Our product has great value and it doesn't have competition in its niche. In fact it's quite the opposite as we make a full time living selling it. Still we have is a percentage of people that would rather steal it instead of paying us for something that they obviously think is useful to them.
Loosing a percentage of sales to piracy impacts our small business, where the overall sales in dollars are lower, much greater than your average movie studio.
As the owner of a small software development company, one that is currently having its products illegally copied and shared, piracy affects my bottom line.
It's not like these guys are just fighting some good fight against the evil behemoths with billions in market capital. They're stealing from little shops like ours that sell a good simple product for a low cost. When we loose a sale... that's $20 that would have gone towards me paying a bill or eating out one night. They're strengthening the companies that can afford the lawyers and the losses by weakening small businesses.
These people are just criminals... too cozy in their mom's basement to break into my house and slap the food out of my mouth.
Are the makers of porn dialers, trojans, email relays and viruses going to put a helpful icon on their software? No.
Of course not, but the makers of legitimately well behaved products will. You look at two food cans... one has a label with ingredients and such and the other one doesn't. Which one will you eat?
This to work would require one or more bodies like the ESRB to test products, assign the correct labeling, and go after abusers.
And they are effectively removing the aspect of XBox that made it cost effective and appealing to developers: easy porting to the PC through common components and CPU architecture.
Just because they may ditch the Intel chip doesn't mean it will be hard to port PC games. It will still have DirectX, it will still have a limited subset of the Win32 API, and i'm betting it will still be very PC like to program for with the CPU/GPU combo doing all the work. In contrast the PS2 has 5 processors you must balance to get the same performance: CPU, VU0, VU1, GS, and the DMA controller. It can be very alien for many PC programmers to grasp. Porting difficulty on the XB2 will still be trivial unless you have a large amount of assembly in your code.
SGI laughed at the unassuming threat of the video chipsets, thinking that they would never be as fast as brute force. Even Pixar thought the same [siliconinvestor.com]. Boy, were they wrong though.
The problem with this logic is that video cards render things in a fundamentally different way from CG ray traced images. Carmack even mentioned that video cards will only approximate ray-traced scenes. For example you'll never get good object self-reflection using current environment mapping techniques. So technically Pixar is right as long as video cards never ray trace.
Even though the author seems to dismiss this as "ok", most ppl don't like paying $50 for an online game and getting their A$$ kicked 99% of the time. M$ should have forced all game manufacturers to implement a ranking system so that a novice player is *never* pitted against an expert.
They have... you can select an opponent by rank thru OptiMatch.
"OptiMatch" seems like it might TRY to fix this, but it obviously isn't working
It actually works well.
...what's to keep an expert from selecting a novice skill level?
Please attempt to use your brain... duh.
You never select your own skill level. You select the desired skill level of your opponent ( lower, same, higher, etc. ). Since Live! keeps track of everyone's stats when playing online it can reasonably gauge a player's proficiency at a particular game in relation to another player. It uses this to match players together looking for similar gaming experiences.
So does this mean that in 2005 my new Geforce8MX will speed up my porn-browsing? Bring it on, Microsoft!
Look out... that MX may be a Geforce2 in disguise. =)
So what's the problem?
on
$1200 Cheap!
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
http://www.gamestop.com/default.asp?sect=1160
You've got options... just don't buy it. I mean give me a break... it's not like their forcing you to install XP or something! They give you a bundle with some games, an extra controler, a memory card, and the DVD addon... all things that most consumers would be buying anyways. It's their console.. they could bundle a Kia with it if they want... just don't buy it. Hell.. I'm impressed that they have a bundle with *14* games avalible on release day in the first place. I am gonna buy one, i'll just wait till i find a bundle i like or just not get one. Tom
Isn't the bigger problem a power issue? A tethered robot would have a hard time keeping balance much less be able to run. With current battery technology and assuming a reasonable running time between charges i believe that the dino's weight would be too great for it to lift itself off the ground. Not to mention what seems to be a lack of battery space.
And since bad games are always cheaper to make than good ones...
That assumes that game developers *want* to make cheap games. If this was the case we would see few games delayed for months or years. Most game developers want to make perfect games... which is not cheap at all. Tom
Slashdot Mirror
You should focus on your reading comprehension.
Our product has great value and it doesn't have competition in its niche. In fact it's quite the opposite as we make a full time living selling it. Still we have is a percentage of people that would rather steal it instead of paying us for something that they obviously think is useful to them.
Loosing a percentage of sales to piracy impacts our small business, where the overall sales in dollars are lower, much greater than your average movie studio.
As the owner of a small software development company, one that is currently having its products illegally copied and shared, piracy affects my bottom line.
It's not like these guys are just fighting some good fight against the evil behemoths with billions in market capital. They're stealing from little shops like ours that sell a good simple product for a low cost. When we loose a sale... that's $20 that would have gone towards me paying a bill or eating out one night. They're strengthening the companies that can afford the lawyers and the losses by weakening small businesses.
These people are just criminals... too cozy in their mom's basement to break into my house and slap the food out of my mouth.
So when does SNL get their cease and desist?
I don't know... UbiSoft seems to think it's a hostile takeover attempt.
"Pending further information, we consider this operation as hostle," an Ubi Soft spokesman told Reuters.
Southpark is on cable and at this point in time they cannot effect change on a cable show.
Actually i bet it's Ritual.
Are the makers of porn dialers, trojans, email relays and viruses going to put a helpful icon on their software? No.
Of course not, but the makers of legitimately well behaved products will. You look at two food cans... one has a label with ingredients and such and the other one doesn't. Which one will you eat?
This to work would require one or more bodies like the ESRB to test products, assign the correct labeling, and go after abusers.
And they are effectively removing the aspect of XBox that made it cost effective and appealing to developers: easy porting to the PC through common components and CPU architecture.
Just because they may ditch the Intel chip doesn't mean it will be hard to port PC games. It will still have DirectX, it will still have a limited subset of the Win32 API, and i'm betting it will still be very PC like to program for with the CPU/GPU combo doing all the work. In contrast the PS2 has 5 processors you must balance to get the same performance: CPU, VU0, VU1, GS, and the DMA controller. It can be very alien for many PC programmers to grasp. Porting difficulty on the XB2 will still be trivial unless you have a large amount of assembly in your code.
The software has already been tested with air traffic controllers.
Clippy: It looks like your trying to land a plane...
And in related news: Plane with two crew members crashes off Cape Cod
SGI laughed at the unassuming threat of the video chipsets, thinking that they would never be as fast as brute force. Even Pixar thought the same [siliconinvestor.com]. Boy, were they wrong though.
The problem with this logic is that video cards render things in a fundamentally different way from CG ray traced images. Carmack even mentioned that video cards will only approximate ray-traced scenes. For example you'll never get good object self-reflection using current environment mapping techniques. So technically Pixar is right as long as video cards never ray trace.
Here is the home page for it. Keep it bookmarked!
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/iRetro Studies is working on a Prequel to Metroid Prime
That's such a fitting name for a studio working on a Nintendo game... but actually it's Retro Studios. =)
What will stop Microsoft from buying all or investing in the game companies to kill competition?
What stops Sony from doing the same?
i know they are desperate and only a year ago their was a total of 7 games for the xbox and that was it.
There were 14 games available on launch day and many more now.
are actually paying developers not to release games for the competition.
Right... no one else does that.
Sega is gone and Nintendo might be next.
Exactly where has Sega gone? They still do what they have been best at... games. Nintendo is a very wealthy company.. they are not going anywhere.
What really sucks is the drm signed code that is required to run a game. This makes ms the gatekeeper.
Sony and Nintendo also limit who makes games for their platform.
If they were smart they would make it free for anyone to write games for it and then use the signed code feature on the xbox-2.
You sir and the people that have moderated this up are geniuses.
Company who's product can optionally be freely downloaded runs out of money. Analysts and \. viewers in shock.
Even though the author seems to dismiss this as "ok", most ppl don't like paying $50 for an online game and getting their A$$ kicked 99% of the time. M$ should have forced all game manufacturers to implement a ranking system so that a novice player is *never* pitted against an expert.
...what's to keep an expert from selecting a novice skill level?
They have... you can select an opponent by rank thru OptiMatch.
"OptiMatch" seems like it might TRY to fix this, but it obviously isn't working
It actually works well.
Please attempt to use your brain... duh.
You never select your own skill level. You select the desired skill level of your opponent ( lower, same, higher, etc. ). Since Live! keeps track of everyone's stats when playing online it can reasonably gauge a player's proficiency at a particular game in relation to another player. It uses this to match players together looking for similar gaming experiences.
I was fortunate enough to have a chat with Dave at GDC 2001 and he seemed to not like first person shooters at all. I wonder what changed his mind. =)
So does this mean that in 2005 my new Geforce8MX will speed up my porn-browsing? Bring it on, Microsoft!
Look out... that MX may be a Geforce2 in disguise. =)
http://www.gamestop.com/default.asp?sect=1160
You've got options... just don't buy it. I mean give me a break... it's not like their forcing you to install XP or something! They give you a bundle with some games, an extra controler, a memory card, and the DVD addon... all things that most consumers would be buying anyways. It's their console.. they could bundle a Kia with it if they want... just don't buy it. Hell.. I'm impressed that they have a bundle with *14* games avalible on release day in the first place. I am gonna buy one, i'll just wait till i find a bundle i like or just not get one. Tom
Scoring with the Mrs. Guru: jonny: 1, Bill Gates: 0.
How can you take anyone who's only scored with his wife once seriously?
Isn't the bigger problem a power issue? A tethered robot would have a hard time keeping balance much less be able to run. With current battery technology and assuming a reasonable running time between charges i believe that the dino's weight would be too great for it to lift itself off the ground. Not to mention what seems to be a lack of battery space.
sigs are for k1dz
Check his website at www.rocketguy.com.
And since bad games are always cheaper to make than good ones...
That assumes that game developers *want* to make cheap games. If this was the case we would see few games delayed for months or years. Most game developers want to make perfect games... which is not cheap at all. Tom
Warning: X Box does NOT run X Yet. ;-)
The current rumor is that the case was designed to damage the pc board if it's atempted to be opened. Tom