"But I still can't understand why there's not going to be CDDB/Gracenote ability via XBox Live."
I'm not certain what service Microsoft is hooking up with (I have to believe it's the CDDB), but Microsoft's Music Mixer is going to add exactly the kind of functionality I believe you're looking for in terms of automatically titling albums/tracks when ripping new discs to the hard drive.
It is also apparently going to add the ability to import MP3s from the PC to the Xbox which is even more interesting to those of us who have already ripped our collections into that format and don't want to sit around for hours re-ripping them onto the Xbox.
First off, I'll just say that as an Xbox Live player I find the whole concept of integrated the general service (buddy list/matchmaking) into Xbox titles that have no other online component fascinating, and I certainly hope that it's implemented as well as they expect.
Second, here's a list of the topics I expect to be brought up here on Slashdot with relation to this article:
1. Online console gaming is a fad.
2. This is just another Microsoft ploy to find out if you've modded your Xbox.
3. FreeBSD is dead. (yes, completely offtopic but almost inevitable).
4. Microsoft is using this to gather information about offline gaming habits. (Maybe not a bad point!)
5. I would rather have a Gamecube which I can use in privacy and play Zelda and Metroid.
And my most eagerly anticipated topic?
6. Xbox needs more than one game before I'll buy it.
By the time of "Episode 4," I certainly agree with you. However, it has been told that Vader was responsible for hunting down and eliminating the Jedi Knights. That probably took a bit more work than just walking into rooms and choking them...if it didn't, then that big Jedi battle in AotC would have been over a lot sooner. Since the last movie isn't likely to address killing all the Jedi Knights, that could indeed be a worthy subject for a video game, filling in events between episodes 3 and 4.
Just to clarify, the saves are NOT 64 megs a pop. Each save game is about 1,500 "blocks." Since the Xbox memory card is 8 MB and about 500 blocks (I only have one because it came with my Live! beta), that means that the saves are 24 MB a piece. They could EASILY be optimized to be much smaller (they could probably get down to at least 1 MB and maybe even smaller) if Bioware felt the need.
Because console games shouldn't have to include special drivers for all the various USB devices that someone might want to hook up to their PS2, and developers would certainly be reluctant to start putting in some sort of starting config panel on every game to activate drivers for those devices.
Relax and take a deep berath. This product addresses a few concerns:
a) Most console gamers don't know WHAT a wireless bridge is.
b) Both models appear to be cheaper than Linksys' other bridges (though the prices may come down if these "gamer bridges" would work with a PC just as easily).
c) Apparently, the software is designed to be more user friendly and I'm sure the instructions will be written with gaming (and each console) in mind, rather than traditional LANs.
This looks like an excellent move toward making Linksys the home-friendly department of Cisco.
So far, there aren't even more online games ANNOUNCED, let alone released, for the Gamecube. The only one even using the broadband unit on the horizon is Mario Kart, and that's purely for LAN-type play.
To be fair, regarding your "Problem 3," I expect that they are going to get the patches from the developers, presumably with permission to modify the delivery program, put it in their own format and then deliver it to the console. It would be essentially the same process as a normal patch but would likely be automated to accept their own defaults (such as drive location).
I'm not going to use my karma bonus for this applause but...
[[applause]]
It's just sad that I had to scroll this far down to see a cogent discussion of the machine and article (I was afraid I was going to have to write one myself).
My suggestion to these people is that, instead of leaping into the hardware area (scary margins/overhead), they should market their fancy-shmancy installation/patching service as a software package. I would imagine that there are a lot of hardcore PC gamers out there (I'm not one with a 1-GHz Athlon and a GF4-420MX) who would be interested in a service that would streamline the installation of their many games and provide automatic patching, even if there was a [reasonable] monthly fee. Heck, back when I *was* a hardcore PC gamer I would have paid a monthly fee for that service and I probably wouldn't have touched the web for another couple years since my initial forays were entirely for patching PC games.:)
This "console" will fail, the Phantom will fail...I weep for the venture capital.
Standard? To emerge? See DVD+/-RW/RAM/ROM/R for standardization example. In other words you will wait till the end of the world...
Actually, the comparison to the various DVD recording formats is invalid on its face. Nobody really has a good reason to force standardization except consumers who want to trade their discs around. Even then, in terms of making DVD movie-type discs which can be played in normal DVD players, most players that can play -R can play +R and vice versa.
What will drive the DVD manufacturers to standardization is the movie/television industry. They want one format (a la VHS and DVD) so that they can reduce manufacturing costs and have one consistent market to which they will sell their product. In short, there will most definitely be a standard. How long it takes will depend in large part on the adoption of HDTV technology by the consumers. After all, there's no compelling reason to change the technology unless you HAVE to store more data on a disc - which you would if you want to provide high-definition content (consumers don't want to flip/swap discs in the middle of a movie - ask the Laserdisc people).
Until a bigger percentage of the population has at least one HDTV in their house there's no need for a high-definition DVD standard - better to wait so that the technology can be matured and refined in the lab to be released when people will actually go out and buy the thing...of course, I would right now but I'm in the HDTV minority.:)
I might buy into this if the DVD resolution was the same as the VHS resolution, but since that doesn't happen (VHS maxes out at around 240 lines and DVD is a standard 480 - NTSC at least) you're full of it. Unless the DVD is being produced from a low-resolution master (like a VHS camcorder), it's ALWAYS (ALWAYS, ALWAYS) going to have a higher resolution than VHS. While they might use lower bitrates on some DVDs, NTSC resolution is still NTSC resolution which maxes out at 525 lines, and VHS - "4[/6/8/20] head" VCR or not - simply can't capture the full resolution.
Of course, the fact that you're watching on 19 and 21" NTSC televisions (likely with the DVD player sending out its worst signal - composite) doesn't help at all. Try comparing DVD and VHS on a 32"+ TV (NTSC or HD, whichever - preferably with minimum S-video connection) and you WILL see the difference. If not, I recommend you get your eyes checked.
...I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Sony blocked Rockstar titles in the future as a form of punishment.
Only if Sony is beyond stupid. That would be the equivalent of saying to Rockstar, "No thank you, we would rather NOT have those millions of dollars in royalties."
If Rockstar WERE to evade the exclusivity deal in this matter, Sony might sue them, they might simply demand a portion of the cash they paid for the exclusivity back (Rockstar, Take Two, et. al. can easily afford it at the moment), and they would certainly be wary of doing any more exclusive deals with the company. They would not, however, discourage Rockstar from making PS2 games. The fact that Rockstar sells millions of units means that Sony makes millions of dollars in licensing fees. And Sony ain't Nintendo with the the whole grudge thing - they're in too many markets to take that kind of narrow view.
Agreed again. Then again, I have serious difficulty imagining someone with a computer capable of browsing the web pining after one. Yet, here we are reading comment after comment from people who think it's not only "neat" to set up an Xbox/Linux box (which it is) but somehow a cost-effective solution to some problem they think they have (which is at best questionable).
I agree with you mostly and think that buying an Xbox for Linux is silly - for example Fry's had a $200 Linux PC in last week's ad that blows away the Xbox in terms of processing power, storage space and expandability. But then there's always the "but": But, you aren't stuck with NTSC if you can output in one of the supported HDTV modes (probably 720p) from Linux. The problem then, of course, is that you would then have to either buy the component connection kit and have an HDTV or connect an outboard transcoder to convert to VGA, OR buy one of the Xbox VGA adapters that are being made...any way you slice it, of course, you're spending a lot more for less functionality.
I've known many straight women who enjoy watching two women together, so I wouldn't exclude them from my generalization. I've known far fewer homosexual men, so I'll accept my punishment for that with grace.:)
You can go here and read the FULL comments by Mr. Olmos. The linked article didn't take him out of context or anything, but his comments are expanded quite a lot on his own page.
In short, he is NOT saying that he thinks the current BG project is of poor quality but rather that die-hard Galactica fans might not like the changes.
I think most of his attitude is probably being caused by the fact that there are probably some shrill BG geeks keeping close track of production and e-mailing him with their complaints.
Not once did EJO indicate that he thought the miniseries was "bad." He simply says that people who are huge fans of the original and expect more of the same are going to be disappointed. Personally, I think that's a good thing. Even as a youngster watching the series I could think of ways the show could have been done better and I liked the show. On the other hand, as an adult, I now find the series completely unwatchable.
Besides, if someone is going to remake a movie, TV series or anything else I want it to be different...maybe even better. I was already committed to recording BG on my handy-dandy ReplayTV, and this story does nothing to diminish my interest.
When I play defense in Madden, I usually start as a defensive back to give me the greatest range and attack the ball carrier rather than the QB. However I almost always switch to a closer player..."
Things work the same way in normal NFL 2kx (now ESPN) but better [IMO]. I would note, though that real players on a football field don't get to switch between bodies on a play so that they can be involved, and if a football fan were interested in such a first-person mode it would be because they would want to immerse themselves even more in the game, seeing what the players see.
It's worth noting (in response to some of your other points) that wearing a football helmet restricts one's peripheral vision pretty severely in any case, so not having that in the game wouldn't be too far off from reality. Also, as a wide receiver (in the example given) you're not going to turn your head to look for the ball until you have to do so - a fundamental at which any good wide receiver will be proficient.
The first-person view isn't going to replace third-person for most video game football players (even in the Sega game where it's only being offered as an option) anytime soon, but I think it's an interesting addition to the genre and could prove to be a lot of fun. In fact, it should be even more fun since most of the people who enjoy football don't imagine themselves as football coaches, making a game plan to win the big game - most imagine themselves as an athlete, making the big play to win the big game.
PS-
Why does every new feature like this in any game have to be picked apart before even playing the game, anyway? I'm not necessarily directing this at any one person as this goes on amongst gamers all the time. There's a bizarre traditionalist streak that seems to go through a lot of gamers and it seems very out of place considering the constantly advancing technical nature of the hobby...
You'd be right except that The Sims is a non-competitive single-player game that can be stopped and saved at any time to be resumed in exactly the same state as it was left later. It's the very definition of casual gaming in that there are no goals besides the ones you set for yourself and the setting is one that's similar to the real world (house, furnishings, neighbors, job, etc.). Your Sims are never going to be killed (unless you work at it), the game never ends and, perhaps most importantly, it requires no specialized knowledge/skills since the game mechanics are based on actual activities (going to the bathroom, maintaining hygiene, interacting with people, etc.)...imagine trying to sit grandma down to teach her how to play Doom/Quake/Half-Life - the keys alone would intimidate and the settings/activities would probably not appeal anyway.
In essence, the casual gamer is going to gravitate toward video game activities with which s/he is already familiar. This is why Madden sells well every year (football has become the US national pasttime), it's why card games do well (Sierra wouldn't release a new Hoyle Casino every year if it weren't doing good business) and it's why Star Wars games sell great even when they're bad.
That would work, too, and it would probably be more effective.
My thought was simply that The Sims Online is supposed to be a virtual world/life and so it should have a more fully developed justice system. Fortunately, I would never get caught up in it since I have way too much going on in my real life as it is...playing with the new Diablo patch, Xbox, Gamecube, PS2...uhhh, that IS life, isn't it?:)
Or maybe they simply polled people who play games. There are a lot of people who don't consider videogaming their primary hobby but still enjoy playing. These people are usually referred to as "casual gamers." This term I've found is most often used by the "hardcore gamers" who use it derisively because they feel that the existence of casual gamers means that they get fewer 70-hour RPGs and insanely difficult shooters. I suspect that the "casual" gamers outnumber the "hardcore" gamers if only because games like The Sims and Madden dominate the sales charts year after year.
Me, I like the idea of more and more people playing video games casually. More of them buying video games pumps more money into the industry as a whole, which causes more games to be released. This means that software developers can keep people like me (who play as many as 8-10 hours a day) occupied...not to mention more high-tech employment so that Slashdot participants can keep up their workday posting habits.:)
I'm surprised that they (Maxis/EA) didn't have the foresight to create something like a court system before even launching the game. Not one online game has ever had 100% success in getting rid of "griefing" type activities and that should have been acknowledged up front.
The way I think this would work would be to give people the ability to "file suit" against one another in the game. One filing wouldn't trigger anything since the court system would subsequently be as overloaded as the one in real life. You could set a number (maybe 100?) so that once that number of suits was reached against a single person the court system would be activated. A judge would be selected from available GMs and they would inform both parties (the last to file suit would be the complainant [sp?] and of course the respondant) via e-mail to get their evidence (not to exceed 5k) together for trial and submitted two hours before the trial (trial date/time set at a time when both parties are typically online). Note that if either party doesn't show up to trial they would be subject to a one-week suspension without appeal.
The GM would then review the evidence and decide (subject to review by their supervisor) if the case has merit. If it does, then an hour before trial the GM would send out jury requests to 50 potential jurors (these would be random and would not include anyone who has sued, or been sued by, either of the two parties to the suit; maybe even chosen from another server entirely). Out of those 50, the first 13 (no hung juries) to show up at the virtual courthouse (by selecting it from a menu) would be empaneled. These jurors would then read the documents (logs) submitted before trial.
Once trial starts and both parties are present, each would have the opportunity to examine the other by asking five fairly simple questions. The judge would enforce a time limit of one minute for the question and the response. Each party could have one witness, allowed to participate in two questions each. The judge can then ask two questions of each party.
Once all that's done, the jury votes for the complainant or the defendant. If the complainant loses, they are suspended for two days for wasting the court's time. If the defendant loses, their punishment would be decided by the judge based both on the current act and potentially any prior acts (lost suits), ranging from a one-week suspension to complete banning. A trial under these circumstances, by the way, should clock in at under an hour.
By the way, disabling people's chat in the courtroom during this time (except for those asking or being asked questions) would be a given.
Finally, a tag would be put on the defendant, win or lose. Their suit counter would drop in half so that fewer filings would be required over the next two months to activate a trial. Further, if someone loses three suits as a defendant they're banned.
Doesn't all that sound like fun? Well, probably as much fun as The Sims Online is likely to get, anyway.:)
If you're quitting because of downtime in the first month of play and not because you dislike the actual gameplay then you're being foolish. These kinds of games are always going to experience downtime at first because it seems that it's impossible to project what's going to happen in the game once 125,000 accounts are created and played, and because these games are invariably overhyped early and thus bug-fixing delays get progressively more unacceptable so that they have to get the game out the door, flawed or not.
Note that I'm not justifying the idea of releasing a buggy game (I think it's a bad thing), rather I'm acknowledging reality.
Me, I'm not going to play for at least a couple of months because there's no sense in me buying the game now only to put it aside when Knights of The Old Republic hits in another week-plus. This has the added benefit of letting me get into the game once most of the major issues have been ironed out and maybe, just maybe, when they've got player-owned vehicles available.:)
1. The word "media" is plural. Thus, "media have proven" is more correct.
2. I don't know what "idle minded" means, though if it is a real term - or your own new invention - it would be "idle-minded" or "idleminded" (using the hyphen is usually correct, though stylistically you can choose to make it one word). I suspect you were reaching for "addle-minded" or "addle-brained."
3. "Player" is singular, thus "their" (plural possessive) is difficult to justify in your second sentence.
4. How do you "take a critical view of the content" without seeing the game? Do you simply entrust your judgement to game reviewers like a sheep?
5. It's a bad idea to make fun of others' use of the English language (the mocking "Duh...") if you can't handle English syntax yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not certain what service Microsoft is hooking up with (I have to believe it's the CDDB), but Microsoft's Music Mixer is going to add exactly the kind of functionality I believe you're looking for in terms of automatically titling albums/tracks when ripping new discs to the hard drive.
It is also apparently going to add the ability to import MP3s from the PC to the Xbox which is even more interesting to those of us who have already ripped our collections into that format and don't want to sit around for hours re-ripping them onto the Xbox.
Second, here's a list of the topics I expect to be brought up here on Slashdot with relation to this article:
1. Online console gaming is a fad.
2. This is just another Microsoft ploy to find out if you've modded your Xbox.
3. FreeBSD is dead. (yes, completely offtopic but almost inevitable).
4. Microsoft is using this to gather information about offline gaming habits. (Maybe not a bad point!)
5. I would rather have a Gamecube which I can use in privacy and play Zelda and Metroid.
And my most eagerly anticipated topic?
6. Xbox needs more than one game before I'll buy it.
By the time of "Episode 4," I certainly agree with you. However, it has been told that Vader was responsible for hunting down and eliminating the Jedi Knights. That probably took a bit more work than just walking into rooms and choking them...if it didn't, then that big Jedi battle in AotC would have been over a lot sooner. Since the last movie isn't likely to address killing all the Jedi Knights, that could indeed be a worthy subject for a video game, filling in events between episodes 3 and 4.
Just to clarify, the saves are NOT 64 megs a pop. Each save game is about 1,500 "blocks." Since the Xbox memory card is 8 MB and about 500 blocks (I only have one because it came with my Live! beta), that means that the saves are 24 MB a piece. They could EASILY be optimized to be much smaller (they could probably get down to at least 1 MB and maybe even smaller) if Bioware felt the need.
Because console games shouldn't have to include special drivers for all the various USB devices that someone might want to hook up to their PS2, and developers would certainly be reluctant to start putting in some sort of starting config panel on every game to activate drivers for those devices.
a) Most console gamers don't know WHAT a wireless bridge is.
b) Both models appear to be cheaper than Linksys' other bridges (though the prices may come down if these "gamer bridges" would work with a PC just as easily).
c) Apparently, the software is designed to be more user friendly and I'm sure the instructions will be written with gaming (and each console) in mind, rather than traditional LANs.
This looks like an excellent move toward making Linksys the home-friendly department of Cisco.
So far, there aren't even more online games ANNOUNCED, let alone released, for the Gamecube. The only one even using the broadband unit on the horizon is Mario Kart, and that's purely for LAN-type play.
To be fair, regarding your "Problem 3," I expect that they are going to get the patches from the developers, presumably with permission to modify the delivery program, put it in their own format and then deliver it to the console. It would be essentially the same process as a normal patch but would likely be automated to accept their own defaults (such as drive location).
[[applause]]
It's just sad that I had to scroll this far down to see a cogent discussion of the machine and article (I was afraid I was going to have to write one myself).
My suggestion to these people is that, instead of leaping into the hardware area (scary margins/overhead), they should market their fancy-shmancy installation/patching service as a software package. I would imagine that there are a lot of hardcore PC gamers out there (I'm not one with a 1-GHz Athlon and a GF4-420MX) who would be interested in a service that would streamline the installation of their many games and provide automatic patching, even if there was a [reasonable] monthly fee. Heck, back when I *was* a hardcore PC gamer I would have paid a monthly fee for that service and I probably wouldn't have touched the web for another couple years since my initial forays were entirely for patching PC games. :)
This "console" will fail, the Phantom will fail...I weep for the venture capital.
Actually, the comparison to the various DVD recording formats is invalid on its face. Nobody really has a good reason to force standardization except consumers who want to trade their discs around. Even then, in terms of making DVD movie-type discs which can be played in normal DVD players, most players that can play -R can play +R and vice versa.
What will drive the DVD manufacturers to standardization is the movie/television industry. They want one format (a la VHS and DVD) so that they can reduce manufacturing costs and have one consistent market to which they will sell their product. In short, there will most definitely be a standard. How long it takes will depend in large part on the adoption of HDTV technology by the consumers. After all, there's no compelling reason to change the technology unless you HAVE to store more data on a disc - which you would if you want to provide high-definition content (consumers don't want to flip/swap discs in the middle of a movie - ask the Laserdisc people).
Until a bigger percentage of the population has at least one HDTV in their house there's no need for a high-definition DVD standard - better to wait so that the technology can be matured and refined in the lab to be released when people will actually go out and buy the thing...of course, I would right now but I'm in the HDTV minority. :)
Of course, the fact that you're watching on 19 and 21" NTSC televisions (likely with the DVD player sending out its worst signal - composite) doesn't help at all. Try comparing DVD and VHS on a 32"+ TV (NTSC or HD, whichever - preferably with minimum S-video connection) and you WILL see the difference. If not, I recommend you get your eyes checked.
Only if Sony is beyond stupid. That would be the equivalent of saying to Rockstar, "No thank you, we would rather NOT have those millions of dollars in royalties."
If Rockstar WERE to evade the exclusivity deal in this matter, Sony might sue them, they might simply demand a portion of the cash they paid for the exclusivity back (Rockstar, Take Two, et. al. can easily afford it at the moment), and they would certainly be wary of doing any more exclusive deals with the company. They would not, however, discourage Rockstar from making PS2 games. The fact that Rockstar sells millions of units means that Sony makes millions of dollars in licensing fees. And Sony ain't Nintendo with the the whole grudge thing - they're in too many markets to take that kind of narrow view.
Agreed again. Then again, I have serious difficulty imagining someone with a computer capable of browsing the web pining after one. Yet, here we are reading comment after comment from people who think it's not only "neat" to set up an Xbox/Linux box (which it is) but somehow a cost-effective solution to some problem they think they have (which is at best questionable).
I agree with you mostly and think that buying an Xbox for Linux is silly - for example Fry's had a $200 Linux PC in last week's ad that blows away the Xbox in terms of processing power, storage space and expandability. But then there's always the "but": But, you aren't stuck with NTSC if you can output in one of the supported HDTV modes (probably 720p) from Linux. The problem then, of course, is that you would then have to either buy the component connection kit and have an HDTV or connect an outboard transcoder to convert to VGA, OR buy one of the Xbox VGA adapters that are being made...any way you slice it, of course, you're spending a lot more for less functionality.
I've known many straight women who enjoy watching two women together, so I wouldn't exclude them from my generalization. I've known far fewer homosexual men, so I'll accept my punishment for that with grace. :)
In short, he is NOT saying that he thinks the current BG project is of poor quality but rather that die-hard Galactica fans might not like the changes.
I think most of his attitude is probably being caused by the fact that there are probably some shrill BG geeks keeping close track of production and e-mailing him with their complaints.
Besides, if someone is going to remake a movie, TV series or anything else I want it to be different...maybe even better. I was already committed to recording BG on my handy-dandy ReplayTV, and this story does nothing to diminish my interest.
I don't know about the cigar smoking, but even an attempt at some womanizing should be welcomed by every sci-fi geek.
Things work the same way in normal NFL 2kx (now ESPN) but better [IMO]. I would note, though that real players on a football field don't get to switch between bodies on a play so that they can be involved, and if a football fan were interested in such a first-person mode it would be because they would want to immerse themselves even more in the game, seeing what the players see.
It's worth noting (in response to some of your other points) that wearing a football helmet restricts one's peripheral vision pretty severely in any case, so not having that in the game wouldn't be too far off from reality. Also, as a wide receiver (in the example given) you're not going to turn your head to look for the ball until you have to do so - a fundamental at which any good wide receiver will be proficient.
The first-person view isn't going to replace third-person for most video game football players (even in the Sega game where it's only being offered as an option) anytime soon, but I think it's an interesting addition to the genre and could prove to be a lot of fun. In fact, it should be even more fun since most of the people who enjoy football don't imagine themselves as football coaches, making a game plan to win the big game - most imagine themselves as an athlete, making the big play to win the big game.
PS-
Why does every new feature like this in any game have to be picked apart before even playing the game, anyway? I'm not necessarily directing this at any one person as this goes on amongst gamers all the time. There's a bizarre traditionalist streak that seems to go through a lot of gamers and it seems very out of place considering the constantly advancing technical nature of the hobby...
In essence, the casual gamer is going to gravitate toward video game activities with which s/he is already familiar. This is why Madden sells well every year (football has become the US national pasttime), it's why card games do well (Sierra wouldn't release a new Hoyle Casino every year if it weren't doing good business) and it's why Star Wars games sell great even when they're bad.
My thought was simply that The Sims Online is supposed to be a virtual world/life and so it should have a more fully developed justice system. Fortunately, I would never get caught up in it since I have way too much going on in my real life as it is...playing with the new Diablo patch, Xbox, Gamecube, PS2...uhhh, that IS life, isn't it? :)
Me, I like the idea of more and more people playing video games casually. More of them buying video games pumps more money into the industry as a whole, which causes more games to be released. This means that software developers can keep people like me (who play as many as 8-10 hours a day) occupied...not to mention more high-tech employment so that Slashdot participants can keep up their workday posting habits. :)
The way I think this would work would be to give people the ability to "file suit" against one another in the game. One filing wouldn't trigger anything since the court system would subsequently be as overloaded as the one in real life. You could set a number (maybe 100?) so that once that number of suits was reached against a single person the court system would be activated. A judge would be selected from available GMs and they would inform both parties (the last to file suit would be the complainant [sp?] and of course the respondant) via e-mail to get their evidence (not to exceed 5k) together for trial and submitted two hours before the trial (trial date/time set at a time when both parties are typically online). Note that if either party doesn't show up to trial they would be subject to a one-week suspension without appeal.
The GM would then review the evidence and decide (subject to review by their supervisor) if the case has merit. If it does, then an hour before trial the GM would send out jury requests to 50 potential jurors (these would be random and would not include anyone who has sued, or been sued by, either of the two parties to the suit; maybe even chosen from another server entirely). Out of those 50, the first 13 (no hung juries) to show up at the virtual courthouse (by selecting it from a menu) would be empaneled. These jurors would then read the documents (logs) submitted before trial.
Once trial starts and both parties are present, each would have the opportunity to examine the other by asking five fairly simple questions. The judge would enforce a time limit of one minute for the question and the response. Each party could have one witness, allowed to participate in two questions each. The judge can then ask two questions of each party.
Once all that's done, the jury votes for the complainant or the defendant. If the complainant loses, they are suspended for two days for wasting the court's time. If the defendant loses, their punishment would be decided by the judge based both on the current act and potentially any prior acts (lost suits), ranging from a one-week suspension to complete banning. A trial under these circumstances, by the way, should clock in at under an hour.
By the way, disabling people's chat in the courtroom during this time (except for those asking or being asked questions) would be a given.
Finally, a tag would be put on the defendant, win or lose. Their suit counter would drop in half so that fewer filings would be required over the next two months to activate a trial. Further, if someone loses three suits as a defendant they're banned.
Doesn't all that sound like fun? Well, probably as much fun as The Sims Online is likely to get, anyway. :)
Note that I'm not justifying the idea of releasing a buggy game (I think it's a bad thing), rather I'm acknowledging reality.
Me, I'm not going to play for at least a couple of months because there's no sense in me buying the game now only to put it aside when Knights of The Old Republic hits in another week-plus. This has the added benefit of letting me get into the game once most of the major issues have been ironed out and maybe, just maybe, when they've got player-owned vehicles available. :)
1. The word "media" is plural. Thus, "media have proven" is more correct.
2. I don't know what "idle minded" means, though if it is a real term - or your own new invention - it would be "idle-minded" or "idleminded" (using the hyphen is usually correct, though stylistically you can choose to make it one word). I suspect you were reaching for "addle-minded" or "addle-brained."
3. "Player" is singular, thus "their" (plural possessive) is difficult to justify in your second sentence.
4. How do you "take a critical view of the content" without seeing the game? Do you simply entrust your judgement to game reviewers like a sheep?
5. It's a bad idea to make fun of others' use of the English language (the mocking "Duh...") if you can't handle English syntax yourself.