Hell almighty no.

When your options are "suck" and "sucks slightly less," the right thing to do is find something else to occupy your time.

Damn dude, if your life is at the point where you're considering playing a game YOU'RE ALREADY BORED WITH in order to keep you from playing OTHER BORING GAMES, might I suggest taking up a new hobby?

Take Scuba lessons.

Go Skydiving.

Learn to make pottery.

Learn to make furniture.

Design your own shirt line.

Go to a strip club.

Make a fancy dinner for your girlfriend/boyfriend.

The possibilities are out there! Why anyone would willingly subject themselves to boredom is beyond me. At least the Ascetics torture themselves for religious enlightenment....

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Name me one MMO, except LOTRO, that released the last 3-4 years that didn't turn out to be a PAID beta at launch?

Faulty logic.

Just because the industry as a whole has turned into crap does not somehow justify Funcom's following suit.

"If everyone else jumped off a cliff, would you too?"

Idiocy is still idiocy.

Once bitten, twice shy, eh?

The concept isn't that bad. The art won't speak for the game. FunCom's modus operandi seems to be "release a horribly buggy game, and then have someone else transfer to the head honcho spot in order to clean it up."

AoC, a year and change after its release, is finally turning out to be a decent game.

Maybe TSW will be, too... Circa 2012 or 2013.

Until it gets glowing reviews and praise from friends, I'll let this one slip into "Won't try it until the free trial" zone.

Keep in mind only a minority of those who dislike WoW are so vocal.

I, too, was tempted to go back to WoW. I quit years ago from my server's top raiding guild. I got excited over the new "old" areas, but then I remembered nostalgia can be a kick in the pants.

I didn't quit WoW because I couldn't fly in the old world. I didn't quit WoW because I thought Auberdine needed a retooling. I quit WoW because raiding was a chore, my favorite flavor of PvP was never to return (ah, original Alterac... I knew thee well), and the Lore - which originally guaranteed my purchase some 6 years ago - has been mangled.

Until raiding isn't the be-all-end-all way of PvE life, until massive 40 v 40 PvP battles exist that requires long-term tactics and strategies, or until the Lore starts making sense again, I will stay away.

I'm anxious to see their new MMO project, however. I'm also excited for a bunch of other games, Dragon Age; Origins being chief among them. If you think it's been a long time since a decent MMO came out, try being a lover of non-MMO RPGs. There hasn't been a decent story told to the depth of the fabled Baldur's Gate II for a full decade, and now I'm pissing myself waiting for November.

Originally posted by thafireball

What the hell does "retcon" mean?  I hope to god it's not a strung together fragment of two words...if that's the case then jesus christ you people are getting lazy.

"Retroactive Construction," or similar variations. Basically, it's changing the previous Lore of the material in order to fit the current situation and then pretending like it was that way all along.

Kind of like how some hardcore Fundamentalists believe Dinosaurs fit into the Christian view of history...

It's their IP, they can do whatever the %#!@ they want with it.

Whether or not the playerbase accepts it or not is their problem. Personally, I find it hilarious that you're quitting over a raid boss's level adjustment instead of over the FLYING MAGICAL SPACE-MONKIES POWERED BY INTELLIGENT CRYSTALS which were never mentioned until BC appeared.

That's the Retcon I had trouble swallowing.

---

Originally posted by crunchyblack
The game runs stable, theres some bugs but nothing that has effected me yet, and the game doent run laggy.  Perhaps its your setup.

---

It ran stable for me at launch. I was actually fine with it, and one of the few not prone to the memory leaks.

---

When i referenced launch i referenced the hate youve carried since then.  Its a game, so you didnt like it, not the end of the world.

---

Hate? I don't see hate. I see an opinion. Hate would be expletives in all caps strung across multiple message boards.

I played at launch for three months. I won't touch anything FunCom makes without some serious consideration again because of how crap the game was. I got to level 62 I believe before there was absolutely nothing left to do for PVP besides get ganked by rolling death squads or gank others.

The mini-games were (are) kind of a joke, and I was mostly looking forward to the sieges. The patches were hit and miss, reps were gritting their teeth, and overall nothing was being done.

I'm happy to see it's at least on a good track with Gaute out of the picture and there's some consistent updates, but from what I've heard Sieges still aren't fixed and end-game raids are still buggy.
 

---

I could care less about what the pop was at launch and that 80% of the people are gone (random stat?)  its fun now, i wasnt it expecting it to be.  I was expecting it to be like you described, but its not, which is why ive stayed.

---

It's closer to 75%. FunCom sold roughly 1Million copies of AoC. The last quarterly report I saw revealed their population to be roughly 200-250k. The staggering fact that they lost half of their initial population within 3 months is one giant red flag for the state of the game, and didn't help Gaute's resume.

---

You dont like the combo system?  All the attacks are setup nice and easy for you, its a hell of a lot more entertaining than the standard mmorpg combat...mabey thats what you want?

---

A series of buttons is a series of buttons is a series of buttons. As a Mage in WoW it was 6 --> 3 --> Shift 5 --> Shift F. Frost Nova, Blink, Fireball, Fireblast. In AoC it was Q, X, R, T... If you were fighting a mob it was Q, Q, Q, T, T, T, Q, Q, Q, etc....

Not that different. No different at all if you were a caster in AoC.

---

You have to admit that the next patches are going to include some good ideas for guild renoun points and public rankings for them via member leveling.
my guess is that your looking for the ultra niche super sandbox ffa open world pvp full loot game thats not comming?  or did you not like darkfall?

---

I hope the next patches include some good ideas. AoC needs SOMETHING to keep it going. I didn't even get to end-game and I saw PvP as worthless, futureless (without any interesting large-scale battles), and I wasn't in the mood for long bouts of PvE grindfests like I got away from in WoW.

Personally I'm looking for something more sandbox, with reasons to fight large-scale battles on a consistent basis. I don't like full-loot nor FFA, I prefer factions and damaged gear (or just losing money). I like expansive un-instanced worlds with plenty to do.

Barring those, a really good schtick that draws my attention. Currently I'm keeping an eye on Jumpgate Evolution and The Old Republic to see how they turn out. I was keeping an eye on WAR as an alternative to AoC, but the bad engine set me off something fierce.

Originally posted by grandpagamer

I was wondering what everyone thought about the possibility of more games coming to Mac. Seeing that Warhammer is making a Mac version got me to thinking about it again. Considering how poorly Vista operated (i know its supposed to be better now) i had thought about a Mac for my next computer but searching for games on Amazon or even Ebay i saw how few were listed compared to PC. Its my understanding the windows emulator that some users use isnt all that good so was wondering what everyone thought about the possibility of more Mac games in the futrue.

When you buy a Mac, you're paying for the privilege of using the OS and the air that goes along with being a Mac owner. That's about the best way I can put it.

The hardware is generally of a little higher quality than your average PC, and most Mac users will recommend Bootcamp, not an emulator or Virtual Machine.

Frankly, I never got the big deal about OSX. It's good, sure... But it's not like mind-blowingly good. It doesn't have as many issues because Apple controls the hardware and there are only 8% of the people using Macs that there are using PCs. Less of a population doing weird things and control over the hardware pretty much eliminates most bugs.

Contrary to popular dogma, Macs are not more secure, though. There are some severe flaws in the OS that have existed for years, but honestly - if you ask the people who make Trojans/worms/etc. - it's just not worth the time to exploit Macs' lack of security.

Windows Vista x64 has been a good OS for me, and more stable than XP ever was. My brother has the W7 RC, and I have to say - I really like it. It's what Vista should have been, and I plan to upgrade when it's out.

As for the possibility of Mac games in the future - well, I kind of doubt it. Yeah, WAR is coming out with one, and Blizzard always supports Macs, but for most companies it's just not a financially viable option. Out of the 8% market share that Apple holds for PCs, I'd have to say about 50% of Mac users are college students/professors who don't game. You'd be lucky if 25% of Mac users are anything more than casual gamers. So, in essence, as a game developer, you'd be spending several thousand (if not hundred thousand) more dollars on development, delaying the release of the game by months, all for ~2% of the market.

Unless you're Blizzard, it's just not viable. When Mac gamers become 10% of the gaming population, then I'd welcome a resurgence... But I doubt that'll happen. W7 is actually a really good OS, and has a chance at bringing back a lot of people that were put off by Vista.

Originally posted by Tygrr

Ok, I find out that my CPU is running 55-60 C. Turns out that my Zalman fan isn't running.

I shut down my system now it doesn't boot up. Open up my case removed 3 sticks of RAM, and unplug the optical drive. Booted up got 4 beeps saying my fan is running low rpm.

I notice that my fan is only running right before the system boots up. Starts then stops. Now my PC won't even boot up anymore. Could this be the cause of my PSU losing power or my CPU got over heated?

Need help thanks.

Look for a BIOS upgrade and see if that helps.

It just sounds like your BIOS isn't utilizing the PWM feature of the fan, so it's not turning it on. It could also be the target temps in your current BIOS aren't set correctly.

If it's not either of those, my bet is that it's a faulty motherboard. However, try it with another PWM fan first and see what happens.

Originally posted by dreamer05

Just a simple question of what I should upgrade to get better graphics and performance.

I have a Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz

2.99 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM

My video card is Radeon x600 256mb Hypermemory

 

I'm not very good with computers so keep that in mind, but what should I start with?

It greatly depends what your budget is.

While your CPU isn't bad (per say), it's a little outdated.

Your video card is definitely your weakest link, but as said above... AGP slots can only progress so much, and that limit was reached a few years ago. Newer cards almost exclusively come in PCI-E format, which would require you to drop money for a new motherboard.

If you put the money towards a new Motherboard, there might be a chance that it would come with a different supported CPU chipset, making you buy a new CPU anyways.

You'd also have to get new RAM, as I'm guessing you're on DDRAM, and not DDR2 or DDR3, the latter of which is becoming the new standard, but DDR2 is the cheapest and most widely supported.

So, in the end... If you're looking to upgrade, I'd hold onto the cash until you have about $600-$1200 and just invest in a new machine, as upgrading one part of what you have might necessitate upgrading the whole shebang anyways.

A good Mid-range machine with plenty of power will run you about $1000 if you start from scratch and build it yourself. If you're not tech savvy, look into some of the gaming computers Dell and others put out. They'll cost you a bit more for the same hardware, but they'll assemble it and test it.

Originally posted by patrikd23

 

Well something I learned from playing WoW for 4 years or more is that they keep imbalanceing classes so that all can get the feeling they are overpowered and that is the way they want it to be. And next month some other class is overpowered and yadda yadda....

And when it comes to armors it seem like they are running out of ideas or they let the janitors choose the armors...

 

WoW was good to me for 4 years, but now its just boring.. it dont matter what they do anymore, soon as people mention WoW I almost puke. But it was fun while it lasted. One cant stay in the same place forever.

They admitted to it several times over before I left in '05 or so. They purposefully tweak balances so that every class has their time in the limelight... Though personally, as a Fire Mage, I never felt it for more than a few seconds when Dragon Breath first came out. Then it was back to working my ass off to be half-decent as Warlocks and Shadow Priests cackled maniacally in the corner as everyone died.

I'm almost positive by now Blizzard has the "B" team working on WoW. If not the "B" team, then they haven't let the current team breathe. Then again, it got stale for me a long time ago. PvP died the day Alterac Valley turned into a giant Warsong Gulch. The Lore died the moment purple squid-people from outer space crash-landed with their ship full of "Light" generating singing crystals. PvE was always pretty solid, though. Just the spank 'n tank fights that were boring.

Then again, it's understandable. After Arthas is dead, there's nothing else. I'm betting resources are being diverted to their new next-gen MMO, thus leaving a larger workload for fewer people - which is why you see similar armor sets and such.

I can only hope their next MMO isn't Starcraft. I think that would suck me in and I'd never see daylight again until the concrete crumbles around me...

Words are purely, completely, and utterly subjective. Meaning is interpreted by the receiver, and is affected by social context and expected intent. Basically, words mean whatever the listener/reader believes they mean.

The astute transmitter learns to navigate expected context and subjective interpretation, making sure that their intended message is as close as possible to the interpreted one.

The idiotic transmitter will assume that their form of communication, with its purely subjective qualities, is best and/or that it should be tolerated merely because they're using it. There's nothing that says subjective interpretations must be equally treated, and they often aren't.

Humans are finicky and often cowardly beings. The younger, in general, the more cowardly. Anonymity gives them false courage, but lock them in a room with the people they have issues with, and suddenly their vim and vigor disappear in favor of excuses and accusations. It becomes dangerous if it persists into old age, where ignorance of the subjectivity of interpretation leads to miscommunication or laziness.

Is language evolving? Yes. However, acceptable language is determined by the majority power (quite a lot like most other things), and oddly enough - just because you have the right to free speech, doesn't mean you won't get severely punished for it if it pisses off those in power. Is it unfair? Well, that assumes fairness is obtainable. It's not. History has always been written by the victors, and those in power will always make the rules. Hierarchies have always existed, and will always exist.

So, in relation to language - it just depends where you are and who you're dealing with. As I said before, anonymity (and lack of immediate recourse) makes for a lot of idiots in MMOs who feel like it's fine saying whatever they want. Practically speaking, they are fine - if there's no one to punish them, then habits will not change. However, another danger of the practice is that once something becomes a habit, it leaks into other areas of your life subconsciously. I guarantee you, you will never be hired for a 6-figure salary if you ever use the word "Gay" or "N*****." It won't happen. You'll be stuck at McDonald's bitching about the cost of gas. Try using either one on a grad-school application; same thing will happen. You'll be put in the "Rejected" pile so quickly they won't have time to look at your credentials (unless, of course, it's a constructive abstract dealing with the flamboyancy of either term in an education light - but that's a different context). Most people know this. When it matters, when your livelihood depends on you not being a jerk, most people will opt for the easiest route to their goal.

Those that row against the flow, and have been successful doing so, have done so in an extremely calculated manner so as to talk in the language of the majority power while also introducing new ideas. Those are the smart people.

Others are monumental idiots.

I can see why they banned him, but it's still hilarious.

My kudos to the guy. Heck, it's not like he bought a new car - he paid off medical bills. I wonder if there will emerge an SEC like entity in EVE...

Good going Ricdic! Good moves. :)

1)  I want to see a much higher grade of RP-enforcement. I stuck with WoW through TBC, then just couldn't take it anymore because the GMs weren't doing anything. Have a problem sit in the queue for 3 hours, only to get a copy+paste response and no actions taken.

If the Server has an RP-tag, create a pop-up that thoroughly and clearly explains what is and is not accepted. Have the player agree to the terms of the RP server pop-up before being allowed to even connect.

I want to see a special RP category of tickets that deals specifically with RP issues, tended to by a few RP-specific GMs. I also want those GMs to have a wider range of abilities other than "Ineffective Warning" or "Banned." One warning is fine. After that, I want to see a setup like the following:

-Multiple incidents of verbal taunting/abuse agains Roleplayers: Mute the player for a week, a month, then ban.

-Multiple incidents of active-disruption (through emotes, clipping, etc.): Make the player invisible for a week, a month, then ban.

-Verbal abuse and active-disruption: Freeze the account for a week, a month, then a ban.

To some this may seem harsh, but I go to RP servers to Roleplay. If I wanted to PvP with Leetz0rsDewd I would go to a PvP server. If I wanted to kill NPCs with IMSoEl337 I would go to a PvE server. I only ask for the same in return.

2) I want to see a significant degree of player world-manipulation. Building houses, farms, cities, etc. is great fun. If I have the in-game money to purchase a plot of land, I really want it to be mine. Think Sims-design capabilities without the (in my opinion) lame imitation of reality.

3) I want to see the death of quests that are there for no other reason than to grant you XP. Most FedEx quests, all "Kill X NPC" quests, etc..

4) Greater appearance and customization options. Armor dyes are always a good thing. The ability to 'retain' your unique appearance would also be a favorable trait in my book. In WoW I loved a few looks for my Mage, and hated almost all the official sets. I was so sick of purple, blue, and pink by the end (I'm a Red, Black, and Gold type of guy) that the only which appealed to me was the unattainable Arena set. Being able to customize weapons in a similar fashion is also a good idea.

5) Open, dynamic world. After AoC I'm sick of instances. TR wasn't that bad, as at least the areas that were instanced were fairly large and had stuff going on. AoC was instance-tastic, and I greatly preferred WoW's approach. Being able to take my character to some secluded spot on an enormous map was exhilerating.

6) Unique quests, titles, and items. I also truly mean 'unique.' It appears once, and when it's done, it's done - or has an incredibly small chance of appearing again. I also don't want these to be only accesible to hardcore players/guilds. Maybe while wandering around in said enormous open-world and finding said ultra-secluded, super-secret spot, someone appears and offers you a unique tattoo/looking item/armor/title for helping them out.

7) I want to see the Rock/Paper/Scissors model of class design (or Holy Trifecta of Warrior, Mage, Healer if you must) done away with. I think I'd be all right with "softer" incarnations, but hard counters should only exist of both players have antagonistic skill sets by choice - not by inherent design. It works for FPS games, but in heavily dynamic MMOs, it's a bunch of headache for very little reward.

About all I can think of for now. Kudos.

Originally posted by noquarter

He's right, and I apologize for not believing but apparently newer MSI boards beep for the number of USB devices plugged in, absolutely stupid idea imo.. why would you care about getting beeps for # of usb devices plugged in?

I'd still run a memtest though hurry up with that :)

Seriously? 

I'll be damned.

Sorry about that Thillian. I've never heard of that before.

Originally posted by Jazqa

Originally posted by noquarter

Beep codes are dependent on who made the BIOS software, AMI in this case - 2 beeps or 3 beeps are both memory errors.

 

Wait, so you're saying that I have memory error? I tried to search something about the beep codes and I found this. Search for "Beep Codes"

http://www.msicomputer.com/support/sup_tshoot.asp

and I'm afraid that I have 1long 2short beeps. I'm pretty sure. But I confirm this after 20minutes when my RoM has downloaded.

If you're positive that it's 1 long and 2 short, then those beeps signify a RAM error. Try taking out your RAM sticks and putting only one in at a time until you find the bad one.

That would be the easy way of doing it.

If you're not sure or all of your RAM does the same thing, then use MemTest86+ to find the bad one.

If MemTest86+ generates errors for all of them, it's probably your voltage.

Again, also run Prime95+ to make sure your CPU is processing everything correctly.

If you can run Crysis fine, but then it starts dying on other games (or dies no matter what game you're playing), I am leaning towards your CPU or RAM being undervolted (or both).

Originally posted by Thillian

 

I am very sure that most of the MSI are beeping once for every USB slot used up to three times. At least they used to when I worked with them.

No, they're not. The beeps are BEEP CODES.

They have nothing to do with how many USB slots you're using at startup.

They are purely diagnostic and serve a very, very specific purpose.

Beeps at POST can only be interpreted with the manual (or at least the BIOS maker/version), and are not the same for all motherboards or BIOSes.

Originally posted by Jazqa

And the sound does not exactly freeze. My english is bad and I don't know right word to explain it. It repeats itself like "tatatatatata" and sound annyoing. And then BEEEEEP and bsod and pc restarts.

I will try the MemTest later. My dvd drive is broken atm too :D but I have another, I just need to find it.

Actually, let me recommend one more thing for you: Prime95.

Here's a How-To guide: http://www.playtool.com/pages/prime95/prime95.html

Download Prime95 and then follow the guide. Let it run for 4 hours.

It didn't occur to me earlier, but it could very well be that your CPU is undervolted. That would cause very random crashes as soon as it's put under moderate to full load.

So, to sum up:

Run Prime95+ for about 4 hours while monitoring the Temperature (via CoreTemp or SpeedFan). If that comes up with errrors and the CPU isn't overheating (which means that it stays below 70 degrees Celsius), up your CPU voltage one tick at at ime until it doesn't come back with errors. (Check online for the safe range for your CPU's voltage!).

Run MemTest86+. If that comes back with errors, up your RAM voltage (if you have DDR2 RAM, you don't want more than 2.2v MAX! If you have DDR 3, check online for the safe range!).

Update your BIOS.

Update your Drivers.

If you've done all that (yes, it will take a while) and it still BSODs, then you might just be looking at some bad hardware.

Originally posted by Thillian

MSI bios beeps once for every USB slot used at the startup. How many beeps do you hear and how many USB slots do you use?

I'm sorry, you're either not explaining yourself fully or you're not aware that you're completely incorrect.

I have an MSI P6N SLi-Platinum. It has 3-4 used at startup (card reader, keyboard, mouse, network adapter) and it beeps twice. The two beeps let me know it passed POST. If I hear three beeps, it means it's just a restart and not a cold-boot and everything is OK.

The beeps are BEEP CODES, not counting how many USB devices are used. Every motherboard manufacturer has different meanings for the # of beeps (and whether they're long/short) that can be interpreted with the motherboard's manual.

Plus, any recent motherboard also has diagnostic LEDs either on the board or as a separate add-on. If there was something oing on with POST, the OP should look at the LEDs and use the manual to interpret them (they're actually a modern replacement for the BEEP CODES, but the BEEP CODES are still in just because it's good to have backups).

Originally posted by Jazqa

Originally posted by Thillian

And last thing to note.

Damaged memory stick is almost always recognized at the computer startup with a bios beep. (or at least after each BSOD) Additionally BSOD caused by faulty memory are frequently causing extremly long spikes in games. If you get BSOD evet during a situation when you have high FPS with no spikes then I would bet my finger that it's damaged gpu.

 

Hey man!! You're answer is MAYBE the best so far. Listen now. It's not the Graphics card because I have had 2 of these 4870. Old one had the same bsod problem and I got new because it's cooler broke. Now I have new and still bsods.

But ALWAYS when I have launched my pc it has "beeped" 2 or 3 times instead of one, which I have never liked but I have thought it's normal. Maybe it isn't?! Should I take some of my RAM sticks away? I have 4x1gb sticks.

 

EDIT: I get BSODs even when high FPS but the game and sound freezes like 5seconds before BSOD. But could I have 2 damaged gpus twice?

POST will recognize damaged RAM, not undervolted RAM.

Damaged GPUs generally come with a lot of other stuff - veritcal/horizontal tearing, random freezing (without BSODs), bad color reproduction, significant overheating, etc.. Yes, BSODs can be a symptom of a bad GPU, but as you've tried it out with two different cards, I doubt it's the GPU.

Your computer beeping is a GOOD thing at POST. If you had read your manual, you'd know that beeping three times (or two times - it depends on the motherboard) means that the POST passed and everthing is OK. Generally if it beeps once, it means there's a problem (an oldies solution for when there weren't POST LEDs - which you should have; they all turn green after statup).

The possibility of having two damaged video cards is slim, but not entirely impossible (bad GPUs come in batches, if you bought two from the same batch, it could happen) - but it's very, very rare. Your sound freezing isn't so much a symptom as a biproduct.

Test your RAM with MemTest86+. Let it go for 4 hours. Check your IRQ channels and make sure nothing is causing havoc on the same channel.

If both look fine, then you can start thinking about damaged hardware. Motherboard and RAM are your most likely culprits if you do start thinking about damaged hardware and it's a fresh install of Windows.