But I do remember the final signs in each of the last several bubbles and stuff like this reeks of this. Currently, September 28 2010 the SPDR Gold trust is at 127.85 , an all time high since its listing. While no one can forecast the short term with much certainty, this seems like a strong indication that the amount of vehicles to sell gold is running dry, and that the gold market may implode in the next few years.
The US Navy Marine Mammal Program has been in place for fifty years now and predates the "war on terrorism." It used to be heavily classified but its a lot more open than it used to be. The short summary of its mission: 1) The Navy claims they have never used the program in an attack mission, but does admit they have been used in combat zones. 2) The Navy recognizes the animals use in Mine Detection, object/personnel recovery, and enemy detection 3) While originally a large array of animals were used, due to efficiency the only known mammals in-use are Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions. Since each of these creatures don't get too much larger than 500 lbs, they are easily deployable from San Diego to wherever they are needed. Earlier posts about using Orcas or larger creatures would most likely be more hassle than they are worth.
I've invested in companies where the CEO was somewhat established by birthright due to family control of the majority of the shares. While this can be a bad thing, the family will most likely have a long term dedication to the company as opposed to the quarterly. It also assures that the CEO will have a very low turnover usually due to retirement or death, so the company will often be able to plan and execute long-term goals without having to worry about their next position or retaining their chair.
The CEO in question does not have absolute power as its a publicly traded company with regulations and shareholders. While the family has great control over the company, the shareholders have consistently voted to retain the board as they've done an excellent job and have not appeared to violate any of the shareholders trust.
Even with my positive outlook on the company, I would not be an investor without the restraints the law puts on public companies. Without those in place, I would be very vulnerable with little recourse to the majority/controlling party. Oversight is always needed, even for the benevolent.
Exactly, this is a win-win situation for publishers/developers and gamers as they each get their own dedicated conventions. E3 and GDC were losing focus and trying to do too many things at once. Now its very clear what each convention represents.
PAX - For the gamers, Concerts/Fan Events, Game Announcements and Betas. E3 - Vendors, Publisher Press Conferences, Developer networking, Private Meeting Rooms, Lineup annoucnements GDC - Process sharing, Education, Job Fair, Tech Demos
None of these conferences are perfect, but I did see a marked improvement in the latter two that I attend compared to a few years ago. GDC was starting to have press conferences, E3 was having hour+ long lines to play games due to the tens of thousands of gamers in attendence, and gamers just wanted a convention of their own to attend. It seems all three conferences are learning their niche and will hopefully flourish as the industry gains value by holding these annually.
All of us on the floor who were making deals, and making important contacts all won this year as opposed to last year where it was very difficult to meet everyone due to how spread out it was.
E3 in its current form is far more likely to succeed than its previous form. Booth babes and glam weren't the only things brought back this year. E3 was slowly becoming Gamestop-fest where more than 50% of the attendees were game players as opposed to game makers. The ratio was far better this year, with all of the infrastructure that was lacking in the E3 Santa Monica model.
Worst of all they don't even try to hide its a random number. I was on ESPN and all 3 text ads at the bottom were for IQ tests. All three listed the same player, and gave three different IQ scores and despite having different URLs listed used the same exact "Can you beat his?" text.
Some scammers have gotten smarter and things such as Flat Stomach Rule (obey), Teeth whitening success, $5000 a month from Google or Obama, now check where the incoming request comes from and changes the fake blog to appear like its coming from a mom/teacher/veteran who lives in your hometown. They also now dynamically rotate the fake endorsements from ( Abc News / Fox News / Oprah / Rachel Ray ), along with rotating the names of the women pictured in the blog in an attempt to prevent customers from google searching to find out that woman firstname,lastname is scamming people. Instead of just harvesting your personal info, these companies send you out "free trials" that soon cost $100 and have recurring billing that is supposed to be difficult to get out of.
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has been on the internet for the past few years. Advertising is no longer about getting brand name recognition on the web or sales, its about scamming gullible people out of every cent possible. We stopped enforcing truth in advertising laws, we shouldn't be surprised that this has become the result.
You don't need an iPhone for what you described, people have been cheating using a step counter for years and even the best got caught from time to time. Pitbosses will have zero difficulty picking up a bunch of amateurs trying this. The only thing this does is reduce the barrier to entry for people without hardware experience.
Yes its a large enough gap to say McCain could not win. It doesn't matter if it was 53% to 46%, the college was projected to be an Obama victory by over 100 votes. That is very close to insurmountable. The use of the popular vote has zero outcome for the Presidential vote and is not relevant. The same college that helped Bush's campaign helped Obama secure an early victory.
But that's because we're a game development studio. No one uses their consoles for non-work related games in-hours because it would be a heavy distraction. We have a separate big screen and console setup for social gaming outside of work and that separation prevents distraction. Having games at work is great and can boost morale. But the work desk is for work. Morale wise you'll be hurting the team by having people play games at their desk because no one will agree on when its appropriate.
Take your budget and buy a poker table and beer instead. Each week we play poker on Friday in the conference room at 5PM on the mark with company provided beer. Fridays are sometimes the most productive as everyone is in a hurry to get their stuff done because the game always takes place on-time. The non poker players hang out in the president's office which becomes a lounge. Everybody talks to each other, new employees are instantly thrust into the company culture and social life, and everybody lets off a little steam. Playing for small stakes lets boss and subordinate interact at the same level.
Use your budget for activities that can be done in groups or in teams. Sports, Poker, even multiplayer Video Games are great for team building but a "toy" on everybody's desk would be disastrous in any school or work environment.
Up until recently, the strong Euro and the weak dollar makes this a great case in which its beneficial for a US company to export cars instead of sell domestically. As the US dollar is on the uptick, some of this benefit is now going to be lost. All the inefficiencies of selling across the pond ( which is partially mitigated by some parts being made in UK ) were probably more than made up in the ability to earn more USD per sale. Whether this remains true for the extent of this car's distribution remains suspect. Once production exceeds foreign demand, then they'll introduce it into the domestic market.
Make sure you are viewing your gallery http://picasaweb.google.com/home?hl=en&tab=wq , as the facial recognition features is not in the "Public Gallery" section http://picasaweb.google.com/{USERNAME} . It is being hammered right now as my gallery of 500 photos has displayed: "Waiting to process photos (there may be a delay)" for the last 30 minutes.
As someone who was present at an Inuit Seal Hunt in Canada, I'd argue that it is one of the most humane hunts you will come across. The ingenuity of how every single part of the animal is used put a lot of Southern consumerist waste in perspective. By the time every part was neatly carved, any leftover parts deemed not healthy for humans or dogs were neatly cut up and left on the ice so that the birds could all have a meal.
PETA is picking the wrong fight by labeling all seal hunting into one category and is doing a huge disservice to Inuit and other arctic communities that rely upon it. I think most of us can agree that animal cruelty is criminal and PETA is in the right by bringing attention to some of humanity's dark spots. Attempting to take away a primary food source and mainstay of the Inuit culture is the only inhumane thing about the hunt I have personally witnessed.
I think if everybody had the opportunity to compare PETA's propaganda picture of a baby seal being clubbed ( an illegal act ), with all of the facts, PETA would be forced to move on to other important animal rights issues.
I don't know about the author, but yes I do believe that. We are talking about multiplayer games here, and not a single player game. Most multiplayer games only need a small backstory, a small (if any) story for the map, and that's it! Games like Battlefield 1942, Quake3, and Counter-Strike would be not as fun if you were interrupted for storyline reasons.
Online RPGs are a different story (pun), and usually require a lot of writers for quests and dialogue. Online action and strategy games rely on gameplay, and communication for fun factor. Better netcode improves both of these, while a better story won't fix your game that isn't fun.
If you want a good story, read a book, or play a story focused game. Multiplayer games should have instant fun, and a storyline would not allow the player to jump instantly into the action. All the multiplayer games I've worked on have focused on controls, gameplay, and netcode. The better the netcode, the better the player's experience.
Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this
Yes. Bejeweled was made by one individual in a course of only a few days. That man and a few of his friends formed a small games studio called popcap and are doing very well with their java and PDA games.
When your in the games industry with a small budget, you have to pick your projects accordingly. Do not work on a massive game that will take over a year. Your first project will most likely not be a big hit, so don't count on future sales to keep you afloat. Work on quick turnaround projects that will generate enough so you will stay afloat when (not if) one of your projects bomb.
Treat your company as a business first, or you will find yourself over budget and out of V.C. or your own savings. My friends John and Brian of Popcap started out with little; and became the java games powerhouse of the web because they made smart business decisions. They also knew how to make games for their target audience, not just making games they themselves think are fun. There is still room in the java/pda market for other small teams to do this as well.
As a Junior at Digipen, the parent post is correct. DigiPen moved from Vancouver to Redmond a few years ago, and is in the proccess of getting full accreditation with Washington State. We are now at the stage where we can accept International students.
Its not just the NYT; its journalism in general. It is much easier to report the story as a miracle scientist who breaks new ground (re: Dean Kamen), than a company of hundreds uses established research from many sources, and after years of testing and development come up with a prototype that may or may not have an impact on modern travel.
This extends to all careers. I'm a game developer, and it's very common to see big names credited with an entire project. It's impossible for 1 man to create most types of modern games. Instead of giving credit to the entire team, it's easier to report that a "Designer" thought of a great idea that is selling millions instead of mentioning the joint effort by the programmers, artists, testers, etc. Warren Spector joked about this on an article, and was quoted as Warren Spector - Maker of Deus Ex:) Even recently Slashdot reported on Spirited Away often referring it to as Miyazaki's film. Did Miyazaki have a significant affect on the film? Obviously; But 99% of the film was drawn by other team members. Most likely you will never hear their names.
Journalism will never tell you the full behind the scenes on a large project. To fully understand the process of science, film, or even game development, you have to work in it. On top of that, most of the public either doesn't care, or won't believe the significant team effort that goes into a big project. I bet you the majority of people believe Bill Gates programs most if not all of windows.
Hmm, this is where we differ. Why can't you have all of these in a game? Final Fantasy (when it first came out) combined all of these, anbd there are others through the years that do as well.
You can have a good storyline in a game without ruining the gameplay. If the development team is weighting the storyline as an equal to gameplay, its very likely that the game is going to suck. Final Fantasy is a very story driven game, and thus is acceptible for them to allocate a large amount of resources to story and character development. This comes at a price, because they forgot that people are playing the game and not reading a story. For example Final Fantasy's interface is horribly slow, which is completely unacceptble. A large portion of the game is spent wading through text that is scrolled. Why can't it appear instantly? There is no gain by having scrolling, whatsoever. This forces speed readers to spend large chunks of time waiting, which is the greatest no-no in games. If they just allocated 1 full time guy to making a more functional interface than artistic, the game(s) would have been more enjoyable.
Games these days just seem to suck. Are all the original ideas gone? I'd like to think not, but then again, I'm just a cusumer:)
Personally, I think originality is overrated. Why does it matter if its been done before if its still fun. Originality is a bonus that will make your game more enjoyable for the first few hours of the game. After that your game is going to be redundant in some way, and so will your game's biggest selling point if you bet the farm just on uniqueness. Look at some of the most popular games sold this year. Grand Theft Auto: 3, Warcraft III, Both Medal of Honors. They're all sequels! Each of these games are not original compared to their predecessors, yet successful. They found a formula that works, and tried to make it again with better graphics, story, and most importantly gameplay.
I'm not saying that you should just scrap plot and storyline. It adds a lot to a game if done right (unintrusive...). No matter what you have in your game, its just not worth playing if its not fun. Make the game fun, and then you can worry about your storyline. If you don't, noone will care about your story because nobody is playing your game.
"Kids say the key to good software is a compelling story and interesting characters.."
I thought the criteria for a good game was fun gameplay. Storyline and Character Development have their places in game making, but shouldn't be of primary concern unless the game is story-centric. A great storyline is not going to save a game if its not fun. A great game can still be fun with a craptastic or non-existent storyline (Tetris).
If you want great graphics, watch a movie or animation. If you want a great story, read a book. If you want to have fun, play a game. Chris Crawford (Atari and GDC founder), one of the original game developers, discussed this several times with me. I now keep that in mind every time I consider adding a new feature to one of my games. I've never heard of players refusing to play a fun game because the story sucks; so who cares if my game worlds and characters aren't comprable to Fiction writers?
The first machines that were console machines in the arcade were the VS. Series which had mario brothers, duck hunt, or baseball, it only held one game, and featured 2 side by side units. Then the Nintendo Playchoice came out allowing you to try out console games for only 25 cents. You could slip in any cart into them, and it would play them. There was a followup unit called something else (had Super in it) that held 3 super nintendo games (usually the launch titles like Super Mario Bros. and NCAA Basketball). Only a few were created but at nintendo we managed to find one that still worked:)
Remember "Interactive Network" (iN) that allowed you to play along with TV shows with their handheld unit that plugged into the phone back in the mid 90's?"
I do! Just found it in my closet, along with NBA finals information when i turned it on. Contrary to ESPN's predictions that the Lakers will win the championships this year, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls will three-peat!
Este commento es muy estupido. Si tu marcarias un email por muchos personas, no es posible a cambiar la lengua por todos. Él es la problema a mano. Y muchos de las palabras en estes lenguas son similar con las mismas en Ingles, por example "sex" en español es "sexo," y "Pornography" es la "pornografía."
English version: (Took only 2 years of hs spanish)
This comment is very stupid. It is ---- in email for many people, not possible for languages of today. Many languages have words similar to english for example "sex" in spanish is "sexo" and "pornography" is "pornografia" (sorry for the weak translation)
I'd have to agree with dasmegabyte, no matter what latin based language (besides 1337sp34k's ever involving spelling/gramatical structure) you'd try to encrypt your messages in, the filtering software would have a pretty good chance at catching it. The only way to get around it while still using a real language, would be to use a non-latin based language like Chinese/Japanese/et al.. Good luck on getting Westerner's to learn those:)
Even if this "port" is sold at the major retail outlets, do you honestly believe it will make back its development costs? The way i see it there are three models for games in the linux community.
MUDS/Shareware/Freeware - No way to profit.
Browser Based - Ads generate income, but there's no way to tell if its coming from the linux community.
Commercial - If you can convince stores to carry your game for a very limited target audience when compared to console or Win/Mac, you still have to get word out to the community in hope that they'll buy your linux version (good luck securing an advertising budget for this). There is no chance in making anywhere near the profit you would for a platform with a broader user base. Since most young kids do not use the platform, your most profitable demographic is unable to get you the "uninformed consumer" purchase which makes or breaks games.
I commend BioWare for being early adapters of this, but until more companies do this (and lose money), there will be little incentive for companies to take what they see as a longshot on linux ports.
As with a previous reader, i have to agree that the sites mentioned in the article were not communities, but more or less commercial sites using gaming to make money. If you want to see a real gaming culture, take a look at the independent gaming culture.
I run a site that focuses on it at www.mpogd.com, where you can find nearly a thousand games made by small companies, or just basement programmers. Take for example a free multiplayer game I worked on from 95-96 ARC, the people from that game have been playing it now for 5 years straight, and most of us know each other by name. We consider ourselves part of a private community that participated in a great game that the media completely ignored. If you want to see the last stand of games made by gamers, check out the independent sites and games. They are founded upon the same "true gaming" beliefs that came from the 80's, and not the "lets make a FMV game that'll sell a few million copies" you see today.
Didn't you all see our industry going to pop-culture hell when Dragon's Lair came out?
I think each of my mailboxes got this piece of spam, as it is going around the forward happy mailing lists one of our net friend's has always graciously put us on. Now even my slashdot news is being spammed. Can't you just put up one of those napster/mp3 stories instead?
Slashdot Mirror
But I do remember the final signs in each of the last several bubbles and stuff like this reeks of this. Currently, September 28 2010 the SPDR Gold trust is at 127.85 , an all time high since its listing. While no one can forecast the short term with much certainty, this seems like a strong indication that the amount of vehicles to sell gold is running dry, and that the gold market may implode in the next few years.
The US Navy Marine Mammal Program has been in place for fifty years now and predates the "war on terrorism." It used to be heavily classified but its a lot more open than it used to be. The short summary of its mission:
1) The Navy claims they have never used the program in an attack mission, but does admit they have been used in combat zones.
2) The Navy recognizes the animals use in Mine Detection, object/personnel recovery, and enemy detection
3) While originally a large array of animals were used, due to efficiency the only known mammals in-use are Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions. Since each of these creatures don't get too much larger than 500 lbs, they are easily deployable from San Diego to wherever they are needed. Earlier posts about using Orcas or larger creatures would most likely be more hassle than they are worth.
I've invested in companies where the CEO was somewhat established by birthright due to family control of the majority of the shares. While this can be a bad thing, the family will most likely have a long term dedication to the company as opposed to the quarterly. It also assures that the CEO will have a very low turnover usually due to retirement or death, so the company will often be able to plan and execute long-term goals without having to worry about their next position or retaining their chair.
The CEO in question does not have absolute power as its a publicly traded company with regulations and shareholders. While the family has great control over the company, the shareholders have consistently voted to retain the board as they've done an excellent job and have not appeared to violate any of the shareholders trust.
Even with my positive outlook on the company, I would not be an investor without the restraints the law puts on public companies. Without those in place, I would be very vulnerable with little recourse to the majority/controlling party. Oversight is always needed, even for the benevolent.
Exactly, this is a win-win situation for publishers/developers and gamers as they each get their own dedicated conventions. E3 and GDC were losing focus and trying to do too many things at once. Now its very clear what each convention represents.
PAX - For the gamers, Concerts/Fan Events, Game Announcements and Betas.
E3 - Vendors, Publisher Press Conferences, Developer networking, Private Meeting Rooms, Lineup annoucnements
GDC - Process sharing, Education, Job Fair, Tech Demos
None of these conferences are perfect, but I did see a marked improvement in the latter two that I attend compared to a few years ago. GDC was starting to have press conferences, E3 was having hour+ long lines to play games due to the tens of thousands of gamers in attendence, and gamers just wanted a convention of their own to attend. It seems all three conferences are learning their niche and will hopefully flourish as the industry gains value by holding these annually.
All of us on the floor who were making deals, and making important contacts all won this year as opposed to last year where it was very difficult to meet everyone due to how spread out it was.
E3 in its current form is far more likely to succeed than its previous form. Booth babes and glam weren't the only things brought back this year. E3 was slowly becoming Gamestop-fest where more than 50% of the attendees were game players as opposed to game makers. The ratio was far better this year, with all of the infrastructure that was lacking in the E3 Santa Monica model.
Worst of all they don't even try to hide its a random number. I was on ESPN and all 3 text ads at the bottom were for IQ tests. All three listed the same player, and gave three different IQ scores and despite having different URLs listed used the same exact "Can you beat his?" text.
Some scammers have gotten smarter and things such as Flat Stomach Rule (obey), Teeth whitening success, $5000 a month from Google or Obama, now check where the incoming request comes from and changes the fake blog to appear like its coming from a mom/teacher/veteran who lives in your hometown. They also now dynamically rotate the fake endorsements from ( Abc News / Fox News / Oprah / Rachel Ray ), along with rotating the names of the women pictured in the blog in an attempt to prevent customers from google searching to find out that woman firstname,lastname is scamming people. Instead of just harvesting your personal info, these companies send you out "free trials" that soon cost $100 and have recurring billing that is supposed to be difficult to get out of.
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has been on the internet for the past few years. Advertising is no longer about getting brand name recognition on the web or sales, its about scamming gullible people out of every cent possible. We stopped enforcing truth in advertising laws, we shouldn't be surprised that this has become the result.
You don't need an iPhone for what you described, people have been cheating using a step counter for years and even the best got caught from time to time. Pitbosses will have zero difficulty picking up a bunch of amateurs trying this. The only thing this does is reduce the barrier to entry for people without hardware experience.
Yes its a large enough gap to say McCain could not win. It doesn't matter if it was 53% to 46%, the college was projected to be an Obama victory by over 100 votes. That is very close to insurmountable. The use of the popular vote has zero outcome for the Presidential vote and is not relevant. The same college that helped Bush's campaign helped Obama secure an early victory.
But that's because we're a game development studio. No one uses their consoles for non-work related games in-hours because it would be a heavy distraction. We have a separate big screen and console setup for social gaming outside of work and that separation prevents distraction. Having games at work is great and can boost morale. But the work desk is for work. Morale wise you'll be hurting the team by having people play games at their desk because no one will agree on when its appropriate.
Take your budget and buy a poker table and beer instead. Each week we play poker on Friday in the conference room at 5PM on the mark with company provided beer. Fridays are sometimes the most productive as everyone is in a hurry to get their stuff done because the game always takes place on-time. The non poker players hang out in the president's office which becomes a lounge. Everybody talks to each other, new employees are instantly thrust into the company culture and social life, and everybody lets off a little steam. Playing for small stakes lets boss and subordinate interact at the same level.
Use your budget for activities that can be done in groups or in teams. Sports, Poker, even multiplayer Video Games are great for team building but a "toy" on everybody's desk would be disastrous in any school or work environment.
Up until recently, the strong Euro and the weak dollar makes this a great case in which its beneficial for a US company to export cars instead of sell domestically. As the US dollar is on the uptick, some of this benefit is now going to be lost. All the inefficiencies of selling across the pond ( which is partially mitigated by some parts being made in UK ) were probably more than made up in the ability to earn more USD per sale. Whether this remains true for the extent of this car's distribution remains suspect. Once production exceeds foreign demand, then they'll introduce it into the domestic market.
Make sure you are viewing your gallery http://picasaweb.google.com/home?hl=en&tab=wq , as the facial recognition features is not in the "Public Gallery" section http://picasaweb.google.com/{USERNAME} . It is being hammered right now as my gallery of 500 photos has displayed: "Waiting to process photos (there may be a delay)" for the last 30 minutes.
As someone who was present at an Inuit Seal Hunt in Canada, I'd argue that it is one of the most humane hunts you will come across. The ingenuity of how every single part of the animal is used put a lot of Southern consumerist waste in perspective. By the time every part was neatly carved, any leftover parts deemed not healthy for humans or dogs were neatly cut up and left on the ice so that the birds could all have a meal.
PETA is picking the wrong fight by labeling all seal hunting into one category and is doing a huge disservice to Inuit and other arctic communities that rely upon it. I think most of us can agree that animal cruelty is criminal and PETA is in the right by bringing attention to some of humanity's dark spots. Attempting to take away a primary food source and mainstay of the Inuit culture is the only inhumane thing about the hunt I have personally witnessed.
I think if everybody had the opportunity to compare PETA's propaganda picture of a baby seal being clubbed ( an illegal act ), with all of the facts, PETA would be forced to move on to other important animal rights issues.
I have some unedited videos of the hunt I witnessed on my YouTube profile here: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bashildy
I don't know about the author, but yes I do believe that. We are talking about multiplayer games here, and not a single player game. Most multiplayer games only need a small backstory, a small (if any) story for the map, and that's it! Games like Battlefield 1942, Quake3, and Counter-Strike would be not as fun if you were interrupted for storyline reasons.
Online RPGs are a different story (pun), and usually require a lot of writers for quests and dialogue. Online action and strategy games rely on gameplay, and communication for fun factor. Better netcode improves both of these, while a better story won't fix your game that isn't fun.
If you want a good story, read a book, or play a story focused game. Multiplayer games should have instant fun, and a storyline would not allow the player to jump instantly into the action. All the multiplayer games I've worked on have focused on controls, gameplay, and netcode. The better the netcode, the better the player's experience.
Is there still the chance for an individual or small team to strike it rich writing a game like this
Yes. Bejeweled was made by one individual in a course of only a few days. That man and a few of his friends formed a small games studio called popcap and are doing very well with their java and PDA games.
When your in the games industry with a small budget, you have to pick your projects accordingly. Do not work on a massive game that will take over a year. Your first project will most likely not be a big hit, so don't count on future sales to keep you afloat. Work on quick turnaround projects that will generate enough so you will stay afloat when (not if) one of your projects bomb.
Treat your company as a business first, or you will find yourself over budget and out of V.C. or your own savings. My friends John and Brian of Popcap started out with little; and became the java games powerhouse of the web because they made smart business decisions. They also knew how to make games for their target audience, not just making games they themselves think are fun. There is still room in the java/pda market for other small teams to do this as well.
As a Junior at Digipen, the parent post is correct. DigiPen moved from Vancouver to Redmond a few years ago, and is in the proccess of getting full accreditation with Washington State. We are now at the stage where we can accept International students.
Its not just the NYT; its journalism in general. It is much easier to report the story as a miracle scientist who breaks new ground (re: Dean Kamen), than a company of hundreds uses established research from many sources, and after years of testing and development come up with a prototype that may or may not have an impact on modern travel.
:) Even recently Slashdot reported on Spirited Away often referring it to as Miyazaki's film. Did Miyazaki have a significant affect on the film? Obviously; But 99% of the film was drawn by other team members. Most likely you will never hear their names.
This extends to all careers. I'm a game developer, and it's very common to see big names credited with an entire project. It's impossible for 1 man to create most types of modern games. Instead of giving credit to the entire team, it's easier to report that a "Designer" thought of a great idea that is selling millions instead of mentioning the joint effort by the programmers, artists, testers, etc. Warren Spector joked about this on an article, and was quoted as Warren Spector - Maker of Deus Ex
Journalism will never tell you the full behind the scenes on a large project. To fully understand the process of science, film, or even game development, you have to work in it. On top of that, most of the public either doesn't care, or won't believe the significant team effort that goes into a big project. I bet you the majority of people believe Bill Gates programs most if not all of windows.
Hmm, this is where we differ. Why can't you have all of these in a game? Final Fantasy (when it first came out) combined all of these, anbd there are others through the years that do as well.
:)
You can have a good storyline in a game without ruining the gameplay. If the development team is weighting the storyline as an equal to gameplay, its very likely that the game is going to suck. Final Fantasy is a very story driven game, and thus is acceptible for them to allocate a large amount of resources to story and character development. This comes at a price, because they forgot that people are playing the game and not reading a story. For example Final Fantasy's interface is horribly slow, which is completely unacceptble. A large portion of the game is spent wading through text that is scrolled. Why can't it appear instantly? There is no gain by having scrolling, whatsoever. This forces speed readers to spend large chunks of time waiting, which is the greatest no-no in games. If they just allocated 1 full time guy to making a more functional interface than artistic, the game(s) would have been more enjoyable.
Games these days just seem to suck. Are all the original ideas gone? I'd like to think not, but then again, I'm just a cusumer
Personally, I think originality is overrated. Why does it matter if its been done before if its still fun. Originality is a bonus that will make your game more enjoyable for the first few hours of the game. After that your game is going to be redundant in some way, and so will your game's biggest selling point if you bet the farm just on uniqueness. Look at some of the most popular games sold this year. Grand Theft Auto: 3, Warcraft III, Both Medal of Honors. They're all sequels! Each of these games are not original compared to their predecessors, yet successful. They found a formula that works, and tried to make it again with better graphics, story, and most importantly gameplay.
I'm not saying that you should just scrap plot and storyline. It adds a lot to a game if done right (unintrusive...). No matter what you have in your game, its just not worth playing if its not fun. Make the game fun, and then you can worry about your storyline. If you don't, noone will care about your story because nobody is playing your game.
"Kids say the key to good software is a compelling story and interesting characters.."
I thought the criteria for a good game was fun gameplay. Storyline and Character Development have their places in game making, but shouldn't be of primary concern unless the game is story-centric. A great storyline is not going to save a game if its not fun. A great game can still be fun with a craptastic or non-existent storyline (Tetris).
If you want great graphics, watch a movie or animation. If you want a great story, read a book. If you want to have fun, play a game. Chris Crawford (Atari and GDC founder), one of the original game developers, discussed this several times with me. I now keep that in mind every time I consider adding a new feature to one of my games. I've never heard of players refusing to play a fun game because the story sucks; so who cares if my game worlds and characters aren't comprable to Fiction writers?
Under the Bleachers
by: C. Moore Butts
Another good one is:
The Yellow Stream
by: I. Pee Freely
Also:
The White Ocean
by: Kneed Moore Lotion
You can't go wrong with:
The Crooked Mile
by: Ben D. Dick
Or:
Cherry Picking
by: Brooke N. Heiman
Coincidentally most of my favorite authors are named Mike:
A Bridge Too Far
by: Mike Hawk
Dead in the Water
by: Mike A'daber
Training Your Dog
by: Mike Hunt
Up the Flag Pole
by: Mike Rotch
And Finally the Modern Classic:
The Giver
by: Bob Goatse
And his Biography:
Meet Bob Goatse
by: Rip N. Torn
The first machines that were console machines in the arcade were the VS. Series which had mario brothers, duck hunt, or baseball, it only held one game, and featured 2 side by side units. Then the Nintendo Playchoice came out allowing you to try out console games for only 25 cents. You could slip in any cart into them, and it would play them. There was a followup unit called something else (had Super in it) that held 3 super nintendo games (usually the launch titles like Super Mario Bros. and NCAA Basketball). Only a few were created but at nintendo we managed to find one that still worked :)
" Well, you know *shrug* " - Mr. Generic Guy
Remember "Interactive Network" (iN) that allowed you to play along with TV shows with their handheld unit that plugged into the phone back in the mid 90's?"
I do! Just found it in my closet, along with NBA finals information when i turned it on. Contrary to ESPN's predictions that the Lakers will win the championships this year, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls will three-peat!
" Well, you know *shrug* " - Mr. Generic Guy
English version: (Took only 2 years of hs spanish)
This comment is very stupid. It is ---- in email for many people, not possible for languages of today. Many languages have words similar to english for example "sex" in spanish is "sexo" and "pornography" is "pornografia" (sorry for the weak translation)
I'd have to agree with dasmegabyte, no matter what latin based language (besides 1337sp34k's ever involving spelling/gramatical structure) you'd try to encrypt your messages in, the filtering software would have a pretty good chance at catching it. The only way to get around it while still using a real language, would be to use a non-latin based language like Chinese/Japanese/et al.. Good luck on getting Westerner's to learn those :)
" Well, you know *shrug* " - Mr. Generic Guy
Even if this "port" is sold at the major retail outlets, do you honestly believe it will make back its development costs? The way i see it there are three models for games in the linux community.
MUDS/Shareware/Freeware - No way to profit.
Browser Based - Ads generate income, but there's no way to tell if its coming from the linux community.
Commercial - If you can convince stores to carry your game for a very limited target audience when compared to console or Win/Mac, you still have to get word out to the community in hope that they'll buy your linux version (good luck securing an advertising budget for this). There is no chance in making anywhere near the profit you would for a platform with a broader user base. Since most young kids do not use the platform, your most profitable demographic is unable to get you the "uninformed consumer" purchase which makes or breaks games.
I commend BioWare for being early adapters of this, but until more companies do this (and lose money), there will be little incentive for companies to take what they see as a longshot on linux ports.
" Well, you know *shrug* " - Mr. Generic Guy
I run a site that focuses on it at www.mpogd.com, where you can find nearly a thousand games made by small companies, or just basement programmers. Take for example a free multiplayer game I worked on from 95-96 ARC, the people from that game have been playing it now for 5 years straight, and most of us know each other by name. We consider ourselves part of a private community that participated in a great game that the media completely ignored. If you want to see the last stand of games made by gamers, check out the independent sites and games. They are founded upon the same "true gaming" beliefs that came from the 80's, and not the "lets make a FMV game that'll sell a few million copies" you see today.
Didn't you all see our industry going to pop-culture hell when Dragon's Lair came out?
English: Fry's 30 day money back guarentee
I think each of my mailboxes got this piece of spam, as it is going around the forward happy mailing lists one of our net friend's has always graciously put us on. Now even my slashdot news is being spammed. Can't you just put up one of those napster/mp3 stories instead?
English: Fry's 30 day money back guarentee