Someho, you fail to consider the fact that people buying the Wii are perhaps looking for something to use when friends come over.
Personally, if I want to play alone, I'll just boot Windows and play on my computer. Generally deeper gameplay, better controls (mouse+AWSD ftw!), mods and add-ons (Oblivion anyone?), and grafically/audio wise, if my comp isn't on par with current consoles yet, it will probably be next year.
When I buy a console, it's to play with friends, and that's where party games shine (thus the name:P, and so do beat'em up. Any type of game that can only be played solo is pointless.
The Wii is a party console, with party games... and that's probably why it's been so successfull so far. We'll have to see how it fares over christmas, but I wouldn't be surprised it the sales went up a bit again.
indeed. The mod community is what made/makes Oblivion such a great game. I've been playing for over one year and half, and this would not have been the case without the mods (currently slightly over 60 different mods active when I play, the vast majority of which are making the game HARDER).
I always think of Bethesda Games as gigantic canvases. They give you a very good base upon which you can mod (or use mods) to create the game YOU want to play.
I'm looking forward to the new official one of course, I just hope it won't interfere with Colovian Highlands:s
what's wrong with cropping in gimp? works perfectly well... of course, it works slightly differently than The Holy Photoshop Way, so if you're indoctrinated and can't be bothered to try things which are different, then you won't like it. Te one point where Gimp is a real pain is text. The text functions are just plainly bad. But then, when Corel Photopaint had real time text functions and photoshop didn't (its text function was as painful as Gimp's current ones), "serious graphical" people kept telling me it was useless because otherwise Photoshop would have it. So I suppose it's useless to try to point out that GIMP actually does a few things in ways which are actually better than the way Photoshop does them... no matter what, Photoshop is what everybody uses, so it must be the best.
why was the parent modded down?
I was a beta tester for C4D, which has one of the most intuitive interface around. I used Max and lightwave at times too. When I first tried Blender I recoiled in horror. Nothing made sense, So I gave up on it after 2 hours and went back to C4D. Then I started working for an open source game project and HAD to use Blender. watched some older video tutorials, took my time. after a day doing nothing else, I finally grasped the concept of the UI. That was 2 years ago.
I use exclusively Blender now, both for fun and for work (though 3D is not something I do daily at work, I have to do some for TV ads regularly), and I find the UI very easy and efficient to use. It takes time to get into ( around one day to begin to get the feel for it if you're used to industry standards), and it's definitely not intuitive. but once you ~got it~, you'll have a very powerfull, efficient and free tool at hand that can compete easily with the best packages out there.
The only thing to keep in mind is that efficient does not always equate to intuitive.
hmm.. some even read or watch REAL books and films, with fictional stories. Though I guess the more enlightened you are, the less you have to rely on material property;)
the last episode (about Jen's bra) was rather good though, but the three or so first ones were lacking on the nerd factor (still better than most of the other shows out there anyway)
But then.. I'm white, male, wear jeans and t-shirts, 30ish, and work with a nerdy black guy I'd call my friend in the IT department of a company, so it's rather hard not to identify;)
yep. after visiting their website, seeing the *ALPHA* sign, and then checking their form, I must comply. too bad.. But then, Linden announced something similar, so I still keep my hopes mildly high that a 3D network like the one pictured in "Otherland" might appear at some point.
Actually, just one word and a name : "Otherland" from Tad Williams. It's a nice (if lengthy) SciFi serie about interlinked MMOGs, all of which use different settings (Insectworld, Cartoon World, Lewis Caroll world...). The protagonists stumble from one world into another trying to escape (they can't log off without dying).
Metaplace, if it ever gets halfway successful, might be a bit like that (without the "dying" part;)
sigh... you beat me to it.
Windows doesn't come with pre-installed DVD codecs. You get those when you buy DVD Playing software.
Concerning the iPod : why should Apple release iTunes for Linux? Wasn't there even a story a few days ago about making it more difficult to use iPods without iTunes? The solution? buy any other mp3 player that's not linked to proprietary software.
and about MP3's : last time I installed Ubuntu 7.04 and tried to play some files it didn't have the codecs for, it asked me whether I wanted to automatically install them. How difficult is THAT?
bbye,
Sammy
A whole slew of audio, video, modeling, graphics, typesetting and printing (as in not your rgb inkjet) and media applications?
audio? There are whole buch of good to aparently good apps for Linux. As sound and music isn't my field, I can't really comment though.
modeling? Blender, makeHuman , wings, k3d... oh, and by the way, that's partly what I do for a living. Tried pretty much every modeler around, and after an admitedly frustrating steep learning curve, I must say that Blender is up there with the big names.
Typesetting and printing, yes... indeed. Mostly because the used formats for print medias are PSD and PDF. NOT there are not alternatives, but people love to be Adobe's Whore.
Media Application? sure... what do you need? We have a few macs at work, along with some fanatic mac users. When we need to convert or edit TV ads, I end up being the one doing it on an old Toshiba Satelite with 256MB running Linux . The rest of the machine are running XP, Vista or are macs)
"Looks". Heh. It's never been about how the UI looks. The UI is more or less the same as it's been since System 7. It's about how the UI _works_, it's about how the UI acts and feels, it's about integration, simplicity and slickness. It's about doing what it does and doing it responsively with a minimal resources. I'll guarantee you that KDE won't be nearly responsive on a 233 G3 w/ 192mb ran as Tiger was.
hmm... personally I use Gnome. it acts and feels great, even on the above mentioned Toshiba Laptop. It's also, for me, more intuitive to use on a regular basis than OSX, especially when used in an heterogeneous LAN. Of course, compiz doesn't work on it, but I have Beryl running on my home computer, and you know what? it's not just about eye candy. Some functions have been ported from OSX (the expose function for example), the 3D cube is actually very nice and handy, and even the, at first, useless but cool looking water effect is a great way to replace system beeps. OH.. Add to that the wonderfull zooming function, which is extremely usefull at times.
Again, it's fairly clear you've never actually used a Mac. Fink (apt for Darwin), and DarwinPorts offer the free software.
I'll confess I know neither fink nor DarwinPort. I try to avoid having to use the mac, as I really dislike the interface, and the fanboys at work apparenly never heard of it neither. But to be fair, I'll check it out. And... true. Not much overpriced software on Linux.
SGI cases were prettier, but I digress.
I agree completely. Used to work with SGI in the early 90s, and those were real beauty.
If all you're doing is checking emails, word processing and some dev work, Ubuntu is fine. But once you get to any level of _serious_ creative work, Macintosh is the only viable option left with the demise of Irix. And let's not forget the bit about everything working with minimal hassle on the Mac. Ever tried using a graphics tablet as your core pointer in Ubuntu? Or using a KAOS pad? Or just about any higher end, vaguely exotic multimedia hardware, for that matter? Yeah, I didn't think so.
see.. the point is : the article wasn't about high end users able to spend a few thousand U$ on exotic hardware and then paying again as much on software. It was about John and Jane Doe. While I wouldn't count myself into THAT crowd, and I actually do "serious creative work" (whatever THAT may be), John and Jane only really want to check emails, use a word processor, chat, and then go on the internet to watch the latest youtube vids. If it happens with flashy grafics, no matter how useless they are to them, then the better. So my question stands : why a mac, and why not Linux?
Just as an FWI, I've used various Unices for the past 15 years (Irix, Solaris, AIX, Free/Open BSD, Interix, Linux, and Darwin/OSX) Linux for close to 10. But
I thought it was supposed to be called "7.10 Gutsy Gibbon" and not "SP1":P
Seriously, why would you want to buy a Mac if you can have Ubuntu, apart from Adobe/Macromedia products? Lower price, UI looks as funky (if not funkier), more available software, albeit most of it is OSS or free. When people tell me they are fed up with Windows and particularly Vista (happens daily), I tell them to give Linux a chance, and when I can get them to overcome their "it's free so it must be s*it" reservations, people are positively surprised and generally go at least for a dual boot XP/Linux.
And yes, I know that there are ~better~, more hardcore distros of Linux than Ubuntu, but the article is about users who should move from Vista to Mac and I don't think those are particulary interested in compiling everything they need.
The only good thing about Macs is the look of the case, and even THAT is a matter of taste.
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Someho, you fail to consider the fact that people buying the Wii are perhaps looking for something to use when friends come over. Personally, if I want to play alone, I'll just boot Windows and play on my computer. Generally deeper gameplay, better controls (mouse+AWSD ftw!), mods and add-ons (Oblivion anyone?), and grafically/audio wise, if my comp isn't on par with current consoles yet, it will probably be next year. When I buy a console, it's to play with friends, and that's where party games shine (thus the name:P, and so do beat'em up. Any type of game that can only be played solo is pointless. The Wii is a party console, with party games ... and that's probably why it's been so successfull so far. We'll have to see how it fares over christmas, but I wouldn't be surprised it the sales went up a bit again.
*cough*Dreamcast*cough*
indeed. The mod community is what made/makes Oblivion such a great game. I've been playing for over one year and half, and this would not have been the case without the mods (currently slightly over 60 different mods active when I play, the vast majority of which are making the game HARDER). I always think of Bethesda Games as gigantic canvases. They give you a very good base upon which you can mod (or use mods) to create the game YOU want to play. I'm looking forward to the new official one of course, I just hope it won't interfere with Colovian Highlands :s
what's wrong with cropping in gimp? works perfectly well ... of course, it works slightly differently than The Holy Photoshop Way, so if you're indoctrinated and can't be bothered to try things which are different, then you won't like it. ... no matter what, Photoshop is what everybody uses, so it must be the best.
Te one point where Gimp is a real pain is text. The text functions are just plainly bad. But then, when Corel Photopaint had real time text functions and photoshop didn't (its text function was as painful as Gimp's current ones), "serious graphical" people kept telling me it was useless because otherwise Photoshop would have it. So I suppose it's useless to try to point out that GIMP actually does a few things in ways which are actually better than the way Photoshop does them
well .. good analogy : the same car with stick is more efficient than the automatic version ... once you learned how to operate it.
why was the parent modded down? I was a beta tester for C4D, which has one of the most intuitive interface around. I used Max and lightwave at times too. When I first tried Blender I recoiled in horror. Nothing made sense, So I gave up on it after 2 hours and went back to C4D. Then I started working for an open source game project and HAD to use Blender. watched some older video tutorials, took my time. after a day doing nothing else, I finally grasped the concept of the UI. That was 2 years ago. I use exclusively Blender now, both for fun and for work (though 3D is not something I do daily at work, I have to do some for TV ads regularly), and I find the UI very easy and efficient to use. It takes time to get into ( around one day to begin to get the feel for it if you're used to industry standards), and it's definitely not intuitive. but once you ~got it~, you'll have a very powerfull, efficient and free tool at hand that can compete easily with the best packages out there. The only thing to keep in mind is that efficient does not always equate to intuitive.
hmm .. some even read or watch REAL books and films, with fictional stories. Though I guess the more enlightened you are, the less you have to rely on material property ;)
the last episode (about Jen's bra) was rather good though, but the three or so first ones were lacking on the nerd factor (still better than most of the other shows out there anyway) But then .. I'm white, male, wear jeans and t-shirts, 30ish, and work with a nerdy black guy I'd call my friend in the IT department of a company, so it's rather hard not to identify ;)
well ... the wii-mote can be used with a PC using OIS. so all you need is a 3D/CG application which uses the Wii input.
yep. after visiting their website, seeing the *ALPHA* sign, and then checking their form, I must comply. too bad .. But then, Linden announced something similar, so I still keep my hopes mildly high that a 3D network like the one pictured in "Otherland" might appear at some point.
Actually, just one word and a name : "Otherland" from Tad Williams. It's a nice (if lengthy) SciFi serie about interlinked MMOGs, all of which use different settings (Insectworld, Cartoon World, Lewis Caroll world ...). The protagonists stumble from one world into another trying to escape (they can't log off without dying).
Metaplace, if it ever gets halfway successful, might be a bit like that (without the "dying" part;)
sigh ... you beat me to it.
Windows doesn't come with pre-installed DVD codecs. You get those when you buy DVD Playing software.
Concerning the iPod : why should Apple release iTunes for Linux? Wasn't there even a story a few days ago about making it more difficult to use iPods without iTunes? The solution? buy any other mp3 player that's not linked to proprietary software.
and about MP3's : last time I installed Ubuntu 7.04 and tried to play some files it didn't have the codecs for, it asked me whether I wanted to automatically install them. How difficult is THAT?
bbye,
Sammy
I do use macs professionally, in what was dubbed in another answer as "serious creative work", I still prefer Linux. Can I criticize now?
A whole slew of audio, video, modeling, graphics, typesetting and printing (as in not your rgb inkjet) and media applications?
audio? There are whole buch of good to aparently good apps for Linux. As sound and music isn't my field, I can't really comment though. modeling? Blender, makeHuman , wings, k3d ... oh, and by the way, that's partly what I do for a living. Tried pretty much every modeler around, and after an admitedly frustrating steep learning curve, I must say that Blender is up there with the big names.
Typesetting and printing, yes ... indeed. Mostly because the used formats for print medias are PSD and PDF. NOT there are not alternatives, but people love to be Adobe's Whore.
Media Application? sure... what do you need? We have a few macs at work, along with some fanatic mac users. When we need to convert or edit TV ads, I end up being the one doing it on an old Toshiba Satelite with 256MB running Linux . The rest of the machine are running XP, Vista or are macs)
"Looks". Heh. It's never been about how the UI looks. The UI is more or less the same as it's been since System 7. It's about how the UI _works_, it's about how the UI acts and feels, it's about integration, simplicity and slickness. It's about doing what it does and doing it responsively with a minimal resources. I'll guarantee you that KDE won't be nearly responsive on a 233 G3 w/ 192mb ran as Tiger was.
hmm ... personally I use Gnome. it acts and feels great, even on the above mentioned Toshiba Laptop. It's also, for me, more intuitive to use on a regular basis than OSX, especially when used in an heterogeneous LAN. Of course, compiz doesn't work on it, but I have Beryl running on my home computer, and you know what? it's not just about eye candy. Some functions have been ported from OSX (the expose function for example), the 3D cube is actually very nice and handy, and even the, at first, useless but cool looking water effect is a great way to replace system beeps. OH .. Add to that the wonderfull zooming function, which is extremely usefull at times.
Again, it's fairly clear you've never actually used a Mac. Fink (apt for Darwin), and DarwinPorts offer the free software.
I'll confess I know neither fink nor DarwinPort. I try to avoid having to use the mac, as I really dislike the interface, and the fanboys at work apparenly never heard of it neither. But to be fair, I'll check it out. And ... true. Not much overpriced software on Linux.
SGI cases were prettier, but I digress.
I agree completely. Used to work with SGI in the early 90s, and those were real beauty.
If all you're doing is checking emails, word processing and some dev work, Ubuntu is fine. But once you get to any level of _serious_ creative work, Macintosh is the only viable option left with the demise of Irix. And let's not forget the bit about everything working with minimal hassle on the Mac. Ever tried using a graphics tablet as your core pointer in Ubuntu? Or using a KAOS pad? Or just about any higher end, vaguely exotic multimedia hardware, for that matter? Yeah, I didn't think so.
see .. the point is : the article wasn't about high end users able to spend a few thousand U$ on exotic hardware and then paying again as much on software. It was about John and Jane Doe. While I wouldn't count myself into THAT crowd, and I actually do "serious creative work" (whatever THAT may be), John and Jane only really want to check emails, use a word processor, chat, and then go on the internet to watch the latest youtube vids. If it happens with flashy grafics, no matter how useless they are to them, then the better. So my question stands : why a mac, and why not Linux?
Just as an FWI, I've used various Unices for the past 15 years (Irix, Solaris, AIX, Free/Open BSD, Interix, Linux, and Darwin/OSX) Linux for close to 10. But
the day this happens, I'll start investing my money in Windex and Kleenex
I thought it was supposed to be called "7.10 Gutsy Gibbon" and not "SP1" :P
Seriously, why would you want to buy a Mac if you can have Ubuntu, apart from Adobe/Macromedia products? Lower price, UI looks as funky (if not funkier), more available software, albeit most of it is OSS or free.
When people tell me they are fed up with Windows and particularly Vista (happens daily), I tell them to give Linux a chance, and when I can get them to overcome their "it's free so it must be s*it" reservations, people are positively surprised and generally go at least for a dual boot XP/Linux.
And yes, I know that there are ~better~, more hardcore distros of Linux than Ubuntu, but the article is about users who should move from Vista to Mac and I don't think those are particulary interested in compiling everything they need.
The only good thing about Macs is the look of the case, and even THAT is a matter of taste.