Skipping commentary on the Death Of PC Gaming etc., it's interesting to watch as consoles become more like computers as far as the gaming experience goes: compatability problems (never really had those with the NES), online content, weird crashes and errors. The bright side of all this for PC gamers is that we should start seeing fewer games being hobbled because people try to design them for PCs and consoles simultaneously (Deus Ex 2 for the canonical example).
I play games for the fantasy element--the break from reality provided by seeing more or less nothing familiar in a world except perhaps the people. There's nothing fantastic about Pepsi in my sci-fi game. There's nothing funny about a bag of Doritos--since there's no way advertisers would allow a Soylent Green-type reference on the bag. Now maybe a GTA game, or some other thing that takes place in a realistic location would be fine--although walking into a Pizza Hut in Los Santos would probably mean walking into an area that had basically been designed by Pizza Hut, because I don't think the (quasi-realistic) portrayal of dirty floors and frustrated servers would go over too well with them. That's another area I get a little nervous about: game designers being forced to take cues from marketing in order to secure ad revenue.
I guess the way to put it to a marketing person would be that it doesn't add any value to the game for me, except in that gives them more money to fill up needlessly huge media with worthless graphical whizz-bangs. It _will_ get tiring, no matter what, when advertisers start trying to use game spaces to push the same crappy ad campaigns they're pushing on television and on the Internet already--product placement I'm more willing to accept, I guess, because a logo just sits there and doesn't really change.
Why would someone choose Po-210 when they knew what kind of media attention it would garner? If this guy had been shot on UK soil it surely would've been a big deal as well, but would American media (for example) have covered it so closely?
The Health Physics Society has produced a fact sheet (PDF-format) for Po-210. The information is fairly basic, but it's a starting point if you want to explain about the nuclide to someone who isn't very familiar with nuclear science.
It's almost pointless to argue about this, since every game does things along these lines. Some are even more absurd than others, such as a scientist in a "scientific" suit defeating hordes of highly-trained soldiers, aliens, and alien soldiers using a crowbar. Games aren't meant to be taken seriously.
I think it's a wonderful plan! Anyone who's planning on decommissioning your space station in the next couple months, please try to aim it at the sign; perhaps we can finagle some free chicken out of them.
Is a random battle on a huge, open plain where a 40 foot tall monster snuck up on you, and now you have to hold down the X button on your turbo controller to 'Attack' it to death so much better than FFXII's system where you get to see them coming, run in a realistic fashion (and draw aggro), and take a hands-off / high-level approach to control the flow of the battle instead of the individual movements of each character?
For myself, perhaps suffering from nostalgia, there is room enough for both systems. I don't, honestly, much like having to worry about pulling fiends or adds spawning in on top of me, or of having to literally guide my guys away when I'm running from something that outclasses me--of which there are many more things (more little "knots" of very hard fiends, I mean, as opposed to general areas of somewhat harder fiends) than in previous FF games... except for FFXI, where it was not uncommon (as I think happens in many MMOs). Frankly, I think the two battle systems are both highly workable--the traditional method assuming the design of the game is such that random encounters aren't happening every two steps; the newer method only because of the gambit system that streamlines grinding so very well.
(I have no idea if they can do lightgun emulation with that fancy Wii controler or not)
The pictures of a sawed-off shotgun shell for the Wiimote that I've seen around the net somewhere--assuming they aren't 'shopped--would seem to indicate that this is possible. If there's a problem, it's probably that Nintendo won't want to spend a lot of time trying to get each individual lightgun game translated to the Wiimote's tip-tilt sensors (or accelerometers, or whatever it's using).
(they probobly dont want gamers buying Zelda III with a couple bucks of Wii points instead of buying the new Zelda on the Wii for example).
Those people will be more than counterbalanced by the number of people who purchase the new Zelda and then decide that they'd like to throw the old one in for a quick spin--and then purchase the game _right there_ on their Wii console (rather than finding their SNES or using emulation, if available). I don't know many people who would buy a brand new console only to decide that the games are too expensive and play nothing but old rereleases because they're cheaper; I know at least one person who enjoys older games but doesn't really have the savvy for emulation (and who would probably would be reluctant to emulate it illegally or using some third-party Gametap-like system).
WINDOWS MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO INSTALL NEW HARDWARE IN ONE TRY
Is this still true? I haven't tried to upgrade a component for a while (without at the same time reinstalling the OS onto a new HDD and all)--the last upgrade I did was to slot in new memory, and that went off without a hitch. I can see something like a video card being much harder, but my last video card replacement was under W2k, if I remember correctly, and probably required just a few reboots with a minimal amount of time spent using software drivers--that switch will probably not "count," though.
And, off-topic, you can't really purchase new video cards for "relatively low" prices these days. Well, you can do it, but only if you're looking for a marginal upgrade. And I suppose it's still relatively low compared to buying an entire Mac, unless maybe you're going for top-of-the-line SLI/Crossfire.
I think I brought this up in a Hot Coffee thread a long time ago, and I'm stating it here again because I didn't notice that anyone else had done so yet.
Long ago, SimCopter included an unplanned easter egg that featured semi-nude male NPCs running around kissing. The guy who included it in the game--it wasn't planned or discussed with the rest of the team, it seems--was fired supposedly for the unauthorized inclusion, not for its content. That, at least, is how I understood what happened.
Now, nobody really complained about that to the n-th degree as we're about to/are seeing with Bully. Was it because these were supposedly grown men instead of kids? Was it because we are so much more sensitive these days? Was it because there wasn't anyone around to stir the pot of controversy? Was it because the target audiences were different?
It kinda makes me wonder: what exactly constitutes a "non-useful" art? Let's pretend that I'm the best in the world at weaving creative designs into submersible helicopters made of wicker. If nobody wants, desires, or even critically appreciates my wicker-woven submersible helicopter customizations, does that make their creation a useless form of expression? Could someone flagrantly violate my copyright in this case without repercussion? Does the very fact that someone might _try_ to violate my copyright make the art a "useful" one, and thus make that phrase meaningless?
My first impression from the headline was that there was a tavern in New York that was taking a stand against lawyers doing their blogging while sitting around in bars. My first thought: "Bars in New York have wireless internet?"
Although I don't know of a Dilbert's Syndrome, there is a condition out there known as Gilbert's Syndrome. It can cause mild jaundice--I think due to elevated bilirubin production or retention.
The kicker, though, is that "Gilbert" in Gilbert's Syndrome is pronounced like "Gheel-bear." You can imagine the trouble we would have with medical professionals calling the renamed disorder "Dheel-bear"'s Syndrome by mistake, and then nobody would know for whom it was named.
Then again, considering the nature of Dilbert's character, failing to achieve this kind of minor fame through the stupidity of a supposedly intelligent section of the population would be almost _too_ appropriate.
It's lucky for me, I guess, that I never actually finished KOTOR2; now I have a reason to do it.
Or not. Go go Gadget-gaming-apathy! You saved me from FFVII, Chrono Cross, and the entire series of Disgaea and the slew of similar-looking console games that I'm constantly confusing it with. I'm more partial these days to games that start up in four seconds, anyhow--like Cave Story.
Slashdot Mirror
Skipping commentary on the Death Of PC Gaming etc., it's interesting to watch as consoles become more like computers as far as the gaming experience goes: compatability problems (never really had those with the NES), online content, weird crashes and errors. The bright side of all this for PC gamers is that we should start seeing fewer games being hobbled because people try to design them for PCs and consoles simultaneously (Deus Ex 2 for the canonical example).
I play games for the fantasy element--the break from reality provided by seeing more or less nothing familiar in a world except perhaps the people. There's nothing fantastic about Pepsi in my sci-fi game. There's nothing funny about a bag of Doritos--since there's no way advertisers would allow a Soylent Green-type reference on the bag. Now maybe a GTA game, or some other thing that takes place in a realistic location would be fine--although walking into a Pizza Hut in Los Santos would probably mean walking into an area that had basically been designed by Pizza Hut, because I don't think the (quasi-realistic) portrayal of dirty floors and frustrated servers would go over too well with them. That's another area I get a little nervous about: game designers being forced to take cues from marketing in order to secure ad revenue.
I guess the way to put it to a marketing person would be that it doesn't add any value to the game for me, except in that gives them more money to fill up needlessly huge media with worthless graphical whizz-bangs. It _will_ get tiring, no matter what, when advertisers start trying to use game spaces to push the same crappy ad campaigns they're pushing on television and on the Internet already--product placement I'm more willing to accept, I guess, because a logo just sits there and doesn't really change.
Oh, he wouldn't TYPE "/slumps over keyboard," he'd just DO it.
Why would someone choose Po-210 when they knew what kind of media attention it would garner? If this guy had been shot on UK soil it surely would've been a big deal as well, but would American media (for example) have covered it so closely?
The Health Physics Society has produced a fact sheet (PDF-format) for Po-210. The information is fairly basic, but it's a starting point if you want to explain about the nuclide to someone who isn't very familiar with nuclear science.
There's even electromagnetic radiation from space penetrating the atmosphere, although in very very tiny quantities...
Let's not forget that light is EM radiation, and last I checked there was quite a bit of light coming from the Sun.
If we're being pedantic, he wasn't poisoned by radiation at all--he was poisoned with a radioactive substance.
It's almost pointless to argue about this, since every game does things along these lines. Some are even more absurd than others, such as a scientist in a "scientific" suit defeating hordes of highly-trained soldiers, aliens, and alien soldiers using a crowbar. Games aren't meant to be taken seriously.
Let's hope this fusion doesn't bomb.
I think it's a wonderful plan! Anyone who's planning on decommissioning your space station in the next couple months, please try to aim it at the sign; perhaps we can finagle some free chicken out of them.
frag dolls
Your words, or theirs?
In Soviet USA, you watch Big Brother!
Not if you believe the show's ratings.
Yeah, well, if their "lockdowns" operate anything like DEP, which seems to do little good aside from crashing random programs now and then...
Is a random battle on a huge, open plain where a 40 foot tall monster snuck up on you, and now you have to hold down the X button on your turbo controller to 'Attack' it to death so much better than FFXII's system where you get to see them coming, run in a realistic fashion (and draw aggro), and take a hands-off / high-level approach to control the flow of the battle instead of the individual movements of each character?
For myself, perhaps suffering from nostalgia, there is room enough for both systems. I don't, honestly, much like having to worry about pulling fiends or adds spawning in on top of me, or of having to literally guide my guys away when I'm running from something that outclasses me--of which there are many more things (more little "knots" of very hard fiends, I mean, as opposed to general areas of somewhat harder fiends) than in previous FF games... except for FFXI, where it was not uncommon (as I think happens in many MMOs). Frankly, I think the two battle systems are both highly workable--the traditional method assuming the design of the game is such that random encounters aren't happening every two steps; the newer method only because of the gambit system that streamlines grinding so very well.
I appreciate your support, but must you use newspeak? It's a little disconcerting--that's not the new government I was really hoping to see.
Does this mean we can send the current government to jail on terrorism charges and get a new one?
Free as in Lunch?
(I have no idea if they can do lightgun emulation with that fancy Wii controler or not)
The pictures of a sawed-off shotgun shell for the Wiimote that I've seen around the net somewhere--assuming they aren't 'shopped--would seem to indicate that this is possible. If there's a problem, it's probably that Nintendo won't want to spend a lot of time trying to get each individual lightgun game translated to the Wiimote's tip-tilt sensors (or accelerometers, or whatever it's using).
(they probobly dont want gamers buying Zelda III with a couple bucks of Wii points instead of buying the new Zelda on the Wii for example).
Those people will be more than counterbalanced by the number of people who purchase the new Zelda and then decide that they'd like to throw the old one in for a quick spin--and then purchase the game _right there_ on their Wii console (rather than finding their SNES or using emulation, if available). I don't know many people who would buy a brand new console only to decide that the games are too expensive and play nothing but old rereleases because they're cheaper; I know at least one person who enjoys older games but doesn't really have the savvy for emulation (and who would probably would be reluctant to emulate it illegally or using some third-party Gametap-like system).
WINDOWS MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO INSTALL NEW HARDWARE IN ONE TRY
Is this still true? I haven't tried to upgrade a component for a while (without at the same time reinstalling the OS onto a new HDD and all)--the last upgrade I did was to slot in new memory, and that went off without a hitch. I can see something like a video card being much harder, but my last video card replacement was under W2k, if I remember correctly, and probably required just a few reboots with a minimal amount of time spent using software drivers--that switch will probably not "count," though.
And, off-topic, you can't really purchase new video cards for "relatively low" prices these days. Well, you can do it, but only if you're looking for a marginal upgrade. And I suppose it's still relatively low compared to buying an entire Mac, unless maybe you're going for top-of-the-line SLI/Crossfire.
I think I brought this up in a Hot Coffee thread a long time ago, and I'm stating it here again because I didn't notice that anyone else had done so yet.
Long ago, SimCopter included an unplanned easter egg that featured semi-nude male NPCs running around kissing. The guy who included it in the game--it wasn't planned or discussed with the rest of the team, it seems--was fired supposedly for the unauthorized inclusion, not for its content. That, at least, is how I understood what happened.
Now, nobody really complained about that to the n-th degree as we're about to/are seeing with Bully. Was it because these were supposedly grown men instead of kids? Was it because we are so much more sensitive these days? Was it because there wasn't anyone around to stir the pot of controversy? Was it because the target audiences were different?
It kinda makes me wonder: what exactly constitutes a "non-useful" art? Let's pretend that I'm the best in the world at weaving creative designs into submersible helicopters made of wicker. If nobody wants, desires, or even critically appreciates my wicker-woven submersible helicopter customizations, does that make their creation a useless form of expression? Could someone flagrantly violate my copyright in this case without repercussion? Does the very fact that someone might _try_ to violate my copyright make the art a "useful" one, and thus make that phrase meaningless?
My first impression from the headline was that there was a tavern in New York that was taking a stand against lawyers doing their blogging while sitting around in bars. My first thought: "Bars in New York have wireless internet?"
Although I don't know of a Dilbert's Syndrome, there is a condition out there known as Gilbert's Syndrome. It can cause mild jaundice--I think due to elevated bilirubin production or retention.
The kicker, though, is that "Gilbert" in Gilbert's Syndrome is pronounced like "Gheel-bear." You can imagine the trouble we would have with medical professionals calling the renamed disorder "Dheel-bear"'s Syndrome by mistake, and then nobody would know for whom it was named.
Then again, considering the nature of Dilbert's character, failing to achieve this kind of minor fame through the stupidity of a supposedly intelligent section of the population would be almost _too_ appropriate.
It's lucky for me, I guess, that I never actually finished KOTOR2; now I have a reason to do it.
Or not. Go go Gadget-gaming-apathy! You saved me from FFVII, Chrono Cross, and the entire series of Disgaea and the slew of similar-looking console games that I'm constantly confusing it with. I'm more partial these days to games that start up in four seconds, anyhow--like Cave Story.
Sometimes I think it just would make more sense to pirate Al's music, then just mail him a check. Let him take care of distributing it.