The reason it doesn't work is because the light gun is looking for the electron beam to trace past the area where the gun is pointing. A CRT draws the image on the screen in the same way you read English, tracing onto lines onto a phosphor screen with an electron gun from left to right, starting at the top of the screen and working it's way down, line by line. The game measures the time elapsed from the vertical blank interval (the moment the electron gun moves back to the top of the screen for the next frame) and to when the beam is sensed to figure out where the gun is pointed. Only CRTs work this way.
No, the problem with multiplayer is it is designed to solve a different problem than single player.
Think of single player as a film. You can enjoy it by yourself. You can start and stop it whenever you want.
Think of multiplayer as a board game. You aim to do it with multiple people. It's hard (or impossible) to do it by yourself.
You're right that it is designed to solve a different problem, but you are wrong about the problem it is solving.
Today the real drive behind competitive multiplayer is maximizing profits. It's a multipronged stategy.
First, at all costs, keep people playing. The longer people continue to play, the more new people will buy the game. Regularly release downloadable content to hold the player's interest. Give games some form of persistence through experience systems, trophies, achievements, or other rewards, and people will keep coming back as long as there is something new to collect. Encourage communities, modding, guilds, and anything else that give people a sense of belonging.
Second, understand that multiplayer usually means people constantly replaying the same small environments. Players love doing the same things over and over if it allows them to gain a sense of mastery. That's what pwning n00bs is all about. These competitive arenas cost relatively little to produce compared to linear single player games, and judging on the basis of the amount of time spent playing them, multiplayer maps are incredibly profitable. Since the players themselves are providing the primary stimulus, it also means not having to worry about: programming scripted events; tuning AI; managing sequence enforcement; doing heavy localization; producing costly music, voice recording, and writing.
Third, tie the game to subscription models and micro-transactions. World of Warcraft is obviously hugely successful here, but even free-to-play multiplayer games can earn incredible sums with optional purchases, as long as it gives one player a competitive edge over another. If a player can pay $1 for the pleasure of rubbing his friend's face into the dirt, watch that credit card fly from his wallet, especially if there is a public billboard to prove it. Then watch his friend pay $2 to settle the score.
Fourth, make sure you run the multiplayer servers. Force people to maintain accounts keyed to installations and remove the incentive to pirate the game. If you want to play, you have to pay. And if you screw up bad enough, you have to pay again. Use licensing tricks to circumvent first-sale doctrine, and watch the used game market shrivel and die while you laugh all the way to the bank.
I work on the fringes of both industries at the indie level and I agree completely. Video gaming still has a lot to learn from Hollywood. In 20 years it might actually be a good place to work. Until then, I'll stay indie.
Really, are we readers possibly asking for too much when we want their arbitrary scoring system to coincide with what's written?
Yes, you are asking too much when you expect an arbitrary scoring system to be anything but arbitrary. They're idiotic because they are made for idiots. Read the reviews, read the critiques, ask your friends, play the demos, and forget the stupid score card.
Two decades making games. I've seen a computer fly through a window, I've seen an ex employee trying to sledgehammer through from one companies adjoining wall to ours so he can get to his office and get his "stuff" back, I've seen one of my friends, a long time game vet kill himself on his birthday because nobody would listen to his brilliance . I've seen a barefoot art director tromp down the hallway like a baby to complain to his bosses when his concept art failed to look like the real-time model he expected when the limits of technology at the time wouldn't permit the level of detail he expected. I've had someone say he wanted to kill me and eat me, I've had anonymous threats when I attempted to suggest that we work together and share better ways to make the game better but.. because I was an "artist" my opinion was considered destructive to the game design hierarchy. I've had CEO's and coworkers claim my ideas without mentioning the source. I've had artist apply for a job with my artwork featured in their portfolios when I was the interviewer. I've been told that I had to work a 48 hour day, sleep on a company couch at work or "families will suffer when the company can't pay it's bills when the deliverable isn't met, Joel we're counting on you" I've been a part of countless layoffs, herded into a room with 300 brilliant talents and told that "**blank*** has F*'d us so we have to lay you all off effective immediately.... now" I've shown up to work and handed a glad trash bag and told that our 200K payroll had been stolen and that I'd have 15 minutes to collect my stuff before the company closes forever. I've seen an employee rob another when he was at lunch, deny it, and the discover he was being video taped.. I saw a a man lose his career, his wife and his company when he opened the door of his company to a guy who knew nothing about the game industry offering to help the company go public, but turned out to be a criminal connect to the mafia who ultimately fired every executive, robed the companies payroll and stole the workstations taking them to Florida where they were later found on bails of hay in a barn on his ranch. I've see racism, sexism and some of the most egotistical people in the world in the game industry and yet..... through it all I always remembered something Chuck Jones told me.. "Joel, the entertainment industry is 90% pain and suffering and 10% pleasure, Just make sure the pleasure shows in your work and you'll be fine." He was right.
Almost all games have at least 4 frames of controller response lag, some games much more. At 60 fps, that's at least 67 ms of essentially unavoidable latency before the image even gets to the display.
It breaks down like this: one frame to read the controller, one frame to process the control, one frame to draw the response, one frame to display the buffered image.
TFA largely glosses over that fact, but they do link to a previous article that address this phenomenon. Here are some other ones.
I still don't buy the defense, but thanks for the link. I'd mod that up if I could.
As a Floridian, I initially thought it was a mangrove as well -- and it probably is -- except it also has koala in it which further implies it is a gum tree. A koala's primary source of water is from the leaves that they eat. A salt-encrusted mangrove leaf is the last leaf I would expect them to want. I think if Men At Work had an old gum tree handy, they would have certainly used it instead.
Colin Hay defends the song saying (emphasis added):
"It is no surprise that in over 20 years, no one noticed the reference to Kookaburra. There are reasons for this. It was inadvertent, naive, unconscious, and by the time Men At Work recorded the song, it had become unrecognisable," he said.
Yeah, I was wondering about this to. I ran into the exploit last night and noticed that in the page source. Fortunately, all the injected code did was insert a marquee comment asserting the video posters deviant sexuality while breaking the rest of the page.
The 3DS has just under half as many pixels as an iPhone 4, and almost twice as many as the highest resolution iPhone currently available. The 3DS has just over twice as many pixels as its main competitor, the Sony PSP.
Sony PSP: 480 x 272 = 130560 iPhone 3GS: 480 x 320 = 153600 iPhone 4: 960 x 480 = 614400 Nintendo 3DS: 800 x 240 + 320 x 240 = 268800
Fill rate is a great thing, too. It can make up for limitations in fixed-function chips and allows for some spectacular effects if harnessed correctly.
I think it probably does reflect his beliefs pretty closely. Making money with his music was the only way he could continue to create it. Since radio wouldn't touch him, he had to use whatever other means was available, including asserting his right to protect his IP through proper licensing.
I suggest starting with something tame like Hot Rats. Work your way through Apostrophe and Overnite Sensation and then You Are What You Is and One Size Fits All. If you've stuck with it that far, take on Joe's Garage and you'll be ready for almost anything Zappa can throw at you.
You can definitely acquire a taste for Frank's music. As a young teen, the first time I listened to Zappa I didn't really like it at all, except for a couple jokey tracks like Valley Girl and Jewish Princess. Those appealed to my Dr. Demento mentality but not much else. Later as a adult with much more musical experience, I could appreciate it much more and it began to grow on me like a fungus. For the last fifteen years or so it's been almost the only contemporary music I can tolerate.
Fair enough, but I'd counter that Eisbock was accidentally created as a product of the environment it was brewed in. A side effect of brewing where I live is only being able to make ales. I'm fine with that. As you say, it's a matter of the degrees to which you are willing to manipulate the conditions. When it comes to brewing I'm a sort of a traditionalist because I'm so in love with the simplicity of the natural beer making process and the spectacular results it allows. I don't keg, I don't lager, and I merely said distillation was offensive to my sensibilities. I never said it wasn't beer.
As far as the Reinheitsgebot goes, it's not necessarily a good definition of what a beer is since it doesn't even allow yeast. That's understandable, given the limited understanding of fermentation at the time it was written. Calling it a "purity" law is a complete joke though. The law was created to protect the wheat supplies of bakers, not to ensure the purity of beer or maintain a tradition which has been steeped in the use of adjuncts since the days of Babylon.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason it doesn't work is because the light gun is looking for the electron beam to trace past the area where the gun is pointing. A CRT draws the image on the screen in the same way you read English, tracing onto lines onto a phosphor screen with an electron gun from left to right, starting at the top of the screen and working it's way down, line by line. The game measures the time elapsed from the vertical blank interval (the moment the electron gun moves back to the top of the screen for the next frame) and to when the beam is sensed to figure out where the gun is pointed. Only CRTs work this way.
You're right that it is designed to solve a different problem, but you are wrong about the problem it is solving.
Today the real drive behind competitive multiplayer is maximizing profits. It's a multipronged stategy.
First, at all costs, keep people playing. The longer people continue to play, the more new people will buy the game. Regularly release downloadable content to hold the player's interest. Give games some form of persistence through experience systems, trophies, achievements, or other rewards, and people will keep coming back as long as there is something new to collect. Encourage communities, modding, guilds, and anything else that give people a sense of belonging.
Second, understand that multiplayer usually means people constantly replaying the same small environments. Players love doing the same things over and over if it allows them to gain a sense of mastery. That's what pwning n00bs is all about. These competitive arenas cost relatively little to produce compared to linear single player games, and judging on the basis of the amount of time spent playing them, multiplayer maps are incredibly profitable. Since the players themselves are providing the primary stimulus, it also means not having to worry about: programming scripted events; tuning AI; managing sequence enforcement; doing heavy localization; producing costly music, voice recording, and writing.
Third, tie the game to subscription models and micro-transactions. World of Warcraft is obviously hugely successful here, but even free-to-play multiplayer games can earn incredible sums with optional purchases, as long as it gives one player a competitive edge over another. If a player can pay $1 for the pleasure of rubbing his friend's face into the dirt, watch that credit card fly from his wallet, especially if there is a public billboard to prove it. Then watch his friend pay $2 to settle the score.
Fourth, make sure you run the multiplayer servers. Force people to maintain accounts keyed to installations and remove the incentive to pirate the game. If you want to play, you have to pay. And if you screw up bad enough, you have to pay again. Use licensing tricks to circumvent first-sale doctrine, and watch the used game market shrivel and die while you laugh all the way to the bank.
I work on the fringes of both industries at the indie level and I agree completely. Video gaming still has a lot to learn from Hollywood. In 20 years it might actually be a good place to work. Until then, I'll stay indie.
Yes, you are asking too much when you expect an arbitrary scoring system to be anything but arbitrary. They're idiotic because they are made for idiots. Read the reviews, read the critiques, ask your friends, play the demos, and forget the stupid score card.
Is this common in your own industry?
FTFC Joel Payne says:
Somebody mod Parent up. Too many people think like GP. It's poison.
Almost all games have at least 4 frames of controller response lag, some games much more. At 60 fps, that's at least 67 ms of essentially unavoidable latency before the image even gets to the display.
It breaks down like this: one frame to read the controller, one frame to process the control, one frame to draw the response, one frame to display the buffered image.
TFA largely glosses over that fact, but they do link to a previous article that address this phenomenon. Here are some other ones.
Programming Responsiveness
Measuring Responsiveness in Video Games
Some examples from one of the above links:
I still don't buy the defense, but thanks for the link. I'd mod that up if I could.
As a Floridian, I initially thought it was a mangrove as well -- and it probably is -- except it also has koala in it which further implies it is a gum tree. A koala's primary source of water is from the leaves that they eat. A salt-encrusted mangrove leaf is the last leaf I would expect them to want. I think if Men At Work had an old gum tree handy, they would have certainly used it instead.
Colin Hay defends the song saying (emphasis added):
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/05/2811671.htm
Yet in the music video for "Down Under" a flute player is shown playing the quotation while sitting in a gum tree.
Pure coincidence?
Yeah, I was wondering about this to. I ran into the exploit last night and noticed that in the page source. Fortunately, all the injected code did was insert a marquee comment asserting the video posters deviant sexuality while breaking the rest of the page.
3D is a fad? You give it too much credit.
Yeah, you are right about the resolution, that was a typo on my part.
Those are only the ones to beat if you are making a phone. Who buys a phone to play games?
The 3DS has just under half as many pixels as an iPhone 4, and almost twice as many as the highest resolution iPhone currently available. The 3DS has just over twice as many pixels as its main competitor, the Sony PSP.
Sony PSP: 480 x 272 = 130560
iPhone 3GS: 480 x 320 = 153600
iPhone 4: 960 x 480 = 614400
Nintendo 3DS: 800 x 240 + 320 x 240 = 268800
Fill rate is a great thing, too. It can make up for limitations in fixed-function chips and allows for some spectacular effects if harnessed correctly.
LOL! RT @Alsee I don't use twitter. I don't want to catch chirpies. It's a canarial disease. It's untweetable.
I said I agreed with him. Can't you fucking read?
Loser Lawyer Litigates, Laughs Last!
Bulky Barrister Born By Bullies!
Saber-Swinging Super-Star Supervises Saving Society!
Crazy Counsel Courts Conservationists!
Activist Attorney Accepts Arguable Acclaim!
Famed Flabby Fanboy Fixes Fate, Flaunts Fellowship!
I agree. Having the highest incarceration rate in the world is an example that all free nations should aspire to. USA #1!
I think it probably does reflect his beliefs pretty closely. Making money with his music was the only way he could continue to create it. Since radio wouldn't touch him, he had to use whatever other means was available, including asserting his right to protect his IP through proper licensing.
I suggest starting with something tame like Hot Rats. Work your way through Apostrophe and Overnite Sensation and then You Are What You Is and One Size Fits All. If you've stuck with it that far, take on Joe's Garage and you'll be ready for almost anything Zappa can throw at you.
You can definitely acquire a taste for Frank's music. As a young teen, the first time I listened to Zappa I didn't really like it at all, except for a couple jokey tracks like Valley Girl and Jewish Princess. Those appealed to my Dr. Demento mentality but not much else. Later as a adult with much more musical experience, I could appreciate it much more and it began to grow on me like a fungus. For the last fifteen years or so it's been almost the only contemporary music I can tolerate.
Yeah, that's a good point about banning dangerous ingredients. I guess calling a purity law does make sense.
Fair enough, but I'd counter that Eisbock was accidentally created as a product of the environment it was brewed in. A side effect of brewing where I live is only being able to make ales. I'm fine with that. As you say, it's a matter of the degrees to which you are willing to manipulate the conditions. When it comes to brewing I'm a sort of a traditionalist because I'm so in love with the simplicity of the natural beer making process and the spectacular results it allows. I don't keg, I don't lager, and I merely said distillation was offensive to my sensibilities. I never said it wasn't beer.
As far as the Reinheitsgebot goes, it's not necessarily a good definition of what a beer is since it doesn't even allow yeast. That's understandable, given the limited understanding of fermentation at the time it was written. Calling it a "purity" law is a complete joke though. The law was created to protect the wheat supplies of bakers, not to ensure the purity of beer or maintain a tradition which has been steeped in the use of adjuncts since the days of Babylon.
As a brewer, distillation offends my sensibilities if you keep calling it beer.
The thing about digital food is, you either love it or you hate it.