Any behavior can become psychologically addicting (we'll ignore physically addicting activities like substance abuse for the moment). People argue that gambling should be banned or at least tightly controlled because it can become a harmful addiction. Using that logic, video games, skydiving, sex, shopping and even food and drink (non-alcoholic) would have to be banned. There are known instances where people have wrecked their lives, because these addictions have led to money problems, lost jobs, disease, physical injury, and even death.
Of course, there are people who already have proposed the banning of any combination of these activities.
The Temperance Movement wasn't about temperance (i.e. moderation). It was about an ideology of social engineering, attempting to remove from society those activities one found objectionable merely because a minority of the people partaking abused the activity.
Let's not go back down that road.
Mod the parent up, please. Not to diminish the sad history of the African slave trade, but just about every immigrant group has been treated horribly in the past. My family is mostly Irish. The people who ran the coal mines in Carbon County here in Pennsylvania, as well as most of Appalachia not only paid their workers a pittance, they sold the miners their equipment, pretty much making it so that they could barely afford the necessities. See this article on the Molly Maguires for some background, and the movie The Molly Maguires for the Hollywood version.
When I served on jury duty over a year ago here in Philadelphia, the judge in the case brought up the important check against tyranny that jury nullification provides while he was briefing us during the selection process. There may be some controversy amongst the legal community, but the judge in the case I sat on as an alternate obviously had a positive attitude toward the concept of jury nullifcation. As a Philadelphian, this is of special interest to me, seeing as the founder of this city and of Pennsylvania, William Penn, was at the center of one of the cases in English law that set the precident for jury nullification, as seen in the article linked above.
Getting someone disbarred isn't exactly easy, which is a pity.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton was disbarred for his perjury during the whole Monica Lewinsky mess (no pun intended), which pretty much everyone has downplayed.
Admittedly a bit off-topic, but something that popped into my head when you said this. Play on.
NM = notorious monster, a mob that generally has a unique name, and is stronger than monsters of the same type in a particular zone. They almost always drop a mission/quest related item, or a rare item/weapon/armor.
And often, real-money traders use bots to automate repetitive tasks like fish, hunting certain monsters, crafting, etc.
Metal Gear Solid doesn't have any FMV (except for film clips from news archives, etc.). All the story sequences with the main characters are done in real-time.
You have such lack of faith in your fellow/.ers. Your arguments are well-thought out and articulated. They'll be too busy flaming you to mod you down.:P
I, for one, have kind of been swept up in the hype. I'm truly looking forward to trying the Wii to see if it lives up to the hype. Sony's attitude regarding pricing's been a real turn-off for me regarding the PS3, and I'm pulling for Nintendo to take them down a peg, if not outright beat them.
Check out the instruction book drawings. He was basically a clown.
That's exactly the idea. He's the architypal evil clown: he believes existence is some cosmic joke. And he embraces the chaos. (See The Joker from The Batman comics for another example.)
Ah, the infamous "Junction" system. That was an exercise in frustration. It took 10 minutes to get your characters set up exactly how you wanted them. There were rewarding aspects (such as making your characters practically invincible against some of the tougher monsters by junctioning the right spells, or doing massive damage by junctioning the right spell to your attacks), but it took me a long time to beat that game because of the frustration.
Actually, it took me a long time to beat FF7, but that's only because I kept trying to breed chocobos so I could get Knights of the Round, and annihilate all of the Weapons. I eventually gave up on that project, and just beat the final boss on my first try.
If you think about it, what is more American than Microsoft? Taking over smaller entities, throwing their weight around... sounds like American Democracy all around.
To borrow from our President, in America, we don't call that throwing our weight around; we call it moving.
Let me preface this with the fact that I'm excited about Nintendo's Rev.. er, Wii, if only because they're trying to do something different and get non-gamers involved by providing a non-threatening interface for playing games.
While I think the Flamebait mod to this post's parent is probably appropriate due to the abrassiveness with which he made his point, I think his point is perfectly valid: That most of us have not gotten our hands on the controls, and don't know how well it's going to work. And even some of those who have still aren't sure.
I'm hopeful that any bugs that need to be worked out to make the Wii a success will be worked out, because I want to give this thing a try. It looks to me like Nintendo might have a winner on its hands. That's not to bash Microsoft or Sony (though that's popular these days) who are continuing to take a more conventional approach to gaming. I may yet patronize them if they get software I can get excited about.
And now the eternal question: what the fuck would be wrong with simply enforcing the existing, objective, ubiquitous rating system? You know, like we do here in Britain? It sounds to me like he's deliberately avoiding this because he wants to create a situation in which he can sit back and pick targets at his leisure.
Because in the US, the rating system (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Softwar e_Rating_Board)in place is not government-mandated. It's run by the video game industry itself. It's not an enforcement tool; it's a guide for parents and consumers to pick material they feel is appropriate for their family and/or themselves.
That being the case, the government couldn't make the existing rating system the basis for enforcement of "community standards" because that would be tantamount to a group of corporate interests rendering the law rather fluid.
I agree to an extent that what the PS3's price is won't matter until a few months past the launch date. The hardest of the hardcore gamers will wait in line for it just to say they got it launch day.
That said, your comment about MGS4 (which I'm definitely looking forward to myself since I'm a total fanboy) illustrates the problem: MGS4 and FF13 are the only titles I'm looking forward to for this machine. I suspect that this may be true for a lot of people (not necessarily the same titles, just that there are few titles people are looking forward to exclusive to PS3). That's a serious problem when your console's price point is more than people are used to paying.
Advertised prices don't include tax for the simple reason that advertisements might be for several stores in that chain in that area. I live in Philadelphia (city/county) which charges an additional 1% sales tax over and above the 6% the state of Pennsylvania charges. But I live practically on the city limits. If I go only a few blocks away, I'm no longer being charged that 1% tax.
In that context, including taxes in the advertisements is silly.
That said, for some reason odd, the in-store price doesn't include the tax (but usually, the price tag reminds people about the tax... "$19.99 plus tax" for example).
This was predicted years ago. When Monsanto and other firms first started applying for patents for "terminator" genes (plants that will not generate viable seeds for the next years crop) and for plants specifically resistant to the use of "Roundup" many biologists warned of the danger of cross-polinization. Monsanto, et. al., and their political backers scoffed at the suggestion. (Emphases mine.)
Monsanto and others had every reason to scoff. These terminator genes produces sterile plants. Sterile plants don't produce viable pollen, therefore, the cross-polination should not happen. I think maybe everybody is so in a tizzy against agri-business that they missed that important piece of info. Or it could just be that I don't have a degree in Biology. Feel free to answer with an intelligent response that does not liken corporations to jackbooted thugs.:)
Sorry, this war against the US started years ago. 9/11 just woke us up to reality. Bush didn't start it, but he's cognizant of the fact that anything less than a total victory against the many terrorist groups who want us dead, and the removal of the conditions that breed terrorists will only result in our children, and our children's children in having this problem, or a worse one on their hands. It's best we grow up and face up to the responsibility.
Slashdot Mirror
Any behavior can become psychologically addicting (we'll ignore physically addicting activities like substance abuse for the moment). People argue that gambling should be banned or at least tightly controlled because it can become a harmful addiction. Using that logic, video games, skydiving, sex, shopping and even food and drink (non-alcoholic) would have to be banned. There are known instances where people have wrecked their lives, because these addictions have led to money problems, lost jobs, disease, physical injury, and even death. Of course, there are people who already have proposed the banning of any combination of these activities. The Temperance Movement wasn't about temperance (i.e. moderation). It was about an ideology of social engineering, attempting to remove from society those activities one found objectionable merely because a minority of the people partaking abused the activity. Let's not go back down that road.
Mod the parent up, please. Not to diminish the sad history of the African slave trade, but just about every immigrant group has been treated horribly in the past. My family is mostly Irish. The people who ran the coal mines in Carbon County here in Pennsylvania, as well as most of Appalachia not only paid their workers a pittance, they sold the miners their equipment, pretty much making it so that they could barely afford the necessities. See this article on the Molly Maguires for some background, and the movie The Molly Maguires for the Hollywood version.
When I served on jury duty over a year ago here in Philadelphia, the judge in the case brought up the important check against tyranny that jury nullification provides while he was briefing us during the selection process. There may be some controversy amongst the legal community, but the judge in the case I sat on as an alternate obviously had a positive attitude toward the concept of jury nullifcation. As a Philadelphian, this is of special interest to me, seeing as the founder of this city and of Pennsylvania, William Penn, was at the center of one of the cases in English law that set the precident for jury nullification, as seen in the article linked above.
Maybe /.'s software requires the Euro's escape sequence (the code with the ampersand at the start and semicolon at the end).
Metal Gear Solid doesn't have any FMV (except for film clips from news archives, etc.). All the story sequences with the main characters are done in real-time.
You have such lack of faith in your fellow /.ers. Your arguments are well-thought out and articulated. They'll be too busy flaming you to mod you down. :P
I, for one, have kind of been swept up in the hype. I'm truly looking forward to trying the Wii to see if it lives up to the hype. Sony's attitude regarding pricing's been a real turn-off for me regarding the PS3, and I'm pulling for Nintendo to take them down a peg, if not outright beat them.
Check out the instruction book drawings. He was basically a clown.
That's exactly the idea. He's the architypal evil clown: he believes existence is some cosmic joke. And he embraces the chaos. (See The Joker from The Batman comics for another example.)Ah, the infamous "Junction" system. That was an exercise in frustration. It took 10 minutes to get your characters set up exactly how you wanted them. There were rewarding aspects (such as making your characters practically invincible against some of the tougher monsters by junctioning the right spells, or doing massive damage by junctioning the right spell to your attacks), but it took me a long time to beat that game because of the frustration. Actually, it took me a long time to beat FF7, but that's only because I kept trying to breed chocobos so I could get Knights of the Round, and annihilate all of the Weapons. I eventually gave up on that project, and just beat the final boss on my first try.
Let me preface this with the fact that I'm excited about Nintendo's Rev.. er, Wii, if only because they're trying to do something different and get non-gamers involved by providing a non-threatening interface for playing games. While I think the Flamebait mod to this post's parent is probably appropriate due to the abrassiveness with which he made his point, I think his point is perfectly valid: That most of us have not gotten our hands on the controls, and don't know how well it's going to work. And even some of those who have still aren't sure. I'm hopeful that any bugs that need to be worked out to make the Wii a success will be worked out, because I want to give this thing a try. It looks to me like Nintendo might have a winner on its hands. That's not to bash Microsoft or Sony (though that's popular these days) who are continuing to take a more conventional approach to gaming. I may yet patronize them if they get software I can get excited about.
I agree to an extent that what the PS3's price is won't matter until a few months past the launch date. The hardest of the hardcore gamers will wait in line for it just to say they got it launch day.
That said, your comment about MGS4 (which I'm definitely looking forward to myself since I'm a total fanboy) illustrates the problem: MGS4 and FF13 are the only titles I'm looking forward to for this machine. I suspect that this may be true for a lot of people (not necessarily the same titles, just that there are few titles people are looking forward to exclusive to PS3). That's a serious problem when your console's price point is more than people are used to paying.
Advertised prices don't include tax for the simple reason that advertisements might be for several stores in that chain in that area. I live in Philadelphia (city/county) which charges an additional 1% sales tax over and above the 6% the state of Pennsylvania charges. But I live practically on the city limits. If I go only a few blocks away, I'm no longer being charged that 1% tax. In that context, including taxes in the advertisements is silly. That said, for some reason odd, the in-store price doesn't include the tax (but usually, the price tag reminds people about the tax... "$19.99 plus tax" for example).
Monthly payments are a means to milk your users.
That may be true, but they're also a means to pay for server upkeep after you've already sold through your software at retail.
Monsanto and others had every reason to scoff. These terminator genes produces sterile plants. Sterile plants don't produce viable pollen, therefore, the cross-polination should not happen. I think maybe everybody is so in a tizzy against agri-business that they missed that important piece of info. Or it could just be that I don't have a degree in Biology. Feel free to answer with an intelligent response that does not liken corporations to jackbooted thugs.
Tell me, how exactly does a business that doesn't turn a profit classify as a success?
Which (not because of you personally, mind) makes me concerned for the security of the students on your campus.
Sorry, this war against the US started years ago. 9/11 just woke us up to reality. Bush didn't start it, but he's cognizant of the fact that anything less than a total victory against the many terrorist groups who want us dead, and the removal of the conditions that breed terrorists will only result in our children, and our children's children in having this problem, or a worse one on their hands. It's best we grow up and face up to the responsibility.
Yeah, and Osama bin Laden is a prime example...
Anybody notice that it was an Anonymous Coward who takes a verbal cheap shot at the President in a completely unrelated article?