With the Boy Scouts, as with many things, your mileage may vary. It is HIGHLY dependent on the people that you were with, both scouts and leaders. I learned how to live with just a tarp, a knife, and a rope in the wilderness. I had friends who shared my interests in computers, gaming, and various geeky activities. Individuality was encouraged, and we had scout leaders across the political spectrum from liberal to moderate to conservative. We were taught tolerance and the value of freedom. We played capture the flag (real life version, not Quake *grin*), dodgeball, and many games of Magic: the Gathering, Shadowrun, and Battletech. My younger brother learned how to make a campfire in the pouring rain with just 2 matches and some damp wood. I have nothing but fond memories of the time I spent in scouts. Like the parent poster, I was a Life Rank, had a bazillion Merit Badges, and was Assistant Scout Master (never made it into Order of the Arrow). Unlike the parent poster, though, the people who surrounded me were supportive, fun, and not tied to any propoganda or agenda.
In this particular instance, it's not a double standard. It's not even investigative journalism. It is part of a larger scope involving HP and their covert (not so covert now) corporate espionage (or "snooping" as they like to call it"). The HP lawyer told the reporter the details of how she was being investigated by HP, due to fallout of the earlier hearings. The article itself sounds like more of a follow-up then a breaking investigative report (e.g. We already know HP was sneaking around).
No, I'm not talking about the silly (but classic) Vincent Price movie, parodied later in the Simpsons. This topic reminds me of a Poul Anderson short story published in Omni, Dec 1992 called "In Memoriam". It's a great read, especially if you are into "hard SF", and it covers a lot of the topics mentioned above in TFA and discussions.
There was a big hoopla over dodgeball (and its removal from schools) a while back... it's sad to see that the slippery-slope that we were thinking about back then is coming to pass now. However, I did not imagine that it would be our litigious society that would be the impetus behind the downward slide. Is this how we are going to teach our kids? That if you have a problem, you have to sue? Or that we should be afraid of lawsuits all our lives? I suppose if you want them to grow up to become doctors, it would be a good life lesson. *sigh*
This person is going to be a target for the rest of his playing career. The guy below him is gonna be aiming to usurp him to get his sponsorship, not to mention thousands upon thousands of upstarts actively seeking to relegate him to obscurity.
It's also the sort of industry where unless you are in the Top 10 or so players for an extended period of time you're anonymous. It's not like being a professional footballer where even if you're in the lower divisions you're still making enough money to live on. This guy has to realise that there are thousands of people below him who are making no real money to speak of just waiting for him to slip up.
No one really knows the terms of this $250,000 contract - whether he's actually been given this amount of money or whether that's essentially his "valuation" in pro-gaming terms, but if I were him I would invest all of it and work on the principal that his career could just fizzle out in a couple of years or so. Why does this make me think of contract killers/hitmen? Not real-life ones, mind you, but the ones in the movies, like "Grosse Point Blank". *grin*
While I am sure those opposed to global warming will hold this study up as evidence that we should continue along our path to wanton self destruction, it represents little more than a blip on the screen when compared with the overwhelming evidence supporting the deleterious effects of greenhouse gases on our environment. Does this even make sense? I think there is a "not" missing in there somewhere. Folks who are OPPOSED to global warming would want to support research into greenhouse gases and find ways to reduce our environmental impact. They certainly wouldn't support evidence to continue "our path to wanton self-destruction". It probably should say something like "While I am sure those opposed to ADVOCATES of the theory of global warming... etc. etc.".
For the record, one article does not make Nature a grandstanding rag bought by special interests. You're going to have to show us either the money trail or other such articles to justify that claim.
One person who will definitely use it...
on
A Vest to Hug You
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· Score: 2, Funny
Dr. Evil: Well, don't look at me like I'm friggin' Frankenstein! Come here and give your father a hug. Scott Evil: Get away from me, you lazy-eyed psycho! Of course, it would have to be an EVIL hugging vest. Now where are the (oblig) sharks with frickin' lasers.
*sigh* A career isn't a race or a game. You aren't trying to become an EE faster than anyone else, right? Sheesh. Even if it takes more years or a longer length of time to do whatever it is that you want to do, it still will be possible. There are 40 year old folks getting EE degrees out there, usually after spending much-needed time on other pursuits. While most geniuses do their most brilliant work in their teens and 20s, most folks are not geniuses trying to solve the impossible proofs... they are trying to get a job, perhaps a career that they love. Heck, even most geniuses aren't out there trying to shatter the world records... they seek the same sort of things an average person does.
Math is hard... which is to say, it is just as hard as pretty much anything else. It depends on the amount of work and the level of depth you want to get into it. Unfortunately, most of our measures of success in our early education are based on temporal spans of curriculum. If you don't seem to have a good grasp of math right now, then you'll need to work harder at it, and by that, I don't mean that you should work harder at school. The schoolwork is the bare minimum, the basics, and really, all that it will teach you is how to get a blue ribbon rather than how to really "get" math. You need to set aside your own coursework on your own time at home. There really is no "math mindset" or brand new paradigm that will magically make you gifted. But at the same time, just shoveling the same stuff they are throwing at you in school won't improve your math abilities as much as putting forth the work at home.
There are a number of home-study materials available out there in libraries and teaching bookstores. They range from fair to excellent, but any of them will help you get to where you want to go.
As an aside, you might want to consider hanging out with the smartest kids in the class. Social networking may be a challenge at your age, but a lot of folks get to where they want to be by surrounding themselves with good people.
Of real consequence is the main researcher's lab website:
http://web.mit.edu/lms/www/ It is chock full of interesting research on self-assembling peptides, including what substances they've been trying, and the eternally-asked question, Can I run my laptop off of spinach?(They isolated the chloroplast/photosystem of spinach, and hope to use it for photovoltaic purposes).
As far as discussion, most of the application has been suggested in the field of delicate microsurgery. Why not band-aids for the masses? Most likely due to the cost. Aside from the financial barriers in bringing an idea to mass-market, especially in the medical field, imagine trying to keep the candidate liquid substance stable for storage, to be used at a moment's notice; if it self-assembles easily, then it can "gel up" just as easily, too. This is combined with the fact that there are already several fairly effective ways to stop the typical cuts-and-scrapes of a household, from regular band-aids and gauze to liquid bandages (which quickly seals off a wound and prevents bleeding, in about the same amount of time). The real application would be in situations where regular hemostasis measures cannot be used or are undesirable. Again, this goes back to microsurgery. In most surgery, hemostasis is achieved by either tying off the bleeding vessel with suture, cauterizing the end of the vessel with a Bovey (an electrical tool used for cutting and cauterizing) or a laser, or simply clamping the vessel with a hemostat. There are other methods, but those are the most common ones in routine surgery. Clamping the vessel is not practical in confined spaces (the hemostat takes up space), cautery can't be used in all situations, and you can't always tie off the bleeder. The self-assembling gel described would be a boon in those surgical situations, another "arrow in the quiver", so to speak. The aforementioned application in patients with hemophilia is also plausible, if less certain.
Sadly, the journal that they are publishing in, Nanomedicine, is fairly brand new and not stocked by my local library yet. There have only been three issues of it so far (June 2006, August 2006, and October 2006) and the latest is not on their website yet. I would really like to read that article in full.
Of course. I'm the ignorant one. I'm so silly for introducing sarcasm into slashdot. If I'm making my point for you, then you have no need to feel so defensive and reply to your own comment twice as I'm simply reiterating your opening argument, however opaque it may be... what was it again? Oh yes. The article is a bunch of crap, by virtue of your unverifiable credentials.
The context of the article was the fact that this guy got an MTV news interview for his blog. That's really the only reason it's on Slashdot... there have been worse reasons for a newspost, certainly. No need to yell and scream about it.
Because all video game store experiences must be identical in every way, shape, and form. Thus, all blogs involving video game stores must contain the same content. There is only one "right" way, and every other way is hugely wrong. And no matter if you live in different American cultures from opposite ends of the coast, all experiences in the video game shop must be similar in details. *sigh*
The guy is writing a blog, for God's sake. It's not like he's the Gamestop Messiah coming to speak for all game shop employees.
Whoa! Since when did ninjas become publishers? What if you drop a spoon? Will they go totally Ninja-Burger all over your ass? The pirates have no chance against the ancestral tasty goodness of Ninjas.
This coming from the guys whose history includes the "fact" that the Holocaust did not happen. Where in the game does it say this? I must have missed that part. Do you have to enable a cheat to see the Holocaust not happening? Or did you infer that from the fact that the Holocaust (the Jewish one, specifically, never mind the Armenian or the Russian or the Chinese one) isn't in the game?
I'm not a big fan of "guilt by association". I'm also not a big fan of "history" being referred to as the "present". If you're going to criticize, please make your critiques about the historical accuracy of the game. Hell, even I know that Battlefield 1942 isn't an accurate representation of World War II, and Age of Empires II isn't an accurate representation of medieval warfare. Will I learn something from playing the game? Probably. Will it be more credible than looking up original sources and experiencing it firsthand? Probably not.
It's certainly a different "world" in Korea. I'd just like to interject that the video game "stars" over there do keep in physical shape. They train extensively not only on the keyboard, but also go through physical training. In team games, the top Korean teams train in light calisthenics and do extensive team drills both in-game and in sports. The feeling is that the mind and the body must be in top shape in order to perform professionally at the highest levels. Couch potatoes need not apply.
As long as it doesn't make any major marketing mistakes and presents its product in a reasonable manner, there's a good chance that people will buy into it (after all, the ill-conceived "WebTV" had quite a few members in the late 90s).
The real thing that will separate it from the flock is the content. I wouldn't underestimate the value of being able to watch your favorite TV shows in a reasonable quality on the web. While most geeks (i.e. Slashdot users) will say "Get a DVR!", the vast majority of people (i.e. the rest of the world) don't own DVRs and don't have the foresight to record their favorite shows consistently (or maybe they want to catch old episodes of shows that they missed, who knows?). The ability to watch any show from the past season at any time would be a great selling point. Same with being able to watch a new episode early (like the recent "Heroes" preview). If this so-called "Venice Project" can offer those sort of things, then the idea can easily sell... all of those MySpace kiddies will be posting links to their favorite episodes of "Lost" and "BSG" in their sig.
One common thread that I'm reading is that while the sequel, by itself, isn't necessarily a good thing, it often represents a refinement of the ideas presented in the original game. For example, Max Payne gave us a successful third-person shooter (at the time, a rarity outside of certain adventure games and niche games that required melee combat) with the slow-motion "bullet time" along with a film noir story; Max Payne 2 refined the ideas presented in Max Payne 1, both in terms of gameplay and developing the story. A lot of times, it gives us a chance to say "What if?" with the original game, and take it to different levels of possibility. Look at the progression of both technology and story in Warcraft to Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3. Likewise, Resident Evil made a big jump from RE3 to RE4.
Then there are the sequels that are so radically different that they almost constitute a different game entirely. Diablo II, while still hack and slash, had such significantly different gameplay elements from the original that the similarities between the two are mostly thematic. The Civilization series has constantly reinvented itself... while still about world development and domination, the amount of detail and scope has changed with each iteration of the game.
This isn't to say that all sequels are good (or bad, for that matter). I mean, do we really need a new Madden game every single year?
I'm a 1570 scorer on the SAT, back when it was a 1600 test. I've also coached a few kids on how to take the current SAT. Here are my tips:
1) When writing your essay (definitely the most stressful part of the new SAT), remember that the graders are looking for a specific format. It is a persuasive essay that should fall into the standard 5 paragraph: Thesis, Support, Support, Support, Conclusion format. Do not be equivocal (even though intelligent essay writers tend to equivocate)... focus on supporting your initial thesis. Be opinionated, but don't try to pose a hidden agenda... you are answering a test question, not sowing the seeds of rebellion. Read the question fully and be sure your essay answers the question. Organization gives you more points than content or wit. Grammar and punctuation count, as well as spelling. If you have problems with American spelling, you might want to find some way to light a torch over that and mention your British heritage, if possible. Check out this link to get some insight into the essay part:
http://scienceblogs.com/challenge/
2) You can tell most of the above posters are males, because they have a lot of tips for the math section. In general, the math portion is Algebra and Geometry, with the occasional time-based (as in clock) problem thrown in. You shouldn't have to use any trigonometry, although I found it to be useful. Know how to read and interpret ratios. Answer every question, even if you are just guessing... a lot of points can be earned if you can narrow it down to 50/50. Some math problems can be reverse-engineered by reading the answers first instead of the question (this is true of the language section, too, on some occasion)
3) The language section focuses on your reading comprehension, vocabulary, and attention to detail. Unfortunately, there is very little way to train this other than reading a lot, using critical reading skills. Eliminate the obviously wrong choices (and there will be quite a few). If you have a low vocabulary (most high school students do, no offense), you might try to "cram" vocab words before the exam, but most of the words probably won't stick unless you use those words on a regular basis or can maintain an emotional connection to the word somehow. If all else fails, use "Phil's Law": Pick the longest answer. It's just as (in)effective as marking "C" for everything, but it gives you a strategy that you can use so you don't waste time on difficult questions that you can't possibly answer.
4) I have never taken a course in the SAT. Instead, I simply used practice tests. You can find these at your local library or bookstore. Try to replicate the actual experience of the SAT (the appropriate amount of time, breaks, etc.) to condition yourself. It used to be that taking the SAT multiple times would help you improve your scores, as colleges would look at your highest. While this is certainly true of the vast majority of colleges, some are starting to look at your initial SAT scores. Be warned.
5) The most important preparation you can have is the night before. Get plenty of sleep, eat good well-balanced meals, and drink plenty of fluids. Pop a vitamin or two. Don't use any drugs if possible (prescription or otherwise). If your house is chaotic, make sure everyone in the house knows that you have an important exam and that you need their support (and silence) on the night before.
6) Be sure to treat yourself the night after the exam. It gives you something to look forward to when your brain is turning into mush. Seriously, it will help psychologically, and improve your time management.
7) Double check what answers you've marked every 20 questions or so. I've personally saved myself a lot of grief on exams by double checking and finding that all my answers are off by one. If you do it every 20 questions, then you won't have the "end of exam panic" when you realize that you've made a horrible mistake.
8) I don't know how many "linear" test takers are out there
That sounds like a big Gauss Gun, AKA rail gun to me.
15 points of damage, 1 Heat, can blow off a Battlemech head in a single hit?
Re:10 hours is a lot, really.
on
Yakuza Review
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· Score: 4, Funny
Remakes of a good game can last forever, too! And thus, Nintendo goes on and on and on...
(Don't stop believin'!)
Re:an engrossing story
on
Yakuza Review
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· Score: 1
To each, his (or her) own. A lot of folks enjoy the more "interactive movie" style game. For example "The Seventh Guest" had very little gameplay (mostly loosely veiled puzzles), but had a relatively engrossing story and was quite popular. Of course, it helped that it was packaged with pretty much every PC with a CD-ROM in the early 90s. There are games that seamlessly combine gameplay with story, like recent favorites "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Psychonauts", but the good old adventure game with minimal gameplay has had a few winners in the past few years, in such games as "Farenheit"/"Indigo Prophecy" and "The Longest Journey". As they say, Your Mileage May Vary.
... was Chu Chu Rocket. There's nothing like putting four friends in a high pressure timed situation where your sole objective is to not only accumulate points, but to screw over the other players in the process. Chu Chu Rocket was the only game which made my taciturn friend Chris (who never says anything mean or nasty) curse like a sailor and made my friend Mike physically hit me. To this day, the words "Cat Mania!" evokes the war cry "Defend yourself, violently if necessary!" *grin*
I'm told that Mario Party and Super Smash Bros. has a similar effect on other gamers.
I, too, feel that the ESRB ratings have been fairly accurate in terms of the content that one can reasonably expect from a video game. One has to go through some out-of-the-ordinary (although certainly not "extraordinary" by geek standards) measures to reach the controversial content that prompted the recent scandals and rating changes in Oblivion and GTA. I can replace Jar-Jar's head with a phallus using simple software at my house... does that mean the MPAA should change the Star Wars prequel ratings to R? The Blame game is pretty ridiculous, as is trying to "fix" the ESRB.
The ESRB is not broken, any more than MPAA movie ratings are broken. It's a one-stop shopping version of a game review that tells you what to expect out of the game, fresh out of the box, without outside intervention. It doesn't tell you everything; for more comprehensive information, you'd have to go to actual game reviews, which can be found all over the Internet at many prominent sites (and while they may not be the "big picture", they do tell parents everything they could possibly want to know about the game). But even then, just one look at the back of the box will tell you the selling points of the game, whether it's violence, boobies, edutainment, brand-name merch, or addictive puzzle polygons. It's not like video games try to hide the wares they are peddling.
Side Note: In the case of Hot Coffee, last I checked, GTA was about playing a hardened criminal... parents should have been wary about the game anyway. It's called Grand Theft Auto, for God's sake. That title should be obvious for parents, and should send up red flags just as much as, say, "18-Wheeler" or "Deer Hunter".
Slashdot Mirror
With the Boy Scouts, as with many things, your mileage may vary. It is HIGHLY dependent on the people that you were with, both scouts and leaders. I learned how to live with just a tarp, a knife, and a rope in the wilderness. I had friends who shared my interests in computers, gaming, and various geeky activities. Individuality was encouraged, and we had scout leaders across the political spectrum from liberal to moderate to conservative. We were taught tolerance and the value of freedom. We played capture the flag (real life version, not Quake *grin*), dodgeball, and many games of Magic: the Gathering, Shadowrun, and Battletech. My younger brother learned how to make a campfire in the pouring rain with just 2 matches and some damp wood. I have nothing but fond memories of the time I spent in scouts. Like the parent poster, I was a Life Rank, had a bazillion Merit Badges, and was Assistant Scout Master (never made it into Order of the Arrow). Unlike the parent poster, though, the people who surrounded me were supportive, fun, and not tied to any propoganda or agenda.
In this particular instance, it's not a double standard. It's not even investigative journalism. It is part of a larger scope involving HP and their covert (not so covert now) corporate espionage (or "snooping" as they like to call it"). The HP lawyer told the reporter the details of how she was being investigated by HP, due to fallout of the earlier hearings. The article itself sounds like more of a follow-up then a breaking investigative report (e.g. We already know HP was sneaking around).
No, I'm not talking about the silly (but classic) Vincent Price movie, parodied later in the Simpsons. This topic reminds me of a Poul Anderson short story published in Omni, Dec 1992 called "In Memoriam". It's a great read, especially if you are into "hard SF", and it covers a lot of the topics mentioned above in TFA and discussions.
There was a big hoopla over dodgeball (and its removal from schools) a while back... it's sad to see that the slippery-slope that we were thinking about back then is coming to pass now. However, I did not imagine that it would be our litigious society that would be the impetus behind the downward slide. Is this how we are going to teach our kids? That if you have a problem, you have to sue? Or that we should be afraid of lawsuits all our lives? I suppose if you want them to grow up to become doctors, it would be a good life lesson. *sigh*
If you don't like either Sony's reader or the iLiad (my personal e-Ink favorite) you can make your own!
Awesome.
This person is going to be a target for the rest of his playing career. The guy below him is gonna be aiming to usurp him to get his sponsorship, not to mention thousands upon thousands of upstarts actively seeking to relegate him to obscurity.
It's also the sort of industry where unless you are in the Top 10 or so players for an extended period of time you're anonymous. It's not like being a professional footballer where even if you're in the lower divisions you're still making enough money to live on. This guy has to realise that there are thousands of people below him who are making no real money to speak of just waiting for him to slip up.
No one really knows the terms of this $250,000 contract - whether he's actually been given this amount of money or whether that's essentially his "valuation" in pro-gaming terms, but if I were him I would invest all of it and work on the principal that his career could just fizzle out in a couple of years or so.
Why does this make me think of contract killers/hitmen? Not real-life ones, mind you, but the ones in the movies, like "Grosse Point Blank". *grin*
While I am sure those opposed to global warming will hold this study up as evidence that we should continue along our path to wanton self destruction, it represents little more than a blip on the screen when compared with the overwhelming evidence supporting the deleterious effects of greenhouse gases on our environment.
Does this even make sense? I think there is a "not" missing in there somewhere. Folks who are OPPOSED to global warming would want to support research into greenhouse gases and find ways to reduce our environmental impact. They certainly wouldn't support evidence to continue "our path to wanton self-destruction". It probably should say something like "While I am sure those opposed to ADVOCATES of the theory of global warming... etc. etc.".
For the record, one article does not make Nature a grandstanding rag bought by special interests. You're going to have to show us either the money trail or other such articles to justify that claim.
Dr. Evil: Well, don't look at me like I'm friggin' Frankenstein! Come here and give your father a hug.
Scott Evil: Get away from me, you lazy-eyed psycho!
Of course, it would have to be an EVIL hugging vest. Now where are the (oblig) sharks with frickin' lasers.
*sigh* A career isn't a race or a game. You aren't trying to become an EE faster than anyone else, right? Sheesh. Even if it takes more years or a longer length of time to do whatever it is that you want to do, it still will be possible. There are 40 year old folks getting EE degrees out there, usually after spending much-needed time on other pursuits. While most geniuses do their most brilliant work in their teens and 20s, most folks are not geniuses trying to solve the impossible proofs... they are trying to get a job, perhaps a career that they love. Heck, even most geniuses aren't out there trying to shatter the world records... they seek the same sort of things an average person does.
Math is hard... which is to say, it is just as hard as pretty much anything else. It depends on the amount of work and the level of depth you want to get into it. Unfortunately, most of our measures of success in our early education are based on temporal spans of curriculum. If you don't seem to have a good grasp of math right now, then you'll need to work harder at it, and by that, I don't mean that you should work harder at school. The schoolwork is the bare minimum, the basics, and really, all that it will teach you is how to get a blue ribbon rather than how to really "get" math. You need to set aside your own coursework on your own time at home. There really is no "math mindset" or brand new paradigm that will magically make you gifted. But at the same time, just shoveling the same stuff they are throwing at you in school won't improve your math abilities as much as putting forth the work at home.
There are a number of home-study materials available out there in libraries and teaching bookstores. They range from fair to excellent, but any of them will help you get to where you want to go.
As an aside, you might want to consider hanging out with the smartest kids in the class. Social networking may be a challenge at your age, but a lot of folks get to where they want to be by surrounding themselves with good people.
Here is the original press release:
l
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/hemostasis.htm
Not much new information here, but it's nice to read things that come "straight from the horse's mouth", so to speak.
Of real consequence is the main researcher's lab website:
http://web.mit.edu/lms/www/
It is chock full of interesting research on self-assembling peptides, including what substances they've been trying, and the eternally-asked question, Can I run my laptop off of spinach?(They isolated the chloroplast/photosystem of spinach, and hope to use it for photovoltaic purposes).
As far as discussion, most of the application has been suggested in the field of delicate microsurgery. Why not band-aids for the masses? Most likely due to the cost. Aside from the financial barriers in bringing an idea to mass-market, especially in the medical field, imagine trying to keep the candidate liquid substance stable for storage, to be used at a moment's notice; if it self-assembles easily, then it can "gel up" just as easily, too. This is combined with the fact that there are already several fairly effective ways to stop the typical cuts-and-scrapes of a household, from regular band-aids and gauze to liquid bandages (which quickly seals off a wound and prevents bleeding, in about the same amount of time). The real application would be in situations where regular hemostasis measures cannot be used or are undesirable. Again, this goes back to microsurgery. In most surgery, hemostasis is achieved by either tying off the bleeding vessel with suture, cauterizing the end of the vessel with a Bovey (an electrical tool used for cutting and cauterizing) or a laser, or simply clamping the vessel with a hemostat. There are other methods, but those are the most common ones in routine surgery. Clamping the vessel is not practical in confined spaces (the hemostat takes up space), cautery can't be used in all situations, and you can't always tie off the bleeder. The self-assembling gel described would be a boon in those surgical situations, another "arrow in the quiver", so to speak. The aforementioned application in patients with hemophilia is also plausible, if less certain.
Sadly, the journal that they are publishing in, Nanomedicine, is fairly brand new and not stocked by my local library yet. There have only been three issues of it so far (June 2006, August 2006, and October 2006) and the latest is not on their website yet. I would really like to read that article in full.
Of course. I'm the ignorant one. I'm so silly for introducing sarcasm into slashdot. If I'm making my point for you, then you have no need to feel so defensive and reply to your own comment twice as I'm simply reiterating your opening argument, however opaque it may be... what was it again? Oh yes. The article is a bunch of crap, by virtue of your unverifiable credentials.
The context of the article was the fact that this guy got an MTV news interview for his blog. That's really the only reason it's on Slashdot... there have been worse reasons for a newspost, certainly. No need to yell and scream about it.
Because all video game store experiences must be identical in every way, shape, and form. Thus, all blogs involving video game stores must contain the same content. There is only one "right" way, and every other way is hugely wrong. And no matter if you live in different American cultures from opposite ends of the coast, all experiences in the video game shop must be similar in details. *sigh*
The guy is writing a blog, for God's sake. It's not like he's the Gamestop Messiah coming to speak for all game shop employees.
Whoa! Since when did ninjas become publishers? What if you drop a spoon? Will they go totally Ninja-Burger all over your ass? The pirates have no chance against the ancestral tasty goodness of Ninjas.
This coming from the guys whose history includes the "fact" that the Holocaust did not happen.
Where in the game does it say this? I must have missed that part. Do you have to enable a cheat to see the Holocaust not happening? Or did you infer that from the fact that the Holocaust (the Jewish one, specifically, never mind the Armenian or the Russian or the Chinese one) isn't in the game?
I'm not a big fan of "guilt by association". I'm also not a big fan of "history" being referred to as the "present". If you're going to criticize, please make your critiques about the historical accuracy of the game. Hell, even I know that Battlefield 1942 isn't an accurate representation of World War II, and Age of Empires II isn't an accurate representation of medieval warfare. Will I learn something from playing the game? Probably. Will it be more credible than looking up original sources and experiencing it firsthand? Probably not.
It's certainly a different "world" in Korea. I'd just like to interject that the video game "stars" over there do keep in physical shape. They train extensively not only on the keyboard, but also go through physical training. In team games, the top Korean teams train in light calisthenics and do extensive team drills both in-game and in sports. The feeling is that the mind and the body must be in top shape in order to perform professionally at the highest levels. Couch potatoes need not apply.
As long as it doesn't make any major marketing mistakes and presents its product in a reasonable manner, there's a good chance that people will buy into it (after all, the ill-conceived "WebTV" had quite a few members in the late 90s).
The real thing that will separate it from the flock is the content. I wouldn't underestimate the value of being able to watch your favorite TV shows in a reasonable quality on the web. While most geeks (i.e. Slashdot users) will say "Get a DVR!", the vast majority of people (i.e. the rest of the world) don't own DVRs and don't have the foresight to record their favorite shows consistently (or maybe they want to catch old episodes of shows that they missed, who knows?). The ability to watch any show from the past season at any time would be a great selling point. Same with being able to watch a new episode early (like the recent "Heroes" preview). If this so-called "Venice Project" can offer those sort of things, then the idea can easily sell... all of those MySpace kiddies will be posting links to their favorite episodes of "Lost" and "BSG" in their sig.
One common thread that I'm reading is that while the sequel, by itself, isn't necessarily a good thing, it often represents a refinement of the ideas presented in the original game. For example, Max Payne gave us a successful third-person shooter (at the time, a rarity outside of certain adventure games and niche games that required melee combat) with the slow-motion "bullet time" along with a film noir story; Max Payne 2 refined the ideas presented in Max Payne 1, both in terms of gameplay and developing the story. A lot of times, it gives us a chance to say "What if?" with the original game, and take it to different levels of possibility. Look at the progression of both technology and story in Warcraft to Warcraft 2 to Warcraft 3. Likewise, Resident Evil made a big jump from RE3 to RE4.
Then there are the sequels that are so radically different that they almost constitute a different game entirely. Diablo II, while still hack and slash, had such significantly different gameplay elements from the original that the similarities between the two are mostly thematic. The Civilization series has constantly reinvented itself... while still about world development and domination, the amount of detail and scope has changed with each iteration of the game.
This isn't to say that all sequels are good (or bad, for that matter). I mean, do we really need a new Madden game every single year?
I'm a 1570 scorer on the SAT, back when it was a 1600 test. I've also coached a few kids on how to take the current SAT. Here are my tips:
1) When writing your essay (definitely the most stressful part of the new SAT), remember that the graders are looking for a specific format. It is a persuasive essay that should fall into the standard 5 paragraph: Thesis, Support, Support, Support, Conclusion format. Do not be equivocal (even though intelligent essay writers tend to equivocate)... focus on supporting your initial thesis. Be opinionated, but don't try to pose a hidden agenda... you are answering a test question, not sowing the seeds of rebellion. Read the question fully and be sure your essay answers the question. Organization gives you more points than content or wit. Grammar and punctuation count, as well as spelling. If you have problems with American spelling, you might want to find some way to light a torch over that and mention your British heritage, if possible. Check out this link to get some insight into the essay part:
http://scienceblogs.com/challenge/
2) You can tell most of the above posters are males, because they have a lot of tips for the math section. In general, the math portion is Algebra and Geometry, with the occasional time-based (as in clock) problem thrown in. You shouldn't have to use any trigonometry, although I found it to be useful. Know how to read and interpret ratios. Answer every question, even if you are just guessing... a lot of points can be earned if you can narrow it down to 50/50. Some math problems can be reverse-engineered by reading the answers first instead of the question (this is true of the language section, too, on some occasion)
3) The language section focuses on your reading comprehension, vocabulary, and attention to detail. Unfortunately, there is very little way to train this other than reading a lot, using critical reading skills. Eliminate the obviously wrong choices (and there will be quite a few). If you have a low vocabulary (most high school students do, no offense), you might try to "cram" vocab words before the exam, but most of the words probably won't stick unless you use those words on a regular basis or can maintain an emotional connection to the word somehow. If all else fails, use "Phil's Law": Pick the longest answer. It's just as (in)effective as marking "C" for everything, but it gives you a strategy that you can use so you don't waste time on difficult questions that you can't possibly answer.
4) I have never taken a course in the SAT. Instead, I simply used practice tests. You can find these at your local library or bookstore. Try to replicate the actual experience of the SAT (the appropriate amount of time, breaks, etc.) to condition yourself. It used to be that taking the SAT multiple times would help you improve your scores, as colleges would look at your highest. While this is certainly true of the vast majority of colleges, some are starting to look at your initial SAT scores. Be warned.
5) The most important preparation you can have is the night before. Get plenty of sleep, eat good well-balanced meals, and drink plenty of fluids. Pop a vitamin or two. Don't use any drugs if possible (prescription or otherwise). If your house is chaotic, make sure everyone in the house knows that you have an important exam and that you need their support (and silence) on the night before.
6) Be sure to treat yourself the night after the exam. It gives you something to look forward to when your brain is turning into mush. Seriously, it will help psychologically, and improve your time management.
7) Double check what answers you've marked every 20 questions or so. I've personally saved myself a lot of grief on exams by double checking and finding that all my answers are off by one. If you do it every 20 questions, then you won't have the "end of exam panic" when you realize that you've made a horrible mistake.
8) I don't know how many "linear" test takers are out there
That sounds like a big Gauss Gun, AKA rail gun to me.
15 points of damage, 1 Heat, can blow off a Battlemech head in a single hit?
Remakes of a good game can last forever, too! And thus, Nintendo goes on and on and on...
(Don't stop believin'!)
To each, his (or her) own. A lot of folks enjoy the more "interactive movie" style game. For example "The Seventh Guest" had very little gameplay (mostly loosely veiled puzzles), but had a relatively engrossing story and was quite popular. Of course, it helped that it was packaged with pretty much every PC with a CD-ROM in the early 90s. There are games that seamlessly combine gameplay with story, like recent favorites "Shadow of the Colossus" and "Psychonauts", but the good old adventure game with minimal gameplay has had a few winners in the past few years, in such games as "Farenheit"/"Indigo Prophecy" and "The Longest Journey". As they say, Your Mileage May Vary.
... was Chu Chu Rocket. There's nothing like putting four friends in a high pressure timed situation where your sole objective is to not only accumulate points, but to screw over the other players in the process. Chu Chu Rocket was the only game which made my taciturn friend Chris (who never says anything mean or nasty) curse like a sailor and made my friend Mike physically hit me. To this day, the words "Cat Mania!" evokes the war cry "Defend yourself, violently if necessary!" *grin*
I'm told that Mario Party and Super Smash Bros. has a similar effect on other gamers.
I, too, feel that the ESRB ratings have been fairly accurate in terms of the content that one can reasonably expect from a video game. One has to go through some out-of-the-ordinary (although certainly not "extraordinary" by geek standards) measures to reach the controversial content that prompted the recent scandals and rating changes in Oblivion and GTA. I can replace Jar-Jar's head with a phallus using simple software at my house... does that mean the MPAA should change the Star Wars prequel ratings to R? The Blame game is pretty ridiculous, as is trying to "fix" the ESRB.
The ESRB is not broken, any more than MPAA movie ratings are broken. It's a one-stop shopping version of a game review that tells you what to expect out of the game, fresh out of the box, without outside intervention. It doesn't tell you everything; for more comprehensive information, you'd have to go to actual game reviews, which can be found all over the Internet at many prominent sites (and while they may not be the "big picture", they do tell parents everything they could possibly want to know about the game). But even then, just one look at the back of the box will tell you the selling points of the game, whether it's violence, boobies, edutainment, brand-name merch, or addictive puzzle polygons. It's not like video games try to hide the wares they are peddling.
Side Note: In the case of Hot Coffee, last I checked, GTA was about playing a hardened criminal... parents should have been wary about the game anyway. It's called Grand Theft Auto, for God's sake. That title should be obvious for parents, and should send up red flags just as much as, say, "18-Wheeler" or "Deer Hunter".
It sounds a lot like Shenmue with a bit of a crime drama/noir bent. I may have to give this a shot. The load time may drive me crazy, though.
The PS2 isn't dead, it's just dreaming...
HUMOUR
...is subjective. It's best to remember that around here. Don't worry, the rest of us thought it was funny. Erm, what was the joke again? *grin*