I know when the time attack movies were posted on albinoblacksheep, showing someone beating Super Mario 3 in like 3 minutes, I was impressed enough to watch, and to show it off to friends, and found most of them impressed too.
But even beyond the admiration of superior skill, people will watch anything in the proper setting. People will watch golf, bowling, billiards, hell there's about 100 olympic sports based on jumping in the air, every one receiving mad publicity.
I think it could be viewed on a variety of levels too. Some would watch just because the graphis/sounds were cool, some would watch to admire the skills of the players, some in the hopes of teaching themselves the skills used by the players. Just like most sports broadcasts.
I think this will do well here, as it appears already to do in some Asian settings.
"In order to help push current-gen sales, EA is slashing prices on some of its upcoming titles. For instance, two of EA's most anticipated titles, The Godfather (March 14) and Black (February 28), will retail for $39.95."
That's what we call spin. What they really wanted to say is: "Having reviewed testers' opinion on our upcoming games, we realise they stand no chance of being successful. Subsequently we will attempt to sell off as many copies at $40 as possible before the public wisens up to this."
Take Hacker:Elite - released a couple years back at 30 dollars to start. Box looked great, concept sounded great, game itself was short and ultimately pretty dull. Fortunately these days anyone with google, 4th grade reading comprehension, and enough patience to wait a day, can tell if a game sucks or not without blowing 30-50 dollars on it.
A bank teller also has access to manipulate or delete all of a client's banking records. That doesn't excuse the abuse of that access. Perhaps the internet access is set up for certain people, or to visit a limited selection of external websites, such as a credit reporting site. Having not worked at the particular bank, I can only speculate.
On a less "Banks screw their employees over" note, banks store sensitive financial data for 1000s of people. If they have a policy for their employees not to surf the web, and that policy were in place to prevent trojans/sniffers from infecting their systems, I could see letting a few employees go to preserve their clients trust.
Fallout 2 was one of, if not the, best open ended RPGs out there. I never did finish it though. The farthest I got with with a pugilist (I poured points into Hand to Hand), which while requiring a good deal of reloads when combat didn't go quite right, was in fact the funnest and funniest rpg I ever played. For all the streetfighter II, there was nothing quite like critically kicking an alien in the eyeball, blinding it, knocking it back 100 meters, and ultimately killing it in one cruel blow.
Somehow, with all it's 3d skill/stat/level/3cd/2expansion, Morrowind never could hold a candle to this rpg. I'm now itchin to reinstall it:)
So if you read the whole article, you'll find he admits he just over level 40. He's yet to experience any of this "endgame letdown" that some look at and quit WoW over. WoW focused most of their energies on creating a fantastic 1-60 game, with plans to develop the endgame later, aonce there were a great number of 60s. So yea, the endgame has a "wait here, and kill a billion beetles if you're bored" kind of feel to it, but on the other hand, there are lots of players that don't want folks at the end of the game to be able to amass even more power, considering they all pvp on the same battlefields. And you can't argue with the numbers, good game or bad, it's sold 5 million copies, which means Blizzard as a company has done well for itself.
Quite the contrary. MUDs have existed long before the MMO, and may long after, surviving solely on player donations and time from coders who do it as a hobby instead of a lifestyle. And from everything I've seen, they are actually more stable under most circumstances given equal numbers of players than top certain snowy top notch MMOs in the current playing field.
Simply put though, a 3-D graphic intensive world is more visually intensive and stimulating, and thus easier to emerse oneself in. And that is what the average MMO player is looking for, emersion in a world more fun than their present one.
Alrighty, so Philbo hasn't been adding value to the guild recently, so I think we're gonna marginalize him. And as an action item for next week, we need people to start coming up with out of the box ways to proactively increase our headcount for Molten Core. See you next time!
The sad part to me is that we are over there mainly because they threaten to blow stuff up. It's not human rights, it's our own security. The warlords in Africa that killed 400,000 people last year are still in power, because no one is blowing anything up. So the message we are basically sending to the rest of the third world nations is you have to blow something up first, then we'll oust the corrupt dictators in your countries and give you a chance.
I played the trial, and loved it and the concept at first. I've read the stories posted here and elsewhere about the billion isk scandals, awesome I thought.
My problem with the game was that my accomplishments did not translate into a stronger character, only more resources. Even were I to do something really savvy and make a billion isk during the 14 day trial, I realised there was no way I could possibly reach a high enough skill level to fly something cool, because of the way skills are acquired in the game (you acquire skills by training them, which occurs constantly, even in or out of the game, but it takes several real life days, even over a month, to train some of the higher skills). So basically the game rewards longevity over skillful play. As I observe having to spend several real months doing nothing before I can play the game, and the reality that I have to pay per month to do nothing, the trial was promptly uninstalled.
I hear a lot of players quote that the game gets more fun as you invest more time into it. But to me, enjoying a game should not be a chore I have to work towards. It should be a part of the game.
"Dear Mr. Born with Religious Inklings,
Thank you! You admit you can't help being religious, now please talk your fellow churchgoers into admitting that I can't help not being religious and tell them they're wasting their time trying to recruit^H^Hconvert^H^Hsave me...
Thank you in advance,
Happy Apathetic Agnostic
"
I never said I go to church, or even was Christian, but I support your right to feel in whatever way you do about a supreme being - you will in fact never catch me bash even the most rightmost Christian or stalwart athiest for their divine beliefs.
You show me a homosexual marriage that produces phat epic lewt, and I'll show you a gay marriage the WoW community is ready to back!
On a more serious note, sex has no place in this game. A man can hug other men, he can commit his life to serving another man, but unless he plans on having sex with another man, there is absolutely no good reason to bring up that fact that he is gay. The same goes really for bringing up the fact that you are straight. Someone that ran around ironforge going "zomg I'm straight, I bang girlz!" would receive the same cold stfu from the WoW community as the GLBT group did. Announcing your sexual preference in a room potentially filled with children is disgusting.
The internet browser is free. MS makes no money on it. What is their motivation to put out a new version of IE as opposed to something like say, MS Office, where they make 100-300 bucks a pop on it?
I've yet to see someone attempt to start such a guild. But I'm sure someone trying to start say a Christian Right guild, or a Pro Life guild, would meet similar opposition. If you want to form a social group regarding such things, there are plenty of more appropriate places to do it than in a fantasy world game.
An interesting point. By that same notion, I don't really choose a religion. I have a certain connection with God, I feel it, it's there, it predates even the notion of religion in my life. I can only assume it would be the same for someone being gay or straight or bi - they choose their behavior, but the preference itself is sort of built in.
However, I totally side with Blizzard on this topic. Starting a guild themed around any sexual topic is crass at best, openly advertising it in a public chat window is unwanted by the majority of the WoW community, and violates the ToS signed by the player base every time the game is updated. In different games this might be completely acceptable, I would approve of this in a game such as the Sims Online. But this is Warcraft. There's no sex in your violence.
So I read the article - as well as some comments below - help me understand where it says they are removing functionality? It looked to me like they said they are replacing the code?
If they are in fact removing the feature, count me one on the bandwagon that I'm not about to give up a feature I use just because Microsoft was dishonest.
Herein lies the catch though - they can take it for free because it has no value yet. Give consumers the right and ability to sell it, and suddenly the act of taking the information unknowingly from a user becomes stealing! Brilliant, I hope this takes off:)
I'm glad to see this got shot down immediately. Kid's access to violence, and what they learn from it, is entirely up to good parenting. Leave the government to worry about things we pay the government to worry about, like counter terrorism, instead of trying to step on our freedom all the time.
Bare in mind this is 18000 cumulative over several months, this wasn't like they busted the big cartel in Gotham or something. Personally I'm glad, I've seen these bots running in the game and most players are at the concensus that when they see one, they will report the player, and from what I've seen, the player gets banned. Bliz makes 50 bucks (actually more maybe, they also get the days left on the character's subscription too. For me it's aggrivating to see someone running a bot to build up a character that I will pvp against one day - it's like playing Diablo an not hacking.:\
"About time someone gives the recording industry the middle finger".....
Ok, while I agree with the statement, a 5 - Insightful?!?!.....
There seems to be a growing trend that you can do anything legally as long as you live in the right country at the time : abortion, file sharing, pot smoking, drinking under 21, euthanasia - all legal but in differing countries. Oh, and none of them in the self proclaimed land of the free.
Oh, the ole days were the best!
I still load up some river city ransom or FF1 from time to time.
But who are you kidding about a clear concience? I paid the game's author a long time ago. I can't help it the system it was designed for went to hardware heaven. I've always been a fan of PC emulators, they allow players access to games that were never released in their countries, and add additional functionality like save states, screenshots, graphics interpolation, etc.
Regarding the end game content, yes it's lacking, and a lot of people are giving Blizzard heat for it. More is in development, there are two new dungeons slated for release in the next patch even, but it's pretty limited considering they offer no other way to improve your character. I don't mind group play, after all it is an MMO, but there has to be more content to keep interest.
As far as the class development system, I actually like the way Blizzard has done things, and it's success can be seen in the way SOE's Star Wars Galaxies is emulating their concept. Players have talent points to customize, but a completely skill based enhancement system would just degenerate into more grinding than anything else. (Grinding, for the non-nerds here, is the process of gaining XP or a skill by redoing the same thing for a long time.)
I have seen it's growth personally in the office, and a lot of initially bored players that strayed to EQ, SWG, DAOC, etc. are coming back. Not all of them, but more and more are joining the crack club.
Slashdot Mirror
I know when the time attack movies were posted on albinoblacksheep, showing someone beating Super Mario 3 in like 3 minutes, I was impressed enough to watch, and to show it off to friends, and found most of them impressed too.
But even beyond the admiration of superior skill, people will watch anything in the proper setting. People will watch golf, bowling, billiards, hell there's about 100 olympic sports based on jumping in the air, every one receiving mad publicity.
I think it could be viewed on a variety of levels too. Some would watch just because the graphis/sounds were cool, some would watch to admire the skills of the players, some in the hopes of teaching themselves the skills used by the players. Just like most sports broadcasts.
I think this will do well here, as it appears already to do in some Asian settings.
"In order to help push current-gen sales, EA is slashing prices on some of its upcoming titles. For instance, two of EA's most anticipated titles, The Godfather (March 14) and Black (February 28), will retail for $39.95."
That's what we call spin. What they really wanted to say is:
"Having reviewed testers' opinion on our upcoming games, we realise they stand no chance of being successful. Subsequently we will attempt to sell off as many copies at $40 as possible before the public wisens up to this."
Take Hacker:Elite - released a couple years back at 30 dollars to start. Box looked great, concept sounded great, game itself was short and ultimately pretty dull. Fortunately these days anyone with google, 4th grade reading comprehension, and enough patience to wait a day, can tell if a game sucks or not without blowing 30-50 dollars on it.
A bank teller also has access to manipulate or delete all of a client's banking records. That doesn't excuse the abuse of that access. Perhaps the internet access is set up for certain people, or to visit a limited selection of external websites, such as a credit reporting site. Having not worked at the particular bank, I can only speculate.
On a less "Banks screw their employees over" note, banks store sensitive financial data for 1000s of people. If they have a policy for their employees not to surf the web, and that policy were in place to prevent trojans/sniffers from infecting their systems, I could see letting a few employees go to preserve their clients trust.
Hmm, so the makers of Morrowind are taking a stab at Fallout. This will either end in glory or mass suicide.
Don't get me wrong, I loved Morrowind, and I loved Fallout, but I worry anytime someone buys someone elses baby and tries to run with it.
Fallout 2 was one of, if not the, best open ended RPGs out there. I never did finish it though. The farthest I got with with a pugilist (I poured points into Hand to Hand), which while requiring a good deal of reloads when combat didn't go quite right, was in fact the funnest and funniest rpg I ever played. For all the streetfighter II, there was nothing quite like critically kicking an alien in the eyeball, blinding it, knocking it back 100 meters, and ultimately killing it in one cruel blow.
Somehow, with all it's 3d skill/stat/level/3cd/2expansion, Morrowind never could hold a candle to this rpg. I'm now itchin to reinstall it:)
So if you read the whole article, you'll find he admits he just over level 40. He's yet to experience any of this "endgame letdown" that some look at and quit WoW over. WoW focused most of their energies on creating a fantastic 1-60 game, with plans to develop the endgame later, aonce there were a great number of 60s. So yea, the endgame has a "wait here, and kill a billion beetles if you're bored" kind of feel to it, but on the other hand, there are lots of players that don't want folks at the end of the game to be able to amass even more power, considering they all pvp on the same battlefields. And you can't argue with the numbers, good game or bad, it's sold 5 million copies, which means Blizzard as a company has done well for itself.
Quite the contrary. MUDs have existed long before the MMO, and may long after, surviving solely on player donations and time from coders who do it as a hobby instead of a lifestyle. And from everything I've seen, they are actually more stable under most circumstances given equal numbers of players than top certain snowy top notch MMOs in the current playing field.
Simply put though, a 3-D graphic intensive world is more visually intensive and stimulating, and thus easier to emerse oneself in. And that is what the average MMO player is looking for, emersion in a world more fun than their present one.
Alrighty, so Philbo hasn't been adding value to the guild recently, so I think we're gonna marginalize him. And as an action item for next week, we need people to start coming up with out of the box ways to proactively increase our headcount for Molten Core. See you next time!
Please, tell me 1up did this as a sick joke.
The sad part to me is that we are over there mainly because they threaten to blow stuff up. It's not human rights, it's our own security. The warlords in Africa that killed 400,000 people last year are still in power, because no one is blowing anything up. So the message we are basically sending to the rest of the third world nations is you have to blow something up first, then we'll oust the corrupt dictators in your countries and give you a chance.
Bah - what western hackers? Most wanna be hackers I know borrow scripts from the Germans.
I played the trial, and loved it and the concept at first. I've read the stories posted here and elsewhere about the billion isk scandals, awesome I thought.
My problem with the game was that my accomplishments did not translate into a stronger character, only more resources. Even were I to do something really savvy and make a billion isk during the 14 day trial, I realised there was no way I could possibly reach a high enough skill level to fly something cool, because of the way skills are acquired in the game (you acquire skills by training them, which occurs constantly, even in or out of the game, but it takes several real life days, even over a month, to train some of the higher skills). So basically the game rewards longevity over skillful play. As I observe having to spend several real months doing nothing before I can play the game, and the reality that I have to pay per month to do nothing, the trial was promptly uninstalled.
I hear a lot of players quote that the game gets more fun as you invest more time into it. But to me, enjoying a game should not be a chore I have to work towards. It should be a part of the game.
"Dear Mr. Born with Religious Inklings, Thank you! You admit you can't help being religious, now please talk your fellow churchgoers into admitting that I can't help not being religious and tell them they're wasting their time trying to recruit^H^Hconvert^H^Hsave me... Thank you in advance, Happy Apathetic Agnostic " I never said I go to church, or even was Christian, but I support your right to feel in whatever way you do about a supreme being - you will in fact never catch me bash even the most rightmost Christian or stalwart athiest for their divine beliefs.
You show me a homosexual marriage that produces phat epic lewt, and I'll show you a gay marriage the WoW community is ready to back!
On a more serious note, sex has no place in this game. A man can hug other men, he can commit his life to serving another man, but unless he plans on having sex with another man, there is absolutely no good reason to bring up that fact that he is gay. The same goes really for bringing up the fact that you are straight. Someone that ran around ironforge going "zomg I'm straight, I bang girlz!" would receive the same cold stfu from the WoW community as the GLBT group did. Announcing your sexual preference in a room potentially filled with children is disgusting.
The internet browser is free. MS makes no money on it. What is their motivation to put out a new version of IE as opposed to something like say, MS Office, where they make 100-300 bucks a pop on it?
Or a new OS?
I've yet to see someone attempt to start such a guild. But I'm sure someone trying to start say a Christian Right guild, or a Pro Life guild, would meet similar opposition. If you want to form a social group regarding such things, there are plenty of more appropriate places to do it than in a fantasy world game.
An interesting point. By that same notion, I don't really choose a religion. I have a certain connection with God, I feel it, it's there, it predates even the notion of religion in my life. I can only assume it would be the same for someone being gay or straight or bi - they choose their behavior, but the preference itself is sort of built in.
However, I totally side with Blizzard on this topic. Starting a guild themed around any sexual topic is crass at best, openly advertising it in a public chat window is unwanted by the majority of the WoW community, and violates the ToS signed by the player base every time the game is updated. In different games this might be completely acceptable, I would approve of this in a game such as the Sims Online. But this is Warcraft. There's no sex in your violence.
So I read the article - as well as some comments below - help me understand where it says they are removing functionality? It looked to me like they said they are replacing the code?
If they are in fact removing the feature, count me one on the bandwagon that I'm not about to give up a feature I use just because Microsoft was dishonest.
Herein lies the catch though - they can take it for free because it has no value yet. Give consumers the right and ability to sell it, and suddenly the act of taking the information unknowingly from a user becomes stealing! Brilliant, I hope this takes off:)
Someone just smashed french, military, and police together in the same sentence, and claims to be an advocate of firefox?!
I'm glad to see this got shot down immediately. Kid's access to violence, and what they learn from it, is entirely up to good parenting. Leave the government to worry about things we pay the government to worry about, like counter terrorism, instead of trying to step on our freedom all the time.
Bare in mind this is 18000 cumulative over several months, this wasn't like they busted the big cartel in Gotham or something. Personally I'm glad, I've seen these bots running in the game and most players are at the concensus that when they see one, they will report the player, and from what I've seen, the player gets banned. Bliz makes 50 bucks (actually more maybe, they also get the days left on the character's subscription too. For me it's aggrivating to see someone running a bot to build up a character that I will pvp against one day - it's like playing Diablo an not hacking. :\
"About time someone gives the recording industry the middle finger" .....
Ok, while I agree with the statement, a 5 - Insightful?!?! .....
There seems to be a growing trend that you can do anything legally as long as you live in the right country at the time : abortion, file sharing, pot smoking, drinking under 21, euthanasia - all legal but in differing countries. Oh, and none of them in the self proclaimed land of the free.
Oh, the ole days were the best! I still load up some river city ransom or FF1 from time to time. But who are you kidding about a clear concience? I paid the game's author a long time ago. I can't help it the system it was designed for went to hardware heaven. I've always been a fan of PC emulators, they allow players access to games that were never released in their countries, and add additional functionality like save states, screenshots, graphics interpolation, etc.
Regarding the end game content, yes it's lacking, and a lot of people are giving Blizzard heat for it. More is in development, there are two new dungeons slated for release in the next patch even, but it's pretty limited considering they offer no other way to improve your character. I don't mind group play, after all it is an MMO, but there has to be more content to keep interest. As far as the class development system, I actually like the way Blizzard has done things, and it's success can be seen in the way SOE's Star Wars Galaxies is emulating their concept. Players have talent points to customize, but a completely skill based enhancement system would just degenerate into more grinding than anything else. (Grinding, for the non-nerds here, is the process of gaining XP or a skill by redoing the same thing for a long time.) I have seen it's growth personally in the office, and a lot of initially bored players that strayed to EQ, SWG, DAOC, etc. are coming back. Not all of them, but more and more are joining the crack club.