I used to read the manuals back in the day when they were actually worth reading. At the late SNES/early PS1 days is when they suddenly became nearly worthless black & white pieces of garbage. That's when I stopped looking at them.
I think a workable way to have the human/undead thing work is to do it in a way similar to what Stephen King did in Cell. At the beginning of the book, a "pulse" gets sent out to every cell phone (or at least every one in and around New England) which wipes a person's brain. They become the typical neo-zombie if they got a full blast of the signal. People that might've just been listening in on the call get messed up, and are more mindless.
What follows next has some spoilers so if you plan on reading the book unspoiled stop here for now.
As time goes on, the "phonies" as the "zombies" are called end up getting rather strange as their mind is rebooting. They move in flocks during the day, communicate telepathically, and have a hive-mind. By the end of it the original batch can levitate too. King kind of explains it the same way he did for his Dead Zone stuff, that during the "mind rebooting process," the phonies are awaking normally unused parts of the human mind. They also set up at least one camp to convert all the normies, though by then the "pulse" is bugged and isn't working the same anymore.
Ok, spoiler over. I think what it'll take for it to work is a combination of the mindless zombies, the uber-zombies that basically can reason and function at an elementary level, and those inbetween - the purely instinctual that'll rip things to shreds, but can recognize danger. The zombie player characters could be just under the uber-zombie level, working to convert the living for some local Zombie Lord. Hell you could even explain a chat system by the humans having radio, and the undead having a hive mind. There should also be "camps" where the Zombie Lords are converting humans, which would make good instances/quest locations for the humans.
Humans bitten by zombies would become infected, and would slowly lose stats until they became one of the mindless. While mindless, they'd continue losing stats until they die (maybe require that humans need to continually eat/drink, when mindless you don't have the ability to do this), and when they die they move up the zombie chain. Make it so while mindless you can still be cured, but if you die as a mindless, you become a zombie character. Body armor, clothing, etc could be used to prevent from bites obviously.
"Trade" skills could include doctor/chemist for making the cures, medkits, healing large wounds, etc. Mechanic/repair skills to rebuild damaged equipment or vehicles. Engineer to build or reinforce structures. Some sort of technology skill to build security systems or hack into existing ones. Weapon makers/armor makers for obvious reasons.
Basically, I have a ton of ideas that could be used...
Up here in New Hampshire we have this already. There's a chain of theaters called "Chunky's" where wait staff take your orders before the movie/previews, then deliver it to you just after the movie starts. It's typical food - burgers, subs, fries, salads, etc - and they serve alcohol. The seats are nice too, it's not fixed seats, but rather very comfortable recliners on wheels. The ticket price is I think only a dollar or two more than at other local theaters, and the food is basically the same as what you'd pay at an Applebee's or similar style restaurant.
Re:Gamecube - premature death?
on
Come the Revolution
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I owned both the PS2 and the GameCube, and actually bought the typical 3rd party games (mostly EA games oddly enough) for the GameCube because the system had much better graphics. When the game producers stopped releasing multi-platform games on the Cube I just stopped buying that kind of game.
Basically I had the PS2 for the Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, and GTA franchises. The Cube is what I used for everything else.
My opinion on this latest generation of video game systems is that MS and Sony may be trying to cram too much into a system. These things are supposed to play games first, everything else 2nd. Yes it's nice that I could use my PS2 as a DVD player along with playing games, but it wasn't a great DVD player, and when I had the money I bought one to take that function's place.
I'm very happy that Nintendo is willing to take a gamble and keep with their trend of making GAME systems. One only has to compare the DS with the PSP to find that a GAME system is what more people want. Yes there are people that like the PSP for all its media functionality, but should that be in a game system? Why not just buy a PDA for that? You'd have the ability to view a wider range of media in that case.
When I first heard about how Nintendo was planning on this new controller idea, having the back catalog of games, and keeping it just a game system I knew I wanted one. Nintendo has always been more focused on gameplay I feel. I did own a GameCube, and the Nintendo franchise game validated the purchase. I only wish I still had it for the upcoming Zelda game.
Personally I think that MS jumped the gun a bit with the 360. As has been mentioned countless times prior, it isn't much of an improvement over the previous XBox. I have a feeling that the PS3 might get pigeonholed into that same category (though I still will likely get one for Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, and other PS only series), but the Revolution is the one thing that I'm truly waiting for because it's the only one to promise doing something new and different.
I believe the parent had a correct analogy, while yours seems to be missing the point. Buying single cards to build a deck is similar to buying the gold which is required to purchase the nice equipment on the AH. You then would use that equipment to do better in battle.
Your analogy is akin to buying gold, then using the gold to not get attacked, which isn't what the parent was trying to say.
Excellent point. Two months ago I developed a horrible dry cough (meaning no phlegm or anything coming up) that couldn't be explained. I'd have multiple coughing fits constantly throughout the day and night, which totally destroyed my voice. It also made it so I couldn't really get any sleep. I'm not one to take medicine for simple things, but the lack of sleep was getting rough. I started taking some Dextromethorphine (which is yet another over-the-counter drug that people abuse) which let ended up letting me get more than an hour or two of sleep.
Once again blowing the horn for EVE, but that game has similar things to which you mention. Granted I'm not extremely knowledgeable of the current game since I've only come back to it a couple months ago, but I remember during the beta testing back in 2003, there would be things like Devs in super-powered ships going through certain areas. If you managed to take them down, you'd get some new blueprint. I know there's similar things currently going with the blueprints. The devs have random lotteries for which corporation gets a blueprint for the high tech stuff based on research agents or whatever. There's also player built stations, and sovereignity in the 0.0 security space - i.e. you can take over the systems and control them. This allows you to build stations in those systems, etc.
There's still heavily populated systems, but the current hardware setup they have measures the load in areas and distributes processing power accordingly. Since it's all new hardware, it's still learning at the moment (similar to newer cars when the memory of your driving style gets cleared out, or when the car is brand new).
Does EVE Online have 6 million players? No? Then STFU.
No, but can a single WoW server handle 23,811 players at once (the current record on EVE).
Re:How to handle something you don't like
on
World of Queuecraft
·
· Score: 1
EVE Online would be one. Granted, the setting isn't the same, and you may not like that if you're more into fantasy than sci-fi. I find the game a lot more fun than WoW, FFXI, and MxO (the three other MMORPGs I've played) because there is a much better feel of immersion.
The customer service and support are great. The devs keep in contact with the playing population through Dev Blogs and forum postings. They even go to some of the player gatherings. In all, they interact with the community quite a bit. The game support is great too. There is a daily down time from 6AM-7AM EST to keep things running smoothly. Patches come as needed and fix more problems than they create. The expansions are free. And the best part, you can just download the game client from their site. Many places offer 14-day free trials, and it's only $20 to buy an account and you get 30 days with that.
I also feel the "levelling" system is great. Because it is a real time system, it's not conducive to the power-gamer type that will spend 10+ hours a day to try and get to the last level as soon as they can. However, it means that you don't have to be at your computer to skill up. You just pick a skill to learn and wait for it to be done. Depending on the rank and skill level, this can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a matter of months. So even when you're on vacation you can be getting "experience."
As for whether or not it's better for your health, that's up in the air. Sure, because of the training system, and the autopilot to let you travel through the systems without having to be present, it gives you time to do other things. But since it's a full PvP environment, seeing your ship go up in flames from a pirate while you're just carebearing it mining can definitely strain your heart a bit.
I should also mention that CCP just installed a brand new server system which should more than double their capacity. This is great, since the game is all a single "shard" which means everyone is playing on the same place. It holds the record for MMORPGs for the most people playing on a single server at once.
Then there's the smaller ones:
Honda/Acura
Toyota/Lexus
Nissan/Infiniti
And then all the brand "only" ones:
Mitsubishi
Hyundai ...
I think you get the point. It is a good analogy though to the MMOG environment since SOE owns a few, SquareEnix has been planning to launch some more through PlayOnline, etc.
Granted, it's not on the scale that people would wish it to be, but FFXI has a player-adjusted world. Every week, stats get tallied for which country gained the most conquest points in each of the world regions. The nation that gains the most gets 1st place, then 2nd place, and 3rd (obviously). This does quite a few things:
- the nation's shops get better items when they're in 1st
- you have more items to spend your conquest points on from the nation's guards
- you can be warped from your capital to any of the outposts that your nation controls
- items/equipment sometimes have stats that are based on whether or not your nation controls the territory you're in
- the 1st place nation gets NPCs that will quiver your arrows/bolts
- you do not collect crystals in territories your nation controls
Yes, they're not OMG earth shattering or anything, but it definitely had a huge impact on the game (I haven't played in over a year, so I don't know if it still impacts as much).
Re:I can't justify that sort of monthly expense
on
MMOGs Branch Out
·
· Score: 1
I thought it was kind of lame to have to buy a game for $50, then continue to pay for it. Then I got thinking: I bought my car, but I have to keep paying to use it (gas, registration, maintenance), and then I realized that's basically the same for just about any device someone could buy. You buy your computer, but have to pay each month for the electricity to use it (well, someone pays for it, be it your parents or your college, etc.).
The Matrix Online also did this, usually for advertising Warner Bros. movies, but I think they had a PowerAde ad for a little while too. Other times it was for in-game things (new condos and such). It was neat to see at first, but definitely got old quickly.
Reading this comment, I was reminded of the old rotary phones. With all the retro-electronics devices I've seen over the past few years, somehow I have a feeling something like this could be possible.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to read the manuals back in the day when they were actually worth reading. At the late SNES/early PS1 days is when they suddenly became nearly worthless black & white pieces of garbage. That's when I stopped looking at them.
I think a workable way to have the human/undead thing work is to do it in a way similar to what Stephen King did in Cell. At the beginning of the book, a "pulse" gets sent out to every cell phone (or at least every one in and around New England) which wipes a person's brain. They become the typical neo-zombie if they got a full blast of the signal. People that might've just been listening in on the call get messed up, and are more mindless.
What follows next has some spoilers so if you plan on reading the book unspoiled stop here for now.
As time goes on, the "phonies" as the "zombies" are called end up getting rather strange as their mind is rebooting. They move in flocks during the day, communicate telepathically, and have a hive-mind. By the end of it the original batch can levitate too. King kind of explains it the same way he did for his Dead Zone stuff, that during the "mind rebooting process," the phonies are awaking normally unused parts of the human mind. They also set up at least one camp to convert all the normies, though by then the "pulse" is bugged and isn't working the same anymore.
Ok, spoiler over. I think what it'll take for it to work is a combination of the mindless zombies, the uber-zombies that basically can reason and function at an elementary level, and those inbetween - the purely instinctual that'll rip things to shreds, but can recognize danger. The zombie player characters could be just under the uber-zombie level, working to convert the living for some local Zombie Lord. Hell you could even explain a chat system by the humans having radio, and the undead having a hive mind. There should also be "camps" where the Zombie Lords are converting humans, which would make good instances/quest locations for the humans.
Humans bitten by zombies would become infected, and would slowly lose stats until they became one of the mindless. While mindless, they'd continue losing stats until they die (maybe require that humans need to continually eat/drink, when mindless you don't have the ability to do this), and when they die they move up the zombie chain. Make it so while mindless you can still be cured, but if you die as a mindless, you become a zombie character. Body armor, clothing, etc could be used to prevent from bites obviously.
"Trade" skills could include doctor/chemist for making the cures, medkits, healing large wounds, etc. Mechanic/repair skills to rebuild damaged equipment or vehicles. Engineer to build or reinforce structures. Some sort of technology skill to build security systems or hack into existing ones. Weapon makers/armor makers for obvious reasons.
Basically, I have a ton of ideas that could be used...
Up here in New Hampshire we have this already. There's a chain of theaters called "Chunky's" where wait staff take your orders before the movie/previews, then deliver it to you just after the movie starts. It's typical food - burgers, subs, fries, salads, etc - and they serve alcohol. The seats are nice too, it's not fixed seats, but rather very comfortable recliners on wheels. The ticket price is I think only a dollar or two more than at other local theaters, and the food is basically the same as what you'd pay at an Applebee's or similar style restaurant.
I owned both the PS2 and the GameCube, and actually bought the typical 3rd party games (mostly EA games oddly enough) for the GameCube because the system had much better graphics. When the game producers stopped releasing multi-platform games on the Cube I just stopped buying that kind of game.
Basically I had the PS2 for the Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy, and GTA franchises. The Cube is what I used for everything else.
My opinion on this latest generation of video game systems is that MS and Sony may be trying to cram too much into a system. These things are supposed to play games first, everything else 2nd. Yes it's nice that I could use my PS2 as a DVD player along with playing games, but it wasn't a great DVD player, and when I had the money I bought one to take that function's place.
.
I'm very happy that Nintendo is willing to take a gamble and keep with their trend of making GAME systems. One only has to compare the DS with the PSP to find that a GAME system is what more people want. Yes there are people that like the PSP for all its media functionality, but should that be in a game system? Why not just buy a PDA for that? You'd have the ability to view a wider range of media in that case
When I first heard about how Nintendo was planning on this new controller idea, having the back catalog of games, and keeping it just a game system I knew I wanted one. Nintendo has always been more focused on gameplay I feel. I did own a GameCube, and the Nintendo franchise game validated the purchase. I only wish I still had it for the upcoming Zelda game.
Personally I think that MS jumped the gun a bit with the 360. As has been mentioned countless times prior, it isn't much of an improvement over the previous XBox. I have a feeling that the PS3 might get pigeonholed into that same category (though I still will likely get one for Metal Gear, Gran Turismo, and other PS only series), but the Revolution is the one thing that I'm truly waiting for because it's the only one to promise doing something new and different.
I believe the parent had a correct analogy, while yours seems to be missing the point. Buying single cards to build a deck is similar to buying the gold which is required to purchase the nice equipment on the AH. You then would use that equipment to do better in battle. Your analogy is akin to buying gold, then using the gold to not get attacked, which isn't what the parent was trying to say.
Excellent point. Two months ago I developed a horrible dry cough (meaning no phlegm or anything coming up) that couldn't be explained. I'd have multiple coughing fits constantly throughout the day and night, which totally destroyed my voice. It also made it so I couldn't really get any sleep. I'm not one to take medicine for simple things, but the lack of sleep was getting rough. I started taking some Dextromethorphine (which is yet another over-the-counter drug that people abuse) which let ended up letting me get more than an hour or two of sleep.
...are the sales of these games more than the actual xbox360 games?
If so, what was the point of buying a 360 in the first place? Kind of a sign that gameplay > graphics. Developers take note!
I believe EVE Online is the record holder, with 23,811 simultaneous players recorded at 20:34 on 27 Feb 2006.
Once again blowing the horn for EVE, but that game has similar things to which you mention. Granted I'm not extremely knowledgeable of the current game since I've only come back to it a couple months ago, but I remember during the beta testing back in 2003, there would be things like Devs in super-powered ships going through certain areas. If you managed to take them down, you'd get some new blueprint. I know there's similar things currently going with the blueprints. The devs have random lotteries for which corporation gets a blueprint for the high tech stuff based on research agents or whatever. There's also player built stations, and sovereignity in the 0.0 security space - i.e. you can take over the systems and control them. This allows you to build stations in those systems, etc.
There's still heavily populated systems, but the current hardware setup they have measures the load in areas and distributes processing power accordingly. Since it's all new hardware, it's still learning at the moment (similar to newer cars when the memory of your driving style gets cleared out, or when the car is brand new).
Does EVE Online have 6 million players? No? Then STFU.
No, but can a single WoW server handle 23,811 players at once (the current record on EVE).
EVE Online would be one. Granted, the setting isn't the same, and you may not like that if you're more into fantasy than sci-fi. I find the game a lot more fun than WoW, FFXI, and MxO (the three other MMORPGs I've played) because there is a much better feel of immersion.
The customer service and support are great. The devs keep in contact with the playing population through Dev Blogs and forum postings. They even go to some of the player gatherings. In all, they interact with the community quite a bit. The game support is great too. There is a daily down time from 6AM-7AM EST to keep things running smoothly. Patches come as needed and fix more problems than they create. The expansions are free. And the best part, you can just download the game client from their site. Many places offer 14-day free trials, and it's only $20 to buy an account and you get 30 days with that.
I also feel the "levelling" system is great. Because it is a real time system, it's not conducive to the power-gamer type that will spend 10+ hours a day to try and get to the last level as soon as they can. However, it means that you don't have to be at your computer to skill up. You just pick a skill to learn and wait for it to be done. Depending on the rank and skill level, this can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a matter of months. So even when you're on vacation you can be getting "experience."
As for whether or not it's better for your health, that's up in the air. Sure, because of the training system, and the autopilot to let you travel through the systems without having to be present, it gives you time to do other things. But since it's a full PvP environment, seeing your ship go up in flames from a pirate while you're just carebearing it mining can definitely strain your heart a bit.
I should also mention that CCP just installed a brand new server system which should more than double their capacity. This is great, since the game is all a single "shard" which means everyone is playing on the same place. It holds the record for MMORPGs for the most people playing on a single server at once.
I've got a 27" Panasonic TV that has component-in (I bought it specifically for that) and it is not HD. Might want to get your facts straight.
Some of those that you list are actually the same company. For example:
...
Ford: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin
DaimlerChrysler: Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz
GM: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Oldsmobile, Saturn, HUMMER, Saab, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall, Isuzu, Suzuki
VW/Audi Groups: Audi, Volkswagen, Seat, Lamborghini, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti
Then there's the smaller ones:
Honda/Acura
Toyota/Lexus
Nissan/Infiniti
And then all the brand "only" ones:
Mitsubishi
Hyundai
I think you get the point. It is a good analogy though to the MMOG environment since SOE owns a few, SquareEnix has been planning to launch some more through PlayOnline, etc.
Granted, it's not on the scale that people would wish it to be, but FFXI has a player-adjusted world. Every week, stats get tallied for which country gained the most conquest points in each of the world regions. The nation that gains the most gets 1st place, then 2nd place, and 3rd (obviously). This does quite a few things: - the nation's shops get better items when they're in 1st - you have more items to spend your conquest points on from the nation's guards - you can be warped from your capital to any of the outposts that your nation controls - items/equipment sometimes have stats that are based on whether or not your nation controls the territory you're in - the 1st place nation gets NPCs that will quiver your arrows/bolts - you do not collect crystals in territories your nation controls Yes, they're not OMG earth shattering or anything, but it definitely had a huge impact on the game (I haven't played in over a year, so I don't know if it still impacts as much).
I thought it was kind of lame to have to buy a game for $50, then continue to pay for it. Then I got thinking: I bought my car, but I have to keep paying to use it (gas, registration, maintenance), and then I realized that's basically the same for just about any device someone could buy. You buy your computer, but have to pay each month for the electricity to use it (well, someone pays for it, be it your parents or your college, etc.).
Odd how Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Advance Wars, and Animal Crossing aren't added into that list of good games...
The Matrix Online also did this, usually for advertising Warner Bros. movies, but I think they had a PowerAde ad for a little while too. Other times it was for in-game things (new condos and such). It was neat to see at first, but definitely got old quickly.
I thought Stargate was on UPN before Sci-Fi picked it up (but after it was dropped once already).
Reading this comment, I was reminded of the old rotary phones. With all the retro-electronics devices I've seen over the past few years, somehow I have a feeling something like this could be possible.
It too, was called the "Immaculate Reception." Check this story.