Go figure -- my Toshiba 5+ year old progressive scan DVD player, which plays most movies just fine, hasn't played Stranger Than Fiction NOR Casino Royale. I was about to drop $100 on a new Panasonic up convert model. At least I know it's not bad discs from NetFlix now. Dammit.
I would bet that there were things in Japanese sites (CSS?) that would've been broken, perhaps?
The fact of the matter is, when IE7 came out here in the US (still haven't seen an AUTO INSTALL on WinXP SP2 on my home machine?!), the newspaper company I work for scrambled to fix all of its sites to handle some odd CSS issues in IE7 that had been resolved in IE6. Web-based admin tools that our newspapers use, as well as the newspaper websites themselves, had to be examined from front to back to make sure that IE7 didn't break anything.
I know that the easiest fix for some of our tools was switching over the method for AJAX. I think IE7 became MORE standards compliant in that regard? However, lots of CSS nav had to be re-worked on websites for things like pulldown menus and such. Advertising as well.
This is just my company's single experience with the release of IE7. I can imagine that, in Japan or any other country faced with an auto-install of IE7 that could affect a large percentage of the browsing public, there would be some concerns about the impact of the web browser coming out automatically.
I want to say, too, that my company was well prepared for IE7 -- we learned of the MSDN blog entries that announced the mid-October release and set up 2-3 task forces to manage issues. So far, it's been smooth. But that preparation time was important. I'd suspect the situation would be the same in Japan.
the FBI today uses Marston's creation (the polygraph, not the Lasso of Truth) to guide investigations as well as to screen applicants and employees.
I'd venture to say that a good number of FBI suspects would tell the truth more with a busty woman in an american flag bikini and tiara tying them up with cliched requests for information than when hooked to a lie detector.
I have skimmed a few of the comments here and some of the anti-Flash-in-general comments that popped up in the "Holy shit, IE7 launched today!" story comments. I wanted to throw in a few observations about Flash and why keeping this medium around is important.
First, I will agree with anyone that says that Flash gets misused more often than not. It does. It sucks ass when someone does a really crap Flash project. I have 2-3 designers doing the visual labor with me turning their designs into relatively interesting Flash interactives. I like to think that I am using Flash properly, but I know I have much to learn, and I look forward to that opportunity keeping me gainfully employed for a few more years (until enough anti-Flash people get it killed?).;-)
Secondly, if you're going to take 5 minutes to compose a rant on/. about how annoying Flash ads are, then allocate 3 of those 5 minutes to downloading and installing a Firefox extension (there are several, I believe -- Flashgot, right?) that blocks all Flash (including adverts) until you want them. I know they're annoying -- but coming from a media company that relies on advertisers buying those "fancy, irritating" Flash ads, I accept them as a necessary evil. A website running those box or vert ads aren't FORCING you to watch them now, 'cause I've taken 1 minute of my 5 minutes in this rant to tell you how to block 'em and get on with your web browsing life.
Finally, I noticed folks talking about the tag to embed Flash. Stop. Stop doing that and google "swfObject" -- it's a Javascript library you can drop into a central location on your web server and forever forget about detecting Flash or making sure it's relatively standards compliant. The guy who wrote it put together a BETTER detection setup than Adobe did (their kit was NUTS), and it works really well. AND it's flexible, processing querystrings and adding flashvars very easily for a simple Flash embed. If you're still talking about the tag and Flash, you're either developing Flash badly (and this is coming from an intermediate level user who tricked people into paying him for it) or browsing a badly developed Flash site.
My 2-3 cents (5 minutes) about Flash. Be nice to it. With Flash video, it's really coming around as a useful tool, and things like Flex 2.0 (wicked cool way to build application interfaces) are making it more of a tool than a design medium for the web.
BTW -- if the title was confusing -- I was "dragged" into Flash development when folks found out I was better at writing ActionScript and using Flash than writing pure CSS page layout. I'm actually enjoying it -- if you're intersted in learning it, be prepared to re-learn a lot of stuff every 1.25 years or so with new Flash versions.
Not even the same game, dude. It's free 'cause it's bland. I played GW for about 4-5 months before I jumped into WoW. Have I gone back? To help my GW playing friend who wants to finish the narrative plotline missions?
Hell no. I'm not saying that WoW is totally the shiznit -- it's hard as hell to solo if you're new to the game. And if you get invited to a high level guild, which I'm in, they won't bother playing instances with you (even with alts) until you get up to level 50-60). And then there are all the complaints listed above when just trying to get in and play.
That said, no way is GW like WoW. It's much more explorable, much more variety in the missions/quests (although FedEx runs for lazy NPCs are getting old at the lower levels), and you get to interact with so many more people. With GW, it's either hurry up and finish the missions to get the storyline OR play PvP.
And forget about selling crap in GW -- no one wants to pay anything since there's so many dupes of items in the game. It's irritating as hell. At least I've been able to auction stuff and make some gold in WoW. And if I didn't make $$$ selling stuff or looting it, I can craft in WoW and make my own underwear. As opposed to having to beg for gold so my GW character's willy isn't falling out for lack of decent armor.
Why can't Toyota work on more pressing automotive automation needs?
Like having the car hold the cell phone and use AI to have a conversation with the next door neighbor's wife about that BBQ that the driver is planning for the weekend? So the driver can concentrate on the damned road instead of yammering on the cell phone?
Or perhaps an automated makeup application system -- that extends from the dashboard to apply makeup to the driver's face (this could also be used to give the driver a shave). So the driver can concentrate on the damned road instead of using the rearview miror like a vanity mirror?
Oooh! How about an automated backseat babysitter/bratty-kid-slapper that tends to young and/or unruly children for the driver? So the driver can concentrate on the damned road and avoid rear-ending the person in front of them because they're doing a 180 in their front seat to berate the children they don't really know how to parent properly in the first place?
Wow -- the ideas just keep coming! Toyota could install a dropped things pickup system for the driver. When the driver drops something in the floor or seat next to him/her, the system would pick it up for them, wave it in their face, and reassure the driver that the item has not been permanently lost and doesn't require immediate attention. So the driver can concentrate on the damned road (and lights that turn green) instead of being bent over Cirque de Soleil contortionist style in his/her floorboard trying to find that "uber special" piece of paper that they just have to have right that second?
If you haven't picked up on the theme here, you probably should concentrate on the damned post and stop wondering whether to mod it down.
I recently left a small interactive firm (4 people at its peak) that used Packet8 business lines. We used them for about 5 months before I left at a new office location. We ran the system off a dedicated DHCP 1.5/384 DSL connection. The rest of our office traffic ran off a static DSL connection -- 768 synchronous.
Here are the issues we had with the phones:
You had to dial 9+1+area code+number for ALL numbers. Even local numbers. It NOT a good setup for making quick local calls.
Despite the supposed low upstream bandwidth requirements, 4 lines on a single DHCP DSL connection was NOT enough to maintain call quality. We frequently would drop out either between phones on the same system (or those taken home to use in home offices) and with clients.
The included conference bridges were embarrassing -- calls were dropped (us and clients), clients couldn't hear us, sound would go out for 30 seconds at a time, etc. KEEP IN MIND -- THIS WAS THE CASE EVEN IF ONLY ONE OF THE 4 PHONES ON OUR DSL CONNECTION WAS ACTUALLY IN USE AS A SPEAKERPHONE.
Customer support was awful -- we waited 2 weeks for them to re-assign the proper direct line to one of our handsets. They kept passing the ticket between divisions. Even though it sounded like the same guy was working in both divisions.
During our 5 months, there were no less than 3 major outages (middle of 2005) that affected full workdays. By outages, I mean that users who took their handsets home to work from home couldn't use them at home. Nothing related to connectivity.
I wasn't involved with billing, but I got the impression that Packet8 sometimes overcharged for certain things. I can't remember -- not my area.
...for exercise on the playground AFTER a greasy Happy Meal. Now we're just taking out the exercise and letting the kids wallow with their WiFi and Nintendos after their Happy Meals. Nice...
There is one BIG thing that is different from Diablo2 that I really hate.
In Diablo2, I seem to remember that you could go to a neutral area like a town and NOT have the entire swath of dead monsters that you created OUTSIDE the town reset. That's why you could have town portals.
In GW, ANY TIME you go into a neutral town, because the game is instanced to your machine, you will reset EVERYTHING. Bosses, annoying monsters (you may not know what a devourer is now, but you'll come to hate it), etc. I think having a limit on what resets would be nice in the future, but I also know that traveling to a town means leaving the instanced world (on your computer) and returning to a set of town "servers," so that might not be possible.
It sure sucks, thoguh, if you are like 5 dudes away from beating a mission and need to go back to get an extra henchman.
IronChefMorimoto
Guild Wars -- a better alternative to DS2?
on
Review: Dungeon Siege II
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· Score: 4, Informative
I don't play fantasy games often. RPGs, MMORPGs, etc. Just has never been fun.
I did, however, LOVE Diablo2. I loved playing 8 hours straight with some friends in a LAN game. So much fun.
I recently was asked by one of those friends to try out Guild Wars, which I incorrectly thought at the time was a pay-to-play MMORPG. From what I've read, and since I've played the game for nearly 90 hours now as a complete novice, it's more of an online RPG that (a) doesn't cost you monthly to play but (b) doesn't include the limitless exploration and community building that you might expect from World of Warcraft.
DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
First off, you have to log in online to play Guild Wars -- kind of annoying if you're not used to online RPGs, but you do get instant updates. I hated having to keep up with updates in Diablo2 -- since I didn't play anything but LAN games, so I never did the Battle.net thing.
Secondly, you have total control over your PoV in Guild Wars. I love being able to go first person to see things up high and then pan around a raging battle.
Third, and this is why you want the PoV -- THE GRAPHICS ARE INCREDIBLE!!! The rendering isn't all that sophisticated from what I've read, but they use software anti-aliasing (???) to really add a "fantasy" look/feel to the game. The environments, although not limitless, are terrifically rendered. I probably spent my first 10 hours looking around at stuff. Waterfalls, leaves, etc. are all nice touches to the gaming world.
Fourth -- when you play online with folks, you cand do it 2 ways -- in a questing mode OR in a PvP mode. I haven't touched the PvP mode, but you always know it's going on. There are constant updates in the chat area of the screen indicating a win for Europe or a win for America. It's intriguing, but not really enough to interest me in trying it out yet.
Finally, when you online with folks, you don't have to "share" an entire world/area like you do with World of Warcraft (correct me if that's wrong). You instance out an area of the world and take you and your designated party with you. Basically, they've negated the chances of you entering, as in Diablo2, the world, stepping out of town, and having some high level player go hostile on you and kill you for your stuff. I think this also helps them keep server/hosting costs down -- and this means you DO NOT PAY MONTHLY FOR ACCESS TO THE GAME!
BIG DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
The BIGGEST aspect of this game that is different from me, since I've only played Diablo2 pretty religiously before, is the whole crafting of armor/weapons aspect.
Basically, if you had crap in Diablo2 that got dropped, you could sell it for armor and weapons.
In Guild Wars, you gotta salvage stuff you can't wear/use, make raw materials, and then you go to crafters who make stuff from the raw materials. Armor is crafted by default, I think -- you can't pick it up and use it normally on the battlefield.
Weapons can be crafted, but you have a better chance of getting weapons in battle -- I have only crafted like 1 weapon since I started playing.
What does this mean in terms of gameplay? You have to customize EVERYTHING you use. You can't sell armor (at all) and customized weapons. They only work for you.
I do like that they have RUNES in Guild Wars, and you can buy these when you advance to the REAL storyline after the intro quests. Unlike the runes in Diablo2, however, you can only insert runes you buy or find (from salvaged enemy armor) into your own customized armor. And the runes are specific to your primary character class. Thankfully, you can salvage runes you've used in armor whenever you go to upgrade -- as opposed to losing them in Diablo if you want to sell a weapon that's been "runed."
Character class, by the way, is a duality in Guild Wars. You pick from the standard classes and then choose a secondary profession (if you want) that gives you all the additional powers of the secondary class except th
Ya know -- we sit here and make jokes about hurricane victims not really needing WiFi services, but let's look at a more relevant "web community" issue...
Apple.com and Amazon.com jumped on the donation (Red Cross and other charities) bandwagon within a day or two of the tsunamis last December. I really admired them for doing that -- it spoke highly of their awareness of the powerful community of online customers/users that they could tap for donations to help the victims of the tsunamis.
I e-mailed them today asking where the dedicated homepages for Red Cross donations for hurricane relief. So many people visit their sites every day -- they have a real opportunity to stem the relief effort tide now rather than later. It's odd that a local American disaster hasn't registered as quickly, EVEN IF the loss of life is so much less.
Maybe I'm expecting too much for massive property damage (hurricane) vs. massive loss of life (tsunami). Maybe they've not had enough time to come up with something. I would definitely hold them in high esteem for getting something up -- such an opportunity there.
Meanwhile, if you want to donate to the Red Cross, be sure to use a localized website (e.g. http://www.atlantaredcross.org/) if you're having trouble getting to the main Red Cross website. You'll get through to online donation forms, and you'll also have a better chance of earmarking donations for hurricane relief rather than general relief funds.
I can see why they're terrified -- this guy is bumpin' and grindin' on his FedEx box bed (or something similarly violent in motion but with just his hand) and it breaks. He (and his hand and/or sexual partner -- if they're not one and the same) get cut/injured/etc.
So -- FedEx sees this guy as possibly using their product in a dangerous manner. They're just trying to stem the tide of a class action lawsuit where every moron who stupidly cuts him or herself on a FedEx box comes after FedEx.
On a side note -- I thought IKEA was the shittiest furniture you could barely pay for, but this takes the cake, and it's free.
I have not one problem with this "constructive criticism" approach to review editing/rejection. I use Newegg.com all the time, and I follow their rules to ensure that my review gets posted. I think it's in both our best interests.
First, for them, in ensures that their vendors don't come by, see a shitty review for a product, and then get pissed and raise pricing and or pull their products. I'm not sure that CVS would carry, say, a cosmetic line if, for example, CVS had a very accessible website filled with bad reviews that ran the gamut of "this product sucks" to "this product cost me $1000 in dermatology bills." I can see Newegg or Overstock having to deal with that level/range of insane, angry reviews -- particularly if the store is for technology that can often suffer ESTO and ID10T errors.
Secondly, I think this approach is good for consumers visiting the stores and reading the reviews. Frankly -- I find a raging rant about a shitty book on Amazon.com rather useless. It represents the Ann Coulter or Ted Kennedy of reviews -- VERY SLANTED AND NOT NECESSARILY IN TOUCH WITH REALITY. I get more information and am more likely to buy or not buy a product based on very honest, calm reviews of a product -- good or bad.
Frankly -- people freaking out about these websites "editing" comments and "poisoning" the truth about good/bad products should step back and think about a "review." In the case of technology, I think people get more frustrated with technology if they have problems with it, and I think that infuriates them more. This gets carried over to a review, and that's why Newegg has to weed them out. It's not just a bad book that you don't have to read like on Amazon.com (and yes, I realize they sell technology too). It's a piece of hardware that might, in fact, be keeping you from friggin' getting work done. That translates to written rage that might be rather useless to a majority of users who KNOW how, for example, to install a hard drive or set up a barebones PC.
The point of a review is to inform, not vent, I think, in some of these websites. Does the PCI adapter work with Intel machines? If not, I'd like to know that. Does the AGP card have voltage issues without a decent power supply? I'd like to know that too. Venting just screams rant or newbie for technology, I think. And if you want to rant from the point of view of a genuinely irritated hardware expert, then you should be adult enough to do it in a calm manner.
These "scientists" need to watch some B-rated sci-fi movie sequels.
Impotent men on Mars are less of a threat to the extinction of humanity later on than some virile horny astronaut hotties coming back and spreading their Martin/Species seed on a post-mission bender.
...what with all the nail salons in the US. Imagine a lax CIA operative leaving Langley with anti-terrorism plans on her "thumb" drive stopping off for a manicure.
Or worse yet -- waking up in a bathtub in Mexico filled with ice. A small note pinned to your shirt -- "Your toenails have been removed. Seek immediate medical assistance. Not for the toenails. We took a kidney too."
This guy's website about has-been computer mods is so bad, he can't even get it Slashdotted to his bandwidth limit or to the point of crashing a server.
Slashdot Mirror
Go figure -- my Toshiba 5+ year old progressive scan DVD player, which plays most movies just fine, hasn't played Stranger Than Fiction NOR Casino Royale. I was about to drop $100 on a new Panasonic up convert model. At least I know it's not bad discs from NetFlix now. Dammit.
IronChefMorimoto
IronChefMorimoto
I would bet that there were things in Japanese sites (CSS?) that would've been broken, perhaps?
The fact of the matter is, when IE7 came out here in the US (still haven't seen an AUTO INSTALL on WinXP SP2 on my home machine?!), the newspaper company I work for scrambled to fix all of its sites to handle some odd CSS issues in IE7 that had been resolved in IE6. Web-based admin tools that our newspapers use, as well as the newspaper websites themselves, had to be examined from front to back to make sure that IE7 didn't break anything.
I know that the easiest fix for some of our tools was switching over the method for AJAX. I think IE7 became MORE standards compliant in that regard? However, lots of CSS nav had to be re-worked on websites for things like pulldown menus and such. Advertising as well.
This is just my company's single experience with the release of IE7. I can imagine that, in Japan or any other country faced with an auto-install of IE7 that could affect a large percentage of the browsing public, there would be some concerns about the impact of the web browser coming out automatically.
I want to say, too, that my company was well prepared for IE7 -- we learned of the MSDN blog entries that announced the mid-October release and set up 2-3 task forces to manage issues. So far, it's been smooth. But that preparation time was important. I'd suspect the situation would be the same in Japan.
My 2 cents...
IronChefMorimoto
I'd venture to say that a good number of FBI suspects would tell the truth more with a busty woman in an american flag bikini and tiara tying them up with cliched requests for information than when hooked to a lie detector.
IronChefMorimoto
I have skimmed a few of the comments here and some of the anti-Flash-in-general comments that popped up in the "Holy shit, IE7 launched today!" story comments. I wanted to throw in a few observations about Flash and why keeping this medium around is important.
;-)
/. about how annoying Flash ads are, then allocate 3 of those 5 minutes to downloading and installing a Firefox extension (there are several, I believe -- Flashgot, right?) that blocks all Flash (including adverts) until you want them. I know they're annoying -- but coming from a media company that relies on advertisers buying those "fancy, irritating" Flash ads, I accept them as a necessary evil. A website running those box or vert ads aren't FORCING you to watch them now, 'cause I've taken 1 minute of my 5 minutes in this rant to tell you how to block 'em and get on with your web browsing life.
First, I will agree with anyone that says that Flash gets misused more often than not. It does. It sucks ass when someone does a really crap Flash project. I have 2-3 designers doing the visual labor with me turning their designs into relatively interesting Flash interactives. I like to think that I am using Flash properly, but I know I have much to learn, and I look forward to that opportunity keeping me gainfully employed for a few more years (until enough anti-Flash people get it killed?).
Secondly, if you're going to take 5 minutes to compose a rant on
Finally, I noticed folks talking about the tag to embed Flash. Stop. Stop doing that and google "swfObject" -- it's a Javascript library you can drop into a central location on your web server and forever forget about detecting Flash or making sure it's relatively standards compliant. The guy who wrote it put together a BETTER detection setup than Adobe did (their kit was NUTS), and it works really well. AND it's flexible, processing querystrings and adding flashvars very easily for a simple Flash embed. If you're still talking about the tag and Flash, you're either developing Flash badly (and this is coming from an intermediate level user who tricked people into paying him for it) or browsing a badly developed Flash site.
My 2-3 cents (5 minutes) about Flash. Be nice to it. With Flash video, it's really coming around as a useful tool, and things like Flex 2.0 (wicked cool way to build application interfaces) are making it more of a tool than a design medium for the web.
BTW -- if the title was confusing -- I was "dragged" into Flash development when folks found out I was better at writing ActionScript and using Flash than writing pure CSS page layout. I'm actually enjoying it -- if you're intersted in learning it, be prepared to re-learn a lot of stuff every 1.25 years or so with new Flash versions.
Thanks,
IronChefMorimoto
...at K-Mart. All that Sci-Fi and Adult Swim has left me rocking back and forth in front of my Toshiba 46" HDTV.
IronChefMorimoto
Not even the same game, dude. It's free 'cause it's bland. I played GW for about 4-5 months before I jumped into WoW. Have I gone back? To help my GW playing friend who wants to finish the narrative plotline missions?
Hell no. I'm not saying that WoW is totally the shiznit -- it's hard as hell to solo if you're new to the game. And if you get invited to a high level guild, which I'm in, they won't bother playing instances with you (even with alts) until you get up to level 50-60). And then there are all the complaints listed above when just trying to get in and play.
That said, no way is GW like WoW. It's much more explorable, much more variety in the missions/quests (although FedEx runs for lazy NPCs are getting old at the lower levels), and you get to interact with so many more people. With GW, it's either hurry up and finish the missions to get the storyline OR play PvP.
And forget about selling crap in GW -- no one wants to pay anything since there's so many dupes of items in the game. It's irritating as hell. At least I've been able to auction stuff and make some gold in WoW. And if I didn't make $$$ selling stuff or looting it, I can craft in WoW and make my own underwear. As opposed to having to beg for gold so my GW character's willy isn't falling out for lack of decent armor.
My 2 cents.
IronChefMorimoto
Why can't Toyota work on more pressing automotive automation needs?
Like having the car hold the cell phone and use AI to have a conversation with the next door neighbor's wife about that BBQ that the driver is planning for the weekend? So the driver can concentrate on the damned road instead of yammering on the cell phone?
Or perhaps an automated makeup application system -- that extends from the dashboard to apply makeup to the driver's face (this could also be used to give the driver a shave). So the driver can concentrate on the damned road instead of using the rearview miror like a vanity mirror?
Oooh! How about an automated backseat babysitter/bratty-kid-slapper that tends to young and/or unruly children for the driver? So the driver can concentrate on the damned road and avoid rear-ending the person in front of them because they're doing a 180 in their front seat to berate the children they don't really know how to parent properly in the first place?
Wow -- the ideas just keep coming! Toyota could install a dropped things pickup system for the driver. When the driver drops something in the floor or seat next to him/her, the system would pick it up for them, wave it in their face, and reassure the driver that the item has not been permanently lost and doesn't require immediate attention. So the driver can concentrate on the damned road (and lights that turn green) instead of being bent over Cirque de Soleil contortionist style in his/her floorboard trying to find that "uber special" piece of paper that they just have to have right that second?
If you haven't picked up on the theme here, you probably should concentrate on the damned post and stop wondering whether to mod it down.
IronChefMorimoto
NASCAR race post-race fights between fans (crackers) of different drivers. 'nuff said.
IronChefMorimoto
Here are the issues we had with the phones:
I wasn't involved with billing, but I got the impression that Packet8 sometimes overcharged for certain things. I can't remember -- not my area.
IronChefMorimoto
...without none of the hassle of wireless security features like WEP and WPA! God bless Microsoft for being consistent!
IronChefMorimoto
...for exercise on the playground AFTER a greasy Happy Meal. Now we're just taking out the exercise and letting the kids wallow with their WiFi and Nintendos after their Happy Meals. Nice...
IronChefMorimoto
...come true, what with the ability to construct a transparent jet.
The only remaining obstacle is telling my wife of my plans.
IronChefMorimoto
...and there's no one there to smell it, does it stink?
IronChefMorimoto
There is one BIG thing that is different from Diablo2 that I really hate.
In Diablo2, I seem to remember that you could go to a neutral area like a town and NOT have the entire swath of dead monsters that you created OUTSIDE the town reset. That's why you could have town portals.
In GW, ANY TIME you go into a neutral town, because the game is instanced to your machine, you will reset EVERYTHING. Bosses, annoying monsters (you may not know what a devourer is now, but you'll come to hate it), etc. I think having a limit on what resets would be nice in the future, but I also know that traveling to a town means leaving the instanced world (on your computer) and returning to a set of town "servers," so that might not be possible.
It sure sucks, thoguh, if you are like 5 dudes away from beating a mission and need to go back to get an extra henchman.
IronChefMorimoto
I don't play fantasy games often. RPGs, MMORPGs, etc. Just has never been fun.
I did, however, LOVE Diablo2. I loved playing 8 hours straight with some friends in a LAN game. So much fun.
I recently was asked by one of those friends to try out Guild Wars, which I incorrectly thought at the time was a pay-to-play MMORPG. From what I've read, and since I've played the game for nearly 90 hours now as a complete novice, it's more of an online RPG that (a) doesn't cost you monthly to play but (b) doesn't include the limitless exploration and community building that you might expect from World of Warcraft.
DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
First off, you have to log in online to play Guild Wars -- kind of annoying if you're not used to online RPGs, but you do get instant updates. I hated having to keep up with updates in Diablo2 -- since I didn't play anything but LAN games, so I never did the Battle.net thing.
Secondly, you have total control over your PoV in Guild Wars. I love being able to go first person to see things up high and then pan around a raging battle.
Third, and this is why you want the PoV -- THE GRAPHICS ARE INCREDIBLE!!! The rendering isn't all that sophisticated from what I've read, but they use software anti-aliasing (???) to really add a "fantasy" look/feel to the game. The environments, although not limitless, are terrifically rendered. I probably spent my first 10 hours looking around at stuff. Waterfalls, leaves, etc. are all nice touches to the gaming world.
Fourth -- when you play online with folks, you cand do it 2 ways -- in a questing mode OR in a PvP mode. I haven't touched the PvP mode, but you always know it's going on. There are constant updates in the chat area of the screen indicating a win for Europe or a win for America. It's intriguing, but not really enough to interest me in trying it out yet.
Finally, when you online with folks, you don't have to "share" an entire world/area like you do with World of Warcraft (correct me if that's wrong). You instance out an area of the world and take you and your designated party with you. Basically, they've negated the chances of you entering, as in Diablo2, the world, stepping out of town, and having some high level player go hostile on you and kill you for your stuff. I think this also helps them keep server/hosting costs down -- and this means you DO NOT PAY MONTHLY FOR ACCESS TO THE GAME!
BIG DIFFERENCES FROM DIABLO2
The BIGGEST aspect of this game that is different from me, since I've only played Diablo2 pretty religiously before, is the whole crafting of armor/weapons aspect.
Basically, if you had crap in Diablo2 that got dropped, you could sell it for armor and weapons.
In Guild Wars, you gotta salvage stuff you can't wear/use, make raw materials, and then you go to crafters who make stuff from the raw materials. Armor is crafted by default, I think -- you can't pick it up and use it normally on the battlefield.
Weapons can be crafted, but you have a better chance of getting weapons in battle -- I have only crafted like 1 weapon since I started playing.
What does this mean in terms of gameplay? You have to customize EVERYTHING you use. You can't sell armor (at all) and customized weapons. They only work for you.
I do like that they have RUNES in Guild Wars, and you can buy these when you advance to the REAL storyline after the intro quests. Unlike the runes in Diablo2, however, you can only insert runes you buy or find (from salvaged enemy armor) into your own customized armor. And the runes are specific to your primary character class. Thankfully, you can salvage runes you've used in armor whenever you go to upgrade -- as opposed to losing them in Diablo if you want to sell a weapon that's been "runed."
Character class, by the way, is a duality in Guild Wars. You pick from the standard classes and then choose a secondary profession (if you want) that gives you all the additional powers of the secondary class except th
Ya know -- we sit here and make jokes about hurricane victims not really needing WiFi services, but let's look at a more relevant "web community" issue...
Apple.com and Amazon.com jumped on the donation (Red Cross and other charities) bandwagon within a day or two of the tsunamis last December. I really admired them for doing that -- it spoke highly of their awareness of the powerful community of online customers/users that they could tap for donations to help the victims of the tsunamis.
I e-mailed them today asking where the dedicated homepages for Red Cross donations for hurricane relief. So many people visit their sites every day -- they have a real opportunity to stem the relief effort tide now rather than later. It's odd that a local American disaster hasn't registered as quickly, EVEN IF the loss of life is so much less.
Maybe I'm expecting too much for massive property damage (hurricane) vs. massive loss of life (tsunami). Maybe they've not had enough time to come up with something. I would definitely hold them in high esteem for getting something up -- such an opportunity there.
Meanwhile, if you want to donate to the Red Cross, be sure to use a localized website (e.g. http://www.atlantaredcross.org/) if you're having trouble getting to the main Red Cross website. You'll get through to online donation forms, and you'll also have a better chance of earmarking donations for hurricane relief rather than general relief funds.
IronChefMorimoto
Yeah, motherfuckah! Until OpinOffice is up in hera makin' some motherfuckin' Ebonics checkin', I isn't touchin' no shi...
IronChefMorimoto
I can see why they're terrified -- this guy is bumpin' and grindin' on his FedEx box bed (or something similarly violent in motion but with just his hand) and it breaks. He (and his hand and/or sexual partner -- if they're not one and the same) get cut/injured/etc.
So -- FedEx sees this guy as possibly using their product in a dangerous manner. They're just trying to stem the tide of a class action lawsuit where every moron who stupidly cuts him or herself on a FedEx box comes after FedEx.
On a side note -- I thought IKEA was the shittiest furniture you could barely pay for, but this takes the cake, and it's free.
IronChefMorimoto
...are just interested in more than real estate in Miami. Otherwise, let 'em move in. No need for space guns.
IronChefMorimoto
I have not one problem with this "constructive criticism" approach to review editing/rejection. I use Newegg.com all the time, and I follow their rules to ensure that my review gets posted. I think it's in both our best interests.
First, for them, in ensures that their vendors don't come by, see a shitty review for a product, and then get pissed and raise pricing and or pull their products. I'm not sure that CVS would carry, say, a cosmetic line if, for example, CVS had a very accessible website filled with bad reviews that ran the gamut of "this product sucks" to "this product cost me $1000 in dermatology bills." I can see Newegg or Overstock having to deal with that level/range of insane, angry reviews -- particularly if the store is for technology that can often suffer ESTO and ID10T errors.
Secondly, I think this approach is good for consumers visiting the stores and reading the reviews. Frankly -- I find a raging rant about a shitty book on Amazon.com rather useless. It represents the Ann Coulter or Ted Kennedy of reviews -- VERY SLANTED AND NOT NECESSARILY IN TOUCH WITH REALITY. I get more information and am more likely to buy or not buy a product based on very honest, calm reviews of a product -- good or bad.
Frankly -- people freaking out about these websites "editing" comments and "poisoning" the truth about good/bad products should step back and think about a "review." In the case of technology, I think people get more frustrated with technology if they have problems with it, and I think that infuriates them more. This gets carried over to a review, and that's why Newegg has to weed them out. It's not just a bad book that you don't have to read like on Amazon.com (and yes, I realize they sell technology too). It's a piece of hardware that might, in fact, be keeping you from friggin' getting work done. That translates to written rage that might be rather useless to a majority of users who KNOW how, for example, to install a hard drive or set up a barebones PC.
The point of a review is to inform, not vent, I think, in some of these websites. Does the PCI adapter work with Intel machines? If not, I'd like to know that. Does the AGP card have voltage issues without a decent power supply? I'd like to know that too. Venting just screams rant or newbie for technology, I think. And if you want to rant from the point of view of a genuinely irritated hardware expert, then you should be adult enough to do it in a calm manner.
My 2 cents.
IronChefMorimoto
These "scientists" need to watch some B-rated sci-fi movie sequels.
Impotent men on Mars are less of a threat to the extinction of humanity later on than some virile horny astronaut hotties coming back and spreading their Martin/Species seed on a post-mission bender.
IronChefMorimoto
...what with all the nail salons in the US. Imagine a lax CIA operative leaving Langley with anti-terrorism plans on her "thumb" drive stopping off for a manicure.
Or worse yet -- waking up in a bathtub in Mexico filled with ice. A small note pinned to your shirt -- "Your toenails have been removed. Seek immediate medical assistance. Not for the toenails. We took a kidney too."
IronChefMorimoto
If you can find a ripped MP3 of his 2000 comedy album, this story will make more sense:
0 04U4ST/ref=m_art_li_3/102-6655619-6516961?v=glance &s=music
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00
Track 3 -- The Ozone, Sunblock, The Flu and NYQUIL.
Enjoy!
IronChefMorimoto
This guy's website about has-been computer mods is so bad, he can't even get it Slashdotted to his bandwidth limit or to the point of crashing a server.
IronChefMorimoto