...is just a masterful marketing campaign. Rockstar has always been brilliant with finding ways to piss people off to generate all kinds of press for their games.
You, the player and your character/party, are the only important part of a single-player RPG. The game revolves around you and you goals and whatever characters, locales, etc. that your goals entail. This provides the opportunity for creating a truly unique character that actually stands out in the game world. An MMO, where you're just another level x [insert class here], can never touch that.
Also, in a single-player RPG, there are no griefing assholes out there to camp your corpse or talk smack about how you're a n00b or spam the chat. Some people are willing to put up with the grief or find ways to avoid it cuz they like a world filled with people, and that's why MMOs are so popular these days. But there are people who don't and need to get their RPG fix in a non-MMO form.
Personally, until there's a massive paradigm shift in the general attitude of MMO communities and people start playing nice with each other, I'll just stick to Star Wars: KotOR, The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, and the like for my RPG needs.
As long as "CCP corp" actually has a well-defined purpose in the game's own universe and isn't just "oh, dev employees are in this corp," then yeah, that's a perfectly legitimate strategy. The problem that TFA is point out is, it's "insiders" in "normal player" clothing, which is not acceptable; but that's not what you're arguing for.
...And thus prone to the temptations of power, and of abusing it.
That is exactly why employees of games like these need to be confined to their own guilds/corporations that are automatically disqualified from taking part in major in-game events.
That was a decade ago, and completely different world circumstances. And, let us not forget; even though the Democrats control the Houses of Congress, we still have a Republican President. Therefore?
No, no I don't. Congress only actually approves a very small portion of the bills that are put before them (like, a few hundred out of tens of thousands.)
Source: http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa010899 .htm
You start to wonder how any bills ever become laws. Fact of the matter is, not many do. The 105th Congress (1997-98) considered 13,882 pieces of legislation. A total of 354 became Public Laws. So please take your ignorance somewhere else.
That's the thing of it--MS could have skipped making the Core system and just released the Premium system with the hard drive for the same $400 it costs now.
I thought from the very beginning that making the hard drive optional was a step backwards in the system's design.
The original Xbox was a really ballsy system overall. It was the first (commercially successful) console to have a hard drive and internet connectivity built-in. It brought LAN gaming and broadband online gaming to console gamers in a really big way. I thought it was really cool that if I played the same couple of maps or levels in Halo over and over it only had to load them once because Bungie was able to stream the files to the hard drive.
I feel like MS pussied out on the 360's design by removing the hard drive because they took that away from developers. Instead of innovating the console market again, they just seem to be riding on the success that they've already created. Now we're finally seeing a successful multi-platform developer complain about the 360's limitations. I don't think this looks very good for the 360 or for Microsoft.
P.S.: I'm sure the PS3 has development issues too--mainly the long load times as a result of the Blu-Ray disc and still figuring out the Cell architecture. But Rockstar is used to taking crap from Sony, so they're not complaining about it.
Mod parent down for use of the perfectionist fallacy.
Who cares about pleasing every wacko environmentalist out there? It be a good thing for Apple's reputation and Apple's East-Asian workers if Apple met these goals, wouldn't it?
This isn't news. Ridiculous bills like this get considered all the time. Hasn't some congressman sponsored a bill to re-initiate the draft within the last year?
This amendment to the HEA is completely ludicrous--I trust our lawmakers to strike it down.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute just got their new Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program out the door--your son can get a four-year education in Game Design with one of five concentrations, or elect to take a dual-major or dual-degree with GSAS and a more traditional major like CS, Psychology, or something else.
I'm a freshman at RPI and I'm not planning on transferring into this program, but I am planning on taking a minor in Game Design Studies, which has been available for a couple of years now. I know some of the professors involved in making this program happen, and they've really been busting their asses to make the school faculty and the Regents of New York happy with it.
Slashdot Mirror
...is just a masterful marketing campaign. Rockstar has always been brilliant with finding ways to piss people off to generate all kinds of press for their games.
I think Joe Average would sooner go without updates to his operating system than pay for them.
Perhaps if MS would roll out new versions of its OS more often than once every 5 years this wouldn't be such a problem...
You, the player and your character/party, are the only important part of a single-player RPG. The game revolves around you and you goals and whatever characters, locales, etc. that your goals entail. This provides the opportunity for creating a truly unique character that actually stands out in the game world. An MMO, where you're just another level x [insert class here], can never touch that.
Also, in a single-player RPG, there are no griefing assholes out there to camp your corpse or talk smack about how you're a n00b or spam the chat. Some people are willing to put up with the grief or find ways to avoid it cuz they like a world filled with people, and that's why MMOs are so popular these days. But there are people who don't and need to get their RPG fix in a non-MMO form.
Personally, until there's a massive paradigm shift in the general attitude of MMO communities and people start playing nice with each other, I'll just stick to Star Wars: KotOR, The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, and the like for my RPG needs.
As long as "CCP corp" actually has a well-defined purpose in the game's own universe and isn't just "oh, dev employees are in this corp," then yeah, that's a perfectly legitimate strategy. The problem that TFA is point out is, it's "insiders" in "normal player" clothing, which is not acceptable; but that's not what you're arguing for.
Hm...that would work, but then the employees wouldn't actually be players, strictly speaking. They'd be more analogous to a D&D Dungeon Master.
Interesting. If I wasn't the GP I would have to mod this up. :P
Staying active, informed, and involved and writing our congressmen is the best we can do, I suppose.
The wake of 9/11 is over. The War on Terror isn't an excuse anymore.
I don't understand why Slashdot has to report on every bullshit bill that comes before congress.
Lifetime imprisonment for using software, pirated or not? Gimmie a break. This won't pass.
That's the thing of it--MS could have skipped making the Core system and just released the Premium system with the hard drive for the same $400 it costs now.
Why are we still talking about Kazaa in 2007? As far as I know that network has been dead for years.
Congratulations, you just made an ad hominem argument!
Just because he's a defense attorney doesn't mean his opinion is invalid.
I thought from the very beginning that making the hard drive optional was a step backwards in the system's design.
The original Xbox was a really ballsy system overall. It was the first (commercially successful) console to have a hard drive and internet connectivity built-in. It brought LAN gaming and broadband online gaming to console gamers in a really big way. I thought it was really cool that if I played the same couple of maps or levels in Halo over and over it only had to load them once because Bungie was able to stream the files to the hard drive.
I feel like MS pussied out on the 360's design by removing the hard drive because they took that away from developers. Instead of innovating the console market again, they just seem to be riding on the success that they've already created. Now we're finally seeing a successful multi-platform developer complain about the 360's limitations. I don't think this looks very good for the 360 or for Microsoft.
P.S.: I'm sure the PS3 has development issues too--mainly the long load times as a result of the Blu-Ray disc and still figuring out the Cell architecture. But Rockstar is used to taking crap from Sony, so they're not complaining about it.
Mod parent down for use of the perfectionist fallacy. Who cares about pleasing every wacko environmentalist out there? It be a good thing for Apple's reputation and Apple's East-Asian workers if Apple met these goals, wouldn't it?
All of this "security" is just crap if it can apparently be exploited so easily.
To a degree. If they were actually as evil as they're made out to be by the average slashdotter, we'd be living in a totalitarian state.
This isn't news. Ridiculous bills like this get considered all the time. Hasn't some congressman sponsored a bill to re-initiate the draft within the last year?
This amendment to the HEA is completely ludicrous--I trust our lawmakers to strike it down.
3000 readers of a sci-fi magazine get to decide what the greatest sci-fi film of all time is? I don't think so.
Begin shameless plug:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute just got their new Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program out the door--your son can get a four-year education in Game Design with one of five concentrations, or elect to take a dual-major or dual-degree with GSAS and a more traditional major like CS, Psychology, or something else.
I'm a freshman at RPI and I'm not planning on transferring into this program, but I am planning on taking a minor in Game Design Studies, which has been available for a couple of years now. I know some of the professors involved in making this program happen, and they've really been busting their asses to make the school faculty and the Regents of New York happy with it.
Read all about it here: http://www.gsas.rpi.edu/
But they will never beat our fuel-efficient cars and hi-fi stereos!
Fly with your external hdd to transport your piracy overseas.