I think you highlight part of the development problem. Many game developers are like what you describe, they have a core group of friends that all game together. So when they design a game they think in terms of what they and their friends do. Last time I looked at stats, only about 10% of people who buy a game actually play it in that mode though,.... yet the development pendulum has swung strongly in that direction.
It has gotten to the point where if I see 'multiplayer' on a box, I will probably ignore it since I know they have probably dumped most of their resources into the MP aspects and that it will be a rather poor SP game.
As for what the point is? Because they are fun. I am currently going through Mercenaries 1 (not 2, which was bleh, partly because of how they crippled SP to make MP work) for probably the 10th time.
Actually, the developers originally tried making portal multiplayer, and described it as 'not as fun as you would think it was'. So apparently they tried and found that while it sounds cool, the actual gameplay ends no not being very interesting. There is also a halflife=>portal mod floating around that has multiplayer and it got similiar reactions.
Maybe, maybe not. Having worked in the game industry, one thing I can say is that development does not center around solid numbers, but on marquee value and perceived sexyness. Developers like developing games that they want to play, even if that means limiting their market to 'people like them'. It is a classic problem in game design.
StarDock actually had a good piece about this a while back when talking about why GalCiv2 lacked multiplayer. In terms of development time, they discovered that adding multiplayer absorbs around 25%-33% of their resources, but ends up getting used by less then 10% of the actual players.
But going one step further, something I have noticed in games that were single player then sequals were multiplayer, the developers ended up having to change single-player functionality to make things 'smoother' in multiplayer... so beyond development time, multiplayer ends up effecting the depth of single player. You tend to loose things like complex options or menus in favor of 'everything has to be done in real time' access to functionality.
So I strongly agree with the piece.. then again, I have no interest in multiplayer so to me at least multiplayer means degraded single player for no gain.
While I am guessing that this exchange is made up... it is a good illustration of why I someday hope to get out of the computer industry. While I love the work, I have encountered way to many people like this fictional designer that relish the fact that they are in a sufficient position of power to be asshats to those around them. I know the basic behavior is pretty universal, but it seems to be worst in technical fields..
fighting the losing fight will improve his future political prospects."
Ding ding ding, we have a winner. 9 out of 10 times, this is what is behind politicians trying to pass illegal laws. These are not stupid people, they know that it will get struck down, but they get free publicity and get a huge boost to their political visibility via public funds. It is a great way around having to spend private money on political aspirations.
Pardus is a bit of a niche MMO, but it is a pretty well established one. It has a similar player base to games like CCP's EVE. Quite a few people I have known over the years have cycled though it.
While I disagree with his general tone/point, I can agree that Java/C++ are overused. Both languages have been trying to push themselves as universal solutions (just look at all the crud added to C++ over the years from other languages) to be used in all domains, rather then were they are actually useful.
I feel this is bad in two directions.. it shoves the language into a domain where it does not fit, thus producing sub-par results... and it also ends up pulling parts of that domain back into the language, resulting in an increasingly bloated standard with redundant ways of accomplishing tasks.
Esp in C++, one has to keep asking 'so which C++ paradigm was this programmer working in?
The ' you don't want those clients anyway' might be the missing piece here. What I see in this shift is that companies that were being poorly served by the traditional model now have an alternative. Normally they would have been 'clients' simply because they did not have any options closer to what they needed.
Actually, I would wager many people call him a journalist because, even as a comedian, his journalistic integrity is higher then most self described journalists. He is a journalist by action rather then word. He just happens to report on cases depending on how funny they are rather then some vague 'importance' measure most use.
Apparently the statute of limitations applies from the time of the breech, not the time of the contract, so the allegation is that the breech of contract occurred sometime within the last 6 years.. so within the first year after the signing.
If the contract stipulates some kind of ongoing profit sharing, it could be argued that Zuckerberg is continuing to act in violation of the agreement, and thus the statute of limitations would not apply.
Oh, humans are in general lawful good, at least from their own perspective. People love justice and fairness from their own perspective... which rarely has anything to do with actual justice or fairness. Go in to any bloody conflict and you will usually hear both sides saying they are trying to equalize things or bring about justice for past wrongs.
Unless something really funny is going on, the judge would not have issued such a preliminary injunction if the case was that clearly beyond the statue of limitations. There might be disagreement concerning which limitations apply in this case.
I was actually thinking "B" mostly. Creating jobs in your district and keeping people working are generally the type of things that voters like and will re-elect someone who manages to deliver.
Well, in a way, that is their job. People vote for senators in the hopes that the person will represent their state well and bring back wealth/resources.... the senator's job is to look after their state first and the nation second and ones that follow that will continue to get elected. The problem is they are operating as intended.
Unfortunately, this effect is not unique to democracies or even representative systems in general. Even in dictatorships, policy is often set according to which districts the leader wishes to favor and which to punish.
Or even worse, amateurs who do not know how to read the data using it to 'prove' nonsense.
I can recall years ago working on a physics project. When the raw data was released, one of the pieces was a graph showing the distribution of particle speeds. The distribution was not due to different speeds, but due to measurement limitations (i.e. errors) that people who were working with the data knew how to understand. Some amateurs got ahold of it and held it up as 'proof' that tachyons existed and that the physicists were trying to cover it up.
That is the frustrations with releasing raw data... even if you are open, that openness will be used against you by people who really want to not only find a particular answer, but smear anyone who actually can read the data and informs them they are wrong.
Consoles are considered less hardcore, thus people feel the need to bash them to show not only the superiority of their preferred technology but align themselves with the superior people. The need to show their twueness.
Slashdot Mirror
Heh. I have yet to see a slashdot thread on a topic like this with everyone agreeing completely with one side or another.
I think you highlight part of the development problem. Many game developers are like what you describe, they have a core group of friends that all game together. So when they design a game they think in terms of what they and their friends do. Last time I looked at stats, only about 10% of people who buy a game actually play it in that mode though,.... yet the development pendulum has swung strongly in that direction.
It has gotten to the point where if I see 'multiplayer' on a box, I will probably ignore it since I know they have probably dumped most of their resources into the MP aspects and that it will be a rather poor SP game.
As for what the point is? Because they are fun. I am currently going through Mercenaries 1 (not 2, which was bleh, partly because of how they crippled SP to make MP work) for probably the 10th time.
Actually, the developers originally tried making portal multiplayer, and described it as 'not as fun as you would think it was'. So apparently they tried and found that while it sounds cool, the actual gameplay ends no not being very interesting. There is also a halflife=>portal mod floating around that has multiplayer and it got similiar reactions.
Maybe, maybe not. Having worked in the game industry, one thing I can say is that development does not center around solid numbers, but on marquee value and perceived sexyness. Developers like developing games that they want to play, even if that means limiting their market to 'people like them'. It is a classic problem in game design.
StarDock actually had a good piece about this a while back when talking about why GalCiv2 lacked multiplayer. In terms of development time, they discovered that adding multiplayer absorbs around 25%-33% of their resources, but ends up getting used by less then 10% of the actual players.
But going one step further, something I have noticed in games that were single player then sequals were multiplayer, the developers ended up having to change single-player functionality to make things 'smoother' in multiplayer... so beyond development time, multiplayer ends up effecting the depth of single player. You tend to loose things like complex options or menus in favor of 'everything has to be done in real time' access to functionality.
So I strongly agree with the piece.. then again, I have no interest in multiplayer so to me at least multiplayer means degraded single player for no gain.
While I am guessing that this exchange is made up... it is a good illustration of why I someday hope to get out of the computer industry. While I love the work, I have encountered way to many people like this fictional designer that relish the fact that they are in a sufficient position of power to be asshats to those around them. I know the basic behavior is pretty universal, but it seems to be worst in technical fields..
fighting the losing fight will improve his future political prospects."
Ding ding ding, we have a winner. 9 out of 10 times, this is what is behind politicians trying to pass illegal laws. These are not stupid people, they know that it will get struck down, but they get free publicity and get a huge boost to their political visibility via public funds. It is a great way around having to spend private money on political aspirations.
Pardus is a bit of a niche MMO, but it is a pretty well established one. It has a similar player base to games like CCP's EVE. Quite a few people I have known over the years have cycled though it.
While I disagree with his general tone/point, I can agree that Java/C++ are overused. Both languages have been trying to push themselves as universal solutions (just look at all the crud added to C++ over the years from other languages) to be used in all domains, rather then were they are actually useful.
I feel this is bad in two directions.. it shoves the language into a domain where it does not fit, thus producing sub-par results... and it also ends up pulling parts of that domain back into the language, resulting in an increasingly bloated standard with redundant ways of accomplishing tasks.
Esp in C++, one has to keep asking 'so which C++ paradigm was this programmer working in?
I am having flashbacks to that first generation MindStorm language where you 'programmed' with simulated lego blocks....
The ' you don't want those clients anyway' might be the missing piece here. What I see in this shift is that companies that were being poorly served by the traditional model now have an alternative. Normally they would have been 'clients' simply because they did not have any options closer to what they needed.
Actually, I would wager many people call him a journalist because, even as a comedian, his journalistic integrity is higher then most self described journalists. He is a journalist by action rather then word. He just happens to report on cases depending on how funny they are rather then some vague 'importance' measure most use.
Apparently the statute of limitations applies from the time of the breech, not the time of the contract, so the allegation is that the breech of contract occurred sometime within the last 6 years.. so within the first year after the signing.
If the contract stipulates some kind of ongoing profit sharing, it could be argued that Zuckerberg is continuing to act in violation of the agreement, and thus the statute of limitations would not apply.
This is why I want immortality. I want to see this state of the universe ^_^
Oh, humans are in general lawful good, at least from their own perspective. People love justice and fairness from their own perspective... which rarely has anything to do with actual justice or fairness. Go in to any bloody conflict and you will usually hear both sides saying they are trying to equalize things or bring about justice for past wrongs.
If they do not already have a decoration like that, someone needs to write it. I would be willing to play farmvillie for a while just to get that.
Unless something really funny is going on, the judge would not have issued such a preliminary injunction if the case was that clearly beyond the statue of limitations. There might be disagreement concerning which limitations apply in this case.
Pity so many of those cost overruns and screw ups were due to congress sticking its nose in NASA's operations.
I was actually thinking "B" mostly. Creating jobs in your district and keeping people working are generally the type of things that voters like and will re-elect someone who manages to deliver.
Where did you get that idea? Such things might be good for PR, but there is no implyed requirement for it.
Well, in a way, that is their job. People vote for senators in the hopes that the person will represent their state well and bring back wealth/resources.... the senator's job is to look after their state first and the nation second and ones that follow that will continue to get elected. The problem is they are operating as intended.
Unfortunately, this effect is not unique to democracies or even representative systems in general. Even in dictatorships, policy is often set according to which districts the leader wishes to favor and which to punish.
Or even worse, amateurs who do not know how to read the data using it to 'prove' nonsense.
I can recall years ago working on a physics project. When the raw data was released, one of the pieces was a graph showing the distribution of particle speeds. The distribution was not due to different speeds, but due to measurement limitations (i.e. errors) that people who were working with the data knew how to understand. Some amateurs got ahold of it and held it up as 'proof' that tachyons existed and that the physicists were trying to cover it up.
That is the frustrations with releasing raw data... even if you are open, that openness will be used against you by people who really want to not only find a particular answer, but smear anyone who actually can read the data and informs them they are wrong.
And if I understood correctly, were not the patents involved in the lawsuit mostly invalidate?
Consoles are considered less hardcore, thus people feel the need to bash them to show not only the superiority of their preferred technology but align themselves with the superior people. The need to show their twueness.