Hopefully he'll drop kick all these rights-violating, hypocritical "conservatives" who use his name and religion for their own political and financial gains straight into hell when he does.
No wait, actually I guess "game pad" is the feminine version.. Get it? Pad? But when it comes to game pads, never mind, because they are TOO BIG for her hands. Guess what! I'm a man and I find ALL modern gadgets, including game pads, TOO SMALL. I guess you can't please everybody.
No, she's just talking about the X-Box controller. Which is just plain too big. Period.
I like women in my games to have big tits and small waists. I like the men in my games to have broad shoulders and strong arms. I don't really care if they are "Actualizing A Constructive Gender Space" or whatever she's talking about.
She has a point. Game makers throw stupid sex objects, rather than a realistic character, into games - even when a realistic character would be a much better choice.
She doesn't seem to mind the big-tit/small waist girls in DOA Extreme Volleyball, because they fit into that game fairly well. The game was made for "fan service" from the get go, after all.
On the other hand, the NPC at the beginning of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is just plain STUPID. I have to agree with what she says. Here you have an RPG-style game that is trying to be serious in some manner, and then you enter into this bar and a woman in a crazy outfit asks you to kill rats for her as she's "bouncing" in front of you. It is hard NOT to crack up at that point in the game. There is NOTHING gained from her presence, and a more realistic NPC would have been much better in that spot.
Only 40,000? Hardly!
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Genome Surprise
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
That is only what the Patriots want you to think. The correct number is really 140,000, but the la-li-lu-le-lo don't want you to know that for some unseen reason.
They'll probably be after me for revealing this secret, but I can hide in this box I've got sitting right next to me.
I think the "none" work perfectly argument can be made about all software. All software has bugs, and there is no software out there that pleases everyone all of the time.
The only reason the same complaint can't be made about "closed source" applications is because of Microsoft's near-monopoly on the desktop. With the exception of Adobe's products, Microsoft's software is the first thing you think about when you need an application under Windows. In many cases, many things are already there, even if you do not want them.
On Linux, there's no decent movie player and no working sound recorder (like the one in Windows 95) shipped as the default by GNOME
Isn't this really based upon the distribution? Even if your distro doesn't come with a good media player, you can easily download something like Xine for most of your media needs. The important thing here is that you can choose to NOT have a media player if you don't want one.
On the Windows front, you have media player by default... loaded with tons of "features" that nobody ever uses, "internet usage reporting" (whatever THAT is), and all sorts of other crap. Like IE, I'm not sure if you can safely remove it if you don't WANT it.
Which leads to a huge problem of closed source software: bloat. There are tons of applications with way too MANY features. And since many of these are the "standard" applications (MS Office, Adobe Photoshop) for their use, people end up sacrificing huge amounts of disk space for these applications when perhaps a smaller application will suit them just fine.
Do many open source programs have the "full features" of their closed source counterparts? No. But I find open source easier for finding applications that fit MY needs better. Not everyone's needs plus some.
Microsoft's desktop environment is far from perfect, but when you get Windows, you get their desktop... and only their desktop. They were nice enough to let you go back to the old Windows 95-2000 style desktop in XP, but really it is the same WM with a different skin.
Some people download Lightstep, but that is not the "default." Is Lightstep wasting its time by existing... since hardly anyone uses it? (See Below)
GNOME and KDE for the majority, Blackbox and Window Maker for modest hardware. The rest are simply wasted time, both for the developers and for users who try them and then delete them in disgust
Why are new "desktop environments" a waste of time? Who knows what kind of innovations and ideas will come from different, new, approaches? Sure, most of them do suck... but that doesn't mean a good, new desktop won't crop up.
Something interesting, however, is that many of the people I know who have never read the books think that Two Towers was a better movie than Fellowship.
I like both movies, personally. Two Towers had worse plot deviations, but it was still a good movie. Not as good as Fellowship, though. The Arwen/Aragorn was probably the biggest downplay, and they went a little too far with Gimli being comic relief. The edititing and timing of scenes felt a bit strange at times, but I can't see how one could do it differently and still keep the movie under 3 hours. Hopefully the "Extended" DVD edition fixes some of these things.
Naturally, the movies can NOT compare with the books. Just about everyone knew this before hand. I think the MAJOR critiques of Two Towers is that there are quite a few differences.
I find that it is easier to enjoy the LOTR movies if you aren't comparing everything to the books all the time... something understandibly hard for hard core LOTR fans to do.
Even so, I don't think I'd mind if this article were real. If a four month delay meant that Return of the King would be as close to the book as possible, and it would make a better movie... I'd have no problem with it.
There might be some sound issues as well according to some other posts I've read.
DRI is also apparently broken in the version of Debian Unstable that some people are using.
For the most part it seems that nVidia users are flying high, while ATI users are encountering many problems (though a few people seem to have gotten their ATI cards to work...) Then again, the Windows client has also caused problems for certain ATI users.
Shame there is no toolset, but you can apparently get it to run under WINE.
Any type of game where you play a role is an "alternate reality," in a way. Some people prefer to play in a game world that is very similar to ours. Others prefer to play in one that is drastically different. The medium the game is presented on alters the level of involvement.
Many people draw the line at the point where they feel that the game will interfere with the real world. For example, I am fine playing D&D... but I'm not too keen on Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) because some of the games I've heard of can meld into the player's life. That, and I think the foam swords and fake elf ears just look stupid. Heh.
And we all know that there are some people who play far too much EverQuest for their own good...
This type of "Alternate Reality" game takes it to the level where the game world can become hard to distinguish from the real world because of the level of involvement, and because the setting of the game tends to be one that is close to our own.
Of course, it seems that there are plenty of people who enjoy it and play it without much problem.
So in other words, all of that cash and time people spent in college was completely wasted?
Seriously, the way things are sitting right now, many people my age would have been better off getting a job right out of high school and working their way into a secretarial position rather than spending $60,000 - $200,000+ and four+ years that could have been spent gaining "experience" rather than going to college. Many talented people I know are severely in debt from school and can't get a job.
We've been told all of our lives that college was the gateway to a "good career." We probably all saw the posters in our high school guidance councelor's office... the ones with the seaside mansion and a garage full of high priced vehicles. Underneath it says: "Justification for a Higher Education." I guess we all missed the asterix that said "this is the chancellor's house, where you will work as a gardener" underneath it.
You're saying that after all of that time in college, people should settle for $7.50 an hour? Should we be telling people: "Don't bother going to college and raking in debt with student loans. Just become a bank teller right out of high school. By the time you would have graduated from college, you might have been promoted to a "desk person" and be making $14 an hour... while those chumps who went and got a degree are hunting for jobs that pay less!"?
I'm very thankful now that I was able to avoid student debt. I feel sorry for my friends who were not, and are not able to get the career they were "promised" when they decided to go to school and pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for a piece of paper that has turned out to be worthless for them.
Yeah... this is what I meant by my last sentence...
EVERYONE wants to be able to kill enemy generals and get all the ph4t l3wt. People want dynamic worlds, but they also want a world in which everyone can be the hero.
Which leads to another problem of MMORPGs... EVERYONE in the world, with the exception of NPC Shopkeepers, is an adventurer. Walk around EQ and you'll notice that there are no "commoners."
When you play a D&D game with a similar "kill the orcs" plot, the members of your party are likely to be the only adventurers in town. Everyone else is a merchant, farmer, etc. and would get mowed down the moment they step into the orc lair. You are the ones who have to do it. The end experience is more rewarding for the players, and you don't really have to worry about other players, because there are none.
I agree. This is THE biggest problem with MMORPG-type games. Everyone really wants to see dynamic game worlds, but making one would be such an undertaking that I doubt it is fully possible right now.
What I mean by "dynamic" game world is one where players can have a significant effect on the world's events.
An ideal example situation is as follows:
There is a zone highly populated with orc raiders. Within the zone is the orcs' lair, where the orc leader is. The elders of the nearby town are offering a huge reward to get rid of the orc leader.
A group manages to kill the orc leader. Instead of the orc leader respawning, the orc forces disperse in the zone as a result of the lack of leadership. Perhaps they will regroup in another zone at a later time. As a result of this, there are far less orc spawns in the zone, and the orc cave is now abandoned. Perhaps another type of creature will move in after things have settled down and people have forgotten the orc incident.
Of course, such a thing is VERY hard to do, while at the same time allowing other players a similar experience.
This is one reason. Giving end users the ability to create their own mods and content is a great feature. Especially if a nice toolset is included in the box with the game. Neverwinter Nights is a prime example of this.
You're right. I completely dislike the Chinese government, so I hate to say this... but I believe that China and many parts of Southeast Asia are going to blow past us (the USA) within a few decades. Why?
As you said, we've got our heads up our asses with not only intellectual property nonsense, but also with the idea that certain businesses have some sort of God-given right to stay in business no matter how flawed or antiquated their business plans are.
While we're stifling innovation in the US with our insane amount of copyright laws, the Chinese will be the ones innovating.
You're also likely right about space travel. There is a good chance the Chinese will pass us in that field as well. It wouldn't surprise me if China is the country that makes it to Mars. I get the sense that they're willing to make "sacrifices," and push forward even after a spacecraft faces a disaster rather than halting their program for years.
The arcade scene really sucks now. It used to be that you could go into an arcade, and play the latest games with other GAMERS.
Sadly, most of the independent / good arcades have shut down nowadays. They've either been forced out of business by the big corporate ventures, or have been killed by the fact that console hardware is just as good if not better than arcade hardware. There are very few "good" arcades nowadays.
So now if you want to go to a "decent" arcade, chances are you'll have to go to a place like Game Works, Dave and Busters, or another lame Bar/Arcade "entertainment center." There you will have to purchase a game "card" ($10 minimum) only to find that a game of Capcom vs. SNK 2 (if they even have it) or Tekken 4 costs 79 cents, and that a game of DDR (if they have it - and if they do it will be "DDR USA," the crappiest DDR arcade release out there) costs $1.55. And forget about finding a Neo-Geo cabinet to play King of Fighters on. The prices are high and are designed so that you'll always have a "little left over" on your card.
You'll also have a hard time finding another real gamer to play a fighting game with, because most of the people there are non-gamers who are there for "entertainment" value.
Bleah.
Fortunately I'm lucky enough to live nearby one of the "real" arcades still out there. I don't know how much longer it'll stay in business, but at least I can play DDR 8th. Mix there, and have a decent chance of playing a fighting game with a "real" gamer. Plus it has the same atmosphere as arcades USED to have... I can't quite explain it, but it is an atmosphere that a place like Dave and Busters completely lacks.
Yes, a few small number of us have noticed this, and know what our government is doing to be wrong.
The problem is that Bush, Ashcroft, etc., along with the media over here have managed to do a great job into scaring the public that terrorists, drug dealers, and hackers are out to get them personally, and that only "Big Brother" can protect them.
The Department of Gestapo... err Justice goons threatened to hold him without a bail hearing or a trial for a long time (much like the government did to Kevin Mitnick), and told him it'd be a lot easier in the long run to plead guilty rather than fight.
First of all, 3.5 seems to be only a revision of the core rule books (Player's Handbook, DM's Guide, Moster Manual).
I can't actually find much information, but it seems that there are no plans to reprint any of their other books for 3rd. Edition, though I might be wrong.
Second, WOTC claims that the new products released after the 3.5 core rule books come out will be "backwards compatible," so to speak, with the original core rule books. So it will not be 100% necessary to rebuy the core rule books if you don't really want to (or prefer the old ones).
I personally do NOT like the idea of calling it "3.5" though. They should have called it "Revision 1" or something. Even though WOTC swears that the "3.5" does not mean they are half way to 4th. Edition, it really does bring up the suspicion that WOTC will release 4th. Edition before it really is necessary.
Personally, I'm giving WOTC the benefit of the doubt right now. Even though there are some "old-school" players who hate 3rd. Edition, I find the newer rules much better (as well as much easier to teach someone) than 2nd. Edition was. I think WOTC really has done a fairly nice job with D&D. TSR produced a mess towards the end, and WOTC cleaned it up.
Re:O.J. Simpson is the best example of this.
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The Taste of Pain
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· Score: 1
You know, this is highly off topic (then again, the parent is sorta offtopic as well), but most people gather their opinion of the OJ trial / fiasco from the "evidence" they recieved from the media outlets.
Don't forget that OJ was convicted in the "court of public opinion," but not in a criminal court.
"Probably is guilty" is not the same as "without reasonable doubt."
The fact of the matter is that the LAPD screwed up their investigation so badly that even though OJ is "probably guilty," the prosecution was not able to show that OJ was "guilty beyond reasonable doubt."
It isn't like the jury said, "He did it, but was abused!" More than likely they weren't entirely convinced by the prosecution that OJ killed two people.
Attack of the Clones might have been the "last straw" for many people, but it seems that Star Wars fandom is not entirely dead. As long as it isn't, we'll more than likely see tons of stuff with STAR WARS on the title to sell to the fans.
Star Wars games are being pumped out, and there is even a Star Wars MMORPG that will soon be released. Seems like there are a lot of gamers waiting with baited breath for that one.
I have done extensive research and have figured out a way to build a better forward button as well.
Currently the forward button only works after you've hit the back button. This is highly inconvenient, because the forward button is useless when you fire up your browser.
However, my new improved forward button will allow web users to actually click ahead into the future so that they don't have to type the URL of the site they are about to visit. It does this with my patented Mind Matrix Technology (TM) that uses a complex mathematical formula to determine what the user wants to see next.
The problem with Unions is that they also have negative effects. My understanding primarily comes from Unions in School Districts, but I'm sure these problems exist in other areas.
One problem is that the Unions in many places make it hard to fire anyone. While many people do lose their jobs for unfair reasons, there are also many people who do not perform well in their job, and should be let go. From my understanding, it is actually quite difficult to fire a teacher if they've been in their positions for a few years, because the Union will "protect" them.
Another problem: Many Unions have bargained for structured pay raises and promotions based on seniority alone. This is especially the case in school districts. The result is that we see many district workers being lazy or only mainaining the status quo... because the Union makes it difficult to fire them, and they will get a raise after they have worked so many years, and only after they have worked so many years. There is no motivation to do better, because there are no pay raises due to merit.
Third problem is that the Union often will forcibly collect funds from all employees (funds are automatically taken out of pay), even if the employees do NOT want to be part of the Union. There was actually a complaint about this from several teachers in our local school district who believed that the Union was corrupt, and did not wish to support it. I'm not sure what the end result was, but it was a rather vocal complaint.
Plus we all know about the various forms of Union corruption out there, many involving organized crime, etc.
If you put something on the web, you have to assume that people are going to access that information in any way that they possibly can.
I suppose the big complaint is that people might not be viewing the "ads" on pages if they use certain HTTP clients.
I have a suggestion for the sites that are complaining. If you don't like it, don't put stuff on the web. Write your own custom client-server solution if you don't want people accessing it with certain browsers or other software.
If you are depending on ad banners for your revenues, you and advertisers are taking a "risk" that people might not see the ads, or that they might not buy advertised products. Tough luck if you lose out on your bet. Hopefully you have a solid way of making money related to whatever service you are providing to make up for it.
Whining about lost ad revenue and such is the same as whining about losing money in Las Vegas. You should have assessed the risks before playing the game.
I know lots of people who are seemingly irresponsible with their own lives, but are extremely talented at their fields. I don't believe that a bad credit rating will necessarily make you a bad employee, or that a good credit rating will make you a good employee.
Credit checks can also give your potential employers information that they can't legally ask for.
Say you are a gay man living with a partner, and that you co-own a house or car together. A credit check could discern far more than your loans.
You apply for a job, and the interview goes well enough that they consider you further for the job. During the application/interview process you are never asked about your sexual orientation, nor do you mention it.
Unbeknownst to you, however, is that the HR manager who makes the final decision in hiring you is homophobic, and in your application, you gave permission to run a credit check.
During the credit check, it shows that your car and/or home loan has your male partner as a co-signer. The HR manager discerns from this that you might be gay, and makes the decision to go with someone else because he does not wish to hire a homosexual.
If you accuse the company of not hiring you because you are gay, the company points out that they do not ask questions about sexual orientation in their application/interview process.
Lots of other information can be found from credit reports depending on your information. Lots of this information a company has no right in knowing. Though it might not seem to be a big deal for a company to find out you have a loan on a Honda, you never know what kind of quirks the guy making the final hiring decision has. He might hate anyone who drives a Japanese car. You just never know.
Well, this is a troll, but there are a lot of people who watch an episode of Pokemon and say, "This sucks! Why do so many people like anime?"
Anyway, in Japan manga is not "elite" at all. It is a part of everyday life. There is nothing special about it. It is sold along with books and newspapers. Nobody feels elite because they read it except for the occasional manga otaku who feels he is elite because he's collected more manga than everyone else. There are manga titles available for just about every slice of the population, so you don't need to be a "comic book guy" in order to enjoy a manga. (This is opposed to American comics where almost everything nowadays is made for teenage males who enjoy super heroes.)
Anyway, I assume you are talking about the US anime localization market when it comes to the elite marketing stuff.
First thing to make clear is that there is not a lot of localized manga at all. Usually someone will localize a manga only if the associated anime is popular here. To top it off, that manga will only be sold in comic book stores, which are usually filled with people more interested in "X-Men" than "Ah! My Goddess."
Then there is the anime market. I really do not like the commercial anime market at all. Companies like ADV do seem to send out messages that if you watch their anime it will make you part of a cool, trendy elite who has already "caught onto the entertainment wave of the next generation" before everyone else. I don't think most people buy this, though.
Despite this marketing, I think the main reason most people watch Japanese animation is because they LIKE it. Just like the main reason people use a Mac is because they LIKE to. I doubt most people think, "by watching this, it makes me better than that guy next door who doesn't watch it," when they pop in an anime DVD.
Agreed. This is BS. I don't know where these people get their facts, but Japan's literacy rate is bette than ours.
It is true that not everyone in Japan knows every kanji there is, but most everyone knows the most commonly used kanji, which pretty much enables them to read the majority of books out there.
And in cases where an antiquated kanji is used in a book, I'm pretty sure that the editor throws furigana into the text.
Slashdot Mirror
And oh yeah, Jesus is coming.
Hopefully he'll drop kick all these rights-violating, hypocritical "conservatives" who use his name and religion for their own political and financial gains straight into hell when he does.
No wait, actually I guess "game pad" is the feminine version.. Get it? Pad? But when it comes to game pads, never mind, because they are TOO BIG for her hands. Guess what! I'm a man and I find ALL modern gadgets, including game pads, TOO SMALL. I guess you can't please everybody.
No, she's just talking about the X-Box controller. Which is just plain too big. Period.
I like women in my games to have big tits and small waists. I like the men in my games to have broad shoulders and strong arms. I don't really care if they are "Actualizing A Constructive Gender Space" or whatever she's talking about.
She has a point. Game makers throw stupid sex objects, rather than a realistic character, into games - even when a realistic character would be a much better choice.
She doesn't seem to mind the big-tit/small waist girls in DOA Extreme Volleyball, because they fit into that game fairly well. The game was made for "fan service" from the get go, after all.
On the other hand, the NPC at the beginning of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is just plain STUPID.
I have to agree with what she says. Here you have an RPG-style game that is trying to be serious in some manner, and then you enter into this bar and a woman in a crazy outfit asks you to kill rats for her as she's "bouncing" in front of you. It is hard NOT to crack up at that point in the game.
There is NOTHING gained from her presence, and a more realistic NPC would have been much better in that spot.
That is only what the Patriots want you to think. The correct number is really 140,000, but the la-li-lu-le-lo don't want you to know that for some unseen reason.
They'll probably be after me for revealing this secret, but I can hide in this box I've got sitting right next to me.
I think the "none" work perfectly argument can be made about all software. All software has bugs, and there is no software out there that pleases everyone all of the time.
The only reason the same complaint can't be made about "closed source" applications is because of Microsoft's near-monopoly on the desktop. With the exception of Adobe's products, Microsoft's software is the first thing you think about when you need an application under Windows. In many cases, many things are already there, even if you do not want them.
On Linux, there's no decent movie player and no working sound recorder (like the one in Windows 95) shipped as the default by GNOME
Isn't this really based upon the distribution? Even if your distro doesn't come with a good media player, you can easily download something like Xine for most of your media needs. The important thing here is that you can choose to NOT have a media player if you don't want one.
On the Windows front, you have media player by default... loaded with tons of "features" that nobody ever uses, "internet usage reporting" (whatever THAT is), and all sorts of other crap.
Like IE, I'm not sure if you can safely remove it if you don't WANT it.
Which leads to a huge problem of closed source software: bloat. There are tons of applications with way too MANY features. And since many of these are the "standard" applications (MS Office, Adobe Photoshop) for their use, people end up sacrificing huge amounts of disk space for these applications when perhaps a smaller application will suit them just fine.
Do many open source programs have the "full features" of their closed source counterparts? No. But I find open source easier for finding applications that fit MY needs better. Not everyone's needs plus some.
Microsoft's desktop environment is far from perfect, but when you get Windows, you get their desktop... and only their desktop. They were nice enough to let you go back to the old Windows 95-2000 style desktop in XP, but really it is the same WM with a different skin.
Some people download Lightstep, but that is not the "default." Is Lightstep wasting its time by existing... since hardly anyone uses it? (See Below)
GNOME and KDE for the majority, Blackbox and Window Maker for modest hardware. The rest are simply wasted time, both for the developers and for users who try them and then delete them in disgust
Why are new "desktop environments" a waste of time? Who knows what kind of innovations and ideas will come from different, new, approaches? Sure, most of them do suck... but that doesn't mean a good, new desktop won't crop up.
Something interesting, however, is that many of the people I know who have never read the books think that Two Towers was a better movie than Fellowship.
I like both movies, personally. Two Towers had worse plot deviations, but it was still a good movie. Not as good as Fellowship, though. The Arwen/Aragorn was probably the biggest downplay, and they went a little too far with Gimli being comic relief. The edititing and timing of scenes felt a bit strange at times, but I can't see how one could do it differently and still keep the movie under 3 hours. Hopefully the "Extended" DVD edition fixes some of these things.
Naturally, the movies can NOT compare with the books. Just about everyone knew this before hand.
I think the MAJOR critiques of Two Towers is that there are quite a few differences.
I find that it is easier to enjoy the LOTR movies if you aren't comparing everything to the books all the time... something understandibly hard for hard core LOTR fans to do.
Even so, I don't think I'd mind if this article were real. If a four month delay meant that Return of the King would be as close to the book as possible, and it would make a better movie... I'd have no problem with it.
There might be some sound issues as well according to some other posts I've read.
DRI is also apparently broken in the version of Debian Unstable that some people are using.
For the most part it seems that nVidia users are flying high, while ATI users are encountering many problems (though a few people seem to have gotten their ATI cards to work...) Then again, the Windows client has also caused problems for certain ATI users.
Shame there is no toolset, but you can apparently get it to run under WINE.
Any type of game where you play a role is an "alternate reality," in a way. Some people prefer to play in a game world that is very similar to ours. Others prefer to play in one that is drastically different. The medium the game is presented on alters the level of involvement.
Many people draw the line at the point where they feel that the game will interfere with the real world. For example, I am fine playing D&D... but I'm not too keen on Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) because some of the games I've heard of can meld into the player's life. That, and I think the foam swords and fake elf ears just look stupid. Heh.
And we all know that there are some people who play far too much EverQuest for their own good...
This type of "Alternate Reality" game takes it to the level where the game world can become hard to distinguish from the real world because of the level of involvement, and because the setting of the game tends to be one that is close to our own.
Of course, it seems that there are plenty of people who enjoy it and play it without much problem.
So in other words, all of that cash and time people spent in college was completely wasted?
Seriously, the way things are sitting right now, many people my age would have been better off getting a job right out of high school and working their way into a secretarial position rather than spending $60,000 - $200,000+ and four+ years that could have been spent gaining "experience" rather than going to college. Many talented people I know are severely in debt from school and can't get a job.
We've been told all of our lives that college was the gateway to a "good career." We probably all saw the posters in our high school guidance councelor's office... the ones with the seaside mansion and a garage full of high priced vehicles. Underneath it says: "Justification for a Higher Education." I guess we all missed the asterix that said "this is the chancellor's house, where you will work as a gardener" underneath it.
You're saying that after all of that time in college, people should settle for $7.50 an hour? Should we be telling people: "Don't bother going to college and raking in debt with student loans. Just become a bank teller right out of high school. By the time you would have graduated from college, you might have been promoted to a "desk person" and be making $14 an hour... while those chumps who went and got a degree are hunting for jobs that pay less!"?
I'm very thankful now that I was able to avoid student debt. I feel sorry for my friends who were not, and are not able to get the career they were "promised" when they decided to go to school and pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for a piece of paper that has turned out to be worthless for them.
Yeah... this is what I meant by my last sentence...
EVERYONE wants to be able to kill enemy generals and get all the ph4t l3wt. People want dynamic worlds, but they also want a world in which everyone can be the hero.
Which leads to another problem of MMORPGs... EVERYONE in the world, with the exception of NPC Shopkeepers, is an adventurer. Walk around EQ and you'll notice that there are no "commoners."
When you play a D&D game with a similar "kill the orcs" plot, the members of your party are likely to be the only adventurers in town. Everyone else is a merchant, farmer, etc. and would get mowed down the moment they step into the orc lair. You are the ones who have to do it. The end experience is more rewarding for the players, and you don't really have to worry about other players, because there are none.
Did Al Gore invent it!?
I agree. This is THE biggest problem with MMORPG-type games. Everyone really wants to see dynamic game worlds, but making one would be such an undertaking that I doubt it is fully possible right now.
What I mean by "dynamic" game world is one where players can have a significant effect on the world's events.
An ideal example situation is as follows:
There is a zone highly populated with orc raiders. Within the zone is the orcs' lair, where the orc leader is. The elders of the nearby town are offering a huge reward to get rid of the orc leader.
A group manages to kill the orc leader. Instead of the orc leader respawning, the orc forces disperse in the zone as a result of the lack of leadership. Perhaps they will regroup in another zone at a later time. As a result of this, there are far less orc spawns in the zone, and the orc cave is now abandoned. Perhaps another type of creature will move in after things have settled down and people have forgotten the orc incident.
Of course, such a thing is VERY hard to do, while at the same time allowing other players a similar experience.
This is one reason. Giving end users the ability to create their own mods and content is a great feature. Especially if a nice toolset is included in the box with the game. Neverwinter Nights is a prime example of this.
You're right. I completely dislike the Chinese government, so I hate to say this... but I believe that China and many parts of Southeast Asia are going to blow past us (the USA) within a few decades. Why?
As you said, we've got our heads up our asses with not only intellectual property nonsense, but also with the idea that certain businesses have some sort of God-given right to stay in business no matter how flawed or antiquated their business plans are.
While we're stifling innovation in the US with our insane amount of copyright laws, the Chinese will be the ones innovating.
You're also likely right about space travel. There is a good chance the Chinese will pass us in that field as well. It wouldn't surprise me if China is the country that makes it to Mars. I get the sense that they're willing to make "sacrifices," and push forward even after a spacecraft faces a disaster rather than halting their program for years.
The arcade scene really sucks now. It used to be that you could go into an arcade, and play the latest games with other GAMERS.
Sadly, most of the independent / good arcades have shut down nowadays. They've either been forced out of business by the big corporate ventures, or have been killed by the fact that console hardware is just as good if not better than arcade hardware. There are very few "good" arcades nowadays.
So now if you want to go to a "decent" arcade, chances are you'll have to go to a place like Game Works, Dave and Busters, or another lame Bar/Arcade "entertainment center." There you will have to purchase a game "card" ($10 minimum) only to find that a game of Capcom vs. SNK 2 (if they even have it) or Tekken 4 costs 79 cents, and that a game of DDR (if they have it - and if they do it will be "DDR USA," the crappiest DDR arcade release out there) costs $1.55. And forget about finding a Neo-Geo cabinet to play King of Fighters on. The prices are high and are designed so that you'll always have a "little left over" on your card.
You'll also have a hard time finding another real gamer to play a fighting game with, because most of the people there are non-gamers who are there for "entertainment" value.
Bleah.
Fortunately I'm lucky enough to live nearby one of the "real" arcades still out there. I don't know how much longer it'll stay in business, but at least I can play DDR 8th. Mix there, and have a decent chance of playing a fighting game with a "real" gamer. Plus it has the same atmosphere as arcades USED to have... I can't quite explain it, but it is an atmosphere that a place like Dave and Busters completely lacks.
Yes, a few small number of us have noticed this, and know what our government is doing to be wrong.
The problem is that Bush, Ashcroft, etc., along with the media over here have managed to do a great job into scaring the public that terrorists, drug dealers, and hackers are out to get them personally, and that only "Big Brother" can protect them.
God help this country.
My guess as to why he plead guilty:
The Department of Gestapo... err Justice goons threatened to hold him without a bail hearing or a trial for a long time (much like the government did to Kevin Mitnick), and told him it'd be a lot easier in the long run to plead guilty rather than fight.
First of all, 3.5 seems to be only a revision of the core rule books (Player's Handbook, DM's Guide, Moster Manual).
I can't actually find much information, but it seems that there are no plans to reprint any of their other books for 3rd. Edition, though I might be wrong.
Second, WOTC claims that the new products released after the 3.5 core rule books come out will be "backwards compatible," so to speak, with the original core rule books. So it will not be 100% necessary to rebuy the core rule books if you don't really want to (or prefer the old ones).
I personally do NOT like the idea of calling it "3.5" though. They should have called it "Revision 1" or something. Even though WOTC swears that the "3.5" does not mean they are half way to 4th. Edition, it really does bring up the suspicion that WOTC will release 4th. Edition before it really is necessary.
Personally, I'm giving WOTC the benefit of the doubt right now. Even though there are some "old-school" players who hate 3rd. Edition, I find the newer rules much better (as well as much easier to teach someone) than 2nd. Edition was. I think WOTC really has done a fairly nice job with D&D. TSR produced a mess towards the end, and WOTC cleaned it up.
You know, this is highly off topic (then again, the parent is sorta offtopic as well), but most people gather their opinion of the OJ trial / fiasco from the "evidence" they recieved from the media outlets.
Don't forget that OJ was convicted in the "court of public opinion," but not in a criminal court.
"Probably is guilty" is not the same as "without reasonable doubt."
The fact of the matter is that the LAPD screwed up their investigation so badly that even though OJ is "probably guilty," the prosecution was not able to show that OJ was "guilty beyond reasonable doubt."
It isn't like the jury said, "He did it, but was abused!" More than likely they weren't entirely convinced by the prosecution that OJ killed two people.
Attack of the Clones might have been the "last straw" for many people, but it seems that Star Wars fandom is not entirely dead. As long as it isn't, we'll more than likely see tons of stuff with STAR WARS on the title to sell to the fans.
Star Wars games are being pumped out, and there is even a Star Wars MMORPG that will soon be released. Seems like there are a lot of gamers waiting with baited breath for that one.
I have done extensive research and have figured out a way to build a better forward button as well.
Currently the forward button only works after you've hit the back button. This is highly inconvenient, because the forward button is useless when you fire up your browser.
However, my new improved forward button will allow web users to actually click ahead into the future so that they don't have to type the URL of the site they are about to visit. It does this with my patented Mind Matrix Technology (TM) that uses a complex mathematical formula to determine what the user wants to see next.
The problem with Unions is that they also have negative effects. My understanding primarily comes from Unions in School Districts, but I'm sure these problems exist in other areas.
One problem is that the Unions in many places make it hard to fire anyone. While many people do lose their jobs for unfair reasons, there are also many people who do not perform well in their job, and should be let go. From my understanding, it is actually quite difficult to fire a teacher if they've been in their positions for a few years, because the Union will "protect" them.
Another problem: Many Unions have bargained for structured pay raises and promotions based on seniority alone. This is especially the case in school districts. The result is that we see many district workers being lazy or only mainaining the status quo... because the Union makes it difficult to fire them, and they will get a raise after they have worked so many years, and only after they have worked so many years. There is no motivation to do better, because there are no pay raises due to merit.
Third problem is that the Union often will forcibly collect funds from all employees (funds are automatically taken out of pay), even if the employees do NOT want to be part of the Union. There was actually a complaint about this from several teachers in our local school district who believed that the Union was corrupt, and did not wish to support it. I'm not sure what the end result was, but it was a rather vocal complaint.
Plus we all know about the various forms of Union corruption out there, many involving organized crime, etc.
If you put something on the web, you have to assume that people are going to access that information in any way that they possibly can.
I suppose the big complaint is that people might not be viewing the "ads" on pages if they use certain HTTP clients.
I have a suggestion for the sites that are complaining. If you don't like it, don't put stuff on the web. Write your own custom client-server solution if you don't want people accessing it with certain browsers or other software.
If you are depending on ad banners for your revenues, you and advertisers are taking a "risk" that people might not see the ads, or that they might not buy advertised products. Tough luck if you lose out on your bet. Hopefully you have a solid way of making money related to whatever service you are providing to make up for it.
Whining about lost ad revenue and such is the same as whining about losing money in Las Vegas. You should have assessed the risks before playing the game.
I know lots of people who are seemingly irresponsible with their own lives, but are extremely talented at their fields. I don't believe that a bad credit rating will necessarily make you a bad employee, or that a good credit rating will make you a good employee.
Credit checks can also give your potential employers information that they can't legally ask for.
Say you are a gay man living with a partner, and
that you co-own a house or car together. A credit check could discern far more than your loans.
You apply for a job, and the interview goes well enough that they consider you further for the job.
During the application/interview process you are never asked about your sexual orientation, nor do you mention it.
Unbeknownst to you, however, is that the HR manager who makes the final decision in hiring you is homophobic, and in your application, you gave permission to run a credit check.
During the credit check, it shows that your car and/or home loan has your male partner as a co-signer. The HR manager discerns from this that you might be gay, and makes the decision to go with someone else because he does not wish to hire a homosexual.
If you accuse the company of not hiring you because you are gay, the company points out that they do not ask questions about sexual orientation in their application/interview process.
Lots of other information can be found from credit reports depending on your information. Lots of this information a company has no right in knowing. Though it might not seem to be a big deal for a company to find out you have a loan on a Honda, you never know what kind of quirks the guy making the final hiring decision has. He might hate anyone who drives a Japanese car. You just never know.
Well, this is a troll, but there are a lot of people who watch an episode of Pokemon and say, "This sucks! Why do so many people like anime?"
Anyway, in Japan manga is not "elite" at all. It is a part of everyday life. There is nothing special about it. It is sold along with books and newspapers. Nobody feels elite because they read it except for the occasional manga otaku who feels he is elite because he's collected more manga than everyone else. There are manga titles available for just about every slice of the population, so you don't need to be a "comic book guy" in order to enjoy a manga. (This is opposed to American comics where almost everything nowadays is made for teenage males who enjoy super heroes.)
Anyway, I assume you are talking about the US anime localization market when it comes to
the elite marketing stuff.
First thing to make clear is that there is not a lot of localized manga at all. Usually someone will localize a manga only if the associated anime is popular here. To top it off, that manga will only be sold in comic book stores, which are usually filled with people more interested in "X-Men" than "Ah! My Goddess."
Then there is the anime market. I really do not like the commercial anime market at all. Companies like ADV do seem to send out messages that if you watch their anime it will make you part of a cool, trendy elite who has already "caught onto the entertainment wave of the next generation" before everyone else. I don't think most people buy this, though.
Despite this marketing, I think the main reason most people watch Japanese animation is because they LIKE it. Just like the main reason people use a Mac is because they LIKE to. I doubt most people think, "by watching this, it makes me better than that guy next door who doesn't watch it," when they pop in an anime DVD.
Agreed. This is BS. I don't know where these people get their facts, but Japan's literacy rate is bette than ours.
It is true that not everyone in Japan knows every kanji there is, but most everyone knows the most commonly used kanji, which pretty much enables them to read the majority of books out there.
And in cases where an antiquated kanji is used in a book, I'm pretty sure that the editor throws furigana into the text.