I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet. Here's the link to the slot machine via the manufacturer's website:
http://www.wms.com/Games/AdaptiveGaming/Pages/TheLordoftheRings.aspx
The machine has fixed betting amounts but can also save your progress if you let it. You start in the Shire and gradually gain miles as you go. (When I played the miles seemed to be granted manually but there might have been some metric I wasn't aware of.) The reels themselves are about what you'd expect, random symbols and face portraits. The big appeal is ultimately the themed mini games (which you can view on the site). It's more enjoyable than some of the older generically themed slot machines but the preset bets weren't my thing.
On the whole, it's not really different from the Star Trek/Stargate/Princess Bride/Ghostbusters/any other licensed slot machine. At the end of the day, it's just there to take your money.:)
So if we apply the new name to the previous Slashdot articles we get:
EA Reveals Madden For Wii
"Electronic Arts has officially revealed that it's working on a standalone version of its Madden football franchise for Nintendo Wii"
Nintendo Promises 3rd Party Support
"Eurogamer reports on claims by George Harrison (NoA's Senior VP for Marketing) that the Wii will feature extensive third-party support in the coming..."
(Look it's Elmer Fudd!)
20 Titles At Wii Launch
Next Generation reports that NOA's George Harrison expects there to be 20 titles for the system at the Wii launch. From the article: "The other thing we...
(Sounds like a tiny release party, eh?)
You Say You Want A Wii?
"Looks like the first hard info on a Wii game has hit the internet. The game, from Ubisoft, is called Red Steel. It's a FPS where the..."
(Bathroom is the second door on your left...)
I understand what you're saying and I agree with it. The fact of the matter is that this all comes down to intent.
When I was in school things weren't "gay" they were "retarded" or "lame". People called people "speds" which was short of "special education." Clearly, this was un-pc but we were kids so we did this. However, none of it was said with genuine malice or offense. There were people in my school who were in the "special education program" and I'd say 95% of the students were polite and nice to them and not in the condescending way. For us, it was the rule, not the exception.
Now. Look at African Americans who can call each other "n*gger" and not take offense. Now, some members of the populace do because they think its demeaning. Other people don't care. Another example is the phrase, "N*gga please" which has taken on its own meaning and jumped the color gap. White, I mean, Caucasian, I mean, European-Americans (?) say this now. Is it okay to call something "gay" if you're not homophobic in the slightest? Or is this something only certain people of the population are allowed to say? I'm not saying it's completely a YMMV thing but it's hard to stuff everyone under one blanket.
The GLBT community has accepted a lot of formerly deragatory terms into their vernacular. Remember when "dyke" was offensive and now women in comfortable shoes go around saying it like no tomorrow-- even correcting people. Yes, we should be teaching political correctness but we also need to realize that not every use is meant as a flame or a personal attack or a racist comment. What one person finds as rude, another might find correct for the exact opposite reason. (Remember when you couldn't call your friends parents by their first names?) You can't please everyone...
This reminds me of the blog about the American who went to teach English in Japan. He had a female coworker who learned English from South Park and swore worse than any sailor because of it. You can read about his experiences on blog
And this is why cartoons aren't the best place to teach yourself a foreign language.
Pfft, forget the "s" and "th" debate and just stick with the katakana.
Now, it'll be interesting to see what Square does with the Tseng/Zeng thing-- oh wait, the U.S. isn't getting "Last Order" released so it's a non issue.
Although, the name swapping for "Shera" and "Sierra" will be interesting. Since Cid's assistant was "Shera" in the localization and "Sierra" in the Japanese version in and the Advent Children action figures have the new airship labeled as "Sierra". If Squeenix can't make up their mind, why should we. ^_~
Ding, ding, ding, give this man a prize. You've definetly hit the nail on the head here. It's all about marketing and money. Now granted, there are a lot of screen actors that do a good deal of voice acting and do it well. Usually, these are the people with distinct voices like Christopher Lee and the like.
Then, there's the career voice actors who have basically helped out on every cartoon under the sun. They usually have diversity in spades and the average viewer would be hard pressed to hear the difference between their characters.
Then, there's the actors that come in and read lines. That's exactly what Mena Suvari sounds like she was doing when reading for KHII. Ugh. Why bother spending the money to pay a well known actress more when an obscure voice actor can do as good of a job, if not better?
But hey, now companies are hiring actors to do voice overs for 30 second commercial spots and no one in the public even recognizes them. Why? Just why?
Having never played CoH/CoV but having RTFA, it seems like the author has proposed a strange solution to a simple problem. His problem is motivation. There's no in game content availible to him at the moment that's enough to make him keep playing personally and that's understandable. I've had friends quit because they feel they can't keep up and their characters aren't strong enough to do anything. I don't blame them because if you keep staring at the same mobs or you're in the same place that you've been stuck in for the last six levels of your characters life and know that you're going to have to do that for two levels more it just isn't motivating.
What would be fun and cool is if you could get new skills or new quests every level and that you could easily do reach said level in a few hours instead of a few months. It wouldn't even have to be a set skill or rewards. Maybe one level you get a new spell. Maybe one level the reward is a new shirt or a bundle of cash. Perhaps give the player a choice of keeping these Quest items or turning them in for something else so it doesn't feel like you're nothing but a Fed Ex service for medicore gear. (I still maintain the Fulborg rod quest is one of the coolest thing in WoW and it serves no purpose whatsoever.) Perhaps they do nothing to improve your stats or gear but you can get cool things to change or improve your appearance. Vanity works in a lot of games why not MMOs?
If you keep a player busy enough and keep them focused on the short term goal they casual players will be content with the level they're at now and want to reach the next level soon without ever thinking about end game.
I agree with your train of thought when it comes to practicing skills and it can probably be applied in game. I think it would be interesting if you lost skill points in crafting or weaponry if you didn't exercise them after a while. Instead of your unarmed combat level staying at 30 points while you did nothing but pummel things with a swords or daggers, have that value slowly degrade as your other value continued to rise. Therefore you'd have to build up your skills again or rotate weapons every once in a while to keep everything even. (Just like if you used to run a mile a day then quit for six months, you don't immediate get the same time/speed until you've gotten back into the swing of thing.)
As for being a gamer and memorizing commands those are all game tactics that you should pick up as you go along. You level your skill by playing the game, reading forums, asking questions, etc. The more you play the more you'll realize which spells do what they're supposed to and which are just a waste of time/mana.
begin WoW game specific babble/ As for being a 'lock, when it comes to a group you're the debuffer class. (Not to mention wipe insurance and a summoning taxi.) If you're spamming Recklessness and DoTing then you're doing your job. If you want more DPS and don't want to roll a different class, then I suggest you pick up Nightfall and spam Corruption on all the mobs currently engaged with your group which will almost always proc and get you one insta-cast Shadowbolt. Your pets (Imp and Succubus) can help with your DPS output while your Felhunter shuts down casters. You also have more HP than Priest or Mage so you can also help by getting aggro of them in a pinch./end babble
Slashdot Mirror
Mergh. Granted randomly, not manually.
This is what I get for posting before coffee.
I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet. Here's the link to the slot machine via the manufacturer's website: http://www.wms.com/Games/AdaptiveGaming/Pages/TheLordoftheRings.aspx The machine has fixed betting amounts but can also save your progress if you let it. You start in the Shire and gradually gain miles as you go. (When I played the miles seemed to be granted manually but there might have been some metric I wasn't aware of.) The reels themselves are about what you'd expect, random symbols and face portraits. The big appeal is ultimately the themed mini games (which you can view on the site). It's more enjoyable than some of the older generically themed slot machines but the preset bets weren't my thing. On the whole, it's not really different from the Star Trek/Stargate/Princess Bride/Ghostbusters/any other licensed slot machine. At the end of the day, it's just there to take your money. :)
EA Reveals Madden For Wii
"Electronic Arts has officially revealed that it's working on a standalone version of its Madden football franchise for Nintendo Wii"
Nintendo Promises 3rd Party Support
"Eurogamer reports on claims by George Harrison (NoA's Senior VP for Marketing) that the Wii will feature extensive third-party support in the coming..."
(Look it's Elmer Fudd!)
20 Titles At Wii Launch
Next Generation reports that NOA's George Harrison expects there to be 20 titles for the system at the Wii launch. From the article: "The other thing we...
(Sounds like a tiny release party, eh?)
You Say You Want A Wii?
"Looks like the first hard info on a Wii game has hit the internet. The game, from Ubisoft, is called Red Steel. It's a FPS where the..."
(Bathroom is the second door on your left...)
And so on and so on.
When I was in school things weren't "gay" they were "retarded" or "lame". People called people "speds" which was short of "special education." Clearly, this was un-pc but we were kids so we did this. However, none of it was said with genuine malice or offense. There were people in my school who were in the "special education program" and I'd say 95% of the students were polite and nice to them and not in the condescending way. For us, it was the rule, not the exception.
Now. Look at African Americans who can call each other "n*gger" and not take offense. Now, some members of the populace do because they think its demeaning. Other people don't care. Another example is the phrase, "N*gga please" which has taken on its own meaning and jumped the color gap. White, I mean, Caucasian, I mean, European-Americans (?) say this now. Is it okay to call something "gay" if you're not homophobic in the slightest? Or is this something only certain people of the population are allowed to say? I'm not saying it's completely a YMMV thing but it's hard to stuff everyone under one blanket.
The GLBT community has accepted a lot of formerly deragatory terms into their vernacular. Remember when "dyke" was offensive and now women in comfortable shoes go around saying it like no tomorrow-- even correcting people. Yes, we should be teaching political correctness but we also need to realize that not every use is meant as a flame or a personal attack or a racist comment. What one person finds as rude, another might find correct for the exact opposite reason. (Remember when you couldn't call your friends parents by their first names?) You can't please everyone...
And this is why cartoons aren't the best place to teach yourself a foreign language.
Now, it'll be interesting to see what Square does with the Tseng/Zeng thing-- oh wait, the U.S. isn't getting "Last Order" released so it's a non issue.
Although, the name swapping for "Shera" and "Sierra" will be interesting. Since Cid's assistant was "Shera" in the localization and "Sierra" in the Japanese version in and the Advent Children action figures have the new airship labeled as "Sierra". If Squeenix can't make up their mind, why should we. ^_~
Ding, ding, ding, give this man a prize. You've definetly hit the nail on the head here. It's all about marketing and money. Now granted, there are a lot of screen actors that do a good deal of voice acting and do it well. Usually, these are the people with distinct voices like Christopher Lee and the like. Then, there's the career voice actors who have basically helped out on every cartoon under the sun. They usually have diversity in spades and the average viewer would be hard pressed to hear the difference between their characters. Then, there's the actors that come in and read lines. That's exactly what Mena Suvari sounds like she was doing when reading for KHII. Ugh. Why bother spending the money to pay a well known actress more when an obscure voice actor can do as good of a job, if not better? But hey, now companies are hiring actors to do voice overs for 30 second commercial spots and no one in the public even recognizes them. Why? Just why?
Is anyone else just happy that Lance Bass isn't voicing Sephiroth?
What would be fun and cool is if you could get new skills or new quests every level and that you could easily do reach said level in a few hours instead of a few months. It wouldn't even have to be a set skill or rewards. Maybe one level you get a new spell. Maybe one level the reward is a new shirt or a bundle of cash. Perhaps give the player a choice of keeping these Quest items or turning them in for something else so it doesn't feel like you're nothing but a Fed Ex service for medicore gear. (I still maintain the Fulborg rod quest is one of the coolest thing in WoW and it serves no purpose whatsoever.) Perhaps they do nothing to improve your stats or gear but you can get cool things to change or improve your appearance. Vanity works in a lot of games why not MMOs?
If you keep a player busy enough and keep them focused on the short term goal they casual players will be content with the level they're at now and want to reach the next level soon without ever thinking about end game.
As for being a gamer and memorizing commands those are all game tactics that you should pick up as you go along. You level your skill by playing the game, reading forums, asking questions, etc. The more you play the more you'll realize which spells do what they're supposed to and which are just a waste of time/mana.
begin WoW game specific babble/ As for being a 'lock, when it comes to a group you're the debuffer class. (Not to mention wipe insurance and a summoning taxi.) If you're spamming Recklessness and DoTing then you're doing your job. If you want more DPS and don't want to roll a different class, then I suggest you pick up Nightfall and spam Corruption on all the mobs currently engaged with your group which will almost always proc and get you one insta-cast Shadowbolt. Your pets (Imp and Succubus) can help with your DPS output while your Felhunter shuts down casters. You also have more HP than Priest or Mage so you can also help by getting aggro of them in a pinch. /end babble