I've had PTSD (combat-related). Glad to say that I haven't had a real problem with it in about 5 years, but even to this day I hear the right kind of *BANG* and have momentary flashbacks of the sh!t I've been through. A door slamming with a loud thud can sound like a mortar exploding in the distance. Seeing a flaming car on the side of the road might remind me of a time when that was a blown-up Humvee.
You know why it didn't develop into a debilitating problem for me? Diversions, and talking with other soldiers/marines/airmen/sailors who've been in similar situations, if not the same time & place where I nearly got blown up on more than one occasion. No one who hasn't been in a combat zone can comprehend the reality of things; "99% boredom, 1% chaos" is the tip of the iceberg.
Gaming helped me to put those times in the back of my mind, rather than constantly having to deal with them in the foreground.
Are gamers more or less susceptible to PTSD? I don't believe so. I think it's just a coping mechanism which can prove to be quite useful in treatment. It's much better than trying to forget through drinking; the worst you'll get is atrophy, vs. a possibly life-threatening addiction and delirium tremens.
TLDR: Gaming is a good outlet, regardless of what kind of gaming it is. CoD, solitaire, or WoW can all be potentially therapeutic to individuals who may have otherwise developed PTSD.
The government basically has the ability to snoop into about any portion of your life, and some people want to INCREASE that ability? No thank you.
He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.
As a veteran soldier, I can honestly give a thumbs-up on this.
If the military finds that incorporating video game technology into weapons will make them more deadly, more reliable, and more accurate in the hands of today's service members, then the money is well spent. We can even use technologies and ideas from VG's to create less collateral damage in the process - precision warfare is crucial on today's battlefield.
Our guys with BOG (boots on ground) don't need this to be effective, but if it helps us complete the missions we have no choice to carry out, with more effectiveness and fewer casualties, then who can really argue that?
While the games are fun, and they ingeniously incorporate video gaming with listening to music, they do not really simulate their actual counterparts. The singing portion can be hummed to tune. The guitar has 5 buttons (with a new slide-bar type control for Guitar Hero: World Tour, apparently) rather than 6 strings times 22 or 24 frets of a real guitar. The drums for this one will be a 3-piece with 2 cymbals and a kick, which is better than Rock Bands, imo. However, there is no hi-hat function, no double-kick option, no rim shots, or anything else to simulate actual drumming.
I love playing games like this, but they're simply nothing like making and performing the music yourself.
There are a few people who have modified their real drum kits with electronic triggers hooked into Rock Band. Check those out on youtube and such - now THAT'S how you play a game! If they could do this for guitar, I'd be in my glory.
That car isn't hot. It was 144F outside here, in the early afternoon. I am completely serious...this is every day in the Iraqi summer.
Christmas practically didn't exist for me in 2005 (deployment) and seems so far away while I'm in the middle of this windy, burning, filthy desert country. Fertile crescent my ass. [/resentment]
This is the time for corporations to start thinking about the holiday season. 90 days out is a good time to prepare for major events like that; considering price increases/decreases, packaged bundles, limited edition sales, etc. Hell, just look at consoles that haven't been put out yet (PS3, Wii). Those companies are planning for the holiday season, and they have been for some time.
"Planning is essential, but plans are useless." -Ike
Eddie Van Halen used to hide his speedy fingering tricks back in the Van Halen videos in the 80s. It really might not have been anything at all, since people can play much more technically and quickly than him - even in those years there were more talented guitarists. Maybe him just seemingly hiding something gave that allure that many musicians and their fans feed upon. More or less, it seems like an ego thing.
I don't know where I'd be, personally, without OLGA. I even printed out tabs for songs I was trying to brush up on or learn anew while I was deployed to the middle east. It really helped bring out my natural playing ability and also to re-train where I have stopped practicing for so many years. It'll be back, it's too valuable a tool for aspiring guitarists to let go down the drain because of some RIAA schmucks.
If this person can't hear the noise, how does he know it's operating properly at all? Does he just assume that the influx of complaints is an affirmation of the mosquito's noise working?
It should just be a normal speaker wire or coaxial cable running to this device, either inconspicuously use some wire cutters on it, or otherwise discreetly disable the line itself. It doesn't take a electrical engineer to screw up some speaker wire, and he won't know if the sound has stopped.
For gags too, you could put a slow tap of arsenic in his water pipes so he gets stomach cancer-like symptoms and dies. That's just the more sadistic side of me though:) I mean, he's 80...do you really think they'd do an autopsy to figure out the cause of death? Dubiously. [/jokes]
This might work pretty well for games like Starcraft or Warcaft, any RTS or TBS for that matter. I can see this working especially well with games where you have to have pinpoint accuracy. For example C&C, if you don't click exactly on the pixels required to highlight that unit, you can screw yourself up.
This could also push forward a new generation of Arcade shooters. Growing up by the ocean there were always Arcades on the boardwalks, so I learned to play all sorts of games. My favorites are the Time Crisis series, Police Trainer, etc. This technology could have unprecedented accuracy when compared to those cruddy plastic pistols and could definitely set a fire under the asses of the arcade gaming industry. Let's just hope they don't start charging $5 a play because the parts are overexpensive.
Co-op oldies but goodies
on
Prey Review
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· Score: 1
Though they may be old, mods for Half-Life like Sven Co-op (obvious from the title) and Brainbread are still fun. They look like crap compared to anything on the Doom 3 or HL2 engine, but if it's gameplay you want, this is a great way to go. By now half life is CHEAP and can run on nearly any computer still operating - I used to play it on my Pentium 120 that had no 3D card (1MB 2D Video, winner).
Brainbread also lets you become a zombie if you get infected, and you have to kill your buddies or the computer allies (Marines) to earn enough points to play as a gunner again. It's fun to throw a wrench in your buddies' gears:D Repetetive? Yes...but if you play any game enough it'll get repetetive.
Dark Alliance 1 and 2 are decent console co-ops, though they're not FPS. They're fun if you just like to hack and slash with a buddy and have ample time to burn up.
I don't know if it works the same, but there were basically 2 notches where you inserted the cartridge in the US version of the SNES that differed from the Super Famicom. You take a chisel (preferably, but a screwdriveror knife works too) and hack them off, and the foreign games can be played. I don't know if all games worked, or perhaps just a few of them, but that made all of them fit into the system physically.
You can take the word out officially, but people will take years upon years to actually realize that it is no longer a valid word, or doesn't mean what it once meant. The same goes for adding new words. "Y'all" is not a damned English word, but every American south of the mason-dixon line seems to use it in singular and plural terms. I'm just as guilty, being from NJ. I occasionally take the common word "You" and pluralize it with an 's'. "What the fuck do yous thing you're doing?!"
Then there are the differences and commonalities between American English, and the rest of the English-speaking world. I've tried to talk to a couple of Brits and Australians, but sometimes I just don't under-fucking-stand a word they are speaking!
This has happened before...PS2's yield rate was pretty crappy, if you remember. They were low on production numbers back then too. So low, in fact, that they couldn't even fulfill the numbers for the people who had preordered the system - they first went by date and who paid in full, and the next shipment went out to first-come customers.
Obviously, the PS2 did not hurt for sales at all. They supplied the numbers demanded of them eventually, and it was extremely successful. The only real killers for Sony are potentially the hype and the massive price. I saw a couple units go for well over $500 on Ebay. Personally, at $600 I won't be buying that Sony product any time soon - not unless I get about 3 pay raises!
The games are disposable today. I don't know how many I own or have rented and played, but never finished - or just never picked up again. Yet again and again I go out and get these asinine games which I will not remember in the future, but merely use to burn up time. I think i'm going to start going to the library to get books more often, at least I will gain something from there, rather than wasting my time on pointless games. It's cheaper and healthier that way.
The gaming industry is like medicine, there's no money in the cure. Return customers are where they make their bucks.
Slashdot Mirror
The first step in their indoctrination was the Hypocritical Oath.
I've had PTSD (combat-related). Glad to say that I haven't had a real problem with it in about 5 years, but even to this day I hear the right kind of *BANG* and have momentary flashbacks of the sh!t I've been through. A door slamming with a loud thud can sound like a mortar exploding in the distance. Seeing a flaming car on the side of the road might remind me of a time when that was a blown-up Humvee.
You know why it didn't develop into a debilitating problem for me? Diversions, and talking with other soldiers/marines/airmen/sailors who've been in similar situations, if not the same time & place where I nearly got blown up on more than one occasion. No one who hasn't been in a combat zone can comprehend the reality of things; "99% boredom, 1% chaos" is the tip of the iceberg.
Gaming helped me to put those times in the back of my mind, rather than constantly having to deal with them in the foreground.
Are gamers more or less susceptible to PTSD? I don't believe so. I think it's just a coping mechanism which can prove to be quite useful in treatment. It's much better than trying to forget through drinking; the worst you'll get is atrophy, vs. a possibly life-threatening addiction and delirium tremens.
TLDR: Gaming is a good outlet, regardless of what kind of gaming it is. CoD, solitaire, or WoW can all be potentially therapeutic to individuals who may have otherwise developed PTSD.
CRT televisions also have much longer lifespans and can generally be serviced if problems develop, unlike throw-it-away LCD and Plasma units.
2 words -- Planned. Obsolescence.
The government basically has the ability to snoop into about any portion of your life, and some people want to INCREASE that ability? No thank you. He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.
They're word games and politicians love to play word games. I bet they can't beat me in Scrabble...
Yep...like that nice, non-violent episode where the family is chased through the field by a pack of wolves...
We could just harpoon & tow-cable the leg of Barnard's Star as we swoop by...
That's an ingenious idea. With so many people complaining about carbon emissions, why not knock out two birds with one stone?
Besides, the next time you go swimming at Abbey Stadium Sports Centre, just think that your grandma's presence really does warm you up...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_3D The Mother of All 3D Games.
If all those dollars were URL hits, someone's wallet would be slashdotted.
Use it for kids to play wall ball on...the ball will always come back to them :P
As a veteran soldier, I can honestly give a thumbs-up on this.
If the military finds that incorporating video game technology into weapons will make them more deadly, more reliable, and more accurate in the hands of today's service members, then the money is well spent. We can even use technologies and ideas from VG's to create less collateral damage in the process - precision warfare is crucial on today's battlefield.
Our guys with BOG (boots on ground) don't need this to be effective, but if it helps us complete the missions we have no choice to carry out, with more effectiveness and fewer casualties, then who can really argue that?
While the games are fun, and they ingeniously incorporate video gaming with listening to music, they do not really simulate their actual counterparts. The singing portion can be hummed to tune. The guitar has 5 buttons (with a new slide-bar type control for Guitar Hero: World Tour, apparently) rather than 6 strings times 22 or 24 frets of a real guitar. The drums for this one will be a 3-piece with 2 cymbals and a kick, which is better than Rock Bands, imo. However, there is no hi-hat function, no double-kick option, no rim shots, or anything else to simulate actual drumming.
I love playing games like this, but they're simply nothing like making and performing the music yourself.
There are a few people who have modified their real drum kits with electronic triggers hooked into Rock Band. Check those out on youtube and such - now THAT'S how you play a game! If they could do this for guitar, I'd be in my glory.
That car isn't hot. It was 144F outside here, in the early afternoon. I am completely serious...this is every day in the Iraqi summer.
Christmas practically didn't exist for me in 2005 (deployment) and seems so far away while I'm in the middle of this windy, burning, filthy desert country. Fertile crescent my ass. [/resentment]
This is the time for corporations to start thinking about the holiday season. 90 days out is a good time to prepare for major events like that; considering price increases/decreases, packaged bundles, limited edition sales, etc. Hell, just look at consoles that haven't been put out yet (PS3, Wii). Those companies are planning for the holiday season, and they have been for some time.
"Planning is essential, but plans are useless." -Ike
Eddie Van Halen used to hide his speedy fingering tricks back in the Van Halen videos in the 80s. It really might not have been anything at all, since people can play much more technically and quickly than him - even in those years there were more talented guitarists. Maybe him just seemingly hiding something gave that allure that many musicians and their fans feed upon. More or less, it seems like an ego thing.
I don't know where I'd be, personally, without OLGA. I even printed out tabs for songs I was trying to brush up on or learn anew while I was deployed to the middle east. It really helped bring out my natural playing ability and also to re-train where I have stopped practicing for so many years. It'll be back, it's too valuable a tool for aspiring guitarists to let go down the drain because of some RIAA schmucks.
If this person can't hear the noise, how does he know it's operating properly at all? Does he just assume that the influx of complaints is an affirmation of the mosquito's noise working?
:) I mean, he's 80...do you really think they'd do an autopsy to figure out the cause of death? Dubiously. [/jokes]
It should just be a normal speaker wire or coaxial cable running to this device, either inconspicuously use some wire cutters on it, or otherwise discreetly disable the line itself. It doesn't take a electrical engineer to screw up some speaker wire, and he won't know if the sound has stopped.
For gags too, you could put a slow tap of arsenic in his water pipes so he gets stomach cancer-like symptoms and dies. That's just the more sadistic side of me though
This might work pretty well for games like Starcraft or Warcaft, any RTS or TBS for that matter. I can see this working especially well with games where you have to have pinpoint accuracy. For example C&C, if you don't click exactly on the pixels required to highlight that unit, you can screw yourself up.
This could also push forward a new generation of Arcade shooters. Growing up by the ocean there were always Arcades on the boardwalks, so I learned to play all sorts of games. My favorites are the Time Crisis series, Police Trainer, etc. This technology could have unprecedented accuracy when compared to those cruddy plastic pistols and could definitely set a fire under the asses of the arcade gaming industry. Let's just hope they don't start charging $5 a play because the parts are overexpensive.
Though they may be old, mods for Half-Life like Sven Co-op (obvious from the title) and Brainbread are still fun. They look like crap compared to anything on the Doom 3 or HL2 engine, but if it's gameplay you want, this is a great way to go. By now half life is CHEAP and can run on nearly any computer still operating - I used to play it on my Pentium 120 that had no 3D card (1MB 2D Video, winner).
:D Repetetive? Yes...but if you play any game enough it'll get repetetive.
Brainbread also lets you become a zombie if you get infected, and you have to kill your buddies or the computer allies (Marines) to earn enough points to play as a gunner again. It's fun to throw a wrench in your buddies' gears
Dark Alliance 1 and 2 are decent console co-ops, though they're not FPS. They're fun if you just like to hack and slash with a buddy and have ample time to burn up.
Sounds like my time in the Army. "Mandatory fun" is never fun, because it's FUCKING MANDATORY!
Well put.
I don't know if it works the same, but there were basically 2 notches where you inserted the cartridge in the US version of the SNES that differed from the Super Famicom. You take a chisel (preferably, but a screwdriveror knife works too) and hack them off, and the foreign games can be played. I don't know if all games worked, or perhaps just a few of them, but that made all of them fit into the system physically.
You can take the word out officially, but people will take years upon years to actually realize that it is no longer a valid word, or doesn't mean what it once meant. The same goes for adding new words. "Y'all" is not a damned English word, but every American south of the mason-dixon line seems to use it in singular and plural terms. I'm just as guilty, being from NJ. I occasionally take the common word "You" and pluralize it with an 's'. "What the fuck do yous thing you're doing?!"
Then there are the differences and commonalities between American English, and the rest of the English-speaking world. I've tried to talk to a couple of Brits and Australians, but sometimes I just don't under-fucking-stand a word they are speaking!
Japanese are planning 30 year forecasts?! That's insanity. This "finding the meanings within The Da Vinci Code" bullshit is going WAY too far!
This has happened before...PS2's yield rate was pretty crappy, if you remember. They were low on production numbers back then too. So low, in fact, that they couldn't even fulfill the numbers for the people who had preordered the system - they first went by date and who paid in full, and the next shipment went out to first-come customers.
Obviously, the PS2 did not hurt for sales at all. They supplied the numbers demanded of them eventually, and it was extremely successful. The only real killers for Sony are potentially the hype and the massive price. I saw a couple units go for well over $500 on Ebay. Personally, at $600 I won't be buying that Sony product any time soon - not unless I get about 3 pay raises!
The games are disposable today. I don't know how many I own or have rented and played, but never finished - or just never picked up again. Yet again and again I go out and get these asinine games which I will not remember in the future, but merely use to burn up time. I think i'm going to start going to the library to get books more often, at least I will gain something from there, rather than wasting my time on pointless games. It's cheaper and healthier that way.
The gaming industry is like medicine, there's no money in the cure. Return customers are where they make their bucks.