It depends on where the math got fucked up. If MS signed off on papers that promised the inflated amount, it's SOL. That would explain why they're asking for it, rather than sending legal demands.
I saw this coming. Given that they probably haven't learned anything from the Beacon backlash (or the second one, after they tried to sneak it back in), I'm expecting a subtle change of wording and a new placement in the TOS at best.
Absolutely, especially after they proved themselves during the Beacon fiasco. Proved that they can't be trusted not to stab with one hand while they stroke with another, that is.
I'd sell humanity out in an instant, just to have SHODAN's voice available to tell me things like 'You have five (five) fiiiive new messages, i-i-i-insect.'
Expecting privacy in an MMO is like expecting Santa Claus to come down your chimney on Christmas Day: it displays a charming naivete when children express it, and psychotic ignorance in an adult.
This is, of course, no different from any of the other long-winded blog posts that he occasionally gets posted to the front page under the guise of 'news'.
Like the ones he just kind of hand-waves, by repeating 'Oh! It's so much better in the factories than it is outside, you know? And they've tried to fool me by bringing in good food on the days I'm there, you know. And the workers aren't going to tell me how shitty it really might be, because I don't really speak the language and they really don't want to lose their jobs... or get in shit with the mob like this rebuttal suggests might happen. You know.'
The problem there is that 'art' isn't a particularly democratic concept. "Everybody's" definition of the term is meaningless, because the vast majority will call something 'art' because they've been told that it is, not because they've engaged it in any meaningful way themselves.
Are video games art? I would contend that the vast majority are not, in the same way that a Kinkade painting isn't: there may be basic, technical merit, but they're overwhelmingly trite and kitschy, and have all the emotional depth of a Harlequin romance.
I don't accept the entirety of Ebert's argument against games-as-art. I don't think that developers are particularly driven to create games-as-art at the moment either, while their producers are breathing down their collective necks to give us the next Christmas blockbuster. Our ideal of games, placing the player in control of everything from camera to pacing, flies right in the face of a traditional work's careful composition... and I don't think that we've really grasped how to use the medium beyond creating highly detailed stick figures in interactive Dick and Jane stories.
500K is not chump change. 500K is more subscribers than anything but WoW and Lineage have ever seen at peak. People really need to stop grabbing these numbers out of the air.
Hi. I don't know who you are, but I'd like my childhood back.
No, seriously-- the PCS and Lode Runner kept my friends and I absolutely glued to the old IIc and its semi-sorta-portable monochrome monitor while we created absolutely degenerate and broken maps.
I'll never forget the time we were abusing the physics in PCS. Well, not that we didn't do that all the time, but this time we broke it. "It's stuck!" I cried, of one of the dozen balls on the screen. "It's embedded!" my friend exclaimed.
We really had no idea what we were doing-- beyond coded objects like bumpers and kickers, there was a system for making solid barriers out of simple polygons, using graphical tools that could add, delete or modify corners, and a full-blown embedded paint program for drawing designs on the play field. Despite being utterly overwhelmed by the depth of the construction set, we experimented and goofed around like nobody's business. No real manual, no warnings about broken builds, just exploration.
It wasn't a spy, it was a defector. Goonsquad's recruitment comes 100% from within the Something Awful forums, with registration-date requirements and other security measures to weed out all but the most dedicated moles. They do however run recruitment scams from time to time: set up a sub-corporation, get people to give them time, in-game money and materials in return for recruiting them with the promise of full Goonswarm membership at a later date, and proceed to bilk them until they're no longer useful. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to go behind the scenes.
This guy joined up as a spy, and decided to stay around because the Swarm was actually nice to him. People were friendly and helpful, unlike BoB where he barely got a 'hello' upon recruitment. He got tired of BoB's 'Serious Business' attitude and under-appreciation, and put the screws to them.
Games Workshop probably wanted a million or more, but Mythic's been in the pay-for-play business long enough to know that number is farcically high. For a western MMO, 300K is a very healthy number of ongoing subs. I'd honestly guess that their internal targets were 200,000 to 250,000.
I think there's a qualitative difference between 'we don't want to offend the government' and 'we don't want to risk our correspondents being tossed in a Thai prison'. The former might make it hard to get through customs, or not get ticketed on a variety of technicalities. The latter might make it hard to do much of anything. The article you've linked makes it clear that someone in the Thai government has a long memory and a vindictive streak.
No. There are over 1500 superconducting magnets in the thing, each of which weighs on the order of 27 tons. Ignoring the cost of developing a transport to move something that heavy into space, and the cost of developing and building a full-blown moonbase to house the workers who build and maintain the device, the cost of fuel for moving even one of the magnets would be literally astronomical.
Slashdot Mirror
It depends on where the math got fucked up. If MS signed off on papers that promised the inflated amount, it's SOL. That would explain why they're asking for it, rather than sending legal demands.
You'll see them lobbying Washington for a TV tax before that.
I saw this coming. Given that they probably haven't learned anything from the Beacon backlash (or the second one, after they tried to sneak it back in), I'm expecting a subtle change of wording and a new placement in the TOS at best.
Absolutely, especially after they proved themselves during the Beacon fiasco. Proved that they can't be trusted not to stab with one hand while they stroke with another, that is.
No, no, no. That's XXXterminate!
I'd sell humanity out in an instant, just to have SHODAN's voice available to tell me things like 'You have five (five) fiiiive new messages, i-i-i-insect.'
Expecting privacy in an MMO is like expecting Santa Claus to come down your chimney on Christmas Day: it displays a charming naivete when children express it, and psychotic ignorance in an adult.
This is, of course, no different from any of the other long-winded blog posts that he occasionally gets posted to the front page under the guise of 'news'.
Will seed to 1:1
Like the ones he just kind of hand-waves, by repeating 'Oh! It's so much better in the factories than it is outside, you know? And they've tried to fool me by bringing in good food on the days I'm there, you know. And the workers aren't going to tell me how shitty it really might be, because I don't really speak the language and they really don't want to lose their jobs... or get in shit with the mob like this rebuttal suggests might happen. You know.'
Are video games art? I would contend that the vast majority are not, in the same way that a Kinkade painting isn't: there may be basic, technical merit, but they're overwhelmingly trite and kitschy, and have all the emotional depth of a Harlequin romance.
I don't accept the entirety of Ebert's argument against games-as-art. I don't think that developers are particularly driven to create games-as-art at the moment either, while their producers are breathing down their collective necks to give us the next Christmas blockbuster. Our ideal of games, placing the player in control of everything from camera to pacing, flies right in the face of a traditional work's careful composition... and I don't think that we've really grasped how to use the medium beyond creating highly detailed stick figures in interactive Dick and Jane stories.
500K is not chump change. 500K is more subscribers than anything but WoW and Lineage have ever seen at peak. People really need to stop grabbing these numbers out of the air.
I think he's asking about changing official office and infrastructure software, not mandating what the students are to use on their own boxes.
No, seriously-- the PCS and Lode Runner kept my friends and I absolutely glued to the old IIc and its semi-sorta-portable monochrome monitor while we created absolutely degenerate and broken maps.
I'll never forget the time we were abusing the physics in PCS. Well, not that we didn't do that all the time, but this time we broke it. "It's stuck!" I cried, of one of the dozen balls on the screen. "It's embedded!" my friend exclaimed.
We really had no idea what we were doing-- beyond coded objects like bumpers and kickers, there was a system for making solid barriers out of simple polygons, using graphical tools that could add, delete or modify corners, and a full-blown embedded paint program for drawing designs on the play field. Despite being utterly overwhelmed by the depth of the construction set, we experimented and goofed around like nobody's business. No real manual, no warnings about broken builds, just exploration.
'I have nothing to hide' is the great-grandfather of fallacious arguments. Your two cents and your post are similarly worthless.
Tell me, do they have a petitiononline.com page set up too?
This guy joined up as a spy, and decided to stay around because the Swarm was actually nice to him. People were friendly and helpful, unlike BoB where he barely got a 'hello' upon recruitment. He got tired of BoB's 'Serious Business' attitude and under-appreciation, and put the screws to them.
Games Workshop probably wanted a million or more, but Mythic's been in the pay-for-play business long enough to know that number is farcically high. For a western MMO, 300K is a very healthy number of ongoing subs. I'd honestly guess that their internal targets were 200,000 to 250,000.
Clearly, you haven't watched enough Cow and Chicken.
Just the one apparently, since it's the same guy whinging.
It's not a treemeat wiki unless it's printed in pencil. How else are you going to make edits?
I think there's a qualitative difference between 'we don't want to offend the government' and 'we don't want to risk our correspondents being tossed in a Thai prison'. The former might make it hard to get through customs, or not get ticketed on a variety of technicalities. The latter might make it hard to do much of anything. The article you've linked makes it clear that someone in the Thai government has a long memory and a vindictive streak.
...because if you're not being paid on top of that, you should start running now.
No. There are over 1500 superconducting magnets in the thing, each of which weighs on the order of 27 tons. Ignoring the cost of developing a transport to move something that heavy into space, and the cost of developing and building a full-blown moonbase to house the workers who build and maintain the device, the cost of fuel for moving even one of the magnets would be literally astronomical.
You mean Peggle Extreme?