Oh well. It was a good run and an intriguing concept. I rather enjoyed all the technical bits and the amazing effort they put into the tests (lead balloon for one, all the mechanical builds as well) but looks like it's just time to work on that eulogy and pretend it died and is off the air.
Yeah, they should not be comparing Discovery to this. Ok, ok, maaayyybe if it was to, say, Planet Earth but what about the other shows like... A Haunting, Cash Cab (1 hour a day is enough. 6 fucking hours is a bit much), Destroyed in Seconds, Ghost Lab, and whatever paranormal and/or reality TV.
Mythbusters is starting to tire me and that's pretty much the only reason I turn on the TV since It Takes a Thief and How It's Made disappeared from the line up and replaced by marathon after marathon other shows.
I've always wondered what the fuck happened to TLC. I always see the listings when I check what's on the history channel and cannot imagine anyone watching the shit that's on TLC.
Discovery is almost as bad as they try to replicate the big hitters such as Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, and Deadliest Catch. Does anyone else turn off the TV when they hear that (hopefully) temporary replacement for Kari on Mythbusters?
And you know, they HAD some potentially good shows about parasites but they completely fucked it up with ridiculously forced dramatic retelling, camera angles, and lighting. Good luck trying to complain to them about it. They ask for about as much personal info as Facebook.
Well, it's just the war of memes which feels much like viruses and bacteria, entirely cut-throat, utilizing the biological systems of other organisms. Some buck the trend to work together eventually forming multi-cellular creatures (societies).
Hate crimes are meh but that doesn't mean the fact that an attack motivated purely by the color of one's skin or choice of religion shouldn't be taken in account when it comes to sentencing.
That said, I can understand the feeling of having all options exhausted and all you have left is your fists (or a hammer or a bulldozer armored with concrete).
Is there ever any possibility that you could sneak into the enemy fortress, steal the Big McGuffin, and get away WITHOUT killing anyone?
I dreamily think about MMO spy game where you're trying to maintain the appearance that you're on one side while working and/or communicating with the other side.
I guess EVE is pretty close but something more approachable (read World of Warcrafted).
I've basically played two MMORPGs (level of "RPGness" being debatable): PSO and WoW.
I guess I wouldn't call PSO a MMORPG but more like just a ORPG since parties are limited to four and if you don't group up, you won't meet anyone out in the world.
There are no healers or tanks in PSO. There's no aggro either. There's three races (newman, human, and androids), three classes (force [caster], ranger, hunter [melee]), and male/female. Not every combo is allowed (no female human hunters, no android casters, no newman rangers) but each one that is allowed is different. All non-androids can use techniques (spells) to varying degrees. Females can use higher level spells than males. Androids regen health when not moving and has traps (explosive, freeze, and confusion). Newmans regen technique points (mana) when not moving. Rangers and hunters can use shields; forces are limited to barriers.
Spells are foie (fire), barta (ice), zonde (lightning), grants (holy), and megid (dark). The first three comes in three flavors (simple, normal, and hard). There's one healing spell. One. It's an AOE heal. There's four buff/debuff spells that raises/lowers armor and power. There's no buffs for caster damage but there are armor pieces and weapons that can boost either specific spells or a class of spells. There are limits on what classes can equip but there's nothing preventing players from decking out a force with melee weapons and physical dps armor to let them wade into combat. The buff/debuff spells really closes the gap between the armor differences.
And the system works. It's could use gobs of polish for sure. The "depth" of the system comes from quickly changing weapons but for pure casters, generally you stand at the doorways of rooms and snipe away until the boss.
There is some level requirements for gear but most of the requirements are based on stats. Gotta have such&such amount of hit to equip this gun or this much strength to swing this sword.
I'm pretty sure I explained more than I had to just to get to the point of saying, "Hey, it's possible to make a game without resorting to the tank/healer/dps pattern."
Ha. You think the ToS grants ANY benefits to users?
The point isn't that it's information people gave willingly, it's that there's a lot and, altogether, paints a much clearer picture of their lives. I know, I know. This is where stalkers, exs, black helicopters, marketers, fundamentalist christian bosses, and boogie-men are trotted out but there evidence of such abuses.
Now, I don't mean to make it all nanny state. If someone wants to post this stuff, that's their call. If a social networking company rolls their dice and everything goes their way and everyone flocks to them, that puts everyone's information under THEIR control. Their control, their responsibility. Default settings should be strict privacy and there should be clear, coherent, and concise statements about what they do with all the data they have. If people leave in droves after being explain of these things, then the company probably isn't acting in their interests.
... I have followed the simple policy of making everything I post as public as possible...
Not good enough. Consider the same policy as when talking with cops since everything you say/write/photograph will be timestamped and stored at a location you cannot get to.
Stuff you say in public, you can whisper. You can have reasonable expectation that someone isn't right behind you, listening and recording the whole time.
And then, there's everyone else. Even if your policy works better than what doom&gloom I just typed, are your friends following similar policies?
Once again, its easier to complain about it then actually figure out how to use it.
Hmm. Given that when they take you to the new settings, they're on least stringent settings, is it intentional how obscure it is to remove stuff from the internal index?
I didn't even know about it and the first thing I do with any program or account is to check out the settings. How does one get there?
I disagree. With as much personal identification as Facebook has, they should be taking a cautionary, responsible approach with how that information is collected, shared, used, and deleted.
There's a lot of flavor text. As you go through the game, you can read newspapers and get information from computer terminals and you can just see how the story shifts as you uncover and fight against the antagonists.
Call me paranoid but I bet they'd love to get rid of cash. Being able to track the flow of money be it for paying the neighbor's kid to mow the lawn (child labor laws for you, undeclared income for the kid) or giving the guy on corner a couple bucks (who knows about his past, giving him money might mean aiding and abetting a felon) or... whatever. It'd be another layer of control and there's so many laws they could hit you with.
I know, I know. Been playing too much Deus Ex. The game just feels dead on, prophetic.
And, well, I was just sort of saying the obvious and nothing more. Not everyone has been taught how to stop themselves, to take a step back and think about why they feel this way or if they even want to, and what they can do about it (via changing the situation or changing how they feel).
It's not easy and can take time as well as an outsider's perspective.
I have no doubt we've only gotten a smidgen of the story here but, who knows, maybe she enjoys her class and couldn't wait to deal with some humans she could get to know from the inside out. (hur hur, I know).
Slashdot Mirror
Oh well. It was a good run and an intriguing concept. I rather enjoyed all the technical bits and the amazing effort they put into the tests (lead balloon for one, all the mechanical builds as well) but looks like it's just time to work on that eulogy and pretend it died and is off the air.
Like the Simpsons (or is it good again?)
Yeah, they should not be comparing Discovery to this. Ok, ok, maaayyybe if it was to, say, Planet Earth but what about the other shows like... A Haunting, Cash Cab (1 hour a day is enough. 6 fucking hours is a bit much), Destroyed in Seconds, Ghost Lab, and whatever paranormal and/or reality TV.
Mythbusters is starting to tire me and that's pretty much the only reason I turn on the TV since It Takes a Thief and How It's Made disappeared from the line up and replaced by marathon after marathon other shows.
I've always wondered what the fuck happened to TLC. I always see the listings when I check what's on the history channel and cannot imagine anyone watching the shit that's on TLC.
Discovery is almost as bad as they try to replicate the big hitters such as Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, and Deadliest Catch. Does anyone else turn off the TV when they hear that (hopefully) temporary replacement for Kari on Mythbusters?
And you know, they HAD some potentially good shows about parasites but they completely fucked it up with ridiculously forced dramatic retelling, camera angles, and lighting. Good luck trying to complain to them about it. They ask for about as much personal info as Facebook.
Well, it's just the war of memes which feels much like viruses and bacteria, entirely cut-throat, utilizing the biological systems of other organisms. Some buck the trend to work together eventually forming multi-cellular creatures (societies).
Wee! Fractals!
Only if they pay attention to it. :|
Hate crimes are meh but that doesn't mean the fact that an attack motivated purely by the color of one's skin or choice of religion shouldn't be taken in account when it comes to sentencing.
That said, I can understand the feeling of having all options exhausted and all you have left is your fists (or a hammer or a bulldozer armored with concrete).
I dreamily think about MMO spy game where you're trying to maintain the appearance that you're on one side while working and/or communicating with the other side.
I guess EVE is pretty close but something more approachable (read World of Warcrafted).
I've basically played two MMORPGs (level of "RPGness" being debatable): PSO and WoW.
I guess I wouldn't call PSO a MMORPG but more like just a ORPG since parties are limited to four and if you don't group up, you won't meet anyone out in the world.
There are no healers or tanks in PSO. There's no aggro either. There's three races (newman, human, and androids), three classes (force [caster], ranger, hunter [melee]), and male/female. Not every combo is allowed (no female human hunters, no android casters, no newman rangers) but each one that is allowed is different. All non-androids can use techniques (spells) to varying degrees. Females can use higher level spells than males. Androids regen health when not moving and has traps (explosive, freeze, and confusion). Newmans regen technique points (mana) when not moving. Rangers and hunters can use shields; forces are limited to barriers.
Spells are foie (fire), barta (ice), zonde (lightning), grants (holy), and megid (dark). The first three comes in three flavors (simple, normal, and hard). There's one healing spell. One. It's an AOE heal. There's four buff/debuff spells that raises/lowers armor and power. There's no buffs for caster damage but there are armor pieces and weapons that can boost either specific spells or a class of spells. There are limits on what classes can equip but there's nothing preventing players from decking out a force with melee weapons and physical dps armor to let them wade into combat. The buff/debuff spells really closes the gap between the armor differences.
And the system works. It's could use gobs of polish for sure. The "depth" of the system comes from quickly changing weapons but for pure casters, generally you stand at the doorways of rooms and snipe away until the boss.
There is some level requirements for gear but most of the requirements are based on stats. Gotta have such&such amount of hit to equip this gun or this much strength to swing this sword.
I'm pretty sure I explained more than I had to just to get to the point of saying, "Hey, it's possible to make a game without resorting to the tank/healer/dps pattern."
I know. I'm saying Facebook is worse than simply speaking publicly. The potential audience is far larger and recorded by a 3rd party.
Sounds like something they'd bulletpoint on the back of the box.
Ha. You think the ToS grants ANY benefits to users?
The point isn't that it's information people gave willingly, it's that there's a lot and, altogether, paints a much clearer picture of their lives. I know, I know. This is where stalkers, exs, black helicopters, marketers, fundamentalist christian bosses, and boogie-men are trotted out but there evidence of such abuses.
Now, I don't mean to make it all nanny state. If someone wants to post this stuff, that's their call. If a social networking company rolls their dice and everything goes their way and everyone flocks to them, that puts everyone's information under THEIR control. Their control, their responsibility. Default settings should be strict privacy and there should be clear, coherent, and concise statements about what they do with all the data they have. If people leave in droves after being explain of these things, then the company probably isn't acting in their interests.
Not good enough. Consider the same policy as when talking with cops since everything you say/write/photograph will be timestamped and stored at a location you cannot get to.
Stuff you say in public, you can whisper. You can have reasonable expectation that someone isn't right behind you, listening and recording the whole time.
And then, there's everyone else. Even if your policy works better than what doom&gloom I just typed, are your friends following similar policies?
Hmm. Given that when they take you to the new settings, they're on least stringent settings, is it intentional how obscure it is to remove stuff from the internal index?
I didn't even know about it and the first thing I do with any program or account is to check out the settings. How does one get there?
I disagree. With as much personal identification as Facebook has, they should be taking a cautionary, responsible approach with how that information is collected, shared, used, and deleted.
If they can't, then, yes, they need oversight.
It slipped my mind actually but you're right. Politicians love to get between two consenting adults.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex
There's a lot of flavor text. As you go through the game, you can read newspapers and get information from computer terminals and you can just see how the story shifts as you uncover and fight against the antagonists.
Call me paranoid but I bet they'd love to get rid of cash. Being able to track the flow of money be it for paying the neighbor's kid to mow the lawn (child labor laws for you, undeclared income for the kid) or giving the guy on corner a couple bucks (who knows about his past, giving him money might mean aiding and abetting a felon) or... whatever. It'd be another layer of control and there's so many laws they could hit you with.
I know, I know. Been playing too much Deus Ex. The game just feels dead on, prophetic.
And, well, I was just sort of saying the obvious and nothing more. Not everyone has been taught how to stop themselves, to take a step back and think about why they feel this way or if they even want to, and what they can do about it (via changing the situation or changing how they feel).
It's not easy and can take time as well as an outsider's perspective.
I have no doubt we've only gotten a smidgen of the story here but, who knows, maybe she enjoys her class and couldn't wait to deal with some humans she could get to know from the inside out. (hur hur, I know).
Just because someone ages, doesn't mean they grow up.
Cue TeaPartyAnalogyGuy?
Compiling!
No "Max Power"?
Don't forget when Conan O'brien confronts Harrison Ford with a clip! http://www.videosift.com/video/Conan-asks-Harrison-Ford-about-the-Star-Wars-Holiday-Special
Oh, I'm sure there's some law some where you inadvertently broke that they can fine or arrest you for.
Only criminals shop at places without facial recognition.
Paranoid people don't use Facebook.