Blizzard has written new storylines before. Last winter, it challenged players to team up and fuel a worldwide war effort. As a payoff, it unlocked new territory. This was a good example of letting the users drive a story, but Warcraft needs more of them.
As great as this sounds on paper, this is exactly what WoW does not need more of, at least not how they implemented it. The reality is that the new content being unlocked was for large raiding guilds, a small percentage of the player base. The primary quest chains required large amounts of in-game funds and guild organization to achieve. Very very few people got to experience this (fun) part of the content.
Then, they added some grinding requirements (turnins of massive amounts of trivial items), something that required "everyone" to participate in. This was the not-fun part of the content, and it had to be done by people who would never, ever experience the content they were unlocking. Many servers were only able to get their content unlocked by exploiting players by holding "contests" in which the winner got a reward for turning in the most stuff.
Seriously, one of the lamest things they've ever done in this game to date. It follows the pattern that WoW has followed thus far: Raiders get the fun challenges, and the best rewards. Non-raiders get to put in massive amounts of time performing repetitive tasks for sub-par rewards or none at all.
It seems they are making strides with this in the upcoming Expansion, since gear will be equalized when the level cap is raised, and also the raiding requirements are being reduced to 25 people instead of 40. But, I remain skeptical that they will hold to this design principle.
This is horseshit. When a program produces one false answer, the problem is not that it "made a mistake" (like with humans). Thus, you cannot write off one error as statistically probable. You have to assume it is a fundamental issue which will repeat itself whenever the criteria to reproduce this bug exist. That could be small, or it could be large. You don't know until it's investigated.
This is very troubling.
Ignorant people need and deserve representation too. This very question betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what Democracy is meant to accomplish.
The purpose of riders like this isn't to be stealthy; the passage of a Bill is a long process and fairly transparent. They don't expect anyone to not notice. Please.
The purpose is to tack one controversial issue onto an emotionally charged one, ostensibly to ease its passage; it doesn't matter if anyone *notices* or not. Yes, Democrats could oppose this Bill, refuse to sign it, filibuster. But with midterms coming up, no one wants "voted against a Bill that would prevent another Katrina disaster" smear with their name on it. You can blame our elected Congress all you want, but the fact is they are elected by a populace swayed by this sort of rhetoric. Surely you saw enough of it in 2004 "first he was for it, then he was against it" nonsense. Voting against a Bill that is poorly designed is equal to disagreeing with any premise behind the Bill. The Republican Party may be particularly adept at exploiting this, but it is by no means their invention. Blame the voters, and perhaps the media which blithley propagates smear campaign tactics with little or no scrutiny. Blaming Congress (hint: we elected them) or, of all people, Bush.. that's just absurd.
And I am not certain why people think Democrats would be opposed to extending Executive power. Just because they do not control that branch now does not mean they don't expect to in the near future. How is this even a party issue?
I didn't even know, because my Mac has never crashed.. ever.
My Windows XP machine just reboots itself. I'm supposed to think it overheated or something, I guess. Very clever.
"Generally, though, players of the game enjoy a form of community rarely seen in the real world; higher-level players go out of their way to tutor newbies and accompany them on quests. Deep friendships are forged. Relationships begin."
Are we talking about the same game? This is a huge pile of BS.
The only community, per se, are within guilds. And it tends to be rather cutthroat from my experience. People join large raiding guilds for any number of reasons (status, character advancement, something to do), but rarely is it to make friends.
I was trying to be generous. My homepage URL reveals how I feel about Bush.
But I put myself out of the ABBA camp by paying careful attention to the alternative and comparing it to the vast failures of Bush in the past four years. Looks good so far.:)
Yeah, because paying someone else to smear your opponent, then going on record as denouncing it (as well as their ads, suggesting they are smears, although they are not) is very honorable.
That is about (quite possibly exceeding) the idiocy of the "Anyone But Bush" mentality. Here's an idea. Examine their policies and track record, and make an informed decision?
Ironically, it is people such as yourself that have poisoned our political process with phony outrage over some perceived (and carefully constructed) cultural divide, and casting your vote as a big 'FUCK YOU' to the other side. Do you think this is original? It's the very heart of conservatism vs. liberalism for most Americans these days.
The leadup to this election resembles a mindless sporting event with armchair quarterbacks yelling and screaming about the other teams fouls, accusing the referees of bias, and generally only caring that their side wins. "Bush/Cheny '04" and "LICK BUSH" stickers might as well be fan gear.
When I got my contacts for the first time I experienced the usual irritation and got myself some eyedrops to carry around. I began using them constantly as it kept getting worse and worse, so I went back to see my eye doctor. It was there that I learned eyedrops are very addicting. Your eyes will stop producing their own natural tears if you provide them artificially over an extended period of time. I suffered for a week without eyedrops and my eyes adjusted and the irritation went away.
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Blizzard has written new storylines before. Last winter, it challenged players to team up and fuel a worldwide war effort. As a payoff, it unlocked new territory. This was a good example of letting the users drive a story, but Warcraft needs more of them.
As great as this sounds on paper, this is exactly what WoW does not need more of, at least not how they implemented it. The reality is that the new content being unlocked was for large raiding guilds, a small percentage of the player base. The primary quest chains required large amounts of in-game funds and guild organization to achieve. Very very few people got to experience this (fun) part of the content.
Then, they added some grinding requirements (turnins of massive amounts of trivial items), something that required "everyone" to participate in. This was the not-fun part of the content, and it had to be done by people who would never, ever experience the content they were unlocking. Many servers were only able to get their content unlocked by exploiting players by holding "contests" in which the winner got a reward for turning in the most stuff.
Seriously, one of the lamest things they've ever done in this game to date. It follows the pattern that WoW has followed thus far: Raiders get the fun challenges, and the best rewards. Non-raiders get to put in massive amounts of time performing repetitive tasks for sub-par rewards or none at all.
It seems they are making strides with this in the upcoming Expansion, since gear will be equalized when the level cap is raised, and also the raiding requirements are being reduced to 25 people instead of 40. But, I remain skeptical that they will hold to this design principle.
This is horseshit. When a program produces one false answer, the problem is not that it "made a mistake" (like with humans). Thus, you cannot write off one error as statistically probable. You have to assume it is a fundamental issue which will repeat itself whenever the criteria to reproduce this bug exist. That could be small, or it could be large. You don't know until it's investigated. This is very troubling.
Ignorant people need and deserve representation too. This very question betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what Democracy is meant to accomplish.
The purpose of riders like this isn't to be stealthy; the passage of a Bill is a long process and fairly transparent. They don't expect anyone to not notice. Please. The purpose is to tack one controversial issue onto an emotionally charged one, ostensibly to ease its passage; it doesn't matter if anyone *notices* or not. Yes, Democrats could oppose this Bill, refuse to sign it, filibuster. But with midterms coming up, no one wants "voted against a Bill that would prevent another Katrina disaster" smear with their name on it. You can blame our elected Congress all you want, but the fact is they are elected by a populace swayed by this sort of rhetoric. Surely you saw enough of it in 2004 "first he was for it, then he was against it" nonsense. Voting against a Bill that is poorly designed is equal to disagreeing with any premise behind the Bill. The Republican Party may be particularly adept at exploiting this, but it is by no means their invention. Blame the voters, and perhaps the media which blithley propagates smear campaign tactics with little or no scrutiny. Blaming Congress (hint: we elected them) or, of all people, Bush.. that's just absurd. And I am not certain why people think Democrats would be opposed to extending Executive power. Just because they do not control that branch now does not mean they don't expect to in the near future. How is this even a party issue?
I didn't even know, because my Mac has never crashed.. ever. My Windows XP machine just reboots itself. I'm supposed to think it overheated or something, I guess. Very clever.
"Generally, though, players of the game enjoy a form of community rarely seen in the real world; higher-level players go out of their way to tutor newbies and accompany them on quests. Deep friendships are forged. Relationships begin." Are we talking about the same game? This is a huge pile of BS. The only community, per se, are within guilds. And it tends to be rather cutthroat from my experience. People join large raiding guilds for any number of reasons (status, character advancement, something to do), but rarely is it to make friends.
Since when could a Liberal not make money?
Wait for the NASA Executives For Honesty ad: In 1998 Kerry voted NO against new chutes for our spacecraft!!
I was trying to be generous. My homepage URL reveals how I feel about Bush. But I put myself out of the ABBA camp by paying careful attention to the alternative and comparing it to the vast failures of Bush in the past four years. Looks good so far. :)
Yeah, because paying someone else to smear your opponent, then going on record as denouncing it (as well as their ads, suggesting they are smears, although they are not) is very honorable.
That is about (quite possibly exceeding) the idiocy of the "Anyone But Bush" mentality. Here's an idea. Examine their policies and track record, and make an informed decision? Ironically, it is people such as yourself that have poisoned our political process with phony outrage over some perceived (and carefully constructed) cultural divide, and casting your vote as a big 'FUCK YOU' to the other side. Do you think this is original? It's the very heart of conservatism vs. liberalism for most Americans these days. The leadup to this election resembles a mindless sporting event with armchair quarterbacks yelling and screaming about the other teams fouls, accusing the referees of bias, and generally only caring that their side wins. "Bush/Cheny '04" and "LICK BUSH" stickers might as well be fan gear.
When I got my contacts for the first time I experienced the usual irritation and got myself some eyedrops to carry around. I began using them constantly as it kept getting worse and worse, so I went back to see my eye doctor. It was there that I learned eyedrops are very addicting. Your eyes will stop producing their own natural tears if you provide them artificially over an extended period of time. I suffered for a week without eyedrops and my eyes adjusted and the irritation went away.
"You" could "try" taking the "dock" with "you" if it's that "important".
You've got to be kidding me, this is a joke right? The web is seething with Conservative forums. Try Little Green Footballs for a start. Check out the hundreds of links they have. Try to keep your lunch down. -- If affirmative action means what I'm for, I'm for it.
And the extra 4 friends you gained wonder about your math skills.