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Monkey Island Creator Slams Corporate Control Over Game Publishing
An anonymous reader writes "Ron Gilbert, co-creator of classic games Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island 1 and 2, and many more, has spoken out against corporate censorship — the way of large companies getting a say on what does or does not get published on the distribution channels they control. Although his insightful rant applies to a number of corporations (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Comcast are mentioned), most of the direct examples single out Apple. Quoting: 'Apple has maintained an almost North Koreanish dictatorial control over the devices, becoming the arbitrator over what is good and bad, what is allowed and not allowed. They don't have this control over the Mac because it is a real computer and an open device, but they can do this with the iPhone because we (as consumers) were convinced by the cell phone carriers that they needed this control to protect their networks (in the same way they wouldn't let us own our own telephones in the '70s) and Apple was happy to jump on that ship because they could finally control everything that went on the device and we bought it into it. Apple apologists say that Apple needs this control to maintain the "specialness" of the device. I say that's a load of crap.'" He also mentions Adidas dropping out of iAds because they couldn't accept Apple's excessive creative control, and a photography app that was rejected because it used the volume buttons as trigger."
What the mans says is true. Yet people still buy and use the products (including many here on /.). Given that there exist alternatives, people must be OK with the compromise (design/"sexiness" vs openness).
We each have a most powerful weapon against such authoritarian control - do not buy the offending company's product. No-one truly needs an iPhone. Either go without or buy a more open alternative.
It's amazing you can still type while stroking Steve's member like that.
Using his mouth?
From the article:
Aaaaand that's where you lost me. Beaten Wife Syndrome: if you keep going back for more, after a while you have to take some responsibility for enabling the whuppings.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Thank you Ron Gilbert! At last someone finally gets what I have been saying for a long time and has the gonads to say it out loud. (Be careful though Ron, some blogs will ban you for such treachery. I know because I tried to say this very same thing and got my account deleted from a female blog dictator.) Now, don't get me wrong. The iThings are very nice products from a hardware point of view with the MAJOR exception of no user replaceable batteries. (Sorry, but having to spend $79 to replace the battery in a $99 iPhone 3GS is just plain idiotic.) The hardware is attractive, user friendly, and usually well designed (with another exception of the user-touchable antenna which de-tunes it.) I just have a major issue with someone else telling me what I can or cannot install for apps on my devices. If I am paying that much, I feel I have bought the right to install what I please as long as it doesn't interfere with the phone company network.
It's a volume button.
What's a "volume button"? Is that any different than any other button? Does it have a label on it that says "this button only controls volume, and nothing else, always"?
I don't have a problem with Apple with rejecting an app that subverts the defined usage of a hardware button.
Ha! "Subverts the defined usage of a button". That's very Orwellian of you. Isn't the "defined usage" of a button to be pressed?
I haven't used (or heard of) this app
Yeah, and you won't either, because Apple rejected it. You'll never get to determine, for your own usage scenarios, whether it's more comfortable or natural to press a button on the side of the device to take a picture. You won't have to make that choice for yourself, because Apple has already made it for you.
what does it do if you try to change the volume of your music or phone call when also trying to take a picture?
What do you think it does? It takes a picture. That's why you're using the camera, right? Do you turn on your music, take a phone call, and then start the camera? If you have the camera running and know that the volume button takes a picture, is it going to confuse you when you press the volume button and it takes a picture? Why is this difficult to figure out? Maybe it's better that Apple did make that choice for you if you're confused by things like this.
Your keyboard has a button on it near the bottom that's really long and doesn't have a label. Most of the time, when you're typing sentences, when you press this button it inserts a space character in the text. Do you get confused when you're online and you're using TAB to skip between interface elements, you land on a button, press the space bar, and it "clicks" the button? This key is only supposed to insert spaces into text, right? Why is it also clicking buttons that you've focused? That's madness! And what's the deal with that TAB button, anyway? Sometimes it inserts a bunch of whitespace, and sometimes it changes focus. How can anyone be expected to make any sense of this? And don't even get me started on a backspace key that would cause my browser to go to the previous page. That totally loses me.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
iPhone apps don't have to track your GPS data and sell it, when Apple will do it for you.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/06/apple-location-privacy-iphone-ipad.html
Your keyboard has a button on it near the bottom that's really long and doesn't have a label. Most of the time, when you're typing sentences, when you press this button it inserts a space character in the text. Do you get confused when you're online and you're using TAB to skip between interface elements, you land on a button, press the space bar, and it "clicks" the button? This key is only supposed to insert spaces into text, right? Why is it also clicking buttons that you've focused? That's madness!
Your example shows the major difference between the touch-based iOS devices and generic computers. On the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, you never have context-specific behavior of any buttons. The space bar on the onscreen keyboard always inserts a space into the focused text field. The home button always terminates the current application (well, except when you double/triple-press it or you're already on the home screen and there's nothing to terminate). iOS never requires the user to remember any keyboard hotkeys or differing behavior based on the current application's state. The return key even changes to "Submit" in a web form, or "Search" in the search bar, etc.
You just can't directly compare the user interface of a traditional computer to this new kind of system.
You know what really pisses me off? I have all of these video games on my computer, and when I press the space bar, my on-screen character doesn't type a space at all. In fact, it usually fires a weapon of some kind.
This is totally unacceptable. A space bar should be a space bar! If not, you're confusing me!
(In fact, I got so used to the video games that one day when I got an email from my boss that infuriated me, that was the last straw, I tried to respond by using my keyboard to jump onto my desk, dash across the room, blast a hole in his office door and blow his head off. Instead I accidentally ended up typing an email response. When will this madness end? SOMEONE needs to control these things!)
This space available.