Slashdot Mirror

No, I have not seen the Revolution in comparison to other systems.

By 'other systems' I assume you are talking about the 360 and the PS3.

Well, the PS3 and the Revolution haven't been released yet. I am sure that very few people have actually seen the Revolution AND the PS3. Are you one of them?

The 360 is not 'geared solely toward hardcore freaks.'

Xbox Live Arcade- check into it.

What Engage In-Game is doing is no more illegal than someone hosting a custom mod on their server. This particular mod just happens to show pictures of brand-name sandwiches with a price tag. Bandwidth and server resources aren't free, and if this is how Engage In-Game is going to support keeping their servers online for free public use, they can stick advertisements on the virtual game walls. Would you rather they use bots that spam in-game chat every 5 minutes with text ads? The ads are far from intrusive, and if you don't like them, don't play on their servers.

Now, if Engage In-Game was paying players to go to other people's servers to spray and spam advertisements everywhere, that's going over the line because then they'd be intruding on OTHER people's servers.

6. They include URL's like this: http://www.joystiq.com/2005/12/12/psp-licker-vows- to-rub-games-on-her-butt/ (from TFA)

dude, she's cute (http://media.babes.entertainment.ign.com/articles /622/622426/img_2838400.html) and by definition that makes everything alright [nods]

10. They always leave something essential out
  9. They do it on purpose to generate "buzz"
  8. Even David Letterman doesn't hit the mark everytime
  7. Should be titled "9 things that didn't win and the one that did"
  6. They include URL's like this: http://www.joystiq.com/2005/12/12/psp-licker-vows- to-rub-games-on-her-butt/ (from TFA)
  5. 9 times out of 10 you don't agree with their number one pick
  4. 47.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot
  3. Jack Thompson will argue that top ten list are terrorist training for suicide bombers (counting backwards like a bomb timer)
  2. The woman sitting next to me on the bus read "suicide bomber" on my laptop and is notifying the police
  1. People love arbitrary catagorizing. We're all winners! Uh, no the police have surrounded the bus...

Another large external attachment

:)

FPS type games aren't going to be interesting to an outsider, no matter how you dress it up.. unless, maybe it's something like Battlefield 2-- THAT could possibly work, being somewhat 'relevant' to even the common man.

What would sell this to the common man if they had celebreties that would scream and shout while playing... I hear Robin Williams likes Battlefield 2 and he likes to play as a Sniper

They are going to use their dominance in the console market to try to make Blu-Ray the defacto standard.

Sony doesn't hold a monopoly in the console industry. The market is pretty well divided among the XboX, Gamecube, and Playstation. With each generation of console, it's a wide-open opportunity for any participant to take the lead.

The anti-trust law that Microsoft was convicted of breaking was that they leveraged a monopoly in one industry (Computer Operating Systems) to suppress competition in another (Web Browsers). Other posters on this topic are proposing that this is a repeat offense.

Joel Klein-- "In this specific case the evidence is overwhelming that Microsoft was unable to compete on the merits and decided in its own words "to leverage its monopoly" in order to "make people" use their browser."

Seth

It would be more interesting if Slashdot actually linked to a Blog article that contained some sort of content. Instead, you link to an empty blog article, which means I need to hunt around on the site to find all articles by This guy and scroll down his list of recent entries....

Sorta silly, dontcha think? Trying to generate more pageviews or something?

This Joystiq article from over a year ago new-nes-console-knockoff-is-a-lemon seems to indicate that the NEX is not all it's cracked up to be.

This Joystiq article from over a year ago new-nes-console-knockoff-is-a-lemon seems to indicate that the NEX is not all it's cracked up to be.

You would be much better off buying a console like this. The 360, starting at 300$, will be more powerful than any 2000$ gaming PC can be for many years. The video card itself is mower powerful than anything on the PC market, plus each game utilizes all 3 3.2ghz processors.

What are you, the accuracy police?

Ken Kutaragi ... [said] ... "...I think we'll have [the PS3's HDD] preinstalled with Linux..."

Billy is gambling on being able to create a monopoly by outpricing all the other competitors...

Agreed, wholeheartedly. Bill took a price hit for the original X-Box, and is probably doing it now, all in the name of market share.

I don't know how this worked out... but I'm guessing they weren't getting many units to begin with, huh?

Only a single 9GB dual layered DVD? Try four

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000903070963/

"According to Game Informer, nearly every developer they talked to at X05 expressed difficulties fitting their launch titles onto a single disc."

"One unnamed yet "highly anticipated" game in particular is said to currently occupy a full four 9Gb DVDs."

My guess is that this will give the PS3 real advantage when it comes to big budget RPGs.

See, there's this little known site called "Slashdot", they ran something on it.

Or you can go with Joystiq, or GamesFirst!, and there's always the Wikipedia.

Hey, you can always try Google for more articles, there are plenty!

But if you REALLY want a Sony press release, the only one I can find about the PS3 PERIOD is this one, and they're notably silent about online support - the word "online" appears ONCE.

It's Microsoft, so they would probably use a file system along the lines of one they already use, like FAT or NTFS.

MGS4 trailer from TGS 2005 might not be such a great example of the PS3's power as you think: http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000883068264/, http://www.games-digest.com/2005/11/kojima_says_me t.html, http://www.gamersreports.com/news/101/, where hideo kojima says that MGS4 could run on a 360.

Kojima never said that.

The only source for that is a video on 1up that has the editor saying he knows someone who claims to have heard Kojima say it. The only thing Kojima has said is that if he made an MGS game for other platforms he would build it to take advantage of those system's strengths.

The link (and I presume the computer guy nex) only seem to discuss PS3 footage from E3 2005. All the footage from that was rather suspect especially killzone 2 which has since been revealed by guerilla as "basically a representation of the look and feel of the game we're trying to make" not the actual game itself or what it'll look like at the end of the day (http://ps3.ign.com/articles/616/616591p1.html). The MGS4 trailer from TGS 2005 might not be such a great example of the PS3's power as you think: http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000883068264/, http://www.games-digest.com/2005/11/kojima_says_me t.html, http://www.gamersreports.com/news/101/, where hideo kojima says that MGS4 could run on a 360. There doesn't seem to be any elaboration on what he means by "run" so you can argue about lower frame rates/graphics or whatever you'd like. I don't know what the PS3 is capable of and neither do you. Just please don't fall victim to the hype, you'll only be disappointed.

Also, does this data apply only to a-list titles (games $40 and more) or to all games? The distinction is crucial.

Yeah, I said basically the same when Joystiq published this story. I'll paraphrase (and maybe expand upon) my comments there, here.

The thing that this study seems to show is not that poorly rated games sell well, but that highly rated games often don't. That's where the disconnect in the correlation is. There's a relatively flat distribution correlation of game sales to ratings, but generally speaking, most games sell poorly regardless of rating.

The exceptions, if you look at the graph, are the big-budget games like GTA and Madden, which obviously sell because they have a lot of marketing dollars behind them, not because they get good ratings.

So you can pretty much exclude those. What you're left with is a bunch of games selling under 500K whether they're rated a 5 or a 10.

At first glance, it does seem like that would then mean marketing dollars matter a whole lot more than review scores. But, you do need to take into account genre. A lot of highly rated games are very targeted to a specific niche, and they satisfy fans of that niche (RE4, Virtua Fighter 4 and Winning Eleven being examples). On the other hand, most poorly rated games are poorly rated in part because they are unfocused and not genre-specific enough - I think if you look through a list of poorly rated games at GameRankings, you'll see that. Good developers know their audience and will focus on it like a laser beam; bad developers will try to make a game anyone can like and in the process will satisfy nobody (and in the end, that's what makes it a bad game). Both approaches might end up with wildly differing review scores (and real quality) but similar sales numbers.

So while I don't think it's an assumption you can make - it would require further study - I do think it's totally possible that highly-rated games often don't sell simply because they are targeting a smaller group of people to begin with than poorly rated games often are. And if that's the case, then review scores do matter, because 90% of a highly-rated game's audience might buy it, while only 10% of a poorly-rated game's audience might buy it... and the total sales can still end up being pretty equal.

Article: -1 flamebait.
Article poster: -1 drooling moron.
Slashdot: -1 Has Jumped The Shark.

From the god-damned Joystiq article:

"[UPDATE: or perhaps not, duuur]"

The link there goes to this comment:

"How can ES: Oblivion [..] only take up one disk for the pc and four for the 360?"

Obvious answer: because it doesn't take up four disks on the 360?

That's the last straw. Slashdot goes in my hosts file as redirected to 127.0.0.1 to force me to avoid it. Reading Slashdot is detrimental to my mental health, I just get angry at the brutally retarded stories these days. Be gone with you.

Won't sell well in the United States? The game sold about 250,000 units within a week of its release.

Well, if this is correct then you could still pay $799 at JCPenny for one. Not quite a grand but almost as good.

"Every PS3 hard drive is shipping with Linux onboard."

I sure hope that's true, but I'm pretty sketical. Sony makes butt loads of cash off the software sales for the PS2 so if Sony actually does give us Linux it's going to have some strings attached. For example, I very much doubt that Sony will give us access to the GPU.

What gives me the most hope for a relatively unencumbered PS3 Linux distro is the Blu-Ray format. All Blu-Ray players will have a Java layer for interactive crud, which should be enough for stupid little games( i.e. Tetris, Puzzle Bobble, Metal Slug ), Sony almost has to concede the the non-3D market.

I'm personally really excited about the BD-J stuff, and the homebrew scene that will grow up around it.

You should contact the legal firm of Spiro Moss Barness, etc... They are one of many firms united in a class action lawsuit about the Thompson DVD drives that were used in the Xbox. Microsoft seem to have been aware of the lack of quality in these drives as later models used different manufacturers. Despite this, if you talk to their customer service reps, they continue to ask you if your discs are dirty despite the fact you tell them you just bought the damn game.

I don't give a rat's ass about Sony's problems. I'm here to ask about the awful consumer experience I had with my original Xbox and what exactly is the truth about this new product. Here are links that show what a known issue those drives were.

http://sentientcreations.com/xboxIssues/problem.ph p

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/xbox_dvd_repair .htm

Now there's an entire market based upon replacing your Xbox's DVD drive with a better one such as Samsung.

Microsoft's support solution: clean the disc. No matter how many times you tell them the disc is brand new, they say it's a dirty disc.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;8167

Then there was the power supply issue. A recall in which power cords were issued to cover up shoddy circuitry that could and did cause house fires. Mostly due to bad soldering. In the recall, older Xboxes were given power cords with breakers, so in the event of a short, you may burn out your Xbox but at least your house won't burn down.

http://s4.invisionfree.com/Popular_Technology/ar/t 215.htm

So a few weeks ago we started to see Xbox 360s in demo retail models showing the dreaded Error 74. Photograph of it here.

http://joystiq.com/entry/1234000480066825/

Now we have reports of crashes that yes, are online and could be from a vocal minority, but I have never heard of or owned a console that crashes the way photographs show us is happening to the 360 - and let's remember the people complaining about it are the ones who braved the cold and the nuisance of picking one up.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/hours-old-an d-pgr3-crashing-like-mad-138978.php

Now apparently there is a fix in the form of suspending the power supply. People are finding it's working. Ergo, the power supply is defective. Just like the one on the original Xbox which was RECALLED.

Whatever marketing spiel Microsoft want to give, I want for them to answer one thing. What exactly is Error 74 and Error 79 - what does it mean is happening to the box. They have refused, as they did with the Thompson DVD drive, to let us know what is going wrong. Even if it isolated. Does it bode poorly for the future? Why is there a SPECIFIC error message already in the box's OS that is happening to people?

Now we know for certain that the machine is not only prone to overheating, there is an inbuilt error message related to it.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907533/

And did you hear about how the tech support person told that guy to "wipe his video cables with a soft cloth"? Too rich.

Every PS3 hard drive is shipping with Linux onboard.

A thirteen year-old Chinese boy jumped to his death last year from a 24 story building, allegedly after playing too much World of Warcraft. -- Joystiq.

I was just wondering exactly what portion of World of Warcraft, Warcraft III, or any Blizzard game contains a 24 storey building. And what part of this fictional game area involves you jumping to your death from it?

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000843045537/

Nintendo Revolution's classic Nintendo games will be free Posted Jun 3, 2005, 2:48 PM ET by Ben Zackheim
Related entries: Culture, Nintendo Revolution, Online, Retro

Wow. Good move. When we spoke with Nintendo about the price of their classic "emulated" games on the Revolution, they were coy and left the pricing up to our imaginations. I assumed they'd follow the GBA model -- 10-12 bucks for a classic would be fair. But George Harrison of Nintendo just sprung a surprise. Classic Nintendo titles will be free.

This is certainly NOT normal for the console industry.

After entering the appropriate cheat code http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000150050789/, of course

Ahem.. Joqystiq Guide: iPod on the Xbox 360

Project Gotham Racing 3 - 92%
Call of Duty 2 Screenshots - 90%
Condemned: Criminal Origins - 82%
Need for Speed Most Wanted - 82%
Kameo: Elements of Power Screenshots - 80%
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland - 80%
Gun - 78%

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000997068547/

Just pointing out that joystiq is saying the kid died last year. /this is why i read more than one article on any given topic

FUD #1 - sony has verified that blu-ray discs are not being specifically signed for each console.
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000213068073/
sometimes companies take out "defensive patents"; patents they dont intend to use, but to ensure that their competitors can't claim the technology and implement it into their industry. maybe they have other plans on how to use the technology described in the patent, [maybe cheap disposable one-time use movies] but the fact remains... its not intended for the ps3.

FUD #2 - sony has actually taken action to cease and to help remedy their whole rootkit deal. granted it doesnt instill alot of faith in me that their company would do something like that in the first place, the fact remains that they listened to the public outcries and fixed the problem. thats more than i can say for some companies. they have soundly learned their lesson.
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000530067666/

FUD #1 - sony has verified that blu-ray discs are not being specifically signed for each console.
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000213068073/
sometimes companies take out "defensive patents"; patents they dont intend to use, but to ensure that their competitors can't claim the technology and implement it into their industry. maybe they have other plans on how to use the technology described in the patent, [maybe cheap disposable one-time use movies] but the fact remains... its not intended for the ps3.

FUD #2 - sony has actually taken action to cease and to help remedy their whole rootkit deal. granted it doesnt instill alot of faith in me that their company would do something like that in the first place, the fact remains that they listened to the public outcries and fixed the problem. thats more than i can say for some companies. they have soundly learned their lesson.
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000530067666/

You know there are DoA and Halo 2 competitions in the WCG, right?

Have you looked at the draconian anti-copying measurements that Sony wants to incorporate in the PS3.
Say bye-bye to second hand games or even game-rentals.
clicky

Speaking of the history of game consoles, Joystiq has an interesting article about the ~10 year dominance cycle of gaming consoles.

Interestingly enough, though very speculative, there are some valid points.One thing that has not been proven is the "most powerful" hardware of the 3, particularly in Sony's case-I've only seen lots of hype and MGS4, they don't look any better than Xbox 360 games. This whole rootkit fiasco maybe be big, or can be easily swept under the rug-as usual. They already have 2 big beefs with M$, blu-ray and rootkit. If M$ wanted they can run a dirty smear campaign against Sony ala the recent New Jersey governor race. Another interesting thing, though not mentioned is the patent that they applied for the ability to detect used and obviously pirated software.Pirated, I can understand, but used or rented-thats ridiculous as reported at http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000420067137/.I can't believe that the inventors of the walkman can't get their shit together to beat Apple? If they keep treating the consumers like criminals, they'll just keep losing. I will wind up buying all 3 systems eventually as that is the nature of the beast. Sony has a PR team to rival the WhiteHouse-so they can still pull it off.

they're least likely to be getting any MMO love other than something they develop for a console.

You may want to do some research before you say that...

This is what it really breaks down to for me:

There is the Xbox 360, which brags about it's HDD support but does not make the HDD a standard option. How many 3rd party devs are going to support a peripheral that maybe a third or less of the market has? Obviously some will, but most won't bother. Plus, it's Microsoft, and they just piss me off.

Then there's the Playstation 3. Made by Sony, a company who installs rootkits on people's PC's, settles for poorly manufactured digicam CCD's, and has generally been riding their name for the past 3 years or so (Hey, we're Sony! People will buy our crap regardless of how craptastic it is!). Sony pisses me off.

Last but not least, we have the Nintendo Revolution, which is not only the least expensive of the three, but is likely to bring about a wave of excellent new gameplay styles with their innovative new controller format (btw, for those who still complain and want their old-style controllers, Nintendo is making one). Most importantly, Nintendo hasn't done anything to piss me off lately.

Disclaimer: If a really good new Ratchet and Clank game comes out for it...I might end up with a PS3 anyway. Damn that addictive Lombax!

If you want to see how the 'logic' of Sony works, see this patent;

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PT O2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/search-adv.htm&r=1&p=1 &f=G&l=50&d=ptxt&S1=(Kutaragi.INZZ.+AND+Sony.ASNM. )&OS=in/Kutaragi+AND+an/Sony&RS=(IN/Kutaragi+AND+A N/Sony

For short version, see this story;

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000420067137/

(Sony is patenting a method for games console discs to be tied to the console unit they're first ran on. No second hand game sales or loaning of games...)

there are tutorials on the internet that show you how to connect a NES controller to your computer http://www.joystiq.com/entry/7817137582525561/, it just takes a bit of soldering. There's also USB http://www.zeroorone.com/nesusb.html. You could even buy a USB adapter for an SNES controller http://www.lik-sang.com/news.php?artc=3339if you don't want to rip the NES controller open and fiddle with the wires.

They never had wireless controllers installed in the kiosks. If you think about it for a few minutes you'd realize why doing so would be a monumentially dumb idea.

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000870065068/

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000837063581/

Here's how it's playing out in Japan. Article date is October 16 '05.

But don't expect the world to match this pattern. The UK is full of trendy dandyfucks, and they've been buying PSPs by the truckload desptie the high cost, like they were iPods or something. I wouldn't be surprised if the UK alone has pushed worldwide PSP sales ahead of worldwide DS sales, despite the fact that the DS is reigning in both Japan and the U.S.

I like the comment from the above article about DS outselling PSP even during the week when the white PSP was released. (New system colors generally cause a small bump in system sales.) And even during the weeks in the past few months where PSP sales were closest to to the DS's weekly sales, DS still had at least a 25% lead, normally much larger.

I will donate ten thousand dollars to the charity of CmdrTaco's choice if someone makes this movie.

(Just kidding.)

Mind-numbing as it is, you can find his response at http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000427064233/ Comment #10.

Wow, according to good ol' Jack, Penny-Arcade owns thinkgeek.

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000427064233/#com ments

Comment #10

Highlights include him thinking Penny Arcade owns Think Geek, and him threatening the FBA. It's most likely however this wasn't actually sent to the FBA, just like his nice letter to the Seattle PD never made it there either.


. Posted Oct 20, 2005, 9:59 AM ET by jack thompson

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366

October 20, 2005

Alan B. Bookman
President
The Florida Bar
Tallahassee, Florida Via e-mail

Entire Board of Governors
The Florida Bar
C/o John Harkness and to Governors Directly
The Florida Bar
Tallahassee, Florida Via e-mails

Re: Targeting of Jack Thompson for Criminal Harassment by "Gamers"

Dear Mr. Bookman and All Governors of The Florida Bar:

As you know, eighteen years ago I commenced efforts against the entertainment industry's illegal distribution of adult entertainment to minors. That fledgling effort resulted in the first decency fines ever levied by the FCC.

The broadcasters struck back with Bar complaints. One happy result of that is that The Bar's insurance carrier had to pay me money damages for The Bar's having taken the bait offered by the SLAPP bar complainants. SLAPP is the acronym for "strategic litigation against public participation." Filing such a complaint violates certain federal civil rights statutes and state laws as well.

As you also know, the Philadelphia law firm of Blank Rome, which is lead lawyer and chief lobbyist registered in the US House of Representatives and in the US Senate for Take-Two Interactive, has chosen to use the SLAPP approach in our wrongful death case in Alabama by asking the Alabama state judge to kick me off that case because 1) I have been so effective in telling the American people about the reckless activity of their clients, Take-Two and Sony, through 60 Minutes and Reader's Digest that they can't now get a "fair trial," and 2) I have a "colorful history" of pornographers filing SLAPP bar complaints against me, which indicates I am unfit to practice law.

Interesting logic, but remember: this is Blank Rome talking. Blank Rome has a very long history of "opposition research" through partners such as "Barbara Comstock," who was called by the Washington Post a "one-woman wrecking crew" for her brilliance in character assassination on behalf of her clients.

Blank Rome's Comstock is the US Congressman Dan Burton staffer who was doing his "work" for him when he was clandestinely keeping a mistress on his federal payroll staff in violation of federal law.

Blank Rome also has been recently caught up in the scandal of securing Department of Homeland Security contracts for its clients allegedly because of its massive campaign contributions to former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, Bush-Cheney, and the RNC. This has been covered in the mainstream media. Blank Rome is clearly the most powerful law firm, right now, in America, because of its tight personal and financial relationships with Jeb and George Bush. Blank Rome likes to make stuff up to run over people who are in the way of their clients. Pretty standard stuff, really. But don't you love the fact that a bunch of "family values" Republican loyalists to George Bush are representing Take-Two/Rockstar and fraudulently smearing a conservative Christian Republican who has got Rockstar on the run? But this is wha the GOP has become: the lap dog for corporate America, the parents who provide the party's base be damned.

I hear today, then, from the Internet-based "enthusiast video game press" that "gamers" are going to file or have filed new SLAPP Bar complaints against me. Here's why:

An outfit in Seattle called "Think Geek" is marketing a t-shirt emblazoned across the front of which are the words "I Hate Jack Thompson." That kind of tells us where they

Mind-numbing as it is, you can find his response at http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000427064233/ Comment #10.