If something's good, I often watch it again within a week or so. And then again in a year or so when I'll watch the whole series in a row. Bandwidth costs just increased by a factor of 3... Streaming is about control over the medium - i.e. unskippable ads that can change every week, ability to deny re-runs. It also has its place for live events, and for people too impatient to download yet with high tolerance for "buffering..." messages.
Because then you couldn't e.g. demo your new technology to investors whilst it's "patent pending". They could just patent it themselves and take half your royalties. Even if you keep your invention perfectly secret before the patent is granted and published, corrupt patent examiners would be a problem.
What I really want from an MMO is a kind of massively-multiplayer-co-op-FPS, basically 1000 player co-op Serious Sam, with the squad organisation from BF 2 and with huge GTA-style (but detailed interiors of buildings) freeform levels. Have each round last about a month, starting from spreading out from a beachhead, clearing the streets, rooting enemies out of buildings/rooftops/sewers, defending against counterattacks, then finally taking the city which brings out a final boss. Basically have each enemy that dies stay dead, or be permanantly killable in some other way, e.g. fight your way through a regenerating swarm to kill the egg layer, infected zombies that can convert players, but the infection can be stopped by killing them all. This means you'd actually have an impact on the world, unlike most MMOs. Permanantly destructible scenery would also be very cool, if even more technically difficult.
Make killing the enemies effectively require co-operation, e.g. pilots needing gunners, medics, different weapons more effective against different enemies, directionally-shielded enemies that you need to attack from all sides to beat.
No stat based levelling (i.e. skill based), though rank/respect is good, and medals for killing bosses etc. Preferably no instancing, except for PVP DM levels for those who want them. Respawning and getting back to the fight should take under 30 seconds, apart from in the final phases where finding the last few concealed enemies and triggering the super-boss.
Finally, each reset should bring something different. It doesn't have to be much, a new enemy type, a somewhat different layout, new vehicles.
FPS games do seem to be heading somewhat in this direction, e.g. UT2004's Invasion mode, and Serious Sam 2 have the many-players co-op, Planetside is MMO, but nothing yet has the semi-persistent huge world with enemies that stay dead.
You don't need "subspace carrier waves", you can just use a beam of neutrinos. Communicate at lightspeed with none of that routing-packets-around-the-Earth crap - neutrinos go direct.
You just need a linear accelerator (with a steerable beam) or nuclear reactor to generate them and one of these to detect them.
It's a bit more than I'd be willing to spend on my gaming PC, but they could probably get some Alienware customers to preorder.
using multiple desktops. Have a different desktop for each project you're working on, you can switch between them with 1 click.
Linux has had this for ages, and I think you can get it working with OS X and Windows too with some 3rd-party tools. You need a lot of RAM (or a big swap file and some patience), and good uptimes (since the desktop state doesn't survive reboots), but if you have that it's a killer feature for handling multiple projects.
"You say that as if games are supposed to be anything other than fun."
Yes, because playing Go is crazy laugh-a-minute super fun. Some games are fun, some games are about skill and the enjoyment of mastering something tricky. Some manage to be both. Context sensitive buttons in Wario Ware, hell yes, it's great. But some games demand more complexity and freedom which should be reflected in their interfaces.
Making interaction context-sensitive is like having the game play for you. Take it to extremes and imagine a 1-button FPS: press A to aim, press A to fire, press A to dodge, press A to locate, pick up and use medkit, press A to become bored, press A to quit.
It's fair enough for a fun-type game, but some games are meant to challenge. In that type of game having e.g. the fire button also be a context-sensitive use button sucks - you've just pressed the keys for walking up to a door and firing a flak cannon into it, either you've made a silly mistake and should suffer the penalty or you're trying to do something clever with reflecting shots to the person chasing you, which you should be allowed to do.
Playstation 1 was launched over 10 years ago. You can still buy new PSone systems. Playstation 1 games are still getting released, and you can play them on PS1 or PS2. The system isn't dead, at least to people who care about gameplay rather than graphics. If the PS3 is as popular as the PS1 then it will also likely last that long.
Ali G already sorted out what to call it. It's a punani.
I always thought "cunt" was used offensively as a shorthand for "just a cunt", i.e. "you are just a warm, wet hole for me to get off in, I don't even percieve the rest of your body let alone acknowledge you have a personality or feelings." Which is pretty nasty.
In the end, it is at times absolutely necessary that complete strangers can contact us without prior warning. If we don't have email for this role, then we need something similar to replace it.
Now, I'm no historian, but I've heard that in the past there was a government provided courier service which would deliver messages on paper for a small fee. Perhaps that would work if we reimplemented it?
Although, being serious, this lacks the (potential) anonymity of email, and involves giving out your physical address. Maybe we can persuade the postal service to provide free, (almost-)anonymous PO Box numbers?
You can't stop production either. You could prevent a big company from producing certain types of games, but you can't stop fan-made content which can add violence/sex/drugs/atheism/whatever. And you can't stop companies in another country from producing the games either, you can prevent bulk imports but not file trading or people posting copies.
Games. They don't touch the hard drive unless you're loading a level. They're often limited by the graphics card, but more CPU can do good things too. I live in hope that all the computing power from multi-core CPUs will lead to an AI opponent in an RTS game that plays like a human, and ideally individual units (thousands of them!) that have a similar intelligence to a human too. Not having to babysit everything would actually allow strategy, instead of tactics.
I don't think you can compare GBA Micro with Mac Mini. After all Nintendo came out with the Gameboy Pocket long ago, the GBA Micro was just following that pattern. There were transparent Gameboys before the iMac too.
Yes, but Verizon could just redict all requests to google to some page saying "google is unavailable, please try these more reliable search engines: yahoo, msn, etc."
They'd risk losing 'common carrier' status, but corporations don't seem to have much to fear from legislators nowadays so probably not.
See here. I've got one, but I actually preferred running GBA ROMs in an emulator rather than my 1st-edition GBA. 17 inch screen and speakers with subwoofer is nicer than my no-backlight handheld, unless I have to be outside for some reason. But I still buy the games if they're good.
South Park also depicted Muhammed in cartoon form, the same thing that's apparently pissing all these people off. Episode 504. He was portrayed as quite effete and he works with Jesus and Krishna to defeat David Blaine, which seems pretty blasphemous.
What I'd be interested to see would be a game with relatively simple textures, geometry and so on, but rendering so much of it that it actually gives modern hardware a decent workout. Wild examples - a game where you're trying to escape a crime-scene in a city with realistically busy streets; FPS games with genuine swarms of monsters (instead of methodically shooting individual enemies placed by the designers, perhaps you'd be carefully clearing your route, blocking potential entrances where monsters could get in); an RPG city with crowd scenes involving hundreds or thousands of procedurally modified characters (imagine Elite, but with people instead of star systems...)
You just described GTA 3, Serious Sam, and World of Warcraft.
OK, not exactly, but the essential scenarios are the same. These games do all have comparatively simple graphics with large environoments and lots of AIs (or actual people for WoW).
User made content counts - the (good) companies take some of money you pay for the game and spend it on giving out modding tools, teaching people how to use them, promoting modding, finding the best mods and maps and distributing them to you.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you sure the game didn't put the monitor into 60 Hz mode? The eyeball pressure thing sounds like how I feel when staring at a 60 Hz CRT.
Probably one of these...
If something's good, I often watch it again within a week or so. And then again in a year or so when I'll watch the whole series in a row. Bandwidth costs just increased by a factor of 3...
Streaming is about control over the medium - i.e. unskippable ads that can change every week, ability to deny re-runs. It also has its place for live events, and for people too impatient to download yet with high tolerance for "buffering..." messages.
Because then you couldn't e.g. demo your new technology to investors whilst it's "patent pending". They could just patent it themselves and take half your royalties.
Even if you keep your invention perfectly secret before the patent is granted and published, corrupt patent examiners would be a problem.
Absolutely.
What I really want from an MMO is a kind of massively-multiplayer-co-op-FPS, basically 1000 player co-op Serious Sam, with the squad organisation from BF 2 and with huge GTA-style (but detailed interiors of buildings) freeform levels. Have each round last about a month, starting from spreading out from a beachhead, clearing the streets, rooting enemies out of buildings/rooftops/sewers, defending against counterattacks, then finally taking the city which brings out a final boss. Basically have each enemy that dies stay dead, or be permanantly killable in some other way, e.g. fight your way through a regenerating swarm to kill the egg layer, infected zombies that can convert players, but the infection can be stopped by killing them all. This means you'd actually have an impact on the world, unlike most MMOs. Permanantly destructible scenery would also be very cool, if even more technically difficult.
Make killing the enemies effectively require co-operation, e.g. pilots needing gunners, medics, different weapons more effective against different enemies, directionally-shielded enemies that you need to attack from all sides to beat.
No stat based levelling (i.e. skill based), though rank/respect is good, and medals for killing bosses etc. Preferably no instancing, except for PVP DM levels for those who want them. Respawning and getting back to the fight should take under 30 seconds, apart from in the final phases where finding the last few concealed enemies and triggering the super-boss.
Finally, each reset should bring something different. It doesn't have to be much, a new enemy type, a somewhat different layout, new vehicles.
FPS games do seem to be heading somewhat in this direction, e.g. UT2004's Invasion mode, and Serious Sam 2 have the many-players co-op, Planetside is MMO, but nothing yet has the semi-persistent huge world with enemies that stay dead.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Half-Life 2: Aftermath
Plus Metroid Prime: Hunters is supposed the be the DSes Quake
Both ET:QW and MP:H, judging by their reviews, have the potential to be the FPS of the year.
Supreme Commander might turn up soon too if we're lucky.
You don't need "subspace carrier waves", you can just use a beam of neutrinos. Communicate at lightspeed with none of that routing-packets-around-the-Earth crap - neutrinos go direct.
You just need a linear accelerator (with a steerable beam) or nuclear reactor to generate them and one of these to detect them.
It's a bit more than I'd be willing to spend on my gaming PC, but they could probably get some Alienware customers to preorder.
using multiple desktops. Have a different desktop for each project you're working on, you can switch between them with 1 click.
Linux has had this for ages, and I think you can get it working with OS X and Windows too with some 3rd-party tools. You need a lot of RAM (or a big swap file and some patience), and good uptimes (since the desktop state doesn't survive reboots), but if you have that it's a killer feature for handling multiple projects.
"You say that as if games are supposed to be anything other than fun."
Yes, because playing Go is crazy laugh-a-minute super fun.
Some games are fun, some games are about skill and the enjoyment of mastering something tricky. Some manage to be both. Context sensitive buttons in Wario Ware, hell yes, it's great. But some games demand more complexity and freedom which should be reflected in their interfaces.
Making interaction context-sensitive is like having the game play for you. Take it to extremes and imagine a 1-button FPS:
press A to aim,
press A to fire,
press A to dodge,
press A to locate, pick up and use medkit,
press A to become bored,
press A to quit.
It's fair enough for a fun-type game, but some games are meant to challenge. In that type of game having e.g. the fire button also be a context-sensitive use button sucks - you've just pressed the keys for walking up to a door and firing a flak cannon into it, either you've made a silly mistake and should suffer the penalty or you're trying to do something clever with reflecting shots to the person chasing you, which you should be allowed to do.
Playstation 1 was launched over 10 years ago. You can still buy new PSone systems. Playstation 1 games are still getting released, and you can play them on PS1 or PS2. The system isn't dead, at least to people who care about gameplay rather than graphics. If the PS3 is as popular as the PS1 then it will also likely last that long.
Ali G already sorted out what to call it. It's a punani.
I always thought "cunt" was used offensively as a shorthand for "just a cunt", i.e. "you are just a warm, wet hole for me to get off in, I don't even percieve the rest of your body let alone acknowledge you have a personality or feelings." Which is pretty nasty.
Now, I'm no historian, but I've heard that in the past there was a government provided courier service which would deliver messages on paper for a small fee. Perhaps that would work if we reimplemented it?
Although, being serious, this lacks the (potential) anonymity of email, and involves giving out your physical address. Maybe we can persuade the postal service to provide free, (almost-)anonymous PO Box numbers?
You can't stop production either. You could prevent a big company from producing certain types of games, but you can't stop fan-made content which can add violence/sex/drugs/atheism/whatever. And you can't stop companies in another country from producing the games either, you can prevent bulk imports but not file trading or people posting copies.
Games. They don't touch the hard drive unless you're loading a level.
They're often limited by the graphics card, but more CPU can do good things too. I live in hope that all the computing power from multi-core CPUs will lead to an AI opponent in an RTS game that plays like a human, and ideally individual units (thousands of them!) that have a similar intelligence to a human too. Not having to babysit everything would actually allow strategy, instead of tactics.
Toxoplasma makes rats like cat urine? Oh my god, I like cat urine!
I hope my doctor will see me on a Sunday...
I don't think you can compare GBA Micro with Mac Mini. After all Nintendo came out with the Gameboy Pocket long ago, the GBA Micro was just following that pattern. There were transparent Gameboys before the iMac too.
Yes, but Verizon could just redict all requests to google to some page saying "google is unavailable, please try these more reliable search engines: yahoo, msn, etc."
They'd risk losing 'common carrier' status, but corporations don't seem to have much to fear from legislators nowadays so probably not.
See here. I've got one, but I actually preferred running GBA ROMs in an emulator rather than my 1st-edition GBA. 17 inch screen and speakers with subwoofer is nicer than my no-backlight handheld, unless I have to be outside for some reason. But I still buy the games if they're good.
South Park also depicted Muhammed in cartoon form, the same thing that's apparently pissing all these people off. Episode 504. He was portrayed as quite effete and he works with Jesus and Krishna to defeat David Blaine, which seems pretty blasphemous.
It didn't kick off any riots.
I said "Not exactly". Thank you for qualifying my post for me.
Adaptors are pretty cheap. This one works under linux too - good for Neverball and Stepmania.
What I'd be interested to see would be a game with relatively simple textures, geometry and so on, but rendering so much of it that it actually gives modern hardware a decent workout. Wild examples - a game where you're trying to escape a crime-scene in a city with realistically busy streets; FPS games with genuine swarms of monsters (instead of methodically shooting individual enemies placed by the designers, perhaps you'd be carefully clearing your route, blocking potential entrances where monsters could get in); an RPG city with crowd scenes involving hundreds or thousands of procedurally modified characters (imagine Elite, but with people instead of star systems...)
You just described GTA 3, Serious Sam, and World of Warcraft.
OK, not exactly, but the essential scenarios are the same. These games do all have comparatively simple graphics with large environoments and lots of AIs (or actual people for WoW).
Ummmmm, real women are even higher definition. If that's a problem for you... well, more for us.
User made content counts - the (good) companies take some of money you pay for the game and spend it on giving out modding tools, teaching people how to use them, promoting modding, finding the best mods and maps and distributing them to you.