They already officially support Xbox 360 controller use on Windows, for instance and have released drivers.
Almost, but not quite. MS started plugging their new "XInput" standard to replace DirectInput; it's apparently used internally in the X360 to handle controller and microphone input. The DirectInput drivers they released are deliberately very limited; they don't support force feedback and they have limited shoulder button functionality. The "easy" solution for MS is just to demand that everyone just use XInput, or code in both DirectInput AND XInput support. But at present, I'm not aware of a PC controller manufacturer that has released XInput drivers, meaning the first option isn't at all viable. And the second is quite cumbersome. (The actual solution is 3rd party drivers, a messy fix.) Why would MS make life harder on developers? Why else, but to merge the markets.
On the whole, I think MS releasing the X360 controller into the Windows gamer market is an aggressive stance toward PC game developers. Basically they're saying, either make your games XInput compatible (and one step closer to X360 compatible), or else get tons of tech support calls from X360 controller owners wondering why their "Windows compatible" controller doesn't work. We can guess which direction most large game houses will take.
What were they supposed to do, write a transcript so you could read it with Lynx?
This is moving offtopic, but yes, a transcript would be nice. It's not for those running Lynx, but more for those of us who surf without sound (at work, or at home because most flash sound is obnoxious). Or how about those who can't hear, hm? Sure, it takes time to type out what's being said on a video. You could stick that text in the article for those without Flash, and you could add it as captions under the video as it plays. If what you have to say is that important, spend that time. Your "lowest common denominator" is more likely text PAIRED with video. That is, if you can be arsed to do it.
Hmm, interesting points. Let me see if I can answer them one by one.
I'm still not clear as to why you'd need copy authentication in the demo. If you're using a serial-key based system for online-based authentication (for multiplayer) I don't see why you couldn't just require the serial just for multiplayer. Set up your game so that single player requires no authentication, and multiplayer matchmaking through your server requires one. People with the demo don't get a key, but don't need one. People who bought the game (and got a key) get access to full multiplayer capabilities.
And no, game code and artwork are not necessarily separate because some game code applies only to specific scenarios (or levels, maps, chapters, etc.) supported by specific artwork. Should effects or scripts that get activated only in scenarios that do not appear in the demo be left out of the executable (violating cliffsky's requirement 2), or should they be left in (violating cliffsky's requirement 1)?
If the game is designed with proper modularity, scripts should be part of the assets and not part of the main executable. By effects I assume you mean graphical and audio effects. If it's part of the game engine, there's not much space penalty in leaving it in, is there? Of course, if your code isn't modular then it's going to be really tough to not change the code; if things like menus and even loadup scripts are hardcoded into your game, then you've done a poor job in the design phase. If it's done right, you supply two different resource packages, one for the demo and one for the full version. The difference is that the demo version has a different list of resources (levels/chapters and art/script dependencies, maybe a different loader script, different title screen with the word "DEMO" on it, different menu script that grays out some options, etc). Think of it like you'd think of internationalization projects, if you've ever done that. It's not difficult if you've written good tools during development and you've kept your stuff modular.
As for copy protection, I suppose I need to explain myself a bit more. The way that most commercial copy protection works these days is by "wrapping" the finished product. You supply a compiled exe, and the copy protection toolkit encrypts it. Nothing in your code has to change to accommodate the wrapper. When the copy protection detects a valid install media, it decrypts the game exe and plays. For your demo, you don't need or want that code. But again, that's not game code, that's a copy protection wrapper.
Your point about people modding the demo is good; I hadn't thought about that. I guess you'd have to add a compile-time flag; if the demo flag is set, the code that loads external resources isn't included. Or, change the define that says how many resources can be loaded at once. Sure, someone will probably hack it. But once the full version comes out they'll hack the copy protection on that instead.
The main point behind cliffsky saying the code doesn't change is to prevent a few things. It doesn't mean the code is identical between demo and full product, but it means you should be able to compile both from the same source with a single flag change. That means a few things. It means your demo and your final product share patch lines, which means if you fix a major bug in your full version you can recompile the demo with the latest code. It also means the demo plays exactly like your full game, with a restricted feature set. I've played a couple demos that were cobbled together from beta code and never updated. They were buggy, and they reflected poorly on the full version. Do you at least see his point?
[1 and 2] can be mutually conflicting. The full game may be optimized for speed, not size. In addition, the full game generally comes on a DVD, and its code includes an installer as well as verification of an authentication token stored on the DVD.
The only real restriction I see here is extra size from artwork/textures/models/sound/music/levels (assets). The size of the program executable from compiling with "size" vs "speed" is negligible in most cases, for download purposes. If your game is developed sanely, the installer code is separate from the authorization code is separate from the game code is separate from the artwork. Do you really need authorization code for a demo if you distribute with limited assets? And copy protection tends to be something you wrap around a finished executable... like you need or want copy protection on a freaking DEMO. You want people to give it to their friends. Right? But the point is, compiling without that code won't affect how the game plays. (Now if your copy protection breaks the full game, you have other issues.)
[2 and 3] can also be mutually conflicting. The full game has production logos, which are often used to cover up loading.
I think what the OP meant was blatant LOOK AT THIS AD FOR MY GAME FOR 20 SECONDS BEFORE STARTING AND QUITTING!@#*!*%^(!* crap that a lot of companies put into their demos. Do you know what I'm talking about? I go to quit the game, and I get a full page ad for the game I just played, and have no way to press spacebar or click to get back to my desktop. Okay, I played your demo. If it was that good, I'll buy it. Now let me go. As for loading screens, use the original artwork logo with the word DEMO on it somewhere. Or even a small ad listing one of the features of your game; I don't think that would be too annoying. Was that so hard?
At how many kilobytes per second? Is BitTorrent acceptable?
Yes, of course it has to be fast enough. Fast enough means a short enough time that your average user would put up with downloading it. For higher budget games with flashy graphics that's obviously going to be a longer time. But it should also be free to download. Restrictions like "give me all your marketing information" make it not free, because it means I have to pay for your demo with information. A torrent would fit these criteria, as long as you have a permanent seed and tracker available. Fileplanet does not. If you're an indie developer and have large demos, use torrents. If you're a big developer, pony up and pay for the bandwidth, you cheapskate.
Very true. From a different tack, every weapon has its advantages and disadvantages, and that goes for being unarmed as well. If you carry a weapon of any kind, you need to train with it. This also means knowing and acknowledging situations where it's best not to use that weapon. A gun in close combat against a trained opponent is a liability, as any police officer can tell you. It's why police tend to have holsters that snap shut. Also, firearms in crowded spaces aren't good because even a perfect shot can keep going through your target and injure or kill bystanders. On the other hand, a trained marksman with a drawn pistol in an open area has very good odds against even multiple attackers without firearms, given a bit of distance. Of course, if you don't train you won't hit anything.
It's best to have multiple tools in your belt, and know which is best for the situation. Know how to defend yourself unarmed (and be able to disarm opponents). Know how to fight with a blunt weapon like a stick. If you carry a firearm, know how to shoot and when NOT to use it. Finally, know when it's wisest to avoid fighting (as when unarmed and faced with a knife-wielding opponent who wants your wallet, or when faced with a well-trained unarmed opponent who is trying to kill you).
It goes both ways. Try to buy a DVD in Japan (legally) and you will pay upwards of 4000 yen (about $35USD) for a movie. It used to be much worse; I've seen prices on old discarded VHS cassette boxes indicating they used to be more than 10000 yen. That's almost a hundred bucks for one copy of a movie. Aside from the Japanese subtitles and sometimes a dub, the release has no additional content and no redeeming value. Hell, if I buy a copy of an animated film here, it will cost me almost forty bucks, and may not even come with Japanese subtitles. If I reimport from the USA, it will come with English and Japanese subs and cost a little more than half as much. Or I can just say "up yours, distributor" and pirate it, which is a very satisfying response to someone who is trying to rape you on prices.
And they want to restrict imports/exports for market reasons. Market pressure my ass. That's called a cartel.
"Our studies show that criminals drink three times as much alcohol as law abiding citizens."
"So beer turns people into criminals?"
"A correlation doesn't imply causality. Just because criminals drink a lot of beer doesn't mean that beer causes crime. It's possible that people with criminal tendencies enjoy beer because it helps to soothe their conscience. Or perhaps criminal behavior is caused in part by a genetic predisposition that also, coincidentally, makes criminals like the taste of beer more than the average person. Who knows?"
"You're very knowledgeable about these things."
"Criminal sociology is a hobby of mine. I think it's important to understand not just the individual, psychological roots of one's behavior, but also the social circumstances that foster that behavior. Whether we like it or not, we are shaped by our environment."
"Surely you're not suggesting that individuals aren't accountable for their actions."
"Oh, no, of course not. Just because we are products of the societies we're born into doesn't absolve us of personal responsibility. Our religions and laws teach us what is right and what is wrong. Frequently, the right choice is the more difficult path to take. It requires sacrifice, self-discipline, patience... virtues that many of us find somewhat lacking in our natures."
"But what if you're born into a hedonistic culture?"
"Look across history. The reason hedonism is discouraged by most religions and governments is that it weakens a civilization. It breeds sloth, petulance, degeneracy, and selfishness. A divided nation is a fragile nation, waiting to be conquered. Unity is strength. Humans instinctively fashion order out of chaos. It is a natural, probably genetic impulse. Therefore, even an individual born into troubled times has the capacity, and even the duty, to behave in a manner that promotes unity, however difficult it may be."
"Then what about us?"
"I can only speak for myself. I am a product of a broken household, which introduced a general lack of self confidence in me at a very early age. These feelings of inadequacy blossomed into anger as I matured that the rigors of adolescence, with the teasing and abuse and awkwardness we must all endure, only exacerbated. But even though I've identified the source of my problems, I'm still too childish and petty to become a responsible, mature citizen."
"Well, admitting you have a problem is the first step, I suppose."
Great... except that it resets the clock on all the devices. Not important for DVD players, but very important for VCRs, which a lot of us still use. And you won't be able to put your PVR on it either, since it kinda needs power to record stuff. Unless you have one of those magical PVRs that runs off the souls of baby squirrels or something.
The point that hits hardest is the one thing a lot of the Gamestop/EB managers seem to get wrong. If people wanted cheap, they'd go to Walmart. But they come into the GAMES store for the large selection of games, and the assumption that people behind the counter know what's good and what's not. If someone asks for a recommendation and you go for the easy sale, and recommend a piece of crap game, you'll come off looking like a tool and people won't come back to your store anymore. "The guy at the store told me my son would like this game, but it sucked. That guy didn't know what he was talking about. Screw that, I'll just go to Best Buy next time." But if you recommend a great game, people might come back next week or next month and buy another, and another. Or maybe if you're really lucky they'll recommend your store to their friends.
Don't blame the devs. Blame the publishers and the management teams.
Management looks at it from this perspective: "It will take 2 weeks of extra work to get it working on platform X. Expected profit from sales for platform X is $10K. It costs us $15K per month to pay our team. We won't make much extra money, and we have to get the game out by Q4 so don't bother."
Problem is, Japanese society is highly xenophobic. I'm burning karma here, but this is from someone who has lived here for several years. They wouldn't let foreign workers into the country to do simple labor, for fear that they'd overstay their visas and cause crime and not learn to speak Japanese. Say what you will, but a racially/socially/economically homogeneous population has done loads to keep Japan's crime rates comfortably low, and they like it that way.
So from that perspective, robotic assists seem like the way to go. Sick, but true.
Flash RAM and I assume a stripped down custom kernel means this thing is gonna boot faster than any hard drive based PC on the market. Think 10 to 15 seconds from power button to a login prompt. Consider the fact that most people think a computer is "fast" if it can boot quickly and open the programs they want in short order, not run benchmarks fast. Assuming it's got some way of pulling updates automatically, it should be leagues past other entry-level PCs in this regard. I don't see it really becoming "obsolete" in the near future either. If it's got no moving parts other than fans, it also has the potential to be quiet.
For slashdotters, this thing would be great for network multimedia storage or a personal webserver (with an external USB hard drive), for teaching people Linux, as a small portable box to run emulated games off of, hell, put a USB wireless card on and turn it into a firewall/router.
And what'll really bake your noodle is why they use the word 'localization' instead of 'localisation'. It would almost make sense if it were submitted by someone from Australia or Britain, for example. But you're right, that is odd.
Hehe, nah, they're all too busy with clubs. These kids NEVER go home; they're even at school for summer break. It's kinda scary, actually.
Re:Where are the innovations ?
on
Prey Review
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· Score: 1
On the contrary, I'd say there hasn't been enough emphasis on single-player gameplay.
I'll tell you the main reason why I stopped playing games online, why I tried CS and WoW and dropped them: a lot of people online are complete dicks. Maybe it's the anonymity. I'm not so sure. But I don't want to waste my time with these retards. Here's the difference: even in a pickup game of hoops or football with a group of strangers, they tend to be people who live in your area. You've seen their faces. These are most likely local people you could see again and recognize, maybe in the supermarket or the seven eleven; there's a bit of social pressure for them not to be total pricks. Not so on the net, where I see the juvenile "omg IR sooo 133t ur pwnt!!!!1eleven" attitude all over the place.
On a related note, at my current job I teach elementary and junior high kids English. The kids are fantastic, and my other coworkers are fun to talk to as well; even my boss is a pretty cool guy. It's an extremely rewarding job; but for me, being around other people all day is mentally exhausting. The last thing I want to do is come home and deal with more people, especially annoying idiots online. I'd rather curl up with a good book or a good game, and recuperate.
So give me Darwinia and Planescape: Torment and Deus Ex. Give me Half-Life and Far Cry and Thief. Give me Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey and Morrowind. Hell, give me Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros, Katamari and Dark Cloud 2. I have fun with my friends sometimes, but give me games designed for me to play on my own.
There seems to be a lot of confusion here about types of landmines and how they work. Let's clear some of this up.
There are two types of landmines: antipersonnel and antitank. The type of mine discussed in TFA is an ANTITANK mine.
Antipersonnel mines are the ones you hear about killing and maiming civilians. These are nasty little devices designed to inflict injury to people. They do this by throwing shards of metal. Some pop out of the ground and explode. In general, they really hurt unarmed targets (i.e. people) and don't do much damage to an armored vehicle. This type of landmine is banned by the treaty everyone is talking about, because they injure a lot of civilians.
Antitank mines are activated by high pressure, and are specifically designed to blow up when a TANK runs over them. When properly designed, they do not explode when people walk over them. Many are also deployed with some anti-tamper mechanism, so that they explode when handled (so they are still potentially dangerous to an unwitting civilian who picks one up). This type of mine is NOT banned by the landmine treaty.
Again, the mine discussed in TFA is an ANTITANK mine. What makes it unique is that it can still be effective with NO anti-tamper mechanism. Even if you were to pick up and move one of these new mines, the others will move to take its place. You can't just pick up a few and make a gap; you have to pick them all up. Since it's time-consuming to clear them, they don't need to be dangerous to move.
Sure, antipersonnel mines are bad. Deploying these new antitank mines (which are incidentally LESS dangerous to civilians) means that we don't have to use antipersonnel mines anymore. This is a very good thing.
So please don't go spouting off lines like, "OMG land mines are bad and evil and they maim and kill people so why are we designing new ones??"
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
This is especially important for guns without a safety switch or lever-- many handguns, for example-- but it's a good overall safety rule. It eliminates the "someone surprised me and the gun went off" scenario. (Guns don't go off by themselves.) One of the biggest tip-offs of someone who doesn't handle firearms often is the finger inside the guard, resting on the trigger. It makes me chuckle a bit when I see it in movies and on TV (hah, that guy isn't an FBI agent, he's obviously never handled a real gun before). But it scares the crap out of me when I see it on the range.
Slashdot Mirror
The article is not factually untrue per se. But its representation as a news article is deceptive. See definitions 4 and 6.
false (fôls)
adj. falser, falsest
- Contrary to fact or truth: false tales of bravery.
- Deliberately untrue: delivered false testimony under oath.
- Arising from mistaken ideas: false hopes of writing a successful novel.
- Intentionally deceptive: a suitcase with a false bottom; false promises.
- Not keeping faith; treacherous: a false friend.
- Not genuine or real: false teeth; false documents.
- Erected temporarily, as for support during construction.
- Resembling but not accurately or properly designated as such: a false thaw in January; the false dawn peculiar to the tropics.
- Music. Of incorrect pitch.
- Unwise; imprudent: Don't make a false move or I'll shoot.
- Computer Science. Indicating one of two possible values taken by a variable in Boolean logic or a binary device.
adv. In a treacherous or faithless manner: play a person false."false." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 16 Nov. 2006.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=false
Almost, but not quite. MS started plugging their new "XInput" standard to replace DirectInput; it's apparently used internally in the X360 to handle controller and microphone input. The DirectInput drivers they released are deliberately very limited; they don't support force feedback and they have limited shoulder button functionality. The "easy" solution for MS is just to demand that everyone just use XInput, or code in both DirectInput AND XInput support. But at present, I'm not aware of a PC controller manufacturer that has released XInput drivers, meaning the first option isn't at all viable. And the second is quite cumbersome. (The actual solution is 3rd party drivers, a messy fix.) Why would MS make life harder on developers? Why else, but to merge the markets.
On the whole, I think MS releasing the X360 controller into the Windows gamer market is an aggressive stance toward PC game developers. Basically they're saying, either make your games XInput compatible (and one step closer to X360 compatible), or else get tons of tech support calls from X360 controller owners wondering why their "Windows compatible" controller doesn't work. We can guess which direction most large game houses will take.
This is moving offtopic, but yes, a transcript would be nice. It's not for those running Lynx, but more for those of us who surf without sound (at work, or at home because most flash sound is obnoxious). Or how about those who can't hear, hm? Sure, it takes time to type out what's being said on a video. You could stick that text in the article for those without Flash, and you could add it as captions under the video as it plays. If what you have to say is that important, spend that time. Your "lowest common denominator" is more likely text PAIRED with video. That is, if you can be arsed to do it.
Hmm, interesting points. Let me see if I can answer them one by one.
I'm still not clear as to why you'd need copy authentication in the demo. If you're using a serial-key based system for online-based authentication (for multiplayer) I don't see why you couldn't just require the serial just for multiplayer. Set up your game so that single player requires no authentication, and multiplayer matchmaking through your server requires one. People with the demo don't get a key, but don't need one. People who bought the game (and got a key) get access to full multiplayer capabilities.
If the game is designed with proper modularity, scripts should be part of the assets and not part of the main executable. By effects I assume you mean graphical and audio effects. If it's part of the game engine, there's not much space penalty in leaving it in, is there? Of course, if your code isn't modular then it's going to be really tough to not change the code; if things like menus and even loadup scripts are hardcoded into your game, then you've done a poor job in the design phase. If it's done right, you supply two different resource packages, one for the demo and one for the full version. The difference is that the demo version has a different list of resources (levels/chapters and art/script dependencies, maybe a different loader script, different title screen with the word "DEMO" on it, different menu script that grays out some options, etc). Think of it like you'd think of internationalization projects, if you've ever done that. It's not difficult if you've written good tools during development and you've kept your stuff modular.
As for copy protection, I suppose I need to explain myself a bit more. The way that most commercial copy protection works these days is by "wrapping" the finished product. You supply a compiled exe, and the copy protection toolkit encrypts it. Nothing in your code has to change to accommodate the wrapper. When the copy protection detects a valid install media, it decrypts the game exe and plays. For your demo, you don't need or want that code. But again, that's not game code, that's a copy protection wrapper.
Your point about people modding the demo is good; I hadn't thought about that. I guess you'd have to add a compile-time flag; if the demo flag is set, the code that loads external resources isn't included. Or, change the define that says how many resources can be loaded at once. Sure, someone will probably hack it. But once the full version comes out they'll hack the copy protection on that instead.
The main point behind cliffsky saying the code doesn't change is to prevent a few things. It doesn't mean the code is identical between demo and full product, but it means you should be able to compile both from the same source with a single flag change. That means a few things. It means your demo and your final product share patch lines, which means if you fix a major bug in your full version you can recompile the demo with the latest code. It also means the demo plays exactly like your full game, with a restricted feature set. I've played a couple demos that were cobbled together from beta code and never updated. They were buggy, and they reflected poorly on the full version. Do you at least see his point?
The only real restriction I see here is extra size from artwork/textures/models/sound/music/levels (assets). The size of the program executable from compiling with "size" vs "speed" is negligible in most cases, for download purposes. If your game is developed sanely, the installer code is separate from the authorization code is separate from the game code is separate from the artwork. Do you really need authorization code for a demo if you distribute with limited assets? And copy protection tends to be something you wrap around a finished executable... like you need or want copy protection on a freaking DEMO. You want people to give it to their friends. Right? But the point is, compiling without that code won't affect how the game plays. (Now if your copy protection breaks the full game, you have other issues.)
I think what the OP meant was blatant LOOK AT THIS AD FOR MY GAME FOR 20 SECONDS BEFORE STARTING AND QUITTING!@#*!*%^(!* crap that a lot of companies put into their demos. Do you know what I'm talking about? I go to quit the game, and I get a full page ad for the game I just played, and have no way to press spacebar or click to get back to my desktop. Okay, I played your demo. If it was that good, I'll buy it. Now let me go. As for loading screens, use the original artwork logo with the word DEMO on it somewhere. Or even a small ad listing one of the features of your game; I don't think that would be too annoying. Was that so hard?
Yes, of course it has to be fast enough. Fast enough means a short enough time that your average user would put up with downloading it. For higher budget games with flashy graphics that's obviously going to be a longer time. But it should also be free to download. Restrictions like "give me all your marketing information" make it not free, because it means I have to pay for your demo with information. A torrent would fit these criteria, as long as you have a permanent seed and tracker available. Fileplanet does not. If you're an indie developer and have large demos, use torrents. If you're a big developer, pony up and pay for the bandwidth, you cheapskate.
Yes... but could you keep it clean? Hell, I have a hard enough time pulling out old whiskers from between blades of my generic 2-blade razor.
they need to either VPN or FTP (depending on firewall rules) into their directory if they want to get anything.
You DO realize that FTP passwords are transmitted in cleartext, right?
Very true. From a different tack, every weapon has its advantages and disadvantages, and that goes for being unarmed as well. If you carry a weapon of any kind, you need to train with it. This also means knowing and acknowledging situations where it's best not to use that weapon. A gun in close combat against a trained opponent is a liability, as any police officer can tell you. It's why police tend to have holsters that snap shut. Also, firearms in crowded spaces aren't good because even a perfect shot can keep going through your target and injure or kill bystanders. On the other hand, a trained marksman with a drawn pistol in an open area has very good odds against even multiple attackers without firearms, given a bit of distance. Of course, if you don't train you won't hit anything.
It's best to have multiple tools in your belt, and know which is best for the situation. Know how to defend yourself unarmed (and be able to disarm opponents). Know how to fight with a blunt weapon like a stick. If you carry a firearm, know how to shoot and when NOT to use it. Finally, know when it's wisest to avoid fighting (as when unarmed and faced with a knife-wielding opponent who wants your wallet, or when faced with a well-trained unarmed opponent who is trying to kill you).
It goes both ways. Try to buy a DVD in Japan (legally) and you will pay upwards of 4000 yen (about $35USD) for a movie. It used to be much worse; I've seen prices on old discarded VHS cassette boxes indicating they used to be more than 10000 yen. That's almost a hundred bucks for one copy of a movie. Aside from the Japanese subtitles and sometimes a dub, the release has no additional content and no redeeming value. Hell, if I buy a copy of an animated film here, it will cost me almost forty bucks, and may not even come with Japanese subtitles. If I reimport from the USA, it will come with English and Japanese subs and cost a little more than half as much. Or I can just say "up yours, distributor" and pirate it, which is a very satisfying response to someone who is trying to rape you on prices.
And they want to restrict imports/exports for market reasons. Market pressure my ass. That's called a cartel.
From "No One Lives Forever":
... virtues that many of us find somewhat lacking in our natures."
"Our studies show that criminals drink three times as much alcohol as law abiding citizens."
"So beer turns people into criminals?"
"A correlation doesn't imply causality. Just because criminals drink a lot of beer doesn't mean that beer causes crime. It's possible that people with criminal tendencies enjoy beer because it helps to soothe their conscience. Or perhaps criminal behavior is caused in part by a genetic predisposition that also, coincidentally, makes criminals like the taste of beer more than the average person. Who knows?"
"You're very knowledgeable about these things."
"Criminal sociology is a hobby of mine. I think it's important to understand not just the individual, psychological roots of one's behavior, but also the social circumstances that foster that behavior. Whether we like it or not, we are shaped by our environment."
"Surely you're not suggesting that individuals aren't accountable for their actions."
"Oh, no, of course not. Just because we are products of the societies we're born into doesn't absolve us of personal responsibility. Our religions and laws teach us what is right and what is wrong. Frequently, the right choice is the more difficult path to take. It requires sacrifice, self-discipline, patience
"But what if you're born into a hedonistic culture?"
"Look across history. The reason hedonism is discouraged by most religions and governments is that it weakens a civilization. It breeds sloth, petulance, degeneracy, and selfishness. A divided nation is a fragile nation, waiting to be conquered. Unity is strength. Humans instinctively fashion order out of chaos. It is a natural, probably genetic impulse. Therefore, even an individual born into troubled times has the capacity, and even the duty, to behave in a manner that promotes unity, however difficult it may be."
"Then what about us?"
"I can only speak for myself. I am a product of a broken household, which introduced a general lack of self confidence in me at a very early age. These feelings of inadequacy blossomed into anger as I matured that the rigors of adolescence, with the teasing and abuse and awkwardness we must all endure, only exacerbated. But even though I've identified the source of my problems, I'm still too childish and petty to become a responsible, mature citizen."
"Well, admitting you have a problem is the first step, I suppose."
"I like to think so."
No no no, it's like McDonald's giving out USB devices with a trojan on them and... wait a second.
Great... except that it resets the clock on all the devices. Not important for DVD players, but very important for VCRs, which a lot of us still use. And you won't be able to put your PVR on it either, since it kinda needs power to record stuff. Unless you have one of those magical PVRs that runs off the souls of baby squirrels or something.
The point that hits hardest is the one thing a lot of the Gamestop/EB managers seem to get wrong. If people wanted cheap, they'd go to Walmart. But they come into the GAMES store for the large selection of games, and the assumption that people behind the counter know what's good and what's not. If someone asks for a recommendation and you go for the easy sale, and recommend a piece of crap game, you'll come off looking like a tool and people won't come back to your store anymore. "The guy at the store told me my son would like this game, but it sucked. That guy didn't know what he was talking about. Screw that, I'll just go to Best Buy next time." But if you recommend a great game, people might come back next week or next month and buy another, and another. Or maybe if you're really lucky they'll recommend your store to their friends.
Have have you double-checked the article before posting to the front page of Slashdot?
Don't blame the devs. Blame the publishers and the management teams.
Management looks at it from this perspective: "It will take 2 weeks of extra work to get it working on platform X. Expected profit from sales for platform X is $10K. It costs us $15K per month to pay our team. We won't make much extra money, and we have to get the game out by Q4 so don't bother."
Problem is, Japanese society is highly xenophobic. I'm burning karma here, but this is from someone who has lived here for several years. They wouldn't let foreign workers into the country to do simple labor, for fear that they'd overstay their visas and cause crime and not learn to speak Japanese. Say what you will, but a racially/socially/economically homogeneous population has done loads to keep Japan's crime rates comfortably low, and they like it that way.
So from that perspective, robotic assists seem like the way to go. Sick, but true.
Flash RAM and I assume a stripped down custom kernel means this thing is gonna boot faster than any hard drive based PC on the market. Think 10 to 15 seconds from power button to a login prompt. Consider the fact that most people think a computer is "fast" if it can boot quickly and open the programs they want in short order, not run benchmarks fast. Assuming it's got some way of pulling updates automatically, it should be leagues past other entry-level PCs in this regard. I don't see it really becoming "obsolete" in the near future either. If it's got no moving parts other than fans, it also has the potential to be quiet.
For slashdotters, this thing would be great for network multimedia storage or a personal webserver (with an external USB hard drive), for teaching people Linux, as a small portable box to run emulated games off of, hell, put a USB wireless card on and turn it into a firewall/router.
And what'll really bake your noodle is why they use the word 'localization' instead of 'localisation'. It would almost make sense if it were submitted by someone from Australia or Britain, for example. But you're right, that is odd.
Hehe, nah, they're all too busy with clubs. These kids NEVER go home; they're even at school for summer break. It's kinda scary, actually.
On the contrary, I'd say there hasn't been enough emphasis on single-player gameplay.
I'll tell you the main reason why I stopped playing games online, why I tried CS and WoW and dropped them: a lot of people online are complete dicks. Maybe it's the anonymity. I'm not so sure. But I don't want to waste my time with these retards. Here's the difference: even in a pickup game of hoops or football with a group of strangers, they tend to be people who live in your area. You've seen their faces. These are most likely local people you could see again and recognize, maybe in the supermarket or the seven eleven; there's a bit of social pressure for them not to be total pricks. Not so on the net, where I see the juvenile "omg IR sooo 133t ur pwnt!!!!1eleven" attitude all over the place.
On a related note, at my current job I teach elementary and junior high kids English. The kids are fantastic, and my other coworkers are fun to talk to as well; even my boss is a pretty cool guy. It's an extremely rewarding job; but for me, being around other people all day is mentally exhausting. The last thing I want to do is come home and deal with more people, especially annoying idiots online. I'd rather curl up with a good book or a good game, and recuperate.
So give me Darwinia and Planescape: Torment and Deus Ex. Give me Half-Life and Far Cry and Thief. Give me Grim Fandango and The Longest Journey and Morrowind. Hell, give me Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros, Katamari and Dark Cloud 2. I have fun with my friends sometimes, but give me games designed for me to play on my own.
There seems to be a lot of confusion here about types of landmines and how they work. Let's clear some of this up.
There are two types of landmines: antipersonnel and antitank. The type of mine discussed in TFA is an ANTITANK mine.
Antipersonnel mines are the ones you hear about killing and maiming civilians. These are nasty little devices designed to inflict injury to people. They do this by throwing shards of metal. Some pop out of the ground and explode. In general, they really hurt unarmed targets (i.e. people) and don't do much damage to an armored vehicle. This type of landmine is banned by the treaty everyone is talking about, because they injure a lot of civilians.
Antitank mines are activated by high pressure, and are specifically designed to blow up when a TANK runs over them. When properly designed, they do not explode when people walk over them. Many are also deployed with some anti-tamper mechanism, so that they explode when handled (so they are still potentially dangerous to an unwitting civilian who picks one up). This type of mine is NOT banned by the landmine treaty.
Again, the mine discussed in TFA is an ANTITANK mine. What makes it unique is that it can still be effective with NO anti-tamper mechanism. Even if you were to pick up and move one of these new mines, the others will move to take its place. You can't just pick up a few and make a gap; you have to pick them all up. Since it's time-consuming to clear them, they don't need to be dangerous to move.
Sure, antipersonnel mines are bad. Deploying these new antitank mines (which are incidentally LESS dangerous to civilians) means that we don't have to use antipersonnel mines anymore. This is a very good thing.
So please don't go spouting off lines like, "OMG land mines are bad and evil and they maim and kill people so why are we designing new ones??"
Really small hamsters. Of course, designing the wheel that small might be a problem.
it's trivial to come up with a way of altering images so that they look identical but where every bit is different to the original
If you apply a bitwise NOT on an image, it will hardly look identical.
Great set of rules. You forgot:
ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire.
This is especially important for guns without a safety switch or lever-- many handguns, for example-- but it's a good overall safety rule. It eliminates the "someone surprised me and the gun went off" scenario. (Guns don't go off by themselves.) One of the biggest tip-offs of someone who doesn't handle firearms often is the finger inside the guard, resting on the trigger. It makes me chuckle a bit when I see it in movies and on TV (hah, that guy isn't an FBI agent, he's obviously never handled a real gun before). But it scares the crap out of me when I see it on the range.
And knowing DoCoMo they're going to still charge for that insane bitrate by the packet.
Holy crap, in just three seconds I rang up half a year's salary worth of charges!