It actually seems, from these delays, that Microsoft may not be willing to release a steaming pile of dogshit--- and then adopt a 'need' to update policy (usually a month or so after a major exploit is publicly revealed). I dislike Windows a great deal overall, although at this point I 'own' maybe five copies of XP (all of which are totally unusuable because I've changed laptops/desktops). But I must admit, I love my Xbox. Hopefully something good, and innovative, can come out of this.
The point is, they 'self' segregate--- and I'm not convinced, and neither are many psychologists, that this is a good human tendency. For instance, I read recently an article about psychology professor David Bona, and "Understanding Evil." Where he was quoted as saying: "Every society has dealt with evil. Although it may sound like a huge phenomenon, evil can come in the form of racism and discrimination (between students)." Where another professor was quoted as adding: "What really concerns me is that students tend to separate into specific interest groups, prompting discrimination." I personally wouldn't go as far as to label these views with as black and white of a term as "Evil," but I think you can clearly see that even this practice is not entirely benign in nature as you seem to feel it is. You only offer a justifying factor that there exists a language barrier, so things must be done this way, insinuating that idealy they would be done differently.
I'm not arguing against somebody who's Chinese deciding that they want to play on their own servers--- I'm arguing about their being descriminated against by other players for the actions of a minority of their population. I don't think these people are saying "We don't want these people to join our parties because we can't communicate." If you read the article, they're excluding them if they simply have grammatical mistakes commonly associated with foreign language speakers, not because they can't understand what they're saying. They're instead saying, "A minority of the Chinese population engage in gold farming, therefor we are actively trying to blanket filter people of their race and national origin from participating on these servers."
I'm glad that your associations with people of various racial identities, and languages, exempts you in your own mind from participating in innately negative human behaviors.
I just compared segregation to segregation. He's saying people should be, get this, segregated, based on their race and national origins to the respective servers for that origin. I didn't say having localized servers is a problem, and you obviously know as a fact that isn't what I was saying--- but are instead trying to stretch my argument well beyond its intended bounds. This tactic may have served you well in your high-school debate class, but it really doesn't do much for a reasoned conversation in the real world.
What I'm really pointing out is, using his argument for another egregiously worse situation demonstrates very clearly the errors in his logic. And this isn't plainly obvious to you because it is rationally any more viable--- people in the fifties, for instance, would have found it about as difficult to undrestand as you're having trouble understanding why judging all of China for the actions of a few is a problem.
I think a segregated Internet is a pretty bad thing. And, like I said, I think making a blanket judgement of the many by the deeds of the few, and assigning a test of nationality, is pretty damn racist.
"What prevents Chinese speaking players from playing on their country's servers?"
What prevents black people from going to their schools? What prevents them from drinking from their water fountains?
Maybe they shouldn't have to--- I think it's unfair to those gamers who simply want to play with, and perhaps experience the company, of people of a different national origin than their own, to experience blanket descrimination because of the actions of a minority of players of their same ethnic and national background. This type of gold farming is nothing new either--- UO was plagued by it, and the majority of that gold came from gold-dupers, hackers, and from the United States. By your same logic, you should be asking people the pledge of allegiance of a respective European country, or the name of the prime minister, to exclude American hackers and gold dupers from your midst. I expect you can see how you, as a probable American, wouldn't want such a restriction placed on you by the irrational and racist views of others.
I've played plenty of multiplayer online games created by Koreans (Ragnarok Online, Helbreath, Lineage), and I've yet to be descriminated against by a single korean player--- even though people from the west are actually well known to be hackers by many korean players, and often not legitimate players.
I agree that people tend to be very irrational, I think it's almost certainly a learned trait. However, while studies suggest decisions may come after action--- it's very preliminary to say that's absolutely the case. It seems there is almost certainly a degree of randomness towards one's behavior, creativity. Did the works Picasso exist somewhere burried deep within his mind before he created them? Humans are definitely capable of creating things that exist outside of their predefined behavior.
It has been my experience that the most intelligent people tend to be those who are willing to consider the possibility that they're wrong, and often the most unwilling to concede that they're smart to begin with.
After spending several hours stacking dirty lead bricks, breathing lead dust, and being exposed to radioactive materials, in the hot and arid beamline at SLAC; perhaps a new breed of archaeologist will be born that more resembles the likes of particle physicists. Ever wondered why particle physicists are always irate, short and balding men who drive beat up subarus? Fortunately after being mutated, and getting a PhD, they always have graduate student slaves to carry on the tradition while they kick back and sip a coke they smuggled into the beamline.
Slashdot Mirror
It actually seems, from these delays, that Microsoft may not be willing to release a steaming pile of dogshit--- and then adopt a 'need' to update policy (usually a month or so after a major exploit is publicly revealed). I dislike Windows a great deal overall, although at this point I 'own' maybe five copies of XP (all of which are totally unusuable because I've changed laptops/desktops). But I must admit, I love my Xbox. Hopefully something good, and innovative, can come out of this.
The point is, they 'self' segregate--- and I'm not convinced, and neither are many psychologists, that this is a good human tendency. For instance, I read recently an article about psychology professor David Bona, and "Understanding Evil." Where he was quoted as saying: "Every society has dealt with evil. Although it may sound like a huge phenomenon, evil can come in the form of racism and discrimination (between students)." Where another professor was quoted as adding: "What really concerns me is that students tend to separate into specific interest groups, prompting discrimination." I personally wouldn't go as far as to label these views with as black and white of a term as "Evil," but I think you can clearly see that even this practice is not entirely benign in nature as you seem to feel it is. You only offer a justifying factor that there exists a language barrier, so things must be done this way, insinuating that idealy they would be done differently.
I'm not arguing against somebody who's Chinese deciding that they want to play on their own servers--- I'm arguing about their being descriminated against by other players for the actions of a minority of their population. I don't think these people are saying "We don't want these people to join our parties because we can't communicate." If you read the article, they're excluding them if they simply have grammatical mistakes commonly associated with foreign language speakers, not because they can't understand what they're saying. They're instead saying, "A minority of the Chinese population engage in gold farming, therefor we are actively trying to blanket filter people of their race and national origin from participating on these servers."
I'm glad that your associations with people of various racial identities, and languages, exempts you in your own mind from participating in innately negative human behaviors.
I just compared segregation to segregation. He's saying people should be, get this, segregated, based on their race and national origins to the respective servers for that origin. I didn't say having localized servers is a problem, and you obviously know as a fact that isn't what I was saying--- but are instead trying to stretch my argument well beyond its intended bounds. This tactic may have served you well in your high-school debate class, but it really doesn't do much for a reasoned conversation in the real world. What I'm really pointing out is, using his argument for another egregiously worse situation demonstrates very clearly the errors in his logic. And this isn't plainly obvious to you because it is rationally any more viable--- people in the fifties, for instance, would have found it about as difficult to undrestand as you're having trouble understanding why judging all of China for the actions of a few is a problem. I think a segregated Internet is a pretty bad thing. And, like I said, I think making a blanket judgement of the many by the deeds of the few, and assigning a test of nationality, is pretty damn racist.
"What prevents Chinese speaking players from playing on their country's servers?"
What prevents black people from going to their schools? What prevents them from drinking from their water fountains?
Maybe they shouldn't have to--- I think it's unfair to those gamers who simply want to play with, and perhaps experience the company, of people of a different national origin than their own, to experience blanket descrimination because of the actions of a minority of players of their same ethnic and national background. This type of gold farming is nothing new either--- UO was plagued by it, and the majority of that gold came from gold-dupers, hackers, and from the United States. By your same logic, you should be asking people the pledge of allegiance of a respective European country, or the name of the prime minister, to exclude American hackers and gold dupers from your midst. I expect you can see how you, as a probable American, wouldn't want such a restriction placed on you by the irrational and racist views of others.
I've played plenty of multiplayer online games created by Koreans (Ragnarok Online, Helbreath, Lineage), and I've yet to be descriminated against by a single korean player--- even though people from the west are actually well known to be hackers by many korean players, and often not legitimate players.
I agree that people tend to be very irrational, I think it's almost certainly a learned trait. However, while studies suggest decisions may come after action--- it's very preliminary to say that's absolutely the case. It seems there is almost certainly a degree of randomness towards one's behavior, creativity. Did the works Picasso exist somewhere burried deep within his mind before he created them? Humans are definitely capable of creating things that exist outside of their predefined behavior.
It has been my experience that the most intelligent people tend to be those who are willing to consider the possibility that they're wrong, and often the most unwilling to concede that they're smart to begin with.
After spending several hours stacking dirty lead bricks, breathing lead dust, and being exposed to radioactive materials, in the hot and arid beamline at SLAC; perhaps a new breed of archaeologist will be born that more resembles the likes of particle physicists. Ever wondered why particle physicists are always irate, short and balding men who drive beat up subarus? Fortunately after being mutated, and getting a PhD, they always have graduate student slaves to carry on the tradition while they kick back and sip a coke they smuggled into the beamline.