Being a "pawn shop" isn't a result of what you call yourself - it's a result of what you do. If there are specific laws regarding this type of activity in particular jurisdiction, it applies to all businesses whether they call themselves pawnbrokers or not.
Nine times out of ten, or better, it's not going to be a problem for EB to do an immediate turnaround because the property isn't stolen (besides, of course, the problem of potentially violating local laws). It takes only the one time, though, to get your business into trouble. It's worth the traditional link to Acts of Gord to see examples of what people try to pull on video game dealers/resellers.
The order of last/first name displayed on the card shouldn't matter to the device when gathering the data from the strip/RFID, much like when displaying data pulled from a database. It should be sending something like "Last name: XXXXXX" and "First name: XXXXXX". As for misspellings, that would be something I'd want fixed on a card I use.:)
Note that I'm not a real proponent for this. Like others, I consider it something wallets and purses already take care of. This would just be something else to carry around, and until cash money is entirely eliminated the convenience factor of it (even if perfectly secure) isn't that significant in my eyes.
1. A Sam and Max FPS could be insanely cool and funny. Toss in some frying pans, giant mallets and fire hoses, and all of a sudden you've got first-person cartoon action.
2. LucasArts has proven MORE than capable of doing good adventure games. That's kind of the whole issue here. If it was Microsoft, EA or [insert other big company producing often lousy games here] it wouldn't be that big a deal. The cancellation of a LucasArts adventure game, however, IS a big deal to fans of the genre.
Um, that would be great and everything, except that the thing likely won't accept any info without the right name (which is part of the data taken from each card) attached. In other words, the thing would either key to the first name scanned or would come pre-registered with a name already attached.
That's not to say that it wouldn't be hackable (I haven't looked into their encryption methods - anything can be hacked), but it would be a more difficult than you propose.
Besides, the situation you describe already exists. You can either take an impression of the card or write the information down - not everything (hello, Internet) requires reading the magnetic strip...low tech but insanely easy.
Certainly there's no legal mandate to do what I describe, but I consider it to be an ethical issue. Unfortunately, most have come to the conclusion that a free market means a market without a conscience, so every business judgement comes down to ONLY the bottom line, as you describe and screw doing anything nice for anyone.
In any case, you're right. "Expected" was the wrong word. "It would be DECENT of Lucasarts to 'give something back'" is probably a better way to put it. Of course, it would also be DECENT of Lucasfilm to avoid sullying a classic franchise with lousy movies, but that's probably not going to happen either.
There's some truth to what you say, but it's also true that there should be a place for development of niche-type games. A company like Lucasarts that all but mints money by milking their core (Star Wars) franchise SHOULD be expected to "give something back" by taking a chance on the development of something like Sam & Max, somewhat like big movie studios that make low-budget "art house" films on the off chance one could be a hit or at least recoup costs.
Would a PS2 port automatically be considered shovelware? If it's a good game and the conversion to handheld is effective, isn't it just a port? The term "shovelware" implies that the end product is no good.
Considering this is coming from Nvidia, this is clearly, purely, a financial deal between Nvidia and Id. This isn't a.plan file from Carmack or even an interview with the same, which might be more interesting from a technical point of view. This is a cobranding, most likely decided upon in light of ATI's association with Valve and Half-Life 2.
Oh, and don't forget the fact that while you think "the PS2 launch(es) couldn't have gotten worse," Sony still sold out on the damn thing with every early shipment. It's easy to forget that while gamers measure such things based on how much fun they had, Sony (and any other company) measures them based on how much money they make.:)
That's like saying the Genesis couldn't compete with the NES. If Sony follows through on their PSP promises (admittedly, a big if), the PSP will be a significant technological upgrade over the GBA. It might not have the same give-it-to-the-kids cachet of the various Gameboy incarnations, but it will certainly attract people who want the "latest and greatest" thing.
Another thing (which I'm hesitant to mention as it's minor heresy) is that the GBA library is littered with retreads (handheld SNES, anyone?) and, frankly, crap. While there are great games, they constitute a relatively small percentage of the total. Sony has proven before that they can sell an expensive piece of hardware on the strength of VERY (VERY) few decent games.
If the rumor is true that the second screen is a touchscreen, then two people on one console isn't even close to the goal. Of course, IMO, two players on a single handheld console is a just plain silly thing to attempt, unless it involves passing the handheld to the next player - RF wireless and decent prices should take care of multiplayer.
As far as imagining the possibilities, I can't bring myself to care much about wireless multiplayer (I don't play multiplayer-friendly games on GBA), but I'm pretty excited about the idea of two-screen games, assuming they've got developers on board. There are many functions, like maps, inventories, text dialogs, etc. that would be much improved being shunted off to a second screen. RPGs, in particular, can gain huge benefits from a second screen. Since GBA has become the main RPG machine for many, I would think improvements in that area would be well received.
Man, that's a good deal. I had no idea it was that cheap since I knew it was over $100 a pop. Obviously, this is just pie-in-the-sky speculation at the moment, but the solution described in grandparent certainly sounds cooler now.:)
You're confusing demos with beta testing - a problem for game companies, too. A demo should NOT be about testing the product. It should be about giving a sample of a game to the consumer to hopefully whet the appetite for the full version.
Me, I don't need demos. If a game is good, I'll hear it's good and buy it. If it sucks, I'll hear about that (or not) and won't buy it. Besides the fact that demos can be deceptive at times in terms of content and quality, there are enough reviews of most games for me to make an educated guess as to whether I'll like one or not.
It doesn't do any good, as your rhetorical question implies. However, part of the reason for the stealth helicopter concept was to defend them against airborne radars which can detect low-flying aircraft and then vector fighters to intercept. It's only because of the change in threats (from fighting militarily advanced nations to fighting people with cheap leftovers) that the concept became pointless...Of course, that still doesn't explain why it took over 10 years to scrap the project, but military development works in mysterious, and fattening, ways.
Not only worthless in terms of manned travel, but quite a bit more complicated in terms of unmanned exploration. I've got to believe that equipment survivability on Mars is a lot better than on Venus due to that ridiculously high temperature, which approaches that of an uncooled Nvidia video card.
Yeah, enhancing the game experience, meaning making it better. Having some 15-year-old moon me while playing a video game is not my idea of enhancement. As far as signaling in a team game like you describe, that's just plain pointless unless the movements are actually mapped and replicated by the avatars on-screen (THAT would be cool). If it's just a little window with a picture, that actually HURTS the immersion factor and would get people killed as they switched attention back and forth between the video window and the game proper. DDR would be a bad idea for a completely different reason in that there's no way - unless the encoding is being handled in its own hardware - that a camera like this could keep up with the movements in a fast song (of course, add that to the delay and, again, you have something that would be more distracting than fun).
Apart from hearing-impaired people who obviously can't use voice features, and maybe slow, turn-based games, video conferencing within a game seems like pure, useless gimmick. Just because voice is cool in games doesn't mean that video automatically has the same potential.
Unfortunately, the big appeal of Music Mixer was supposed to be the karaoke feature, so the $40 covers the inclusion of a microphone and adapter as well. For me, because I didn't want to stretch audio wiring from my computer to my living room (CAT-5 is another issue entirely for a geek), the program was worth the money not to have to re-rip those CDs again in the Xbox.
Actually, being defensive about Xbox doesn't require being a "fanboy" (I enjoy all three current consoles). Most places, it just requires being a "fan" considering how it gets hammered.:)
That being said, you're right. I misunderstood the original point and retract my attitude - I'm no more excited than anyone else about the idea of a Microsoft game console without a hard drive.
Even on 768k DSL it takes up to 5 minutes or longer in some cases to download necessary game patches to even allow online play on XboxLive.
a) Not every single time one plays - more like one 5-minute delay per month (at most).
b) That's not that long for a multi-meg download.
c) Would you rather they not improve the service when they can?
d) If you'd turn off Kazaa, you would probably experience increased Xbox Live performance.
Actually, I think companies are outsourcing because those British accents sound so intelligent and dignified when the Indians come in to make their proposals. =P
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Nine times out of ten, or better, it's not going to be a problem for EB to do an immediate turnaround because the property isn't stolen (besides, of course, the problem of potentially violating local laws). It takes only the one time, though, to get your business into trouble. It's worth the traditional link to Acts of Gord to see examples of what people try to pull on video game dealers/resellers.
Note that I'm not a real proponent for this. Like others, I consider it something wallets and purses already take care of. This would just be something else to carry around, and until cash money is entirely eliminated the convenience factor of it (even if perfectly secure) isn't that significant in my eyes.
1. A Sam and Max FPS could be insanely cool and funny. Toss in some frying pans, giant mallets and fire hoses, and all of a sudden you've got first-person cartoon action.
2. LucasArts has proven MORE than capable of doing good adventure games. That's kind of the whole issue here. If it was Microsoft, EA or [insert other big company producing often lousy games here] it wouldn't be that big a deal. The cancellation of a LucasArts adventure game, however, IS a big deal to fans of the genre.
That's not to say that it wouldn't be hackable (I haven't looked into their encryption methods - anything can be hacked), but it would be a more difficult than you propose.
Besides, the situation you describe already exists. You can either take an impression of the card or write the information down - not everything (hello, Internet) requires reading the magnetic strip...low tech but insanely easy.
In any case, you're right. "Expected" was the wrong word. "It would be DECENT of Lucasarts to 'give something back'" is probably a better way to put it. Of course, it would also be DECENT of Lucasfilm to avoid sullying a classic franchise with lousy movies, but that's probably not going to happen either.
So THAT'S why everyone has CP/M on their computers!
There's some truth to what you say, but it's also true that there should be a place for development of niche-type games. A company like Lucasarts that all but mints money by milking their core (Star Wars) franchise SHOULD be expected to "give something back" by taking a chance on the development of something like Sam & Max, somewhat like big movie studios that make low-budget "art house" films on the off chance one could be a hit or at least recoup costs.
Would a PS2 port automatically be considered shovelware? If it's a good game and the conversion to handheld is effective, isn't it just a port? The term "shovelware" implies that the end product is no good.
Then again, when Id demoed Doom 3 the first time, they used ATI (9700 cards, as I recall) to do it, so they can't hate ATI that much.
Considering this is coming from Nvidia, this is clearly, purely, a financial deal between Nvidia and Id. This isn't a .plan file from Carmack or even an interview with the same, which might be more interesting from a technical point of view. This is a cobranding, most likely decided upon in light of ATI's association with Valve and Half-Life 2.
Oh, and don't forget the fact that while you think "the PS2 launch(es) couldn't have gotten worse," Sony still sold out on the damn thing with every early shipment. It's easy to forget that while gamers measure such things based on how much fun they had, Sony (and any other company) measures them based on how much money they make. :)
Another thing (which I'm hesitant to mention as it's minor heresy) is that the GBA library is littered with retreads (handheld SNES, anyone?) and, frankly, crap. While there are great games, they constitute a relatively small percentage of the total. Sony has proven before that they can sell an expensive piece of hardware on the strength of VERY (VERY) few decent games.
As far as imagining the possibilities, I can't bring myself to care much about wireless multiplayer (I don't play multiplayer-friendly games on GBA), but I'm pretty excited about the idea of two-screen games, assuming they've got developers on board. There are many functions, like maps, inventories, text dialogs, etc. that would be much improved being shunted off to a second screen. RPGs, in particular, can gain huge benefits from a second screen. Since GBA has become the main RPG machine for many, I would think improvements in that area would be well received.
Deus Ex (PC): 89.3% ("B+")
Deus Ex: IW (PC): 82.0% ("B-")
Deus Ex: IW (Xbox): 85.5% ("B")
Slashdot Games commentators: Whiny bitches ("D-")
Man, that's a good deal. I had no idea it was that cheap since I knew it was over $100 a pop. Obviously, this is just pie-in-the-sky speculation at the moment, but the solution described in grandparent certainly sounds cooler now. :)
How would you acquire the licenses for OSX to be on boxes in "every room" of your house? That sounds like an expensive solution to me.
Me, I don't need demos. If a game is good, I'll hear it's good and buy it. If it sucks, I'll hear about that (or not) and won't buy it. Besides the fact that demos can be deceptive at times in terms of content and quality, there are enough reviews of most games for me to make an educated guess as to whether I'll like one or not.
It doesn't do any good, as your rhetorical question implies. However, part of the reason for the stealth helicopter concept was to defend them against airborne radars which can detect low-flying aircraft and then vector fighters to intercept. It's only because of the change in threats (from fighting militarily advanced nations to fighting people with cheap leftovers) that the concept became pointless...Of course, that still doesn't explain why it took over 10 years to scrap the project, but military development works in mysterious, and fattening, ways.
Not only worthless in terms of manned travel, but quite a bit more complicated in terms of unmanned exploration. I've got to believe that equipment survivability on Mars is a lot better than on Venus due to that ridiculously high temperature, which approaches that of an uncooled Nvidia video card.
Apart from hearing-impaired people who obviously can't use voice features, and maybe slow, turn-based games, video conferencing within a game seems like pure, useless gimmick. Just because voice is cool in games doesn't mean that video automatically has the same potential.
Unfortunately, the big appeal of Music Mixer was supposed to be the karaoke feature, so the $40 covers the inclusion of a microphone and adapter as well. For me, because I didn't want to stretch audio wiring from my computer to my living room (CAT-5 is another issue entirely for a geek), the program was worth the money not to have to re-rip those CDs again in the Xbox.
That being said, you're right. I misunderstood the original point and retract my attitude - I'm no more excited than anyone else about the idea of a Microsoft game console without a hard drive.
The "e" in Windows XPe stands for "embedded."
a) Not every single time one plays - more like one 5-minute delay per month (at most).
b) That's not that long for a multi-meg download.
c) Would you rather they not improve the service when they can?
d) If you'd turn off Kazaa, you would probably experience increased Xbox Live performance.
Actually, I think companies are outsourcing because those British accents sound so intelligent and dignified when the Indians come in to make their proposals. =P