does anyone have any experience with any of this kind of thing?
http://www.contourergo.com/cdi_ergo/fla_source/ergo_products/rollermouse/rollermouse_main.asp

It's basically a horizontal rolling stick. Roll moves cursor up and down. Move stick sideways and cursor moves sideways.

It seems so nifty how they scroll it at banks and bureaucracy offices, definitely a lot better than a trackball.

Than, that might be better for your wrist than a mouse, althought it might suck for mapping, dunno. 

Slashdot liked a Wired article called "The myth of the 40 hour game."

I saw that and thought, "Huzzah. I'm sick of these six hour epics that claim to be much longer. I miss deep involved games."

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71836-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2

The guy's position is that games take far longer than 40 hours, citing TOMB RAIDER LEGEND as his prime example, which he played for much more than forty and then gave up on because he was still only two thirds through. "Who are these mythical 40-hour gamers?" he cries.

What the fuck? 

BLAH. 

I thought that article was pretty fucking stupid. He's complaining about getting a lot of value out of a game?

He mentions that he loves playing the game but suddenly decides to quit because he says he's "not anywhere near the end." First of all how the fuck does he know where the end is if he hasn't gotten there yet? Secondly, if the game is actually fun like he claims, why would he stop playing just because he thinks he's not near the end? Shouldn't he be playing because he enjoys the game?

This is by far one of the worst gaming articles I've ever read and it shocks me a bit coming from Wired who usually only print fairly interesting articles. 

while i din't like the article, i do see a problem with games that have a core of 10 fun hours getting padded with another 30 hours of tedium just to satisfy people who demand long games for their money (people who are generally poor and have lots of free time -- i.e. kids.) 

though the magazine is in my reading room (euphemism).

But I imagine some of the questions raised have answers if only we put a great deal of thought and effort into finding a solution to these perplexing questions.

First of all how the fuck does he know where the end is if he hasn't gotten there yet?

Walkthroughs. He could have had used one to get to where he is at in the game, and realized in relation to that locale in game, he quite a way to go. If he is on page 6 of a 9 page walkthrough, he may have done a simple rule of thumb that equates to 2/3rds of the way through.

If the writer did not use a walkthrough, he may have picked up a general idea of his location in the game through conversation with people who have played the game, something on the lines of, 'hey, where are you at, man? Oh, the killer bees! You have long journey ahead of you my friend; just wait til you get to the
bear. You better have a few rocks handy for the slingshot or you wont make it through it. How did I handle the killer bees? You know that jar of honey you get in the stripper's dressing room, well, you are not supppose to eat the contents, or pore them on the stripper . . .'

why would he stop playing just because he thinks he's not near the end?

It is possible that the writer has many deadlines, has a second job, or he may be a student as well and he has to put the game aside for a while to do those things. Perhaps,
he even has a three day weekend coming up in which he plans to block out several hours into indulging in this game that he says he enjoys.
Quiting may only be a temporary measure. Note the qualifiers, I don't know what may motivate this individual so making any assumption in this matter makes little sense.

Shouldn't he be playing because he enjoys the game?

All of my lessons in life were instilled in me by the age of two through a Sly and the Family Stone album my mom played for me,

'different strokes for different folks . . . because we've got to live together!'

There, I bet that will come in handy one day. Glad I could help. 

I thought SPoG told me that GTKRadiant 1.5+ doesn't actually write stuff to the registry? I just stores like if xml files with the user data? 

Yes, I did. However, I also want to finish this homework that's due tomorrow. :) 

What about other editors? BSP, WC, et al? And on slightly related topics, QMe? 

All of my lessons in life were instilled in me by the age of two through a Sly and the Family Stone album my mom played for me,

'different strokes for different folks . . . because we've got to live together!'

There, I bet that will come in handy one day. Glad I could help.

I think there should be at least one qualifier for you to be taken seriously as a games journalist : you play games because they're fun. 

I would be inclined to agree with that.

By the same token, why do books have to have so many chapters? Can't they be shorter? Like a page each? I can't concentrate on something for that long, and nobody writes books for someone like me. Where are all these supposed one-month book readers? 

I was reading a book last month in snatches here and there amongst my hectic life as a guy that writes shit for Wired magazine, and after a while when I saw I still wasn't at the end I just gave up. 

That GtkRadiant will run just fine from a USB drive if you set it up correctly. Stuff it writes to the registry (if any) will not be necessary for its operation. It doesn't need to be "installed" on the computer it is run from to work properly.

While you may have to mess around getting the config files set up right, my experience tells me that there is no reason why you couldn't get it going, along with a mini-quake directory with the required textures etc. 

The problem is that very few games manage to stay interesting all the time and if you have other things you'd rather like to do why shouldn't you stop playing? One capital crime I see far too often is games taking a long time to get going, often excused by story telling and setting the scene - things that could just as well be done in the game.

I think developers simply need to get better at making games now that everyone playing isn't teens with a lot of free time and greater ability to forgive tedious elements.

My game time now is mostly spent with games that's easy to pick up and play for a short time... Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! 

o... o... OUENDAN!!
Yeah what bear said. On the other hand plenty of gamers don't seem to mind having to spend hours of doing tedious things in games, look at all the people playing wow. =D 

I think there should be at least one qualifier for you to be taken seriously as a games journalist : you play games because they're fun.

better motivator than obsession/compulsion to really get a task done. I doubt if Van Gogh had a single moment of joy or happiness from painting in his later years. Sure game lovers may be willing to endure much, but they are motivated by a happiness factor. If the tedium
begins to effect that, they will move on. The
obssessive/compulsive on the other hand will just keep at it and at it, going the distance, moving the cheese further . . . 

if Van Gogh had s single moment of joy or happiness from paintings in his later years...

I don't, but I hope you enjoy them.
How do you write white right? 

I don't, but I hope you enjoy them.
How do you write white right?

H - O - N - K - Y 

http://pong.hku.nl/~wim/bugman.htm

This is interesting... most games are played against either computer AI or human opponents. Animal opponents opens up a whole new set of possiblities. 

Cheers. 

sure man :-) take your time. shouldn't have "poked" you. ;-) 

[deleted spam] 

http://pulsar.quaddicted.com/misc/pics/quakebook.jpg 

spam alert! :( 

A book like that would be cool. If you could find someone who did custom bindings, it'd be nice to have the Quakonomicon! Featuring woodcut-style illustrations and text like "FEAR YE THE SHAMBLERE, FOR ROCKETSE NE'ER WORK TOO WELLE UPON HIM"...