Some of us do both! 6 O'clock, an hour of my beloved Seinfeld, 7 O'clock the Daily Show, and from 7:30 onwards it's the usual roundup of either CNN or the History Channel. All this while usually either cruising my usual blogs, message boards, or playing City of Heroes.
I spend a lot of time online, granted, but much of that is also multi-tasking; listening to music, etc. All told I probably easily go over 40 hours a week online, but I'm actively engaged in something (sometimes multiple things) rather than just sitting there passively watching the boob tube. I also run every morning, lift weights 3 times a week, and hold down a fulltime (not paying enough, but that's another grumble) job. On the weekends I'll go out to movies, dinner, whatever.
So yeah, my hobby may be "addictive", but it's what I enjoy, and it's cheap entertainment to boot.
"The Empire is worried that the Alliance is gaining a foothold on the planet and willing to fight to prevent the population from going over to the Rebels."
Sounds a hell of a lot like the former EQ players who are now giving Blizzard their money.
I'm a fairly technical user, not a tech god by any stretch of the imagination, but I know my way around. I know how to forward ports on my router, I do all my own XVID rips from Vdub, I can install most Linux distros without a problem, and I'm damned proficient at packages like Photoshop and Illustrator. In addition, I'm a gamer from back in the DOS days, so concepts like editing text files (config.sys, autoexec.bat, etc) don't necessarily scare me.
That said, as much as I like the concept of Linux, I simply will not try it any longer until I hear that a number of problems have been solved.
A) Having to recompile kernels/worrying that apps will be broken by upgrading that kernel. For that matter, I don't want to have to compile anything, ever. Just to make this clear, never. Come up with either something akin to Windows where I click on a standard installer, or make it like Mac where I just drag and drop the folder.
B) Any time I'm forced to drop to a command line, you as a developer have failed. Back 10 years ago, this may have been acceptable. In this day and age, it isn't. Furthermore, while once in a blue moon I may change a text file in Windows, in Linux it's a constant occurence. Again, you have failed.
C) MAN pages do not cut it. Neither does a message board where half the time I'll be called a clueless n00b, 25% of the time I'll be told to use a different distro, and the other 25% of the time I'll get genuinely helpful people giving me contradictory answers. If I'm expected to jump to an alien computing environment you'd best make sure your documentation is up to snuff. Linux sucks in this regard.
I'm an advanced user who's in favor of open source, but the bizarre, arcane, and technical details I have to jump through to achieve the same things that are comparatively simple in Mac or Windows may Linux a deal breaker. You will never, ever, become successful on the desktop until idiocy like this is exorcised from the OS.
They don't write cross-platform because they can already hit their biggest target (Windows) and use a superior API (DirectX) to hit it. You write for DirectX and you've already got at the very least the PC and XBox platforms sewn up. Would the very small marketshare represented by Apple and Linux really make that much of a difference? Now if those platforms were larger, maybe then you'd see a lot more cross-platform work, but right now it barely makes sense to port games to Apple; it sure as hell doesn't make much financial sense to port to Linux, except maybe a server version (BF1942, HL, etc.).
I see the usual suspects again rear their heads: Quake 3, UT2004, etc, etc, etc.
Love Linux on a server, as a games machine you've got to ask yourself why you're ponying up cash for a graphics card that is only going to be used by a handful of games. And if you're such a gamer that Cedega is a must for you, why are you even bothering to screw around with a kludge when you could just dual boot.
I guess I'm just not hardcore enough to be that much of a purist that I'd jump through so many damned hoops just to be MS free. I enjoy having access to a huge library of games, and I really enjoy not having to deal with botched textures and subpar performance just to make sure it runs on my pet OS. I'm a gamer first and foremost, and in this day and age that means Microsoft.
No one likes to admit it, but had Apple stayed in the catbird seat without competition from IBM and MS computing would be a very, very different world. For all of the underhanded things Microsoft has commited (and there've been plenty), I tend to think that Apple is much worse.
My problem is that the way I speak and the way I write encompass two completely different mindsets. I think most people take on a more formal tone when writing, and dictation doesn't seem to lend itself to that clarity of thought. I much prefer the good old fashioned "come up with a draft, revise" approach to writing.
You couldn't be more right. SOE has been outmaneuvered by too many other companies that are better at this than they are.
Not to say that I think Blizzard is all that great; for one thing they move like pondwater when it comes to updates. Still, they're better than Sony, and having played the EQ2 beta I can say that that game is horrible. In so many ways it's a huge step backward from the first EQ.
No, the best developer out there right now is Cryptic. They've done everything right with City of Heroes. From the sheer fun, the quality of everything, the great customer service and the continuing updates (which a lot of other companies would sell as expansion packs), these guys are the slickest devs out there.
SOE can still be competitive, but they're a long ways away from the 800 lb. gorilla that they used to be.
While I'm anti-Kerry myself, I have to object to how you're characterizing what a DA does. His entire job is to choose what to go after, what to plea down, and whom to prosecute. Whether that's guided by the loftiest ideals or naked ambition really doesn't matter to me as long as it does serve the public interest.
I think beyond a sense of justice,Spitzer has primarily been going after all these high profile targets in a bid to bolster his (extremely promising) political career. He's cultivated a certain kind of Teddy Roosevelt reformer aura around him (coincidentally, Roosevelt also made his name in NY as chief of police, then governor). Look for this guy to be a major player in a few years time.
Mark my words, very soon this guy will either be the successor to Pataki as governor, or Bloomberg as mayor. From there he WILL go national.
Very, very simply. You build the game around the WH fantasy RPG, which is exactly what they're doing. It'd be different than any other MMOG set in a fantasy genre (with the exception of WH being a dark fantasy setting).
I think you either have no idea of what the scope of current MMOG's are, or you're unaware of just how widespread the material behind the Warhammer universe is.
From my understanding, there are a couple of major roguelikes under development, either at their base version or their source ports. Even so, I still see activity on the newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.development where a version update for a roguelike game appears (among discussion for creating a roguelike.), at a rate that indicates that roguelike development is in progress. While there has been a shift in some games from Ascii to bitmaps, these Roguelikes are still being developed.
And I'm sure those homebrew monstrosities will shake the gaming world...
A small band of nerds updating Telengard in their free time does not a resurgence of a gaming genre make. Much like Tux Racer, these games will have a whopping huge audience of around 10 people or so; the same people that put them together in the first place.
Yep, and that's why if you can't pull off 100% realism you're much better off going with a stylistic representation.
Unfortunately, that opens the door up to subjectivity, because some people just don't like certain styles. I personally can't stand anything anime-ish; I hate the genre with a fiery, burning passion, and that more than anything has kept me away from games like the Final Fantasy series, even though word of mouth on them is extremely good. I just hate the style that much.
Still, it's always fairly obvious which developer has jumped aboard the style train. Everquest II looks absolutely horrible and uninspired to me. Sure, I bet it pushes a lot of polygons and will bring a Crey to it's knees, but the artistic style of it sucks in my opinion. World of Warcraft and City of Heroes don't even come close to the graphic complexity of EQ2, but they actually have a competent, graphical style that touches everything in the game. Those games appear to have life, and EQ2 just doesn't to my eyes.
Anyone else amused by comments posted by people whom quite obviously aren't gamers? "Things were so much better back in the halcyon days, yadda yadda". They all bring up games that are 7-8 years old and have zero bearing on what gamers are currently playing. It's absolute nonsense. I'm in my 30's, have been a gamer all my life, and remember quite well the games of the late 70's and onward. Guess what? Most of them don't hold up anymore compared to modern games. The usual Nethack zealots really get me; there is a reason that Rogue-like games aren't produced in great quantity anymore (although you could make the case for the Diablo and Dungeon Siege games being their descendents), and that's because they frankly just aren't interesting.
Games have increasingly getting more and more complex over the years, and thankfully so have the graphics associated with them. The higher production values are noticeable, and the entire affair is more engaging than it's ever been. While highly simplistic gameplay can be great, no one mentions that it's also damned hard to pull off so one doesn't get bored of it.
Does that mean that all old games are junk? Definitely not, but classic games that can hold one's attention indefinitely like Tetris are flukes. They aren't the norm, and on balance the majority of games being produced today are far better than their predecessors.
I still don't think it's a good idea. Much like colorizing black & white movies, this is changing a movie beyond what the original director ever intended. Even if you're not a purist about this sort of thing, the results would probably still be lousy because it was never in the directors mind in the first place.
Introducing storylines suitable for children where acceptable society values and virtues are explored is a good thing for kids
They already have those, they're called Nintendo games. I'm sorry, but I just don't care about your, or anyone elses kids. I treat people bitching about violent videogames like people that bring children into bars... I don't drink at the playground, please don't bring your kids into a bar. Likewise, don't let your kids play GTA and I won't try to dictate the content of the next Barney Teaches Reading. Deal?
They may accomplish what they do differently than your standard phone company, but the fact remains that that's exactly the business they're in.
Of course, it's also possible to do what Vonage is doing with any other broadband connection. Suppose a company pops up that just runs a database that keeps track of it's users IP and assigns them a "phone number". They're not in any way a hardware company, but aside from physical infrastructure, they're performing the same function as any phone company. Are they treated the same? How about the broadband provider? They aren't performing the function of a phone company, but they are providing the infrastructure to make those exchanges possible.
You saw the beginnings of Lucas' descent with ROJ. The first two prequels confirmed his hack status, so why are any of you surprised that from the sounds of things the next movie will suck badly also?
What are you all hoping for, Lucas to turn into Kubrick or Scorsese and plop out Citizen Kane for you? It ain't gonna happen. Unlike Darth Vader, there'll be no redemption for these steamy piles of crap. Just give up your vain hopes and embrace the cynicism!
Spitzer's been a great watchdog for US citizens. All of those crackdowns on securities violators? Primarily coming out of Spitzer's office. Of course, it also doesn't hurt his political career, but hey, the guy's been doing a bang up job as NY DA.
Slashdot Mirror
I spend a lot of time online, granted, but much of that is also multi-tasking; listening to music, etc. All told I probably easily go over 40 hours a week online, but I'm actively engaged in something (sometimes multiple things) rather than just sitting there passively watching the boob tube. I also run every morning, lift weights 3 times a week, and hold down a fulltime (not paying enough, but that's another grumble) job. On the weekends I'll go out to movies, dinner, whatever.
So yeah, my hobby may be "addictive", but it's what I enjoy, and it's cheap entertainment to boot.
Sounds a hell of a lot like the former EQ players who are now giving Blizzard their money.
That said, as much as I like the concept of Linux, I simply will not try it any longer until I hear that a number of problems have been solved.
A) Having to recompile kernels/worrying that apps will be broken by upgrading that kernel. For that matter, I don't want to have to compile anything, ever. Just to make this clear, never. Come up with either something akin to Windows where I click on a standard installer, or make it like Mac where I just drag and drop the folder.
B) Any time I'm forced to drop to a command line, you as a developer have failed. Back 10 years ago, this may have been acceptable. In this day and age, it isn't. Furthermore, while once in a blue moon I may change a text file in Windows, in Linux it's a constant occurence. Again, you have failed.
C) MAN pages do not cut it. Neither does a message board where half the time I'll be called a clueless n00b, 25% of the time I'll be told to use a different distro, and the other 25% of the time I'll get genuinely helpful people giving me contradictory answers. If I'm expected to jump to an alien computing environment you'd best make sure your documentation is up to snuff. Linux sucks in this regard.
I'm an advanced user who's in favor of open source, but the bizarre, arcane, and technical details I have to jump through to achieve the same things that are comparatively simple in Mac or Windows may Linux a deal breaker. You will never, ever, become successful on the desktop until idiocy like this is exorcised from the OS.
They don't write cross-platform because they can already hit their biggest target (Windows) and use a superior API (DirectX) to hit it. You write for DirectX and you've already got at the very least the PC and XBox platforms sewn up. Would the very small marketshare represented by Apple and Linux really make that much of a difference? Now if those platforms were larger, maybe then you'd see a lot more cross-platform work, but right now it barely makes sense to port games to Apple; it sure as hell doesn't make much financial sense to port to Linux, except maybe a server version (BF1942, HL, etc.).
I see the usual suspects again rear their heads: Quake 3, UT2004, etc, etc, etc. Love Linux on a server, as a games machine you've got to ask yourself why you're ponying up cash for a graphics card that is only going to be used by a handful of games. And if you're such a gamer that Cedega is a must for you, why are you even bothering to screw around with a kludge when you could just dual boot. I guess I'm just not hardcore enough to be that much of a purist that I'd jump through so many damned hoops just to be MS free. I enjoy having access to a huge library of games, and I really enjoy not having to deal with botched textures and subpar performance just to make sure it runs on my pet OS. I'm a gamer first and foremost, and in this day and age that means Microsoft.
No one likes to admit it, but had Apple stayed in the catbird seat without competition from IBM and MS computing would be a very, very different world. For all of the underhanded things Microsoft has commited (and there've been plenty), I tend to think that Apple is much worse.
My problem is that the way I speak and the way I write encompass two completely different mindsets. I think most people take on a more formal tone when writing, and dictation doesn't seem to lend itself to that clarity of thought. I much prefer the good old fashioned "come up with a draft, revise" approach to writing.
Since when is a Ti4800 a "bleeding edge" card? Bleeding edge two years ago? Yes. Today? Not so much.
Not to say that I think Blizzard is all that great; for one thing they move like pondwater when it comes to updates. Still, they're better than Sony, and having played the EQ2 beta I can say that that game is horrible. In so many ways it's a huge step backward from the first EQ.
No, the best developer out there right now is Cryptic. They've done everything right with City of Heroes. From the sheer fun, the quality of everything, the great customer service and the continuing updates (which a lot of other companies would sell as expansion packs), these guys are the slickest devs out there.
SOE can still be competitive, but they're a long ways away from the 800 lb. gorilla that they used to be.
Can CherryOS emulate it?
Doh. Meant to reply to the anonymous coward and not you, Trent. That'll teach me to use the preview function.
While I'm anti-Kerry myself, I have to object to how you're characterizing what a DA does. His entire job is to choose what to go after, what to plea down, and whom to prosecute. Whether that's guided by the loftiest ideals or naked ambition really doesn't matter to me as long as it does serve the public interest.
Mark my words, very soon this guy will either be the successor to Pataki as governor, or Bloomberg as mayor. From there he WILL go national.
Damn. Must learn to use preview. I meant to say, "It'd be NO different than any other MMOG".
Very, very simply. You build the game around the WH fantasy RPG, which is exactly what they're doing. It'd be different than any other MMOG set in a fantasy genre (with the exception of WH being a dark fantasy setting). I think you either have no idea of what the scope of current MMOG's are, or you're unaware of just how widespread the material behind the Warhammer universe is.
A small band of nerds updating Telengard in their free time does not a resurgence of a gaming genre make. Much like Tux Racer, these games will have a whopping huge audience of around 10 people or so; the same people that put them together in the first place.
Unfortunately, that opens the door up to subjectivity, because some people just don't like certain styles. I personally can't stand anything anime-ish; I hate the genre with a fiery, burning passion, and that more than anything has kept me away from games like the Final Fantasy series, even though word of mouth on them is extremely good. I just hate the style that much.
Still, it's always fairly obvious which developer has jumped aboard the style train. Everquest II looks absolutely horrible and uninspired to me. Sure, I bet it pushes a lot of polygons and will bring a Crey to it's knees, but the artistic style of it sucks in my opinion. World of Warcraft and City of Heroes don't even come close to the graphic complexity of EQ2, but they actually have a competent, graphical style that touches everything in the game. Those games appear to have life, and EQ2 just doesn't to my eyes.
Games have increasingly getting more and more complex over the years, and thankfully so have the graphics associated with them. The higher production values are noticeable, and the entire affair is more engaging than it's ever been. While highly simplistic gameplay can be great, no one mentions that it's also damned hard to pull off so one doesn't get bored of it.
Does that mean that all old games are junk? Definitely not, but classic games that can hold one's attention indefinitely like Tetris are flukes. They aren't the norm, and on balance the majority of games being produced today are far better than their predecessors.
I still don't think it's a good idea. Much like colorizing black & white movies, this is changing a movie beyond what the original director ever intended. Even if you're not a purist about this sort of thing, the results would probably still be lousy because it was never in the directors mind in the first place.
Archon. Either you're too young or too old to remember, so which is it? =P
They already have those, they're called Nintendo games. I'm sorry, but I just don't care about your, or anyone elses kids. I treat people bitching about violent videogames like people that bring children into bars... I don't drink at the playground, please don't bring your kids into a bar. Likewise, don't let your kids play GTA and I won't try to dictate the content of the next Barney Teaches Reading. Deal?
Of course, it's also possible to do what Vonage is doing with any other broadband connection. Suppose a company pops up that just runs a database that keeps track of it's users IP and assigns them a "phone number". They're not in any way a hardware company, but aside from physical infrastructure, they're performing the same function as any phone company. Are they treated the same? How about the broadband provider? They aren't performing the function of a phone company, but they are providing the infrastructure to make those exchanges possible.
You saw the beginnings of Lucas' descent with ROJ. The first two prequels confirmed his hack status, so why are any of you surprised that from the sounds of things the next movie will suck badly also? What are you all hoping for, Lucas to turn into Kubrick or Scorsese and plop out Citizen Kane for you? It ain't gonna happen. Unlike Darth Vader, there'll be no redemption for these steamy piles of crap. Just give up your vain hopes and embrace the cynicism!
Oh well. At least I gave him a better title than "law talking guy" =P
Spitzer's been a great watchdog for US citizens. All of those crackdowns on securities violators? Primarily coming out of Spitzer's office. Of course, it also doesn't hurt his political career, but hey, the guy's been doing a bang up job as NY DA.