Slashdot Mirror

You suck at linking. Trying using the URL only once (hint: keep the one between the quotation marks.) The other URL should be replaced with the description you put after.

So instead of: http://www.ea.com Electronic Arts
You get: Electronic Arts

Tends to make the text you're writing flow a little better.

You suck at linking. Trying using the URL only once (hint: keep the one between the quotation marks.) The other URL should be replaced with the description you put after.

So instead of: http://www.ea.com Electronic Arts
You get: Electronic Arts

Tends to make the text you're writing flow a little better.

I realize that it's hip to bash on Americans these days--especially if one is an American. Hell, I've done it. But in this case, it's not America that has the problem, it's one asshole lawyer from Florida: Jack Thompson

Do a google search for him.

Jack isn't just against nudity, mind you. He's out to convince everyone that video games are a direct product of satan himself. He deplores pretty much every aspect of video games, and isn't afraid to link pretty much anything to them. It won't be long now, and he'll be telling us that games cause cancer and explosive diarrhea.

I can't believe it, but for once, I'm actually rooting for the evil empire.

First off, the SIMS has a rating of Teen. Not Everyone/Teen. No such rating exists. Gee, where would I get such an idea. Go to http://thesims.ea.com/index_flash.php It says "Products range from Everyone to Teen". Blame EA, not me... that's the rating they put on their web page!

The preview video available at the official site features the music of Andy Hunter, a badass DJ.

If that's the direction they're going with the soundtrack (which, IMO, was the only real weakness of Burnout 3), then I'm sold.

...because the game I'm most looking forward to, Spore, is entirely comprised of elements of past games. Being innovative isn't everything. Sometimes, it's how you make the game.

You could use this: http://simcity.ea.com/play/simcity_classic.php
But it only works in IE. *sigh*

Ah yes. Originality. Just like this!

Or maybe this!

Or in a weird way, this!

Or Will Wright's this!

Or maybe even millions of these!

:P

I'll agree with Nintendo playing on the cuteness bit, but to be honest, games that are more or less exactly like this have been produced for years. It's certainly nice that at least ONE console gaming company puts a modicum of effort into reaching the other 50% of the world out there.

Is it just me, or is anyone else freaked out by the SimCity 4 or SimCity 3000 (can't tell which, since I listen to both soundtracks all the time) music playing in the background at http://spore.ea.com/ ?

I know they're both EA companies (Maxis and these other people), but it's still disturbing :)

Nothing beats playing my favorite EA games over my SBC Yahoo! DSL connection using my D-Link DGL-4300 Wireless 108G Gaming Router with a cool, refreshing Pepsi in one hand, my Logitech mouse in the other, wearing my Nike clothes and blasting a ClearChannel affiliate, my source for great new hits from 50 Cent and A Simple Plan.

Whoops, I meant to post that as an article.

Nope, they both conspired to drive Electronic Arts' reputation into the ground.

Can't they just integrate with the "Sims Online" (http://thesims.ea.com/). Then the GTA players can kill and mame the poor Sims players who just try and go about their daily life 8-)

"America doesn't run penal labor colonies"

sounds like someone doesnt have my job :(

Its cultural. On the other side of the coin, the Japanese don't get many sports themed games, while games like Madden 200* are bestsellers in the US.

Ummm, you might want to check up on that. The Japanese get plenty of sports themed games, both American and Japanese, including Madden.

The Japanese get pretty much everything. Their tastes are different - they do not like genres such as fps's that much, and they're obviously not that interested in American football - but that doesn't stop publishers from publishing those games there. It's a small country with a very high density of gamers per square mile, so the costs of releasing what would be considered "niche" games is lower there than it is here and it's not difficult to turn a profit.

It's almost a cliche to say it but game stores there are pretty ridiculous - many of them have entire floors dedicated just to one system. There are many more games released there than there are here. Most of these are "niche" titles, because those games are still profitable.

In the US, with distribution being more difficult and expensive, niche games don't get as much of a chance. It's not cultural, it's more geographical. Most games in Japan only sell ten thousand or so copies, but that's a profitable game there. Here, you'd probably have to sell around ten-fold more to break even, simply because you're dealing with a much larger area, a much more dispersed customer base, and a much more hodge-podge and regional system of transportation.

Trip Hawkins is an interesting choice, in that the other inductees were all heavily involved in game development, whereas he was more of a facilitator. There's also a great deal of debate on whether Hawkins is to be villified or celebrated. I'll throw in with the latter category, because he pulled together the "electronic artists" who created my favorite games of the early '80s.

An article written by the Dot Eaters does a good job of describing how I think of Electronic Arts when it was just a small studio. I'm still fond of those LP-style packages. And their toolbox-titles, such as Adventure Construction Set, Pinball Construction Set and Racing Destruction Set brought about my own interest in creating games with a strong building component to them. There was nothing in the world like M.U.L.E. before Dan Bunten/Danielle Bunten Berry created it. And I think it was Hawkins that made these things possible.

He may deserve the harsh scrutiny he receives -- and, certainly, he's not going to win any points with anyone for his comments earlier this year. But somehow I can't hate the fellow who brought together so many bright folks under one roof. Electronic Arts has recently published some of my favorite games, but it's the early ones I remember best.
___________________________________________
Inago Rage - Create and fight within your own FPS arenas.
Try the new demo for Windows!

"Dost thou have any idea of the number of dead people and creatures there are? I thought not. The dead of the ages are mine to summon and control. The graves of beloved ancestors will spew forth their contents into an army. A special treat for the living, mine undead monsters will be. Imagine a skeletal dragon that cannot be killed. Consider a cabal of everliving mages eternally enthralled to me. And the most beautiful part of my plot is that, as the living die in these battles, and they will die, they will swell the ranks of the undead host. I will rule supreme -- a world of the dead!"

- Horance, in Ultima VII: The Black Gate

"Dost thou have any idea of the number of dead people and creatures there are? I thought not. The dead of the ages are mine to summon and control. The graves of beloved ancestors will spew forth their contents into an army. A special treat for the living, mine undead monsters will be. Imagine a skeletal dragon that cannot be killed. Consider a cabal of everliving mages eternally enthralled to me. And the most beautiful part of my plot is that, as the living die in these battles, and they will die, they will swell the ranks of the undead host. I will rule supreme -- a world of the dead!"

- Horance, in Ultima VII: The Black Gate

"Dost thou have any idea of the number of dead people and creatures there are? I thought not. The dead of the ages are mine to summon and control. The graves of beloved ancestors will spew forth their contents into an army. A special treat for the living, mine undead monsters will be. Imagine a skeletal dragon that cannot be killed. Consider a cabal of everliving mages eternally enthralled to me. And the most beautiful part of my plot is that, as the living die in these battles, and they will die, they will swell the ranks of the undead host. I will rule supreme -- a world of the dead!"

- Horance, in Ultima VII: The Black Gate

Well, EA makes The Sims, and those characters lose happiness if you work them too hard and don't give them any play / entertainment.

So I wonder how pissed off the developers on that game must have been getting while writing the Sims' happiness ratings code late one saturday evening :-)

NO ONE needs to run as administrator, if they are not installing software.

Yeah, right. There are lots of apps out there that refuse to work properly under a normal user account. From some versions of MQSeries to the current version of The Sims 2, many apps end up not running at all if you don't run as admin. Sure, it's the developers fault, but the user's only choice is not to use the app at all.

The EA 2004 Proxy statement shows that CEO Probst is being paid $672k this year, plus $781k in bonus(es). Must be tough times, having to take a cut from last year when he made a combined $1.8M rather than $1.45M.

If the auther is really interested in trying to get some attention to the matter, they could attempt to contact the board of directors, for all good that would do.

The EA 2004 Proxy statement shows that CEO Probst is being paid $672k this year, plus $781k in bonus(es). Must be tough times, having to take a cut from last year when he made a combined $1.8M rather than $1.45M.

If the auther is really interested in trying to get some attention to the matter, they could attempt to contact the board of directors, for all good that would do.

I'm a professional security consultant and my clients (including home clients) use their computers as limited users to protect against spyware and viruses before the fact. It pains me to explain to a client that they can't play the latest games they want to play without turning off all of the safety features their operating system provides for free. And it isn't hard to design for security either; I modified Quake II in two weeks off-and-on to work.

After four years of Windows 2000 and two years of Windows XP, why are we not seeing games that support the safety features included in these modern operating systems? Does City of Heroes even work properly with them turned on?

Oh, and making movies like this is fully sanctioned by EA, and they even give you the video to use at the end Made with The Sims 2

The Sims 2 is available on DVD. Little less than 3 gig, which it copies all to your hard drive.

Then why is it trying to suck my soul out by making me never want to leave my computer? My day 1 review is here: The Sims 2: The Sims Reloaded. I think I'll follow it up soon. Oh, and you can play "Sim City Classic" on SimCity.com. Yes, online in your web browser. It's an active-x thingy, so... IE only. In another 20 years Sims 2 will probably be given away trivially as "play online" ware too. Kinda scary.

Mr. Wright actually incorporated the very feature you seek in the latest iteration of Simcity. You can and base your success as a city planner based on their reflective thought bubbles.

Similarly, Maxis' Streets of Simcity lets you race around in your imported Simcity 2000 megalopolis!

As mentioned in the above article, Wright has a very good sense of gamers' needs. He knows people get tired of their games and ultimately try to hack them up and modify the experience. Interoperability between products is a brilliant way to make gamers happy and sell more of his products.

caters to the slashdot crowd im sure...

http://thesims2.ea.com/images/screenshots/screensh ot_big_31.jpg/

anyone else find that somewhat creepy?

What about her makes him think "handcuffs" ?!

If there was ever something Sims need more of, it's action, but then, that might make the game *too* unlike the reality of it's players...

Someday, somebody will make bank by releasing an adults-only version. Some day... when I get a little more spare time...

DEVO front man Mark Mothersbaugh is signed to do the in-game music.

If nothing else, perhaps the game will move away from the Leave It To Beaver sitcom earmunge. Duty now for the future!

That news is freydushey!

(When my wife and I purchased The Sims, we found the language they were speaking, "Simlish" to be really funny. Every time one of the characters got excited about something, she'd use that word. Then we started using it. "Honey, this pie is freydushey!")

http://thesims2.ea.com/images/screenshots/screensh ot_91.jpg I hope we finally get to see some ACTION! Or at least make an adult patch..pleeeasee ;)

• Single player demo
• Multiplayer demo
  
• Secret weapons (expansion) multiplayer demo
  

• Single player demo
• Multiplayer demo
  
• Secret weapons (expansion) multiplayer demo
  

• Single player demo
• Multiplayer demo
  
• Secret weapons (expansion) multiplayer demo
  

I remember an article [simcity.ea.com] published at SimCity's official site. It is clear that those super 3D game cards are superb in smooth reflections, glass-like layers, and so on.

But they don't make a good job rendering thousands of small renderings -- exactly what SimCity 4 needs.

I've done as much research as possible with the scant reviews of the Lightspeed expansion which is due out October 15th to the hordes of anxious spaceflight fans who have come together to show what can be done with enough people who know a Y-Bomber from a B-Bomber, and can make both dance around any defense system the empire can throw up at them.

Or, as I like to tell my lovely bride, when she wants to me to stop playing my favorite game (C&C Generals):

"But Honey, if I stop playing now, quite literally, the terrorists win!"

The Nehibore of the SIM Family. She's old. She's mean and she hates kids.

This is one of those teacher who looks like a really boring woman, but if you take away the glasses and gives her another haircut, shes a really sexy top model!

He and his sister Mara are inseperable and very much alike...being that they are twins. But he really looks up to his older sister...and likes to copy her by wearing his PJ's all day (when he's home).

She loves hanging out in her room giving herself makeovers and watching movies in her undies...with popcorn....ahhh the life of a girl.

Loves walks by the beach and loves kids. She just needs a husband and she's set.

The Nehibore of the SIM Family. She's old. She's mean and she hates kids.

This is one of those teacher who looks like a really boring woman, but if you take away the glasses and gives her another haircut, shes a really sexy top model!

He and his sister Mara are inseperable and very much alike...being that they are twins. But he really looks up to his older sister...and likes to copy her by wearing his PJ's all day (when he's home).

She loves hanging out in her room giving herself makeovers and watching movies in her undies...with popcorn....ahhh the life of a girl.

Loves walks by the beach and loves kids. She just needs a husband and she's set.

The Nehibore of the SIM Family. She's old. She's mean and she hates kids.

This is one of those teacher who looks like a really boring woman, but if you take away the glasses and gives her another haircut, shes a really sexy top model!

He and his sister Mara are inseperable and very much alike...being that they are twins. But he really looks up to his older sister...and likes to copy her by wearing his PJ's all day (when he's home).

She loves hanging out in her room giving herself makeovers and watching movies in her undies...with popcorn....ahhh the life of a girl.

Loves walks by the beach and loves kids. She just needs a husband and she's set.

The Nehibore of the SIM Family. She's old. She's mean and she hates kids.

This is one of those teacher who looks like a really boring woman, but if you take away the glasses and gives her another haircut, shes a really sexy top model!

He and his sister Mara are inseperable and very much alike...being that they are twins. But he really looks up to his older sister...and likes to copy her by wearing his PJ's all day (when he's home).

She loves hanging out in her room giving herself makeovers and watching movies in her undies...with popcorn....ahhh the life of a girl.

Loves walks by the beach and loves kids. She just needs a husband and she's set.

The Nehibore of the SIM Family. She's old. She's mean and she hates kids.

This is one of those teacher who looks like a really boring woman, but if you take away the glasses and gives her another haircut, shes a really sexy top model!

He and his sister Mara are inseperable and very much alike...being that they are twins. But he really looks up to his older sister...and likes to copy her by wearing his PJ's all day (when he's home).

She loves hanging out in her room giving herself makeovers and watching movies in her undies...with popcorn....ahhh the life of a girl.

Loves walks by the beach and loves kids. She just needs a husband and she's set.

instead of wasting all your time on City of Heros (because really, how likely is *that* to happen?)

Active State, Electronic Arts, Mainframe, etc...

Look, the reason why Macintosh is decent at security where other OSes fail is that 'root' is NOT required to run games, or record a DVD. RedHat 7, 8 or 9, start cdrecord (xCD-BURN), and it asks for the Root password. That's just plain nuts from a security standpoint.

That's why I'm very excited about the NSA Linux kernel extensions (there is no root, only levels of authority). This will give to Linux what Mac already has, and what all 'secure' Operating Systems need.
--
Even under NT, if someone doesn't need to belong to the 'Administrators' group, then this cuts the spyware, malware and virus installs my more than half. Cut PowerUser access and your down to a few percent of bad things that can happen.

But game manufacturers keep putting out games that won't run without Administrative access.

Actually, some of the earlier free downloadable objects for The Sims were: a McDonalds cart, (with which your Sim could crafty burgers that had better in-game effects than a regularly prepared meal), a Pepsi Soda Machine, and an Intel-branded computer.

Who knows what they've got now. (let alone with user-created-content)
But at least even the 'official' product tie-ins were a thoroughly optional downloads.

As for people liking authentic tie-ins - It's one thing for a consumer to craft these things in his spare time, or a publisher to add them as free downloads later. It's quite another to have paid billboards placed throughout the game, or blatant product placement.

Even more egregious is the assertion that players prefer real advertisement, simply because they prefer identifiable content in certain genres. Naturally they don't spend any time qualifying that the 'preferred' tie-ins are limited to real-world products in genres that cover real-world pop culture.

Nielsen might assume that because players might prefer to jack a 'Corvette' instead of a 'Stinger' in GTA means they wouldn't mind seeing a Chevy Ad. More likely players simply prefer the 'genuine' brand the way they prefer playing a football game with actual NFL teams and players.

Online trading/selling of items has been occuring since the first account was sold on Ebay (Ultima Online) up to the formation of the Open Gaming Market (a currency exchange place for online game currency).

There have been people who have quit their normal jobs and took the "job" of play Diablo to make money. There's even been a court case for return of stolen in-game items.

It is a crazy world where currency in online games actually have more worth than the currency of some countries. I've personally sold virtual items for real life cash and I think people are crazy for paying what they do for these things, but then again I also can't understand why people pay large amounts of money for junk on E-Bay. I guess what they say is true, "one man's trash is another man's treasure", whether the trash is virtual or real. The online market just makes it easier to get those two people together.

Get the distribution contract in place BEFORE the initial release. Have a localization team and hand-off plan in place at the time of initial release.

Unless Electronic Crafts and all the other major North American publishers refuse to distribute the work without both 1. waiting to see how popular the product is in the developer's home country, in order to gather data for an analysis of whether localization would be profitable, and 2. scoring an exclusive distribution contract.

The charts show that a full $15 of the price is profit to the wholesalers, and the retailers. I'm surprised that more studios don't try the direct channel, selling right to the customer. It seems that there's some serious inefficiency there.

That $15 pays for shelf space, advertisement through store flyers, customer assistance, and other publicity. If a company sells directly to customers it has to figure out how to get eyeballs on the product. It also has to employ direct sales associates and manage individualized (as opposed to cheaper bulk) shipping. While some companies do sell directly to customers (in addition to retail channels), such as the EA Store, their prices are not particularly competitive. Perhaps this is due to the extra costs associated with direct distribution.

Thinking back to the shareware companies in the early 1990s (id software in particular), word of mouth got games into the hands of people, but once the opportunity arose, successful titles like Doom were sucking up shelf space wherever they could. Even today, direct downloads are likely to be offered as an option along side retail-based purchase. You can even get WinZip in a box these days.

So, I suppose my point is that the $15 pays for quite a bit of service, and that the service is apparently useful for moving the product (otherwise, why wouldn't id, 3DRealms, etc. just keep up with the direct marketing angle and avoid brick & morter completely?).