Sadly, while Morrowind and so far Oblivion have been filled with goodness (I'm working on an Oblivion quest wiki in my meager spare time), Daggerfall was - blech. Crashes, needed patches, the whole "randomizing" dungeons just made it too hard to go anywhere and know what the hell was going on - and the map system was this 3d thing of horror. Towns were full of people, most of whom were just empty bodies, and there was hardly any way of keeping track of quests.
Luckily, they learned from their mistakes - the only thing I need in Oblivion to make it "near perfect" is the ability to write notes on the map and in the journal myself, like "to do: check out that little island at location X".
I think that Nintendo has been looking at the Apple system and realizing that's the way to go - not just with thier own 1st party games, but providing lots of 3rd party support. Then they don't have to worry about shelf space or spending on distribution - it's all bandwidth costs (a near constant) and profit from there.
How is this different from the Xbox 360 Arcade system? Nothing really - only that Nintendo has a *huge* library to pick from (though it would be nice if they got the Rare library too - rumor mill is that they won't, and it will be a shame if I couldn't play Goldeneye or Perfect Dark on the Revolution).
History has shown us that some entertainment industries are willing to censure themselves in the face of opposition. Look at the destruction of the "Golden Age" of comics after WWII, as the medium moved from "kids" stuff to WWII vets returning to the states and looking for the same comic entertainment they had as a child - but now with more "mature" storylines.
Back then, comic book stores rolled over. Perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of patriotism - after all, their government leaders wouldn't do the wrong thing, right? It took comics decades to crawl out of that "kids only" hole - and now, the industry is dominated by Japanese manga which didn't have such restrictions (all jokes about tentacle hentai and schoolgirl panties aside).
This time, I think the game industry "gets it", and luckily, they're forming a group to handle it. If done right, it can be something like the recent Anti-Broadcast Flag that I participated in last year. Gamers, when certain bills are under debate, can be organized en masse to send personal phone calls, emails, and letters to their local congresspeople with the same message: we support protecting children, but not at the expense of giving up 1st Amendment freedoms. Laws saying selling Mature games to minors is fine - laws saying no mature games at all or no mature games allowed in stores is not.
This would be the most powerful way to combat some of these silly laws. Some of them are well meaning - people upset and confused at a new medium that is "untraditional", and all they see is the bad and not the good. Others, I believe, are using the issue to promote their own agenda or pocketbook (and I think we know who I'm talking about here). By making massive communication movements in the media and politics when pressure is needed, politicians will have to really think about what they're doing, and if it's worth the political effort when there are other more important issues to deal with. (Such as, I don't know, hunger, homelessness, medical coverage, retirement issues, security, campaign finance reform - oh, wait, nevermind, the latter is a pipe dream.)
This organization has a lot of potential, and it's a group that I believe we should all support. It might not make a lot of difference in the short run - laws under consideration will go on. But we can either do what many in the comic book industry did - go down without a fight, or we can drag political leaders kicking and screaming into the modern age while exercising some discipline of our own and behaving like adults.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong. Either way, I've signed up, and I'm ready to pick up the phone and put in some dollars when needed.
Looking at some games that have released in Europe (and not in the US) such as "Tales of Eternia" (which is a PSX port of "Tales of Destiny II" US) and "Breath of Fire III", there is the ability to bring games to the PSP without the long loading times - even ports of PSX games.
Contrast this with games like "Ys'" and the Japanese release on the PSP of Valkyrie Profile, both of which suffer from frequent load times. The latter also appears to have bad text and graphics, where the developer didn't take the time to remake the graphics and font for the smaller system, but just stretched out the graphics and added fuzziness to hide the edges.
Yuck.
In the latter case, it appears to just be laziness - they didn't take the time to make the game well, and now they and gamers will suffer for it.
On the other hand, I believe there are also some inherent design flaws with the PSP, mainly in the UMD system. Games that require data swap outs (like RPGs as you move from one area to the next) will suffer from load times. On a PSX system, that's fine - the CD is always spinning, because you're plugged into the wall.
On a PSP, though a constantly spinning UMD means your battery is going to vanish faster than a bottle of Bawls at a LAN party. So the game has to load, spin down, spin up, load, spin down over and over again, which gives you bad load times.
There are ways around this - better caching or compression, using a piece of the memory card (basically, you make the "save game" space at the beginning then use that to cache some data. Granted, it's not optimal, but it's an idea).
So a wagging finger of shame to developers too lazy to update the graphics in their ports, a wagging finger of shame to the developers who haven't even bothered to give us really good original games (save for maybe "Exit" - and no, I'm not including "Lumines" - it's Dr. Mario all over again), and a wagging finger to Sony for not promising on the possibility of the PSP.
Am I the typical person who isn't going to buy either one because the standard is full of shit and "downgraded signals if you don't have the right interfaces" and "I don't want to buy two players", or am I the anomaly?
After all, these competing standards only matter if you have a HDTV (which I don't plan to have until around, oh, 2009 or so - about when the current one dies and I need something else to play "Final Fantasy XVI" on - or hopefully "Zelda: Twilight Princess" by then.
So I plan on just sitting back, letting both sides make asses out of themselves, and maybe this will wind up like the original Divx - a technology that nobody really wanted to buy.
Of course, this is just my opinion - I could be wrong.
The one "good" scenario deals not with the developers and publishers, but with Sony. If the system is delayed, that will allow any last minute "bug crushing" to finish - and more importantly, allow more titles to be finished by launch date. Instead of having 10 games (and a large library of backwards-compatible titles), Sony could wind up with more.
Granted, that means the publishers are screwed over, but as someone else mentioned, they'll just blame it on piracy and life will move on.
When he said that as soon as people find a way to do something useful with the PSP - like, make it fun - Sony comes out with a patch to break it again.
This is the same problem. I'm about to sell my PSP. Fine screen, better than my iPod, but compared to the DS the games are throwbacks (Ys stinks, Generations of Chaos is hardly the Disgaea I had hoped - more like an annoying stategy game), and I'm tired of waiting for a good one - and I'm not sitting around for yet another Mega Man 1 and Ghost and Goblins remake. My iPod and my DS are fine enough.
Now, if I could run the homebrew (yes, including emulators, to be honest), I could hold onto my PSP until some good games come out. If they put in a "download game" system, I'd give it a shot (since they would suck less battery power down than the UMD games). If they sold video online I might consider it.
But - they're not. Like another post said, they're anti-customer. Pro-consumer (as in "someone who consumes media without thinking if its good or bad). But I'm a custom-er. I want to use my device the way *I* want to - and I'm just getting hampered by Sony's choices.
So - anyone want to buy a PSP with 512 MB memory stick;)?
Difference between "Hi, this is what I believe - want to join" and passing laws saying "You *will* believe this and give your tax dollars to support this church".
The former is annoying but voluntary, the latter is against the tenant.
(Shrug.) That's because I don't think it's full of shit - I'm just interested in the science that may prove it is (like the genetic testing of native americans). I think the science isn't conclusive, so it hasn't hurt me yet - I just keep in interest in it.
Then again, you deserve to be bitter - those Utah mormons are usually pretty ass-ified. (I lived there for a few years. There are a lot of good ones - and a lot that need a smack upside the head.)
(shrug) Believe thing. In Mormon religion, at "judgement day" everybody's suppose to give an accounting of thier life to God, and some people have mentioned it might be like an interview of sorts (where nobody can lie or pad their resume, natch). So usually I refer to judgement day like that: a one-on-one interview with God where you go over your life and *you* are the one who really decides your fate, because *you* will have to face up to whether you did good or bad.
But that's just my opinion. For all I know, it will be just a really long as movie of my life, and I'll have to rewatch myself trying to put the moves on a prom date who - I later discovered - had the flu. Not a pretty sight.
As a Mormon myself (but not raised in Utah, so I'm usually considered cool), I'm not surprised. Most LDS members that I know kind of shrug their shoulders at the whole "intelligent design" thing. Sure, we believe God had something to do with it, but we're a) not going to force it down someone else's throat, based on the 11th article of Faith:
11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
So the idea of making up a law saying "here's how it is, suckers! Believe this way!" is against the typical belief of "separation of church and state". (Granted, Utah is not a shining example of this all the time - see the liquer laws they have, but like I said, I don't live there).
Even if we believe that God had a hand in it, there's a lot of individual belief in how it happens. Was "Garden of Eden" a fable of sorts for early Isrealites since they wouldn't get "Well, God started the universe from the vacuum using a 20 dimensional algorithm that would solidify into 3 stable dimensions of space, 1 of time, and gravity with values X" - or was there a "snap of the fingers"? Some church authorities have given their opinions on it, but I've never seen an official "it was this and no other".
I'm more of a "what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things" anyway. i don't think God's going to ask me what I thought about "intelligent design" or "evolution" when I die - he's going to ask me about how I treated my wife, my children, my friends, my enemies, my coworkers, and others. So I believe in evolution - yes, the Darwin version - until a voice on high says something different. And even then, I'll check to make sure somebody didn't slip me some really interesting mushrooms - just in case.
Most of us like science - and yes, I even appreciate the ones that show my religion, like most others, is probably full of it. I just use the "South Park Mormon episode thought" about the whole thing.
Then, there's b) getting voted out of office. Remember the Dover school officials who decided to bring Intelligent Design to their schools - and the next election got voted out? Even in a Mormon state, all an opponent has to do is start up "You're trying to mix church and state? What are you doing?", and there are enough non-Mormons in the state to resonate with that, and enough Mormons who think about Illinois and how the state not doing their job in protecting *all* religions that their dander gets up.
Anyway - good move by the congress, by the majority whip who brought in an amendment that all but killed the bill, and to the folks who voted it down. As the article says - if a super conservative religious state like Utah won't approve it, there's probably hope for the rest of the country.
This is all just my opinion. I could be wrong. And I'm hardly a good example of Mormonism anyway - I tend to say "fuck" too much in company;).
Agreed - I think that Steam and demo systems are the way to go. I actually rather like Steam - I don't have to worry about codes or my disks, it's all there. (Yes, there is the issue of "what if the company dies", which is why I have backups, but for the most part Valve's done pretty good.)
I wanted to play "Silent Storm", and at being unable to find it in stores I've pretty much figured "Eh - later. Maybe." Sure, it's only $20 on Amazon.com, but I'd rather just click, download, go play my DS for a bit, then come back and play.
Downloads will probably be how the PC world beats out the consoles, especially if they do it smart and let you reinstall when necessary (a la "Steam"). I haven't tried out EA's system, but then again, I can't recall the last EA game I played anyway.
Wow - I discovered your story about Pictochat and the horrors of using the Nintendo DS to play games such as Mario Kart over the Internet, and the issues that my 6 year old daughter could run into.
Such as - playing a game (such as Mario Kart) which features no communication ability with a child predator (in neither text nor audio format, since the game connection simply assigns competitors and does not allow them to chat).
And Pictochat - I have to worry about that one, since she will have to be within 65 feet of a child predator for a connection to be made (as detailed at http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/ds/dspriv acy.jsp ). And it should be mentioned that this program does not run over ther Internet - only local radius. Luckily, I keep my daughter and two sons with a strict no-pedophile radius of 100 yards.
My apologies. As a father of three children who play everything from catch to chess to - yes, Mario Kart - with them, and who works in the videogame industry, I found your article well meaning, but sorely lacking in facts.
Nintendo should be *praised* for their efforts to allow children to play with each other safely over the Internet. Their system requires either a) close contact (as with Pictochat), which removed the "Internet stranger" fear, or b) allows play without any form of communication, so I can allow my child to play with it over the Internet without fear of molestation. Even other games that allow communication such as "Animal Crossing" do so on a very strict "invite only" system, which prevents strangers from communicating with my daughter. This lets me allow her to play "Animal Crossing" to write letters to the town's animal friends, create clothing and art patterns, and work with a budget to purchase a "house" within the game. All while feeling safe with Nintendo's efforts to protect my daughter on the Internet.
Your intentions were good, and there are issues with certain online technologies (such as the Microsoft Xbox Live which allows voice chat, and should only be used by adults or with adult supervision, as with any full interaction online technology). However, as I mentioned, Nintendo is a company that has worked very hard to allow both adult and children to play online safely, and deserves our praise, not fear mongers.
My apologies for the length of this letter, and I wish you well.
Well, other than "Chrono Trigger" on the GBA? A Palm card. The Nintendo DS uses the same kind of chips found in Palm Pilots, and it would be interesting to see Palm OS 5 running on the sucker - if for no other reason than I could have my ebooks on it.
Yeah - I get the feeling that this group's rating systems are even worse than the ESRB. At least the ESRB is trying, and has an enforcement system to keep developers in line. These guys seem to have some guy in a basement making snap decisions while he's playing, rather than a panel reaching a consensus.
Then again, I imagine most members of the group have the "videogames - baaaad" approach, so that may be an issue.
If they want speed, then the answer is "maybe" - but then again, Apple could have considered AMD (please, fanboys on either side, before there's an Intel v AMD argument - just shut it).
However, if Apple is going for more than speed, and wants Intel's DRM technology, their vivo (I think that's the acronym) certification for projects that would make Hollywood happy, and other things to allow the company to cozy up with the entertainment market - then Intel was the right choice.
Personally, I'm pleased with the Intel switch. Speed is looking up, once Wine or an Intel virtual PC is up and running that lets me play Half-Life 2 at nearly full speed I'll be set with my games, and besides, IBM had how long to get a G5 into a laptop and couldn't deliver?
So while IBM's technology looks pretty damn cool, I'm not worried about Apple making the "right" or "wrong" choice. As long as my apps and terminal work on my Powerbook (oops - sorry, "Macbook Pro"), then I think I'll be all right.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
So, you have a game which is rated M, with the label:
Contains sexual content, violence, drug use, heavy lifting, baby snatching, people getting their heads chopped off with katanas, swearing, bad language, improper use of commas, and buckets of blood.
Then, some people discover a mode which has you voluntarily patch your own game with a non-company made or approved patch so you can see a fully clothed male and a barbie doll engaging in quasi sex acts.
So, because of this *one* mistake, the ESRB gets an F for accuracy? How about we take a look at the other 100 games released last year and see how "accurate" the ratings are. Did "Katamary Damacy" deserve a "E" for everyone? How about "Chessmaster 8000"? "Resident Evil 4" deserved the M rating I'm sure, and didn't need an AO rating. So right there we're at a score of around 80% for accuracy, which from school is at least a B.
I'm guessing that the "The National Institute for Media and the Family" has an axe to grind - and looking at their review of Harvest Moon which rates the game's "Illegal/Harmful: Yellow" - I mean, it's a game about farming! Where's the "Illegal/Harmful" in the entire game!
Anyway. Organization with an axe to grind about entertainment in general being unsafe for, well, just about everybody gives the ratings board they don't control an F. In other news, Republicans give Democrats an F for being patriotic, and Democrats give Bush an F for managing foreign conflicts.
At least, that's my opinion after reading the articles. I could be wrong.
When I finished reading how downloading games aren't just for pirates, and the use of Steam and MS Live for purchasing games, it became a "duh" moment as to why Sony wants their own online service:
Selling games. You can buy games off of Steam and Xbox Live for around $10 to $20 apiece, which brings us to a kind of "long tail" theory: not everybody wants to buy a game for $50, but there are probably plenty who will buy one for $15 or $10 if it's fun.
Sony can use that, and if they're making a good chunk of 25% off of each game sold, that's more revenue. Nintendo already stated they wanted to have independants on their online network, Microsoft has that now (see the success of "Geometry Wars" - and Sony sees those dollars.
I should have realized that first. I wasn't thinking greedy enough. I'm sorry.
Sony might having to perform a "me, too" not so much because of MS - but the combination of MS and Nintendo both having online services, plus both having a "purchase games via this interface" system (the Revolution possibly having a monthly subscription for playing the NES/SNES/N64 games).
Sony might have decided that if even Nintendo was doing an online route, they didn't want to be the last ones to the party. My guess is that they'll tell developers "You can still have the setup you want" (so if someone like EA wants to run thier own lobby/interface with ad revenue, they can), "... or you can use ours" (so publishers won't have to put all of thier resources into hosting servers - let Sony do it).
If so, I think it would be a good thing for Sony, if for no other reason than not look like the odd duck out.
Slashdot Mirror
Side note - that just lets you place a marker - you can't actually write anything.
Damn it - now I feel like a friggin' moron.
Thanks!
Sadly, while Morrowind and so far Oblivion have been filled with goodness (I'm working on an Oblivion quest wiki in my meager spare time), Daggerfall was - blech. Crashes, needed patches, the whole "randomizing" dungeons just made it too hard to go anywhere and know what the hell was going on - and the map system was this 3d thing of horror. Towns were full of people, most of whom were just empty bodies, and there was hardly any way of keeping track of quests.
Luckily, they learned from their mistakes - the only thing I need in Oblivion to make it "near perfect" is the ability to write notes on the map and in the journal myself, like "to do: check out that little island at location X".
I think that Nintendo has been looking at the Apple system and realizing that's the way to go - not just with thier own 1st party games, but providing lots of 3rd party support. Then they don't have to worry about shelf space or spending on distribution - it's all bandwidth costs (a near constant) and profit from there.
How is this different from the Xbox 360 Arcade system? Nothing really - only that Nintendo has a *huge* library to pick from (though it would be nice if they got the Rare library too - rumor mill is that they won't, and it will be a shame if I couldn't play Goldeneye or Perfect Dark on the Revolution).
Funny - that's the song that was going through my mind when my wife gave birth to my children....
History has shown us that some entertainment industries are willing to censure themselves in the face of opposition. Look at the destruction of the "Golden Age" of comics after WWII, as the medium moved from "kids" stuff to WWII vets returning to the states and looking for the same comic entertainment they had as a child - but now with more "mature" storylines.
The Escapist recently had an article on this here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/35/17.
Back then, comic book stores rolled over. Perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of patriotism - after all, their government leaders wouldn't do the wrong thing, right? It took comics decades to crawl out of that "kids only" hole - and now, the industry is dominated by Japanese manga which didn't have such restrictions (all jokes about tentacle hentai and schoolgirl panties aside).
This time, I think the game industry "gets it", and luckily, they're forming a group to handle it. If done right, it can be something like the recent Anti-Broadcast Flag that I participated in last year. Gamers, when certain bills are under debate, can be organized en masse to send personal phone calls, emails, and letters to their local congresspeople with the same message: we support protecting children, but not at the expense of giving up 1st Amendment freedoms. Laws saying selling Mature games to minors is fine - laws saying no mature games at all or no mature games allowed in stores is not.
This would be the most powerful way to combat some of these silly laws. Some of them are well meaning - people upset and confused at a new medium that is "untraditional", and all they see is the bad and not the good. Others, I believe, are using the issue to promote their own agenda or pocketbook (and I think we know who I'm talking about here). By making massive communication movements in the media and politics when pressure is needed, politicians will have to really think about what they're doing, and if it's worth the political effort when there are other more important issues to deal with. (Such as, I don't know, hunger, homelessness, medical coverage, retirement issues, security, campaign finance reform - oh, wait, nevermind, the latter is a pipe dream.)
This organization has a lot of potential, and it's a group that I believe we should all support. It might not make a lot of difference in the short run - laws under consideration will go on. But we can either do what many in the comic book industry did - go down without a fight, or we can drag political leaders kicking and screaming into the modern age while exercising some discipline of our own and behaving like adults.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. I could be wrong. Either way, I've signed up, and I'm ready to pick up the phone and put in some dollars when needed.
I've never understood that either.
Development costs: 0 (already done).
Costs to Sony: minimal (just printing PSX CD's and cases)
Sell it for $20, everybody who wants it will buy it (a la "Final Fantasy Tactics"), and the company gets the game dollars and not eBay'ers.
I mean - it's like printing money. Makes no sense why they don't.
Looking at some games that have released in Europe (and not in the US) such as "Tales of Eternia" (which is a PSX port of "Tales of Destiny II" US) and "Breath of Fire III", there is the ability to bring games to the PSP without the long loading times - even ports of PSX games.
Contrast this with games like "Ys'" and the Japanese release on the PSP of Valkyrie Profile, both of which suffer from frequent load times. The latter also appears to have bad text and graphics, where the developer didn't take the time to remake the graphics and font for the smaller system, but just stretched out the graphics and added fuzziness to hide the edges.
Yuck.
In the latter case, it appears to just be laziness - they didn't take the time to make the game well, and now they and gamers will suffer for it.
On the other hand, I believe there are also some inherent design flaws with the PSP, mainly in the UMD system. Games that require data swap outs (like RPGs as you move from one area to the next) will suffer from load times. On a PSX system, that's fine - the CD is always spinning, because you're plugged into the wall.
On a PSP, though a constantly spinning UMD means your battery is going to vanish faster than a bottle of Bawls at a LAN party. So the game has to load, spin down, spin up, load, spin down over and over again, which gives you bad load times.
There are ways around this - better caching or compression, using a piece of the memory card (basically, you make the "save game" space at the beginning then use that to cache some data. Granted, it's not optimal, but it's an idea).
So a wagging finger of shame to developers too lazy to update the graphics in their ports, a wagging finger of shame to the developers who haven't even bothered to give us really good original games (save for maybe "Exit" - and no, I'm not including "Lumines" - it's Dr. Mario all over again), and a wagging finger to Sony for not promising on the possibility of the PSP.
Am I the typical person who isn't going to buy either one because the standard is full of shit and "downgraded signals if you don't have the right interfaces" and "I don't want to buy two players", or am I the anomaly?
After all, these competing standards only matter if you have a HDTV (which I don't plan to have until around, oh, 2009 or so - about when the current one dies and I need something else to play "Final Fantasy XVI" on - or hopefully "Zelda: Twilight Princess" by then.
So I plan on just sitting back, letting both sides make asses out of themselves, and maybe this will wind up like the original Divx - a technology that nobody really wanted to buy.
Of course, this is just my opinion - I could be wrong.
The one "good" scenario deals not with the developers and publishers, but with Sony. If the system is delayed, that will allow any last minute "bug crushing" to finish - and more importantly, allow more titles to be finished by launch date. Instead of having 10 games (and a large library of backwards-compatible titles), Sony could wind up with more.
Granted, that means the publishers are screwed over, but as someone else mentioned, they'll just blame it on piracy and life will move on.
When he said that as soon as people find a way to do something useful with the PSP - like, make it fun - Sony comes out with a patch to break it again.
;)?
This is the same problem. I'm about to sell my PSP. Fine screen, better than my iPod, but compared to the DS the games are throwbacks (Ys stinks, Generations of Chaos is hardly the Disgaea I had hoped - more like an annoying stategy game), and I'm tired of waiting for a good one - and I'm not sitting around for yet another Mega Man 1 and Ghost and Goblins remake. My iPod and my DS are fine enough.
Now, if I could run the homebrew (yes, including emulators, to be honest), I could hold onto my PSP until some good games come out. If they put in a "download game" system, I'd give it a shot (since they would suck less battery power down than the UMD games). If they sold video online I might consider it.
But - they're not. Like another post said, they're anti-customer. Pro-consumer (as in "someone who consumes media without thinking if its good or bad). But I'm a custom-er. I want to use my device the way *I* want to - and I'm just getting hampered by Sony's choices.
So - anyone want to buy a PSP with 512 MB memory stick
Difference between "Hi, this is what I believe - want to join" and passing laws saying "You *will* believe this and give your tax dollars to support this church".
The former is annoying but voluntary, the latter is against the tenant.
I'd say your splitting at hairs - it was written in 1830, so forgive the language. I hold it to include that as well, as do most LDS people.
(Shrug.) That's because I don't think it's full of shit - I'm just interested in the science that may prove it is (like the genetic testing of native americans). I think the science isn't conclusive, so it hasn't hurt me yet - I just keep in interest in it.
Then again, you deserve to be bitter - those Utah mormons are usually pretty ass-ified. (I lived there for a few years. There are a lot of good ones - and a lot that need a smack upside the head.)
(shrug) Believe thing. In Mormon religion, at "judgement day" everybody's suppose to give an accounting of thier life to God, and some people have mentioned it might be like an interview of sorts (where nobody can lie or pad their resume, natch). So usually I refer to judgement day like that: a one-on-one interview with God where you go over your life and *you* are the one who really decides your fate, because *you* will have to face up to whether you did good or bad.
But that's just my opinion. For all I know, it will be just a really long as movie of my life, and I'll have to rewatch myself trying to put the moves on a prom date who - I later discovered - had the flu. Not a pretty sight.
So the idea of making up a law saying "here's how it is, suckers! Believe this way!" is against the typical belief of "separation of church and state". (Granted, Utah is not a shining example of this all the time - see the liquer laws they have, but like I said, I don't live there).
Even if we believe that God had a hand in it, there's a lot of individual belief in how it happens. Was "Garden of Eden" a fable of sorts for early Isrealites since they wouldn't get "Well, God started the universe from the vacuum using a 20 dimensional algorithm that would solidify into 3 stable dimensions of space, 1 of time, and gravity with values X" - or was there a "snap of the fingers"? Some church authorities have given their opinions on it, but I've never seen an official "it was this and no other".
I'm more of a "what does it really matter in the grand scheme of things" anyway. i don't think God's going to ask me what I thought about "intelligent design" or "evolution" when I die - he's going to ask me about how I treated my wife, my children, my friends, my enemies, my coworkers, and others. So I believe in evolution - yes, the Darwin version - until a voice on high says something different. And even then, I'll check to make sure somebody didn't slip me some really interesting mushrooms - just in case.
Most of us like science - and yes, I even appreciate the ones that show my religion, like most others, is probably full of it. I just use the "South Park Mormon episode thought" about the whole thing.
Then, there's b) getting voted out of office. Remember the Dover school officials who decided to bring Intelligent Design to their schools - and the next election got voted out? Even in a Mormon state, all an opponent has to do is start up "You're trying to mix church and state? What are you doing?", and there are enough non-Mormons in the state to resonate with that, and enough Mormons who think about Illinois and how the state not doing their job in protecting *all* religions that their dander gets up.
Anyway - good move by the congress, by the majority whip who brought in an amendment that all but killed the bill, and to the folks who voted it down. As the article says - if a super conservative religious state like Utah won't approve it, there's probably hope for the rest of the country.
This is all just my opinion. I could be wrong. And I'm hardly a good example of Mormonism anyway - I tend to say "fuck" too much in company
Obi-Wan: It's as if a million voices all cried out in terror - and were suddenly silenced.
Luke: I knew I shouldn't have had the extra beans on that jawa burrito.
Agreed - I think that Steam and demo systems are the way to go. I actually rather like Steam - I don't have to worry about codes or my disks, it's all there. (Yes, there is the issue of "what if the company dies", which is why I have backups, but for the most part Valve's done pretty good.)
I wanted to play "Silent Storm", and at being unable to find it in stores I've pretty much figured "Eh - later. Maybe." Sure, it's only $20 on Amazon.com, but I'd rather just click, download, go play my DS for a bit, then come back and play.
Downloads will probably be how the PC world beats out the consoles, especially if they do it smart and let you reinstall when necessary (a la "Steam"). I haven't tried out EA's system, but then again, I can't recall the last EA game I played anyway.
Wow - I discovered your story about Pictochat and the horrors of using the Nintendo DS to play games such as Mario Kart over the Internet, and the issues that my 6 year old daughter could run into.
v acy.jsp ). And it should be mentioned that this program does not run over ther Internet - only local radius. Luckily, I keep my daughter and two sons with a strict no-pedophile radius of 100 yards.
Such as - playing a game (such as Mario Kart) which features no communication ability with a child predator (in neither text nor audio format, since the game connection simply assigns competitors and does not allow them to chat).
And Pictochat - I have to worry about that one, since she will have to be within 65 feet of a child predator for a connection to be made (as detailed at http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/ds/dspri
My apologies. As a father of three children who play everything from catch to chess to - yes, Mario Kart - with them, and who works in the videogame industry, I found your article well meaning, but sorely lacking in facts.
Nintendo should be *praised* for their efforts to allow children to play with each other safely over the Internet. Their system requires either a) close contact (as with Pictochat), which removed the "Internet stranger" fear, or b) allows play without any form of communication, so I can allow my child to play with it over the Internet without fear of molestation. Even other games that allow communication such as "Animal Crossing" do so on a very strict "invite only" system, which prevents strangers from communicating with my daughter. This lets me allow her to play "Animal Crossing" to write letters to the town's animal friends, create clothing and art patterns, and work with a budget to purchase a "house" within the game. All while feeling safe with Nintendo's efforts to protect my daughter on the Internet.
Your intentions were good, and there are issues with certain online technologies (such as the Microsoft Xbox Live which allows voice chat, and should only be used by adults or with adult supervision, as with any full interaction online technology). However, as I mentioned, Nintendo is a company that has worked very hard to allow both adult and children to play online safely, and deserves our praise, not fear mongers.
My apologies for the length of this letter, and I wish you well.
Yours,
John Hummel
Well, other than "Chrono Trigger" on the GBA? A Palm card. The Nintendo DS uses the same kind of chips found in Palm Pilots, and it would be interesting to see Palm OS 5 running on the sucker - if for no other reason than I could have my ebooks on it.
Yeah - I get the feeling that this group's rating systems are even worse than the ESRB. At least the ESRB is trying, and has an enforcement system to keep developers in line. These guys seem to have some guy in a basement making snap decisions while he's playing, rather than a panel reaching a consensus.
Then again, I imagine most members of the group have the "videogames - baaaad" approach, so that may be an issue.
If they want speed, then the answer is "maybe" - but then again, Apple could have considered AMD (please, fanboys on either side, before there's an Intel v AMD argument - just shut it).
However, if Apple is going for more than speed, and wants Intel's DRM technology, their vivo (I think that's the acronym) certification for projects that would make Hollywood happy, and other things to allow the company to cozy up with the entertainment market - then Intel was the right choice.
Personally, I'm pleased with the Intel switch. Speed is looking up, once Wine or an Intel virtual PC is up and running that lets me play Half-Life 2 at nearly full speed I'll be set with my games, and besides, IBM had how long to get a G5 into a laptop and couldn't deliver?
So while IBM's technology looks pretty damn cool, I'm not worried about Apple making the "right" or "wrong" choice. As long as my apps and terminal work on my Powerbook (oops - sorry, "Macbook Pro"), then I think I'll be all right.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
So, you have a game which is rated M, with the label:
Contains sexual content, violence, drug use, heavy lifting, baby snatching, people getting their heads chopped off with katanas, swearing, bad language, improper use of commas, and buckets of blood.
Then, some people discover a mode which has you voluntarily patch your own game with a non-company made or approved patch so you can see a fully clothed male and a barbie doll engaging in quasi sex acts.
So, because of this *one* mistake, the ESRB gets an F for accuracy? How about we take a look at the other 100 games released last year and see how "accurate" the ratings are. Did "Katamary Damacy" deserve a "E" for everyone? How about "Chessmaster 8000"? "Resident Evil 4" deserved the M rating I'm sure, and didn't need an AO rating. So right there we're at a score of around 80% for accuracy, which from school is at least a B.
I'm guessing that the "The National Institute for Media and the Family" has an axe to grind - and looking at their review of Harvest Moon which rates the game's "Illegal/Harmful: Yellow" - I mean, it's a game about farming! Where's the "Illegal/Harmful" in the entire game!
Anyway. Organization with an axe to grind about entertainment in general being unsafe for, well, just about everybody gives the ratings board they don't control an F. In other news, Republicans give Democrats an F for being patriotic, and Democrats give Bush an F for managing foreign conflicts.
At least, that's my opinion after reading the articles. I could be wrong.
But I missed the most obvious thing.
Duh me.
When I finished reading how downloading games aren't just for pirates, and the use of Steam and MS Live for purchasing games, it became a "duh" moment as to why Sony wants their own online service:
Selling games. You can buy games off of Steam and Xbox Live for around $10 to $20 apiece, which brings us to a kind of "long tail" theory: not everybody wants to buy a game for $50, but there are probably plenty who will buy one for $15 or $10 if it's fun.
Sony can use that, and if they're making a good chunk of 25% off of each game sold, that's more revenue. Nintendo already stated they wanted to have independants on their online network, Microsoft has that now (see the success of "Geometry Wars" - and Sony sees those dollars.
I should have realized that first. I wasn't thinking greedy enough. I'm sorry.
Sony might having to perform a "me, too" not so much because of MS - but the combination of MS and Nintendo both having online services, plus both having a "purchase games via this interface" system (the Revolution possibly having a monthly subscription for playing the NES/SNES/N64 games).
Sony might have decided that if even Nintendo was doing an online route, they didn't want to be the last ones to the party. My guess is that they'll tell developers "You can still have the setup you want" (so if someone like EA wants to run thier own lobby/interface with ad revenue, they can), "... or you can use ours" (so publishers won't have to put all of thier resources into hosting servers - let Sony do it).
If so, I think it would be a good thing for Sony, if for no other reason than not look like the odd duck out.