That's a rather interesting opinion, and I suppose it is at least a marginal benefit that at we might recieve precisely some clue about just how much data our ISP has on us.
They really aren't as important as if humanity were akin to lets say lemmings. Nor are early adapters.
Sure, early adapters and this sort of core market is important if you're selling something that the mainstream could conceivably want. For example, early adopters may indeed like a new brand of soda, but if I never drink soda to begin with it's unlikely that capturing this demographic will manage to capture my dollars.
Like when Gilette was getting OUT BLADED so they were like, "f#@!$ it. We're going to five blades. Why anyone would need such a feature is honestly beyond me, but hey lets pack as much STUFF into the Razor as we can and people will buy it."
I have to wonder whether or not social networking sites will continue to be hot two or three years down the line. I guess i'm being a bit old-fogeyish since after all we're talking about the 18-24 demographic. It's kind of old hat for me; for someone who is 18 years old I guess it's sort of new though. Either way, after about 2 or 3 years of that I found that the more I used them the less I liked using them, simply because as a particular networking tool becomes more prevalent among your friends (and those unfortunate acquaintances) you find yourself willing to disclose less information about yourself or commit to as many activities via the site.
I kind of want to be like "duh." PC gamers bring up good points about not needing to run top of the line anything to have fun playing games, but that doesn't change the fact that if you're, lets say, an average gamer with a modest income, you will get much a much better looking (and more importantly: smoother looking) frame rate on new games for far less money, even if I were to buy a PS3.
Additionally, installing, playing new pc games and worrying about hardware is pretty much just as much a pain in the butt as it was ten years ago. World of Warcraft's been out for however long, and still people run into seemingly unsolvable hardware glitches, (that may be more user glitches than hardware, but that's neither here nor there.)
The other big problem is just sort of an economic problem. If the US economy goes into a recession and the average gamer's budget for gaming shrinks below a certain period, consoles simply have to dominate. If someone only has $300 to expend and they have to choose between saving it and a PSP, well, most gamers will probably choose the PSP. And given that the PC gaming market has these obvious vulnerabilities to the overall market, there's simply not as much going into it in order to generate large amounts of hype for various titles or developers.
In the past 18 months we've seen a whole lot more innovation for console gaming, esp. the DS and Wii, games like Guitar Hero, etc., and that's because publishers are willing to take a chance that they wouldn't otherwise take with PC gaming, specifically because it's a niche market.
I do telemarketing at a well known and legitimate call center agency. My department signs people up for one of any number of services, and generally speaking the individuals in question who actually do sign up for the service are quite old. However, they're also the least likely to get screwed because they have a) the time and inclination to cancel or raise hell b) the incentive of a more limited budget.
It's likely that the company in question is making some questionable upsells with their service, or doing something rather nasty in the terms and conditions. It's probably more along the lines of avoiding a lawsuit than being genuinely concerned about the elderly.
Well, the chances of them ever allowing communication with strangers is pretty much slim to none, for what are fairly understandable reasons.
First of all, if you've played internet games with random match making services for any length of time, then you probably look at this as a feature. I really don't want to talk to whatever idiot is on the other end, I just want to play tetris with them.
For sure, friend codes could use a liftup with perhaps some sort of lobby feature; post a lobby code on your blog or forum signature and be able to communicate with those people, but otherwise they're pretty much a necessity.
But in terms of allowing random strangers to communicate, Nintendo would just face far too much risk to allow that. First of all there's the bad press if a child predator used AC:WW to abduct a child, then there's the potential law suit, the bad press from the fact that the signal to noise ratio is so bad, the chance that xenophobic Japanese or American users will trade racial epithets with one another with whatever the Japanese might know of english. I mean, really, it would just be a horrible idea for nintendo to allow communication between non-friends.
1. Computer labs are cheaper in the long run than laptops, especially in terms of licenses. If you use pretty much any program that has a heavy fee, (SPSS, for example, although I imagine that's not a huge concern at an art college) then uh, you're pretty much literally restricted in what you can teach students from that point forward-- it's literally like taking a step back ten years. If you can't find a way around this problem the program is significantly damaged.
2. If you restrict what students can do with this laptop that you're making them pay for, well, you're essentially stealing in excess of a thousand dollars from each student. This is more of a concern if you're a private than a public; if you're a private, well, you could be boned if you're expecting them to give you money as alumni.
Marijuana and yon beach plus world of warcraft
on
Your Best Exam Stories?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Okay, well, you know how frequently you see an article written by someone who obviously didn't feel like working very hard for it. For example, a graduate student who comes to find out his term paper is due after spending his semester 'working' on it smoking pot on the beach, ergo he decides to write about a "Freeform Community Art Project" there, by which he means graffiti under a bridge.
By the same token I spent a semester playing World of Warcraft and wrote about how guilds fit the ideal type of a weberian bureaucracy. Apparently it was an A.
Firstly, i've noticed that WoW lacks relatively any high social endgame content, such as a system of kingdoms or players being able to build up their own towns/bases etc, or really anything where leadership is especially important; I see this as positive. Generally speaking every other MMO, from Puzzle Pirates to Anarchy Online has some sort of feature where guilds have to pour tons of money and resources to support the resources for gameplay only a few people will experience. This omission seems intentional and i'm interested in the factors that led you against that sort of end-game content. In the same vein, the whole system of factions suggests that something similar will be available, but without specific players acting as the primary fulcrums that make the system work.
One thing that i'm curious about is how you see the alliance/horde population imbalance. If you could go back to day one and redo faction, would it still be the same way?
Finally i'm interested in what priority #1 is when you design an encounter. Whether you're designing a battleground or a high end rading zone such as Blackwing Lair, it seems that there are essentially two possible routes. 1. Focusing on the role each individual class will have in the encounter 2. Focusing on the overall scheme of the encounter. The obvious trade off being that focusing on the overall scheme can make players feel as if their individual contribution doesn't matter very much, whereas focusing on class can ocassionally make some classes feel as if they aren't needed at all for a specific encounter. Or does a different thing come to mind when you first begin thinking about how to build an encounter?
I remember back when subspace was dying and we were hoping to save it, none of us would have really minded the presence of in game advertising a whole lot. I mean advertising can be a good thing if it offsets your costs, but where do we draw the line? The main problem with advertising as a slippery slope in video games is that it's a very, very attractive slippery slope.
People who play games where advertising is targeted (Anarchy Online, planetside, etc.) spend massive amounts of time playing these games in some circumstances. In fact, advertising through these games might be the only way someone can reach that particular consumer.
Imagine, if you will, the MMO as a massive content channel; In this alternate reality, Vivendi Universal (who owns blizzard, as well as a few record labels) starts putting 'limited' singles into World of Warcraft whenever you fight Ragnaros-- Can you turn off Queens of the Stone age so you can listen to freaking team speak? Who knows.
Let's say that as a method of tricking us, the gold fee for re-specing is removed if you [b]watch this short advertisement![/b] Now you're actually paying the consumer pennies to watch your ad, albeit virtual pennies.
I think there is something to be said for classless play. Then again, so did the french and that resulted in a REIGN OF TERROR and then Ultima Online, yikes!
Well, that's not entirely true. Suffice it to say i'd be hard pressed to name more news that came out of E3 than out of last years PAX. Over time distributors and 'serious' media will eventually shift to these less inflated, less over promoted venues that target their niche audiences within the video game industry.
As in, creating FUD about FUD. The Inquirer is right to take Goodger's post to task for, no two ways about it, bashing someone else's product simply and specifically because it's a derivative work, which is the epitome of absurd for any project like Firefox.
At the same time the article is itself a FUD and sort of repulsive for the same reasons of the first, only more so because Goodger can at least make a claim to having the users best interests at heart while the Inquirer would pour gasoline on a blazing inferno if it'd sell, in this case taking it to almost epically stupid proportions:
Sadly, somewhere among the transition from Mozilla.org to MoFo, Firefox radicals embarked on a "Firefox the product is the best thing on the planet" holy war.
You dumbass. You just quoted all of the people in his freaking blog that thought Goodger's post was crap. Read your own stupid story.
For years, Sega always had to be FIRST FIRST FIRST FIRST when releasing anything, and they always had to hit the holiday system. Sega CD, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast. First, first, first, first first. Now they don't make consoles anymore.
Being able to hit the holidays is utterly unimportant for the vast majority of console releases. It's much more important to have a library of games available when the 4th quarter hits, and to build up a buzz among the hardcore gamers that should trickle into mainstream interest.
Basically, releasing a console before it's "ready" is always a bad idea.
I don't think this has anything to do with Grand Theft Auto, other than explaining why his drunk friend was making him do something so utterly stupid. It's not like the guy had a choice as the article denotes that there was a struggle; you can't really hold someone responsible for a shooting if the victim pulls the trigger.
Eh, I dunno that the established players control everything. Generally speaking they get burnt out and then Eta gets taken over by scallywags, or something.
They've also added Shipwrightery, Alchemistry, and hearts since you've played. Additionally, there are new oceans, and a new payment plan where you can essentially play for free (The Dubloon system) as long as you don't want any cool stuff and just want to play the puzzles. So Dubloon ocean: Puzzles = Free, MMOG aspects = monies.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a rather interesting opinion, and I suppose it is at least a marginal benefit that at we might recieve precisely some clue about just how much data our ISP has on us.
They really aren't as important as if humanity were akin to lets say lemmings. Nor are early adapters.
Sure, early adapters and this sort of core market is important if you're selling something that the mainstream could conceivably want. For example, early adopters may indeed like a new brand of soda, but if I never drink soda to begin with it's unlikely that capturing this demographic will manage to capture my dollars.
Like when Gilette was getting OUT BLADED so they were like, "f#@!$ it. We're going to five blades. Why anyone would need such a feature is honestly beyond me, but hey lets pack as much STUFF into the Razor as we can and people will buy it."
:p
PS3 pretty much same deal really
I have to wonder whether or not social networking sites will continue to be hot two or three years down the line. I guess i'm being a bit old-fogeyish since after all we're talking about the 18-24 demographic. It's kind of old hat for me; for someone who is 18 years old I guess it's sort of new though. Either way, after about 2 or 3 years of that I found that the more I used them the less I liked using them, simply because as a particular networking tool becomes more prevalent among your friends (and those unfortunate acquaintances) you find yourself willing to disclose less information about yourself or commit to as many activities via the site.
I kind of want to be like "duh." PC gamers bring up good points about not needing to run top of the line anything to have fun playing games, but that doesn't change the fact that if you're, lets say, an average gamer with a modest income, you will get much a much better looking (and more importantly: smoother looking) frame rate on new games for far less money, even if I were to buy a PS3.
Additionally, installing, playing new pc games and worrying about hardware is pretty much just as much a pain in the butt as it was ten years ago. World of Warcraft's been out for however long, and still people run into seemingly unsolvable hardware glitches, (that may be more user glitches than hardware, but that's neither here nor there.)
The other big problem is just sort of an economic problem. If the US economy goes into a recession and the average gamer's budget for gaming shrinks below a certain period, consoles simply have to dominate. If someone only has $300 to expend and they have to choose between saving it and a PSP, well, most gamers will probably choose the PSP. And given that the PC gaming market has these obvious vulnerabilities to the overall market, there's simply not as much going into it in order to generate large amounts of hype for various titles or developers.
In the past 18 months we've seen a whole lot more innovation for console gaming, esp. the DS and Wii, games like Guitar Hero, etc., and that's because publishers are willing to take a chance that they wouldn't otherwise take with PC gaming, specifically because it's a niche market.
I do telemarketing at a well known and legitimate call center agency. My department signs people up for one of any number of services, and generally speaking the individuals in question who actually do sign up for the service are quite old. However, they're also the least likely to get screwed because they have a) the time and inclination to cancel or raise hell b) the incentive of a more limited budget.
It's likely that the company in question is making some questionable upsells with their service, or doing something rather nasty in the terms and conditions. It's probably more along the lines of avoiding a lawsuit than being genuinely concerned about the elderly.
Well, the chances of them ever allowing communication with strangers is pretty much slim to none, for what are fairly understandable reasons.
First of all, if you've played internet games with random match making services for any length of time, then you probably look at this as a feature. I really don't want to talk to whatever idiot is on the other end, I just want to play tetris with them.
For sure, friend codes could use a liftup with perhaps some sort of lobby feature; post a lobby code on your blog or forum signature and be able to communicate with those people, but otherwise they're pretty much a necessity.
But in terms of allowing random strangers to communicate, Nintendo would just face far too much risk to allow that. First of all there's the bad press if a child predator used AC:WW to abduct a child, then there's the potential law suit, the bad press from the fact that the signal to noise ratio is so bad, the chance that xenophobic Japanese or American users will trade racial epithets with one another with whatever the Japanese might know of english. I mean, really, it would just be a horrible idea for nintendo to allow communication between non-friends.
Retailers have lobbyists too, chill.
Public Policy... as art!
It's sometimes better to ask for permission than it is to sue for it.
They don't. Telco's just aren't allowed to charge them more or less than other companies on the basis of their usage.
1. Computer labs are cheaper in the long run than laptops, especially in terms of licenses. If you use pretty much any program that has a heavy fee, (SPSS, for example, although I imagine that's not a huge concern at an art college) then uh, you're pretty much literally restricted in what you can teach students from that point forward-- it's literally like taking a step back ten years. If you can't find a way around this problem the program is significantly damaged.
2. If you restrict what students can do with this laptop that you're making them pay for, well, you're essentially stealing in excess of a thousand dollars from each student. This is more of a concern if you're a private than a public; if you're a private, well, you could be boned if you're expecting them to give you money as alumni.
Okay, well, you know how frequently you see an article written by someone who obviously didn't feel like working very hard for it. For example, a graduate student who comes to find out his term paper is due after spending his semester 'working' on it smoking pot on the beach, ergo he decides to write about a "Freeform Community Art Project" there, by which he means graffiti under a bridge.
By the same token I spent a semester playing World of Warcraft and wrote about how guilds fit the ideal type of a weberian bureaucracy. Apparently it was an A.
Firstly, i've noticed that WoW lacks relatively any high social endgame content, such as a system of kingdoms or players being able to build up their own towns/bases etc, or really anything where leadership is especially important; I see this as positive. Generally speaking every other MMO, from Puzzle Pirates to Anarchy Online has some sort of feature where guilds have to pour tons of money and resources to support the resources for gameplay only a few people will experience. This omission seems intentional and i'm interested in the factors that led you against that sort of end-game content. In the same vein, the whole system of factions suggests that something similar will be available, but without specific players acting as the primary fulcrums that make the system work.
One thing that i'm curious about is how you see the alliance/horde population imbalance. If you could go back to day one and redo faction, would it still be the same way?
Finally i'm interested in what priority #1 is when you design an encounter. Whether you're designing a battleground or a high end rading zone such as Blackwing Lair, it seems that there are essentially two possible routes. 1. Focusing on the role each individual class will have in the encounter 2. Focusing on the overall scheme of the encounter. The obvious trade off being that focusing on the overall scheme can make players feel as if their individual contribution doesn't matter very much, whereas focusing on class can ocassionally make some classes feel as if they aren't needed at all for a specific encounter. Or does a different thing come to mind when you first begin thinking about how to build an encounter?
I remember back when subspace was dying and we were hoping to save it, none of us would have really minded the presence of in game advertising a whole lot. I mean advertising can be a good thing if it offsets your costs, but where do we draw the line? The main problem with advertising as a slippery slope in video games is that it's a very, very attractive slippery slope.
People who play games where advertising is targeted (Anarchy Online, planetside, etc.) spend massive amounts of time playing these games in some circumstances. In fact, advertising through these games might be the only way someone can reach that particular consumer.
Imagine, if you will, the MMO as a massive content channel; In this alternate reality, Vivendi Universal (who owns blizzard, as well as a few record labels) starts putting 'limited' singles into World of Warcraft whenever you fight Ragnaros-- Can you turn off Queens of the Stone age so you can listen to freaking team speak? Who knows.
Let's say that as a method of tricking us, the gold fee for re-specing is removed if you [b]watch this short advertisement![/b] Now you're actually paying the consumer pennies to watch your ad, albeit virtual pennies.
The more they keep my music off MTV the better it remains.
I think there is something to be said for classless play. Then again, so did the french and that resulted in a REIGN OF TERROR and then Ultima Online, yikes!
Well, that's not entirely true. Suffice it to say i'd be hard pressed to name more news that came out of E3 than out of last years PAX. Over time distributors and 'serious' media will eventually shift to these less inflated, less over promoted venues that target their niche audiences within the video game industry.
At the same time the article is itself a FUD and sort of repulsive for the same reasons of the first, only more so because Goodger can at least make a claim to having the users best interests at heart while the Inquirer would pour gasoline on a blazing inferno if it'd sell, in this case taking it to almost epically stupid proportions:
You dumbass. You just quoted all of the people in his freaking blog that thought Goodger's post was crap. Read your own stupid story.
You mean to tell me that other people have keyboards where the letters stay on?
I for one am baffled. This is like buying jeans with holes already ripped in them!
For years, Sega always had to be FIRST FIRST FIRST FIRST when releasing anything, and they always had to hit the holiday system. Sega CD, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast. First, first, first, first first. Now they don't make consoles anymore.
Being able to hit the holidays is utterly unimportant for the vast majority of console releases. It's much more important to have a library of games available when the 4th quarter hits, and to build up a buzz among the hardcore gamers that should trickle into mainstream interest.
Basically, releasing a console before it's "ready" is always a bad idea.
I don't think this has anything to do with Grand Theft Auto, other than explaining why his drunk friend was making him do something so utterly stupid. It's not like the guy had a choice as the article denotes that there was a struggle; you can't really hold someone responsible for a shooting if the victim pulls the trigger.
Suicide by Alcohol.
th3r3 ar3 n0 l33t d00tz unl3ss j00 g0 t0 Viridian, What in the seven seas! d0n't you kno3 tat 4? Billions of Blistering Blue Barnacles!?
Eh, I dunno that the established players control everything. Generally speaking they get burnt out and then Eta gets taken over by scallywags, or something.
They've also added Shipwrightery, Alchemistry, and hearts since you've played. Additionally, there are new oceans, and a new payment plan where you can essentially play for free (The Dubloon system) as long as you don't want any cool stuff and just want to play the puzzles. So Dubloon ocean: Puzzles = Free, MMOG aspects = monies.