Actually, they didn't have the invite code thing near the beginning, around 2001 at least. They added that requirement sometime in... 2003? I forget. It was supposedly due to expanding faster than their servers could keep up, from what I hear. They did away with the invites in 2004ish.
The article mentions that HL2 "shows you the story rather than telling you", and then says:
It's little surprise only Valve have really gone down this path properly as it clearly took a lot of work making the "cut-scenes" unbreakable by the player.
Out of interest, is this true? I'm not entirely experienced with such games in particular, but I felt that at least the System Shock series (off the top of my head; I haven't finished the Marathon series yet, so I'm not sure about those) also did it "properly". Is the article-writer exaggerating a mite?
"Raises the question", I think you mean. "Begging the question" is somewhat fuzzy in its current usage.
That said, I do agree that this does raise the question on the definition of standards.
Well, as far as I can tell, the main problem is one that you've already pointed out: people in a disaster area may not think of reporting in first. Also, major disasters like these tend to knock out communications for several days, if not much longer.
Not to mention that not everyone is net-savvy...
I also don't really see how it would significantly improve matters, or at least enough to justify the cost of bandwidth, keeping it all up to date and accurate, or whatever. Normally by the time information can be posted on such, the situation would be a bit moot.
The only problem that I can see is that the treatment process is run in a country like Singapore. It is not a Western nation and does not have the same quality standards that exist in the West: Japan, USA, Canada, etc.
Singapore is a Chinese society. I would not consume any food or drink exported from Singapore.
And in this specific case, NEWater has been around for what, a year?
This isn't news, this is olds.
(I'm Singaporean, incidentally. And yes, I have drunk NEWater before, and it's exactly the same as any other water. I have no idea why they wanted to "brand" it.)
This particular contest? Well, mostly for the community.
There's this oddly manic and excitable and optimistic feel to the atmosphere on the NaNo forums. I can write 50k words in 30 days on my own, but then I wouldn't have the support and encouragement of hundreds of other writers going through the same thing.
And instead of wondering "will this be good" or "will this go over well with readers", we can just let go and write what we want to write. Several NaNoers have regained their love of writing after rediscovering how fun it can be.
A lot of us won't be publishing our stories, or even considering it. We're just in it for the laughs.
Actually, it's "valuing enthusiasm and perserverence over talent and craft" because if we worry about whether our novels are good, chances are a lot of us wouldn't even get past the first word.
After we write the novels, we edit them to be good. We know that we're probably writing crap, and none of us want to be known for writing crap (and releasing it), so we try to fix that crap as much as possible.
50k words is about as long as The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It's an oft-cited comparison of length. (The original number of 50k words was taken from the rough length of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.)
Also, it's not as easy as it seems, especially when you miss days due to unforeseen circumstances.
Re:When did mediocrity become something to shoot f
on
Kamikaze Novel Writing
·
· Score: 1
It's the "aim high" idea, I think. We may not be able to get to 50k words, but at least we've written something while trying.
And if we don't win this year, there's always next year.
Difference between novel-writing and forum-posting.
They don't read your novel. At all. Word-counting is done by scripts.
Besides, the "Kerry vs. Bush" thread on the forums skirt dangerously close to a flamewar from time to time, and no moderators have said anything.
Sign-ups last until the end of which month?
on
Kamikaze Novel Writing
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Last year, you could sign up on the last day of November if you wanted to. If you could write a 50,000 word novel in less than 24 hours, more power to you.
Well, a few of the NaNoWriMo novels have been published (and not just vanity publishing). I haven't read any of them, so I'm not sure if they're "good".
It's not just a matter of writing quickly; there's still all the editing after November, which can take a very long time.
Re:When did mediocrity become something to shoot f
on
Kamikaze Novel Writing
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
The idea is to break the cycle of "one day I'm going to write a novel", by giving us that one day as a definite date.
It's just a way to make us write something, no matter how horrible, in order to have a story that we can edit and improve on after November's over.
They can. In fact, they can submit the OED if they want to.
It's just that "winning" gives you a certificate (in pdf) of the fill-in-your-name sort, a little usericon that says that you've won, and the feeling that you've done something not everyone can do.
If someone wants to cheat just to get these things, then that person has a lot more problems than simply not being able to write a novel.
From the article, apparently even Indymedia isn't talking.
For example, the writer doesn't know whether it's a rack-mounted hard disk or tower server that's been seized. Or whether the disks were physically taken, or just "taken offline".
Why would the UK Home Office be happy? I mean, so they get to carry out police actions. Whoopee. Does the UK government have something against Indymedia?
Slashdot Mirror
Links for the Luke Smith and Crispin Boyer articles appear to be identical.
Actually, they didn't have the invite code thing near the beginning, around 2001 at least. They added that requirement sometime in... 2003? I forget. It was supposedly due to expanding faster than their servers could keep up, from what I hear. They did away with the invites in 2004ish.
It's little surprise only Valve have really gone down this path properly as it clearly took a lot of work making the "cut-scenes" unbreakable by the player.
Out of interest, is this true? I'm not entirely experienced with such games in particular, but I felt that at least the System Shock series (off the top of my head; I haven't finished the Marathon series yet, so I'm not sure about those) also did it "properly". Is the article-writer exaggerating a mite?
"Raises the question", I think you mean. "Begging the question" is somewhat fuzzy in its current usage. That said, I do agree that this does raise the question on the definition of standards.
Well, as far as I can tell, the main problem is one that you've already pointed out: people in a disaster area may not think of reporting in first. Also, major disasters like these tend to knock out communications for several days, if not much longer.
Not to mention that not everyone is net-savvy...
I also don't really see how it would significantly improve matters, or at least enough to justify the cost of bandwidth, keeping it all up to date and accurate, or whatever. Normally by the time information can be posted on such, the situation would be a bit moot.
Fascist, possibly.
Why do you feel the need to troll? And why do you use false information to troll at that?
Singapore is a Chinese society. I would not consume any food or drink exported from Singapore.
How is, say, Japan more "Western" than Singapore?
It's pronounced "New Water". Well, the promoters pronounced it as such, anyway.
It's been in circulation for about a year or so now.
This isn't news, this is olds.
(I'm Singaporean, incidentally. And yes, I have drunk NEWater before, and it's exactly the same as any other water. I have no idea why they wanted to "brand" it.)
Forgot to mention that, sorry.
For what it's worth, I did get my 50k words last year...
There's this oddly manic and excitable and optimistic feel to the atmosphere on the NaNo forums. I can write 50k words in 30 days on my own, but then I wouldn't have the support and encouragement of hundreds of other writers going through the same thing.
And instead of wondering "will this be good" or "will this go over well with readers", we can just let go and write what we want to write. Several NaNoers have regained their love of writing after rediscovering how fun it can be.
A lot of us won't be publishing our stories, or even considering it. We're just in it for the laughs.
After we write the novels, we edit them to be good. We know that we're probably writing crap, and none of us want to be known for writing crap (and releasing it), so we try to fix that crap as much as possible.
Also, it's not as easy as it seems, especially when you miss days due to unforeseen circumstances.
And if we don't win this year, there's always next year.
They don't read your novel. At all. Word-counting is done by scripts.
Besides, the "Kerry vs. Bush" thread on the forums skirt dangerously close to a flamewar from time to time, and no moderators have said anything.
Last year, you could sign up on the last day of November if you wanted to. If you could write a 50,000 word novel in less than 24 hours, more power to you.
It's not just a matter of writing quickly; there's still all the editing after November, which can take a very long time.
It's just a way to make us write something, no matter how horrible, in order to have a story that we can edit and improve on after November's over.
It's just that "winning" gives you a certificate (in pdf) of the fill-in-your-name sort, a little usericon that says that you've won, and the feeling that you've done something not everyone can do.
If someone wants to cheat just to get these things, then that person has a lot more problems than simply not being able to write a novel.
Besides, I'm not sure if this is "news for nerds", save for the subset of "nerds" who like to write and/or are heavily involved in fandoms.
For example, the writer doesn't know whether it's a rack-mounted hard disk or tower server that's been seized. Or whether the disks were physically taken, or just "taken offline".
Why would the UK Home Office be happy? I mean, so they get to carry out police actions. Whoopee. Does the UK government have something against Indymedia?