I don't drink Budweiser from here (the US) but I've had the Czech equivalent, and despite my initial laughing at the guy for the shame of importing Budweiser, it was actually pretty good.
I for one, found the overall tone of the speech to be disheartening...it felt like the top names had given up. They pointed out problems and demanded solutions...that they didn't have. It was if they were imploring the audience to fix the problems for them. Kinda sad.
I did like how they all jumped up to smack down the guy who was complaining about game rentals. "Not all money streams lead to your wallet!"
Molyneux's idea sounds cool at first, but limits itself to only falling into the realm of edutainment, and is sorely lacking in the "tainment" part. It's not really a "game" anymore when all you're trying to do is make an object out of virtual clay so it spits another line of text/speech at you. It's basically the same as the old text adventures back in the day with "get yon flask", with a new interface that meets the new level of annoyance of today's level of gamer.
While Wright's idea looks initially like an attempt to rely on comedy, when you look at it a bit deeper, it's the only one that takes the license outside of the realm of "Hey, we should make the player rehash all Dickinson's poems."
This leads me to believe that of the 3, Wright's the only one I'd want to handle a license. Everyone else would just have you play through the events of the movie/TV Show/Book again.
Now, don't get me wrong, normally something like this doesn't work. Like PETA. There are just too many meat buyers for the PETA folks to make a difference.
However, the people posting and browsing here at Slashdot, and the people they have some personal influence over, I imagine, make up a substantial amount of the game buying market.
You get a decent sized percentage of the audience to follow Step 1, and Step 3 becomes Step 2.
More people need to start following your lead. If you see a game that's priced out of the norm £40 for the UKers, $55-$60 for the Americans, etc...skip it.
I don't care how good the game is or how long you've been waiting. Wait until the price drops, then rush the store. We've been paying artificially high prices for games for a long time. Last year, some publishers finally got smart, and gave us discount games like Katamari Damacy, Gungrave: Overdose and the ESPN sports titles.
Reward the good companies willing to stick their neck out like that, and punish the ones just trying to stick their hands out into your wallet.
Eventually, the publishers will notice that there are pathetic sales for the games in their first weeks out of the game, and phenomenal numbers after the price drop. Then maybe they'll get it.
Looking at anywhere I can find a list of Arcade credits (remember, those boards didn't have a whole lot of extra bits to be using on programmer names.) for SF II, I don't see Okamoto anywhere, unless you're going to claim one of those pseudonyms is him. The Arcade History Database lists a lot more of his credits, SF II isn't among them, and neither is Final Fight, but for Time Pilot, Gyruss and 1942 he is listed as designer. Then he sort of coasts along as Producer, Exec Producer for the rest of his career.
They already have their own companies. They aren't working for Microsoft. This impact you're assuming isn't going to be there. These are one-off exclusive game contracts for the most part.
Sakaguchi's fading, if not already completely spent. Okamoto has as far as I can tell from his credits, absolutely nothing to do with the creative process, and is a talking head. Mizuguchi is the only coup in the bunch so far, and you can't really call it a coup, because this isn't recruiting...it's RENTING.
These guys aren't working for Microsoft. They're working for their own companies, and are helming *1 or 2* exclusive XBox2 projects. Honestly, I thought people here would know better...but I guess this is mostly Zonk's fault for posting it as misleadingly as he has.
Capitalism is indeed beautiful...just like the free agency market in sports is...from the standpoint of the free agent only.
You're right. Mikami is. (He's also past his prime. I'm sure that means he'll have 2 NextBox exclusive games announced within 3 weeks.)
Check out Okamoto's Mobygames credits. Do you see the original Resident Evil on there? Nope. What about Street Fighter? Also a nope. The first time he shows up on anything RE related, it's RE2...for the PC...his credit? Supervisor. Actual impact on the game? 0 or less.
Mizuguchi is the far more interesting announcement. Maybe he'll get to make that sequel to Rez he was hoping for. Although, of his Mobygames credits, he's only hitting.400. At least his last 2 games have been the better ones, as opposed to Sakaguchi.
In my opinion, you really don't get a more of a moral obligation for being famous than you do as a regular Joe.
If you're a tool in real life, and then you're a tool in the movies, a la Jay Mohr, I don't care to support you. If you think that people need to have some sort of decency and you neglect to display that in your published work, then you're basically a hypocrite.
Square-Enix likes to hedge their bets on these things. If consumer response is low, then the second stop on the tour would mean that the "tour" had ended. By saying they have an 11-stop tour planned locks them in for 11 concerts, and they're trying to offer cool events, while not having a repeat of the movie fiasco. They're using the same plan for the FFXI user meets.
See, that's the comparison based on the pull he USED to have. A better Wetern equivalent to his current stature is Peter Molyneux, someone who had a good long moment of glory, and has started tumbling down the mountain with his recent works.
As far as a better statement that they intend to get stuff right in the Japanese market, they should probably announce that they're going to make the NeX-Box smaller than the XBox.
According to the article, Sakaguchi left in 2001. In that time period, FFXI, FF Crystal Chronicles, and FF:TA came out.
He's only the guy who created FF, he has no rights to anything that Square makes. What he's bringing to Microsoft is a totally different priginal RPG thing.
Whether or not that means he's totally abandoning his previously announced exclusive DS project, nobody knows.
What was the last RPG EA made? They're essentially the same as Microsoft. They won't make any game that they can't re-use the engine for, and then turn around and flip out a sequel to in 12 months. RPGs don't do that, and so, there was no need for Troika.
What's so difficult about PICKING UP THE DAMN PHONE?! This is pointless, if offers no benefits, and only makes it even more profitable to hack someone's account.
If you feel like being locked into crappy, lower-quality pizza, then, by all means, feel free to save the extra 2 theoretical seconds. (seeing as how you'd have to fill out your address, etc.)
Me, I'll spend the extra two seconds, and order from somplace that doesn't need to "invent" a new pizza every 2 weeks to make you forget that their pizzas suck.
Is what the evil guy from Fast and Furious says after the ADD kid fires off his nitrous...
"Too soon, Junior."
Microsoft looks at this situation and sees, "The only reason we lost is because we weren't entrenched first."
Which is utter BS. So now they're making one of the classic mistakes in a 3-system race, and that is to launch early.
When you're the first one out of the gate, and more than half of the competition is behind you...people are going to wait to see what comes next, because only a very, very small percentage of the gaming population has enough disposable cash to plunk down $300 + 2 games 3 times within the span of a year.
The other foolish mistake is to launch at a higher price point, which Microsoft will undoubtedly do, since Sony and Nintendo can just launch afterwards, and undercut.
I'll reserve judgement until after E3, but at this stage of the game, I'd kiss the XBox goodbye.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't drink Budweiser from here (the US) but I've had the Czech equivalent, and despite my initial laughing at the guy for the shame of importing Budweiser, it was actually pretty good.
I for one, found the overall tone of the speech to be disheartening...it felt like the top names had given up. They pointed out problems and demanded solutions...that they didn't have. It was if they were imploring the audience to fix the problems for them. Kinda sad.
I did like how they all jumped up to smack down the guy who was complaining about game rentals. "Not all money streams lead to your wallet!"
Haha! BURN!
The DS game was fairly shallow.
Molyneux's idea sounds cool at first, but limits itself to only falling into the realm of edutainment, and is sorely lacking in the "tainment" part. It's not really a "game" anymore when all you're trying to do is make an object out of virtual clay so it spits another line of text/speech at you. It's basically the same as the old text adventures back in the day with "get yon flask", with a new interface that meets the new level of annoyance of today's level of gamer.
While Wright's idea looks initially like an attempt to rely on comedy, when you look at it a bit deeper, it's the only one that takes the license outside of the realm of "Hey, we should make the player rehash all Dickinson's poems."
This leads me to believe that of the 3, Wright's the only one I'd want to handle a license. Everyone else would just have you play through the events of the movie/TV Show/Book again.
Now, don't get me wrong, normally something like this doesn't work. Like PETA. There are just too many meat buyers for the PETA folks to make a difference.
However, the people posting and browsing here at Slashdot, and the people they have some personal influence over, I imagine, make up a substantial amount of the game buying market.
You get a decent sized percentage of the audience to follow Step 1, and Step 3 becomes Step 2.
More people need to start following your lead. If you see a game that's priced out of the norm £40 for the UKers, $55-$60 for the Americans, etc...skip it.
I don't care how good the game is or how long you've been waiting. Wait until the price drops, then rush the store. We've been paying artificially high prices for games for a long time. Last year, some publishers finally got smart, and gave us discount games like Katamari Damacy, Gungrave: Overdose and the ESPN sports titles.
Reward the good companies willing to stick their neck out like that, and punish the ones just trying to stick their hands out into your wallet.
Eventually, the publishers will notice that there are pathetic sales for the games in their first weeks out of the game, and phenomenal numbers after the price drop. Then maybe they'll get it.
Maybe.
Looking at anywhere I can find a list of Arcade credits (remember, those boards didn't have a whole lot of extra bits to be using on programmer names.) for SF II, I don't see Okamoto anywhere, unless you're going to claim one of those pseudonyms is him. The Arcade History Database lists a lot more of his credits, SF II isn't among them, and neither is Final Fight, but for Time Pilot, Gyruss and 1942 he is listed as designer. Then he sort of coasts along as Producer, Exec Producer for the rest of his career.
They already have their own companies. They aren't working for Microsoft. This impact you're assuming isn't going to be there. These are one-off exclusive game contracts for the most part.
Sakaguchi's fading, if not already completely spent. Okamoto has as far as I can tell from his credits, absolutely nothing to do with the creative process, and is a talking head. Mizuguchi is the only coup in the bunch so far, and you can't really call it a coup, because this isn't recruiting...it's RENTING.
These guys aren't working for Microsoft. They're working for their own companies, and are helming *1 or 2* exclusive XBox2 projects. Honestly, I thought people here would know better...but I guess this is mostly Zonk's fault for posting it as misleadingly as he has.
Capitalism is indeed beautiful...just like the free agency market in sports is...from the standpoint of the free agent only.
You're right. Mikami is. (He's also past his prime. I'm sure that means he'll have 2 NextBox exclusive games announced within 3 weeks.)
.400. At least his last 2 games have been the better ones, as opposed to Sakaguchi.
Check out Okamoto's Mobygames credits. Do you see the original Resident Evil on there? Nope. What about Street Fighter? Also a nope. The first time he shows up on anything RE related, it's RE2...for the PC...his credit? Supervisor. Actual impact on the game? 0 or less.
Mizuguchi is the far more interesting announcement. Maybe he'll get to make that sequel to Rez he was hoping for. Although, of his Mobygames credits, he's only hitting
In my opinion, you really don't get a more of a moral obligation for being famous than you do as a regular Joe.
If you're a tool in real life, and then you're a tool in the movies, a la Jay Mohr, I don't care to support you. If you think that people need to have some sort of decency and you neglect to display that in your published work, then you're basically a hypocrite.
That's the way I feel on this whole bit.
Square-Enix likes to hedge their bets on these things. If consumer response is low, then the second stop on the tour would mean that the "tour" had ended. By saying they have an 11-stop tour planned locks them in for 11 concerts, and they're trying to offer cool events, while not having a repeat of the movie fiasco. They're using the same plan for the FFXI user meets.
See, that's the comparison based on the pull he USED to have. A better Wetern equivalent to his current stature is Peter Molyneux, someone who had a good long moment of glory, and has started tumbling down the mountain with his recent works.
As far as a better statement that they intend to get stuff right in the Japanese market, they should probably announce that they're going to make the NeX-Box smaller than the XBox.
According to the article, Sakaguchi left in 2001. In that time period, FFXI, FF Crystal Chronicles, and FF:TA came out.
He's only the guy who created FF, he has no rights to anything that Square makes. What he's bringing to Microsoft is a totally different priginal RPG thing.
Whether or not that means he's totally abandoning his previously announced exclusive DS project, nobody knows.
Yeah, it did.
Can you imagine trying to finish a game using an 3rd party engine that hasn't been completed yet?
Not fun.
As far as Microsoft and EA developing better content, I can't honestly say that's the case. It's mostly the same content.
What was the last RPG EA made? They're essentially the same as Microsoft. They won't make any game that they can't re-use the engine for, and then turn around and flip out a sequel to in 12 months. RPGs don't do that, and so, there was no need for Troika.
Where was it when you were trying to figure out if making 80 Army Men games in 3 years was a good idea?
This was a pretty big smack down. But, did it seem to you like the judges were a tad bit obsessed with washing machines?
Well, the "world leader in delicious food" subheading is a bit misleading, too...remember, they serve dog there.
What's so difficult about PICKING UP THE DAMN PHONE?! This is pointless, if offers no benefits, and only makes it even more profitable to hack someone's account.
If you feel like being locked into crappy, lower-quality pizza, then, by all means, feel free to save the extra 2 theoretical seconds. (seeing as how you'd have to fill out your address, etc.)
Me, I'll spend the extra two seconds, and order from somplace that doesn't need to "invent" a new pizza every 2 weeks to make you forget that their pizzas suck.
It's not the l337 speak I mind so much.
It's those n00bs who use l337 Morse Code.
Bastards.
You could land on your head in BMX and Halfpipe. Wasn't there a shark in the Surfing event, too?
I wonder why the poster referred to Thompson of making a career out of this. He's had like 4 straight cases dismissed outright.
That's no way to make a living.
Is what the evil guy from Fast and Furious says after the ADD kid fires off his nitrous...
"Too soon, Junior."
Microsoft looks at this situation and sees, "The only reason we lost is because we weren't entrenched first."
Which is utter BS. So now they're making one of the classic mistakes in a 3-system race, and that is to launch early.
When you're the first one out of the gate, and more than half of the competition is behind you...people are going to wait to see what comes next, because only a very, very small percentage of the gaming population has enough disposable cash to plunk down $300 + 2 games 3 times within the span of a year.
The other foolish mistake is to launch at a higher price point, which Microsoft will undoubtedly do, since Sony and Nintendo can just launch afterwards, and undercut.
I'll reserve judgement until after E3, but at this stage of the game, I'd kiss the XBox goodbye.
While MOO III was a botched game, you'd have to purposely try to get one worse than this.
http://www.netjak.com/review.php/537
That's right, dammit...Rick Springfield did Jessie's Girl, didn't he?