The problem with the "just be yourself" advice is often toxic to chronic introverts is that it gives the clueless guys (and I hope Stachybotris is not assuming I'm calling him clueless, I'm not because first and foremost I don't really know him) the wrong impression that continuing their present behavior is correct.
You're quite right - I probably didn't word that in the best way possible. What I meant by saying 'be yourself' isn't to continue on in whatever patterns of behavior the person has without regard to anything else, but rather to not try and be something that they aren't. Nonchalant is definitely the right word.
If the person isn't a suave, 'hip' individual, they shouldn't try to act like one. While the effort isn't certain to be doomed to failure, it doesn't stand much chance of success and will probably lead to much awkwardness later on. It might work in the movies (as does the whole ugly duckling routine), but this is real life.
No, he really doesn't. He needs to be himself, and when the right woman finds him, it'll click. The key here is 'finds him'. You don't find a woman when you're looking for one. At least I didn't. Then I met the one who became my wife because I decided to stop 'looking' and just be myself.
But this is/.. We're not here for dating advice - we're here to help this guy help a girl he likes plan a killer party with math as a theme (though I wonder how many of us routinely go to parties).
The trick is to do things she and her friends like in unexpected and subtle ways. For example, arrange the appetizers in the Fibonacci series (or get really daring and stack them vertically using Pascal's triangle). Use geometry to decorate (especially Pi) - how about a 3D model of some ungodly shape (like the tings you find in the Discovery Channel store) as a centerpiece?
But most importantly don't overdo it! You want people to have fun first and be reminded that they're math geeks last. But then again, I usually just make a crapton of food, get some hooch, and put Zeppelin on the stereo. The good times tend to take care of themselves.
Then of course there's the whole thing about there being no root user.
Even though if it weren't for Ubuntu I'd still be running Windows, this is precisely the reason I'm thinking of switching to either a straight-up Debian install or Fedora (given that I prefer APT, it'll probably be Debian). Yes, I realize that I can configure the root account so that I actually can just 'su -' and run with it, but that's not the point. Instead of holding user's hands and assuming that they'll kill their box if given root, the Ubuntu team should take the time to educate the user about the pros and cons of running as root. And before you scream that people don't want to learn things, remember that we're talking about people who've switched (or at least are in the process of switching), and so must not be too {relucatant|unwilling|stubborn} to learn. If you're going to make assumptions about users, isn't it better to assume that they want to learn rather than to assume that they'll just fubar something?
Re:Green Software + Hardware
on
Building a Green PC
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· Score: 3, Interesting
AC-to-DC conversion is messy and lossy. Fortunately, we do have servers that can take DC directly from a shared AC-DC power supply. This concept needs to move into the home. Why should my PC, monitor, printer and God knows what else all each have their own AC-DC power converter box? Homes could have a single large converter and then have DC-only outlets for all those appliances that need it. That's such an insipidly great idea (especially when you stop and consider that all of your consoles, your TV, your stereo, and pretty much every other electronic device in your house is running a rectifier of its own) that you just know it won't even be considered. From the hardware standpoint, however, it wouldn't actually be that difficult to implement - you'd just have to get a standardized power cable and outlet. Oh, wait, we have those already - we use them in racks.
And from an economical/'green' standpoint, that's just another cost that can be rolled into the price of a new home. Everybody wins!
Yeah, actually there's a huge difference in the structures of bacteria and people... Starting with the fact that humans don't have cell walls. Cell membranes, yes, but not cell walls. And the only eukaryotes that I can think of off the top of my head that do have cell walls are the fungi, and even then the structure is quite different (fungi have chitin in their cell walls, while bacteria don't).
It really depends on whether the hydroxides are attacking fatty acids (which make up the overwhelming majority of the cell membrane) or proteins (which make up the bulk of the cell wall). My guess here is on the proteins.
Hmmm... Can you please point me to these open-source 'virtual tabletop' systems of which you speak? I've got a friend in PA with no gaming group, and if I could get him into my game in VA, that'd be more than fantastic.
Well, the implementation of the Sorcerer definitely made spells per day more usable and likable, though the limited number of spells known is a big downside. Of course, it's not too difficult to house-rule it so that a wizard/cleric/druid can memorize a set list of spells and then mix-and-match cast at leisure until they're out of that spell level for that day. The bigger problem I think that I've always had was the extreme focus on combat-related spells. Yes, D&D is mostly combat in most campaigns, but there should still be a host of utility spells. Why do Druids not have spells that let them make crops healthier? Why aren't there more spells for Clerics and Wizards that can be used for governance or in social situations? (The short answer is because it's not sexy to do the things that keep the world running smoothly).
Take what I say about Bo9S with a grain of salt - I've only read a few pages and discussed with some friends who've read more of it than I did. While I agree with the fact that melee (and especially ranged) fighters need to be able to keep up with the damage output that casters eventually get, I think they could have scaled back the power a little. After all, once the caster is out of spells, the greataxe can still be swung. Then again, a caster should never run out of spells - that's what scrolls, wands, and staves are for. It's just that doing 9d6 points of damage with a melee weapon seems a little much to me.
And then you get into the supplements that are simply there for lazy DMs. Take the Book of Villains as an example. While it's well-written and has some fascinating NPCs, any DM worth his salt should be able to come up with the same information. Of course, newer supplements also have pre-planned battles, complete with minimaps and how to place your miniatures.
I'm 100% with you on bringing back Planescape, since some of my most fondly-remembered college games were set there. Eberron has some interesting concepts (I won't comment on how they were implemented), like the Warforged and the general backstory, but the magitech is a little too much for my liking. I tend to stay away from published settings (especially the Forgotten Realms), however, as I hate when my players start contradicting me on details simply because they've read all of the source material from front to back.
I solved many of these problems by house-ruling my game beyond belief. Hell, I junked the vancian magic system in favor of a port of the system from Mage. But there got to be so many house rules that I ended up with something that wasn't really D&D anymore. At that point, I said 'screw it' and started developing a fully skill-based system (think of it as a tabletop Elder Scrolls engine).
You can eliminate the problem of money being equal to power, but it's a lot of work to go through the back-end and strip out the mechanics that support it. Too many creatures have DR or AC that practically require high-powered magic items to punch through, and once you clear that out, they still end up having too many HP to deal with on a reasonable level.
And you're very right - clerics in 3.x truly do bring a sick amount of greatness to the table. Yet many people (that I've gamed with) still can't get past the 'healing battery' epithet. This is why my last cleric was such a prick (for the record, I'm my group's DM). She was a cleric of the goddess of defensive warfare and could dish out/take almost as much damage as the party's fighters (half-plate + bastard sword + shield). Before she'd heal people who didn't pull their own weight in combat, she'd deliver sermons - if they didn't want to listen, fine, they didn't get healed since they were found lacking in the eyes of her goddess.
I've been keeping track of the 4th edition changes, and there's one thing that I've seen that I really do like - the clarification of spell durations. Well, make that two things: I also like what they've done with x/day powers/spells with regards to 'recharge times' and scaling. Crap, three things... They've returned dragons to their rightful place as the most deadly and terrifying creatures that you can encounter. As they should be.
On the other hand, we have the fact that it's based heavily on BoNS, which is, IMHO, the most broken and power-gamerish supplement ever released. There's also the facts that it's even more miniature-based, the on-line content requires a subscription, and that Ebberon is now the default setting (though I might be wrong on that last point. Correct me if I am).
D&D will always have a special place in my heart, but this is not the direction that I want the game to go in. Yes, I will give it a try at some point, but I don't picture myself having nearly as many of the books for 4th edition that I do for 3.x.
My question is: How does this affect people who subscribe to LAUNCHcast plus? I've had a subscription to that for a couple of years now, and the article makes absolutely no mention of it. While I'm not really opposed to seeing if the new Real Player is as non-evil as what some other posters have said, it's still bound to be a pain.
Though I suppose it might be a win anyway... If Real actually works well under Linux, and all of Yahoo!'s music services move over, then I would actually be able to use my subscription at home, instead of just at work.
As someone who, up until recently, worked for a CLEC, let me just say that this is not the case. It's too expensive to physically remove the copper. Usually the techs simply disconnect it from the NID, though in rare cases they may cut it at ground level. Also, consider that the fiber is typically run close to the copper so that they can use the copper line to find the fiber if they have to.
I would mod you up if I had the points. Hell, I still have my TurboDuo attached to the TV in my living room. Lords of Thunder is still one of the best side-scrollers I've ever played, and if I can get a copy of Syd Mead's Terraforming (for less than the price of a new console), I'd die a happy man.
It's not just poor security - it's a combination of poor security and lazy, uneducated users who would rather trash & replace a system than take the time to fix it. The article you cited made me mad enough the first time I read it, but upon re-read it got worse. A Ph.D. in CompSci couldn't fix his own box? I refuse to believe that he's so busy that he honestly doesn't have the time. I also find it difficult to believe that he doesn't have the skills and habits necessary to keep the system clean in the first place.
Anyway, MicroSoft isn't making a huge amount of money on those replacements, since they're all shipping with wholesale-priced OEM installs. If they really wanted to make a buck or ten, they'd try to get users to purchase a(nother) retail copy of the software every time a re-install is needed. Perhaps implement something like a one-time key that you must activate either on-line or with a paired one-time key obtained by phoning into Redmond.
Of course, poor security does make money for other companies. Symantec, McAfee, Panda, Grisoft, ZoneLabs, Spysweeper, and Lavasoft wouldn't have very good bottom lines if Windows were a little harder to exploit. And think of all the new boxen that get purchased because a 1-year-old PC is so cluttered with malware that it BSoDs on a regular occasion.
Which makes me wonder... How much money could be made by offering to take old PCs from people, refurbishing them (perhaps w/ a quick Linux install), and then distributing/selling them at a low cost? I think this could work, given that I've had customers call in for configuration info for their 'new' PC that is running Win '98...
Whether it leaves them disappointed or not depends on their 'needs'. The weakest thing cited in the summary is the 250-watt power supply. I'd never consider running a P3 with that, let alone a P4 or equivalent (even if it is only running at 1.5 GHz). A gig of RAM and an 80-gig hard-drive are just fine - that's what our workstations at my company run with, as well as the laptops that our sales team uses. And I can safely say that I know several people who are in their senior year, run similar setups, and haven't overflowed their drives with MP3s and movies yet.
On the other hand, I'm not sure about the quality of the hardware. I've never heard of either the manufacturer of the system or what I'm guessing is the motherboard.
Also, I have mixed feelings about OO.o being bundled with these systems. I'm glad to see that it's getting some face-time, but I worry that it'll get associated with Wal*Mart and therefore be considered just as crappy as everything else they sell.
I find it both amusing and comforting that whoever in Redmond did that placed Ubuntu in the 'BIOS & System Updates Downloads' category. After all, it's certainly an improvement over Windows.
Having said that, I'm going to have to go with 'it's someone's last-day joke'. I can't even begin to fathom that MS would start offering (directly or indirectly) downloads of Ubuntu, even if they do see it as a larger threat to their market share than Mac (and who knows, maybe they do). Of course, even if the page was placed intentionally, rather than as a joke, I don't think Shuttleworth would be to happy with them for it.
My first issue was #180, back in April of '92 (or was it '91?). I stopped reading shortly after Paizo took over publishing and decided to move DM-specific to Dungeon and keep Dragon as a player-centric magazine. I really enjoyed it when all the game content was in one magazine and the canned adventures were in the other. Also, Paizo had far too many ads in the magazines (as opposed to when WotC or TSR were publishing) for my taste. If they'd have kept the content where it was, I'd have gladly paid an additional dollar or two per issue just to keep the ads down.
Oh well, such goes the way of the gaming industry. Maybe this on-line offering will make it worth subscribing again.
Didn't these people ever watch Star Wars?
on
AMD's New DRM
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· Score: 1
Because the more they tighten their grasp, the more users will slip through their fingers...
I don't think I'd call Hunters 'basic humans'. They display just as many supernatural powers as any of the awakened character types, they're just in denial about it. They'd rather run around screaming about how evil vampires are because they have un-natural abilities, then grab their baseball bat that explodes with holy fire and beat it to a pulp.
There are, however, rules for playing a true mortal. In fact, I think the source book might have even been called that... It was a subset of rules for another game, most likely Vampire. Having said that, even a true mortal can be a pain to the awakened - they can have authority (does your mage really want to piss that cop off?), they can have the merit 'True Faith' (which puts a crimp in the style of both vampires and mages), or they can be retired soldiers (yeah, an ex-marine can kick a werewolf's ass if he knows what's coming).
The bigger problem is that in the tabletop game most people don't try to play by the rules of society because they think that they're no longer a part of it. How many laws does the average character break per session just because the repercussions of those actions are never brought into play? That's why people would be happier to play normal humans in a WW MMORPG - the computer just isn't going to allow the awakened out there to do some things.
Of course, I get the feeling that all mundane humans will be run as NPCs. Which is fine. I would like to see this, if for no reason other than to play a Technocrat (Progenitor or Iteration-X, please).
Slashdot Mirror
Funny thing is, when I googled 'help with the internet', the first two hits were for IE 7 and support.microsoft.com. WTF?
Hmmm... 'Boot Camp' sounds like the perfect name for the licensing classes.
And why not? I refer to our NOC as the nerd cave...
You're quite right - I probably didn't word that in the best way possible. What I meant by saying 'be yourself' isn't to continue on in whatever patterns of behavior the person has without regard to anything else, but rather to not try and be something that they aren't. Nonchalant is definitely the right word.
If the person isn't a suave, 'hip' individual, they shouldn't try to act like one. While the effort isn't certain to be doomed to failure, it doesn't stand much chance of success and will probably lead to much awkwardness later on. It might work in the movies (as does the whole ugly duckling routine), but this is real life.
No, he really doesn't. He needs to be himself, and when the right woman finds him, it'll click. The key here is 'finds him'. You don't find a woman when you're looking for one. At least I didn't. Then I met the one who became my wife because I decided to stop 'looking' and just be myself.
/.. We're not here for dating advice - we're here to help this guy help a girl he likes plan a killer party with math as a theme (though I wonder how many of us routinely go to parties).
But this is
The trick is to do things she and her friends like in unexpected and subtle ways. For example, arrange the appetizers in the Fibonacci series (or get really daring and stack them vertically using Pascal's triangle). Use geometry to decorate (especially Pi) - how about a 3D model of some ungodly shape (like the tings you find in the Discovery Channel store) as a centerpiece?
But most importantly don't overdo it! You want people to have fun first and be reminded that they're math geeks last. But then again, I usually just make a crapton of food, get some hooch, and put Zeppelin on the stereo. The good times tend to take care of themselves.
Even though if it weren't for Ubuntu I'd still be running Windows, this is precisely the reason I'm thinking of switching to either a straight-up Debian install or Fedora (given that I prefer APT, it'll probably be Debian). Yes, I realize that I can configure the root account so that I actually can just 'su -' and run with it, but that's not the point. Instead of holding user's hands and assuming that they'll kill their box if given root, the Ubuntu team should take the time to educate the user about the pros and cons of running as root. And before you scream that people don't want to learn things, remember that we're talking about people who've switched (or at least are in the process of switching), and so must not be too {relucatant|unwilling|stubborn} to learn. If you're going to make assumptions about users, isn't it better to assume that they want to learn rather than to assume that they'll just fubar something?
And from an economical/'green' standpoint, that's just another cost that can be rolled into the price of a new home. Everybody wins!
Yeah, actually there's a huge difference in the structures of bacteria and people... Starting with the fact that humans don't have cell walls. Cell membranes, yes, but not cell walls. And the only eukaryotes that I can think of off the top of my head that do have cell walls are the fungi, and even then the structure is quite different (fungi have chitin in their cell walls, while bacteria don't).
It really depends on whether the hydroxides are attacking fatty acids (which make up the overwhelming majority of the cell membrane) or proteins (which make up the bulk of the cell wall). My guess here is on the proteins.
Nah, I think it's more along the lines of what Harlan Ellison was talking about...
Hmmm... Can you please point me to these open-source 'virtual tabletop' systems of which you speak? I've got a friend in PA with no gaming group, and if I could get him into my game in VA, that'd be more than fantastic.
Well, the implementation of the Sorcerer definitely made spells per day more usable and likable, though the limited number of spells known is a big downside. Of course, it's not too difficult to house-rule it so that a wizard/cleric/druid can memorize a set list of spells and then mix-and-match cast at leisure until they're out of that spell level for that day. The bigger problem I think that I've always had was the extreme focus on combat-related spells. Yes, D&D is mostly combat in most campaigns, but there should still be a host of utility spells. Why do Druids not have spells that let them make crops healthier? Why aren't there more spells for Clerics and Wizards that can be used for governance or in social situations? (The short answer is because it's not sexy to do the things that keep the world running smoothly).
Take what I say about Bo9S with a grain of salt - I've only read a few pages and discussed with some friends who've read more of it than I did. While I agree with the fact that melee (and especially ranged) fighters need to be able to keep up with the damage output that casters eventually get, I think they could have scaled back the power a little. After all, once the caster is out of spells, the greataxe can still be swung. Then again, a caster should never run out of spells - that's what scrolls, wands, and staves are for. It's just that doing 9d6 points of damage with a melee weapon seems a little much to me.
And then you get into the supplements that are simply there for lazy DMs. Take the Book of Villains as an example. While it's well-written and has some fascinating NPCs, any DM worth his salt should be able to come up with the same information. Of course, newer supplements also have pre-planned battles, complete with minimaps and how to place your miniatures.
I'm 100% with you on bringing back Planescape, since some of my most fondly-remembered college games were set there. Eberron has some interesting concepts (I won't comment on how they were implemented), like the Warforged and the general backstory, but the magitech is a little too much for my liking. I tend to stay away from published settings (especially the Forgotten Realms), however, as I hate when my players start contradicting me on details simply because they've read all of the source material from front to back.
I solved many of these problems by house-ruling my game beyond belief. Hell, I junked the vancian magic system in favor of a port of the system from Mage. But there got to be so many house rules that I ended up with something that wasn't really D&D anymore. At that point, I said 'screw it' and started developing a fully skill-based system (think of it as a tabletop Elder Scrolls engine).
You can eliminate the problem of money being equal to power, but it's a lot of work to go through the back-end and strip out the mechanics that support it. Too many creatures have DR or AC that practically require high-powered magic items to punch through, and once you clear that out, they still end up having too many HP to deal with on a reasonable level.
And you're very right - clerics in 3.x truly do bring a sick amount of greatness to the table. Yet many people (that I've gamed with) still can't get past the 'healing battery' epithet. This is why my last cleric was such a prick (for the record, I'm my group's DM). She was a cleric of the goddess of defensive warfare and could dish out/take almost as much damage as the party's fighters (half-plate + bastard sword + shield). Before she'd heal people who didn't pull their own weight in combat, she'd deliver sermons - if they didn't want to listen, fine, they didn't get healed since they were found lacking in the eyes of her goddess.
I've been keeping track of the 4th edition changes, and there's one thing that I've seen that I really do like - the clarification of spell durations. Well, make that two things: I also like what they've done with x/day powers/spells with regards to 'recharge times' and scaling. Crap, three things... They've returned dragons to their rightful place as the most deadly and terrifying creatures that you can encounter. As they should be.
On the other hand, we have the fact that it's based heavily on BoNS, which is, IMHO, the most broken and power-gamerish supplement ever released. There's also the facts that it's even more miniature-based, the on-line content requires a subscription, and that Ebberon is now the default setting (though I might be wrong on that last point. Correct me if I am).
D&D will always have a special place in my heart, but this is not the direction that I want the game to go in. Yes, I will give it a try at some point, but I don't picture myself having nearly as many of the books for 4th edition that I do for 3.x.
My question is: How does this affect people who subscribe to LAUNCHcast plus? I've had a subscription to that for a couple of years now, and the article makes absolutely no mention of it. While I'm not really opposed to seeing if the new Real Player is as non-evil as what some other posters have said, it's still bound to be a pain.
Though I suppose it might be a win anyway... If Real actually works well under Linux, and all of Yahoo!'s music services move over, then I would actually be able to use my subscription at home, instead of just at work.
As someone who, up until recently, worked for a CLEC, let me just say that this is not the case. It's too expensive to physically remove the copper. Usually the techs simply disconnect it from the NID, though in rare cases they may cut it at ground level. Also, consider that the fiber is typically run close to the copper so that they can use the copper line to find the fiber if they have to.
I would mod you up if I had the points. Hell, I still have my TurboDuo attached to the TV in my living room. Lords of Thunder is still one of the best side-scrollers I've ever played, and if I can get a copy of Syd Mead's Terraforming (for less than the price of a new console), I'd die a happy man.
It's not just poor security - it's a combination of poor security and lazy, uneducated users who would rather trash & replace a system than take the time to fix it. The article you cited made me mad enough the first time I read it, but upon re-read it got worse. A Ph.D. in CompSci couldn't fix his own box? I refuse to believe that he's so busy that he honestly doesn't have the time. I also find it difficult to believe that he doesn't have the skills and habits necessary to keep the system clean in the first place.
Anyway, MicroSoft isn't making a huge amount of money on those replacements, since they're all shipping with wholesale-priced OEM installs. If they really wanted to make a buck or ten, they'd try to get users to purchase a(nother) retail copy of the software every time a re-install is needed. Perhaps implement something like a one-time key that you must activate either on-line or with a paired one-time key obtained by phoning into Redmond.
Of course, poor security does make money for other companies. Symantec, McAfee, Panda, Grisoft, ZoneLabs, Spysweeper, and Lavasoft wouldn't have very good bottom lines if Windows were a little harder to exploit. And think of all the new boxen that get purchased because a 1-year-old PC is so cluttered with malware that it BSoDs on a regular occasion.
Which makes me wonder... How much money could be made by offering to take old PCs from people, refurbishing them (perhaps w/ a quick Linux install), and then distributing/selling them at a low cost? I think this could work, given that I've had customers call in for configuration info for their 'new' PC that is running Win '98...
Wow! Another fan of Grieg... This is precisely why I don't listen to Wagner in the car either.
Whether it leaves them disappointed or not depends on their 'needs'. The weakest thing cited in the summary is the 250-watt power supply. I'd never consider running a P3 with that, let alone a P4 or equivalent (even if it is only running at 1.5 GHz). A gig of RAM and an 80-gig hard-drive are just fine - that's what our workstations at my company run with, as well as the laptops that our sales team uses. And I can safely say that I know several people who are in their senior year, run similar setups, and haven't overflowed their drives with MP3s and movies yet.
On the other hand, I'm not sure about the quality of the hardware. I've never heard of either the manufacturer of the system or what I'm guessing is the motherboard.
Also, I have mixed feelings about OO.o being bundled with these systems. I'm glad to see that it's getting some face-time, but I worry that it'll get associated with Wal*Mart and therefore be considered just as crappy as everything else they sell.
I find it both amusing and comforting that whoever in Redmond did that placed Ubuntu in the 'BIOS & System Updates Downloads' category. After all, it's certainly an improvement over Windows.
Having said that, I'm going to have to go with 'it's someone's last-day joke'. I can't even begin to fathom that MS would start offering (directly or indirectly) downloads of Ubuntu, even if they do see it as a larger threat to their market share than Mac (and who knows, maybe they do). Of course, even if the page was placed intentionally, rather than as a joke, I don't think Shuttleworth would be to happy with them for it.
My first issue was #180, back in April of '92 (or was it '91?). I stopped reading shortly after Paizo took over publishing and decided to move DM-specific to Dungeon and keep Dragon as a player-centric magazine. I really enjoyed it when all the game content was in one magazine and the canned adventures were in the other. Also, Paizo had far too many ads in the magazines (as opposed to when WotC or TSR were publishing) for my taste. If they'd have kept the content where it was, I'd have gladly paid an additional dollar or two per issue just to keep the ads down.
Oh well, such goes the way of the gaming industry. Maybe this on-line offering will make it worth subscribing again.
Because the more they tighten their grasp, the more users will slip through their fingers...
Okay, the other posters might not have appreciated it, but I found that damned funny.
Yes, and as little as 12 years ago I thought that we'd never be able to fill a single CD-Rom.
No, actually I half-ass read it when my roommate picked it up. Didn't interest me then, and it still doesn't interest me now.
I don't think I'd call Hunters 'basic humans'. They display just as many supernatural powers as any of the awakened character types, they're just in denial about it. They'd rather run around screaming about how evil vampires are because they have un-natural abilities, then grab their baseball bat that explodes with holy fire and beat it to a pulp.
There are, however, rules for playing a true mortal. In fact, I think the source book might have even been called that... It was a subset of rules for another game, most likely Vampire. Having said that, even a true mortal can be a pain to the awakened - they can have authority (does your mage really want to piss that cop off?), they can have the merit 'True Faith' (which puts a crimp in the style of both vampires and mages), or they can be retired soldiers (yeah, an ex-marine can kick a werewolf's ass if he knows what's coming).
The bigger problem is that in the tabletop game most people don't try to play by the rules of society because they think that they're no longer a part of it. How many laws does the average character break per session just because the repercussions of those actions are never brought into play? That's why people would be happier to play normal humans in a WW MMORPG - the computer just isn't going to allow the awakened out there to do some things.
Of course, I get the feeling that all mundane humans will be run as NPCs. Which is fine. I would like to see this, if for no reason other than to play a Technocrat (Progenitor or Iteration-X, please).