Your logic can be applied equally for the reverse. You say that people are born without murderous tendancies, and outside influences negatively shape them into killers.
Could it not also follow that people are born killers, and the morals and standards imposed on people by society quell those urges?
Keep in mind that Humans are omnivorous, predatory animals, so a killing instinct would be expected. That being the case then it would make MORE sense to assume that we are all born killers, and are conditioned otherwise.
Now even in this reversed scenario, the "possible" negative implications of violent media are the same. In your example, violent media influences a normally non-violent person and turns them violent. In my example a violent person who has been conditioned by society to be non-violent, is influenced by media in a way that is counter to societal conditioning. Either way, violent media would appear to have a negative effect.
My personal belief? If someone is a killer, they are a killer. No game or movie will change that. Media influence may change the way the killer commits the act, but the act itself falls on the person.
I'm so incredibly dispirited by the lack of creativity in games nowadays. Tolkien has done the world of fantasy irreperable harm. Orcs, Goblins, Elves, Men, Dwarves, even Gnomes...all of them in every game. They have become a shorthand for lazy game developers, the computer game equivalent of "Once upon a time".
You know, I agree with you. Which is why I WILL be playing this game, as it has none of the above. Playable characters are human, and the non-human characters are original races. (Charr for example)
Of course, I'm sure you already knew this before posting. I can't imagine anyone posting their opinion on something they know nothing about...
Not if Valve goes out of business, or Steam is shut down.
I think Steam is a cool idea and I'll be using it to get HL2, (I'm an instant gratification whore) but I agree not having a packaged product is kinda scary.
When I was playing the Sims, I got bored one day and tried killing a sim off. I put them in a small room with no windows, removed the doors, and waited. That was one of the most disturbing video game moments I've experienced, and I never did it again. GTA (and most games for that matter) don't carry the same effect. The characters, while entertaining, are not realistic, and their interactions follow suit.
You kill someone in GTA, they hit the ground and money pops out.
Kill a Sim, and you watch them suffer and beg for assistance, until they finally die in a puddle of their own urine. Then their family mourns them.
Thats a significant difference in how death is portrayed. Blood != realistic. If anything, the deaths in the Sims is much more accurate than just about any game out there.
1) They are implementing a rest system which rewards people for not working at the game. In otherwords, the people who are casual gamers should be able to keep up with the hardcore gamers. Sorry but there should be some reward for working your ass off. Instead, they reward you for slacking.
You would LOVE Lineage II.
Personally, I prefer a game that lets me enjoy it without dedicating full 8+ hour shifts just to grind XP on mushrooms.
It is not a standard MMO, that is true. Missions are instanced, yes. However, coop play is the point of the missions. Instancing these missions allows them to be alot more complicated (and entertaining) as you don't have to worry about random players being affected by what your party is doing. No more queueing for spawns, no more camping, no more griefing, no more crowded dungeons. The death penalty is situational, and doesn't set your character development back. (Trust me, it's still effective) The character development is less linear, and skill rather than level is more important to be successful in combat. Oh, and no monthly fee.
You're right, it's not a normal MMO. But, since it eliminates most of the really annoying things about traditional MMO's, I'm not complaining.
I played Lineage II during the open beta, and while the core game is okay, (blatant grind) The thing that really made it suck was the people playing it. It seems like the game attracted the lowest common denominator of the MMO population. It's full of '1337' 12 year olds, griefers, and farming bots. The day I walked into a dungeon for my daily grind and realized the ENTIRE place was useless because it was full of bots, I closed the game, uninstalled, and ran screaming back to Eve: Online which has a much more mature playerbase.
Seriously, an entire dungeon and I was probably the only human there. No "endgame" is worth that kind of bullshit.
Personally, I'm anxiously awaiting Guild Wars to come out. No monthly fee, instanced content, and structured PVP. Life doesn't get any better!
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I could be wrong, as I can't see the picture from work, but #4 is most likely the Black Widow. It's black, and has a red hourglass shape on it's abdomen.
Yeah, the Cortana letters were completely unneeded, but very cool and generated a lot of hype.
The little details, while often overlooked are what make the difference in the long run. The Marathon series is good proof of that. You don't need to read all the stuff in every console to get your objectives and complete the game, but they add a lot of depth to the game universe.
Now, I waiting for Halo 2 just to find out if Cortana DID go rampant... (Theres some good circumstantial evidence of this)
Yup, the game is iclandic, but the major markets it targets are North America and Europe. In my experience, the euro playerbase is the stronger of the two markets.
CCP keeps talking about pushing marketing into the Asian market. Will be interested to see the server population once that starts.
127.0.0.1 is the loopback ip to your NIC. That is absolutely meaningless to anything outside your computer, including your cablemodem. Thats not even a valid internal network IP.
I hate hearing about how unsecure Windows is. I ran my computer in an experiment for two months with no AV or Firewall protection. I installed an AV software and scanned. Guess what? No viruses, none of those dreaded worms you apparently get after signing on to the 'net for more than fifteen minutes. Maybe it was a fluke, but I still love my Windows machine.
What kind of connection was it? Many DSL modems have built in firewalls. There are more variables here besides installed software that you didn't mention. More than likely, you were not getting an external IP, and therefore not succeptible to a majority of the blaster/sasser/etc type worms.
Had you been on dial-up, I assure you your experience would have been far less pleasant.
You know, this is a perfect example of what makes Sony screwed up as a company. It's actually fighting itself. One one side, you have a company producing hardware and trying to get all the features in that people will pay for. On the other side, you have a media provider thats trying to restrict what hardware can do with their content.
If sony gives us the ability to copy and share content, they worry that their media sales drop. But if they protect their media they risk a drop in hardware sales.
I was speaking of the outdoor areas in HL2. The ambient light and shadows don't look nearly as good as those in Doom3. The spot I'm thinking of specifically is the "Coast" bink video. When the character is operating the crane, the shadows of the npcs and objects just looked very fake to me.
Agreed that the textures and models for HL2 look much better than Doom3. Most of the stuff in D3 looked like plastic.
Honestly, I'd love to see a combination of the two. The dynamic lighting system in Doom3 with the physics, textures, and models of HL2. THAT would be impressive.
This is already the case. The best comparison is Doom 3. From what I've seen in the HL2 videos, DOOM 3 has it spanked as far as lighting and shadows are concerned. This is very visible in the outdoor areas. HL2 will shine moreso with it's AI, and the interactivity of the enviroment. Hopefully the story will rock too.
Had HL2 released last year like it was supposed to, it would have blown away the competition by a wide margin. There was just nothing on the market that comes close. Now because of the delays, they've lost a huge advantage. Now it will be just another good game.
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Your logic can be applied equally for the reverse. You say that people are born without murderous tendancies, and outside influences negatively shape them into killers.
Could it not also follow that people are born killers, and the morals and standards imposed on people by society quell those urges?
Keep in mind that Humans are omnivorous, predatory animals, so a killing instinct would be expected. That being the case then it would make MORE sense to assume that we are all born killers, and are conditioned otherwise.
Now even in this reversed scenario, the "possible" negative implications of violent media are the same. In your example, violent media influences a normally non-violent person and turns them violent. In my example a violent person who has been conditioned by society to be non-violent, is influenced by media in a way that is counter to societal conditioning. Either way, violent media would appear to have a negative effect.
My personal belief? If someone is a killer, they are a killer. No game or movie will change that. Media influence may change the way the killer commits the act, but the act itself falls on the person.
Of course, I'm sure you already knew this before posting. I can't imagine anyone posting their opinion on something they know nothing about...
Also remember that Carmack quote, likening the plot of a video game to the plot of a porno.
That should have set expectations accordingly.
I'm sure all those aim bots and wallhacks will have absolutely NO EFFECT on my enjoyment on single-player HL2.
We're talking about the release of a SINGLE PLAYER game. Multiplayer exploits in a mod thats already released have nothing to do with it.
Not if Valve goes out of business, or Steam is shut down.
I think Steam is a cool idea and I'll be using it to get HL2, (I'm an instant gratification whore) but I agree not having a packaged product is kinda scary.
When I was playing the Sims, I got bored one day and tried killing a sim off. I put them in a small room with no windows, removed the doors, and waited. That was one of the most disturbing video game moments I've experienced, and I never did it again. GTA (and most games for that matter) don't carry the same effect. The characters, while entertaining, are not realistic, and their interactions follow suit.
You kill someone in GTA, they hit the ground and money pops out.
Kill a Sim, and you watch them suffer and beg for assistance, until they finally die in a puddle of their own urine. Then their family mourns them.
Thats a significant difference in how death is portrayed. Blood != realistic. If anything, the deaths in the Sims is much more accurate than just about any game out there.
Personally, I prefer a game that lets me enjoy it without dedicating full 8+ hour shifts just to grind XP on mushrooms.
You are correct, but at the same time you're not.
It is not a standard MMO, that is true. Missions are instanced, yes. However, coop play is the point of the missions. Instancing these missions allows them to be alot more complicated (and entertaining) as you don't have to worry about random players being affected by what your party is doing. No more queueing for spawns, no more camping, no more griefing, no more crowded dungeons. The death penalty is situational, and doesn't set your character development back. (Trust me, it's still effective) The character development is less linear, and skill rather than level is more important to be successful in combat. Oh, and no monthly fee.
You're right, it's not a normal MMO. But, since it eliminates most of the really annoying things about traditional MMO's, I'm not complaining.
I played Lineage II during the open beta, and while the core game is okay, (blatant grind) The thing that really made it suck was the people playing it. It seems like the game attracted the lowest common denominator of the MMO population. It's full of '1337' 12 year olds, griefers, and farming bots. The day I walked into a dungeon for my daily grind and realized the ENTIRE place was useless because it was full of bots, I closed the game, uninstalled, and ran screaming back to Eve: Online which has a much more mature playerbase.
Seriously, an entire dungeon and I was probably the only human there. No "endgame" is worth that kind of bullshit.
Personally, I'm anxiously awaiting Guild Wars to come out. No monthly fee, instanced content, and structured PVP. Life doesn't get any better!
Mouse? WTF is a Mouse?
:tab to submit button:
:spacebar:
Ummm, Jesus is pretty common in Spanish speaking cultures. Thats (white) Western... (West European based anyway)
I could be wrong, as I can't see the picture from work, but #4 is most likely the Black Widow. It's black, and has a red hourglass shape on it's abdomen.
Given the range of the Halo found in the first game, more than likely it WAS the one in range of the Covenant homeworld.
Oh, and Earth too...
Yeah, the Cortana letters were completely unneeded, but very cool and generated a lot of hype.
The little details, while often overlooked are what make the difference in the long run. The Marathon series is good proof of that. You don't need to read all the stuff in every console to get your objectives and complete the game, but they add a lot of depth to the game universe.
Now, I waiting for Halo 2 just to find out if Cortana DID go rampant... (Theres some good circumstantial evidence of this)
On one server? Thats the significance of the 10k concurrent user stat. Thats all in one game server.
Cock Bite.
Doh! Get it now... heh.
Yup, the game is iclandic, but the major markets it targets are North America and Europe. In my experience, the euro playerbase is the stronger of the two markets.
CCP keeps talking about pushing marketing into the Asian market. Will be interested to see the server population once that starts.
127.0.0.1 is the loopback ip to your NIC. That is absolutely meaningless to anything outside your computer, including your cablemodem. Thats not even a valid internal network IP.
Had you been on dial-up, I assure you your experience would have been far less pleasant.
You know, this is a perfect example of what makes Sony screwed up as a company. It's actually fighting itself. One one side, you have a company producing hardware and trying to get all the features in that people will pay for. On the other side, you have a media provider thats trying to restrict what hardware can do with their content.
If sony gives us the ability to copy and share content, they worry that their media sales drop. But if they protect their media they risk a drop in hardware sales.
Must be some interesting board meetings.
I was speaking of the outdoor areas in HL2. The ambient light and shadows don't look nearly as good as those in Doom3. The spot I'm thinking of specifically is the "Coast" bink video. When the character is operating the crane, the shadows of the npcs and objects just looked very fake to me.
Agreed that the textures and models for HL2 look much better than Doom3. Most of the stuff in D3 looked like plastic.
Honestly, I'd love to see a combination of the two. The dynamic lighting system in Doom3 with the physics, textures, and models of HL2. THAT would be impressive.
This is already the case. The best comparison is Doom 3. From what I've seen in the HL2 videos, DOOM 3 has it spanked as far as lighting and shadows are concerned. This is very visible in the outdoor areas. HL2 will shine moreso with it's AI, and the interactivity of the enviroment. Hopefully the story will rock too.
Had HL2 released last year like it was supposed to, it would have blown away the competition by a wide margin. There was just nothing on the market that comes close. Now because of the delays, they've lost a huge advantage. Now it will be just another good game.