During my brief stint studying journalism, the editors had a hoot writing clever and witty headlines. Off the top of my head: "Bond goes up to bat" (describing a school bond measure on the ballot) and "Political party poppycock" (a column discussing political absurdities).
But the times are a-changin'. If you want Google News or some other aggregator to pick up your story, you need a clear headline. This isn't limited to news media either. I've noticed that more and more videogame review sites will come up with a killer summary line that stands out when it's aggregated on sites like Metacritic. ("The experience of playing this game can be roughly compared to swimming through a pile of sewage to get to a diamond ring," from a review of X3: Reunion that appears on Metacritic.)
Playing the Wii must be tough with that huge stick up your ass. Chill out, man. I was just making fun of the fact that EA has had the same three cash cows for years. I'm a PC gamer too, so I could care less about any console:P
Am looking forward to playing The Sims, Need for Speed, and Madden on Wii and DS because I simply couldn't get enough of them on PC , Playstation, and Xbox. Oh, and please tell me EA will release The Sims expansion #1-9 for the Wii, but not at the same time as Madden 2008 or Need for Speed: Even Faster 6, because I might not be able to afford them all...
"Is this a valid way to provide feedback to the government or merely an exercise in keeping the populace happy?"
Sure it is. Besides, if MPs or Congressmen accept emails but don't respond to them, wouldn't that also be a way of "merely keeping the populace happy"? The same could be said of letters or even face-to-face talks. Feedback, be it an e-petition or email, is only worth something if you listen to it...
Devs will never, ever win against such spies. There's simply no way they can monitor all out-of-game communications.
An MMO is left with three options: promote this sort of activity because it further "involves" players in the game's happenings (this option is probably best for hardcore MMOs); take a neutral stance on the issue; design the game in such a way that out-of-game spying and intel-sharing is ineffective at changing the course of the game. This last option is the most difficult, of course, but it's the only way I can see of combating spies and saboteurs. Examples might include instanced gameplay elements that are impossible to predict or, in the case of a military game, an emphasis on small battles so that spies could never uncover a single masterstroke battle plan and spoil the fun.
One of the reasons that a warfare MMO/FPS/strategy game would be difficult to implement is because there's no way to secure all forms of communication. The game would not be fun if the enemy knew operational details because of a mole in command. This might very well be realistic, but try explaining that to all the players who just got owned upon launching their attack.
In PlanetSide, players would IM commanders in the opposing Empires and give them a heads up before we launched a huge raid. Even so, we would still have an advantage because it takes several minutes - if not an hour - for the other team to trickle to the battle.
That a game is fundamentally flawed if players pay others to play the game for them? These auctions wouldn't exist in such large numbers if the leveling process wasn't so damn tedious. But I'm just a curmudgeon who can't understand why 8 million people play WoW:p
I used to live in downtown Seattle and didn't own a car. I walked a ~1 mile to the nearest Safeway and 5 blocks to my bus stop. Plus there were walks to restaurants or the mall. If you have that kind of lifestyle, it's pretty hard to become obese unless you really, really try.
Furthermore, suburbanites usually commute quite a ways to work. Depending on where you live, this commute can take a substantial chunk out of your day. This lost time means a.)you're more likely to eat a quick, unhealthy meal b.)find less time to exercise. Granted, some people still wouldn't do a and b, but wasting time in traffic sure eats away at your free time.
I personally think suburbs are, on the whole, one of the worst creations in the US. You can trace so many problems to them. And if you look at satellite images - especially of California towns - you can see how they keep cramming the new houses closer and closer together. Who the hell needs a real backyard anyway?
The Attorney General argues a position that advances the interests of the executive. I by no means support his dumbassed argument, but that's his prerogative.
The issue here is what will Congress - that other branch of government we all forget about - do about it? Cut funding to certain programs, refuse to confirm any executive nominees, etc. until the executive renounces its position? Our system breaks down not when one branch takes an outlandish position, but when the other branch fails to call them on it. Presidents and cabinet members will be making dumb decisions for decades to come. What troubles me is that future Congresses will continue the inaction established by the past few Congresses.
I'm merely pointing out that our government is failing us in other ways. Please don't misconstrue this as support of the idiotic administration. Hell, the Democrats still won't end the Iraq War because they're afraid a "spin machine" will make them look anti-soldier. Instead they're debating worthless non-binding proclamations - proclamations directed at a president who doesn't care about public or congressional opinion.
Frankly, I'm sick of commentators and "analysts" proposing outlandish theories with no hard evidence to back them up. Someone should create a website that tracks the accuracy of such predictions...
I have no problem waiting a few extra months, even a year, and paying more upfront for a lengthier, complete game. Besides, I don't like games that intentionally leave you hanging so you'll buy the imminent next episode. Before this episodic content craze, games would at least offer some degree of conclusion because the next installment would be a few years away.
Maybe I'm being too cynical, but why else would publishers push for episodic gaming if not for more profit? Selling less content for more money is all this is about.
I can buy 10,000 acres of rainforest ($50/acre), according to www.rainforest.org. Even if that's not a realistic cost, I could still buy 5,000 acres if land was going for $100/acre.
Because Google is the only way to view satellite images. Shutting down Google Earth would totally solve everything!
The US is ultimately responsible for concealing its assets from satellite photography. Same goes for every other country on Earth. Someone out there is always watching.
PS: Must be a slow news day...
The UK already has a history of over budget information-sharing projects. In related news, the FBI also wasted $100 million on the fiasco that is the Virtual Case File database. If intel agencies are really interested in sharing data, maybe they should follow the CIA's example of using secure Wikis?
In any event, I agree with the other commentators that this is a pork project more than anything.
The PlayStation 2 sold 1.4 million units in December. The PS2 has a great library of games (many of them discounted) and there are still plenty of new releases to look forward to (Rogue Galaxy comes to mind).
The Interweb is full of all these geek debates about PS3 vs. Wii (and they are fun, don't get me wrong), but the PS2's success is do, in part, to its vast game selection. That, IMHO, will always be more important than tech specs. Hopefully, though, the new consoles will have a more robust game selection in the coming months.
Someone with a pirated copy of Photoshop and a few graphics design courses can produce documents that will fool plenty of people. Until the site gets sued to oblivion, we should all enjoy the damaging "documents" that spill onto the Internet.
I look forward to that CIA memo reminding Area 51 employees to keep the cryo freezers nice and cool so Marvin and friends don't decompose. We might also get some behind-the-scenes photos of Soundstange 56 where Stanley Kubrick filmed the moon landings (rumor has it that Neil showed up to the first shooting totally wasted). We might also see a few invoices addressed to the Bahamas for one "Elvis P."
"Update: Since posting our original news item on the matter, Shacknews has been contacted by Electronic Arts, which is co-publishing the game along with Namco Bandai. EA noted that there has not in fact been any final decision made as to Hellgate: London's online pricing model, be it subscription-based or otherwise. We respect this situation, while maintaining that have reported fairly on statements we received. A full interview is forthcoming."
I first thought of what Will Wright once said about his corporate bosses at EA (and I paraphrase): "if you want your project to be noticed, just tell the execs that it's like World of Warcraft."
I only bring this up because it's so typical for management to play copycat instead of trailblazer (look no further than the early 2000s deluge of crappy "Tycoon" games). And EA is among the worst when it comes to this. Perhaps this mentality - the only MMO is one like WoW - is why the market, by and large, is incapable of advancing beyond the tried-and-true "level grind/quest/exp" model.
In any event, I don't feel like paying more money just to enjoy my goddamn game. What's a gamer to do, between "booster packs," episodic content, microdownloads, and online play fees.
So what if Mythbusters isn't about a group of PhDs sitting around in labcoats making precise calculations about various myths. In fact, I like Mythbusters because it shows that science isn't limited to sterile labs and academic conferences. I wouldn't use Mythbusters as a definitive answer to anything, but through its entertaining presentation, it teaches people fundamental aspects of logic, problem solving, and experimentation (scale models, controls, etc.) That alone makes it better than most television shows...
The top US tech city will be home to whomever invents a device that administers an electric shock to Zonk whenever he approves embarrassingly shitty articles.
As for the article, what's the deal with the legend? Are they just trying to create the most confusing display of all time?
$16 million over a 7 year period is nothing, especially for a company that regularly posts profits in the $30 billion dollar range. And none of this matters unless someone actually reports on the "findings" and "analysis" of ExxonMobile's "specialists." If anything, the media is responsible for creating the image of some debate about global warming (even though a huge scientific consensus exists).
Slashdot Mirror
During my brief stint studying journalism, the editors had a hoot writing clever and witty headlines. Off the top of my head: "Bond goes up to bat" (describing a school bond measure on the ballot) and "Political party poppycock" (a column discussing political absurdities). But the times are a-changin'. If you want Google News or some other aggregator to pick up your story, you need a clear headline. This isn't limited to news media either. I've noticed that more and more videogame review sites will come up with a killer summary line that stands out when it's aggregated on sites like Metacritic. ("The experience of playing this game can be roughly compared to swimming through a pile of sewage to get to a diamond ring," from a review of X3: Reunion that appears on Metacritic.)
Playing the Wii must be tough with that huge stick up your ass. Chill out, man. I was just making fun of the fact that EA has had the same three cash cows for years. I'm a PC gamer too, so I could care less about any console :P
Am looking forward to playing The Sims, Need for Speed, and Madden on Wii and DS because I simply couldn't get enough of them on PC , Playstation, and Xbox. Oh, and please tell me EA will release The Sims expansion #1-9 for the Wii, but not at the same time as Madden 2008 or Need for Speed: Even Faster 6, because I might not be able to afford them all...
"Is this a valid way to provide feedback to the government or merely an exercise in keeping the populace happy?"
Sure it is. Besides, if MPs or Congressmen accept emails but don't respond to them, wouldn't that also be a way of "merely keeping the populace happy"? The same could be said of letters or even face-to-face talks. Feedback, be it an e-petition or email, is only worth something if you listen to it...
Devs will never, ever win against such spies. There's simply no way they can monitor all out-of-game communications.
An MMO is left with three options: promote this sort of activity because it further "involves" players in the game's happenings (this option is probably best for hardcore MMOs); take a neutral stance on the issue; design the game in such a way that out-of-game spying and intel-sharing is ineffective at changing the course of the game. This last option is the most difficult, of course, but it's the only way I can see of combating spies and saboteurs. Examples might include instanced gameplay elements that are impossible to predict or, in the case of a military game, an emphasis on small battles so that spies could never uncover a single masterstroke battle plan and spoil the fun.
One of the reasons that a warfare MMO/FPS/strategy game would be difficult to implement is because there's no way to secure all forms of communication. The game would not be fun if the enemy knew operational details because of a mole in command. This might very well be realistic, but try explaining that to all the players who just got owned upon launching their attack.
In PlanetSide, players would IM commanders in the opposing Empires and give them a heads up before we launched a huge raid. Even so, we would still have an advantage because it takes several minutes - if not an hour - for the other team to trickle to the battle.
That a game is fundamentally flawed if players pay others to play the game for them? These auctions wouldn't exist in such large numbers if the leveling process wasn't so damn tedious. But I'm just a curmudgeon who can't understand why 8 million people play WoW :p
According to the Intelligent Community Forum's website, Cleveland, Ohio made the Top 7 list in 2006. Even so, I still wouldn't want to live there :p
http://www.intelligentcommunity.org/displaycommon. cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=62
I used to live in downtown Seattle and didn't own a car. I walked a ~1 mile to the nearest Safeway and 5 blocks to my bus stop. Plus there were walks to restaurants or the mall. If you have that kind of lifestyle, it's pretty hard to become obese unless you really, really try. Furthermore, suburbanites usually commute quite a ways to work. Depending on where you live, this commute can take a substantial chunk out of your day. This lost time means a.)you're more likely to eat a quick, unhealthy meal b.)find less time to exercise. Granted, some people still wouldn't do a and b, but wasting time in traffic sure eats away at your free time. I personally think suburbs are, on the whole, one of the worst creations in the US. You can trace so many problems to them. And if you look at satellite images - especially of California towns - you can see how they keep cramming the new houses closer and closer together. Who the hell needs a real backyard anyway?
The Attorney General argues a position that advances the interests of the executive. I by no means support his dumbassed argument, but that's his prerogative. The issue here is what will Congress - that other branch of government we all forget about - do about it? Cut funding to certain programs, refuse to confirm any executive nominees, etc. until the executive renounces its position? Our system breaks down not when one branch takes an outlandish position, but when the other branch fails to call them on it. Presidents and cabinet members will be making dumb decisions for decades to come. What troubles me is that future Congresses will continue the inaction established by the past few Congresses. I'm merely pointing out that our government is failing us in other ways. Please don't misconstrue this as support of the idiotic administration. Hell, the Democrats still won't end the Iraq War because they're afraid a "spin machine" will make them look anti-soldier. Instead they're debating worthless non-binding proclamations - proclamations directed at a president who doesn't care about public or congressional opinion.
Europeans will be excitedly squirting all over the place!
It'd be a miracle if two strangers with Zunes were ever in the same area so they could "squirt" songs together. Man, that sounds wrong.
Frankly, I'm sick of commentators and "analysts" proposing outlandish theories with no hard evidence to back them up. Someone should create a website that tracks the accuracy of such predictions...
I have no problem waiting a few extra months, even a year, and paying more upfront for a lengthier, complete game. Besides, I don't like games that intentionally leave you hanging so you'll buy the imminent next episode. Before this episodic content craze, games would at least offer some degree of conclusion because the next installment would be a few years away.
Maybe I'm being too cynical, but why else would publishers push for episodic gaming if not for more profit? Selling less content for more money is all this is about.
I can buy 10,000 acres of rainforest ($50/acre), according to www.rainforest.org. Even if that's not a realistic cost, I could still buy 5,000 acres if land was going for $100/acre.
But...but...an accurate headline would make fewer people click on it! I can't fathom this!
Because Google is the only way to view satellite images. Shutting down Google Earth would totally solve everything! The US is ultimately responsible for concealing its assets from satellite photography. Same goes for every other country on Earth. Someone out there is always watching. PS: Must be a slow news day...
The UK already has a history of over budget information-sharing projects. In related news, the FBI also wasted $100 million on the fiasco that is the Virtual Case File database. If intel agencies are really interested in sharing data, maybe they should follow the CIA's example of using secure Wikis?
In any event, I agree with the other commentators that this is a pork project more than anything.
It's harder to get fair use rights back once you lose them. Better to fight now than fight later...
The PlayStation 2 sold 1.4 million units in December. The PS2 has a great library of games (many of them discounted) and there are still plenty of new releases to look forward to (Rogue Galaxy comes to mind). The Interweb is full of all these geek debates about PS3 vs. Wii (and they are fun, don't get me wrong), but the PS2's success is do, in part, to its vast game selection. That, IMHO, will always be more important than tech specs. Hopefully, though, the new consoles will have a more robust game selection in the coming months.
Lucasfilm would have to apply so many effects to the aging Harrison Ford that they might as well computer generate him from the get-go :P
Someone with a pirated copy of Photoshop and a few graphics design courses can produce documents that will fool plenty of people. Until the site gets sued to oblivion, we should all enjoy the damaging "documents" that spill onto the Internet.
I look forward to that CIA memo reminding Area 51 employees to keep the cryo freezers nice and cool so Marvin and friends don't decompose. We might also get some behind-the-scenes photos of Soundstange 56 where Stanley Kubrick filmed the moon landings (rumor has it that Neil showed up to the first shooting totally wasted). We might also see a few invoices addressed to the Bahamas for one "Elvis P."
"Update: Since posting our original news item on the matter, Shacknews has been contacted by Electronic Arts, which is co-publishing the game along with Namco Bandai. EA noted that there has not in fact been any final decision made as to Hellgate: London's online pricing model, be it subscription-based or otherwise. We respect this situation, while maintaining that have reported fairly on statements we received. A full interview is forthcoming."
I first thought of what Will Wright once said about his corporate bosses at EA (and I paraphrase): "if you want your project to be noticed, just tell the execs that it's like World of Warcraft."
I only bring this up because it's so typical for management to play copycat instead of trailblazer (look no further than the early 2000s deluge of crappy "Tycoon" games). And EA is among the worst when it comes to this. Perhaps this mentality - the only MMO is one like WoW - is why the market, by and large, is incapable of advancing beyond the tried-and-true "level grind/quest/exp" model.
In any event, I don't feel like paying more money just to enjoy my goddamn game. What's a gamer to do, between "booster packs," episodic content, microdownloads, and online play fees.
So what if Mythbusters isn't about a group of PhDs sitting around in labcoats making precise calculations about various myths. In fact, I like Mythbusters because it shows that science isn't limited to sterile labs and academic conferences. I wouldn't use Mythbusters as a definitive answer to anything, but through its entertaining presentation, it teaches people fundamental aspects of logic, problem solving, and experimentation (scale models, controls, etc.) That alone makes it better than most television shows...
The top US tech city will be home to whomever invents a device that administers an electric shock to Zonk whenever he approves embarrassingly shitty articles.
As for the article, what's the deal with the legend? Are they just trying to create the most confusing display of all time?
$16 million over a 7 year period is nothing, especially for a company that regularly posts profits in the $30 billion dollar range. And none of this matters unless someone actually reports on the "findings" and "analysis" of ExxonMobile's "specialists." If anything, the media is responsible for creating the image of some debate about global warming (even though a huge scientific consensus exists).