Step 1: Sign celebrity endorsement (Clancy)
Step 2: Produce random game
Step 3: Go to press, use big name lots!
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Pray you profit.
What's next, "George Foreman Cooking Papa" for Nintendo Wii?
Smells like someone's grant is about to run out. Solution: the press-release, stir things up a little, generate some news and attention, it's a common way to generate hype, interest, etc. As has been pointed out, they won't solve the fact that the aluminum in the process is not merely catalytic, but used up by the process. Little thing called oxidation. If only they had a bit MORE MONEY to solve the problem... for the next 30 years or so, put their kids through college, yada, yada;P
If you ever found a way to separate water into its constituent molecules at room temperature, no energy input needed, no chemical input needed, etc., you'd have just solved the world's energy problems for all time.
So, how do they imagine this will work exactly? They'll have a stereotypical Lego castle made of blocks... then what? Also, Legos are marketed towards children... children are also generally broke. Children below ten years are not a large fraction of the MMO demographic, such as WoW. Combine that with parental fears of online child-predators, etc., and you have a recipe for failure. So what are they thinking?
An MMO needs an activity that is enhanced by group interaction. Simply taking the normal MMO conventions and making them blocky (and therefore Lego-like) is not going to magically translate into a popular MMO. Is this going to be a game of group block-dropping? I doubt it. It'll be more like the recent Star Wars Legos games, but without the licensed property. So, it'll be likely a medieval setting. But if making a successful child-targeted MMO was that easy someone would've achieved it already and without the purposely bad (blocky) graphics. I don't see it, someone help me out here?
"fsn (File System Navigator) pronounced as "fusion" is a 3D file browser made by SGI for IRIX systems.
It gained some fame after it appeared in the movie Jurassic Park. In a scene in the film, a main character, Lex, comes upon a computer displaying the interface, declaring "It's a UNIX system! I know this!" After the release of the film, many incorrectly perceived the situation as an example of media misrepresentation of computers, citing the computer game-like display as being an unrealistic Hollywood mock-up."
I think he means that, as a result of the salt concentration going too high, the octopus may have experienced symptoms perhaps similar to a person being similarly deprived of perhaps air, or what happens to people who enter water drinking competitions. It can cause brain damage and death. So I think he's saying that the octopus survived the change in salinity but its personality never recovered. It subsisted in its tank in a diminished capacity, much like an Alzheimers patient. Sounds kinda terrible, considering the 'relationship' they had.
These developers, etc, are completely ignorant of economics to even think of making this claim.
The fact is that resale value in the mind of the buyer is a major portion of the original purchase price (whether he knows that consciously or not). If you make resale illegal or difficult enough to kill it off what will happen is that gamers will find the same approximately $60/game prices to be even less worth-it than before, since you've destroyed the intrinsic resale value the game had and there's now no way to dump a game that isn't worth keeping to recover a portion of your investment. If the resale value of a game is worth ~$20 then the entire game industry will have to lower their prices by that much on average to see the same buying activity, because a $60 game is now only worth about $40. But they aren't imagining they will have to do that. If the consumer thinks your game is overpriced they will not buy it. And making resale impossible will contribute to that perception.
The result of this will be even more conservative behavior when gamers shop for games. Meaning that only triple-A titles will do well, and the A-material games will have fewer buyers and the B-games will probably price themselves out of the market.
I'm sure Detroit's auto-industry and many other manufacturers would love to outlaw buying used cars to force you to buy new, but that's not how it works. That would only create a black-market for goods.
So, think about this a second time, developers and publishers. You got your cash up-front when you sold that game brand-new and part of the reason buyers paid your price is because of the intrinsic resale value, you have absolute zero claim to second hand sales and the existence and ability to sell game second hand actually results in buyers taking more chances on new games and therefore more people buying new games. In fact, if your game does well second hand it's usually because your game is doing well in any case among first buyers.
The answer isn't restricting 2nd hand sales. The answer is to get off your a$$es and make f***in' better games the people want to buy in the first place.
Problem with this is rooted in a basic economic error. The value of an item also, in part, is due to its resale value. The more publishers degrade the resale value the less the item is worth upfront. This is why attempts to outlaw used game sales, or demonize outlets that resale games don't have a leg to stand on.
This method of devaluing only the resale value to the secondary market will still have an impact on the upfront price. Games will be worth less to buyers because of a move like this. Therefore, games will sell less than ever. Which will create a vicious cycle because publishers will likely conclude that they need to take even stricter measures against piracy, when the truth is they simply devalued their own product and would see more sales without the restrictions.
Long ago AMD invented technologies that were better than what Intel had. Intel also had technologies patented which were better than what AMD had. They decided to share. What they did was license each other's technology to each other, basically agreeing to coexist. Intel also needs AMD, in a sense, to avoid monopoly charges. Meanwhile AMD keeps Intel honest with stiff competition.
The problem with any new competitor entering the market is that neither Intel nor AMD have to license their patents to a new player. So, unless a new player comes up with some amazing new technology which Intel and AMD want enough to let that company into the patent-party, it would be very difficult for a new competitor to walk in.
Most of these experiments deal with softball sized reactors, essentially, and then imagine that scaling them up will increase their efficiency when the fact is that scaling them up makes them operate worse because the neutrons generated can only travel so far before they are block by something.
What I'd like to see is a Fusor reactor continually shrunken down. If you could get it to the size of a pinhead or so I bet it would produce a net energy gain.
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Step 1: Sign celebrity endorsement (Clancy) Step 2: Produce random game Step 3: Go to press, use big name lots! Step 4: ??? Step 5: Pray you profit. What's next, "George Foreman Cooking Papa" for Nintendo Wii?
Smells like someone's grant is about to run out. Solution: the press-release, stir things up a little, generate some news and attention, it's a common way to generate hype, interest, etc. As has been pointed out, they won't solve the fact that the aluminum in the process is not merely catalytic, but used up by the process. Little thing called oxidation. If only they had a bit MORE MONEY to solve the problem... for the next 30 years or so, put their kids through college, yada, yada ;P
If you ever found a way to separate water into its constituent molecules at room temperature, no energy input needed, no chemical input needed, etc., you'd have just solved the world's energy problems for all time.
This = LOL ^_______^
Not to worry, with their mind-reading abilities I'm sure they'll find new jobs in no time ;P
In Soviet Russia, government pays you!
So, how do they imagine this will work exactly? They'll have a stereotypical Lego castle made of blocks... then what? Also, Legos are marketed towards children... children are also generally broke. Children below ten years are not a large fraction of the MMO demographic, such as WoW. Combine that with parental fears of online child-predators, etc., and you have a recipe for failure. So what are they thinking? An MMO needs an activity that is enhanced by group interaction. Simply taking the normal MMO conventions and making them blocky (and therefore Lego-like) is not going to magically translate into a popular MMO. Is this going to be a game of group block-dropping? I doubt it. It'll be more like the recent Star Wars Legos games, but without the licensed property. So, it'll be likely a medieval setting. But if making a successful child-targeted MMO was that easy someone would've achieved it already and without the purposely bad (blocky) graphics. I don't see it, someone help me out here?
Re: Steve's Sig Steve Wozniak anagrams to "New Oak Size TV" Did I get it? :)
"fsn (File System Navigator) pronounced as "fusion" is a 3D file browser made by SGI for IRIX systems. It gained some fame after it appeared in the movie Jurassic Park. In a scene in the film, a main character, Lex, comes upon a computer displaying the interface, declaring "It's a UNIX system! I know this!" After the release of the film, many incorrectly perceived the situation as an example of media misrepresentation of computers, citing the computer game-like display as being an unrealistic Hollywood mock-up."
I think he means that, as a result of the salt concentration going too high, the octopus may have experienced symptoms perhaps similar to a person being similarly deprived of perhaps air, or what happens to people who enter water drinking competitions. It can cause brain damage and death. So I think he's saying that the octopus survived the change in salinity but its personality never recovered. It subsisted in its tank in a diminished capacity, much like an Alzheimers patient. Sounds kinda terrible, considering the 'relationship' they had.
These developers, etc, are completely ignorant of economics to even think of making this claim. The fact is that resale value in the mind of the buyer is a major portion of the original purchase price (whether he knows that consciously or not). If you make resale illegal or difficult enough to kill it off what will happen is that gamers will find the same approximately $60/game prices to be even less worth-it than before, since you've destroyed the intrinsic resale value the game had and there's now no way to dump a game that isn't worth keeping to recover a portion of your investment. If the resale value of a game is worth ~$20 then the entire game industry will have to lower their prices by that much on average to see the same buying activity, because a $60 game is now only worth about $40. But they aren't imagining they will have to do that. If the consumer thinks your game is overpriced they will not buy it. And making resale impossible will contribute to that perception. The result of this will be even more conservative behavior when gamers shop for games. Meaning that only triple-A titles will do well, and the A-material games will have fewer buyers and the B-games will probably price themselves out of the market. I'm sure Detroit's auto-industry and many other manufacturers would love to outlaw buying used cars to force you to buy new, but that's not how it works. That would only create a black-market for goods. So, think about this a second time, developers and publishers. You got your cash up-front when you sold that game brand-new and part of the reason buyers paid your price is because of the intrinsic resale value, you have absolute zero claim to second hand sales and the existence and ability to sell game second hand actually results in buyers taking more chances on new games and therefore more people buying new games. In fact, if your game does well second hand it's usually because your game is doing well in any case among first buyers. The answer isn't restricting 2nd hand sales. The answer is to get off your a$$es and make f***in' better games the people want to buy in the first place.
Problem with this is rooted in a basic economic error. The value of an item also, in part, is due to its resale value. The more publishers degrade the resale value the less the item is worth upfront. This is why attempts to outlaw used game sales, or demonize outlets that resale games don't have a leg to stand on. This method of devaluing only the resale value to the secondary market will still have an impact on the upfront price. Games will be worth less to buyers because of a move like this. Therefore, games will sell less than ever. Which will create a vicious cycle because publishers will likely conclude that they need to take even stricter measures against piracy, when the truth is they simply devalued their own product and would see more sales without the restrictions.
These knots of light are called... matter. Stable loops of electro-magnetic energy are the definition of matter.
Long ago AMD invented technologies that were better than what Intel had. Intel also had technologies patented which were better than what AMD had. They decided to share. What they did was license each other's technology to each other, basically agreeing to coexist. Intel also needs AMD, in a sense, to avoid monopoly charges. Meanwhile AMD keeps Intel honest with stiff competition. The problem with any new competitor entering the market is that neither Intel nor AMD have to license their patents to a new player. So, unless a new player comes up with some amazing new technology which Intel and AMD want enough to let that company into the patent-party, it would be very difficult for a new competitor to walk in.
Most of these experiments deal with softball sized reactors, essentially, and then imagine that scaling them up will increase their efficiency when the fact is that scaling them up makes them operate worse because the neutrons generated can only travel so far before they are block by something. What I'd like to see is a Fusor reactor continually shrunken down. If you could get it to the size of a pinhead or so I bet it would produce a net energy gain.