Add ads to that -- these games bring in tons of revenue... who cares what they are to the companies that make them. Sure they don't have the competitive complexity of Starcraft 2, Counterstrike, etc. (games which are becoming more like sports at higher levels), but to some people they are fun. Isn't that the general goal?
Unfortunately, sometimes "the most good" is not what is good for the U.S. (or so it's leaders would have you believe). More information is almost always a good thing provided that the earpiece can intelligibly sift through it. What Wikileaks has reemphasized is the power of the new technology in aiding information flow and the hilariously bad decision it was for the U.S. to information share post 9/11.
I agree with this--sequence analysis needs to be done. Ideally, they would characterize ATP synthase or a similar enzyme and show that it has functionally changed to use arsenate instead of phosphate. I think, however, the findings still merit publishing as worst come worst, they found an organism that thrives at 40 mM arsenic.
Here is a quote from the synopsis appearing in the issue of Science: "When the researchers added radioactively labeled arsenate to the bacteria’s culture, they were later able to discern its presence in the protein, lipid, nucleic acid, and metabolite fractions of the cells, suggesting that arsenic had been incorporated in molecules forming each fraction."
So the arsenic is in all major macromolecules in the cell.
Yes this is old news. Inorganic biochemistry classes and advanced organic classes introduce the subject matter by talking about the levels of metals in the oceans. They go on to teach that common metal ligands and enzymes have affinities for certain metals based on their levels in oceans many years ago. So at least in my experience as a biochemistry and chemistry student, this stuff is old news. But it's interesting!
i'm not quite sure what you are referring to. i played quake live quite a bit, and it seemed fine to me. i really liked QL beta, especially the additions that were made with patches. now, if you were playing 8v8 CA, that is a bit of mayhem...
the original doom was such a fantastic game, but i was too young and found doom 2 first at the price of 50$, if i remember, which was a great game too even if it didn't add all that much to the original doom. and at the time there was all this parental hype about how the pixelated violence would cause kids to become psychopaths, the world would end, blah blah blah (seems to happen quite often actually).
i have to say i had a similar gaming epiphany (if you can call it that) when the original quake came out. with the awesome music and ambiance and relative ease of mod creation (remember alien quake?) that game also still has replay value today...
Winning because of a better hardware configuration isn't really a test of skill.
Your statement about PC gamers being better at strategy games or serious simulations is just silly, unless by 'strategy' you mean something like Starcraft, which is as much a twitch game as it is strategy.
I would compare console gaming to playing basketball on your knees. It is a different configuration. If you like it, then continue doing it. However, I also like playing basketball on my feet. I completely agree if that someone who plays on their knees can hold their own against someone playing on their feet, then the guy on his knees is probably the better player. But that guy should also prove it by playing the other sport.
Calling a game like Starcraft a "twitch" game is absurd. There is an astounding amount of skill involved in having the 350 APM of professional starcraft players. And that heavily practiced skill is what allows for certain strategies to be implemented just like an amazing amount of practice allows for set plays or strategies to be performed in other sports. Yes, it is difficult to have 350 APM, but it is also difficult to run a 4.4 40.
I played in the beta and enjoyed it very much. And I have definitely gotten sucked in and played for long stretches, but I generally dont have time for that anymore. Although the battles can be shorter than SC1, which is probably primarily due to the way entire armies easily move at once, you do not need pro APM to cast spells by any means. I have a low APM and had no problem managing key units (i.e., infestors or colossi) even when the crazy battles are going on.
The best improvement in my opinion is the macro/economy improvements. They have done a good job at adding things (queens, mules, chronoboost) to make macro more flexible and demanding more APM while at the same time removing some of the more annoying things from SC1 (SCV/drone/probe management).
They also have expansions to perfect the game. Compare original SC to SC Brood Wars...
The in vitro / in vivo gap is definitely a worry. The next stages of trials will give an answer with regards to that.
The current issue of Science has several articles about the spread of HIV, including a good review about why it is difficult to eradicate HIV in an infected individual. ( for those with access, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/current/ or http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/329/5988/174.pdf ) There are many great broadly neutralizing antibodies coming out right now, and even though HIV has an astonishing ability to escape our immune systems, there is hope that these will be successful for vaccines. ( http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-immunol-030409-101256 )
I completely agree with the assessment above. And for the Crysis demo, I realized that I did not want to purchase the game. So by releasing that demo, they saved me money but definitely lost one customer. As people say below, it's all about graphics, and when I saw lacking gameplay, I lost interest.
Prefixes can be combined anyways. Milliyocto and microyocto would satisfy 10^-27 and 10^-30, respectively. This is similar to older papers that I have seen in which micromicro was substituted for pico (i.e., uuM for pM). It would only become annoying after yoctoyocto (10^-48). One yocto is silly enough.
These are interesting questions, some of which are discussed in a great book on the topic "The RNA World" (3rd ed is the latest) edited by Cech, Atkins, and Gesteland. Joyce has a great chapter in it (chapter 2) about the RNA world hypothesis and the evidence supporting it. And for those who have access, I would recommend the Joyce lab's most recent articles:
This may be putting the cart before the horse or even before the money to buy the hay that feeds the horse. What are the plans for professional leagues for SC2? Assuming the game is as successful as the original, when can we expect the first professional seasons?
And for the local tournaments or friendly games: what are you doing to implement multiplayer observation and commentary into SC2? Will Bnet provide "arenas" for many, many observers led by single commentators for live game viewing?
I agree with this: in practice they can become very addicting. Take Morrowind or Oblivion, both fantastic games that are single player. Both are time sinks, depending on how you look at it. Many people played them, so there were enough people to talk about the game to make it massive single player.
Probably the best example of what you want is Nethack. The game does not take much time but is very, very frustrating for the beginning player. Sometimes it is so damn frustrating you cannot play for more than a half hour. Several people I know play the game, and when we play at the same time on a server like NAO, it's a similarly nice experience. You can take a break from the frustration and watch others play, etc.
I think the trick here is not being attached to the character because in Nethack their life is most likely going to end soon (unless you are good of course), and you will start from the beginning. So it's not as much of a time sink either. The replay value is much better than most games, too, because the world is randomly generated. Now if that sort of idea could be put into a modern game, where everything is randomly generated, then the game might be on to something. However, many people would find that type of game too hard, I think.
I echo this sentiment. DNA mutations are difficult to repair because the repair machinery itself makes mistakes. I.e., it's better for the cell to have a mutation than to die due to a double-strand break.
Also, don't forget that for Starcraft the LAN connection is necessary for proper micromanagement of units (mutalisks in particular).
My guess is that the games with the best fan support will quickly see mods that allow for LAN play. The games that see less fan support will likely suffer in the long run.
Slashdot Mirror
Add ads to that -- these games bring in tons of revenue ... who cares what they are to the companies that make them. Sure they don't have the competitive complexity of Starcraft 2, Counterstrike, etc. (games which are becoming more like sports at higher levels), but to some people they are fun. Isn't that the general goal?
Unfortunately, sometimes "the most good" is not what is good for the U.S. (or so it's leaders would have you believe). More information is almost always a good thing provided that the earpiece can intelligibly sift through it. What Wikileaks has reemphasized is the power of the new technology in aiding information flow and the hilariously bad decision it was for the U.S. to information share post 9/11.
I agree with this--sequence analysis needs to be done. Ideally, they would characterize ATP synthase or a similar enzyme and show that it has functionally changed to use arsenate instead of phosphate. I think, however, the findings still merit publishing as worst come worst, they found an organism that thrives at 40 mM arsenic.
Here is a quote from the synopsis appearing in the issue of Science: "When the researchers added radioactively labeled arsenate to the bacteria’s culture, they were later able to discern its presence in the protein, lipid, nucleic acid, and metabolite fractions of the cells, suggesting that arsenic had been incorporated in molecules forming each fraction." So the arsenic is in all major macromolecules in the cell.
Yes this is old news. Inorganic biochemistry classes and advanced organic classes introduce the subject matter by talking about the levels of metals in the oceans. They go on to teach that common metal ligands and enzymes have affinities for certain metals based on their levels in oceans many years ago. So at least in my experience as a biochemistry and chemistry student, this stuff is old news. But it's interesting!
i'm not quite sure what you are referring to. i played quake live quite a bit, and it seemed fine to me. i really liked QL beta, especially the additions that were made with patches. now, if you were playing 8v8 CA, that is a bit of mayhem ...
the original doom was such a fantastic game, but i was too young and found doom 2 first at the price of 50$, if i remember, which was a great game too even if it didn't add all that much to the original doom. and at the time there was all this parental hype about how the pixelated violence would cause kids to become psychopaths, the world would end, blah blah blah (seems to happen quite often actually).
...
i have to say i had a similar gaming epiphany (if you can call it that) when the original quake came out. with the awesome music and ambiance and relative ease of mod creation (remember alien quake?) that game also still has replay value today
Winning because of a better hardware configuration isn't really a test of skill. Your statement about PC gamers being better at strategy games or serious simulations is just silly, unless by 'strategy' you mean something like Starcraft, which is as much a twitch game as it is strategy.
I would compare console gaming to playing basketball on your knees. It is a different configuration. If you like it, then continue doing it. However, I also like playing basketball on my feet. I completely agree if that someone who plays on their knees can hold their own against someone playing on their feet, then the guy on his knees is probably the better player. But that guy should also prove it by playing the other sport.
Calling a game like Starcraft a "twitch" game is absurd. There is an astounding amount of skill involved in having the 350 APM of professional starcraft players. And that heavily practiced skill is what allows for certain strategies to be implemented just like an amazing amount of practice allows for set plays or strategies to be performed in other sports. Yes, it is difficult to have 350 APM, but it is also difficult to run a 4.4 40.
I played in the beta and enjoyed it very much. And I have definitely gotten sucked in and played for long stretches, but I generally dont have time for that anymore. Although the battles can be shorter than SC1, which is probably primarily due to the way entire armies easily move at once, you do not need pro APM to cast spells by any means. I have a low APM and had no problem managing key units (i.e., infestors or colossi) even when the crazy battles are going on.
...
The best improvement in my opinion is the macro/economy improvements. They have done a good job at adding things (queens, mules, chronoboost) to make macro more flexible and demanding more APM while at the same time removing some of the more annoying things from SC1 (SCV/drone/probe management).
They also have expansions to perfect the game. Compare original SC to SC Brood Wars
Or the south park cheesing episode ...
The in vitro / in vivo gap is definitely a worry. The next stages of trials will give an answer with regards to that. The current issue of Science has several articles about the spread of HIV, including a good review about why it is difficult to eradicate HIV in an infected individual. ( for those with access, http://www.sciencemag.org/content/current/ or http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/329/5988/174.pdf ) There are many great broadly neutralizing antibodies coming out right now, and even though HIV has an astonishing ability to escape our immune systems, there is hope that these will be successful for vaccines. ( http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-immunol-030409-101256 )
Steam is very nice indeed. Blizzard also has some great titles coming out that are sure to attract people (SC2, Diablo 3, etc.) ...
Without the fear of random penis, you have nothing to lose, so it's not a gamble. Where would the 00 be on the Chatroulette wheel then?
Moreover, these particles would prefer to be described as probaryonic from this point onwards.
I completely agree with the assessment above. And for the Crysis demo, I realized that I did not want to purchase the game. So by releasing that demo, they saved me money but definitely lost one customer. As people say below, it's all about graphics, and when I saw lacking gameplay, I lost interest.
Prefixes can be combined anyways. Milliyocto and microyocto would satisfy 10^-27 and 10^-30, respectively. This is similar to older papers that I have seen in which micromicro was substituted for pico (i.e., uuM for pM). It would only become annoying after yoctoyocto (10^-48). One yocto is silly enough.
How about Crisis?
These are interesting questions, some of which are discussed in a great book on the topic "The RNA World" (3rd ed is the latest) edited by Cech, Atkins, and Gesteland. Joyce has a great chapter in it (chapter 2) about the RNA world hypothesis and the evidence supporting it. And for those who have access, I would recommend the Joyce lab's most recent articles:
-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19416904
-http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19131595
This is so cool. I can only wonder what would happen if they introduced more than one time dimension.
This may be putting the cart before the horse or even before the money to buy the hay that feeds the horse. What are the plans for professional leagues for SC2? Assuming the game is as successful as the original, when can we expect the first professional seasons?
And for the local tournaments or friendly games: what are you doing to implement multiplayer observation and commentary into SC2? Will Bnet provide "arenas" for many, many observers led by single commentators for live game viewing?
Surely the devs know that a work around for this will be created so that people can use a mod ... LAN play is essential for tournaments.
just in case you have never heard of the hypnotoad: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiVYjRbZMe0
... easily my favorite random alien in the series
I agree with this: in practice they can become very addicting. Take Morrowind or Oblivion, both fantastic games that are single player. Both are time sinks, depending on how you look at it. Many people played them, so there were enough people to talk about the game to make it massive single player.
Probably the best example of what you want is Nethack. The game does not take much time but is very, very frustrating for the beginning player. Sometimes it is so damn frustrating you cannot play for more than a half hour. Several people I know play the game, and when we play at the same time on a server like NAO, it's a similarly nice experience. You can take a break from the frustration and watch others play, etc.
I think the trick here is not being attached to the character because in Nethack their life is most likely going to end soon (unless you are good of course), and you will start from the beginning. So it's not as much of a time sink either. The replay value is much better than most games, too, because the world is randomly generated. Now if that sort of idea could be put into a modern game, where everything is randomly generated, then the game might be on to something. However, many people would find that type of game too hard, I think.
I echo this sentiment. DNA mutations are difficult to repair because the repair machinery itself makes mistakes. I.e., it's better for the cell to have a mutation than to die due to a double-strand break.
Also, don't forget that for Starcraft the LAN connection is necessary for proper micromanagement of units (mutalisks in particular). My guess is that the games with the best fan support will quickly see mods that allow for LAN play. The games that see less fan support will likely suffer in the long run.