A Slashdot-like karma system where editors with high karma can block those without from editing thei stuff?
I actually really like this idea... A system where expertise can have a karma ranking system through either qualifications or community mediated promotion through contribution. This would allow experts in their fields to contribute without fear of having their contribution savaged by those who may not know what is going on. How about creating a system where experts get special accounts, recognizing their credentials. Wikipedia could have a system where they confirm that you are indeed a professor at this university, working on this field. The text that is contributed by experts could then perhaps be marked a different color on Wikipedia's edit page, so that everyone knows that they are actually editing out an expert. It's ridiculous that there's no way mechanism right now to recognize experts.
Humans are natural, hence they are part of natural selection. This false dichotomy between nature and man is, frankly, just so much hippie bullshit. So if man and nature are the same thing, does it make species extinction genocide?
Re:Just like there will never be another Doom
on
Can Anyone Beat WoW?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Would you rather have a game that had all of the depth as WoW, perhaps even more story, but didn't have the singular character advancement?
To this I say that most Wow player would answer a resounding no. Wow is not a game about story. There are some good story-driven quests in the game, but ultimately they're nothing but a passing amusement for players. If you want a game with a good story, there are much better choices (KOTOR for example).
What makes the game popular is that you build up a character and make him more and more powerful. Through the uberness of your character, and your inevitable involvment in social structures such as guilds, you gain (virtual) social status. That's the real core of it. Getting recognition, living inside a virtual social space. Building a second life.
While some people might avoid Wow because it's too much of an investment (not a bad idea), the millions who play it, do it because it's such and investment. Why? Because that investment can provide them with great rewards, quite similar to those in the real world. Gaining friendship, respect by your peers for your hard work, status symbol items. People will be willing to spend hundreds of hours just to get a higher stat number, because people will acknowledge and respect those who do.
When I started playing Wow quite casually I realized that after a certain point, the story content drops pretty much to zero. How great is the Molten Core story? People who play raid after raid do it for the rewards, both "material" (items) and social (be recognized by the guild). While I agree that some people might get drawn in to the game at the perspective of exploring an interesting world and living a great story, they drop out pretty early if they don't get hooked into the grinding side of it. Which is exactly what happened to me.
A story, although some adaptations are possible, is by nature a single player experience. It might be done online, but it's basically an interaction between you and a storyteller/game designer. What people crave in wow is not the single player experience, it's the social component.
If anybody objects, there is always the Notwithstanding Clause (it's Section 33). It was used for Bills 101 and 178 in Quebec, and Alberta keeps threatening to use it against same-sex marriage. It's been used a number of other times too.
The Notwithstanding Clause is used to exempt a law from being examined under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Liberties. This Charter is part of our Constitution and guarantees personal rights such as the right to free speech. Meaning it can allow Parliament to vote a law which is unconstitutional.
In the US, it would be the same as if congress could be allowed to vote a law which goes against the Constitution, and the judges couldn't do anything about it. To keep things fair, this provision has to be reexamined by Parliament every 5 years.
So this has nothing to do with giving the executive power (prime minister and ministers) the power to change laws without consulting Parliament. The law still has to be voted by Parliament. So this has no relation whatsoever with the bill proposed in the UK and couldn't be used to circumvent Parliament.
The real problem here is the absence of any procedural rights. Whether this particular guy was right or wrong is not the most important point. The point is as a paying subscriber (and a human being) you should at least get some basic rights.
First, the right to contest Blizzard's decision and that your defense be at least acknowledged. The right to know on what grounds you were condemned.
And these are only the most basic rights. Right know, in world of warcraft, Blizzard is an omnipotent king. They can decide to revoke any account, without justification, and without any right of appeal. Did you really violate the TOS? Well, that doesn't matter because Blizzard is deciding what the terms of service mean anyway. Yet people have invested time and money into those characters. Of course, I don't think courts of justice are going to recognize rights to players in MMORPG anytime soon. But eventually, as this phenomenon gets more and more prevalent, I think it will have to happen.
Right now, the players have so little rights that Blizzard could probably choose players at random, cancel their accounts and get away with it. Talk about injustice. Of course, it has not happened yet (and probably won't), but in this case the player was condemned (probably) on the grounds of an unclear point in the TOS. If an independent judge had examined the decision, then the guy would probably have won and Blizzard would have been forced to make its TOS clearer.
Slashdot Mirror
not to mention that canola rubbish
So none of his students became professors?
I, for one, still use the term "paper" quite often.
Would you rather have a game that had all of the depth as WoW, perhaps even more story, but didn't have the singular character advancement?
To this I say that most Wow player would answer a resounding no. Wow is not a game about story. There are some good story-driven quests in the game, but ultimately they're nothing but a passing amusement for players. If you want a game with a good story, there are much better choices (KOTOR for example).
What makes the game popular is that you build up a character and make him more and more powerful. Through the uberness of your character, and your inevitable involvment in social structures such as guilds, you gain (virtual) social status. That's the real core of it. Getting recognition, living inside a virtual social space. Building a second life.
While some people might avoid Wow because it's too much of an investment (not a bad idea), the millions who play it, do it because it's such and investment. Why? Because that investment can provide them with great rewards, quite similar to those in the real world. Gaining friendship, respect by your peers for your hard work, status symbol items. People will be willing to spend hundreds of hours just to get a higher stat number, because people will acknowledge and respect those who do.
When I started playing Wow quite casually I realized that after a certain point, the story content drops pretty much to zero. How great is the Molten Core story? People who play raid after raid do it for the rewards, both "material" (items) and social (be recognized by the guild). While I agree that some people might get drawn in to the game at the perspective of exploring an interesting world and living a great story, they drop out pretty early if they don't get hooked into the grinding side of it. Which is exactly what happened to me.
A story, although some adaptations are possible, is by nature a single player experience. It might be done online, but it's basically an interaction between you and a storyteller/game designer. What people crave in wow is not the single player experience, it's the social component.
The real problem here is the absence of any procedural rights. Whether this particular guy was right or wrong is not the most important point. The point is as a paying subscriber (and a human being) you should at least get some basic rights.
First, the right to contest Blizzard's decision and that your defense be at least acknowledged. The right to know on what grounds you were condemned.
And these are only the most basic rights. Right know, in world of warcraft, Blizzard is an omnipotent king. They can decide to revoke any account, without justification, and without any right of appeal. Did you really violate the TOS? Well, that doesn't matter because Blizzard is deciding what the terms of service mean anyway. Yet people have invested time and money into those characters. Of course, I don't think courts of justice are going to recognize rights to players in MMORPG anytime soon. But eventually, as this phenomenon gets more and more prevalent, I think it will have to happen.
Right now, the players have so little rights that Blizzard could probably choose players at random, cancel their accounts and get away with it. Talk about injustice. Of course, it has not happened yet (and probably won't), but in this case the player was condemned (probably) on the grounds of an unclear point in the TOS. If an independent judge had examined the decision, then the guy would probably have won and Blizzard would have been forced to make its TOS clearer.