How, exactly, does one prove to developers that you are only running linux? Also, what if you have to dual boot in windows for work, using a piece of proprietary software which only runs in windows (shudder), but everything else you do is in linux? Does that mean your desire as a consumer to have gaming in linux is less important?
It seems many people are overlooking the fact that more and more people are wanting games to be developed for linux. It does not matter whether you are dual booting, or whatnot, the market share for linux gaming is increasing, and bad OS alternatives such as vista is only assisting in the growth. If the market demands that games be made in linux, and those who are making games for the market are listening, there is money to be made. There are expensive, and not expensive ways to do, I do not know them all, or most for that matter, but there have been companies doing this for years. Considering this, why is it still such a pain to bridge the gap for companies who are already writing games to support most of the linux environment alreay?
Okay, so you claim cost. Well, why does ID software, or Epic Mega-games (now Epic Games) develop all their titles with full linux support? I'll tell you this much, those companies are still in business, making plenty of money.
I imagine by now my post might not be read, but here goes.
I have been a fan of Blizzard for years, still am really. I put faith in the quality of their product, but I am concerned with a concept they themselves essentially created.
Custom User Interfaces. With the advent of World of Warcraft, I wonder why it had not been developed before. For those who are not quite following me yet, let me indulge you.
World of Warcraft features an almost 100% customizable User Interface via the use of XML and LUA. The only real restrictions are ones which could possibly cause you to gain an unfair advantage over your opponents. Granted, the "convenience" itself can add an advantage, but Blizzard is more concerned of causing things that were not originally intended to occur, that drastically imbalances the playing field. After using their customizable UI for years, I find myself dependant on such customization.
My concern is, will they impliment a method for customizing their UI to the degree that World of Warcraft saw? I for one would be in favour of such a design. Consider that there are little shortcuts, and little nicities that Warcraft 3 had over Starcraft 1. Things such as pressing tilde to select any idle worker, or pressing the "forward" and "back" buttons on new-er mice to cycle through different types of units. I would be eager to see how much of an impact customizing the UI in a RTS of such calibre would have.
Actuallly Blizzard sold so many copies they had to take them off the shelves because their servers could not handle the massive ammounts of people who bought in. It was months before they started selling again, after increasing their server farm size.
granted, the wii has brought far new ways to interact with the game, but i dont see '08 on the wii being different except maybe better interface controls.
sports games are old and uncreative despite what wii has been doing. (heart wiimote)
good on em! its the sole reason i dont join any military, because while balisitcs are cool, killing people isnt:/ so much pain, anguish, and suffering from it. I dont want to ever be put in a position where I would have to bring that upon someone.
How can they tax a currency that doesnt actually leave where it is? The in game transfer of currency does not actually leave (for example) Blizzard servers. Companies that are "selling" gold are essentially seling the time spent to acquire the gold, as they neither have the ability to move it off the servers/property, nor do they have the right.
Perhaps looking at it from another angle. Example again, World of Warcraft (surprised yet?). Blizzard owns the currency in their game, it is not actual currency produced by the government which they reside in. How can they tax exchange of currency which they have no rights over? The company Blizzard is already being taxed (rather, the clients of Blizzard) for the services provided; doesnt that technically cover any and all "moving of virtual currency"?
Perhaps I should present myself in another way. If the IRS taxes me, a Canadian citizen (resident in Canada), for a virtual currency exchange based in the United States of America; I will sue them. Sound good? Does to me.
Here in calgary there was a drastic shortage. I waited over 16 hours throughout the city (eventually ending up at one location about 2am) only to discover that the mixed information we recieved (the security guards told us they had 40 units) had stabbed us in the back. They had 4 copies at the store there, and they hadn't even arrived. Some meatheads cheated and started their own line well before anyone else was allowed to, and security didnt even shoo them away.
not doing this again.
Data plotting (i think thats the right term) would be a legal process, I can see that, but it doesnt seem too reliable, with a few exceptions. How many people use the suggested settings of using alternative ports? Quite a few of the clients also have "random port", while difficult to setup properly through NAT/Firewalls, still feasible with a public IP.
Either way, it sounds like a violation of privacy acts/laws/rights as it could potentially gain access to parts of the file which determine if its a BT packet or not. Isnt that illegal?
This motherboard has been out for at least 4 months, maybe even 6 months. Ive lost track. Either way, this isnt news, but thanks for reposting.
Despite the fact that quad sli isnt readily available currently, Nvidia is already in the works for it to become available. Initially they will be offering it through companies such as dell (dell is actually the first company to have it available), but in the later developments they will be supporting it openly.
In reality this board is just a grab for attention from gigabyte.
adobe is what holds me back. I havnt tried lots of ebooks, but the majority of the ones I have are in the rediculous pdf format. PDFs are so inefficiently rendered it makes it pointless to have to wait to read something just because I scrolled to the next page.
Very few companies actually concieve anything original, yes westwood started the RTS concept, and yes Blizz didnt start the MMO series at all. Does that mean they did a poor job when they did decide to make their game? Not necessarily.
There are no MMORPGs out there that do not undergo patching on a regular basis of one sort or another in order to correct unforseen necessary changes. Warcraft 2 was unbalanced, I will give you that, but it taught them how to properly balance, and Starcraft and Warcraft 3 were born, as well as Diablo 2.
Blizzard did not get WoW perfect the first time, but they did get it better than any other MMORPG on todays market, including SWG.
I am not here to argue or speculate as to why they are not adding new classes to the expansion, I am merely arguing that WoW is by far superior to SWG, dispite SOE's "second wind", and that SWG will not win the market share that WoW holds.
Blizzard worked hard to get to the #1 spot for MMORPG's, in many facets. One could extrapolate that they analyzed the current plethora of MMORPG's in today's and yesterday's market, including UO,EQ,AC, and so forth. Analyzing what made them great, and what didnt.
For example, EQ was really good for PvE, but by today's standards it is a very unrewarding per time game. Blizz sped this up heavily in WoW, the game is more rewarding per time spent by far comparatively to EQ, and thus why I will never play EQ ever again.
Blizzard also has much experience in the realm of "Balancing", making the game even in their quirky rock-paper-scissors fashion. This experience stems from releasing many games before WoW, including the Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo series. Each series having its own signifigant twist to balancing in very advanced aspects.
Comparatively, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE, the developers of Star Wars Galaxies, SWG) have a few MMORPG's under their acquizition belt. Ultima Online, Ever Quest being the biggest. However, they handle these games differently from Blizzard. SOE bought these games, like any business, with the intent to turn major profit. And so they have, but at the cost of entertaining games. I have not experienced this first hand myself, but I know people who have played these games, witnessed changes SOE has made to these games to make them profitable, but not fun.
Blizzard, in stead, communicates heavily with their community formed around the game. The forums being the primary source of communication, as well as in-game GM support/assistance. Blizzard has observed the community, and the players at large, taking down notes and figuring out how to make the game more rewarding, both of current material and future material. At this point in their developed games the complexity of their balancing has reached such an advanced stage that even a single patch revamping a single class takes about 2 or 3 months to release (I am referring to patch 1.9 revamping the Paladin class, which to this date is still in public beta).
Blizzard cares, SOE doesnt, and the customer is wise enough to know what's fun, and what isnt.
These are the primary reasons why I believe that Blizzard will control the majority of the MMORPG market for a long time, if not forever. For this is their first MMORPG game, and they have captivated every major market around the world, with little advertising.
I will not leave WoW for SWG for other reasons (in addition to this). The primary reason I will not leave WoW for ANY OTHER MMORPG is due to the fact that I can customize my UI to an extreme degree. No other game features such functionality as featured in WoW. I have tried other games, such as Guild Wars, and it is by far nowhere near as enjoyable as being able to customize exactly what information you see as well as what functions (additional or originally implimented) are available to you. Blizzard had this system working even during open beta, the only changes since release they have made were to improve functionality or to fix bugs, I do not recall any major changes to the system at large, ever.
SWG will not win, ever, nor will any other MMORPG, unless Blizzard loses their Nack for game design, balancing, and entertainment.
Slashdot Mirror
also, sorry for the poorly formatted wall. I selected the wrong formatting type :(
How, exactly, does one prove to developers that you are only running linux? Also, what if you have to dual boot in windows for work, using a piece of proprietary software which only runs in windows (shudder), but everything else you do is in linux? Does that mean your desire as a consumer to have gaming in linux is less important? It seems many people are overlooking the fact that more and more people are wanting games to be developed for linux. It does not matter whether you are dual booting, or whatnot, the market share for linux gaming is increasing, and bad OS alternatives such as vista is only assisting in the growth. If the market demands that games be made in linux, and those who are making games for the market are listening, there is money to be made. There are expensive, and not expensive ways to do, I do not know them all, or most for that matter, but there have been companies doing this for years. Considering this, why is it still such a pain to bridge the gap for companies who are already writing games to support most of the linux environment alreay? Okay, so you claim cost. Well, why does ID software, or Epic Mega-games (now Epic Games) develop all their titles with full linux support? I'll tell you this much, those companies are still in business, making plenty of money.
I imagine by now my post might not be read, but here goes.
I have been a fan of Blizzard for years, still am really. I put faith in the quality of their product, but I am concerned with a concept they themselves essentially created.
Custom User Interfaces. With the advent of World of Warcraft, I wonder why it had not been developed before. For those who are not quite following me yet, let me indulge you.
World of Warcraft features an almost 100% customizable User Interface via the use of XML and LUA. The only real restrictions are ones which could possibly cause you to gain an unfair advantage over your opponents. Granted, the "convenience" itself can add an advantage, but Blizzard is more concerned of causing things that were not originally intended to occur, that drastically imbalances the playing field. After using their customizable UI for years, I find myself dependant on such customization.
My concern is, will they impliment a method for customizing their UI to the degree that World of Warcraft saw? I for one would be in favour of such a design. Consider that there are little shortcuts, and little nicities that Warcraft 3 had over Starcraft 1. Things such as pressing tilde to select any idle worker, or pressing the "forward" and "back" buttons on new-er mice to cycle through different types of units. I would be eager to see how much of an impact customizing the UI in a RTS of such calibre would have.
Actuallly Blizzard sold so many copies they had to take them off the shelves because their servers could not handle the massive ammounts of people who bought in. It was months before they started selling again, after increasing their server farm size.
i sure hope we're not o.O
because football changes each year... right?
granted, the wii has brought far new ways to interact with the game, but i dont see '08 on the wii being different except maybe better interface controls.
sports games are old and uncreative despite what wii has been doing. (heart wiimote)
OEM's will probably be pressured to give priority to DRM-enabled processors such as this. Sell it to the informed? I don't think so!
'Bout time
I love the Warcraft series, to bits (8 bits in a byte remember), but I am afraid Dune 2 started the whole RTS series, AND YES it did have a narrative.
second that.
I could swear light was proven to be matter, not just energy. Considering it does travel in wave form........
good on em! its the sole reason i dont join any military, because while balisitcs are cool, killing people isnt :/ so much pain, anguish, and suffering from it. I dont want to ever be put in a position where I would have to bring that upon someone.
Funny how Christians are supporting an organization which justifies killing people (innocent or not). What happened to Thou Shalt not Kill?
Oh wait... I guess the pope says its alright to kill. (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades )
How can they tax a currency that doesnt actually leave where it is? The in game transfer of currency does not actually leave (for example) Blizzard servers. Companies that are "selling" gold are essentially seling the time spent to acquire the gold, as they neither have the ability to move it off the servers/property, nor do they have the right.
Perhaps looking at it from another angle. Example again, World of Warcraft (surprised yet?). Blizzard owns the currency in their game, it is not actual currency produced by the government which they reside in. How can they tax exchange of currency which they have no rights over? The company Blizzard is already being taxed (rather, the clients of Blizzard) for the services provided; doesnt that technically cover any and all "moving of virtual currency"?
Perhaps I should present myself in another way. If the IRS taxes me, a Canadian citizen (resident in Canada), for a virtual currency exchange based in the United States of America; I will sue them. Sound good? Does to me.
Here in calgary there was a drastic shortage. I waited over 16 hours throughout the city (eventually ending up at one location about 2am) only to discover that the mixed information we recieved (the security guards told us they had 40 units) had stabbed us in the back. They had 4 copies at the store there, and they hadn't even arrived. Some meatheads cheated and started their own line well before anyone else was allowed to, and security didnt even shoo them away. not doing this again.
Data plotting (i think thats the right term) would be a legal process, I can see that, but it doesnt seem too reliable, with a few exceptions. How many people use the suggested settings of using alternative ports? Quite a few of the clients also have "random port", while difficult to setup properly through NAT/Firewalls, still feasible with a public IP. Either way, it sounds like a violation of privacy acts/laws/rights as it could potentially gain access to parts of the file which determine if its a BT packet or not. Isnt that illegal?
Isnt it illegal to read any part of encrypted data accross the internet? (with certain exceptions, ie: NSA actions/warrants, etc)
This motherboard has been out for at least 4 months, maybe even 6 months. Ive lost track.
Either way, this isnt news, but thanks for reposting.
Despite the fact that quad sli isnt readily available currently, Nvidia is already in the works for it to become available. Initially they will be offering it through companies such as dell (dell is actually the first company to have it available), but in the later developments they will be supporting it openly.
In reality this board is just a grab for attention from gigabyte.
adobe is what holds me back. I havnt tried lots of ebooks, but the majority of the ones I have are in the rediculous pdf format. PDFs are so inefficiently rendered it makes it pointless to have to wait to read something just because I scrolled to the next page.
Hurry up and wait!
lol speculation, how exactly did this become slashdot news?
Very few companies actually concieve anything original, yes westwood started the RTS concept, and yes Blizz didnt start the MMO series at all. Does that mean they did a poor job when they did decide to make their game? Not necessarily.
There are no MMORPGs out there that do not undergo patching on a regular basis of one sort or another in order to correct unforseen necessary changes. Warcraft 2 was unbalanced, I will give you that, but it taught them how to properly balance, and Starcraft and Warcraft 3 were born, as well as Diablo 2.
Blizzard did not get WoW perfect the first time, but they did get it better than any other MMORPG on todays market, including SWG.
I am not here to argue or speculate as to why they are not adding new classes to the expansion, I am merely arguing that WoW is by far superior to SWG, dispite SOE's "second wind", and that SWG will not win the market share that WoW holds.
HAHAHAAHHAHAHAHHAAHAH.
okay im done for now.
Blizzard worked hard to get to the #1 spot for MMORPG's, in many facets. One could extrapolate that they analyzed the current plethora of MMORPG's in today's and yesterday's market, including UO,EQ,AC, and so forth. Analyzing what made them great, and what didnt.
For example, EQ was really good for PvE, but by today's standards it is a very unrewarding per time game. Blizz sped this up heavily in WoW, the game is more rewarding per time spent by far comparatively to EQ, and thus why I will never play EQ ever again.
Blizzard also has much experience in the realm of "Balancing", making the game even in their quirky rock-paper-scissors fashion. This experience stems from releasing many games before WoW, including the Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo series. Each series having its own signifigant twist to balancing in very advanced aspects.
Comparatively, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE, the developers of Star Wars Galaxies, SWG) have a few MMORPG's under their acquizition belt. Ultima Online, Ever Quest being the biggest. However, they handle these games differently from Blizzard. SOE bought these games, like any business, with the intent to turn major profit. And so they have, but at the cost of entertaining games. I have not experienced this first hand myself, but I know people who have played these games, witnessed changes SOE has made to these games to make them profitable, but not fun.
Blizzard, in stead, communicates heavily with their community formed around the game. The forums being the primary source of communication, as well as in-game GM support/assistance. Blizzard has observed the community, and the players at large, taking down notes and figuring out how to make the game more rewarding, both of current material and future material. At this point in their developed games the complexity of their balancing has reached such an advanced stage that even a single patch revamping a single class takes about 2 or 3 months to release (I am referring to patch 1.9 revamping the Paladin class, which to this date is still in public beta).
Blizzard cares, SOE doesnt, and the customer is wise enough to know what's fun, and what isnt.
These are the primary reasons why I believe that Blizzard will control the majority of the MMORPG market for a long time, if not forever. For this is their first MMORPG game, and they have captivated every major market around the world, with little advertising.
I will not leave WoW for SWG for other reasons (in addition to this). The primary reason I will not leave WoW for ANY OTHER MMORPG is due to the fact that I can customize my UI to an extreme degree. No other game features such functionality as featured in WoW. I have tried other games, such as Guild Wars, and it is by far nowhere near as enjoyable as being able to customize exactly what information you see as well as what functions (additional or originally implimented) are available to you. Blizzard had this system working even during open beta, the only changes since release they have made were to improve functionality or to fix bugs, I do not recall any major changes to the system at large, ever.
SWG will not win, ever, nor will any other MMORPG, unless Blizzard loses their Nack for game design, balancing, and entertainment.
I trust in Blizzard, why dont you?