Agreed. Since the Wii was actually designed to be left on 24/7 I think it would be a great candidate despite being a slower machine.
Also, many people have their Wii hardwired into their cable modem, and have bought additional flash cards, but the main problem is the chip capabilities.
I think the Cell processor is more capable at handling higher vector math, IMHO.
Mind you, even so, I never bought a PS3, I bought a Wii. Not because it is more powerful, but because it's fun.
The nice thing about the popular Firefox extensions of Adblock and NoScript is that they can be told to permit certain sites or subsites or redirects by pattern and not others.
Sites that abuse flash get it turned off by me. Sites that don't I usually let alone.
Now, until they come up with a way to use my Wii to fold proteins (and Dr. Baker has a great lab doing that here at the UW), I'll just use it to play Wii Sims instead.
On a processor level, I must admit the literal hardware of the PS3 is vastly more suited for the calculations involved in folding proteins, so it might be a while, even if there are many more Wii systems being sold.
Especially with him showing up to close down hip-hop clubs in "not"-Seattle.
But I for one am looking forward to jacking the heart from on top of Mercy West (KOMO) and having a shoot out with the interns from Grey's Anatomy, before hitting the ramps to land on the bong-filled ferry boat to Vashon...
Plus, stealing one of the Ducks to muck around on Lake Union will be super-sweet!
1. Many people don't want to play with their family. My son likes to grief, hold grudges, and seek vengeance. I like to Care Bear, focus on skills, and meander about, for example.
2. The concept of being forced to play with people who think PvP is great just bores the tears out of me. Just as my RPG style probably does the same thing to PvPers. So, having a fractured community is kind of nice, and it's also good in that, should I totally mess up (as I did when I founded a Squirrelly Wrath guild on one server and "invited" someone that then insulted everyone he could find in multiple lands, making the guild a piece of shyte, well, I just created characters on a different server (sorry, Sisters of Elune, it wasn't me).
3. Economics doesn't need to represent the world. Why should I want it to represent 250 million Chinese Gold Farmers? I'd rather it represent people from Ecotopia quite frankly...
Well, in a recent lawsuit, Google found out that Canadian privacy rights trump their ability to sell Google Streetview images of their houses and faces.
Not everyone has the exact same legal system as the USA.
[caveat - IANAL but I did take legal courses in high school and college in B.C. and most of my friends in Seattle are lawyers, including my brother and uncle and some ex-gfs]
And if people like me had not been making their own S100 bus computers and using ARPA to advertise that we needed to sell our old textbooks and canoes when we moved back from campus...
There are 2 markets in WoW. There is a market in every station in every solar system in EVE, and where you decide to sell will make or break you. I can make millions off buying cheap skills from a nearby university, transporting them 4 jumps to a trade or mission-running hub, and marking them up 1000%. People will buy them just to avoid spending time on the 8 jump round trip because shit does not magically end up in your mailbox.
No. There are more than 2 markets in WoW.
There is a large Alliance market at the AH - with participants at each major city.
There is a large Horde market at the AH - with participants at each major city.
There is a small Neutral market at the AH for those greedy guys... goblins.
There is the retail market at each vendor (which is static and not impacted by the AH system, although it acts as an artificial limit to both top and bottom (for example, if the vendor will buy my necklace for 12s 50c and the AH price costs 2s deposit for a likely 10s payout, I sell to vendor).
There is the guild market (mostly free, some traded) where players say what loot they got they can't use and give guild members first shot.
There is the raid/dungeon market (mostly traded, some free) where players sometimes say what loot they got they can't use and barter.
There is the resource market for enchantments (many enchanters give out starting enchants free, as the skill reward is a higher payout than selling to a small market of potential customers, whereas the enchants for glowing weapons (high skill) have high payouts).
There is the resource market for mining/etc where people shout they have stuff and sometimes trade directly - I have a number of "friends" who are really just trading partners. I could auction 20 copper myself, but it's faster and I get a higher return if I just sell it to my JC friend who mines it for gems. Especially since I can do that anywhere with a mailbox, and there are only Auction Houses in the big cities.
On page B4 of today's print edition of the Wall Street Journal, in an article entitled "Microsoft Expands Xbox 360 Line in Japan", they also pointed out that the Wii has sold 3,454,167 units since Dec. 2006, the PS3 has sold 1,160,614 units since Nov. 2006, and the xBox 360 has sold 444,352 units since Dec. 2005.
Mind you, those are figures for Japan.
Of course, even Blue Dragon (360) has sold fewer than 200,000 copies in Japan since launch in December.
It's not just Wii worldwide, it's a landslide.
I don't think Lost Odyssey is going to turn that around.
But first you have to get the polygon vector jockeys to stop trying to drive game design with realistic rain splatter effects while the game POV camera sucks wind.
Half of true game design is understanding what works and how good it has to be.
Think of Lego Star Wars or other games with much lower res. People love them.
Think of the arc swing of a sword, or the block move of a shield.
As we translate the literal inputs from computing devices (the Wii-mote into the console), we only plot some of the translated arc points.
As my sword hits your shield, the game enhances it by your attributes (strength, agility (how much fine motor control do you really have), etc), your "level" (my level 22 paladin with 44 strength and 50 agility is going to hit really really hard from the viewpoint of your 21 strength 24 agility mage), and then we implement zones.
Zones - in the original RPG days we tried fine zones (god, some of that was overkill, with a body having 100 zones and strike points, and angle vectors) and settled on moderate zones (most moved to a simple Head, Back, Front, L Arm, R Arm, Legs, Feet, Hands zone structure, affected by the armor level of each).
Your arc swing still stops when your sword impacts my shield. IRL, you continue swinging, but I translate the total vector plus real speed plus attributes plus approx angle versus the shield gross dimensions, vector, armor level plus real speed and real angle.
What you will "see" on the screen will not be what you do IRL. If I have a glowing Dragon Skull shield of 5000 armor with repulsion spells and magical armor, your sword will bounce off even when you try to deftly reach around it with a complicated real life swing. The image on the screen will show your sword arc not quite what it is, with possibly a bit of delay due to lag (or jump as you say). The clang and bounce of your sword and noise from the Wiimote may not kick in for a while.
But it will still be super cool for casual gamers who love the fact they can DO that. And it will sell like hot cakes!
The market determines the survivors. I've seen many game systems that did a better job at simulating combat fail because they forgot it's all about the market. They had combat determinations that were more accurate but got in the way of game play. Game play depends on rough approximations of what you do - not exact simulations.
In the real world the sword weighs a lot more than you think, your arm is going to hurt, the sword hit against you will nick your shield, the impact will bruise you, some ribs might crack, your sword might shatter or chip (and now skid), the blade gets bloody and slick, you sweat and fall, and the arrow in the back of your neck makes you fall down. We're not talking real world - we're talking SF&F.
Fairly simple, you just have client and host gaming modules, where the client keeps a buffer of moves. Similar to old-style turn-based games, these kinds of systems have been in existence since I did the first worldwide play-by-mail RPG.
Reaction times would mean that you'd want to play on local servers however, as latency could cause negative reactions. But since most of the world has Net speeds 10-100 times faster than is commonly in use in the USA, this is not a problem, except perhaps in rural or underserved areas of the US itself.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. Since the Wii was actually designed to be left on 24/7 I think it would be a great candidate despite being a slower machine.
Also, many people have their Wii hardwired into their cable modem, and have bought additional flash cards, but the main problem is the chip capabilities.
I think the Cell processor is more capable at handling higher vector math, IMHO.
Mind you, even so, I never bought a PS3, I bought a Wii. Not because it is more powerful, but because it's fun.
One extension to block them all and in the darkness bind them
One extension to block them all
One extension to google with
Three browsers to render the ads
And show Elvish subtitled anime
Five noisy ads from the underworld
Used by rootkits from Zurich
Seven speaker blasts for servers
Doomed to have their IPs die
Nine full-length autorun enabled ads
Soon to die a painful death
One extension to block them all
And into darkness BIND them
I take it you're not a YouTube fan.
The nice thing about the popular Firefox extensions of Adblock and NoScript is that they can be told to permit certain sites or subsites or redirects by pattern and not others.
Sites that abuse flash get it turned off by me. Sites that don't I usually let alone.
was suddenly spiking for those getting those animated flash ads that drive users crazy.
Thanks for helping us kill IE, Google!
There aren't any games, so it's just sitting there doing nothing anyways.
Not true. Guitar Hero III just came out for xBox360, PS3, and the Wii.
But the rest of the time, while you're not using it, having it do something useful like fold proteins is a really good use of a game console.
Now, until they come up with a way to use my Wii to fold proteins (and Dr. Baker has a great lab doing that here at the UW), I'll just use it to play Wii Sims instead.
On a processor level, I must admit the literal hardware of the PS3 is vastly more suited for the calculations involved in folding proteins, so it might be a while, even if there are many more Wii systems being sold.
Especially with him showing up to close down hip-hop clubs in "not"-Seattle.
...
But I for one am looking forward to jacking the heart from on top of Mercy West (KOMO) and having a shoot out with the interns from Grey's Anatomy, before hitting the ramps to land on the bong-filled ferry boat to Vashon
Plus, stealing one of the Ducks to muck around on Lake Union will be super-sweet!
why thank you.
We discuss such things. One learns morals by interaction.
Want to talk family values? Let's see how all those "moral" people do in the real world.
At least we talk about it. When one is a teen, it's easy to see things in black and white. Some people grow out of it, the rest remain neo-cons.
1. MSFT is no longer under watch - that portion is being lifted, so future actions may go undetected.
2. The ruling is under appeal.
and
3. MSFT is more concerned with China and other worldwide markets in the long term.
Three monitor won't happen until HDTV is in general use for about two years, so that means 2011 at the earliest.
Based on prior adoption rates of technology and markets.
Surround sound will become fairly common with large-scale HDTV usage. 2009.
1. Many people don't want to play with their family. My son likes to grief, hold grudges, and seek vengeance. I like to Care Bear, focus on skills, and meander about, for example.
...
2. The concept of being forced to play with people who think PvP is great just bores the tears out of me. Just as my RPG style probably does the same thing to PvPers. So, having a fractured community is kind of nice, and it's also good in that, should I totally mess up (as I did when I founded a Squirrelly Wrath guild on one server and "invited" someone that then insulted everyone he could find in multiple lands, making the guild a piece of shyte, well, I just created characters on a different server (sorry, Sisters of Elune, it wasn't me).
3. Economics doesn't need to represent the world. Why should I want it to represent 250 million Chinese Gold Farmers? I'd rather it represent people from Ecotopia quite frankly
No, we just need the POV to be placed a uniform distance from the set. People will get used to being in one approximate location.
This also restricts the arc of vision to a small patch in "front" of you.
Turns would be via key input, motion only affects your body, not your sight. If you choose autolock, it would target on the beast.
Naturally you would have mini-map screen and sideview panels - if you wear a helmet the sideview would be partially or fully obscured.
All of these aspects would make it fairly simple to implement.
Well, in a recent lawsuit, Google found out that Canadian privacy rights trump their ability to sell Google Streetview images of their houses and faces.
Not everyone has the exact same legal system as the USA.
[caveat - IANAL but I did take legal courses in high school and college in B.C. and most of my friends in Seattle are lawyers, including my brother and uncle and some ex-gfs]
And if people like me had not been making their own S100 bus computers and using ARPA to advertise that we needed to sell our old textbooks and canoes when we moved back from campus ...
Bill G has little to do with it.
More time for me to play WoW.
There are 2 markets in WoW. There is a market in every station in every solar system in EVE, and where you decide to sell will make or break you. I can make millions off buying cheap skills from a nearby university, transporting them 4 jumps to a trade or mission-running hub, and marking them up 1000%. People will buy them just to avoid spending time on the 8 jump round trip because shit does not magically end up in your mailbox.
... goblins.
No. There are more than 2 markets in WoW.
There is a large Alliance market at the AH - with participants at each major city.
There is a large Horde market at the AH - with participants at each major city.
There is a small Neutral market at the AH for those greedy guys
There is the retail market at each vendor (which is static and not impacted by the AH system, although it acts as an artificial limit to both top and bottom (for example, if the vendor will buy my necklace for 12s 50c and the AH price costs 2s deposit for a likely 10s payout, I sell to vendor).
There is the guild market (mostly free, some traded) where players say what loot they got they can't use and give guild members first shot.
There is the raid/dungeon market (mostly traded, some free) where players sometimes say what loot they got they can't use and barter.
There is the resource market for enchantments (many enchanters give out starting enchants free, as the skill reward is a higher payout than selling to a small market of potential customers, whereas the enchants for glowing weapons (high skill) have high payouts).
There is the resource market for mining/etc where people shout they have stuff and sometimes trade directly - I have a number of "friends" who are really just trading partners. I could auction 20 copper myself, but it's faster and I get a higher return if I just sell it to my JC friend who mines it for gems. Especially since I can do that anywhere with a mailbox, and there are only Auction Houses in the big cities.
Traveller is still the only rpg that I know of where your character can die during character creation.
True. But that's because it simulates a realistic universe.
I enjoyed writing articles for Traveller, and developing for it.
On page B4 of today's print edition of the Wall Street Journal, in an article entitled "Microsoft Expands Xbox 360 Line in Japan", they also pointed out that the Wii has sold 3,454,167 units since Dec. 2006, the PS3 has sold 1,160,614 units since Nov. 2006, and the xBox 360 has sold 444,352 units since Dec. 2005.
Mind you, those are figures for Japan.
Of course, even Blue Dragon (360) has sold fewer than 200,000 copies in Japan since launch in December.
It's not just Wii worldwide, it's a landslide.
I don't think Lost Odyssey is going to turn that around.
Unlike the US, Canada has strong privacy rights, as Google is finding out, and which belong to all their citizens ... hmmm.
Exactly.
It's not that difficult to do.
But first you have to get the polygon vector jockeys to stop trying to drive game design with realistic rain splatter effects while the game POV camera sucks wind.
Half of true game design is understanding what works and how good it has to be.
Think of Lego Star Wars or other games with much lower res. People love them.
Not really.
Think of the arc swing of a sword, or the block move of a shield.
As we translate the literal inputs from computing devices (the Wii-mote into the console), we only plot some of the translated arc points.
As my sword hits your shield, the game enhances it by your attributes (strength, agility (how much fine motor control do you really have), etc), your "level" (my level 22 paladin with 44 strength and 50 agility is going to hit really really hard from the viewpoint of your 21 strength 24 agility mage), and then we implement zones.
Zones - in the original RPG days we tried fine zones (god, some of that was overkill, with a body having 100 zones and strike points, and angle vectors) and settled on moderate zones (most moved to a simple Head, Back, Front, L Arm, R Arm, Legs, Feet, Hands zone structure, affected by the armor level of each).
Your arc swing still stops when your sword impacts my shield. IRL, you continue swinging, but I translate the total vector plus real speed plus attributes plus approx angle versus the shield gross dimensions, vector, armor level plus real speed and real angle.
What you will "see" on the screen will not be what you do IRL. If I have a glowing Dragon Skull shield of 5000 armor with repulsion spells and magical armor, your sword will bounce off even when you try to deftly reach around it with a complicated real life swing. The image on the screen will show your sword arc not quite what it is, with possibly a bit of delay due to lag (or jump as you say). The clang and bounce of your sword and noise from the Wiimote may not kick in for a while.
But it will still be super cool for casual gamers who love the fact they can DO that. And it will sell like hot cakes!
The market determines the survivors. I've seen many game systems that did a better job at simulating combat fail because they forgot it's all about the market. They had combat determinations that were more accurate but got in the way of game play. Game play depends on rough approximations of what you do - not exact simulations.
In the real world the sword weighs a lot more than you think, your arm is going to hurt, the sword hit against you will nick your shield, the impact will bruise you, some ribs might crack, your sword might shatter or chip (and now skid), the blade gets bloody and slick, you sweat and fall, and the arrow in the back of your neck makes you fall down. We're not talking real world - we're talking SF&F.
Well, mind you, when I was involved with them I had two hyphens in my last name and lived in Canada ...
Fairly simple, you just have client and host gaming modules, where the client keeps a buffer of moves. Similar to old-style turn-based games, these kinds of systems have been in existence since I did the first worldwide play-by-mail RPG.
Reaction times would mean that you'd want to play on local servers however, as latency could cause negative reactions. But since most of the world has Net speeds 10-100 times faster than is commonly in use in the USA, this is not a problem, except perhaps in rural or underserved areas of the US itself.
As the sibling poster observed, MMORPGs are not casual games.
I think you meant to say "Up until now, MMORPGs have not been casual games".
Things change.
back when I wrote SF and Fantasy gaming articles in the 80s.
Regardless of what happened since then, it's sad to see them go.