Supposedly, what makes video games worse is that you actually choose to engage in the act, even if the "act" is simply pushing a button. TV is passive; games are active.
Of course, the whole point of tfa is exactly what i've been saying for years: violent kids are going to play violent games. They're going to watch violent movies and listen to violent music and probably hang out with violent friends. They're making such choices because they appeal to them.
I don't remember the first one, but I'm told it ended in 1983 with the infamous "crash".
Some time in the late 80s another boom started and ran into the early 90s. This is the rise of PC gaming and the debut of games like Wolfenstein, Doom, X-Wing, X-COM, Command & Conquer, and Warcraft. This golden age stagnated when all the new games seemed to just be clones of what came in the years before.
1998 and 1999 saw some impressive game releases with Half-Life probably being the most notable in the PC world, but I'm not sure I'd call it a golden age.
I wouldn't say the games on the market are the most diverse ever. The early 90s had a lot of independent developers turning out some really incredible--and plenty of really horrible--games. But we do have some really great games in the pipline right now and the new consoles with yet more PC-like features are sure to trigger some innovation in that market.
I'd say our true golden age will be 2008-2009. That will give developers the time to learn all the quirks of the new consoles and refine their games. It will put Windows Vista at middle age, with probably much-improved graphics capabilities (DX11?), as well as new hardware that will blow us away.
Of course, there's the question of what age "kids" we're talking about here. a 7-year-old isn't going to grasp KPL, but then a 7-year-old won't do much more with BASIC that simple counting programs and that sort of thing. KPL looks like it would be best for kids age 10-14, which is really where their minds are developed enough--on average--to understand program structure and actually create their own code, rather than just regurgitating what they're taught.
From what I've read, it's designed to teach applicable programming that translates directly to VB, C, PERL, etc. Yes we can put someone in front of BASIC and let them learn how to PRINT and GOTO and all that, but they'll still at some point have to transition from
print "hello world!"
to
print("hello world!");
or something similar if they're actually going to do anything more than write their tutorial programs and a few simple games. Real-world applications for BASIC are very limited...*that* is why it's not readily available these days. KPL at least makes an attempt to simplify programming to that kids can learn the structure and basic syntax before facing the sheer complexity of something like C.
Now if they would kindly get back to fixing the servers that keep telling me they're unavailable. I've been trying to install the games that I've already paid for, and Steam won't let me. That's not exactly incentive to buy more, now is it?
Yes, but it's also entirely possible that those are the only two such planets out of thousands that we'll eventually identify. That would not be "common".
Re:But if you've been "blessed by the hi-def gods"
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PS3 Problems Parried
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I bought a 32" CRT SDTV less than a year ago. I paid $125 for it.
The cheapest 32" HD at the time was $400, and that had no tuner.
I don't worship at the altar of television, so I have no desire to spend $1,000+ on a TV.
Re:But if you've been "blessed by the hi-def gods"
on
PS3 Problems Parried
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If those were HD with built-in tuners, that's a pretty good price from what I've seen.
Still, you're talking about nearly $2,000 for a PS3 and the screen to make it worthwhile. No, thanks.
Yeah, Sony's going to have a hard time dealing with this one.
You can buy a movie today, watch it on your DVD player today, and watch it on your HD-DVD player in a few years when the prices come down. It takes all the scariness out of being an early adopter; at the very least, you've got a perfectly good DVD.
What about monopolies? I only have access to one phone company and one electric company. Should I do without because they refuse to properly protect information they require for me to have basic utilities?
If a company knows they are putting their customers at risk with a product they are selling and don't fix it, they are liable for damages. Why make exceptions for services? When I pay for a service, I think it's reasonable that there are certain implied expectations; among those would be that information I give to a company is not intended to be shared (unless I agree otherwise) and that they are expected to keep it out of the hands of people who would use it in a way that could hurt me.
We're gonna have to move to SSN2 (point oh) to support that many.
It'll take twenty years just for Democrats and Republicans to agree on the new number format. Then they'll have to approve a shinier--I mean harder to forge--card, adding another several years.
Anyone who has to work within a budget will find much better ways to get performance improvements for $300. The Killer NIC is going to be just another shiny object under glass for the rich kids to show off, with very little real usefulness.
Re:Just like there will never be another Doom
on
Can Anyone Beat WoW?
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· Score: 1
OTO: C&C 3 is "Comand and Concer / Generals", no idea if it is number 2 or 3 and I mixed something up. It sucked.
C&C Generals is most definitely *NOT* C&C 3. If you're going to count a franchise title like that, you've also got to count Red Alert 1 and 2, making Generals C&C 5. If you count all the expansion packs (which you seem to do) then it's far above that.
Same for SC II: official title is StarCraft / Brood Lords or something.. can't find the box right now.
Brood Wars was an expansion pack. It added some new missions and a few new units, but it wasn't even a standalone game.
I played Homeworld... it sucks. The way how to use the mosue and interact with the game is so anoying... it was a complete waste of money and time. The basic idea might be cool... unfortunatel I was so anoyed I enver digged into it.
Homeworld was praised for its interface by nearly everyone who reviewed it, so I don't understand how you could find it complicated, troublesome, or annoying. they made a three-dimensional playing field work with a two-dimensional interface, and they made it easy.
to many game manufactors don't provice Mac versions... or do it monthes if not years after the PC version.
Mac? Oh...there's your problem. That single mouse button would certainly foul up the Homeworld interface:)
And bottom line: I started playing RTS in 1999 or something... since then it was always the same except for minimal different graphics... no longer interested. But probably there is a new "genre former" soon;D would be fun.
So all RTS games are alike?
Total Annihilation Command & Conquer WarCraft/StarCraft (C&C Generals is more like WC than C&C, thanks EA) Empire Earth Rise of Nations Myth Total War series Homeworld
All those are very different in the style of their gameplay. I don't think you ever gave RTS a chance if you think they're all alike. I don't know...maybe it's just not the genre for you.
Re:Just like there will never be another Doom
on
Can Anyone Beat WoW?
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· Score: 1
As I've said before, WarCraft went largely unnoticed by the non-strategy crowd until WarCraft 2 (which was released after C&C) attracted attention to it. And all that aside, Dune 2 predates WarCraft by two years, and C&C built on the Dune 2 design...which is why I picked C&C. Neither Dune 2 nor WarCraft made the genre into what it is; their predecessors did that.
I'm confused as to how you've obtained StarCraft II or C&C 3. SC2 isn't anywhere near release, and C&C 3 is slated for next year. C&C 2 (Tiberian Sun) was decent. If you've got a time machine and have in fact travelled into the future and purchased these games, please allow me to borrow it just long enough to find out the next winning lottery numbers.
If you liked Myth, you should check out the Total War series.
And TA:Kingdoms sucked. Total Annihilation was imo the best RTS ever made, and I am greatly anticipating Supreme Commander's release early next year.
You're also forgetting major RTS releases like AoE and Homeworld.
And also how to NOT read directly from a PP presentation.
PowerPoint has done two things to meetings: lengthened them, and made them less informative. And made them take longer to set up for. Three things. Lengthen them, make them less informative and harder to set up. Oh, and greatly increase their lethal effect on brain cells. Four things...
Seriously. The majority of middle school teachers assign little- to no homework these days, and most schools provide plenty of time for internet and application access during school hours. In addition, schools can make computer resources available after hours in the same way they do tutoring and other assistance for students.
So why should we be putting laptops in the hands of 12-year-olds? Isn't there a better way to spend that kind of money?
(the district I work for couldn't possibly afford something like this anyway, we're treading water thanks to Texas' lovely Robin Hood program taking 51% of our budget)
Re:Just like there will never be another Doom
on
Can Anyone Beat WoW?
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· Score: 1
I'm referring to the games that propelled the genre into the spotlight. I'll say this yet again:
Wolfenstein 3D came out before Doom, but Doom was the game that gave FPS mass appeal.
Dune 2 came out before C&C, but C&C gave RTS mass appeal.
EQ came out before WoW...get where I'm going with this?
I'm talking about that first game that took the genre to new levels, the game that most people of that generation would remember as their first. Dune 2 and WarCraft didn't do nearly as well as C&C.
The RTS genre *is* a bit different than most: WarCraft 2 (WC wasn't nearly the success that WC2 was, and most people I know only played WC after they discovered WC2) offered radically different gameplay than C&C and created something of a subgenre of RTS; for years it's been "it's like C&C" or "it's like War/StarCraft". One noteable exception is Total Annihilation, which carved out a class all its own.
FPS didn't really see a big change until Half-Life made the story-driven FPS a big hit. Just about everything between Doom and HL--ROTT, Quake, Duke3D, all the rest--were some variation on Doom's basic concept.
Re:Just like there will never be another Doom
on
Can Anyone Beat WoW?
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· Score: 1
The way I see it, an MMO has to have four things:
1) Fun factor. It's got to be enjoyable to play. A WoW/WoS competitor would have to trump them first and foremost by making gameplay fun. Part of this will be in crafting a compelling world and story, but most will be in game mechanics.
2) Accessibility. A complicated GUI can kill a fast-paced online game. I've not played WoW, but from what I've seen of it the interface is quite solid and doesn't leave just a whole lot of room for improvement; a competitor needs only to match Blizzard on this.
3) Good social networking. This is where I think a new MMO could really shine in comparison with the current offerings. Make it easy to find and play with friends, give players new and creative ways to communicate with one another, et cetera. I see so much stuff relating to WoW all over the internet...but what if a lot of that could be presented within the game environment somehow?
4) Regular content additions. Playing the same old same old gets boring fast. As I understand it, WoW does this well enough, so a competitor has to at least match them.
Re:Just like there will never be another Doom
on
Can Anyone Beat WoW?
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· Score: 1
Wolfenstein 3D came before Doom, but I wouldn't consider it the defining game of the genre. Doom is what took FPS (and really, computer games in general) from a geek game to something for everyone. The same could be said of Dune 2 and Command & Conquer.
Everquest at its height was always the realm of hardcore gamers. It didn't have the mass acceptance that WoW has, the same as Doom was the first FPS to have that same mass appeal.
There are always a few really good games in a genre before one comes along that makes the genre into a huge hit and by which subsequent games are judged for years to come. EverQuest will most likely be remembered as the game that paved the way for WoW.
Slashdot Mirror
Supposedly, what makes video games worse is that you actually choose to engage in the act, even if the "act" is simply pushing a button. TV is passive; games are active.
Of course, the whole point of tfa is exactly what i've been saying for years: violent kids are going to play violent games. They're going to watch violent movies and listen to violent music and probably hang out with violent friends. They're making such choices because they appeal to them.
I don't remember the first one, but I'm told it ended in 1983 with the infamous "crash".
Some time in the late 80s another boom started and ran into the early 90s. This is the rise of PC gaming and the debut of games like Wolfenstein, Doom, X-Wing, X-COM, Command & Conquer, and Warcraft. This golden age stagnated when all the new games seemed to just be clones of what came in the years before.
1998 and 1999 saw some impressive game releases with Half-Life probably being the most notable in the PC world, but I'm not sure I'd call it a golden age.
I wouldn't say the games on the market are the most diverse ever. The early 90s had a lot of independent developers turning out some really incredible--and plenty of really horrible--games. But we do have some really great games in the pipline right now and the new consoles with yet more PC-like features are sure to trigger some innovation in that market.
I'd say our true golden age will be 2008-2009. That will give developers the time to learn all the quirks of the new consoles and refine their games. It will put Windows Vista at middle age, with probably much-improved graphics capabilities (DX11?), as well as new hardware that will blow us away.
Of course, there's the question of what age "kids" we're talking about here. a 7-year-old isn't going to grasp KPL, but then a 7-year-old won't do much more with BASIC that simple counting programs and that sort of thing. KPL looks like it would be best for kids age 10-14, which is really where their minds are developed enough--on average--to understand program structure and actually create their own code, rather than just regurgitating what they're taught.
From what I've read, it's designed to teach applicable programming that translates directly to VB, C, PERL, etc. Yes we can put someone in front of BASIC and let them learn how to PRINT and GOTO and all that, but they'll still at some point have to transition from
print "hello world!"
to
print("hello world!");
or something similar if they're actually going to do anything more than write their tutorial programs and a few simple games. Real-world applications for BASIC are very limited...*that* is why it's not readily available these days. KPL at least makes an attempt to simplify programming to that kids can learn the structure and basic syntax before facing the sheer complexity of something like C.
10 Post news item
20 goto 10
http://www.kidsprogramminglanguage.com/
Now if they would kindly get back to fixing the servers that keep telling me they're unavailable. I've been trying to install the games that I've already paid for, and Steam won't let me. That's not exactly incentive to buy more, now is it?
Yes, but it's also entirely possible that those are the only two such planets out of thousands that we'll eventually identify. That would not be "common".
I bought a 32" CRT SDTV less than a year ago. I paid $125 for it.
The cheapest 32" HD at the time was $400, and that had no tuner.
I don't worship at the altar of television, so I have no desire to spend $1,000+ on a TV.
If those were HD with built-in tuners, that's a pretty good price from what I've seen.
Still, you're talking about nearly $2,000 for a PS3 and the screen to make it worthwhile. No, thanks.
"Cross-platform support with a title on the PC?"
Please let this be true, and please let them implement it on a major FPS release.
It just might finally shut up the "why play games on a PC when there are consoles?" crowd.
Yeah, Sony's going to have a hard time dealing with this one.
You can buy a movie today, watch it on your DVD player today, and watch it on your HD-DVD player in a few years when the prices come down. It takes all the scariness out of being an early adopter; at the very least, you've got a perfectly good DVD.
"assuming you're using Windows " ...if you're using Linux, the process is far more complex. Got a Mac? You're screwed.
Firefox just crashed while I was reading this article.
Large quantities of crack and heroine. Every user...ummm...player knows this.
What about monopolies? I only have access to one phone company and one electric company. Should I do without because they refuse to properly protect information they require for me to have basic utilities?
If a company knows they are putting their customers at risk with a product they are selling and don't fix it, they are liable for damages. Why make exceptions for services? When I pay for a service, I think it's reasonable that there are certain implied expectations; among those would be that information I give to a company is not intended to be shared (unless I agree otherwise) and that they are expected to keep it out of the hands of people who would use it in a way that could hurt me.
We're gonna have to move to SSN2 (point oh) to support that many.
It'll take twenty years just for Democrats and Republicans to agree on the new number format. Then they'll have to approve a shinier--I mean harder to forge--card, adding another several years.
Anyone who has to work within a budget will find much better ways to get performance improvements for $300. The Killer NIC is going to be just another shiny object under glass for the rich kids to show off, with very little real usefulness.
C&C Generals is most definitely *NOT* C&C 3. If you're going to count a franchise title like that, you've also got to count Red Alert 1 and 2, making Generals C&C 5. If you count all the expansion packs (which you seem to do) then it's far above that.
Brood Wars was an expansion pack. It added some new missions and a few new units, but it wasn't even a standalone game.
Homeworld was praised for its interface by nearly everyone who reviewed it, so I don't understand how you could find it complicated, troublesome, or annoying. they made a three-dimensional playing field work with a two-dimensional interface, and they made it easy.
Mac? Oh...there's your problem. That single mouse button would certainly foul up the Homeworld interface
So all RTS games are alike?
Total Annihilation
Command & Conquer
WarCraft/StarCraft (C&C Generals is more like WC than C&C, thanks EA)
Empire Earth
Rise of Nations
Myth
Total War series
Homeworld
All those are very different in the style of their gameplay. I don't think you ever gave RTS a chance if you think they're all alike. I don't know...maybe it's just not the genre for you.
As I've said before, WarCraft went largely unnoticed by the non-strategy crowd until WarCraft 2 (which was released after C&C) attracted attention to it. And all that aside, Dune 2 predates WarCraft by two years, and C&C built on the Dune 2 design...which is why I picked C&C. Neither Dune 2 nor WarCraft made the genre into what it is; their predecessors did that.
I'm confused as to how you've obtained StarCraft II or C&C 3. SC2 isn't anywhere near release, and C&C 3 is slated for next year. C&C 2 (Tiberian Sun) was decent. If you've got a time machine and have in fact travelled into the future and purchased these games, please allow me to borrow it just long enough to find out the next winning lottery numbers.
If you liked Myth, you should check out the Total War series.
And TA:Kingdoms sucked. Total Annihilation was imo the best RTS ever made, and I am greatly anticipating Supreme Commander's release early next year.
You're also forgetting major RTS releases like AoE and Homeworld.
And also how to NOT read directly from a PP presentation.
PowerPoint has done two things to meetings: lengthened them, and made them less informative. And made them take longer to set up for. Three things. Lengthen them, make them less informative and harder to set up. Oh, and greatly increase their lethal effect on brain cells. Four things...
Seriously. The majority of middle school teachers assign little- to no homework these days, and most schools provide plenty of time for internet and application access during school hours. In addition, schools can make computer resources available after hours in the same way they do tutoring and other assistance for students.
So why should we be putting laptops in the hands of 12-year-olds? Isn't there a better way to spend that kind of money?
(the district I work for couldn't possibly afford something like this anyway, we're treading water thanks to Texas' lovely Robin Hood program taking 51% of our budget)
I'm referring to the games that propelled the genre into the spotlight. I'll say this yet again:
Wolfenstein 3D came out before Doom, but Doom was the game that gave FPS mass appeal.
Dune 2 came out before C&C, but C&C gave RTS mass appeal.
EQ came out before WoW...get where I'm going with this?
I'm talking about that first game that took the genre to new levels, the game that most people of that generation would remember as their first. Dune 2 and WarCraft didn't do nearly as well as C&C.
The RTS genre *is* a bit different than most: WarCraft 2 (WC wasn't nearly the success that WC2 was, and most people I know only played WC after they discovered WC2) offered radically different gameplay than C&C and created something of a subgenre of RTS; for years it's been "it's like C&C" or "it's like War/StarCraft". One noteable exception is Total Annihilation, which carved out a class all its own.
FPS didn't really see a big change until Half-Life made the story-driven FPS a big hit. Just about everything between Doom and HL--ROTT, Quake, Duke3D, all the rest--were some variation on Doom's basic concept.
The way I see it, an MMO has to have four things:
1) Fun factor. It's got to be enjoyable to play. A WoW/WoS competitor would have to trump them first and foremost by making gameplay fun. Part of this will be in crafting a compelling world and story, but most will be in game mechanics.
2) Accessibility. A complicated GUI can kill a fast-paced online game. I've not played WoW, but from what I've seen of it the interface is quite solid and doesn't leave just a whole lot of room for improvement; a competitor needs only to match Blizzard on this.
3) Good social networking. This is where I think a new MMO could really shine in comparison with the current offerings. Make it easy to find and play with friends, give players new and creative ways to communicate with one another, et cetera. I see so much stuff relating to WoW all over the internet...but what if a lot of that could be presented within the game environment somehow?
4) Regular content additions. Playing the same old same old gets boring fast. As I understand it, WoW does this well enough, so a competitor has to at least match them.
Wolfenstein 3D came before Doom, but I wouldn't consider it the defining game of the genre. Doom is what took FPS (and really, computer games in general) from a geek game to something for everyone. The same could be said of Dune 2 and Command & Conquer.
Everquest at its height was always the realm of hardcore gamers. It didn't have the mass acceptance that WoW has, the same as Doom was the first FPS to have that same mass appeal.
There are always a few really good games in a genre before one comes along that makes the genre into a huge hit and by which subsequent games are judged for years to come. EverQuest will most likely be remembered as the game that paved the way for WoW.