To me, the most interesting thing about this is how they "train rats to feel pleasure at the smell of humans", then monitor their brains for any pleasure stimulus.
But what happens when they come running to find that the rat has uncovered the world's largest cache of underground cheese?
You're right and wrong. First of all, according to the Daedalus Project, linked to above, about 40% of users consider themselves addicted. (http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000818.p hp) The above number is the percentage of people whose primary reason for playing the game is addiction. So I would agree that addiction is a serious consideration for those who would play MMO's, and those who have little willpower (myself included) should strongly consider strictly restricting themselves, perhaps enlisting outside help if necessary.
However, I don't see anything wrong with a desire to experience what you've created. If you built a house, wouldn't you want to live in it? Same thing here. If you "build" a character, you're going to want to "live in" it. It's not narcissism, which is what you make it out to be.
I wish there were a way to see the questions for Wave 2 without taking the survey... and if you click "no, i don't want to take it" it takes you to the last page of the survey... odd.
Any hoo, I think this just confirms what most of us already knew. Simply killing monsters is only fun to a point... kill an orc, get a bigger sword, kill another orc, get an even bigger sword... there is a limit to the fun to be had from killing monsters, leveling up and getting phat l3wt. Especially because the rate at which you level and get new items is a logarithmic scale, it takes 10 times longer to get from level 11 to level 12 as it does to get from level 1 to level 2.
So what do people do? They socialize. They form guilds, work together as teams to do stuff, or just hang out. After all, that's the whole point of an MMO, there are other people. If you wanted to go around killing monsters in a huge world, just play Morrowind or something.
How much motor control do you really have over the muscles in your nose? Right now as I'm wiggling it around, I really can't possibly see how I could move a cursor around my screen with any precision at all, much less the precision with which i use it now.
Maybe the people who designed this were
Unfortunately, politics, by definition, is everywhere. Politics is essentially a word for how humans interact with each other, and since pretty much everyone has to interact with people eventually, you'll have to end up dealing with politics at one time or another. Politics reaches into every single topic on/., in one way or another... free speech issues, privacy concerns, regulation of business... so you might as well go into it informed.
I never managed to get past the bit where Ford comes and talks to you, then leaves to go to the pub... but, then again, this game is pretty much representative of all text-based adventure games.
"Get flask"
"You can't get ye flask!"
And you're stuck there wondering why on earth you can't get ye flask...
Perhaps it's a sneak preview of the new iMac Lite... now sans processor, hard drive, or any of those other annoying remnants of the Wintel world.
Yup, this is a revolutionary new design for Apple.
What this means to me is that, if we want to be civilized humans, we have to go against these basic, animalistic instincts. There are lots of things that feel good in the short term, that we'd all love to do, that stimulate the same pleasure centers in our brain... but if we want to be able to function as a society, we pretty much have to learn to value the common good over petty revenge.
Then again, there might be a logical reason for this connection. Take the highway example mentioned. Perhaps, by not letting the person back in, we're making it so that he won't be in a position to cut more people off... thus increasing the common good. So, do we let him back in and face his poor driving once more, or do we respond in kind? On a basic, primal level, we choose the second.
However, I think that revenge tactics like this are only effective in the short term. In more long-term situations, like trying to function in a community where you interact with the same people every day, revenge only invites escalation, whereas forgiveness diffuses the problem before it can.
Is anyone else here thinking "Prisoner's dilemma"?
They should have used Sleepy for the cameraman, he was badass.
I was mostly awed by the awesome gameplay, dual weapons, etc. I strongly disagree that it looks like crap, it's a poor quality movie but the graphics themselves are much better than what you can see here, if you look at screenshots from http://bungie.com/SlideShow.aspx?Path=%2Fgames%2FH alo2&Slideshow=Screenshots&Slide=0&MSID=B6BC0A056B 9A462AA38C6886DC7D7BE9/ they're quite a bit better than what you can see there. I wish we had seen some different maps and more use of the warthog and ghost, but overall, it was damn cool. I shall be promptly moving in with my Xbox-owning friend.
Now, the inherently flawed premise of the game, and presumedly everything based on it...
If you were a vampire, and you killed Nazis... wouldn't that make them vampire Nazis? or Nazi vampires? Neither one is really a good thing.
Slashdot Mirror
To me, the most interesting thing about this is how they "train rats to feel pleasure at the smell of humans", then monitor their brains for any pleasure stimulus.
But what happens when they come running to find that the rat has uncovered the world's largest cache of underground cheese?
That gesture being a middle finger from Steam.
On the one hand, a recovery would be expensive, dangerous, and probably unnecessary. On the other hand, if we leave it there... the terrorists win.
You're right and wrong. First of all, according to the Daedalus Project, linked to above, about 40% of users consider themselves addicted. (http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/000818.p hp) The above number is the percentage of people whose primary reason for playing the game is addiction. So I would agree that addiction is a serious consideration for those who would play MMO's, and those who have little willpower (myself included) should strongly consider strictly restricting themselves, perhaps enlisting outside help if necessary.
However, I don't see anything wrong with a desire to experience what you've created. If you built a house, wouldn't you want to live in it? Same thing here. If you "build" a character, you're going to want to "live in" it. It's not narcissism, which is what you make it out to be.
I wish there were a way to see the questions for Wave 2 without taking the survey... and if you click "no, i don't want to take it" it takes you to the last page of the survey... odd.
Any hoo, I think this just confirms what most of us already knew. Simply killing monsters is only fun to a point... kill an orc, get a bigger sword, kill another orc, get an even bigger sword... there is a limit to the fun to be had from killing monsters, leveling up and getting phat l3wt. Especially because the rate at which you level and get new items is a logarithmic scale, it takes 10 times longer to get from level 11 to level 12 as it does to get from level 1 to level 2.
So what do people do? They socialize. They form guilds, work together as teams to do stuff, or just hang out. After all, that's the whole point of an MMO, there are other people. If you wanted to go around killing monsters in a huge world, just play Morrowind or something.
Tabbed windows, 1. Everything else, 0.
anteatershttp://www.maiaw.com/anteater/
Hey, isn't that... an iMac G5 in the background?
With any luck, this won't deter NASA's plans for a manned expedition to the Sun.
Unfortunately, politics, by definition, is everywhere. Politics is essentially a word for how humans interact with each other, and since pretty much everyone has to interact with people eventually, you'll have to end up dealing with politics at one time or another. Politics reaches into every single topic on /., in one way or another... free speech issues, privacy concerns, regulation of business... so you might as well go into it informed.
I never managed to get past the bit where Ford comes and talks to you, then leaves to go to the pub... but, then again, this game is pretty much representative of all text-based adventure games.
"Get flask"
"You can't get ye flask!"
And you're stuck there wondering why on earth you can't get ye flask...
This is off-topic but go to www.winehq.org if you want to use Linux for any Windows applications including games.
Watching this movie is gonna be like having sex with a dead guy. (kidding, Clerks is awesome)
Ah, the Internet. Designed so that even in the event of nuclear war, our military leaders would still be able to access pornography.
Perhaps it's a sneak preview of the new iMac Lite... now sans processor, hard drive, or any of those other annoying remnants of the Wintel world. Yup, this is a revolutionary new design for Apple.
What this means to me is that, if we want to be civilized humans, we have to go against these basic, animalistic instincts. There are lots of things that feel good in the short term, that we'd all love to do, that stimulate the same pleasure centers in our brain... but if we want to be able to function as a society, we pretty much have to learn to value the common good over petty revenge. Then again, there might be a logical reason for this connection. Take the highway example mentioned. Perhaps, by not letting the person back in, we're making it so that he won't be in a position to cut more people off... thus increasing the common good. So, do we let him back in and face his poor driving once more, or do we respond in kind? On a basic, primal level, we choose the second. However, I think that revenge tactics like this are only effective in the short term. In more long-term situations, like trying to function in a community where you interact with the same people every day, revenge only invites escalation, whereas forgiveness diffuses the problem before it can. Is anyone else here thinking "Prisoner's dilemma"?
Sorry for the broken link, what i really meant was http://bungie.com/SlideShow.aspx?Path=%2Fgames%2FH alo2&Slideshow=Screenshots&Slide=14&MSID=DBBC339A3 8474507BC2A79CE37EF9956.
They should have used Sleepy for the cameraman, he was badass. I was mostly awed by the awesome gameplay, dual weapons, etc. I strongly disagree that it looks like crap, it's a poor quality movie but the graphics themselves are much better than what you can see here, if you look at screenshots from http://bungie.com/SlideShow.aspx?Path=%2Fgames%2FH alo2&Slideshow=Screenshots&Slide=0&MSID=B6BC0A056B 9A462AA38C6886DC7D7BE9/ they're quite a bit better than what you can see there. I wish we had seen some different maps and more use of the warthog and ghost, but overall, it was damn cool. I shall be promptly moving in with my Xbox-owning friend.
Art project or pointless hack? Why can't it be both?
Now, the inherently flawed premise of the game, and presumedly everything based on it... If you were a vampire, and you killed Nazis... wouldn't that make them vampire Nazis? or Nazi vampires? Neither one is really a good thing.