which would be funny because fallout started as a gurps game, but they couldn't get the license so they created the fallout 'game system' and it's associated stats etc
for it to move onto a 3rd game/world system now would be amusing - and proves that the fans don't care about the IP - they want good games
the $10k might be a small part of the total cost to sell the game, but you have to realize that it's also the ONLY money the publisher will ever give to the developer.
no budget publisher actually gives out royalties, simply because those 'extra costs' that you mention are PAID FOR BY THE DEVELOPER - just like the music industry, when the big stars go around in limo's & private jets - all paid for by their record company - the stars themselves are, in the end, paying for every single penny.
publishers advance you $10k, and then when you ask for any royalties, they say - oh, but we advanced you $10k, so that's off the top, and oh, we spent $20 grand bribing (i mean advertising) on gamespy for a good review (and this is a SMALL bribe, i mean advertising campaign)...
so by the time your game is released, the indie developer is probably $50 - $100 K in the hole...so you wonder why the publishers stay in business and the developers go out of business?
whatever - not only does the splash screen have annoying audio on it - then the site insists on loading a window that is twice as large as the actual flash site AND plays another audio sample
so since you have to open the second window, you will have 2 conflicting annoying audio samples AND a stupid popup flash window that is too large for the website now...
yeah great flash site. how about we just BAN flash sites and beat their creators with big useability sticks?
hopefully the game doesn't suck as much as the site.
oh, and how about fixing the 'copy' (ctrl-v) feature in the mozilla url field - mozilla is the ONLY program i use that simply does NOT work properly when you try and ctrl-c in the address field and paste into another program.
i don't use thunderbird or firefox at home, but i've been using firefox on the school machines i use and it's 'ok', but has definite issues.
1) different shortcuts that i make to firefox simply do not load the program properly - on winXP i have a shortcut on my desktop, loads firefox fine, i drag & 'create shortcut' onto the quicklaunch bar and firefox loads and then basically hangs instead of loading my homepage.
simple, small things like these need to be fixed before you start randomly adding 'artificial intelligence' features into the program.
i don't need or want a HAL2005-enabled web-browser, i just want a configurable, FAST web-browser that obeys the standards that are available
exactly, the last thing we need is something like this - the first thing that will happen after this feature is released is that web-site operators will figure out how to trigger this from their webpages and suddenly you end up with billions of bookmarks, which immediately invalidates the whole idea of bookmarks.
if the user is too stupid to know how to organize and add bookmarks, then they need to get off the computer.
i think this idea is a bad one in general - it's like adobe acrobat insisting on loading 5000 plugins that are never needed just 'because'
how about an easy way to disable plugins without manually removing files and so on - ie a simple 'enable' or 'disable' button
browsers like firefox are good simply because they are SMALL, and fast
oh, and the bayesian filtering in mozilla mail is flat-out broken as of late it seems, so if this is the direction that applications are going, then it's definitely NOT a good thing.
if you make an algorithm to run your application, then humans will figure out the weakness in that algorithm and abuse it.
>>You can say anything you want about the >>occupation, but we certainly won the war phase. >>Quickly and decisively.
how was there any question about this? the US has no better as far as their willingness to spend their entire gdp on military research and equipment, and they have more than enough suckers to send into the army to go die for some rich moron.
For the US to really become a global leader, they need to show a willingness to NOT send troops in everytime georgie sees a shadow.
Until this happens and the US is actually willing to Lead, they are nothing but a rogue state committing war crimes around the world.
no, probably littered with spyware as a result of the ad-monitoring that goes on - why should games be able to track our every action and provide ads but not online? is this not spyware?
i think that safety could be done with a number of sensors in the mower.
for example, gyroscopes for balance, if the mower changes more than a small amount of degrees (to take uneven lawns into account), the engine automatically shuts down power to the blades and engages 'brakes'.
oh i agree completely, the rest of the physical office (with relaxation area, etc) is entirely necessary, but i'm just saying that planning how your employees work with the network (and the ease of which they can work with said network) is important as well.
i've worked at super-fancy high tech companies that had everything and the kitchen sink (literally) in the office but the actual network that we worked with was a complete nightmare, hence the 'workspace' didn't add up to a productive atmosphere
1) good lighting not only is easier on the eyes, it will make your employees be able to physically relax and get their minds focused on their jobs
2) if the tools that you give your employees to do their job are continuously breaking or causing problems (whether it's desks, monitors, software) then you need to consider replacing them.
3) lots of power plugs, lots of network ports so you can temporarily add & remove machines (laptops, client machines, etc) to the network with ease.
4) you need to also consider your network and computer-policies as an extension of the 'office' because your employees will spend more time (hopefully) wandering the 'virtual office', ie the network, than actually walking around the physical office...
the current administration and president ARE what the rest of the world sees as far the general outlook of the US, after all it is the economic policies and foreign policy directions that they provide that affect the rest of the world the most.
of course every american isn't the same, but every american isn't in control of the largest military force the planet has ever seen either;}
the US deserves to be bashed right now for their horrific record on just about every topic that you could possibly list.
i don't see that this is the problem - if anything the UN is not trusted simply because they MUST do what the US tells them, or the US simply veto's any motion, or simply does not support them (ie kyoto, etc) which effectively kills whatever motion is being attempted.
If the US (and their current militaristic foreign policy approach) continues, and if the UN becomes the global watchdog of the internet, what would stop the US from 'providing' the UN with their patriot technology, because it would really 'make things simpler' to monitor and police spam and those damn 'terrorists'...
this is where the UN has started taking looks at 'managing the internet' and the general response from the tech community has been fear and horror.
either we WANT a system that is monitored and every packed is tracked (ala big brother, 1984, the current US DMCA-Patriot Act version of things) OR we must create a self-managing system that provides accountability and protection from fraud.
spamhaus seems to be a step in the right direction, but the direction that microsoft and the various big companies seem to be going is the 'registered sender' approach, which completely defeats the purpose of the internet altogether and creates instead any number of smaller private networks (ala AOL back in the day when normal email couldn't be sent to AOL users and vice versa).
have we improved the situation? unlikely. have we made things so convoluted as to being nearly useless? likely.
considering how rapidly CURRENT stories seem to 'disappear' from modern 'news' outlets like yahoo & msn etc this is hilarious - we'll be able to look up stories that are a century old easier than ones from a few months ago...
Get over it - valve did NOT make counter-strike. Yes they bought it after a year or so of development and many many releases, but the game and the core gameplay system that apparently STILL is going to be used in the half-life 2 game as multiplayer (including the exact same animations and voice samples) was created by a team of volunteers, NOT employees.
Their reward for creating the greatest online game ever? Millions of dollars maybe?
No, valve APPRECIATES gamers, really they do - these lucky folks, in exchange for creating Counter-strike and the VERY REASON THAT VALVE IS SO SUCCESSFUL - what do they get?
They get to be grunts at Valve! Isnt that just special...
-----------
The only thing the cybercafe would need to run CS is a valid half-life key for the machines in theory, since Steam (ing pile) apparently finally runs on a LAN (i've long given up on steam as a useful application on my machine to care)...
If they were trying to run games without licenses, sure fine - but this is worse than Microsoft's strong-arm license tactics, which shouldn't be suprising since all of valve's owners are ex-microsofties (where you think all the money that started valve came from?)
Simply put - do not support Valve, do not support Steam;}
actually steam is their 'auto update', server browser, master server, and license key authentication system.
if this was leaked, yes it would take a long time to rework, but it wasn't THAT broken, they decided to release counterstrike:conditionzero via it and no one seems to have said anything.
flat out they are simply behind on their game - BUT they are paying the bill for it, not their publisher remember. valve pays 100% of development costs out of their pocket and gets really good royalty rates from their publishers as a result. This is the trick.
by looking at their E3 2004 video, it is pretty easy to see how the game could be behind schedule - it could be called 'biting off more than you can chew';}
the REALLY brutal part about this is that the money that the publishers have to pay to the game magazines to get the good ratings ALSO comes off the revenue from royalties that the developers might (emphasis on the word MIGHT) make off of the game.
so if you would have made $100,000 in royalties off a game (and this is probably high for a typical game, most don't see ANY royalties at all), suddenly you need to pay out an extra $100,000 in 'bribes' to get good ratings, otherwise the licensor docks you even MORE of your royalties than their corrupt accountants do already.
We have been developing an open-source game engine (unfortunately only for windows pc at this point) for the past 5 years - http://www.realityfactory.ca
The engine is specifically tailored towards non-programmers, ie artists & designers looking to make games.
With this said, the biggest issue with open-source game development is that the gaming community as a whole simply can not see past the 'flashy graphics' and analyze the game or its technology for what it is, not what it isn't.
My company was at E3 this year promoting our engine and got some great feedback and responses from people - I'm confident that open-source in gaming will be THE next big thing, it's just a matter of having a flagship title to start the tidal wave started.
Most open-source games (like other open-source projects) are developed by hobbiest's without funding or massive resources, and the general response that these indie games get is '1997 called, they want your graphics back' and so on, without actually looking into what is involved in creating a modern AAA title like everyone is bombarded with on TV & Online (and at events like E3).
An Open-source engine is just ONE step of the way towards getting a game made - these days the art and quality requirements are so astronomically high that there's no way that an indie team will be able to compete on the AAA playing field, you still need millions of dollars in artist time to create even a basic game, even if your engine is open-source.
Of a typical game's budget, how much of it is technology licenses? Not much. Even if you are licensing an unreal/far cry engine, your tech budget is still maybe 1/10th or less of your total project budget.
So, open-source engines (like any open-source tech) is not a panacea, but simply a way for talented artists to get that one step closer to making their dreams a reality - you still need the business experience, talented artists and quite a bit of luck to succeed.
I play alot of games but i end up usually playing the game on Easy difficulty level because of this very reason, and more often than not i get stuck and can't complete the game that i paid good money for...
i don't appreciate cheats, don't plan on installing any, i should be able to enjoy the game as a whole, and not have to replay the same scene 500 times before i beat it, which is horrifically 'the norm' in games today.
Far Cry for example, they brag about how good their AI is but the game is almost impossible as a result...a game on easy difficulty should NOT have one-shot kills, should NOT kill the player as quickly as this game does...
sure, make the AI 'ACT' smart, but downplay the damage that they do to compensate...otherwise you are doing you game a major disservice and annoying your players...
[quote]I propose that Slashdotters who care buy Windows licenses for the underprivileged, the stingy, or the lazy (lazy to learn Linux). Or provide them with free migration (Win->Lin) service.
Someone should setup a fund for the windows licenses, so how bout you start it? I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't mind in the least.[/quote]
wasn't lindows doing something similar and they got in trouble?
seriously, linux is already a larger presence than apple in the market, there are major players that have just entered, and haven't even begun to reach their full capacity (novell in particular) and in general - linux could definitely learn a thing or two from apple, particularly in the interface and ease of use department.
i don't see how apple could become any more of a threat than it is currently, and if anything, it becomes a powerful marketing force to help promote linux/opensource in general - we want them on our side after all...
Slashdot Mirror
which would be funny because fallout started as a gurps game, but they couldn't get the license so they created the fallout 'game system' and it's associated stats etc
for it to move onto a 3rd game/world system now would be amusing - and proves that the fans don't care about the IP - they want good games
the thought of all those pasty pale a-little-round-in-the-middle sys admin types in a bikini...just a vision i didn't need
the $10k might be a small part of the total cost to sell the game, but you have to realize that it's also the ONLY money the publisher will ever give to the developer.
no budget publisher actually gives out royalties, simply because those 'extra costs' that you mention are PAID FOR BY THE DEVELOPER - just like the music industry, when the big stars go around in limo's & private jets - all paid for by their record company - the stars themselves are, in the end, paying for every single penny.
publishers advance you $10k, and then when you ask for any royalties, they say - oh, but we advanced you $10k, so that's off the top, and oh, we spent $20 grand bribing (i mean advertising) on gamespy for a good review (and this is a SMALL bribe, i mean advertising campaign)...
so by the time your game is released, the indie developer is probably $50 - $100 K in the hole...so you wonder why the publishers stay in business and the developers go out of business?
whatever - not only does the splash screen have annoying audio on it - then the site insists on loading a window that is twice as large as the actual flash site AND plays another audio sample
so since you have to open the second window, you will have 2 conflicting annoying audio samples AND a stupid popup flash window that is too large for the website now...
yeah great flash site. how about we just BAN flash sites and beat their creators with big useability sticks?
hopefully the game doesn't suck as much as the site.
[troll] does the author work for SOE? [/troll] //The graphic user interface still needs some // serious work.
i realize my game making skills are at the 'hack' level still, but isn't the GUI the MOST IMPORTANT part of a game?
it's 3d IRC in the starwars world it seems...never did understand what attracts people to mmo's anyways
oh, and how about fixing the 'copy' (ctrl-v) feature in the mozilla url field - mozilla is the ONLY program i use that simply does NOT work properly when you try and ctrl-c in the address field and paste into another program.
i don't use thunderbird or firefox at home, but i've been using firefox on the school machines i use and it's 'ok', but has definite issues.
1) different shortcuts that i make to firefox simply do not load the program properly - on winXP i have a shortcut on my desktop, loads firefox fine, i drag & 'create shortcut' onto the quicklaunch bar and firefox loads and then basically hangs instead of loading my homepage.
simple, small things like these need to be fixed before you start randomly adding 'artificial intelligence' features into the program.
i don't need or want a HAL2005-enabled web-browser, i just want a configurable, FAST web-browser that obeys the standards that are available
exactly, the last thing we need is something like this - the first thing that will happen after this feature is released is that web-site operators will figure out how to trigger this from their webpages and suddenly you end up with billions of bookmarks, which immediately invalidates the whole idea of bookmarks.
if the user is too stupid to know how to organize and add bookmarks, then they need to get off the computer.
i think this idea is a bad one in general - it's like adobe acrobat insisting on loading 5000 plugins that are never needed just 'because'
how about an easy way to disable plugins without manually removing files and so on - ie a simple 'enable' or 'disable' button
browsers like firefox are good simply because they are SMALL, and fast
oh, and the bayesian filtering in mozilla mail is flat-out broken as of late it seems, so if this is the direction that applications are going, then it's definitely NOT a good thing.
if you make an algorithm to run your application, then humans will figure out the weakness in that algorithm and abuse it.
>>You can say anything you want about the
>>occupation, but we certainly won the war phase.
>>Quickly and decisively.
how was there any question about this? the US has no better as far as their willingness to spend their entire gdp on military research and equipment, and they have more than enough suckers to send into the army to go die for some rich moron.
For the US to really become a global leader, they need to show a willingness to NOT send troops in everytime georgie sees a shadow.
Until this happens and the US is actually willing to Lead, they are nothing but a rogue state committing war crimes around the world.
no, probably littered with spyware as a result of the ad-monitoring that goes on - why should games be able to track our every action and provide ads but not online? is this not spyware?
lol brilliant - i love it.
i think that safety could be done with a number of sensors in the mower.
for example, gyroscopes for balance, if the mower changes more than a small amount of degrees (to take uneven lawns into account), the engine automatically shuts down power to the blades and engages 'brakes'.
oh i agree completely, the rest of the physical office (with relaxation area, etc) is entirely necessary, but i'm just saying that planning how your employees work with the network (and the ease of which they can work with said network) is important as well.
i've worked at super-fancy high tech companies that had everything and the kitchen sink (literally) in the office but the actual network that we worked with was a complete nightmare, hence the 'workspace' didn't add up to a productive atmosphere
you definitely hit some major points:
1) good lighting not only is easier on the eyes, it will make your employees be able to physically relax and get their minds focused on their jobs
2) if the tools that you give your employees to do their job are continuously breaking or causing problems (whether it's desks, monitors, software) then you need to consider replacing them.
3) lots of power plugs, lots of network ports so you can temporarily add & remove machines (laptops, client machines, etc) to the network with ease.
4) you need to also consider your network and computer-policies as an extension of the 'office' because your employees will spend more time (hopefully) wandering the 'virtual office', ie the network, than actually walking around the physical office...
the current administration and president ARE what the rest of the world sees as far the general outlook of the US, after all it is the economic policies and foreign policy directions that they provide that affect the rest of the world the most.
;}
of course every american isn't the same, but every american isn't in control of the largest military force the planet has ever seen either
US-bashing?
the US deserves to be bashed right now for their horrific record on just about every topic that you could possibly list.
i don't see that this is the problem - if anything the UN is not trusted simply because they MUST do what the US tells them, or the US simply veto's any motion, or simply does not support them (ie kyoto, etc) which effectively kills whatever motion is being attempted.
If the US (and their current militaristic foreign policy approach) continues, and if the UN becomes the global watchdog of the internet, what would stop the US from 'providing' the UN with their patriot technology, because it would really 'make things simpler' to monitor and police spam and those damn 'terrorists'...
this is where the UN has started taking looks at 'managing the internet' and the general response from the tech community has been fear and horror.
either we WANT a system that is monitored and every packed is tracked (ala big brother, 1984, the current US DMCA-Patriot Act version of things) OR we must create a self-managing system that provides accountability and protection from fraud.
spamhaus seems to be a step in the right direction, but the direction that microsoft and the various big companies seem to be going is the 'registered sender' approach, which completely defeats the purpose of the internet altogether and creates instead any number of smaller private networks (ala AOL back in the day when normal email couldn't be sent to AOL users and vice versa).
have we improved the situation? unlikely. have we made things so convoluted as to being nearly useless? likely.
considering how rapidly CURRENT stories seem to 'disappear' from modern 'news' outlets like yahoo & msn etc this is hilarious - we'll be able to look up stories that are a century old easier than ones from a few months ago...
ironic, i think so...
Get over it - valve did NOT make counter-strike. Yes they bought it after a year or so of development and many many releases, but the game and the core gameplay system that apparently STILL is going to be used in the half-life 2 game as multiplayer (including the exact same animations and voice samples) was created by a team of volunteers, NOT employees.
;}
Their reward for creating the greatest online game ever? Millions of dollars maybe?
No, valve APPRECIATES gamers, really they do - these lucky folks, in exchange for creating Counter-strike and the VERY REASON THAT VALVE IS SO SUCCESSFUL - what do they get?
They get to be grunts at Valve! Isnt that just special...
-----------
The only thing the cybercafe would need to run CS is a valid half-life key for the machines in theory, since Steam (ing pile) apparently finally runs on a LAN (i've long given up on steam as a useful application on my machine to care)...
If they were trying to run games without licenses, sure fine - but this is worse than Microsoft's strong-arm license tactics, which shouldn't be suprising since all of valve's owners are ex-microsofties (where you think all the money that started valve came from?)
Simply put - do not support Valve, do not support Steam
actually steam is their 'auto update', server browser, master server, and license key authentication system.
;}
if this was leaked, yes it would take a long time to rework, but it wasn't THAT broken, they decided to release counterstrike:conditionzero via it and no one seems to have said anything.
flat out they are simply behind on their game - BUT they are paying the bill for it, not their publisher remember. valve pays 100% of development costs out of their pocket and gets really good royalty rates from their publishers as a result. This is the trick.
by looking at their E3 2004 video, it is pretty easy to see how the game could be behind schedule - it could be called 'biting off more than you can chew'
no kidding. the machines at the school i teach at are all set to this by default - i can't believe people actually USE windows like this...
no kidding....i don't see what the point of this is...but then again math always did hurt my brain
the REALLY brutal part about this is that the money that the publishers have to pay to the game magazines to get the good ratings ALSO comes off the revenue from royalties that the developers might (emphasis on the word MIGHT) make off of the game.
so if you would have made $100,000 in royalties off a game (and this is probably high for a typical game, most don't see ANY royalties at all), suddenly you need to pay out an extra $100,000 in 'bribes' to get good ratings, otherwise the licensor docks you even MORE of your royalties than their corrupt accountants do already.
it's a lose-lose situation for developers.
We have been developing an open-source game engine (unfortunately only for windows pc at this point) for the past 5 years - http://www.realityfactory.ca
The engine is specifically tailored towards non-programmers, ie artists & designers looking to make games.
With this said, the biggest issue with open-source game development is that the gaming community as a whole simply can not see past the 'flashy graphics' and analyze the game or its technology for what it is, not what it isn't.
My company was at E3 this year promoting our engine and got some great feedback and responses from people - I'm confident that open-source in gaming will be THE next big thing, it's just a matter of having a flagship title to start the tidal wave started.
Most open-source games (like other open-source projects) are developed by hobbiest's without funding or massive resources, and the general response that these indie games get is '1997 called, they want your graphics back' and so on, without actually looking into what is involved in creating a modern AAA title like everyone is bombarded with on TV & Online (and at events like E3).
An Open-source engine is just ONE step of the way towards getting a game made - these days the art and quality requirements are so astronomically high that there's no way that an indie team will be able to compete on the AAA playing field, you still need millions of dollars in artist time to create even a basic game, even if your engine is open-source.
Of a typical game's budget, how much of it is technology licenses? Not much. Even if you are licensing an unreal/far cry engine, your tech budget is still maybe 1/10th or less of your total project budget.
So, open-source engines (like any open-source tech) is not a panacea, but simply a way for talented artists to get that one step closer to making their dreams a reality - you still need the business experience, talented artists and quite a bit of luck to succeed.
I play alot of games but i end up usually playing the game on Easy difficulty level because of this very reason, and more often than not i get stuck and can't complete the game that i paid good money for...
i don't appreciate cheats, don't plan on installing any, i should be able to enjoy the game as a whole, and not have to replay the same scene 500 times before i beat it, which is horrifically 'the norm' in games today.
Far Cry for example, they brag about how good their AI is but the game is almost impossible as a result...a game on easy difficulty should NOT have one-shot kills, should NOT kill the player as quickly as this game does...
sure, make the AI 'ACT' smart, but downplay the damage that they do to compensate...otherwise you are doing you game a major disservice and annoying your players...
[quote]I propose that Slashdotters who care buy Windows licenses for the underprivileged, the stingy, or the lazy (lazy to learn Linux). Or provide them with free migration (Win->Lin) service. Someone should setup a fund for the windows licenses, so how bout you start it? I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't mind in the least.[/quote] wasn't lindows doing something similar and they got in trouble?
this is a good thing, not a bad thing.
seriously, linux is already a larger presence than apple in the market, there are major players that have just entered, and haven't even begun to reach their full capacity (novell in particular) and in general - linux could definitely learn a thing or two from apple, particularly in the interface and ease of use department.
i don't see how apple could become any more of a threat than it is currently, and if anything, it becomes a powerful marketing force to help promote linux/opensource in general - we want them on our side after all...