Whatever happened to Dreamforge? Sanitarium was one of the most enjoyable adventures I have ever played. Ditto for Silver though it was technically an RPG, the linear storyline and point and click interface made it more like an uber adventure game IMHO.
Nintendo has in the past licensing their technology to 3rd parties like the Twin Famicom (made by sharp) the iQue or more recently the Panasonic Q. Why doesnt some smart phone manufacturer license the tech from the GBA and put that on a phone. I have to admit if I was looking for a phone with gaming capability I would surely take one with literally thousands of games in its library over one that has a chance of support for maybe a dozen games.
For most adults going to the Theatre stinks, the seats are too close, the 30 minutes of commercials are annoying and by the time you pay for one ticket, an 8 dollar tub of popcorn and a 5 dollar drink its cheaper to buy the dvd 6 months later.
When I was a kid I would go to the movies a couple times a month, now its a couple times a year. I actually have more free time to do so, but the negatives far outweigh the positives so I stay home.
Legal downloads are insane, most of them are more expensive than DVD's, have crappier resolution, and have so much drm they are basically useless. If streaming movies were available day and date with DVD or PPV releases at a cost similar to PPV it would probably go over much better.
I know Divx (Not the encoding but the format pushed by Circuit City) wasnt popular in the store, but something similar would be a pretty decent solution for downloads, a limited play but burnable download for $3-$4 sounds alot more attractive than driving to a rental place.
Whatever happened to Mark Cuban's experiment with day and date theatrical releases? It sounded like a good idea, I really dont think the theatre crowd will shrink much, the few times I go it seems its mostly teenagers there for the hang out so they will still show up. Movies that have to be experienced on the big screen will still draw crowds.
I suspect alot of the fear with day and date releases is that streaming or downloads will even the playing field, at the theatre you get anywhere from 1-20 choices where with an online service you could potentially have hundreds, suddenly art and independent films have the same marquee as the big studios which will only hurt the big studios.
Get a smart representative to look at the whole picture and tie this to the Private Copying Tariff, require that to remove fair use also requires removal of the tarriff. I would bet that the proposal would dissappear overnight. After all, the loss of real money seems to have more affect than the hopes of increased money based on mostly made up figures.
Though I have no doubt that they intend to keep the tariff even if fair use is gone, but legally and ethically I question how one could exist without the other.
Odd but I kindo of wish I worked in the parallel universe described in the article. In most of the jobs I have worked the IT staff spends the entire day recieving insults and abuse from the president down to the file clerks only donning our "I See Dumb People" after work when we go to drink beer and talk about whatever stupid thing some Luser did that led to their tirade against the IT worker.
Some of my favorites were the deparment director who would have one of us in her office at least twice a day because outlook wouldnt work, it was always the same problem she would have 15-16 instances open at once from just continually clicking from the time the desktop was visible,, but of course that was our fault, her computer just wasnt fast enough for her work habits. Or how about the presidents personal assistant who treated web surfing and spyware like some twisted game of pokemon "gotta catch em all" then whined to the president about how her computer never worked right. And finally, the receptionist who would open any attachment and would in fact call the IT staff to her desk if the latest joke email or urban myth making the rounds didnt open properly.
Over the course of my employment history I have been with only one company where the IT staff actually was respected..in fact they were revered. IT staff was friendly, and bent over backwards to keep everyone happy, mistakes were forgiven but instructions were given to prevent them from happening again, users felt free to ask questions and in turn the IT staff asked questions to determine what requirements were needed and what could be improved.
There have been great strides to reduce the average IT position to equal that of the mailroom clerk but its obvious as time goes on you need us more, not less. Respect has to be earned, but its a two way street, treat us like crap all day and yep after hours we're going to discuss how stupid you are. Treat us well and more likely we will be talking about how proud we were that you figured out such and such...
yes but the big difference there is that many people dont know radio exists outside of AM/FM/XM is and and crank weather radios are available much much cheaper. At the $99 price listed it seems more like your buying one for yourself and 4 for children in Rawanda.
Compare that one for instance, its smaller, far more portable, nicer looking and has more features...for $19. The laptop program though has a product I cant find...a crankable laptop fast enough for basic email and surfing with mesh capability at a price cheaper than an average pda. (even at the double price mentioned for "buyers".)
Several of the features of the Laptop initiative arent things that the average power user is going to want or need, but they are features that would be great for niche areas. One that comes to mind is journaling for camping and hiking, emergency services, etc. Im sure there are hundreds of others. I know I would have enjoyed having one when I had phone service but no power during an ice storm a few years back.
One idea I heard floating around was the to buy one for yourself, you would have to buy one towards the initiative. To me that sounds like a win win, they get more in contributions to the cause, people that want to play with one get the opportunity and production orders increase which usually drives down costs even more.
The sad thing is that Apple was the reason why everyone started adding i to everything...if I was Jobs I'd just call it the Ipod Phone Edition and tell Cisco to bite it.
For the vast majority standard DVD's are good enough. I dont know a single person who has gone out to buy either of the new formats. I have one friend with a ps3 and even he hasnt bothered to actually buy a blu-ray disk, he just doesnt care. I know one person who is planning to get one but he is the same idiot that talks about how all his muisc has to be obtained in shorten format and how all home media currently sucks. I think the believes he is impressing someone but most of us that know him just think he's an idiot.
One argument I hear is that more will adopt when the formats get cheaper, but even if players were $50 like cheap standard DVD's you still have to replace your library to take advantage of it. Maybe im in the minority but the difference isnt great enough to justify replacing a collection of around 700 movies.
With the consistently plumetting costs of storage I'm leaning towards the idea that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray both flop as movie standards in favor of video on demand and other downloadable content.
I dont think you get my point...I dont think that policing the internet is the job of any goverment and I am totally against censorship. But in today's internet its damn near impossible for parents to police the internet for their kids and thats where the policing needs to be done. The majority of the major adult sites out there seem to at least try to be fairly responsible about their content providing warning screens or whatever to make them easier to avoid the problem is that there are far too many that dont care and even seem based on their registered mispellings to cater towards reaching an audience that doesnt need the exposure. If you concider limiting a childs exposure to anal fisting and skat videos raising them in a padded world then imho the more padding the better.
I use the zoning analogy because it seems to work where I live, there are plenty of bookstores and clubs around but they are limited in how they advertise and in how they put their offerings on display. Sure some folks still dont like that they are there, but at least when I drive by Pricilla's (which happens to be right next door to one of the more popular pizza places) its got a rather generic storefront.
I would rather see a democratic way of making things easier for parents or people that just dont want to be exposed to it to have a way to avoid it if possible. So if a TLD isnt the answer than what is? A manditory rating system governed by a world body rather than a single country maybe? The argument I always here is that it would be too easy for a government to block all access to adult material, but countries have tried far more censorship and failed look at china for instance. If there is a will there is always a way. There just has to be some compromise on both sides, is that really too much to ask?
I dont know whats more sad the notion that creating a red light district for the internet could somehow be seen repressing sexuality or just the idea that for many pornography=sexuality. Most would object to an adult bookstore moving in next door to their house so why should the internet be any different. In real life we create zoning laws to keep that stuff where its both easily accessed by those that want it and easily avoided by those who dont, on the internet we can do that with a top level domain if its done properly. I fail to see what is bad about it. If your internet provider is planning to block content at the ISP level and you dont want them to...switch providers. Frankly the idea of not having to worry that mispelling a url is going to end up with something on the screen that neither I nor my kids need to see is appealing. I would imagine many parents as well as those whose sexuality has expanded beyond jerking off to the playboy channel would agree.
I download the occasional tv show, when I happen to be busy when the show I like is broadcast or I fail to tivo it. IMHO if the Execs would look at the big picture they would find that it probably increases revenue rather than lessens it. Take 24 for instance, its a show where you pretty much have to see every episode, if I miss one I download it. The alternative is to wait until the season is over and buy the box set, which I do anyway. When I miss a show or several episodes and cant find a torrent, I generally just stop watching until the box set is available so they loose my eyeballs the rest of the season. Usually somewhere in between the missed show and the dvd release I tend to loose interest and forget about it, so they loose even the dvd revenue. This is what happend with me and Lost, I watched all of the first season, missed almost a month of season two and the only torrents I could find were unbearably slow so I just stopped watching. I had every intention of getting it on DVD but found another show I liked that was on at the same time so I still havent bothered.
I dont have an IPod and dont care for itunes, but if I could buy a download at a reasonable price that was at a resolution viewable on my tv I would have no problem doing so. A few networks have at least figured out part of that, my son for example watches Ben10 on cartoon networks website for free regularly. Since its free he doesnt mind watching it on the computer, they flash banner ads so they get their ad revenue and everyone is happy.
For some reason the networks have a hard time accepting that times have changed the days of the whole family sitting down at 8pm to watch Ed Sullivan are long over, people are busier and have more diversions and distractions. Giving the viewing audience flexability is the future, the old ways will die, it might take a while and will be fought tooth and nail but its no less inevitable.
I'm glad its just not my parents. After playing mine, my mother has decided to buy one for my 59 year old father for christmas. I was shocked. I dont think the "revolution" is the console at all, the revolution is the new segment of gamers that it is attracting. According to sales charts there are approximately 300 million current generation consoles that have been sold. There is also research showing that approximately 53% of "gamers" are dormant-gamers meaning they have no current consoles but have purchased one in the past. Of course the reasons they are dormant could range from disenfranchisement and complexity of current consoles to health issues. Though we are a long way from declaring it a success Nintendo's market not including first time gamers is nearly 700 million people.
Concidering most talk of the Wii as if its just a glorified gamecube, isnt it rather odd that the company that was most vocal about offering minimal gamecube support now wants to be #2 behind Nintendo on the console.
So far I am overwhelmed by the support announced for the Wii, I would not be surprised at the is point to see square even meander back to its original home with more support. It may not win the consumer side of the console wars (I actually think it will) but its clearly won the hearts and minds of developers. Perhaps the original name "Revolution" should have been kept because its certainly introducted an expected spark of creativity and love for platform that most developers thought of as near death.
Pick up one of these http://us.kensington.com/html/6368.html it comes with the 9 most common tips including an Ipod one and if you have some wierd device it doesnt support they will send you the extra tip. It also includes air and car adaptors and comes with a nylon back to carry it all. Even with all the tips and adaptors its still smaller than most laptop power supplies. I just carry it with me when I travel and round robin it with all my gadgets for charging. It sure beats carrying 15 pounds of power adaptors.
Its a good point, but I cant underestimate the ability of Nintendo to pump out some really fun games and in the end thats what matters. Graphics are great and are important but im sure there are tricks we havent seen and frankly for many without HD a little better than Gamecube graphics is good enough.
My mother who is not a gamer at all...i mean she used to get mad at me for taking up the tv with my colecovision asked me if I had heard of it and was thinking of getting one for my 59 year old father. IMHO thats market penetration that has been previously impossible.
Look at what the original gameboy did and what the newer incarnations are still doing. Every time I step on a plane I see at least a handful of adults pulling out a gameboy during the flight. Its the access to everyone that can push the wii over the top. Whether it is the number one console is long time off from being known but if they play their cards the way they have so far it could very well end up being the best selling console ever from what I have seen.
Thats true and its an angle I didnt even think about. It worked for Harry Potter with Alfonso Cuarón he did a remarkable job concidering most thought that fantasy and scifi were out of his realm.
I cant speak for anyone else but I have a hard time believing that Gears managed to move that many consoles. I was out shopping quite a bit last week and saw lots of wii's being sold but didnt more than a handful of 360's though all the stores I shopped had plenty. Of course the way that Sony and Microsoft count sales is how many ship to retail (including the ones sitting on the shelves) where Nintendo actually counts units sold.
The MPAA and RIAA continue to fund "copyright" education programs for schools and have been attempting to stronghold "entertainment" taxes to universities across the country. Propaganda is Propaganda, and whether you agree with the message or not, An Inconvenient Truth fits that mold. You cant strongarm and threaten with one hand and expect people to want to shake the other.
Like it or not you do have to have fuel of some sort to be cool. Exxon and other companies have been funding science programs for decades, concidering school budgets these days they are probably one of the saving graces for science in lower education. Sadly Exxon also leads the pack in being the most hardline against the Kyoto Accord and initiatives into alternative energy sources. Its a Convenient Lie however to ommit the other members while focusing on Exxon. Other companies in the American Petroleum Institute such as BP however are strongly researching alternatives such as wind farms and have gone so far as to publicly admit that fossil fuels are a huge contributor to the problem.
If they really are commited to making a good video game movie, I cant see this as a bad thing. Being selective of the director and storyline can only be a good thing. I would love to see a serious sci-fi movie set in the Halo universe. I vote for Bruce Willis as Master Chief or pull a total Shamus and freak out everyone by making Master Chief turn out to be Uma Thurman.
I do hope they hold out for a good writer and good director. I know hulk was a disaster but I would love to see Ang Lee, he can make great action films given a decent screenplay. Or if they want to go truly serious sci-fi why not go with John Woo? If they are looking for a budget director how about David Frankel yea he is best known for Devil Wears Prada and Sex in the City but he did a fantastic job with Band of Brothers.
For many watching online is more of a shared experience. How many families really sit down and watch programs together and when they do, how many actually communicate during them. Many of the media sites offering video content have chatrooms, forums, and other collaborative places that are the online equivalent of talking around the water cooler. So yep gone are the days of dad yelling at Jr. to shut up because the fishing show is on, now dad can watch outdoor sportsman and talk to others that like the same thing.
I would imagine that if they looked they would find that Internet Users on a whole watch less TV. Why just sit there when you can do something interactive. I watch video's online but usually they are shoved up in the corner of the screen while im doing something else more productive. I dont really see this as a bad thing, the major US networks are already catching on and are offering much of their programming online.
Isn't this exactly what has to happen for the mythical media/computer convergence to happen that everyone has harped on for the past 15 years? Its survival of the fittest, adapt or die, all media companies have to come to that reality whether is music, movies television, radio, newspapers or even books.
If the potential is only 1000 copies at 50 bucks, why would any company bother? 50,000 will pay one low level programmer with no testers, no marketing, not even budget for changing the system requirements graphics on the box. Porting to Linux is nice, and for the companies that do it god bless them, but to expect it is a bit outside reality. Like most Linux projects it has to be a labor of love since it has no room for being a labor of profit.
The only way I really see any growth in the Linux games market is either an exponential growth in Linux users or companies adopting an open source partnership to allow games to be ported by volunteers.
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Whatever happened to Dreamforge? Sanitarium was one of the most enjoyable adventures I have ever played. Ditto for Silver though it was technically an RPG, the linear storyline and point and click interface made it more like an uber adventure game IMHO.
Nintendo has in the past licensing their technology to 3rd parties like the Twin Famicom (made by sharp) the iQue or more recently the Panasonic Q. Why doesnt some smart phone manufacturer license the tech from the GBA and put that on a phone. I have to admit if I was looking for a phone with gaming capability I would surely take one with literally thousands of games in its library over one that has a chance of support for maybe a dozen games.
For most adults going to the Theatre stinks, the seats are too close, the 30 minutes of commercials are annoying and by the time you pay for one ticket, an 8 dollar tub of popcorn and a 5 dollar drink its cheaper to buy the dvd 6 months later.
When I was a kid I would go to the movies a couple times a month, now its a couple times a year. I actually have more free time to do so, but the negatives far outweigh the positives so I stay home.
Legal downloads are insane, most of them are more expensive than DVD's, have crappier resolution, and have so much drm they are basically useless. If streaming movies were available day and date with DVD or PPV releases at a cost similar to PPV it would probably go over much better.
I know Divx (Not the encoding but the format pushed by Circuit City) wasnt popular in the store, but something similar would be a pretty decent solution for downloads, a limited play but burnable download for $3-$4 sounds alot more attractive than driving to a rental place.
Whatever happened to Mark Cuban's experiment with day and date theatrical releases? It sounded like a good idea, I really dont think the theatre crowd will shrink much, the few times I go it seems its mostly teenagers there for the hang out so they will still show up. Movies that have to be experienced on the big screen will still draw crowds.
I suspect alot of the fear with day and date releases is that streaming or downloads will even the playing field, at the theatre you get anywhere from 1-20 choices where with an online service you could potentially have hundreds, suddenly art and independent films have the same marquee as the big studios which will only hurt the big studios.
Get a smart representative to look at the whole picture and tie this to the Private Copying Tariff, require that to remove fair use also requires removal of the tarriff. I would bet that the proposal would dissappear overnight. After all, the loss of real money seems to have more affect than the hopes of increased money based on mostly made up figures.
Though I have no doubt that they intend to keep the tariff even if fair use is gone, but legally and ethically I question how one could exist without the other.
Odd but I kindo of wish I worked in the parallel universe described in the article. In most of the jobs I have worked the IT staff spends the entire day recieving insults and abuse from the president down to the file clerks only donning our "I See Dumb People" after work when we go to drink beer and talk about whatever stupid thing some Luser did that led to their tirade against the IT worker.
Some of my favorites were the deparment director who would have one of us in her office at least twice a day because outlook wouldnt work, it was always the same problem she would have 15-16 instances open at once from just continually clicking from the time the desktop was visible,, but of course that was our fault, her computer just wasnt fast enough for her work habits. Or how about the presidents personal assistant who treated web surfing and spyware like some twisted game of pokemon "gotta catch em all" then whined to the president about how her computer never worked right. And finally, the receptionist who would open any attachment and would in fact call the IT staff to her desk if the latest joke email or urban myth making the rounds didnt open properly.
Over the course of my employment history I have been with only one company where the IT staff actually was respected..in fact they were revered. IT staff was friendly, and bent over backwards to keep everyone happy, mistakes were forgiven but instructions were given to prevent them from happening again, users felt free to ask questions and in turn the IT staff asked questions to determine what requirements were needed and what could be improved.
There have been great strides to reduce the average IT position to equal that of the mailroom clerk but its obvious as time goes on you need us more, not less. Respect has to be earned, but its a two way street, treat us like crap all day and yep after hours we're going to discuss how stupid you are. Treat us well and more likely we will be talking about how proud we were that you figured out such and such...
yes but the big difference there is that many people dont know radio exists outside of AM/FM/XM is and and crank weather radios are available much much cheaper. At the $99 price listed it seems more like your buying one for yourself and 4 for children in Rawanda.
http://www.ambientweather.com/fialcrcrrawi.html
Compare that one for instance, its smaller, far more portable, nicer looking and has more features...for $19. The laptop program though has a product I cant find...a crankable laptop fast enough for basic email and surfing with mesh capability at a price cheaper than an average pda. (even at the double price mentioned for "buyers".)
Several of the features of the Laptop initiative arent things that the average power user is going to want or need, but they are features that would be great for niche areas. One that comes to mind is journaling for camping and hiking, emergency services, etc. Im sure there are hundreds of others. I know I would have enjoyed having one when I had phone service but no power during an ice storm a few years back.
One idea I heard floating around was the to buy one for yourself, you would have to buy one towards the initiative. To me that sounds like a win win, they get more in contributions to the cause, people that want to play with one get the opportunity and production orders increase which usually drives down costs even more.
http://www.comwave.net/CDN/iPhone/index.htm
The sad thing is that Apple was the reason why everyone started adding i to everything...if I was Jobs I'd just call it the Ipod Phone Edition and tell Cisco to bite it.
For the vast majority standard DVD's are good enough. I dont know a single person who has gone out to buy either of the new formats. I have one friend with a ps3 and even he hasnt bothered to actually buy a blu-ray disk, he just doesnt care. I know one person who is planning to get one but he is the same idiot that talks about how all his muisc has to be obtained in shorten format and how all home media currently sucks. I think the believes he is impressing someone but most of us that know him just think he's an idiot.
One argument I hear is that more will adopt when the formats get cheaper, but even if players were $50 like cheap standard DVD's you still have to replace your library to take advantage of it. Maybe im in the minority but the difference isnt great enough to justify replacing a collection of around 700 movies.
With the consistently plumetting costs of storage I'm leaning towards the idea that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray both flop as movie standards in favor of video on demand and other downloadable content.
I dont think you get my point...I dont think that policing the internet is the job of any goverment and I am totally against censorship. But in today's internet its damn near impossible for parents to police the internet for their kids and thats where the policing needs to be done. The majority of the major adult sites out there seem to at least try to be fairly responsible about their content providing warning screens or whatever to make them easier to avoid the problem is that there are far too many that dont care and even seem based on their registered mispellings to cater towards reaching an audience that doesnt need the exposure. If you concider limiting a childs exposure to anal fisting and skat videos raising them in a padded world then imho the more padding the better.
I use the zoning analogy because it seems to work where I live, there are plenty of bookstores and clubs around but they are limited in how they advertise and in how they put their offerings on display. Sure some folks still dont like that they are there, but at least when I drive by Pricilla's (which happens to be right next door to one of the more popular pizza places) its got a rather generic storefront.
I would rather see a democratic way of making things easier for parents or people that just dont want to be exposed to it to have a way to avoid it if possible. So if a TLD isnt the answer than what is? A manditory rating system governed by a world body rather than a single country maybe? The argument I always here is that it would be too easy for a government to block all access to adult material, but countries have tried far more censorship and failed look at china for instance. If there is a will there is always a way. There just has to be some compromise on both sides, is that really too much to ask?
I dont know whats more sad the notion that creating a red light district for the internet could somehow be seen repressing sexuality or just the idea that for many pornography=sexuality. Most would object to an adult bookstore moving in next door to their house so why should the internet be any different. In real life we create zoning laws to keep that stuff where its both easily accessed by those that want it and easily avoided by those who dont, on the internet we can do that with a top level domain if its done properly. I fail to see what is bad about it. If your internet provider is planning to block content at the ISP level and you dont want them to...switch providers. Frankly the idea of not having to worry that mispelling a url is going to end up with something on the screen that neither I nor my kids need to see is appealing. I would imagine many parents as well as those whose sexuality has expanded beyond jerking off to the playboy channel would agree.
I download the occasional tv show, when I happen to be busy when the show I like is broadcast or I fail to tivo it. IMHO if the Execs would look at the big picture they would find that it probably increases revenue rather than lessens it. Take 24 for instance, its a show where you pretty much have to see every episode, if I miss one I download it. The alternative is to wait until the season is over and buy the box set, which I do anyway. When I miss a show or several episodes and cant find a torrent, I generally just stop watching until the box set is available so they loose my eyeballs the rest of the season. Usually somewhere in between the missed show and the dvd release I tend to loose interest and forget about it, so they loose even the dvd revenue. This is what happend with me and Lost, I watched all of the first season, missed almost a month of season two and the only torrents I could find were unbearably slow so I just stopped watching. I had every intention of getting it on DVD but found another show I liked that was on at the same time so I still havent bothered.
I dont have an IPod and dont care for itunes, but if I could buy a download at a reasonable price that was at a resolution viewable on my tv I would have no problem doing so. A few networks have at least figured out part of that, my son for example watches Ben10 on cartoon networks website for free regularly. Since its free he doesnt mind watching it on the computer, they flash banner ads so they get their ad revenue and everyone is happy.
For some reason the networks have a hard time accepting that times have changed the days of the whole family sitting down at 8pm to watch Ed Sullivan are long over, people are busier and have more diversions and distractions. Giving the viewing audience flexability is the future, the old ways will die, it might take a while and will be fought tooth and nail but its no less inevitable.
I'm glad its just not my parents. After playing mine, my mother has decided to buy one for my 59 year old father for christmas. I was shocked. I dont think the "revolution" is the console at all, the revolution is the new segment of gamers that it is attracting. According to sales charts there are approximately 300 million current generation consoles that have been sold. There is also research showing that approximately 53% of "gamers" are dormant-gamers meaning they have no current consoles but have purchased one in the past. Of course the reasons they are dormant could range from disenfranchisement and complexity of current consoles to health issues. Though we are a long way from declaring it a success Nintendo's market not including first time gamers is nearly 700 million people.
Concidering most talk of the Wii as if its just a glorified gamecube, isnt it rather odd that the company that was most vocal about offering minimal gamecube support now wants to be #2 behind Nintendo on the console.
So far I am overwhelmed by the support announced for the Wii, I would not be surprised at the is point to see square even meander back to its original home with more support. It may not win the consumer side of the console wars (I actually think it will) but its clearly won the hearts and minds of developers. Perhaps the original name "Revolution" should have been kept because its certainly introducted an expected spark of creativity and love for platform that most developers thought of as near death.
Thats true, but thats the case with most every adaptor. They have a cheap solution for that too.. http://us.kensington.com/html/5519.html
Pick up one of these http://us.kensington.com/html/6368.html it comes with the 9 most common tips including an Ipod one and if you have some wierd device it doesnt support they will send you the extra tip. It also includes air and car adaptors and comes with a nylon back to carry it all. Even with all the tips and adaptors its still smaller than most laptop power supplies. I just carry it with me when I travel and round robin it with all my gadgets for charging. It sure beats carrying 15 pounds of power adaptors.
But your honor I was just trying to copy a cd I aleady own....
OBJECTION!!!
Its a good point, but I cant underestimate the ability of Nintendo to pump out some really fun games and in the end thats what matters. Graphics are great and are important but im sure there are tricks we havent seen and frankly for many without HD a little better than Gamecube graphics is good enough.
My mother who is not a gamer at all...i mean she used to get mad at me for taking up the tv with my colecovision asked me if I had heard of it and was thinking of getting one for my 59 year old father. IMHO thats market penetration that has been previously impossible.
Look at what the original gameboy did and what the newer incarnations are still doing. Every time I step on a plane I see at least a handful of adults pulling out a gameboy during the flight. Its the access to everyone that can push the wii over the top. Whether it is the number one console is long time off from being known but if they play their cards the way they have so far it could very well end up being the best selling console ever from what I have seen.
Thats true and its an angle I didnt even think about. It worked for Harry Potter with Alfonso Cuarón he did a remarkable job concidering most thought that fantasy and scifi were out of his realm.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?i d=150030
I cant speak for anyone else but I have a hard time believing that Gears managed to move that many consoles. I was out shopping quite a bit last week and saw lots of wii's being sold but didnt more than a handful of 360's though all the stores I shopped had plenty. Of course the way that Sony and Microsoft count sales is how many ship to retail (including the ones sitting on the shelves) where Nintendo actually counts units sold.
The MPAA and RIAA continue to fund "copyright" education programs for schools and have been attempting to stronghold "entertainment" taxes to universities across the country. Propaganda is Propaganda, and whether you agree with the message or not, An Inconvenient Truth fits that mold. You cant strongarm and threaten with one hand and expect people to want to shake the other.
Like it or not you do have to have fuel of some sort to be cool. Exxon and other companies have been funding science programs for decades, concidering school budgets these days they are probably one of the saving graces for science in lower education. Sadly Exxon also leads the pack in being the most hardline against the Kyoto Accord and initiatives into alternative energy sources. Its a Convenient Lie however to ommit the other members while focusing on Exxon. Other companies in the American Petroleum Institute such as BP however are strongly researching alternatives such as wind farms and have gone so far as to publicly admit that fossil fuels are a huge contributor to the problem.
If they really are commited to making a good video game movie, I cant see this as a bad thing. Being selective of the director and storyline can only be a good thing. I would love to see a serious sci-fi movie set in the Halo universe. I vote for Bruce Willis as Master Chief or pull a total Shamus and freak out everyone by making Master Chief turn out to be Uma Thurman.
I do hope they hold out for a good writer and good director. I know hulk was a disaster but I would love to see Ang Lee, he can make great action films given a decent screenplay. Or if they want to go truly serious sci-fi why not go with John Woo? If they are looking for a budget director how about David Frankel yea he is best known for Devil Wears Prada and Sex in the City but he did a fantastic job with Band of Brothers.
As long as Bay and Boll are kept far away...
For many watching online is more of a shared experience. How many families really sit down and watch programs together and when they do, how many actually communicate during them. Many of the media sites offering video content have chatrooms, forums, and other collaborative places that are the online equivalent of talking around the water cooler. So yep gone are the days of dad yelling at Jr. to shut up because the fishing show is on, now dad can watch outdoor sportsman and talk to others that like the same thing.
I would imagine that if they looked they would find that Internet Users on a whole watch less TV. Why just sit there when you can do something interactive. I watch video's online but usually they are shoved up in the corner of the screen while im doing something else more productive. I dont really see this as a bad thing, the major US networks are already catching on and are offering much of their programming online.
Isn't this exactly what has to happen for the mythical media/computer convergence to happen that everyone has harped on for the past 15 years? Its survival of the fittest, adapt or die, all media companies have to come to that reality whether is music, movies television, radio, newspapers or even books.
If the potential is only 1000 copies at 50 bucks, why would any company bother? 50,000 will pay one low level programmer with no testers, no marketing, not even budget for changing the system requirements graphics on the box. Porting to Linux is nice, and for the companies that do it god bless them, but to expect it is a bit outside reality. Like most Linux projects it has to be a labor of love since it has no room for being a labor of profit.
The only way I really see any growth in the Linux games market is either an exponential growth in Linux users or companies adopting an open source partnership to allow games to be ported by volunteers.