Yes, the misery of having a machine that runs video games, can use modern peripherals without extra work, can inter-operate with the most possible other machines and users and actually get stuff done!
Thank you for your patience. i promise i'm not trying to be difficult, i'm just trying to wrap my head around this.
"That you're looking at the ping-pong balls. Even if you're not using your eyes, measuring the mass of them is an observation that causes the wave function to collapse."
Pretend i'm not. How much force are the ping pong balls exerting on the bottom of the container? If we pour in 1 kilo of balls, there should be one kilo in each container (whether or not anyone is looking at it or measuring it). The bottom of the container should "know". The balls should know where they are.
"You can't know without asking the cat."
That doesn't answer my question. i'm not asking the cat, i don't need to know. The cat is asking itself, or reality is asking the cat. It should at least remember the bottle breaking or licking the poison, if it did so. If not, it should be bored or chasing its tail. The cat doesn't need anyone else to tell it that it's alive or dead.
i don't need anyone to tell me which room i'm in. i just look around, and see i'm in the kitchen. Just because my girlfriend is upstairs and can't hear me washing dishes over her headphones doesn't mean that i'm also in the basement and the living room and the dining room. i'm in the kitchen... washing dishes, whether anyone else observes me or not. It would be pretty cool if i could play PlanetSide while doing the dishes.
Likewise, the ping pong ball should "know" it's in container A. Whether or not any living thing ever checks on it.
"The subatomic particles behave very differently from what you expect."
i'm not asking about subatomic particles as a thought experiment on what *particles* do. i'm asking about cats, people and ping pong balls. Someone suggested that a cat could be alive and dead without violating that dead means 'not alive and never will be again', or that a ping pong ball could be in two places at once without violating conservation of mass. i want to now how a literal cat is supposed to be dead and alive (without regard for an observer). The cat doesn't need an observer to be alive and/or dead.
If a photon can go through both slots, fine, but that's not what i'm asking about.
So if i'm dropping ping pong balls down a tube that will cause it to bounce around and eventually fall into to one of two containers... we're summoning ping pong balls ex nihilo which are all falling into BOTH the containers. The mass in *each* container should be the same. If i open one and you open the other, we'll find twice as many ping pong balls as we started with. Because they each went into each container. That or some of your ping pong balls should vanish into thin air when we compare numbers.
i should try this with my collection of silver rounds.
What am i missing?
If the cat is dead, it can't be alive, and vice versa. What state does the cat think it is? Or if i was in the box with it. What would i feel while i was both? What would i feel between the time close and open the box? Would i be happily, healthfully pacing the floor and then suddenly drop dead because you opened the box?
So there are dead-alive cats? Wouldn't it's being dead mean that it can't be alive anymore? Most things stay dead. Does observation show dead things coming back to life (resuscitation aside)? How does the cat feel when it is both?
i have three cats at home are some of them dead because i'm not looking at them? How do they come back to life when i get home?
How about this? You're in room A, i'm in the hallway with doors to room B and C. i could go into one or the other. Am i in both rooms because you're not able to see me. What room do i think i'm in? i think i'm in C. We could have cameras recording me which should show me entering both rooms. Both should show me when we review the tape, right?
Another issue is that a cat can't be alive and dead, only one or the other. Just because YOU don't know which, doesn't mean that it doesn't, or that reality doesn't. It's arrogant/solipsistic to assume that the cat's state needs you to see it. Solipsism, while interesting to me has never been useful. i'ven't been able to hack the matrix yet. So either reality is real or the matrix is so secure that it might as well be reality.
Let's try it this way. Put a person in a box with the randomly decaying poison. The person inside ticks off the seconds they are alive inside the box. When we open the box, the person will be alive or dead. If they are dead we can check the sheet for the last entry.
It might be easier to have a computer in a box counting, with a shotgun pointed at it. At some random time the shotgun may or may not have blasted the computer. We check the safely secured USB drive for the count showing when the computer died.
Yeah, it's time throw off the strangle hold of Gygaxian power curves and class/level straight jackets.
Re:Well written book, but it left me disappointed
on
The Magicians
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· Score: 1
Hmm. i never read the books and the movie didn't seem to make a big deal of the words. i never gave much thought to the words. It wouldn't be something i'd go for because it just doesn't match my way of thinking. Like the parent's post about magic being a god's tool left behind. i wouldn't go that way because i'm atheist.
i could work on it though. Perhaps the words are the language of superpowered beings who could shape the world with their voices. Or the words resonate with an element. Tchugath Nith Ason might heat the air like a microwave.
What i wonder then, is what would keep your enemy from saying the words right back at you? If i can pronounce the words, and he can hear them, he should be able to use them just as easily. My model resolves this by saying that the words aren't issue, charging, shaping and triggering the energy is. A gesture works just as well as Tchugath Nith Ason, if you've put the work into the gesture.
For me the direction was conquest of continents. Later when i started leading teams, and then later several teams... it became another game. i'd send my cloakers to several bases and my heavies to another. Report intel to the other officers who would bring in tanks or reavers. In a matter of minutes, my guys could deny tech to the enemy. i was everywhere at once. i'm usually alone and running for my life so it never became a grind for me. i also play mostly to be with my outfit. Were it not for them i would have left long ago. But now that i'm in the inner circle of officers, have led raids of 60+ players and i'm well known... it's all good.
i'll agree that it's not for everyone. It has a limited appeal and they made some bad choices early on that hurt it. Thus far nothing has come close to replacing it for me.
It's unlikely there will be any new content for the game. i just hope one there will be a sequel or that one of the 5 or so games borrowing from it will be a replacement for me. i just hope i get CR5 before it ends.
Make a character in the Vanu Sovereignty (my empire/faction) and around 8pm Eastern look for people with the tag "Ghosts of the Revolution". Tell them N1H1L (nihil) sent you and that you're looking into the game. Someone will be able to help you. Get TeamSpeak because that's how we coordinate our group of 30 to 60 players. i'm on most Wednesday nights and every Thursday night./t N1H1L {text} will talk directly to me (like whisper in other games).
Such is the nature of new toys. Someone makes a new toy, everyone gets excited about it, everyone uses it, we get sick of it, toy finds its rightful place. See Wire-fu and virtual camera.
3D is likely to be the way most films and tv shows will be made. Once the novelty wears off there will be less silly uses (i hope).
What i'd like to see are movies "filmed" in full CGI where i can move the camera wherever the hell i want it. Bob and Lisa are arguing in the kitchen, i can head upstairs to watch Timmy crying or downstairs to watch the evil creature in the deep well.
"There're a few problems in the basic design of such a system. I personally don't understand how people tend to think of "Flexibility" as NOT an overpowering strength. Its just as bad as n00bst0mping, essentially I'll be so flexible that my options allow me to perfectly outplay my opponent with fewer options."
Look for my post about PlanetSide where i describe what i mean by flexibility. In PS the flexibility does not cause any sort of overpowering godlike characters. Having fewer options isn't a hindrance in any significant way. i might be able to have more weapons, but they are the same weapons as you have. If you don't have a sniper rifle, your buddy does. i've been playing this game for 6 years. It works pretty well.
"No player trade is a huge setback, and will actually encourage farming since people can't buy it (Albeit, EVERYONE on the server will be farming instead of just the Chinese). It'll either work out that its way too easy to get Gold, or its way too hard. And that in itself can fluctuate with player population."
Again, i was describing PlanetSide where there is no player trade worth mentioning. Everything is plentiful for everyone. You get your equipment from a vending machine that will give you a tank every 3 minutes. There's no currency either, the vending machines just give you what you have the certs to take. i think you're missing what i'm saying because you're comparing what i'm talking about too directly to WoW and the like.
"I personally have not found an MMO today that doesn't reward skill, tactics, strategy and teamwork over grinders or EBayers. You can argue that yes, you got beaten by the guy in the best armor because he had the best armor, but to be frank, if he's got no life he's got a better understanding of the game mechanics then you do as well, so he could have probably beaten you in a naked duel."
Eh. If i'm Xth level and Bob is Xth level, but is carrying Teh Uber 1337 Sword of 1337ness +10... well to me, that sucks. His twinking gives him an unfair advantage. If Bob buys a high level character and i've earned mine, Bob and the guy who sold the character just took a steaming dump on my face. i'm weird for wanting fairness in games, i know. i get enough of people with money having unfair advantages over me all day, every day. When i play a game i'd like it to be fair. Imagine a high school baseball team bringing in a big league pro because Tim's dad has money to burn. It's completely unfair to any team playing honestly. In order to compete, they'll have to bring in ringers too. Or somehow protest it.
i'm not asking for all games to be like this, i just want a few games that aren't reskinned EQ/WoW that might cater to a different sort of player.
No player trade(NPT) is workable in several ways. Have NPT servers. If Bob has a Sword of 1337ness, you know he earned it. If i have 1000 Gold, you know i earned it. Have a NPT status for characters. When you make your character, he's a Trade Virgin. As long he never buys, sells or trades with another PC he retains that status. While he has it, it could be a mere point of pride or it could allow better drops and/or better deals with NPCs or faster leveling or what have you. Or you can have a game like PlanetSide where there's no need for currency or trade.
The kid with no life may or may not know the game better. He might have fat stacks of loot because he's played longer. Games like WoW don't involve much skill in the way i'm using the word. By skill i mean something inherent to the player, like eye hand coordination. In WoW, it's a die roll in an equation that hits you, not the player. In PlanetSide skilled n00bs can beat unskilled veterans. In WoW, the veteran can kill you with a click and let the numbers do the rest. *Click*, *die*.
Funny thing is, i'm terribly uncoordinated. Games like WoW should be great for me because they level the playing field. But in PS, i've found a niche where my skill comes not from having the fastest twitch, but by knowing the g
Yeah, i've been playing PS since it went live and i love it. i wish they had the money to fix things and make some updates. i'm still having a blast in it though. No thing has come close to replacing it for me.
i've been designing such a game for a while now. All i need is a few million dollars and a crack team of coders and artists. Or a company with those to listen to me!
Keep the faith, brother! i think someone will eventually figure out how to have a multiplayer game that is grind free, yet keeps people playing. May be when bandwidth becomes cheaper.
How about Neverwinter Nights Online? i LOVED NWN (there was never an NWN 2, NEVER HAPPENED). Imagine the game being centered on Sigil which allows us to use any realm in the D&D universe(s) and to allow players to make their own. You can hop into this or that realm and create a character compliant with that space. If you hop into Ravenloft, you need a stat for sanity, if you're in Dragonlance you can play a Kender. These modules could be hosted by WotC, by a third party or run locally if it's just you. Items and powers not compliant with the core rules cannot enter the central space. Players can rate and rank modules. Popular realms can have a big fancy portal. Modules could be ongoing or have a specific lifespan. Module X runs until the players kill the dragon, or they solve the mystery of the Mysterious Mystery.
In PlanetSide there is a certification system. At Battle Rank (BR) 1 you have something like 5 or 6 cert points. With this you can buy access to certain vehicles, weapons or support gear. You might take Light Armor and Main Battle Tank. i would take Cloaking (invisibility) and hacking (allowing me to open enemy doors faster, steal enemy vehicles). As we progress i could take more support stuff (reviving, repairing, virus installing) and you might drop your vehicle certs to become an all around ground pounder with heavy weapons, sniper rifle, flamethrower and heavy armor. You can "unlean" one cert every six hours, and spend those points on something else.
In PS i'm BR 25, if you started today at BR 1, your sniper rifle and mine would be the same. Same reload speed, same damage, same range etc. It's the same rifle, despite my being way higher ranked. But in addition to the sniper rifle, i can also install viruses, revive the dead, repair vehicles and personnel armor and and and. i'm merely more flexible. i can switch roles faster. i can hop in my Mosquito, but you'd have to run to the next base. You could unload sniping and pick up the Mosquito.
There's no n00bst0mping because no matter how high level i am and how low you are, you have a chance. i can't instagib or gank you in a way that you can't possibly escape or survive. If i'm gunning a Magrider tank and you're wearing light armor... yeah, you're boned. But you or your buddy can throw a jammer grenade at me and let loose with anti-vehicle rounds. Imagine Team Fortress 2, but you can change classes during a battle (or without having to die).... That's the certification system.
There are empire (faction) specific items which do different damage and have different special abilities, but they're balanced in a different way.
In a fantasy setting, i would do this as some sort of ancestral memory or that you have items that give you powers. As you advance you can switch between the Flaming Ring of Fiery Death and the Wand of Healing.
My Certs: Cloaking (invisibility suit) Mosquito (stealthy aircraft, single seat) Advanced Mobile Station (spawn point on wheels) Electronics Expert (fast hacking, install viruses, corrupting enemy deployables) Advanced Medic (fast healing, revive the dead) Combat Engineer (repair armor and vehicles, place mines, robot turrets and sensors)
My thing is blowing up generators behind enemy lines.
i've been in the "alpha" and beta. It's a bit like WoW, Team Fortress and Unreal Tournament. Like WoW, it has a Gygaxian power curve and player economy (and all the attendant issues: n00bst0mping and buying virtual stuff with real money), and some form of player character persistence. Like TF it has classes, but you can't change classes in battle. Like UT it is round based. What happened last round seems to have little effect on anything but your ranking and leveling. It does not have PlanetSide's never ending persistent battlefield.
The MMO i want:
Non power curved (so there won't be n00bst0mping, instead levels give you flexibility), persistent battlefield (not meaningless rounds), no player trade (therefore no gold farming, twinking or buying virtual "property" with real money), rewards skill, tactics, strategy and teamwork over not having a life or having more money than sense.
i know this puts me in a tiny minority. Most players want to stand godlike over newbs they killed with one click, letting the equations and die rolls do the work. Most players don't want to earn stuff, they want to buy it from a Chinese guy in a sweatshop. They don't want to think about anything beyond the next kill.
i work for a major university that has been a Windows place thus far, aside from a few studios for the artsy stuff (where they still believe the myth that creative stuff can ONLY happen on macs). There is a push to have more macs and they are oh so excited about it. They don't realize the nightmare it will be when some kid can't get their work done because they bought this fashion accessory that can't DO anything and they don't know how to use it. So they're going to call me and i won't be able to help them. This is a problem they are creating, not solving.
Our scientists have Linux boxen (the plural of linux box is linux boxen) and they know how to use their own stuff. They don't need support from my team. That is how it should be in most schools.
Having a multi-OS environment is a HUGE waste of time and resources for a school. Pick one OS, one hardware company (Apple/Dell/whoever) and stick with that. Yeah, it's trendy and cute to say "We have an iMac lab!" or "We support FOSS and have an Ubuntu lab", but that time, money and space would be better spent just picking one.
The connection between academia and Apple is annoying. Apple provides cheap stuff, school likes cheap(er) stuff, students use it, go into real world... and find a Dell at their cube (and at home). It's like teaching kids to type on Dvorak, KNOWING that their going to have to learn Qwerty for the real world. Then there is the self fulfilling prophecy of Macs and creative work. Students learn photoshop on Macs, go to design company and find Macs, therefore Macs are necessary for creative work! Yeah, all music and movies and graphics is done on Macs... because it's all done on Macs. All of that work can be done just as well and more cheaply on Windows or Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, the misery of having a machine that runs video games, can use modern peripherals without extra work, can inter-operate with the most possible other machines and users and actually get stuff done!
"Great, now I have Ubuntu. Let's install Crysis and MS Office!"
Got it. That makes way more sense than undead cats.
+1 Informative
Thanks!
Thank you for your patience. i promise i'm not trying to be difficult, i'm just trying to wrap my head around this.
"That you're looking at the ping-pong balls. Even if you're not using your eyes, measuring the mass of them is an observation that causes the wave function to collapse."
Pretend i'm not. How much force are the ping pong balls exerting on the bottom of the container? If we pour in 1 kilo of balls, there should be one kilo in each container (whether or not anyone is looking at it or measuring it). The bottom of the container should "know". The balls should know where they are.
"You can't know without asking the cat."
That doesn't answer my question. i'm not asking the cat, i don't need to know. The cat is asking itself, or reality is asking the cat. It should at least remember the bottle breaking or licking the poison, if it did so. If not, it should be bored or chasing its tail. The cat doesn't need anyone else to tell it that it's alive or dead.
i don't need anyone to tell me which room i'm in. i just look around, and see i'm in the kitchen. Just because my girlfriend is upstairs and can't hear me washing dishes over her headphones doesn't mean that i'm also in the basement and the living room and the dining room. i'm in the kitchen... washing dishes, whether anyone else observes me or not. It would be pretty cool if i could play PlanetSide while doing the dishes.
Likewise, the ping pong ball should "know" it's in container A. Whether or not any living thing ever checks on it.
"The subatomic particles behave very differently from what you expect."
i'm not asking about subatomic particles as a thought experiment on what *particles* do. i'm asking about cats, people and ping pong balls. Someone suggested that a cat could be alive and dead without violating that dead means 'not alive and never will be again', or that a ping pong ball could be in two places at once without violating conservation of mass. i want to now how a literal cat is supposed to be dead and alive (without regard for an observer). The cat doesn't need an observer to be alive and/or dead.
If a photon can go through both slots, fine, but that's not what i'm asking about.
So if i'm dropping ping pong balls down a tube that will cause it to bounce around and eventually fall into to one of two containers... we're summoning ping pong balls ex nihilo which are all falling into BOTH the containers. The mass in *each* container should be the same. If i open one and you open the other, we'll find twice as many ping pong balls as we started with. Because they each went into each container. That or some of your ping pong balls should vanish into thin air when we compare numbers.
i should try this with my collection of silver rounds.
What am i missing?
If the cat is dead, it can't be alive, and vice versa. What state does the cat think it is? Or if i was in the box with it. What would i feel while i was both? What would i feel between the time close and open the box? Would i be happily, healthfully pacing the floor and then suddenly drop dead because you opened the box?
So there are dead-alive cats? Wouldn't it's being dead mean that it can't be alive anymore? Most things stay dead. Does observation show dead things coming back to life (resuscitation aside)? How does the cat feel when it is both?
i have three cats at home are some of them dead because i'm not looking at them? How do they come back to life when i get home?
How about this? You're in room A, i'm in the hallway with doors to room B and C. i could go into one or the other. Am i in both rooms because you're not able to see me. What room do i think i'm in? i think i'm in C. We could have cameras recording me which should show me entering both rooms. Both should show me when we review the tape, right?
i have a live-in GF.
Maybe that "you" you're referring to is the general "you".
Was my joke modded insightful?? Hah!
Another issue is that a cat can't be alive and dead, only one or the other. Just because YOU don't know which, doesn't mean that it doesn't, or that reality doesn't. It's arrogant/solipsistic to assume that the cat's state needs you to see it. Solipsism, while interesting to me has never been useful. i'ven't been able to hack the matrix yet. So either reality is real or the matrix is so secure that it might as well be reality.
Let's try it this way. Put a person in a box with the randomly decaying poison. The person inside ticks off the seconds they are alive inside the box. When we open the box, the person will be alive or dead. If they are dead we can check the sheet for the last entry.
It might be easier to have a computer in a box counting, with a shotgun pointed at it. At some random time the shotgun may or may not have blasted the computer. We check the safely secured USB drive for the count showing when the computer died.
You have a point, most of these azoic creatures never reproduce.
Verbification weirds the language.
i'll give it a look. The turn based aspect appeals to me because, well... my eye hand coordination is crap.
Thanks!
Am i late for the Twitter bashing thread? i want to stay trendy, but i can't jump on someone else's train if it's left the station.
Um. Twitter is just persistent IRC. It's feeding teen narcissism. 140 characters? Are they kidding? Twitter? More like shitter!
Am i doing this right?
Excellent analysis!
Yeah, it's time throw off the strangle hold of Gygaxian power curves and class/level straight jackets.
Hmm. i never read the books and the movie didn't seem to make a big deal of the words. i never gave much thought to the words. It wouldn't be something i'd go for because it just doesn't match my way of thinking. Like the parent's post about magic being a god's tool left behind. i wouldn't go that way because i'm atheist.
i could work on it though. Perhaps the words are the language of superpowered beings who could shape the world with their voices. Or the words resonate with an element. Tchugath Nith Ason might heat the air like a microwave.
What i wonder then, is what would keep your enemy from saying the words right back at you? If i can pronounce the words, and he can hear them, he should be able to use them just as easily. My model resolves this by saying that the words aren't issue, charging, shaping and triggering the energy is. A gesture works just as well as Tchugath Nith Ason, if you've put the work into the gesture.
Interesting question though. :)
For me the direction was conquest of continents. Later when i started leading teams, and then later several teams... it became another game. i'd send my cloakers to several bases and my heavies to another. Report intel to the other officers who would bring in tanks or reavers. In a matter of minutes, my guys could deny tech to the enemy. i was everywhere at once. i'm usually alone and running for my life so it never became a grind for me. i also play mostly to be with my outfit. Were it not for them i would have left long ago. But now that i'm in the inner circle of officers, have led raids of 60+ players and i'm well known... it's all good.
i'll agree that it's not for everyone. It has a limited appeal and they made some bad choices early on that hurt it. Thus far nothing has come close to replacing it for me.
It's unlikely there will be any new content for the game. i just hope one there will be a sequel or that one of the 5 or so games borrowing from it will be a replacement for me. i just hope i get CR5 before it ends.
Yeah, but machinima... with dialogue and better graphics.
Hell if it forced me to follow the along with the story buy i could move the camera, that would be cool too.
If you do, you can get a 14 day trial:
http://launcher.station.sony.com/
Make a character in the Vanu Sovereignty (my empire/faction) and around 8pm Eastern look for people with the tag "Ghosts of the Revolution". Tell them N1H1L (nihil) sent you and that you're looking into the game. Someone will be able to help you. Get TeamSpeak because that's how we coordinate our group of 30 to 60 players. i'm on most Wednesday nights and every Thursday night. /t N1H1L {text} will talk directly to me (like whisper in other games).
Our website:
http://gotr.net/
Some of our vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP33HNkdz5g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFVsNlB2UE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zttq2KxZt4M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfBPDVHKxJU
OK, that's enough whoring for me. Hope to see you in the game. :)
Such is the nature of new toys. Someone makes a new toy, everyone gets excited about it, everyone uses it, we get sick of it, toy finds its rightful place. See Wire-fu and virtual camera.
3D is likely to be the way most films and tv shows will be made. Once the novelty wears off there will be less silly uses (i hope).
What i'd like to see are movies "filmed" in full CGI where i can move the camera wherever the hell i want it. Bob and Lisa are arguing in the kitchen, i can head upstairs to watch Timmy crying or downstairs to watch the evil creature in the deep well.
"There're a few problems in the basic design of such a system. I personally don't understand how people tend to think of "Flexibility" as NOT an overpowering strength. Its just as bad as n00bst0mping, essentially I'll be so flexible that my options allow me to perfectly outplay my opponent with fewer options."
Look for my post about PlanetSide where i describe what i mean by flexibility. In PS the flexibility does not cause any sort of overpowering godlike characters. Having fewer options isn't a hindrance in any significant way. i might be able to have more weapons, but they are the same weapons as you have. If you don't have a sniper rifle, your buddy does. i've been playing this game for 6 years. It works pretty well.
"No player trade is a huge setback, and will actually encourage farming since people can't buy it (Albeit, EVERYONE on the server will be farming instead of just the Chinese). It'll either work out that its way too easy to get Gold, or its way too hard. And that in itself can fluctuate with player population."
Again, i was describing PlanetSide where there is no player trade worth mentioning. Everything is plentiful for everyone. You get your equipment from a vending machine that will give you a tank every 3 minutes. There's no currency either, the vending machines just give you what you have the certs to take. i think you're missing what i'm saying because you're comparing what i'm talking about too directly to WoW and the like.
"I personally have not found an MMO today that doesn't reward skill, tactics, strategy and teamwork over grinders or EBayers. You can argue that yes, you got beaten by the guy in the best armor because he had the best armor, but to be frank, if he's got no life he's got a better understanding of the game mechanics then you do as well, so he could have probably beaten you in a naked duel."
Eh. If i'm Xth level and Bob is Xth level, but is carrying Teh Uber 1337 Sword of 1337ness +10... well to me, that sucks. His twinking gives him an unfair advantage. If Bob buys a high level character and i've earned mine, Bob and the guy who sold the character just took a steaming dump on my face. i'm weird for wanting fairness in games, i know. i get enough of people with money having unfair advantages over me all day, every day. When i play a game i'd like it to be fair. Imagine a high school baseball team bringing in a big league pro because Tim's dad has money to burn. It's completely unfair to any team playing honestly. In order to compete, they'll have to bring in ringers too. Or somehow protest it.
i'm not asking for all games to be like this, i just want a few games that aren't reskinned EQ/WoW that might cater to a different sort of player.
No player trade(NPT) is workable in several ways. Have NPT servers. If Bob has a Sword of 1337ness, you know he earned it. If i have 1000 Gold, you know i earned it. Have a NPT status for characters. When you make your character, he's a Trade Virgin. As long he never buys, sells or trades with another PC he retains that status. While he has it, it could be a mere point of pride or it could allow better drops and/or better deals with NPCs or faster leveling or what have you. Or you can have a game like PlanetSide where there's no need for currency or trade.
The kid with no life may or may not know the game better. He might have fat stacks of loot because he's played longer. Games like WoW don't involve much skill in the way i'm using the word. By skill i mean something inherent to the player, like eye hand coordination. In WoW, it's a die roll in an equation that hits you, not the player. In PlanetSide skilled n00bs can beat unskilled veterans. In WoW, the veteran can kill you with a click and let the numbers do the rest. *Click*, *die*.
Funny thing is, i'm terribly uncoordinated. Games like WoW should be great for me because they level the playing field. But in PS, i've found a niche where my skill comes not from having the fastest twitch, but by knowing the g
Dodging money shots.
Yeah, i've been playing PS since it went live and i love it. i wish they had the money to fix things and make some updates. i'm still having a blast in it though. No thing has come close to replacing it for me.
i've been designing such a game for a while now. All i need is a few million dollars and a crack team of coders and artists. Or a company with those to listen to me!
This is me holding my breath.
Keep the faith, brother! i think someone will eventually figure out how to have a multiplayer game that is grind free, yet keeps people playing. May be when bandwidth becomes cheaper.
How about Neverwinter Nights Online? i LOVED NWN (there was never an NWN 2, NEVER HAPPENED). Imagine the game being centered on Sigil which allows us to use any realm in the D&D universe(s) and to allow players to make their own. You can hop into this or that realm and create a character compliant with that space. If you hop into Ravenloft, you need a stat for sanity, if you're in Dragonlance you can play a Kender. These modules could be hosted by WotC, by a third party or run locally if it's just you. Items and powers not compliant with the core rules cannot enter the central space. Players can rate and rank modules. Popular realms can have a big fancy portal. Modules could be ongoing or have a specific lifespan. Module X runs until the players kill the dragon, or they solve the mystery of the Mysterious Mystery.
Gladly.
In PlanetSide there is a certification system. At Battle Rank (BR) 1 you have something like 5 or 6 cert points. With this you can buy access to certain vehicles, weapons or support gear. You might take Light Armor and Main Battle Tank. i would take Cloaking (invisibility) and hacking (allowing me to open enemy doors faster, steal enemy vehicles). As we progress i could take more support stuff (reviving, repairing, virus installing) and you might drop your vehicle certs to become an all around ground pounder with heavy weapons, sniper rifle, flamethrower and heavy armor. You can "unlean" one cert every six hours, and spend those points on something else.
In PS i'm BR 25, if you started today at BR 1, your sniper rifle and mine would be the same. Same reload speed, same damage, same range etc. It's the same rifle, despite my being way higher ranked. But in addition to the sniper rifle, i can also install viruses, revive the dead, repair vehicles and personnel armor and and and. i'm merely more flexible. i can switch roles faster. i can hop in my Mosquito, but you'd have to run to the next base. You could unload sniping and pick up the Mosquito.
There's no n00bst0mping because no matter how high level i am and how low you are, you have a chance. i can't instagib or gank you in a way that you can't possibly escape or survive. If i'm gunning a Magrider tank and you're wearing light armor... yeah, you're boned. But you or your buddy can throw a jammer grenade at me and let loose with anti-vehicle rounds. Imagine Team Fortress 2, but you can change classes during a battle (or without having to die).... That's the certification system.
There are empire (faction) specific items which do different damage and have different special abilities, but they're balanced in a different way.
In a fantasy setting, i would do this as some sort of ancestral memory or that you have items that give you powers. As you advance you can switch between the Flaming Ring of Fiery Death and the Wand of Healing.
My Certs:
Cloaking (invisibility suit)
Mosquito (stealthy aircraft, single seat)
Advanced Mobile Station (spawn point on wheels)
Electronics Expert (fast hacking, install viruses, corrupting enemy deployables)
Advanced Medic (fast healing, revive the dead)
Combat Engineer (repair armor and vehicles, place mines, robot turrets and sensors)
My thing is blowing up generators behind enemy lines.
Notes about GA:
i've been in the "alpha" and beta. It's a bit like WoW, Team Fortress and Unreal Tournament. Like WoW, it has a Gygaxian power curve and player economy (and all the attendant issues: n00bst0mping and buying virtual stuff with real money), and some form of player character persistence. Like TF it has classes, but you can't change classes in battle. Like UT it is round based. What happened last round seems to have little effect on anything but your ranking and leveling. It does not have PlanetSide's never ending persistent battlefield.
The MMO i want:
Non power curved (so there won't be n00bst0mping, instead levels give you flexibility), persistent battlefield (not meaningless rounds), no player trade (therefore no gold farming, twinking or buying virtual "property" with real money), rewards skill, tactics, strategy and teamwork over not having a life or having more money than sense.
i know this puts me in a tiny minority. Most players want to stand godlike over newbs they killed with one click, letting the equations and die rolls do the work. Most players don't want to earn stuff, they want to buy it from a Chinese guy in a sweatshop. They don't want to think about anything beyond the next kill.
A brazillion times THIS.
i work for a major university that has been a Windows place thus far, aside from a few studios for the artsy stuff (where they still believe the myth that creative stuff can ONLY happen on macs). There is a push to have more macs and they are oh so excited about it. They don't realize the nightmare it will be when some kid can't get their work done because they bought this fashion accessory that can't DO anything and they don't know how to use it. So they're going to call me and i won't be able to help them. This is a problem they are creating, not solving.
Our scientists have Linux boxen (the plural of linux box is linux boxen) and they know how to use their own stuff. They don't need support from my team. That is how it should be in most schools.
Having a multi-OS environment is a HUGE waste of time and resources for a school. Pick one OS, one hardware company (Apple/Dell/whoever) and stick with that. Yeah, it's trendy and cute to say "We have an iMac lab!" or "We support FOSS and have an Ubuntu lab", but that time, money and space would be better spent just picking one.
The connection between academia and Apple is annoying. Apple provides cheap stuff, school likes cheap(er) stuff, students use it, go into real world... and find a Dell at their cube (and at home). It's like teaching kids to type on Dvorak, KNOWING that their going to have to learn Qwerty for the real world. Then there is the self fulfilling prophecy of Macs and creative work. Students learn photoshop on Macs, go to design company and find Macs, therefore Macs are necessary for creative work! Yeah, all music and movies and graphics is done on Macs... because it's all done on Macs. All of that work can be done just as well and more cheaply on Windows or Linux.