Oh, you mean how it took four fucking hours to register the damn game, AFTER 30 minutes of installing it? Yeah that was a damn lovely suprise. Bravo Valve, for leading the way on mass frustration of customers. I'm sure Blizzard wouldn't be nearly as good at it as they currently are, without Valve's trailblazing efforts. Now what was that comma... oh yeah:/golfclap
Here's hoping digital distribution gets 'figured out' before it gets 'fucked up' (again).
On top of that, the city itself paved flat streets and routinely keeps them free of obstructions as if to encourage fast driving. Clearly the city has a hand in the death of this taxi driver as well.
Actually, i've seen and heard of several places where cities/municipalities/etc have put in all manner of unessecary kinks and curves in roads as a method of discouraging excessive speed. So your sarcasm might not be quite as far off base as you'd planned...
What I find interesting between the two studies mentioned is that, apparently, gamers are liable to send more frequent blasts but with decreased intensity. To me this signals increased competitiveness rather than violence or hostility. Taunting is frequently seen in sports or activites that involve players squaring off against one another, but this doesn't nessecarilly mean those players are more violent.
Personally, as a gamer, I can see myself possibly barbing my opponents with more frequency than others might. I can definitly see the reduced intensity though, as the best barbs are subtle and infuriating, rather than overstated and forceful. I think this is because frustrating or irritating your opponent to the point where they quit is self-defeating (within the context of a game). Prodding them just enough to encourage more attacks or perhaps more reckless attacks, however, is to invite more opportunities to win, and thus, more fun.
So perhaps the only thing these studies are proving is that gamers enjoy playing more games... ?
Just a thought.
Yeah I was gonna say - coupla years ago I was driving home from the mountains and came across a really nasty accident that backed up traffic for hours. Some pour soul drove their car under a semi trailer, Fast & Furious style... only their car didn't exactly fit. Anyways, the ambulance that came from our direction was doing a HELL of a lot more than 100 kph. I heard that diesel roaring before I could even see the thing, and it blew by so fast you couldn't even tell which town it was from. Of course, this was a nice flat highway with no traffic in the lane he was driving in (the semi had partially jacknifed and blocked the whole highway), but that thing was flying almost as well as the damn helicopter that came in shortly afterwards.
There are acceptable risks in life... especially when you're dealing with death. RIP to whomever was in that accident... if memory serves they didn't survive, and from what I saw of the wreckage afterwards I wasn't suprised.:(
Oh i'm not fully against Warden. I understand why it's there, and I trust Blizzard enough that i'm willing to risk continued use of their software. But that doesn't mean I don't think this is an utterly rediculous invasion of privacy. I mean come on... Maytag doesn't get to lace my house with CCTV cameras when I buy one of their dishwashers. Why does Blizzard get unlimited access to my computer simply because i'm using their software? Just because its the norm? Infact, i've got a better word than "norm". Try "collusion". Look around - software EULAs have gone completely off the deep end while everyone was busy being mesmerized by the internet. It's just too bad avalanches are easier to start than they are to stop.
Love this one they added to WoW. Every once in a while there's a huge fuss about Blizz's "Warden" program. Anyways here's the TOS excerpt:
A. WHEN RUNNING, THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT CLIENT MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) AND/OR CPU PROCESSES FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY "ADDON" OR "MOD," THAT IN BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, "MINES," OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. IN THE EVENT THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, BLIZZARD MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER SECTION 6 OF THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.
Nice, no? Of course "WE NOW OWN YOUR COMPUTER GG NOOB" would have been shorter and more to the point, but it doesn't sound nearly as eloquent.:)
Just saw Doom tonight with friends and mixed company. We had a nice little demographic cut there, ranging from PC game geeks (like myself) to total noobs. And chicks, OMG!
Anyways, if you're not a gamer, have never played Doom, or aren't the least bit interested in gratuitous violence - don't go. One guys girlfriend actually fell asleep during the movie, which was suprising to me given the abundance of loud noises, screaming, and overamped bass. However, if you are a gamer, have played doom, enjoy gratutious violence, and have a sense of humour - then by all means, go see it! You can skip the fancy theatres, just grab as many geeky friends as you can find, load up on your choice of alcohol/drugs/sugar, and HAVE FUN at the theatre. Yes its bad, but its bad in a good way. As long as you can let your expectations go, relax, and just revel in the stupidity, you'll have a blast. I sure did!
Now on to specifics.
Plot & Script: Yeaaaah there isn't much of a plot, as you might expect. 'Something Bad'(tm) happens on Mars. The 'RRTS' (good-guys) teleport over there, more stuff goes bad, people die, etc etc etc, curtain. What plot exists has virtually nothing to do with the videogame - no portal to hell, no 'demons', none of that - though references to hell are scattered throughout. The actual plot ends up being a lot more like Resident Evil. That is to say, bio-engineering + lack of ethics = zombies and other mean things. It's really fairly pointless, and although the movie does try to tackle the idea of Good vs Evil, Right and Wrong (and almost, ALMOST succeeding for a nanosecond), it just ends up getting in the way of shooting more stuff.
The script, unfortunatly, is just as bad. It doesn't even score points for having cool one-liners you can shout at friends later. For the most part its uninspired and just stupidly obvious. That, or its all screaming/yelling. Heck, the only real line I remember from the movie was "He has a condition. He's dead." or something to that effect. Its more like reading a cookbook than it is cool or poetic. Shucks.:P
Characters: The characters are a little hit and miss. There are about 11 major-ish characters in the movie (8 are marines), all fleshed out to various degrees. Some have lots of screentime but zero backstory (like Sarge), others feel more human (Reaper - this is intentional i'm sure). Some are funny/pitiful (The Kid), others just there for show & violence (Destroyer), and yet others who could have been completely cut out of the script with no ill effects (Mac). A big but expected dissapointment for me was the utterly horrible intro/outro of the characters. You basically have one scene that introduces all of the marines at once, yet doesn't explain jack about who they are. Then throughout the movie, people die, dissapear, and die again. The Samantha character literally crawls out of the movie and is never seen again 5 seconds before the credits. Oh well.
One thing the movie failed to do, or did very well (depending on your point of view), is leave the morality of some of the characters quite obscure until late in the flick. Is Portman evil or just stupid? What motivates Sarge? Is Duke a badass or a tender-heart? I found myself questioning the characters at times, which was both interesting and kind of revealing (asto how pointless many of them really were:P), but i'm probably trying to read into something that isn't there.:P
Acting: Karl Urban (John 'Reaper' Grimm) is one of my favorite actors, and IMO he does pretty good with such an utterly craptastic script. Doom definitly does not feature some of The Rock's (Sarge) best acting however. A couple lines seem like they were almost flubbed but left in anyways due to the length of a cut. Overall however, he does get the "grrr soldier badass!" feeling out to you. Rosamund Pike (Samantha Grimm) is one of the best actors in the movie IMO, though i'm not sure if its because of
Just came back from this. The BFG is labled as the "Bio Force Gun" (you/The Rock sees a schematic on a computer screen). When The Rock actually gets his hands on it though, he walks around it and goes "Big. Fucking. Gun."
Its all good:)
No kidding. I'd pay $7 for a good SF, DQ, or FF episode. But the crap thats available to me? None of it is any good. I (unreluctantly) paid $7.50 (cdn) to download a copy of Bejeweled because its a great time killer, and thats it, thats all.
Cmon... If they want to start selling games to gamers, maybe they should make some real games?
Would not the doctrine of laches then apply?
It could, but the result is no different than the xxAA going after file sharers. One individual (or small group of people) versus a very large multi-million dollar company. It just doesn't happen:\
I dunno about 30 locations. It might depend what you defined as a "location" though. Here are some off the top of my head (with Google as a refresher):
Quel'Thalas - North of the plaguelands. Former home of the High Elves before Arthas sacked Silvermoon and the Sunwell
Northrend - Arctic continent. Azjol-Nerub, Icecrown Glacier (Arthas' current digs), Dragonblight plains, Drak'Tharon Keep, etc, etc.
Tomb of Sargeras - Tiny island/dungeon east of Stormwind.
The Broken Isles - Buncha islands west of Stormwind. Includes the Tomb of Sargeras and Balor.
Emerald Dream - Mystical pseudo-dimension. The gates are placed around the world, but aren't yet working.
Draenor (Outland) - via the Dark Portal which is *supposed* to be opened at some point.
Gilneas - Peninsula south of Silverpine Forest, currently blocked by a massive wall (Greymane wall).
Well of Eternety (Maelstrom) - Possibly an underwater/naga location between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms (in the Great Sea)
Dalaran - Former mage capitol near the Alterac Mountains. Currently sealed off by a giant magic bubble.
Zul'Aman - Troll homelands, east of the plaguelands
Kul Tiras (kingdom) - A bunch of islands west of the eastern kingdoms, including Crestfall, Zul'Dare, and Tol Barad (citadel).
Grim Batol - A future (red) dragon dungeon location in the wetlands, home of Alextrasza (red Aspect)
Ahn'Qiraj (south Silithus) - Home of those weird bug things, coming soon!
Uldum - Another Uldaman-like dwarf/titan cave, in southern Tanaris.
Ulduar - The third of the dwarf/titan caves, though I have no idea where this one is (Northrend?)
Caverns of Time - Dwelling place of Norzadmu (blue Aspect), located in the Tanaris Desert.
Karazhan (Medivh's Tower) - Bigarse tower in Deadwind Pass, not yet finished.
Mount Hyjal - Final battle site in WC3, home of the World Tree, Barrow Deeps, etc.
Undermine - Small continent SE of Kalimdor. Ruled by the trade princes, and inhabited largly by Goblins.
Kazan and Hiji - Two small islands in the south Great Sea between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Rumoured to be home to the Pandarians..?
Thats about all I can think of. But it'd be good for maybe a dozen new zones and 20 cities or dungeons. Certainly enough to keep Blizzard (and their fans) busy. And hey, if they ever run out of room on Azeroth, they can always start adding on (read: making it up) to the Outlands, Emerald Dream, or maybe even the Twisting Nether:o
They may have tried. Some companies won't respond to "fan mail" asking for permission to do something with their game/universe/whatever. Only after it becomes a definable entity (read: been worked on for years) do they step in with a C&D.
Personally, I think any business that intentionally puts an end to FREE fan-created work, is shooting themselves in the foot. They should be embracing and nurturing their fans' love for said products, not trying to squash it! But hey, telling customers HOW they HAVE TO enjoy a product seems to be a popular trend these days.:\
There's a ton of "user published content" action in the field of PC gaming. Pick just about any recent PC title on the planet, and chances are very good that someone has hacked/modified it and released their findings. Tons of companies nowadays (esp. developers of FPS games) wholeheartedly encourage modding games, releasing docs, developer tools, providing support, and even holding prize contests to encourage the practice.
Why? Because everyone wins. Its a symbiotic relationship. Mods provide extra content for an already published title, increasing its popularity, longevity, and sales (Half-Life 1, anyone?). The community feeds itself as well as the existing game. And the cherry on top is that plenty of dev studios are recruiting the cream of the mod-scene crop to bolster their own ranks. End result is better games for everyone.:)
...about this movie wasn't the decent-to-good acting of the main characters, or the humorous yet interesting story, the hillarious gags, or even the totally awesome special effects.
No, I think the most suprising thing about this movie is just how many good looking girls they managed to convince to participate in a complete geek-fest of a film. (Hellloooo Bridge-Girls!)
I dunno about the rest of you, but if there's really that many hot girls in Finland who like nerdy stuff, i'm packing my bags!;)
I dunno about that "coal is cleaner than gas" thing, man. Sure, it might be easier to scrub NOx, COx, HC, (etc etc) emissions from a central location. However, that would completely ignore all the toxic metals that coal powerplants release. Fun stuff like mercury, uranium, lead... pretty much anything you can dig up, will be spit out into the air. So while switching to electric-powered-by-coal-cars might save a few people from NOx poisons (or whatever), how many others will wind up dying from increased heavy-metal poisons and radiation? 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't'. At least until some bright monkey invents cold fusion. That, or the world goes nuclear.
(I think i'll bet on the cold-fusion monkey. It seems more likely.)
Keep in mind that most small-car diesel engines are turbocharged. Hell, most diesel engines *period* are turbocharged. Turbo's require a lot more responsibility as far as maintinence goes, when compared to the iron-pig gas V8's of yesteryear.
A properly maintained diesel engine however, is a reliable and wonderful way to save on gas - even if it's still at the expense of the environment.
I'll second that. Fuck those "cheap" $1 fan filters. Grab a dryer sheet, fold it in half, slap it on. Change them every three months or so and you're golden. Plus, if you use the scented kind, the whole room smells like fresh laundry!;)
Anyways, I use a bounce sheet on my side intake port (bonus: because it has a bolt-on grill, I just punch holes in the sheet with a pen and thread the screws through em) because it was horrible for blowing dust all over my video card. No filters on my front ports yet though. I'm lucky - because my house is 3/4'ers populated by allergy sufferers, we bought an electrostatic filter for our furnace/ac system. They're not exactly a "cheap" solution, but they're freakin awesome for cutting down on the dust throughout the entire house. Get one, get your furnace/ac/whatever and pipes cleaned, and you'll be amazed at how much smaller your friendly household dustbunnies will be. And speaking of AC... because its so dry where I live, in the summertime I just pipe my room's AC right into my computer. Keeps my baby nice and chilly even when its blazing hot outside and i'm into my 6th hour of playing World of Warcrack.:P
The main problem with mobile devices is getting a portable, convenient input method. The current system is unintuitive, involving up to five keypresses for a single letter. This is a suggestion that we change that.
They are trying to solve this little issue. One solution is the T9 Predictive Text mode you'll find on some phones. Personally I hate T9 though, because without extensive editing of the dictionary you usually wind up 'spelling' words you didn't want.
I just bought a Samsung SGH-P207 though, and one nifty feature it has (besides being shiny!) is called VoiceMode. Essentially, after training the phone to recognize your voice and accent, you can just push a button and literally tell your phone what to do. For example - if I wanted to call my house number, rather than going into my address book and all that, I can just press the voice button and say "Call home". As long as the phone understood me to its satisfaction, it will just start dialing my home number. This little feature is also enabled for text messages too, so rather than playing hunt and peck for five minutes, I can just dictate the message and fire away. Its far from perfect but as long as the technology continues to evolve, it could very well become a standard feature on mobiles of the future.
All that said, they can pry my PC from my cold dead hands.;)
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Oh, you mean how it took four fucking hours to register the damn game, AFTER 30 minutes of installing it? Yeah that was a damn lovely suprise. Bravo Valve, for leading the way on mass frustration of customers. I'm sure Blizzard wouldn't be nearly as good at it as they currently are, without Valve's trailblazing efforts. Now what was that comma... oh yeah: /golfclap
Here's hoping digital distribution gets 'figured out' before it gets 'fucked up' (again).
I smell a Nobel Prize in Physics here.
...eat your heart out.
What I find interesting between the two studies mentioned is that, apparently, gamers are liable to send more frequent blasts but with decreased intensity. To me this signals increased competitiveness rather than violence or hostility. Taunting is frequently seen in sports or activites that involve players squaring off against one another, but this doesn't nessecarilly mean those players are more violent.
Personally, as a gamer, I can see myself possibly barbing my opponents with more frequency than others might. I can definitly see the reduced intensity though, as the best barbs are subtle and infuriating, rather than overstated and forceful. I think this is because frustrating or irritating your opponent to the point where they quit is self-defeating (within the context of a game). Prodding them just enough to encourage more attacks or perhaps more reckless attacks, however, is to invite more opportunities to win, and thus, more fun.
So perhaps the only thing these studies are proving is that gamers enjoy playing more games... ?
Just a thought.
Yeah I was gonna say - coupla years ago I was driving home from the mountains and came across a really nasty accident that backed up traffic for hours. Some pour soul drove their car under a semi trailer, Fast & Furious style... only their car didn't exactly fit. Anyways, the ambulance that came from our direction was doing a HELL of a lot more than 100 kph. I heard that diesel roaring before I could even see the thing, and it blew by so fast you couldn't even tell which town it was from. Of course, this was a nice flat highway with no traffic in the lane he was driving in (the semi had partially jacknifed and blocked the whole highway), but that thing was flying almost as well as the damn helicopter that came in shortly afterwards. :(
There are acceptable risks in life... especially when you're dealing with death. RIP to whomever was in that accident... if memory serves they didn't survive, and from what I saw of the wreckage afterwards I wasn't suprised.
Oh i'm not fully against Warden. I understand why it's there, and I trust Blizzard enough that i'm willing to risk continued use of their software. But that doesn't mean I don't think this is an utterly rediculous invasion of privacy. I mean come on... Maytag doesn't get to lace my house with CCTV cameras when I buy one of their dishwashers. Why does Blizzard get unlimited access to my computer simply because i'm using their software? Just because its the norm? Infact, i've got a better word than "norm". Try "collusion". Look around - software EULAs have gone completely off the deep end while everyone was busy being mesmerized by the internet. It's just too bad avalanches are easier to start than they are to stop.
Love this one they added to WoW. Every once in a while there's a huge fuss about Blizz's "Warden" program. Anyways here's the TOS excerpt:
:)
A. WHEN RUNNING, THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT CLIENT MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) AND/OR CPU PROCESSES FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY "ADDON" OR "MOD," THAT IN BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, "MINES," OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. IN THE EVENT THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, BLIZZARD MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME, DETAILS ABOUT THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM DETECTED, AND THE TIME AND DATE THE UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM WAS DETECTED; AND/OR (b) EXERCISE ANY OR ALL OF ITS RIGHTS UNDER SECTION 6 OF THIS AGREEMENT, WITH OR WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE TO THE USER.
Nice, no? Of course "WE NOW OWN YOUR COMPUTER GG NOOB" would have been shorter and more to the point, but it doesn't sound nearly as eloquent.
Just saw Doom tonight with friends and mixed company. We had a nice little demographic cut there, ranging from PC game geeks (like myself) to total noobs. And chicks, OMG!
:P
:P), but i'm probably trying to read into something that isn't there. :P
Anyways, if you're not a gamer, have never played Doom, or aren't the least bit interested in gratuitous violence - don't go. One guys girlfriend actually fell asleep during the movie, which was suprising to me given the abundance of loud noises, screaming, and overamped bass. However, if you are a gamer, have played doom, enjoy gratutious violence, and have a sense of humour - then by all means, go see it! You can skip the fancy theatres, just grab as many geeky friends as you can find, load up on your choice of alcohol/drugs/sugar, and HAVE FUN at the theatre. Yes its bad, but its bad in a good way. As long as you can let your expectations go, relax, and just revel in the stupidity, you'll have a blast. I sure did!
Now on to specifics.
Plot & Script: Yeaaaah there isn't much of a plot, as you might expect. 'Something Bad'(tm) happens on Mars. The 'RRTS' (good-guys) teleport over there, more stuff goes bad, people die, etc etc etc, curtain. What plot exists has virtually nothing to do with the videogame - no portal to hell, no 'demons', none of that - though references to hell are scattered throughout. The actual plot ends up being a lot more like Resident Evil. That is to say, bio-engineering + lack of ethics = zombies and other mean things. It's really fairly pointless, and although the movie does try to tackle the idea of Good vs Evil, Right and Wrong (and almost, ALMOST succeeding for a nanosecond), it just ends up getting in the way of shooting more stuff.
The script, unfortunatly, is just as bad. It doesn't even score points for having cool one-liners you can shout at friends later. For the most part its uninspired and just stupidly obvious. That, or its all screaming/yelling. Heck, the only real line I remember from the movie was "He has a condition. He's dead." or something to that effect. Its more like reading a cookbook than it is cool or poetic. Shucks.
Characters: The characters are a little hit and miss. There are about 11 major-ish characters in the movie (8 are marines), all fleshed out to various degrees. Some have lots of screentime but zero backstory (like Sarge), others feel more human (Reaper - this is intentional i'm sure). Some are funny/pitiful (The Kid), others just there for show & violence (Destroyer), and yet others who could have been completely cut out of the script with no ill effects (Mac). A big but expected dissapointment for me was the utterly horrible intro/outro of the characters. You basically have one scene that introduces all of the marines at once, yet doesn't explain jack about who they are. Then throughout the movie, people die, dissapear, and die again. The Samantha character literally crawls out of the movie and is never seen again 5 seconds before the credits. Oh well.
One thing the movie failed to do, or did very well (depending on your point of view), is leave the morality of some of the characters quite obscure until late in the flick. Is Portman evil or just stupid? What motivates Sarge? Is Duke a badass or a tender-heart? I found myself questioning the characters at times, which was both interesting and kind of revealing (asto how pointless many of them really were
Acting: Karl Urban (John 'Reaper' Grimm) is one of my favorite actors, and IMO he does pretty good with such an utterly craptastic script. Doom definitly does not feature some of The Rock's (Sarge) best acting however. A couple lines seem like they were almost flubbed but left in anyways due to the length of a cut. Overall however, he does get the "grrr soldier badass!" feeling out to you. Rosamund Pike (Samantha Grimm) is one of the best actors in the movie IMO, though i'm not sure if its because of
Just came back from this. The BFG is labled as the "Bio Force Gun" (you/The Rock sees a schematic on a computer screen). When The Rock actually gets his hands on it though, he walks around it and goes "Big. Fucking. Gun." :)
Its all good
No kidding. I'd pay $7 for a good SF, DQ, or FF episode. But the crap thats available to me? None of it is any good. I (unreluctantly) paid $7.50 (cdn) to download a copy of Bejeweled because its a great time killer, and thats it, thats all.
Cmon... If they want to start selling games to gamers, maybe they should make some real games?
No, "IEEE" is the squeal you make when it badly malfunctions.
I thought that was the Kia guy?
Would not the doctrine of laches then apply? It could, but the result is no different than the xxAA going after file sharers. One individual (or small group of people) versus a very large multi-million dollar company. It just doesn't happen :\
I dunno about 30 locations. It might depend what you defined as a "location" though. Here are some off the top of my head (with Google as a refresher):
:o
Quel'Thalas - North of the plaguelands. Former home of the High Elves before Arthas sacked Silvermoon and the Sunwell
Northrend - Arctic continent. Azjol-Nerub, Icecrown Glacier (Arthas' current digs), Dragonblight plains, Drak'Tharon Keep, etc, etc.
Tomb of Sargeras - Tiny island/dungeon east of Stormwind.
The Broken Isles - Buncha islands west of Stormwind. Includes the Tomb of Sargeras and Balor.
Emerald Dream - Mystical pseudo-dimension. The gates are placed around the world, but aren't yet working.
Draenor (Outland) - via the Dark Portal which is *supposed* to be opened at some point.
Gilneas - Peninsula south of Silverpine Forest, currently blocked by a massive wall (Greymane wall).
Well of Eternety (Maelstrom) - Possibly an underwater/naga location between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms (in the Great Sea)
Dalaran - Former mage capitol near the Alterac Mountains. Currently sealed off by a giant magic bubble.
Zul'Aman - Troll homelands, east of the plaguelands
Kul Tiras (kingdom) - A bunch of islands west of the eastern kingdoms, including Crestfall, Zul'Dare, and Tol Barad (citadel).
Grim Batol - A future (red) dragon dungeon location in the wetlands, home of Alextrasza (red Aspect)
Ahn'Qiraj (south Silithus) - Home of those weird bug things, coming soon!
Uldum - Another Uldaman-like dwarf/titan cave, in southern Tanaris.
Ulduar - The third of the dwarf/titan caves, though I have no idea where this one is (Northrend?)
Caverns of Time - Dwelling place of Norzadmu (blue Aspect), located in the Tanaris Desert.
Karazhan (Medivh's Tower) - Bigarse tower in Deadwind Pass, not yet finished.
Mount Hyjal - Final battle site in WC3, home of the World Tree, Barrow Deeps, etc.
Undermine - Small continent SE of Kalimdor. Ruled by the trade princes, and inhabited largly by Goblins.
Kazan and Hiji - Two small islands in the south Great Sea between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Rumoured to be home to the Pandarians..?
Thats about all I can think of. But it'd be good for maybe a dozen new zones and 20 cities or dungeons. Certainly enough to keep Blizzard (and their fans) busy. And hey, if they ever run out of room on Azeroth, they can always start adding on (read: making it up) to the Outlands, Emerald Dream, or maybe even the Twisting Nether
They may have tried. Some companies won't respond to "fan mail" asking for permission to do something with their game/universe/whatever. Only after it becomes a definable entity (read: been worked on for years) do they step in with a C&D.
:\
Personally, I think any business that intentionally puts an end to FREE fan-created work, is shooting themselves in the foot. They should be embracing and nurturing their fans' love for said products, not trying to squash it! But hey, telling customers HOW they HAVE TO enjoy a product seems to be a popular trend these days.
His name was Arron Perry.
2,430 meters. Go PPCLI!
There's a ton of "user published content" action in the field of PC gaming. Pick just about any recent PC title on the planet, and chances are very good that someone has hacked/modified it and released their findings. Tons of companies nowadays (esp. developers of FPS games) wholeheartedly encourage modding games, releasing docs, developer tools, providing support, and even holding prize contests to encourage the practice.
:)
Why? Because everyone wins. Its a symbiotic relationship. Mods provide extra content for an already published title, increasing its popularity, longevity, and sales (Half-Life 1, anyone?). The community feeds itself as well as the existing game. And the cherry on top is that plenty of dev studios are recruiting the cream of the mod-scene crop to bolster their own ranks. End result is better games for everyone.
From what I found poking around on their forums, I believe they used Lightwave for their (extensive) special effects.
...about this movie wasn't the decent-to-good acting of the main characters, or the humorous yet interesting story, the hillarious gags, or even the totally awesome special effects.
;)
No, I think the most suprising thing about this movie is just how many good looking girls they managed to convince to participate in a complete geek-fest of a film. (Hellloooo Bridge-Girls!)
I dunno about the rest of you, but if there's really that many hot girls in Finland who like nerdy stuff, i'm packing my bags!
530 seeds and over 2000 peers here - but give it a coupla hours to hit it's peak. Mark my words: 2500 people is peanuts for this swarm. ;)
I dunno about that "coal is cleaner than gas" thing, man. Sure, it might be easier to scrub NOx, COx, HC, (etc etc) emissions from a central location. However, that would completely ignore all the toxic metals that coal powerplants release. Fun stuff like mercury, uranium, lead... pretty much anything you can dig up, will be spit out into the air. So while switching to electric-powered-by-coal-cars might save a few people from NOx poisons (or whatever), how many others will wind up dying from increased heavy-metal poisons and radiation? 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't'. At least until some bright monkey invents cold fusion. That, or the world goes nuclear.
(I think i'll bet on the cold-fusion monkey. It seems more likely.)
Keep in mind that most small-car diesel engines are turbocharged. Hell, most diesel engines *period* are turbocharged. Turbo's require a lot more responsibility as far as maintinence goes, when compared to the iron-pig gas V8's of yesteryear.
A properly maintained diesel engine however, is a reliable and wonderful way to save on gas - even if it's still at the expense of the environment.
I'll second that. Fuck those "cheap" $1 fan filters. Grab a dryer sheet, fold it in half, slap it on. Change them every three months or so and you're golden. Plus, if you use the scented kind, the whole room smells like fresh laundry! ;)
:P
Anyways, I use a bounce sheet on my side intake port (bonus: because it has a bolt-on grill, I just punch holes in the sheet with a pen and thread the screws through em) because it was horrible for blowing dust all over my video card. No filters on my front ports yet though. I'm lucky - because my house is 3/4'ers populated by allergy sufferers, we bought an electrostatic filter for our furnace/ac system. They're not exactly a "cheap" solution, but they're freakin awesome for cutting down on the dust throughout the entire house. Get one, get your furnace/ac/whatever and pipes cleaned, and you'll be amazed at how much smaller your friendly household dustbunnies will be. And speaking of AC... because its so dry where I live, in the summertime I just pipe my room's AC right into my computer. Keeps my baby nice and chilly even when its blazing hot outside and i'm into my 6th hour of playing World of Warcrack.
I just bought a Samsung SGH-P207 though, and one nifty feature it has (besides being shiny!) is called VoiceMode. Essentially, after training the phone to recognize your voice and accent, you can just push a button and literally tell your phone what to do. For example - if I wanted to call my house number, rather than going into my address book and all that, I can just press the voice button and say "Call home". As long as the phone understood me to its satisfaction, it will just start dialing my home number. This little feature is also enabled for text messages too, so rather than playing hunt and peck for five minutes, I can just dictate the message and fire away. Its far from perfect but as long as the technology continues to evolve, it could very well become a standard feature on mobiles of the future.
All that said, they can pry my PC from my cold dead hands.
"Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!"