By definition, isn't all Linux software (aside from the a few things) third party? I mean, it's not like IBM and Novell are coding every application you use on a Linux desktop...
You know, I wonder if there would be a market for a GW to make a client program that contained all the rules of standard WH40k, with all of the table top mechanics in place. Give the client away and sell 'digital mini's' as well as maybe a nominal monthly fee to gain access to the servers.
Even better for their business model would be to sell mini's and then give players thier digital equivalent for free via some code printed in the box/pack. I think that it'd be a popular deal, as finding players in your physical location can be hard, depending where you live. Plus, getting some new players to compete against is always a good thing.
What would be particularly cool is to sell the 'digital models' uncolored and provide a program for uses to paint them, etc. Also using some sort of standard 3d modeling language for terrain, allowing users to create and submit new terrain pieces for the community to use.
The same engine could be use for all of the GW games, so the profitability could be high...
Well, I was looking into this some more, and I foind a similar project, based on an opensource recreation of the old X-Com game.
The basics of the MMO and the sf page for UFO2000, the engine. Anywho, it's not as cool of a universe, but it's very similar in concept, and a pretty cool universe none-the-less.
Anyways, hopefully this will draw some more attention to their project.
Heh, no problem, I didn't mean to come of as smarmy and assine, but I think I did, so I apologize. I can be honest and say that I don't know a lot about HOW the internals of a redering engine work either, just that there is some set of system files that do the actual work, and the browser is more a front end to handle the data requests, etc.
Anyways, I just wanted to say I was sorry for being an ass.:)
I used to LOVE playing another one of GWs games, Necromunda... for those who haven't seen it, it is a table top miniatures games where you control a gang in a post apocolyptic future, and you battle other gangs for territory, which in turn let you gain more money, recruits, and weapons/equipment.
It's rule system is similar to 40k, but it's on a smaller scale - gangs are 8-12 mini's, and each unit 'develops'. That is they start out fairly weak, and gain XP for kills, survivng battles, etc, and in turn, gain HPs, skills, abilities, etc. They can also get impediments and advantages from being wounded in combat, but living through the battle overall. All-in-all it was really fun.
Anyways, I was thinkign that this could be the KILLER MMORPG, because it would break the mold that EQ set. You wouldn't control just a single player, but a gang of 8-12 thugs. You battle other players via a RTS engine for territory, or could form alliances, etc, with other players. I think that it has defianate potential, since it's not just another EQ clone. The PVP would keep the PVPers happy,a nd the fact that you have 8-12 characters all the time should help keep the non PVPers happy, as it's not like your lvl 94 Palandin with Armor of Wonderment gets PVPed and you have to start all over again.
I think that there is a fantasy version of Necromunda out there, too, which may work better in the current market where all MMORPGs seem to be fantasy stuff.
Oh well, long enough post, but just one last thought... since the non battle elements could be handled via (very nice graphical) menu's, and the battles would only encompass up to say 4-6 players, this seems like it is something that wouldn't require massive server bandwidth/storage/power, and could be a really interesting opensource project...
Anyone interested in discussing that idea should email me at mrgreen4242 (at) infojunkie.net...
I run Mozilla on a computer Mandrake 10.1rc1, so using IE isn't really an issue for me. Lots of windows programs use the IE rendering subsystem to view webpages from within the program. WinAmp, I think, is one example. AOL, SPC/Yahoos internet service, etc, all do as you mentioned. Lots of DVD-PC movie extra feature crap uses it too.
In conclusion, my point was being made to the OP that coming up with a replacement for IE rendering engine, so that everyone would be standards compliant rather than having to deal with the hodgepodge of BS that MS's IE renderer forces people to code into their webpages would be more usefull.
Um, I suggested that someone create a set of what would liekly be.dlls that would accept all the calls from Windows APIs calling for IEs renderer, but would instead render the page with Gecko's engine, and then send the results to whatever program called for them in a manner that was similar enough to the IE subsystem that the calling application wouldn't notice it wasn't from IE.
Then IE would be standards compliant, and so would all the Windows apps that rely on the IE rendering subsystem for HTML rendering.
I THOUGHT that it was pretty clear, and other people seem to have got it, but I hope that makes it even more clear for you.
I hope you are joking. Why would you want to port a rendering engine that is not standards complient? I hope that someone modifies the Gecko rendering system to something that can be a full replacement for IEs, and you can actually view a page the way its supposed to look while using IE (and all the programs that use IEs rendering engine for inline HTML proccessing).
He just let Peter Jackson direct them. And, preferable, let ANYONE else write them. A slashdot committee could come up with a better script than he did for the prequels.
Sadly the fact that Jackson has his own special effects workshop will probably preclude that from happening.:(
Well one of my main reasons for wanting to get the shell from one of these is the much vaunted intefaces of the Rio's or even an iPod Mini... Plus, doesn't the Rio play OGG files? BTW, someone mentioned that Apple "screwed that up" with the mini... did they change the way the drive is installed or somesuch
Anyways, seems like a cheap way to get a very nice mp3 player, that you can scale with larger cards as you a) get more money and b) they get cheaper.
I was going to ask something related to what you said. Is it possible to replace the 'canabalized' microdrive with a stardard compactflash card? I would love to get a cheap cheap cheap shell.electronic from one of these people and sla in a gig CF card. Battery would last for ages longer I am sure, and a gig is plenty for me.
Better yet, mod it up so that a CF card reader slot was put in there, so you could swao out CF cards. So does anyone know if you can do that, and if so, anyone have an mp3 player shell to sell (or better yet donate so I can try and mod it for the saake of the community at large)?:)
Someone will fill that gap, inevitabley. Someone with enough capital and the knowhow of the online financial transaction business will start up a service that caters SPECIFICALLY to the porn/gampling/drug crowd. Of course, they will take other business, but they will advertise those three in particular.
If they do it fast, they can cash in on some free press as PayPal bans the activities.
The fact that the porn and gambling are probably some of the biggest money makers online, they could concievably overtake PayPal in terms of $ transferred in a relatively short time. The sheer bulk of what they are doing, plus the fact that the are the 'new kids on the block' (on an aside, why did that band have to ruin that saying?) will likely let them start a price war against PayPal.
This just might be good for the consumer in the long wrong. Paypal is making an opening into an otherwise global monopoly. Perhaps the new competing sites will even start up some sort eBay like related service if they do well enough.
Rob
Re:Good variety in Cross Platform MMORPGs now
on
ATITD Mac Beta Released
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· Score: 0, Redundant
made me think of something... IANAL, so someone help me out here, but...
Could I take a VIDEO TAPE (no deCSS, hence no violation of the DCMA) of a movie I own, encode it into , then encrypt it with some sort of trivial method and post it to a website with filename NAME_OF_MOVIE.xxx. Then wait to get a C&D from the MPAA.
At that point could I demand how they are CERTAIN it is indeed a copy of their IP. If they actually decrypted the file and checked it wouldn't they be in violation of the DCMA? If they didn't wouldn't their claim be baseless, and hence perjurous (sp?) under the DCMA?
Just a thought I had during my last 5 minutes of work...
Hopefully the article is wrong and Nintendo prices the DS at the $149.99. I think that is the magic place for a handheld right now, and going over that will make people (me at least) wait for the first price drop before buying.
Well, I actaully RTFA for once, and it mentions "Later this year, the company says it will introduce a video camera with 20 minutes of TV-quality footage that will be processed in the store onto a DVD."
Now THAT is something that I want to see hacked. Presumably the price point for such a "disposable" camera can't be much more than $30-35, and if these wodnerfully brilliant hackers can figure out how to 1) Connect it to your PC for repeated use, and 2) Swap out the onboard memory for a card slot of some sort (not too far fetched - the WalGreen disposable digital cam has such a mod) so that you can store an hour or more (limited by batteries?) of 'TV quality video'... I would rush out to the store that very day.
Does anyone know if the original models are stull available at Ritz cameras? Are they going to phase them out all together with these new ones? I'd like to grab one (or two) of the older, definately hackable models before they are gone.
You should try getting one of the memory buffer update thingy-do's from the Ninth Tee. While I don't have one my ownself, I understand that it speeds up all of the menu functions significantly. This leads me to believe that the issue isn't CPU power, but rather lack of memory or a swap space issue or somesuch thing. (Remember that the TiVo is ALWAYS writing to the HD, as it is always recording something, so if it needs to use swap space for anything it is inevitabley going to be slow).
I agree... I have never had any sort of touch typing training, and honestly just use a glorified hunt and peck typing method, but still manage to type around 70wpm... seems like a pretty useless product.
Also is anywone else reminded of an old product (maybe from 10 years ago?) called The Bat (at the bottom of that page)?
From the article:"The labels also have spurred sales by packaging "bonus" DVDs with CDs. In February, several began test marketing the new hybrid discs -- CD on one side and DVD on the other."
So there you have it, each side of the disc is either the DVD or the CD. Seems a stupid way to do it to me... making a dual layer CD/DVD would be much more convientient, as suggested above, but I'm not sure how plausible it is.
stylus input freakin' SUCKS BALLS. It's is rubbish.
Tell that to the MILLIONS of PDA users in the world. Or the tblet PC users (ok, not that great of an example =p). Either way, they will tell you that touchscreen input is an efficient, fast, intuituve way to interface with a computer system.
Many games play well with a joystick and buttons; shooters, side scrollers, etc. Some games play well with a mouse and keyb; FPS, and RTS. Playing a FPS on a console with a gamepad doesn't even compare to using a mouse and keyb. PLaying a RTS game with a controller is next to impossible, hence the complete lack of RTS on consoles.
The touchscreen can do some things as well as a mouse, some not as well, and some better, but as you point out, they are similar. FPS would be marginally better with touchscreen than with control pads, but not up to the keyb/mouse. RTS games, on the other hand, would be arguabley better suited to touchscreen input. Games likes one, which sounds very interesting, tho I doubt it will ever be released here, due to people like yourself who only want the same old same old.
As mentioned above, I hope that graphical adventure games make a comeback with the DS. The interface is perfect (thouch screen, extra screen for text messages, inventory, etc, voice recognition could add a whole new level to an old genre).
The idea of modeling your own game items/characters is interesting, and would be better excecuted with a stylus than a directional pad. Mario Party's line tracing games are a good example of why precise control with a joypad is not ideal.
Ok, saying that you were 'paying for bandwidth' was an over simplification.
You are paying for bandwidth, server operation (electricity, building costs, such as HVAC, etc), server and connectivety maintaince, and, yes, PROFIT. (Crazy that these companies would want to MAKE MONEY?!) Note that most of the time these games have servers in several locations, so cost have to be factored for players per server, not per game.
My point was simply that charging a flat rate dissuades a lot of customers from playing, while charging a variable, but linear, rate was also not an ideal solution.
I pulled out some numbers from my ass that happen to line up with current flat rates, as it would allow gaming companies to make approx. the same gross income (which they have clearly demonstrated is a sustainable market value for their product), and at the same time, let the player feel like they are getting a better value for their particular playing habits.
Nothing says that a pay for play model has to be linear... For example, your first 5 hours per month could cost you a buck an hour. Your next 30 hours could be billed at $0.20 per hour. The next 15 at $0.10 per hour. After that, start raising the rate per hour. The next 15 (hours 51-65 for the month) back up to $0.15, and the next 35 for the month (66-100) at $0.20. Put the cap at that point.
The first few hours will pay for the overhead of an account... the CSRs, storage space, billing costs, etc. After that, you're paying for bandwidth, bringing your total cost to about $11/month if you played 35 hours (a pretty high estimate for a casual player, imo), the slightly more hardcore (50 hours per month) would pay $12.50. The even more dedicated (65 hours per month) would hit the current rate of about $15/month. The super dedicated 31337 crazies get stuck with a max bill of $21.75 for 100+ hours a month. But they are the ones who'd be willign to pay that anyways.
This has the added advantage of keeping bots and other macro type cheaters off the system, unless they want to pay the premium price. It also doesn't give an advantage to people with more money, as the difference between playing a ton (65 hours per month) and as much as you want is at most $6.75 a month, not a huge cost. But the 'cost of entry', ie the first few hours, makes up a good portion of the cost for any player, regardless of thier playign habits.
I would be much more likely to play a game with this type of pricing structure. The main client for maybe $30 give or take $5, and then maybe 6 expansions a year for $20-25 each, than I am not required to buy, but add some significant gameplay or equipment additions that would compell me to do so.
This way I could play even when I don't have any money to spare, and could grab an expansions that I missed later on when I have some extra cash.
Alternatively, they could offer a discounted pre-sale system, say $100 even for all 6 of this years expansions.
With as competitive as the MMORPG market is right now, I would like to see this sort of system succeed, as I think that it would be good for consumers.
Speaking from experience, MILES is garbage, imho. First there is the complete lack of range. In daylight situations the IR from the transmitters is drown out within 100 ft. What good is that, considering that a close shot for an M16 is 100meters?
Then there is the fact that if you bump the butt stock mildly hard, it will trigger the recoil sensor in the transmitter (not fire a blank, mind you, just make the transmitter go off). I've seen guys do 3-5seconds rushes, use thier rifle as a fall breaker (like you are supposed to) and have their own weapon trigger thier head sensors.
Next you have the constant jamming caused by blanks, even with the blank adaptor properly installed. The M16 isn't very reliable to begin with, but with blanks it's useless.
The seonsors are very heavy, for what they are, and aren't very sensitive. That combined with the complete lack of accuracey from the transmiter means you can't hit shit without spraying random shots all around your target. I qualify expert most of the time with an M16, but can't score a hit more than 50% of the time.
They also suffer from the pitfalls of all other laser tag, such as the sensors only covering selected areas (not your legs, for example).
Put one of the adaptors on a SAW (automatic 5.56mm weapon, for all you civilians) and you actually have something usefull, only because you can spray out 100's of rounds in a matter of seconds, effectively making an IR wall. But, for accurate and/or single shot (M16) weapons, MILES is a waste of effort.
Slashdot Mirror
By definition, isn't all Linux software (aside from the a few things) third party? I mean, it's not like IBM and Novell are coding every application you use on a Linux desktop...
Even better for their business model would be to sell mini's and then give players thier digital equivalent for free via some code printed in the box/pack. I think that it'd be a popular deal, as finding players in your physical location can be hard, depending where you live. Plus, getting some new players to compete against is always a good thing.
What would be particularly cool is to sell the 'digital models' uncolored and provide a program for uses to paint them, etc. Also using some sort of standard 3d modeling language for terrain, allowing users to create and submit new terrain pieces for the community to use.
The same engine could be use for all of the GW games, so the profitability could be high...
The basics of the MMO and the sf page for UFO2000, the engine. Anywho, it's not as cool of a universe, but it's very similar in concept, and a pretty cool universe none-the-less.
Anyways, hopefully this will draw some more attention to their project.
Anyways, I just wanted to say I was sorry for being an ass. :)
It's rule system is similar to 40k, but it's on a smaller scale - gangs are 8-12 mini's, and each unit 'develops'. That is they start out fairly weak, and gain XP for kills, survivng battles, etc, and in turn, gain HPs, skills, abilities, etc. They can also get impediments and advantages from being wounded in combat, but living through the battle overall. All-in-all it was really fun.
Anyways, I was thinkign that this could be the KILLER MMORPG, because it would break the mold that EQ set. You wouldn't control just a single player, but a gang of 8-12 thugs. You battle other players via a RTS engine for territory, or could form alliances, etc, with other players. I think that it has defianate potential, since it's not just another EQ clone. The PVP would keep the PVPers happy,a nd the fact that you have 8-12 characters all the time should help keep the non PVPers happy, as it's not like your lvl 94 Palandin with Armor of Wonderment gets PVPed and you have to start all over again.
I think that there is a fantasy version of Necromunda out there, too, which may work better in the current market where all MMORPGs seem to be fantasy stuff.
Oh well, long enough post, but just one last thought... since the non battle elements could be handled via (very nice graphical) menu's, and the battles would only encompass up to say 4-6 players, this seems like it is something that wouldn't require massive server bandwidth/storage/power, and could be a really interesting opensource project...
Anyone interested in discussing that idea should email me at mrgreen4242 (at) infojunkie.net...
In conclusion, my point was being made to the OP that coming up with a replacement for IE rendering engine, so that everyone would be standards compliant rather than having to deal with the hodgepodge of BS that MS's IE renderer forces people to code into their webpages would be more usefull.
Then IE would be standards compliant, and so would all the Windows apps that rely on the IE rendering subsystem for HTML rendering.
I THOUGHT that it was pretty clear, and other people seem to have got it, but I hope that makes it even more clear for you.
I hope you are joking. Why would you want to port a rendering engine that is not standards complient? I hope that someone modifies the Gecko rendering system to something that can be a full replacement for IEs, and you can actually view a page the way its supposed to look while using IE (and all the programs that use IEs rendering engine for inline HTML proccessing).
Sadly the fact that Jackson has his own special effects workshop will probably preclude that from happening. :(
Anyways, seems like a cheap way to get a very nice mp3 player, that you can scale with larger cards as you a) get more money and b) they get cheaper.
Better yet, mod it up so that a CF card reader slot was put in there, so you could swao out CF cards. So does anyone know if you can do that, and if so, anyone have an mp3 player shell to sell (or better yet donate so I can try and mod it for the saake of the community at large)? :)
If they do it fast, they can cash in on some free press as PayPal bans the activities.
The fact that the porn and gambling are probably some of the biggest money makers online, they could concievably overtake PayPal in terms of $ transferred in a relatively short time. The sheer bulk of what they are doing, plus the fact that the are the 'new kids on the block' (on an aside, why did that band have to ruin that saying?) will likely let them start a price war against PayPal.
This just might be good for the consumer in the long wrong. Paypal is making an opening into an otherwise global monopoly. Perhaps the new competing sites will even start up some sort eBay like related service if they do well enough.
Rob
I. Want. Linux. WoW. Thank you, that is all.
Could I take a VIDEO TAPE (no deCSS, hence no violation of the DCMA) of a movie I own, encode it into , then encrypt it with some sort of trivial method and post it to a website with filename NAME_OF_MOVIE.xxx. Then wait to get a C&D from the MPAA.
At that point could I demand how they are CERTAIN it is indeed a copy of their IP. If they actually decrypted the file and checked it wouldn't they be in violation of the DCMA? If they didn't wouldn't their claim be baseless, and hence perjurous (sp?) under the DCMA?
Just a thought I had during my last 5 minutes of work...
Rob
Hopefully the article is wrong and Nintendo prices the DS at the $149.99. I think that is the magic place for a handheld right now, and going over that will make people (me at least) wait for the first price drop before buying.
Now THAT is something that I want to see hacked. Presumably the price point for such a "disposable" camera can't be much more than $30-35, and if these wodnerfully brilliant hackers can figure out how to
1) Connect it to your PC for repeated use, and
2) Swap out the onboard memory for a card slot of some sort (not too far fetched - the WalGreen disposable digital cam has such a mod) so that you can store an hour or more (limited by batteries?) of 'TV quality video'...
I would rush out to the store that very day.
Rob
Rob
Also is anywone else reminded of an old product (maybe from 10 years ago?) called The Bat (at the bottom of that page)?
Rob
So there you have it, each side of the disc is either the DVD or the CD. Seems a stupid way to do it to me... making a dual layer CD/DVD would be much more convientient, as suggested above, but I'm not sure how plausible it is.
Tell that to the MILLIONS of PDA users in the world. Or the tblet PC users (ok, not that great of an example =p). Either way, they will tell you that touchscreen input is an efficient, fast, intuituve way to interface with a computer system.
Many games play well with a joystick and buttons; shooters, side scrollers, etc. Some games play well with a mouse and keyb; FPS, and RTS. Playing a FPS on a console with a gamepad doesn't even compare to using a mouse and keyb. PLaying a RTS game with a controller is next to impossible, hence the complete lack of RTS on consoles.
The touchscreen can do some things as well as a mouse, some not as well, and some better, but as you point out, they are similar. FPS would be marginally better with touchscreen than with control pads, but not up to the keyb/mouse. RTS games, on the other hand, would be arguabley better suited to touchscreen input. Games likes one, which sounds very interesting, tho I doubt it will ever be released here, due to people like yourself who only want the same old same old.
As mentioned above, I hope that graphical adventure games make a comeback with the DS. The interface is perfect (thouch screen, extra screen for text messages, inventory, etc, voice recognition could add a whole new level to an old genre).
The idea of modeling your own game items/characters is interesting, and would be better excecuted with a stylus than a directional pad. Mario Party's line tracing games are a good example of why precise control with a joypad is not ideal.
You are paying for bandwidth, server operation (electricity, building costs, such as HVAC, etc), server and connectivety maintaince, and, yes, PROFIT. (Crazy that these companies would want to MAKE MONEY?!) Note that most of the time these games have servers in several locations, so cost have to be factored for players per server, not per game.
My point was simply that charging a flat rate dissuades a lot of customers from playing, while charging a variable, but linear, rate was also not an ideal solution.
I pulled out some numbers from my ass that happen to line up with current flat rates, as it would allow gaming companies to make approx. the same gross income (which they have clearly demonstrated is a sustainable market value for their product), and at the same time, let the player feel like they are getting a better value for their particular playing habits.
The first few hours will pay for the overhead of an account... the CSRs, storage space, billing costs, etc. After that, you're paying for bandwidth, bringing your total cost to about $11/month if you played 35 hours (a pretty high estimate for a casual player, imo), the slightly more hardcore (50 hours per month) would pay $12.50. The even more dedicated (65 hours per month) would hit the current rate of about $15/month. The super dedicated 31337 crazies get stuck with a max bill of $21.75 for 100+ hours a month. But they are the ones who'd be willign to pay that anyways.
This has the added advantage of keeping bots and other macro type cheaters off the system, unless they want to pay the premium price. It also doesn't give an advantage to people with more money, as the difference between playing a ton (65 hours per month) and as much as you want is at most $6.75 a month, not a huge cost. But the 'cost of entry', ie the first few hours, makes up a good portion of the cost for any player, regardless of thier playign habits.
This way I could play even when I don't have any money to spare, and could grab an expansions that I missed later on when I have some extra cash.
Alternatively, they could offer a discounted pre-sale system, say $100 even for all 6 of this years expansions.
With as competitive as the MMORPG market is right now, I would like to see this sort of system succeed, as I think that it would be good for consumers.
Then there is the fact that if you bump the butt stock mildly hard, it will trigger the recoil sensor in the transmitter (not fire a blank, mind you, just make the transmitter go off). I've seen guys do 3-5seconds rushes, use thier rifle as a fall breaker (like you are supposed to) and have their own weapon trigger thier head sensors.
Next you have the constant jamming caused by blanks, even with the blank adaptor properly installed. The M16 isn't very reliable to begin with, but with blanks it's useless.
The seonsors are very heavy, for what they are, and aren't very sensitive. That combined with the complete lack of accuracey from the transmiter means you can't hit shit without spraying random shots all around your target. I qualify expert most of the time with an M16, but can't score a hit more than 50% of the time.
They also suffer from the pitfalls of all other laser tag, such as the sensors only covering selected areas (not your legs, for example).
Put one of the adaptors on a SAW (automatic 5.56mm weapon, for all you civilians) and you actually have something usefull, only because you can spray out 100's of rounds in a matter of seconds, effectively making an IR wall. But, for accurate and/or single shot (M16) weapons, MILES is a waste of effort.
Rob