The achievements system was launched on April fools day of 2009 in order to allow for certain joke achievements, but the system itself is a real one. - FAQ
This series of four comments is extraordinarily detailed and informative. I would blow all my mod points in here if I had any; people should be reading this rundown from someone with obvious hands-on experience and familiarity with the new books instead of many of the one-off snide remarks, if they want to understand what's changed.
So will we see another try from Microsoft to beat Apple's iPod or it will be another vain attempt from the Redmond guys.
So will we see snide comments from Apple fanboys or it will be snide comments from Apple fanboys.
Come on guys, you can do better than that! Poor grammar, incorrect punctuation, and the two options don't contradict each other. It's not even a humorous or ironic "there is one option but we're pretending there are two" setup, it's just confusing.:)
I'm pretty sure the GP was using sarcasm. It appears you are not, though. A lot of people do not like using credit cards to "verify" themselves online. With all of the numbers that end up being released from large, verified businesses, can you think of the horrors that would ensue if every low budget startup social networking site needed to do this, too? What happens when the some of these sites inevitably fail? Someone might look to recoup their losses. Not to mention that if everyone is conditioned that they have to enter a credit card number at every site they register for then there will be a lot more phishers and scammers with success stories.
If I were MySpace (a phrase I never thought I'd type) and this legislation passed, I'd route all IPs in the state (where possible) to a page that said, "We're sorry, but due to your state passing laws that are currently technologically impossible to adhere to MySpace is no longer available to you. Please log in from another state and/or contact your state legislature." Also anyone who signed up would have to say they did not live in that state. Yes, it's as easy to get around as the current age policies, but it's as reasonable as their law. Plus it would probably get it repealed pretty quickly, as parents and pervs would be under pressure to get it changed.:)
I'm not sure that isn't just retcon by the police force. It says "Authorities said" before that quote. I haven't seen any pictures nor heard from any non-authorities that they did indeed look like that. Really smacks of, "No, really, they looked dangerous, not at all like those pictures on the news..."
I'm also not an expert, but from what I know about DTDs they are supposed to be referenced when the content should validate against them. For example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
This is at the top of every Slashdot page. Should IE or FF break if the W3 were to remove that file? Certainly not. But should it be loaded and validated if possible? I believe so.
If any XML or RSS gurus want to correct me on this feel free.
Re:I Would Have Signed Up...
on
Inside MySpace.com
·
· Score: 1, Informative
Yeah, I think GP had just the slightest bit of exaggeration there. While I've been sent to some hellish MySpace profile pages in my time, with dozens of animated GIFs and Flash videos, I have yet to have it threaten my "computing power." Much less have I had to resort to using (and I quote) "OS-level controls (CTRL-ALT-DEL)."
Also, who that's been on Slashdot this long has never even seen MySpace before? There have been at least hundreds (counting dupes) of stories about it over the years.
But at least I learned something today, I suppose. The window close command ALT-F4 is apparently not as "OS-level" as CTRL-ALT-DEL. Good to know the hotkey caste system.;)
Exactly! This isn't entirely a new idea, but it's an excellent execution of it. I've always been a fan of collectable items of accomplishments. In the games I've worked on I've always made sure something like that got developed. I called them Achievements in CORE MUD, and Survival Guide has its Trophies. A lot of gamers love this stuff, and I'm surprised it hasn't been tapped more in recent years.
IBM already pays for overtime, depending on what your job role and level are. I'm in a 24/7 server hardware support center and as far as I know everyone but management level is paid for any overtime. The field technicians get overtime like crazy. I'd like to know just where these guys worked and what they did.
The update didn't surprise me too much, but restarting to no bookmarks did. At least it backs them up, but having to walk four people you convinced to use Firefox through repairing their bookmarks and Sage feeds and trying to explain why you have to do so isn't too much fun.:)
Okay, I can understand where you're coming from. As I said, I don't have detailed knowledge of these particular issues, it's just that sometimes people use arguments like yours above as dangerous generalities. In this specific instance they appear to apply, though.
I'm avoiding weighing in the class debates because I'm not too avid a WoW player lately and have only briefly played a paladin. But speaking as someone who's played a lot of games and who works on a few (admittedly very tiny) ones, I've got to counter some of your statements.
'll ask you what I've asked others in the past: If [insert class here] is overpowered, then why don't you play one? And if you do play one, why don't you tell all the people who are conviced the class is weak how it is you play? Because obviously they don't know how.
Not everyone wants to play the same thing as everyone else. You may enjoy playing a character type and just be frustrated that you can never seem to win in certain situations. Also, if you do play that class you may not like it being overpowered anyway. A lot of people like to be challenged. I liken the "if they're overpowered just play them" argument in games to the "if it's broken just fix it yourself" argument in open source software. It's not always entirely valid.
If you're so knowledgable about WoW class balance, then how come what is obvious to you isn't obvious to the developers? Shouldn't the people who created the game (and know it better than you or I) be able to tell which class needs to be upgraded/downgraded?
Sometimes the developer is not the best judge of balance. Some things they just can't foresee, and believe me, players will come up with any possible way yo break or milk the system. Also, developers can have blind spots about aspects of the game, knowing it so intimately at every level. It's like how sometimes a programmer just cannot see where some code is going wrong because he understands perfectly what it should be doing, that's just how he wrote it. Someone outside the project is always a useful opinion to hear from when you can't be entirely objective.
I love a game with a good story, for sure, but you know, I don't actually go back and play those games more than once.
You know, that's a good point I hadn't thought of yet. You do tend to play the "story" games once then never again. There are some exceptions (like KoTOR 1/2) where there are enough branching plotlines or the option to play from a completely different side, but in general it's only action or twitch games where you can get involved quickly that get the repeat play.
On the other hand, it's these same story-based games that tend to have the longest actual gameplay, barring repeats.
Slashdot Mirror
The achievements system was launched on April fools day of 2009 in order to allow for certain joke achievements, but the system itself is a real one. - FAQ
This series of four comments is extraordinarily detailed and informative. I would blow all my mod points in here if I had any; people should be reading this rundown from someone with obvious hands-on experience and familiarity with the new books instead of many of the one-off snide remarks, if they want to understand what's changed.
Don't worry, neither could I. :)
Come on guys, you can do better than that! Poor grammar, incorrect punctuation, and the two options don't contradict each other. It's not even a humorous or ironic "there is one option but we're pretending there are two" setup, it's just confusing.
</troll>
Maybe they're just trying to hint to you to use the new coversheet format.
I'm pretty sure the GP was using sarcasm. It appears you are not, though. A lot of people do not like using credit cards to "verify" themselves online. With all of the numbers that end up being released from large, verified businesses, can you think of the horrors that would ensue if every low budget startup social networking site needed to do this, too? What happens when the some of these sites inevitably fail? Someone might look to recoup their losses. Not to mention that if everyone is conditioned that they have to enter a credit card number at every site they register for then there will be a lot more phishers and scammers with success stories.
:)
If I were MySpace (a phrase I never thought I'd type) and this legislation passed, I'd route all IPs in the state (where possible) to a page that said, "We're sorry, but due to your state passing laws that are currently technologically impossible to adhere to MySpace is no longer available to you. Please log in from another state and/or contact your state legislature." Also anyone who signed up would have to say they did not live in that state. Yes, it's as easy to get around as the current age policies, but it's as reasonable as their law. Plus it would probably get it repealed pretty quickly, as parents and pervs would be under pressure to get it changed.
I'm not sure that isn't just retcon by the police force. It says "Authorities said" before that quote. I haven't seen any pictures nor heard from any non-authorities that they did indeed look like that. Really smacks of, "No, really, they looked dangerous, not at all like those pictures on the news ..."
If any XML or RSS gurus want to correct me on this feel free.
Yeah, I think GP had just the slightest bit of exaggeration there. While I've been sent to some hellish MySpace profile pages in my time, with dozens of animated GIFs and Flash videos, I have yet to have it threaten my "computing power." Much less have I had to resort to using (and I quote) "OS-level controls (CTRL-ALT-DEL)."
;)
Also, who that's been on Slashdot this long has never even seen MySpace before? There have been at least hundreds (counting dupes) of stories about it over the years.
But at least I learned something today, I suppose. The window close command ALT-F4 is apparently not as "OS-level" as CTRL-ALT-DEL. Good to know the hotkey caste system.
Exactly! This isn't entirely a new idea, but it's an excellent execution of it. I've always been a fan of collectable items of accomplishments. In the games I've worked on I've always made sure something like that got developed. I called them Achievements in CORE MUD, and Survival Guide has its Trophies. A lot of gamers love this stuff, and I'm surprised it hasn't been tapped more in recent years.
Yeah, me too. I don't think "novel" is the best choice of adjectives in the OS world.
That couldn't have anything to do with the fact that action games actually sell in volume, could it? ;)
IBM already pays for overtime, depending on what your job role and level are. I'm in a 24/7 server hardware support center and as far as I know everyone but management level is paid for any overtime. The field technicians get overtime like crazy. I'd like to know just where these guys worked and what they did.
Give them a break man, they're just air scientists.
Sprocket of Sniping
:)
Drill of Demise
Hammer of Hell
Minute Hand of Doom
This is kind of fun.
If their maximum range is only 20 meters, I would certainly hope they can be accurate to within 1.
</pedant>
I'm told that iSeries AS/400s still use dual head HDDs. They access the data very quickly but wear out faster, as would be expected.
The update didn't surprise me too much, but restarting to no bookmarks did. At least it backs them up, but having to walk four people you convinced to use Firefox through repairing their bookmarks and Sage feeds and trying to explain why you have to do so isn't too much fun. :)
Okay, I can understand where you're coming from. As I said, I don't have detailed knowledge of these particular issues, it's just that sometimes people use arguments like yours above as dangerous generalities. In this specific instance they appear to apply, though.
I'm avoiding weighing in the class debates because I'm not too avid a WoW player lately and have only briefly played a paladin. But speaking as someone who's played a lot of games and who works on a few (admittedly very tiny) ones, I've got to counter some of your statements.
Not everyone wants to play the same thing as everyone else. You may enjoy playing a character type and just be frustrated that you can never seem to win in certain situations. Also, if you do play that class you may not like it being overpowered anyway. A lot of people like to be challenged. I liken the "if they're overpowered just play them" argument in games to the "if it's broken just fix it yourself" argument in open source software. It's not always entirely valid.
Sometimes the developer is not the best judge of balance. Some things they just can't foresee, and believe me, players will come up with any possible way yo break or milk the system. Also, developers can have blind spots about aspects of the game, knowing it so intimately at every level. It's like how sometimes a programmer just cannot see where some code is going wrong because he understands perfectly what it should be doing, that's just how he wrote it. Someone outside the project is always a useful opinion to hear from when you can't be entirely objective.
You know, that's a good point I hadn't thought of yet. You do tend to play the "story" games once then never again. There are some exceptions (like KoTOR 1/2) where there are enough branching plotlines or the option to play from a completely different side, but in general it's only action or twitch games where you can get involved quickly that get the repeat play.
On the other hand, it's these same story-based games that tend to have the longest actual gameplay, barring repeats.
The — they're using renders as they intended in IE. In Firefox it shows up as mdash;. I believe that — displays properly in both browsers.
The comments strip out —, but it looks vaguely like: --
I can't believe I just used my mod points! This article is going to be a mass of hilarity ...