Comment Re:Depends the company ... (Score 1) 198
To clarify the above, this assumes there is no intervening legal or ethical policy and/or standard being crossed.
Comment Depends the company ... (Score 1) 198
I've been with company's that give away full access way to easily and others that hoard it like a miser.
Neither is right nor wrong (although too much access given to too many people would make me extremely nervous) and depends on how the company operates. Being in a similar position as the OP, I'd want full access to everything. If the company is hesitant, have them make you sign a security agreement.
If they won't go that far, take what they give you and work with that. Eventually you'll get full access through need in my experience.
Comment Re: Moderate Sized? (Score 1) 198
Depends the infrastructure. I don't care if the company has 1 employee, if the infrastructure is comprised of over 1000 active VMs, then it's a big company imo.
Comment Re:Flip to a modern stack (Score 1) 271
^ this
Comment 65 and Going Strong (Score 1) 314
Having been a programmer for over 25 years, I'm seeing more and more older people starting new careers in programming today. It's not uncommon for one of our new developers to be 40+ and be on to their second (or even third) careers. Stability in older employees being a large mitigating factor over youth (or so it was explained to me).
I think you have a good future ahead of you if the nature of the work keeps you interested and you understand that this is an ongoing learning experience. If you're looking to transition into a Senior Architect or Lead Developer role you may be in for an uphill battle but not an insurmountable one (depending on interest, skills and dedication to the craft).
The New Reality of Gaming 122
Hugh Pickens writes "Video games used to be about fighting aliens and rescuing princesses, writes Rohin Dharmakumar in Forbes, but the most popular games today have you tilling your farm, hiring waiting staff and devising menus for your restaurant or taking your pets out for walks while maintaining cordial relations with the neighbors. 'Reality, it would seem, is the new escapism.' Video games of the pre-social network era were mostly played by boys or young men but 'now the core audience of social network games are girls and young women,' says Alok Kejriwal, founder and CEO of games2win, an online gaming company. The tipping point in the US came in 2008 when women outnumbered men on the Internet. Combined with millions of parents and grandparents who're new to the Internet, the traditional face of the gamer is changing from that of a 25-year-old male to a band stretching from 16 to 40 years comprising men and women in almost equal numbers, says Sebastien de Halleux, one of the co-founders of Playfish, who predicts that someone is going to create a social game very shortly that pulls in a billion dollars a year. Gaming for this new set of players is less about breathtaking graphics, pulsating sound or edge-of-the-seat action and more about strengthening existing real world relations through frequent casual gaming. 'Think of these games as a sandbox where everybody has the same tools, yet everyone achieves different results,' says de Halleux."
Quake Live Beta Ends, Optional Subscription Plans Added 100
An anonymous reader sends news that the beta tag has come off of id's Quake Live, and they've added two subscription plans to monetize the game. The announcement asserts early and often that the game's current "Standard" play options will remain free-to-play. The lower subscription tier gets extra maps, a new Freeze Tag game mode, and clan creation abilities, among other things, for $2 per month. The higher plan, which is twice as expensive, grants players those benefits plus the capability to create their own private servers.
A Genetically Engineered Fly That Can Smell Light 111
An anonymous reader writes "It sounds like a cool — if somewhat pointless — super-powered insect: a fly that can smell light! Researchers added a light-sensitive protein to a fruit fly's olfactory neurons, which caused the neurons to fire when the fly was exposed to a certain wavelength of blue light. Adding the protein specifically to neurons that respond to good smells, like bananas, makes for a light-seeking fly."
Jordanian Mayor Angry Over "Alien Invasion" Prank 217
krou writes "Jordanian mayor Mohammed Mleihan has taken a dim view of local newspaper Al-Ghad's April Fools prank, which saw a front page story claiming that 'flying saucers flown by 3m (10ft) creatures had landed in the desert town of Jafr.' The paper claimed that communication networks had gone down, and people were fleeing the area. The mayor called the local security authorities, who combed the area, but they were unable to find any evidence of the aliens. Mr Mleihan is now considering suing because of the distress it caused to residents: 'Students didn't go to school, their parents were frightened and I almost evacuated the town's 13,000 residents. People were scared that aliens would attack them.'" I guess they've never heard of Orson Welles in Jordan.
Decrying the Excessive Emulation of Reality In Games 187
An editorial at GameSetWatch makes the case that game developers' relentless drive to make games more real has led to missed opportunities for creating unique fictional universes that are perhaps more interesting than our own. Quoting:
"Remember when the norm for a video game was a blue hedgehog that ran fast and collected rings and emeralds? Or a plumber that took mushrooms to become large, and grabbed a flower to throw fireballs? In reality they do none of those things, but in the name of a game, they make sense, inspire wonder, and create a new universe. ... We’ve seen time and time again that the closer you try to emulate reality, the more the 'game' aspects begin to stick out. Invisible walls in Final Fantasy, or grenades spawning at your feet when you go the wrong way in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are examples of kicking the player out of that illusion of reality, and letting them know that yes, this is a game, and yes, the rules are designed to keep you in the space of this world, not the real world. In reality, as a soldier I could disobey my orders and go exploring around the other side. I could be cowardly and turn back to base. Games shouldn’t have to plan for every eventuality, of course, but it’s not so hard to create universes that are compelling but where the unusual, or even simple backtracking, is not so unfeasible."
The Unsung Heroes of PC Gaming History 325
An anonymous reader writes "The history of PC gaming is littered with many well-known and highly regarded titles, but what about the titles you mightn't have heard of? This list of the top games in the history of the PC includes the usual suspects, such as Half-Life and Doom, but also some often overlooked PC games including such classics as Elite, the space trading RPG developed in 1984 by two college friends from Cambridge for the Acorn and BB Micro systems. The game used a truly elegant programming hack to create over 200 different worlds to explore while using 32kb of memory, all with 3D wireframes. Also in the list is Robot War, which required players to actually code the participants, and one of the first online multiplayer RPGs, Neverwinter Nights, which introduced many of the developer and user behaviors, such as custom guilds, that have made modern RPGs so popular."
What's your favorite classic game that always gets overlooked in these kinds of lists? My vote goes for Star Control 2.
Comment Re:The Expansion Problem (Score 1) 177
Not precisely accurate ... as the game gets older, the client starts to include previous expansions.
I just restarted my EQ2 account and the client came with all of the expansions up through the last two (that's 7 of the 9 expansions).
Comment Re:Welcome to the world of fast-food computer gami (Score 1) 177
While you will (and currently do) have a number of titles moving to the MMO model specifically to milk a rising niche in the games market, you are also seeing many MMOs starting to fail (Horizons, Matrix Online, London: Hellgate, etc ...).
You will always have some graff in any market but considering the production costs of an MMO (much greater then your average console game) I think the less substansive MMOs will start to weed themselves out (Champions Online is a good example of this).
Comment Re:Corporate Shills (Score 1) 177
I think the "grind" formula works at the lowest levels (basic carrot on a stick psychology) so is the most easiest to adopt for most game developers who tend to try to focus their efforts on glitzier aspects of their game. Of course in a game you really enjoy you tend to notice very little of the "grind" so grinding in general is very subjective.
For my tastes, I prefer an MMO that goes out of its way to create as real a virtual world as possible. MMOs with shortened worlds and more "stream lined" mechanics tend to get me bored quicker (i.e. notice the grind faster).
EQ, EQ2 and WoW are good examples of fairly well fleshed out MMO worlds with good physics and indepth levels of play (true Z-axis, gravity, water, friction, quests/crafting/meta games, thriving economies, etc ...).
WAR, Shadowbane and Champions Online are good examples of "niche" MMOs that I don't care for. Very limited in scope and play styles.
Most current mainstream (i.e. not F2P) MMOs fall in between those two models in my mind (DAoC, Aion, City of Heroes, SWG, etc ...).
Aussie Attorney General Says Gamers Are Scarier Than Biker Gangs 409
Sasayaki writes "South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson claims, in an interview with Good Game, that gamers were more of a threat to his family than biker gangs. This is the man who has been the biggest opponent to Australia receiving an R18+ rating for video games and who has the power to veto any such law introducing it."
Slashdot Top Deals
That does not compute.
