I'm surprised nobody here is talking about the real feature of Steam that got me to accept it - even to change my buying style to buy games through steam first. That's the Steam Community.
I play TF2 on the same set of servers at fairly regular times. Over the months, I've become acquaintances with many of the skilled players who also play on the same servers. When they first started sending me friend invites, I was hesitant, but decided to try it.
It's turned out to be a blast. I can look at my friends list and see when a critical mass of skill is on the server, and know the game is really competitive. I know when my favorite medics or favorite healing targets are on, and know the game will be more teamwork oriented rather than just a bunch of randoms playing solo. Plus a lot of us have started talking via the steam im, discussing our gaming rigs, our tf2 keyboard layouts, etc.
The best part was when L4D came out. Most of my tf2 friends bought it, and we all started playing L4D together. It was a blast - the same people I enjoy playing TF2 with in an entirely different game, without having to do any elaborate planning. (Heck I don't even have email address for most of the people on my list, trying to coordinate that manually would be impossible). Being able to transition into an entirely new game with the same set of good people, rather than starting all over, weeding out the 5 year olds, the mic spammers, the racists, the homophobes... was so nice.
I've switched to buying almost all my games through steam. Steam Community has also turned into a nice form of viral advertising for indie games. I saw a friend of mine playing World of Goo. I im'd him, asking him if it was good. He raved about it, so I downloaded the demo free from Steam, played it, liked it, bought it. I started playing world of goo, and two other people IM'd me asking if it was good. One of them just played the demo but didn't like it, the other ended up buying the game too. And who knows if the cycle continued. So from one sale, you got 2 more via steam community reviews. That's incredibly effective word of mouth advertising... I don't normally go around asking people about games, or raving about games I play, but if I see someone playing a game I'm interested in, I'll drop them an IM to see if they like it too. The Steam Overlay which goes on top of all games - easily toggled off and on, makes it easy to carry on conversations while playing games.
Anyway that's my 0.02$. I'm not a huge fan of DRM, but Steam's made it worthwhile for me, and added a whole lot to my multiplayer gaming experience. Plus it's exposed me to a bunch of indie titles for cheap that I would've never tried otherwise - I got AudioSurf for 2$, World of Goo, the Penny Arcade Adventures, etc, all because they were being played by friends, and had good recommendations, and were easy and convenient to purchase.:)
I doubt it will impact the various virtual economies much, considering that you can go directly to several of the larger farming groups and buy gold direct.
For example, IGE.
If people still want to buy/sell virtual goods, there really isn't any way to prevent them.
Actually I ended up doing a bit of research on this very topic, since I decided that I really was not going to put up with Millenium Cable (the exclusive provider) for my Condo.
It is illegal to tell someone they cannot put up a dish under a certain size. However, it is legal for them to say that you cannot damage the exterior of the building by driving screws, nails, bolts etc into the side. So while you can own a dish, can wave it around proudly, you cannot affix it in any way that damages the building.
My solution was to buy a tripod for my DirectTv dish. The tripod sits on my concrete patio, and is not attached to the building in any way. It's surprisingly stable, withstood the 60+ mph winds we had a few weeks ago without any shifting.
Another way to affix your dish - if you live on a balcony level, is to put two pieces of wood on either side of your railing and then use that as a clamp, and from there affix your dish. I did not have a railing so this option was not available for me.
Then the cable runs in under the back door - again, no damage done to the building, they provide a very nice flat cable that slips under the doorjam.
I second what the above poster said, but with one addition.
Don't turn the pet into a "present". Don't wrap it up in a box or put a bow on it. A pet is a member of the family, and unless you're in the habit of putting babies in boxes under the tree, don't do it to your new pet cat/dog.
I urge you also to not give a pet for birthdays/christmas etc... but rather as a group family decision, involve the whole family in picking out the pet and visiting the animal shelter to find the right cat/dog/rabbit.
My mother and I picked out my cat from a free kittens basket, but only after I agreed to take care of my cat - from feeding to cleaning the litter box. I even read a book on the care of cats. I was 7, and I learned a lot from taking care of my beloved Laura.
My sister on the other hand, was given a dog by my Dad. She didn't pick the breed or even the dog - my dad did all that. In return, my sister ignored the dog and never walked her, fed, her, brushed her... it was just some trinket that had been dumped on her for her birthday, and she never cared about her.
My Dad, see, always wanted a Samoyed, and went to the breeders to buy her... never asked my sister what she wanted... but the whole thing was it was supposed to be "Joan's Dog" since we already had my cat, but in the end it was "Nobody's Dog that sometimes Dad plays rough with, and that Mom has clean up after".
And people wondered why our Dog was hyper and desparate for attention.
TV and ps3 are one time purchases. They can be saved up for, and once bought, they require no further fees to make them work.
Internet connection costs, where I live, 56$ a month for a cable modem through Comcast, or 35$ a month for a slow DSL through Verizon.
Either way, that's a fee that is a recurring cost - you cannot just pay for it all at once and be done with it - nor can you just buy one month of internet and buy all your updates then as both services lock you into a long contract.
Some people have budgets which fluxuate with the season - they do well in the summer months but in the winter times are lean. Or they are writers or contractors or susbitute teachers who get paid on specific jobs but never have guaranteed income.
"Our ideal," Kutaragi said, "is for consumers to think to themselves, 'OK, I'll work more hours and buy it.' We want people to feel that they want it, no matter what."
Even more insulting to me is I'm a salaried worker. If/when I work more hours, I don't get paid for more hours.
What about PDR3? You girls can drive poorly and not have to worry about causing damage to real cars!;)
I hate PGR. Style points? Mindlessly memorizing turns through a narrowly defined map? Screw it. I do love Midnight Club III, but that's not on the XBOX 360. I love racing my car up ramps over buildings through the mall and down onto the highway to gain a few seconds of racing time.... I love how Midnight Club III is fairly open ended so you CAN manipulate the map to gain time if you are smart enough to think of it and have good enough reflexes to pull it off. Plus MCIII is one of those rare games that lets you race a motorcycle.
My only lament is MC II had this wonderful bashing by the computer during the race... and they completely removed it from MC III. I miss it. I loved driving in Paris and having the frenchie insult my driving at ever turn... then racing through the Louvre smashing through glass to beat him to the finish line. Good times.
What more do you need? Does it have to come in pink with bows on it, and have Barbie Fassion games? Or perhaps games that are published by the Lifetime network?
I don't like pink. I don't watch Lifetime. I watch the History Channel, the Cartoon Network, and Discovery Channel. I don't play with Barbies.
I play GuildWars, DDR (all kinds), games with strong stories such as Thief III or Deus Ex or No One Lives Forever. I like co-op games like Gauntlet Dark Legacy or Baulder's Gate.
And yes, my spelling is terrible, but at least my spelling is consistant.
Kameo is neither a male, nor a female game. From what I can tell, the same can be said for the entire library of 360 games so far.
Oh really? TWO racing games and a sports game for launch titles but not a single story non-twitch game? Backwards compatability support which only seems to extend to sports titles and fps shooters?
I really think it is short sighted of Microsoft to not even try to aim for the female market. I used to be all rah rah rah about the XBOX... I loved the original XBOX launch titles, for example, I loved Voodoo Vince and Blinx the Time Cat (meow!) but those titles are just completely absent from the XBOX 360 lineup. And I don't see any coming down the pipeline any time soon.
I bought an XBOX the week they came out. I've not bought an XBOX 360 and I am not planning on it either, not until I see a game I want to play. And that's just sad, that I've got money I'm willing to burn on this console and they have this completely pigheaded attutude about adding diversity and interest to their launch lineup.
But please, bash me more for being 1) female 2) a games programmer and 3) speaking my mind. I like being reminded that I'm not barefoot, pregnant, or in the kitchen.
So female gamers won't like to play Project Gotham 3? Call of Duty 2? Kameo? Condemned? Ridge Racer 6?
Uh, I won't. My sisters don't. My mother doesn't.
I did like the Midnight Club series of racing games due to the trash talk and the whole free roam city aspect, but I despise Goth 3 and Ridge Racer type games... too confined.
Call of Duty? ICK. Where's the story?
Seriously, where are the story games in this lineup? Where are the fun games? Like Whiplash, with the cute fox and rabbit. Like Voodoo Vince with the cute voodoo doll. Like Ultramix which is always fun, or a Katamari Damacy, which is too much fun. Where's the games with the interesting stories like Thief III, or Final Fantasy?
Really. "It's crap, I can't play Ultramix!"
Yeah, I can't, so I won't buy one. At least I know the ps3 will have a final fantasy soon enough AND I can play DDR Max/Extreme on it.
But with the Xbox 360 you will have a problem that even if DDR is compatible, the console doesn't have any Xbox 1 controller ports, so you won't be able to use an Xbox dance may (unless a USB->Xbox converter would work). I'd guess stuff like Steel Battalion and light gun games are similarly screwed. Yay for Microsoft!
Most decent dance pads come with a USB adapter already these days - so you can use them with the PC and StepMania. At least all the Red Octane pads come with them and the Cobalt Flux has promised an USB controller soon (if not already).
Maybe she likes some of the songs in particular versions of DDR, and since they change each release, she won't be able to dance to those songs in the PS3 DDR release, but if she can just pop the old PS2 DDR Extreme in the new PS3, viola! (or the Ultramix 2 in the 360, same diff.)
Bingo.:) Each release of DDR has a different song set. There's always some duds, some re-releases of old favourites, and then some songs that are so much fun but they're only on that release. I own almost all the versions of DDR - both for xbox and ps2 (and even DDR Konami for the ps1), and I use them all regularly. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Gyrus Full Tilt, so I pop in Ultramix 2. Other times I'm in the mood for Sandstorm, so I pop in DDR Max. I also play In The Groove. It's the different songs that keep things interesting, and since I play five times a week for an hour for fitness reasons (I'm trying to loose weight), it's nice to not have things get repetative.
I'm just really annoyed at Microsoft because there's really no reason that DDR Ultramix shouldn't be able to play on the 360. It's not that hard of a game to do, it's even xbox live compatable already, and doesn't require much in terms of cpu or hard disk usage. Ultramix2 is my favourite compilation, so it's the one I keep loaded most of the time.... I won't buy a 360 until it plays it.
I own an xbox and a ps2. I don't have room for another console in my tv cabinet. (Let's see... stereo, dvd player, tivo, xbox, ps2, hdd receiver, and a small docking station for my ipod... the cabinet is full.) When I buy the ps3 it will directly replace the ps2. As in, I'll be giving the ps2 away and I know, based off of past performance of Sony, that I will have no regrets and can continue playing what few ps2 games I hold on to (besides and including DDR). When I buy - IF I buy the xbox 360 - it has to replace the xbox. There's no room in the cabinet for both and I like all the eletronics in one spot.)
By the way - a female protagonist does not a female game make. A sense of humor, a good storyline... that is what I am looking for. Sadly these games seem to be in short supply these days... I miss the likes of No One Lives Forever or Thief III. The only game I was looking forward to is Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and that one will play better on my pc.... so why XBOX it?
Actually there's another reason to use these sort of hooks.
Let's say you're making an instant messenger type of application, and you want it to show when the user has walked away from his computer. Now if you just use keystrokes in your application, that won't work cause most of the time an IM application isn't used. So you got to hook into the entire computer's keyboard and mouse motion handler, so you can see when neither the mouse nor the keyboard have been touched for five or so minutes and then you can put the little "away" icon up in the application's contact list.
Now you don't have to use the CBT hooks - you can use the system wide keyboard and mouse hooks instead - but it looks just as bad both ways according to anti-spyware programs.
Kari was there from the beginning, in Season 1 she has a non-speaking mostly non-camera role (you see her in the shop a few times doing work) - and then her butt was the one they used for the toilet seat vacuum myth - enlarged by a huge amount and made out of rubber. She's definately an original pre-show M5 employee.
Scotty was brought in for the show (and later left), Grant was brought in. I don't remember Tori's story.
Also I don't believe Adam was/is an M5 employee, but rather a friend of Jamie's, and Jamie owns M5.
If I remember correctly. I am a big fan and Adam is just the cutest thing... don't ever change Adam:)
Generally, avoid any game featuring a young black man wielding a shotgun on the cover
Bad advice. Ignoring the obvious biases against black men with guns, there are several good games out there that feature a cover with a black man with a gun.
For example, Suffering: The Ties that Bind is a great fps horror game, where you play a convicted murderer who is escaping from a tormented version of hell on earth, set in Baltimore. (One might add that Baltimore looks just like normal!:) But that would be flattering Baltimore just a bit...)
The Suffering: Ties that Bind features on the cover a black man with two guns.... because the main character is black, and he's shooting the hell-demons with guns. Big surprise there, the cover is depicting the actual contents of the game.
Basically what this fellow is saying is, if Torque - the main character of The Suffering - was white, or female, it would be a good game, or if he was wielding a sword it would be OK...but because Torque is black, and is fighting in modern day Baltimore using a gun... it's crap. Which isn't true.
Okay, first off, I'm a gamer girl. I own an XBOX, a PS2, an alienware laptop, and a Sega Saturn.
I am not a Mom.
MS - you want gamer girls? Fine. You can successfully market to Gamer Girls. But don't insult us by going for 'Gamer Moms'.
I don't know any "Gamer Moms!" And that just offends me, as a non-mom Gamer Girl, to be lumped in the same category as the Moms. You do know that some women choose not to have children? Or don't have them yet?
The women I know who are moms don't play video games anymore. It's the hormones, I think. They spend all day watching barney or little einstein, cleaning the house and changing the dipers, dealing with play-dates and doctors appointments and soccer practice. At the end of the day, they make dinner, do laundry, and finally collapse on the couch with their husbands just in time to catch a little tv - MAYBE - and something that is kid-safe, or that the kids won't understand, like Sex in the City. Not some violent frag-fest.
In fact, once my normal women friends become moms, they go all wierd. I swear, it's the hormones. Things that were perfectly fine before they became moms are now major no-nos. Like saying "screwed". Heck, it's not even a swear word! Like rolling up people in Katamari Damacy. That's not violent! But they go all ballistic about that. If it isn't totally pastel colored and round with no sharp edges and nobody gets even a tiny booboo, then it's threatening to their children and even to them if there's no kid around. It saddens me, but I end up loosing touch with friends when they become moms. They suddenly go on this crusade to save the world from all that isn't in their sugar coated version of "safe".... regardless of how it affects mature adults.
Take violent game laws for example, despite the M rating, the moms don't even want those games sold in stores! Talk about overreacting.
Anyway, MS, don't insult us gamer girls. Some of us are choosing not to have children, or some of us don't have children yet, those are the ones you want to go after. Not "gaming moms". I can see it now... Gaming Moms use Bounce detergent!
Eh, in my family, when you graduate from college, you get the most used car.
I got an 1986 mercury lynx in 1999.
My sister got a 1993 Ford Focus (with the basic engine, the thing was so slow) in 2002.
My other sister was supposed to get the decript minivan when she graduates next year, but she totaled it. I'm not sure what she'll get now, she'll get something, but it won't be a nice or a new something.
The thinking behind this is we need something to get us to our new jobs, and it's nice to start off your post-college life without a payment book. My poor mercury lynx lived two years of my hard driving abuse before it died, but by that time I had gotten a raise and could afford a new car. The idea is just to get a small push into life, not a silver spoon.
I miss my lynx, she was a good car. Plus, nobody would bother to break in to her....
Many programmers would work for free just for the pride of getting their names on a video game.
I've worked on muds which had "free" volunteer help... the quality of the work you get is abysmal. And, people burn out real fast when 4-8 hours per night is needed to maintain the schedule.
Once you are out of college, you need money to pay rent, get food, get your beater car to work, get new computer equipment (my 3 year old computer needs a new graphics card sooooo bad right now, pixel shaders make it choke)...
The sad fact is, people need money to survive. You can't expect someone to work 60+ hours a week for free, not if they aren't living in Mommy's basement and eating her food. Which, I'd really rather not do cause while I've done that in the past, it's downright humiliating. And, the smell of the cat's litterbox near the bed is such a wonderful odor....
My experiences working with "free" programmers:
1) It took a lot of oversight and managers and QA folk to deal with these guys. A small minority were very good, but they typically were being paid by some other company to work for them, so they left quickly. Which meant the majority of our programmers were people who did not program for a living. So their code was abysmal. They didn't check for error conditions, boundry conditions, loss of connection issues... spelling was abysmal. Grammer was abysmal. Getting them to adhere to our code specs and our general "look and feel" of the world was very difficult cause "that's not fun!". You can't fire free help, so you spend a lot of time explaining to them why they can't have a fuzzy toilet seat cover in the middle of Minas Tirith. And they complain. And they try to sneak it through anyway.
2) Those who eventually became better programmers because of us, or those who already were programmers who joined us - eventually get better paying - okay, PAYING jobs in a few months. The sad fact is our game required 4-8 hours per night of programming to make any decent progress into releasing new areas. Even at 4 hours a night, that's 32 hours a week. When an employer comes along and offers that person lots of money to work at a "normal" job that requires overtime, say 60 hour workweeks , they find they can't work on the two towers anymore and stay sane.
3) Burnout. Again, if you work 32 hours for free every week, eventually you suffer from burnout. At some point, your name in the "programmers" section just doesn't cut it anymore. Maybe your car broke down and you need to fix it and you're broke. Maybe you get a girlfriend and you want to spend time with her. Maybe you got a new game and you want to play that instead. Remember - these are free employees, so we can't demand nothing... which leads me to:
4) It is nearly impossible to do a scheduled release with free help, due to people leaving due to burnout or better pay, or just poor quality of the others.
Yes, you can find programmers to work on games for free. But trust me, it is so not worth it.
Firefox doesn't allow ActiveX which again limits it's utility.
Not really. I use firefox everywhere and there is only two sites I cannot use.
One is our local in house bug program called TestDirector. The other is Windows Update.
So I use IE to go to TestDirector or Windows Update, and Firefox for everything else, and never had an issue with ActiveX being needed. Every site I visit is either in Flash or in Jave or just in plain HTML, with the exception of those two, which I don't just meander to anyway, so it's not a hassle.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm surprised nobody here is talking about the real feature of Steam that got me to accept it - even to change my buying style to buy games through steam first. That's the Steam Community.
I play TF2 on the same set of servers at fairly regular times. Over the months, I've become acquaintances with many of the skilled players who also play on the same servers. When they first started sending me friend invites, I was hesitant, but decided to try it.
It's turned out to be a blast. I can look at my friends list and see when a critical mass of skill is on the server, and know the game is really competitive. I know when my favorite medics or favorite healing targets are on, and know the game will be more teamwork oriented rather than just a bunch of randoms playing solo. Plus a lot of us have started talking via the steam im, discussing our gaming rigs, our tf2 keyboard layouts, etc.
The best part was when L4D came out. Most of my tf2 friends bought it, and we all started playing L4D together. It was a blast - the same people I enjoy playing TF2 with in an entirely different game, without having to do any elaborate planning. (Heck I don't even have email address for most of the people on my list, trying to coordinate that manually would be impossible). Being able to transition into an entirely new game with the same set of good people, rather than starting all over, weeding out the 5 year olds, the mic spammers, the racists, the homophobes... was so nice.
I've switched to buying almost all my games through steam. Steam Community has also turned into a nice form of viral advertising for indie games. I saw a friend of mine playing World of Goo. I im'd him, asking him if it was good. He raved about it, so I downloaded the demo free from Steam, played it, liked it, bought it. I started playing world of goo, and two other people IM'd me asking if it was good. One of them just played the demo but didn't like it, the other ended up buying the game too. And who knows if the cycle continued. So from one sale, you got 2 more via steam community reviews. That's incredibly effective word of mouth advertising... I don't normally go around asking people about games, or raving about games I play, but if I see someone playing a game I'm interested in, I'll drop them an IM to see if they like it too. The Steam Overlay which goes on top of all games - easily toggled off and on, makes it easy to carry on conversations while playing games.
Anyway that's my 0.02$. I'm not a huge fan of DRM, but Steam's made it worthwhile for me, and added a whole lot to my multiplayer gaming experience. Plus it's exposed me to a bunch of indie titles for cheap that I would've never tried otherwise - I got AudioSurf for 2$, World of Goo, the Penny Arcade Adventures, etc, all because they were being played by friends, and had good recommendations, and were easy and convenient to purchase. :)
I doubt it will impact the various virtual economies much, considering that you can go directly to several of the larger farming groups and buy gold direct.
For example, IGE.
If people still want to buy/sell virtual goods, there really isn't any way to prevent them.
Still, I salute Ebay for trying.
Actually I ended up doing a bit of research on this very topic, since I decided that I really was not going to put up with Millenium Cable (the exclusive provider) for my Condo.
It is illegal to tell someone they cannot put up a dish under a certain size. However, it is legal for them to say that you cannot damage the exterior of the building by driving screws, nails, bolts etc into the side. So while you can own a dish, can wave it around proudly, you cannot affix it in any way that damages the building.
My solution was to buy a tripod for my DirectTv dish. The tripod sits on my concrete patio, and is not attached to the building in any way. It's surprisingly stable, withstood the 60+ mph winds we had a few weeks ago without any shifting.
Another way to affix your dish - if you live on a balcony level, is to put two pieces of wood on either side of your railing and then use that as a clamp, and from there affix your dish. I did not have a railing so this option was not available for me.
Then the cable runs in under the back door - again, no damage done to the building, they provide a very nice flat cable that slips under the doorjam.
I'd rather not Fork DRM.
girlfriend who got dragged there by the boyfriend
;)
Is it April Fools already?
Everyone knows gamer geeks don't have girl/boyfriends
MSN IM's advertising was so annoying, I switched to Trillian.
I actually prefer MSN's player sorting features and chat features, but I can't stand the advertising crud they insisted on showing.
So it's Trillian for me.
I second what the above poster said, but with one addition.
Don't turn the pet into a "present". Don't wrap it up in a box or put a bow on it. A pet is a member of the family, and unless you're in the habit of putting babies in boxes under the tree, don't do it to your new pet cat/dog.
I urge you also to not give a pet for birthdays/christmas etc... but rather as a group family decision, involve the whole family in picking out the pet and visiting the animal shelter to find the right cat/dog/rabbit.
My mother and I picked out my cat from a free kittens basket, but only after I agreed to take care of my cat - from feeding to cleaning the litter box. I even read a book on the care of cats. I was 7, and I learned a lot from taking care of my beloved Laura.
My sister on the other hand, was given a dog by my Dad. She didn't pick the breed or even the dog - my dad did all that. In return, my sister ignored the dog and never walked her, fed, her, brushed her... it was just some trinket that had been dumped on her for her birthday, and she never cared about her.
My Dad, see, always wanted a Samoyed, and went to the breeders to buy her... never asked my sister what she wanted... but the whole thing was it was supposed to be "Joan's Dog" since we already had my cat, but in the end it was "Nobody's Dog that sometimes Dad plays rough with, and that Mom has clean up after".
And people wondered why our Dog was hyper and desparate for attention.
TV and ps3 are one time purchases. They can be saved up for, and once bought, they require no further fees to make them work.
Internet connection costs, where I live, 56$ a month for a cable modem through Comcast, or 35$ a month for a slow DSL through Verizon.
Either way, that's a fee that is a recurring cost - you cannot just pay for it all at once and be done with it - nor can you just buy one month of internet and buy all your updates then as both services lock you into a long contract.
Some people have budgets which fluxuate with the season - they do well in the summer months but in the winter times are lean. Or they are writers or contractors or susbitute teachers who get paid on specific jobs but never have guaranteed income.
Even more insulting to me is I'm a salaried worker. If/when I work more hours, I don't get paid for more hours.
So I guess Kutaragi wants me to get a second job.
You don't need Fissure Armor. It has the same stats as the regular Droknars armor that anyone can get for a fraction of the cost.
The only people who get Fissure armor are those who want to spend the time to get it. The only reward is the looks. There is no stat advantage.
What about PDR3? You girls can drive poorly and not have to worry about causing damage to real cars! ;)
I hate PGR. Style points? Mindlessly memorizing turns through a narrowly defined map? Screw it. I do love Midnight Club III, but that's not on the XBOX 360. I love racing my car up ramps over buildings through the mall and down onto the highway to gain a few seconds of racing time.... I love how Midnight Club III is fairly open ended so you CAN manipulate the map to gain time if you are smart enough to think of it and have good enough reflexes to pull it off. Plus MCIII is one of those rare games that lets you race a motorcycle.
My only lament is MC II had this wonderful bashing by the computer during the race... and they completely removed it from MC III. I miss it. I loved driving in Paris and having the frenchie insult my driving at ever turn... then racing through the Louvre smashing through glass to beat him to the finish line. Good times.
What more do you need? Does it have to come in pink with bows on it, and have Barbie Fassion games? Or perhaps games that are published by the Lifetime network?
I don't like pink. I don't watch Lifetime. I watch the History Channel, the Cartoon Network, and Discovery Channel. I don't play with Barbies.
I play GuildWars, DDR (all kinds), games with strong stories such as Thief III or Deus Ex or No One Lives Forever. I like co-op games like Gauntlet Dark Legacy or Baulder's Gate.
And yes, my spelling is terrible, but at least my spelling is consistant.
Kameo is neither a male, nor a female game. From what I can tell, the same can be said for the entire library of 360 games so far.
Oh really? TWO racing games and a sports game for launch titles but not a single story non-twitch game? Backwards compatability support which only seems to extend to sports titles and fps shooters?
I really think it is short sighted of Microsoft to not even try to aim for the female market. I used to be all rah rah rah about the XBOX... I loved the original XBOX launch titles, for example, I loved Voodoo Vince and Blinx the Time Cat (meow!) but those titles are just completely absent from the XBOX 360 lineup. And I don't see any coming down the pipeline any time soon.
I bought an XBOX the week they came out. I've not bought an XBOX 360 and I am not planning on it either, not until I see a game I want to play. And that's just sad, that I've got money I'm willing to burn on this console and they have this completely pigheaded attutude about adding diversity and interest to their launch lineup.
But please, bash me more for being 1) female 2) a games programmer and 3) speaking my mind. I like being reminded that I'm not barefoot, pregnant, or in the kitchen.
Extreme 2 has the Polansian Dances song... it's quite nice. And there's always Speed Over Bethoveen, which is fun.
So female gamers won't like to play Project Gotham 3? Call of Duty 2? Kameo? Condemned? Ridge Racer 6?
Uh, I won't. My sisters don't. My mother doesn't.
I did like the Midnight Club series of racing games due to the trash talk and the whole free roam city aspect, but I despise Goth 3 and Ridge Racer type games... too confined.
Call of Duty? ICK. Where's the story?
Seriously, where are the story games in this lineup? Where are the fun games? Like Whiplash, with the cute fox and rabbit. Like Voodoo Vince with the cute voodoo doll. Like Ultramix which is always fun, or a Katamari Damacy, which is too much fun. Where's the games with the interesting stories like Thief III, or Final Fantasy?
Really. "It's crap, I can't play Ultramix!"
Yeah, I can't, so I won't buy one. At least I know the ps3 will have a final fantasy soon enough AND I can play DDR Max/Extreme on it.
But with the Xbox 360 you will have a problem that even if DDR is compatible, the console doesn't have any Xbox 1 controller ports, so you won't be able to use an Xbox dance may (unless a USB->Xbox converter would work). I'd guess stuff like Steel Battalion and light gun games are similarly screwed. Yay for Microsoft!
Most decent dance pads come with a USB adapter already these days - so you can use them with the PC and StepMania. At least all the Red Octane pads come with them and the Cobalt Flux has promised an USB controller soon (if not already).
Maybe she likes some of the songs in particular versions of DDR, and since they change each release, she won't be able to dance to those songs in the PS3 DDR release, but if she can just pop the old PS2 DDR Extreme in the new PS3, viola! (or the Ultramix 2 in the 360, same diff.)
:) Each release of DDR has a different song set. There's always some duds, some re-releases of old favourites, and then some songs that are so much fun but they're only on that release. I own almost all the versions of DDR - both for xbox and ps2 (and even DDR Konami for the ps1), and I use them all regularly. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Gyrus Full Tilt, so I pop in Ultramix 2. Other times I'm in the mood for Sandstorm, so I pop in DDR Max. I also play In The Groove. It's the different songs that keep things interesting, and since I play five times a week for an hour for fitness reasons (I'm trying to loose weight), it's nice to not have things get repetative.
Bingo.
I'm just really annoyed at Microsoft because there's really no reason that DDR Ultramix shouldn't be able to play on the 360. It's not that hard of a game to do, it's even xbox live compatable already, and doesn't require much in terms of cpu or hard disk usage. Ultramix2 is my favourite compilation, so it's the one I keep loaded most of the time.... I won't buy a 360 until it plays it.
I own an xbox and a ps2. I don't have room for another console in my tv cabinet. (Let's see... stereo, dvd player, tivo, xbox, ps2, hdd receiver, and a small docking station for my ipod... the cabinet is full.) When I buy the ps3 it will directly replace the ps2. As in, I'll be giving the ps2 away and I know, based off of past performance of Sony, that I will have no regrets and can continue playing what few ps2 games I hold on to (besides and including DDR). When I buy - IF I buy the xbox 360 - it has to replace the xbox. There's no room in the cabinet for both and I like all the eletronics in one spot.)
By the way - a female protagonist does not a female game make. A sense of humor, a good storyline... that is what I am looking for. Sadly these games seem to be in short supply these days... I miss the likes of No One Lives Forever or Thief III. The only game I was looking forward to is Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and that one will play better on my pc.... so why XBOX it?
Yawn. Wake me up when there is a single game a female gamer would like to play. Then MAYBE I'll consider buying one.
I'm still furious that it isn't even backwards compatable with Ultramix 2 or Ultramix 3 which just came out!
How hard is it to be backwards compatable with a simple dancing game?
At least when I buy the PS3 I can play all my DDR games on it the first day!
Actually there's another reason to use these sort of hooks.
Let's say you're making an instant messenger type of application, and you want it to show when the user has walked away from his computer. Now if you just use keystrokes in your application, that won't work cause most of the time an IM application isn't used. So you got to hook into the entire computer's keyboard and mouse motion handler, so you can see when neither the mouse nor the keyboard have been touched for five or so minutes and then you can put the little "away" icon up in the application's contact list.
Now you don't have to use the CBT hooks - you can use the system wide keyboard and mouse hooks instead - but it looks just as bad both ways according to anti-spyware programs.
Kari was there from the beginning, in Season 1 she has a non-speaking mostly non-camera role (you see her in the shop a few times doing work) - and then her butt was the one they used for the toilet seat vacuum myth - enlarged by a huge amount and made out of rubber. She's definately an original pre-show M5 employee.
:)
Scotty was brought in for the show (and later left), Grant was brought in. I don't remember Tori's story.
Also I don't believe Adam was/is an M5 employee, but rather a friend of Jamie's, and Jamie owns M5.
If I remember correctly. I am a big fan and Adam is just the cutest thing... don't ever change Adam
Generally, avoid any game featuring a young black man wielding a shotgun on the cover
:) But that would be flattering Baltimore just a bit...)
Bad advice. Ignoring the obvious biases against black men with guns, there are several good games out there that feature a cover with a black man with a gun.
For example, Suffering: The Ties that Bind is a great fps horror game, where you play a convicted murderer who is escaping from a tormented version of hell on earth, set in Baltimore. (One might add that Baltimore looks just like normal!
The Suffering: Ties that Bind features on the cover a black man with two guns.... because the main character is black, and he's shooting the hell-demons with guns. Big surprise there, the cover is depicting the actual contents of the game.
Basically what this fellow is saying is, if Torque - the main character of The Suffering - was white, or female, it would be a good game, or if he was wielding a sword it would be OK...but because Torque is black, and is fighting in modern day Baltimore using a gun... it's crap. Which isn't true.
NCSoft == GuildWars, Lineage, City of Heros, City of Villians.
Okay, first off, I'm a gamer girl. I own an XBOX, a PS2, an alienware laptop, and a Sega Saturn.
I am not a Mom.
MS - you want gamer girls? Fine. You can successfully market to Gamer Girls. But don't insult us by going for 'Gamer Moms'.
I don't know any "Gamer Moms!" And that just offends me, as a non-mom Gamer Girl, to be lumped in the same category as the Moms. You do know that some women choose not to have children? Or don't have them yet?
The women I know who are moms don't play video games anymore. It's the hormones, I think. They spend all day watching barney or little einstein, cleaning the house and changing the dipers, dealing with play-dates and doctors appointments and soccer practice. At the end of the day, they make dinner, do laundry, and finally collapse on the couch with their husbands just in time to catch a little tv - MAYBE - and something that is kid-safe, or that the kids won't understand, like Sex in the City. Not some violent frag-fest.
In fact, once my normal women friends become moms, they go all wierd. I swear, it's the hormones. Things that were perfectly fine before they became moms are now major no-nos. Like saying "screwed". Heck, it's not even a swear word! Like rolling up people in Katamari Damacy. That's not violent! But they go all ballistic about that. If it isn't totally pastel colored and round with no sharp edges and nobody gets even a tiny booboo, then it's threatening to their children and even to them if there's no kid around. It saddens me, but I end up loosing touch with friends when they become moms. They suddenly go on this crusade to save the world from all that isn't in their sugar coated version of "safe".... regardless of how it affects mature adults.
Take violent game laws for example, despite the M rating, the moms don't even want those games sold in stores! Talk about overreacting.
Anyway, MS, don't insult us gamer girls. Some of us are choosing not to have children, or some of us don't have children yet, those are the ones you want to go after. Not "gaming moms". I can see it now... Gaming Moms use Bounce detergent!
Eh, in my family, when you graduate from college, you get the most used car.
I got an 1986 mercury lynx in 1999.
My sister got a 1993 Ford Focus (with the basic engine, the thing was so slow) in 2002.
My other sister was supposed to get the decript minivan when she graduates next year, but she totaled it. I'm not sure what she'll get now, she'll get something, but it won't be a nice or a new something.
The thinking behind this is we need something to get us to our new jobs, and it's nice to start off your post-college life without a payment book. My poor mercury lynx lived two years of my hard driving abuse before it died, but by that time I had gotten a raise and could afford a new car. The idea is just to get a small push into life, not a silver spoon.
I miss my lynx, she was a good car. Plus, nobody would bother to break in to her....
Many programmers would work for free just for the pride of getting their names on a video game.
I've worked on muds which had "free" volunteer help... the quality of the work you get is abysmal. And, people burn out real fast when 4-8 hours per night is needed to maintain the schedule.
Once you are out of college, you need money to pay rent, get food, get your beater car to work, get new computer equipment (my 3 year old computer needs a new graphics card sooooo bad right now, pixel shaders make it choke)...
The sad fact is, people need money to survive. You can't expect someone to work 60+ hours a week for free, not if they aren't living in Mommy's basement and eating her food. Which, I'd really rather not do cause while I've done that in the past, it's downright humiliating. And, the smell of the cat's litterbox near the bed is such a wonderful odor....
My experiences working with "free" programmers:
1) It took a lot of oversight and managers and QA folk to deal with these guys. A small minority were very good, but they typically were being paid by some other company to work for them, so they left quickly. Which meant the majority of our programmers were people who did not program for a living. So their code was abysmal. They didn't check for error conditions, boundry conditions, loss of connection issues... spelling was abysmal. Grammer was abysmal. Getting them to adhere to our code specs and our general "look and feel" of the world was very difficult cause "that's not fun!". You can't fire free help, so you spend a lot of time explaining to them why they can't have a fuzzy toilet seat cover in the middle of Minas Tirith. And they complain. And they try to sneak it through anyway.
2) Those who eventually became better programmers because of us, or those who already were programmers who joined us - eventually get better paying - okay, PAYING jobs in a few months. The sad fact is our game required 4-8 hours per night of programming to make any decent progress into releasing new areas. Even at 4 hours a night, that's 32 hours a week. When an employer comes along and offers that person lots of money to work at a "normal" job that requires overtime, say 60 hour workweeks , they find they can't work on the two towers anymore and stay sane.
3) Burnout. Again, if you work 32 hours for free every week, eventually you suffer from burnout. At some point, your name in the "programmers" section just doesn't cut it anymore. Maybe your car broke down and you need to fix it and you're broke. Maybe you get a girlfriend and you want to spend time with her. Maybe you got a new game and you want to play that instead. Remember - these are free employees, so we can't demand nothing... which leads me to:
4) It is nearly impossible to do a scheduled release with free help, due to people leaving due to burnout or better pay, or just poor quality of the others.
Yes, you can find programmers to work on games for free. But trust me, it is so not worth it.
Firefox doesn't allow ActiveX which again limits it's utility.
Not really. I use firefox everywhere and there is only two sites I cannot use.
One is our local in house bug program called TestDirector. The other is Windows Update.
So I use IE to go to TestDirector or Windows Update, and Firefox for everything else, and never had an issue with ActiveX being needed. Every site I visit is either in Flash or in Jave or just in plain HTML, with the exception of those two, which I don't just meander to anyway, so it's not a hassle.