I'm no statistician... but I can't help but think that the sample size of a whole 49 people might not exactly qualify as being statistically significant. Not to mention how biased those 49 people may or may not have been. I think we all know how bad online polling is in this fashion... You'r asking a subset of a subset of a subset of people who happen to visit that specific website and leave out whole populations of people. This is no better than the anecdotal answers that the OP got in the wireless stores. Finally, the headline "Lots of people want..." Really? Lots? 29 people? Come on.
I want to know what the father was really doing. While it is an acceptable explanation that he thought there was a prowler around, I find it hard to believe that after that kind of scare (Honey there's someone outside, go get the kids and stay in the living room! or Honey there someone outside, I'm going to get my gun and check) that the parents wouldn't be more attentive to the situation. If I need to pull a gun out to go check out a possible danger to my family, my family knows it and is not casually laying around the house watching TV and Facebooking.
It is more likely the guy was outside shooting things for fun, came back in the house and left the gun on the table. It just sounds better to say he was trying to protect his family.
The argument you made with Rock Band you can make with ANY console game. In order to play any Wii game you need several peripherals, in order to play a 360 game you need to buy a controller... The need to buy the equipment up front is something that is given for some console games, hell even Duck Hunt needed the Nintendo Laser Gun (which, if you were like me and broke the one it came with, you needed to buy another one). Also World of Warcraft has only ONE extra cost at this point in the form of Realm Moves, with a second coming along the way in the form of changing you Race/Side. However both of these costs have no actual impact on in game play or cause a ripple effect, where if you are the one WITHOUT that thing then you're SOL.
I'm also skeptical that Bill Roper used these two games as examples for micro-transaction games in the US and avoids using the obvious example if Second Life. Second Life is a game that has micro-transactions truly integrated into it's game system and is well known to his target audience. Second Life as a good example of a free to play system where if you really want to get into the bones of the game than you need to shell out some cash.
Anyone every play the MUD 3-Kingdoms? For it's time it was a great game, had seperate Sci-Fi, Chaos, and Fantasy areas for variety. I used to play a Necromancer.
The Spike Channel is trying to capitalize on this with the show "Ultimate Gamer". I saw one episode and the show seems more like MTV's Real World than any real gaming competition. While that kind of show doesn't appeal to me, I think I can see what they are trying to do. How do you create a delivery system around a game that makes it interesting to watch? With sports you can go to the field or watch it on TV and in either circumstance you are watching something that is dynamic that engages your attention. However, with video games, all the action is on a screen whose images are usually suited for only viewing one side of what's going on (Blue Team only, or Red Team only). There are way to switch back and forth between the players, but that hardly is smooth. Also I don't know about you but watching my friends play Halo 3 is nowhere near as fun as watching a ball game.
I understand why NASA put a clause into the rules stating that it can do whatever it wants... There needs to be a way out in case some yahoos try to name the station something inappropriate, however there is nothing wrong with Colbert. It's one thing to put the literature into the rules to make sure that the name of the new module isn't "Enola Bay" and another thing to just change the name on a whim because a few people at NASA were hoping on "Serenity". Sounds a little petty to me.
I believe that the article is being alarmist, as there are many games that have sold more than 150,000 copies. Titles that sold more are Knights of the Old Republic, Sims, COD 4, most of the Final Fantasy games, Mario Kart, Smash Bros Brawl, etc. Halo 3 made $170,000,000 on the first day alone and WoW has sold millions of copies of Wrath of the Lich King.
I think that this article is typical of mass media's misunderstanding of the world of technology.
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I'm no statistician... but I can't help but think that the sample size of a whole 49 people might not exactly qualify as being statistically significant. Not to mention how biased those 49 people may or may not have been. I think we all know how bad online polling is in this fashion... You'r asking a subset of a subset of a subset of people who happen to visit that specific website and leave out whole populations of people. This is no better than the anecdotal answers that the OP got in the wireless stores. Finally, the headline "Lots of people want..." Really? Lots? 29 people? Come on.
I want to know what the father was really doing. While it is an acceptable explanation that he thought there was a prowler around, I find it hard to believe that after that kind of scare (Honey there's someone outside, go get the kids and stay in the living room! or Honey there someone outside, I'm going to get my gun and check) that the parents wouldn't be more attentive to the situation. If I need to pull a gun out to go check out a possible danger to my family, my family knows it and is not casually laying around the house watching TV and Facebooking. It is more likely the guy was outside shooting things for fun, came back in the house and left the gun on the table. It just sounds better to say he was trying to protect his family.
The argument you made with Rock Band you can make with ANY console game. In order to play any Wii game you need several peripherals, in order to play a 360 game you need to buy a controller... The need to buy the equipment up front is something that is given for some console games, hell even Duck Hunt needed the Nintendo Laser Gun (which, if you were like me and broke the one it came with, you needed to buy another one). Also World of Warcraft has only ONE extra cost at this point in the form of Realm Moves, with a second coming along the way in the form of changing you Race/Side. However both of these costs have no actual impact on in game play or cause a ripple effect, where if you are the one WITHOUT that thing then you're SOL. I'm also skeptical that Bill Roper used these two games as examples for micro-transaction games in the US and avoids using the obvious example if Second Life. Second Life is a game that has micro-transactions truly integrated into it's game system and is well known to his target audience. Second Life as a good example of a free to play system where if you really want to get into the bones of the game than you need to shell out some cash.
Anyone every play the MUD 3-Kingdoms? For it's time it was a great game, had seperate Sci-Fi, Chaos, and Fantasy areas for variety. I used to play a Necromancer.
The Spike Channel is trying to capitalize on this with the show "Ultimate Gamer". I saw one episode and the show seems more like MTV's Real World than any real gaming competition. While that kind of show doesn't appeal to me, I think I can see what they are trying to do. How do you create a delivery system around a game that makes it interesting to watch? With sports you can go to the field or watch it on TV and in either circumstance you are watching something that is dynamic that engages your attention. However, with video games, all the action is on a screen whose images are usually suited for only viewing one side of what's going on (Blue Team only, or Red Team only). There are way to switch back and forth between the players, but that hardly is smooth. Also I don't know about you but watching my friends play Halo 3 is nowhere near as fun as watching a ball game.
I understand why NASA put a clause into the rules stating that it can do whatever it wants... There needs to be a way out in case some yahoos try to name the station something inappropriate, however there is nothing wrong with Colbert. It's one thing to put the literature into the rules to make sure that the name of the new module isn't "Enola Bay" and another thing to just change the name on a whim because a few people at NASA were hoping on "Serenity". Sounds a little petty to me.
I believe that the article is being alarmist, as there are many games that have sold more than 150,000 copies. Titles that sold more are Knights of the Old Republic, Sims, COD 4, most of the Final Fantasy games, Mario Kart, Smash Bros Brawl, etc. Halo 3 made $170,000,000 on the first day alone and WoW has sold millions of copies of Wrath of the Lich King. I think that this article is typical of mass media's misunderstanding of the world of technology.
Dr. Manhattan can always hide the facility underneath his giant blue dong so the commies won't find it.
The laptops are actually going to be old cell phones with a pretty laptop-y cases around them...