Comment More misinformation. (Score 5, Informative) 354
Ryan Clearly housed a lulz IRC chatroom. He has nothing to do with lulzsec.
Comment Re:WTF, seriously?! (Score 2) 705
A-freeking-men. The guy is only succeeding in cheapening the appearance of a P.E. - precisely the opposite of what he intended. Lacy should get fired for being unresponsive to legitimate concerns from the citizenry, as well as being a pompous idiot.
RuneScape Developer Victorious Over Patent Troll 89
An anonymous reader writes "Gamasutra reports that a US District Court judge has dismissed the patent infringement lawsuit brought against RuneScape developer Jagex discussed previously on Slashdot. Judge David Folsom last week dismissed online chat company Paltalk's claims that Jagex infringed on Paltalk patents relating to online network communications. The judge's ruling only resolved Jagex's case. Microsoft settled with Paltalk for an undisclosed sum in 2009 after the online communication technology company sued over the patents in a $90 million claim. That settlement opened the door to Paltalk's claims against other game companies, including Blizzard, Turbine, SOE and NCSoft. Paltalk alleged in the Jagex-related suit that it had suffered 'tens of millions of dollars' in damages. Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard said in a statement, 'It is exceedingly unfortunate that the US legal system can force a company with a sole presence in Cambridge, UK to incur a seven-digit expense and waste over a year of management time on a case with absolutely no merit,' and that Jagex 'will not hesitate to vigorously defend our position against any patent trolls who bring lawsuits against us in the future.'"
Why Warhammer Online Failed — an Insider Story 235
sinij writes "An EA insider has aired dirty laundry over what went wrong with Warhammer and what could this mean for the upcoming Bioware Star Wars MMORPG. Quoting: 'We shouldn't have released when we did, everyone knows it. The game wasn't done, but EA gave us a deadline and threatened the leaders of Mythic with pink slips. We slipped so many times, it had to go out. We sold more than a million boxes, and only had 300k subs a month later. Going down ever since. It's 'stable' now, but guess what? Even Dark Age and Ultima have more subs than we have. How great is that? Games almost a decade [old] make more money than our biggest project."
The (unverified) insider, who calls himself EA Louse (named after the EA Spouse who brought to light the company's excessive crunchtime practices) says similar trouble is ahead for the development of Star Wars: The Old Republic. EA has not commented yet. God of War creator David Jaffe has criticized the insider for having unrealistic expectations of working in the games industry.
Inventor Creates Flotation Device Bazooka 144
Australian inventor Sam Adeloju has won the £20,000 ($32,000) James Dyson Award for inventing the coolest piece of life-saving equipment ever. The Longreach is a modified bazooka which can fire an expanding flotation device up to 150m to a person in distress. From the article: "Mr Adeloju told NEWS.com.au that the Longreach was inspired by a grenade-launch training session with the Army Reserves. Weighing just 3.5kg, it shoots the rescue device 150m in a manner similar to the way the army uses a grenade launcher to deliver flares and aerial observation devices. Hitting the water activates an expanding foam unit in the Longreach rescue unit, which also incorporates LED illumination and a vortex air whistle."
Comment Why? (Score 1) 775
With the ridiculous number of stories and reports that have continually made it obvious that paypal screws people, I'm at a loss why anyone would use them for something this serious.
I mean, I feel bad for him and all, but at the same time - what a ridiculously stupid thing to do.
Radioactive Boar On the Rise In Germany 165
Germans who go out in the woods today are sure of a big surprise, radioactive boars. A portion of the wild boar population in Germany was irradiated after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, and the boars are thriving. In the last two years government payments to compensate hunters for radioactive boar have quadrupled. From the article: "According to the Environment Ministry in Berlin, almost €425,000 ($555,000) was paid out to hunters in 2009 in compensation for wild boar meat that was too contaminated by radiation to be sold for consumption. That total is more than four times higher than compensation payments made in 2007." I think the Germans are overlooking just how much money there is to be made from regenerating bacon.
Comment Not the worst (Score 1) 629
Attack of the Clones was far worse. Sillier story, even more breathtakingly unnecessary market-driven hoopla and the dialogue goes from "it's a small child and consequently this is bad, but tolerable" to "omg, who wrote this utter drivel and why did these actors defile themelves by partaking in it?"
Comment No thanks (Score 1) 737
I see this being, like diablo III, just an easy way to get more people to pay monthly for bnet access. No thanks.
I found dealing with all of the adolescent assholes on bnet bad enough with Diablo II, I'm certainly not PAYING for a laggy experience filled with bigots and idiots.
