The Bourne Supremacy fights were disappointing after watching Bourne Identity. BI had amazingly good fights that used Krav Maga and Escrima/Kali fighting styles to great effect.
What I want is for them to design hardware. I don't care about Irix, I don't care about MIPs. I care about how beautifully systems like the O2 came apart and could be put together again. I've yet to see any PC, Apple included, that was so well put together. We need to get past clunky systems with tangles of wires everywhere to get to properly integrated components.
It's a MMORPG... you don't remove the 'game' part. Game means different things to different people, in regards to RPGs. It can mean the competitive thing of overcoming challenings... this mode of play is very nicely represented either on the computer or in board games. It can be a 'shared dream' sort of thing where people get together for a constructed fictional construct... world building, or fictional characters, etc. Or it could be a shared story, like simultaniously watching and writing a movie or TV show with a bunch of your friends as co-writers/audience. These last two styles aren't easily worked out on computers, and so tend to be extra unrepresented in video games.
Just because you don't find your type of game in Second Life (and incidentally, neither do I), doesn't mean there is no game to it.
The main thing I don't like about Second Life is that it's graphical. The 3d graphics are rather ugly (but most 3d computer graphics are pretty ugly to me, unless you're talking about Shreck or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within or similar). The graphics, besides being ugly, reduce use of imaginative description. Instead of describing an interesting action that a character might do in a game, you instead watch a badly rendered version of it on screen. You get the same motion each time for any particular action, too.
D&D is good if you want to play a kill them and take their stuff style of game... which isn't a bad thing if you enjoy it. D&D can be used for other things, but it's not the best tool for the task of many other styles of games. Check out Burning Wheel for one. It's a great system for fantasy RP similar to what you find in D&D setting, but with a different direction for what the game rules encourage players to explore. If you like to focus primarily on character's past, ethics, beliefs, goals and dreams, then this game suits that style of storytelling much better than D&D.
It used to be the American way to have more control over corporations, until a file clerk made an error on some documents in 1886 that invented the fictitious notion of corporate personhood. Until then it was fairly common for states to review corporations and abolish those that were not working in the public interest.
Corporations now rule American political interests. Poor public services such as this is one of the results.
Most large companies, especially ones such as WalMart, do not hire more employees as they get more profits. Those profits go to the top half dozen or so owners of the corporations. WalMart is very good at making extra profit. One method it does this is by having less working in sweat labor camps overseas (usually indirectly, through the companies they forced into lower prices, and they only way to get those lower prices were such practices as these), and paying those workers even less than before. Conditions worsen, there are less workers, and the only people to profit are those at the top. Once they open up a shop in a new location, they drive competition out of business, putting 3 people on the street for every 2 they create jobs for. It's a great system.. if you own WalMart and aren't concerned about making the world a worse place to live in.
Corporations have proven time and time again that they absolutely can not be trusted to do the right thing when it comes to the number of people they employ, and the conditions they employ them under. Their natural state is at the robber baron level... this is what you get if you let the market take care of itself.
I think the premise should read 'all things being equal, people will pursue their calling'. Not that I agree or disagree, just that I read the statement as. We don't have an equalization of wages, though, so we don't have a basis of comparison on the facts of this.
The browser that'll win the war...
on
A Browser War Preview
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
For me the browser that will win is whichever secure, tabbed browser that adds in an audio toggle. I want to be able to cut off all access to audio devices from the web browser, but still be able to get music from my audio player. I want an end to background music on websites, an end to having to figure out which of the 15 tabs I loaded in the background started playing music when it finished loading, so I can kill that one. I want an end to web annoyances, and that's my biggest one right now. I'm not bothered by blink tags anymore, animated gifs are no more, pop ups are almost gone, and now this remains as my biggest peev about a web browser.
Neither are RPGs, as far as I can tell. RPGs are about choices, and how those choices affect the story. FFVII is not about making a story. It's about jumping through hoops long enough to get to see more of the pre-made story. I've not yet played Oblivion, but the previous incarnation of Morrowind was extremely far from an RPG as well. It's billed as being very open ended.. and it is. But nothing you do really matters. Become the head of a Guild? So? Doesn't affect anything really. You can't do anything you might want to do as guild leader, like order your followers to aid you in war, etc. Become one of the most powerful and should be famous beings on the planet? People are like... 'oh hi.. who're you? Want to buy something?'. Both are extremely much on rails, in their own ways.
It's more than about story. It's about making _your_ story, through your role (the R in RPG) as your character. How does your character affect the people and world around them? Computer games can only vaguely approach a role playing game, at this time. We need some decent AI before it really can do so. Right now the best we can do is more like a really complex choose your own adventure book.
Well, what type of discussion were you wanting from this subject? Something about how online PDF sales are seriously altering the RPG market? Something about the various theories about why people RP? A bunch of posts agreeing that those are good games and that everyone should play them?:)
It is rather too large and diverse of a subject for slashdot to cover well. You might want to go to a dedicated message board for rpgs. Check out the following links:
As with many mass market items, look to the smaller press for the more innovative and interesting ideas. Not every game is for every RPGer.. it's worth it to check out some of the indie games out there. From the serious and gritty, to the silly, there are a lot to choose from. Below are only a small sample.
Every time a new game like this comes out, I hear people gush about how fantastic the graphics are. Then when they look back at older games and compare them to what they have now, they say they're ugly and how they're glad they have good graphics now. I say if they're ugly now, they were ugly then.
Take a look at the screenshots. Oblivion doesn't look fantastic now. It's starting to get to the point of looking decent, and actually looks fairly good on a couple points, but overall it's still the same ugly 3d graphics games always run. The shadows and lighting are all wrong. The characters still have textures that are all muddled, unrealistic and ugly.. they seem to ignore fine detail and just make crude smudges in a lot of places.. hair is particularly bad. Many edges and creases, mainly in armor, look painted on, badly, rather than actually creased. There are still many angular and blocky 3d bits in there.
Morrowind had problems with clipping, the characters were angular and blocky, the textures were a horrible blur, the shading and lighting were all wrong, and hard things like armor would flex and move like a second skin. All I heard at first was how fantastic and wonderful the graphics were. Then I looked into visual mods and found folks that agreed that it was ugly. They put out mods that improved it, in some cases a lot, but it was still ugly.
The gameplay was something I heard everyone raving about as well. I loved the mechanic of use it to gain in skill, and the flexibility of character development and creation. That was great. I loath with an undying passion the fact that the world is so static. Nothing your character does seems to matter. Kill a god? So? Take over as head of a guild? So? You don't get into any secret meetings with the big powers, you don't get any political intrugue and planning, you can't make choices that shape and direct others and reshape the land. What can you do? Kill stuff, steal stuff, and play fetch. Good dog.
Take for example a minor side quest of saving someone from a bunch of slavers. You rescue them and reunite them with their husband. Great, a nice quest. Quest over, go away now. Wait.. what? Where do they live? Do they need an escort home? Once there, will they be greatful and help you out in some way, information or gold, or perhaps just a place to crash away from the inn? Interaction and consequenses.. these are the heart and soul of an RPG. Morrowind had next to none of these.
The sound I loved. The background music was enjoyable, and it added a lot to the game. Except for the winds. I wanted to icepick my ears so I wouldn't have to listen to that annoying wistle in the winds anymore.
I've found the opposite to be true about long hair. Short hair requires getting it cut very frequently. Long hair requires trimming the ends every few months or so, a procedure taking a few seconds. It takes almost no extra amount of time for me to wash or brush my long hair than it did when it was short. I tie it back in a pony tail and go.
I keep my hair long because short hair requires too much maintenance.:)
The ability to 'network' is an entirely seperate skill than what a lot of employees need to do a good job. I'm a systems administrator. I'm very friendly, personable, and do very well at talking to non-techs and getting them to understand technical issues. Everyone says networking is the key to finding a job, and so much better than job search sites. I'm horrible at personal networking. I've posted up at LinkedIn, and it just sits there doing nothing. Without job search sites I'd have very few options. Should I not do something I'm good at, because I lack a seperate and unrelated skill set? If you can social network well, great. For other people, there are other options.
Personally I would love to have a more technically oriented job search sites for techs. There are testable areas for technical skills. Once these are linked up with a specific job, the interview process could become a lot more efficient.
Also note that your bags on Greyhound are subject to search, like at the airports. It only affected me once, in Sacramento. For most routes they do not do any search.
How is staying an 'of course not'? There are still 2 doors left, and one has a prize and one doesn't. In the 100 door version, the alternate door has a 99/100 chance of having a prize behind it... but so does the door that you originally picked.
The 'extra information' that Monty knows where the prize is also confuses me. Monty knows where the prize is.. it's behind one of the two doors he did not open. The one you picked originally, or the other one. There is no extra information here at all.
Ok, 3 doors. You pick one. You have a 1/3rd chance of being correct. A door is opened revealing a non-prize. This leaves 2 doors left, the one you picked and the other. _Both_ have a 2/3rds chance of having a prize.
I have seen this 'logic teaser' several times, and it still looks very wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
This of course also happens after a bunch of federal judges were replaced.
It can build anything I can dream? How about Ultima tower for a good start? http://www.tdrinc.com/images/photos/large/Towers04 a1.jpg
The Bourne Supremacy fights were disappointing after watching Bourne Identity. BI had amazingly good fights that used Krav Maga and Escrima/Kali fighting styles to great effect.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the dea^H^H^H threat of legal action your right to say it.
What if slashdot wrote an article, and no one cared?
What I want is for them to design hardware. I don't care about Irix, I don't care about MIPs. I care about how beautifully systems like the O2 came apart and could be put together again. I've yet to see any PC, Apple included, that was so well put together. We need to get past clunky systems with tangles of wires everywhere to get to properly integrated components.
It's a MMORPG... you don't remove the 'game' part. Game means different things to different people, in regards to RPGs. It can mean the competitive thing of overcoming challenings... this mode of play is very nicely represented either on the computer or in board games. It can be a 'shared dream' sort of thing where people get together for a constructed fictional construct... world building, or fictional characters, etc. Or it could be a shared story, like simultaniously watching and writing a movie or TV show with a bunch of your friends as co-writers/audience. These last two styles aren't easily worked out on computers, and so tend to be extra unrepresented in video games.
Just because you don't find your type of game in Second Life (and incidentally, neither do I), doesn't mean there is no game to it.
The main thing I don't like about Second Life is that it's graphical. The 3d graphics are rather ugly (but most 3d computer graphics are pretty ugly to me, unless you're talking about Shreck or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within or similar). The graphics, besides being ugly, reduce use of imaginative description. Instead of describing an interesting action that a character might do in a game, you instead watch a badly rendered version of it on screen. You get the same motion each time for any particular action, too.
D&D is good if you want to play a kill them and take their stuff style of game... which isn't a bad thing if you enjoy it. D&D can be used for other things, but it's not the best tool for the task of many other styles of games. Check out Burning Wheel for one. It's a great system for fantasy RP similar to what you find in D&D setting, but with a different direction for what the game rules encourage players to explore. If you like to focus primarily on character's past, ethics, beliefs, goals and dreams, then this game suits that style of storytelling much better than D&D.
Similar can be said about a lot of places. "In Corporate America, schools and media redesign you!"
I live pretty close to Silicon Valley. I've seen one person actually using a Segway, once, a couple
weeks ago. Yes, the 'revolution' has begun.
It used to be the American way to have more control over corporations, until a file clerk made an error on some documents in 1886 that invented the fictitious notion of corporate personhood. Until then it was fairly common for states to review corporations and abolish those that were not working in the public interest.
1 809242121&hl=en2 771620276&hl=en
Corporations now rule American political interests. Poor public services such as this is one of the results.
For fun videos on the superiority of the free market, check out these:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=657366044
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=307229130
It's April 1st again already? ;P
Most large companies, especially ones such as WalMart, do not hire more employees as they get more profits. Those profits go to the top half dozen or so owners of the corporations. WalMart is very good at making extra profit. One method it does this is by having less working in sweat labor camps overseas (usually indirectly, through the companies they forced into lower prices, and they only way to get those lower prices were such practices as these), and paying those workers even less than before. Conditions worsen, there are less workers, and the only people to profit are those at the top. Once they open up a shop in a new location, they drive competition out of business, putting 3 people on the street for every 2 they create jobs for. It's a great system.. if you own WalMart and aren't concerned about making the world a worse place to live in.
Corporations have proven time and time again that they absolutely can not be trusted to do the right thing when it comes to the number of people they employ, and the conditions they employ them under. Their natural state is at the robber baron level... this is what you get if you let the market take care of itself.
I think the premise should read 'all things being equal, people will pursue their calling'. Not that I agree or disagree, just that I read the statement as. We don't have an equalization of wages, though, so we don't have a basis of comparison on the facts of this.
For me the browser that will win is whichever secure, tabbed browser that adds in an audio toggle. I want to be able to cut off all access to audio devices from the web browser, but still be able to get music from my audio player. I want an end to background music on websites, an end to having to figure out which of the 15 tabs I loaded in the background started playing music when it finished loading, so I can kill that one. I want an end to web annoyances, and that's my biggest one right now. I'm not bothered by blink tags anymore, animated gifs are no more, pop ups are almost gone, and now this remains as my biggest peev about a web browser.
Arcanum is the best CRPG game ever. Of the CRPGs I've played, it's the one that comes closest to simulating an actual RPG.
I thought this code jumped the shark a while ago.
Neither are RPGs, as far as I can tell. RPGs are about choices, and how those choices affect the story. FFVII is not about making a story. It's about jumping through hoops long enough to get to see more of the pre-made story. I've not yet played Oblivion, but the previous incarnation of Morrowind was extremely far from an RPG as well. It's billed as being very open ended.. and it is. But nothing you do really matters. Become the head of a Guild? So? Doesn't affect anything really. You can't do anything you might want to do as guild leader, like order your followers to aid you in war, etc. Become one of the most powerful and should be famous beings on the planet? People are like... 'oh hi.. who're you? Want to buy something?'. Both are extremely much on rails, in their own ways.
It's more than about story. It's about making _your_ story, through your role (the R in RPG) as your character. How does your character affect the people and world around them? Computer games can only vaguely approach a role playing game, at this time. We need some decent AI before it really can do so. Right now the best we can do is more like a really complex choose your own adventure book.
Well, what type of discussion were you wanting from this subject? Something about how online PDF sales are seriously altering the RPG market? Something about the various theories about why people RP? A bunch of posts agreeing that those are good games and that everyone should play them? :)
It is rather too large and diverse of a subject for slashdot to cover well. You might want to go to a dedicated message board for rpgs. Check out the following links:
http://forum.rpg.net/
http://forums.rpgchat.com/
http://www.rpgconsortium.com/main.cfm
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/
There are many others. Go out there and search for ones you like.
As with many mass market items, look to the smaller press for the more innovative and interesting ideas. Not every game is for every RPGer.. it's worth it to check out some of the indie games out there. From the serious and gritty, to the silly, there are a lot to choose from. Below are only a small
y l
sample.
http://www.sorcerer-rpg.com/
http://www.anvilwerks.com/?The-Shadow-of-Yesterda
http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/dogs.htm
http://www.adept-press.com/trollbabe/
http://l5r.alderac.com/rpg/
Every time a new game like this comes out, I hear people gush about how fantastic the graphics are. Then when they look back at older games and compare them to what they have now, they say they're ugly and how they're glad they have good graphics now. I say if they're ugly now, they were ugly then.
Take a look at the screenshots. Oblivion doesn't look fantastic now. It's starting to get to the point of looking decent, and actually looks fairly good on a couple points, but overall it's still the same ugly 3d graphics games always run. The shadows and lighting are all wrong. The characters still have textures that are all muddled, unrealistic and ugly.. they seem to ignore fine detail and just make crude smudges in a lot of places.. hair is particularly bad. Many edges and creases, mainly in armor, look painted on, badly, rather than actually creased. There are still many angular and blocky 3d bits in there.
Morrowind had problems with clipping, the characters were angular and blocky, the textures were a horrible blur, the shading and lighting were all wrong, and hard things like armor would flex and move like a second skin. All I heard at first was how fantastic and wonderful the graphics were. Then I looked into visual mods and found folks that agreed that it was ugly. They put out mods that improved it, in some cases a lot, but it was still ugly.
The gameplay was something I heard everyone raving about as well. I loved the mechanic of use it to gain in skill, and the flexibility of character development and creation. That was great. I loath with an undying passion the fact that the world is so static. Nothing your character does seems to matter. Kill a god? So? Take over as head of a guild? So? You don't get into any secret meetings with the big powers, you don't get any political intrugue and planning, you can't make choices that shape and direct others and reshape the land. What can you do? Kill stuff, steal stuff, and play fetch. Good dog.
Take for example a minor side quest of saving someone from a bunch of slavers. You rescue them and reunite them with their husband. Great, a nice quest. Quest over, go away now. Wait.. what? Where do they live? Do they need an escort home? Once there, will they be greatful and help you out in some way, information or gold, or perhaps just a place to crash away from the inn? Interaction and consequenses.. these are the heart and soul of an RPG. Morrowind had next to none of these.
The sound I loved. The background music was enjoyable, and it added a lot to the game. Except for the winds. I wanted to icepick my ears so I wouldn't have to listen to that annoying wistle in the winds anymore.
I've found the opposite to be true about long hair. Short hair requires getting it cut very frequently. Long hair requires trimming the ends every few months or so, a procedure taking a few seconds. It takes almost no extra amount of time for me to wash or brush my long hair than it did when it was short. I tie it back in a pony tail and go.
:)
I keep my hair long because short hair requires too much maintenance.
The ability to 'network' is an entirely seperate skill than what a lot of employees need to do a good job. I'm a systems administrator. I'm very friendly, personable, and do very well at talking to non-techs and getting them to understand technical issues. Everyone says networking is the key to finding a job, and so much better than job search sites. I'm horrible at personal networking. I've posted up at LinkedIn, and it just sits there doing nothing. Without job search sites I'd have very few options. Should I not do something I'm good at, because I lack a seperate and unrelated skill set? If you can social network well, great. For other people, there are other options.
Personally I would love to have a more technically oriented job search sites for techs. There are testable areas for technical skills. Once these are linked up with a specific job, the interview process could become a lot more efficient.
Also note that your bags on Greyhound are subject to search, like at the airports. It only affected me once, in Sacramento. For most routes they do not do any search.
Derdaduh. You're right. I was looking at it bas-ackwards, really. It's better to switch. I switch my answer.
How is staying an 'of course not'? There are still 2 doors left, and one has a prize and one doesn't. In the 100 door version, the alternate door has a 99/100 chance of having a prize behind it... but so does the door that you originally picked.
The 'extra information' that Monty knows where the prize is also confuses me. Monty knows where the prize is.. it's behind one of the two doors he did not open. The one you picked originally, or the other one. There is no extra information here at all.
Ok, 3 doors. You pick one. You have a 1/3rd chance of being correct. A door is opened revealing a non-prize. This leaves 2 doors left, the one you picked and the other. _Both_
have a 2/3rds chance of having a prize.
I have seen this 'logic teaser' several times, and it still looks very wrong.