The problem, I think, is that the very nature of an MMO game doesn't lend itself well to a epic storyline. This sounds funny because the entire point of a MMO is to have lots of people in this huge world, but making an interesting, coherant storyline with tons of interactive parts is far more difficult than implementing the same storyline in a singleplayer game.
Pablo Funes of US company Icosystem and Jürgen Branke and Frederik Theil of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany used "genetic algorithms", which mimic Darwinian evolution, to develop strategies for internet servers to use when caching data.
It would be interesting to see exactly which algorithms they are talking about here. I wouldn't be surprised if they drew some ideas from garbage collection algorithms also.
Hopefully this will become more and more of a trend. I know UT2k4 shipped with linux binaries (not sure about Mac), and I know that DOOM3 plans on shipping with Mac and Linux binaries in the box.
With any luck this process will become more and more common, but I'm not holdin gmy breath.
I wish more older game companies would release newly compiled versions of their games, or at least make them open source so that fans can go ahead and do it themselves. And it doesn't have to be a free for-the-fans type move, in a lot of cases I am more than willing to pay for a version of an older game that could run on my current machine.
John Carmack mentioned something in his GDC talk about how he would consider letting outside companies remake the older id games with the DOOM3 engine and sell them at a discount price. This would send me running to the stores the second they are released.
Another tactic some publishers use is to not send out review copies early enough for a magazine to be able to publish a review before the game hits the shelves.
This is typically done with a poor game, so that they have a chance at getting the ignorant sales before their game gets torn apart by reviewers.
Obviously the bribery case is much worse, but this is another example of publishers being sneaky.
When the HL2 source was leaked, it became evident that many of the things Valve claimed were not scripted actually were. Keep that in mind and take this with a grain or two.
One thing they should look towards doing is maybe circumventing the payment if you are sending to someone else in the same domain. Then businesses wouldn't have to pay for all internal e-mail.
Or maybe businesses should find a new way to communicate internally?
Blizzard and Id have always had the same "It's done when it's done, and not a second earlier" attitude. Obviously not many companies can afford to do this, but it HAS allowed the aforementioned two companies to produce some of the best games of all time.
"Have any Slashdot readers ever actually used the backwards compatibility on their PlayStation 2?"
Most people I know (including myself), bought a PS2 before the GC or XBox for exactly this reason. It's a huge selling point, and rightfully so - I still play tons of PS1 games.
I realize that when rereleasing a game on a new console, they want to keep it as true to the original as possible, but they should give that a second thought when it comes to load times.
This is definitely noticible in Final Fantasy Anthologies (FF5 and FF6), and Final Fantasy Chronicles (FF4 and Chrono Trigger). After hitting the menu button there is a good two or three seconds of black screen before the menu itself actually pops up. I find it hard to believe that my PS2 (or PS1) really needs that much time.
Nope, that's not me, although believe it or not I did start something called SteveOS when I was fumbling through a book about how to program an OS in C when I was far too young to understand it.
1. DOOM3 is using an extremely advanced (and impressive) audio system. There is an excellent write-up of it here. For an atmospheric game like DOOM3, that sounds absolutely perfect.
2. Beware the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum if you are a gamer. It sounds fantastic, but the live drive (or whatever the Augidy 2 generation 5.25" sized input access is called), consistantly crashed games in my system (3000+, 9800 Pro, 1 GB RAM). To my surprise, when I disconnected the live drive and left the PCI card in, everything ran beautifully again. I always thought it was my viedo card acting up, but when Quake3 started crashing consistantly I had to do some investigation and to my surprise the Audigy was the guilty party.
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The problem, I think, is that the very nature of an MMO game doesn't lend itself well to a epic storyline. This sounds funny because the entire point of a MMO is to have lots of people in this huge world, but making an interesting, coherant storyline with tons of interactive parts is far more difficult than implementing the same storyline in a singleplayer game.
It would be interesting to see exactly which algorithms they are talking about here. I wouldn't be surprised if they drew some ideas from garbage collection algorithms also.
What if they already are using those too?
With any luck this process will become more and more common, but I'm not holdin gmy breath.
Well we could, but then he would have to come up with ANOTHER bogus reason. Cut him some slack, the man works hard enough as it is.
Try ephpod.
John Carmack mentioned something in his GDC talk about how he would consider letting outside companies remake the older id games with the DOOM3 engine and sell them at a discount price. This would send me running to the stores the second they are released.
Obligatory Simpsons quote: "I want to try the yard work simulator!"
This is typically done with a poor game, so that they have a chance at getting the ignorant sales before their game gets torn apart by reviewers.
Obviously the bribery case is much worse, but this is another example of publishers being sneaky.
with Looking Glass Games, the ill-fated makers of Thief, System Shock, etc.
When the HL2 source was leaked, it became evident that many of the things Valve claimed were not scripted actually were. Keep that in mind and take this with a grain or two.
Or maybe businesses should find a new way to communicate internally?
... THAT must be how Jerome Blake got the part.
... catch you dialing up www.talkwithhotbabes.com - only $4.95 per minute!
nmap is the best app for hacking.
Yes, they definitely are shipping Linux binaries with the game. Also word is that there will probably be a demo AFTER the game is released.
... but remember id still hasn't budged from it's "when it's done" release date.
Blizzard and Id have always had the same "It's done when it's done, and not a second earlier" attitude. Obviously not many companies can afford to do this, but it HAS allowed the aforementioned two companies to produce some of the best games of all time.
Most people I know (including myself), bought a PS2 before the GC or XBox for exactly this reason. It's a huge selling point, and rightfully so - I still play tons of PS1 games.
This is definitely noticible in Final Fantasy Anthologies (FF5 and FF6), and Final Fantasy Chronicles (FF4 and Chrono Trigger). After hitting the menu button there is a good two or three seconds of black screen before the menu itself actually pops up. I find it hard to believe that my PS2 (or PS1) really needs that much time.
Nope, that's not me, although believe it or not I did start something called SteveOS when I was fumbling through a book about how to program an OS in C when I was far too young to understand it.
Look out, Kevin Bacon.
They forgot Steve++, the crappy C++ rip-off I wrote for an independant study project back in high school.
That's all well and good, but what I really, really am dying to know is what my firewall FEELS like...
1. DOOM3 is using an extremely advanced (and impressive) audio system. There is an excellent write-up of it here. For an atmospheric game like DOOM3, that sounds absolutely perfect.
2. Beware the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum if you are a gamer. It sounds fantastic, but the live drive (or whatever the Augidy 2 generation 5.25" sized input access is called), consistantly crashed games in my system (3000+, 9800 Pro, 1 GB RAM). To my surprise, when I disconnected the live drive and left the PCI card in, everything ran beautifully again. I always thought it was my viedo card acting up, but when Quake3 started crashing consistantly I had to do some investigation and to my surprise the Audigy was the guilty party.