I am wary of these "where were the parents" type simplifications. It seems to me that these are all based on a mythical image of the American Family that is taken straight from 1950's television, and has little (or no) bearing on today's society. Where were the parents? Working two jobs that require 60+ hours a week so they can continue to enjoy the "middle class" life in some suburban development near a semi-decent school. By the time Mom & Dad have come home at 6:00 or 7:00 pm and made dinner, they are probably way too strung out from a 14 hour day to be providing much useful moral guidance.
Instilling morals in your offspring has very little to do with your work schedule. No one has ever demanded that parents keep an eye on their children 24/7. Not only would that be extrordinarilly difficult (both now and 40 years ago), I think children need freedom from their parents to explore their world. What is expected is that parents realize they have a serious responsibility in rearing their children. If your child thinks its fun to take a loaded firearm and shoot it at moving vehicles, thats a pretty good indication that you have failed in your duty as a parent. Never mind where the weapon came from, and never mind where the child got the idea - the root of the problem is in the mental state of any individual who finds such a rediculously dangerous activity to be acceptable. If they can justify manslaughter, then it makes no difference what actions they take. If it wasn't shooting at cars GTA style, then it would have been setting a building on fire, or dropping an anvil on someones head! Fact of the matter is, you can't protect anyone from ideas - they are everywhere and everything. What you can - nay, MUST - do as a parent, is give your offspring the guidance they need to make good decisions from the ideas they encounter, on their own. Supply them with a moral compass, and none of this shit would have ever been an issue. Thats all anyone is asking here.
The reasoning i've heard from the other side of this issue is basically that a video game is a "game", like chess or checkers. And since Chess isn't free speech, neither should be videogames.
Of course, anyone with two braincells to rub together can see that the vast majority of videogames are so much more than chess. So lets just hope the US judges have two braincells each.
Heh, I got my parents to switch too, though I had to be naughty to do it. I "broke" IE by leaving some adware crap my sister accidently got on there. So now every time you boot up IE, an ad window pops up, and while you're randomly surfing, more ads appear. After that, I installed Mozilla, and waited for the complaints to begin. Didn't take long before I was hearing "WHAT THE HELL!!?! COME FIX THE COMPUTER!!!" Then i'd go down and do the whole: "Hmmm. I don't know whats wrong.. some adware must have slipped in through IE's security holes, but I don't know how to get rid of it! Stupid Microsoft. Here, why don't you try *this* browser instead? Its called Mozilla, and it doesn't have pop-ups."
Not only haven't heard a complaint since, but my parents are now official Microsoft-haters. Two birds, one stone!:)
Whoa, whoa, whoa - put away the tinfoil hat there dude. The reason they don't want others distributing the file (or even links), is because they want people to actually have to stop by their website. Its all about advertising. They give away a free (classic) game, which makes them look good, and attracts attention. Then, people flock to download it from their site - and while they're there, they get to look at all the pretty ads and maybe browse around while they're D/Ling. Spread the word, maybe make a sale or two... all for the cost of bandwidth. If they just let the file run free on BT's and whatnot, no one would have a reason to stop by the R* website. Thats all.:)
One thing that always freaks me out is hearing sound effects from Total Annihilation. They're freakin everywhere! Commercials, tv shows, movies, etc. Mostly sci-fi stuff though. A lot of mechanical movement sounds some explosions (esp. the big bertha one), and a few randome beeps and other noises.
The one that always gets me though, is the alarm the game played when your commander was under attack. I played TA too damned much, so every time I hear that buzzer I freak out - like I want to find my commander (ctrl+C twitch anyone?) and kill whatevers attacking him. Damn my razor-sharp gaming reflexes! Blessing AND a curse!;)
I agree completely. I shelled out a fair bit for my 9700 Pro (when it was new), but its been worth every penny. Its simply an amazing piece of hardware. And y'know what? In a year or more, I'll probably drop another couple hundred on something else brand new (preferrably a PCIX card - *drool*).
Err... I think thats called a bottleneck.
Your $400 GPU won't 'wow' you with it's performance if it's just sitting around twiddling its proverbial thumbs, while the rest of your system has the electronic equivalent of a heart attack.
Since when is $200 and under the midrange? Isn't that where video cards top out for most of the market?
Err, no. The biggest and baddest of 3D beasts top out at around the $500 mark. Thats for a 256MB monster too (FX5900 if you're an nVidiot, 9800XT if you're an ATI fanboi). More "reasonably priced" top end cards are around $400 (eg: 128MB 9800 Pro). From there, prices drop into the "midrange" market - and 200 bones will snag you a shiney new 9600 or 5700. Below that, there isn't much hype about products, because its all outdated crap, or at least crap for games. (Turns out, its kinda hard to market hot 3D cards to server admins - go figure!)
Ok, i'm done now - you can pick your jaw up off the ground.
Originally, Cliffy B (one of the designers at Epic) wanted to name their new gameplay mode Deathball - but he was veto'd, and we now know that gametype as bombing run. So yeah, thats where they got the name from.
As for Deathball itself, its basically soccer (Football to the rest of the world). You've got a (goal)keeper, and a bunch of players that chase a ball around, trying to score. Except in deathball you can carry the ball around instead of having to dribble it. You can also "tackle" other players by running into them and using your weapon (basically a glorified shieldgun). Its also got a bunch of other crazy things, like quad jumping (!), boosting (punting other players with your weapon), and whatnot. Its actually pretty fun. Unfortunatly, it takes a while to get used to things, so the learning curve can be pretty steep. The sole problem with Deathball IMO is the community itself. Its overflowing with egotistical assholes who have no time for new players, or anyone they deem to be below themselves. Funny - its rather a lot like a real sport in that aspect. So while its a good game, i'd advise most people to stay the hell away from it unless they're prepared to dive in and turn into a hardcore fanatic. If you make a mistake, the community will make it well known to you that casual players are not wanted.
All I ever heard about was the one engine switch from Quake II to Unreal.
I dunno if they're still using the Unreal/UT era engine (v436) though, or if they've upgraded to the (Unreal) Warfare series (v2227+). I guess it's possible they're pulling a Half-Life, and taking an old, but licensed engine, and slapping new features on it as they go. That might explain the delay, even if it doesn't excuse it.
Oh man, I was like THIS close *shows fingers* to nailing Kikko. I just needed a few more "body points", and a pretty necklace for her, and she woulda been mine! I think next time i'm gonna use a cheat code. (Too bad real life doesn't have those, eh? IDDQD/IDKFA!)
Hmm... anyone know if this Space Adventures company accepts air miles? I'm sure i've got a hundred thousand of them on my card by now. They don't seem to be very useful for flying around the world, so maybe they could get me into space? Anyone know?
That's what I thought when I read the article too. Just what we need - an indiscriminate super-cold on the loose. Take one of the most resilient viral strains known to man, juice it up, and then hope it doesn't mutate. Riiiight.
As for the second part, who knows how communicable the virus will be? Maybe they engineer it so it requires cancerous cells to survive (multiply). That way, only someone with cancer could carry the virus, as it would be wiped out in a healthy body. It could happen - I'm sure they'll want to protect that potentially trillion-dollar patent of theirs.
Yeah its a sim. The difference is, in the real world someone can (and will) punch you in the teeth if you're being a dickhead.
Like, could you imagine a "gang" of 14 year olds trying to push people around at a mall?
Kid: Hey asshole, this mall is OUR turf. $50 or you don't enter.
Me:...excuse me?
Kid: You heard me, bitch! The money or you get the fuck lost.
Me: Sorry, i've got shopping to do...
Kid: Fuck you! -- Get him girls! Use your unfriendly markers!
Me: What the hell? Get outta' my way! *Starts grabbing kids and hurling them into the fountain*
Oh yeah, and thats another thing - if I really started tossing kids around at the mall, i'd probably have a little organization called the Police to deal with afterwards. (Maybe you've heard of them?) AFAIK, they don't have those in TSO.
But hey, I can't blame the players. With no cops, and no fear of physical harm, i'd prolly be pimpin hoes and sellin crack too!:)
First off, your counter-example is slighly misworded. It should be something allong the lines of "/. types are better at sex", rather than get more sex. Just because one bear wrestles more often than another, doesn't mean they won't be in the same number of fights (enhanced aggressiveness aside). The one with more practice should, logically, be better at fighting though.
And secondly, just because particular games may be poor representations of real world.. *ahem* "activities", doesn't mean his theory is bunk. I'm sure that if real-world intimate relationships were accurately modeled in a game, that a good number of/.ers would get a "Game Over" screen immediately after meeting the girl.;)
...please give all my gifts to other good little boys and girls, because all I want for Christmas this year is my very own Intel girl. If you could do this for me, I promise I won't bug my little sister for all of next year. Maybe even two years if you can get me a really hot, leggy, blonde who likes games.
Sincerely,
Adam
PS: If she had a nice rack, that would be really great too.
Why? Wheels are just too handy for browsing the web to not have one. And since quite a few million people tend to use teh interweb on a regular basis, wheels are quite popular. So it only makes sense that you'd find them on every product out there - consumers want, producers give. Hell, i've got a scroll wheel on my keyboard! (Logitech Elite)
For most people, theres just no good reason NOT to have a wheel on their mouse. The third (middle) button function is built right into the wheel (wheel-click), so you loose nothing while gaining extra functionality. Whats not to like?:)
PS: I use a Logitech MX500, and its awesome. Two thumbs up (just beware of Logitech's drivers:P)
I don't know if any of you/.ers have heard of it, but just recently, a demo of Unreal 2's XMP (eXpanded MultiPlayer) was released. Its a great little game, and really reinforces good teamwork over anything else. A lot of people really like it, except for little things like the lack of decent servers... and the vehicles are kind of tough to get used to as well. But i've heard it compared to all sorts of games, from BF1942 to Tribes and back again. Personally I think its a bit of a mix between '42, Tribes, Fortress games, and Unreal 2. Though it is distinctly Unreal 2 flavoured. Lotta fun. The full version should be out very soon (possibly as early as tomorrow), and the best part is that its FREE for owners of Unreal 2! If you don't own U2, you can either snag it from the bargain bin, or go pick up a copy of U2: Special Edition (basically U2 reboxed with XMP), which should be out soon as well.
Either way, give the demo a shot if you're craving something new and interesting. You just might like it.:)
(PS: You should just be able to Google for the XMP demo, but www.beyondunreal.com is a good place for a few mirrors)
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunatly, its kind of difficult to take pictures from behind a heat shield, or while wrapped in a giant ball of airbags.
I am wary of these "where were the parents" type simplifications. It seems to me that these are all based on a mythical image of the American Family that is taken straight from 1950's television, and has little (or no) bearing on today's society. Where were the parents? Working two jobs that require 60+ hours a week so they can continue to enjoy the "middle class" life in some suburban development near a semi-decent school. By the time Mom & Dad have come home at 6:00 or 7:00 pm and made dinner, they are probably way too strung out from a 14 hour day to be providing much useful moral guidance.
Instilling morals in your offspring has very little to do with your work schedule. No one has ever demanded that parents keep an eye on their children 24/7. Not only would that be extrordinarilly difficult (both now and 40 years ago), I think children need freedom from their parents to explore their world. What is expected is that parents realize they have a serious responsibility in rearing their children. If your child thinks its fun to take a loaded firearm and shoot it at moving vehicles, thats a pretty good indication that you have failed in your duty as a parent. Never mind where the weapon came from, and never mind where the child got the idea - the root of the problem is in the mental state of any individual who finds such a rediculously dangerous activity to be acceptable. If they can justify manslaughter, then it makes no difference what actions they take. If it wasn't shooting at cars GTA style, then it would have been setting a building on fire, or dropping an anvil on someones head! Fact of the matter is, you can't protect anyone from ideas - they are everywhere and everything. What you can - nay, MUST - do as a parent, is give your offspring the guidance they need to make good decisions from the ideas they encounter, on their own. Supply them with a moral compass, and none of this shit would have ever been an issue. Thats all anyone is asking here.
The reasoning i've heard from the other side of this issue is basically that a video game is a "game", like chess or checkers. And since Chess isn't free speech, neither should be videogames.
...yeah, we're screwwed.
Of course, anyone with two braincells to rub together can see that the vast majority of videogames are so much more than chess. So lets just hope the US judges have two braincells each.
Heh, I got my parents to switch too, though I had to be naughty to do it. I "broke" IE by leaving some adware crap my sister accidently got on there. So now every time you boot up IE, an ad window pops up, and while you're randomly surfing, more ads appear. After that, I installed Mozilla, and waited for the complaints to begin. Didn't take long before I was hearing "WHAT THE HELL!!?! COME FIX THE COMPUTER!!!" Then i'd go down and do the whole: "Hmmm. I don't know whats wrong.. some adware must have slipped in through IE's security holes, but I don't know how to get rid of it! Stupid Microsoft. Here, why don't you try *this* browser instead? Its called Mozilla, and it doesn't have pop-ups."
:)
Not only haven't heard a complaint since, but my parents are now official Microsoft-haters.
Two birds, one stone!
Whoa, whoa, whoa - put away the tinfoil hat there dude. The reason they don't want others distributing the file (or even links), is because they want people to actually have to stop by their website. Its all about advertising. They give away a free (classic) game, which makes them look good, and attracts attention. Then, people flock to download it from their site - and while they're there, they get to look at all the pretty ads and maybe browse around while they're D/Ling. Spread the word, maybe make a sale or two... all for the cost of bandwidth. If they just let the file run free on BT's and whatnot, no one would have a reason to stop by the R* website. Thats all. :)
Which is why he has a chimney!
One thing that always freaks me out is hearing sound effects from Total Annihilation. They're freakin everywhere! Commercials, tv shows, movies, etc. Mostly sci-fi stuff though. A lot of mechanical movement sounds some explosions (esp. the big bertha one), and a few randome beeps and other noises. ;)
The one that always gets me though, is the alarm the game played when your commander was under attack. I played TA too damned much, so every time I hear that buzzer I freak out - like I want to find my commander (ctrl+C twitch anyone?) and kill whatevers attacking him. Damn my razor-sharp gaming reflexes! Blessing AND a curse!
... it hits 88% and then ditches (source file can't be read). Did that to me last night both times I tried it, and once today. Argh!
Lobotomy?
I agree completely. I shelled out a fair bit for my 9700 Pro (when it was new), but its been worth every penny. Its simply an amazing piece of hardware. And y'know what? In a year or more, I'll probably drop another couple hundred on something else brand new (preferrably a PCIX card - *drool*).
Err... I think thats called a bottleneck.
Your $400 GPU won't 'wow' you with it's performance if it's just sitting around twiddling its proverbial thumbs, while the rest of your system has the electronic equivalent of a heart attack.
Since when is $200 and under the midrange? Isn't that where video cards top out for most of the market?
Err, no. The biggest and baddest of 3D beasts top out at around the $500 mark. Thats for a 256MB monster too (FX5900 if you're an nVidiot, 9800XT if you're an ATI fanboi). More "reasonably priced" top end cards are around $400 (eg: 128MB 9800 Pro). From there, prices drop into the "midrange" market - and 200 bones will snag you a shiney new 9600 or 5700. Below that, there isn't much hype about products, because its all outdated crap, or at least crap for games. (Turns out, its kinda hard to market hot 3D cards to server admins - go figure!)
Ok, i'm done now - you can pick your jaw up off the ground.
Originally, Cliffy B (one of the designers at Epic) wanted to name their new gameplay mode Deathball - but he was veto'd, and we now know that gametype as bombing run. So yeah, thats where they got the name from.
As for Deathball itself, its basically soccer (Football to the rest of the world). You've got a (goal)keeper, and a bunch of players that chase a ball around, trying to score. Except in deathball you can carry the ball around instead of having to dribble it. You can also "tackle" other players by running into them and using your weapon (basically a glorified shieldgun). Its also got a bunch of other crazy things, like quad jumping (!), boosting (punting other players with your weapon), and whatnot. Its actually pretty fun. Unfortunatly, it takes a while to get used to things, so the learning curve can be pretty steep. The sole problem with Deathball IMO is the community itself. Its overflowing with egotistical assholes who have no time for new players, or anyone they deem to be below themselves. Funny - its rather a lot like a real sport in that aspect.
So while its a good game, i'd advise most people to stay the hell away from it unless they're prepared to dive in and turn into a hardcore fanatic. If you make a mistake, the community will make it well known to you that casual players are not wanted.
All I ever heard about was the one engine switch from Quake II to Unreal.
I dunno if they're still using the Unreal/UT era engine (v436) though, or if they've upgraded to the (Unreal) Warfare series (v2227+). I guess it's possible they're pulling a Half-Life, and taking an old, but licensed engine, and slapping new features on it as they go. That might explain the delay, even if it doesn't excuse it.
Oh man, I was like THIS close *shows fingers* to nailing Kikko. I just needed a few more "body points", and a pretty necklace for her, and she woulda been mine! I think next time i'm gonna use a cheat code. (Too bad real life doesn't have those, eh? IDDQD/IDKFA!)
Hmm... anyone know if this Space Adventures company accepts air miles? I'm sure i've got a hundred thousand of them on my card by now. They don't seem to be very useful for flying around the world, so maybe they could get me into space? Anyone know?
That's what I thought when I read the article too. Just what we need - an indiscriminate super-cold on the loose. Take one of the most resilient viral strains known to man, juice it up, and then hope it doesn't mutate. Riiiight.
As for the second part, who knows how communicable the virus will be? Maybe they engineer it so it requires cancerous cells to survive (multiply). That way, only someone with cancer could carry the virus, as it would be wiped out in a healthy body. It could happen - I'm sure they'll want to protect that potentially trillion-dollar patent of theirs.
Yeah its a sim. The difference is, in the real world someone can (and will) punch you in the teeth if you're being a dickhead.
...excuse me?
:)
Like, could you imagine a "gang" of 14 year olds trying to push people around at a mall?
Kid: Hey asshole, this mall is OUR turf. $50 or you don't enter.
Me:
Kid: You heard me, bitch! The money or you get the fuck lost.
Me: Sorry, i've got shopping to do...
Kid: Fuck you! -- Get him girls! Use your unfriendly markers!
Me: What the hell? Get outta' my way! *Starts grabbing kids and hurling them into the fountain*
Oh yeah, and thats another thing - if I really started tossing kids around at the mall, i'd probably have a little organization called the Police to deal with afterwards. (Maybe you've heard of them?) AFAIK, they don't have those in TSO.
But hey, I can't blame the players. With no cops, and no fear of physical harm, i'd prolly be pimpin hoes and sellin crack too!
First off, your counter-example is slighly misworded. It should be something allong the lines of "/. types are better at sex", rather than get more sex. Just because one bear wrestles more often than another, doesn't mean they won't be in the same number of fights (enhanced aggressiveness aside). The one with more practice should, logically, be better at fighting though.
/.ers would get a "Game Over" screen immediately after meeting the girl. ;)
And secondly, just because particular games may be poor representations of real world.. *ahem* "activities", doesn't mean his theory is bunk. I'm sure that if real-world intimate relationships were accurately modeled in a game, that a good number of
Heh, the little framerate counter (in some shots) is pretty much always pegged at 100fps. :p
...please give all my gifts to other good little boys and girls, because all I want for Christmas this year is my very own Intel girl. If you could do this for me, I promise I won't bug my little sister for all of next year. Maybe even two years if you can get me a really hot, leggy, blonde who likes games.
Sincerely,
Adam
PS: If she had a nice rack, that would be really great too.
IMHO, yes, 3 button mice without wheels are dead.
:)
:P)
Why? Wheels are just too handy for browsing the web to not have one. And since quite a few million people tend to use teh interweb on a regular basis, wheels are quite popular. So it only makes sense that you'd find them on every product out there - consumers want, producers give. Hell, i've got a scroll wheel on my keyboard! (Logitech Elite)
For most people, theres just no good reason NOT to have a wheel on their mouse. The third (middle) button function is built right into the wheel (wheel-click), so you loose nothing while gaining extra functionality. Whats not to like?
PS: I use a Logitech MX500, and its awesome. Two thumbs up (just beware of Logitech's drivers
Yeah. Goddamnit, this sets a precedent that could screw over the whole Mature gaming industry. Way to go Rock*/T2 :(
Ah, I see. So you're a samaratin. And an anonymous one at that. Well good on you! :P
I don't know if any of you /.ers have heard of it, but just recently, a demo of Unreal 2's XMP (eXpanded MultiPlayer) was released. Its a great little game, and really reinforces good teamwork over anything else. A lot of people really like it, except for little things like the lack of decent servers... and the vehicles are kind of tough to get used to as well. But i've heard it compared to all sorts of games, from BF1942 to Tribes and back again. Personally I think its a bit of a mix between '42, Tribes, Fortress games, and Unreal 2. Though it is distinctly Unreal 2 flavoured. Lotta fun. The full version should be out very soon (possibly as early as tomorrow), and the best part is that its FREE for owners of Unreal 2! If you don't own U2, you can either snag it from the bargain bin, or go pick up a copy of U2: Special Edition (basically U2 reboxed with XMP), which should be out soon as well.
:)
Either way, give the demo a shot if you're craving something new and interesting. You just might like it.
(PS: You should just be able to Google for the XMP demo, but www.beyondunreal.com is a good place for a few mirrors)