Well, if KHTML is upset with the patches they're getting back, maybe they should have changed their license to reflect that. If Apple's obeying all the licensing terms, then boo-fucking-hoo. They should have thought of this when they wrote the license.
That always bugged the hell out of me in that movie. Why didn't they just simply SEND ANOTHER PERSON THROUGH THE MACHINE if everyone doubted her story so much? Holy shit, the machine's already built, just reload those boosters and run it again... probbaly cheaper than a big congressional investigation anyway.
Regardless of whether the avatar is custom-built or pre-generated, video games do not offer the same kind of experience one gets from a face-to-face, table-top role-playing game where the players and storyteller work together to construct a story from myriad circumstances; where the storyteller has the ability to swap in or out story elements in a real-time, seamless manner without the knowledge of the players; where actions have consequences beyond restoring the last save point. Neverwinter Nights was on the right track with its gamemaster tools, but it is not there yet.
Bullshit. You're not playing the right MUDs. Eternal Struggle, Armageddeon, Eternal Visions-- they were all exactly what you are describing years before Neverwinter Nights ever came out. If anything, MUDs are a *better* RPG experience because you can be more immersed-- you don't see the fat nerd sitting next to you noisily slurping his Mountain Dew.
The reasons MMORPGs don't qualify is because most of the people on them don't roleplay at all. Even on the "RP only" servers, you very rarely see roleplay or, if you do see it, it's only in one place (i.e. the tavern.) MMORPGs are mostly just "see how the numbers on my character sheet go up." (*Some* MUDs are this way, but there are several MUDs that offer a true RP experience.)
Morrowind might not qualify, but it's a hell of a lot better than any other offline video games.
Do you honestly think that a Playstation 2 (or Gamecube for that matter) could play a game like KOTOR or Jade Empire? Do you really thing that Bioware could have squeezed out a third of the texture detail without a decent amount of RAM and a HD cache like the Xbox has (and the other consoles don't?)
Point is, that engine won't *run* on any console but Xbox without making a LOT of concessions. That's the reason. Considering Bioware's history, I'm sure it'll be ported to PC in a few months, though.
Microsoft does make a decent amount of PC games, although less and less. All the Age of Empires games are Microsoft, as is Rise of Nations, MechWarrior IV is Microsoft, Crimson Skies, Halo (if you count that), Flight Sim, etc.
Except there *are* computer/console based RPG games that actually *are* RPG games. MUDs on computers, for instance, or a game like Morrowind-- it would be hard to argue that a MUD isn't a RPG, or that Morrowind isn't an RPG.
The problem is there are so many *other* unrelated games that are labelled as RPGs, it clouds things up. I think Final Fantasy games should be called Adventure games. I think Diablo and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance should be called Dungeon Diggers. I don't know what MMORPGs should be called, but they don't really involve role-playing.
What we really need to do is clean up the genres. At a basic level, "RPG" should only refer to games where you can create your own character from scratch. (i.e. Final Fantasy and Diablo wouldn't qualify because the characters come pre-made. Morrowind and MMORPGs would because there are several races and classes to choose from, as would older games like Wizardry and Might and Magic. KOTOR is a grey-area here.)
I don't have Xbox live, and therefore can't get the bug fixes and game updates for it (why should I have to pay a subscription to get bug fixes?).
That's why most Xbox games come with a free 1-month or 2-month trial subscription. Sign up, download all the patches, cancel.
Yeah, I realize it's kind of a pain, and I agree that Microsoft should allow patch downloads with no Xbox Live connection at all, but it's not as bleak as you think.
Yeah, but to be fair, that's not Microsoft's problem, that's the third-party software developers problem.
All the Microsoft applications support drag&drop how it should be supported, even creating 'clippings' (Mac term; I don't know what they are called in Windows) on the desktop if you drag there. The problem is that almost *no* third party applications make use of drag&drop, even though all the APIs for it are exposed for them to use whenever they feel like.
Part of the Mac culture is that *all* the software is of a more consistant quality. You can be assured that your $10 shareware application supports drag&drop as easily as your $400 office suite. I don't know if that's because MacOS attracts better programmers, or because Apple's development tools are so much easier to use, but that's pretty much the facts.
Additionally, Mac users tend to pick applications based on which have better GUIs... you very rarely see this behavior on Windows, where people will use abominations like Trillian and proclaim it the best thing ever.
They don't make *most* Xbox games, but they only have to make *one* good Xbox game to prove you wrong. Poof, Crimson Skies: Road to Revenge. You're wrong.
7 years is still bullshit. Remember, all those Xbox games are software that are a lot less than 7 years old, and many of them are quite good. Even if you hate Word and Powerpoint, there's no denying that Microsoft Excel is leaps and bounds above any other spreadsheet. Microsoft Publisher isn't bad, considering the price. I don't know of any programs better than Visio.
I like how telling me to stop complaining is "+1 insightful."
Blizzard's game, to this point, has had *nothing* designed specifically to appeal to hard-core players, so why did that change with the honor system? That's *exactly* my point! If Blizzard changes their focus on the game, so that they are spending more time making hard-core players happy at the expense of casual players, then why should casual players keep playing?
The vast majority of the 1.4 patch was issues related to the honor system. Meanwhile, I keep finding quests that don't even *work!* If nothing else, Blizzard should be fixing the bugs before adding in new features, regardless of whether they want to cater to hard-core players or casual players.
There are other problems, too. The way the honor system is ranked entirely excludes casual players from the mix.
Before the honor system in World of Warcraft, there was no goal that a casual player couldn't eventually meet, although it might take them longer than a die-hard player. But now, the top few tiers of honor system rewards are completely inaccessible to casual players because they are given out by percentage. (i.e. Only the top 2.5% can get the rewards, and that 2.5% will *always* be die-hard 16-hour-a-day players.)
This is a problem on the RP and PvE servers, for casual players (like me) at least.
I'm not a fan, but there's no sense panicking and leaving the game before you give Blizzard another patch or two to fix it first.
When somebody figures out the link between the number of comments, trusted computing, and the "bad old days," could they please drop me an email so I know WHAT THE HELL THIS GUY IS TALKING ABOUT?
Yeah, Knoppix pops the new icon up *exactly* on top of one of the existing drive icons so it took me forever to figure out why the hell my USB flash drive "wasn't showing up."
Not that the kernel's to blame, but lots of Linux distros have plain *stupid* bugs that would have been fixed with more than 10 minutes of QA.
Windows 2000 can do just about anything a user wants, it can play DVD movies, surf the web, play games. Why do we need a new version of Windows?
Look what a better company, like Apple, can do with new OS releases. There are tons of reason to want new versions of Windows, they just need to add new features like Apple does.
Do you know what "Maverick" means? Hint: It has nothing to do with how good his films are.
Lucas is a maverick because he snubbed the studio system *and* the various Hollywood unions, including the Actor's and Director's Guild and made big-budget blockbuster *independent* films. (Lucas paid for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from his profits from Star Wars; no studio backed him.)
The closest modern director would probably be Robert Rodriguez, especially considering his recent fight with the Director's Guild over Sin City's credits.
Slashdot Mirror
... yes, but he was talking about Entourage. What are you, an idiot?
It's basic knowledge of the English language-- knowing the difference between an acronym and an abbreviation.
Well, if KHTML is upset with the patches they're getting back, maybe they should have changed their license to reflect that. If Apple's obeying all the licensing terms, then boo-fucking-hoo. They should have thought of this when they wrote the license.
And fix the broken quests. (Enough said there.)
No. There's already one of those lame-ass unfunny jokes posted here. Mod -1 Redundant and, if possible, -5 Unfunny.
That always bugged the hell out of me in that movie. Why didn't they just simply SEND ANOTHER PERSON THROUGH THE MACHINE if everyone doubted her story so much? Holy shit, the machine's already built, just reload those boosters and run it again... probbaly cheaper than a big congressional investigation anyway.
Regardless of whether the avatar is custom-built or pre-generated, video games do not offer the same kind of experience one gets from a face-to-face, table-top role-playing game where the players and storyteller work together to construct a story from myriad circumstances; where the storyteller has the ability to swap in or out story elements in a real-time, seamless manner without the knowledge of the players; where actions have consequences beyond restoring the last save point. Neverwinter Nights was on the right track with its gamemaster tools, but it is not there yet.
Bullshit. You're not playing the right MUDs. Eternal Struggle, Armageddeon, Eternal Visions-- they were all exactly what you are describing years before Neverwinter Nights ever came out. If anything, MUDs are a *better* RPG experience because you can be more immersed-- you don't see the fat nerd sitting next to you noisily slurping his Mountain Dew.
The reasons MMORPGs don't qualify is because most of the people on them don't roleplay at all. Even on the "RP only" servers, you very rarely see roleplay or, if you do see it, it's only in one place (i.e. the tavern.) MMORPGs are mostly just "see how the numbers on my character sheet go up." (*Some* MUDs are this way, but there are several MUDs that offer a true RP experience.)
Morrowind might not qualify, but it's a hell of a lot better than any other offline video games.
Do you honestly think that a Playstation 2 (or Gamecube for that matter) could play a game like KOTOR or Jade Empire? Do you really thing that Bioware could have squeezed out a third of the texture detail without a decent amount of RAM and a HD cache like the Xbox has (and the other consoles don't?)
Point is, that engine won't *run* on any console but Xbox without making a LOT of concessions. That's the reason. Considering Bioware's history, I'm sure it'll be ported to PC in a few months, though.
Microsoft does make a decent amount of PC games, although less and less. All the Age of Empires games are Microsoft, as is Rise of Nations, MechWarrior IV is Microsoft, Crimson Skies, Halo (if you count that), Flight Sim, etc.
Except there *are* computer/console based RPG games that actually *are* RPG games. MUDs on computers, for instance, or a game like Morrowind-- it would be hard to argue that a MUD isn't a RPG, or that Morrowind isn't an RPG.
The problem is there are so many *other* unrelated games that are labelled as RPGs, it clouds things up. I think Final Fantasy games should be called Adventure games. I think Diablo and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance should be called Dungeon Diggers. I don't know what MMORPGs should be called, but they don't really involve role-playing.
What we really need to do is clean up the genres. At a basic level, "RPG" should only refer to games where you can create your own character from scratch. (i.e. Final Fantasy and Diablo wouldn't qualify because the characters come pre-made. Morrowind and MMORPGs would because there are several races and classes to choose from, as would older games like Wizardry and Might and Magic. KOTOR is a grey-area here.)
I don't have Xbox live, and therefore can't get the bug fixes and game updates for it (why should I have to pay a subscription to get bug fixes?).
That's why most Xbox games come with a free 1-month or 2-month trial subscription. Sign up, download all the patches, cancel.
Yeah, I realize it's kind of a pain, and I agree that Microsoft should allow patch downloads with no Xbox Live connection at all, but it's not as bleak as you think.
By "Blizzard" you mean Bioware, right? As far as I know, all Blizzard games already allow you to skip all their cutscenes.
People frequently ask me why I (a man) always choose the female avatar in video games when there's one available. The answer:
1) If it's a third-person game, I'd much rather spend the play time staring at a woman's ass than a man's ass.
2) If it's a first-person game, I'd much rather hear a woman's voice than a man's voice.
Sure it might cause problems and misunderstandings in MMORPGs, but that's my rule and I'm sticking to it.
I always use RunAs to get to Notepad.exe, then choose "Open"... in Windows, the Open dialog is almost as powerful as explorer.exe anywya.
Yeah, but to be fair, that's not Microsoft's problem, that's the third-party software developers problem.
All the Microsoft applications support drag&drop how it should be supported, even creating 'clippings' (Mac term; I don't know what they are called in Windows) on the desktop if you drag there. The problem is that almost *no* third party applications make use of drag&drop, even though all the APIs for it are exposed for them to use whenever they feel like.
Part of the Mac culture is that *all* the software is of a more consistant quality. You can be assured that your $10 shareware application supports drag&drop as easily as your $400 office suite. I don't know if that's because MacOS attracts better programmers, or because Apple's development tools are so much easier to use, but that's pretty much the facts.
Additionally, Mac users tend to pick applications based on which have better GUIs... you very rarely see this behavior on Windows, where people will use abominations like Trillian and proclaim it the best thing ever.
They don't make *most* Xbox games, but they only have to make *one* good Xbox game to prove you wrong. Poof, Crimson Skies: Road to Revenge. You're wrong.
7 years is still bullshit. Remember, all those Xbox games are software that are a lot less than 7 years old, and many of them are quite good. Even if you hate Word and Powerpoint, there's no denying that Microsoft Excel is leaps and bounds above any other spreadsheet. Microsoft Publisher isn't bad, considering the price. I don't know of any programs better than Visio.
I like how telling me to stop complaining is "+1 insightful."
Blizzard's game, to this point, has had *nothing* designed specifically to appeal to hard-core players, so why did that change with the honor system? That's *exactly* my point! If Blizzard changes their focus on the game, so that they are spending more time making hard-core players happy at the expense of casual players, then why should casual players keep playing?
The vast majority of the 1.4 patch was issues related to the honor system. Meanwhile, I keep finding quests that don't even *work!* If nothing else, Blizzard should be fixing the bugs before adding in new features, regardless of whether they want to cater to hard-core players or casual players.
You don't think the Xbox is good? What about the natural keyboards and cordless mouses?
7 years? What a crock of bullshit. It's barely been 7 months.
There are other problems, too. The way the honor system is ranked entirely excludes casual players from the mix.
Before the honor system in World of Warcraft, there was no goal that a casual player couldn't eventually meet, although it might take them longer than a die-hard player. But now, the top few tiers of honor system rewards are completely inaccessible to casual players because they are given out by percentage. (i.e. Only the top 2.5% can get the rewards, and that 2.5% will *always* be die-hard 16-hour-a-day players.)
This is a problem on the RP and PvE servers, for casual players (like me) at least.
I'm not a fan, but there's no sense panicking and leaving the game before you give Blizzard another patch or two to fix it first.
When somebody figures out the link between the number of comments, trusted computing, and the "bad old days," could they please drop me an email so I know WHAT THE HELL THIS GUY IS TALKING ABOUT?
Yeah, Knoppix pops the new icon up *exactly* on top of one of the existing drive icons so it took me forever to figure out why the hell my USB flash drive "wasn't showing up."
Not that the kernel's to blame, but lots of Linux distros have plain *stupid* bugs that would have been fixed with more than 10 minutes of QA.
No. Saying Lucas *is* a maverick is not mutually exclusive with the people you named being mavericks.
Windows 2000 can do just about anything a user wants, it can play DVD movies, surf the web, play games. Why do we need a new version of Windows?
Look what a better company, like Apple, can do with new OS releases. There are tons of reason to want new versions of Windows, they just need to add new features like Apple does.
Do you know what "Maverick" means? Hint: It has nothing to do with how good his films are.
Lucas is a maverick because he snubbed the studio system *and* the various Hollywood unions, including the Actor's and Director's Guild and made big-budget blockbuster *independent* films. (Lucas paid for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi from his profits from Star Wars; no studio backed him.)
The closest modern director would probably be Robert Rodriguez, especially considering his recent fight with the Director's Guild over Sin City's credits.