I'm probably paranoid in thinking this, but is this smear campaign more than just a bunch of disparate writers working independantly? I mention this because it's the exact field my sister is in: corporate PR. She schmoozes magazines, writers, etc on behalf of various companies in an effort to convince the media to show her represented companies' products in a positive light.
Would it really be a stretch to think that there are some who try and get writers to bad-mouth a specific company or product? I'm not pointing fingers, but I think it's clear who'd have the most to gain in this situation.
It's an interesting balance that they need to create in order to make the game as addictive as possible. If rewards (like XP) are too difficult to get, people get frustrated and quit. If rewards are to easy to get, there's no sense of worth and the fan base has no sense of attachment. I think Blizzard's balanced between those two with calculated skill. It took a fair amount of effort for me to quit.
Agreed, but if we assume that there are at least 1 million still actively subscribing (a modest estimate) that's still 180 million per year. For a single game? That's astounding! Bear in mind that a fair chunk of that probably goes into maintenance, bandwidth, patching, admins, etc. They're probably left with a fair chunk of profit though. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were already beginning development on WoW2, much like Valve and HL3 (unannounced, but who are we kidding).
That's why I'd like Blizzard to make a few "hardcore" servers. If you die, you're dead. Make a new character. Instead of seeing about half of the population at level 60, we'd see fewer and fewer high level characters. Travelling alone or unprepared would be death. Just one or two servers like that. Please?
I'd be interested in seeing statistics on the number of people that have unsubscribed from WoW as well. I doubt Blizzard would be willing to share that information, but it would certainly satisfy my statistical curiosities.
I think Blizzard did one thing right in making WoW cross-platform. I really would love to play DDO, but unless they release it for the Mac, I'm not going to bother.
Windows Vista could offer large organizations improvements in software development, security, reliability, systems management, and user interface.
Wow! Look at that long list of positive attributes! I almost forgot that (A) it isn't out yet and (B) Microsoft has set a precedent against having those things. Look, until its widely released we won't really know the impact of Vista. Until then, it's just promises, promises.
As a gamer, you should be more concerned about latency than speed-- at least, if you play "twitch" games (read: FPS games), as opposed to MMORPGs.
Whereas in MMOs you generally concern yourself with uptime and bandwidth limits.:)
I hope you understand that the vast majority of people don't use Firefox, don't know how to block ads, and will be affected by these graphic ads. This decision will affect at least 80% of all computer users. So maybe some 20% will block the ads. So what?
If Sands of Time used Starforce and the two subsequent titles didn't, doesn't that mean you should support Ubisoft and their decision not to use a horride copy-protection system?
If people see the prices of consoles dropping drastically within the first few months (ie: when the demand has dropped off), they're more likely to wait for a better price. The company in question is better off guessing one constant price (or range or prices like the core and full XBox systems) that will maximize their profits. Once you bring in fluxuating prices, you have to consider that your customers will strategically wait.
Listing the specific users was a bad idea, but I'm not suggesting that. If you tried setting your password to "password" when another user already has that, the system should say no. It'd give an indication that you're choosing a poor password.
It'd be nice if any password system alerted the user if their password is being used by another user. 'Course, saying that might be a risk, so you could just say "your password is insufficiently secure". That way no two people should have the same password for any given system.
I recognize that it can cause inconvenience, but come on. Exploits in IE typically result in executing arbitrary code on the user's computer.
I guess this is just another argument as to why system diversity is important. If no browser had more than 20% of the market it'd be difficult to target a large portion of internet users.
You hit my main beef with lots of software out there: it needs to be simple, but so often isn't. At the suggestion of another poster in this story, I downloaded and tried Adium. At first I was overjoyed to see all the options, preferences, doodads and whatnot.
After 10 minutes of playing around with the settings, I realized that I'd never done that with iChat. There'd been no need to. Maybe that's why I never got along that well with Linux. I don't want to play around with settings all day long.
I don't remember where I saw it, but there was a parody board game of an MMO. Roll a d20. If you roll a 1, you can't connect to the server. Sit this game out. Stuff like that.
There are some aspects of D&D (or any other in-person RPG) that online games just don't have.
Face to face contact. Talking with the other players, making funny voices, facial gestures and generally socializing
A human DM that adjusted things to the tastes of the group, fudged die rolls, provided a changing storyline that you really, honestly had an impact on.
Imagination. Limiting graphics to at most a general diagram can inspire. I'm not saying online games can't do this, but the imagination isn't necessary.
No online fee to play besides the inital gaming materials (that will still be usable 10 years from now).
Yeah, MMOs have a certain flair (no need to schedule a game with friends, automationing most of the game mechanics), but they lose appeal quickly. D&D, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Toon, etc. Gimme those over MMOs any day.
I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again. I think we could use moderated stories. You could browse at +5 stories to cut out the crap or at 0: fark style. Moderate a story -1: dupe or +1: headline.
Any reasons not to implement this?
Slashdot Mirror
Get the next generation comfortable with being tracked 24/7?
I'm probably paranoid in thinking this, but is this smear campaign more than just a bunch of disparate writers working independantly? I mention this because it's the exact field my sister is in: corporate PR. She schmoozes magazines, writers, etc on behalf of various companies in an effort to convince the media to show her represented companies' products in a positive light. Would it really be a stretch to think that there are some who try and get writers to bad-mouth a specific company or product? I'm not pointing fingers, but I think it's clear who'd have the most to gain in this situation.
Finesse and patience? Sir, I doubt you've ever seen Quake Done Quicker.
Hey, I'm not suggesting that it'd be for everyone, but I think some players would be interested. Retired 60 NE Holy/Disc Priest.
It's an interesting balance that they need to create in order to make the game as addictive as possible. If rewards (like XP) are too difficult to get, people get frustrated and quit. If rewards are to easy to get, there's no sense of worth and the fan base has no sense of attachment. I think Blizzard's balanced between those two with calculated skill. It took a fair amount of effort for me to quit.
Agreed, but if we assume that there are at least 1 million still actively subscribing (a modest estimate) that's still 180 million per year. For a single game? That's astounding! Bear in mind that a fair chunk of that probably goes into maintenance, bandwidth, patching, admins, etc. They're probably left with a fair chunk of profit though. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were already beginning development on WoW2, much like Valve and HL3 (unannounced, but who are we kidding).
That's why I'd like Blizzard to make a few "hardcore" servers. If you die, you're dead. Make a new character. Instead of seeing about half of the population at level 60, we'd see fewer and fewer high level characters. Travelling alone or unprepared would be death. Just one or two servers like that. Please?
I'd be interested in seeing statistics on the number of people that have unsubscribed from WoW as well. I doubt Blizzard would be willing to share that information, but it would certainly satisfy my statistical curiosities.
I think Blizzard did one thing right in making WoW cross-platform. I really would love to play DDO, but unless they release it for the Mac, I'm not going to bother.
Yep. Otherwise the "could" is the asterisk beside the deal that says "2 gigabytes of RAM for only $29*"
Wow! Look at that long list of positive attributes! I almost forgot that (A) it isn't out yet and (B) Microsoft has set a precedent against having those things. Look, until its widely released we won't really know the impact of Vista. Until then, it's just promises, promises.
As a gamer, you should be more concerned about latency than speed-- at least, if you play "twitch" games (read: FPS games), as opposed to MMORPGs. Whereas in MMOs you generally concern yourself with uptime and bandwidth limits. :)
I hope you understand that the vast majority of people don't use Firefox, don't know how to block ads, and will be affected by these graphic ads. This decision will affect at least 80% of all computer users. So maybe some 20% will block the ads. So what?
If Sands of Time used Starforce and the two subsequent titles didn't, doesn't that mean you should support Ubisoft and their decision not to use a horride copy-protection system?
If people see the prices of consoles dropping drastically within the first few months (ie: when the demand has dropped off), they're more likely to wait for a better price. The company in question is better off guessing one constant price (or range or prices like the core and full XBox systems) that will maximize their profits. Once you bring in fluxuating prices, you have to consider that your customers will strategically wait.
Listing the specific users was a bad idea, but I'm not suggesting that. If you tried setting your password to "password" when another user already has that, the system should say no. It'd give an indication that you're choosing a poor password.
It'd be nice if any password system alerted the user if their password is being used by another user. 'Course, saying that might be a risk, so you could just say "your password is insufficiently secure". That way no two people should have the same password for any given system.
I recognize that it can cause inconvenience, but come on. Exploits in IE typically result in executing arbitrary code on the user's computer. I guess this is just another argument as to why system diversity is important. If no browser had more than 20% of the market it'd be difficult to target a large portion of internet users.
You hit my main beef with lots of software out there: it needs to be simple, but so often isn't. At the suggestion of another poster in this story, I downloaded and tried Adium. At first I was overjoyed to see all the options, preferences, doodads and whatnot. After 10 minutes of playing around with the settings, I realized that I'd never done that with iChat. There'd been no need to. Maybe that's why I never got along that well with Linux. I don't want to play around with settings all day long.
I don't remember where I saw it, but there was a parody board game of an MMO. Roll a d20. If you roll a 1, you can't connect to the server. Sit this game out. Stuff like that.
Yeah, MMOs have a certain flair (no need to schedule a game with friends, automationing most of the game mechanics), but they lose appeal quickly. D&D, Shadowrun, World of Darkness, Toon, etc. Gimme those over MMOs any day.
I like. Had I mod points, good sir. :)
And there wouldn't really be much of a need for editors at that point anyway. User submitted stories would do just fine.
I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again. I think we could use moderated stories. You could browse at +5 stories to cut out the crap or at 0: fark style. Moderate a story -1: dupe or +1: headline. Any reasons not to implement this?
Except Apple just keeps releasing, adjusting, releasing, adjusting. With them, it's a continuing cycle.