I am deeply ashamed that my country could elect a dishonest shyster like Harper. There are few limits on what the Conservatives will do to maintain their agenda and hang on to power. Sadly a huge demographic here in Canada is blind to their abuses of the Canadian people and keeps voting for them.
I don't think you can be a Conservative and also be a moral person. Harper is living proof.
They used to talk about the average person wanting a computer that was an appliance - like their toaster. It has arrived in recent years in the form of the smartphone and the tablet. The average person doesn't understand computers, isn't interested in learning, and doesn't need 95% of the functionality that people who read/. hold as essential. What the average person wants is something that lets them get things done - read facebook, post to their blog, read the web, listen to music, watch video. How it does it is irrelevant to them. It just needs to work. Period. The iPad is brilliant in this regard and obviously a lot of people are agreeing with their wallet in hand. What I don't understand is why the competition just doesn't get it. The other tablets I have seen offered don't have a fraction of the appeal of the iPad because they lack the thousands of apps, the strong attention to form and design and the simplicity of the environment. Until a company comes along with a product that can compete in every direction with Apple's products, and is significantly cheaper, Apple is going to dominate and define the market. They already do and I expect it to continue.
Meanwhile there will still be tons of people posting on/. "but its not a computer, it has no real keyboard, how can anyone want something so stupid and uselss" etc etc, and there will be millions more who never visit here, happily buying the appliance they want in the form of an iPad or an iPhone.
Of course one of the advantages of a tablet for the hospital industry is that it has no physical keyboard - something that most people who have not used a tablet just don't seem to get - and thus no section of the device that is highly prone to gathering germs and crud and also pretty impossible to clean well. With say an iPad, you can just wipe it off and be fairly confident its a lot cleaner than say a laptop or notebook of comparable power would be.
My wife just got an iPad and already I can see that its going to be very effective as a tool, plus a lot of fun to use.
I can't speak to WOW of course. I played it during beta, signed up for the first month and quit after about 2 weeks because the game was way too boring and simplistic. I am sure it has changed since then, but it seemed to me and my friends at the time that it was MMORPGing on "easy mode" and intended to get people interested in the genre, without actually challenging them in any real manner.
Of course I "grew up" in MMOs on Everquest (yechh, ptuie), Dark Age of Camelot (one of the best games ever, despite its flaws), and Star Wars Galaxies (the most ambitious and my 2nd candidate for best game ever, in its first incarnation, despite huge massive flaws). In my opinion WOW did everything right, but nothing inspired.
If they have lost the PvE market though, they have joined a long line of MMO game companies who have made that mistake. Despite the fact that PvP players shout the loudest and insist vehemently that their style of gameplay is the most important and only valid form until they are blue in the face, the majority of MMO players prefer to play PvE style gameplay, although they might dabble in PvP from time to time. Game companies who continue to tailor their game to the concerns of PvP players at the expense of their much larger PvE population (most of whom seldom visit or post to forums), are doomed to lower subscriber populations. I have PvPed a lot, but I have spend 20x more engaged in PvE gameplay either because I preferred it (5 Years or so in City of Heroes, probably the best coded MMO ever) or because it was required to engage in PvP (most games seem to make those who hate PvE engage in a lot of it so they can engage in the PvP gameplay style they prefer, go figure).
I suspect that the continued support of PvE gameplay is the reason Everquests I & II are still in existence. The focus on PvP gameplay has shrunk the populations of DAOC and SWG (which is now cancelled of course).
I think the only game that ever got the mix right was the aforementioned Dark Age of Camelot - and they quickly moved to break it and offend their customers with the Trials of Atlantis expansion which pissed absolutely everyone off.
I don't want a cheap printer, I want a printer that is cheap to operate. The cheaper the printer, the more the ink cartridges (or whatever) will cost you, the sooner it will break or be abandoned etc. I bought an Laserprinter years ago that would print something like 6000 pgs per laser cartridge. The carts cost $120 or so and the printer cost me $300 plus, but it was far cheaper than replacing the ink carts in a cheap printer continuously at $45-75 each (as with the current printer we have). The only reason I got rid of the old printer was that we bought a newer one that was colour. I would rather have the old one now mind you.
Buying cheap printers and then spending more in the long run is for idiots.
The problem is that while democracy might seem to be the best of all options with regards to how one obtains a government, without an educated population who is willing to understand the problems and elect politicians who can resolve the issues in the most intelligent and beneficial means, we get a government that is really not much better than that which any other system might produce.
Essentially, it looks like that for the past 30 years the US Government has been spending money it doesn't actually collect in taxes, to help enrich a few major US corporations/industries/banks, who then in turn donate some of the profits they gained as a result to ensure that the same politicians get reelected so they can continue to adjust the laws to benefit corporations over the individual. "The best government money can buy". What brand of politician doesn't seem to matter all that much, Republicans back the rights of corporations over the rights of individuals and defend the rich from taxes, but according to the article so do a lot of democrats.
In the meantime the rest of the US population who aren't rich, don't own a major corporation, or have huge deposits in the bank are being forced to live in substandard conditions as a result of those companies profiting to extremes. According to that article, the US is spending 10x what it could be spending on buying prescription drugs alone. Combined with the recent wars to enable the US Military industrial complex and private contract firms to score big on the US Government monies this isn't helping at all.
I don't think this can end well either. It looks like the entire system is well beyond the point where its possible to recover. Either the US is either gonna collapse in an economic meltdown as the politicians continue to try to suck the last few dollars off the system to benefit their corporate employers, or you will go to war to take whatever resources are necessary to allow you to fix things.
The major purpose of Bush in Iraq was to advance US corporate interests and secure control over oil etc. The secondary purpose was to test new weapon systems and ensure vast sums of money were either "lost" or awarded to US military contractors and other companies. Most of the huge sums of money spent on the war went directly into corporate pockets.
The companies own us consumers. They have superior rights and they can get away with whatever the fuck they want mostly, because if we want phone service we have to go to one of them. Many companies that appear to be independent are of course owned by a larger company.
We live in a world populated by corporations who allow us to keep the illusion that we live in a democracy, that we have personal rights and freedoms etc. We don't.
Americans have this tunnel vision with regards to the French, and assume they can't win wars because they got their ass kicked in WWII. They seem to think its funny even - even though if you mention the French in any regard on a forum, you can be 100% assured that someone will make a comment concerning that defeat. Its long since gotten tired folks.
Somehow they seem to ignore the whole Napoleonic Wars period, you know 30+ years where the French were the most feared military force in the world. When the French *defined* military technology, techniques and achievements. Sure, they are kind of stuck up, and their recent military history hasn't been all that distinguished but to be fair they were also faced with the German army, in its time the most efficient military force in existence. It took a whole lot of countries to defeat the Germans, and yes that eventually included the USA.
SOE has consistently mismanaged the "development" (more like the DeEvolution) of the original Star Wars Galaxies. They got rid of the original design team and replaced it with people who really didn't get what made the game appealing. It was buggy as hell when it went live - but it was amazingly innovative and ambitious as well. It had the best character development system I have ever seen in any MMO hands down. Its still the only MMO I know of to offer a purely social class (Entertainer, Musician, Dancer, & Image Designer in the early form of the game, Entertainer in the later form). It has the best crafting system I have ever seen, and it had a purely player driven economy - something I think only EVE can likely claim now. Of course when Lucas Arts decided that the game needed the New Game Enhancement, they basically forced SOE to bring it live in two weeks without sufficient testing and while it was massively incomplete. The game went from having 32 professions and something like 284 possible character configurations to having only 9, all of which would be identical (i.e. if you were a Commando, your character was exactly identical to any other commando in every regard except equipment, likewise any member of each of the other 8 classes). They did try to immitate WOW, the gods only know why, and they did so as ineptly as is humanly possible in my opinion. The only good things that remained in the game were those they didn't dare touch: Space combat and the Crafting system. Since most people played for the combat classes when the NGE hit, ~90% of the playerbase left. As the above poster notes, they refused for many years to admit the NGE had been a mistake. I have always called it the textbook example of how not to make changes to an MMO. They couldn't have done a worse job. Sadly I doubt the people responsible ever got the blame for it.
Now with many years to complete the evolution of the NGE - its still a truly horrid game unless you want to exist in a Sandbox environment, in which case its the best MMO out there (since there are no other Sandboxes unless you count A Tale in the Desert). When it came out, it was the best MMO hands down IMHO, with the possible exception of Dark Age of Camelot (which was also mismanaged into the ground almost as ineptly, see the Trials of Atlantis expansion with that game). Its still the only MMO I know of with player created cities that are placed right in the gaming environment. It has the most complex and enjoyable crafting system, with crafters being a full time class. It has the Entertainer class which is fun for those with a social bent.
Its a crying shame they are shutting it down IMHO, despite its many flaws. I will be very sorry to see it go.
As for TOR, while its definitely pretty, it looks rather boring and simplistic to me, and I think the constant dialog cutscenes will become very tired, very fast. I expect Bioware will make the same mistake so many other MMO developers make and underestimate how long it takes to grind through all the missions to get to whatever the cap level is. I expect someone will do it in 1-2 days, then complain there isn't enough content. I don't see TOR as being in the same class as SWG at all. It might be more polished, indeed it would be hard for it not to be more polished, I am sure it has some interesting and innovative aspects, but from what I have read it will lack: * A good crafting system, in TOR its a sort of macroed background activity for NPCs that belong to your character. I played SWG throughout most of its history exclusively as a crafter because it was challenging and the system allowed you to really compete with other crafters. TOR sounds like a non-starter here. * Its not going to have any space combat, at least initially, or if it does, its all railroaded combat and thats a fail * No player cities * Its not sandboxy, its like WOW. Like that title I expect it to be simplistic, unchallenging and boring.
In essence I think SWG is a very different game and to claim it is being shut down
Expecting Harper's conservative government to do anything about this is just stupid. Harper and his cronies support the big businesses that got him elected and they can do no wrong. The man has the morals of a used-car salesman at best. I am ashamed my fellow Canadians elected him.
Shipping without an install disk for a paid for pre-installed OS that bundles lots of routine OS functionality on its install disk should be illegal. Or, rather, it should be legal to pass around copies of the install disk to everyone who has the OS.
I would assume that this is by design, and part of an agreement between Microsoft and the manufacturer so that the manufacturer can include a copy of windows on their computer - otherwise with the current cost of windows it would comprise most of the cost of the computer itself. This way, when windows inevitably dies on the user, they have to go out and buy a real copy. I have yet to have a windows system that has not suffered a failure that required re-installation eventually. MS software is after all, the only software that goes up in price over time...
Yes, first off "reasonably" does not apply to the music industry. They have money and lawyers and they can get the results they want in most cases. Fair, reasonable, legal have nothing to do with it. If he had a thousand infringing files, a judgement in the range of $250,000+ is far more likely than $1000, but only in instances where he has uploaded those files and the MAFIAA can convince a judge that multiple individuals downloaded those files.
The onus should be on the MAFIAA to *prove* that each file was downloaded by each individual, but the reality is they merely have to prove it was possible - then seemingly they can claim whatever damage figures they want and the judge will accept it. By their reasoning the total loss to their industry due to music piracy exceeds the GNP of the USA.
I have a much simpler solution: I don't buy music, I don't download music and I don't listen to music. Fuck em.
That would be the point of all their Jackboot Terrorism over electronic media wouldn't it? If they can raise the suspicion that all electronic versions of a song might ultimately be deemed "pirated" and the only safe version of a song is on a CD, then perhaps they can extend the life of their mafia-like operations a bit longer.
What I don't get about being able to charge for exceeding caps on your internet usage is how the companies can get away with charging twice for the same service.
If I access a website, the company who owns the website pays a fee for the data that is transmitted to me. I get that they have to pay for it. When I view their website (having no control over how much crap they try to shove down the pipe) why do I have to pay for the exact same data as well?
Except that in Canada while the caps are in place (and relatively recent despite a massive protest to counter their being put in place, and a promise before the election that they wouldn't be, plus an announcement after the election that they would be (go Conservative Fuckwad Government!)), the caps are not applied, and the moment they are applied there will be a massive uproar I am sure. The caps and pricing that was mentioned would ensure that if you were a Netflix subscriber, you would be able to watch maybe 1 or 2 movies a month before you had to start paying extra. Of course its worth noting that the major internet providers all offer services that are directly in conflict with Netflix and thus getting permission to put caps in place was purely a move to remove a rival. In Canada, internet service providers have an effective monopoly on their services. Where I am, I can go with either Shaw Cable or Telus, thats it. Shaw divided the country up between them and Rogers (each agreeing to operate in specific cities, and not in others so as to reduce competition. Why they weren't charged over it I don't know). Access to the Internet costs more in Canada than in most other countries around the world I am told.
Reportedly a few members of the local anarchist crowd brought flammable materials, gasoline, fire extinguishers (to be used to smash windows or as weapons) , gas masks, bandanas etc, and came *prepared* to start a riot. The majority of the trouble there was caused by a few individuals (apparently the police arrested around 100 people, when its in a crowd of 100,000 people that's not a high percentage. They will be arresting more). In short, the embarrassing riot we saw was propagated by a small number of people who were actively intent on doing so, and apparently brought tools to aid them in that process. I am sure a few people joined in when they saw the mayhem, but if it hadn't have been for the inciters they might not have. Apparently one guy brought his truck downtown and parked it on CBC plaza so that it could be lit on fire. It was apparently set up to do so and burnt far harder and more violently than a normal truck might have (the description I heard was someone saying the truck blew up like it was in a Hollywood movie). I sincerely hope they nail the fuckers who were inciting the riot, and nail them hard - perhaps 20 years in prison would make them reconsider the error of their ways, or at least keep them off our streets for the next few hockey seasons.
There are of course an endless variety of reasons why people play MMORPGs and what they are interested in doing while there. I know a lot of people who deliberately chose to rack up all the badges they could in various MMORPGs because they are completionist types when playing. Does it make any sense to me? Not at all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to a segment of the population. I think its a mistake to assume that no one enjoys that sort of thing just because you and your friends in the game do not. Take PvP for instance. In every MMORPG I have played, the PvP oriented segment of the population was the most vocal, the most demanding and the least open to the suggestion that other players might not enjoy PvP. PvPers are usually a small segment of the overall population in most MMOs. Players who enjoy PvE are usually the vast majority, but they are also the least likely to speak up about the game on forums, etc. I do a bit of both, but tend to spend more time engaged in PvE activities. Likewise, for some players MMOs are nothing more than a giant chat client with activities you can do while chatting. A software driven approach to producing game expansions is doomed to failure though. The moment players figure out a game is employing that sort of mechanic, they will try to game it to direct the game in the way that *they* want, regardless of what might be good for the game. The only approach that will work for an MMORPG in my opinion is one that is player driven directly - i.e. the players produce the content. EVE Online for instance seems to have the right idea. I haven't played it (I am not into spreadsheets that heavily) but it has a loyal following, seems to get people very involved, and seems to dynamically change based on the actions of the large corporations (guilds). Any other approach means hours of developer work to produce X amount of gameplay that players will burn through in far less time than was invested in it. For instance, if you add a new class to any given MMO, how many hours will it take before someone with no life has leveled it to max? By comparison how many hours did it take to develop and test that class?
I am not surprised at this, but I agree it stinks. Palin seems to have some very loyal/scared shitless followers and way too much influence up there (or anywhere else for that matter). I am of course biased but I consider her to be: A) The stupidest and most ignorant politician I have ever heard speak. B) A massive threat to the USA. Stupid people will listen to her and vote for her in their ignorance, and there is no shortage of stupid, ignorant people.
From what I have read she has a frightening temper when she thinks she's been wronged and a strong preference towards exacting petty revenge. The article I read on her that the author was almost unable to get any comments about her at all from the people who lived near her, or who had worked for her and it seemed to be induced by fear.
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I am deeply ashamed that my country could elect a dishonest shyster like Harper. There are few limits on what the Conservatives will do to maintain their agenda and hang on to power. Sadly a huge demographic here in Canada is blind to their abuses of the Canadian people and keeps voting for them.
I don't think you can be a Conservative and also be a moral person. Harper is living proof.
They used to talk about the average person wanting a computer that was an appliance - like their toaster. It has arrived in recent years in the form of the smartphone and the tablet. The average person doesn't understand computers, isn't interested in learning, and doesn't need 95% of the functionality that people who read /. hold as essential. What the average person wants is something that lets them get things done - read facebook, post to their blog, read the web, listen to music, watch video. How it does it is irrelevant to them. It just needs to work. Period.
The iPad is brilliant in this regard and obviously a lot of people are agreeing with their wallet in hand. What I don't understand is why the competition just doesn't get it. The other tablets I have seen offered don't have a fraction of the appeal of the iPad because they lack the thousands of apps, the strong attention to form and design and the simplicity of the environment. Until a company comes along with a product that can compete in every direction with Apple's products, and is significantly cheaper, Apple is going to dominate and define the market. They already do and I expect it to continue.
Meanwhile there will still be tons of people posting on /. "but its not a computer, it has no real keyboard, how can anyone want something so stupid and uselss" etc etc, and there will be millions more who never visit here, happily buying the appliance they want in the form of an iPad or an iPhone.
Of course one of the advantages of a tablet for the hospital industry is that it has no physical keyboard - something that most people who have not used a tablet just don't seem to get - and thus no section of the device that is highly prone to gathering germs and crud and also pretty impossible to clean well. With say an iPad, you can just wipe it off and be fairly confident its a lot cleaner than say a laptop or notebook of comparable power would be.
My wife just got an iPad and already I can see that its going to be very effective as a tool, plus a lot of fun to use.
That's not entirely true, I am sure there is at least one rude Canadian up here. Oh sorry, I didn't mean to offend you by disagreeing with you... :P
Its an L. Teal'c is a character in Stargate - one of the good guys, as is Apophis (one of the bad guys).
I can't speak to WOW of course. I played it during beta, signed up for the first month and quit after about 2 weeks because the game was way too boring and simplistic. I am sure it has changed since then, but it seemed to me and my friends at the time that it was MMORPGing on "easy mode" and intended to get people interested in the genre, without actually challenging them in any real manner.
Of course I "grew up" in MMOs on Everquest (yechh, ptuie), Dark Age of Camelot (one of the best games ever, despite its flaws), and Star Wars Galaxies (the most ambitious and my 2nd candidate for best game ever, in its first incarnation, despite huge massive flaws). In my opinion WOW did everything right, but nothing inspired.
If they have lost the PvE market though, they have joined a long line of MMO game companies who have made that mistake. Despite the fact that PvP players shout the loudest and insist vehemently that their style of gameplay is the most important and only valid form until they are blue in the face, the majority of MMO players prefer to play PvE style gameplay, although they might dabble in PvP from time to time. Game companies who continue to tailor their game to the concerns of PvP players at the expense of their much larger PvE population (most of whom seldom visit or post to forums), are doomed to lower subscriber populations. I have PvPed a lot, but I have spend 20x more engaged in PvE gameplay either because I preferred it (5 Years or so in City of Heroes, probably the best coded MMO ever) or because it was required to engage in PvP (most games seem to make those who hate PvE engage in a lot of it so they can engage in the PvP gameplay style they prefer, go figure).
I suspect that the continued support of PvE gameplay is the reason Everquests I & II are still in existence. The focus on PvP gameplay has shrunk the populations of DAOC and SWG (which is now cancelled of course).
I think the only game that ever got the mix right was the aforementioned Dark Age of Camelot - and they quickly moved to break it and offend their customers with the Trials of Atlantis expansion which pissed absolutely everyone off.
I don't want a cheap printer, I want a printer that is cheap to operate. The cheaper the printer, the more the ink cartridges (or whatever) will cost you, the sooner it will break or be abandoned etc. I bought an Laserprinter years ago that would print something like 6000 pgs per laser cartridge. The carts cost $120 or so and the printer cost me $300 plus, but it was far cheaper than replacing the ink carts in a cheap printer continuously at $45-75 each (as with the current printer we have). The only reason I got rid of the old printer was that we bought a newer one that was colour. I would rather have the old one now mind you.
Buying cheap printers and then spending more in the long run is for idiots.
The problem is that while democracy might seem to be the best of all options with regards to how one obtains a government, without an educated population who is willing to understand the problems and elect politicians who can resolve the issues in the most intelligent and beneficial means, we get a government that is really not much better than that which any other system might produce.
Essentially, it looks like that for the past 30 years the US Government has been spending money it doesn't actually collect in taxes, to help enrich a few major US corporations/industries/banks, who then in turn donate some of the profits they gained as a result to ensure that the same politicians get reelected so they can continue to adjust the laws to benefit corporations over the individual. "The best government money can buy". What brand of politician doesn't seem to matter all that much, Republicans back the rights of corporations over the rights of individuals and defend the rich from taxes, but according to the article so do a lot of democrats.
In the meantime the rest of the US population who aren't rich, don't own a major corporation, or have huge deposits in the bank are being forced to live in substandard conditions as a result of those companies profiting to extremes. According to that article, the US is spending 10x what it could be spending on buying prescription drugs alone. Combined with the recent wars to enable the US Military industrial complex and private contract firms to score big on the US Government monies this isn't helping at all.
I don't think this can end well either. It looks like the entire system is well beyond the point where its possible to recover. Either the US is either gonna collapse in an economic meltdown as the politicians continue to try to suck the last few dollars off the system to benefit their corporate employers, or you will go to war to take whatever resources are necessary to allow you to fix things.
Luckily, government usually gives in to corporations, so most conflicts are avoided :(
The major purpose of Bush in Iraq was to advance US corporate interests and secure control over oil etc. The secondary purpose was to test new weapon systems and ensure vast sums of money were either "lost" or awarded to US military contractors and other companies. Most of the huge sums of money spent on the war went directly into corporate pockets.
The companies own us consumers. They have superior rights and they can get away with whatever the fuck they want mostly, because if we want phone service we have to go to one of them. Many companies that appear to be independent are of course owned by a larger company.
We live in a world populated by corporations who allow us to keep the illusion that we live in a democracy, that we have personal rights and freedoms etc. We don't.
Americans have this tunnel vision with regards to the French, and assume they can't win wars because they got their ass kicked in WWII. They seem to think its funny even - even though if you mention the French in any regard on a forum, you can be 100% assured that someone will make a comment concerning that defeat. Its long since gotten tired folks.
Somehow they seem to ignore the whole Napoleonic Wars period, you know 30+ years where the French were the most feared military force in the world. When the French *defined* military technology, techniques and achievements. Sure, they are kind of stuck up, and their recent military history hasn't been all that distinguished but to be fair they were also faced with the German army, in its time the most efficient military force in existence. It took a whole lot of countries to defeat the Germans, and yes that eventually included the USA.
First thing that came to mind when I read the description as well.
SOE has consistently mismanaged the "development" (more like the DeEvolution) of the original Star Wars Galaxies. They got rid of the original design team and replaced it with people who really didn't get what made the game appealing. It was buggy as hell when it went live - but it was amazingly innovative and ambitious as well. It had the best character development system I have ever seen in any MMO hands down. Its still the only MMO I know of to offer a purely social class (Entertainer, Musician, Dancer, & Image Designer in the early form of the game, Entertainer in the later form). It has the best crafting system I have ever seen, and it had a purely player driven economy - something I think only EVE can likely claim now.
Of course when Lucas Arts decided that the game needed the New Game Enhancement, they basically forced SOE to bring it live in two weeks without sufficient testing and while it was massively incomplete. The game went from having 32 professions and something like 284 possible character configurations to having only 9, all of which would be identical (i.e. if you were a Commando, your character was exactly identical to any other commando in every regard except equipment, likewise any member of each of the other 8 classes).
They did try to immitate WOW, the gods only know why, and they did so as ineptly as is humanly possible in my opinion. The only good things that remained in the game were those they didn't dare touch: Space combat and the Crafting system. Since most people played for the combat classes when the NGE hit, ~90% of the playerbase left. As the above poster notes, they refused for many years to admit the NGE had been a mistake. I have always called it the textbook example of how not to make changes to an MMO. They couldn't have done a worse job. Sadly I doubt the people responsible ever got the blame for it.
Now with many years to complete the evolution of the NGE - its still a truly horrid game unless you want to exist in a Sandbox environment, in which case its the best MMO out there (since there are no other Sandboxes unless you count A Tale in the Desert). When it came out, it was the best MMO hands down IMHO, with the possible exception of Dark Age of Camelot (which was also mismanaged into the ground almost as ineptly, see the Trials of Atlantis expansion with that game). Its still the only MMO I know of with player created cities that are placed right in the gaming environment. It has the most complex and enjoyable crafting system, with crafters being a full time class. It has the Entertainer class which is fun for those with a social bent.
Its a crying shame they are shutting it down IMHO, despite its many flaws. I will be very sorry to see it go.
As for TOR, while its definitely pretty, it looks rather boring and simplistic to me, and I think the constant dialog cutscenes will become very tired, very fast. I expect Bioware will make the same mistake so many other MMO developers make and underestimate how long it takes to grind through all the missions to get to whatever the cap level is. I expect someone will do it in 1-2 days, then complain there isn't enough content. I don't see TOR as being in the same class as SWG at all. It might be more polished, indeed it would be hard for it not to be more polished, I am sure it has some interesting and innovative aspects, but from what I have read it will lack:
* A good crafting system, in TOR its a sort of macroed background activity for NPCs that belong to your character. I played SWG throughout most of its history exclusively as a crafter because it was challenging and the system allowed you to really compete with other crafters. TOR sounds like a non-starter here.
* Its not going to have any space combat, at least initially, or if it does, its all railroaded combat and thats a fail
* No player cities
* Its not sandboxy, its like WOW. Like that title I expect it to be simplistic, unchallenging and boring.
In essence I think SWG is a very different game and to claim it is being shut down
"The best government money can buy..."
Expecting Harper's conservative government to do anything about this is just stupid. Harper and his cronies support the big businesses that got him elected and they can do no wrong. The man has the morals of a used-car salesman at best. I am ashamed my fellow Canadians elected him.
There were communists and they were a threat - just not the massive threat that they were portrayed to be.
There are terrorists and they are a threat - just not the massive threat that they are portrayed to be.
The point of all this paranoia is it lets those who are "dealing" with the threat take control of a lot of power and exercise it.
Shipping without an install disk for a paid for pre-installed OS that bundles lots of routine OS functionality on its install disk should be illegal. Or, rather, it should be legal to pass around copies of the install disk to everyone who has the OS.
I would assume that this is by design, and part of an agreement between Microsoft and the manufacturer so that the manufacturer can include a copy of windows on their computer - otherwise with the current cost of windows it would comprise most of the cost of the computer itself. This way, when windows inevitably dies on the user, they have to go out and buy a real copy. I have yet to have a windows system that has not suffered a failure that required re-installation eventually. MS software is after all, the only software that goes up in price over time...
Yes, first off "reasonably" does not apply to the music industry. They have money and lawyers and they can get the results they want in most cases. Fair, reasonable, legal have nothing to do with it. If he had a thousand infringing files, a judgement in the range of $250,000+ is far more likely than $1000, but only in instances where he has uploaded those files and the MAFIAA can convince a judge that multiple individuals downloaded those files.
The onus should be on the MAFIAA to *prove* that each file was downloaded by each individual, but the reality is they merely have to prove it was possible - then seemingly they can claim whatever damage figures they want and the judge will accept it. By their reasoning the total loss to their industry due to music piracy exceeds the GNP of the USA.
I have a much simpler solution: I don't buy music, I don't download music and I don't listen to music. Fuck em.
That would be the point of all their Jackboot Terrorism over electronic media wouldn't it? If they can raise the suspicion that all electronic versions of a song might ultimately be deemed "pirated" and the only safe version of a song is on a CD, then perhaps they can extend the life of their mafia-like operations a bit longer.
What I don't get about being able to charge for exceeding caps on your internet usage is how the companies can get away with charging twice for the same service.
If I access a website, the company who owns the website pays a fee for the data that is transmitted to me. I get that they have to pay for it. When I view their website (having no control over how much crap they try to shove down the pipe) why do I have to pay for the exact same data as well?
Except that in Canada while the caps are in place (and relatively recent despite a massive protest to counter their being put in place, and a promise before the election that they wouldn't be, plus an announcement after the election that they would be (go Conservative Fuckwad Government!)), the caps are not applied, and the moment they are applied there will be a massive uproar I am sure. The caps and pricing that was mentioned would ensure that if you were a Netflix subscriber, you would be able to watch maybe 1 or 2 movies a month before you had to start paying extra. Of course its worth noting that the major internet providers all offer services that are directly in conflict with Netflix and thus getting permission to put caps in place was purely a move to remove a rival.
In Canada, internet service providers have an effective monopoly on their services. Where I am, I can go with either Shaw Cable or Telus, thats it. Shaw divided the country up between them and Rogers (each agreeing to operate in specific cities, and not in others so as to reduce competition. Why they weren't charged over it I don't know).
Access to the Internet costs more in Canada than in most other countries around the world I am told.
Reportedly a few members of the local anarchist crowd brought flammable materials, gasoline, fire extinguishers (to be used to smash windows or as weapons) , gas masks, bandanas etc, and came *prepared* to start a riot. The majority of the trouble there was caused by a few individuals (apparently the police arrested around 100 people, when its in a crowd of 100,000 people that's not a high percentage. They will be arresting more).
In short, the embarrassing riot we saw was propagated by a small number of people who were actively intent on doing so, and apparently brought tools to aid them in that process. I am sure a few people joined in when they saw the mayhem, but if it hadn't have been for the inciters they might not have.
Apparently one guy brought his truck downtown and parked it on CBC plaza so that it could be lit on fire. It was apparently set up to do so and burnt far harder and more violently than a normal truck might have (the description I heard was someone saying the truck blew up like it was in a Hollywood movie).
I sincerely hope they nail the fuckers who were inciting the riot, and nail them hard - perhaps 20 years in prison would make them reconsider the error of their ways, or at least keep them off our streets for the next few hockey seasons.
There are of course an endless variety of reasons why people play MMORPGs and what they are interested in doing while there. I know a lot of people who deliberately chose to rack up all the badges they could in various MMORPGs because they are completionist types when playing. Does it make any sense to me? Not at all, but that doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to a segment of the population. I think its a mistake to assume that no one enjoys that sort of thing just because you and your friends in the game do not.
Take PvP for instance. In every MMORPG I have played, the PvP oriented segment of the population was the most vocal, the most demanding and the least open to the suggestion that other players might not enjoy PvP. PvPers are usually a small segment of the overall population in most MMOs. Players who enjoy PvE are usually the vast majority, but they are also the least likely to speak up about the game on forums, etc. I do a bit of both, but tend to spend more time engaged in PvE activities.
Likewise, for some players MMOs are nothing more than a giant chat client with activities you can do while chatting.
A software driven approach to producing game expansions is doomed to failure though. The moment players figure out a game is employing that sort of mechanic, they will try to game it to direct the game in the way that *they* want, regardless of what might be good for the game.
The only approach that will work for an MMORPG in my opinion is one that is player driven directly - i.e. the players produce the content. EVE Online for instance seems to have the right idea. I haven't played it (I am not into spreadsheets that heavily) but it has a loyal following, seems to get people very involved, and seems to dynamically change based on the actions of the large corporations (guilds).
Any other approach means hours of developer work to produce X amount of gameplay that players will burn through in far less time than was invested in it. For instance, if you add a new class to any given MMO, how many hours will it take before someone with no life has leveled it to max? By comparison how many hours did it take to develop and test that class?
I had this sudden image of ICMBs arcing over the north pole, only to explode in a huge shower of coal dust when they reach their impact point :P
I am not surprised at this, but I agree it stinks. Palin seems to have some very loyal/scared shitless followers and way too much influence up there (or anywhere else for that matter). I am of course biased but I consider her to be:
A) The stupidest and most ignorant politician I have ever heard speak.
B) A massive threat to the USA. Stupid people will listen to her and vote for her in their ignorance, and there is no shortage of stupid, ignorant people.
From what I have read she has a frightening temper when she thinks she's been wronged and a strong preference towards exacting petty revenge. The article I read on her that the author was almost unable to get any comments about her at all from the people who lived near her, or who had worked for her and it seemed to be induced by fear.