-or talk to the people at OSCamp, at FOSCON (thrown by FreeGeek tonight), or just browse the exhibits and talk to the locals from Sun, Oracle, MS, Google, Yahoo, and many others. The exhibit hall pass is free, and there are people in all directions here.
There shouldn't be too many problems with stray fire(s), lasers happily diffract through any medium, such as the atmosphere. Mind give you a strange sunburn by the time it hits the ground.
There's also the whole issu of wattage. If the beam reflects and traces itself over a sufficiently large area because the beam or reflective sources are moving fast, the area will see a rather low average energy input that does little.
That'll never happen. Capitalism actually benefits from this product differentiation: This toy plays this set of games, that toy plays those. The economy actually sees more labor demand and more sales with these non-universal game systems.
Simple way to verify this: How many people do you know have more than one of the current trio of major consoles?
Sure, software patents protect small developers. That's why Carmack's Reverse is patented by 3DLabs (who John Carmack doesn't work for, and received royalties from Doom 3 sales), one-click ordering is patented by one of the online auction giants, and is why we're seeing elements of standard computing operations being patented on a weekly basis.
How does the patenting of the components and standard processes of computing protect the small developers if the small developers are no longer allowed to freely develop?
And you can't make a point about a situation when you're working with the wrong scenario, which is rampant throughout both this thread and slashdot posts. Just trying to poke flaws in the parent's premise.
Upon buying a ticket, we should be able to assume that you have the right to use that ticket to board your flight and reach your destination with a minimum of fuss, muss, and lost luggage. If we can't assume as much (or cannot be refunded for the ticket), we're operating under some very suspicious economic principles reminiscent of China and communist states.
The absurdity of such a situation is exactly my point: requiring someone to show official ID for purposes of public security prior to boarding a plane is rediculus, on par with screening people before they get on the road. Average people (vs. libertarians*, bombers, and Wierd Al fans**) would either be offended, or would docily cooperate.
* - I am not attempting to slander libertarians or their political platform, it's just a random not-in group.
** - See above, but for Wierd Al fans instead.
I won't swear to it, but airlines are bound by federal regulations. If they have it in writing either within those rules and regs, or they have you sign a contract prior to paying for the ticket, there's a justifiable, identifiable reason involved.
I haven't been on a plane for 15+ years, what are the written rules for passangers?
Fair enough, but if a highway patrol officer stops you, it's assumed that you've done "something wrong". This is more like asking to see your ID and proof of insurence before they let you step into your car, or pull onto the road.
I criticize the unilateral focus and isolationistic leanings of the current President, and you accuse me of hating him.
That's trying to make things overly black and white, Ray. Tell me what your thoughts on polarization in politics are, how they've caused trouble in the past, and what you said.
I don't approve of what Bush has done, but I'm not trying to pin this on Bush. Accuse me of splitting hairs, but I think it's more that the US isn't terribly popular in a number of circles, rather than animosity between leaders, and accordingly "we" are being given less slack.
Yeah, this is a theory, and it's heresay. But that's going rate for Slashdot comments.
And I get modded as a troll?
Try plugging "Sta7ic" into Google, see what you get. The first twenty hits all were things that lead back to me. Then try plugging "Hawkeye" into Google. How many of those hits have anything to do with your actions?
There's an interesting difference between a real name and a unique key.
As a US citizen, I'm curious if this is fallout from our wonderful public relations. Half the known world is pissed off at us, and it wouldn't surprise me if this isn't much more than Russia saying "You want to bum a ride? How much ya got for gas money? The price of rocket fuel isn't going down, ya know."
Hint to the current and future US Presidents: you may be the elected leader of a technological powerhouse, but you can't go it alone.
(it'll also pay for them to keep an eye out on Japan's technology, that the EU is becoming a collected economic force to bruise egos, and China's locomative-esque economy with about a third of the world's population, too, but who knows if they pay any attention)
Was this even Nintendo's doing? If they don't want a porn site and their trademarks in the same thought process, then what did they think would happen when someone else got a hold of this? Here it is on the front page of/.... imagine if a more notable news service picks it up. Or if it randomly gets hooked by Google News (the we-just-gather-it site).
This is too blatantly someone else's handywork, and a couple US$ says there's at least one Nintendo exec who's annoyed about the relatively massive exposure this is getting. SG prolly wouldn't've had 2k views of the profile's contents over a year, whereas 2k is measured in minutes here.
The original goal was context control, and it backfired. Let's hope we hear about the fallout.
I got that bug too, just teleports into the corner after some odd "press [jump] to climb onto a monster's back" line disappeared. The game thought it was still active and kept the camera focused on it.
Very nice up until that point. I think I'll hold off until I get an XBox version of it, combat just feels unnatural without the dual analogs.
Are you bitching about the lack of adventuring or the lack of role-playing? Inventory is a function of an adventure game, while actor interaction is a function of role-playing games. Quests are a story element that is pretty much universal to anything short of puzzle games, and those have win conditions and bonuses.
Maybe you've forgotten that Final Fantasy is NOT a role-playing game? Where's the role-playing in "Uhh... Yes." and "Uhhh... No." in your dialogue? When your character is all but faceless and plays himself? That's an adventure game, where you run around and save the world and watch the character emote on their own.
"Emergent" and "open-ended" gameplay? I'm really curious as to where you people are getting these ideas. The number of games that I know of that pull either of these qualities is small, mostly including Fallout, Morrowind, Deus Ex, and the SimCity games.
Emergent gameplay is defined as when rather than actions being scripted, the level of interaction with the environment is sufficient to allow the player options. Rather than "grab key, use on door", the player can also pick the lock, find a bomb, or find an alternate route around the door (DX, LaGaurdia Airport, using the metal crates to climb up to the window of the building leading to the hanger). These sorts of games require multiple parallel systems that usually aren't too complex, but annoying to get synced up. The "alternate route" option requires more complex level geometry, etc. If you're dealing with a globally emergent system, rather than a local one, you suddenly need to be able to track all the details going on, such as how many churches you have, and where there's more high res space.
Open ended gameplay is a lot easier, but frequently less useful. Why have a game if all you do is run back and forth killing stuff (FF* ignoring the full motion story, BBS door games where nobody else joins in, Diablo 2) and your level increases ad nauseum? Players only navel gaze so long, even though the EverCrack and Diablo 2 addicts are threatening to prove me wrong.
Morrowind is an example of a game with both emergence and open-ended gameplay gone horribly wrong, as others have mentioned. You can run around all you want, but you can seriously break the storyline if you wander too far, collect items within the Fence, or exterminate entire towns. It's also far too easy to wander off, get lost, and even get bored of the game. The alchemy system is a nice example of emergence, but is so broken to be insane. The enchanting and spellmaking systems, while fun, aren't all that balanced and even your strongest custom spells will look like wet firecrackers against God's Fire. Because of the massive cost of constant effects, you'll also never really keep your enchanted items after the first half of the game because they just can't cut it. The apalling weakness of scrolls is also degrading.
Deus Ex is an example of emergent gameplay and level design coming together to make a wonderful experience. Take Hell's Kitchen, the first time around, where you have at least 30 distinct ways to learn about the warehouse, approach and enter, destroy the generator, and exit to the helicopter. Your 'ware choices seriously affect how you play your character (even if skills make less difference, since there are fewer "real" choices), along with what sort of toys you drag along. The lack of scripting in many places actually improves the game, making it possible to walk out of many areas without ever engaging the enemy.
(flamebait) As for open-ended gameplay done right, we'll have to look at Tetris. (/flamebait)
If not Tetris, then Fallout 2. You can plot your course almost however you choose - doing a line drive to San Fran to snag the power armor early, go through The Den and either become a slaver or get a five-fingered discount on equipment, become a boxer, wander around the wastes... the game is as open as you want it to be and lets you go whereever you want. The variations are too many to outline, but anyone that's treked past Klamath, through New Redding, and visited NCR knows just how loosely your path is written.
System Shock 2 had very little in these departments. The ability to hack or psi your way towards better gear was nice, but optional, and not terribly emergent -- it granted options, not other ways around. The "open ended" nature more meant farming monsters with a wrench (or energy weapon if the weapon degradation was low enough) -- no new ways around or reasons to hang around. Extra level space does not open endedness or emergence make.
As much as I respect Shock 2, I really feel that Shock 1 was superior for the gameplay, even if I am biased to the Skorpion. Both games have an awesome atmosphere, and were very well crafted. But the limits they pushed were with the story and the technology, not the gameplay.
Fastest growing because we still have something like space. With WSU or UW not taking anyone with less than a 3.6 GPA for reasons of overcrowding, and in-state tuition being around $1200 for 12-18 credits, this place isn't half bad. But our math department was ranked the absolute worst in the state of Washington between the four and two year colleges last year, which seems to hamstring progression through the CS department. One of our profs has a dubious reputation after 3/4 of the class failed a 300-level probability and sadistics class, which included both seniors and graduate students.
Oh, and with all these new students, almost three weeks in and the dorm networks are STILL on the fritz. This is an issue with the provider and the infrastructure, though.
Some of the maps are about a quarter mile away in the JFK Library, downstairs in the Government Archives. There are a lot of CIA intelligence materials down there, including maps and reports. One of the featured items of the month is the Postwar Intelligence Report on Iraq or somesuch.
Not only are those not scanned in, but they're inconvenient to access. The government documents are all on these moving shelves that never seemed to work properly, and would consistantly beep in the background to say "we're not feeling well". So with four years of construction on this nice new facility, these clunky electromechanical shelves are just *now* getting some attention. Hopefully there aren't too many skeletons crushed up in those shelves.
The irony of "progress" in the government.
Slashdot Mirror
-or talk to the people at OSCamp, at FOSCON (thrown by FreeGeek tonight), or just browse the exhibits and talk to the locals from Sun, Oracle, MS, Google, Yahoo, and many others. The exhibit hall pass is free, and there are people in all directions here.
You can still get in and see the exhibits, that's perfectly free. If you ask nicely, we'll even give you a flier for the exhibit hall.
...can it be used as a tracking device?
There shouldn't be too many problems with stray fire(s), lasers happily diffract through any medium, such as the atmosphere. Mind give you a strange sunburn by the time it hits the ground.
There's also the whole issu of wattage. If the beam reflects and traces itself over a sufficiently large area because the beam or reflective sources are moving fast, the area will see a rather low average energy input that does little.
So what happens if they use a one-way mirror for the sensor housings?
All games must be Live-enabled? Why does Steam suddenly come to mind?
That'll never happen. Capitalism actually benefits from this product differentiation: This toy plays this set of games, that toy plays those. The economy actually sees more labor demand and more sales with these non-universal game systems.
Simple way to verify this: How many people do you know have more than one of the current trio of major consoles?
Sure, software patents protect small developers. That's why Carmack's Reverse is patented by 3DLabs (who John Carmack doesn't work for, and received royalties from Doom 3 sales), one-click ordering is patented by one of the online auction giants, and is why we're seeing elements of standard computing operations being patented on a weekly basis.
How does the patenting of the components and standard processes of computing protect the small developers if the small developers are no longer allowed to freely develop?
And you can't make a point about a situation when you're working with the wrong scenario, which is rampant throughout both this thread and slashdot posts. Just trying to poke flaws in the parent's premise.
Truce?
Upon buying a ticket, we should be able to assume that you have the right to use that ticket to board your flight and reach your destination with a minimum of fuss, muss, and lost luggage. If we can't assume as much (or cannot be refunded for the ticket), we're operating under some very suspicious economic principles reminiscent of China and communist states.
The absurdity of such a situation is exactly my point: requiring someone to show official ID for purposes of public security prior to boarding a plane is rediculus, on par with screening people before they get on the road. Average people (vs. libertarians*, bombers, and Wierd Al fans**) would either be offended, or would docily cooperate. * - I am not attempting to slander libertarians or their political platform, it's just a random not-in group. ** - See above, but for Wierd Al fans instead.
I won't swear to it, but airlines are bound by federal regulations. If they have it in writing either within those rules and regs, or they have you sign a contract prior to paying for the ticket, there's a justifiable, identifiable reason involved.
I haven't been on a plane for 15+ years, what are the written rules for passangers?
Fair enough, but if a highway patrol officer stops you, it's assumed that you've done "something wrong". This is more like asking to see your ID and proof of insurence before they let you step into your car, or pull onto the road.
There's also ClanBob's "Dreams in Digital" machinima.
http://www.clanbob.net
I criticize the unilateral focus and isolationistic leanings of the current President, and you accuse me of hating him.
That's trying to make things overly black and white, Ray. Tell me what your thoughts on polarization in politics are, how they've caused trouble in the past, and what you said.
I don't approve of what Bush has done, but I'm not trying to pin this on Bush. Accuse me of splitting hairs, but I think it's more that the US isn't terribly popular in a number of circles, rather than animosity between leaders, and accordingly "we" are being given less slack.
Yeah, this is a theory, and it's heresay. But that's going rate for Slashdot comments.
And I get modded as a troll? Try plugging "Sta7ic" into Google, see what you get. The first twenty hits all were things that lead back to me. Then try plugging "Hawkeye" into Google. How many of those hits have anything to do with your actions? There's an interesting difference between a real name and a unique key.
As a US citizen, I'm curious if this is fallout from our wonderful public relations. Half the known world is pissed off at us, and it wouldn't surprise me if this isn't much more than Russia saying "You want to bum a ride? How much ya got for gas money? The price of rocket fuel isn't going down, ya know."
Hint to the current and future US Presidents: you may be the elected leader of a technological powerhouse, but you can't go it alone.
(it'll also pay for them to keep an eye out on Japan's technology, that the EU is becoming a collected economic force to bruise egos, and China's locomative-esque economy with about a third of the world's population, too, but who knows if they pay any attention)
Census in Fallujah? Heck, they can't even find the dead bodies of the insurgents in Fallujah!
Was this even Nintendo's doing? If they don't want a porn site and their trademarks in the same thought process, then what did they think would happen when someone else got a hold of this? Here it is on the front page of /. ... imagine if a more notable news service picks it up. Or if it randomly gets hooked by Google News (the we-just-gather-it site).
This is too blatantly someone else's handywork, and a couple US$ says there's at least one Nintendo exec who's annoyed about the relatively massive exposure this is getting. SG prolly wouldn't've had 2k views of the profile's contents over a year, whereas 2k is measured in minutes here.
The original goal was context control, and it backfired. Let's hope we hear about the fallout.
I got that bug too, just teleports into the corner after some odd "press [jump] to climb onto a monster's back" line disappeared. The game thought it was still active and kept the camera focused on it. Very nice up until that point. I think I'll hold off until I get an XBox version of it, combat just feels unnatural without the dual analogs.
Maybe you've forgotten that Final Fantasy is NOT a role-playing game? Where's the role-playing in "Uhh... Yes." and "Uhhh... No." in your dialogue? When your character is all but faceless and plays himself? That's an adventure game, where you run around and save the world and watch the character emote on their own.
"You can't fight ideas with bullets."
"Emergent" and "open-ended" gameplay? I'm really curious as to where you people are getting these ideas. The number of games that I know of that pull either of these qualities is small, mostly including Fallout, Morrowind, Deus Ex, and the SimCity games.
Emergent gameplay is defined as when rather than actions being scripted, the level of interaction with the environment is sufficient to allow the player options. Rather than "grab key, use on door", the player can also pick the lock, find a bomb, or find an alternate route around the door (DX, LaGaurdia Airport, using the metal crates to climb up to the window of the building leading to the hanger). These sorts of games require multiple parallel systems that usually aren't too complex, but annoying to get synced up. The "alternate route" option requires more complex level geometry, etc. If you're dealing with a globally emergent system, rather than a local one, you suddenly need to be able to track all the details going on, such as how many churches you have, and where there's more high res space.
Open ended gameplay is a lot easier, but frequently less useful. Why have a game if all you do is run back and forth killing stuff (FF* ignoring the full motion story, BBS door games where nobody else joins in, Diablo 2) and your level increases ad nauseum? Players only navel gaze so long, even though the EverCrack and Diablo 2 addicts are threatening to prove me wrong.
Morrowind is an example of a game with both emergence and open-ended gameplay gone horribly wrong, as others have mentioned. You can run around all you want, but you can seriously break the storyline if you wander too far, collect items within the Fence, or exterminate entire towns. It's also far too easy to wander off, get lost, and even get bored of the game. The alchemy system is a nice example of emergence, but is so broken to be insane. The enchanting and spellmaking systems, while fun, aren't all that balanced and even your strongest custom spells will look like wet firecrackers against God's Fire. Because of the massive cost of constant effects, you'll also never really keep your enchanted items after the first half of the game because they just can't cut it. The apalling weakness of scrolls is also degrading.
Deus Ex is an example of emergent gameplay and level design coming together to make a wonderful experience. Take Hell's Kitchen, the first time around, where you have at least 30 distinct ways to learn about the warehouse, approach and enter, destroy the generator, and exit to the helicopter. Your 'ware choices seriously affect how you play your character (even if skills make less difference, since there are fewer "real" choices), along with what sort of toys you drag along. The lack of scripting in many places actually improves the game, making it possible to walk out of many areas without ever engaging the enemy.
(flamebait) As for open-ended gameplay done right, we'll have to look at Tetris.
(/flamebait)
If not Tetris, then Fallout 2. You can plot your course almost however you choose - doing a line drive to San Fran to snag the power armor early, go through The Den and either become a slaver or get a five-fingered discount on equipment, become a boxer, wander around the wastes... the game is as open as you want it to be and lets you go whereever you want. The variations are too many to outline, but anyone that's treked past Klamath, through New Redding, and visited NCR knows just how loosely your path is written.
System Shock 2 had very little in these departments. The ability to hack or psi your way towards better gear was nice, but optional, and not terribly emergent -- it granted options, not other ways around. The "open ended" nature more meant farming monsters with a wrench (or energy weapon if the weapon degradation was low enough) -- no new ways around or reasons to hang around. Extra level space does not open endedness or emergence make.
As much as I respect Shock 2, I really feel that Shock 1 was superior for the gameplay, even if I am biased to the Skorpion. Both games have an awesome atmosphere, and were very well crafted. But the limits they pushed were with the story and the technology, not the gameplay.
Fastest growing because we still have something like space. With WSU or UW not taking anyone with less than a 3.6 GPA for reasons of overcrowding, and in-state tuition being around $1200 for 12-18 credits, this place isn't half bad. But our math department was ranked the absolute worst in the state of Washington between the four and two year colleges last year, which seems to hamstring progression through the CS department. One of our profs has a dubious reputation after 3/4 of the class failed a 300-level probability and sadistics class, which included both seniors and graduate students.
Oh, and with all these new students, almost three weeks in and the dorm networks are STILL on the fritz. This is an issue with the provider and the infrastructure, though.
Some of the maps are about a quarter mile away in the JFK Library, downstairs in the Government Archives. There are a lot of CIA intelligence materials down there, including maps and reports. One of the featured items of the month is the Postwar Intelligence Report on Iraq or somesuch. Not only are those not scanned in, but they're inconvenient to access. The government documents are all on these moving shelves that never seemed to work properly, and would consistantly beep in the background to say "we're not feeling well". So with four years of construction on this nice new facility, these clunky electromechanical shelves are just *now* getting some attention. Hopefully there aren't too many skeletons crushed up in those shelves. The irony of "progress" in the government.