It's made by Flagship Studios, comprised almost entirely of ex-Blizzard North people. Bill Roper himself leads the team. As the Diablo series of games is one that stole the lives of many nerds, another game by the same people is newsworthy.
Secondly, Hellgate is the first Guild Wars style MMO to charge any fee whatsoever, even if it isn't mandantory.
George Lucas: You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to make TV movies. Fans: We're surprised that you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself. George Lucas: My fandom, before you're penniless, you will join me in television mediocrity that will make this universal desecration (and my wallet) complete. No Star Wars fan will dare oppose my Canon now. Fans: The more you tighten your grip, George, the more fan boys will slip through your fingers.
Firstly, it's a common practice in bars and other establishments that furnish alcohol to confiscate IDs they consider fake. However, if you read the linked blog you'll see it's not the first thing this or other bartenders do. They ask questions in order to ascertain whether they're right about the authenticity of the ID.
Secondly, you'll also notice that in most cases they don't immediately confiscate the ID even if they're certain it's fake. They ask for another ID, again to make sure they aren't wrong. The whole deal is taken very seriously for many of the reasons the GP cited.
Thirdly, it's when nothing adds up, there isn't a viable backup ID etc. that the ID is confiscated. Even then, there's the option of bringing the cops into the mix to verify the authenticity of the ID. There shouldn't be any reason to be afraid of bringing the cops in the mediate. It will take time, but it's far more effective than yelling and screaming. If you're willing to have a cop look at your ID to verify it's authenticity (and don't freak out when the bartender calls them), you're several steps up the ladder in the view of the bartender.
Lastly, we're not talking about armed robbery here. At no point does the bartender take out a gun and force the person to give them the ID. If we are unreasonable enough to call this theft, it's petty at best. An item of no monetary value (not even priceless) is taken without the use of force, without breaking or entering. This isn't even shoplifting in terms of the weight of the "crime".
In summary, if your ID is real and a bartender confiscates it, you aren't going to get it back by going ballistic. The bartender is thousands of times more likely to trust someone who's calm, rational, and willing to have a relevant authority examine the ID. IDs are confiscated because the consequences of letting fake ones remain "in the wild" are bad not just for the one bar or establishment, but for all of them.
It's an inconvenience, but so would be losing the bar.
Although you may have to wait a while since it will take them over 2 weeks to even notice that there are devices attached to bridges. Pathetic.
That's what got me about the whole thing.
While there's the possibility that the vast majority of Boston is simply intelligent enough to not panic at the sight of a lite brite and didn't report anything, the possibility that "suspicious" devices such as these could potentially hang around a city for two weeks before anything is done scares me.
Seriously, two weeks is more than enough time to place, time, and detonate a massive coordinated terror situation. One person could do it alone without needing to contact anyone else, give themselves away, or otherwise do anything that might alert the authorities prior to pressing the "all hell breaks loose" button. Heck, you could be on a plane to your favorite foreign country a week before the devices were timed to go off.
If, big if perhaps, devices intended to be seen could fly under the radar for so long it's frightening to think what devices intended to be hidden could do.
I'm guessing they're having trouble with the following things.
1. Inappropriate content management. How are they going to filter for crass people who make walking embodiments of MA material?
2. Transitions. Moving from an amoeba to a fish isn't a boolean moment. If you watch the videos, you see them constantly skip the transitions and go from clearly an amoeboid to clearly a sea dweller to clearly a tribal society etc. Transitioning is obviously difficult to get right.
3. Choices. There's a huge amount of fervor and expectation centered around this game, and I think they want to avoid "obvious" criticisms. Things such as "Why can't I have a creature with no legs?" "Can my creature have two brains?" "Why does my civilization have to be on land?"
They aren't talking about extended CGI sequences we all know and hate, they're discussing the in-game cutscenes Halo and Halo 2 were riddled with. Supposedly Halo 3's will be better.
It sounds like making shows for TV is a hell unto itself. Is there some strange doublestandard for cartoons that assumes they're for children which isn't applied to regular programming?
To my knowledge features in video games are not patentable, and even were they if another company can build their own version from the ground up while proving they did not at any point reference the patent (good documentation of the development being a must).
While instancing helps make WoW a lot of what it is, I don't believe it means that WoW relies upon the good graces of FunCom to continue operating.
Concerning AoC directly, there isn't enough known yet. I'm aware of what differences have been released to the, but what's lacking at this point is definitive contrast. We hear about the interesting combat system, the formations, the single player game (prior to level 20) etc, but at the moment it's about as weighty as anything the SWG representative said. I'm not convinced from what I've heard that AoC is above the title of WoWConan.
If I were to list the three biggest issue I have in WoW, they would be as follows: Time investment ruling over skill, lack of player impact on the world (Doing quests or winning PvP battles means very little), and grinding.
A new combat system is nice and welcome, but it doesn't sound like an answer to any of my WoW-based concerns. If I'm fighting Kounnan who has seeking snake arrows because he can invest 20 hours a day into the game, and I have a wooden mace because I can invest only 1, the skill in the combat system becomes rather irrelevant.
The idea that forcing players to reach level 20 will weed out the "newbies" is naive. Going by CAD's definition of "newbie", they aren't the "problem". It's the "n00bs" or players who aren't willing to abide by basic social ettiquete or accept that they don't know how to play who are an issue. Newbies will learn in either case, perhaps even quicker with other players. N00bs won't learn regardless. In the best case scenario, no one has to bother teaching the newbies how to play (and we'll still have n00bs). In the worst case scenario, you've created a needless grind to 20 in order to reach the MMO portion of the MMORPG, and simultaneously generated another cash cow for power leveling services.
The burden of proof is on Funcom to prove that AoC is different from WoW. There are a lot of interesting features they're bringing to the genre from drunken bar fights to sieges. However, there's very little listed thus far that couldn't possibly be a part of any other "EQ-Like" MMORPG. The way classes, PvP, and the story are said to be done do not address my issues with the MMORPG genre as it stands.
If Age of Conan can break from the three problems I listed, I'll accept it isn't another "EQ-like" MMORPG.
Additionally, it's highly modifiable. While it would take time, you could practically remake Diablo 1 or make your own Diablo 3. Granted that would be significant time investment, but we're talking 'desert island' here.
I realize Gunbound isn't an MMORPG, but that's what I'm reminded of.
When it started, you could spend real money to buy the items in the game, or you could play the game and earn gold to buy the items. Some items were real money only, and some were game money only. It seemed fair and was fun.
After a long break, I returned to the game to find it had changed. Rather than being able to permanently buy items, you could "rent" them for a week or some meagre time period at the same price you used to be able to "own" them. If you really wanted to, you could still "own" the items. It only cost about 100 times what it used to.
I may be able to understand the "Person works long hours, doesn't have time to play, spends money to reduce 'grind'" argument, but the Gunbound method of doing things bothers me.
You need only look so far as Diablo and Diablo 2 to realize that when it comes to addicting grindfests, Blizzard is king. Attempting to take Blizzard down on their home turf is a ridiculous goal, and one that should be abandoned by any MMORPG hopeful.
I can't say I pay attention to subscription numbers, but to my knowledge the most successful MMORPG outside of WoW is EVE. EVE also happens to be fundamentally different from WoW.
The problem with these companies is that they're trying to make "WoWLotR" or "WoWConan". They see WoW as a formula they can copy and make money from. What they fail to realize is that the "GTA Clone" strategy doesn't work with MMORPGS. Even if you were able to make a game as good as WoW was when it launched you're still 2 and a half years behind on new content updates, balance tweaks and cosmetic upgrades. Even if you can make the game as good as WoW is now, you still don't have the 8 million strong playerbase. Your game literally needs to be significantly better than WoW straight out of launch.
No, you can't beat WoW at its own game. You can wait for it to eventually fade and then stab it when its weak, but that's a long ways off yet. If you want a successful MMORPG, it needs to be different from WoW. It needs to do the things people wanted from WoW but didn't get. I doesn't even have to be in a fantasy setting. I know I'd enjoy a Dynasty Warriors MMORPG, were it done right (we probably don't have the technology to make that as awesome as it could be, sadly).
In summary, trying to beat WoW at what WoW does best (it's own game) right now is like trying to beat an olympic athlete in a marathon when they have an 8 mile head start.
Honestly, if the worse thing that Obama does is have some campaign staff who have a minor fudge up related to Myspace, he'll be the best president ever.
Is that the case? Probably not. However, I find it frustrating that scores of voters choose presidents based on narrow issues and singular incidents rather than looking at the candidate as a whole. If the event/issue is the little nudge needed to push you to one side of the line or the other, that's fine. It's the "ZOMG I WAS SO GOING TO VOTE FOR OBAMA UNTIL HE DID THAT" reaction that irks me.
I remember back when the RIAA lawsuits first began. While they didn't stop a lot of people from file sharing, it did disquiet a lot of people. The idea of the RIAA sniffing the P2P networks and logging everything you did was frightening, and people imagined itemized lists of dates and times their downloads were completed.
Now the only disquieting thing is that the RIAA seems inclined to sue anyone and anybody, regardless of whether they have anything to do with it or not. The more cases they pursue, the more obvious it is that their ability to locate and pursue anyone is pathetic. Feelings of Big Brother subside, and now we can rest easy knowing that if the RIAA does sue you, it's because they think you're someone you're not.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see the hypocrisy.
Cho bought holsters and empty ammunition clips off of eBay, something they stated while refuting the rumors that any actual ammo or guns had been purchased. eBay expressed their regrets that any item purchased on their site was related to the shootings in any way, and contacted law enforcement and offered their assistance. How is this not committed to social conciousness?
Who are we going to crucify next in our crusade against anyone and anything that might have contributed to the VA Tech shootings?
Oxygen? -"Law enforcement officials confirm that Cho Seung-Hui was seen to have been breathing during the video sent to the NBC. It is unclear what role the earth's atmosphere may have played, but the investigation is looking at every angle.
'We can not exclude the possibility that oxygen in the earth's atmosphere had a catalytic effect on Cho,' chief of Police Jurkfashe Eidjit stated to the press, 'We will be investigating this very thoroughly.'"
Shoes?
-"In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, police discovered numerous articles of clothing, including shoes, in the dorm room of Cho Seung-Hui.
'We are deeply disturbed by the presence of these articles,' investigator Stew Piddington stated, 'It is clear that Cho surrounded himself with many horrifying items, such as shoes.'
Companies such as Nike, Reebok and New Balance deny the claim that shoes had any influence on the shooter."
Or how about NBC?
-"In a shocking new development, CNN reports that the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, exclusively watched MSNBC.
'We've said for years now that MSNBC is a corruptor of our youth,' a CNN spokesman stated at the press conference, 'But now we have definitive proof.'
MSNBC PR representatives were quick to deny the corrupting influence it had upon Cho, but public opinion has turned against them. The MSNBC offices were burned down by an angry mob this morning in a display of solidarity with the mourning families of Virginia Tech.
'We can't let evil institutions such as these continue to propogate messages of violence and hatred,' one of the crowd stated, 'There's no telling what might become acceptible in our society if these unethical businesses aren't stopped.'"
Seriously, there were a lot of factors involved in the shootings, but trying to attack ebay as though they had personally furnished Cho with his weapons is ridiculous.
While the concept of game defined goals and objectives is interesting, I much prefer it open ended.
In terms of plot and story, MMORPGs like WoW don't offer me an "ending". I don't get to stand fast with my guildmates at a great battle which will determine the fate of the alliance. I don't get to assasinate Thrall and have him stay dead. However, I do get to set my own goals and do them.
My achievements are in my interactions with other players and the fun I derive. Knowing that I made someone's day by randomly selecting a communicative newbie and granting them a nice item or sum of gold, helping someone finish a quest that was troubling them, or making availible my high level professions to my friends are all things that bring me back to the game.
Obviously, an MMORPG in which you can contribute to the story is great. I'd like to be lauded for my great defenses of various world posts, or for conquering Stormwind. One day perhaps.
Slashdot Mirror
It's made by Flagship Studios, comprised almost entirely of ex-Blizzard North people. Bill Roper himself leads the team. As the Diablo series of games is one that stole the lives of many nerds, another game by the same people is newsworthy.
Secondly, Hellgate is the first Guild Wars style MMO to charge any fee whatsoever, even if it isn't mandantory.
George Lucas: You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to make TV movies.
Fans: We're surprised that you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself.
George Lucas: My fandom, before you're penniless, you will join me in television mediocrity that will make this universal desecration (and my wallet) complete. No Star Wars fan will dare oppose my Canon now.
Fans: The more you tighten your grip, George, the more fan boys will slip through your fingers.
I remember visiting Japan and thinking, "Where the hell are the suburbs?"
When you leave an urban area, you instantly enter a rural one. The constrast was absolutely shocking for an American used to suburbia.
I think you missed his points entirely.
Firstly, it's a common practice in bars and other establishments that furnish alcohol to confiscate IDs they consider fake. However, if you read the linked blog you'll see it's not the first thing this or other bartenders do. They ask questions in order to ascertain whether they're right about the authenticity of the ID.
Secondly, you'll also notice that in most cases they don't immediately confiscate the ID even if they're certain it's fake. They ask for another ID, again to make sure they aren't wrong. The whole deal is taken very seriously for many of the reasons the GP cited.
Thirdly, it's when nothing adds up, there isn't a viable backup ID etc. that the ID is confiscated. Even then, there's the option of bringing the cops into the mix to verify the authenticity of the ID. There shouldn't be any reason to be afraid of bringing the cops in the mediate. It will take time, but it's far more effective than yelling and screaming. If you're willing to have a cop look at your ID to verify it's authenticity (and don't freak out when the bartender calls them), you're several steps up the ladder in the view of the bartender.
Lastly, we're not talking about armed robbery here. At no point does the bartender take out a gun and force the person to give them the ID. If we are unreasonable enough to call this theft, it's petty at best. An item of no monetary value (not even priceless) is taken without the use of force, without breaking or entering. This isn't even shoplifting in terms of the weight of the "crime".
In summary, if your ID is real and a bartender confiscates it, you aren't going to get it back by going ballistic. The bartender is thousands of times more likely to trust someone who's calm, rational, and willing to have a relevant authority examine the ID. IDs are confiscated because the consequences of letting fake ones remain "in the wild" are bad not just for the one bar or establishment, but for all of them.
It's an inconvenience, but so would be losing the bar.
It does make him twice as thorough.
I'm not sure your ad hominem attack against both him and weathermen constitutes a proper rebuttal to his points.
That's what got me about the whole thing.
While there's the possibility that the vast majority of Boston is simply intelligent enough to not panic at the sight of a lite brite and didn't report anything, the possibility that "suspicious" devices such as these could potentially hang around a city for two weeks before anything is done scares me.
Seriously, two weeks is more than enough time to place, time, and detonate a massive coordinated terror situation. One person could do it alone without needing to contact anyone else, give themselves away, or otherwise do anything that might alert the authorities prior to pressing the "all hell breaks loose" button. Heck, you could be on a plane to your favorite foreign country a week before the devices were timed to go off.
If, big if perhaps, devices intended to be seen could fly under the radar for so long it's frightening to think what devices intended to be hidden could do.
That was such a nostalgia trip. I loved pissing that guy off.
I'm guessing they're having trouble with the following things.
1. Inappropriate content management. How are they going to filter for crass people who make walking embodiments of MA material?
2. Transitions. Moving from an amoeba to a fish isn't a boolean moment. If you watch the videos, you see them constantly skip the transitions and go from clearly an amoeboid to clearly a sea dweller to clearly a tribal society etc. Transitioning is obviously difficult to get right.
3. Choices. There's a huge amount of fervor and expectation centered around this game, and I think they want to avoid "obvious" criticisms. Things such as "Why can't I have a creature with no legs?" "Can my creature have two brains?" "Why does my civilization have to be on land?"
Cinematics =/= Prerendered.
They aren't talking about extended CGI sequences we all know and hate, they're discussing the in-game cutscenes Halo and Halo 2 were riddled with. Supposedly Halo 3's will be better.
Since always?
This isn't the first generation that had consoles launching at $400+, and it won't be the last.
It sounds like making shows for TV is a hell unto itself. Is there some strange doublestandard for cartoons that assumes they're for children which isn't applied to regular programming?
To my knowledge features in video games are not patentable, and even were they if another company can build their own version from the ground up while proving they did not at any point reference the patent (good documentation of the development being a must).
While instancing helps make WoW a lot of what it is, I don't believe it means that WoW relies upon the good graces of FunCom to continue operating.
Concerning AoC directly, there isn't enough known yet. I'm aware of what differences have been released to the, but what's lacking at this point is definitive contrast. We hear about the interesting combat system, the formations, the single player game (prior to level 20) etc, but at the moment it's about as weighty as anything the SWG representative said. I'm not convinced from what I've heard that AoC is above the title of WoWConan.
If I were to list the three biggest issue I have in WoW, they would be as follows: Time investment ruling over skill, lack of player impact on the world (Doing quests or winning PvP battles means very little), and grinding.
A new combat system is nice and welcome, but it doesn't sound like an answer to any of my WoW-based concerns. If I'm fighting Kounnan who has seeking snake arrows because he can invest 20 hours a day into the game, and I have a wooden mace because I can invest only 1, the skill in the combat system becomes rather irrelevant.
The idea that forcing players to reach level 20 will weed out the "newbies" is naive. Going by CAD's definition of "newbie", they aren't the "problem". It's the "n00bs" or players who aren't willing to abide by basic social ettiquete or accept that they don't know how to play who are an issue. Newbies will learn in either case, perhaps even quicker with other players. N00bs won't learn regardless. In the best case scenario, no one has to bother teaching the newbies how to play (and we'll still have n00bs). In the worst case scenario, you've created a needless grind to 20 in order to reach the MMO portion of the MMORPG, and simultaneously generated another cash cow for power leveling services.
The burden of proof is on Funcom to prove that AoC is different from WoW. There are a lot of interesting features they're bringing to the genre from drunken bar fights to sieges. However, there's very little listed thus far that couldn't possibly be a part of any other "EQ-Like" MMORPG. The way classes, PvP, and the story are said to be done do not address my issues with the MMORPG genre as it stands.
If Age of Conan can break from the three problems I listed, I'll accept it isn't another "EQ-like" MMORPG.
Additionally, it's highly modifiable. While it would take time, you could practically remake Diablo 1 or make your own Diablo 3. Granted that would be significant time investment, but we're talking 'desert island' here.
NOOOO! Not my copy of WoW!
*Dives off the bridge, reaching for the falling copy of WoW*
I realize Gunbound isn't an MMORPG, but that's what I'm reminded of.
When it started, you could spend real money to buy the items in the game, or you could play the game and earn gold to buy the items. Some items were real money only, and some were game money only. It seemed fair and was fun.
After a long break, I returned to the game to find it had changed. Rather than being able to permanently buy items, you could "rent" them for a week or some meagre time period at the same price you used to be able to "own" them. If you really wanted to, you could still "own" the items. It only cost about 100 times what it used to.
I may be able to understand the "Person works long hours, doesn't have time to play, spends money to reduce 'grind'" argument, but the Gunbound method of doing things bothers me.
...don't.
You need only look so far as Diablo and Diablo 2 to realize that when it comes to addicting grindfests, Blizzard is king. Attempting to take Blizzard down on their home turf is a ridiculous goal, and one that should be abandoned by any MMORPG hopeful.
I can't say I pay attention to subscription numbers, but to my knowledge the most successful MMORPG outside of WoW is EVE. EVE also happens to be fundamentally different from WoW.
The problem with these companies is that they're trying to make "WoWLotR" or "WoWConan". They see WoW as a formula they can copy and make money from. What they fail to realize is that the "GTA Clone" strategy doesn't work with MMORPGS. Even if you were able to make a game as good as WoW was when it launched you're still 2 and a half years behind on new content updates, balance tweaks and cosmetic upgrades. Even if you can make the game as good as WoW is now, you still don't have the 8 million strong playerbase. Your game literally needs to be significantly better than WoW straight out of launch.
No, you can't beat WoW at its own game. You can wait for it to eventually fade and then stab it when its weak, but that's a long ways off yet. If you want a successful MMORPG, it needs to be different from WoW. It needs to do the things people wanted from WoW but didn't get. I doesn't even have to be in a fantasy setting. I know I'd enjoy a Dynasty Warriors MMORPG, were it done right (we probably don't have the technology to make that as awesome as it could be, sadly).
In summary, trying to beat WoW at what WoW does best (it's own game) right now is like trying to beat an olympic athlete in a marathon when they have an 8 mile head start.
Honestly, if the worse thing that Obama does is have some campaign staff who have a minor fudge up related to Myspace, he'll be the best president ever.
Is that the case? Probably not. However, I find it frustrating that scores of voters choose presidents based on narrow issues and singular incidents rather than looking at the candidate as a whole. If the event/issue is the little nudge needed to push you to one side of the line or the other, that's fine. It's the "ZOMG I WAS SO GOING TO VOTE FOR OBAMA UNTIL HE DID THAT" reaction that irks me.
I remember back when the RIAA lawsuits first began. While they didn't stop a lot of people from file sharing, it did disquiet a lot of people. The idea of the RIAA sniffing the P2P networks and logging everything you did was frightening, and people imagined itemized lists of dates and times their downloads were completed.
Now the only disquieting thing is that the RIAA seems inclined to sue anyone and anybody, regardless of whether they have anything to do with it or not. The more cases they pursue, the more obvious it is that their ability to locate and pursue anyone is pathetic. Feelings of Big Brother subside, and now we can rest easy knowing that if the RIAA does sue you, it's because they think you're someone you're not.
Minor clarification: Empty ammo clips/magazines.
He didn't buy bullets, he bought empty magazines and a gun holster.
Just to be clear, Cho didn't buy any guns on eBay. He bought a gun holster and ammo clips/magazines.
I'm guessing it's revenge for negative feedbacks.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see the hypocrisy.
Cho bought holsters and empty ammunition clips off of eBay, something they stated while refuting the rumors that any actual ammo or guns had been purchased. eBay expressed their regrets that any item purchased on their site was related to the shootings in any way, and contacted law enforcement and offered their assistance. How is this not committed to social conciousness?
Who are we going to crucify next in our crusade against anyone and anything that might have contributed to the VA Tech shootings?
Oxygen?
-"Law enforcement officials confirm that Cho Seung-Hui was seen to have been breathing during the video sent to the NBC. It is unclear what role the earth's atmosphere may have played, but the investigation is looking at every angle.
'We can not exclude the possibility that oxygen in the earth's atmosphere had a catalytic effect on Cho,' chief of Police Jurkfashe Eidjit stated to the press, 'We will be investigating this very thoroughly.'"
Shoes?
-"In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, police discovered numerous articles of clothing, including shoes, in the dorm room of Cho Seung-Hui.
'We are deeply disturbed by the presence of these articles,' investigator Stew Piddington stated, 'It is clear that Cho surrounded himself with many horrifying items, such as shoes.'
Companies such as Nike, Reebok and New Balance deny the claim that shoes had any influence on the shooter."
Or how about NBC?
-"In a shocking new development, CNN reports that the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, exclusively watched MSNBC.
'We've said for years now that MSNBC is a corruptor of our youth,' a CNN spokesman stated at the press conference, 'But now we have definitive proof.'
MSNBC PR representatives were quick to deny the corrupting influence it had upon Cho, but public opinion has turned against them. The MSNBC offices were burned down by an angry mob this morning in a display of solidarity with the mourning families of Virginia Tech.
'We can't let evil institutions such as these continue to propogate messages of violence and hatred,' one of the crowd stated, 'There's no telling what might become acceptible in our society if these unethical businesses aren't stopped.'"
Seriously, there were a lot of factors involved in the shootings, but trying to attack ebay as though they had personally furnished Cho with his weapons is ridiculous.
Carebear.... STARE!
While the concept of game defined goals and objectives is interesting, I much prefer it open ended.
In terms of plot and story, MMORPGs like WoW don't offer me an "ending". I don't get to stand fast with my guildmates at a great battle which will determine the fate of the alliance. I don't get to assasinate Thrall and have him stay dead. However, I do get to set my own goals and do them.
My achievements are in my interactions with other players and the fun I derive. Knowing that I made someone's day by randomly selecting a communicative newbie and granting them a nice item or sum of gold, helping someone finish a quest that was troubling them, or making availible my high level professions to my friends are all things that bring me back to the game.
Obviously, an MMORPG in which you can contribute to the story is great. I'd like to be lauded for my great defenses of various world posts, or for conquering Stormwind. One day perhaps.