That's nice. There's just one problem though: What mobile devices have native support for WebM? Google will still need H.264 to serve Youtube up to all of those smartphones and other devices. Not every browser is going to support WebM, either. Sorry, but H.264 is far, FAR too entrenched to be toppled by anything but a majorly improved codec, and WebM aint. Just making WebM an OPTION on Youtube isn't going to make it dominant.
A neighbor of mine had the bolt-on kind. Four holes at the center and that was it. I never did go sledding on it, sadly, but the bottom could've used some waxing as it was rough fiberglass.
I've always wanted to try that. Wax the hell out of the bottom and put three people in it as a giant saucer sled, maybe drag it behind a truck on a snowed-over rural road. That's a ball when you have a bunch of buddies on sleds tied to the back of a vehicle.
The clue system was a cumbersome, miserable excuse for a progression system. Like I said, I spent more time trying to get the character to figure things out than I did actually figuring them out for myself. I shouldn't have to go into the interface to mash the right combination of things together (assuming I have them all, which means another clickfest just to make sure you have all the clues) just to move ahead. It was just plain awful. The Myst games and even Lucasarts games handled clue collection and progression FAR better than Darkness Within. The logical way is to simply make sure the player can't progress without solving the puzzle, not solving the puzzle and then solving the puzzle of how to make the character solve the puzzle, which gets quite frustrating and just wastes time that could be spent enjoying the game.
After playing the game, there is no possible way I will EVER see that system as anything more than a poor idea that was horribly implemented. The deductive systems should be in your OWN mind, not the character's mind. That just adds an extra and unnecessary layer of kludge.
"Indie" means independent and not a massive powerhouse. Bungie was definitely indie. Myth was mainstream, sure, but was never a huge hit. They were their own company and made their own games. They even published Abuse for another company toward the end, but I'd think of them as indie prior to the buyout.
Um, Darkness Within had an utterly horrible interface. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have to highlight clues and spend more time trying to get the character to figure things out than actually figuring them out for myself. The clue system was a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE way to do things. Then I hit a point that I couldn't get past no matter what I did or what online walkthroughs said to do. The static Riven-style gameplay went out of style years ago. It desperately needed a Penumbra-style engine. Getting around was a time-consuming pain in the ass. It was often a clickfest to see what you can do, what you can pick up, etc. The whole "drive here" bit was awkward. Inventory was clunky. Sorry, but the gameplay was a great example of what NOT to do in a game, indie or otherwise.
I found it greatly disappointing because I was intrigued by the story and wanted to see more, but I just couldn't get around the damned gameplay.
Some indie games are the best I've ever played. The Penumbra series springs to mind. Bungie made their best stuff prior to being assimilated by Microsoft. However, indie doesn't always mean good. I remember hearing about "Darkness Within" and it was truly awful. Intriguing, rather Lovecraftian story, but godawful gameplay.
Oh, you're gonna know something about getting the shaft, all right. The shaft, head, balls, the whole thing. Blag is unbelievable. He's guilty as sin and everyone but him seems to know it.
I agree, but how many schools put all the slow kids in one class? I remember that my school district had a chance at a huge grant...but turned it down because one of the requirements was to restructure the way they did things. One of those requirements was to segregate students by ability. Smart kids in one class, average in another, slow in another. That may not have been exactly it (this was a while ago), but it was something along those lines. The damned district didn't go for it. Why? Because of the pwecious feewings of those widdle snowflakes. Schools are so fucking touchy about making sure kids don't have a reason to feel bad that most would never put all the slow kids in one class, because then they'd all know that they're in the slow class and feel bad!
Don't over consume it and you won't have an issue either. Still seems the same to me.
Yeah...except that it takes very, very little for a lot of substances to create a dependence. You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. If you can't grasp the obvious differences then you just need to stop posting. The similarities between psychological and physical addictions only go so far. They are NOT the same thing. To claim that they are shows a staggering level of almost willful ignorance.
Eleven hours a day for five years. Doesn't take much to figure out that there might be a problem, which is why I call it negligence.
Sure, you find the addiction AFTER the fact. That's what I was pointing out. Maybe NCSoft figured that people could take care of themselves and didn't need a nanny to take care of them.
Um, yes, you do. Psychological addictions can be difficult to break, but don't EVEN act like someone doesn't have a choice. They do. You still decide to keep going. You still decide not to get help. IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT. END OF STORY. Addictions or otherwise, you are responsible for your own actions. No one can make a choice for you.
So let's say MMOs clamp down on how much you play. What's to stop someone from dividing their time between two MMOs, which is probably what the heavily addicted people would do if they can't find a single game to play?
Of course they design it to keep you playing. The thing is...YOU STILL DECIDE TO KEEP PLAYING. If you're enjoying yourself and not getting completely sucked in, then have fun. If you don't like it, quit. If you think that you're getting a little too into it, then cut back or stop, just like ANY OTHER BEHAVIOR. Should chronic masturbators sue the porn industry? Should thrill-seeking racers sue the auto and mod industry when they go bankrupt souping up their car?
Products get recalled when there is a very clear and, in nearly every case, direct PHYSICAL danger involved, ie, Toyota brakes, toxic toys, tainted food, etc. This is nothing of the sort. When was the last time you saw a software or video game recall? Please...TRY to think about this shit before you post it.
You don't see the difference? REALLY? One involves the introduction of a chemical from outside the body (ie, nicotine) that throws your body chemistry out of whack and creates a dependence. The other is purely from WITHIN the body. You aren't introducing foreign compounds. You're just feeding an existing imbalance. One is a chemical KNOWN to create this imbalance, another is a game that might create a dependence in a very specific type of person, one that cannot easily be specifically found and diagnosed. Seriously, if you can't figure out how these two things are different then just stop posting right now.
And if an MMO company did that, they'd have a whole helluva lot more people screaming at them for not allowing them to play. A lot of people may not play that often regularly, but will have a weekend where they can push that boundary. Even if they did find a good balance, they'd still be dealing with complaints and possibly cancelled subscriptions from "addicts" who will simply find something else to play. It still boils down to figuring out that you're stuck on something and need help.
No, it isn't. A game will not stress the multitasking abilities of an OS, for starters, at least not unless you're running a bunch of stuff in the background. It will largely stress the video systems...and that's about it, at least moreso than other benchmarks. GP was acting like game performance was the primary way to measure the speed of an OS, when all it really does is stress a single facet. There are other benchmarks far better suited to pounding on an OS in a more comprehensive fashion than games. For instance, I remember seeing a comparison between OS X and XP years ago. XP certainly did have higher framerates, but when it came to multitasking and accomplishing numerous CPU-intensive tasks at once, OS X kicked XP's ass up and down the street, coming out with a much wider difference than accomplishing a single CPU-intensive task.
Eh, not 100%. Some cards work as a secondary and some don't. You can use a PC card as a primary with a software hack, but again, it depends on the card.
If you think that game companies are "preying on the weak" then you're beyond all hope. Newsflash: It's a product. No shit they're going to make the product fun and one that you'll want to use. Addiction is the person's problem, not the game company. END OF FUCKING STORY. There is no physically addictive component in games. Psychological addiction is your own problem, not theirs.
Might as well blame everyone who ever made anything for every possible negative action that their products were involved in. Who cares that your life is your own business? Just blame someone else because you can't control yourself!
Yeah, because it's THEIR fault if you can't stop playing. Are you even reading the shit you're writing? If you can't stop playing a game, then IT IS YOUR OWN FUCKING FAULT. Exercise some self-control and stop blaming everyone else. You are responsible for your own behavior. It is not the game company's job to regulate your behavior. Period. They simply sell a product. How you use the product is your own damned problem.
Except that cigarettes are physically addictive. Games are a psychological addiction. Physically addictive chemicals are nearly 100% certain to get you hooked. Psychological addiction isn't nearly that simple. To equate the two is utter idiocy. Physical addiction is fighting a chemical dependency. Psychological addiction is a lack of self-control.
Sorry, but claiming that a company may have been negligent when MAKING A FUCKING VIDEO GAME because it could be addictive is not legitimate in the slightest. Cigarette companies make a product that they know is physically addictive. Rapists and child molesters have very, VERY clearly violated the law. Folks sued by the RIAA did indeed pirate music (assuming the RIAA gets the right people), although the penalties are ludicrous. This? This is someone whining that he couldn't control himself because of another company's product. The precedent would be absurd.
Video game addiction is NOT something that video game companies can or should prevent. It's personal accountability. PERIOD. If you can't help yourself, then get help. Otherwise you can veg out and piss your life away. As it's pretty obvious that NCSoft did not create something deliberately addictive (making a game fun doesn't count), then they should not be held liable because some lifeless asshole sat on the computer all day. The judge should have thrown it out because there are zero grounds for negligence. Shit like this clogs up the court system badly enough as it is.
for years all the isuckers said how OS X is better and faster than bloated Windows and now they are complaining
Yes, because games are the only way to measure the performance of an operating system.
and Flash still sucks on Mac's even though it runs just fine with hardware acceleration on a $299 toshiba laptop i bought as a gift
Except that 10.1 was a huge improvement and many Macs now support hardware accelerated Flash.
Also, if you think that gamers account for 90% of the market then you're an even bigger fucking idiot than the rest of your post would suggest. Here's a hint, kiddo: Serious gamers are a small percentage of the overall consumer market. Casual gamers are a much larger component, and casuals don't usually put gaming as their first priority, nor do they care if they have the latest and greatest video hardware.
Wrong. The current iMacs use desktop CPUs and a desktop chipset. The 3D chip is on an MXM card, though. The 5750 in the iMac is actually a mobility 5850, which itself is largely just a tweaked 5750 in the first place.
$700 Mini, and Apple is hardly pitching it as a gaming system beyond casuals.
In case you didn't notice, the Mac Pro is NOT a friggin' commodity box. It's a Xeon-based workstation. It's not supposed to be a gaming machine. It's supposed to be a production machine.
And honestly, I don't think Apple will ever seriously care about gamers. They're happy to pick up fence-sitters who would come over with more gaming possibilities, but the hardcore gamers are a small market and one with which there is almost no crossover with Apple's current market. Casual gamers won't care a great deal if they can't max out all of the details. Apple will make some improvements to help pick up that crowd, but serious gamers wouldn't consider a Mac in the first place and Apple knows it.
I would love to see an Apple midtower, but I don't see it happening.
Um, no. That was due to the difference between Open Firmware on PPC Macs and BIOS on Windows boxes. There has never been any kind of "restriction" as there was even a dual firmware 9600 made by ATI that worked in both G5s and Windows boxes. Then it was due to the difference between EFI and BIOS. Even though Apple implemented BIOS compatibility in EFI not long after the Intel Macs came out, OS X still talked directly to EFI, so a standard PC card still wouldn't work without either flashing the ROM or, as we have now, software hacks to get OS X to recognize it.
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Except that Google's mobile page also serves up H.264.
That's nice. There's just one problem though: What mobile devices have native support for WebM? Google will still need H.264 to serve Youtube up to all of those smartphones and other devices. Not every browser is going to support WebM, either. Sorry, but H.264 is far, FAR too entrenched to be toppled by anything but a majorly improved codec, and WebM aint. Just making WebM an OPTION on Youtube isn't going to make it dominant.
A neighbor of mine had the bolt-on kind. Four holes at the center and that was it. I never did go sledding on it, sadly, but the bottom could've used some waxing as it was rough fiberglass.
I've always wanted to try that. Wax the hell out of the bottom and put three people in it as a giant saucer sled, maybe drag it behind a truck on a snowed-over rural road. That's a ball when you have a bunch of buddies on sleds tied to the back of a vehicle.
The clue system was a cumbersome, miserable excuse for a progression system. Like I said, I spent more time trying to get the character to figure things out than I did actually figuring them out for myself. I shouldn't have to go into the interface to mash the right combination of things together (assuming I have them all, which means another clickfest just to make sure you have all the clues) just to move ahead. It was just plain awful. The Myst games and even Lucasarts games handled clue collection and progression FAR better than Darkness Within. The logical way is to simply make sure the player can't progress without solving the puzzle, not solving the puzzle and then solving the puzzle of how to make the character solve the puzzle, which gets quite frustrating and just wastes time that could be spent enjoying the game.
After playing the game, there is no possible way I will EVER see that system as anything more than a poor idea that was horribly implemented. The deductive systems should be in your OWN mind, not the character's mind. That just adds an extra and unnecessary layer of kludge.
"Indie" means independent and not a massive powerhouse. Bungie was definitely indie. Myth was mainstream, sure, but was never a huge hit. They were their own company and made their own games. They even published Abuse for another company toward the end, but I'd think of them as indie prior to the buyout.
Um, Darkness Within had an utterly horrible interface. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have to highlight clues and spend more time trying to get the character to figure things out than actually figuring them out for myself. The clue system was a TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE way to do things. Then I hit a point that I couldn't get past no matter what I did or what online walkthroughs said to do. The static Riven-style gameplay went out of style years ago. It desperately needed a Penumbra-style engine. Getting around was a time-consuming pain in the ass. It was often a clickfest to see what you can do, what you can pick up, etc. The whole "drive here" bit was awkward. Inventory was clunky. Sorry, but the gameplay was a great example of what NOT to do in a game, indie or otherwise.
I found it greatly disappointing because I was intrigued by the story and wanted to see more, but I just couldn't get around the damned gameplay.
THISx10! Myth 1 and 2 were excellent games that have yet to be matched as a purely tactical RTS. Myth 3 was a sloppy mess made by a different studio.
Some indie games are the best I've ever played. The Penumbra series springs to mind. Bungie made their best stuff prior to being assimilated by Microsoft. However, indie doesn't always mean good. I remember hearing about "Darkness Within" and it was truly awful. Intriguing, rather Lovecraftian story, but godawful gameplay.
But will it work on skeleton jelly?
Oh, you're gonna know something about getting the shaft, all right. The shaft, head, balls, the whole thing. Blag is unbelievable. He's guilty as sin and everyone but him seems to know it.
I agree, but how many schools put all the slow kids in one class? I remember that my school district had a chance at a huge grant...but turned it down because one of the requirements was to restructure the way they did things. One of those requirements was to segregate students by ability. Smart kids in one class, average in another, slow in another. That may not have been exactly it (this was a while ago), but it was something along those lines. The damned district didn't go for it. Why? Because of the pwecious feewings of those widdle snowflakes. Schools are so fucking touchy about making sure kids don't have a reason to feel bad that most would never put all the slow kids in one class, because then they'd all know that they're in the slow class and feel bad!
Don't over consume it and you won't have an issue either. Still seems the same to me.
Yeah...except that it takes very, very little for a lot of substances to create a dependence. You have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. If you can't grasp the obvious differences then you just need to stop posting. The similarities between psychological and physical addictions only go so far. They are NOT the same thing. To claim that they are shows a staggering level of almost willful ignorance.
Eleven hours a day for five years. Doesn't take much to figure out that there might be a problem, which is why I call it negligence.
Sure, you find the addiction AFTER the fact. That's what I was pointing out. Maybe NCSoft figured that people could take care of themselves and didn't need a nanny to take care of them.
Um, yes, you do. Psychological addictions can be difficult to break, but don't EVEN act like someone doesn't have a choice. They do. You still decide to keep going. You still decide not to get help. IT IS YOUR OWN FAULT. END OF STORY. Addictions or otherwise, you are responsible for your own actions. No one can make a choice for you.
So let's say MMOs clamp down on how much you play. What's to stop someone from dividing their time between two MMOs, which is probably what the heavily addicted people would do if they can't find a single game to play?
Of course they design it to keep you playing. The thing is...YOU STILL DECIDE TO KEEP PLAYING. If you're enjoying yourself and not getting completely sucked in, then have fun. If you don't like it, quit. If you think that you're getting a little too into it, then cut back or stop, just like ANY OTHER BEHAVIOR. Should chronic masturbators sue the porn industry? Should thrill-seeking racers sue the auto and mod industry when they go bankrupt souping up their car?
Products get recalled when there is a very clear and, in nearly every case, direct PHYSICAL danger involved, ie, Toyota brakes, toxic toys, tainted food, etc. This is nothing of the sort. When was the last time you saw a software or video game recall? Please...TRY to think about this shit before you post it.
You don't see the difference? REALLY? One involves the introduction of a chemical from outside the body (ie, nicotine) that throws your body chemistry out of whack and creates a dependence. The other is purely from WITHIN the body. You aren't introducing foreign compounds. You're just feeding an existing imbalance. One is a chemical KNOWN to create this imbalance, another is a game that might create a dependence in a very specific type of person, one that cannot easily be specifically found and diagnosed. Seriously, if you can't figure out how these two things are different then just stop posting right now.
And if an MMO company did that, they'd have a whole helluva lot more people screaming at them for not allowing them to play. A lot of people may not play that often regularly, but will have a weekend where they can push that boundary. Even if they did find a good balance, they'd still be dealing with complaints and possibly cancelled subscriptions from "addicts" who will simply find something else to play. It still boils down to figuring out that you're stuck on something and need help.
No, it isn't. A game will not stress the multitasking abilities of an OS, for starters, at least not unless you're running a bunch of stuff in the background. It will largely stress the video systems...and that's about it, at least moreso than other benchmarks. GP was acting like game performance was the primary way to measure the speed of an OS, when all it really does is stress a single facet. There are other benchmarks far better suited to pounding on an OS in a more comprehensive fashion than games. For instance, I remember seeing a comparison between OS X and XP years ago. XP certainly did have higher framerates, but when it came to multitasking and accomplishing numerous CPU-intensive tasks at once, OS X kicked XP's ass up and down the street, coming out with a much wider difference than accomplishing a single CPU-intensive task.
Eh, not 100%. Some cards work as a secondary and some don't. You can use a PC card as a primary with a software hack, but again, it depends on the card.
And Netkas is God.
If you think that game companies are "preying on the weak" then you're beyond all hope. Newsflash: It's a product. No shit they're going to make the product fun and one that you'll want to use. Addiction is the person's problem, not the game company. END OF FUCKING STORY. There is no physically addictive component in games. Psychological addiction is your own problem, not theirs.
Might as well blame everyone who ever made anything for every possible negative action that their products were involved in. Who cares that your life is your own business? Just blame someone else because you can't control yourself!
Yeah, because it's THEIR fault if you can't stop playing. Are you even reading the shit you're writing? If you can't stop playing a game, then IT IS YOUR OWN FUCKING FAULT. Exercise some self-control and stop blaming everyone else. You are responsible for your own behavior. It is not the game company's job to regulate your behavior. Period. They simply sell a product. How you use the product is your own damned problem.
Except that cigarettes are physically addictive. Games are a psychological addiction. Physically addictive chemicals are nearly 100% certain to get you hooked. Psychological addiction isn't nearly that simple. To equate the two is utter idiocy. Physical addiction is fighting a chemical dependency. Psychological addiction is a lack of self-control.
Sorry, but claiming that a company may have been negligent when MAKING A FUCKING VIDEO GAME because it could be addictive is not legitimate in the slightest. Cigarette companies make a product that they know is physically addictive. Rapists and child molesters have very, VERY clearly violated the law. Folks sued by the RIAA did indeed pirate music (assuming the RIAA gets the right people), although the penalties are ludicrous. This? This is someone whining that he couldn't control himself because of another company's product. The precedent would be absurd.
Video game addiction is NOT something that video game companies can or should prevent. It's personal accountability. PERIOD. If you can't help yourself, then get help. Otherwise you can veg out and piss your life away. As it's pretty obvious that NCSoft did not create something deliberately addictive (making a game fun doesn't count), then they should not be held liable because some lifeless asshole sat on the computer all day. The judge should have thrown it out because there are zero grounds for negligence. Shit like this clogs up the court system badly enough as it is.
for years all the isuckers said how OS X is better and faster than bloated Windows and now they are complaining
Yes, because games are the only way to measure the performance of an operating system.
and Flash still sucks on Mac's even though it runs just fine with hardware acceleration on a $299 toshiba laptop i bought as a gift
Except that 10.1 was a huge improvement and many Macs now support hardware accelerated Flash.
Also, if you think that gamers account for 90% of the market then you're an even bigger fucking idiot than the rest of your post would suggest. Here's a hint, kiddo: Serious gamers are a small percentage of the overall consumer market. Casual gamers are a much larger component, and casuals don't usually put gaming as their first priority, nor do they care if they have the latest and greatest video hardware.
Wrong. The current iMacs use desktop CPUs and a desktop chipset. The 3D chip is on an MXM card, though. The 5750 in the iMac is actually a mobility 5850, which itself is largely just a tweaked 5750 in the first place.
$700 Mini, and Apple is hardly pitching it as a gaming system beyond casuals.
In case you didn't notice, the Mac Pro is NOT a friggin' commodity box. It's a Xeon-based workstation. It's not supposed to be a gaming machine. It's supposed to be a production machine.
And honestly, I don't think Apple will ever seriously care about gamers. They're happy to pick up fence-sitters who would come over with more gaming possibilities, but the hardcore gamers are a small market and one with which there is almost no crossover with Apple's current market. Casual gamers won't care a great deal if they can't max out all of the details. Apple will make some improvements to help pick up that crowd, but serious gamers wouldn't consider a Mac in the first place and Apple knows it.
I would love to see an Apple midtower, but I don't see it happening.
Um, no. That was due to the difference between Open Firmware on PPC Macs and BIOS on Windows boxes. There has never been any kind of "restriction" as there was even a dual firmware 9600 made by ATI that worked in both G5s and Windows boxes. Then it was due to the difference between EFI and BIOS. Even though Apple implemented BIOS compatibility in EFI not long after the Intel Macs came out, OS X still talked directly to EFI, so a standard PC card still wouldn't work without either flashing the ROM or, as we have now, software hacks to get OS X to recognize it.