Still not a very compelling reason to buy. I understand that some games would be multi-disc, but I seriously doubt that swapping a DVD when you're at hour 29 of Final Fantasy XII is going to be a problem that causes you to want your competitors' console.
I disagree. As the art grows, how happy are you going to be with your X-Box 360 to have to switch between two disks depending on which track you are playing on Project Gothum Racing 4, or which part of the city you are in for GTA: Making Too Much Money. The only ways to fix this are to reuse textures tons (annoying), use low quality textures (I won't buy that, it looks ugly), or cut the model data (wow, TWO WHOLE CARS and THREE TRACKS. Amazing). This could be a decent problem for future games, ESPECIALLY with FMV. I assume FF XII will be PS3 only, but compare one or two BD-ROM discs to 10+ DVDs or whatever. Switching discs once or twice in a 30+ hour game isn't bad. Swapping 10 times in a 30+ hour game is. So is swapping once or twice in a 2 hour game.
Unless games start being streamed on-line (I don't think well see this for a few years), this will be a BIG plus for Sony.
Well, depending on Sony's pricing strategy they may end up selling at a loss again. If the console were to retail for $300 (at this point that's looking doubtful), that would be 1/3 of the cost of the console. That is a LARGE chunk. Now over time that drive would get dirt cheap, but that is still a lot of money.
Now it does add value (just like the DVD drive in the PS2) if you want a Blue Ray player. That said, I still think it's a good move for Sony in future-proofing. We are already seeing multi-disc DVD games, and with the kind of graphics that people will expect on the XBox 360 you will need lots of space for artwork and models. That means more and more multi-disc games. Having all that extra space will surely help as time goes by.
It's a gamble. I think it will pay off, but it is a surprisingly high cost for the drive. The Revolution and the XBox 360 are both sporting DVD drives from what we know right now.
The one thing that comes to mind most with this is: one more reason for Sony to hike the price up. I've been buying consoles at their release since the PS1. But even though I now have a job and it pays well enough, I'm not planning on buying a XBox 360 because it is WAY too expensive. I'll wait for the price drop, or to buy one used because someone didn't like theirs. I trust Sony and would like a PS3. I was planning to buy one. But if it costs more than $300, I'll wait on that too. The Revolution is the only one I don't know the price of, but I'd be willing to pay up to $300 (I expect them to launch at $250), and I intend to buy it.
Sony and MS are trying to price me out of the market (especially with games). And at this point, they have succeeded at delaying my purchase. If they're not careful, I'll learn I can live without it. If there is one thing I learned during this last generation, it was that I was right assessing the previous generation. N64 vs PS vs DC games? 30+ vs. 6. vs. 4. 'Cube v XBox vs PS2 games? 15+ vs 5 vs 8. DS vs PSP? 10 vs 4.
Nintendo systems always seem to have the most games that I want. Sony and MS aren't helping themselves with their prices.
If you like this kind of stuff, there is an excelent book called Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures that you can buy by an author named Carl Zimmer. I read it a few months ago, it was facinating.
As a side note, some of the log entries in Resident Evil 4 reference some of these kind of things.
I would considder Halo a launch title. I must say I'm suprised that Halo 2 has sold a copy for every 4 xboxes (I wouldn't think it would be so high), the real thing to note here is that Nintendogs managed this in a WEEK, where as Halo 2 has been our for a few months now.
I can't find any first week information for Halo 2. The only number I saw was 2.38 million for the first day, which would put it about 1 in 8 so it may be the same (unless that number was for somee other time period). It's entirely possible that factoid wasn't researched well enough, or it may have only been for portable games or even Japan. I can't remember where I saw it right now and don't have time to go look it up.
What I find more impressive is that in the first week, more than 1 in 7 DS owners bought a copy. 15% of everyone who owned a DS bought one in the first week in the US. My understanding is that no game has ever sold that well after a system has launched.
The game caused the DS to outsell all other hardware COMBINED in Japan for quite a while. I wonder if it will do that here too.
I've been thinking about this. The idea of buying UMD movies seems stupid to me as it does to nearly every slashdotter. So why do people buy them? I think we are all missing one key point.
Who are we? I'm 22, most of us are adults. We often have laptops, or portable DVD players to watch movies on. We buy our own things.
Who is buying the PSP movies? I think the answer is obvious: not us. So who is doing it? Moms! There are lots of kids out there with PSPs (despite Sony targeting it as the Adult handheld). Buying UMD movies makes some sense. You can get something that you kid will watch in the car on the way to/from school, sitting at the doctor's office, etc. It runs on something they already have so you don't have to buy (and they don't have to carry around) a portable DVD player. Most cars don't have DVD players. And most kids don't have laptops to play DVDs on. For a kid, it does make some sense.
I think this is where all the movie sales are going. I don't think I've ever seen an adult interested in them, but I've seen many kids at stores looking at those movies. I can see why they'd want it (I would have when I was 10 if I liked more movies they sold).
I'd like to see the sales broken down by age range of the person the movie was bought for. THAT would be the interesting information (although sales by territory as another commenter suggested would be interesting too).
Thanks for trying it. I figured that it would need tweeking, but to be honest I got a bit bored after spending tons of free time on it for a week so I'm on another project temporarily.
As for the keyboard, I completely understand. I whipped up the keyboard during testing (I tend to be a keyboard person). I asked my Mom to try it once or twice and that was always the first thing I'd have to tell her: the mouse doesn't work yet, you have to use the keyboard.
Sonic CD man. Not exactly 80s, but still. I still think that was the best Sonic game yet made. I used to watch the little intro movie that was on the disc (that was so amazing back then) all the time. I recently found it was on the Sonic collection for the 'cube (the video, I think you have to unlock the game) that my sister owns. I was amazed how much better it looked (they used a MUCH higher quality version). Brought back memories.
I loved the SNES/Genesis generation. Those graphics were good enough for me, and the games were great.
Makes sense to me for two reasons. First is that we all know how much money it takes to make a new Mario or Halo game. When you take a little game like the ones PopCap makes (my favorite place for such games) it's easy to see why that's true.
But the bigger reason is accessability. My mom has purchased a couple of these games. They are simple, not twitched based (the ones she buys, she's not good at that kind of stuff), and easy for her to find and buy online. She can play them for a quick few minutes, or spend more than an hour playing them. In every way they are more accessible than a big console game.
And these are basically the same kind of games a cell phone games which are also exploding (and what do you expect when many of them cost $5 A MONTH to play here in the US).
I've tried my hand at it, and I intend to do it again. I'd love to be the next person to make a little game that goes BIG to become the next Bejeweled or Snood. My little game is on my website, and you just need Java 5 to play it, if you're interested.
Whether you are right or wrong (I'm not a fan of VS either), you have to remember your place. All developers are not equal.
You were developing for Windows. You were a small peanut. You didn't matter. So you got customer service that was appropriate to your place. The fact is is you were Macromedia, Adobe, or EA or some other big publisher, my guess is you would get much better support.
But this is the XBox 360. So not only are they helpful to the big publishers (because consoles don't succeed without great games), but they will help small publishers too (at least at first). They NEED good games at the start of the console's life. It is in their best interest to give every developer every little bit of help they can (especially in Japan where the XBox had so much trouble).
This is all what I can deduce (I'm not a professional game programmer or anything, I'm still in school). But the point is they can't (and shouldn't) give the same respect to a little Windows developer (which has already succeeded wildly) that a big publisher/group like Team Ninja or some such would get on their new multi-billion dollar Console launch.
Dreamweaver could argue MS's bastard step-child Frontpage (which they don't even seem to promote anymore). But for the most part, there are no real competitors.
Photoshop? What is really up there with Photoshop? Next to nothing. Same with Illustrator. The closest things were Macromedia's products. The only ones that will have some competition left are Adobe's video products that Apple competes against (which exist, as I remember, because Adobe wouldn't port them so Apple made their own).
There is no competition. This should NEVER get legislative approval, but it will because it will make lots of money for the shareholders and there are programs in competition (even if none of them are in the same league, they exist so they can be listed (We will still have to compete against xxx, yyy, and zzz)).
I've got to weigh in on this. I switched to a Mac early this year. The Preview application is FANTASTIC. It does everything I need to view PDFs, it's FAST, and works great. I've loved it. Every time I had to use a PC since then with a PDF file, I've been unable to understand why Acrobat reader is so slow.
Then I installed Adobe CS 2 on my Mac. It came with... Acrobat!
Well, to be helpful, it nicely replaced Preview as the default way to view PDFs. That meant that if I was surfing and clicked on a link to a PDF, instead of it popping up almost instantly (like another HTML page) as it did before, the WHOLE COMPUTER SLOWED DOWN and Safari almost locked up for a few seconds as it opened. Then when it was open it was slow. VERY slow.
I quickly found out how to remove the program from Safari's plugins so that it wouldn't cause that again. Acrobat absolutely sucks performance.
But things get worse. I have to run Virtual PC on my Mac and occasionally have to open a PDF in it for various reasons. Now Virtual PC says my computer is the equivalent of 300 MHz. Launching Acrobat basically locks Virtual PC up for 2-3 minutes as it launches (I let it have 512MB of ram, so that's not the problem) and then trying to USE the program is like when I found a 386 running Windows 95. Sure it WORKED, but I didn't have that kind of time to spare.
I can understand why Photoshop takes so long to load (although I think it could delay the loading of all those plugins until I trued to use one). But Acrobat is a performance black-hole for some reason I can't figure out.
So, my response to your questions: This isn't a Windows thing. It's an Acrobat thing. Find a replacement for Acrobat. I love Preview, but there must be something better for Windows too.
I own both. I have played tons of Hot Shots Golf on my PSP, and I can't wait for Burnout Legends next month. But that's 2 games I expect to totally take my attention. I've played most others.
That said, I also have a DS. For the DS I've been addicted to Mr. Driller (doesn't use the touch screen well, but the extra vertical height does help), Yoshi's Touch and Go for a long time (tons of fun once you get the hang of it. Can get very tough), Kirby Curse Canvas (amazing use of the pen). I played Meteos for a while (just isn't the same without the pen), I'm playing Advanced Wars now (doesn't really need the touch functionality) and Nintendogs.
I can't wait to try that surgery game (can't remember the name right now), the new Castlevania (though the touch screen looks like a gimmick there), Animal Crossing (pen would help A LOT, the GC version had me addicted for months), and many more. Lost in blue looks quite interesting too.
The good DS games can be classified in two ways: Those that use the 2nd screen well (Castlevania for the map, Advanced Wars for the second front/status info, Mr. Driller for the extra height), and those that just wouldn't work the same without the pen (Yoshi, Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, etc.)
The PSP looks better. No question. But so far I've enjoyed my DS FAR more than my PSP. Right now, the DS is the clear winner in my mind.
To be fair, there are many things (Burnout: Legends, GTA: Liberty City Stories, and more) that I think will bring the PSP into being a force. But the fact is that it has been stalled for a few months. I have no doubt it will pick up TONS of steam, but it sure took it a long time to get out of 1st gear (not that the DS was a speed demon there either).
I liked the N64 controller, but it was a gimmick in some ways. It has a serious design flaw in that you could only use two "sticks" at once. This means that to use both the d-pad and the analog stick in a game was basically useless because the right hand had to use the buttons. While a turn based game could have used both, can you imagine if you had to use the d-pad in Mario 64 or a Zelda in the heat of battle? It just wasn't practice.
The N64 controller got a lot right (the ergonomics were great for example), but I would argue that the GC, PS2 (and dual shock), or X-Box controllers all had better setups with respect to the d-pad.
If the situation is as described and he is incompetent for his job (that's what the description sounds like, but it's a guess. Obviously a guy who maintians the mainframes doesn't need to know windows inside and out). If that really is a problem (slowing the department down/holding it back) then it may be time to talk to his boss about that to see what could be done (training, or replacement). Obviously having the other employees believing the same thing will help your case as it is much less likely to be precieved as "I don't like my boss, get me a new one." Other people who are his peers (directly under his boss) that could vouch for that would help too.
But, when you go do this if you do, make sure to be nice and positive about it all. Not "Bob is an idiot" but "I'm concerned that Bob may not have the needed skills for this job." That will go a long way.
I can't WAIT for Shenmue III. If you haven't played the first 2, you've missed great games. They give it a 60% chance of happening. But I saw a link from Penny-Arcade saying that they've had it ready for this generation, but they are holding it for the next gen consoles and may even release the thing as one big game with all 12 chapters (which would include the first and second games).
Other than that, it's been a while, so how 'bout a new Adventures of LoLo game.
I agree evolution isn't random chance. But the problem is that if you deny the existence of God, then what is there to explain variations appearing other than random chance? It is random chance that would cause the DNA to copy in a specific way (with a new sequence, without an old sequence, or with a different sequence). Once a variation appears, then it will either thrive or become extinct based on whether it's characteristics help it to be successful or not.
I understand the idea of human evolution, I believe in it. I have no problem with the teaching of human evolution. The problem is that there are those (and unfortunately they seem to be growing stronger) who don't like the idea of teaching that. The think everything must be able to be explained in secular scientific terms, reductionism in a way. It is THIS idea that I find dangerous and object to.
Teach evolutionary theory. Teach that humans evolved from apes. That's fine with me. We can prove evolution in experiments, and humans have been using it for thousands of years (unknowingly) in the breeding of plants and animals.
I'm really not qualified to express this it seems, I don't know how to write this more clearly, but I can tell that I'm probably not getting my point across well.
The last book I finished reading was Sen. Rick Santorum's "It Takes a Family" and it discusses this subject more than once. I'm sorry I'm not eloquent enough to express it well.
Yes, to a degree. The problem is that the media, in their infinite wisdom, have simplified the issue so that everyone can understand it as usual. On one side are the pure noble scientists who just want to help the world understand. On the other side are the religious nut cases who want to stop anything that isn't written in the Bible from being taught.
Ah. But unlike a Presidential election (where you must choose a new president), we DO have a 3rd choice: DVD.
Consumers can simply keep buying DVDs and ignore the new formats, thus sending a no-confidence vote. Now we have some time, because most people can't watch HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray discs because of their analog TVs. The picture looks exactly like that of a DVD (or maybe a Superbit DVD). So most people have no reason to buy one of those formats yet. This is the time to get the message out there about how crippled they are (remind people about the no fast-forwarding on DVDs as an example, no one likes that and EVERYONE has seen it).
One the formats start to get real sales from normal people, the battle will be lost (except through the courts, which will probably be a no starter thanks to congress's "Lifetime + 30,000 years" copyright policy).
For all the geek interest we have in the new formats, as a DVD replacement they are as significant as DVDs were in 1997/8: none.
I'll say that I support Bush and most things he's done. I agree with most of their science policies because they give true respect to human life. The one I DON'T agree with is Evolution.
I live in Kansas, so I've seen a lot about this. I am a Catholic. I support Evolution. I think it should be taught in schools. Basically everyone I've meet thinks the same thing. It is a few far-end nut cases that don't want evolution taught AT ALL. Most people do.
Here is how I would like things changed, and this is what most other religious people want (from what I can discern). The problem isn't evolution. It's "evolution". Kids should be taught the idea that a organism that is better able to survive will reproduce and overtake an organism that isn't. Over time this leads to species changing, branching, dying, being created, etc. This is perfectly fine. I see nothing wrong with that.
Now there are some (mostly on the far left) who get it taught like this: <everything above>, plus things started out as a few protines. Once they became alive through random chance, then millions of years of various random chances in the right order created everything we see. That is a LOT of random chance. Especially if you include all the random chance that landed us in this version of the multi-verse that has the right elements in the right ammounts in the right places to allow life to form. Another insanely unlikely random chance.
Once you go into that random chance stuff, I see you as entering into philosophy. Was it random chance, or was that random chance guided by something (the G-word... God).
There is nothing wrong with evolution, but when you try to expand that (as above) into guaranteed fact and teach that, I think that's a mistake. You can say some people believe everything came from evolution, some believe it was created by God, some by God directing evolution, and some by a combination of the above. But I don't think we should go teaching something we can't prove (that each one of those random chances was random and not influenced in any way) when we can't prove it. Leave it for the philosophy classes, the religious study, or even higher level biology classes in college. That part of the lecture isn't necessary for a 6th grader, it just undermines a parent's attempts at teaching a religion (if they are doing so).
Basically, it's the particular variety of evolution they are teaching (that has been taken into a philosophical realm) that's my problem, not the theory of evolution that I fully support.
I hope you can all understand my meaning, I have a feeling I haven't described it in a very eloquent way. Maybe if I had been an English major:).
I've scanned a few comments and see the usual stuff I expected. Bush is bad, we're exporitng too much, global warming, boo hoo.
I'm pro Bush, but let's ignore that. Whether you think Bush is killing science or not, I think the fact is there is a BIGGER problem. Bush will be gone in 3 years. You can choose someone else then.
But where are the kids who want to grow up to be astronauts? Used to be TONS of kids. How did you do that? You studied science. Wanted to be Einstein? Study physics. There were heros in science.
Name a famous scientist now (a current one). The only one I can think of really is Hawking. And most students I've seen don't know who he is unless you refer to him as "the wheelchair guy", and even then they don't know what he's done.
Where are all the famous scientists? Where is the acclaim for intelligence? TV and the Papers are full of anti-intellectual stuff. Who do we learn about? Brad and Jennifer and other celebrities. They don't have to be smart, in fact it seems better if they AREN'T ("Walmart, do they... like... make walls there?", and "...[Canada] is like a whole other country"). These are who kids look up to. That and athletes.
So while most people are worshiping at the Church of the Golden Calf Highschool (like that? Saw it in a book), "nerds" are ostracized. In this country getting high grades doesn't earn you respect, it earns you hate. You're not "that smart kid", you're "the kid who ruined the curve for the rest of us". Meanwhile a kid who happens to be able to kick a football gets people comming from all over the country to try to recruit them to a college (often with illegal bribes). But that is far more rare for the smart kid. Let's ignore the fact that not being able to post grades as well as "not hurting kids feelings" and grade inflation have made it TOUGH to compete on grades because everyone gets As and Bs.
TV is aimed at people with a 3rd grade education (don't know the real number, but it's down there), and even the best newspapers like the Wall Street Journal are targeted at someone with something like an 8th grade reading level.
You don't need to be able to read. You ain't needing to be able to be speaking properly. If you can play a sport, you can focus on that and have it made. Teachers may help you out, give you advantages, etc.
This country has a SERIOUS anti-intellectual current going on, and THAT is what is making things worse. If we can't reverse that, it doesn't matter how well we teach that 2% of kids interested in science; because if it's only 2% we won't go anywhere.
I'll reply to my own post with my thoughts on the Bush administration, so anyone wanting to argue about that can post under that reply.
That is absoultly not true. I've done it. ANYONE can do it. My brother did it too. Linux may not be there, but OS X is. It's just as stable and secure as Linux. But it has commercial applications. It many not have Money, but you can run GNUCash, or Quicken as I do. You can run Open Office, or just use MS Office as I do (I actually think the OS X version is better than the Windows version). You want a nice IM client? You could use any open source one, or there is iChat. It already has all those nice little do-dads. Graphics apps and format compatibility? Have you ever heard of Photoshop? I've got that on my Mac and it opens just about ANYTHING. I've got a DVD player (called... DVD Player). I can run Vi, EMACS, Nano, TextEdit, BBEdit, and many others. Want to run Visio? Omnigraffle is MUCH nicer.
I'm a techie also. I like messing around in Linux. But OS X provides the Unix environment that I love so much, with the commercial applications of Windows, stability, and much more. I am always finding little things on Windows boxes that just annoy me. Little things I DON'T have to do under OS X. Little things I never thought about untill I tried something better.
There are only two applications that I haven't found replacments for (not that I looked very hard). MS Project, and SQL Plus. Both run just fine in Virtual PC.
Not using Windows IS an option. It's an EASY option. Most large computer stores have an entire section devoted to it. It's called a MACINTOSH. This isn't a two horse race. There is a third and most people don't see it because it's far out in front.
One of the major points of the RFID in the chip is that when a chip is played in a slot machine or some such, they can check if there is a chip there and if it's valid. If it's not, the machine can automatically alert the casio at that moment that there is someone using fraudulent chips and arest the person. Same could be done on a table when the dealer collects chips. It's not neccessisarily about finding out who is doing what when and their patters (although they want that), it's about finding fraud faster.
There was a special about a month ago on Discover or one of those channels about this guy who made his own tokens for use in casinos and how he went about doing it, including having to figure out the right metal combinations, making the dies, getting giant press machines to form them, and everything. It was facinating. The way they finally caught him was the counts of tokens would come out high (they should have 100 $50 tokens at the end of the day, they'd have 120). Then from that they were able to go find him (eventually spotted him using them in a slot machine, and when the machine didn't like a token he put in, he just kept going where anyone else would complain LOUDLY about it).
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I disagree. As the art grows, how happy are you going to be with your X-Box 360 to have to switch between two disks depending on which track you are playing on Project Gothum Racing 4, or which part of the city you are in for GTA: Making Too Much Money. The only ways to fix this are to reuse textures tons (annoying), use low quality textures (I won't buy that, it looks ugly), or cut the model data (wow, TWO WHOLE CARS and THREE TRACKS. Amazing). This could be a decent problem for future games, ESPECIALLY with FMV. I assume FF XII will be PS3 only, but compare one or two BD-ROM discs to 10+ DVDs or whatever. Switching discs once or twice in a 30+ hour game isn't bad. Swapping 10 times in a 30+ hour game is. So is swapping once or twice in a 2 hour game.
Unless games start being streamed on-line (I don't think well see this for a few years), this will be a BIG plus for Sony.
Now it does add value (just like the DVD drive in the PS2) if you want a Blue Ray player. That said, I still think it's a good move for Sony in future-proofing. We are already seeing multi-disc DVD games, and with the kind of graphics that people will expect on the XBox 360 you will need lots of space for artwork and models. That means more and more multi-disc games. Having all that extra space will surely help as time goes by.
It's a gamble. I think it will pay off, but it is a surprisingly high cost for the drive. The Revolution and the XBox 360 are both sporting DVD drives from what we know right now.
The one thing that comes to mind most with this is: one more reason for Sony to hike the price up. I've been buying consoles at their release since the PS1. But even though I now have a job and it pays well enough, I'm not planning on buying a XBox 360 because it is WAY too expensive. I'll wait for the price drop, or to buy one used because someone didn't like theirs. I trust Sony and would like a PS3. I was planning to buy one. But if it costs more than $300, I'll wait on that too. The Revolution is the only one I don't know the price of, but I'd be willing to pay up to $300 (I expect them to launch at $250), and I intend to buy it.
Sony and MS are trying to price me out of the market (especially with games). And at this point, they have succeeded at delaying my purchase. If they're not careful, I'll learn I can live without it. If there is one thing I learned during this last generation, it was that I was right assessing the previous generation. N64 vs PS vs DC games? 30+ vs. 6. vs. 4. 'Cube v XBox vs PS2 games? 15+ vs 5 vs 8. DS vs PSP? 10 vs 4.
Nintendo systems always seem to have the most games that I want. Sony and MS aren't helping themselves with their prices.
As a side note, some of the log entries in Resident Evil 4 reference some of these kind of things.
I can't find any first week information for Halo 2. The only number I saw was 2.38 million for the first day, which would put it about 1 in 8 so it may be the same (unless that number was for somee other time period). It's entirely possible that factoid wasn't researched well enough, or it may have only been for portable games or even Japan. I can't remember where I saw it right now and don't have time to go look it up.
The game caused the DS to outsell all other hardware COMBINED in Japan for quite a while. I wonder if it will do that here too.
Who are we? I'm 22, most of us are adults. We often have laptops, or portable DVD players to watch movies on. We buy our own things.
Who is buying the PSP movies? I think the answer is obvious: not us. So who is doing it? Moms! There are lots of kids out there with PSPs (despite Sony targeting it as the Adult handheld). Buying UMD movies makes some sense. You can get something that you kid will watch in the car on the way to/from school, sitting at the doctor's office, etc. It runs on something they already have so you don't have to buy (and they don't have to carry around) a portable DVD player. Most cars don't have DVD players. And most kids don't have laptops to play DVDs on. For a kid, it does make some sense.
I think this is where all the movie sales are going. I don't think I've ever seen an adult interested in them, but I've seen many kids at stores looking at those movies. I can see why they'd want it (I would have when I was 10 if I liked more movies they sold).
I'd like to see the sales broken down by age range of the person the movie was bought for. THAT would be the interesting information (although sales by territory as another commenter suggested would be interesting too).
As for the keyboard, I completely understand. I whipped up the keyboard during testing (I tend to be a keyboard person). I asked my Mom to try it once or twice and that was always the first thing I'd have to tell her: the mouse doesn't work yet, you have to use the keyboard.
Thanks for the feedback though!
I loved the SNES/Genesis generation. Those graphics were good enough for me, and the games were great.
But the bigger reason is accessability. My mom has purchased a couple of these games. They are simple, not twitched based (the ones she buys, she's not good at that kind of stuff), and easy for her to find and buy online. She can play them for a quick few minutes, or spend more than an hour playing them. In every way they are more accessible than a big console game.
And these are basically the same kind of games a cell phone games which are also exploding (and what do you expect when many of them cost $5 A MONTH to play here in the US).
I've tried my hand at it, and I intend to do it again. I'd love to be the next person to make a little game that goes BIG to become the next Bejeweled or Snood. My little game is on my website, and you just need Java 5 to play it, if you're interested.
You were developing for Windows. You were a small peanut. You didn't matter. So you got customer service that was appropriate to your place. The fact is is you were Macromedia, Adobe, or EA or some other big publisher, my guess is you would get much better support.
But this is the XBox 360. So not only are they helpful to the big publishers (because consoles don't succeed without great games), but they will help small publishers too (at least at first). They NEED good games at the start of the console's life. It is in their best interest to give every developer every little bit of help they can (especially in Japan where the XBox had so much trouble).
This is all what I can deduce (I'm not a professional game programmer or anything, I'm still in school). But the point is they can't (and shouldn't) give the same respect to a little Windows developer (which has already succeeded wildly) that a big publisher/group like Team Ninja or some such would get on their new multi-billion dollar Console launch.
Dreamweaver could argue MS's bastard step-child Frontpage (which they don't even seem to promote anymore). But for the most part, there are no real competitors.
Photoshop? What is really up there with Photoshop? Next to nothing. Same with Illustrator. The closest things were Macromedia's products. The only ones that will have some competition left are Adobe's video products that Apple competes against (which exist, as I remember, because Adobe wouldn't port them so Apple made their own).
There is no competition. This should NEVER get legislative approval, but it will because it will make lots of money for the shareholders and there are programs in competition (even if none of them are in the same league, they exist so they can be listed (We will still have to compete against xxx, yyy, and zzz)).
Then I installed Adobe CS 2 on my Mac. It came with... Acrobat!
Well, to be helpful, it nicely replaced Preview as the default way to view PDFs. That meant that if I was surfing and clicked on a link to a PDF, instead of it popping up almost instantly (like another HTML page) as it did before, the WHOLE COMPUTER SLOWED DOWN and Safari almost locked up for a few seconds as it opened. Then when it was open it was slow. VERY slow.
I quickly found out how to remove the program from Safari's plugins so that it wouldn't cause that again. Acrobat absolutely sucks performance.
But things get worse. I have to run Virtual PC on my Mac and occasionally have to open a PDF in it for various reasons. Now Virtual PC says my computer is the equivalent of 300 MHz. Launching Acrobat basically locks Virtual PC up for 2-3 minutes as it launches (I let it have 512MB of ram, so that's not the problem) and then trying to USE the program is like when I found a 386 running Windows 95. Sure it WORKED, but I didn't have that kind of time to spare.
I can understand why Photoshop takes so long to load (although I think it could delay the loading of all those plugins until I trued to use one). But Acrobat is a performance black-hole for some reason I can't figure out.
So, my response to your questions: This isn't a Windows thing. It's an Acrobat thing. Find a replacement for Acrobat. I love Preview, but there must be something better for Windows too.
That said, I also have a DS. For the DS I've been addicted to Mr. Driller (doesn't use the touch screen well, but the extra vertical height does help), Yoshi's Touch and Go for a long time (tons of fun once you get the hang of it. Can get very tough), Kirby Curse Canvas (amazing use of the pen). I played Meteos for a while (just isn't the same without the pen), I'm playing Advanced Wars now (doesn't really need the touch functionality) and Nintendogs.
I can't wait to try that surgery game (can't remember the name right now), the new Castlevania (though the touch screen looks like a gimmick there), Animal Crossing (pen would help A LOT, the GC version had me addicted for months), and many more. Lost in blue looks quite interesting too.
The good DS games can be classified in two ways: Those that use the 2nd screen well (Castlevania for the map, Advanced Wars for the second front/status info, Mr. Driller for the extra height), and those that just wouldn't work the same without the pen (Yoshi, Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, etc.)
The PSP looks better. No question. But so far I've enjoyed my DS FAR more than my PSP. Right now, the DS is the clear winner in my mind.
To be fair, there are many things (Burnout: Legends, GTA: Liberty City Stories, and more) that I think will bring the PSP into being a force. But the fact is that it has been stalled for a few months. I have no doubt it will pick up TONS of steam, but it sure took it a long time to get out of 1st gear (not that the DS was a speed demon there either).
The N64 controller got a lot right (the ergonomics were great for example), but I would argue that the GC, PS2 (and dual shock), or X-Box controllers all had better setups with respect to the d-pad.
But, when you go do this if you do, make sure to be nice and positive about it all. Not "Bob is an idiot" but "I'm concerned that Bob may not have the needed skills for this job." That will go a long way.
Other than that, it's been a while, so how 'bout a new Adventures of LoLo game.
I understand the idea of human evolution, I believe in it. I have no problem with the teaching of human evolution. The problem is that there are those (and unfortunately they seem to be growing stronger) who don't like the idea of teaching that. The think everything must be able to be explained in secular scientific terms, reductionism in a way. It is THIS idea that I find dangerous and object to.
Teach evolutionary theory. Teach that humans evolved from apes. That's fine with me. We can prove evolution in experiments, and humans have been using it for thousands of years (unknowingly) in the breeding of plants and animals.
I'm really not qualified to express this it seems, I don't know how to write this more clearly, but I can tell that I'm probably not getting my point across well.
The last book I finished reading was Sen. Rick Santorum's "It Takes a Family" and it discusses this subject more than once. I'm sorry I'm not eloquent enough to express it well.
Yes, to a degree. The problem is that the media, in their infinite wisdom, have simplified the issue so that everyone can understand it as usual. On one side are the pure noble scientists who just want to help the world understand. On the other side are the religious nut cases who want to stop anything that isn't written in the Bible from being taught.
Consumers can simply keep buying DVDs and ignore the new formats, thus sending a no-confidence vote. Now we have some time, because most people can't watch HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray discs because of their analog TVs. The picture looks exactly like that of a DVD (or maybe a Superbit DVD). So most people have no reason to buy one of those formats yet. This is the time to get the message out there about how crippled they are (remind people about the no fast-forwarding on DVDs as an example, no one likes that and EVERYONE has seen it).
One the formats start to get real sales from normal people, the battle will be lost (except through the courts, which will probably be a no starter thanks to congress's "Lifetime + 30,000 years" copyright policy).
For all the geek interest we have in the new formats, as a DVD replacement they are as significant as DVDs were in 1997/8: none.
I'll say that I support Bush and most things he's done. I agree with most of their science policies because they give true respect to human life. The one I DON'T agree with is Evolution.
I live in Kansas, so I've seen a lot about this. I am a Catholic. I support Evolution. I think it should be taught in schools. Basically everyone I've meet thinks the same thing. It is a few far-end nut cases that don't want evolution taught AT ALL. Most people do.
Here is how I would like things changed, and this is what most other religious people want (from what I can discern). The problem isn't evolution. It's "evolution". Kids should be taught the idea that a organism that is better able to survive will reproduce and overtake an organism that isn't. Over time this leads to species changing, branching, dying, being created, etc. This is perfectly fine. I see nothing wrong with that.
Now there are some (mostly on the far left) who get it taught like this: <everything above>, plus things started out as a few protines. Once they became alive through random chance, then millions of years of various random chances in the right order created everything we see. That is a LOT of random chance. Especially if you include all the random chance that landed us in this version of the multi-verse that has the right elements in the right ammounts in the right places to allow life to form. Another insanely unlikely random chance.
Once you go into that random chance stuff, I see you as entering into philosophy. Was it random chance, or was that random chance guided by something (the G-word... God).
There is nothing wrong with evolution, but when you try to expand that (as above) into guaranteed fact and teach that, I think that's a mistake. You can say some people believe everything came from evolution, some believe it was created by God, some by God directing evolution, and some by a combination of the above. But I don't think we should go teaching something we can't prove (that each one of those random chances was random and not influenced in any way) when we can't prove it. Leave it for the philosophy classes, the religious study, or even higher level biology classes in college. That part of the lecture isn't necessary for a 6th grader, it just undermines a parent's attempts at teaching a religion (if they are doing so).
Basically, it's the particular variety of evolution they are teaching (that has been taken into a philosophical realm) that's my problem, not the theory of evolution that I fully support.
I hope you can all understand my meaning, I have a feeling I haven't described it in a very eloquent way. Maybe if I had been an English major :).
I'm pro Bush, but let's ignore that. Whether you think Bush is killing science or not, I think the fact is there is a BIGGER problem. Bush will be gone in 3 years. You can choose someone else then.
But where are the kids who want to grow up to be astronauts? Used to be TONS of kids. How did you do that? You studied science. Wanted to be Einstein? Study physics. There were heros in science.
Name a famous scientist now (a current one). The only one I can think of really is Hawking. And most students I've seen don't know who he is unless you refer to him as "the wheelchair guy", and even then they don't know what he's done.
Where are all the famous scientists? Where is the acclaim for intelligence? TV and the Papers are full of anti-intellectual stuff. Who do we learn about? Brad and Jennifer and other celebrities. They don't have to be smart, in fact it seems better if they AREN'T ("Walmart, do they... like... make walls there?", and "...[Canada] is like a whole other country"). These are who kids look up to. That and athletes.
So while most people are worshiping at the Church of the Golden Calf Highschool (like that? Saw it in a book), "nerds" are ostracized. In this country getting high grades doesn't earn you respect, it earns you hate. You're not "that smart kid", you're "the kid who ruined the curve for the rest of us". Meanwhile a kid who happens to be able to kick a football gets people comming from all over the country to try to recruit them to a college (often with illegal bribes). But that is far more rare for the smart kid. Let's ignore the fact that not being able to post grades as well as "not hurting kids feelings" and grade inflation have made it TOUGH to compete on grades because everyone gets As and Bs.
TV is aimed at people with a 3rd grade education (don't know the real number, but it's down there), and even the best newspapers like the Wall Street Journal are targeted at someone with something like an 8th grade reading level.
You don't need to be able to read. You ain't needing to be able to be speaking properly. If you can play a sport, you can focus on that and have it made. Teachers may help you out, give you advantages, etc.
This country has a SERIOUS anti-intellectual current going on, and THAT is what is making things worse. If we can't reverse that, it doesn't matter how well we teach that 2% of kids interested in science; because if it's only 2% we won't go anywhere.
I'll reply to my own post with my thoughts on the Bush administration, so anyone wanting to argue about that can post under that reply.
Pure crap.
That is absoultly not true. I've done it. ANYONE can do it. My brother did it too. Linux may not be there, but OS X is. It's just as stable and secure as Linux. But it has commercial applications. It many not have Money, but you can run GNUCash, or Quicken as I do. You can run Open Office, or just use MS Office as I do (I actually think the OS X version is better than the Windows version). You want a nice IM client? You could use any open source one, or there is iChat. It already has all those nice little do-dads. Graphics apps and format compatibility? Have you ever heard of Photoshop? I've got that on my Mac and it opens just about ANYTHING. I've got a DVD player (called... DVD Player). I can run Vi, EMACS, Nano, TextEdit, BBEdit, and many others. Want to run Visio? Omnigraffle is MUCH nicer.
I'm a techie also. I like messing around in Linux. But OS X provides the Unix environment that I love so much, with the commercial applications of Windows, stability, and much more. I am always finding little things on Windows boxes that just annoy me. Little things I DON'T have to do under OS X. Little things I never thought about untill I tried something better.
There are only two applications that I haven't found replacments for (not that I looked very hard). MS Project, and SQL Plus. Both run just fine in Virtual PC.
Not using Windows IS an option. It's an EASY option. Most large computer stores have an entire section devoted to it. It's called a MACINTOSH. This isn't a two horse race. There is a third and most people don't see it because it's far out in front.
One of the major points of the RFID in the chip is that when a chip is played in a slot machine or some such, they can check if there is a chip there and if it's valid. If it's not, the machine can automatically alert the casio at that moment that there is someone using fraudulent chips and arest the person. Same could be done on a table when the dealer collects chips. It's not neccessisarily about finding out who is doing what when and their patters (although they want that), it's about finding fraud faster.
Facinating to watch.
Who told me? The mold that lives in the back of the fridge in the second snack room on the 7th floor of the 4th building at their 2nd site.
Bwhahahahahahahaha.