This right here (body modications and related things) is why I chose computer science as opposed to just going into strictly IT related work. Why? Cause I'm not going to dress up in a fancy collared shirt that buttons up, and wear a tie, with dress pants and shoes, so I can sit a computer or network of computers to do general admin work.
It's just ridculous. I mean, who the hell ever started the "trend" or "accepted" way of dressing in a business setting? Who the hell ever thought it was "nice" or whatnot, to require a long sleeve shirt, or a tie? Personally when I wear a tie I feel like I've got a god damn noose around my neck. Yes, yes, naysayers will chime in "but you can loosen it and not wear it so tight" yea well I know it's still there, I still feel it there, and I still don't like having rope-like objects around my neck.
Same for long button shirts and dress pants. I love how companies, at least most here locally where I live, require you to dress in both of these, when it's 100 degrees outside. Yes, again naysayers will say "but inside it's not like that" yea, it is. Not every business chips in to keep the air conditioning at an acceptable level inside. So more often or not I'm there sitting in the cubicle, in some stuffy ass pair of dress slacks or khakis with a tie and dress shirt, about to burn to death cause I'm so hot. And no, for naysayers that will ask, I'm not excessively overweight or tall, I'm an average size medium height. When a 140 pound male that's 5'11 is sweating in a dress shirt, tie, and dress pants, then it's either too damn hot inside or they need to allow you to dress more comfortably.
And don't even get me started on "ironing". I'll never in my life understand how a simple wrinke, a god damn "crease" in fabric is something socially unacceptable. Fabric is made to bend and move and stretch and whatnot when you wear it or move in it or overall just use it. I wash my clothes regularly like any other person, but I don't often like to cook with grease or such things cause I don't like taking the risk of burning myself. Same thing with a god damn iron, ever had an iron tip over onto your hand or arm and let it sit there a second by accident so you get a nice burn? Yea that shit doesn't feel to nice. I'm not going to purposely use some hot surfaced appliance that I don't have too, simply to make a shirt or pants leg "straightened"
As for tats or whatnot, my god can we as Americans do anything else to eliminate individuals? America preaches tolerance and acceptance of almost all things. Yet you're only allowed basic hair colors in most jobs; black brown blonde, and some shades of red. If you didn't know better you'd think the spectrum of colors ended there. I don't care some people think it looks bad, or whatever. If I want my hair neon-fucking-green, I'll dye it neon-fucking-green. Naysayers will say "but that hurts a business." or "well then dont work for that business", and I don't. I also don't have my hair dyed some different color, but if I did dye it something off suit you can damn well bet I'd quit a job before switching it to something "acceptable".
I could see all this being plausable if say, You're the President of the United States who has to meet with the other leaders of the world ya know. But if you're just Average Joe working down at the local Kinkos fixing the copiers, my god don't make the man dress up like it's a god damn funeral or wedding.
Oh and a little rant bit to throw in, if a job is going to require a tie, don't fucking bitch at us for what tie we choose. If I wanna wear a Spiderman tie, fuck you I'm wearing it. You never specified what kind of tie we had to wear, you just said a tie. And fuck you also if I can't wear a clip on, it's a little hard to see how to tie something right under your damn neck, my eyeballs don't reach that far and it's a little rough trying to do it backwards infront of a mirror.
Envy for the things other people have (cars, homes, high speed internet) is a sign of low self-esteem - a sign that a person judges their self-worth by what they own, or by what other people think of them.
This only applies if you believe that Envy is either a sin, or a bad thing in general. Again as you say this boils down to each individual. No person can ever honestly say they've never envyed something at some point in their life. We all want that great job, or that real good car or that house we jus can't afford. It's human nature.
If an old couple did not stock up for old age, then it is indeed a tragedy that they did not look ahead enough. That certainly won't happen to me - almost everybody is perfectly capable of saving for retirement.
Again, even preperation doesn't always mean you're fine. Look at how many elderly people, save their money, their pension and social security, and have trouble making ends meet. Gas has gone up considerably, and if you've ever seen someone at that age who requires a good bit of medication (such as diabetic medicine) you know they are forced to spend a small fortune on pills that allow them to function daily, and this is even with good health insurance.
A homeless person who thinks he can live by stealing instead of working his way out of poverty is corrupt, yes.
Take a look at the new movie with Russel Crowe: Cinderella Man. About a man during the depression who is barely surviving, but doesn't give up, keeps striving, and eventually wins out. Even while poor, he is teaching his kids that it is not ok to steal. And for him, going on goverment assistance is an absolute shame. (as well it should be)
I agree, people should prepare and be ready. But as said that doesn't always work.
If you're gonna use a movie as a point, come on. There are plenty of movies that have the ambigiously happy plot/moral/theme/ending that could fit your argument. Doesn't mean their fit to be used in such a debate.
I see people better off than myself all the time. Nice car, a home that doesn't have several mortgages aganist it, their name in good standing of their credit, you name it. I don't complain or attempt to steal any of those things. Aquating me with a thief or at the least a man whom has no morals such as you point too, is just humorous in my eyes.
Did it ever occur to you, some things just cost too much for what their worth? What is a parent supposed to tell his kid when they need to type up a report for history class, but the school campus closes too early, and the kid would be unable to get a ride home cause his parents are at work? "Sorry son, mom and dad can't afford a computer for you. You see, we can save up and get a low budget hardware system, but for you to do your report in a normal fashion, we'd have to purchase software we simply can't afford".
I've seen that conversation happen. Not just once either. No, I wasn't part of that conversation, but I've seen families who go through the same or similar things.
Sure, maybe the school could work something out, or the kid could try to walk to a public library. But then your forced to deal with the time tables of a public facility that's not the school system, and the fact that the kid would have to actually get to the library. By the time most parents get off work, libraries are almost closed (around here it's like 6pm or so they close).
Or hell, look at the elderly. You gonna tell me elderly people are of the same "head held high" you describe? I also know elderly folks who had some rag tag low end system given to them, or one they bought at a yard sale cause it's all they can afford. Sure they don't NEED Windows Xp Home or whatever they're pirating but are you seriously, I mean HONESTLY, going to take the moral high ground with some old man and woman in their 90's who are unable to physically work and have been retired for 20+ years? If so, YOUR morals may be the ones wrong, not ours.
If it was something that was 100% optional, like a hobby of collecting DVD's, yea I could understand. But when it's something you need that you cannot afford (like food. you gonna tell me homeless people are morally corrupt cause they steal food?), then it's different.
"Somehow it seems unlikely the same rules will be applied to developing companies and poorer individuals in the United States."
Now granted, someone that owns a PC generally seems like they'd be someone that can afford an OS. But thats not the case alot of times. I mean you go into any place that sells software, and you STILL see Windows Xp Home at the $80 mark or more. Often or not it's still $100 in most big chain stores like Best Buy.
I know plenty of people who have small, self built PC's they've built slowly over time. Just like some people put together a decent car by buying the core parts seperately. Or better yet I know people whom have been given an average PC that you normally see in mom & pop type stores, as a gift. These PC's are monsters in terms of hardware or specs, they probably run the basics like Office and IE. Parents buy these all the time for kids, the bare essentials for doing homework and studying (of course kids use them for IM's online and games)
Case in point is M$ will never show love to poor people. If you're still in school (before or during college) you're more than likely going to need a PC. Sure most schools offer campus use of their PC's but often it's under their timetables, under their rules, which not everyone can meet. When an OS costs almost 1/3 of what you paid for a simple PC to use Office or to browse the Internet (with dial up mind you, most often), it's obvious it costs too much.
Some will say "but you can use something older like Windows 2000 or 98". Sure, you can. Check the date lately? Official support for 2k runs out soon, and 98's + 95's has been out for a while. What happens when a critical flaw is found after support has been cut off? Hope that Symantec or some other company might be kind enough to patch the OS itself even though they are virus scanning providers not the OS makers? It's not a HUGE deal now but as more and more flaws + crippling virii come out each year (MS Blast anyone?..) it's a matter of time before that family of 5 living in a small apartment have to pirate XP or Longhorn to simply guarantee their computer is safe so use.
This is why M$ has a damn monopoly. Sure you can choose a cheaper OS, hell some are even free. But then you lose support for A), most major software titles or games that are not ported to your non-Windows OS, and B) you have to spend time learning a new OS that's not support alot. Example, imagine a family buys one of these low end PC's for their kids, and manages to find a real affordable broadband provider. Since they can't afford to shell out $100+ for Windows XP Home they get a copy of some Linux distro. At some point their broadband cuts out so they call tech support. Tech support says "Oh we're sorry we can't help you, you aren't running Windows". Or you take it into a shop to get something fixed, say the disk drive goes out. Alot of mom & pop repair places don't do Linux OS'ed PC's, at least not here locally. You might be fine at some big place like Best Buy but then you're stuck paying outrageous prices for a 5 minute drive switch.
You can see how the list goes on. In the end the poor get shafted, so yes we do pirate. Not because we can, or because we are cheap, because we simply cannot afford it and in alot of cases it's nessicary.
The pricing is sad. $500 for a fucking CONSOLE? Has anyone noticed as the generations go on we are paying A FUCK LOAD more for each one? I remember when PS2 was $300. Fuck the god damn games nowadays are $60+ at Walmart of all places. How long till we are paying $100+ for just ONE SINGLE GAME? PS4 will be like $700-800 and if there is a PS5 I'm betting on $1200+... I can finance a very nice used car for the price of a PS3...
Sure, you can wait till the first, or second price drop in a console, to buy it. But by then you're already behind on the times, probably a good handful of games to play which means you're always going to be several games behind, etc
I won't buy these super over hyped consoles simply cause I can feed my family for half a year on $500...Let alone blow it on 1 console. Not keep in mind if I wanna play games that aren't ported to PC or Xbox2 or Revolution I gotta buy those individual systems...you're looking at an easy $1500 for 3 systems, 1 controller each, no memory card each, no free game each...
If you think that prices for TV shows are too high, feel free to make your own kick-ass show and sell it for less.
Or you know, I could continue to "steal" or "pirate" these episodes. If I can watch them for free on my tv then damnit I should be able to see them for free at any time.
Yep, content is more expensive than hardware. What's your point?
Am I the only one who think's thats fucking stupid? It's like buying an Xbox for $200 and then going out and buying something like Halo 2 (normal non super uber collectors edition) for $300. Are you INSANE? The content is supposed to be cheaper. If that is not true then companies for every form of entertainment are stupid. Why spend $2000 on a kick ass computer when Half Life 2 or Doom 3 will cost you $4000?... DVD's are some how magically different?
Other than a few exceptions, that's all there ever has been. Before the advent of the DVD the back catalog of TV shows were generally not available to the consumer.
I'll give you the fact that VHS collections for say, a season of a show weren't common but you still could buy them, at cheaper prices. The selections were just more limited. So a wider selection means = increase the prices by 200%?
So even though VHS tapes are recorders are dirt cheap, you are complaining about having to buy bookshelves to hold them? What's next, complaining about the price of stickers and Sharpies to label your tapes?
Yes if you wanna look at it that way. VCR's are cheap as are blank VHS. As the one guy pointed out, the entire DB/Z/GT series has over 500 episodes and 20+ movies. That's over 200+ VHS tapes, probably close to 300. Who the fuck has room to store that many VHS tapes? Unless you want to just make gigantic stacks of them on your floor aganist a wall, then yer going to need shelf/box space of some kind.
(this is the part where you tell me DVD's small size in casing and such is part of their cost so by reducing physical size we're paying more for it? FUCK THAT)
You're right, you shouldn't have to spend money to record TV shows, you should get everything for free. The producers should buy you a TV, TiVo, VHS tapes (and shelves to hold them) and blank DVDs. While they're at it, they should pay your rent and buy you some food-after all you are giving them the huge gift of watching their show.
At this point you're just trolling.
I'm sorry but television is free. Yes I pay for my cable access but it's just that paying access. If you consider the amount per # of channels, yes TV is free. Hell even if I did not have cable and used Basic tv, I'd still get tv for free. And yes, there are advertisements, but I can choose to change the channel and back. And even then it's free and I can choose to watch it. If I miss something, I'm fucked as previously discussed.
Maybe I'm just "strange" but I've always grown up on free television. I live with commericals and shit, but the money fucking of corporations is getting old
I'm not saying the copyright holders shouldn't get their fair share, they should.
BUT, at the same time, these people and the companies underneath them do not need to hold the consumer over a barrell for such things.
Couple good points;
- For the price of 1 normally purchased Trek, DBZ etc Seasonal dvd you can literally buy 2 full name brand DVD players. I kid you not. For the $120 you're paying for say, DS9 season 1 you can walk into Walmart and get 2 nice dvd players. When you can buy the god damn hardware cheaper than the dvd....
- Fans of long running shows that are still going, are uber-fucked. Now I'm not a fan of say, Law & Order, but it's running on 15 god damn seasons man. 15. Average $60-100 a season and the fact it's still going....
- When you can finance a perfectly good brand new car, almost the same price or cheaper than some long series/still going series, that's a sign that DVD's cost too fucking much
- There are no other mass media storage of seasonal shows sold. When's the last time you say, walked into ANY store that sells a good bit of movies/tv shows and saw say, E.R. Season 1 on VHS? Now I realize it's come to the point and has been for a while that DVD is the current format for media being produced for home collection of movies and tv shows right? So if I wanna buy Spiderman 2 I can pick up the $6 VHS tape at Walmart. If I wanna by E.R. season 1 on VHS, I'm fucked cause THEY DON'T PRODUCE THEM. Our ONLY option for buying in stores is DVD.
- Options for storage at home in the form of recording yourself are limited. You got VHS which for the price, limit and actual size it takes to store a large quantity of them it is not practical. You figure you can fit what, 6 hours on a VHS? (less it's been upped ot 8 since last I checked). That's 6 episodes of something. 5 if you count all commericals and such. Average season of a tv show is 20+eps sometimes 30+ multiply that by say an average of 5 or 6 seasons and you got a fuck load of VHS tapes taking up room, which means you gotta shell out MORE money for a shelf or bookcase for them. DVD's while cheaper and can store more, require something to record from. A DVR, Tivo, video card with tv in/output and dvd burner etc Again more money to be spent to simply record tv shows.
Now I know, they aren't breaking any laws. they're companies and as such will do what they can to make a profit. But personally I'll be god damned if I'll hand them my personal money.
- The WB, fucked over Angel for shit like "The Mountain". They want $60 a season, fuck them.
- Fox, I love Family Guy and the Simpsons, but I swear to christ if I see The Bachelor X-Treme Island Paradise Couples Hookup 3 in some primetime slot that could have been given to oh I don't know, FIREFLY...fuck them.
- ABC/CBS/NBC, a couple ok shows on each of them (Lost, Joan of Arcadia, etc) but for every good show they have they also have another scraping-the-barrell sitcom trying to live up to Friends or Seinfeld. If Lost is a reasonable price, I'll buy it.
- SCIFI & UPN, well Paramount fucked Trek up the ass with a mountain troll sized dildo. And as said I will not pay $80+ for a Trek season. Sci Fi, I love Stargate and Atlantis, reasonable price I'll buy it. They cancelled Farscape:( and really rushed The Peacekeeper Wars so......
Now you may chalk this up to me being a bitter fan boy of shows whom have had a bad luck run of cancelations. This is true but at the same time these shows I watch, theres another million+ of me out there whom love good tv like this but won't bend over so 20th Century Fox or Paramount can light their cigars whilst burning a hundred dollar bill.
I've gotten my fair share of tv shows from online, some through BT some not.
What's funny is the MPAA and other companies scream up a storm of how it's illegal and wrong, have they ever stopped to consider how much of a fucking monopoloy tv is?
Case in point, I'm a huge sci fi fan. Take Trek as a main example. Sure if I'm at home during the day around 1pm I can catch TNG/DS9 reruns on "Spike" TV but most people with day jobs aren't home at that hour. Sure I could Tivo/DVR/VHS tape it but then again you have to deal with the inconsistances of stuff being prempted, etc Not to mention you're paying to record the stuff, those VHS tapes and blank DVD's aren't free, if you record it yer at least spending X amount of money on blank media.
So as most people are unlucky to not be able to tape shows, such as my example, what options do we have?;
- Wait till reruns begin/occur. Some shows are already in rerun syndication on other networks. Take Stargate. It has new episodes of SG-1 on the Sci Fi channel. but if you turn on say, the WB at 3 am some nights you catch old reruns of it. This falls into the above example of being able to record such things, as such times, in an affordable manner. And that doesn't take into account the current season of a show. Smallville just ended it's season (I think), so if you missed the last few episodes of the season you gotta wait till the end of Summer when the reruns of that season "catch up".
- Buy the seasonal DVD's. Ok this is my main deterent. I'm a huge Trek fan, have been for 15 years. I own not one season or movie of Trek on DVD. Why? Walk into the cheapest department store there is. Seriously, go to Walmart or K-Mart or Target. See those prices? $80-100 for ONE season of basically any Trek. $80 fucking dollars. I don't need 20 extra DVD's, sure their nice but I just want the series, in DVD format in DVD quality all in one nice little package. I honestly cannont justify paying more than $30-40 per season of a TV show. If you want all 7 seasons of a Trek series, it's almost $800......I can buy a god damn CAR for that (or at least put a downpayment on a nice one). Now some DVD's have become more, economical. This past Christmas when Buffy season 7 came out, they released a holiday package deal, all 7 seasons for around $200-250. That is reasonable. I can justify that purchase for the cost. And you still can find a deal here there, Amazon.com knocks off a couple hundred bucks on big series like Trek, but still not much... Now remember when I said go to a department store? Try a large chain store like Best Buy, EB, Suncoast, Media Play, etc..Double those prices.
- Avaiblility. Remeber how I mentioned the cheap stores and big expensive chain stores? What do you see most of in the dvd sections at Walmart or Kmart? New Releases. Sure they have a handful of tv seasonal dvd's but most likely the last that was released (i.e. you'll find Stargate Season 7 but not Season 1...). So what are you left with? Going to a store that specializes in electronics and shit like Best Buy or Samgoodie, whom have a nice HUGE selection of DVDs and such but charge INSANE prices. ($1200 for all of DS9 last time I checked...)
The quality of tv just doesn't justify things in the end. I mean, for every Trek dvd or Scape DVD that's fairly expensive you'll find CRAP like American Idol or the latest incarnation of Survivor selling like hot-fucking-cakes for half the price. Hell I haven't watched anything on the Fox network in years (except 24) cause every night it's their prime time lineup of "Reality TV" shit. ABC, CBS etc follow either in the same suit or throwing out the 14th different spinoff of CSI or Law & Order o_O
When prices are reasonable or tv schedules become more flexible in correlation with recording media prices then maybe I won't use BT for my source of entertainment.
If anything id Software should have learned by now what works and what doesn't. After the lukewarm luster of Doom 3 (sorry but the uber darkness of the game combined with no weapon use while using a flash light was fucking ridiculous), they need to stay on course.
Quake is a multiplayer game. Sure Quake 1 had a singleplayer but it wasn't all that great. id Software's singleplayer kings are Doom and Wolfenstein (though RTCW had both a great single and multiplayer). Quake is their staple multiplayer.
Honestly if they market Quake 4 as a singleplayer game with a half ass multiplayer like Doom 3, Epic Games will destroy them. The Unreal 3 engine is already looking onpar if not better than the Doom 3 engine (which I assume Raven Soft. will be using for Quake 4), so they aren't behind on eyecandy. They've proven to make solid multiplayers just like id Soft. so this could be a true turning point, where Epic pulls ahead and gains some ground to being second to Valve in multiplayer (unfortunately CS/HL/HL2/CS:S and their mods are still king).
The screens so far look more like conceptual 3D renderings than actual screens. And even if they are screens they look more like MECH's of some kind. If that is the iteration of how enemies or player models are they look slow and cumbersome, not what we're used to as a fast paced gameplay in Quakes 1-3 (yes looks can be decieving, but if they are just as fast then the models look ridiculous being that large and bulky).
It's too early to really tell but as said, this could be the game that really kills off id Software. Unless it comes out of the gate awesome then followed by a really good RTCW 2 well then...
Well as said, my example was more of an extreme one and only in one particular game. And yes, that did happen. There were thousands of new characters logging in and the handful of guys who got their hands on a weapon of some kind did nothing but camp the spawn points of where you went after leaving the starting area. I made it past this after my 2nd death cause I just stopped playing a few hours till GM's did something about it.
And yes you did need to research. At that time the FOMK was nothing. It had screen shots and backstory of the game. The first several days of the beta the forums were completely down, not due to traffic or bandwidth just down for other reasons. So there was no way to read a "F.A.Q", or anything there was just screens and backstory of the game. While I enjoy learning as I go, when you got perma death hanging over your head and the above camping senario with no immediate GM response or documentation to help well it turned out to be a shitty beta.
And I only mentioned that one game cause I enjoy the cyberpunk MMORPG genre which there aren't many of.
Other than Diablo II's "hardcore" mode, I never saw a perma death type senario in any RPG type game.
That was until I saw the Faces of Mankind open beta. And I have to say it was the most ridculous idea for an MMORPG.
Picture this:
FOMK (or some other similar MMORPG) comes out. You buy the game and install it, being a fan of MMORPGs. The manual doesn't really have alot of specifics on the whole permadeath thing (relating this to the open beta where they had absolutely ZERO information avaible to players). So you really don't know that you get 3 "lives" and can only make one character within a 24 hour period (real world time). You login teleport out of your apartment to find a guy camping the vortex beam with a uzi and kills you. Since that is the only place to go from your apartment really, you die another 2 times. Now assuming you could buy "insurance" or more "clones" (read, more lives) theres noway to do so cause you can't due to being camped.
So you have to wait 24 hours in real life time to make a new character and only one character per account. You have paid cash to sit there and wait a full day before you can play again. You are paying cash, your own money so you can die X number of times (or in some cases ONE time) and not play that character again or any character again for a possible time period.
It's simply outrageous some games can impose such "penalties".
Now I'll grant you the following: that is one game alone I used as an example but other games could be similar. And players should research the games before hand knowing if their main gameplay has a permadeath or permadeath like feature in them.
However some games just like FOMK, have poor documentation which don't let the user know he/she may face such things.
I don't dress up, or go to conventions or nitpick the blueprints of every Federation ship, I am just a fan. I fall deeply into the cores of every show there is almost, and their writing style.
I grew up on Star Trek. From TNG, to DS9 to Voyager and now Enterprise. I expanded my sci fi tastes to Farscape (god I miss it, so much), Firefly, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, Buffy, Angel (more fantasy on those last two), and I even started to get into Battlestar Galatica despite how I don't like it's politic driven stories.
What is left? Sure Stargate SG1 is around but how long can they keep it going? I love Ben Browder being added to the cast but seriously, it's on its last season or two. Atlantis shows promise but I'm gonna say it lasts maybe 4-5 seasons. I'm not a huge BSG fan, it's good but I can't feed my sci fi craving off of just it alone.
Trek is gone. Paramount has basically said "fuck you" to the fans. I mean how much money has been raised here, for more episodes? Once Enterprise is over I will be removing UPN from my digital cable lineup just like I did "G4TV" after they shafted TechTV.
Even the Sci Fi channel learns from its mistakes. Sure they fucked over Farscape after season 4 but at least they had the balls to make a mini series to AT LEAST TRY and give fans closure. Paramount will finish this season but at what cost? It's a sheer slap in the face saying they won't accept money for new episodes. I mean what other show on earth thats cancelled/going to be cancelled could be run simply by fan donations? I'd pay money every week for Trek. Alot of fans would too.
Am I too far gone to be objectional? I think not. The first few seasons of Enterprise had their lows, I mean they really had their lows. But they had some good episodes too. And even more so I love Enterprise cause it's more human. Alot of themes, ideas, and ways of things are still done in the time period of Enterprise. People still wear hats, watch old movies, have more human forms of recreation. It seems silly but it relates more, you can actually imagine 100 years from now some form of space flight similar to warp drive, you can see how the Trek timeline actually fits in. It's doing what a prequel does, tells the backstory and sets up the future series.
Monday through Thursdays I usually watch dvd's to fill the gaps. Ocasionally I'll tune into Smallville on Wednesdays. Fridays are Trek and Stargate for me. Saturdays maybe the new weekly movie on HBO might be entertaining, and Sundays will always be dominated by The Sopranos and Carnivale.
Prime time tv is owned by sad reality tv. We have become a society of lemmings following whatever is popular and being entertained by the lowest common denominator entertainment. Even Picard would order our extinction, out of fucking mercy.
Tribes 2 was horrible. It flat out sucked. I can't blame the dev's for it but game stopping bugs like the infamous Unhandled Exceptions really wore it down, fast. There were more patches for Tribes 2 trying to fix shit than there was for Tribes 1, and in 1/10th the time (how many patches were there in the first 6 months?).
As for T:V, well personally I think the community got what it deserved. When Irrational and such was trying to get feed back, it always boiled down to Tribes 1 fans wanting this and Tribes 2 fans wanting that. I played T:V it's just as buggy and floaty feeling as Tribes 2. Sure its faster than original Tribes 2 but it never came close to the break neck speed we were use too in Tribes.
It's time for the Tribes franchise to just die off. They were good games overall, but the lack of support and piss poor communities were its downfall. And yes I think the communities were utter shit, Counter Strike has more maturity out of its millions of 12 year old wallhacking players than the Tribes community had and has.
Really? I care. Others as have said in this thread, care. Kinda defeats your statement eh?
I'm sorry but you're just flaming alot of slashdot readers in that one post. It is news for nerds. Trek is for nerds, complete nerds, mini nerds, full blown costume wearing nerds, etc. Don't like it? You are free to read any of the other great stories/. posts and comment on them if you choose.
As for Enterprise, I donated to TrekUnited to help , I love Trek. I grew up with it my whole life. I grew up watching TNG, then DS9 then Voyager. The fantasy escape Trek provides from the real world is better than any drug high or alcoholic binge, and it's one I as a fan, a nerd, a Trekker won't give up.
Hailing from NC, I can definitely say people around here have some huge addiction to Solitaire. Now I realize in the grand scheme of the globe it's probably ya know, not isolated to my state or town but they seem to go out of their way in schools, and businesses to "fight" this problem.
Day 1 of "Computer Literacy" back in HS the first thing we were "taught" was never to play Solitaire or other games during school hours. Of course, HS aged kids and such are gonna do the opposite. But the system admin went as far as disabling right click and windows key so you couldn't back door the.exe o_O
In college orientation, one of the first rules for computer labs and the campus library was do not play solitare or other games. Now this was a tad of a step up since ya know you're paying THEM to attend their school. (but thats a different debate for a different time).
And then any job just abou around here is very strict on any computer related activity. A family member of mine works for a local hospital doing patient billings in the accounting department (which isn't even located anywhere near the hospital itself) and they are allowed to recieve email, but cannot under any circumstances even in life or death situations email someone outside the office building. This is considered a violation of company policy and as such can have termination be warranted. The same goes for playing Solitaire or Minesweeper....
Now what I don't get is, A] why don't system admins just remove the damn games? AFAIK they've been built into Windows accesories since Windows 95 which can be disabled on machines one by one or through the network. and B] what is it with peoples obsession with these? I mean god I know what it's like to be bored out of my mind to the point I'd fall asleep. But if it ment risking my job or education over a game of Solitaire?
It's almost as bad as college kids addicted to AIM or ICQ. I can understand using them, and their use cause I've used them myself. But when you know it can cost you (a job, a class, a semester..), why continue?
It's not just because my system is on the verge of being kin to dinosaurs, it's game prices.
I stopped playing console games seriously, way back in 1997 roughly. Game prices are just too high. You figure a good system, even a year after launch is still $150+. That's just the console, 1 lame ass controller, no memory card and no game. That's it. Another $30 for a second controller (unless you get a really crappy third party one cheaper), another $15+ for a memory card, and [b]1[/b] game around $40+ you're looking at $250-300 for just one system, capable of 2 player games, able to save games, with 1 game. That's outrageous. I'm sorry but all that for just a single game? Not gonna do it.
Now take into consideration some of the best games are not cross platform so you're more than likely going to need 2 out of whatever big 3 systems are around (or a PC version if avaible) that's another $300 down the drain. Sure people can site the GameCube as a great price machine which it is, but it's lowered price isn't cause it's sold so well in America it's just that way so Nintendo can attempt to keep up with the popularity of the PS2 and Xbox1.
Also take into consideration after you drop that $300 roughly for a system that's been out a while (less you paid the $300 on release day + prices of mem card, game and 2nd controller, you're looking at $40+ for additional games that are somewhat recent. Which leads into todays prices that are rising.
I am a Walmart shopper. When I was younger I thought ya know, it's a store for poor people. Cheap stuff, discounts everywhere etc Then when I was older and got jobs and saw how much games cost at big chain stores like Best Buy or EB compared to Walmart, I saw how much department retail saved on video games. That was until all of a few years ago. I can walk into Best Buy and pick up Half Life 2 for $55 roughly, Walmart? $49.95. I'm sorry but when they used to sell for $10-15 cheaper and now you're lucky if you can get $5 at Walmart of all places.
Hell a better example. Before they closed all the local K-Marts here, I went in to check their prices on Half Life 2. I go to their computer games isle and theres not many recent big name titles. Not one copy of HL2. I ask a Electronics clerk if there are any copies he tells me K-Mart never sells copies. I asked him why, and he says
"There's just no way to sell them. For what we'd have to sell them no one would pay for. Since we are a very discounted store, the managers didn't figure people would pay $65 for it".
I mean come on, not only would it have been $65 (2+ months after release btw) at [b]K-Mart[/b] of all places, but the fact the stores new that people wouldn't pay that much and simply could not sell them tells you something here.
And as such I'm a PC gamer. Hardware upgrading aside, PC games are just as bad almost. Walmart STILL want's $50+ for Half Life 2. And sure most people say wait the 6-12 months to buy it at the reduced price. Guess what within 6 months the fucking expansion will be released and you're even further behind in the game than most people. Same for any game really; by the time you wait the obligatory time for the price to drop, EVEN at discount department stores like Walmart, something else is already released you want just as much as that game you've been waiting on. Oh look HL2 dropped to $40 but look WoW is out now. Wait on WoW to drop in price (or if you can even find it in some cases) and by then the next game you're waiting on is out.
I don't know about you but i refuse to fall into this endless cycle of being 1 full game behind my friends and peers. By the time you'd get to HL2 people would be onto some other game or some new expansion which you can't buy cause you just waited on HL2's price to drop. And so on and so forth.
People wonder why piracy is so rampant, here's an idea don't ask us for an arm, a leg, our soul, first born child and the last 10 years off our life in exchange for a game.
I just thank whatever god there may be that I do not play EA titles nor will I ever. I'd be god damned if I was going t
For those that say "to think you'd never have to return it", its not stupidity. Blockbuster specifically advertises on tv in prime time commercial slots NO LATE FEES, with no extra wording such as "Other details apply" or the ever lasting Read the Fine Print.
Now with that in mind, if I actually used Blockbuster I would go in, and rent a new release movie for whatever X amount they charge. Now within common sense Blockbusters "NO LATE FEES" policy they have advertised, they CAN institute a policy that say within 30 days you must return the video, but within those 30 days you WILL NOT be charged late fees. And they could throw in some clause such as if the video is not returned, your account is forfiet. No late fees doesn't mean "keep forever" but it means that if you forget or just don't give a fuck like most common people when they rent a movie, you won't be penalized for it.
Is that ok? No, of course not. People shouldn't automatically assume you can keep it forever after "Renting" it for $5. HOWEVER, Blockbuster is in the wrong here. They blatantly advertised NO LATE FEES. In their ads, they never mention you must sign up for some special monthy deal or pay a monthly fee, they just say NO LATE FEES. A nickel and dime lawyer could win this case of Faulty Advertisment in court quicker than OJ was aquited.
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It's just ridculous. I mean, who the hell ever started the "trend" or "accepted" way of dressing in a business setting? Who the hell ever thought it was "nice" or whatnot, to require a long sleeve shirt, or a tie? Personally when I wear a tie I feel like I've got a god damn noose around my neck. Yes, yes, naysayers will chime in "but you can loosen it and not wear it so tight" yea well I know it's still there, I still feel it there, and I still don't like having rope-like objects around my neck.
Same for long button shirts and dress pants. I love how companies, at least most here locally where I live, require you to dress in both of these, when it's 100 degrees outside. Yes, again naysayers will say "but inside it's not like that" yea, it is. Not every business chips in to keep the air conditioning at an acceptable level inside. So more often or not I'm there sitting in the cubicle, in some stuffy ass pair of dress slacks or khakis with a tie and dress shirt, about to burn to death cause I'm so hot. And no, for naysayers that will ask, I'm not excessively overweight or tall, I'm an average size medium height. When a 140 pound male that's 5'11 is sweating in a dress shirt, tie, and dress pants, then it's either too damn hot inside or they need to allow you to dress more comfortably.
And don't even get me started on "ironing". I'll never in my life understand how a simple wrinke, a god damn "crease" in fabric is something socially unacceptable. Fabric is made to bend and move and stretch and whatnot when you wear it or move in it or overall just use it. I wash my clothes regularly like any other person, but I don't often like to cook with grease or such things cause I don't like taking the risk of burning myself. Same thing with a god damn iron, ever had an iron tip over onto your hand or arm and let it sit there a second by accident so you get a nice burn? Yea that shit doesn't feel to nice. I'm not going to purposely use some hot surfaced appliance that I don't have too, simply to make a shirt or pants leg "straightened"
As for tats or whatnot, my god can we as Americans do anything else to eliminate individuals? America preaches tolerance and acceptance of almost all things. Yet you're only allowed basic hair colors in most jobs; black brown blonde, and some shades of red. If you didn't know better you'd think the spectrum of colors ended there. I don't care some people think it looks bad, or whatever. If I want my hair neon-fucking-green, I'll dye it neon-fucking-green. Naysayers will say "but that hurts a business." or "well then dont work for that business", and I don't. I also don't have my hair dyed some different color, but if I did dye it something off suit you can damn well bet I'd quit a job before switching it to something "acceptable".
I could see all this being plausable if say, You're the President of the United States who has to meet with the other leaders of the world ya know. But if you're just Average Joe working down at the local Kinkos fixing the copiers, my god don't make the man dress up like it's a god damn funeral or wedding.
Oh and a little rant bit to throw in, if a job is going to require a tie, don't fucking bitch at us for what tie we choose. If I wanna wear a Spiderman tie, fuck you I'm wearing it. You never specified what kind of tie we had to wear, you just said a tie. And fuck you also if I can't wear a clip on, it's a little hard to see how to tie something right under your damn neck, my eyeballs don't reach that far and it's a little rough trying to do it backwards infront of a mirror.
This only applies if you believe that Envy is either a sin, or a bad thing in general. Again as you say this boils down to each individual. No person can ever honestly say they've never envyed something at some point in their life. We all want that great job, or that real good car or that house we jus can't afford. It's human nature.
If an old couple did not stock up for old age, then it is indeed a tragedy that they did not look ahead enough. That certainly won't happen to me - almost everybody is perfectly capable of saving for retirement.
Again, even preperation doesn't always mean you're fine. Look at how many elderly people, save their money, their pension and social security, and have trouble making ends meet. Gas has gone up considerably, and if you've ever seen someone at that age who requires a good bit of medication (such as diabetic medicine) you know they are forced to spend a small fortune on pills that allow them to function daily, and this is even with good health insurance.
A homeless person who thinks he can live by stealing instead of working his way out of poverty is corrupt, yes. Take a look at the new movie with Russel Crowe: Cinderella Man. About a man during the depression who is barely surviving, but doesn't give up, keeps striving, and eventually wins out. Even while poor, he is teaching his kids that it is not ok to steal. And for him, going on goverment assistance is an absolute shame. (as well it should be) I agree, people should prepare and be ready. But as said that doesn't always work.
If you're gonna use a movie as a point, come on. There are plenty of movies that have the ambigiously happy plot/moral/theme/ending that could fit your argument. Doesn't mean their fit to be used in such a debate.
I see people better off than myself all the time. Nice car, a home that doesn't have several mortgages aganist it, their name in good standing of their credit, you name it. I don't complain or attempt to steal any of those things. Aquating me with a thief or at the least a man whom has no morals such as you point too, is just humorous in my eyes.
Did it ever occur to you, some things just cost too much for what their worth? What is a parent supposed to tell his kid when they need to type up a report for history class, but the school campus closes too early, and the kid would be unable to get a ride home cause his parents are at work? "Sorry son, mom and dad can't afford a computer for you. You see, we can save up and get a low budget hardware system, but for you to do your report in a normal fashion, we'd have to purchase software we simply can't afford".
I've seen that conversation happen. Not just once either. No, I wasn't part of that conversation, but I've seen families who go through the same or similar things.
Sure, maybe the school could work something out, or the kid could try to walk to a public library. But then your forced to deal with the time tables of a public facility that's not the school system, and the fact that the kid would have to actually get to the library. By the time most parents get off work, libraries are almost closed (around here it's like 6pm or so they close).
Or hell, look at the elderly. You gonna tell me elderly people are of the same "head held high" you describe? I also know elderly folks who had some rag tag low end system given to them, or one they bought at a yard sale cause it's all they can afford. Sure they don't NEED Windows Xp Home or whatever they're pirating but are you seriously, I mean HONESTLY, going to take the moral high ground with some old man and woman in their 90's who are unable to physically work and have been retired for 20+ years? If so, YOUR morals may be the ones wrong, not ours.
If it was something that was 100% optional, like a hobby of collecting DVD's, yea I could understand. But when it's something you need that you cannot afford (like food. you gonna tell me homeless people are morally corrupt cause they steal food?), then it's different.
Judge not lest ye be judged.
Now granted, someone that owns a PC generally seems like they'd be someone that can afford an OS. But thats not the case alot of times. I mean you go into any place that sells software, and you STILL see Windows Xp Home at the $80 mark or more. Often or not it's still $100 in most big chain stores like Best Buy.
I know plenty of people who have small, self built PC's they've built slowly over time. Just like some people put together a decent car by buying the core parts seperately. Or better yet I know people whom have been given an average PC that you normally see in mom & pop type stores, as a gift. These PC's are monsters in terms of hardware or specs, they probably run the basics like Office and IE. Parents buy these all the time for kids, the bare essentials for doing homework and studying (of course kids use them for IM's online and games)
Case in point is M$ will never show love to poor people. If you're still in school (before or during college) you're more than likely going to need a PC. Sure most schools offer campus use of their PC's but often it's under their timetables, under their rules, which not everyone can meet. When an OS costs almost 1/3 of what you paid for a simple PC to use Office or to browse the Internet (with dial up mind you, most often), it's obvious it costs too much.
Some will say "but you can use something older like Windows 2000 or 98". Sure, you can. Check the date lately? Official support for 2k runs out soon, and 98's + 95's has been out for a while. What happens when a critical flaw is found after support has been cut off? Hope that Symantec or some other company might be kind enough to patch the OS itself even though they are virus scanning providers not the OS makers? It's not a HUGE deal now but as more and more flaws + crippling virii come out each year (MS Blast anyone?..) it's a matter of time before that family of 5 living in a small apartment have to pirate XP or Longhorn to simply guarantee their computer is safe so use.
This is why M$ has a damn monopoly. Sure you can choose a cheaper OS, hell some are even free. But then you lose support for A), most major software titles or games that are not ported to your non-Windows OS, and B) you have to spend time learning a new OS that's not support alot. Example, imagine a family buys one of these low end PC's for their kids, and manages to find a real affordable broadband provider. Since they can't afford to shell out $100+ for Windows XP Home they get a copy of some Linux distro. At some point their broadband cuts out so they call tech support. Tech support says "Oh we're sorry we can't help you, you aren't running Windows". Or you take it into a shop to get something fixed, say the disk drive goes out. Alot of mom & pop repair places don't do Linux OS'ed PC's, at least not here locally. You might be fine at some big place like Best Buy but then you're stuck paying outrageous prices for a 5 minute drive switch.
You can see how the list goes on. In the end the poor get shafted, so yes we do pirate. Not because we can, or because we are cheap, because we simply cannot afford it and in alot of cases it's nessicary.
That's great, the man sticking it to us poor folks yet again. And I loved Elite Torrents :( Awesome place for Trek stuff
Sure, you can wait till the first, or second price drop in a console, to buy it. But by then you're already behind on the times, probably a good handful of games to play which means you're always going to be several games behind, etc
I won't buy these super over hyped consoles simply cause I can feed my family for half a year on $500...Let alone blow it on 1 console. Not keep in mind if I wanna play games that aren't ported to PC or Xbox2 or Revolution I gotta buy those individual systems...you're looking at an easy $1500 for 3 systems, 1 controller each, no memory card each, no free game each...
Or you know, I could continue to "steal" or "pirate" these episodes. If I can watch them for free on my tv then damnit I should be able to see them for free at any time.
Yep, content is more expensive than hardware. What's your point?
Am I the only one who think's thats fucking stupid? It's like buying an Xbox for $200 and then going out and buying something like Halo 2 (normal non super uber collectors edition) for $300. Are you INSANE? The content is supposed to be cheaper. If that is not true then companies for every form of entertainment are stupid. Why spend $2000 on a kick ass computer when Half Life 2 or Doom 3 will cost you $4000?... DVD's are some how magically different?
Other than a few exceptions, that's all there ever has been. Before the advent of the DVD the back catalog of TV shows were generally not available to the consumer.
I'll give you the fact that VHS collections for say, a season of a show weren't common but you still could buy them, at cheaper prices. The selections were just more limited. So a wider selection means = increase the prices by 200%?
So even though VHS tapes are recorders are dirt cheap, you are complaining about having to buy bookshelves to hold them? What's next, complaining about the price of stickers and Sharpies to label your tapes?
Yes if you wanna look at it that way. VCR's are cheap as are blank VHS. As the one guy pointed out, the entire DB/Z/GT series has over 500 episodes and 20+ movies. That's over 200+ VHS tapes, probably close to 300. Who the fuck has room to store that many VHS tapes? Unless you want to just make gigantic stacks of them on your floor aganist a wall, then yer going to need shelf/box space of some kind.
(this is the part where you tell me DVD's small size in casing and such is part of their cost so by reducing physical size we're paying more for it? FUCK THAT)
You're right, you shouldn't have to spend money to record TV shows, you should get everything for free. The producers should buy you a TV, TiVo, VHS tapes (and shelves to hold them) and blank DVDs. While they're at it, they should pay your rent and buy you some food-after all you are giving them the huge gift of watching their show.
At this point you're just trolling.
I'm sorry but television is free. Yes I pay for my cable access but it's just that paying access. If you consider the amount per # of channels, yes TV is free. Hell even if I did not have cable and used Basic tv, I'd still get tv for free. And yes, there are advertisements, but I can choose to change the channel and back. And even then it's free and I can choose to watch it. If I miss something, I'm fucked as previously discussed.
Maybe I'm just "strange" but I've always grown up on free television. I live with commericals and shit, but the money fucking of corporations is getting old
BUT, at the same time, these people and the companies underneath them do not need to hold the consumer over a barrell for such things.
Couple good points;
- For the price of 1 normally purchased Trek, DBZ etc Seasonal dvd you can literally buy 2 full name brand DVD players. I kid you not. For the $120 you're paying for say, DS9 season 1 you can walk into Walmart and get 2 nice dvd players. When you can buy the god damn hardware cheaper than the dvd....
- Fans of long running shows that are still going, are uber-fucked. Now I'm not a fan of say, Law & Order, but it's running on 15 god damn seasons man. 15. Average $60-100 a season and the fact it's still going....
- When you can finance a perfectly good brand new car, almost the same price or cheaper than some long series/still going series, that's a sign that DVD's cost too fucking much
- There are no other mass media storage of seasonal shows sold. When's the last time you say, walked into ANY store that sells a good bit of movies/tv shows and saw say, E.R. Season 1 on VHS? Now I realize it's come to the point and has been for a while that DVD is the current format for media being produced for home collection of movies and tv shows right? So if I wanna buy Spiderman 2 I can pick up the $6 VHS tape at Walmart. If I wanna by E.R. season 1 on VHS, I'm fucked cause THEY DON'T PRODUCE THEM. Our ONLY option for buying in stores is DVD.
- Options for storage at home in the form of recording yourself are limited. You got VHS which for the price, limit and actual size it takes to store a large quantity of them it is not practical. You figure you can fit what, 6 hours on a VHS? (less it's been upped ot 8 since last I checked). That's 6 episodes of something. 5 if you count all commericals and such. Average season of a tv show is 20+eps sometimes 30+ multiply that by say an average of 5 or 6 seasons and you got a fuck load of VHS tapes taking up room, which means you gotta shell out MORE money for a shelf or bookcase for them. DVD's while cheaper and can store more, require something to record from. A DVR, Tivo, video card with tv in/output and dvd burner etc Again more money to be spent to simply record tv shows.
Now I know, they aren't breaking any laws. they're companies and as such will do what they can to make a profit. But personally I'll be god damned if I'll hand them my personal money.
- The WB, fucked over Angel for shit like "The Mountain". They want $60 a season, fuck them.
- Fox, I love Family Guy and the Simpsons, but I swear to christ if I see The Bachelor X-Treme Island Paradise Couples Hookup 3 in some primetime slot that could have been given to oh I don't know, FIREFLY...fuck them.
- ABC/CBS/NBC, a couple ok shows on each of them (Lost, Joan of Arcadia, etc) but for every good show they have they also have another scraping-the-barrell sitcom trying to live up to Friends or Seinfeld. If Lost is a reasonable price, I'll buy it.
- SCIFI & UPN, well Paramount fucked Trek up the ass with a mountain troll sized dildo. And as said I will not pay $80+ for a Trek season. Sci Fi, I love Stargate and Atlantis, reasonable price I'll buy it. They cancelled Farscape :( and really rushed The Peacekeeper Wars so......
Now you may chalk this up to me being a bitter fan boy of shows whom have had a bad luck run of cancelations. This is true but at the same time these shows I watch, theres another million+ of me out there whom love good tv like this but won't bend over so 20th Century Fox or Paramount can light their cigars whilst burning a hundred dollar bill.
Frell them
What's funny is the MPAA and other companies scream up a storm of how it's illegal and wrong, have they ever stopped to consider how much of a fucking monopoloy tv is?
Case in point, I'm a huge sci fi fan. Take Trek as a main example. Sure if I'm at home during the day around 1pm I can catch TNG/DS9 reruns on "Spike" TV but most people with day jobs aren't home at that hour. Sure I could Tivo/DVR/VHS tape it but then again you have to deal with the inconsistances of stuff being prempted, etc Not to mention you're paying to record the stuff, those VHS tapes and blank DVD's aren't free, if you record it yer at least spending X amount of money on blank media.
So as most people are unlucky to not be able to tape shows, such as my example, what options do we have?;
- Wait till reruns begin/occur. Some shows are already in rerun syndication on other networks. Take Stargate. It has new episodes of SG-1 on the Sci Fi channel. but if you turn on say, the WB at 3 am some nights you catch old reruns of it. This falls into the above example of being able to record such things, as such times, in an affordable manner. And that doesn't take into account the current season of a show. Smallville just ended it's season (I think), so if you missed the last few episodes of the season you gotta wait till the end of Summer when the reruns of that season "catch up".
- Buy the seasonal DVD's. Ok this is my main deterent. I'm a huge Trek fan, have been for 15 years. I own not one season or movie of Trek on DVD. Why? Walk into the cheapest department store there is. Seriously, go to Walmart or K-Mart or Target. See those prices? $80-100 for ONE season of basically any Trek. $80 fucking dollars. I don't need 20 extra DVD's, sure their nice but I just want the series, in DVD format in DVD quality all in one nice little package. I honestly cannont justify paying more than $30-40 per season of a TV show. If you want all 7 seasons of a Trek series, it's almost $800......I can buy a god damn CAR for that (or at least put a downpayment on a nice one). Now some DVD's have become more, economical. This past Christmas when Buffy season 7 came out, they released a holiday package deal, all 7 seasons for around $200-250. That is reasonable. I can justify that purchase for the cost. And you still can find a deal here there, Amazon.com knocks off a couple hundred bucks on big series like Trek, but still not much... Now remember when I said go to a department store? Try a large chain store like Best Buy, EB, Suncoast, Media Play, etc..Double those prices.
- Avaiblility. Remeber how I mentioned the cheap stores and big expensive chain stores? What do you see most of in the dvd sections at Walmart or Kmart? New Releases. Sure they have a handful of tv seasonal dvd's but most likely the last that was released (i.e. you'll find Stargate Season 7 but not Season 1...). So what are you left with? Going to a store that specializes in electronics and shit like Best Buy or Samgoodie, whom have a nice HUGE selection of DVDs and such but charge INSANE prices. ($1200 for all of DS9 last time I checked...)
The quality of tv just doesn't justify things in the end. I mean, for every Trek dvd or Scape DVD that's fairly expensive you'll find CRAP like American Idol or the latest incarnation of Survivor selling like hot-fucking-cakes for half the price. Hell I haven't watched anything on the Fox network in years (except 24) cause every night it's their prime time lineup of "Reality TV" shit. ABC, CBS etc follow either in the same suit or throwing out the 14th different spinoff of CSI or Law & Order o_O
When prices are reasonable or tv schedules become more flexible in correlation with recording media prices then maybe I won't use BT for my source of entertainment.
yea i fucked up and forgot html formating for that reply :(
anyone else find that kinda amusing? [p] [b]S[/b]pam [b]P[/b]revention [b]E[/b]arly [b]W[/b]arning [b]S[/b]ystem
If anything id Software should have learned by now what works and what doesn't. After the lukewarm luster of Doom 3 (sorry but the uber darkness of the game combined with no weapon use while using a flash light was fucking ridiculous), they need to stay on course.
Quake is a multiplayer game. Sure Quake 1 had a singleplayer but it wasn't all that great. id Software's singleplayer kings are Doom and Wolfenstein (though RTCW had both a great single and multiplayer). Quake is their staple multiplayer.
Honestly if they market Quake 4 as a singleplayer game with a half ass multiplayer like Doom 3, Epic Games will destroy them. The Unreal 3 engine is already looking onpar if not better than the Doom 3 engine (which I assume Raven Soft. will be using for Quake 4), so they aren't behind on eyecandy. They've proven to make solid multiplayers just like id Soft. so this could be a true turning point, where Epic pulls ahead and gains some ground to being second to Valve in multiplayer (unfortunately CS/HL/HL2/CS:S and their mods are still king).
The screens so far look more like conceptual 3D renderings than actual screens. And even if they are screens they look more like MECH's of some kind. If that is the iteration of how enemies or player models are they look slow and cumbersome, not what we're used to as a fast paced gameplay in Quakes 1-3 (yes looks can be decieving, but if they are just as fast then the models look ridiculous being that large and bulky).
It's too early to really tell but as said, this could be the game that really kills off id Software. Unless it comes out of the gate awesome then followed by a really good RTCW 2 well then...
And yes you did need to research. At that time the FOMK was nothing. It had screen shots and backstory of the game. The first several days of the beta the forums were completely down, not due to traffic or bandwidth just down for other reasons. So there was no way to read a "F.A.Q", or anything there was just screens and backstory of the game. While I enjoy learning as I go, when you got perma death hanging over your head and the above camping senario with no immediate GM response or documentation to help well it turned out to be a shitty beta.
And I only mentioned that one game cause I enjoy the cyberpunk MMORPG genre which there aren't many of.
That was until I saw the Faces of Mankind open beta. And I have to say it was the most ridculous idea for an MMORPG.
Picture this:
FOMK (or some other similar MMORPG) comes out. You buy the game and install it, being a fan of MMORPGs. The manual doesn't really have alot of specifics on the whole permadeath thing (relating this to the open beta where they had absolutely ZERO information avaible to players). So you really don't know that you get 3 "lives" and can only make one character within a 24 hour period (real world time). You login teleport out of your apartment to find a guy camping the vortex beam with a uzi and kills you. Since that is the only place to go from your apartment really, you die another 2 times. Now assuming you could buy "insurance" or more "clones" (read, more lives) theres noway to do so cause you can't due to being camped.
So you have to wait 24 hours in real life time to make a new character and only one character per account. You have paid cash to sit there and wait a full day before you can play again. You are paying cash, your own money so you can die X number of times (or in some cases ONE time) and not play that character again or any character again for a possible time period.
It's simply outrageous some games can impose such "penalties".
Now I'll grant you the following: that is one game alone I used as an example but other games could be similar. And players should research the games before hand knowing if their main gameplay has a permadeath or permadeath like feature in them.
However some games just like FOMK, have poor documentation which don't let the user know he/she may face such things.
I don't dress up, or go to conventions or nitpick the blueprints of every Federation ship, I am just a fan. I fall deeply into the cores of every show there is almost, and their writing style.
I grew up on Star Trek. From TNG, to DS9 to Voyager and now Enterprise. I expanded my sci fi tastes to Farscape (god I miss it, so much), Firefly, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, Buffy, Angel (more fantasy on those last two), and I even started to get into Battlestar Galatica despite how I don't like it's politic driven stories.
What is left? Sure Stargate SG1 is around but how long can they keep it going? I love Ben Browder being added to the cast but seriously, it's on its last season or two. Atlantis shows promise but I'm gonna say it lasts maybe 4-5 seasons. I'm not a huge BSG fan, it's good but I can't feed my sci fi craving off of just it alone.
Trek is gone. Paramount has basically said "fuck you" to the fans. I mean how much money has been raised here, for more episodes? Once Enterprise is over I will be removing UPN from my digital cable lineup just like I did "G4TV" after they shafted TechTV.
Even the Sci Fi channel learns from its mistakes. Sure they fucked over Farscape after season 4 but at least they had the balls to make a mini series to AT LEAST TRY and give fans closure. Paramount will finish this season but at what cost? It's a sheer slap in the face saying they won't accept money for new episodes. I mean what other show on earth thats cancelled/going to be cancelled could be run simply by fan donations? I'd pay money every week for Trek. Alot of fans would too.
Am I too far gone to be objectional? I think not. The first few seasons of Enterprise had their lows, I mean they really had their lows. But they had some good episodes too. And even more so I love Enterprise cause it's more human. Alot of themes, ideas, and ways of things are still done in the time period of Enterprise. People still wear hats, watch old movies, have more human forms of recreation. It seems silly but it relates more, you can actually imagine 100 years from now some form of space flight similar to warp drive, you can see how the Trek timeline actually fits in. It's doing what a prequel does, tells the backstory and sets up the future series.
Monday through Thursdays I usually watch dvd's to fill the gaps. Ocasionally I'll tune into Smallville on Wednesdays. Fridays are Trek and Stargate for me. Saturdays maybe the new weekly movie on HBO might be entertaining, and Sundays will always be dominated by The Sopranos and Carnivale.
Prime time tv is owned by sad reality tv. We have become a society of lemmings following whatever is popular and being entertained by the lowest common denominator entertainment. Even Picard would order our extinction, out of fucking mercy.
As for T:V, well personally I think the community got what it deserved. When Irrational and such was trying to get feed back, it always boiled down to Tribes 1 fans wanting this and Tribes 2 fans wanting that. I played T:V it's just as buggy and floaty feeling as Tribes 2. Sure its faster than original Tribes 2 but it never came close to the break neck speed we were use too in Tribes.
It's time for the Tribes franchise to just die off. They were good games overall, but the lack of support and piss poor communities were its downfall. And yes I think the communities were utter shit, Counter Strike has more maturity out of its millions of 12 year old wallhacking players than the Tribes community had and has.
"NO ONE CARES!"
Really? I care. Others as have said in this thread, care. Kinda defeats your statement eh?
I'm sorry but you're just flaming alot of slashdot readers in that one post. It is news for nerds. Trek is for nerds, complete nerds, mini nerds, full blown costume wearing nerds, etc. Don't like it? You are free to read any of the other great stories /. posts and comment on them if you choose.
As for Enterprise, I donated to TrekUnited to help , I love Trek. I grew up with it my whole life. I grew up watching TNG, then DS9 then Voyager. The fantasy escape Trek provides from the real world is better than any drug high or alcoholic binge, and it's one I as a fan, a nerd, a Trekker won't give up.
Hailing from NC, I can definitely say people around here have some huge addiction to Solitaire. Now I realize in the grand scheme of the globe it's probably ya know, not isolated to my state or town but they seem to go out of their way in schools, and businesses to "fight" this problem. Day 1 of "Computer Literacy" back in HS the first thing we were "taught" was never to play Solitaire or other games during school hours. Of course, HS aged kids and such are gonna do the opposite. But the system admin went as far as disabling right click and windows key so you couldn't back door the .exe o_O
In college orientation, one of the first rules for computer labs and the campus library was do not play solitare or other games. Now this was a tad of a step up since ya know you're paying THEM to attend their school. (but thats a different debate for a different time).
And then any job just abou around here is very strict on any computer related activity. A family member of mine works for a local hospital doing patient billings in the accounting department (which isn't even located anywhere near the hospital itself) and they are allowed to recieve email, but cannot under any circumstances even in life or death situations email someone outside the office building. This is considered a violation of company policy and as such can have termination be warranted. The same goes for playing Solitaire or Minesweeper....
Now what I don't get is, A] why don't system admins just remove the damn games? AFAIK they've been built into Windows accesories since Windows 95 which can be disabled on machines one by one or through the network. and B] what is it with peoples obsession with these? I mean god I know what it's like to be bored out of my mind to the point I'd fall asleep. But if it ment risking my job or education over a game of Solitaire?
It's almost as bad as college kids addicted to AIM or ICQ. I can understand using them, and their use cause I've used them myself. But when you know it can cost you (a job, a class, a semester..), why continue?
It's not just because my system is on the verge of being kin to dinosaurs, it's game prices. I stopped playing console games seriously, way back in 1997 roughly. Game prices are just too high. You figure a good system, even a year after launch is still $150+. That's just the console, 1 lame ass controller, no memory card and no game. That's it. Another $30 for a second controller (unless you get a really crappy third party one cheaper), another $15+ for a memory card, and [b]1[/b] game around $40+ you're looking at $250-300 for just one system, capable of 2 player games, able to save games, with 1 game. That's outrageous. I'm sorry but all that for just a single game? Not gonna do it. Now take into consideration some of the best games are not cross platform so you're more than likely going to need 2 out of whatever big 3 systems are around (or a PC version if avaible) that's another $300 down the drain. Sure people can site the GameCube as a great price machine which it is, but it's lowered price isn't cause it's sold so well in America it's just that way so Nintendo can attempt to keep up with the popularity of the PS2 and Xbox1. Also take into consideration after you drop that $300 roughly for a system that's been out a while (less you paid the $300 on release day + prices of mem card, game and 2nd controller, you're looking at $40+ for additional games that are somewhat recent. Which leads into todays prices that are rising. I am a Walmart shopper. When I was younger I thought ya know, it's a store for poor people. Cheap stuff, discounts everywhere etc Then when I was older and got jobs and saw how much games cost at big chain stores like Best Buy or EB compared to Walmart, I saw how much department retail saved on video games. That was until all of a few years ago. I can walk into Best Buy and pick up Half Life 2 for $55 roughly, Walmart? $49.95. I'm sorry but when they used to sell for $10-15 cheaper and now you're lucky if you can get $5 at Walmart of all places. Hell a better example. Before they closed all the local K-Marts here, I went in to check their prices on Half Life 2. I go to their computer games isle and theres not many recent big name titles. Not one copy of HL2. I ask a Electronics clerk if there are any copies he tells me K-Mart never sells copies. I asked him why, and he says "There's just no way to sell them. For what we'd have to sell them no one would pay for. Since we are a very discounted store, the managers didn't figure people would pay $65 for it". I mean come on, not only would it have been $65 (2+ months after release btw) at [b]K-Mart[/b] of all places, but the fact the stores new that people wouldn't pay that much and simply could not sell them tells you something here. And as such I'm a PC gamer. Hardware upgrading aside, PC games are just as bad almost. Walmart STILL want's $50+ for Half Life 2. And sure most people say wait the 6-12 months to buy it at the reduced price. Guess what within 6 months the fucking expansion will be released and you're even further behind in the game than most people. Same for any game really; by the time you wait the obligatory time for the price to drop, EVEN at discount department stores like Walmart, something else is already released you want just as much as that game you've been waiting on. Oh look HL2 dropped to $40 but look WoW is out now. Wait on WoW to drop in price (or if you can even find it in some cases) and by then the next game you're waiting on is out. I don't know about you but i refuse to fall into this endless cycle of being 1 full game behind my friends and peers. By the time you'd get to HL2 people would be onto some other game or some new expansion which you can't buy cause you just waited on HL2's price to drop. And so on and so forth. People wonder why piracy is so rampant, here's an idea don't ask us for an arm, a leg, our soul, first born child and the last 10 years off our life in exchange for a game. I just thank whatever god there may be that I do not play EA titles nor will I ever. I'd be god damned if I was going t
For those that say "to think you'd never have to return it", its not stupidity. Blockbuster specifically advertises on tv in prime time commercial slots NO LATE FEES, with no extra wording such as "Other details apply" or the ever lasting Read the Fine Print.
Now with that in mind, if I actually used Blockbuster I would go in, and rent a new release movie for whatever X amount they charge. Now within common sense Blockbusters "NO LATE FEES" policy they have advertised, they CAN institute a policy that say within 30 days you must return the video, but within those 30 days you WILL NOT be charged late fees. And they could throw in some clause such as if the video is not returned, your account is forfiet. No late fees doesn't mean "keep forever" but it means that if you forget or just don't give a fuck like most common people when they rent a movie, you won't be penalized for it.
Is that ok? No, of course not. People shouldn't automatically assume you can keep it forever after "Renting" it for $5. HOWEVER, Blockbuster is in the wrong here. They blatantly advertised NO LATE FEES. In their ads, they never mention you must sign up for some special monthy deal or pay a monthly fee, they just say NO LATE FEES. A nickel and dime lawyer could win this case of Faulty Advertisment in court quicker than OJ was aquited.