alanschu

One of the funniest moments I have experienced in a game.

If copy protection was perfect, there would be no more software piracy, which is the goal of copy protection. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The ideal may be for it to be perfect. But we're kidding ourselves if we think that copy protection providers actually expect their game to be uncrackable. Their realistic goal is to "good enough" to help improve the bottom line of the company that uses it. Yes. A game like Torment, which made money over the long run is too poor of a ROI. Investors typically like high ROI. It's really not as unreasonable as it sounds. People are an impatient bunch, and want, nay demand, instant gratification. These same people bitch and moan about the costs of games being too expensive, yet absolutely have to play it right now. Telling them that the cost will come down eventually means nothing and so on. It's a hard and messed up thing to prove, but I'm under the impression that they (both copy protectors as well as investors/publishers) have information that leads them to think that it does work. Otherwise they wouldn't waste money doing it, as it would lessen their ROI. Either that or they feel they need to keep doing it, as they are worried that if they don't do it they'd be saying piracy is okay (and possibly not a problem). But the rationale behind this would still be that they would anticipate increased piracy and as a result not make as much money.

If it escapes, it must have quite the escape velocity, unless maybe it somehow breaks down molecularly. I'm not disputing that it somehow becomes gaseous, but rather what happens to it when it goes. Is it just infrequent enough that we haven't observed it? And why wouldn't the volcanoes be enough to relieve the pressure?

Copy protection isn't meant to be perfect. EDIT: Funny, I'd figure you'd be against that sort of "central hub" thing.

Where does the matter go when it "sheds?" Does it turn into gas? I can't imagine it escaping, which would mean the atmosphere gets filled with even more junk. As for the proof, the Soviets landed a probe there so I imagine it looked around and went, "Oh look, Volcanoes."

Yeah, I had an edit. The Volcanoes are on Mars. Since Google searches like wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Venus

Isn't there quite the history of volcanic activity? I don't think they are too active right now, but IIRC they have two gigantic peaks that were believed to be volcanoes. EDIT: That's Mars, though Venus still has a geology that displays a prevalence of shield volcanoes.

Play video games? :"> Have sex without paying for it? :(" Have a friend! More seriously, never really gave it much thought. I guess I'll be boring and say "be happy."

Outside of the distance to the sun (which is likely very significant), Venus and Earth are believed to be similar when created. Though it does rotate slower, and IIRC it actually rotates "backwards." It is bizarro. A quick check at Wikipedia indicates that it likely lost most of its water due to solar wind, which is an important thing to consider with respect to Earth. Water is an important carbon sink, and it sound like Venus was at a disadvantage from that point. It's high temperature also prevents liquid water period, making sure that water vapour stays water vapour (and is an important principle of the runaway greenhouse effect). Though it seems as though most of the water was probably gonzo due to the lack of protection from the solar wind. For some reason I remembered water vapour being important on Venus, but wiki says otherwise. It has been a few years since I took astronomy :"> Oh well, we have water on Earth. Go go water!

What if I do not care about my saved games? As for my mouse

Welcome to the business. Where have you been? If you're really lucky, you'll get some experience with some code obfuscators as well, to help make reverse engineering a lot more difficult.

I suck at flying too. Being the gunner is relatively painless though, especially with a good pilot who knows what it takes to give the gunner a good position. My friend and I dominated in BFV (while blaring Ride of the Valkyries to boot!), and were pretty good at BF2 helicopters as well. He enjoys flying, and was one of the first "good" pilots in BF1942 as well (since it's all he was interested in and kept practicing...got even better once he got a joystick). It was a ton of fun having him provide cover for me in my tank as I captured flag after flag. He wasn't the best dog fighter, but he was a fantastic dive bomber, even with the fighter plane (which would only drop a single bomb at a time instead of the two).

I was sold off of BF2 because of the silly Blackhawk. I enjoyed gunning in the attack choppers too though. Shooting down enemy choppers with the TV guided missiles is a ton of fun.

I haven't played FEAR MP.

Anaheim has a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong road to climb back. Edmonton will still win the series. Anaheim might squeeze out another win, but I don't think it will go past 6. It sort of makes sense, as my roommate and I figured that the Oilers would maximize their potential profits by going to 6 games every series

Me neither. I enjoyed my romp through FEAR.

Won't happen. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The only reason it won't happen is if people are buying it, which is a win for Sony.

uh, i did not say it was AT 100%, i said "near its peak" and, 75% is near the peak in terms of what i was saying. at least, 75% of the specific wavelength is being trapped which is an overwhelming majority, i.e. their ain't much more to trap. Err, just a clarification...what exactly do you mean when you say "specific" wavelength. Are you implying that only 1 specific wavelength gets absorbed? Also, are you taking into consideration that anything that doesn't get absorbed, gets reflected (think back to your example with the blinds. Much of the light is reflected back)? I also disagree that 75% is near it's peak, especially consider that that number is an absolute value. it reached the peak, and its atmosphere is 96% CO2. ours is 0.038%. biiiiiiig difference. venus also has a much denser atmosphere to begin with. taks <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'm confused here, why is reaching the peak in Venus result in the runaway greenhouse effect, whereas ours won't? Not sure what citing the CO2 values means anyways, as the theory is that, with a runaway greenhouse effect, your CO2 values will explode. Not all that shocking that after it occurs, the atmosphere is 96%. This of course overlooks the fact that water vapour played a key role in Venus, as well as the fact that water vapour is the primary contributor to Earth's greenhouse effect.

Because taunting encourages the behaviour. Because people view the taunting as unsportsmanlike (ironically the fighting isn't, but that's the history of hockey I suppose). For the record, I agree that people are overreacting about nothing.

So Oblivion and Morrowind are completely independant of each other, right? But you do find DX and DX:IW sequels... even though the entire game-machanic got changed and raped... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> At least the world is the same in Oblivion/Morrowind, as well as Deus Ex.

Well, the fact that they aren't using Starforce is reflective of the fact that Ubisoft as a company has decided not to use them, isn't it?

Lagactica is why I'm on hiatus. (that and I'd need to reinstall the game ")

Since you're not a fan of fighting and would like to see it taken away, you'd think a player taunting and glorifying in the fight afterwards would make you upset.

It certainly coincides with my belief that the people having problems are a vocal minority. The only problem I have ever had with Starforce was on one game (Superpower 2), and it was having problems authenticating the CD-Key. Which was kind of funny, because all games shipped with the same CD-Key. They provided a version that bypasses this CD check though, so meh.

Hehe.