"MMOs have a shelf life and expire after a (very few) years." *Bill Lumbergh's voice* I'm uh.. going to have to sort of... disagree with you on that one.
Actually it seems like these games have an amazing shelf life. EQ1 is still around, as is UO. Heck games that should die like SW Galaxies and Enter the Matrix that just never seemed to catch on are still gasping for breath. The game I play, FFXI, I've been hearing for years people saying "the game will be dead in 6 months" and is still going, even if it's not as strong as it once was.
Reading this made me wonder, what can a regular ol techie do, if anything, in this situation? I'm sure most people on here know the freezer trick (store in a ziplock bag for 5 minutes, let sit outside for about 10 min, then it might work for a bit again, I think it's to get the bearings going again) But what other tricks out there are there to get the data going again, other then getting it professionally fixed up? Can you do a firmware flash on some of the drives?
What has steam prevented you from doing, exactlly? Spore prevents me from installing it more then xyz number of times, therefore no Spore for me. But I've been running Steam for years on multiple systems, and haven't been able to do anything I wouldn't have otherwise. Only thing Steam has done for me is prevented me from having to dig out my HL1 discs for those rare moments i fire it up, or heck my HL2 discs for that matter (nice since one got scratched)
Steam is DRM, but it doesn't turn you into a criminal like Spore does.
I'm pretty confidentent that even a catostrophic failure wouldn't create a nuclear meltdown even remotely like that. I could see the nuclear material falling to the ground and needing a cleanup crew to take care of it as a worst case, but I can't see something like this creating a new Cherynobyl (spelling probably off missing my coffee this morning) unless someone REALLY screws up.. but if your worried about that you should probably be more worried about them wanting to install new nuclear powerplants then some "nuclear battery"
Wait... from what I remember it was 3 for the Cyber D and TWO for the Spider... or was it 4 for the Cyber and 3 for the Spider? All I Remember is the Cyber was one shot more (and waaaay cooler back in the day) then that Spider guy.
My understanding however is it actually limits the number of installs your allowed to do. EVER. I can't play it since i'll be outa the country for a bit, but when I do I'll be picking up the game and installing whatever crack is necessary so I never have to worry about this DRM.
Re:Non-Tech Percent of Web Traffic from Chrome
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
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· Score: 1
My personal thoughts on ad's are I don't block em... like you said they have to make they're money somehow, doesn't bother me any. However if they start with some sound bites or float over text what I'm reading those ad's get blocked ASAP. That's where the blockers come in handy.
I've had horrific motherboards from AMD (wouldn't even fit the STOCK fan on the motherboard, was a Slot style older board), Intel (CUV4X-D I think, pretty sure it was Intel, I only once got the kernel to load with both CPU's enabled), Via, etc etc. I don't think these chipsets are crap because nVidia doesn't know what they're doing, they're crap because people want stuff as cheap as possible and so they cut corners.
nVidia made stuff like tweaking motherboard settings easier and I like what they've done for the market.
FYI - my EVGA 680i Motherboard overclocks quite well.
I actually don't mind these stories, except that for WHATEVER reason the IDLE section is completely f*Ed up on my machine, heck I can't even sure if i'm posting this on the right area.
Fix IDLE and I might actually enjoy it, until then, I'll pass.
Actually I have an nVidia chipset based board and I don't SLi... I like what nVidia has done in that business, opened it up and made it easier to work on stuff... sure some of the software they have for overclocking and such is crappy, but better then any Intel based chipset I've ever used.
I won an Intel based motherboard (a couple years back I admit) and if it showed me anything, it's that Intel knows nothing about the gaming business. I trust nVidia to make better chipsets because I've personally had great luck with their video cards.
If nVidia got out of the business I'd be pretty sad.
- patches (apparently after December anyways) for one. - I'd love to see you submit a bug request for 1.5 vs 3...
There's support, it's not some guy visiting your house, but they do in fact support their products. However you mentioning that you only stop firefox every few months tells me your probably not in the majority of their market anyways.
Really? Graphics updates? I am intrigued and wish to learn more:o
Re:Tradewars 2000 (...Wow, I'm old)
on
Open Sourcing MMOs
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I actually BOUGHT Tradewars to run on a BBS I never started.. but a friend has a BBS he's running through Telnet, gave him the license.
However I'm pretty sure it has not been open sourced, although if it has I'd love to see the link. Last I remember there was a telnet version or something, and it cost $.
Ah the joys of colonizing planets, buying big ships, and having it all gone in a turn when you accidently go to an unknown sector with some dudes planetary defense cannon, or if you had the add on, the borg:P
If I'm working for a system that is so bad as to warrent going to jail over, how is he spreading the word by doing this? All he's doing is making himself look like a tech gone rogue. You don't fix the system by locking out everyone. You fix the system by EXPOSING it, media etc. Only thing he's exposing is his unwillingness to do what he's told.
I work for the government. I don't agree with what we do all the time, but not everything the government does, especially a municipality computer system, is life and death. Some policies are, in fact, not worth going to jail over.
IF, and that's a big if, he is doing this for the good of the citizens, he's doing it in a very stupid way.
Just curious too what you think he was protecting the world from that is worth doing what he did? What mission critical system was he protecting the citizens from harm with? Must have been absolutely gigantic.
Yes, obedience is an asset 9/10. It's important to have discussion, and to listen to the people you work for. But if it's my $10,000,000 on the line, I would hope I have a little bit more say in how things go then the guy I hired for $80,000 a year. There's a reason companies are not run as democracies.
I won't hire him, his reputation is shot in my books. I'm a big believer that if I hire someone, I expect them to you know, do what I ask. Crazy idea as that may be.
If I see something going on at work I don't agree with, I'll plead my case, go to the top, make myself a royal pain, but at the end record everything, note that i'm an unwilling participant, and move on. Hell I'll quit, but I'm not going to go to jail because I don't agree with XYZ policy.
Heck if this was as important as say a Nuclear power plant I'd go to the press but I would'nt SAY NO to management like that.
The problem is people work with stuff they feel a certain level of ownership. But it's not theirs. I have to explain this to people I support all the time, sorry you can't install games this is NOT your computer, this is a business computer owned by the business. It's a TOOL.
Are you kidding? Remember the nightmare 9/11 caused? We rely way too much on air travel to just say don't fly until we get this sorted. Sure it doesn't seem important that so and so can't visit family, and really it isn't. But when you have a few MILLION that can't, that's an issue. Especially when they've spent thousands of dollars to do it.
You can't just say "no flying" and expect the world to move on even remotely close to normal.
Actually it is different. Way back when we moved offices and part of it was a "State of the art" training facility for our staff. To prevent the instructor at the front from being hidden by big bulky CRT's, they installed the monitors underneath the desks and angled them up. sounded good, except the lights made the screens impossible to see without special coverings, and everyone cramped up in about 30 minutes. It's bad posture. People are designed to look at stuff in front of them for long periods of time, not stare at their feet.
Also kid's in school are not in desks for 8 hours a day straight, there's recess etc, something we adults lack.
How are what you mentioned not browsing tasks nowadays? Developing any application your going to make decisions that for whatever reason make people not happy. How is zoom a bad thing? Is it causing your computer to lock up or something? Bookmark Manager, for a lot of people that's actually a good thing. Same with spell checker. Certain things I think SHOULD be built in, wherein you gain the performance benefits of having it built in as apposed to tacked on through some extension system. As someone who's forced to use IE6 here at work FF3 is like a godsend at home.
EVERY time someone releases a new product, there's a guy like you saying get off my lawn... don't like a feature, don't use it. Maybe the world needs you to build a new web browser competitor lacking such annoyances as spell checking, managed bookmarks, and zoom capability. Knock yourself out.
So true... people still hack the software to make it work, but those trying to follow the straight and narrow get nothing but grief. How is this a good thing? Reminds me of the DRM used a few years ago (still is?) where the game was faster cracked since it wasn't constantly scanning the CD drive verifying the disc was still in there.
Ya that's my concern, I've been following this for awhile. right now I have $50 unlimited here in Canada on an ancient Fido plan. If I swap plans I pretty have to turn data off unless I want to spend a fortune. They were talking about downloading from the apple store to your phone, via cell, as long as it's under 10 megs in size. Well unless your spending $100 for data and nothing for voice, the current plans won't allow it. I really have NO idea how Rogers is going to be able to offer the iPhone and continue to screw us over like they do. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop up here.
Slashdot Mirror
"MMOs have a shelf life and expire after a (very few) years."
*Bill Lumbergh's voice* I'm uh.. going to have to sort of... disagree with you on that one.
Actually it seems like these games have an amazing shelf life. EQ1 is still around, as is UO. Heck games that should die like SW Galaxies and Enter the Matrix that just never seemed to catch on are still gasping for breath. The game I play, FFXI, I've been hearing for years people saying "the game will be dead in 6 months" and is still going, even if it's not as strong as it once was.
Reading this made me wonder, what can a regular ol techie do, if anything, in this situation? I'm sure most people on here know the freezer trick (store in a ziplock bag for 5 minutes, let sit outside for about 10 min, then it might work for a bit again, I think it's to get the bearings going again) But what other tricks out there are there to get the data going again, other then getting it professionally fixed up? Can you do a firmware flash on some of the drives?
What has steam prevented you from doing, exactlly? Spore prevents me from installing it more then xyz number of times, therefore no Spore for me. But I've been running Steam for years on multiple systems, and haven't been able to do anything I wouldn't have otherwise. Only thing Steam has done for me is prevented me from having to dig out my HL1 discs for those rare moments i fire it up, or heck my HL2 discs for that matter (nice since one got scratched)
Steam is DRM, but it doesn't turn you into a criminal like Spore does.
I'm pretty confidentent that even a catostrophic failure wouldn't create a nuclear meltdown even remotely like that. I could see the nuclear material falling to the ground and needing a cleanup crew to take care of it as a worst case, but I can't see something like this creating a new Cherynobyl (spelling probably off missing my coffee this morning) unless someone REALLY screws up.. but if your worried about that you should probably be more worried about them wanting to install new nuclear powerplants then some "nuclear battery"
Wait... from what I remember it was 3 for the Cyber D and TWO for the Spider... or was it 4 for the Cyber and 3 for the Spider? All I Remember is the Cyber was one shot more (and waaaay cooler back in the day) then that Spider guy.
Damn now I gotta replay it, THANKS A LOT ;)
Apparently the mod's are having a bad case of the Mooondays. And yes mod's, this post is what you'd mod "Offtopic". Kthxbye.
My understanding however is it actually limits the number of installs your allowed to do. EVER. I can't play it since i'll be outa the country for a bit, but when I do I'll be picking up the game and installing whatever crack is necessary so I never have to worry about this DRM.
My personal thoughts on ad's are I don't block em... like you said they have to make they're money somehow, doesn't bother me any. However if they start with some sound bites or float over text what I'm reading those ad's get blocked ASAP. That's where the blockers come in handy.
I've had horrific motherboards from AMD (wouldn't even fit the STOCK fan on the motherboard, was a Slot style older board), Intel (CUV4X-D I think, pretty sure it was Intel, I only once got the kernel to load with both CPU's enabled), Via, etc etc. I don't think these chipsets are crap because nVidia doesn't know what they're doing, they're crap because people want stuff as cheap as possible and so they cut corners.
nVidia made stuff like tweaking motherboard settings easier and I like what they've done for the market.
FYI - my EVGA 680i Motherboard overclocks quite well.
I actually don't mind these stories, except that for WHATEVER reason the IDLE section is completely f*Ed up on my machine, heck I can't even sure if i'm posting this on the right area.
Fix IDLE and I might actually enjoy it, until then, I'll pass.
Actually I have an nVidia chipset based board and I don't SLi... I like what nVidia has done in that business, opened it up and made it easier to work on stuff... sure some of the software they have for overclocking and such is crappy, but better then any Intel based chipset I've ever used.
I won an Intel based motherboard (a couple years back I admit) and if it showed me anything, it's that Intel knows nothing about the gaming business. I trust nVidia to make better chipsets because I've personally had great luck with their video cards.
If nVidia got out of the business I'd be pretty sad.
- patches (apparently after December anyways) for one.
- I'd love to see you submit a bug request for 1.5 vs 3...
There's support, it's not some guy visiting your house, but they do in fact support their products. However you mentioning that you only stop firefox every few months tells me your probably not in the majority of their market anyways.
And judging by my test here of the idle page, not something I'll be trying until we "upgrade" to IE7 here at work finally :/
Damn I hate IE6...
Sweet, this might make me dust the ol game off, thanks!
And now if Slashdot ever lets me submit this post (19 seconds since my last reply what the hell?)
Really? Graphics updates? I am intrigued and wish to learn more :o
I actually BOUGHT Tradewars to run on a BBS I never started.. but a friend has a BBS he's running through Telnet, gave him the license.
However I'm pretty sure it has not been open sourced, although if it has I'd love to see the link. Last I remember there was a telnet version or something, and it cost $.
Ah the joys of colonizing planets, buying big ships, and having it all gone in a turn when you accidently go to an unknown sector with some dudes planetary defense cannon, or if you had the add on, the borg :P
I miss the BBS days :'(
If they wanted to do something as stupid as put SCADA on the internet, I'd do 2 things.
1) Go to the press and
2) Quit.
I would not lock the owners out of the system. I'd let them burn in the newspapers, as apposed to looking like a moron by going to jail.
If I'm working for a system that is so bad as to warrent going to jail over, how is he spreading the word by doing this? All he's doing is making himself look like a tech gone rogue. You don't fix the system by locking out everyone. You fix the system by EXPOSING it, media etc. Only thing he's exposing is his unwillingness to do what he's told.
I work for the government. I don't agree with what we do all the time, but not everything the government does, especially a municipality computer system, is life and death. Some policies are, in fact, not worth going to jail over.
IF, and that's a big if, he is doing this for the good of the citizens, he's doing it in a very stupid way.
Just curious too what you think he was protecting the world from that is worth doing what he did? What mission critical system was he protecting the citizens from harm with? Must have been absolutely gigantic.
Yes, obedience is an asset 9/10. It's important to have discussion, and to listen to the people you work for. But if it's my $10,000,000 on the line, I would hope I have a little bit more say in how things go then the guy I hired for $80,000 a year. There's a reason companies are not run as democracies.
I won't hire him, his reputation is shot in my books. I'm a big believer that if I hire someone, I expect them to you know, do what I ask. Crazy idea as that may be.
If I see something going on at work I don't agree with, I'll plead my case, go to the top, make myself a royal pain, but at the end record everything, note that i'm an unwilling participant, and move on. Hell I'll quit, but I'm not going to go to jail because I don't agree with XYZ policy.
Heck if this was as important as say a Nuclear power plant I'd go to the press but I would'nt SAY NO to management like that.
The problem is people work with stuff they feel a certain level of ownership. But it's not theirs. I have to explain this to people I support all the time, sorry you can't install games this is NOT your computer, this is a business computer owned by the business. It's a TOOL.
Are you kidding? Remember the nightmare 9/11 caused? We rely way too much on air travel to just say don't fly until we get this sorted. Sure it doesn't seem important that so and so can't visit family, and really it isn't. But when you have a few MILLION that can't, that's an issue. Especially when they've spent thousands of dollars to do it.
You can't just say "no flying" and expect the world to move on even remotely close to normal.
I know I'm in a conversation over my head when building a new planet is considered relatively "easy"
Actually it is different. Way back when we moved offices and part of it was a "State of the art" training facility for our staff. To prevent the instructor at the front from being hidden by big bulky CRT's, they installed the monitors underneath the desks and angled them up. sounded good, except the lights made the screens impossible to see without special coverings, and everyone cramped up in about 30 minutes. It's bad posture. People are designed to look at stuff in front of them for long periods of time, not stare at their feet.
Also kid's in school are not in desks for 8 hours a day straight, there's recess etc, something we adults lack.
How are what you mentioned not browsing tasks nowadays? Developing any application your going to make decisions that for whatever reason make people not happy. How is zoom a bad thing? Is it causing your computer to lock up or something? Bookmark Manager, for a lot of people that's actually a good thing. Same with spell checker. Certain things I think SHOULD be built in, wherein you gain the performance benefits of having it built in as apposed to tacked on through some extension system. As someone who's forced to use IE6 here at work FF3 is like a godsend at home.
EVERY time someone releases a new product, there's a guy like you saying get off my lawn... don't like a feature, don't use it. Maybe the world needs you to build a new web browser competitor lacking such annoyances as spell checking, managed bookmarks, and zoom capability. Knock yourself out.
So true... people still hack the software to make it work, but those trying to follow the straight and narrow get nothing but grief. How is this a good thing? Reminds me of the DRM used a few years ago (still is?) where the game was faster cracked since it wasn't constantly scanning the CD drive verifying the disc was still in there.
Ya that's my concern, I've been following this for awhile. right now I have $50 unlimited here in Canada on an ancient Fido plan. If I swap plans I pretty have to turn data off unless I want to spend a fortune. They were talking about downloading from the apple store to your phone, via cell, as long as it's under 10 megs in size. Well unless your spending $100 for data and nothing for voice, the current plans won't allow it. I really have NO idea how Rogers is going to be able to offer the iPhone and continue to screw us over like they do. I'm waiting for the shoe to drop up here.