Slightly off topic, but CCP cracked down on that and they're hitting people with a double whammy for ISK (game currency, short for Interstellar Kredits) buying. So now even if people are up on their funds since the buying they still have a negative balance. I've personally witnessed a friend go 300,000,000 in the negative and have heard rumors of 1 billion and more.
It would be a safe bet that their integer system is exceedingly large (2^64? 2^128?).
If you put a lot of emphasis in controlling inflation in your game then you can keep a game going with the ability to bring new players in cold and they have a better chance of staying. Economics of a game needs to have more of a priority than just killing mobs, crafting new items and completing the quest. Here's why.
I've been an avid gamer for a long time and have always found that economics within the game are never up to par with any standard, let alone a true economic standard. While I understand that there would be too much work in maintaining a true economy in many cases, the fact that the developers of each game don't bother to put in enough money sinks to keep the flow of money in game vs. out of game in check is astounding, especially in the case of WoW with n million players.
One exception to this rule is CCP Games "EVE Online". The game is fundamentally an economics simulator in a space setting. While this sounds about as fun as counting grains of sand on a beach on a windy day, don't knock the premise until you try it. The whole game revolves around the flow of money into and out of wallets via new ships, replacement equipment, massive costs for new skills and upkeep costs for space stations etc. CCP even has an economist on staff to give reports on how the game economics is doing.
Again, this sounds like no fun at all, but EVE has been running for over 4 years, is still increasing in population (albeit slowly) and I still did not have trouble getting started in the game and buying new equipment without it being ungodly hard to make the money to buy it. Oh and it's a fun space simulator too.
Hardware compatibility and Internet security are mutually exclusive. It's like saying you want good tires on your car but also want a car alarm. You CAN have both. In this case it's a mix of M$ not releasing code early enough, software and hardware providers not caring enough and the open source community not being informed enough to get proper drivers and software updates/patches within a reasonable time. I'm still waiting on printer drivers for my company's color photocopier and scanner.
I think "maids" and "gas station attendants" are on a different skill level than "accountants" and "lawyers." By your definition they're all a service class with the same degree of difficulty as any other class.
This is simply not the case.
A good lawyer, accountant, IT or cook have spent years training and honing their skills to be a master at what they do. Each has their own literature, discipline and technique that few or no other field possesses. This is not the case with maids and gas station attendants. That's why they are by all definitions "low-end jobs."
Do not confuse specialists with servants. Your doctor or mechanic might get pissed.
I see it like this (being all full of P&V)
I'm very intolerant of being told "go do this job" which CONSTANTLY involves some sort of internet research or a post to a forum only to find a big ASCII red hand that says this site is denied because it blah blah blah blah blah.
I get sick of people saying "all you're going to do is surf" when I, and tons of people in my position (I'm IT, helpdesk, computer repair etc.) *NEED* access to the net, as a whole, and are fully capable of avoiding sites which shouldn't be viewed at work. But because of senior administrators who think they know best about the internet, I end up locked out of sites (see, Ad-Aware) and have to find means of getting around these barriers to DO MY JOB!
Not all of us are internet surf addicted freaks, y'know. I *DO* have work ethic.
Link is left handed. For Zelda, which will probably have the wiimote in the right hand primarily, link will have to switch hands.
I'm sure, however, that they've thought of this. It's been a long time since the rest of the world has forced everyone to be right handed in real life. Games, however, are another story entirely.
If they're smart, they'll find a way to quickly and effectively invert the animations on link so he can be left or right handed to suit the player. Could you IMAGINE swinging left handed only to find link doing a mirror of you on screen?
I think iphone is out of the scope of Apple, personally. But not to go too off topic, here's something I don't think phone companies, MPAA, RIAA, and god knows how many other acronyms would like to see at all.
Think of it this way. You have the latest release from . You really like it. In comes a hacker who finds a cool method to phone a friend, let them listen to the latest tune, and the friend, who also happens to have this new program, record the data streaming to them, which btw wouldn't have interference etc, because the mic on the senders end would be disabled for the duration of the call.
Welcome to yet another level in software piracy. Oh and for the standard users, the towers are all loaded up with data from people doing this.
In Europe or South Korea something like this wouldn't be a problem, but in the U.S., with such a crappy infrastructure in all but the most urban of areas, this would cause a lot of issues and probably a ban on iphones from cellular providers.
This is truly a sign that people are starting to realize this. But speaking as a benchman who actually gets to see the computers this TOTAL CRAP is on, and the people bringing them in proclaiming their undying love for it makes me think that AOL will continue to have a presence for a while until someone can figure out how to get the old people (and I mean it, more elderly use AOL than any other client that ever comes in) off of it. Either that or sadly, we'll have to wait for them to die before AOL finally goes out as well.
AOL is a wretched tool, I'm glad they're finally starting the trek into internet oblivion. I just feel bad for all the people they screwed in the process, client and employee alike.
Oops, fair enough. Wrong word usage. Apologies to the 1/3 of the U.S. who is overweight (which includes me), and not obese. 2/3 is overweight and 1/2 of that is obese. That still only leaves about 1/3 of the nation who could sustain a game. I just hope it hits the local arcade so I can look like a moron and have fun doing it, 'cause I cannot afford to buy everything needed to play it at home.
I like this idea. But I'm wondering how it will sell? It looks like you need a flat screen behind you and a camera in front of you to make the game work! In fact, with nearly 2/3 of the nation considered "obese," who's actually going to use this?
This seems too niche to have a chance here. Hopefully they can make money elsewhere in the world.
First off, could I ask a question? Did a clue train leave the station without me? I once heard of this thing called freedom of speech, is this true?
Seriously, censoring the internet is like censoring a friggin library. The material is MEANT TO BE SEEN! Come on people! I can head to my local archives and look at all the pr0n I want and better yet probably be condoned on my appreciation of Renaissance art! Get a friggin grip! If you want to censor something, go after the important stuff, like how to build nuclear bombs in a weekend with spare parts.
Stupid people suck!
If M$ wants to continue to make money, what with torrents, napster, E-mule (however it's spelled nowadays) burning, ripping, mashing, and overall passing the info to and from one another, they're going to have to adopt open source policies soon and they know it.
Simply put, people aren't going to tolerate closed EULA's much longer. Average Joe's can't afford 500 bucks every two years to upgrade an OS, relearn, understand, then do it again. That's why people are pooling cash, buying one copy, waiting for someone to crack it, then make tons of copies and give them to friends. (In college the "Academic Version" of XP, and Office 2k3 sold about 3 copies yet everyone had it.)
This is one very tiny step in the process toward embracing open source, but babies never started their journey on two feet by running marathons either. I say mark this as a minor event, but don't pass it aside and keep watch over what M$ does from here on out. Maybe someday people like me will drop the $ and actually give them their letter back.
It doesn't matter how small our laptops get on the inside (save for cooling purposes), it's still going to have a keyboard and a full sized screen. WE aren't getting any smaller. A mobile phone with a keyboard and a full sized screen is... a laptop, except that it's auto-connected to a wireless phone network.
Speaking as (not one of the few) IT guys who reads this thing, there's an interesting point to be made about Symantec. IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY CATCH VIRUSES! In the last year I can count off the top of my head where a Symantec "protected" system came in with so many viruses, some of them I swear reproduce when you kill it, so much spyware, so much malware that I had to harvest user-entered files off the system, back them up to CD-R's and wipe the system just to get it going.
I've been using the free version of AVG Antivirus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1) and endorsing it to my customers along with the free version of Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) to make their system work and putting Firefox (again, free) on the system regardless.
Did I mention all of this was free?
None of those systems have come back to me with viruses and spyware/malware problems. Symantec, well you need to pay them 20 bucks a year and usually end up having to buy their software yearly as well...
Let the corporations fit the bill for corporate versions of software; it's too expensive for most average Joe's to be shelling out thousands of dollars for "security".
As a gamer, and an avid one at that, I find that this is really becoming true. It's really hard to find a game that's not reminiscent of something of past games. Last game that left me utterly stunned was MGS, still one of my favorite games of all time. Now in Everquest II, I think this particular report is speaking more truth than not at it's kernal. (Corporate America != Good games, GAMERS do!)
This is yet another situation where I think people who want to make good games should get off their butt and go out and do it. It's just like any other job, a lot of friggin hard work. I want to be one of those people too, so I'm pursuing a degree in programming. If you don't like what's available you have three choices; deal, ignore, or change it. I opt for the third.
Slashdot Mirror
Slightly off topic, but CCP cracked down on that and they're hitting people with a double whammy for ISK (game currency, short for Interstellar Kredits) buying. So now even if people are up on their funds since the buying they still have a negative balance. I've personally witnessed a friend go 300,000,000 in the negative and have heard rumors of 1 billion and more.
It would be a safe bet that their integer system is exceedingly large (2^64? 2^128?).
Warning: Geekish Post Ahead
If you put a lot of emphasis in controlling inflation in your game then you can keep a game going with the ability to bring new players in cold and they have a better chance of staying. Economics of a game needs to have more of a priority than just killing mobs, crafting new items and completing the quest. Here's why.
I've been an avid gamer for a long time and have always found that economics within the game are never up to par with any standard, let alone a true economic standard. While I understand that there would be too much work in maintaining a true economy in many cases, the fact that the developers of each game don't bother to put in enough money sinks to keep the flow of money in game vs. out of game in check is astounding, especially in the case of WoW with n million players.
One exception to this rule is CCP Games "EVE Online". The game is fundamentally an economics simulator in a space setting. While this sounds about as fun as counting grains of sand on a beach on a windy day, don't knock the premise until you try it. The whole game revolves around the flow of money into and out of wallets via new ships, replacement equipment, massive costs for new skills and upkeep costs for space stations etc. CCP even has an economist on staff to give reports on how the game economics is doing.
Again, this sounds like no fun at all, but EVE has been running for over 4 years, is still increasing in population (albeit slowly) and I still did not have trouble getting started in the game and buying new equipment without it being ungodly hard to make the money to buy it. Oh and it's a fun space simulator too.
Hardware compatibility and Internet security are mutually exclusive. It's like saying you want good tires on your car but also want a car alarm. You CAN have both. In this case it's a mix of M$ not releasing code early enough, software and hardware providers not caring enough and the open source community not being informed enough to get proper drivers and software updates/patches within a reasonable time. I'm still waiting on printer drivers for my company's color photocopier and scanner.
I think "maids" and "gas station attendants" are on a different skill level than "accountants" and "lawyers." By your definition they're all a service class with the same degree of difficulty as any other class.
This is simply not the case.
A good lawyer, accountant, IT or cook have spent years training and honing their skills to be a master at what they do. Each has their own literature, discipline and technique that few or no other field possesses. This is not the case with maids and gas station attendants. That's why they are by all definitions "low-end jobs."
Do not confuse specialists with servants. Your doctor or mechanic might get pissed.
I don't believe this is true at all!
He said question, not refute.
COME ON PEOPLE!
I see it like this (being all full of P&V) I'm very intolerant of being told "go do this job" which CONSTANTLY involves some sort of internet research or a post to a forum only to find a big ASCII red hand that says this site is denied because it blah blah blah blah blah. I get sick of people saying "all you're going to do is surf" when I, and tons of people in my position (I'm IT, helpdesk, computer repair etc.) *NEED* access to the net, as a whole, and are fully capable of avoiding sites which shouldn't be viewed at work. But because of senior administrators who think they know best about the internet, I end up locked out of sites (see, Ad-Aware) and have to find means of getting around these barriers to DO MY JOB! Not all of us are internet surf addicted freaks, y'know. I *DO* have work ethic.
Link is left handed. For Zelda, which will probably have the wiimote in the right hand primarily, link will have to switch hands.
I'm sure, however, that they've thought of this. It's been a long time since the rest of the world has forced everyone to be right handed in real life. Games, however, are another story entirely.
If they're smart, they'll find a way to quickly and effectively invert the animations on link so he can be left or right handed to suit the player. Could you IMAGINE swinging left handed only to find link doing a mirror of you on screen?
I think iphone is out of the scope of Apple, personally. But not to go too off topic, here's something I don't think phone companies, MPAA, RIAA, and god knows how many other acronyms would like to see at all. Think of it this way. You have the latest release from . You really like it. In comes a hacker who finds a cool method to phone a friend, let them listen to the latest tune, and the friend, who also happens to have this new program, record the data streaming to them, which btw wouldn't have interference etc, because the mic on the senders end would be disabled for the duration of the call. Welcome to yet another level in software piracy. Oh and for the standard users, the towers are all loaded up with data from people doing this. In Europe or South Korea something like this wouldn't be a problem, but in the U.S., with such a crappy infrastructure in all but the most urban of areas, this would cause a lot of issues and probably a ban on iphones from cellular providers.
I just want to point out that AOL has been marked the WORST tech product ever according to http://www.pcworld.com/article/125772-2/article.ht ml# PC World Magazine.
This is truly a sign that people are starting to realize this. But speaking as a benchman who actually gets to see the computers this TOTAL CRAP is on, and the people bringing them in proclaiming their undying love for it makes me think that AOL will continue to have a presence for a while until someone can figure out how to get the old people (and I mean it, more elderly use AOL than any other client that ever comes in) off of it. Either that or sadly, we'll have to wait for them to die before AOL finally goes out as well.
AOL is a wretched tool, I'm glad they're finally starting the trek into internet oblivion. I just feel bad for all the people they screwed in the process, client and employee alike.
Oops, fair enough. Wrong word usage. Apologies to the 1/3 of the U.S. who is overweight (which includes me), and not obese. 2/3 is overweight and 1/2 of that is obese. That still only leaves about 1/3 of the nation who could sustain a game. I just hope it hits the local arcade so I can look like a moron and have fun doing it, 'cause I cannot afford to buy everything needed to play it at home.
I like this idea. But I'm wondering how it will sell? It looks like you need a flat screen behind you and a camera in front of you to make the game work! In fact, with nearly 2/3 of the nation considered "obese," who's actually going to use this?
This seems too niche to have a chance here. Hopefully they can make money elsewhere in the world.
First off, could I ask a question? Did a clue train leave the station without me? I once heard of this thing called freedom of speech, is this true? Seriously, censoring the internet is like censoring a friggin library. The material is MEANT TO BE SEEN! Come on people! I can head to my local archives and look at all the pr0n I want and better yet probably be condoned on my appreciation of Renaissance art! Get a friggin grip! If you want to censor something, go after the important stuff, like how to build nuclear bombs in a weekend with spare parts. Stupid people suck!
If M$ wants to continue to make money, what with torrents, napster, E-mule (however it's spelled nowadays) burning, ripping, mashing, and overall passing the info to and from one another, they're going to have to adopt open source policies soon and they know it.
Simply put, people aren't going to tolerate closed EULA's much longer. Average Joe's can't afford 500 bucks every two years to upgrade an OS, relearn, understand, then do it again. That's why people are pooling cash, buying one copy, waiting for someone to crack it, then make tons of copies and give them to friends. (In college the "Academic Version" of XP, and Office 2k3 sold about 3 copies yet everyone had it.)
This is one very tiny step in the process toward embracing open source, but babies never started their journey on two feet by running marathons either. I say mark this as a minor event, but don't pass it aside and keep watch over what M$ does from here on out. Maybe someday people like me will drop the $ and actually give them their letter back.
It doesn't matter how small our laptops get on the inside (save for cooling purposes), it's still going to have a keyboard and a full sized screen. WE aren't getting any smaller. A mobile phone with a keyboard and a full sized screen is... a laptop, except that it's auto-connected to a wireless phone network.
Speaking as (not one of the few) IT guys who reads this thing, there's an interesting point to be made about Symantec. IT DOESN'T ACTUALLY CATCH VIRUSES! In the last year I can count off the top of my head where a Symantec "protected" system came in with so many viruses, some of them I swear reproduce when you kill it, so much spyware, so much malware that I had to harvest user-entered files off the system, back them up to CD-R's and wipe the system just to get it going.
I've been using the free version of AVG Antivirus (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1) and endorsing it to my customers along with the free version of Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) to make their system work and putting Firefox (again, free) on the system regardless.
Did I mention all of this was free?
None of those systems have come back to me with viruses and spyware/malware problems. Symantec, well you need to pay them 20 bucks a year and usually end up having to buy their software yearly as well...
Let the corporations fit the bill for corporate versions of software; it's too expensive for most average Joe's to be shelling out thousands of dollars for "security".
As a gamer, and an avid one at that, I find that this is really becoming true. It's really hard to find a game that's not reminiscent of something of past games. Last game that left me utterly stunned was MGS, still one of my favorite games of all time. Now in Everquest II, I think this particular report is speaking more truth than not at it's kernal. (Corporate America != Good games, GAMERS do!) This is yet another situation where I think people who want to make good games should get off their butt and go out and do it. It's just like any other job, a lot of friggin hard work. I want to be one of those people too, so I'm pursuing a degree in programming. If you don't like what's available you have three choices; deal, ignore, or change it. I opt for the third.