Unhelpful

This article was adapted from a post I wrote which was originally part of the discussion thread in reference to an article about the militarization - literally - of videogames. This response, and the article it addressed, appeared on slownewsday.net, a site I’ve created content for from time to time.

I listen to the BBC World Service regularly. Generally, it’s a good news source, but on certain European matters, it displays some of its English bias more obviously than when it’s covering matters further afoot.

One of the biggest stories of the last few months that isn’t in any way related to international terrorism or the attacks in Afghanistan is, not surprisingly, the upcoming introduction of Euro bills and coins into the European Union states which ratified the switch to a common currency.

If your only source of news about this matter was the BBC World Service, you’d be absolutely sure that the so-called Euro Zone is utterly doomed Read more »

The Ultima series is largely acknowledged for coming into its own when it embraced a gameplay asthetic which had a moral dimension in Ultima IV.

Now it’s time for Ultima. Online.

The problem? It’s not 1997, it’s 2001.

Calandryll has been busy talking up the concept of adding virtue to the formula which constitutes Ultima Online. It’s an ambitious goal. It’s going to be a coding and exploit-ironing hell.

But does it really matter? Read more »

RIAA is trying to legalize hacking and destruction of data for themselves.

According to this Wired.com story (courtesy of Slashdot), RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is trying to get an amendment to the current USA Act (which is of concern in and of itself) that allows them and other copyright holders to gain unauthorized access to your computer and delete all of your illegal MP3s. This is an absolute trampling of Americans’ rights granted by the Fourth Amendment.

There are a few major issues that I would like to address here. Read more »

It’s becoming a regular thing to disable access to the rest of one’s computer system when playing a game. EverQuest is the prime example, and reportedly Dark Ages of Camelot was shipped with alt-tab disabling. Some people don’t like this. I’m one of them.

(disclaimer: I play neither EQ nor DAOC, nor do I use ICQ or AIM).

Here are my opinions for not screwing with alt-tab.

First, I come from a unix background. Applications aren’t supposed to be disabling system functionality in the first place, and flat out aren’t allowed to. This protects the system and other applications.

Second, it’s my computer, not Sony’s, not Mythic’s. I decide what runs on it and what doesn’t. I decide how it operates, and I decide how the operating system is supposed to behave. Your program and your license agreement have absolutely no place in telling me what I can and cannot do with my property. I expect to be able to use my computer and my software the way I want, when I want. I should not, and will not cede my property rights.

I understand that some companies want to have some sort of “immersive experience”. Shutting off the rest of one’s capabilities is not “immersing” one into an “experience”, doing so is more akin to cutting off hearing, touch, taste, smell, then taping one’s eyelids open. While the player has no perception of anything besides what you’re forcing him to watch, it’s not very fun, and certainly not a “complete” experience.

Instead, integrate that functionality that people want and use into the game client. Yes, I do mean add something along the lines of an ICQ or AIM client to the game. I don’t mean the pathetic chat system that Origin implemented with the Second Age expansion. EverQuest does moderately well with its fairly diverse chat capability, but it’s still limited to itself. Don’t limit me. Appeal to all of my senses.

The always-thrown answer is “disabling alt-tab prevents cheating” is a complete misdirection. Making changes to a client machine’s operating system doesn’t have anything to do with whether cheating is possible. If cheating is possible in your game, it’s because your code is defective, either as a direct coding bug, or as a design flaw. Hobbling the functionality of a computer I spent hundreds of dollars on because your code is defective is unacceptable and incredibly laughable. Fix your software and your hardware, don’t cripple mine.

I was thinking about the words “uphill” and “downhill” yesterday.

Why is it that both of them imply a difficult time? You can’t say “Well, my day is pretty bad, but after the midway point, it’s all downhill” to indicate that the day gets better after the middle. It still retains a negative connotation.

You can have an “uphill battle.” Why not a “downhill battle”?