I don't see how it is stupid.
He encountered a problem: "Most of the low-cost web hosting companies do not provide SSH or git support, but only FTP." He then solved that problem and decided to make the work available to others.
1,989 karma · joined October 3, 2012
He encountered a problem: "Most of the low-cost web hosting companies do not provide SSH or git support, but only FTP." He then solved that problem and decided to make the work available to others.
I'm surprised just how much fun it still is and if you use something like ZDoom [1] (which I have been) you can literally just run the binary with no setup and it runs flawlessly on a modern system.
One thing that really stuck out to me as I've been playing it is that there really isn't anything from modern shooters I miss. I'm not trying to diminish the work that has been put into AI, Physics, Graphical fidelity etc, but what does it say about the genre when you can remove all the innovations over the last 20 years and it's not any less "fun"?
It's still up for debate whether he has been lying this entire time and knew about the entire thing.
Most startups related to trying to shake up the media publishing biz pretty much exclusively say "US only for now, we're working on worldwide" and it never happens. :(
I guess I should be mad at the institution, but that wouldn't be productive. Where do I start now to start learning what I actually need to know? It seems like there is so much I don't know.
And as long as there are new generations that want to spend their free time with such an experiment, history will repeat itself. Not to mention experiencing it in a new medium (heh, play-by-mail) and taking it to another scale. Hell, our alliance has it's own custom authentication application that strings together dozens of various applications that serve our coalition. We have a small team of system admins that run our services. A single jabber broadcast for a fleet reaches thousands of members instantly, followed by a flurry on logins to the game server.
As far as the "initial experience" being terrible, I completely agree with you on that one. CCP have put a lot of effort into improving the new player experience but it's still extremely lacking and I honestly don't think this will ever change.
I also admit choosing "war simulator" may not of been the best phrase. You're right, it's a simulator of something, but when you are in a science fiction setting where spaceship pilots are immortal, it's never going to represent any war we are familiar with. You're wrong about it not being interesting though, if it wasn't interesting, thousands of us wouldn't log in at one time to take part in a battle over a bunch of pixels.
In regard to your comment about it not being sold as a "social experiment", you'd be surprised. CCP went in that direction with their marketing material for a few years:
"The Butterfly Effect" - http://youtu.be/08hmqyejCYU
"Causality" - http://youtu.be/uGplrpWvz0I
"I Was There" - http://youtu.be/OSxSyv4LC1c
I'm stop posting about EVE now. I fear about coming across as overly defensive about the game, when that isn't really my intention.
Setting aside all the inaccuracies and misunderstandings of basic game mechanics in it (which is in part due to the steep learning curve of the game I admit, so it's somewhat understandable) EVE Online at it's core is ultimately a geek social hierarchy with a thin veil of "science fiction video game" masked over it.
Nowhere in the post did it mention ever interacting with other players, let alone leaving the safety of high security space to join one of the established social powerhouses in player controlled space. This is where the real "game" takes place and which is why the retention rate of new players is so extremely low, they don't get to see it.
If you are wondering why people keep playing this game, it isn't because they are stuck in some kind of "WoW-like" grind trance and just want to see a progress bar inch forward. It's ultimately the chance to ruin another social groups day and proclaim that your social group or culture "is better then theirs". You can visibly view a generated map of player controlled space[1] and say "we own this, we took it from you". The large super capital ships used in these battles are also worth upwards of $1,000 USD. A battle not long ago[2] resulted in the destruction of somewhere around 13 to 15 thousand dollars worth of capital ships.
Ultimately, EVE Online is a social experiment first, a war simulator for privileged first world geeks second, and a science fiction video game somewhere down at the bottom of the list.
[1] http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/corp/Verite/influence.png
The problem to solve is how do you have a fixed address where anyone can contact you, spam doesn't get though and you don't have to maintain personal black/white lists. This is what email currently provides. Granted, the spam part varies depending on the provider.
How is this functionally any different then blacklists? That's just a whitelist instead. So instead of new mail severs "quite likely" being on a blacklist, they are definitely not going to be on a whitelist.
And no, it doesn't matter if isn't a smart idea when you aren't in a position to change anything. Even if you have a perfect technical solution to the problem, you still have to convince every existing major provider to adopt a solution that isn't even a direct problem for them.
Spam has lead email to basically become this closed ecosystem. If you don't use one of the already established major email providers, ISP's or domain name registrars the reliability of email hits the floor.
If they are unproductive, look like shit, have poor time management, have mood swings etc then they are a liability to their employer because of those things, not because they "do drugs".
On the other hand if they are productive, are professional, [any other positive attribute] and contribute to their employer, does it matter if they are on drugs at the time?
Granted, I've never meet anyone that are actually functional members of society once they start abusing something like meth, but my point is that employees should be judged purely on their performance in the workplace or how they contribute.
Developers and publishers are allowed to add any DRM they want on top of Steam, and frequently do. So you can purchase something through Steam, which can have Securom, Tages, Windows LIVE or any other DRM scheme. This includes limited machine installations which sometimes offer deactivation, but only if you specifically uninstall and deactivate them. So in your reformatting use-case, depending on what games you have purchased, you may end up in the same situation.
Basically, you incorrectly assumed Steam is an alternative to other DRM measures, when in fact it's quite often[1] used on top of other DRM schemes. If you don't believe me, simply check the store pages of most major Ubisoft[2] titles. I just picked Anno 2070 (because I know it has it) and in the infobox on the right hand side:
3rd-party DRM: Solidshield Tages SAS 3 machine activation limit
[1]Among AAA titles that is, I have yet to see it in any indie titles. [2]Pretty much the worst player in the industry when it comes to DRM.