Actually, its funny you mention Civ 3. I never really was a Civ fan, but I managed to get my hands on a demo of Civ 3 Gold a few weeks ago... and it was shit. You could only play for like three hours total (and as any civ fan knows - thats NOT a lot of time), limited to 30 minute stretches, and confined to the middle ages as far as progress.
So, frustrated and annoyed, I dug around and found a warez copy of the game. I just wanted to check things out, sans-bullshit, you know? I never planned on buying it, never mind keeping it for more than a game or two. But then, a funny thing happened. I got hooked. Its like crack, I couldn't stop playing the game! So, I went out and found a used copy of Civ 3 + a new copy of Civ 3 Conquests. Now i'm happy, and i'm sure the publisher (Atari) and developer (Firaxis) are happy too. Thanks to warez.
Too bad Canada has more oil than Iraq.
Guess who we sell it all to?
Now guess which "superpower" would be without gas (and electricity) if Canada ever dissapeared?
I know its popular among Americans to bash Canada and "put the little guy in his place", but most people just don't realize how interdependant the two countries are on one another. If one falls, the other takes a tumble too.
So start showing some goddamn respect for your best ally and neighbour (and that goes for both sides).
Got your 1000hp+ SUV right here!
on
The Bugatti Veyron
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Yup. Its called a 797. Caterpillar 797.
V24 diesel engine, with four turbos. Three thousand, four hundred ponies. Yeah, you heard me: 3400hp.
Seven forward gears. 42 inch brakes. Can haul up to 380 tons of your kids crap.
Course, it only does like 42mph (loaded) while getting 0.3 mpg. Yes, at 47 feet long and 23 feet tall, its kind of hard to park. But you can rest assured that your 13 foot tires are bigger than your neighbours' Escalade! Or his entire Chevvy for that matter.
Yours for only 3.4 million! (Some assembly required).
(PS: All joking aside, i've seen one of these beasts up close, and they're just insane. The pictures don't even do it justice.)
I had a friend of a friend of a friend with a supercharged 1250bhp Firebird that walked anything off the line and had a 2.7 0-60 (thx G-Tech Pro II!)
Your 'friends friend' had the cash to make a 1200hp Firebird... and you tested it with a fucking G-Tech?!?
Are there no drag stips where he lives or what?!
The next really REALLY cool tech you'll see is a camless motor. Lotus has done a LOT of research on solenoid actuated valves.
...this is more blue sky technology...
Well, you'll be happy to know engineers are part way there. BMW has an experimental system that can infinitly and quickly (300ms) adjust valve timing and lift, called "Valvetronic". Coupled with their 'VANOS' technology, its pretty damned close to reaping the benefits of a "camless engine".
Mind you, its not perfect (yet), but it IS out on a few newer bimmers.
It'd be neat if we had a passive filter to remove nitrogen from the air entering the engine.
...Until your pistons melted into a nice puddle at the bottom of the crank case. Burning pure-ish oxygen in an engine is actually 'a bad thing'(TM), since it gets so damned hot. (3000 degree oxycetaline welding, anyone?) You need some inert gas (such as nitrogen) to take up space in the chambers to keep the combustion temperatures within reason. Of course, due to the imperfect conditions of the internal combustion engine, some of this nitrogen (and other elements) turns into nasty stuff that comes out the tailpipe. Which is why modern cars have things like catalytic converters, EGRs (exhaust gas recirculation), etc. Its a bit of a nessecary (and convenient) evil, unfortunatly.
I'm curious because i've been very fortunate with what little DOS-era gaming I still do. Quite a lot of older games I still have sitting around just seem to work under WinXP. Sure, some of them might take a bit of fiddling to set up, and a few won't play their craptastic MIDI music, but on the whole I've managed to get pretty much everything working one way or another. The biggest problem is that a few games seem to randomly crash while loading (Dune 2 and Colonization come to mind), but they're kind of like old lawnmowers: Just keep pulling until she fires. Come to think of it, there was only one game that I even had to download DOSBox for... (Merit's Galactic) Reunion. Unfortunatly, I got it working and then remembered what a crappy game it was. Heh, oops. But on the whole, everythings been pretty peachy for my system.
Time of story posting: 9:25PM
Time of idiot troll posting: 9:26PM
Elapsed time: >60 seconds
Time it takes to mark troll as foe: ~5 seconds
The satisfaction of never having to read his drivel again: Timeless.
At first I thought the title said "Brotherhood of Arms". I was like "NO WAY! TEAM FORTRESS 2?!?"
...then my supermodel wife asked me if I was going to pick up my Ferarri today so we could take it to the UN summit where I was to be honoured for ending world famine and finding a cure for cancer. And I realized what an idiot I was because in my fantasy world, TF2 came out 6 years ago! DUH!
...I really do. Here's a male, a gamer, who has been GUILTED by the "feminine movement" into a state where he cannot look at a modestly attractive portrayal of a female in a game without feeling shameful.
That's pathetic. It really is. Why does he feel the way he does? What kind of horrible psychology has warped his mind into this sad state?
He feels guilty that Samus is a woman? And that Samus *can* be seen in a bathing suit? Oh dear lord! Someone call the thought-police, he might start forming an attraction to the opposite sex! How horrible! -- Though the true horror is that he feels this way. That, every time he views an in game portrayal of a woman even REMOTELY attractive, it is somehow a violation of "womens rights".
Let me tell you something guys. Not as a woman, because i'm not. But because i'm a MAN, and I no longer tolerate this "acceptable society" bullshit. Women in games? Thats great. SEXY women in games? Thats even fucking BETTER! Now before the "facist-femme militia of well-whipped men" decends on me, i'd like to point out one interesting fact: Women LIKE sexy portrayals of women. Women LIKE to feel sexy. They LIKE to feel attractive, they fucking ENJOY the power to reduce a man to a quivering puddle of goo with their bodies. Come on men, don't you too? All/. = nerd jokes aside, what man here can honestly say they don't like feeling sexy too? That they don't like feeling macho and handsome? What man doesn't enjoy the power to wow a woman with his body too?? Be it a nicely cut slice of cleavage or a well shaped bicep, we all like feeling sexy. Its hardwired into our brains. So claiming that every sexy portrayal of a woman in a game is somehow "wrong" is about as STUPID as saying breathing is wrong. I say again: Women are NOT offended by sexy women in games!!
I know, I know... a lot of you probably don't believe me. Well look right here. Its a page all about female characters in video games. Browse through the ratings, go ahead. Check out some good examples and some bad. Notice anything? Notice any attractive females with high ratings? Women are not offended by their own genders display of sexuality and power. They love that shit just as much as guys do. What's offensive is unrealistic images and blatant focuses on sexuality. Guys, a woman is a mind and a soul as well as a body, and if they're going to play games then thats the kind of avatars they expect.
I strongly encourage poeple to read this article if you haven't already. And check out some of the quotes too. This one was on the infamous Lara Croft (sp. the box art):
It's not the fault of the packaging. Okay, so her breasts are lethal weapons, sure. But I
like the cover art. It shows that she's strong, she's tough, she's an adventurer, she's solo - she doesn't need a man! She *owns* those guns, and she knows how to use them. What's not to like?
Whoa whoa whoa - back that up there. She LIKES the cover art? Lara Croft? What the hell? Look at her breasts! They're huge! And those shorts are TINY! How could any woman *LIKE* Lara Croft's signature pose? Its so blatantly sexual! By definition, all women should hate it, right?! WRONG. Like I said again and again: Women do not mind attractive females in games. They enjoy their sexuality too, because its *part* of how they define themselves as a woman. They IDENTIFY with a woman's sexual power. So what do they hate? Read on:
But the hype surrounding Lara Croft was gross. The hype undercut her image as strong smart archeologist. The hype made her into a sex kitten.
And BINGO! It was the marketing! The focus! Here, a female gamer was impressed not only with the attractiveness of Lara, but with her strength and confidence as well. For a b
Half of you won a foot (er.. tail?) race against millions of other competetors.
The other half of you repelled a simultaneous attack by those same millions of loosers (kinda like the burly brawl in the Matrix).
You're equal parts Olympic 100m sprint Gold Medalist and World Champion Kickboxer.
Whats not to be proud of?
They're not really relicensing the engine though. The ability for the public to mod the game (NOT engine) is a "feature" of the Unreal Engine. You buy the engine, you get the features, which are passed down to the public. Everyone is happy.:)
Mod me troll for saying this... but i'd actually like to see game designers move AWAY from D&D or other paper based rulesets. Don't get me wrong, P+P can be great fun... but when's someone going to make a ruleset that takes advantage of a computer? I've always felt that paper systems were simplified because rolling 20 dice just to see if your right-handed 32 degree slash hit, wasn't deflected, broke a link in their chainmail, and caused a wound... well its just not fun. So in paper, thats all done in what... 2 rolls? But hell, with a computer you could make 20 dice rolls in an instant and the user would never know the difference. Basically I just think the rules for computers need to be streamlined for FUN, not some non-existant physical limitations. And by the same token, much of the power and flexibility in having a real DM is lost with a computer... so compensation in that area is definitly needed. Its all about limitations and tradeoffs IMO, and paper's are definitly NOT the same as a computers.
The other thing is, and do excuse the tangent, i've always HATED D&Ds magic and ability system. Maybe i'm just a Diablo-noobie, but if I can do some kick ass backflip-powerstrike, or ultimate-spell-of-destruction... why the fuck can I only do it twice a day?! What, is there some internal clock on my character? Does he go "DING!" when 24 hours pass? Thats stupid. I've always preferred the mana/stamina "pool" method because its so much more flexible. Mana is raw ability... do anything with it, but your supply is limited. D&D you've got all that memorization and per/day limit stuff... its just stupid. Say your mage character unleashs some raging inferno and completely annihilates a whole clan of orcs in an instant. Once. Now imagine the conversation:
"That was badass! Do it again!"
"Sorry man, I can't".
"Why not?"
"Oh because I have to wait 19 hours to do that again."
"Oh, so like you're tired?"
"No, not tired... I just can't do that again."
"So you could cast another spell?"
"Yeah sure."
"So cast that spell again!"
"Can't dude, like I said. All i've got left is... light. Want me to make the room glow? Its really cool, watch!"
*Grumbles* "Stupid wizard."
And yeah, I know there are some ways to fudge that stuff... but the flexibility just isn't built into the game, and thats what I hate about it. Don't get me wrong, the D&D universe is a blast... I just wish there was some plausible explanation why, in NWN, my badass, "more pissy than a castrated dragon", lvl 22 human female Fighter/Thief/Weapon Master with dual flaming longswords can only perform 6 "Ki Powerstrikes" a day. Bah.
They got paid (prolly) $750,000 by Vivendi for the engine to be used in T:V.:)
And no, Epic doesn't mind licensees encouraging modding too. The more people that get into the Unreal Engine, the bigger the fanbase for Epic and other potential licensees. Its a win-win-win-win-win-win (ad nauseum) situation for them.
I don't expect outsiders to know this, but anyone who lives in or around Edmonton will tell you that Whyte ave is not a pretty sight after the sun goes down. There are only what... 20, 30 bars allong that strip? The place tends to get a little rough at night. Perhaps you forgot about July 1st, 2001? Also known as the Whyte ave Riot? Thats a pretty friggin big reason why people are OK with security cameras in that area. And its also why the EPS can "justify" spending the money. One more cop wouldn't have done fuck all versus 1200 drunken rioters, but a small network of security cameras will make even the dumbest people think twice about trashing the place again.
Thats the thing - its NOT EASY to be world class. Yeah, its no big deal to jump online and smack some 12 year olds around. But going up against the best of the best in the CPL, etc? They will hand your ass to you on a silver fucking platter man. You wouldn't even know what the hell hit you. Those guys are better than just good. They're friggin amazing.
Method A:
"What are you doing, dumbass?! AUGH! You wrecked it!" *Smacks coworker in the head* *Scratches ass* *Whistles at attractive female coworker*
Method B:
"Ooh? AAH! AAHHA AHHHHHEEEHAAAAAAA!!!" *Grabs wrench and beats co-worker with it repeatedly* *Stands over unconcious body and screeches loudly while pounding chest* *Wipes ass with hand and sniffs it* *Chases attractive female coworker into closet while grunting loudly*
Man. Suddenly I wish we were doing this study at MY workplace too...
Unfortunatly its uninformed opinions like this that hinder gamings growth. Allow me to sling some answers back:
* Anti-social (With sports, you are pretty much forced to play with someone else)
- A decreasingly less valid point. Multiplayer games (regular and MMOs) are becoming more popular each day, and new generations of games are introducing increasingly complex social interactions among players. Not to mention the hundreds of clans, communities, and fansites that spring up around popular games.
* Waste of money (Kicking a football once you have bought it costs nothing, but arcade machines eat coins)
- Gaming is no more expensive than many other popular sports, like Hockey or Football. All that equipment costs a LOT, just like a sw33t rig and a couple of games. "Just a football" would be better compared to, say, "Just a Gameboy" or "Just a no-name pocket game", as they're both shadows of their respective 'sports'.
* Lack of exercise (Sitting around the house all day)
Not gamings strong point, I agree. But why does it have to be? Not many people are looking for physical activity in gaming... thats what a gym or pool is for. (Unless you REALLY want to combine the two.. then you can go play DDR:p)
* No chance of professional achievement (as, say, with popular sports)
- Bzzt. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Some of these people have six figure salaries. Thats a lot more impressive than a hell of a lot of careers.
* Addiction (I've never heard of someone who played/survived an 8 hour match of soccer, and still wanted more)
I guess you'd be interested in hearing a little record or two that happened recently. Worlds longest game of hockey: 130 hours. There were even an attempt or two around where I live that clocked in at 87 hours (ice was melting). Now thats h4rdc0r3.
* Viewed as being "mindless" (Chess, and other boardgames aren't - but even then they have a social element, professional rankings, etc.)
- So inaccurate, its almost laughable. Games are not all 'mindless'. A high level match in a FPS or RTS entails as much strategy as a game of chess, easilly. Planning, reactions, feints, counters, etc... its all there.
* Violence (Contact sports are violent too... but not in the deliberate blood-splatting way some video games are)
- Also a valid point, but its interesting to note that extremely violent games are virtually never the ones chosen for professional competition. Most violence in games is purely symbolic anyways. Would chess be considered violent too if the pieces bled or exploded when they were taken? And lets not forget the king of violence: Boxing. Nice sport, but you can't really look at that and then start pointing fingers at games.
* The loser sub-culture stigma (Anyone here old enough to remember the 1981 film "Joysticks" ?)
- Ah yes, a very large stumbling block. But like all good things, it will take time before gaming grows into a more mainstream role. Gaming is downright infantile compared to the age of most other sports. Hockey is what... 150 years old? Gaming is... 15? Call me in 85 years and we'll see where things are at.;)
* Fanatical Christians think role playing games are evil (I'm not kidding on that one: they reckon that creating character as a personification as oneself is idolatory, and then giving them magic powers makes it all look worse.)
- Mod me flamebait, but since when did it matter what a tiny slice of a religion thought? What kind of power do they even weild? Are they the Illuminati or something? Christianity isn't even the largest religion globally, never mind the small portion of bible-thumping whackjobs that view games as the "tool of the devil". Their skewwed viewpoints are of little consequence to the rest of us.
AFAIK, an UT engine license runs around $350,000 with you paying royalties, or 750,000 for a no-strings-attatched copy. So yes, Epic can make VERY good money by selling the engine. Especially considering its so darn popular.
Oh, and about Uscript... you actually have to compile it too. Luckilly, the compiler (UCC) and everything else you need is all included in the box, and compiling individual scripts usually doesn't take very long.
The thing to understand is that UScript is basically a language (C++/Java-ish, OOP) of its own. Practically all of the game content is handled through UScript and then run by a virtual machine created by the game. Most of the actual C++ native stuff that's hidden away (the VM, renderer, sound, networking, etc) isn't something most modders need to touch anyways, since all the real meat of the "game" is totally exposed. Anyone can just dive in and start mucking away with the scripts, its kinda cool. I'm not very good at it, but I know its there:)
If you're still curious (or my non-programmer explanation just sucks), you can head on over to a nice little Wiki page with an article written by Epics lead programmer (Tim Sweeny) that gives a good intro to the language. Ok, so 9 pages isn't exactly little. But it is pretty cool if you ever wanted to know where UScript came from and how she works.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, its funny you mention Civ 3. I never really was a Civ fan, but I managed to get my hands on a demo of Civ 3 Gold a few weeks ago... and it was shit. You could only play for like three hours total (and as any civ fan knows - thats NOT a lot of time), limited to 30 minute stretches, and confined to the middle ages as far as progress.
So, frustrated and annoyed, I dug around and found a warez copy of the game. I just wanted to check things out, sans-bullshit, you know? I never planned on buying it, never mind keeping it for more than a game or two. But then, a funny thing happened. I got hooked. Its like crack, I couldn't stop playing the game! So, I went out and found a used copy of Civ 3 + a new copy of Civ 3 Conquests. Now i'm happy, and i'm sure the publisher (Atari) and developer (Firaxis) are happy too. Thanks to warez.
Funny how things can turn out, no?
Too bad Canada has more oil than Iraq.
Guess who we sell it all to?
Now guess which "superpower" would be without gas (and electricity) if Canada ever dissapeared?
I know its popular among Americans to bash Canada and "put the little guy in his place", but most people just don't realize how interdependant the two countries are on one another. If one falls, the other takes a tumble too.
So start showing some goddamn respect for your best ally and neighbour (and that goes for both sides).
Yup. Its called a 797. Caterpillar 797.
V24 diesel engine, with four turbos. Three thousand, four hundred ponies. Yeah, you heard me: 3400hp.
Seven forward gears. 42 inch brakes. Can haul up to 380 tons of your kids crap.
Course, it only does like 42mph (loaded) while getting 0.3 mpg. Yes, at 47 feet long and 23 feet tall, its kind of hard to park. But you can rest assured that your 13 foot tires are bigger than your neighbours' Escalade! Or his entire Chevvy for that matter.
Yours for only 3.4 million! (Some assembly required).
(PS: All joking aside, i've seen one of these beasts up close, and they're just insane. The pictures don't even do it justice.)
Are there no drag stips where he lives or what?!
Mind you, its not perfect (yet), but it IS out on a few newer bimmers.
The future is (almost) now.
Could I interest you in a very friendly dog?
Its a bit of a nessecary (and convenient) evil, unfortunatly.
God you people are jaded. Its not like you can just throw together some misc sounds and have music!
;)
Sorry. Couldn't resist the obligatory SBE.
Impressive!
...John Titor, by chance?
I'm curious because i've been very fortunate with what little DOS-era gaming I still do. Quite a lot of older games I still have sitting around just seem to work under WinXP. Sure, some of them might take a bit of fiddling to set up, and a few won't play their craptastic MIDI music, but on the whole I've managed to get pretty much everything working one way or another. The biggest problem is that a few games seem to randomly crash while loading (Dune 2 and Colonization come to mind), but they're kind of like old lawnmowers: Just keep pulling until she fires. Come to think of it, there was only one game that I even had to download DOSBox for... (Merit's Galactic) Reunion. Unfortunatly, I got it working and then remembered what a crappy game it was. Heh, oops. But on the whole, everythings been pretty peachy for my system.
Anyone got any good horror stories to share?
Time of idiot troll posting: 9:26PM
Elapsed time: >60 seconds
Time it takes to mark troll as foe: ~5 seconds
The satisfaction of never having to read his drivel again: Timeless.
For everything else, there's mod points.
At first I thought the title said "Brotherhood of Arms". I was like "NO WAY! TEAM FORTRESS 2?!?"
...then my supermodel wife asked me if I was going to pick up my Ferarri today so we could take it to the UN summit where I was to be honoured for ending world famine and finding a cure for cancer. And I realized what an idiot I was because in my fantasy world, TF2 came out 6 years ago! DUH!
(Sorry. I haven't taken my medication today.)
That's pathetic. It really is. Why does he feel the way he does? What kind of horrible psychology has warped his mind into this sad state?
He feels guilty that Samus is a woman? And that Samus *can* be seen in a bathing suit? Oh dear lord! Someone call the thought-police, he might start forming an attraction to the opposite sex! How horrible! -- Though the true horror is that he feels this way. That, every time he views an in game portrayal of a woman even REMOTELY attractive, it is somehow a violation of "womens rights".
Let me tell you something guys. Not as a woman, because i'm not. But because i'm a MAN, and I no longer tolerate this "acceptable society" bullshit. Women in games? Thats great. SEXY women in games? Thats even fucking BETTER! Now before the "facist-femme militia of well-whipped men" decends on me, i'd like to point out one interesting fact: Women LIKE sexy portrayals of women. Women LIKE to feel sexy. They LIKE to feel attractive, they fucking ENJOY the power to reduce a man to a quivering puddle of goo with their bodies. Come on men, don't you too? All
I know, I know... a lot of you probably don't believe me. Well look right here. Its a page all about female characters in video games. Browse through the ratings, go ahead. Check out some good examples and some bad. Notice anything? Notice any attractive females with high ratings? Women are not offended by their own genders display of sexuality and power. They love that shit just as much as guys do. What's offensive is unrealistic images and blatant focuses on sexuality. Guys, a woman is a mind and a soul as well as a body, and if they're going to play games then thats the kind of avatars they expect.
I strongly encourage poeple to read this article if you haven't already. And check out some of the quotes too. This one was on the infamous Lara Croft (sp. the box art):
Whoa whoa whoa - back that up there. She LIKES the cover art? Lara Croft? What the hell? Look at her breasts! They're huge! And those shorts are TINY! How could any woman *LIKE* Lara Croft's signature pose? Its so blatantly sexual! By definition, all women should hate it, right?! WRONG. Like I said again and again: Women do not mind attractive females in games. They enjoy their sexuality too, because its *part* of how they define themselves as a woman. They IDENTIFY with a woman's sexual power. So what do they hate? Read on:
And BINGO! It was the marketing! The focus! Here, a female gamer was impressed not only with the attractiveness of Lara, but with her strength and confidence as well. For a b
Oh pshaw. You're looking at it all wrong:
Half of you won a foot (er.. tail?) race against millions of other competetors.
The other half of you repelled a simultaneous attack by those same millions of loosers (kinda like the burly brawl in the Matrix).
You're equal parts Olympic 100m sprint Gold Medalist and World Champion Kickboxer.
Whats not to be proud of?
They're not really relicensing the engine though. The ability for the public to mod the game (NOT engine) is a "feature" of the Unreal Engine. You buy the engine, you get the features, which are passed down to the public. Everyone is happy. :)
Mod me troll for saying this... but i'd actually like to see game designers move AWAY from D&D or other paper based rulesets. Don't get me wrong, P+P can be great fun... but when's someone going to make a ruleset that takes advantage of a computer? I've always felt that paper systems were simplified because rolling 20 dice just to see if your right-handed 32 degree slash hit, wasn't deflected, broke a link in their chainmail, and caused a wound... well its just not fun. So in paper, thats all done in what... 2 rolls? But hell, with a computer you could make 20 dice rolls in an instant and the user would never know the difference. Basically I just think the rules for computers need to be streamlined for FUN, not some non-existant physical limitations. And by the same token, much of the power and flexibility in having a real DM is lost with a computer... so compensation in that area is definitly needed. Its all about limitations and tradeoffs IMO, and paper's are definitly NOT the same as a computers.
The other thing is, and do excuse the tangent, i've always HATED D&Ds magic and ability system. Maybe i'm just a Diablo-noobie, but if I can do some kick ass backflip-powerstrike, or ultimate-spell-of-destruction... why the fuck can I only do it twice a day?! What, is there some internal clock on my character? Does he go "DING!" when 24 hours pass? Thats stupid. I've always preferred the mana/stamina "pool" method because its so much more flexible. Mana is raw ability... do anything with it, but your supply is limited. D&D you've got all that memorization and per/day limit stuff... its just stupid. Say your mage character unleashs some raging inferno and completely annihilates a whole clan of orcs in an instant. Once. Now imagine the conversation:
"That was badass! Do it again!"
"Sorry man, I can't".
"Why not?"
"Oh because I have to wait 19 hours to do that again."
"Oh, so like you're tired?"
"No, not tired... I just can't do that again."
"So you could cast another spell?"
"Yeah sure."
"So cast that spell again!"
"Can't dude, like I said. All i've got left is... light. Want me to make the room glow? Its really cool, watch!"
*Grumbles* "Stupid wizard."
And yeah, I know there are some ways to fudge that stuff... but the flexibility just isn't built into the game, and thats what I hate about it. Don't get me wrong, the D&D universe is a blast... I just wish there was some plausible explanation why, in NWN, my badass, "more pissy than a castrated dragon", lvl 22 human female Fighter/Thief/Weapon Master with dual flaming longswords can only perform 6 "Ki Powerstrikes" a day. Bah.
They got paid (prolly) $750,000 by Vivendi for the engine to be used in T:V. :)
And no, Epic doesn't mind licensees encouraging modding too. The more people that get into the Unreal Engine, the bigger the fanbase for Epic and other potential licensees. Its a win-win-win-win-win-win (ad nauseum) situation for them.
RTFA. "Side talkin" is dead. (Thank god)
I don't expect outsiders to know this, but anyone who lives in or around Edmonton will tell you that Whyte ave is not a pretty sight after the sun goes down. There are only what... 20, 30 bars allong that strip? The place tends to get a little rough at night. Perhaps you forgot about July 1st, 2001? Also known as the Whyte ave Riot? Thats a pretty friggin big reason why people are OK with security cameras in that area. And its also why the EPS can "justify" spending the money. One more cop wouldn't have done fuck all versus 1200 drunken rioters, but a small network of security cameras will make even the dumbest people think twice about trashing the place again.
No no, step 5 is "SPLAT".
Which begs the question... when a music exec explodes, does it rain CDs?
Thats the thing - its NOT EASY to be world class. Yeah, its no big deal to jump online and smack some 12 year olds around. But going up against the best of the best in the CPL, etc? They will hand your ass to you on a silver fucking platter man. You wouldn't even know what the hell hit you. Those guys are better than just good. They're friggin amazing.
Method A:
"What are you doing, dumbass?! AUGH! You wrecked it!" *Smacks coworker in the head* *Scratches ass* *Whistles at attractive female coworker*
Method B:
"Ooh? AAH! AAHHA AHHHHHEEEHAAAAAAA!!!" *Grabs wrench and beats co-worker with it repeatedly* *Stands over unconcious body and screeches loudly while pounding chest* *Wipes ass with hand and sniffs it* *Chases attractive female coworker into closet while grunting loudly*
Man. Suddenly I wish we were doing this study at MY workplace too...
Unfortunatly its uninformed opinions like this that hinder gamings growth. Allow me to sling some answers back:
:p)
;)
* Anti-social (With sports, you are pretty much forced to play with someone else)
- A decreasingly less valid point. Multiplayer games (regular and MMOs) are becoming more popular each day, and new generations of games are introducing increasingly complex social interactions among players. Not to mention the hundreds of clans, communities, and fansites that spring up around popular games.
* Waste of money (Kicking a football once you have bought it costs nothing, but arcade machines eat coins)
- Gaming is no more expensive than many other popular sports, like Hockey or Football. All that equipment costs a LOT, just like a sw33t rig and a couple of games. "Just a football" would be better compared to, say, "Just a Gameboy" or "Just a no-name pocket game", as they're both shadows of their respective 'sports'.
* Lack of exercise (Sitting around the house all day)
Not gamings strong point, I agree. But why does it have to be? Not many people are looking for physical activity in gaming... thats what a gym or pool is for. (Unless you REALLY want to combine the two.. then you can go play DDR
* No chance of professional achievement (as, say, with popular sports)
- Bzzt. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Some of these people have six figure salaries. Thats a lot more impressive than a hell of a lot of careers.
* Addiction (I've never heard of someone who played/survived an 8 hour match of soccer, and still wanted more)
I guess you'd be interested in hearing a little record or two that happened recently. Worlds longest game of hockey: 130 hours. There were even an attempt or two around where I live that clocked in at 87 hours (ice was melting). Now thats h4rdc0r3.
* Viewed as being "mindless" (Chess, and other boardgames aren't - but even then they have a social element, professional rankings, etc.)
- So inaccurate, its almost laughable. Games are not all 'mindless'. A high level match in a FPS or RTS entails as much strategy as a game of chess, easilly. Planning, reactions, feints, counters, etc... its all there.
* Violence (Contact sports are violent too... but not in the deliberate blood-splatting way some video games are)
- Also a valid point, but its interesting to note that extremely violent games are virtually never the ones chosen for professional competition. Most violence in games is purely symbolic anyways. Would chess be considered violent too if the pieces bled or exploded when they were taken? And lets not forget the king of violence: Boxing. Nice sport, but you can't really look at that and then start pointing fingers at games.
* The loser sub-culture stigma (Anyone here old enough to remember the 1981 film "Joysticks" ?)
- Ah yes, a very large stumbling block. But like all good things, it will take time before gaming grows into a more mainstream role. Gaming is downright infantile compared to the age of most other sports. Hockey is what... 150 years old? Gaming is... 15? Call me in 85 years and we'll see where things are at.
* Fanatical Christians think role playing games are evil (I'm not kidding on that one: they reckon that creating character as a personification as oneself is idolatory, and then giving them magic powers makes it all look worse.)
- Mod me flamebait, but since when did it matter what a tiny slice of a religion thought? What kind of power do they even weild? Are they the Illuminati or something? Christianity isn't even the largest religion globally, never mind the small portion of bible-thumping whackjobs that view games as the "tool of the devil". Their skewwed viewpoints are of little consequence to the rest of us.
G
AFAIK, an UT engine license runs around $350,000 with you paying royalties, or 750,000 for a no-strings-attatched copy. So yes, Epic can make VERY good money by selling the engine. Especially considering its so darn popular.
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Oh, and about Uscript... you actually have to compile it too. Luckilly, the compiler (UCC) and everything else you need is all included in the box, and compiling individual scripts usually doesn't take very long.
The thing to understand is that UScript is basically a language (C++/Java-ish, OOP) of its own. Practically all of the game content is handled through UScript and then run by a virtual machine created by the game. Most of the actual C++ native stuff that's hidden away (the VM, renderer, sound, networking, etc) isn't something most modders need to touch anyways, since all the real meat of the "game" is totally exposed. Anyone can just dive in and start mucking away with the scripts, its kinda cool. I'm not very good at it, but I know its there
If you're still curious (or my non-programmer explanation just sucks), you can head on over to a nice little Wiki page with an article written by Epics lead programmer (Tim Sweeny) that gives a good intro to the language. Ok, so 9 pages isn't exactly little. But it is pretty cool if you ever wanted to know where UScript came from and how she works.