And lo on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:24:00 -0000, Nicolas Alvarez  
<nic### [at] gmailisthebestcom> did spake, saying:


>> Nicolas Alvarez wrote:
>>> I don't know anyone (personally, and in the same country as me) who is  
>>> geeky enough to know about D&D anyway. So even if it sounded  
>>> interesting to me (which it doesn't), who would I play with?
>>  That's why WoW is such a hit, methinks. All the asocial nerds who'd  
>> otherwise be playing D&D can now WoW with folks in other countries.
>
> Well, I *have* tried MMORPGs. And I didn't like them. I consider the  
> "Massively Monotonous Online Repetitive Perpetual Gaming" backronym to  
> be somewhat accurate.
>
> And WoW isn't even free...

The problem, I think, with MMORPGs is they lack the RP part. Oh sure  
you're pretending to be a dwarf or dark elf, but unless you can find a  
server that specifically states it's for role-play then it descends to  
grind to a new level and score phat loot while comparing DPS and demanding  
buffs; what your character is doesn't real matter any more. Comparing  
'proper' D&D style role-play with MMORPGs is like comparing rugby and  
soccer.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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And lo on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:55:32 -0000, Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull>  
did spake, saying:

>>> Hmm, and I'll bet you've met a lot of salepeople in your line of work
>>> too. ;-)
>>  None if I can help it.
>
> TELL ME YOUR SECRET!! >_<
>
> I am *so* fed up of that Russian girl trying to sell me AV licenses...

"So, are you single?"

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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> Warp wrote:
> 
>>   You seem to refuse to accept that modern software *does more* than 10
>> years old software. You always talk as if they did the *exact same 
>> thing*,
>> just much more slowly.
> 
> OK, so can anybody name anything that Word can do now that it couldn't 
> before?
> 
> Hmm, let me see.
> 
> - It has grammer checking now.
> 
> - It does mail merge.
> 
> - It has macros.
> 
> - Er... WordArt?
> 
> - Erm... no, I'm done here.
> 
> Not sure why any of those things should make it so vastly slower...
> 

WordArt sure was slow as hell on the 33MHz computers we had at school 
(rendering speed looked like it was raytracing the damn things), but 
nope, I see no reason why it would make other things slower if you 
*don't* use that feature.

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> Warp wrote:
> 
>>   The main point is whether you were able to run X with it or not.
>> To simply use the console you could use a microwave oven. ;)
> 
> ...and somewhere there's probably a consumer microwave oven that *runs* 
> Linux. (Hey, the ADSL modem I bought runs Linux, why not a nicrowave oven?)
> 

http://www.netbsd.org/changes/2005.html#toaster

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And lo on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:18:22 -0000, Gail Shaw sa dot com>  
<"<initialsurname"@sentech> did spake, saying:

>
> "Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
> news:47d28245@news.povray.org...
>> Gail Shaw <initialsurname@sentech sa dot com> wrote:
>> > > Tell me about it. I thought "dungeons and dragons" was a TV  
>> series...
>>
>> > Well, there is a spin-off cartoon series (ok) and 2 movies (terrible)
>>
>>   I'm not completely sure how they can say that a TV series or a movie  
>> is
>> based on D&D,
>
> Apart from the fact they were both named "Dungeons and Dragons"?
>
> In the cartoon, there were 4 people that were identical to the character
> classes. Right down to naming. Also, if I recall they were children from
> this world pulled into a fantasy world. Been a while since I watched  
> them.

Let's see I recall a blonde chap who was an ranger, the coward warrior,  
the black acrobat, the red-head thief, the useless magician,... oh yeah  
and the young barbarian. They were transported while on a fairground ride  
by the Dungeon Master, whom I recall was a red-robed midget and spoke in  
riddles, to fight some pale-skinned guy representing the forces of evil,  
oh and there was a dragon in it to; I prefered Dangermouse.

> As for the movies, they were named Dungeons and Dragons: The movie. Other
> than that, not really. they were also really, really, really bad.

Oh I don't know the scenes with Kristen Wilson or Zoe McLellan had some  
small appeal, and anything starring Richard O'Brien can't be competely bad  
:-)

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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>> TELL ME YOUR SECRET!! >_<
>>
>> I am *so* fed up of that Russian girl trying to sell me AV licenses...
> 
> "So, are you single?"

Mmm, yes, no possibility of THAT backfiring epically, no sir! ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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>> ...and somewhere there's probably a consumer microwave oven that 
>> *runs* Linux. (Hey, the ADSL modem I bought runs Linux, why not a 
>> nicrowave oven?)
> 
> http://www.netbsd.org/changes/2005.html#toaster

Hmm. Let me file that along with the implementation of TCP/IP over Avian 
Carrier...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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And lo on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:15:37 -0000, Orchid XP v7 <voi### [at] devnull>  
did spake, saying:

>>>>  Sometimes you really do give the impression that you live under a  
>>>> rock.
>>>
>>> Why? Because I don't follow every tiny twist and turn of modern  
>>> technology with bated breath?
>>  Do you read no tech-related news? Any news at all?
>> The end of HD-DVD was fairly big news, and was at least mentioned by  
>> mainstream media.
>
> Generally, no.
>
> The mainstream news seems to only be interested in telling you about all  
> the BAD news. It's damn depressing to watch.

Except for the fun stories at the end with the skateboarding ducks and  
talking dogs.

> Most "technical news" is of the form "company X says they're going to do  
> Y and some analyst things that's a dumb idea". I mean, like I care.

Try http://www.eurogamer.net it's obviously slanted to games, but it does  
deal with the tech behind it too.

> It's annoying really - there are things I *do* care about. But it seems  
> difficult to find any news about them.
>
>>> And while we're on the subject... I gather that all this "HD" stuff is  
>>> only slightly better quality than what's already there. It's not like  
>>> anybody is going to notice a huge increase in picture quality.
>>  The increase in picture quality can be quite noticeable, but only if  
>> you have equipment that can display it properly.
>
> Well, two things:
>
> 1. It has 2x the spatial resolution in both directions. That doesn't  
> sound particularly earth-shattering, even on paper.

625 lines to 1080 lines max, if you want to know the difference trying  
changing your monitor settings from roughly one to the other.

> 2. I saw two displays side-by-side in a shop. The one marked HD was  
> certainly clearer. But it didn't make me go "wow, that's AMAZING!"  
> Actually it just made me go "oh, OK, so it's 10% more crisp. And you  
> want HOW MANY thousand pounds for this one??"

Well as I've mentioned elsewhere (blog-push) I've only seen a few shops  
have an HD set hooked up correctly to an HD player via an HDMI cable, the  
el-cheapo ones are using a standard aerial input and the mid-range ones  
component. Likewise the ones that are set up correctly are normally  
playing a demo video set-up to show all the good bits and hide the bad.

>>> And that makes it hard for me to get excited about it...
>>  A lot of people are of the opinion that selling movies on optical  
>> media is obsolete anyway.

Yeah well Microsoft and Apple can kiss my arse :-P

> What, you mean like how magnetic tape is "obsolete" today? ;-)

Yeah and vinyl.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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Phil Cook <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
> The problem, I think, with MMORPGs is they lack the RP part. Oh sure  
> you're pretending to be a dwarf or dark elf, but unless you can find a  
> server that specifically states it's for role-play then it descends to  
> grind to a new level and score phat loot while comparing DPS and demanding  
> buffs; what your character is doesn't real matter any more.

  Reading some online stories about (A)D&D playing, it doesn't sound too
different from that. ;)


-- 
                                                          - Warp

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:47d531fe@news.povray.org...
> Phil Cook <phi### [at] nospamrocainfreeservecouk> wrote:
> > The problem, I think, with MMORPGs is they lack the RP part. Oh sure
> > you're pretending to be a dwarf or dark elf, but unless you can find a
> > server that specifically states it's for role-play then it descends to
> > grind to a new level and score phat loot while comparing DPS and
demanding
> > buffs; what your character is doesn't real matter any more.
>
>   Reading some online stories about (A)D&D playing, it doesn't sound too
> different from that. ;)

Depends what kind of group you have. A bad group, with all the players just
after the xp and the loot - very boring.
A group that enjoys cooperative gaming and roleplaying - much, much fun.

I've played one MMORPG - Guild wars. Bored the hell out of me after a couple
weeks.

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