The study I have set up at home is a fantastic hermit-cave for me, and while I'm there I'm able to work, study, play, socialise and all those other things. The only things I don't get in there are:
1. Face-to-face contact
2. Exercise
I think the internet in general has such a high impact on and penetration into those "1st & 2nd places" (at least, for the sort of people likely to be reading this post) that the distinctions are becoming a lot more blurred. Hell, working-from-home or at least taking-it-home-with-you is becoming so commonplace in our industry that I'm surprised people are even discussing it, and then there's the fact that some people love their work so much that it becomes as much "play" or "home" or even relaxed social contact.
On another note: something I find I do altogether too often in social situations (pubs, parties etc) is put on a "mask", a persona that makes me less vulnerable. In MMORPGs the implicit existence of a mask often means that people can be more "themselves" than they would otherwise. Maybe that's why it's such a good place for some people to relax and interact. Could be that it's doing wonders for the social skills of some people...
Absolutely true, apart from the bit about Buzz. I don't think many people except for hard-core Edge readers were too aware of Spore until that video was released on t'interweb. Sure, some people were aware of it (mainly because of the lead developer), but nobody knew enough to get genuinely excited until that release.
Incidentally, showcasing Spore at GDC rather than E3 or anywhere else was a stroke of PR genius. It got all the right people worked up about the game's core dynamics so all the other people got to hear about how good it was from industry professionals and developer press way before the consumer press-machine was gearing up. Personally, I feel sick with excitement whenever I think about it.
And, let's not forget, it was his degree-education (as compared to the other guys' years of "doing what works") that allowed him to save the best part of 2K. Anyone can over-specify, but it takes someone with knowledge and training to know how to specify appropriately. God knows I always over-specify when I'm doing anything DIY-related simply because I'm prepared to spend and extra 50% to make something that I'm sure will work first time (ie stay up). That doesn't make it a better solution, just a more reliable one for someone without training - were I a trained carpenter/builder/whatever, no doubt I could do it cheaper and better.
Then again, it may be the trained Civil Engineer in me that wants everything to withstand 1.4-2.0 times its expected maximum load (depending on the safety requirement). Etc.
Sorry, but I've gotta agree with RyanFenton here. It does look stunning and all, but those voices are just shameful. Max sounds almost exactly like Roger Rabbit - which I loved, but where's the barely-concealed, unpredictable menace in that? And Sam's pretty tepid too. There's no comedy timing with these actors at all. Please, if you don't want all those fans who were threatening to riot to actually start marauding the streets in sickened rage, you'd probably be well advised to re-cast. How much can the original voice-actors from the '90s game really cost? At the very least, got to a comedy club in NJ and hire some of those guys to do it. You've got some great material there. All you need is someone who can useit!
I don't have any time to read the book, so I have to ask: What could this guy possibly have to say that he didn't have to say in his first book "The Big Breach"?
As I understood it, the first book was about what a shambolic state MI6 was in back when he was employed there - someone please correct or confirm. If that is the case then I understand why he may have seen this as a good thing to do in the interests of national security (publicity is sometimes the only way to get people to wake up and change things). However, he could have done it without writing a book, and everything he's done since has shown him to be a profiteering dick-weed. Seriously, does anyone have any respect for this guy or what he has to say these days?
Maybe I've been reading it too much lately, but I have this image of him being lampooned a la Penny Arcade - "No seriously, listen guys! I have seeecrets. I'll tell you them! Spare some change?".
Okay, so most people - especially the most tech-savvy - won't bother buying an RFID-equipped player at first. However, if the industry enforcers (RIAA, BPI et al) push it hard enough this could well find its way into most players without the average consumer even noticing. It's not a certainty, but a frightening possibility.
In that event, I have to ask a simple question:
Will the revenue previously lost to piracy be fed back to the consumer? Will we see cheaper CDs anywhere?
Of course not. It's basic fucking economic theory that you can charge more if you segregate a market. Piracy be damned, fair-use my arse - this is just a desperate attempt to control the market, which can only lead to higher prices for legitimate, law-abiding consumers.
Yeah, it's a common opinion. I skimmed a few of the comments - some have a pragmatic, mature attitude about the soundtracks (and cuts), but so much of it seems to be fan-boy "OMGZ have you seen the ORIGINAL how it was MEANT to be seen before the AMERICANS screwed it up like WOW!" that it leaves me feeling a little depressed.
I never saw either version until this year, so I don't have any childhood-memory associations either way. As a result I can say I did really enjoy the story of the director's cut (it was much fuller), but the soundtrack turned the whole thing into a ridiculously sentimental wash-out. The scene with the black dress (if you dunno what I'm on about, sorry) is about seduction, loss of innocence, submission to your own potential for wickedness. The director's cut leaves this feeling like a bit of a trance, like she's been hypnotized and it's all just a dream to her - like the ball-scene from Labyrinth. That works, but then when you hear it with the US release soundtrack it suddenly becomes so much sharper. She's not being controlled, she's just succumbing to her own temptation - it's so incredibly bittersweet, it just conjures every memory of lost innocence, lost love, all your bad dreams of your girlfriend being seduced, and projects them onto the screen.
As one person said, the Tangerine Dream soundtrack turns it into a bit of a "cult" flick. But they say that like it's a bad thing. Which films stand the test of time, over and over? Grandiose epics and cult-flicks.
Clearly that's as far as your thought went then, troll. You can top your wall with rusty knives if you like, but if a burglar cuts themselves on it you ARE liable under UK law.
In the same way, if you keep a meat-cleaver under your bed in case of break-ins and use it, you will be convicted of assault/GBH/whatever because it is perceived that it was a premeditated act (ie whoever comes through that door, you were deliberately prepared with a weapon that was likely to cause serious injury and possibly death). If you just have a baseball bat by your bed because "you're a sportsman", however, you're covered because it was an impromptu defensive weapon. It's basically the same with topping your walls. The exception is on industrial sites where the presence of unauthorised persons is an obvious threat to themselves, such as utilities, chemicals and other heavy industrial processing.
So it sucks, and the law is hardly a help when it comes to defending your home - that much is true. Fortunately it's rare that a burglar is stupid enough to reveal themselves by attempting to prosecute the property owner, although if they get caught and convicted then they probably will out of spite and compensation.
I've seen this sort of criminal proceeding first-hand, so unless you've ever worked with UK community policing, you can keep your damned trap shut.
You mean to say that, were I an Oz resident, I couldn't flash my DVD-drive to enable me to play my perfectly legally imported Region 1 DVDs? As a UK resident, I did exactly this so that I could get the missus a copy of Legend with the original-release Tangerine Dream soundtrack (not available in UK) as opposed to the ridiculous "director's cut" version that pollutes our senses to this day.
Isn't this just a huge step backwards in the natural global-information-culture progression? I mean, this difficult balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of creators and retailers is getting knocked all over the place with heavy-handed laws.
Piracy is already illegal, but there are many non-pirating practices that can make use of some of these technologies. Isn't this like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, when the bath was already drained anyway?
Not quite, but in the UK if you top a wall barbed wire or crushed glass on which a burglar cuts themselves, you've broken the law. Brambles are fine though:-)
I'd be pretty nervous about taking transatlantic flights
Like everyone isn't already;-)
Seriously though, it's a civil suit, not criminal. They can't be arrested, can they? Or would they be liable for Contempt of Court? Even then, would it be enforcable outside IL? Any lawyers here to answer this?
I daresay a lot of these ideas get bandied around early on in the development of all such games, especially those games you've mentioned. I was told that during the early design stage of Oblivion, for example, they sat down and said "Wouldn't it be cool to have multiplayer possibilities?". That was pretty quickly canned though, as they felt that this contradicted the core idea of the game ie that you are the main character. It just wouldn't be compatible.
Some of your suggestions smack of Fable (which was a simply excellent game that made a lot of novel ideas work). However, in my opinion at least, a lot of what you've put forward involves inhabiting the game-world rather than just playing in it. This level of immersion is great, and it's probably what makes WoW so popular, but then if you're going to inhabit a virtual world you really do need other people there with you - we're back to the multiplayer thing again.
Training is a good example. It'd be great to have that option to provide training, but in order for it to be workable I think it would have to involve some element of time; time spent/lost training, time waiting for someone to come along and request it. This loss of time would make the game far less entertaining - unless, again, it were a MMORPG. Same story for selling stuff.
What you ask for with more interesting NPC interactions, buffing items etc, smacks of human interaction. Really, you want a MMORPG with every character being an NPC. I can see why you'd want that (you don't have to deal with total dicks, for a start - unless they're meant to be, of course), and while every game-developer in the world would love you to be able to have your cake and eat it, there's only so much a developer can do. Let's be honest; things have gotten so, so much better over the last 10 years (although Deus Ex 2 was a step back;-), and I expect and hope for that trend to continue, but not overnight. Maybe given another ten years, that dream-game will be a reality...
One more point: I was just thinking about the Arena, as you suggested, being implemented in WoW. My (brief) WoW days left me feeling that the whole challenging-players-to-combat thing was heavily under-developed. I have this image of an epic arena a la Oblivion, Fable etc, one per major city. Players of sufficient level could sign up to arena tournaments (you could have tournies for different 30-32, 33-35 etc), or tournies for particular classes, or group contests, guild battles etc. People could pay a fee to enter, a nominal fee for seats or whatever (more for closer seats), with interesting items or proceeds up for prizes, and you'd have some sort of commentary to make up for any unimpressive-looking moves. You could have random spectators selected for some interesting but non-critical role in the events. Just picture some Lv70 warlock having it out with a dragon or a couple of shamans or summat - pyrotechnics!
I recently built a silent rig using a Gigabyte 7600GT with passive cooling. The heatsink takes up an extra slot, but it's worth it for the silence.
You're right about the airflow - you need at least some if a passive solution is going keep your GPU alive - but that's true no matter what your setup. The GPU will keep kicking out the same heat whether actively or passively cooled. If you had a box that had little in/out airflow then the heat build-up in the case would make any cooling solution ineffective, so you will always need some kind of exhaust and/or intake fan (unless your case is very open for convection - but that allows noise to escape far more easily for active-cooled cards, and doesn't provide sufficient airflow for passive).
So the issue is really flow-density (I'm making this term up btw - flow-density is a real term, but I dunno if this is the correct application as my Civ Eng days are long past). A small heatsink with a fan close to it can have the same effect as a large heatsink with a big, slow case-fan if the airflow is managed properly - it's just that the former will usually generate a lot more noise.
So, this build I did recently. The 7600GT uses two back-bezels - one for the ports, one as an intake grille, which leads directly over the heat-sink. The fact that I built this system in an fantastic Antec case made things easier, but the design of the card means that I can set the exhaust fan to draw air out above the card - making use of it's secondary heatsink/heatpipe - and the air is drawn in through the card's intake grille as there's nowhere else for it to come from. This fan is inaudible (as is the whole system, which is down to a Zalman CPU cooler and a semi-fanless QTechnology PSU, along with the case's triple-ply walls), but it provides sufficient airflow at sufficient density over the GPU heatsinks.
It's great to have silent cooling but, as you say, a decent solution is not easy to engineer. It requires a bit of planning, some careful attention to detail (keeping cables tidy and the intakes/exhausts clear is a MUST) and a bit of investment, but it's worth it.
I'm seriously considering adding some ducting around the card to improve flow density should I ever want to overclock the thing. As it is, it handles Oblivion at 1680*1050 with decent effects without getting jerky, so I'm in no hurry to start mucking around just yet!
I'm not particularly interested in exploits and such per se, but I found the article fascinating anyway. Sure, some of what they said was interesting - especially the researchers - but the most interesting thing was the tone of the Vendors' statements
Seriously, have a look. If you're at all used to reading between the lines, their statements regarding security, disclosure etc give you a far greater insight into their real attitudes than any marketing, reviews or horror stories ever could.
I daresay that every burgeoning geek (who scoffs at the prices their local hardware shop charges for support) has considered the same thing you are - I know I have!
I'm not dragging your idea down at all - while many have considered it, few bother doing it for real simply because of the effort and hassle any such enterprise requires to get going. If you have the impetus and the business sense to do so, you have my best wishes.
However, for my part, the main reason I decided against doing such a thing (and there is a demand) is because I pride myself in all of my work, and am loath to take on a job that I'm not confident I can complete to a satisfactory level. My knowledge of home-PC hardware is excellent (as is that of so many other people), and I can cope with most problems M$ throws at a box. However, if I were to come up against something I'd never encountered before, I would worry about being able to sort it out. If it meant taking someone's box home for 3 days, not being able to fix it on the first night, having a prior commitment on the second, and finally deciding on the third that it was something beyond my ken, I would feel incredibly guilty about having taken on the job in the first place. Of course I wouldn't charge, but that's not much consolation to the poor guy who's been without his PC for several days.
If you feel confident that you can commit enough time to the business (evenings and weekends fill up surprisingly quickly), that it won't significantly interfere with your work or personal life, and that you have the technical experience to deal with almost any problem a punter throws your way - however poorly specified - then go for it. Just don't expect to enjoy it as much as you might hope to...;-)
I remember so clearly playing the first level of Doom (and, for that matter, Wolfenstein) on Nightmare mode. I clearly recall the thrill of hitting the Exit, sitting back in my chair, taking a deep breath and realising I was shaking with adrenalin. It was like a flashback to the first time I played the game on Please Don't Hurt Me mode.
That ability to push yourself again, when you'd gotten used to the game, is hardly new, but it really felt new when id did it.
The Sandbox element of a lot of games is great, and can offer loads more playability when you've done a game to death, but bear in mind that many games are in fact based on the Sandbox, some with goals stuck on top to give you drive and reward - GTA, Sim City, just about an Civ game, [insert] Tycoon, Sims, Oblivion and so on. The majority of these make it possible, with enough time, to complete the game whatever your skill level
However, the point of these is often not to "complete" the game, but to develop your skill, to become the master of your virtual world. As such, it is only fitting that such games allow you whatever time you require to do so. Nobody likes to feel like a fool or be totally frustrated.
The real issue here is those games that have a solid, immutable goal (get to the end and complete the game, in effect). In such cases you can affect the speed (timing or time limit) or the gameplay difficulty (certain hard elements pulled out etc). In the case of the former, it should absolutely be customisable. Again, if you such at a game you might really enjoy then it's a good thing to be able to ramp it down a touch so you can get into it, and then - assuming you enjoy the challenge and not the cruise - pick it up again later.
In the case of the latter, however, I always find I'm disappointed by such options. The reward just never seems to be there. It's an obtuse example, but does anyone remember Monkey Islands 3 (possibly 4) where you could choose the easy mode? It basically removed half of the puzzles - they were supposed to be the harder ones, but that's such a subjective decision to make that it kind of flattened the experience. Somebody mentioned different keys for different doors etc. All that would do, I fear, is take a really well-designed game and remove the challenges - and thus, the reward.
I can see that this is a valuable debate, but I honestly feel that the ability to sandbox, the ability to slow a game down, and the ability to make a game functionally easier are all very different issues, and shouldn't be considered together. Of course, I've expressed my personal views here and you're welcome to tear them to shreds:-)
Slashdot Mirror
1. Face-to-face contact
2. Exercise
I think the internet in general has such a high impact on and penetration into those "1st & 2nd places" (at least, for the sort of people likely to be reading this post) that the distinctions are becoming a lot more blurred. Hell, working-from-home or at least taking-it-home-with-you is becoming so commonplace in our industry that I'm surprised people are even discussing it, and then there's the fact that some people love their work so much that it becomes as much "play" or "home" or even relaxed social contact.
On another note: something I find I do altogether too often in social situations (pubs, parties etc) is put on a "mask", a persona that makes me less vulnerable. In MMORPGs the implicit existence of a mask often means that people can be more "themselves" than they would otherwise. Maybe that's why it's such a good place for some people to relax and interact. Could be that it's doing wonders for the social skills of some people...
Incidentally, showcasing Spore at GDC rather than E3 or anywhere else was a stroke of PR genius. It got all the right people worked up about the game's core dynamics so all the other people got to hear about how good it was from industry professionals and developer press way before the consumer press-machine was gearing up. Personally, I feel sick with excitement whenever I think about it.
Then again, it may be the trained Civil Engineer in me that wants everything to withstand 1.4-2.0 times its expected maximum load (depending on the safety requirement). Etc.
Sadly, this looks a lot like the wiring I've seen at some big LAN-parties.
Sorry, but I've gotta agree with RyanFenton here. It does look stunning and all, but those voices are just shameful. Max sounds almost exactly like Roger Rabbit - which I loved, but where's the barely-concealed, unpredictable menace in that? And Sam's pretty tepid too. There's no comedy timing with these actors at all. Please, if you don't want all those fans who were threatening to riot to actually start marauding the streets in sickened rage, you'd probably be well advised to re-cast. How much can the original voice-actors from the '90s game really cost? At the very least, got to a comedy club in NJ and hire some of those guys to do it. You've got some great material there. All you need is someone who can useit!
...Works.
This is GNU/Linux we're talking about, after all :-)
As I understood it, the first book was about what a shambolic state MI6 was in back when he was employed there - someone please correct or confirm. If that is the case then I understand why he may have seen this as a good thing to do in the interests of national security (publicity is sometimes the only way to get people to wake up and change things). However, he could have done it without writing a book, and everything he's done since has shown him to be a profiteering dick-weed. Seriously, does anyone have any respect for this guy or what he has to say these days?
Maybe I've been reading it too much lately, but I have this image of him being lampooned a la Penny Arcade - "No seriously, listen guys! I have seeecrets. I'll tell you them! Spare some change?".
In that event, I have to ask a simple question:
Will the revenue previously lost to piracy be fed back to the consumer? Will we see cheaper CDs anywhere?
Of course not. It's basic fucking economic theory that you can charge more if you segregate a market. Piracy be damned, fair-use my arse - this is just a desperate attempt to control the market, which can only lead to higher prices for legitimate, law-abiding consumers.
Bastards.
I never saw either version until this year, so I don't have any childhood-memory associations either way. As a result I can say I did really enjoy the story of the director's cut (it was much fuller), but the soundtrack turned the whole thing into a ridiculously sentimental wash-out. The scene with the black dress (if you dunno what I'm on about, sorry) is about seduction, loss of innocence, submission to your own potential for wickedness. The director's cut leaves this feeling like a bit of a trance, like she's been hypnotized and it's all just a dream to her - like the ball-scene from Labyrinth. That works, but then when you hear it with the US release soundtrack it suddenly becomes so much sharper. She's not being controlled, she's just succumbing to her own temptation - it's so incredibly bittersweet, it just conjures every memory of lost innocence, lost love, all your bad dreams of your girlfriend being seduced, and projects them onto the screen.
As one person said, the Tangerine Dream soundtrack turns it into a bit of a "cult" flick. But they say that like it's a bad thing. Which films stand the test of time, over and over? Grandiose epics and cult-flicks.
In the same way, if you keep a meat-cleaver under your bed in case of break-ins and use it, you will be convicted of assault/GBH/whatever because it is perceived that it was a premeditated act (ie whoever comes through that door, you were deliberately prepared with a weapon that was likely to cause serious injury and possibly death). If you just have a baseball bat by your bed because "you're a sportsman", however, you're covered because it was an impromptu defensive weapon. It's basically the same with topping your walls. The exception is on industrial sites where the presence of unauthorised persons is an obvious threat to themselves, such as utilities, chemicals and other heavy industrial processing.
So it sucks, and the law is hardly a help when it comes to defending your home - that much is true. Fortunately it's rare that a burglar is stupid enough to reveal themselves by attempting to prosecute the property owner, although if they get caught and convicted then they probably will out of spite and compensation.
I've seen this sort of criminal proceeding first-hand, so unless you've ever worked with UK community policing, you can keep your damned trap shut.
Ah, that's a relief - thanks for clearing that up.
You mean to say that, were I an Oz resident, I couldn't flash my DVD-drive to enable me to play my perfectly legally imported Region 1 DVDs? As a UK resident, I did exactly this so that I could get the missus a copy of Legend with the original-release Tangerine Dream soundtrack (not available in UK) as opposed to the ridiculous "director's cut" version that pollutes our senses to this day.
Isn't this just a huge step backwards in the natural global-information-culture progression? I mean, this difficult balance between the rights of consumers and the rights of creators and retailers is getting knocked all over the place with heavy-handed laws.
Piracy is already illegal, but there are many non-pirating practices that can make use of some of these technologies. Isn't this like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, when the bath was already drained anyway?
Not quite, but in the UK if you top a wall barbed wire or crushed glass on which a burglar cuts themselves, you've broken the law. Brambles are fine though :-)
Like everyone isn't already ;-)
Seriously though, it's a civil suit, not criminal. They can't be arrested, can they? Or would they be liable for Contempt of Court? Even then, would it be enforcable outside IL? Any lawyers here to answer this?
"...and will lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
Assuming, of course, that the EU gets their way :-)
Some of your suggestions smack of Fable (which was a simply excellent game that made a lot of novel ideas work). However, in my opinion at least, a lot of what you've put forward involves inhabiting the game-world rather than just playing in it. This level of immersion is great, and it's probably what makes WoW so popular, but then if you're going to inhabit a virtual world you really do need other people there with you - we're back to the multiplayer thing again.
Training is a good example. It'd be great to have that option to provide training, but in order for it to be workable I think it would have to involve some element of time; time spent/lost training, time waiting for someone to come along and request it. This loss of time would make the game far less entertaining - unless, again, it were a MMORPG. Same story for selling stuff.
What you ask for with more interesting NPC interactions, buffing items etc, smacks of human interaction. Really, you want a MMORPG with every character being an NPC. I can see why you'd want that (you don't have to deal with total dicks, for a start - unless they're meant to be, of course), and while every game-developer in the world would love you to be able to have your cake and eat it, there's only so much a developer can do. Let's be honest; things have gotten so, so much better over the last 10 years (although Deus Ex 2 was a step back ;-), and I expect and hope for that trend to continue, but not overnight. Maybe given another ten years, that dream-game will be a reality...
One more point: I was just thinking about the Arena, as you suggested, being implemented in WoW. My (brief) WoW days left me feeling that the whole challenging-players-to-combat thing was heavily under-developed. I have this image of an epic arena a la Oblivion, Fable etc, one per major city. Players of sufficient level could sign up to arena tournaments (you could have tournies for different 30-32, 33-35 etc), or tournies for particular classes, or group contests, guild battles etc. People could pay a fee to enter, a nominal fee for seats or whatever (more for closer seats), with interesting items or proceeds up for prizes, and you'd have some sort of commentary to make up for any unimpressive-looking moves. You could have random spectators selected for some interesting but non-critical role in the events. Just picture some Lv70 warlock having it out with a dragon or a couple of shamans or summat - pyrotechnics!
Anyway, just a thought
You're right about the airflow - you need at least some if a passive solution is going keep your GPU alive - but that's true no matter what your setup. The GPU will keep kicking out the same heat whether actively or passively cooled. If you had a box that had little in/out airflow then the heat build-up in the case would make any cooling solution ineffective, so you will always need some kind of exhaust and/or intake fan (unless your case is very open for convection - but that allows noise to escape far more easily for active-cooled cards, and doesn't provide sufficient airflow for passive).
So the issue is really flow-density (I'm making this term up btw - flow-density is a real term, but I dunno if this is the correct application as my Civ Eng days are long past). A small heatsink with a fan close to it can have the same effect as a large heatsink with a big, slow case-fan if the airflow is managed properly - it's just that the former will usually generate a lot more noise.
So, this build I did recently. The 7600GT uses two back-bezels - one for the ports, one as an intake grille, which leads directly over the heat-sink. The fact that I built this system in an fantastic Antec case made things easier, but the design of the card means that I can set the exhaust fan to draw air out above the card - making use of it's secondary heatsink/heatpipe - and the air is drawn in through the card's intake grille as there's nowhere else for it to come from. This fan is inaudible (as is the whole system, which is down to a Zalman CPU cooler and a semi-fanless QTechnology PSU, along with the case's triple-ply walls), but it provides sufficient airflow at sufficient density over the GPU heatsinks.
It's great to have silent cooling but, as you say, a decent solution is not easy to engineer. It requires a bit of planning, some careful attention to detail (keeping cables tidy and the intakes/exhausts clear is a MUST) and a bit of investment, but it's worth it.
I'm seriously considering adding some ducting around the card to improve flow density should I ever want to overclock the thing. As it is, it handles Oblivion at 1680*1050 with decent effects without getting jerky, so I'm in no hurry to start mucking around just yet!
Seriously, have a look. If you're at all used to reading between the lines, their statements regarding security, disclosure etc give you a far greater insight into their real attitudes than any marketing, reviews or horror stories ever could.
Not so, I'm afraid. All Mersenne primes are one less than a number which is 2^(prime) - but the converse is not necessarily true.
...Please move along."
/. said when I first clicked the story, anyway. I immediately assumed it had been commandeered for use in US military codes...
That's what
</tinfoil hat>
I'm not dragging your idea down at all - while many have considered it, few bother doing it for real simply because of the effort and hassle any such enterprise requires to get going. If you have the impetus and the business sense to do so, you have my best wishes.
However, for my part, the main reason I decided against doing such a thing (and there is a demand) is because I pride myself in all of my work, and am loath to take on a job that I'm not confident I can complete to a satisfactory level. My knowledge of home-PC hardware is excellent (as is that of so many other people), and I can cope with most problems M$ throws at a box. However, if I were to come up against something I'd never encountered before, I would worry about being able to sort it out. If it meant taking someone's box home for 3 days, not being able to fix it on the first night, having a prior commitment on the second, and finally deciding on the third that it was something beyond my ken, I would feel incredibly guilty about having taken on the job in the first place. Of course I wouldn't charge, but that's not much consolation to the poor guy who's been without his PC for several days.
If you feel confident that you can commit enough time to the business (evenings and weekends fill up surprisingly quickly), that it won't significantly interfere with your work or personal life, and that you have the technical experience to deal with almost any problem a punter throws your way - however poorly specified - then go for it. Just don't expect to enjoy it as much as you might hope to... ;-)
That ability to push yourself again, when you'd gotten used to the game, is hardly new, but it really felt new when id did it.
The Sandbox element of a lot of games is great, and can offer loads more playability when you've done a game to death, but bear in mind that many games are in fact based on the Sandbox, some with goals stuck on top to give you drive and reward - GTA, Sim City, just about an Civ game, [insert] Tycoon, Sims, Oblivion and so on. The majority of these make it possible, with enough time, to complete the game whatever your skill level
However, the point of these is often not to "complete" the game, but to develop your skill, to become the master of your virtual world. As such, it is only fitting that such games allow you whatever time you require to do so. Nobody likes to feel like a fool or be totally frustrated.
The real issue here is those games that have a solid, immutable goal (get to the end and complete the game, in effect). In such cases you can affect the speed (timing or time limit) or the gameplay difficulty (certain hard elements pulled out etc). In the case of the former, it should absolutely be customisable. Again, if you such at a game you might really enjoy then it's a good thing to be able to ramp it down a touch so you can get into it, and then - assuming you enjoy the challenge and not the cruise - pick it up again later.
In the case of the latter, however, I always find I'm disappointed by such options. The reward just never seems to be there. It's an obtuse example, but does anyone remember Monkey Islands 3 (possibly 4) where you could choose the easy mode? It basically removed half of the puzzles - they were supposed to be the harder ones, but that's such a subjective decision to make that it kind of flattened the experience. Somebody mentioned different keys for different doors etc. All that would do, I fear, is take a really well-designed game and remove the challenges - and thus, the reward.
I can see that this is a valuable debate, but I honestly feel that the ability to sandbox, the ability to slow a game down, and the ability to make a game functionally easier are all very different issues, and shouldn't be considered together. Of course, I've expressed my personal views here and you're welcome to tear them to shreds :-)
That pretty much shaped my understanding of adult life.