Comment Re:Oh no. Not again. (Score 2, Informative) 409
Enjoy over-stating things, do we? Blade Runner has 3 versions and an unofficial workprint
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner#Versions there are a few more.
Comment Re:Terry Childs was NOT an IT pro (Score 1) 230
Even though they might get a lesser sentence, they have historically been held just as responsible. There is such a thing as moral obligations. If you do not agree with a certain order you (should) have the right to be a conscientious objector.
Yes, you should. When you are faced with this kind of moral dilemma however, you usually don't have the option. Well, you could sacrifice yourself, I suppose...
The Nuremberg trials obviously codified this: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him".
Which indicates that the person following orders will always remain somewhat responsible, not necessarily just as responsible.
Comment System requirements (Score 1) 414
The finalized system requirements for the game have been released.
Oh, really? I suppose that's why that page includes phrases such as "The system requirements for the StarCraft II Beta are
Comment Re:not a darwin award winner (Score 1) 699
A Darwin awards winner will never sue anybody Death is not strictly a requirement for a darwin award.
"Auto-pilot? Marvelous..."
Sid Meier and the 48-Hour Game 58
MMBK writes "Sid Meier is possibly the most influential game designer ever, having developed the Civilization series, among others. This video documentary looks at his past while he travels to the University of Michigan for the 48-hour game design competition, which was hosted by his son."
Myst Online: Uru Live Returns As Free-To-Play 58
agrif writes "Shorah b'shemtee! Uru Live has been released for free, as a first step towards opening its source. This game, an MMO released by the makers of Myst and Riven in 2003, has been canceled, zombified, resurrected, canceled again, and is now about to be released as open source to its dedicated fan base. Massively has written a brief newbie guide if you're unfamiliar with the game."
The Murky Origins of Zork's Name 70
mjn writes "Computational media researcher Nick Montfort traces the murky origins of Zork's name. It's well known that the word was used in MIT hacker jargon around that time, but how did it get there? Candidates are the term 'zorch' from late 1950s DIY electronics slang, the use of the term as a placeholder in some early 1970s textbooks, the typo a QWERTY user would get if he typed 'work' on an AZERTY keyboard, and several uses in obscure sci-fi. No solid answers so far, though, as there are problems with many of the possible explanations that would have made MIT hackers unlikely to have run across them at the right time."
New Aliens Vs. Predator Game Doesn't Make It Past AU Ratings Board 277
An anonymous reader writes "Australia refused to give Rebellion's new Aliens Vs. Predator game a rating, effectively banning it in the country. Rebellion says it won't be submitting an edited version for another round of classifications, however. (As Valve did with Left 4 Dead 2.) They said, 'We will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices.'"
Comment Re:Now It All Makes Sense (Score 1) 118
Naked mole rats... Pets of the future!
Comment Re:This depends on the language. (Score 1) 579
In Dutch, there are also three words to answer a question. "Ja" ('Yes') and "nee" ('No') are used to answer standard questions the way one would expect. For negated questions, "nee" ('that is correct') and "jawel" ('that is not correct') should be used.
Sometimes people answer a standard question with "jawel" to indicate 'Yes!'. I'm not sure whether that is appropriate, but it causes no real confusion. What does confuse me (and often them) is answering a negated question with "ja".
On the other hand, it always confuses people when I answer their "Do you want coffee or tea?" question with "Yes" when I don't care, so maybe it's all my fault.
Comment Re:Tiny budgets help a lot (Score 1) 163
Blake's 7?
The ship was a cardboard cut out for frack's sake.
Not really. I saw the model up close about 12 years ago and talked to the maker. IIRC, he said it cost about 3000 GBP to make. (Maybe less, but it was expensive.)
You're probably thinking of the oak leaves that were used to represent a giant space brain.
Originality Vs. Established IP In Games 71
Ten Ton Hammer has an article about the differences between developing a game based upon existing intellectual property and the creation of an entirely new story and setting. They make the point that while doing the former may result in an easier time building a fan base, those same fans will often be the hardest to please.
"By creating a game based on a popular IP, the company in question has a huge responsibility to 'do it right.' Unfortunately, not everyone realizes the reality of one little secret — every single fan out there has a different idea of what 'right' is. ... Lord of the Rings is a perfect example. For a person that may be familiar with the movies and little else, it's a great game with an impressive amount of depth and attention to detail. For the mass of fanatical fans that have spent more time poring over every book Tolkien ever wrote than even Tolkien himself, any deviation from the lore of his world is paramount to sacrilege on the most horrific scale."
Comment Re:Am I the only one... (Score 1) 378
>Finding a safe and realistic place to rest is integral to the role playing experience.
I disagree; it's certainly the historic D&D experience but it's hardly the stuff heroic fantasy is made of. Sure, heroes in the dungeon find a spot to catch their breath, find some clues, and prepare some weapons, but actually go to sleep? Neither I nor any of my players have ever found a way where that makes sense, and it's only ever been by the grace of the DM that the dungeon denizens didn't simply break in and knife us all during the night.
I assume any party sleeping in a dungeon would be sensible enough to post a guard.
Four encounters plus exploration is maybe two hours of in-game time.
If you're going through a dungeon at that rate, the DM is not making things interesting enough. And are you really telling us that after a fight which has everybody taking a lot of hits and the subsequent healing, you assume your party needs no further rest? That's nuts, even for heroic characters.
>Any new player trying to pull the "I'm out of spells, we need to go home" act is met with scorn for not being able to handle the responsibilities of their class (okay not outwardly, but they're not invited back if it becomes a regular event).
The game is calibrated so that one encounter is supposed to consume 1/4 of the party's resources, and that includes spells. 4 encounters a day. If the spellcaster is making it to the forth encounter before running dry, then it's not bad resource management; he's managed his resources in precisely the way the game expected him to.
The game expects him to try to make it to the end of the day. 4 fights/day is typical, but not absolute. It is his responsibility to tell the group his status frequently, not just to wait until he's out of spells.
The game demands that the party pack it in for the night. It's just bad game design,
No it doesn't. "The game" does not demand anything. If you really think so, switch to something other than D&D that's more suited to your needs.
But the idea of a character who forces or holds the attention of a dangerous combatant to set allies up for sneak attacks,
You really need to focus on othe feats.
There's no game in searching for traps, it's just a skill roll vs. a DC. There's nothing tactical about it.
Of course there is. You have to decide where to search for traps, don't you? When you're on the clock -- the enemy armies are about to invade and you need the Hammer of Doom(tm) -- you need to decide whether to search for traps or to gamble that there aren't any or you will be able to survive the results.
