metadigital

Sorry I haven't been attending to the minuti

Using mobile devices while actually on the move can be tricky, even dangerous. Texting while walking or worse, driving, might land you in trouble. So researchers at the University of Glasgow, in conjunction with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, are working on new interfaces based on 3D sound and physical gestures, using clever mathematics and even cleverer wearable technologies to open up new ways of using our mobile gadgets. "We hope to develop interfaces that are truly mobile, allowing users to concentrate on the real world while interacting with thier mobile device as naturally as if they were talking to a friend while walking," says researcher Professor Stephen Brewster of the project. the concept, dubbed 'Audioclouds', will use mobile computing concepts to make devices safer and more intuitive to use on the move. At its simplest, a nod of the head or a click of the fingers could change the track of an MP3 player, but it is also about receiving information in more useful ways. These include filters built into the technology that would allow for audio 'windows' where auditory data or music can appear to come from a certain direction, making it easier for the brain to distinguish from other sounds going on around us. This, coupled with movement interfaces, such as tilting PDAs and using whole body gestures, will make it more viable to interact with interfaces without having to peer at a tiny screen. This means that mobile computing could quickly become more versatile and, so the researchers on the Audioclouds project hope, even open up new ways of using those devices [like great games for the GBA!]. So, if in a few years' time you see someone dancing along the road with a mobile phone in his hands he might not be listening to music, he might be interacting with an Audiocloud and trying to make the most of his predictive texting. http://www.audiclouds.org PC Format, August 2005, p23.

That should be a given: Infocom titles should all be included free, as a sweetener for the platform, whatever the platform is (except platforms with no or limited verbal input facilites, but then, what sort of platform doesn't permit the most pervasive form of communcation?)

If you can crack that nut, then you are onto a winner.

My apologies; I was referring to Opposing Force.

Yes and no. There is no argument that Shakespeare or Dickens are excellent writers. The writing of (or attributed to) Shakespeare is still revered (even though quotes from it have been considered clich

I always liked systems where failure does not necessarily mean a scenario, or the game itself are over. Failure doesn't need to be the end of everything, and may at times be a requirement to pursue some other path. In that example, it would be great to know that the Paladin may retry the test, that failing it isn't the end (though he should still suffer some slight penalites to failure, ie, geting worse items on a retry that he would on a first time). <{POST_SNAPBACK}> To go one step further: mistakes say more about people than success; the mistakes we have made define us more than our triumphs, as it is these lessons that we have to overcome to reach the success. So failure is a good way to test a new character: where they fail is the limit that helps define the PC. The only problem with taking this too far is that people enjoy role playing different characters to themselves

I had seen it before (must have features on the Valve news-stream) but I haven't played it yet. Currently downloading all 228MB ...

Very droll. :Darque:

Lots of comments I want to address, and

Very much so. Although you don't appear to be on your own in this forum in your inability to understand them, nor your seeming lack of appreciation for better craft. Still, everyone enjoys good writing, even if they can't explain what makes it good, or bad writing bad.

1. Good. I think this is a step in the right direction; the more I learn about humans and their skills, the more I find that there are no set "classes", more like attribute / feat groupings that can be regarded as classes, but there is no reason why (in unusual but not necessarily rare cases) a person of one particular "class" might be strong in a feat / attribute that isn't pertinent to their "class", and even poor at some that are. E.g. a fighter who has a high intelligence and can read several languages. 2. I can't emphasize my support for this enough; this is one technique that helps bring empathy and interest to the audience; their choices (in character creation) have a direct result on the narrative. 3. Yep, that always struck me as shallow and quite tedious. I'm sure if you retrieve the "Sword of Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggghhh", the Paladin Order will want it back, and not just give it to you for passing the test of retrieving it. Maybe they might allow you to visit their armourer, though, and get asword of your design that is almost as good ... 4. Yay! \o/

I must also confess that part of the pleasure I derive from Rome: Total War is in hearing the Latin spoken ... I really dig that.

OCCULTAE INIMICITIAE MAGIS TIMENDAE SUNT QUAM APERT

I like this. This is good, but needs some work. Maybe shorten it to a conversation and a single combat encounter, where the PC must choose (and then it can be made more difficult, like the dialogue options in K2, where it is not trivial to choose light or dark: that way people are more inclined to role-play). Again this is good. I want to have some sort of event that the rules quoted in the films, four thousand -- twenty generations later -- are based on. Specifically, I want the adult Jedi from K2 to go off and do some sort of self-indulgent power tripping / fall to the Dark Side (assuming they were light side)/ whatever. This gives some continuity with the films (that was lost with K2, even after being re-iterated in K1!) and reverses all (most) of the "instant" Jedi created in K2. Yep, that's a nice way to provide some replayability. I would go further with this idea, too. I see that there should be a Renaissance, or a Reformation; the Light Side needs to deal with this denial of the emotional being, by learning from the Dark Side, and acknowledging the emotions and dealing with them, rather than repressing them. This could be the theme of K3, neatly tying up the three games, as the True Sith (or whatever is out beyond the Outer Rim) are effectively a fresh source of information that can be used to re-invigorate the teachings of the Jedi in much the same way as Christian scholars gained so much from the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, for example.

I would like to have a young non-Jedi character, yes. The discovery of Force adept would perhaps have been known, just not the extent. Perhaps the PC has been "self-training" through self-awareness, and has therefore learned differently to both Sith and Jedi. I think Christian mythology is a rich vein for tapping. I thought there were seven demons. Lucifer = Highest Archangel motivated by Pride = heosphoros, "morning star" or "Day Star," literally "bringer of the Dawn = Greek star-myth of Pha

Is it really complicated, and rewrites a lot of stuff in subtle ways, so that it needs a whole book to adequately explore the entire bredth of it?

Yeah, nothing but chillout on the beat box now, man.

Isn't there another rule change due about now?

... Because no-one is ever going to attempt to do fourteen consecutive extreme-twister-contortionist moves to a four-four beat.

Which is easy to do, if you know how.

Nothing to do with cheesey omlettes, I suppose. Um, I wonder if JE Sawyer is going to implement 3e, 3.5e or some other ruleset?

I had a book (in another life in another country, now) called The Fifteen Greatest Battles in History" or similar, and it was written before the World Wars. Most of the battles were BCE. (Marathon was one of the latter ones. Boy, those Persians sure got their arses kicked a lot.) I remember there was a particular battle with the Greek states, where a single cohort turned the tide in a battle where they were outnumbered about ten to one (it was up on top of a cliff, or something) by simply hunkering down and "doing a hoplite thing". All the other routed friendlies started turning back, especially when some of the opposition started to flee ...

I caught some of the "Three Musketeers" (Starring Michael York and Oliver Reed) today and frequently the swordsmen grabbed an extra foil and attacked with dual-wield. Interesting. And they seemed to do pretty well.

A simile is a comparison using "like" or "as".