I've spent a bit of time trying to figure out exactly what the scam was (since the original post didn't tell us) and it seems that this guy, Dentara Rast (in-game Cally) ran some sort of Eve Intergalactic Bank (EIB) which presumably did all the things a bank normally does. Deposits, withdrawls, interest, loans, etc.
According to him, he began it as a legit business. Somewhere along the line the guy decides to not be legit and begins embezzling funds, then just recently decides to close up shop entirely and keep all the money for himself.
Hopefully somebody who plays Eve can correct any details I may have missed.
I don't think you should, as a business. For personal matters though, it's quite nice. I've been trying to lose weight and have been using Google Spreadsheets to track my calorie count through the day. I can access it from work and from home, and since my task is so simple the lack of advanced features doesn't bother me that much (all I need is a SUM() function and tabbed browsing).
You're absolutely right about businesses having more robust and feature-full alternatives, which is why I think Google's going for the home market rather than the professional market.
Nintendo is gambling big time with this new machine; they want to create a new segment of the market, sort of like the iPod did. Good for them. But this is a risky strategy.
The Nintendo DS, along with its friends Nintendogs and Brain Age, say you're wrong. And they say you're wrong to the tune of 21+ million sales in 18 months worldwide with THIRTEEN million+ selling games. Nintendogs alone is over 7 million worldwide.
Spoken like a man who hasn't investigated the Wii at all.
The Wii remote will be a fad - who honestly wants to wave that around: Yeah, it really looks like he's really waving it around. Oh wait, it's small wrist movements which controls the action, not huge motions.
Whether or not you like it, marketing and hype is what sells consoles. I don't see any Wii hype anywhere but on Digg and Slashdot. Sorry.: Where's the PS3 hype? I see nothing in mainstream media and nothing but negativity from the online media. Where's the X360 hype? I haven't seen any since their launch a year ago. I also haven't seen any compelling reason to buy an Xbox 360 aside from maybe Xbox Live Arcade games (which I played 10 years ago)
Mario sux0rs to me - but Mom or the kid next door can have fun with it if they want: I'm honestly very sorry that you have a complex which prevents you from enjoying video games which are fun because you're afraid they are too "kiddy". If it's any consolation, you'll grow out of that once you graduate 9th grade.
Then again, I guess I shouldn't expect too much out of a user named "XpL1CiT". Have fun in High School kid.
In other news, freak power outages have been reported all over the United States today. Experts attribute this power outage to the newly-installed generators on the Founding Fathers' graves. Powered by their eternal rolling over, they were expected to provide power to the United States for the duration of the Bush presidency.
The Department of Energy has urged power consumers to attempt to cut back on their energy usage until new generators can be installed on the Republican Spin machine, which provides nearly as much spin as the Founding Fathers' graves.
I stand corrected. I actually had forgotten about the Silver free subscription. So if I have a Silver account (free) and buy Street Fighter Hyper Fighting from XBLA, can I then play that online? I'm honestly asking, I really have no clue.
In any case, the article states that for Nintendo releases at least (which, let's be honest, are the primary reason for buying Nintendo consoles) the online play will be 100% free. Third party titles, we'll have to wait and see. I suspect it will be similar to Dreamcast or PS2 where the third parties will setup their own servers for their own games. I'll be annoyed having to register each online-capable game I wanted from EA or Ubisoft or Capcom just so I could play it online - that's something Microsoft really got right with XBL - but I can live with it.
Current rumor mills place the cost of the Wii at $220. I'll be buying one launch day. If they bundle the Nunchuck controller and Wii Sports, I'll be lining up for a Midnight launch.
Let's make something clear though - the highly anticipated Virtual Console (which is able to download and play NES/Genesis/SNES/N64 games) will not be free. The pricing hasn't been released yet, but current estimates are $5 to $10 for a game. I would also hope that browsing these games would be free as well (unlike Xbox Live Arcade, where you must first pay for XBL and then pay again for XBLA games)
This announcement is for games like Mario Kart Wii or (please God let this be true) Super Smash Brothers Wii. Those games will be free, and that's what Reggie was talking about.
Don't forget their intentionally installing malware on customer's machines, and continuous pushing of proprietary technology over open standards.
I didn't mention those things because, well, it has nothing to do with gaming. I'm a gamer - that's what I care about. If a console had a controller that had to be rectally installed each time you turned it on (no pun intended) and would periodically slap you in the face, I'd still buy and use it if the games were good enough. Admittedly, the games would have to be really really good to overcome those deficiencies, but I still would.
From a general standpoint, yes, I care that Sony is a very evil corporation. But when it comes to gaming, I just don't care about their Rootkits or their love proprietary media. I just want to game.
Sony is making the same mistake on the PS3 as they are on the PSP. Too much focus on the "extras" and too little focus on the games. On the PSP it was UMD movies (which are about to go the way of Betamax) while the PS3 has it's Blu-Ray. PS3 launch games are sorely lacking, while we just had a Slashdot article detailing the 25+ launch games for the Wii.
It's interesting to note the similarities between Nintendo and Sony with respects to their consoles. NES was good and had lots of good games. SNES was king of consoles, with thousands of AAA titles and lots of third party support. Then Nintendo rode their hubris and put out the N64, and drove away their supporters to the sleeker PS1 and Dreamcast. Nintendo has been playing catch-up ever since - though the Wii has the potential to revolutionize the industry, much in the same way the NES did so many years ago.
For Sony, PS1 was good with a lot of exclusives, and PS2 was king for a lot of the same reasons as the SNES. But Sony has displayed so much hubris in the buildup to the PS3 launch that sometimes I wonder if I've slipped into a Greek morality play. "The PS3 is actually pretty cheap", "We'd sell 6 million consoles even without games", "$599 US dollars", "Giant enemy crabs"... Sony is ripe for a fall.
Here's a good article about the E3 demo with good descriptions of the controls for SMB Wii. The entire time I was reading it I had a girlish grin on my face, thinking "Man, I can't wait for this".
There's no set launch date for the Wii yet. Long-standing rumors on the 'net are pointing towards October 2, but I seriously doubt that. Nintendo has publically stated it will not be out in September. They have also stated that it will be out before the PS3 (November 17th I think) so there's your date range.
August 23rd Nintendo will present "Wii fulfil our promises" where it's expected that they will announce a launch date and price.
Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy PS3, Possession, Killzone PS3, Tekken PS3, Warhawk, Gran Turismo Vision. Those are all launch titles as well.
Emphasis mine.
MGS4: TBA 2007 FF 13: Unknown Hell, FF 12 for PS2 is only coming out on Halloween this year.
Possession: 2007 Killzone: TBA 2007 Tekken: TBA, not playable at E3 so I'm betting early 2007 at the earliest.
Warhawk: You finally get one right.
GTV: Q2 2007
But hey, at least it only costs $600 for a Blu-Ray player, because you're certainly not going to be playing any games on it in the near future.
What a horrible article. A roommate comes back with a Conker title which he probably only really enjoyed because of the crude humor (which he has since grown out of) and suddenly all nostalgia gaming is doomed.
Go back to the true classics and then tell me that I shouldn't be nostalgic. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Mario Brothers, Pengo, Bump-n-Jump... All fantastic games which are still fun to play today.
Pssst. See that door that leads "outside"? Use it.
...pause for laughter...
Of course I know what you really mean by that, but still. I'm not necessarily looking forward to games like that because I'm not a fan of the whole "sandbox" style of gameplay which has become so prevalent in the recent years. To me, games are about the story, about becoming the character and living vicariously through them. GTA3+ did this well, by giving a storyline but still providing the ability to just cruise around
What really drew me to your comment was the mention of APB. It conjured up memories of one of my favorite old-school arcade games, coincidentally also called APB. You're a cop in a cop car, munching donuts for extra time and using the siren to pull over litterbugs, pot smokers, and "boss" criminals. It was incredibly fun.
Hi, have you ever heard of "Demo units"? You know, those things in Best Buy or EB Games where they have the consoles set up with an LCD screen where you can try out the games on the system? I can hear the discussions now
Parent: Ooh, what's that they're playing over there?
Child: Oh, that's the new Nintendo console
Parent: Wow, that looks like fun. Do you want that?
Child: No, I want a PS3, and you said I could only have one console.
Parent: Hmmm, that looks like a lot of fun for my little one and for me too... but I probably can't afford it Parent checks price of Wii
Parent: WOOHOO! Parent: Let's get you your PS3, and see what else Santa brings you this year. That Wii sure looks like fun, doesn't it?
Child: Yeah!
More efficient ways? Sure. More practical ways? Nope.
For better or worse, the human world is designed around bipedal movement. Steps, doors (especially revolving doors), chairs, curbs, desks... They all assume certain things, amongst which is bipedal movement.
The more we program robots to be bipedal, the more we learn about bipedal movement from a purely analytical perspective. And the more we learn about bipedal movement, the closer we become to making real "helper" robots that are seen in countless Sci-Fi stories.
I'm not sure it's "disturbing" in the way that, say, A Clockwork Orange was, but Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube was a very freaky experience for me.
For those who aren't familiar (shame on you) the game used so-called "Insanity Effects" which were basically designed to make your character think they were going crazy - except they also applied to you. You would walk into a room and be immediately decapitated. Then the screen would flash, your character would scream a bit, and you could continue playing the game. Other effects included rooms appearing completely upside-down, invincible monsters, and ever-present whispering that really freaked me out the first time I heard some of them.
I'm not sure why this is even an issue. A student made an icon of a bullet to the head, with the phrase "Kill Mr. VanderMolen" on it. Whether it was intended as a joke or not, it's still a threat - just like those signs you see at the airport warning you not to joke about a bomb in your suitcase. Free speech does not include the right to threaten other people.
Sounds like the court and the school district got this one right. Not sure what the controversy is.
Why is it that every single MMORPG discussion on Slashdot ends up with a 5-rated post espousing the virtues of Eve-Online? I'm not saying you're directly to blame, but it seems to me that Eve-Online has some great PR people who constantly beef up their sales, always with a link to the site.
Guitar Hero Might not fall into the "wildly popular" category, but it's the best party game I've ever seen. Easily recognizable songs, intuitive gameplay, and "Let me try that" attitude make it a fantastic game.
Brain Age/Academy It's one of the many Nintendo DS "nongames" but I've been playing it once a day for the past 2 weeks, and don't intend to stop anytime in the near future. That's something I can't say for a lot of other games (besides WoW)
Nintendogs Another "nongame" which I haven't tried, but it is both wildly popular (among nongamers) and innovative
New Super Mario Brothers and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Classic old-school 2D scrolling goodness with enough little quirks thrown in to keep the game fresh and interesting.
As a recently liberated WoW player (played since launch, endgame guild up to Twin Emps) I can say that my buying habits changed drastically when I started playing WoW. Before WoW, I would buy about 2 games a month for my various systems (PC, US and Japan PS2, GBA, DS, and modded Gamecube for US/Japan games). While I was playing WoW I bought exactly zero games.
Once my WoW addiction subsided and I tried to play "catch up" though, I found that I had no interest in 99% of the games which had come out during my 18-month game-buying drought. Guitar Hero, Battlefield 2, and Dragon Quest VIII are the only major titles which I felt were "must-haves" during the time I was out of the market. It's interesting though that there's dozens of DS games which I still have on my "want" list, when I figured that there would be zero.
I don't think it's WoW's fault, I think that the past year has just been really really crappy for video games in general. It's all "same game different title" for the most part. Battlefield 2 and DQ8 are basically just and FPS and a standard Japanese RPG. Guitar Hero is probably the only new idea out there for the consoles, while the DS has Nintendogs, the Brain series, as well as the new control schemes for Metroid Prime Hunters gives the DS new life from the jaded gamer market.
I, like thousands of other gamers, have "been there done that" with the current generation of consoles. It's all just FPS, sports, and stealth games it seems. The DS breaks that mold by introducing the revolutionary control scheme and backing it up with great games. I'm hoping the Wii will continue this and really give people new, innovative video games to play again, because I'm tired of the "same game different title" syndrome.
Too many "unlockables" and it's work. No "unlockables" and it's 30 minutes of gameplay. There's a balance. I've recently bought Guitar Hero and Battlefield 2, and it's a nice contrast.
Guitar Hero does it pretty well, but they still make you play through the Career mode to open the basic playlist. So if I want to show a friend how cool Guitar Hero is and the full song list, I have to bring my memory card as well - otherwise he gets the first 5 songs and that's it. But the gameplay is fantastic and highly addictive.
Battlefield 2 is good with unlockables. All classes are available at the start and you can gradually unlock more weapons for those classes, which are generally minor upgrades over the stock weapons. The gameplay suffers from the same problems as other online-only games - namely cheaters and the "Internet Fuckwad" theory.
There's definately a balance, so hopefully there's not a new wave of games with no unlockables - they're fun and add a good deal of playtime to otherwise straightforward games.
Slashdot Mirror
I've spent a bit of time trying to figure out exactly what the scam was (since the original post didn't tell us) and it seems that this guy, Dentara Rast (in-game Cally) ran some sort of Eve Intergalactic Bank (EIB) which presumably did all the things a bank normally does. Deposits, withdrawls, interest, loans, etc.
According to him, he began it as a legit business. Somewhere along the line the guy decides to not be legit and begins embezzling funds, then just recently decides to close up shop entirely and keep all the money for himself.
Hopefully somebody who plays Eve can correct any details I may have missed.
I don't think you should, as a business. For personal matters though, it's quite nice. I've been trying to lose weight and have been using Google Spreadsheets to track my calorie count through the day. I can access it from work and from home, and since my task is so simple the lack of advanced features doesn't bother me that much (all I need is a SUM() function and tabbed browsing).
You're absolutely right about businesses having more robust and feature-full alternatives, which is why I think Google's going for the home market rather than the professional market.
"Risky" isn't exactly the word I'd use here.
Spoken like a man who hasn't investigated the Wii at all.
The Wii remote will be a fad - who honestly wants to wave that around: Yeah, it really looks like he's really waving it around. Oh wait, it's small wrist movements which controls the action, not huge motions.
good luck using it in FPS games: Yeah, nobody liked the controls on Metroid Prime 3.
Whether or not you like it, marketing and hype is what sells consoles. I don't see any Wii hype anywhere but on Digg and Slashdot. Sorry.: Where's the PS3 hype? I see nothing in mainstream media and nothing but negativity from the online media. Where's the X360 hype? I haven't seen any since their launch a year ago. I also haven't seen any compelling reason to buy an Xbox 360 aside from maybe Xbox Live Arcade games (which I played 10 years ago)
Mario sux0rs to me - but Mom or the kid next door can have fun with it if they want: I'm honestly very sorry that you have a complex which prevents you from enjoying video games which are fun because you're afraid they are too "kiddy". If it's any consolation, you'll grow out of that once you graduate 9th grade.
Then again, I guess I shouldn't expect too much out of a user named "XpL1CiT". Have fun in High School kid.
I predict that we will soon have another terrorist attack, or warnings of an attack which will cause the National Threat Level to be raised. See here.
In other news, freak power outages have been reported all over the United States today. Experts attribute this power outage to the newly-installed generators on the Founding Fathers' graves. Powered by their eternal rolling over, they were expected to provide power to the United States for the duration of the Bush presidency.
The Department of Energy has urged power consumers to attempt to cut back on their energy usage until new generators can be installed on the Republican Spin machine, which provides nearly as much spin as the Founding Fathers' graves.
I stand corrected. I actually had forgotten about the Silver free subscription. So if I have a Silver account (free) and buy Street Fighter Hyper Fighting from XBLA, can I then play that online? I'm honestly asking, I really have no clue.
In any case, the article states that for Nintendo releases at least (which, let's be honest, are the primary reason for buying Nintendo consoles) the online play will be 100% free. Third party titles, we'll have to wait and see. I suspect it will be similar to Dreamcast or PS2 where the third parties will setup their own servers for their own games. I'll be annoyed having to register each online-capable game I wanted from EA or Ubisoft or Capcom just so I could play it online - that's something Microsoft really got right with XBL - but I can live with it.
Current rumor mills place the cost of the Wii at $220. I'll be buying one launch day. If they bundle the Nunchuck controller and Wii Sports, I'll be lining up for a Midnight launch.
Let's make something clear though - the highly anticipated Virtual Console (which is able to download and play NES/Genesis/SNES/N64 games) will not be free. The pricing hasn't been released yet, but current estimates are $5 to $10 for a game. I would also hope that browsing these games would be free as well (unlike Xbox Live Arcade, where you must first pay for XBL and then pay again for XBLA games)
This announcement is for games like Mario Kart Wii or (please God let this be true) Super Smash Brothers Wii. Those games will be free, and that's what Reggie was talking about.
From a general standpoint, yes, I care that Sony is a very evil corporation. But when it comes to gaming, I just don't care about their Rootkits or their love proprietary media. I just want to game.
Sony is making the same mistake on the PS3 as they are on the PSP. Too much focus on the "extras" and too little focus on the games. On the PSP it was UMD movies (which are about to go the way of Betamax) while the PS3 has it's Blu-Ray. PS3 launch games are sorely lacking, while we just had a Slashdot article detailing the 25+ launch games for the Wii.
It's interesting to note the similarities between Nintendo and Sony with respects to their consoles. NES was good and had lots of good games. SNES was king of consoles, with thousands of AAA titles and lots of third party support. Then Nintendo rode their hubris and put out the N64, and drove away their supporters to the sleeker PS1 and Dreamcast. Nintendo has been playing catch-up ever since - though the Wii has the potential to revolutionize the industry, much in the same way the NES did so many years ago.
For Sony, PS1 was good with a lot of exclusives, and PS2 was king for a lot of the same reasons as the SNES. But Sony has displayed so much hubris in the buildup to the PS3 launch that sometimes I wonder if I've slipped into a Greek morality play. "The PS3 is actually pretty cheap", "We'd sell 6 million consoles even without games", "$599 US dollars", "Giant enemy crabs"... Sony is ripe for a fall.
Here's a good article about the E3 demo with good descriptions of the controls for SMB Wii. The entire time I was reading it I had a girlish grin on my face, thinking "Man, I can't wait for this".
There's no set launch date for the Wii yet. Long-standing rumors on the 'net are pointing towards October 2, but I seriously doubt that. Nintendo has publically stated it will not be out in September. They have also stated that it will be out before the PS3 (November 17th I think) so there's your date range.
August 23rd Nintendo will present "Wii fulfil our promises" where it's expected that they will announce a launch date and price.
MGS4: TBA 2007
FF 13: Unknown Hell, FF 12 for PS2 is only coming out on Halloween this year.
Possession: 2007
Killzone: TBA 2007
Tekken: TBA, not playable at E3 so I'm betting early 2007 at the earliest.
Warhawk: You finally get one right.
GTV: Q2 2007
But hey, at least it only costs $600 for a Blu-Ray player, because you're certainly not going to be playing any games on it in the near future.
...birds are dying!
What a horrible article. A roommate comes back with a Conker title which he probably only really enjoyed because of the crude humor (which he has since grown out of) and suddenly all nostalgia gaming is doomed.
Go back to the true classics and then tell me that I shouldn't be nostalgic. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Mario Brothers, Pengo, Bump-n-Jump... All fantastic games which are still fun to play today.
It's the gameplay, stupid.
Pssst. See that door that leads "outside"? Use it.
...pause for laughter...
Of course I know what you really mean by that, but still. I'm not necessarily looking forward to games like that because I'm not a fan of the whole "sandbox" style of gameplay which has become so prevalent in the recent years. To me, games are about the story, about becoming the character and living vicariously through them. GTA3+ did this well, by giving a storyline but still providing the ability to just cruise around
What really drew me to your comment was the mention of APB. It conjured up memories of one of my favorite old-school arcade games, coincidentally also called APB. You're a cop in a cop car, munching donuts for extra time and using the siren to pull over litterbugs, pot smokers, and "boss" criminals. It was incredibly fun.
Hi, have you ever heard of "Demo units"? You know, those things in Best Buy or EB Games where they have the consoles set up with an LCD screen where you can try out the games on the system? I can hear the discussions now
Parent: Ooh, what's that they're playing over there?
Child: Oh, that's the new Nintendo console
Parent: Wow, that looks like fun. Do you want that?
Child: No, I want a PS3, and you said I could only have one console.
Parent: Hmmm, that looks like a lot of fun for my little one and for me too... but I probably can't afford it
Parent checks price of Wii
Parent: WOOHOO!
Parent: Let's get you your PS3, and see what else Santa brings you this year. That Wii sure looks like fun, doesn't it?
Child: Yeah!
More efficient ways? Sure. More practical ways? Nope.
For better or worse, the human world is designed around bipedal movement. Steps, doors (especially revolving doors), chairs, curbs, desks... They all assume certain things, amongst which is bipedal movement.
The more we program robots to be bipedal, the more we learn about bipedal movement from a purely analytical perspective. And the more we learn about bipedal movement, the closer we become to making real "helper" robots that are seen in countless Sci-Fi stories.
I'm not sure it's "disturbing" in the way that, say, A Clockwork Orange was, but Eternal Darkness for the Gamecube was a very freaky experience for me.
For those who aren't familiar (shame on you) the game used so-called "Insanity Effects" which were basically designed to make your character think they were going crazy - except they also applied to you. You would walk into a room and be immediately decapitated. Then the screen would flash, your character would scream a bit, and you could continue playing the game. Other effects included rooms appearing completely upside-down, invincible monsters, and ever-present whispering that really freaked me out the first time I heard some of them.
ED was fantastic at really working the psyche and trying to make a real "Horror" game that didn't involve things randomly jumping through windows at you.
Hmm, I've seen this article on Fark, Joystiq, and now Slashdot. Everybody, on the count of 3, say "Publicity Stunt"
1...2...5
Sounds like the court and the school district got this one right. Not sure what the controversy is.
Kinda upsets me a bit.
Guitar Hero Might not fall into the "wildly popular" category, but it's the best party game I've ever seen. Easily recognizable songs, intuitive gameplay, and "Let me try that" attitude make it a fantastic game. Brain Age/Academy It's one of the many Nintendo DS "nongames" but I've been playing it once a day for the past 2 weeks, and don't intend to stop anytime in the near future. That's something I can't say for a lot of other games (besides WoW) Nintendogs Another "nongame" which I haven't tried, but it is both wildly popular (among nongamers) and innovative New Super Mario Brothers and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow Classic old-school 2D scrolling goodness with enough little quirks thrown in to keep the game fresh and interesting.
Once my WoW addiction subsided and I tried to play "catch up" though, I found that I had no interest in 99% of the games which had come out during my 18-month game-buying drought. Guitar Hero, Battlefield 2, and Dragon Quest VIII are the only major titles which I felt were "must-haves" during the time I was out of the market. It's interesting though that there's dozens of DS games which I still have on my "want" list, when I figured that there would be zero.
I don't think it's WoW's fault, I think that the past year has just been really really crappy for video games in general. It's all "same game different title" for the most part. Battlefield 2 and DQ8 are basically just and FPS and a standard Japanese RPG. Guitar Hero is probably the only new idea out there for the consoles, while the DS has Nintendogs, the Brain series, as well as the new control schemes for Metroid Prime Hunters gives the DS new life from the jaded gamer market.
I, like thousands of other gamers, have "been there done that" with the current generation of consoles. It's all just FPS, sports, and stealth games it seems. The DS breaks that mold by introducing the revolutionary control scheme and backing it up with great games. I'm hoping the Wii will continue this and really give people new, innovative video games to play again, because I'm tired of the "same game different title" syndrome.
Guitar Hero does it pretty well, but they still make you play through the Career mode to open the basic playlist. So if I want to show a friend how cool Guitar Hero is and the full song list, I have to bring my memory card as well - otherwise he gets the first 5 songs and that's it. But the gameplay is fantastic and highly addictive.
Battlefield 2 is good with unlockables. All classes are available at the start and you can gradually unlock more weapons for those classes, which are generally minor upgrades over the stock weapons. The gameplay suffers from the same problems as other online-only games - namely cheaters and the "Internet Fuckwad" theory.
There's definately a balance, so hopefully there's not a new wave of games with no unlockables - they're fun and add a good deal of playtime to otherwise straightforward games.