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| Cluster Shout Box Link » /matrix/cluster.asp/11 |   OldFriend (177) Mar 02, 2007 - 01:51 am
| i think you're being a little paranoid. this contest was advertised on a lot of other high-traffic sites. i know that's how i found it, and i was no FS.com regular.
in any case i highly doubt such a well-spoken person as the winner of this contest would be the type of person to just ninja-loot the prize and vanish. and they're not taking any more of a risk than any other company making a new hire. i'm sure they'll have the winner's details, financial and personal, so he can't just pull a genie and blink out of sight.
and frankly, if the FS regulars wanted to win, well, they should have entered. looking over the post counts, nobody is anywhere near yours. looks like we all came via other sites' links or word of mouth. i think part of the reason for this contest was to bring more traffic anyway, and i think it's worked wonderfully. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/17874/205 | OldFriend (177) Mar 01, 2007 - 10:08 pm
| | i think dave is right about the 's thing. take the acronym GPS. plural would correctly be GPSs; possessive would be GPS's. it's all in the usage in context. you may be right if the acronym necessarily ends in a lowercase 's' though, not too sure in that case. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/61804/153 | OldFriend (177) Mar 01, 2007 - 09:54 pm
| then i think you need to preface it better, because from the title i was expecting a factual read about a gamer to whom FPSing is old hat and looking for something new to try out.
...i still don't see how this showcases your writing abilities though. you're clearly a well-spoken, intelligent person. i don't see how faking being a bumbling n00b makes you a great writer. it may well be that i (as well as others) have been around too many flaming fanbois and forum trolls to react any way but negatively to more ill-thoughtout criticisms. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/61804/153 | OldFriend (177) Mar 01, 2007 - 03:37 am
| my opinion: i wasn't a fan of the sardonic tone myself. it came off as someone trying an MMO who already had a set negative opinion. the fact that your article only covered what was basically the first ten levels of WoW makes your opinion of it seem even less valid.
i'm not a fan of wow myself. i quit 3 months after launch shortly after i hit 60. but to me the overall impression of the article was of someone intent on bashing a game based on incomplete information. i do appreciate that a lot of your negativity is ironic in nature, but imo it needs to be balanced out by factual, informative criticisms which i don't see a lot of. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Cluster Shout Box Link » /matrix/cluster.asp/11 | OldFriend (177) Mar 01, 2007 - 03:18 am
| | as long as they do it to everyone the end effect should be that everyone's scores should remain relative. as for their own, well, i like to think that the types of people that do this probably aren't fantastic writers anyway. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/17874/205 | OldFriend (177) Mar 01, 2007 - 01:57 am » Edited on Mar 01, 2007 - 01:58 am
| unlike most of the other entries, i'd have to say this maybe goes a little too indepth. it really flirts with overwhelming the reader with technical details, and i really don't think the average firingsquad reader is that knowledgeable about CPU/GPU architecture.
also, sloppy fact checking and/or proofreading is a pet peeve of mine, especially from someone with such an apparently strong grasp of written english. the merger happened in 2006, not 2001, as even your first reference indicates. -1 for that. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62701/200 | OldFriend (177) Feb 28, 2007 - 11:42 pm
| heh, this is what's called playing to the audience. while not technically computer related, i still have to give this a high rating for the sheer ballness and frank applicability to a lot of the entries.
i do have to question your use of 'though' to begin several sentences though. though means 'in spite of the fact or possibility that...' and is traditionally used to open or close the predicate of a sentence. it's ok to use it to open a sentence, followed by a clause and then a comma to flipflop the subject-predicate structure. though isn't a predicate unto itself however, and so i think is improperly used (quite a lot) by itself to open a sentence. and no, i don't believe 'though' and 'however' are quite interchangeable. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62701/200 | OldFriend (177) Feb 28, 2007 - 11:29 pm
| read the contest description page; has a comprehensive, well, description, of how articles are scored.
and yes, it's all but obvious a lot of the voting has little to do with quality of writing. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62408/180 | OldFriend (177) Feb 28, 2007 - 01:14 am
| your last paragraph is exactly the point that vote-whoring politicians miss, or conveniently ignore. while true that a violent household will likely produce children who exhibit similar behavior, by FAR the biggest influence on young minds is the behavior of those people that mean the most to them. games are way, WAY down on that list and have minimal effect in the face of the larger picture. studies of games begetting violence is just as i said; inconclusive at best and probably nonexistent.
in short, raise your kids with love and respect and they'll be fine, regardless of what games they play. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62408/180 | OldFriend (177) Feb 27, 2007 - 05:54 am
| | actually it's generally the politicians and religious groups that push the games-promoting-violence agenda. doctors and scientists have seen most of the applicable studies that say any link is inconclusive at best and probably nonexistent. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62001/168 | OldFriend (177) Feb 25, 2007 - 09:44 pm » Edited on Feb 25, 2007 - 09:46 pm
| very good article. it sounds like a mix between tribes and system shock. the VR images even look like an updated version of the VR sequences from the original system shock. two beefs with the article.
1) it seems like a very interesting mod, and i'd have liked to have learned more about, say, weapon types, or an overview of some of the maps, number of players per side, etc.
2) also, i have to dock a point for no mention of Bladerunner. in film, the alpha and omega of cyberpunk is Bladerunner. the Matrix is eh, cyber, but not so much punk. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/61832/165 | OldFriend (177) Feb 25, 2007 - 05:17 pm
| | so... I think the point is that popularity has little to do with technical achievement, although i can't be sure. other than that it's just a techie/hiphop fable with a rhyme scheme seen in a million rap songs. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62561/161 | OldFriend (177) Feb 25, 2007 - 03:20 am
| helpful hint: professional writers really should have good grammar/spelling as second nature, if not force of habit. having such a glaring misspelling in your title will do bad things to your score, as happened to another article here.
also you need to research your facts better. how could the show be cancelled in 1965 when the pilot first aired in 1967? in fact, from the sources i've looked up, star trek first aired in 1966, threatened with cancellation in '68, and finally cancelled in '69. Flag this | Edit this post |
| Matrix Blog Link » /matrix/blog.asp/62515/142 | OldFriend (177) Feb 24, 2007 - 03:48 pm
| | you're not one of the judges are you? cuz that's really harsh. i would agree with docking him a couple points; maybe 2-4, but not a 1. not for something that would be easily caught in the editorial process before it's published. Flag this | Edit this post |
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