This reminds me of a story I heard on the radio a few months back. Apparently there is a pottery/ceramic shop in Detroit called You're Fired. Although the shop has been around for some time, Apparently the person who owns the shop has had some problems since good ol' Donald Trump decided he wanted to tradmark the phrase.
I found the HL2 interview a good fairly decent read. I've found most gaming interviews lack content, and decent thought out questions. "When will it be realeased? What sort of weapons will there be. What are the levels like. When will it be released? Tell us about the graphics/sound. When will it be released? What are the system specs?"
Sure, many of these questions were addressed in the interview, but its the other questions that make it interesting. Like hearing about how the code leak affected them. Hearing about how excited the team got when they got to play the game through. Hearing about some of the design aspects, like the revolution/evolution of the AI. Good stuff.
I wouldn't consider PoP an RPG. It had a few RPG aspects, but it was really an adventure game at its heart.
I was talking more about how in PoP there was actually a little bit of thought involved in each battle. You couldn't just keep hitting attack, because your enemies would often block it. And when fighting multiple enemies, your method and manner in dispaching them mattered. You also could take advantage of local inanmiate object, like walls to jump off to jump over your enemies to escape, or deliver a jumping attack. Basically, the fighting moves mattered, and were fun. It kept the fighting interesting, and fun.
How would this translate to an RPG? Well, if I had the answer to that question (and some good connections!), I'd be rich. And, well, a TON of time for development and implementation too.
It is easy to see how such combat as we see in PoP might be successfully translated to the hand-to-hand "monk" class combatants in your typical RPG. Part of the problem is of course there are many more classes to address. Each weapon class, IRL, would have different moves and counter moves.
Anyway, I just want a 3D RPG where the _way_ you fight matters. Where you have to do something other than point and click to win. It keeps things interesting, and the fighting fun.
The dungeon design definetly looks Baldurs Gate esque, which I don't necessarily consider a bad thing. Hopefully BioWare can pull of what no one else has ever been able to in my book -- a 3D adventure RPG who's battle system doesn't suck.
Controlling characters (yourself and any "teammates"), attacks, strategy is a difficult task in 3D. Morrowind was... okay. But really it ended up being a "click repeatadly attack, hope you have more HP's and do more damage then your enemies" sort of thing, and there you didn't have teammates to manage!
The absolute best attack system I have ever seen is Prince of Persia. I actually _enjoyed_ the battles in that game, where as most RPG battles are "well, I'll just keep clicking attack so I can get past and do the same on the next guy". Now, if such thoughtful design and execution can successfully implemented in an adventure RPG...
Among the people let go were... [the] Director of The Dig...
Is this (or rather, _was_ this) the sequel to the 1995 DOS game "The Dig"? A quick search of this (the 1995) game on Google shows remarkably little... I can't even find it on the Lucas Arts website (though, I have to admit I didn't try super hard). I have to admit it is hard to beleive they would make a sequel to a game that you can hardly even find on Google (although I have to admit I did play the game through completion when I got it 8 or 9 years ago).
Firefox Thunderbird SSH Java 1.5.1 beta SDK Jedit (the the text editor for coding I've ever used... not to mention it's free Ruby Trillian GNU Utilities for Win32 (about 120 handy command line tools for Win, like ls, tar, diff, wget, less, you know, all the stuff you try typing at the cmd prompt in windows realizing, after you hit enter, that it doesn't work)
Okay, so thats not ten... but those are the first. I should also mention that one of the VERY first things that gets done is the _uninstallation_ of MSN Messenger.
Here in Houston, the 4th largest city in the U.S., we JUST got our first light rail. Yes, our first. And sadly, additional funding for the program barely passed.
The light rail opened the 1st of the year. So we are just coming to 3 months of service... and guess what? We've already had 31 accidents involving the light rail. That's one practically every 3 days... so sad, so very very sad. Apparently, people don't understand the concept of "don't stop on the tracks" and "don't turn in front of the train" here.
Houston has some of the poorest public transportation I have ever seen. But, I have to admit, the light rail is a step in the right direction. Right now, I spend over 2 hours a day in my car... and this is for a commute of only 18miles each way. Hopefully, they will expand the light rail. Building and expanding more highways is _not_ a solution. Fortunately, the light rail seem to service a rather large volume, and has been well recieved. Too bad the expansions are going to take 10 years+ to complete.
The problem with the N-Gage is it was made by a cell phone company. They had no previous experience in the hand held (or even console) arena. This is blatantly obviously when you look at the ergonomics (or lack there of) of the unit. Furthermore, it really had no games.
Nintendo, however, DOES have experience in this area. They have many years of experience to bring to the table, as well as good gaming title backing. I expect they will come out with a unit very comfortable to use, as opposed to the N-Gage. They KNOW how to design the interface. I would go so far as to argue, that IMHO, the controller for the GC is the best that has ever been made... but that is getting off topic.
The DS will show some success, if for no other reason than for being made by Nintendo. If the DS turns into a must have hit, only time will tell. But if anyone were to pull it off, it would be Nintendo.
Innovation may be considered "dead" right now, but that is only because consumers let it be. Game companies are going to rehash the same games over and over again as long as people buy them.
How many GTA games will we see? Well, how long will people keep buying them in droves? Sure, we may hit GTA 6, but if it fails miserably then we might see a GTA 7... if that fails, we probably won't see anymore. But if they keep selling, developers will keep making.
So what happens then when everyone grows tired of UT2007, GTA 6, Star Wars 123, and WarCraft 5? Well, the industry will take a hit. They have to - that's how they know they've hit the end of their rope. What happens next? Will the industry die completely? No. I beleive we will start to see more innovation again. I think their will always be a niche for video games... the developers that don't innovate will eventually die, but new original developers will come and take their place. But this likely won't happen as long as they make millions on the rehashes.
I interpreted the article the same as you did the first time through, reading that the counter-attack would also be a DDoS. Second time I read that sentence though, I wonder if maybe this guy who was speaking meant to say that this is simply a counter-attack to DDoS, not a DDoS counter-attack. Who knows.
A DDoS _as_ the counter-attack is a ship with many holes in it.
Rock = the vast majority of computer users don't care what software plays back their video or audio. They just want it to work. If Windows was forced to remove it's media player, most consumers will become frustrated. They open the box, plug it in, and expect it to work and do everything without having to go out and download software.
Hard place = _because_ most users don't care, they just use the bundled software. I.E. WMP. Which just leads us to the monopoly issue...
So, Microsoft has to either
A) Upset its user base by "breaking" their OS so as to not play media right out of the box or
B) Be sued out of their pants by every company that comes along and makes a competing product to some particular component to the monolith known as windows.
Unfortunately for end users, it will most likely be B, and this will just have to be a fact of life that they will have to learn to live with.
Of course, M$ can always include their competitors software with Windows, and ask at installation which they would prefer. But then where does it end? Which competitors must they include? Do each of these competitors have to pay to have their software included? If so how much? Will we see Windows price explode as a result? If they don't have to pay, then is it really right to force Microsoft to include their competitors software on a product they have spends years developing? Will our future Windows disks be 1 part Windows, 3 parts software from all their competetors from all the different software niches?
Another possible solution would be to "inform" users at install that there are these other media players available, and can be found at these URL's... but of course users will say "Whatever. I can just click this check box right here and install WMP here and now"
As much as I am against a monopoly, I really don't see an easy solution to the problem. There are so many questions that need to be answered before we can find a solution.
People expect to have media players, web browsers, or whatever monopoly issue we are discussing, ready and working when they take the computer out of the box. And I'll tell you what, if RealSpy, err... RealPlayer ever comes default installed on any of my OEM Windows disks, I'm gonna be pissed.
and noting that the past rumor that "the movie will be playable on the PS2 only" has not yet been quashed, although it hasn't been confirmed either.
I'm not well versed in Sony and Sqaure's relationship... but it would seem that to limit the movie to PS2 would severely limit audience from which Square could draw on for sales (unless of course Sony was paying out the ying-yang for sole rights). Of course, it's only a rumor, but one I hope for the sake of those who don't have a PS2, as well for Square, is proven false.
I, took, was hoping Spector would have been asked about some of the design "mistakes" that the Ion team made regarding DX:IW. Not because I wanted him to get raked over the coals, but because I wanted to know that they knew what mistakes were made, so they could be avoided in the future. Sure, lack of drag-and-drop was an issue, but only one of many that I hope are not repeatead in the future.
That is certainly a very valid point. My fault was my assumption that, if we knew that these certain ISP's house spammers, we must have known because spam was originating from their servers... and how do we know this? I guess I assumed this knowledge came from the originating IP informaiton, which would give us a direction to return the spam to.
That's a valid point. Or... we might help accelerate that process.
What if filtered spam was "returned" to the sender? Granted this would put extra load on all of our own ISP email servers, but it would put a MUCH greater load on the ISP's who host the spammers. It's one thing to send out 1million spam messages on your server, but to have to deal with all of those emails coming right back at them...
Slashdot Mirror
This reminds me of a story I heard on the radio a few months back. Apparently there is a pottery/ceramic shop in Detroit called You're Fired. Although the shop has been around for some time, Apparently the person who owns the shop has had some problems since good ol' Donald Trump decided he wanted to tradmark the phrase.
I found the HL2 interview a good fairly decent read. I've found most gaming interviews lack content, and decent thought out questions. "When will it be realeased? What sort of weapons will there be. What are the levels like. When will it be released? Tell us about the graphics/sound. When will it be released? What are the system specs?"
Sure, many of these questions were addressed in the interview, but its the other questions that make it interesting. Like hearing about how the code leak affected them. Hearing about how excited the team got when they got to play the game through. Hearing about some of the design aspects, like the revolution/evolution of the AI. Good stuff.
I wouldn't consider PoP an RPG. It had a few RPG aspects, but it was really an adventure game at its heart.
I was talking more about how in PoP there was actually a little bit of thought involved in each battle. You couldn't just keep hitting attack, because your enemies would often block it. And when fighting multiple enemies, your method and manner in dispaching them mattered. You also could take advantage of local inanmiate object, like walls to jump off to jump over your enemies to escape, or deliver a jumping attack. Basically, the fighting moves mattered, and were fun. It kept the fighting interesting, and fun.
How would this translate to an RPG? Well, if I had the answer to that question (and some good connections!), I'd be rich. And, well, a TON of time for development and implementation too.
It is easy to see how such combat as we see in PoP might be successfully translated to the hand-to-hand "monk" class combatants in your typical RPG. Part of the problem is of course there are many more classes to address. Each weapon class, IRL, would have different moves and counter moves.
Anyway, I just want a 3D RPG where the _way_ you fight matters. Where you have to do something other than point and click to win. It keeps things interesting, and the fighting fun.
The dungeon design definetly looks Baldurs Gate esque, which I don't necessarily consider a bad thing. Hopefully BioWare can pull of what no one else has ever been able to in my book -- a 3D adventure RPG who's battle system doesn't suck.
... okay. But really it ended up being a "click repeatadly attack, hope you have more HP's and do more damage then your enemies" sort of thing, and there you didn't have teammates to manage!
Controlling characters (yourself and any "teammates"), attacks, strategy is a difficult task in 3D. Morrowind was
The absolute best attack system I have ever seen is Prince of Persia. I actually _enjoyed_ the battles in that game, where as most RPG battles are "well, I'll just keep clicking attack so I can get past and do the same on the next guy". Now, if such thoughtful design and execution can successfully implemented in an adventure RPG...
Among the people let go were... [the] Director of The Dig...
... I can't even find it on the Lucas Arts website (though, I have to admit I didn't try super hard). I have to admit it is hard to beleive they would make a sequel to a game that you can hardly even find on Google (although I have to admit I did play the game through completion when I got it 8 or 9 years ago).
Is this (or rather, _was_ this) the sequel to the 1995 DOS game "The Dig"? A quick search of this (the 1995) game on Google shows remarkably little
Other than hotfixes...
... not to mention it's free
Firefox
Thunderbird
SSH
Java 1.5.1 beta SDK
Jedit (the the text editor for coding I've ever used
Ruby
Trillian
GNU Utilities for Win32 (about 120 handy command line tools for Win, like ls, tar, diff, wget, less, you know, all the stuff you try typing at the cmd prompt in windows realizing, after you hit enter, that it doesn't work)
Okay, so thats not ten... but those are the first. I should also mention that one of the VERY first things that gets done is the _uninstallation_ of MSN Messenger.
Here in Houston, the 4th largest city in the U.S., we JUST got our first light rail. Yes, our first. And sadly, additional funding for the program barely passed.
The light rail opened the 1st of the year. So we are just coming to 3 months of service... and guess what? We've already had 31 accidents involving the light rail. That's one practically every 3 days... so sad, so very very sad. Apparently, people don't understand the concept of "don't stop on the tracks" and "don't turn in front of the train" here.
Houston has some of the poorest public transportation I have ever seen. But, I have to admit, the light rail is a step in the right direction. Right now, I spend over 2 hours a day in my car... and this is for a commute of only 18miles each way. Hopefully, they will expand the light rail. Building and expanding more highways is _not_ a solution. Fortunately, the light rail seem to service a rather large volume, and has been well recieved. Too bad the expansions are going to take 10 years+ to complete.
The problem with the N-Gage is it was made by a cell phone company. They had no previous experience in the hand held (or even console) arena. This is blatantly obviously when you look at the ergonomics (or lack there of) of the unit. Furthermore, it really had no games.
Nintendo, however, DOES have experience in this area. They have many years of experience to bring to the table, as well as good gaming title backing. I expect they will come out with a unit very comfortable to use, as opposed to the N-Gage. They KNOW how to design the interface. I would go so far as to argue, that IMHO, the controller for the GC is the best that has ever been made... but that is getting off topic.
The DS will show some success, if for no other reason than for being made by Nintendo. If the DS turns into a must have hit, only time will tell. But if anyone were to pull it off, it would be Nintendo.
Innovation may be considered "dead" right now, but that is only because consumers let it be. Game companies are going to rehash the same games over and over again as long as people buy them.
How many GTA games will we see? Well, how long will people keep buying them in droves? Sure, we may hit GTA 6, but if it fails miserably then we might see a GTA 7... if that fails, we probably won't see anymore. But if they keep selling, developers will keep making.
So what happens then when everyone grows tired of UT2007, GTA 6, Star Wars 123, and WarCraft 5? Well, the industry will take a hit. They have to - that's how they know they've hit the end of their rope. What happens next? Will the industry die completely? No. I beleive we will start to see more innovation again. I think their will always be a niche for video games... the developers that don't innovate will eventually die, but new original developers will come and take their place. But this likely won't happen as long as they make millions on the rehashes.
I interpreted the article the same as you did the first time through, reading that the counter-attack would also be a DDoS. Second time I read that sentence though, I wonder if maybe this guy who was speaking meant to say that this is simply a counter-attack to DDoS, not a DDoS counter-attack. Who knows.
A DDoS _as_ the counter-attack is a ship with many holes in it.
Time to invest in tin foil!
Rock = the vast majority of computer users don't care what software plays back their video or audio. They just want it to work. If Windows was forced to remove it's media player, most consumers will become frustrated. They open the box, plug it in, and expect it to work and do everything without having to go out and download software.
Hard place = _because_ most users don't care, they just use the bundled software. I.E. WMP. Which just leads us to the monopoly issue...
So, Microsoft has to either
A) Upset its user base by "breaking" their OS so as to not play media right out of the box or
B) Be sued out of their pants by every company that comes along and makes a competing product to some particular component to the monolith known as windows.
Unfortunately for end users, it will most likely be B, and this will just have to be a fact of life that they will have to learn to live with.
Of course, M$ can always include their competitors software with Windows, and ask at installation which they would prefer. But then where does it end? Which competitors must they include? Do each of these competitors have to pay to have their software included? If so how much? Will we see Windows price explode as a result? If they don't have to pay, then is it really right to force Microsoft to include their competitors software on a product they have spends years developing? Will our future Windows disks be 1 part Windows, 3 parts software from all their competetors from all the different software niches?
Another possible solution would be to "inform" users at install that there are these other media players available, and can be found at these URL's... but of course users will say "Whatever. I can just click this check box right here and install WMP here and now"
As much as I am against a monopoly, I really don't see an easy solution to the problem. There are so many questions that need to be answered before we can find a solution.
People expect to have media players, web browsers, or whatever monopoly issue we are discussing, ready and working when they take the computer out of the box. And I'll tell you what, if RealSpy, err... RealPlayer ever comes default installed on any of my OEM Windows disks, I'm gonna be pissed.
and noting that the past rumor that "the movie will be playable on the PS2 only" has not yet been quashed, although it hasn't been confirmed either. I'm not well versed in Sony and Sqaure's relationship... but it would seem that to limit the movie to PS2 would severely limit audience from which Square could draw on for sales (unless of course Sony was paying out the ying-yang for sole rights). Of course, it's only a rumor, but one I hope for the sake of those who don't have a PS2, as well for Square, is proven false.
I, took, was hoping Spector would have been asked about some of the design "mistakes" that the Ion team made regarding DX:IW. Not because I wanted him to get raked over the coals, but because I wanted to know that they knew what mistakes were made, so they could be avoided in the future. Sure, lack of drag-and-drop was an issue, but only one of many that I hope are not repeatead in the future.
That is certainly a very valid point. My fault was my assumption that, if we knew that these certain ISP's house spammers, we must have known because spam was originating from their servers... and how do we know this? I guess I assumed this knowledge came from the originating IP informaiton, which would give us a direction to return the spam to.
That's a valid point. Or... we might help accelerate that process. What if filtered spam was "returned" to the sender? Granted this would put extra load on all of our own ISP email servers, but it would put a MUCH greater load on the ISP's who host the spammers. It's one thing to send out 1million spam messages on your server, but to have to deal with all of those emails coming right back at them...