the prodcut to stay the same. It's amazing they're still basically the same price after all these years, one would expect them to be higher.
Still, bosses starve & slave their developers giving you reasons to hate them.:)
Actually the reason why Apple support is so good is because they don't have to deal with 50% of what a Windows Technician's job is: destroying spyware/malware/viruses.
I don't know how many times I've noticed one of the aforementioned on a customer's machine who's problem was originally software or hardware-specific. My conscience forced me to dig it out, it's just really a bitch.
Uh, this shouldn't be redundant, a moderator screwed up. Ebyrob said '..and slap their OLD version of Windows' which is much different than '..and slap their PIRATED version of Windows'. You missed his point.
1st: Shaddap, no one likes to be distracted by the intricacies of the medium used for discussion. We're here to discuss the topic at hand.
2nd:
"For those of you that have not yet pre-purchased your copy of DOOM 3 because you thought your system would not be up to par and are not planning a system upgrade, you can now rest easy. I can now say with confidence, if you are playing any of the newer 3D games that have come out this year, the odds are that your system will provide a great DOOM 3 gaming experience in terms of IQ and video performance."
("Now" is used too much in the article's final paragraph.)
Doesn't this smell like commie bs to anyone else?
As I'm reading the entire article I'm thinking about how ATI is in Canada and IDSoftware & Nvidia are in the U.S. and it seems like ATI just didn't realize that Carmack was STILL the shiznit with next-generation graphics in games among other seemingly frivilous details that you guessed would happen and did. He's kept going when everyone else just stood there and made all their games off the same engine -- or a variation of an engine that produces the same results from any other engine of what we've seen lately.
Oh well, doesn't really matter 'cause Half-Life 2 is going to come out soon (if they did their jobs) and it's "barely-better-than-last-generation" engine isn't really going to weaken Valve/ATI's position because HL2 may be the trump card. What if it's like Halo. A game that when one played it co-op on the Xbox, one must have the system it is played on. The graphics will still be a step up -- but not like they looked last year (;_:) Point is, ATI's benchmarks are going to be better for Half-Life 2 than Nvidia's and that's something to consider AND HL2 may just be the next Halo. So thousands end up buying the new Nvidia card only to feel screwed later when HL2 shows their card gives less FPS.
Still, Doom3 is going to be awesome either way and I expect it to do well even if HL2 ends up being the perfect game albeit's lesser graphics engine.
I'm just saying to take the situation in perspective -- just because an article says "hardware upgrade" or a variation thereof 3 times per page doesn't mean you have to preoccupy yourself with it. You might want to wait until HL2 comes out. Base it on your economic situation rather than timeline.
I could have used LILO but I had trouble with it last time around: LILO would come up with "LIL" (where's the 'o'??) and then comp freezes. Grub is a boot manager too so I tried to avoid those because my last batch of problems with them along with the fact that I really don't want to risk making my copy of XP unbootable. (Hey, not likely, but still a possibility.)
(Also, in my own defense I was completely slammed last night when I made that post, lol -- it happens.)
Same here (except desktop rather than notebook). It only took 13 floppies for the upgrade from 3.1, though. And, honestly, besides the MASSIVE number of bugs Win 95 had it was quite the step up. Just look at 98SE compared to 95, then network performance between 98SE & 2k/XP -- can we say "finally" a year after XP came out???
It's still relatively low security but now it's approaching (or will soon, SP2??) comparable speed both CPU and Network based, stability, and superior 3D support. Point is I'm a friggin' Windows technician. If I recommended Linux to customers after I fixed their problem you know how much I would increase your profits regarding the namebrand game????????
I would be willing to bet at least five times what it normally is.
Like most techs my age, though (21) I care most about video.
Anyway, point is, during the time I was on dial-up using 95 & 98SE I always booted into Slackware if I really wanted fast Internet access with Linux network architecture combined with Lynx's minimalist's approach.
*Sigh*
I have a dual boot with Slackware 9.1 that requires a russian Win 98SE CDROM boot disk to run (do I look like I'm kidding??) who's major downfall regarding my use is the 9800XT's minor driver (existance??) that doesn't support 3D. I mean c'mon, 9800XT (530$+ when I bought it maybe ~5 months ago) and it doesn't support 3-friggin-D in linux.
Anyway, that's the #1 thing that stops me from using Linux. I'm a hobbyist programmer that excels in graphics hardware acceleration. If I spend so much money on the hardware and the software doesn't support it, why even bother??
I guess if my job required I know Linux I would adopt it, but until then I'm in Windows chilling just biding my time.
Keep that in mind. If someone really pursues reverse engineering ATI drivers from Windows and implementing them in Linux you will see me laugh like a moron and happily convert because the software (read: graphics design & games) sucks anyway. Popular software support for expensive hardware who's purpose is to play the latest games = a market. Point is that pretty much 99% of gameplay sucks right now anyway, so the only motiviation is the near full use of my oft-used hardware. I could MAKE 3D stuff for Linux. BOOM -- there's a chance my skills will lead to my fame not to mention the results of my skills producing a market.
I only say all of this because I WANT the GPL/Open Source to succeed.
Actually, many "Browser Hijackers" are coupled with their TSR spyware buddies so #4 would oftentimes backfire on you.
If anyone is familiar with HijackThis they'll know that Spyware/Malware comes with several modules placed in different portions of people's startup/browser configurations so if a piece of the spyware is removed from one area the other modules will replicate back to these areas sometimes with random filenames and a host of many other tricks that anyone familiar with "the game" will know.
Anyway, a lot of us are going to need replacements for HijackThis because the last version Merijn released is just that: the last version.
Our tech support firm uses a variant of VNC and we've had no problems with our connections being disrupted by spyware/malware.
However, our Diagnostic software does use an IE-shell so oftentimes it doesn't work. I've been bugging our developers/superiors to change this for years now but they don't seem to get the picture so I can see where this guy is coming from.
Anyway, try to get them to switch to a variant of VNC, better if it is provided by a firm so they work out all of the details making it SUPER-easy for customers to connect. If your company refuses to change here's what you do: Per-customer ask your superior if you can see if VNC will get the job done where WebEx fails. Enough times of that and the point should get across.
It really is more related to the Doom engine in design because Quake was "real 3D" where as the Doom/Build engines were basically hacks which is why they ran so much faster.
For instance, it was really a challenge for the developer of the Build engine to have support of a room directly above another room.
Build/Doom engines are raycasters. That's why when you looked up or down (or 3rd-person mode) in the Build/Doom engines walls looked skewed.
The Quake engine was actual 3D and never had this problem.
But, I will say that Duke 3D and Quake came out about the same time and were direct competitors.
The point is that it's been more than a year since I was "screwed" initally.
I'm sorry but to be a year behind all of the die-hards (combined with my initial distaste of being out of ~50$ for a game that promised more than it gave) is more than enough for me to pass on re-subscribing.
What if an innocent is criminally indicted based soley on their RFID tag due to a technological error or fraudulent RFID tag.
Oh wait, but the courts are perfect and no one would..:rolls_eyes:
Seriously, "If it saves one child" could easily be changed to "If it indictes one innocent". I think that would require a rewrite of the last part of that statement, though they both apply.
Certainly the article doesn't state that the RFID tags are REQUIRED, but if they are optional consider this:
"Putting an RFID wristband on your 8 year old does absolutely nothing to impede or degrade their quality of life". Riiiiiigghht. Obviously no one ever had to fight their way through recess because of the latest f@gtag their mother made them wear, or because they were smaller than the other kids, or because they were uglier kids, etc.
Words like "impede" or "degrade" don't necessarily make you right.
And finally, to point out ONE more error in your argument:
"(not to mention their parent's mental well-being)" What if there's a workaround, "Wear my wristband I found out how to unlock it!! this way I can go screw Jonny even though I'm only 13~!@!# I'll give you a quarter of what I make off it!!!". Sad, but easily possible. -_-
Consider all of the possibilities, this is just one of those technological/social innovations. Not a breakthrough, because there are may be just as many negatives as positives. The decision on whether it is good or bad is much to opinionated (*shudder*) and until the trial finishes we won't have any facts.
With that said, I really have no opinion on this issue or feel the need to research it either. I don't live in Japan so it doesn't really affect me in real life situations and it's hard to imagine that it would. However, your argument seems emotionally biased and perhaps you need to think a bit more before you post.
..but, as a Windows Technician of almost 4 years now I believe that people should be aware of 99% of what happens to their computer.
Treat it like a car.
Wouldn't you be upset when you find out that your engine was "automatically updated" one day and that's why you were limited to 5 mph making you cancel meetings, miss deadlines, etc..
Treat your computer like it's your car, unless you're an FFR* masochist.
Trust me, you'll save time AND money in the end.
*FFR -- Fdisk/Format/Reinstall, somewhat ancient but it still applies.:^)
Ask yourself, once you realized this would it still bother you enough to shoot
someone?
These people are just that -- barely people. If they can't take a little yelling
without murdering then they couldn't stand 10 minutes in a bar yet alone a
lame-o cybercafé. Yet, I don't see police detailing bars.
The relationship between alcohol use, tax revenue, and the cost of the public
health system, have led to the increased interest of many governments in general
drinking surveys. These outline the amounts and type of alcohol consumed by
different socio-demographic groups, and sometimes detail locations (Single &
Storm 1985). But it is the slower growing number of observational studies of
drinking, bar rooms and pubs which can provide greater detail on the effects of
situational variables on drinking...
..These findings suggest the interesting possibility of minimising the levels
of aggression and violent incidents within public drinking contexts by
encouraging practical changes to the drinking environment. These would
include improving the design and appearance of bar rooms, as well as staff
training, behaviour and attitudes to customers.
Emphasis mine. If people won't go to cc's because cops then we should look at
a different solution otherwise they'll just become extinct.
Have you ever played the game?
If so, why didn't you mention this -- your disposition may have been useful to the readers.
If not, how the hell would you claim to know what you're talking about when you haven't ever experienced SWG firsthand?
Just a little reality check:
Do you know him?
Then how can you say, ".., one cannot correctly say that he is an amatuer?"
Credentials only mean something until you acutally meet the person that owns to these.
To take a quote from Pirates of the Carribean regarding credentials: "They're more like guidelines anyway!"
Don't take them too seriously, the highly educated yet rarely employed suffer from this misconception quite a bit.
Still, you're right: On paper (monitor?) he certainly looks like he knows what he's talking about and the fact most of the games he named were big titles probably just means he used them to increase the attraction to his written dispositions. But we can't be sure now, can we?
People who are socially inept find they are usually very game adept. Naturally they will lean towards a genre that has much more depth for it to provide a happiness games ultimately can't give them.
Agreed. SWG was my first MMORPG and I played it for less than 10 hours before I was forced out of it due to a low content game.
I probably spent more time creating new characters with the character creation system than in actual game. (It was superb especially for the time).
On the other hand my second try with a MMORPG; Final Fantasy XI for PC hooked me, line and sinker. It has a mediocre character creation system at best.
What lesson does this teach us?
DON'T MAKE THE BEST PART OF THE GAME THE FIRST 10 MINUTES WITH LITTLE TO NO REWARDS TO LOOK FORWARD TO LATER.
Getting to the point where you stand out in a crowd is the goal at first in any institution as with real life or MMO. You try to rationalize it as part of your personality by saying "I'm going to be the class clown", or "I'm going to be the first dual-wielding White Mage" but it really just boils down to the relationship between you and the hope that the role you naturally fit in with a social environment will somehow make you unique. Explains why celebrities are usually so depressed.."I'm going to be the coolest male Action hero", or "I'm going to be the skinniest sexy pop singer ever", etc. Some people do it for "God", others do it for themselves.
We're so damn predictable it's silly.
Anyway, huge tanget. For a second I thought this post was about the movie the Breakfast Club.
My point is that the reason why SWG was ultimately a failure is because people want to either 1. Relax or 2. be glued to the monitor and on the edge of their seats. With little to validate much of a reward and still maintaining high action sequences with tense atmosphere SWG provided neither.
Optimize in 3DS max is much different because the algorithm isn't that smart. Optimize is going to reduce poly-count model-wide, while this is only going to reduce poly-count where it's not that noticeable anyway. Like the article says, "..similar to the way mp3's..". An Optimize on an audio file will reduce the quality of the track at all frequencies, not just the ones human's can't hear.
The lines between spyware and viruses are blurring more and more everyday. McCafee and Symantec's scanners (along with AVG & AntiVir) both detect various instances of spyware. Basically, some of the items that show up in AdAware you'll see your A/V report, too. Should be interesting seeing what happens to the Spyware scanning market after Microsoft's A/V release as well as the A/V scanning market..
Slashdot Mirror
..dont' forget the best part: it's taking more and more developers to make a "GOOD" game. More coding, art, sound, CONTENT.. This gradual increase of developers has assuredly thinned out their pay and enforces the prodcut to stay the same. It's amazing they're still basically the same price after all these years, one would expect them to be higher.
:)
Still, bosses starve & slave their developers giving you reasons to hate them.
Actually the reason why Apple support is so good is because they don't have to deal with 50% of what a Windows Technician's job is: destroying spyware/malware/viruses.
I don't know how many times I've noticed one of the aforementioned on a customer's machine who's problem was originally software or hardware-specific. My conscience forced me to dig it out, it's just really a bitch.
Uh, this shouldn't be redundant, a moderator screwed up. Ebyrob said '..and slap their OLD version of Windows' which is much different than '..and slap their PIRATED version of Windows'. You missed his point.
1st: Shaddap, no one likes to be distracted by the intricacies of the medium used for discussion. We're here to discuss the topic at hand.
2nd:
"For those of you that have not yet pre-purchased your copy of DOOM 3 because you thought your system would not be up to par and are not planning a system upgrade, you can now rest easy. I can now say with confidence, if you are playing any of the newer 3D games that have come out this year, the odds are that your system will provide a great DOOM 3 gaming experience in terms of IQ and video performance."
("Now" is used too much in the article's final paragraph.)
Doesn't this smell like commie bs to anyone else?
As I'm reading the entire article I'm thinking about how ATI is in Canada and IDSoftware & Nvidia are in the U.S. and it seems like ATI just didn't realize that Carmack was STILL the shiznit with next-generation graphics in games among other seemingly frivilous details that you guessed would happen and did. He's kept going when everyone else just stood there and made all their games off the same engine -- or a variation of an engine that produces the same results from any other engine of what we've seen lately.
Oh well, doesn't really matter 'cause Half-Life 2 is going to come out soon (if they did their jobs) and it's "barely-better-than-last-generation" engine isn't really going to weaken Valve/ATI's position because HL2 may be the trump card. What if it's like Halo. A game that when one played it co-op on the Xbox, one must have the system it is played on. The graphics will still be a step up -- but not like they looked last year (;_:) Point is, ATI's benchmarks are going to be better for Half-Life 2 than Nvidia's and that's something to consider AND HL2 may just be the next Halo. So thousands end up buying the new Nvidia card only to feel screwed later when HL2 shows their card gives less FPS.
Still, Doom3 is going to be awesome either way and I expect it to do well even if HL2 ends up being the perfect game albeit's lesser graphics engine.
I'm just saying to take the situation in perspective -- just because an article says "hardware upgrade" or a variation thereof 3 times per page doesn't mean you have to preoccupy yourself with it. You might want to wait until HL2 comes out. Base it on your economic situation rather than timeline.
Do they have 3D support?
I could have used LILO but I had trouble with it last time around: LILO would come up with "LIL" (where's the 'o'??) and then comp freezes. Grub is a boot manager too so I tried to avoid those because my last batch of problems with them along with the fact that I really don't want to risk making my copy of XP unbootable. (Hey, not likely, but still a possibility.)
(Also, in my own defense I was completely slammed last night when I made that post, lol -- it happens.)
Same here (except desktop rather than notebook). It only took 13 floppies for the upgrade from 3.1, though. And, honestly, besides the MASSIVE number of bugs Win 95 had it was quite the step up. Just look at 98SE compared to 95, then network performance between 98SE & 2k/XP -- can we say "finally" a year after XP came out???
It's still relatively low security but now it's approaching (or will soon, SP2??) comparable speed both CPU and Network based, stability, and superior 3D support. Point is I'm a friggin' Windows technician. If I recommended Linux to customers after I fixed their problem you know how much I would increase your profits regarding the namebrand game????????
I would be willing to bet at least five times what it normally is.
Like most techs my age, though (21) I care most about video.
Anyway, point is, during the time I was on dial-up using 95 & 98SE I always booted into Slackware if I really wanted fast Internet access with Linux network architecture combined with Lynx's minimalist's approach.
*Sigh*
I have a dual boot with Slackware 9.1 that requires a russian Win 98SE CDROM boot disk to run (do I look like I'm kidding??) who's major downfall regarding my use is the 9800XT's minor driver (existance??) that doesn't support 3D. I mean c'mon, 9800XT (530$+ when I bought it maybe ~5 months ago) and it doesn't support 3-friggin-D in linux.
Anyway, that's the #1 thing that stops me from using Linux. I'm a hobbyist programmer that excels in graphics hardware acceleration. If I spend so much money on the hardware and the software doesn't support it, why even bother??
I guess if my job required I know Linux I would adopt it, but until then I'm in Windows chilling just biding my time.
Keep that in mind. If someone really pursues reverse engineering ATI drivers from Windows and implementing them in Linux you will see me laugh like a moron and happily convert because the software (read: graphics design & games) sucks anyway. Popular software support for expensive hardware who's purpose is to play the latest games = a market. Point is that pretty much 99% of gameplay sucks right now anyway, so the only motiviation is the near full use of my oft-used hardware. I could MAKE 3D stuff for Linux. BOOM -- there's a chance my skills will lead to my fame not to mention the results of my skills producing a market.
I only say all of this because I WANT the GPL/Open Source to succeed.
Actually, many "Browser Hijackers" are coupled with their TSR spyware buddies so #4 would oftentimes backfire on you.
If anyone is familiar with HijackThis they'll know that Spyware/Malware comes with several modules placed in different portions of people's startup/browser configurations so if a piece of the spyware is removed from one area the other modules will replicate back to these areas sometimes with random filenames and a host of many other tricks that anyone familiar with "the game" will know.
Anyway, a lot of us are going to need replacements for HijackThis because the last version Merijn released is just that: the last version.
Our tech support firm uses a variant of VNC and we've had no problems with our connections being disrupted by spyware/malware.
However, our Diagnostic software does use an IE-shell so oftentimes it doesn't work. I've been bugging our developers/superiors to change this for years now but they don't seem to get the picture so I can see where this guy is coming from.
Anyway, try to get them to switch to a variant of VNC, better if it is provided by a firm so they work out all of the details making it SUPER-easy for customers to connect. If your company refuses to change here's what you do: Per-customer ask your superior if you can see if VNC will get the job done where WebEx fails. Enough times of that and the point should get across.
Actually, that's a bit misguided.
It really is more related to the Doom engine in design because Quake was "real 3D" where as the Doom/Build engines were basically hacks which is why they ran so much faster.
For instance, it was really a challenge for the developer of the Build engine to have support of a room directly above another room.
Build/Doom engines are raycasters. That's why when you looked up or down (or 3rd-person mode) in the Build/Doom engines walls looked skewed.
The Quake engine was actual 3D and never had this problem.
But, I will say that Duke 3D and Quake came out about the same time and were direct competitors.
The point is that it's been more than a year since I was "screwed" initally.
I'm sorry but to be a year behind all of the die-hards (combined with my initial distaste of being out of ~50$ for a game that promised more than it gave) is more than enough for me to pass on re-subscribing.
Criminal Indictment.
:rolls_eyes:
What if an innocent is criminally indicted based soley on their RFID tag due to a technological error or fraudulent RFID tag.
Oh wait, but the courts are perfect and no one would..
Seriously, "If it saves one child" could easily be changed to "If it indictes one innocent". I think that would require a rewrite of the last part of that statement, though they both apply.
Certainly the article doesn't state that the RFID tags are REQUIRED, but if they are optional consider this:
"Putting an RFID wristband on your 8 year old does absolutely nothing to impede or degrade their quality of life". Riiiiiigghht. Obviously no one ever had to fight their way through recess because of the latest f@gtag their mother made them wear, or because they were smaller than the other kids, or because they were uglier kids, etc.
Words like "impede" or "degrade" don't necessarily make you right.
And finally, to point out ONE more error in your argument:
"(not to mention their parent's mental well-being)" What if there's a workaround, "Wear my wristband I found out how to unlock it!! this way I can go screw Jonny even though I'm only 13~!@!# I'll give you a quarter of what I make off it!!!". Sad, but easily possible. -_-
Consider all of the possibilities, this is just one of those technological/social innovations. Not a breakthrough, because there are may be just as many negatives as positives. The decision on whether it is good or bad is much to opinionated (*shudder*) and until the trial finishes we won't have any facts.
With that said, I really have no opinion on this issue or feel the need to research it either. I don't live in Japan so it doesn't really affect me in real life situations and it's hard to imagine that it would. However, your argument seems emotionally biased and perhaps you need to think a bit more before you post.
..but, as a Windows Technician of almost 4 years now I believe that people should be aware of 99% of what happens to their computer.
:^)
Treat it like a car.
Wouldn't you be upset when you find out that your engine was "automatically updated" one day and that's why you were limited to 5 mph making you cancel meetings, miss deadlines, etc..
Treat your computer like it's your car, unless you're an FFR* masochist.
Trust me, you'll save time AND money in the end.
*FFR -- Fdisk/Format/Reinstall, somewhat ancient but it still applies.
People who are interested in more THAN just Apache, Apple, Books, BSD, Developers, Games, Interviews (/w Techies), Science, and YRO.
Well...
You did ask.
He's just expressing himself.
Ask yourself, once you realized this would it still bother you enough to shoot someone?
These people are just that -- barely people. If they can't take a little yelling without murdering then they couldn't stand 10 minutes in a bar yet alone a lame-o cybercafé. Yet, I don't see police detailing bars.
I'm not an Aussie and somewhat dated, but..
Australian Institute of Criminology
..These findings suggest the interesting possibility of minimising the levels
of aggression and violent incidents within public drinking contexts by
encouraging practical changes to the drinking environment. These would
include improving the design and appearance of bar rooms, as well as staff
training, behaviour and attitudes to customers.
[PDF]
Studies of Public Drinking
The relationship between alcohol use, tax revenue, and the cost of the public health system, have led to the increased interest of many governments in general drinking surveys. These outline the amounts and type of alcohol consumed by different socio-demographic groups, and sometimes detail locations (Single & Storm 1985). But it is the slower growing number of observational studies of drinking, bar rooms and pubs which can provide greater detail on the effects of situational variables on drinking...
Emphasis mine. If people won't go to cc's because cops then we should look at a different solution otherwise they'll just become extinct.
FYI: "Crips", not "crypts".
One is a gang, the other is storage for the dead, and YES: I'm an asshole. (^_^)
This reminds me of a time I was working in a fast food place during High School.
...spitting in the food they were waiting for.
These kids flashed a laser in my eyes periodically while I was doing my job...
Suckers.
I'm tired of north american girls taking such little interest in games.
The fact that she played so much it almost KILLED her counterintuitively brings a smile to my face..
Another win for the virtual world. At least she's not puking her guts out like so many other 15+ year old girls >_>
The other good news from this article is that due to this accident they were able to discover her medical condition fairly early.
We should send her a console with some good girl games to show her we care ^_^
"See any serious problems with this story? Email our on-duty editor."
meh, email is over as we know it anyway..
Obviously that was my emphasis on how & why it plain sucked.
Other games kept my attention span just fine.
Have you ever played the game? If so, why didn't you mention this -- your disposition may have been useful to the readers. If not, how the hell would you claim to know what you're talking about when you haven't ever experienced SWG firsthand?
Just a little reality check: Do you know him? Then how can you say, ".., one cannot correctly say that he is an amatuer?" Credentials only mean something until you acutally meet the person that owns to these. To take a quote from Pirates of the Carribean regarding credentials: "They're more like guidelines anyway!" Don't take them too seriously, the highly educated yet rarely employed suffer from this misconception quite a bit. Still, you're right: On paper (monitor?) he certainly looks like he knows what he's talking about and the fact most of the games he named were big titles probably just means he used them to increase the attraction to his written dispositions. But we can't be sure now, can we?
Actually it usually does.
People who are socially inept find they are usually very game adept. Naturally they will lean towards a genre that has much more depth for it to provide a happiness games ultimately can't give them.
2 cents..
Agreed. SWG was my first MMORPG and I played it for less than 10 hours before I was forced out of it due to a low content game.
I probably spent more time creating new characters with the character creation system than in actual game. (It was superb especially for the time).
On the other hand my second try with a MMORPG; Final Fantasy XI for PC hooked me, line and sinker. It has a mediocre character creation system at best.
What lesson does this teach us?
DON'T MAKE THE BEST PART OF THE GAME THE FIRST 10 MINUTES WITH LITTLE TO NO REWARDS TO LOOK FORWARD TO LATER.
Getting to the point where you stand out in a crowd is the goal at first in any institution as with real life or MMO. You try to rationalize it as part of your personality by saying "I'm going to be the class clown", or "I'm going to be the first dual-wielding White Mage" but it really just boils down to the relationship between you and the hope that the role you naturally fit in with a social environment will somehow make you unique. Explains why celebrities are usually so depressed.."I'm going to be the coolest male Action hero", or "I'm going to be the skinniest sexy pop singer ever", etc. Some people do it for "God", others do it for themselves.
We're so damn predictable it's silly.
Anyway, huge tanget. For a second I thought this post was about the movie the Breakfast Club.
My point is that the reason why SWG was ultimately a failure is because people want to either 1. Relax or 2. be glued to the monitor and on the edge of their seats. With little to validate much of a reward and still maintaining high action sequences with tense atmosphere SWG provided neither.
Kinda sounds like work instead of a game, huh?
Optimize in 3DS max is much different because the algorithm isn't that smart. Optimize is going to reduce poly-count model-wide, while this is only going to reduce poly-count where it's not that noticeable anyway. Like the article says, "..similar to the way mp3's..". An Optimize on an audio file will reduce the quality of the track at all frequencies, not just the ones human's can't hear.
The lines between spyware and viruses are blurring more and more everyday. McCafee and Symantec's scanners (along with AVG & AntiVir) both detect various instances of spyware. Basically, some of the items that show up in AdAware you'll see your A/V report, too. Should be interesting seeing what happens to the Spyware scanning market after Microsoft's A/V release as well as the A/V scanning market..