SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

author=Yellow Magic link=topic=3173.msg62699#msg62699 date=1235144201
Yeah I honestly don't understand why bitTorrent isn't banned outright, and would never believe legitimate uses anyway.

Because it would be draconian to ban it based on the fact that a bunch of people do misuse it. A large number of people use MP3 for illegal music, but banning the format would (besides being more or less impossible) screw a ton of legitmate users royally, especially considering the number of legitimate businesses now selling music in MP3 format rather than the proprietary formats that they had been using.

Bittorrent is nothing more than a method for distributing large files to a large number of people easily. The technology has been adapted and used by many legitimate businesses, including a number of software companies who distribute their legal electronic purchases via Bittorrent and the Open Source movement which does likewise. It is controllable from the tracker's end such that they can at any time stop distribution even if Seeders are still on it, and users can be banned, not to mention distributions password protected. It's not Bittorrent's fault that people use it for the wrong purposes, and the fact that there are still companies distributing large files that aren't using Bittorrent for distribution continues to piss me off. I've taken part in Microsoft's Dreamspark program, for example, and the downloads are completely ridiculous because they insist on using some Java-driven download manager from Adobe instead of just using Bittorrent like a sensible distributer would.

Banning an activity because of potential for abuse rather than the necessity of it smacks of fascism, and even as much as I agree that artists and creators should be paid for their work, I could not support anything so politically amoral as that.

You can choose "not to believe the legitimate uses" if you want, but it's like not believing in gravity. Disbelieve all you want, you're not going to float off into the sky.


I could really get off on a rant about the paradigm shift we're undergoing regarding digital/intellectual property and how much of the conflict between pirates and content owners is an issue of 20th-century vs. 21st-century ways of thinking and how trying to address it by fighting the pirates is like trying to cure cancer by treating the symptoms, but I've already yammered on for too long.

author=brandonabley link=topic=3173.msg62509#msg62509 date=1234990211

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3173.msg62362#msg62362 date=1234896652
given my lenient disposition towards piracy.

If by that you mean that you are a filthy pirate that deserves to be drug into a street and shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Anyway I am with Holbert. The last time I went to a torrent site was to pirate Point Break because it wasn't available on Netflix. I have never heard of legitimate use of any torrent site, outside of some game patches that can easily be hosted on other servers.

Many Linux distributions use Bittorrent as their primary means of distribution.

You can't code in it? Didn't realize that. Oh well. I guess my Metroidvania dreams will have to wait until I feel like putting more effort into it.

author=Fallen-Griever link=topic=3159.msg62355#msg62355 date=1234894106
My entire point was that episodes are simply the same as demos in relation to the complete game that is released at the end of it all, so how can the demo relationship have nothing to do with it? That is the entire argument.

So then what are your feelings on Telltale games, like the Sam and Max or Bone episodic seasons they've been running? Are they also a bunch of demos?

The whole idea behind episodic games is that each episode should be a complete game, with a beginning, middle, and end, that ties to a greater arc, both of gameplay and of story. This is not a bunch of demos, because each episode should be self-contained to a certain extent, in the same sense that any episode of a TV series should be somewhat self-contained. The best scenario might be seeing a whole season at once, but if any given episode isn't strong enough that someone could start playing/watching from there, then it is an example of a poor episode.

But even that doesn't make it a demo. It just means the creators don't have a firm grip on the episodic format.

author=S. F. LaValle link=topic=3169.msg62268#msg62268 date=1234846561
I would never go so far as to say that there's no way the current system of numbers in RPG's aren't changing. There is no limit to possibilities. The question is, can it be done to make a larger population of players happier with the end product?

You're right, Shadowtext. Maybe big game companies strive only to innovate gameplay by falling back on the assumption that it should be built around numbers. Maybe they haven't really tried to reinvent the wheel in that aspect. They may not be spending resources trying to change up those fundamentals, probably because the numbers, as a whole, work for people.

This is the true essence of my argument: I like the numbers, even the ones that seem meaningless. I derive my own ideas about their values, and base my gameplay style around that. Will I enjoy a game that changes that aspect? I'd love to try, I'm open to anything. I personally don't feel the need to innovate with this, however. I'm more than comfortable trying to come up with innovative gameplay, a good story, and more exciting manipulation of these numbers than making a game that just presents these numbers in a different way.

author=arcan link=topic=3169.msg62267#msg62267 date=1234846458
I thought we were discussing. We just all agree that numbers are cool and shouldn't really be changed. Maybe its just that you aren't giving good enough suggestions.

That last response was more directed at the whole "Well this isn't changing so do it yourself!" response and its like, not the fact that people don't agree with me. If you like numbers, go ahead and like them. It's when questions like this are just flat out dismissed that I become upset.