We've been living with digital TV for 7 years in the UK and the cost of set-top boxes has fallen through the floor. Less than 20 quid will get you a brand new STB from High Street retailers, no hidden charges or subsidies, no subscription required. This gets us 20 or so mainstream channels and another dozen or so shopping channels of one stripe or another. It also gets us a couple of dozen digital radio stations. Without this $3B hand out I would've been surprised if the cost of an STB in the states would've topped out over $20 or so. What are they gonna do now ? Give them away ?
I don't know what the capabilities of digital transmissions will be like in the states but in the UK it's been a mixed bag. Picture quality *is* sharper, true, but any kind of motion or dark scenes don't look good at all. It all depends on how much bandwidth the network uses which dictates how much compression is used. More compression = worse picture. Field sports (football etc) become almost unwatchable, the screen becomes cluttered with artifacts unless the network has bought a big chunk of bandwidth. BBC sports coverage is good, but you can't watch matches on the ITV network. Sound quality, for us at least has taken a tumble. Analogue transmissions were usually in Nicam Stereo which was pretty good but we don't have Dolby transmissions here so plain ole stereo, which the digital stations use, sounds pretty flat in comparison.
He's a complete asshole, his politics are slightly to the right of Genghis Khan, when I read this article ( http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2005-05-15-1 .html ) I binned the few books I had of his. There's no room in the 21st century for animals like him, except maybe in the Shite House.
Okay we've all identified the problems that exist in MMOs with hardcore gamers vs more casual, sunday afternoon type players. All MMOs will discriminate in favour of the hardcore gamer, so what about keeping them apart ? Most MMOs use multiple servers, this is usually for geographic or language reasons, they may then deploy multiple servers within each region in a sort of load balancing solution. Why not move the player's characters around so that they wind up on a server where folks tend to play as much (or as little) as they do. Obviously the players should be aware of this before they sign up. And note I said characters not players, we've all got some "alts" we only wheel out on odd occasions. Everyone starts off on an entry level server, if a character is played more than, say 6 hours a week, he is graduated to the next server, more than 10 hours a week, onto a more senior server. Obviously players should be informed their character is about to move and be informed ahead of time (game time not real time) and possibly be given the option to lock their character to a particular server, though I can that last bit could be open to abuse. The oldtimers wouldn't be mixing with the n00bs for very long before moving on and likewise the n00bs wouldn't get pwned as much. That's it, thoughts ?
I disagree that most (everyone) is likely to become a more hardcore gamer once they get into whatever scenario is on offer. I think if you're a more casual gamer (as most of us are) then MMOs are more likely to put you off than convert you to a hardcore addict. By casual I mean two or three sessions a week. Given that MMOs are built around an active social model how is the "casual" gamer supposed to form the relationships that are crucial to the enjoyment of the game ?? The chances of meeting anyone in his buddy list are tiny and if he does then the chances are that they've drifted apart too far in levels to go adventuring together.
Slashdot Mirror
...but mostly it is.
We've been living with digital TV for 7 years in the UK and the cost of set-top boxes has fallen through the floor. Less than 20 quid will get you a brand new STB from High Street retailers, no hidden charges or subsidies, no subscription required. This gets us 20 or so mainstream channels and another dozen or so shopping channels of one stripe or another. It also gets us a couple of dozen digital radio stations.
Without this $3B hand out I would've been surprised if the cost of an STB in the states would've topped out over $20 or so. What are they gonna do now ? Give them away ?
I don't know what the capabilities of digital transmissions will be like in the states but in the UK it's been a mixed bag. Picture quality *is* sharper, true, but any kind of motion or dark scenes don't look good at all. It all depends on how much bandwidth the network uses which dictates how much compression is used. More compression = worse picture. Field sports (football etc) become almost unwatchable, the screen becomes cluttered with artifacts unless the network has bought a big chunk of bandwidth. BBC sports coverage is good, but you can't watch matches on the ITV network.
Sound quality, for us at least has taken a tumble. Analogue transmissions were usually in Nicam Stereo which was pretty good but we don't have Dolby transmissions here so plain ole stereo, which the digital stations use, sounds pretty flat in comparison.
He's a complete asshole, his politics are slightly to the right of Genghis Khan, when I read this article ( http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2005-05-15-1 .html ) I binned the few books I had of his.
There's no room in the 21st century for animals like him, except maybe in the Shite House.
Okay we've all identified the problems that exist in MMOs with hardcore gamers vs more casual, sunday afternoon type players.
All MMOs will discriminate in favour of the hardcore gamer, so what about keeping them apart ?
Most MMOs use multiple servers, this is usually for geographic or language reasons, they may then deploy multiple servers within each region in a sort of load balancing solution.
Why not move the player's characters around so that they wind up on a server where folks tend to play as much (or as little) as they do.
Obviously the players should be aware of this before they sign up.
And note I said characters not players, we've all got some "alts" we only wheel out on odd occasions.
Everyone starts off on an entry level server, if a character is played more than, say 6 hours a week, he is graduated to the next server, more than 10 hours a week, onto a more senior server.
Obviously players should be informed their character is about to move and be informed ahead of time (game time not real time) and possibly be given the option to lock their character to a particular server, though I can that last bit could be open to abuse.
The oldtimers wouldn't be mixing with the n00bs for very long before moving on and likewise the n00bs wouldn't get pwned as much.
That's it, thoughts ?
I disagree that most (everyone) is likely to become a more hardcore gamer once they get into whatever scenario is on offer.
I think if you're a more casual gamer (as most of us are) then MMOs are more likely to put you off than convert you to a hardcore addict.
By casual I mean two or three sessions a week. Given that MMOs are built around an active social model how is the "casual" gamer supposed to form the relationships that are crucial to the enjoyment of the game ?? The chances of meeting anyone in his buddy list are tiny and if he does then the chances are that they've drifted apart too far in levels to go adventuring together.
What about something like MOO2 ? Or the Panzer General / Scorched Earth series ?
Something turn based you can keep minimised when you're not playing.
His last comment is telling, "The 25 cent newspaper would cost $5 without advertising".
And who would buy it at that price ??
If that's their analog it's a damn poor one.