The only difference between this and a hard-core flight sim (whose players --pardon, enthusiasts-- have been known to sink multiple thousands into a simulated cockpit) that I can see, is that your tires aren't supposed to leave the ground.
Now, that silly MMIS acronym? That's 100% publicity stunt.
E for Everyone eradicated a lot of goodwill the other year, when it had people wandering around outside PAX with televisions shoved up their shirts, handing out E4E advertising crap. Their chief organizer's smarmy attitude, an 'Oh, we didn't realize that this other little con was going on' probably damaged a lot of what was left.
I still love how PAX's would-be competitors just don't get it, like there's some kind of Feng Shui about their display rooms that draws fans, instead of not being treated like a walking wallet with a desperate libido.
Seriously, these guys need to stick with tabletop, and nothing else. They simply don't have the coders or IT staff to provide a product that is worth a damn. Cases in point:
Magic: The Gathering: On-Line. In and out of development Hell for years. Some interesting design decisions, like making 2D animations by stitching single-frame files together in a loop. Reinventing the wheel with an eye toward a triangle.
Wizards the Website: Guys. Seriously. If you're going to make content 'subscriber only' or 'log-in only', don't just stash it in a hidden frame. Geeks will find that shit faster than your kids figure out where the Christmas presents are hidden.
D&D Insider: Oh god, just watch this one yourself. It's happening in real-time. If they couldn't handle the rigors of setting up a simple social networking site, then their attempt to provide software worth $15/mo (plus microtransactions for silly gribbly bits) is doomed to death at the turning of the fiscal year. For something advertised as nigh-integral to the 4E experience, they've apparently got a handful of interns slaving away between bringing their bosses coffee.
It's clear that Wizards, like TSR before it, simply doesn't understand the technical issues inherent to developing for the Internet and computers in general. They have presentation down to a science, but they're in dire need of someone with experience to sit them down, shake them silly, and explain why it is vitally important to have an actual autonomous IT staff to develop these applications. Otherwise, we'll continue to see clueless mistakes like Gleemax being run into the ground by marketing and the accountants.
Why should they care? If a dedicated gamer pirates $200 worth of FPS games, that's $200 that they can put toward buying the latest video card instead.
And again, why should they care? Piracy is not their problem, and it's not worth their R&D time to bolt 'trusted computing' modules onto their products. Suggesting that they have an obligation to act is like suggesting that firearm manufacturers have an obligation to prevent gun-related crimes.
Seriously. I'm sorry guys, and I know that you've got a bunch of the movers and shakers from the tabletop gaming world... but Christ, just look at D&D Online to see how much different tabletop gaming is from MMO gaming.
The biggest problem is, they're underestimating just how fucking fast players will progress through the content. If there are milestones like quests to be met, the players will figure out a way to pass by them at light speed. Even if you have ten thousand canned quests ready for deployment as soon as the first batch is completed, they'll be gone in a month at most.
Someone pointed EVE Online out as a truly persistent world. I'd like to add Ultima Online to that list. Both have only the barest NPC interaction: there are mobs to hunt and kill, and merchants to deal with, both of which can be bypassed by a mature-enough player-base. The only 'quests' are specific GM-run events that are more complex than 'harvest five bear asses' or 'serenade the Princess for Cyrano'. Everything else is a sandbox. Players create their own storylines, fight their own wars, and build their own merchant empires. There's no need for a traditional dungeon master because the server is smart enough to handle simple math like combat, and the only real social interactions occur between players, not players and keyword-driven mobiles.
Perhaps, but Blizzard has also released teaser cinematics for all of their games since Diablo II. MMO subscribership is not a locked-in, partisan thing either-- if WAR attracts 500,000 WOW subscribers (and that is an 'if' on the scale of Kipling's), that's no indication that any of them will stop subscribing to WOW. Likewise, while the games are similar in theme, you're more likely to see cross-pollination in new subscribers than outright competition, as newbies hear 'This sucks, I'm going back to WOW' and 'I'm sick of this, I'm going to WAR instead'.
Anyone else catch that this is an anonymous reader complaining about adding a layer of anonymity to court records, before slipping in a few editorial jabs?
I don't see anything wrong with it-- this is no different than case histories involving people listed as 'Mr. F---' and the like.
Lessee. Anarchy Online's 'story' was yet another rehash of plucky underdogs vs. evil overlords. Plus aliens after a while, when people got bored of fighting corporate lackeys.
Dreamfall's three primary characters were a washed-up, gothy 'heroine' from the previous game, a generically plucky artist, and a generically honorable warrior who discovers that his government is corrupt. They inhabit a story that wanders at best, is never resolved in any way, and cuts off at not just one, but three separate cliffhangers.
An eleven day open beta. Come on kids, just call it a fucking demo and be done with it. Worse, it's going to be a demo that grossly oversells the population as everyone crams in at the word 'open' and vacates when it's time to buy the box at retail and start forking over subscription fees.
That subscription system is probably what killed the whole thing, too. The sponsor companies (of which there were at least half a dozen, not including advertisers) were promised a continuous revenue stream. The hardest-core fans bought in at basically a year's worth of fees for a lifetime subscription, which probably looked fantastic on the spreadsheets for the first month post-launch, but nowhere near so good when that huge burst of cash dwindled to a trickle.
On the other hand, they probably wouldn't have gone anywhere without the promise of subscription revenue. Clearly, they had the same problem that Cyan did with its Uru Live product: not enough income to pay enough designers and coders to actually produce anything new on a month-to-month basis... which is what the subscribers were promised. The sponsors wouldn't have given a damn for yet another 3D dungeon crawler, and probably would have laughed Roper out of the room at the suggestion that they bankroll a Battle.net analogue.
While the free service was a joke, it was popular enough to fracture the player-base even further than the Normal/Elite/Hardcore/Hardcore Elite split did.
Followed closely by the one where the Enterprise-D explodes at the end of the pre-title clip, then over and over again during the course of the episode. The first time was shocking, but by the end of that one we were rolling on the floor cackling.
People talk about the death of Lord British, and the Corrupted Blood plague, and the antics of Fansy the Famous Bard not because they're turning points in MMO history, but because they're fucking funny. Who really gives a shit about official lore like Morpheus getting cacked, when there are records of Bael'zharon flirting with female PCs and eating emoted twinkies during his plodding reign of destruction? Or how about the early days of WWII On-Line, when Lum the Mad Taxiied to victory-- or even better, the tanks whose code was lifted from planes, flight mechanics and all, bringing forth the unholy reign (rain?) of flying flakpanzers?
Seriously. Nobody really gives a shit about the official stuff. It's the impromptu weirdness (including Rainz' murder of Lord British) that they remember and celebrate.
If you take Blizzard out of the equation, SOE is probably the biggest name in the arena still. EQ is still chugging along, EQ2 revamped to surprisingly good effect, and they've bought up several smaller/less successful MMOs like Vanguard and Matrix Online.
That was my first thought. Every so often, the boss could do something that affects the environment, or spawns a handful of minions, that you can manipulate to replenish your health supply. The trick becomes surviving long enough for those events to occur and repeat, rather than training yourself to hit your belt keys at the most advantageous time.
The bank I deal with skips the easily-guessed questions and lets you set your own. On that site, and the sadly few others I've encountered that do the same, I either note in the question that the answer is case sensitive, or remember to put the original answer in lowercase.
It really helps if you're not being a 'clever' smartass-- references to the cultural canon like 'What is the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything' or 'To Be, or Not to Be' are going to be guessed by a passing hacker faster than 'Who was the last person to sleep with my mom?' (Answer: me).
The Olympics are already a cavalcade of overspecialization, to the point of teratism in some cases. The only amateur thing about them (especially in light of professional 'dream teams' competing for medals in prior Games) is the naive assumption that the Games mean anything beyond international dick-waving.
I say drop the 'amateur' and let them do whatever the fuck they please. Let's see what kind of horrors are wrought in the name of national pride. Hell, the history books will be doing it fifty years from now anyway-- let's get a head-start on our grandchildren.
Long out of print software tends to fall into one of those wacky grey areas that pirates like to create for themselves-- like the '24-hour law' regarding console ROMs. In this case, people have latched onto the term 'abandonware' to describe software that's no longer being produced, and never will be produced again, to validate making it available for free. Some companies send aggressive cease and desist orders (Sierra On-Line being noteworthy for this), but many others are defunct and their IP rights tucked away in some dusty, disused office. Unsurprisingly, abandonware is mostly a games thing. After all, there's more nostalgia and curiosity tucked into the games of yesteryear, than the spreadsheets.
Slashdot Mirror
Precisely my thought. This is the Internet treating the threat of SIGINT as damage, and routing around it.
Now, that silly MMIS acronym? That's 100% publicity stunt.
I still love how PAX's would-be competitors just don't get it, like there's some kind of Feng Shui about their display rooms that draws fans, instead of not being treated like a walking wallet with a desperate libido.
No, it's the age at which science fiction authors start to travel backwards in time.
Funcom already has a lot of experience in that niche. Dig up the history of Anarchy Online for the gory details.
And again, why should they care? Piracy is not their problem, and it's not worth their R&D time to bolt 'trusted computing' modules onto their products. Suggesting that they have an obligation to act is like suggesting that firearm manufacturers have an obligation to prevent gun-related crimes.
The biggest problem is, they're underestimating just how fucking fast players will progress through the content. If there are milestones like quests to be met, the players will figure out a way to pass by them at light speed. Even if you have ten thousand canned quests ready for deployment as soon as the first batch is completed, they'll be gone in a month at most.
Someone pointed EVE Online out as a truly persistent world. I'd like to add Ultima Online to that list. Both have only the barest NPC interaction: there are mobs to hunt and kill, and merchants to deal with, both of which can be bypassed by a mature-enough player-base. The only 'quests' are specific GM-run events that are more complex than 'harvest five bear asses' or 'serenade the Princess for Cyrano'. Everything else is a sandbox. Players create their own storylines, fight their own wars, and build their own merchant empires. There's no need for a traditional dungeon master because the server is smart enough to handle simple math like combat, and the only real social interactions occur between players, not players and keyword-driven mobiles.
Perhaps, but Blizzard has also released teaser cinematics for all of their games since Diablo II. MMO subscribership is not a locked-in, partisan thing either-- if WAR attracts 500,000 WOW subscribers (and that is an 'if' on the scale of Kipling's), that's no indication that any of them will stop subscribing to WOW. Likewise, while the games are similar in theme, you're more likely to see cross-pollination in new subscribers than outright competition, as newbies hear 'This sucks, I'm going back to WOW' and 'I'm sick of this, I'm going to WAR instead'.
I don't see anything wrong with it-- this is no different than case histories involving people listed as 'Mr. F---' and the like.
Dreamfall's three primary characters were a washed-up, gothy 'heroine' from the previous game, a generically plucky artist, and a generically honorable warrior who discovers that his government is corrupt. They inhabit a story that wanders at best, is never resolved in any way, and cuts off at not just one, but three separate cliffhangers.
An eleven day open beta. Come on kids, just call it a fucking demo and be done with it. Worse, it's going to be a demo that grossly oversells the population as everyone crams in at the word 'open' and vacates when it's time to buy the box at retail and start forking over subscription fees.
On the other hand, they probably wouldn't have gone anywhere without the promise of subscription revenue. Clearly, they had the same problem that Cyan did with its Uru Live product: not enough income to pay enough designers and coders to actually produce anything new on a month-to-month basis... which is what the subscribers were promised. The sponsors wouldn't have given a damn for yet another 3D dungeon crawler, and probably would have laughed Roper out of the room at the suggestion that they bankroll a Battle.net analogue.
While the free service was a joke, it was popular enough to fracture the player-base even further than the Normal/Elite/Hardcore/Hardcore Elite split did.
I think he misspelled 'monetized' as 'civilized' there.
Followed closely by the one where the Enterprise-D explodes at the end of the pre-title clip, then over and over again during the course of the episode. The first time was shocking, but by the end of that one we were rolling on the floor cackling.
Seriously. Nobody really gives a shit about the official stuff. It's the impromptu weirdness (including Rainz' murder of Lord British) that they remember and celebrate.
I'm sorry, but that sounds like the finale of the best Trek episode ever.
If you take Blizzard out of the equation, SOE is probably the biggest name in the arena still. EQ is still chugging along, EQ2 revamped to surprisingly good effect, and they've bought up several smaller/less successful MMOs like Vanguard and Matrix Online.
"I haven't worked without insurance since that time the Red Catholics dropped the auto-cannibalism meme on Karel Square..."
"All right, I'm steamed now! I'll just rise up onto my hind legs and swing my elephant tenderizer up over my head, so I can spl--"
"Aw, shit! I just ruptured the squishy minion pipe! It's fuckin' raining health in here now!"
That was my first thought. Every so often, the boss could do something that affects the environment, or spawns a handful of minions, that you can manipulate to replenish your health supply. The trick becomes surviving long enough for those events to occur and repeat, rather than training yourself to hit your belt keys at the most advantageous time.
Oh, wait. That's what puberty did.
It really helps if you're not being a 'clever' smartass-- references to the cultural canon like 'What is the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything' or 'To Be, or Not to Be' are going to be guessed by a passing hacker faster than 'Who was the last person to sleep with my mom?' (Answer: me).
I say drop the 'amateur' and let them do whatever the fuck they please. Let's see what kind of horrors are wrought in the name of national pride. Hell, the history books will be doing it fifty years from now anyway-- let's get a head-start on our grandchildren.
Long out of print software tends to fall into one of those wacky grey areas that pirates like to create for themselves-- like the '24-hour law' regarding console ROMs. In this case, people have latched onto the term 'abandonware' to describe software that's no longer being produced, and never will be produced again, to validate making it available for free. Some companies send aggressive cease and desist orders (Sierra On-Line being noteworthy for this), but many others are defunct and their IP rights tucked away in some dusty, disused office. Unsurprisingly, abandonware is mostly a games thing. After all, there's more nostalgia and curiosity tucked into the games of yesteryear, than the spreadsheets.