Of course Nintendo's home systems were region locked like all others up until this generation. Sony opted not to do it as an advantage and the MS changed their policy to keep up with Sony. Nintendo is doing the same thing. So again I'm not entirely sure how Nintendo is being so bad in comparison for doing the same thing as MS in regards to region locking while at the same time offering much more open internet options and uses standard storage where as MS uses over priced proprietary storage. To me it sounds like MS has the 'paternalist, authoritarian' approach.
I believe internet isn't an issue to come up because aside from one console they all give you internet access. It's a non-issue for the majority of gamers. I would totally agree that the Wii and DS' multiplayer options are dreadful at best. It's much more improved on the 3DS and more control is given to publishers so like, for example, I can get online and play anyone with SFIV and I don't have to dick around with stupid friend codes.
It is a shame that with region locking it will almost certainly crop up more often at least for the time being but it will be more of a decision that the publisher has taken rather than Nintendo forcing it on people. I do think it will be very common though considering the rampant piracy on the DS. I think publishers will take any option they can to help hinder people from pirating games even if the region locking won't stop the persistent.
Of course, you can buy that sort of stuff in the UK too. I believe you'll find that is why Nintendo has started tying down their portables. Piracy has been rampant and is one of the reason we'll probably not see another GTA game on the DS systems despite all the excellent reviews and people who loved it. The problem is the so called 'core gamer' the title was aimed at yet again showed no real support for their content and chose to stick it to Rockstar. I don't think it's any surprise that Nintendo isn't that fussed about catering to those people
Nintendo doesn't give away their tools because most people don't care for a bunch of mario clones. They do allow indie games onto their system. World of Goo is on there. There is Toribash, cave story and Super Meat boy would have been on it but they couldn't work within the download size limits and no publisher wanted to sell a boxed copy. But the point being Nintendo had no problems letting SMB on the Wii. They are doing what Apple does and keeping the quality high. You may or may not agree with it but every time I go onto my Android phone's market and have to shift through piles of shit I understand why.
Of course there are downsides to all systems and the worst issue by far for the Wii or DS is friends codes. My Wii is strictly an offline gaming console for me and I do all my multiplayer gaming on the PC.
A game would have to be DSi only in order for that to happen and afaik there is no such game as it would be silly to lock out the vast majority of the DS market since the game wouldn't be playable on any other DS.
There is no obvious way to get into the registry for most people (and for good reason) and the naming of items in the registry are not very user friendly. The expectation that causal users should go mucking around in their registry is dumb and it can be problematic if they do. So for most people the ability to make this change is nearly impossible.
Good. That's less people polluting the air with their private jets and SUVs and seeing how Americans still have to file and pay tax when hitting a certain income limit while abroad we will still get tax money from them without having to provide an infrastructure to them. We can adjust the laws too to increase the tax on the rich who go abroad and make it even better.
There's this strange perception around some parts (particularly around here) that Nintendo are somehow "more ethical" or "consumer-friendly" than the other console manufacturers. This overlooks the fact that Nintendo are the people who normalised console region locking (and who are still trying to push and extend it even now, when Sony and MS have decided they're not interested any more), cracked down on homebrew whenever they can and put out consoles which don't even give so much as a tiny whiff of an "OtherOS" or "PS2 Linux kit" walled garden. In fact, going off their track record, they'll even try to sue you if you have a job they don't approve of and make a post on your blog saying you like one of their games (though I seem to remember they did apologise to the young lady in that particular case after it sparked an outcry).
This comment is all kinds of stupid.
Nintendo has had more region free gaming across the board than any other company they've competed again. Their portable systems never had any region locking which has allowed me and others to buy Gameboy and DS games from across the world. They did introduce region locking on the DSi download games but that is certainly no worse than MS or Sony.
Nintendo hasn't really ever been that hard on the homebrew scene. In fact the guy doing the no$gb emulator has even been selling his tools for gameboy development to anyone and Nintendo hasn't bothered him. He now even supports the DS. Nintendo does obviously crack down on people sharing roms but that's not homebrew. That's just cheap people.
Nintendo does well because their business model is sensible. They make money on their hardware. They also offer things that everyone wants. MS fanboys need to realise that not everyone wants to play as a big fat space marine or some other "extreme" character doing the same damn thing in every sequel while spurting out god awful dialog that sounds like it was written by the 13 year olds play the game.
Nintendo also has a web browser letting you choose which websites you visit unlike Microsoft who have their online world locked off tighter than anyone else and then have the nerve to charge you to have the right to access to twitter and facebook where as those things are free with Nintendo. I can read slashdot, surf for gentleman's entertainment or visit any other website with my Wii. You can't do that with MS.
So I'm not seeing how you feel Nintendo is worse than the competition. Your comment is uneducated fanboy verbal masturbation at best and not surprisingly all the other little uneducated xbots gave you a +5 interesting for spouting crap.
By the logic then why not put objective C on the xbox and windows phone 7. There would be a bigger benefit by doing that as there are already many iOS apps made where as by using mono you need to start from scratch in most instances seeing how Windows Phone 7 apps are nearly non-existent. We keep getting told MS loves the homebrew people and the hackers so surely getting objective C onto the developer friendly MS devices will be easier than trying to work with 'Evil Steve's' device.
Just the hassle of having to flip back and forth between code and documents or emails on a single screen is enough to warrant a second screen. I'd say no person should experience less than 2 screens but I would say it's very necessary for developers. I'm not sure I would work for someone tight enough to only provide one monitor now that I've experienced the awesomeness of multiple monitors.
Chrome seems to think the site has hosting malware or by the looks of it the ads. I'm not sure I care enough to bother trying to reading their article.
I personally feel they're going to be roughly equal. The tablet will be backing some things that you get form a laptop but the 48 is lacking too. The heavy reliance on the internet is a big downer if you're going to use it on the go outside of cities,imo.
The best solution (imo of course) is a netbook/laptop. If you must have it on a contract rather than paying outright then at the very least in the UK, one can be had for cost of a standard phone contract £25. Sure you may have to pay a one off fee anywhere from £20 to £50 but the thing will be usable without a network, works with any peripheral you have and isn't beta hardware/software and will likely work better with any OS.
It's not free at all and will no doubt be paid for in the first year. You'd be better off getting an Asus EEE and a pay as you go mobile dongle so you're tied into a contract and you won't be paying any more. You just see the cost of the laptop when you pay it up front.
An iphone / ipad is a bad example because Apple will probably never let someone give away their phones for free. But any other phone, tablet, laptop on a mobile deal is basically going to be the same deal and the laptop won't be useless when you have no network.
I believe at least in the UK every provider offers some sort of laptop / mobile deal and has done for some time. The difference being Google pretty much has to do it if it can't really do anything offline.
Then why not get a real laptop on financing? You don't need to pay the whole amount up front and even if you're paying interest it's not like people won't be making a profit on a Chrome OS laptop for $20 per month.
I'm not paying a contract for a laptop. I have a real laptop with an SSD and a PAYG mobile dongle so I only pay for 3G when I use it and my laptop runs real software / games. If you can't pay for a laptop up fornt get it on financing rather than being locked into a contract for what'll no doubt be a handicapped netbook.
What stops you from publishing your own app or building your own website? In fact I can think off hand of a competent developer straight out of uni that didn't have something to show off.
MS doesn't attempt to take your data because they're busy patching their OS which is allowing any questionable person to take your data.
That and they're so irrelevant and behind the times now that no one talks about them. If you think Bing isn't tacking you in the same ways Google does then you're being naive. The same goes for their other online services if anyone actually used them.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem exists on the 360 too so actually not it's probably not the firmware.
The 3DS has the option for region locking and is no different to the Xbox 360 where the publisher gets to decide. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/283940/news/nintendo-3ds-region-lock-a-possibility-for-some-software/
Of course Nintendo's home systems were region locked like all others up until this generation. Sony opted not to do it as an advantage and the MS changed their policy to keep up with Sony. Nintendo is doing the same thing. So again I'm not entirely sure how Nintendo is being so bad in comparison for doing the same thing as MS in regards to region locking while at the same time offering much more open internet options and uses standard storage where as MS uses over priced proprietary storage. To me it sounds like MS has the 'paternalist, authoritarian' approach.
I believe internet isn't an issue to come up because aside from one console they all give you internet access. It's a non-issue for the majority of gamers. I would totally agree that the Wii and DS' multiplayer options are dreadful at best. It's much more improved on the 3DS and more control is given to publishers so like, for example, I can get online and play anyone with SFIV and I don't have to dick around with stupid friend codes.
It is a shame that with region locking it will almost certainly crop up more often at least for the time being but it will be more of a decision that the publisher has taken rather than Nintendo forcing it on people. I do think it will be very common though considering the rampant piracy on the DS. I think publishers will take any option they can to help hinder people from pirating games even if the region locking won't stop the persistent.
Of course, you can buy that sort of stuff in the UK too. I believe you'll find that is why Nintendo has started tying down their portables. Piracy has been rampant and is one of the reason we'll probably not see another GTA game on the DS systems despite all the excellent reviews and people who loved it. The problem is the so called 'core gamer' the title was aimed at yet again showed no real support for their content and chose to stick it to Rockstar. I don't think it's any surprise that Nintendo isn't that fussed about catering to those people
Nintendo doesn't give away their tools because most people don't care for a bunch of mario clones. They do allow indie games onto their system. World of Goo is on there. There is Toribash, cave story and Super Meat boy would have been on it but they couldn't work within the download size limits and no publisher wanted to sell a boxed copy. But the point being Nintendo had no problems letting SMB on the Wii. They are doing what Apple does and keeping the quality high. You may or may not agree with it but every time I go onto my Android phone's market and have to shift through piles of shit I understand why.
Of course there are downsides to all systems and the worst issue by far for the Wii or DS is friends codes. My Wii is strictly an offline gaming console for me and I do all my multiplayer gaming on the PC.
I believe I would spend my money on sex toys for my cats before buying a system that is so closed and built around bilking money out of me.
A game would have to be DSi only in order for that to happen and afaik there is no such game as it would be silly to lock out the vast majority of the DS market since the game wouldn't be playable on any other DS.
He can take money via bank transfer or check.
There is no obvious way to get into the registry for most people (and for good reason) and the naming of items in the registry are not very user friendly. The expectation that causal users should go mucking around in their registry is dumb and it can be problematic if they do. So for most people the ability to make this change is nearly impossible.
I hear Microsoft sells the information to advertisers for a tidy sum. As an astroturfer can you prove that wrong?
Good. That's less people polluting the air with their private jets and SUVs and seeing how Americans still have to file and pay tax when hitting a certain income limit while abroad we will still get tax money from them without having to provide an infrastructure to them. We can adjust the laws too to increase the tax on the rich who go abroad and make it even better.
yes let's never move forward and try something new. Innovation is for terrorists and communists.
There's this strange perception around some parts (particularly around here) that Nintendo are somehow "more ethical" or "consumer-friendly" than the other console manufacturers. This overlooks the fact that Nintendo are the people who normalised console region locking (and who are still trying to push and extend it even now, when Sony and MS have decided they're not interested any more), cracked down on homebrew whenever they can and put out consoles which don't even give so much as a tiny whiff of an "OtherOS" or "PS2 Linux kit" walled garden. In fact, going off their track record, they'll even try to sue you if you have a job they don't approve of and make a post on your blog saying you like one of their games (though I seem to remember they did apologise to the young lady in that particular case after it sparked an outcry).
This comment is all kinds of stupid.
Nintendo has had more region free gaming across the board than any other company they've competed again. Their portable systems never had any region locking which has allowed me and others to buy Gameboy and DS games from across the world. They did introduce region locking on the DSi download games but that is certainly no worse than MS or Sony.
Nintendo hasn't really ever been that hard on the homebrew scene. In fact the guy doing the no$gb emulator has even been selling his tools for gameboy development to anyone and Nintendo hasn't bothered him. He now even supports the DS. Nintendo does obviously crack down on people sharing roms but that's not homebrew. That's just cheap people.
Nintendo does well because their business model is sensible. They make money on their hardware. They also offer things that everyone wants. MS fanboys need to realise that not everyone wants to play as a big fat space marine or some other "extreme" character doing the same damn thing in every sequel while spurting out god awful dialog that sounds like it was written by the 13 year olds play the game.
Nintendo also has a web browser letting you choose which websites you visit unlike Microsoft who have their online world locked off tighter than anyone else and then have the nerve to charge you to have the right to access to twitter and facebook where as those things are free with Nintendo. I can read slashdot, surf for gentleman's entertainment or visit any other website with my Wii. You can't do that with MS.
So I'm not seeing how you feel Nintendo is worse than the competition. Your comment is uneducated fanboy verbal masturbation at best and not surprisingly all the other little uneducated xbots gave you a +5 interesting for spouting crap.
By the logic then why not put objective C on the xbox and windows phone 7. There would be a bigger benefit by doing that as there are already many iOS apps made where as by using mono you need to start from scratch in most instances seeing how Windows Phone 7 apps are nearly non-existent. We keep getting told MS loves the homebrew people and the hackers so surely getting objective C onto the developer friendly MS devices will be easier than trying to work with 'Evil Steve's' device.
Just the hassle of having to flip back and forth between code and documents or emails on a single screen is enough to warrant a second screen. I'd say no person should experience less than 2 screens but I would say it's very necessary for developers. I'm not sure I would work for someone tight enough to only provide one monitor now that I've experienced the awesomeness of multiple monitors.
Chrome seems to think the site has hosting malware or by the looks of it the ads. I'm not sure I care enough to bother trying to reading their article.
No one uses it so it's totally secure.
I personally feel they're going to be roughly equal. The tablet will be backing some things that you get form a laptop but the 48 is lacking too. The heavy reliance on the internet is a big downer if you're going to use it on the go outside of cities,imo.
The best solution (imo of course) is a netbook/laptop. If you must have it on a contract rather than paying outright then at the very least in the UK, one can be had for cost of a standard phone contract £25. Sure you may have to pay a one off fee anywhere from £20 to £50 but the thing will be usable without a network, works with any peripheral you have and isn't beta hardware/software and will likely work better with any OS.
It's not free at all and will no doubt be paid for in the first year. You'd be better off getting an Asus EEE and a pay as you go mobile dongle so you're tied into a contract and you won't be paying any more. You just see the cost of the laptop when you pay it up front.
An iphone / ipad is a bad example because Apple will probably never let someone give away their phones for free. But any other phone, tablet, laptop on a mobile deal is basically going to be the same deal and the laptop won't be useless when you have no network.
It's not more free than any other laptop on a mobile broadband contract.
It's not revolutionary really. You can get laptops already with a 3G dongle on a contract.
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/mobile-internet/on-your-pc-or-mac/netbooks-and-laptops/index.htm
I believe at least in the UK every provider offers some sort of laptop / mobile deal and has done for some time. The difference being Google pretty much has to do it if it can't really do anything offline.
Then why not get a real laptop on financing? You don't need to pay the whole amount up front and even if you're paying interest it's not like people won't be making a profit on a Chrome OS laptop for $20 per month.
I'm not paying a contract for a laptop. I have a real laptop with an SSD and a PAYG mobile dongle so I only pay for 3G when I use it and my laptop runs real software / games. If you can't pay for a laptop up fornt get it on financing rather than being locked into a contract for what'll no doubt be a handicapped netbook.
True which is why you could rub down the contacts every so often. Blowing on the cart can only make it worse when you get spit all over the thing.
They gave you cases to keep the games in for a reason.
What stops you from publishing your own app or building your own website? In fact I can think off hand of a competent developer straight out of uni that didn't have something to show off.
MS doesn't attempt to take your data because they're busy patching their OS which is allowing any questionable person to take your data.
That and they're so irrelevant and behind the times now that no one talks about them. If you think Bing isn't tacking you in the same ways Google does then you're being naive. The same goes for their other online services if anyone actually used them.
I believe you should read this.