Seriously, looks aren't everything. In fact, unless the content is compelling enough even the prettiest design won't keep people coming back. Look at sites like craigslist.
And it's not like their competition (experts-exchange) is setting the aesthetic bar that high, ya know?
Many people don't realize that LucasArts went bankrupt and folded, and that the new company is exactly that
Citation needed. I certaintly don't remember hearing this, and I can't find it on LA website, wikipedia, google, etc. There were rumors of this following a series of layoffs, but it turned out that LucasArts had abandoned much of its internal development and would farm everything out to 3rd parties from then on. At least that's what I heard, I admit that my memory is fuzzy on that point.
That said, I agree that it's a crime we get crap like Adventures of Obi-wan but no continuation of the X-Wing/Tie-Fighter franchise.
People forget that KOTOR's gameplay was pretty bad.
Somehow I missed this upon first reading. Now I think you're just plain nuts! I thought the gameplay was solid and the graphics (driven by a souped-up NWN engine) were great. Yeah, the "action" mini-games were a tad weak, but that literally amounted to less than %1 of the total gameplay.
I'm picking up the game for the story, and if that is good, I won't mind the gameplay so much.
While I can see your point to some extent (I like the Star Wars universe too), I can't help thinking that you're part of "the problem" when it comes to LucasArts, and the whole movie-tie-in market in general. What publisher is going to put any effort in making a good game if they know people like you will line up to buy it even if it sucks?
LucasArts used to make top-notch games: Full-Throttle, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, X-Wing, and dozens more in every genre. But then Lucasarts executives (and Lucas himself, I imagine) realized that the most profitable thing to do was to churn out countless Star Wars games irrespective of quality. Yeah, there's been a couple good ones, but for every "Knights of the Old Republic" there's at least ten "Star Wars: Galaxies - Episode III Rage of the Wookiees"
I hope this doesn't come out condescending (or creepy) but how old are you and your friends? I ask because I'm 34 and I only know one person on Facebook.
Going through college the main mode of conversation I had w/ friends was via email. I'm guessing that this has been supplanted twitter, facebook, etc. Not that I think it's a bad thing, per se.
The cost of text messaging is vastly disproportionate to the actual data transfer that takes place. VASTLY. If you paid the same amount for data transfer on your internet connection you would be shitting blood and blowing steam out of your ears instead of saying "Who cares.[sic]".
I agree, but let me play devil's advocate: as long as there are people willing to pay such high prices, shouldn't the phone companies be allowed to charge as much as they want? Here in the USA the vast majority of consumers have choices when it comes to phone service. So it's not as its a case of a monopoly jacking up prices. And though it is true that the market has consolodated from six to four carriers since '05, I think that the rise in costs has more to do with the growth in popularity of texting. In the face of rising prices, texting is only becoming more (not less) popular. Finally, it's not as though texting and IM are vital serverices that people *need*. We not be alllowed to charge as much as people are willing to pay?
However, I think the mess with text-messaging is just a symptom of larger problems: service contracts with hefty early-termination fees, and phones that are bound to particular networks. If people could easily jump to a different phone company, I can easily see companies try to differentiate on price.
With more PS3 games offering an "install-to-HD" option, I wonder how SSD would affect performance. My theory is that playing a console game is a read-heavy experience, so an SSD should do quite well, right? Any rich gamers out there that have tried this out yet?
Is there a team that maintains ReiserFS, or was it strictly Hans' work?
Whatever compelling features it had didn't diminish because Hans Reiser is a murderer. If people see continued use of it as some sort of implicit support of Reiser, maybe a name change is in order. Call it NinaFS or SharanovaFS (Nina's maiden name I think) or something along that line.
Back during the NES days, Nintendo's (mis)treatment of publishers was legendary. Things improved once competition came on the scene, but don't fool yourself into thinking that Nintendo is a "nice" company. They are just as cutthroat as Microsoft.
I think you meant to say that every game is hacked to whatever extent it can be.
I meant it in the context that the article meant it. And no, I'm not trolling (can't say whether I'm ignorant or not... if I was I doubt I'd know it).
and it's unlikely that this will continue into D3
Ultimately, we won't know until it comes out. I'm basing my opinion on of history, trends, human nature. You're basing yours off of... hope?
Re:Who needs privacy when people are so predictabl
on
Blown to Bits
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· Score: 1
Good point. I suppose that the best thing to do (if your truly are looking for truth rather than validation) is to acknowledge that all news sources have a bias, and use their biases against each other. That is, watch both Fox *and* NPR. If you see an event from multiple angles you'll be better able to form your own opinion.
Here's my bias: I tend to prefer NPR, if for no other reason than the fact that it strays away from celebrity gossip. I think in the past year I've heard only one mention of Paris Hilton, and that was in reference to the anti-Obama "Celebrity" ad. With that in mind, I suppose I'm just as guilty of creating an augmented reality by choosing not to hear about these things.
Your third paragraph contradicts your first paragraph. First you say that they have no advertising buffer, then you claim that half of their funding comes from advertisers. Which is it?
While I don't disagree that everyone has a bias, I would argue that the varied funding NPR receives makes it less vulnerable to certain types of bias. For example, NPR was able to run pieces that were far more critical of the war at a time when this was a very unpopular thing to do. They were able to do this because they didn't have to worry (as much) about advertisers pulling out or ratings taking a nose dive (which they did - everybody wanted happy happy news about the war).
As Blizzard is learning from WoW when it comes to server infrastructure where they are battling hackers and exploiters, the new Battle.net will be built on programming that prevent any form of hacking or cheating.
I hope this is zealotry on behalf of the fansite rather than Blizzard developers actually claiming (with a straight face) that Diablo III will be unhackable. Diablo III will be hacked, in the same way that every Blizzard game has been hacked, in the same way that virtually every retail game on the market has been hacked. The true test will be how vigilant Blizzard is in policing this sort of thing, how quickly they can patch compromised releases, their ability to prevent cheaters from poisoning the community at-large.
But so far, the only people implicated in trying to get this state trooper fired are members of her family and staffers in her office, without her knowledge. The only documentation of any action by her pre-dates when she was elected governor.
Of all defenses, I think the "I had no knowledge of what my underlings were up to" is the sleaziest. Are we to believe that overzealous staffers took on this cause without any direction from Palin? Really?
It is true that this state trooper is no saint, but getting him fired was an abuse of power. It's a bit hard to campaign as fighting corruption when you are, in fact, corrupt.
So, I don't get your point. On one hand, you say that the 250GB gap won't change, but then you cite your own experience of 3x growth every five years. Which is it?
(If it's the same technology I read about a while back) the implant is essentially an ID chip, and the larger device acts as an "amplifier" of sorts that broadcasts the position. The amplifier is probably generic, so any given amp would just broadcasts the ID's of any chips within range.
If the larger device gets seperated from your person you're still screwed, but at least you won't be leading the authorities on a wild goose chase (think Total Recall, where Quaid eludes Cohaagen's men by sticking the transmitter in a candy bar and feeding it to a rat).
People who live in land $X are the only true witnesses of what is happening there.
This I must call bullshit on. Do you truly think that the citizens of North Korea are any more informed about what their government is up to than the people outside of the country? Kim Jong-il claims to have invented the hamburger of all things, and who are the North Koreans to suspect otherwise, seeing as how all forms of media are censored and controlled by the government.
You seem to be confusing what one should do versus what someone is allowed to do. Powderly probably knew that what he was getting into, yet he chose to go anyway because of his hope for a free Tibet. You seem to be going a step further in saying that he *shouldn't* express an opinion on the matter.
Supposing I stand, in Canada, just north of the US border, and I see the police beating an innocent man 10 feet to the south of me in the USA. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't speak out?
If we exclude people's ideas based on where the ideas come from rather than the merit of the idea itself, we are doing ourselves a great disservice.
This is almost a textbook definition of driving a good brand into the ground. Asus started off with an awesome product (the Eee netbook), that was simple for consumers to wrap their heads around (small, cheap laptop). Based on it's popularity, Asus has decided to slap the "Eee" brand on a ton of products (monitors, mac mini clones, peripherals, and now a wiimote knockoff), thinking that the name alone will repeat the success.
On the contrary, I think this product pile-on is damaging the brand.
print out a radial gradient fill that's clear in the middle and black on the edges
paste it on your screen
Problem solved. Diablo zealots are happy, blizzard is happy. Emo kids can use this approach for a host of other games too. As for me, I won't do any of that sillyness. My monitor is rectangular for a reason.
However, I think it should be the USER'S choice to accept them or not.
Both FF2 and FF3 provide that choice. I admit that the FF3 method involves more hoops (upon receiving the SSL error, click on "Or add an exception", then "get certificate", then "add exception"), but on the plus-side it never asks you again. With FF2 it repeatedly asks you each-and-every time you visit the site (can you permanently add an exception in FF2? I've never tried).
Slashdot Mirror
True that. Idle is like Slashdot's answer to Matrix Reloaded: the original is great and we all agree that the other does not exist.
...from posting on slashdot.
Seriously, looks aren't everything. In fact, unless the content is compelling enough even the prettiest design won't keep people coming back. Look at sites like craigslist.
And it's not like their competition (experts-exchange) is setting the aesthetic bar that high, ya know?
Citation needed. I certaintly don't remember hearing this, and I can't find it on LA website, wikipedia, google, etc. There were rumors of this following a series of layoffs, but it turned out that LucasArts had abandoned much of its internal development and would farm everything out to 3rd parties from then on. At least that's what I heard, I admit that my memory is fuzzy on that point.
That said, I agree that it's a crime we get crap like Adventures of Obi-wan but no continuation of the X-Wing/Tie-Fighter franchise.
Somehow I missed this upon first reading. Now I think you're just plain nuts! I thought the gameplay was solid and the graphics (driven by a souped-up NWN engine) were great. Yeah, the "action" mini-games were a tad weak, but that literally amounted to less than %1 of the total gameplay.
While I can see your point to some extent (I like the Star Wars universe too), I can't help thinking that you're part of "the problem" when it comes to LucasArts, and the whole movie-tie-in market in general. What publisher is going to put any effort in making a good game if they know people like you will line up to buy it even if it sucks?
LucasArts used to make top-notch games: Full-Throttle, Grim Fandango, Monkey Island, X-Wing, and dozens more in every genre. But then Lucasarts executives (and Lucas himself, I imagine) realized that the most profitable thing to do was to churn out countless Star Wars games irrespective of quality. Yeah, there's been a couple good ones, but for every "Knights of the Old Republic" there's at least ten "Star Wars: Galaxies - Episode III Rage of the Wookiees"
I hope this doesn't come out condescending (or creepy) but how old are you and your friends? I ask because I'm 34 and I only know one person on Facebook.
Going through college the main mode of conversation I had w/ friends was via email. I'm guessing that this has been supplanted twitter, facebook, etc. Not that I think it's a bad thing, per se.
I agree, but let me play devil's advocate: as long as there are people willing to pay such high prices, shouldn't the phone companies be allowed to charge as much as they want? Here in the USA the vast majority of consumers have choices when it comes to phone service. So it's not as its a case of a monopoly jacking up prices. And though it is true that the market has consolodated from six to four carriers since '05, I think that the rise in costs has more to do with the growth in popularity of texting. In the face of rising prices, texting is only becoming more (not less) popular. Finally, it's not as though texting and IM are vital serverices that people *need*. We not be alllowed to charge as much as people are willing to pay?
However, I think the mess with text-messaging is just a symptom of larger problems: service contracts with hefty early-termination fees, and phones that are bound to particular networks. If people could easily jump to a different phone company, I can easily see companies try to differentiate on price.
With more PS3 games offering an "install-to-HD" option, I wonder how SSD would affect performance. My theory is that playing a console game is a read-heavy experience, so an SSD should do quite well, right? Any rich gamers out there that have tried this out yet?
Is there a team that maintains ReiserFS, or was it strictly Hans' work? Whatever compelling features it had didn't diminish because Hans Reiser is a murderer. If people see continued use of it as some sort of implicit support of Reiser, maybe a name change is in order. Call it NinaFS or SharanovaFS (Nina's maiden name I think) or something along that line.
No offense, but please go die.
Back during the NES days, Nintendo's (mis)treatment of publishers was legendary. Things improved once competition came on the scene, but don't fool yourself into thinking that Nintendo is a "nice" company. They are just as cutthroat as Microsoft.
I meant it in the context that the article meant it. And no, I'm not trolling (can't say whether I'm ignorant or not... if I was I doubt I'd know it).
Ultimately, we won't know until it comes out. I'm basing my opinion on of history, trends, human nature. You're basing yours off of... hope?
Good point. I suppose that the best thing to do (if your truly are looking for truth rather than validation) is to acknowledge that all news sources have a bias, and use their biases against each other. That is, watch both Fox *and* NPR. If you see an event from multiple angles you'll be better able to form your own opinion.
Here's my bias: I tend to prefer NPR, if for no other reason than the fact that it strays away from celebrity gossip. I think in the past year I've heard only one mention of Paris Hilton, and that was in reference to the anti-Obama "Celebrity" ad. With that in mind, I suppose I'm just as guilty of creating an augmented reality by choosing not to hear about these things.
Your third paragraph contradicts your first paragraph. First you say that they have no advertising buffer, then you claim that half of their funding comes from advertisers. Which is it? While I don't disagree that everyone has a bias, I would argue that the varied funding NPR receives makes it less vulnerable to certain types of bias. For example, NPR was able to run pieces that were far more critical of the war at a time when this was a very unpopular thing to do. They were able to do this because they didn't have to worry (as much) about advertisers pulling out or ratings taking a nose dive (which they did - everybody wanted happy happy news about the war).
I hope this is zealotry on behalf of the fansite rather than Blizzard developers actually claiming (with a straight face) that Diablo III will be unhackable. Diablo III will be hacked, in the same way that every Blizzard game has been hacked, in the same way that virtually every retail game on the market has been hacked. The true test will be how vigilant Blizzard is in policing this sort of thing, how quickly they can patch compromised releases, their ability to prevent cheaters from poisoning the community at-large.
Of all defenses, I think the "I had no knowledge of what my underlings were up to" is the sleaziest. Are we to believe that overzealous staffers took on this cause without any direction from Palin? Really? It is true that this state trooper is no saint, but getting him fired was an abuse of power. It's a bit hard to campaign as fighting corruption when you are, in fact, corrupt.
So, I don't get your point. On one hand, you say that the 250GB gap won't change, but then you cite your own experience of 3x growth every five years. Which is it?
(If it's the same technology I read about a while back) the implant is essentially an ID chip, and the larger device acts as an "amplifier" of sorts that broadcasts the position. The amplifier is probably generic, so any given amp would just broadcasts the ID's of any chips within range.
If the larger device gets seperated from your person you're still screwed, but at least you won't be leading the authorities on a wild goose chase (think Total Recall, where Quaid eludes Cohaagen's men by sticking the transmitter in a candy bar and feeding it to a rat).
This I must call bullshit on. Do you truly think that the citizens of North Korea are any more informed about what their government is up to than the people outside of the country? Kim Jong-il claims to have invented the hamburger of all things, and who are the North Koreans to suspect otherwise, seeing as how all forms of media are censored and controlled by the government.
You seem to be confusing what one should do versus what someone is allowed to do. Powderly probably knew that what he was getting into, yet he chose to go anyway because of his hope for a free Tibet. You seem to be going a step further in saying that he *shouldn't* express an opinion on the matter.
Supposing I stand, in Canada, just north of the US border, and I see the police beating an innocent man 10 feet to the south of me in the USA. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't speak out?
If we exclude people's ideas based on where the ideas come from rather than the merit of the idea itself, we are doing ourselves a great disservice.
Goddamn I hate when people use that word incorrectly. That's not what disinterested means.
This is almost a textbook definition of driving a good brand into the ground. Asus started off with an awesome product (the Eee netbook), that was simple for consumers to wrap their heads around (small, cheap laptop). Based on it's popularity, Asus has decided to slap the "Eee" brand on a ton of products (monitors, mac mini clones, peripherals, and now a wiimote knockoff), thinking that the name alone will repeat the success.
On the contrary, I think this product pile-on is damaging the brand.
And with them raising the specter of these nebulous, unspecified patent violations, OSS/Linux proponents would be wise not to trust them.
Here's what you can do:
Problem solved. Diablo zealots are happy, blizzard is happy. Emo kids can use this approach for a host of other games too. As for me, I won't do any of that sillyness. My monitor is rectangular for a reason.
Both FF2 and FF3 provide that choice. I admit that the FF3 method involves more hoops (upon receiving the SSL error, click on "Or add an exception", then "get certificate", then "add exception"), but on the plus-side it never asks you again. With FF2 it repeatedly asks you each-and-every time you visit the site (can you permanently add an exception in FF2? I've never tried).