I was kind of a noob to RPGs at the time that KOTOR1 was released, so I didn't buy it right away. I had been playing Diablo 2 for years, had played some BG2 and a little bit of old school D&D, but had never really finished a real RPG (I hadn't finished BG2 at the time). Then, a friend came to me absolutely gushing about KOTOR1. To him, it was the best game ever, combining RPG and action elements in a way that no other game had done.
For me, KOTOR1 was a great game because it opened the gates of RPGs to me. It made formerly inaccessible, arcane gameplay elements transparent to my FPS-addicted brain. After finishing KOTOR1, I replayed diablo, diablo 2, FFVII, BG2,... etc
Anyway, the point is, when KOTOR2 came out, the same friend of mine ran out and bought it on release day. THE VERY NEXT DAY, he warned me off of it, and that was very disappointing.
So, I can't say how glad I am that this project is nearing completion!
Damnit! I just reopened my account last week, to start gearing up for the expansion. I even started a new alt! My first priest! Oh well, they're losing me until January!
They really suckered us in, didn't they? Even I was optimistic when I heard that most stores got at least 8 allocated. Now, I'm kind of shocked.
This kind of subtle hinting always seems to leak out before the bombshell drops. At least with Sony lately, that seems to be the standard. With only a million by Christmas, there was only going to be a launch in name. If there's less than one million by Christmas, then, in all practicality, we're looking at what amounts to a 2007 launch
I am an ex-member of a still strong clan that is over 10 years old. He calls his one of the oldest at 18 months? Our clan has switched games multiple times without breaking up, and I'm sure many other people here have similar stories.
Oohh! 18 months! 70 days of playtime!! pffft. I bet there are 25 people in this forum with more gameplay. I'm close, and consider myself a casual player (I only have one 60 with only tier 2 epics)
Europe is sooooo much better than America!! Just admit it! All you Americans are useless slobs!!!
Can someone mod the parent down as offtopic? Christ, he thinks he's going to solve the world's health problems in a slashdot post.
If you really think that Europeans are generally better than Americans at making health decisions then you are clueless. I mean, Europe invented foie gras. If you don't know what that is, then look it up. Then come back and tell me how much healthier Europeans are.
Finally, I am willing to bet that the only reason Europe has smaller drink sizes is that soda costs more in Europe. Oh, but I forgot, in Europe, they don't care about money. Businesses just give their products to the poor and needy because everyone in Europe is more moral than us American slobs and our rabid, fast food consuming families. Really, they gave up money years ago in Europe. IT's SO 20th century!
The good news is, if you're not at least upper-middle class, then in 5 or 6 years, when a better drug comes out, you'll finally be able to afford this one!
I am with you 100%, and, although I think this point has been well-trod on the slashdot forums... I think it is the primary reason why there is so much negativity surrounding the PS3.
Take the Walkman for example. An excellent piece of hardware (at the time) that perfectly fit a customer need. What did Sony follow up with? Crappy Minidisc and mp3 players that rely on proprietary Sony technology.
Everquest is another example of the same trend. EQ1 was a classic game that defined the direction of future MMOs and had fans drooling for sequels. What does Sony follow up with? Star Wars Galaxies and EQ2. EQ2 is not a great game by any means, but SWG is the biggest disappointment in gaming history (in my opinion). It was the first MMO follow up to EQ1, with the best possible license (SWG had more pre-release forum members than any other game ever)... and it turned out to be a big sham. The game was throttled by suits and killed by execs.
Now enter the PS2. The best, most popular gaming system ever. Gee, how will Sony follow that up?
And that's exactly why people have negative feelings about the PS3. I think we all feel as if our gaming system of choice is being killed by executives who would rather push next-gen movie formats than make a great game system, and when you look at Sony's history, that doesn't seem like a pessimistic point of view, it seems like a realistic one.
I wish you were right, however, when I found out that the preorder time was going to be 9am on a Friday, I tries to figure out another way to get a Wii.
First I tried to bribe a clerk to hold me one until noon. That didn't work.
Then I went to Target and asked around. They won't be doing any preorders there, so I made a mental note to get there ASAP on launch day. Next I tried a Walmart. At Walmart I couldn't really get a straight answer, but the gist of it was this: there wouldn't be any preorders at that particular store, but there could be at other walmarts.
Wow, you entirely missed the point, but decided to post your nescience anyway.
When he says that you will be able to experience global repercussions firsthand, he means that Spore will present an immediate representation of the kinds of crazy things that can happen globally as a result of local actions.
In other words, where it's kind of hard to see how an earthquake in North Korea can result (for instance) storms in Peru (I made this up). It is much easier to see these kinds of things in the enclosed environment of Spore.
"Now if spore was built as an accurate simulation based on parameters measured out in nature, maybe one could argue that we were experiencing 'firsthand'"
That is total nonsense. Nobody can accurately map out the processes of nature with the technology we have now (or the math we have now). In fact, the field of chaos mathematics is entirely devoted to understanding exactly why we can't predict the things that we can't predict (and trying to predict them, nonetheless).
Weather is an example of this; a natural phenomenon that has too many variables to examine truly realistically, but can be broken down into a smaller number of fields that CAN be looked at 'firsthand'.
You may be wondering why Steven Johnson is writing about Spore. The answer is that he wrote one of the best books ever written about swarm intelligence, Emergence.
For a para-scientific book, it is very deep. It goes over the entire history of swarm intelligence and really explains how local actions can have global consequences. It is also incredibly fluid and easy to read.
In short, you are not a true computer-geek until you have read it, so check it out.
Most of these posts are utter nonsense. If you have a college degree, even if it's not in the branch of technology that you're applying for, and even if you didn't go to the best college, it doesn't matter what certifications you have. The only thing that matters is WHO you know.
If you have been friendly to recruiters, to professors, and to peers/colleagues, then one of them will suggest you for a job, and you will get it, no matter how unqualified you are. I speak from experience. Why?
Because a smart person can be trained to do anything, but a jerk will always be a jerk (for the most part). If an employer can find out that you aren't a jerk ahead of time, then you're gravy.
I worked as musician when I came out of a good college with my CS degree. I finally broke into CS because the guy I was interviewing with happened to have been a poker buddy of my father's... 15 years ago. Major coincidence, but since my father had a good rep, he thought that I would be ok too. In less than 2 years following that, my salary went up by $15k.
So, quit worrying about your certification, nerds. Worry about your people skills.
I can't believe that people on here are recommending M-Audio. I admit, if you want to pay next-to-nothing, then M-Audio is reasonable. If you don't actually want to do professional production (just high quality amateur stuff), then M-Audio is fine. Then again, for just a little more money, you can get some of the best preamps on the market.
For the price, the Mackie Onyx preamps are absolutely unbeatable. I have used many, many, many, many mixers and preamps, and the Mackie Onyx is the only "live" mixer that I will also use in the studio (I
use it when I need more than the 24 tracks offered by my d8b).
A full Onyx mixer is probably more than you need, but lucky for you, Mackie sells a two channel, firewire enabled Onyx preamp called the Onyx Satellite for only $500.
And, it comes bundled with Mackie Tracktion, which is, admittedly, not as great as some of the other software packages, but for the price it is remarkably solid.
Either you have 200 spidermans zipping around (beyond silly), or you can't allow players to play 'name' characters, at which point the whole point of a license goes out of the window.
Actually there are more options than that. The one they will probably take is that you create your own character, then, rather than fighting 'with' marvel heroes, you'll be fighting against marvel villains. In other words, you can't fight as Spiderman, but you can fight against the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Mysterio... etc.
I could certainly see it playing out like WoW, where the heroes are one faction and the villains are the other faction, and the bosses/dungeons are held by the uber villains like Apocalypse, Magneto, Dr. Doom... etc.
Now that the Marvel MMOG is back on, I'm not quite sure how to feel. I was pretty upset when I heard that it was getting shelved, but then I went out and bought City of Heroes/Villains (which was developed by the people who are making the Marvel MMOG).
I am a recovering WoW-head who switched to CoH/V for a change in scenery, and I have to say that the change wasn't necessarily pleasant. CoH/V has some great qualities that WoW can't match, but it also fails miserably when you try to compare the gameplay experience. Can anyone else weigh in on this comparison?
The character creation in CoH is obviously much better. You can fully customize the look of your hero/villain. In terms of looks and ease of use, I have never used a better character creation tool. I could create all the different heroes/villains that I wanted. That was nice, after WoW, where high level characters of each class wear pretty much the same armor (ie every lock in a AQ raid has just enough pieces of the Nemesis set to look vaguely alike).
The graphics in the games are pretty much a pickem. CoH looks more realistic, but has nowhere near the sense of style that WoW has.
And the most disappointing thing in CoH is the gameplay. If you WoW players think you know what grinding is, you have no idea. CoH/V redefines grinding. It brings grinding to a whole new level (unfortunately, not literally). And this is where I'm woirried.
If the Marvel MMOG has the same kind of ridiculously slow and repetitive gameplay, it will be a huge failure. Anyone else feel the same? Think I'm an idiot?
The Scion xB is the best. It just has a line in to your stereo. Simple and effective, and I can attach any device I like (my iPod or my piece of $#%& iPaq).
The reviewers were wrong about Enter the Matrix. At least the PC version. The game is a good game, the only thing wrong with it is that you can literally beat it in a 3 hour sitting. I still replayed it a couple times.
I just wanted to give my 2 cents. And, incidentally, I'm not a green gamer; I play all genres of games (MMOs, FPSs, RTSs, Puzzlers... etc) on consoles and on the PC.
Look at it this way, next time someone sues Microsoft for being a monopoly, they will be right. AAAAND, there will be a clearly demarcated line over which to split microsoft up.
Or, you can just remember how Sony has abused their fans and be happy that there will never be another SWG (or Trojan CDs.... or malfunctioning batteries... or....)
I have been confused about why Sony has been so quiet. True, the annoying PSP marketing campain never seems to end, and there are still some good titles coming to the PS2 (Scarface, GoW 2), but when it comes to the PS3 and it's launch, Sony has been way too quiet.
Isn't this about time where they should be ramping things up? I mean, MS just launched the first true next gen titles for the 360 (Dead Rising, Saints Row), shouldn't Sony be flaunting their great next gen exclusives (Assassin, MGS)?
The problem is that Sony has 27 titles that are close to playable, and none of them are killer apps. Devil May Cry 4 looks like the only decent title that will be available at launch, and the other titles that look good also look like they're a long way off. So what does that leave Sony left to talk about? Yep, they will launch in time for Christmas!
Personally, I think that they're still reeling from the 3-fingered-shocker that is XNA. I think that Microsoft's XNA software package is the straw that broke the camel's back. Everything that Microsoft had done to try and gain an edge just didn't seem like it was enough until XNA was announced.
Your assumption that jobs would necessarily be lost is flawed.
Yes, in the short run, big businesses will raise red flags, and they probably will lay off a bunch of people (then turn around and say I told you so!). But the lost jobs would quickly return, as a whole class of people has just gained some extra money.
The extra money they have will be spent at places like Walmart (where the people who make minimum wage work), and since these retailers will see an increase in business, they will, naturally, hire more employees.
That's an oversimplification, but my point is this: Claiming that jobs will be lost due to an increase in minimum wage is total propaganda. Nobody can predict with certainty exactly what would happen to the economy if the minimum wage was raised. Although businesses want you to think that somehow raising the minimum wage would hurt jobs, in the long run (> 6 months), that's just one of many outcomes, and an unlikely one at that.
Just because thet have the money to make their view heard, doesn't mean it's right.
X-Men Legends II is a great action RPG. The mixture of fast paced group gameplay with character leveling/customization is truly unique.
The story blows. Having read the comic books and seen the movies, I can say that they would have sold more copies of X-Men Legends II if they had just cut the story. It's just the same old story rehashed.
I think there are other games that fit into this category as well.
For instance, adding a story to Mariokart would be pretentious and just distract from the great gameplay.
Stories can sell games, obviously, but gameplay alone can also sell games.
Slashdot Mirror
I was kind of a noob to RPGs at the time that KOTOR1 was released, so I didn't buy it right away. I had been playing Diablo 2 for years, had played some BG2 and a little bit of old school D&D, but had never really finished a real RPG (I hadn't finished BG2 at the time). Then, a friend came to me absolutely gushing about KOTOR1. To him, it was the best game ever, combining RPG and action elements in a way that no other game had done.
For me, KOTOR1 was a great game because it opened the gates of RPGs to me. It made formerly inaccessible, arcane gameplay elements transparent to my FPS-addicted brain. After finishing KOTOR1, I replayed diablo, diablo 2, FFVII, BG2, ... etc
Anyway, the point is, when KOTOR2 came out, the same friend of mine ran out and bought it on release day. THE VERY NEXT DAY, he warned me off of it, and that was very disappointing.
So, I can't say how glad I am that this project is nearing completion!
Damnit! I just reopened my account last week, to start gearing up for the expansion. I even started a new alt! My first priest! Oh well, they're losing me until January!
Well, since far less than %1 of the population actually plays MMOs, it would be great to even get %1 (speaking globally, of course).
This will never come to fruition though. MacArthur grants come with no caveats, as far as I understand them.
But, good luck to him. I would buy it!
They really suckered us in, didn't they? Even I was optimistic when I heard that most stores got at least 8 allocated. Now, I'm kind of shocked.
This kind of subtle hinting always seems to leak out before the bombshell drops. At least with Sony lately, that seems to be the standard. With only a million by Christmas, there was only going to be a launch in name. If there's less than one million by Christmas, then, in all practicality, we're looking at what amounts to a 2007 launch
I am an ex-member of a still strong clan that is over 10 years old. He calls his one of the oldest at 18 months? Our clan has switched games multiple times without breaking up, and I'm sure many other people here have similar stories.
Oohh! 18 months! 70 days of playtime!! pffft. I bet there are 25 people in this forum with more gameplay. I'm close, and consider myself a casual player (I only have one 60 with only tier 2 epics)
Europe is sooooo much better than America!! Just admit it! All you Americans are useless slobs!!!
Can someone mod the parent down as offtopic? Christ, he thinks he's going to solve the world's health problems in a slashdot post.
If you really think that Europeans are generally better than Americans at making health decisions then you are clueless. I mean, Europe invented foie gras. If you don't know what that is, then look it up. Then come back and tell me how much healthier Europeans are.
Finally, I am willing to bet that the only reason Europe has smaller drink sizes is that soda costs more in Europe. Oh, but I forgot, in Europe, they don't care about money. Businesses just give their products to the poor and needy because everyone in Europe is more moral than us American slobs and our rabid, fast food consuming families. Really, they gave up money years ago in Europe. IT's SO 20th century!
New drug breakthroughs, same old pricing.
The good news is, if you're not at least upper-middle class, then in 5 or 6 years, when a better drug comes out, you'll finally be able to afford this one!
I think he was being sarcastic.... so.... uh, chill.
Prerendered cutscenes are somewhat outdated, however, if they are done well, they can really add to the game.
Check out Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 for the best examples. Yes, they are both still on video game store shelves, years after their release.
I am with you 100%, and, although I think this point has been well-trod on the slashdot forums ... I think it is the primary reason why there is so much negativity surrounding the PS3.
Take the Walkman for example. An excellent piece of hardware (at the time) that perfectly fit a customer need. What did Sony follow up with? Crappy Minidisc and mp3 players that rely on proprietary Sony technology.
Everquest is another example of the same trend. EQ1 was a classic game that defined the direction of future MMOs and had fans drooling for sequels. What does Sony follow up with? Star Wars Galaxies and EQ2. EQ2 is not a great game by any means, but SWG is the biggest disappointment in gaming history (in my opinion). It was the first MMO follow up to EQ1, with the best possible license (SWG had more pre-release forum members than any other game ever) ... and it turned out to be a big sham. The game was throttled by suits and killed by execs.
Now enter the PS2. The best, most popular gaming system ever. Gee, how will Sony follow that up?
And that's exactly why people have negative feelings about the PS3. I think we all feel as if our gaming system of choice is being killed by executives who would rather push next-gen movie formats than make a great game system, and when you look at Sony's history, that doesn't seem like a pessimistic point of view, it seems like a realistic one.
I wish you were right, however, when I found out that the preorder time was going to be 9am on a Friday, I tries to figure out another way to get a Wii.
First I tried to bribe a clerk to hold me one until noon. That didn't work.
Then I went to Target and asked around. They won't be doing any preorders there, so I made a mental note to get there ASAP on launch day. Next I tried a Walmart. At Walmart I couldn't really get a straight answer, but the gist of it was this: there wouldn't be any preorders at that particular store, but there could be at other walmarts.
I haven't tried bestbuy/toysrus/circuit city yet.
Wow, you entirely missed the point, but decided to post your nescience anyway.
When he says that you will be able to experience global repercussions firsthand, he means that Spore will present an immediate representation of the kinds of crazy things that can happen globally as a result of local actions.
In other words, where it's kind of hard to see how an earthquake in North Korea can result (for instance) storms in Peru (I made this up). It is much easier to see these kinds of things in the enclosed environment of Spore.
"Now if spore was built as an accurate simulation based on parameters measured out in nature, maybe one could argue that we were experiencing 'firsthand'"
That is total nonsense. Nobody can accurately map out the processes of nature with the technology we have now (or the math we have now). In fact, the field of chaos mathematics is entirely devoted to understanding exactly why we can't predict the things that we can't predict (and trying to predict them, nonetheless).
Weather is an example of this; a natural phenomenon that has too many variables to examine truly realistically, but can be broken down into a smaller number of fields that CAN be looked at 'firsthand'.
You may be wondering why Steven Johnson is writing about Spore. The answer is that he wrote one of the best books ever written about swarm intelligence, Emergence.
For a para-scientific book, it is very deep. It goes over the entire history of swarm intelligence and really explains how local actions can have global consequences. It is also incredibly fluid and easy to read.
In short, you are not a true computer-geek until you have read it, so check it out.
Most of these posts are utter nonsense. If you have a college degree, even if it's not in the branch of technology that you're applying for, and even if you didn't go to the best college, it doesn't matter what certifications you have. The only thing that matters is WHO you know.
If you have been friendly to recruiters, to professors, and to peers/colleagues, then one of them will suggest you for a job, and you will get it, no matter how unqualified you are. I speak from experience. Why?
Because a smart person can be trained to do anything, but a jerk will always be a jerk (for the most part). If an employer can find out that you aren't a jerk ahead of time, then you're gravy.
I worked as musician when I came out of a good college with my CS degree. I finally broke into CS because the guy I was interviewing with happened to have been a poker buddy of my father's ... 15 years ago. Major coincidence, but since my father had a good rep, he thought that I would be ok too. In less than 2 years following that, my salary went up by $15k.
So, quit worrying about your certification, nerds. Worry about your people skills.
I can't believe that people on here are recommending M-Audio. I admit, if you want to pay next-to-nothing, then M-Audio is reasonable. If you don't actually want to do professional production (just high quality amateur stuff), then M-Audio is fine. Then again, for just a little more money, you can get some of the best preamps on the market.
For the price, the Mackie Onyx preamps are absolutely unbeatable. I have used many, many, many, many mixers and preamps, and the Mackie Onyx is the only "live" mixer that I will also use in the studio (I use it when I need more than the 24 tracks offered by my d8b).
A full Onyx mixer is probably more than you need, but lucky for you, Mackie sells a two channel, firewire enabled Onyx preamp called the Onyx Satellite for only $500.
And, it comes bundled with Mackie Tracktion, which is, admittedly, not as great as some of the other software packages, but for the price it is remarkably solid.
Either you have 200 spidermans zipping around (beyond silly), or you can't allow players to play 'name' characters, at which point the whole point of a license goes out of the window.
Actually there are more options than that. The one they will probably take is that you create your own character, then, rather than fighting 'with' marvel heroes, you'll be fighting against marvel villains. In other words, you can't fight as Spiderman, but you can fight against the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Mysterio ... etc.
I could certainly see it playing out like WoW, where the heroes are one faction and the villains are the other faction, and the bosses/dungeons are held by the uber villains like Apocalypse, Magneto, Dr. Doom ... etc.
Now that the Marvel MMOG is back on, I'm not quite sure how to feel. I was pretty upset when I heard that it was getting shelved, but then I went out and bought City of Heroes/Villains (which was developed by the people who are making the Marvel MMOG).
I am a recovering WoW-head who switched to CoH/V for a change in scenery, and I have to say that the change wasn't necessarily pleasant. CoH/V has some great qualities that WoW can't match, but it also fails miserably when you try to compare the gameplay experience. Can anyone else weigh in on this comparison?
The character creation in CoH is obviously much better. You can fully customize the look of your hero/villain. In terms of looks and ease of use, I have never used a better character creation tool. I could create all the different heroes/villains that I wanted. That was nice, after WoW, where high level characters of each class wear pretty much the same armor (ie every lock in a AQ raid has just enough pieces of the Nemesis set to look vaguely alike).
The graphics in the games are pretty much a pickem. CoH looks more realistic, but has nowhere near the sense of style that WoW has.
And the most disappointing thing in CoH is the gameplay. If you WoW players think you know what grinding is, you have no idea. CoH/V redefines grinding. It brings grinding to a whole new level (unfortunately, not literally). And this is where I'm woirried.
If the Marvel MMOG has the same kind of ridiculously slow and repetitive gameplay, it will be a huge failure. Anyone else feel the same? Think I'm an idiot?
The Scion xB is the best. It just has a line in to your stereo. Simple and effective, and I can attach any device I like (my iPod or my piece of $#%& iPaq).
The reviewers were wrong about Enter the Matrix. At least the PC version. The game is a good game, the only thing wrong with it is that you can literally beat it in a 3 hour sitting. I still replayed it a couple times.
I just wanted to give my 2 cents. And, incidentally, I'm not a green gamer; I play all genres of games (MMOs, FPSs, RTSs, Puzzlers ... etc) on consoles and on the PC.
Look at it this way, next time someone sues Microsoft for being a monopoly, they will be right. AAAAND, there will be a clearly demarcated line over which to split microsoft up.
Or, you can just remember how Sony has abused their fans and be happy that there will never be another SWG (or Trojan CDs .... or malfunctioning batteries ... or ....)
I have been confused about why Sony has been so quiet. True, the annoying PSP marketing campain never seems to end, and there are still some good titles coming to the PS2 (Scarface, GoW 2), but when it comes to the PS3 and it's launch, Sony has been way too quiet.
Isn't this about time where they should be ramping things up? I mean, MS just launched the first true next gen titles for the 360 (Dead Rising, Saints Row), shouldn't Sony be flaunting their great next gen exclusives (Assassin, MGS)?
The problem is that Sony has 27 titles that are close to playable, and none of them are killer apps. Devil May Cry 4 looks like the only decent title that will be available at launch, and the other titles that look good also look like they're a long way off. So what does that leave Sony left to talk about? Yep, they will launch in time for Christmas!
Personally, I think that they're still reeling from the 3-fingered-shocker that is XNA. I think that Microsoft's XNA software package is the straw that broke the camel's back. Everything that Microsoft had done to try and gain an edge just didn't seem like it was enough until XNA was announced.
Your assumption that jobs would necessarily be lost is flawed.
Yes, in the short run, big businesses will raise red flags, and they probably will lay off a bunch of people (then turn around and say I told you so!). But the lost jobs would quickly return, as a whole class of people has just gained some extra money.
The extra money they have will be spent at places like Walmart (where the people who make minimum wage work), and since these retailers will see an increase in business, they will, naturally, hire more employees.
That's an oversimplification, but my point is this: Claiming that jobs will be lost due to an increase in minimum wage is total propaganda. Nobody can predict with certainty exactly what would happen to the economy if the minimum wage was raised. Although businesses want you to think that somehow raising the minimum wage would hurt jobs, in the long run (> 6 months), that's just one of many outcomes, and an unlikely one at that.
Just because thet have the money to make their view heard, doesn't mean it's right.
"59k accounts banned in WoW? That's ridiculous"
Out of 5 million paying accounts, 59k is nothing. You seem to think that 59k accounts is a lot?
After all, who needs reliable news outlets when you can get all your news pre-filtered by people just like you?
X-Men Legends II is a great action RPG. The mixture of fast paced group gameplay with character leveling/customization is truly unique.
The story blows. Having read the comic books and seen the movies, I can say that they would have sold more copies of X-Men Legends II if they had just cut the story. It's just the same old story rehashed.
I think there are other games that fit into this category as well. For instance, adding a story to Mariokart would be pretentious and just distract from the great gameplay.
Stories can sell games, obviously, but gameplay alone can also sell games.