Sorry, but this article is pure drivel. Since when does being less popular and prevalent in the market equal moral standards? Apple is no different than any other corporation. Give them money and they're happy. The real reason Apple doesn't dive into the gaming market is because Apples don't offer any drastic advantages over PCs in that arena, and until they do, Apple doesn't have enough market share to get the big business of gaming interested in developing a game solely for Macs.
Game Publisher: "Hmm... I can get hundreds of millions by releasing this on PC, or I may hit two or three million by going for the Mac market."
How come every time I see a picture of Jack Thompson it looks like he's pinching a rather large and stubborn loaf?
In all seriousness, I'd like to see just how many "video gamers" were convicted of shooting someone in the face.
I'd also like to see how many people have been shot in the face prior to violent video games. Throw in how many violent crimes were committed in the US since the advent of violent video games vs. prior to violent video games. Add to that the average yearly income of the person responsible for a violent crime who is not a dependent, and see if they could even afford video games. Add to that a demographic study of who plays video games vs. a demographic study of who commits violent crimes. And one more thing... Take the demographic of video gamers and see how many people in that demographic have actually committed violent crimes.
I'd be very interested to see the results of THAT study. I imagine Mr. Thompson, however, would not.
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Read:
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from jocks, jerks and bullies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor, who got the sh*t kicked out of him every day for wanting to be a gender studies professor.
I say citizens angered over the dictatorial control of the MPAA over the film industry ban together in a digg/slashdot style of movie ratings. Maybe it'll get popular enough to earn a place among national MPAA ratings of movies, and perhaps even supercede them on major turkeys.
Rotten Tomatoes is kind of like that already, true, but you won't see any movie touting "This film is rated "Rotten" by Rotten Tomatoes.com. This needs to be a little more objective, a similar rating system to the MPAA, with a corresponding web evaluation that includes basic reviews, and perhaps even a feed of the Rotten Tomatoes rating.
How to do this, I'm not 100% sure... How do we supercede the MPAA rating system and gain that kind of clout? How do we justify that we're dissatisfied with the current system and want a new one? Once we do this, how do we prevent it from becoming another MPAA?
If we can solve those problems, I'd say it's worth a try.
Er... Well, I think I still haven't gotten across what I meant by "Classics." Classical literature falls into the category of Greek and Roman canon. I happen to like some of the Greek plays (e.g. Lysistrata). The Classic designation goes with those books that you find in Barnes & Noble, published by them, i.e. Dickens, the Brontës, Melville, etc.
Besides some of the classic Greek comedies, a play called Everyman was very interesting to me and the subject of more than one paper... A few 16th century pieces including Moore's Utopia and The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus.
I had more American literature classes than any other, just by sheer coincidence... Some of the more interesting pieces were by HP Lovecraft. And I must confess a love for the works of Poe, even though he falls into the canon very much on the Classic side of things.
Okay, so maybe I was a little too general in saying I despise all classics.
1. Not all literature before 1950 is considered "Classic." When I address the "Classics," I'm referring to the literary canon laid out by professors and scholars as worth reading and valuable. I don't share their opinions about a great deal of this canon, especially when you consider the much-revered Charles Dickens wrote longwinded literature because he was paid by the word.
2. I originally started out as a Computer Science major, and quickly discovered that I didn't want to program for the rest of my life. So, I promptly moved out of that degree program into one that more befit something I enjoyed doing: writing. Since there was a writing specialization within the English BA program, that's what I ended up with. Now, I'm a technical writer for a software company that develops mortgage software.
I have a BA in English. I can remember a few of my classmates who were a semester ahead of me in credits, and ended up in a Senior Seminar course with one of the most respected and well-liked professors of the English department (with good reason, he is an excellent professor). Unfortunately, for both him and the students, he chose Moby Dick as the subject for this seminar course. I never heard so many students turn on a good professor so quickly, and look so dejected and defeated after class every day.
Pick something a little more upbeat and of interest than Moby Dick, please.
P.S. - Even with an English degree, I still very much DESPISE the classics.
Click in browser address bar | "www.amazon.com" | Enter Key - 1 click
Click in User Name box | "loginame" | Tab | "Password" | Click Login button | - 2 clicks
Click in search box | "Author Name" | Click search button - 2 clicks
Click on search result | Click on "1-Click Purchase" button - 2 clicks
Total number of clicks requrie to use Amazon.com's 1-Click system : 7
Time to bring a false advertising suit.
But IF... IF this spying program is meant to protect Americans from potential terrorist attacks, wouldn't it be better AS public knowledge?
Wouldn't the terrorists just say, "Crap, they know about it! Call it off."
I suppose the other side of that coin would be to carry out an attack sooner rather than later, but seriously people.
At this point, all of the efforts to cover up this info leads me to believe that they're covering up nothing more than actions which they know are illegal. Everything thus far has been found to be domestic, so unless there are some SERIOUSLY large factions under the radar of the common man among us plotting an overthrow of the government, there is no justification for any of it.
I don't care about price. The 360's future is uncertain. I hate Sony. I want a next-gen console. The Wii it is. Plus, I have a great deal more respect for Nintendo than either Sony or Microsoft. Sony's showing at E3? An expensive console with not a whole lot of interesting changes. Better graphics? Big deal. I want something different, not a more powerful incarnation of the PS2. A poorly implemented response to the Wii-mote? Not impressed. We've all seen the 360, and if it survives, I may eventually pick one up. But I haven't bought a console at release ever in my gaming life. I have a feeling the Wii might be the one that's actually worth it. And that's what'll make me buy the Wii.
If these systems use bluetooth, I'll just bring my Wii-mote on board with a bluetooth headset to talk to the tower. Bingo, I'm in control. Who needs flight simulator or a laptop?
One of the biggest changes in Factions is the new Tutorial sequence - the "newbie" area. In old version in Prophecies only gave you a few abilities, and you were put out of it around level 7.
Obviously, you never went Charr farming north of the wall... I actually took a character out of Pre-searing at level 16 once. But that was a several-week-long grind. I guess I was bored with life:)
Oh, man... College databases for stuff like this suck right now...
If I could've had all of the books available to me for which the copyright had long since run out when I was in college... *Drools*
Then! If they had made a database of books that no one would read except for research purposes for which the copyrights were still in place that had to be licensed, but you got access to for being a student...
Well. I would've done a lot better in college if I had had something like that. I hate libraries.
PS: You're insane to ship anything softer than a cast-iron safe through UPS. Seriously.
Oh, believe me, the same is true of FedEx. I've seen more than one Alienware tower dropped from a height of several feet on to the concrete floor of our terminal.
FedEx was glad to help out on the test, I'm sure, but there's no way FedEx is going to let these dogs sniff every package.
I worked at a FedEx sort facility as a package handler for a few months, and I'll tell you right now, those packages sit still for a total of 5 seconds once those trailers are opened. They go from the trailer to the belt, to the package handler, to the drivers, in the truck and out the door. No drivers are going to stand there and let a dog sniff out every package for a potential DVDs, especially if they have an appointment delivery to keep.
I can remember mornings when trailers were late in getting to the terminal by five minutes and those drivers were whining so much it wasn't even funny. Now, I suppose they could be sniffed at some other point, but any delay will smear FedEx's "The World on Time" image. They're not going to be willing to do that, nor any other shipping company.
Besides, if they do cooperate, just ship it through the mail, or UPS, or DHL.
Not that I condone in any way the illegal distribution of copied movies.
Not that I condone the invasion of privacy either.
I got into an argument with a friend over this. He says that the nude art files were "included on the disc, but never accesible in the game" and that's why the ESRB changed the rating. I thought he just hadn't seen this gamespot article and didn't know, but is the statement here just cleverly worded to make it SOUND like someone added in the nude mod? For example:
FTFA: "...modders have used a third party tool to hack into and modify an art archive file to make it possible to create a mesh for a partially nude (topless) female that they add into the game."
Does this mean they assemble the nude mesh from art files Bethesda created and then add that mesh to the game?
Or does that mean that they added a nude mesh that was made from a graphically altered art file by a third-party modder to appear nude?
My question is, is there a nude file on the disc that was never used, or did someone take an art file that normally applies to female characters and add their own bared mammaries?
With all the arguments against file sharing and peer to peer networks, I feel it is my duty to alert the RIAA, the MPAA and all who would oppose such methods of distribution of a much greater threat to their industry. Indeed, this is a threat that all industries and businesses should consider.
This particular threat has been around for a much greater interval than file sharing. It is so insidious that is has become what I might call a staple in daily American life.
Not only does this threat encourage file sharing, but it also encourages theft, and indeed, crime, in general. This threat is the human hand.
Without the human hand, no one could use a mouse interface or a keyboard to even utilize file sharing clients.
Without the human hand, there would be no five-finger discount. No one could so precisely grip any desired item to pilfer it from retailers without the human hand.
Without the human hand, no one could grip any kind of harmful weapon with the intention of using it against other people.
Without the human hand, no one could administer harmful narcotics to themselves or use any kind of drug in general.
I believe the first step in combating this issue would be to ban the opposable thumb. Gripping precision would be reduced considerably, thereby making any crime more difficult.
Law enforcement take notice: you can adapt RIAA and MPAA strategies to this process as well! Using basic surveilance methods, find people who use their hands in a way that affects the lives of others, and upon discovery of such activity, slap... Er... Not "slap"... That has to do with hands... Hit! Yes, hit works. Hit them with a lawsuit claiming that they have the potential to do serious harm with their hands, as they have been monitored using them in a way that affects others.
This is a serious threat to civilization! Hands everywhere are capable of commiting any offense, therefore they must be eliminated!
...portraying men as beer-drinking sports maniacs are encouraging that type of behavior as well... Movies reduce our sensitivity to violence... Running lab tests on rats causes cancer... You get the idea.
Sorry, but the world has weathered greater problems than man in the past. Ice age? Axed it. Huge flood? Survived it. Giant dinosaur-killing asteroid? Kept it together. Selfish consumption of fossil fuels and natural resources? Perhaps that one hasn't been around before, but you know what, I'm not too worried about what the planet will do about it. Besides, these are only the warmest temperatures in RECORDED history. Who knows what other circumstances have befallen our little blue marble in aeons past? I'd be less worried about global warming and more worried about a natural phenomenon inevitably in the works at this moment: the reversal of the magnetic poles. Without the magnetic field's deflection of radiation, cancer rates will rise like crazy, and unfortunately it takes upwards of 6 MILLENIA for the magnetic field to stabilize again. Forgive me if I balk at the validity of global warming.
Only thing is, Sega WAS better. Technically. The Genesis had better hardware than SNES, and all of the important games were on both systems.
Now, Sega Master system Vs. NES... Well. NES had better games.
I can still own multiple next gen consoles. I'll just do what I did this time: wait until the NEXT nextgen consoles are starting to make a buzz in the news and the prices of the OLD nextgen consoles drops to $150 used. By then the good games will be cheap, the console battle will be over for that generation and I'll know which one to buy, and all I have to do is thank the early adopters for conducting the best type of market study out there: the real one.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, they're trying to beat Digg to that market. http://www.valleywag.com/tech/digg/scoop-exclusive -screenshots-reveal-digg-v3-will-cover-all-news-18 0760.php
We're certainly not motivated by that amount of money...
Apparently, you're not motivated by any amount of money. Like, say, profits from sales, for example. Just a thought.
Sorry, but this article is pure drivel. Since when does being less popular and prevalent in the market equal moral standards? Apple is no different than any other corporation. Give them money and they're happy. The real reason Apple doesn't dive into the gaming market is because Apples don't offer any drastic advantages over PCs in that arena, and until they do, Apple doesn't have enough market share to get the big business of gaming interested in developing a game solely for Macs.
Game Publisher: "Hmm... I can get hundreds of millions by releasing this on PC, or I may hit two or three million by going for the Mac market."
No brainer there.
How come every time I see a picture of Jack Thompson it looks like he's pinching a rather large and stubborn loaf?
In all seriousness, I'd like to see just how many "video gamers" were convicted of shooting someone in the face.
I'd also like to see how many people have been shot in the face prior to violent video games. Throw in how many violent crimes were committed in the US since the advent of violent video games vs. prior to violent video games. Add to that the average yearly income of the person responsible for a violent crime who is not a dependent, and see if they could even afford video games. Add to that a demographic study of who plays video games vs. a demographic study of who commits violent crimes. And one more thing... Take the demographic of video gamers and see how many people in that demographic have actually committed violent crimes.
I'd be very interested to see the results of THAT study. I imagine Mr. Thompson, however, would not.
I think Russia is more likely to flip the bird to the WTO than give in to American corporate pressures.
... Er, wait. Forget I said that. *cough*oilinIraq*cough*
Besides, since when do American corporate ideals drive foreign policy?
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from video games, cartoons and movies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor.
Read:
Men involved in fight clubs often carry bottled-up violent impulses learned in childhood from jocks, jerks and bullies, said Michael Messner, a University of Southern California sociology and gender studies professor, who got the sh*t kicked out of him every day for wanting to be a gender studies professor.
Man, give me them good ol' fashioned static cartoons!
I say citizens angered over the dictatorial control of the MPAA over the film industry ban together in a digg/slashdot style of movie ratings. Maybe it'll get popular enough to earn a place among national MPAA ratings of movies, and perhaps even supercede them on major turkeys.
Rotten Tomatoes is kind of like that already, true, but you won't see any movie touting "This film is rated "Rotten" by Rotten Tomatoes.com. This needs to be a little more objective, a similar rating system to the MPAA, with a corresponding web evaluation that includes basic reviews, and perhaps even a feed of the Rotten Tomatoes rating.
How to do this, I'm not 100% sure... How do we supercede the MPAA rating system and gain that kind of clout? How do we justify that we're dissatisfied with the current system and want a new one? Once we do this, how do we prevent it from becoming another MPAA?
If we can solve those problems, I'd say it's worth a try.
Er... Well, I think I still haven't gotten across what I meant by "Classics." Classical literature falls into the category of Greek and Roman canon. I happen to like some of the Greek plays (e.g. Lysistrata). The Classic designation goes with those books that you find in Barnes & Noble, published by them, i.e. Dickens, the Brontës, Melville, etc.
Besides some of the classic Greek comedies, a play called Everyman was very interesting to me and the subject of more than one paper... A few 16th century pieces including Moore's Utopia and The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus.
I had more American literature classes than any other, just by sheer coincidence... Some of the more interesting pieces were by HP Lovecraft. And I must confess a love for the works of Poe, even though he falls into the canon very much on the Classic side of things.
Okay, so maybe I was a little too general in saying I despise all classics.
There's a very simple explanation, actually.
1. Not all literature before 1950 is considered "Classic." When I address the "Classics," I'm referring to the literary canon laid out by professors and scholars as worth reading and valuable. I don't share their opinions about a great deal of this canon, especially when you consider the much-revered Charles Dickens wrote longwinded literature because he was paid by the word.
2. I originally started out as a Computer Science major, and quickly discovered that I didn't want to program for the rest of my life. So, I promptly moved out of that degree program into one that more befit something I enjoyed doing: writing. Since there was a writing specialization within the English BA program, that's what I ended up with. Now, I'm a technical writer for a software company that develops mortgage software.
Sufficient explanation? Or shall we go again?
I have a BA in English. I can remember a few of my classmates who were a semester ahead of me in credits, and ended up in a Senior Seminar course with one of the most respected and well-liked professors of the English department (with good reason, he is an excellent professor). Unfortunately, for both him and the students, he chose Moby Dick as the subject for this seminar course. I never heard so many students turn on a good professor so quickly, and look so dejected and defeated after class every day.
Pick something a little more upbeat and of interest than Moby Dick, please.
P.S. - Even with an English degree, I still very much DESPISE the classics.
Click in browser address bar | "www.amazon.com" | Enter Key - 1 click Click in User Name box | "loginame" | Tab | "Password" | Click Login button | - 2 clicks Click in search box | "Author Name" | Click search button - 2 clicks Click on search result | Click on "1-Click Purchase" button - 2 clicks Total number of clicks requrie to use Amazon.com's 1-Click system : 7 Time to bring a false advertising suit.
But IF... IF this spying program is meant to protect Americans from potential terrorist attacks, wouldn't it be better AS public knowledge?
Wouldn't the terrorists just say, "Crap, they know about it! Call it off."
I suppose the other side of that coin would be to carry out an attack sooner rather than later, but seriously people.
At this point, all of the efforts to cover up this info leads me to believe that they're covering up nothing more than actions which they know are illegal. Everything thus far has been found to be domestic, so unless there are some SERIOUSLY large factions under the radar of the common man among us plotting an overthrow of the government, there is no justification for any of it.
I don't care about price. The 360's future is uncertain. I hate Sony. I want a next-gen console. The Wii it is. Plus, I have a great deal more respect for Nintendo than either Sony or Microsoft. Sony's showing at E3? An expensive console with not a whole lot of interesting changes. Better graphics? Big deal. I want something different, not a more powerful incarnation of the PS2. A poorly implemented response to the Wii-mote? Not impressed. We've all seen the 360, and if it survives, I may eventually pick one up. But I haven't bought a console at release ever in my gaming life. I have a feeling the Wii might be the one that's actually worth it. And that's what'll make me buy the Wii.
If these systems use bluetooth, I'll just bring my Wii-mote on board with a bluetooth headset to talk to the tower. Bingo, I'm in control. Who needs flight simulator or a laptop?
One of the biggest changes in Factions is the new Tutorial sequence - the "newbie" area. In old version in Prophecies only gave you a few abilities, and you were put out of it around level 7.
:)
Obviously, you never went Charr farming north of the wall... I actually took a character out of Pre-searing at level 16 once. But that was a several-week-long grind. I guess I was bored with life
Oh, man... College databases for stuff like this suck right now...
If I could've had all of the books available to me for which the copyright had long since run out when I was in college... *Drools*
Then! If they had made a database of books that no one would read except for research purposes for which the copyrights were still in place that had to be licensed, but you got access to for being a student...
Well. I would've done a lot better in college if I had had something like that. I hate libraries.
PS: You're insane to ship anything softer than a cast-iron safe through UPS. Seriously.
Oh, believe me, the same is true of FedEx. I've seen more than one Alienware tower dropped from a height of several feet on to the concrete floor of our terminal.
FedEx was glad to help out on the test, I'm sure, but there's no way FedEx is going to let these dogs sniff every package.
I worked at a FedEx sort facility as a package handler for a few months, and I'll tell you right now, those packages sit still for a total of 5 seconds once those trailers are opened. They go from the trailer to the belt, to the package handler, to the drivers, in the truck and out the door. No drivers are going to stand there and let a dog sniff out every package for a potential DVDs, especially if they have an appointment delivery to keep.
I can remember mornings when trailers were late in getting to the terminal by five minutes and those drivers were whining so much it wasn't even funny. Now, I suppose they could be sniffed at some other point, but any delay will smear FedEx's "The World on Time" image. They're not going to be willing to do that, nor any other shipping company.
Besides, if they do cooperate, just ship it through the mail, or UPS, or DHL.
Not that I condone in any way the illegal distribution of copied movies.
Not that I condone the invasion of privacy either.
It's just a lose-lose situation all around.
Okay, someone clarify here.
I got into an argument with a friend over this. He says that the nude art files were "included on the disc, but never accesible in the game" and that's why the ESRB changed the rating. I thought he just hadn't seen this gamespot article and didn't know, but is the statement here just cleverly worded to make it SOUND like someone added in the nude mod? For example:
FTFA:
"...modders have used a third party tool to hack into and modify an art archive file to make it possible to create a mesh for a partially nude (topless) female that they add into the game."
Does this mean they assemble the nude mesh from art files Bethesda created and then add that mesh to the game?
Or does that mean that they added a nude mesh that was made from a graphically altered art file by a third-party modder to appear nude?
My question is, is there a nude file on the disc that was never used, or did someone take an art file that normally applies to female characters and add their own bared mammaries?
With all the arguments against file sharing and peer to peer networks, I feel it is my duty to alert the RIAA, the MPAA and all who would oppose such methods of distribution of a much greater threat to their industry. Indeed, this is a threat that all industries and businesses should consider.
This particular threat has been around for a much greater interval than file sharing. It is so insidious that is has become what I might call a staple in daily American life.
Not only does this threat encourage file sharing, but it also encourages theft, and indeed, crime, in general. This threat is the human hand.
Without the human hand, no one could use a mouse interface or a keyboard to even utilize file sharing clients.
Without the human hand, there would be no five-finger discount. No one could so precisely grip any desired item to pilfer it from retailers without the human hand.
Without the human hand, no one could grip any kind of harmful weapon with the intention of using it against other people.
Without the human hand, no one could administer harmful narcotics to themselves or use any kind of drug in general.
I believe the first step in combating this issue would be to ban the opposable thumb. Gripping precision would be reduced considerably, thereby making any crime more difficult.
Law enforcement take notice: you can adapt RIAA and MPAA strategies to this process as well! Using basic surveilance methods, find people who use their hands in a way that affects the lives of others, and upon discovery of such activity, slap... Er... Not "slap"... That has to do with hands... Hit! Yes, hit works. Hit them with a lawsuit claiming that they have the potential to do serious harm with their hands, as they have been monitored using them in a way that affects others.
This is a serious threat to civilization! Hands everywhere are capable of commiting any offense, therefore they must be eliminated!
...portraying men as beer-drinking sports maniacs are encouraging that type of behavior as well... Movies reduce our sensitivity to violence... Running lab tests on rats causes cancer... You get the idea.
Sorry, but the world has weathered greater problems than man in the past. Ice age? Axed it. Huge flood? Survived it. Giant dinosaur-killing asteroid? Kept it together. Selfish consumption of fossil fuels and natural resources? Perhaps that one hasn't been around before, but you know what, I'm not too worried about what the planet will do about it. Besides, these are only the warmest temperatures in RECORDED history. Who knows what other circumstances have befallen our little blue marble in aeons past? I'd be less worried about global warming and more worried about a natural phenomenon inevitably in the works at this moment: the reversal of the magnetic poles. Without the magnetic field's deflection of radiation, cancer rates will rise like crazy, and unfortunately it takes upwards of 6 MILLENIA for the magnetic field to stabilize again. Forgive me if I balk at the validity of global warming.
Only thing is, Sega WAS better. Technically. The Genesis had better hardware than SNES, and all of the important games were on both systems. Now, Sega Master system Vs. NES... Well. NES had better games.
I can still own multiple next gen consoles. I'll just do what I did this time: wait until the NEXT nextgen consoles are starting to make a buzz in the news and the prices of the OLD nextgen consoles drops to $150 used. By then the good games will be cheap, the console battle will be over for that generation and I'll know which one to buy, and all I have to do is thank the early adopters for conducting the best type of market study out there: the real one.