Hopefully this isn't thread-jacking. At worst steering the thread a little, anyway.
But why not a secondary market in services? Stop selling stuff because you don't own the stuff anyway (if you believe the publishers). On the other hand, nobody owns your time. There's no reason you, either as an individual or agent of a corporate entity, can't use your time to help out another player for pay. You've paid your subscription, you're following the EULA, no cheating is involved, nothing is being done that couldn't be done for free without breaking any terms of service.
Some examples:
Corpse Retrieval- lost your soul/corpse/shard/whatever in a skeery dungeon right next to the uberunderlord? We'll dispatch a Level 99 Brawnmeister to escort you safely to it and back to the newbie yard.
Tour Guide- Want to see all the cool sights in the game? We'll provide you with safe escort.
Quest help - Last quest item near a mob that's just to uber for you? We'll get you help.
Group help - Tired of fellow players who jack your groups, can't play their class, act like idiots, get your character killed? Need just one more character to round out your group? We'll send out 2,3, as many characters as needed to get the job done. You get the exp, you get the loot, we fight for you (to the "death," if that's what it takes to get your quest done and keep your character safe)
Entertainment - Are you lonely? Need someone to "keep you company" in the Owerly Inn? We'll send a member of the race/gender/alignment of your choice to a location where you can "converse" in private.
Match Making - Need to hook up with someone who has similar likes and dislikes both in-game and RL? Take our Xanthian Compatibility Survey and we'll find the right troll for you!
All the controversy goes away because the secondary market company becomes a broker for services, not items. No more question of who owns in-game geld/items/whatever. It's no different than paying someone to help you mow the lawn.
Note: My exposure to MMORPG-ing is limited to EverQuest 2; do your own mental translation to the MOG of your choice.
Don't know if this will make you feel better or worse, but I recently quit EverQuest 2 due to horrible response time (not to mention gameplay issues, but that's another story). I have a "reasonably beefy" system, but the idea of a 50-person raid is ludicrous in EQ2. Even on the lowest graphics settings you can't get the screen to render faster than a slide-show in a room with 10 people just milling about. I can't imagine what it would be like if there was combat going on.
Take it from a disgruntled SOE customer: stay a disgruntled Blizzard customer. Eventually the irons will get wrinkled out.
There should be a biometric unit that uses the pattern of veins on the underside of your tongue to uniquely identify individuals.
The underside of everyone's tongue is different. I verified this using basic research techniques over a series of weekends while I was in college. After obtaining a more permanent research assistant, I was unable to proceed with further "comparison-" however, I do encourage others to carry on my work in the spirit of cooperative science.
The beauty of this approach is that you could integrate the tongue reader with the computer's mouse. The user would insert his/her into an opening in the underside of the mouse, a laser light would illuminate the pattern of veins, and the resulting image would be captured and compared against the security database. The process is as simple as licking the filling out of a custard donut. In fact, in some companies I have worked for the users are so simple that care would be needed to ensure that they could tell the difference between a custard donut and a tongue reader or problems might occur. Utter panic ensues as user authentication fails at Dunkin' Donuts Wi-Fi access points... Well, you get the idea.
For those users on a low-carb diet, the process can be described as similar to that used for another research project I conducted while in college. One advantage of the tongue-reader biometric system is that computer mice, like research assistants, are much more responsive when properly lubricated.
Some other method might be necessary when dealing with portable computers. Perhaps it would be possible to integrate a tongue reader with the touch-pad pointing device. Obviously, this would favor users with the ability to lick their own laptops. But isn't that already the case for much of life?
And in case anyone is wondering, yes this IS a tongue-in-cheek post.
Just thought I'd add the obligatory "How long before we're all required to wear a microphone and enough cameras for 360-degree coverage?" paranoia. /Stylin' in my new tin-foil bowler.
The only thing more annoying than UML evangelists
on
UML Fever
·
· Score: 1
are UML evangelists who whine and complain when you don't call it "the UML" (as opposed to plain old "UML"). If you want to really tick them off, call it "Yoo-mel" as in "I just did some Yoo-mel modelling today." or "As you can see from this Yoo-mel swim-lane diagram..." Drives 'em nuts.
Freakin Booch et al. decide there should be a "the" in front of it, inadvertantly inspring thousands of rent-a-nerds to show off how knowledgeable they are by correcting you every time you mention the term in what has become (depsite their annoying efforts) the more common usage.
...bang-bang pulses, at regular intervals can serve not only to suppress decoherence, but also to maintain entanglement...
...spontaneous emission, another bizarre quantum effect...
Of course, most physicists know they need only refer to their email in-boxes to find several offers for products which claim to help maintain entanglement, suppress decoherence, avoid spontaneous emission, and increase their ability to perform bang-bang pulses at regular intervals. Available for immediate shipping from a Canadian pharmacy near you.
I must be in a very small minority because I liked the second more than the first. Don't get me wrong- I loved the first book! I simply liked the direction that the character Ged had taken. Here he is this amazingly powerful wizard- the Archmage of Roke, in fact- yet his gentleness and human qualities are what really make him what he is. IMHO, the character development is very well done. Ditto for the third book.
I agree, however, with the majority view in that I can't see how they can possibly pull this off. Here's an example: LeGuin uses the concept of everything having a true name, that is, a name in the true speech, the language the dragons use, the language that Ea used when he spoke the world. This is not just some interesting concept found throughout the novels- it defines them and binds them together as a coherent whole. The first book is Ged's quest to find the true name of the Gebbeth and thus bring about its absumption. The second book's most inspiring moment is where he gives the girl her true name. In the third, the drama is made more intense when Ged discovers that the dragons lose their speech. How can these be communicated (meaningfully) in a visual medium? I think it would be quite shameful for this central theme to be made irrelevant or worse transformed into something entirely different from the author's intent. At best, you get dialogue that completely confuses anyone who hasn't read the book. At worst, you either leave it out (which makes the mini-series pointless) or you turn it into something completely different and piss off the very-vocal fans of the book (e.g. "Wierding Modules" in the original Dune movie). And this is only one of many important themes LeGuin weaves into these books. Leave them out and all you have left is a "Magik Island Adventure" story.
Anyone who trusts the sci-fi channel to remain true to the book should look at what they did to Battlestar Galactica (yes, I know it was a series, not a book). To quote Edward James Olmos, "I know the Sci Fi [network] wants to say that everyone's going to like it, but in the case of longtime fans, they're not." I think the same will apply to Earthsea.
My Predictions (serious and otherwise):
They'll turn this into another Harry Potter clone.
The tiny hedgehog creature (Hoag) will be replaced with an ewok.
Looksfar will have an outboard motor.
The gebbeth will be played by a wisecracking Eddy Murphy
Ged will NOT be black, nor will the majority of the cast. The Kargad people, however, will be black savages. (For those who haven't read the book or haven't read it in a while, it's the reverse).
Ged and Tenar/Arha will fall in love in the mini-series.
The ring of Erreth-Akbe will be referred to as the Ring of Earthsea or some other name to avoid explaining who Erreth-Akbe was. There will be no mention of it being in half, nor will it have any rune on it whatsoever.
Alternate prediction to #7 above: The ring will not be mentioned because test audiences thought it was "too much like Lord of the Rings." The screenwriters will come up with some other plausible explanation for Ged to be wandering about underground.
One of my most beloved books will be ruined for those people not fortunate to have read it before seeing the mini-series.
Slashdot Mirror
But why not a secondary market in services? Stop selling stuff because you don't own the stuff anyway (if you believe the publishers). On the other hand, nobody owns your time. There's no reason you, either as an individual or agent of a corporate entity, can't use your time to help out another player for pay. You've paid your subscription, you're following the EULA, no cheating is involved, nothing is being done that couldn't be done for free without breaking any terms of service.
Some examples:
- Corpse Retrieval- lost your soul/corpse/shard/whatever in a skeery dungeon right next to the uberunderlord? We'll dispatch a Level 99 Brawnmeister to escort you safely to it and back to the newbie yard.
- Tour Guide- Want to see all the cool sights in the game? We'll provide you with safe escort.
- Quest help - Last quest item near a mob that's just to uber for you? We'll get you help.
- Group help - Tired of fellow players who jack your groups, can't play their class, act like idiots, get your character killed? Need just one more character to round out your group? We'll send out 2,3, as many characters as needed to get the job done. You get the exp, you get the loot, we fight for you (to the "death," if that's what it takes to get your quest done and keep your character safe)
- Entertainment - Are you lonely? Need someone to "keep you company" in the Owerly Inn? We'll send a member of the race/gender/alignment of your choice to a location where you can "converse" in private.
- Match Making - Need to hook up with someone who has similar likes and dislikes both in-game and RL? Take our Xanthian Compatibility Survey and we'll find the right troll for you!
All the controversy goes away because the secondary market company becomes a broker for services, not items. No more question of who owns in-game geld/items/whatever. It's no different than paying someone to help you mow the lawn.Note: My exposure to MMORPG-ing is limited to EverQuest 2; do your own mental translation to the MOG of your choice.
Don't know if this will make you feel better or worse, but I recently quit EverQuest 2 due to horrible response time (not to mention gameplay issues, but that's another story). I have a "reasonably beefy" system, but the idea of a 50-person raid is ludicrous in EQ2. Even on the lowest graphics settings you can't get the screen to render faster than a slide-show in a room with 10 people just milling about. I can't imagine what it would be like if there was combat going on.
Take it from a disgruntled SOE customer: stay a disgruntled Blizzard customer. Eventually the irons will get wrinkled out.
The underside of everyone's tongue is different. I verified this using basic research techniques over a series of weekends while I was in college. After obtaining a more permanent research assistant, I was unable to proceed with further "comparison-" however, I do encourage others to carry on my work in the spirit of cooperative science.
The beauty of this approach is that you could integrate the tongue reader with the computer's mouse. The user would insert his/her into an opening in the underside of the mouse, a laser light would illuminate the pattern of veins, and the resulting image would be captured and compared against the security database. The process is as simple as licking the filling out of a custard donut. In fact, in some companies I have worked for the users are so simple that care would be needed to ensure that they could tell the difference between a custard donut and a tongue reader or problems might occur. Utter panic ensues as user authentication fails at Dunkin' Donuts Wi-Fi access points... Well, you get the idea.
For those users on a low-carb diet, the process can be described as similar to that used for another research project I conducted while in college. One advantage of the tongue-reader biometric system is that computer mice, like research assistants, are much more responsive when properly lubricated. Some other method might be necessary when dealing with portable computers. Perhaps it would be possible to integrate a tongue reader with the touch-pad pointing device. Obviously, this would favor users with the ability to lick their own laptops. But isn't that already the case for much of life?
And in case anyone is wondering, yes this IS a tongue-in-cheek post.
Just thought I'd add the obligatory "How long before we're all required to wear a microphone and enough cameras for 360-degree coverage?" paranoia.
/Stylin' in my new tin-foil bowler.
are UML evangelists who whine and complain when you don't call it "the UML" (as opposed to plain old "UML"). If you want to really tick them off, call it "Yoo-mel" as in "I just did some Yoo-mel modelling today." or "As you can see from this Yoo-mel swim-lane diagram..." Drives 'em nuts.
Freakin Booch et al. decide there should be a "the" in front of it, inadvertantly inspring thousands of rent-a-nerds to show off how knowledgeable they are by correcting you every time you mention the term in what has become (depsite their annoying efforts) the more common usage.
The article itself provides all required humor:
...bang-bang pulses, at regular intervals can serve not only to suppress decoherence, but also to maintain entanglement...
...spontaneous emission, another bizarre quantum effect...
Of course, most physicists know they need only refer to their email in-boxes to find several offers for products which claim to help maintain entanglement, suppress decoherence, avoid spontaneous emission, and increase their ability to perform bang-bang pulses at regular intervals. Available for immediate shipping from a Canadian pharmacy near you.
I agree, however, with the majority view in that I can't see how they can possibly pull this off. Here's an example: LeGuin uses the concept of everything having a true name, that is, a name in the true speech, the language the dragons use, the language that Ea used when he spoke the world. This is not just some interesting concept found throughout the novels- it defines them and binds them together as a coherent whole. The first book is Ged's quest to find the true name of the Gebbeth and thus bring about its absumption. The second book's most inspiring moment is where he gives the girl her true name. In the third, the drama is made more intense when Ged discovers that the dragons lose their speech. How can these be communicated (meaningfully) in a visual medium? I think it would be quite shameful for this central theme to be made irrelevant or worse transformed into something entirely different from the author's intent. At best, you get dialogue that completely confuses anyone who hasn't read the book. At worst, you either leave it out (which makes the mini-series pointless) or you turn it into something completely different and piss off the very-vocal fans of the book (e.g. "Wierding Modules" in the original Dune movie). And this is only one of many important themes LeGuin weaves into these books. Leave them out and all you have left is a "Magik Island Adventure" story.
Anyone who trusts the sci-fi channel to remain true to the book should look at what they did to Battlestar Galactica (yes, I know it was a series, not a book). To quote Edward James Olmos, "I know the Sci Fi [network] wants to say that everyone's going to like it, but in the case of longtime fans, they're not." I think the same will apply to Earthsea.
My Predictions (serious and otherwise):