Then might I refer you to AirBuccaneers?
Its kind of like a pirate game, except that combat is largely done through large airships (dirigibles) with cannons.
Though surely the same concepts used in airships could be applied to conventional watercraft? (But hey, i'm no UScript expert)
Ok, i'll bite. Why is using a command line "a good thing"(TM)? What is so special about a blinking cursor that gives Linux geeks a hardon? What kind of insane and obscure command would possibly be easier on a CLI than a GUI for the average Windows user?
Just any old laser? You really should specify a brand you know. I suggest you go with "Frickin" (must be a German company...) since their laser technology seems to be quite popular as of late. Everywhere I go, I hear talk of attatching "Frickin laser beams" to things... I assume their stellar reputation is a reflection of their quality products.
Might be a good transitional tool for Windows users looking not wanting to give up their eye-candy interface initially.
Initially? Why initially? What about the millions of computer users out there that don't EVER want to give up their "eye-candy interface" ?
Man, the more I watch the Linux world from the outside, the less i'm beginning to believe in "the revolution". It would be funny if it wasn't crushingly dissapointing - Two sides that "just don't get it".
Right on. S:A&B was the friggin BOMB. I loved that show to death, especially the space battles! They just got SO much right, and still managed to keep it exciting!
I know this is against all things geek, but honestly most Star Trek spacefights aren't that great... they tend to show more actors shaking around on stage than two goliath ships duking it out. The only show that even comes close to the greatness that was S:A&B is B5. They've got some pretty badass large scale fights... but IMO, nothing holds a candle to S:A&B. Heck, if you're feeling a little nostalgic (and read this before the server gets/.ed to hell), clicky over here for a short (and really poor quality) clip of S:A&B. At first blush it doesn't really seem special, but if you watch it closely, you start to notice the little things that S:A&B got right. Stuff like the ship having to dodge debris, or how the alien fighter at that flys past them at the end cuts power and spins around to blast them while still traveling forward (momentum). Its stuff like that that made their dogfights so enthralling to watch.
Plus, the Wildcards were just badass! "Expect No Mercy". (And who can forget the forboding "Abandon All Hope" ace?;))
...is that they build staircases to nowhere.
This hit me hardest with Diablo 2 (+LOD). You start off, the game is great, everything is new and exciting, skills, equipment, quests... you're completely wowed by it all. You keep playing, and quests start to become rehashes of other quests (eg: Kill x, find y, bring item to z), but you keep playing because you're still leveling and finding new and exciting gear. And then, the magical night comes: You beat the game. Congrats! A winnar is yuo!...and then what? In Diablo's case, you move on to Nightmare and Hell. The exact same game, only with tougher monsters and phatter lewt. You keep leveling and finding cool shit, so for a while its OK. But eventually you beat the game a second and third time. Then what? Keep looking for phatter lewt and more levels! So you start with the Meph runs and Pindle runs and Baal runs. Over and over and over, all in the search for more levels and the uberest gear in the land.
I used to be mad into Diablo, always looking for the perfect character and the l33test equipment setup. And then one day I realized just what I was doing, and how pathetic it was. I'd willingly jumped off the campaign, the grand staircase, right into a pit of boring and stupid. Fortunatly for Blizzard, their druglike secret formula is frequently strong enough to keep players splashing around in a shithole post-game indefinitly. But eventually I looked around and realized where I was, what I was doing, and how Bliz had duped me into getting there. And I guarantee you I will not be going back.
Which is why i'm concerned about WoW, and why I have yet to subscribe to a MMORPG. Now i'm sure Blizzard will craft a masterful MMORPG and a great story, and reviewers will shower the game with praise... but as long as Blizzard (and indeed, most MMORPGs) continue to neglect the giant question-mark that is the post-game, I won't willingly fork over ANY of my cash for their game(s). Bliz could create their best collection of quests yet, but as long as the game still remains a staircase to nowhere... i'm not climbing it. Sorry Bliz.
Agreed. I like TV... I really do. There are some pretty interesting shows out there if you're willing and able to sort through all the garbage. But the only consistant reason I turn a TV on now is to watch one show, Alias, because its the only program I enjoy enough to make time for that fits into my schedule. So many other kinda-interesting programs are on at times that i'm unavailable, or otherwise occupied. I can sit down on the computer any time I want, and do anything I want. I'm never caught going "Oh shit! I missed my Google search time!". But for TV I feel like I have to go out of my way just to try and enjoy it. Thats just not the way young males work now. We (i'm 20) have a LOT of stuff to do, and need our lives to be as flexible as possible to fit it all in. So if you can't provide your service when WE want it... well then we're just not as interested in using it.
So heres a 'good riddance' to TV as we know it from their golden demographic.
You know what i'd do? If every floor-grunt in your company is really unhappy with the rating system... the first thing to do is to find a big piece of paper. Then find a big black marker and write a GIANT fucking "1" on it. Then have everyone in sight sign the paper. Then march into the office of the highest ranking suit on the ladder that you can reach, and tell them "this is what WE think of your fucking ranking system". Insert/remove expletives and threats as nessecary.
Because really... A bell curve for ranking your employees? How retarded is that?! "Oh but but but I'm a smrt geek an teh lawys of matehmantics staet that 49% of emplyobees are UNDAR AVERAGAE!!" Under WHAT average? Averages are fine and dandy, but you've got to explicitly define the criteria in the first place. And unless you work at a plant where everyones job is to put lids on pails... those 'critera' aren't easy to write down. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but where I work there are about 5 different jobs split among 10 people (we're the small shift that gets shit on for everything. Yeah, you know the ones). If I suck royal at 4 of those jobs, but am the best employee in the company at the 5th... doesn't that, statistically, make me "below average"? Does that mean I should be fired or otherwise punished? Fuck no! It just means that management needs to get off their lazy asses and identify their employees as PEOPLE rather than NUMBERS. Hell, even within a set task, there's often room for multiple positions and personalities. Myself, I generally work with one or two other people within my usual task. This task requires (overall) a great deal of organization and foresight, and I just happen to be more skilled in those areas than my coworkers. BUT, my coworkers are generally more capable of doing the physical job. So what happens? Simple, we take roles. I organize and lay out a plan, and then try to keep up with my coworker as we actually get the job done. It works fantastic (relatively speaking;)), because we're utilizing individuals' strengths in specific areas to further the team and project.
Above average. Below average. Thats all bullshit so HR and the suits can spend more time playing golf. I can't really blame them... looking at a chart and going "fire these 1 rated people" is a LOT easier than actually having to think about cutting "mike, sally, and bob, because they aren't fulfilling their roles". But I ask you - which is more responsible? Which method is a greater benefit to the company? You know the answer. So do like I said - do your duty to the company. Get out that piece of paper and a marker, and give that asinine "bell curve" a big fat fucking 1.
Hmm.... perhaps 'step 2' is selling weightless sex trips?
Pfft. Only chicks would need an expensive and exotic item (like a rocket) to get off. All guys need is a 747 on one of them parabolic flight paths. 30 seconds of weightlessness? Thats plenty of time!
Lipids are a good portion of ALL tissue. Cell membranes are made primarilly of phospholipids (a nifty little molecule that forms walls due to its polar nature). Without lipids, there'd be nothing to hold your cells together, so you'd just be a puddle of cytoplasm (which would, like, suck).
So having buckyballs in your head, randomly destroying brain cell membranes would be a very bad th... Ooh! Look! A FISHY!!
Certified Dragon Warrior nut here. DW1 was the first NES RPG i'd ever played, and I loved it to death. After discovering it had sequals, I rented 2, 3, and 4 (several times, each) and played them to death. I loved DW4 so much (with its chaptered story that let you see the world from 5 different angles) that I bought it too. Later down the line, I scraped up some ROMs and translations for DQ5 and 6.
I've loved them all. The funny thing is though, whenever I fire up a DW/DQ game, i'm never looking for innovation. I don't care about the graphics, and I don't want to deal with some stupid new battle system or other gimmick. I just want to play. And play and play and play untill my eyes bleed.
I think the best way I can explain it, in my opinion, is like food. Everyone loves fancy restaurants. They love the fancy lighting and expensive china and their cute little foreign dishes that consist of some strange new sea creature drizzled in an equally mysterious sauce. Which is fine, I guess. You're looking for something new, something fancy, something innovative - thats great. I'm always digging around for creative and innovative RPGs. ...But not with DQ. I'm from Texas North (Alberta, Canada), so to me, DQ is like walking into a steakhouse. I sit my ass down on some worn and beat up but familiar chair. I order, and the 3-toothed waitress brings me my Dragon Quest: A big fuckin 72 oz slab of beef so tender you could cut it with a fork. A baked potato on the side, a tall frosty one, and you're all set. It may not be fancy, it may not be new and exciting... but every single bite is perfect, and it takes you two hours to finish the thing (the meal, not the game:P).
That, to me, is Dragon Quest. I've been a gamer and RPG nut for years. I can go without an RPG for long stretches of time, but every so often, I get a huge craving for one. And i've tried all the new fancies and the hot games and the whatnot... Final Fantasy and Baldurs Gate, etc etc etc. But nothing satisfies my craving like Dragon Quest. Nothing even comes close to the feeling of sinking your teeth into a game so rich and deep, it should probably be buried in a spanish galleon somewhere. Thats what DQ is all about. Substance, not flair. If the "graphics aren't everything!" crowd ever needed a poster boy, it would be DQ. Thats why you see the difference between Japan and North America. Not because the Japaneese are insane or just weird, but because they recognize the series for what it is. Sadly, American attention spans aren't quite long enough for a RPG like Dragon Quest to thrive here... hence the whole FF thing obsession and lack of DQ. But true fans of the series know what its about, no matter what the "general populace" says.
So go on... have all the exotic dishes you want. But a small group of us in the corner is ALWAYS gonna just be sitting there enjoying our perfect steak. Maybe you could come join us some time.:)
One, google is simple and on a screamin fast pipe. If google doesn't load when I open my browser, I know my network or ISP is broken.
Secondly, each time I open a new window, its set to load my homepage (google). So all I need to do is gesture up (All-in-one Gestures extension) to open a new window, and bam: I'm ready to search da intarnet. With gestures, its even faster than having google in the menu bar (which I don't really like anyways). You don't have to click on anything, since the cursor defaults to googles search line... so a quick flick of the wrist upwards, anywhere on the screen, and i'm in business. Its wonderful.
That random wikipedia link is pretty cool though... maybe i'll add a second homepage to Firefox here...
Because I beleive alienation is 'a bad thing' (tm)... here are some terms explained. If I missed anything, post it and someone (maybe me) will help ya out.
WoW - World of Warcraft (the game, duh)
Push - Phase
EQ - EverQuest
D&D - Dungeons & Dragons (Pen and paper, not MMORPG)
DAoC - Dark Age of Camelot
PVP - Player versus Player
PVE - Player versus Enemy
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
RTS - Real Time Strategy
NPC - Non Player Character
XP - Experience (a measure of progress between character levels)
RP - Role Playing
Aggro - Aggression (when an enemy is focused on attacking you)
DPS - Damage Per Swing
AoE - Area of Effect
Root - An immobilization spell (not admin:P)
Mangina - Derogitory slang for a male playing a female character (in this context anyways)
Mez - Mesmerize (stuns target for a set time, or until it is attacked)
HP - Hit Points
AC - Armour Class
emote - (electronic-motion ?) A special command that causes your character to perform an animation (like waving, cheering, bowing, etc)
Mario Monti: "Here's the plan. We fine Microsoft and we hold them ransom for......five hundred MILLION dollars!"
EUC Number Two: "Uh huh hum. Well, don't you think we should maybe ask for more than five hundred million dollars? Five hundred million dollars isn't exactly a lot of money these days. The EUC alone makes over ninety billion dollars a year."
Mario Monti: "Really?"
EUC Number Two: "Uh huh!"
Mario Monti: "That's a lot. Okay then. We hold Microsoft ransom for..... five hundred BILLION dollars!!" *Evil Laughter*
Anyways... that, IMO, is a TRUE import hotrod (ok technically DSMs are half chrysler, half mitsubishi, made in the US... but whatever). Mitsubishi's 4G63 powerplant is probably the BEST production 4 cyl on the planet today. They make stupid power for cheap, cheap, cheap, and can handle frame-twisting amounts of torque with stock internals. The only other 4cyl that even comes close (no, its not a friggin Honda) is Subaru's awesome EJ20. But really, its no wonder. The 4G63 is from the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and the EJ20 has a happy home in Subaru's WRX. Those two cars/companies have been at eachothers throats for YEARS, trying to claim dominance in the rally industry. They're basically de-tuned, street legal versions of a race engine (since only "production" cars are allowed).
You've gotta give mad props to Shepard though. He's done some AMAZING work with that car. The whole DSM community is in awe of his work. An 8 second, streetable (yes, he drives it to the track!), full body DSM? Thats fucking amazing. Go Shep!
Better yet, does the master server just work for browsing playable servers, and could you bypass it with clients like GameSpy, or is it more like how Half-Life used WON to check WonIDs?
Its more like WON.
The Master server contains a list of all banned CD-keys (or banned IPs and subnets - yes, they can do that), in addition to being a server browser. All servers have the option to (set by the server admin) check with the master server to verify players CD keys.
So basically you're fucked until you can buy or steal another CD Key (and knowing Zellius, it'll be the latter).
I was in the beta for a long while (right up until about a month before release), so I think i'm qualified to comment... though my memory may be a little rusty.
The Good:
For one, the universe. Seriously. It had an interesting backstory. Man reaches out to the stars and spreads his seed... and then history repeats itself and the whole place goes fucking nuts and trys to kill eachother. Things settle down after a while, but the whole galaxy is gripped by a cold-war style paranoia. And then... weird extra-dimensional shit starts showing up (and we all know thats NEVER a good thing). Throw in a few thousand psychotic mercenary-role players, and voila! Even the factions were cool. Ok, sure, they weren't anything new (anyone played Jumpgate? Same three factions, different names), but they were interesting. You had the mysterious, spiritual, hippy, crazies in the Jenquai. The thick-headed, warmongering, genetically modified warrior caste in the Progen. And then you had the ever random, unpredictable, money-grubbing Terran faction. The ballance between the three was pretty interesting sometimes.
Second off, E&BO had one of the best newbie zones i'd ever seen. You started off in a completely nonhostile zone that other factions couldn't enter, and spent your first 5 levels or so running through literal training grounds. After the beta started filling up, they even had seperate, load-ballancing instances of the newbie sectors (home zones). From there, new players wandered out into their factions directly controlled space and took on more difficult missions. After that, you started crossing through riskier neutral territory. Eventually you'd wind up in the middle of friggin nowhere as a high level player. It worked VERY well IMO.
Another thing was the graphics. For a space RPG, it was stunningly beautiful. I remember being totally blown away the first time I saw Saturn. It was this MASSIVE orangy-browinsh sphere that completely filled my screen, acompanied by a never-ending halo of tiny glittering rocks (the ring) tumbling through space. Toss in a gorgeous lense-flare from the sun, and I was ready to wet my pants. For its time, it definitly had some very pretty parts. (Too bad graphics don't make the game). Oh, and speaking of graphics... any other testers remember Megan? Your friendly neighbourhood holo-helper? And I don't mean that stupid silver-jumpsuited, anoerexic robo-whore that shipped with the game. I mean, the friggin smokin hot and button cute Megan they first had. Damn she ruled. And then they replaced her, because "it was just a temp". *Sigh*.
Now, the Bad:
Primarilly, their "three activities" sucked. E&BO tried to pride itself on giving players choices between three major activities: Combat, Trade, and Exploration. Too bad they were the worst parts of the game!
Combat. Combat sucked. Hard. It was the worst implementation of space-based combat i'd EVER seen. When most people (myself included), think of space combat, they think of things like TIE Fighter. Ships darting and dodging, diving and rolling, basically jousting for a tactical advantage. Now, as an RPG, I expected combat to be somewhat toned down, but E&BO was just rediculous. It was, quite literally, nothing more than a game "press the button lots till you win". There was no manuvering. No jousting for position. No zipping around trying to dodge your enemies fire. Nope, because it was all just a poorly-concieved cover for a standard fantasy combat system. Eg: Stand there, and hack away till it dies. Combat in E&BO was simply retarded to witness. It went something like this: Two ships (or a ship and a monster), fly towards eachother. They both stop, face eachother, and shoot their strongest weapon until someone dies. Thats it. Seriously, it was just stupid. No one flew bothered flying around because, one, you could NEVER get behind anyone (ships could turn waaay too fast), and two, it didn't matter anyways since all "to hit" rolls were done regardless of speed, position, or any
Linux has a LONG way to go before it will convert someone like me.
Who am I? A fairly typical or above average Gamer/Windows power user, i'd say. Probably above average, considering I built my computer from scratch (yay!), and recognize a handful of Linux buzzwords. Anyways, there are generally four things I use my computer for:
-Games
-Teh intarnet
-Art (PS/PSP, Maya/Max)
-Music (omgomgomg, MP3s!)
I run my quiet little Windows XP(home) box. It has plenty of the usual bandaid programs on it (Kerio/AVG/AdAware), and I try to stay away from M$ programs as much as possible (IE is only for emergencies, and I buried OE somewhere so deep and dark i'm not sure I could find it again....not that i'd ever want to), so I consider it pretty safe. No viruses or other crap, which is nice. But on the whole I don't really like Microsoft. And I don't really like being forced to use their standards and software. Switching to something else would be wonderful!...as long as it worked.
So I guess that pretty much puts me dead center in the "games 4 linux" crosshairs. In theory, I should be a pretty simple convert, right? Err, actually... actually, I'm actually very resistant to Linux (please don't stone me untill after my speech, kthnx). Why? Well, lets take a trip through stupid gamer land:
//Begin Idiot Gamer Mode//
Starting off with Linux in general...
-Linux? Thats that confusing OS, right? Sorry, don't have time to hunt for packages/screw with command lines/read a million help files/troll forums for answers to stupid questions. Especially not asking for help. I just know i'll get told 'RTFM' when i'm having a problem... *sigh*. If only Linux was more user friendly! Whats a rm -fr / anyways?
-Distro? Oh, gee... I don't know. There are so many! Knoppix is just for peeking. RedHat and Mandrake... aren't those "newbie" distros? I don't want to be called a newbie, so no thanks. Gentoo? Thats like, REALLY hard, right? Debian sounds fun, but I don't think i'm that smart. SuSE? Isn't that for businesses and stuff? Oh, and that Slackwhatever sounds like, impossible. Lycorsis and Lindows... pfft, I want to get AWAY from Windows, thanks. Xandros? Whats that?
Wow.. there are so many choices! None of them seem like they're targeted at ME though. And anyways... why so many? I don't want to have to choose... what if I miss out on something! Some feature that distro X has that my distro Y doesn't but I really really want? Man, i'm really frustrated and confused right now. At least with Windows its all the same...
-My hardware... um, will it all work? Drivers for my Radeon 9700 Pro? Its a GREAT gaming card... I spent a lot of money on it too. No drivers, no deal. Oh, and are there audio drivers for my sound (nForce Soundstorm) too? Ah yes, and the last thing... my entire harddrive (almost full) is NTFS. I don't want to loose 70gb of information just to use Linux! Oh, and whats all this stuff about USB and plug and play? Shouldn't that just, like, work?
-My software. Ack! I have so much of this! Lets see... I need web utilities. Already got Firefox and Thunderbird, so thats good. I'll need an FTP proggy too (I use smartFTP right now), oh, and of course, Kazaa. Some benchmarking and utility programs would be nice too (I AM a gamer after all). Soo, like Sandra, Prime, cpuz, FRAPS, etc. Oh, and I need all my pretty desktop customization programs (or equivalent) to make things look like I want... ObjectBar, Sysmetrix, Rainlendar, and LogonStudio is what I run ATM. Then i'll need media stuff... I like Sonique, and i'm trying to get more skill with Photoshop (big one), Paint Shop Pro, Maya, and Max. Oh oh, and i'll need Nero or something to burn CDs with. Ok, now onto games... yes, lots of games. I have a *ton* of classics. Everything from System Shock to Scorched Earth. They barely run under Windows though... I doubt they have Linux equivalents, though maybe WineX can figure them out? Old games can
FPS' may not have much of an effect on paintball, but other games do... I think more mental concepts (eg: tactics) can transfer from a certain games to activities like paintballing.
I remember the first time me and my friends ever went paintballing. We were maybe like 14 or 15 at the time, and it was everyones first try at the sport. After a couple FFA matches by ourselves, we bumped into some of the other groups that were playing there. One group of 17y olds challanged us to a quick team match. They were bigger, faster, and stronger. Had "Jocks" written all over them. We were just a tiny group of nerds out having some fun. But we agreed to a game of CTF anyways. And y'know what? We fucking schooled them. Absolutely ripped their team up. Admittedly, it wasn't very hard to do. They tended to move in tight groupings (generally single file), and had a fairly obvious defense. But we busted out the pro tactics (for our age) on em. Spent the first part of the match scouring the woods (outdoor paintball is the ONLY way to play it;)) with groups of 3 or 4, moving in an inverted V shape. We ambushed their players, hit them from multiple directions, and even coordinated between squads. When we finally hit their flag, we attacked from 3 directions at once. Their defenders didn't stand a chance. We wiped them out in one quick and messy strike, snagged the flag, and ran like hell. Even they said they were impressed with our tactics afterwards.
How did we do it? Dunno. Maybe we were just smarter. Maybe we were just smaller targets. But i'm willing to bet that the fact that every single one of us collected and played Warhammer 40k had a very strong influence on our understanding of effective squad tactics.:)
"Gimmy your lunch money, four-eyes!"
"Uh, hang on a sec. Got a pen?"
"What? What you yappin about, nerd?"
"Nevermind, found one."
"C'mon poindexter, fork it over!"
"One second..."
"What you writing down there?"
"Hang on, hang on! I... D... D... umm... Q..."
Slashdot Mirror
Then might I refer you to AirBuccaneers?
Its kind of like a pirate game, except that combat is largely done through large airships (dirigibles) with cannons.
Though surely the same concepts used in airships could be applied to conventional watercraft? (But hey, i'm no UScript expert)
Ok, i'll bite. Why is using a command line "a good thing"(TM)? What is so special about a blinking cursor that gives Linux geeks a hardon? What kind of insane and obscure command would possibly be easier on a CLI than a GUI for the average Windows user?
Anyone know?
Just any old laser? You really should specify a brand you know. I suggest you go with "Frickin" (must be a German company...) since their laser technology seems to be quite popular as of late. Everywhere I go, I hear talk of attatching "Frickin laser beams" to things... I assume their stellar reputation is a reflection of their quality products.
Cheers! (and good like finding that small PDA)
Man, the more I watch the Linux world from the outside, the less i'm beginning to believe in "the revolution". It would be funny if it wasn't crushingly dissapointing - Two sides that "just don't get it".
*Sigh*
Find em here
...somewhere in the world releases another distro.
And it becomes news too.
Remember kiddies: This is "news for nerds", not "news for me, me, me!"
...from Etch-a-Sketch for WinCE. So a reboot is as simple as shaking it!
Right on. S:A&B was the friggin BOMB. I loved that show to death, especially the space battles! They just got SO much right, and still managed to keep it exciting! /.ed to hell), clicky over here for a short (and really poor quality) clip of S:A&B. At first blush it doesn't really seem special, but if you watch it closely, you start to notice the little things that S:A&B got right. Stuff like the ship having to dodge debris, or how the alien fighter at that flys past them at the end cuts power and spins around to blast them while still traveling forward (momentum). Its stuff like that that made their dogfights so enthralling to watch. ;))
I know this is against all things geek, but honestly most Star Trek spacefights aren't that great... they tend to show more actors shaking around on stage than two goliath ships duking it out. The only show that even comes close to the greatness that was S:A&B is B5. They've got some pretty badass large scale fights... but IMO, nothing holds a candle to S:A&B. Heck, if you're feeling a little nostalgic (and read this before the server gets
Plus, the Wildcards were just badass! "Expect No Mercy". (And who can forget the forboding "Abandon All Hope" ace?
...is that they build staircases to nowhere. ...and then what? In Diablo's case, you move on to Nightmare and Hell. The exact same game, only with tougher monsters and phatter lewt. You keep leveling and finding cool shit, so for a while its OK. But eventually you beat the game a second and third time. Then what? Keep looking for phatter lewt and more levels! So you start with the Meph runs and Pindle runs and Baal runs. Over and over and over, all in the search for more levels and the uberest gear in the land.
This hit me hardest with Diablo 2 (+LOD). You start off, the game is great, everything is new and exciting, skills, equipment, quests... you're completely wowed by it all. You keep playing, and quests start to become rehashes of other quests (eg: Kill x, find y, bring item to z), but you keep playing because you're still leveling and finding new and exciting gear. And then, the magical night comes: You beat the game. Congrats! A winnar is yuo!
I used to be mad into Diablo, always looking for the perfect character and the l33test equipment setup. And then one day I realized just what I was doing, and how pathetic it was. I'd willingly jumped off the campaign, the grand staircase, right into a pit of boring and stupid. Fortunatly for Blizzard, their druglike secret formula is frequently strong enough to keep players splashing around in a shithole post-game indefinitly. But eventually I looked around and realized where I was, what I was doing, and how Bliz had duped me into getting there. And I guarantee you I will not be going back.
Which is why i'm concerned about WoW, and why I have yet to subscribe to a MMORPG. Now i'm sure Blizzard will craft a masterful MMORPG and a great story, and reviewers will shower the game with praise... but as long as Blizzard (and indeed, most MMORPGs) continue to neglect the giant question-mark that is the post-game, I won't willingly fork over ANY of my cash for their game(s). Bliz could create their best collection of quests yet, but as long as the game still remains a staircase to nowhere... i'm not climbing it. Sorry Bliz.
Agreed. I like TV... I really do. There are some pretty interesting shows out there if you're willing and able to sort through all the garbage. But the only consistant reason I turn a TV on now is to watch one show, Alias, because its the only program I enjoy enough to make time for that fits into my schedule. So many other kinda-interesting programs are on at times that i'm unavailable, or otherwise occupied. I can sit down on the computer any time I want, and do anything I want. I'm never caught going "Oh shit! I missed my Google search time!". But for TV I feel like I have to go out of my way just to try and enjoy it. Thats just not the way young males work now. We (i'm 20) have a LOT of stuff to do, and need our lives to be as flexible as possible to fit it all in. So if you can't provide your service when WE want it... well then we're just not as interested in using it.
So heres a 'good riddance' to TV as we know it from their golden demographic.
You know what i'd do? If every floor-grunt in your company is really unhappy with the rating system... the first thing to do is to find a big piece of paper. Then find a big black marker and write a GIANT fucking "1" on it. Then have everyone in sight sign the paper. Then march into the office of the highest ranking suit on the ladder that you can reach, and tell them "this is what WE think of your fucking ranking system". Insert/remove expletives and threats as nessecary.
;)), because we're utilizing individuals' strengths in specific areas to further the team and project.
Because really... A bell curve for ranking your employees? How retarded is that?! "Oh but but but I'm a smrt geek an teh lawys of matehmantics staet that 49% of emplyobees are UNDAR AVERAGAE!!" Under WHAT average? Averages are fine and dandy, but you've got to explicitly define the criteria in the first place. And unless you work at a plant where everyones job is to put lids on pails... those 'critera' aren't easy to write down. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but where I work there are about 5 different jobs split among 10 people (we're the small shift that gets shit on for everything. Yeah, you know the ones). If I suck royal at 4 of those jobs, but am the best employee in the company at the 5th... doesn't that, statistically, make me "below average"? Does that mean I should be fired or otherwise punished? Fuck no! It just means that management needs to get off their lazy asses and identify their employees as PEOPLE rather than NUMBERS. Hell, even within a set task, there's often room for multiple positions and personalities. Myself, I generally work with one or two other people within my usual task. This task requires (overall) a great deal of organization and foresight, and I just happen to be more skilled in those areas than my coworkers. BUT, my coworkers are generally more capable of doing the physical job. So what happens? Simple, we take roles. I organize and lay out a plan, and then try to keep up with my coworker as we actually get the job done. It works fantastic (relatively speaking
Above average. Below average. Thats all bullshit so HR and the suits can spend more time playing golf. I can't really blame them... looking at a chart and going "fire these 1 rated people" is a LOT easier than actually having to think about cutting "mike, sally, and bob, because they aren't fulfilling their roles". But I ask you - which is more responsible? Which method is a greater benefit to the company? You know the answer. So do like I said - do your duty to the company. Get out that piece of paper and a marker, and give that asinine "bell curve" a big fat fucking 1.
ROFL.
Whatever their lawyers are smoking... I want some.
Oh, and on a more serious note... Infinium is claiming they lost more than $20 mil (in capital) because of the article. Riiight then.
Lipids are a good portion of ALL tissue. Cell membranes are made primarilly of phospholipids (a nifty little molecule that forms walls due to its polar nature). Without lipids, there'd be nothing to hold your cells together, so you'd just be a puddle of cytoplasm (which would, like, suck).
So having buckyballs in your head, randomly destroying brain cell membranes would be a very bad th... Ooh! Look! A FISHY!!
Certified Dragon Warrior nut here. DW1 was the first NES RPG i'd ever played, and I loved it to death. After discovering it had sequals, I rented 2, 3, and 4 (several times, each) and played them to death. I loved DW4 so much (with its chaptered story that let you see the world from 5 different angles) that I bought it too. Later down the line, I scraped up some ROMs and translations for DQ5 and 6.
...But not with DQ. I'm from Texas North (Alberta, Canada), so to me, DQ is like walking into a steakhouse. I sit my ass down on some worn and beat up but familiar chair. I order, and the 3-toothed waitress brings me my Dragon Quest: A big fuckin 72 oz slab of beef so tender you could cut it with a fork. A baked potato on the side, a tall frosty one, and you're all set. It may not be fancy, it may not be new and exciting... but every single bite is perfect, and it takes you two hours to finish the thing (the meal, not the game :P).
:)
I've loved them all. The funny thing is though, whenever I fire up a DW/DQ game, i'm never looking for innovation. I don't care about the graphics, and I don't want to deal with some stupid new battle system or other gimmick. I just want to play. And play and play and play untill my eyes bleed.
I think the best way I can explain it, in my opinion, is like food. Everyone loves fancy restaurants. They love the fancy lighting and expensive china and their cute little foreign dishes that consist of some strange new sea creature drizzled in an equally mysterious sauce. Which is fine, I guess. You're looking for something new, something fancy, something innovative - thats great. I'm always digging around for creative and innovative RPGs.
That, to me, is Dragon Quest. I've been a gamer and RPG nut for years. I can go without an RPG for long stretches of time, but every so often, I get a huge craving for one. And i've tried all the new fancies and the hot games and the whatnot... Final Fantasy and Baldurs Gate, etc etc etc. But nothing satisfies my craving like Dragon Quest. Nothing even comes close to the feeling of sinking your teeth into a game so rich and deep, it should probably be buried in a spanish galleon somewhere. Thats what DQ is all about. Substance, not flair. If the "graphics aren't everything!" crowd ever needed a poster boy, it would be DQ. Thats why you see the difference between Japan and North America. Not because the Japaneese are insane or just weird, but because they recognize the series for what it is. Sadly, American attention spans aren't quite long enough for a RPG like Dragon Quest to thrive here... hence the whole FF thing obsession and lack of DQ. But true fans of the series know what its about, no matter what the "general populace" says.
So go on... have all the exotic dishes you want. But a small group of us in the corner is ALWAYS gonna just be sitting there enjoying our perfect steak. Maybe you could come join us some time.
Why? Two reasons.
One, google is simple and on a screamin fast pipe. If google doesn't load when I open my browser, I know my network or ISP is broken.
Secondly, each time I open a new window, its set to load my homepage (google). So all I need to do is gesture up (All-in-one Gestures extension) to open a new window, and bam: I'm ready to search da intarnet. With gestures, its even faster than having google in the menu bar (which I don't really like anyways). You don't have to click on anything, since the cursor defaults to googles search line... so a quick flick of the wrist upwards, anywhere on the screen, and i'm in business. Its wonderful.
That random wikipedia link is pretty cool though... maybe i'll add a second homepage to Firefox here...
Because I beleive alienation is 'a bad thing' (tm)... here are some terms explained. If I missed anything, post it and someone (maybe me) will help ya out.
:P)
WoW - World of Warcraft (the game, duh)
Push - Phase
EQ - EverQuest
D&D - Dungeons & Dragons (Pen and paper, not MMORPG)
DAoC - Dark Age of Camelot
PVP - Player versus Player
PVE - Player versus Enemy
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
RTS - Real Time Strategy
NPC - Non Player Character
XP - Experience (a measure of progress between character levels)
RP - Role Playing
Aggro - Aggression (when an enemy is focused on attacking you)
DPS - Damage Per Swing
AoE - Area of Effect
Root - An immobilization spell (not admin
Mangina - Derogitory slang for a male playing a female character (in this context anyways)
Mez - Mesmerize (stuns target for a set time, or until it is attacked)
HP - Hit Points
AC - Armour Class
emote - (electronic-motion ?) A special command that causes your character to perform an animation (like waving, cheering, bowing, etc)
Happy, er.. reading!
Mario Monti: "Here's the plan. We fine Microsoft and we hold them ransom for......five hundred MILLION dollars!"
EUC Number Two: "Uh huh hum. Well, don't you think we should maybe ask for more than five hundred million dollars? Five hundred million dollars isn't exactly a lot of money these days. The EUC alone makes over ninety billion dollars a year."
Mario Monti: "Really?"
EUC Number Two: "Uh huh!"
Mario Monti: "That's a lot. Okay then. We hold Microsoft ransom for..... five hundred BILLION dollars!!"
*Evil Laughter*
Ah crap, someone beat me to posting Shep's vids :)
Anyways... that, IMO, is a TRUE import hotrod (ok technically DSMs are half chrysler, half mitsubishi, made in the US... but whatever). Mitsubishi's 4G63 powerplant is probably the BEST production 4 cyl on the planet today. They make stupid power for cheap, cheap, cheap, and can handle frame-twisting amounts of torque with stock internals. The only other 4cyl that even comes close (no, its not a friggin Honda) is Subaru's awesome EJ20. But really, its no wonder. The 4G63 is from the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and the EJ20 has a happy home in Subaru's WRX. Those two cars/companies have been at eachothers throats for YEARS, trying to claim dominance in the rally industry. They're basically de-tuned, street legal versions of a race engine (since only "production" cars are allowed).
You've gotta give mad props to Shepard though. He's done some AMAZING work with that car. The whole DSM community is in awe of his work. An 8 second, streetable (yes, he drives it to the track!), full body DSM? Thats fucking amazing. Go Shep!
The Master server contains a list of all banned CD-keys (or banned IPs and subnets - yes, they can do that), in addition to being a server browser. All servers have the option to (set by the server admin) check with the master server to verify players CD keys.
So basically you're fucked until you can buy or steal another CD Key (and knowing Zellius, it'll be the latter).
I was in the beta for a long while (right up until about a month before release), so I think i'm qualified to comment... though my memory may be a little rusty.
The Good:
For one, the universe. Seriously. It had an interesting backstory. Man reaches out to the stars and spreads his seed... and then history repeats itself and the whole place goes fucking nuts and trys to kill eachother. Things settle down after a while, but the whole galaxy is gripped by a cold-war style paranoia. And then... weird extra-dimensional shit starts showing up (and we all know thats NEVER a good thing). Throw in a few thousand psychotic mercenary-role players, and voila! Even the factions were cool. Ok, sure, they weren't anything new (anyone played Jumpgate? Same three factions, different names), but they were interesting. You had the mysterious, spiritual, hippy, crazies in the Jenquai. The thick-headed, warmongering, genetically modified warrior caste in the Progen. And then you had the ever random, unpredictable, money-grubbing Terran faction. The ballance between the three was pretty interesting sometimes.
Second off, E&BO had one of the best newbie zones i'd ever seen. You started off in a completely nonhostile zone that other factions couldn't enter, and spent your first 5 levels or so running through literal training grounds. After the beta started filling up, they even had seperate, load-ballancing instances of the newbie sectors (home zones). From there, new players wandered out into their factions directly controlled space and took on more difficult missions. After that, you started crossing through riskier neutral territory. Eventually you'd wind up in the middle of friggin nowhere as a high level player. It worked VERY well IMO.
Another thing was the graphics. For a space RPG, it was stunningly beautiful. I remember being totally blown away the first time I saw Saturn. It was this MASSIVE orangy-browinsh sphere that completely filled my screen, acompanied by a never-ending halo of tiny glittering rocks (the ring) tumbling through space. Toss in a gorgeous lense-flare from the sun, and I was ready to wet my pants. For its time, it definitly had some very pretty parts. (Too bad graphics don't make the game). Oh, and speaking of graphics... any other testers remember Megan? Your friendly neighbourhood holo-helper? And I don't mean that stupid silver-jumpsuited, anoerexic robo-whore that shipped with the game. I mean, the friggin smokin hot and button cute Megan they first had. Damn she ruled. And then they replaced her, because "it was just a temp". *Sigh*.
Now, the Bad:
Primarilly, their "three activities" sucked. E&BO tried to pride itself on giving players choices between three major activities: Combat, Trade, and Exploration. Too bad they were the worst parts of the game!
Combat. Combat sucked. Hard. It was the worst implementation of space-based combat i'd EVER seen. When most people (myself included), think of space combat, they think of things like TIE Fighter. Ships darting and dodging, diving and rolling, basically jousting for a tactical advantage. Now, as an RPG, I expected combat to be somewhat toned down, but E&BO was just rediculous. It was, quite literally, nothing more than a game "press the button lots till you win". There was no manuvering. No jousting for position. No zipping around trying to dodge your enemies fire. Nope, because it was all just a poorly-concieved cover for a standard fantasy combat system. Eg: Stand there, and hack away till it dies. Combat in E&BO was simply retarded to witness. It went something like this: Two ships (or a ship and a monster), fly towards eachother. They both stop, face eachother, and shoot their strongest weapon until someone dies. Thats it. Seriously, it was just stupid. No one flew bothered flying around because, one, you could NEVER get behind anyone (ships could turn waaay too fast), and two, it didn't matter anyways since all "to hit" rolls were done regardless of speed, position, or any
Linux has a LONG way to go before it will convert someone like me. ...not that i'd ever want to), so I consider it pretty safe. No viruses or other crap, which is nice. But on the whole I don't really like Microsoft. And I don't really like being forced to use their standards and software. Switching to something else would be wonderful! ...as long as it worked.
//Begin Idiot Gamer Mode//
Who am I? A fairly typical or above average Gamer/Windows power user, i'd say. Probably above average, considering I built my computer from scratch (yay!), and recognize a handful of Linux buzzwords. Anyways, there are generally four things I use my computer for:
-Games
-Teh intarnet
-Art (PS/PSP, Maya/Max)
-Music (omgomgomg, MP3s!)
I run my quiet little Windows XP(home) box. It has plenty of the usual bandaid programs on it (Kerio/AVG/AdAware), and I try to stay away from M$ programs as much as possible (IE is only for emergencies, and I buried OE somewhere so deep and dark i'm not sure I could find it again.
So I guess that pretty much puts me dead center in the "games 4 linux" crosshairs. In theory, I should be a pretty simple convert, right? Err, actually... actually, I'm actually very resistant to Linux (please don't stone me untill after my speech, kthnx). Why? Well, lets take a trip through stupid gamer land:
Starting off with Linux in general...
-Linux? Thats that confusing OS, right? Sorry, don't have time to hunt for packages/screw with command lines/read a million help files/troll forums for answers to stupid questions. Especially not asking for help. I just know i'll get told 'RTFM' when i'm having a problem... *sigh*. If only Linux was more user friendly! Whats a rm -fr / anyways?
-Distro? Oh, gee... I don't know. There are so many! Knoppix is just for peeking. RedHat and Mandrake... aren't those "newbie" distros? I don't want to be called a newbie, so no thanks. Gentoo? Thats like, REALLY hard, right? Debian sounds fun, but I don't think i'm that smart. SuSE? Isn't that for businesses and stuff? Oh, and that Slackwhatever sounds like, impossible. Lycorsis and Lindows... pfft, I want to get AWAY from Windows, thanks. Xandros? Whats that?
Wow.. there are so many choices! None of them seem like they're targeted at ME though. And anyways... why so many? I don't want to have to choose... what if I miss out on something! Some feature that distro X has that my distro Y doesn't but I really really want? Man, i'm really frustrated and confused right now. At least with Windows its all the same...
-My hardware... um, will it all work? Drivers for my Radeon 9700 Pro? Its a GREAT gaming card... I spent a lot of money on it too. No drivers, no deal. Oh, and are there audio drivers for my sound (nForce Soundstorm) too? Ah yes, and the last thing... my entire harddrive (almost full) is NTFS. I don't want to loose 70gb of information just to use Linux! Oh, and whats all this stuff about USB and plug and play? Shouldn't that just, like, work?
-My software. Ack! I have so much of this! Lets see... I need web utilities. Already got Firefox and Thunderbird, so thats good. I'll need an FTP proggy too (I use smartFTP right now), oh, and of course, Kazaa. Some benchmarking and utility programs would be nice too (I AM a gamer after all). Soo, like Sandra, Prime, cpuz, FRAPS, etc. Oh, and I need all my pretty desktop customization programs (or equivalent) to make things look like I want... ObjectBar, Sysmetrix, Rainlendar, and LogonStudio is what I run ATM. Then i'll need media stuff... I like Sonique, and i'm trying to get more skill with Photoshop (big one), Paint Shop Pro, Maya, and Max. Oh oh, and i'll need Nero or something to burn CDs with. Ok, now onto games... yes, lots of games. I have a *ton* of classics. Everything from System Shock to Scorched Earth. They barely run under Windows though... I doubt they have Linux equivalents, though maybe WineX can figure them out? Old games can
FPS' may not have much of an effect on paintball, but other games do... I think more mental concepts (eg: tactics) can transfer from a certain games to activities like paintballing.
;)) with groups of 3 or 4, moving in an inverted V shape. We ambushed their players, hit them from multiple directions, and even coordinated between squads. When we finally hit their flag, we attacked from 3 directions at once. Their defenders didn't stand a chance. We wiped them out in one quick and messy strike, snagged the flag, and ran like hell. Even they said they were impressed with our tactics afterwards.
:)
I remember the first time me and my friends ever went paintballing. We were maybe like 14 or 15 at the time, and it was everyones first try at the sport. After a couple FFA matches by ourselves, we bumped into some of the other groups that were playing there. One group of 17y olds challanged us to a quick team match. They were bigger, faster, and stronger. Had "Jocks" written all over them. We were just a tiny group of nerds out having some fun. But we agreed to a game of CTF anyways. And y'know what? We fucking schooled them. Absolutely ripped their team up. Admittedly, it wasn't very hard to do. They tended to move in tight groupings (generally single file), and had a fairly obvious defense. But we busted out the pro tactics (for our age) on em. Spent the first part of the match scouring the woods (outdoor paintball is the ONLY way to play it
How did we do it? Dunno. Maybe we were just smarter. Maybe we were just smaller targets. But i'm willing to bet that the fact that every single one of us collected and played Warhammer 40k had a very strong influence on our understanding of effective squad tactics.
Since i'm not quite sure how Degreelessness mode would work in real life, maybe 'IDCLIP' would be a better choice... hmmm...
"Gimmy your lunch money, four-eyes!"
"Uh, hang on a sec. Got a pen?"
"What? What you yappin about, nerd?"
"Nevermind, found one."
"C'mon poindexter, fork it over!"
"One second..."
"What you writing down there?"
"Hang on, hang on! I... D... D... umm... Q..."