Cannot say I have heard of Bueller. I dont see myself as in competition of any sort with my co-workers, but that could just be myself.
The choice between Union and Not Union to me seems false, or at least flawed. I always like to go for Plan C. I think that Plan C is for game companies to become less dependent on publishers.
Most game developers are started up by game programmers. I dont think that any one of them harbor dreams of becoming EA type programmer meat farms that pump out assembly line games that guarantee a profit.
A Union can negotiate with your boss. It cannot negotate with the guy who hires your bosses company to do something.
Now, if there were a way to keep the abusive publishers from handing out crappy deals that create the situations that require the death marches, then the problem would be largly solved, I think.
And for what it is worth, Yes. I am a game programmer, so I have at the least, an informed opinion.
I am fortunate enough to work at a company that is exactly what EA is not. So I dont feel particularly persecuted or exploited at the moment. Hell, I can post to slashdot while at work, it appears.
There is something about Unions that are repulsive on some level to myself and the programmers I know. Mostly due to the negative connotations they have aquired.
First, myself and my coworkers basically agree one one element though. A crunch is acceptible when needed. A death march is not. The goal then, is to prevent a death march.
Second, the amount of hours that are needed for a project is directly dependant on how much time a project is given and how much money is offered for it. Both those variables are controlled by the publisher. The dev studios must work with what they can get in that regard.
A death march happens when either the time frame for a project cannot be met using sane hours from the available programmers. The way to avoid a death march is to ensure that there are enough programmers on a project to complete in in the allotted time frame.
Having a union for game programers at one developer studio means that a publisher will simply not give that studio any projects. To my thinking, there is just too much of a disconnect between the part of the industry that gets the lions share of the money and the part of the industry that creates the products.
EA did not turn into a shit hole to work at until after they started to focus hard on the bottom line. Being a publisher AND develper, they should know better. But I bet that the guys in Decision Making positions do nothing more then dictate how a game will be made. They do not have to actually work under the conditions they mandate.
My previous job, when we were in a crunch, I do not recall the decision makers actually being at the office. The lead programmers were the highest meatbags on the food chain, and they were just as slammed as anyone. But at my current job, I can honestly say that my boss puts in harder hours then anyone else, for the most part. The resulting difference in crunch policy is obvious to one who has seen both methods.
The I think that the real solution is to make sure that the people who dictate schedules are also working under those schedules. But I dont know how to make that happen. All a union does is add another layer of people who do not work under the conditions they create (though I concede that the union types are closer to those conditions then management types).
Microsoft turned their back on nVidia because nVidia would not deal on Microsofts terms.
What makes nVidia so certain that Sony being easier to deal with then Microsoft?
And what makes Sony feel good about keeping the PS3 manufacuring costs down when Microsoft could not get a deal with Nvidia which would let the X-Box be cheaper to manufacture?
I suspect that over the long term, rather then having 1 megastar for every 1000 aspiring artists, you will have many different niche artists of middling fame, known to their fans though not beyond.
Those that are currently struggling anyway really have nothing to lose from filesharing, and plenty to gain.
But the mega star types will have an eroded fan base as the fans find music more directly in line with their personal tastes. And artists who peaked early will not be able to coast on their old glories for nearly as long. Songs that would have made them hit big will not sustain them as long as people will just buy one copy when they hear it the first time, and probably just grab copies after that. Or just rip their original to new mediums as the medium changes.
END COMMUNICATION
Who cares if the monsters are from Hell
on
Doom Movie Update
·
· Score: 1
I for one, do not think it matters if the mosnters in the movie are from Hell or just virus mutants. It does not even matter if the movie happens on Mars or on some other planet.
Doom does have a decent storyline, but it really is not all that integral to the feel and themse of the game. As long as its about some hard ass marine armed beyond any sense of sanity, blasting lots of monsters into puddles of goop, it shall be worthy of the name Doom.
>> You don't need representation for what essentially is a custom, yet standardized PC in a box.
hehe. You my friend, have obviously never developed software for the PS2.
I have.
Let me assure you that it has no internal resemblance to the inner workings of a Win32 PC. Within this current generation of consoles. And the consoles are all very different from one another internally.
Though in terms of raw power, they are close enough to make porting from one to the other a reasonable enough idea.
END COMMUNICATION
Almost makes me wish I had a Fark Membership
on
HIV Vaccine
·
· Score: 1
I can see the fark headline now.
HIV Vaccine reduced viral load by 90%. Still no cure for Cancer, but this is also nice.
Heh. Thats why I added the bit about someone having to actually compell you to reveal the info.
In the books I refered to, the rule was that if no one accuses you of doing something wrong, then no crime was committed. That kind of thing allows the typical marginal speeding that everyone seems to indulge in.
The fact that you feel entitled to speed when you beleive that it will do no harm is a separate issue, in my opinion.
END COMMUNICATION
Personal black boxes arent automatically bad.
on
Spies Riding Shotgun
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
In a fiction series I read recently (Hominids / Humans / Hybreds by Robert J. Sawyer), in the Neanderthal world, everyone had an implanted companiion that recorded everything their host did, and uploaded it to an Alibi Archive. Essentially, everyone had a personal blackbox that they could look through later, or that could be used against them in criminal proceedings.
One of the effects this had was that no one would be able to make false accusations against you, because your alibi archive would vindicate you instantly. It also meant that no one could really get away with crime.
Of course, that view of things was largly utopian. The general arguement against this sort of tech in reality is that humans tend to be corruptible. So I dont think that trying such a concept for every person is ideal.
However, for things like using a car, I dont see it as a problem. As long is the recording media is practically impossible to tamper with, (in so far as any attempt to alter the contents would be detected as an alteration). And also, the laws would need to be written such that they could only demand to see very specific time segments in the recording. Assuming that only yourself and government authorities could access it, it would solve alot of problems.
- No one would drive like an asshat if someone would compell them to prove that they werent.
- You would have ironclad proof against bogus tickets and insurance charges.
- The only thing you really give up for the two previous items is the ability to lie about the above two.
Then again, I dont drive at all, so its all a non issue to me.
They can avoid it the same way that the new movie, "The Incredibles" avoided completely ripping off the Fantastic 4.
Even though 3 of the 4 main characters had literal power matches to the Fantastic 4, they werent direct ripoffs.
An indirect ripoff is to be expected. But its not too hard to throw a cape and tights on someone and have it not be a Superman ripoff. Just make the guy blond, and dont use blue tights and a red cape.
If Marvel is suing because I can play City of Heros and create a character that is modeled after, say, the Incredible Hulk, that is a large green superstrong hero, then they are in the wrong.
But if cryptic is puting out advertisements with characters that look to have the same powers and appearance of various Marvel Superheroes, like the Hulk, or Cyclops, or Spiderman, then Marvel has a point.
My opinion regardless of written law:
I think that Cryptic has the right to make a game where i can design a superhero of my choosing, regardless of what I used as inspiration.
I think that Cryptic cannot market their game by trading on the popularity of characters created by Marvel without Marvels permission.
EA was not expecting people to work those hours when not on schedule.
EA is demanding those hours to stay on shcedule. The schedule is essentially set up to assume those brutal hours from the start, from what I understand of the situation.
I will concede that the hours that your friend works are not unreasonable. I will also admit to having no first hand experience with respect to EA's working conditions.
But the game industry is a small one as far as reputations go. And nothing in that EA spouse's blog entry was particularly shocking or at all to me. EA has that kind of reputation among my peers. I will presume there is a reason for it.
That said, while EA has the worst rep, those practicies are much standard for labour practices within my industry. All of the larger 'meat shops' have that repuation to one degree or another.
I am a game programmer. And this story does not really tell me anything new about EA. The larger game developers really are little more then human meat factories as far as labour practices go.
From my standpoint, EA represents all that is bad about the game industry. They stamp out sequels with no originality. If EA puts out something new, its because they bought the company that made it. And they offer the worst possible hours. They probably pay very well, but your pretty much working 2 full time jobs for that cash.
However, pretty much every game developer I have met, except the rankest newbies to the industry, are fully aware of how EA operates. And EA is hardly the only offender. I have some co-workers who worked for Acclaim, and the same kind of hours were expected.
Death march hours suck. Employers who schedule a project expecting every one to work death march hours are retarded. I personally would never take a job from EA, or any company I view as a human meat factory, unless the alternative was unemployment.
But EA and the rest are the status quo in the game industry. For all the companys faults, EA does know how to be profitiable. Small game studios will not be able to thrive until they can get their game to market without the help of one of the big publishers. That wont happen until services like valves 'Steam' are viable.
Happily though, my job kicks ass. I probably could make more money at EA, but at my job, I dont have to work a Death march schedule. I suspect my company will do quite well for its self in the long run for it.
I have always wondered why the hell programming jobs seem to be concentrated so damn heavily on the west coast. It is probably more of a population density thing, but really, there is no reason why alot of IT work could not happen in places like Saskatchewan, Manatoba, and the corresponding US states just south of them.
I suppose I will have to be more specific for my 'big 5'.
1) Politics: in the sense of social programs, citizens rights, freedom of speech.
2) Religion: in the sense of "My god is right and your going to hell you loony Hindu Twit"
3) Abortion: "Its murder" vs "A fetus is not alive, and its a choice". A Muslim and a Christion will probably agree on this, and disagree on other aspects.
4) Capital Punishment: Some christians support it, others dont, so its not specifically religion, though opinions tend to derive from ones faith.
5) Same Sex Relationships: As with capitol punishments, this tends to break down along lines of religious fundamentalists, but I am sure there are christians out there who are also homosexual.
Anyway, opinions on the last 3 often derive from ones personal beleifs, but because there is room for disagreements among those who share the same basic faith or political affiliation, I separate them.
END COMMUNICATION
Not all intelligent discourse needs to be civil
on
Pre-Election Discussion
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
It helps, but it need not be.
Politics falls under "Stuff that Matters". And Politics tends to invade every thread that refers to lawmaking. Politics is filthy, nasty, and tedius business that is of critical importance, and that people feel strongly about.
It is important to have a good forum where inteligent people can discuss and debate their views. But no one can promise that any discussion about any of the big 5 offensive topics (Politics, Religion, Abortion, Capitol Punishment, and Same Sex relationships) will remain inteligent. This thread is sort of like a designated area for otherwise inteligent slashdotters to act just as retarded as other people about everyday things (as opposed to acting retarded about Linux vs Microsoft, or whatever).
Besides, I am Canadian, and I find the whole thing to be quite entertaining in a scary sort of way.
PS2 is king as far as raw numbers go. A game that only does moderately well on the PS2, (say, 10% of PS2 owners buy game X) would need a much greater penetration on Gamecube or X-Box to match the sales.
When the PS2 has about 50 million units sold, and the gamecube / X-Box have about 5 million each, then hitting 10% on the PS2 is going to match hitting 90% on the other platforms.
And the only publisher that can expect to get 90% penetration on the Gamecube is Nintendo, and that is with one of their flagship titles.
"By the way, since the XBox 2 will use the PowerPC G5, it shouldn't be that difficult to port future XBox games to the Power Mac G5 and the iMac, both of which are 64-bit now."
While this is possibly true from a raw technical standpoint, There are many reasons for this not to happen.
1) X-Box Exclusive content is probalby published by Microsoft.
2) Console games usually do not port well to PC. There are exceptions, but a game designed around using a game pad adapts poorly to mouse + keyboard control.
3) I dont think that Microsoft will permit anyone to port Direct X to OS X.
While this cannot hurt the DS, it is not a huge accomplishment, to my mind. The modified and slimmed down PS2 is only going to really intrest a limited number of people.
1) Lunatics who must buy every Sony Console. 2) People replacing old / broken PS2 consoles. 3) People purchasing their first PS2.
The PS2 is on the downswing of its life cycle. Its still a popular console, but by now, pretty much everyone who wants one already has one. It would be more impressive if it was outselling all versions of the PS2 combined, since the new PS2 does not have the HD support.
Slashdot Mirror
Cannot say I have heard of Bueller. I dont see myself as in competition of any sort with my co-workers, but that could just be myself.
The choice between Union and Not Union to me seems false, or at least flawed. I always like to go for Plan C. I think that Plan C is for game companies to become less dependent on publishers.
Most game developers are started up by game programmers. I dont think that any one of them harbor dreams of becoming EA type programmer meat farms that pump out assembly line games that guarantee a profit.
A Union can negotiate with your boss. It cannot negotate with the guy who hires your bosses company to do something.
Now, if there were a way to keep the abusive publishers from handing out crappy deals that create the situations that require the death marches, then the problem would be largly solved, I think.
END COMMUNICATION
And for what it is worth, Yes. I am a game programmer, so I have at the least, an informed opinion.
I am fortunate enough to work at a company that is exactly what EA is not. So I dont feel particularly persecuted or exploited at the moment. Hell, I can post to slashdot while at work, it appears.
There is something about Unions that are repulsive on some level to myself and the programmers I know. Mostly due to the negative connotations they have aquired.
First, myself and my coworkers basically agree one one element though. A crunch is acceptible when needed. A death march is not. The goal then, is to prevent a death march.
Second, the amount of hours that are needed for a project is directly dependant on how much time a project is given and how much money is offered for it. Both those variables are controlled by the publisher. The dev studios must work with what they can get in that regard.
A death march happens when either the time frame for a project cannot be met using sane hours from the available programmers. The way to avoid a death march is to ensure that there are enough programmers on a project to complete in in the allotted time frame.
Having a union for game programers at one developer studio means that a publisher will simply not give that studio any projects. To my thinking, there is just too much of a disconnect between the part of the industry that gets the lions share of the money and the part of the industry that creates the products.
EA did not turn into a shit hole to work at until after they started to focus hard on the bottom line. Being a publisher AND develper, they should know better. But I bet that the guys in Decision Making positions do nothing more then dictate how a game will be made. They do not have to actually work under the conditions they mandate.
My previous job, when we were in a crunch, I do not recall the decision makers actually being at the office. The lead programmers were the highest meatbags on the food chain, and they were just as slammed as anyone. But at my current job, I can honestly say that my boss puts in harder hours then anyone else, for the most part. The resulting difference in crunch policy is obvious to one who has seen both methods.
The I think that the real solution is to make sure that the people who dictate schedules are also working under those schedules. But I dont know how to make that happen. All a union does is add another layer of people who do not work under the conditions they create (though I concede that the union types are closer to those conditions then management types).
END COMMUNICATION
Microsoft turned their back on nVidia because nVidia would not deal on Microsofts terms.
What makes nVidia so certain that Sony being easier to deal with then Microsoft?
And what makes Sony feel good about keeping the PS3 manufacuring costs down when Microsoft could not get a deal with Nvidia which would let the X-Box be cheaper to manufacture?
END COMMUNICATION
I suspect that over the long term, rather then having 1 megastar for every 1000 aspiring artists, you will have many different niche artists of middling fame, known to their fans though not beyond.
Those that are currently struggling anyway really have nothing to lose from filesharing, and plenty to gain.
But the mega star types will have an eroded fan base as the fans find music more directly in line with their personal tastes. And artists who peaked early will not be able to coast on their old glories for nearly as long. Songs that would have made them hit big will not sustain them as long as people will just buy one copy when they hear it the first time, and probably just grab copies after that. Or just rip their original to new mediums as the medium changes.
END COMMUNICATION
I for one, do not think it matters if the mosnters in the movie are from Hell or just virus mutants. It does not even matter if the movie happens on Mars or on some other planet.
Doom does have a decent storyline, but it really is not all that integral to the feel and themse of the game. As long as its about some hard ass marine armed beyond any sense of sanity, blasting lots of monsters into puddles of goop, it shall be worthy of the name Doom.
END COMMUNICATION
>> You don't need representation for what essentially is a custom, yet standardized PC in a box.
hehe. You my friend, have obviously never developed software for the PS2.
I have.
Let me assure you that it has no internal resemblance to the inner workings of a Win32 PC. Within this current generation of consoles. And the consoles are all very different from one another internally.
Though in terms of raw power, they are close enough to make porting from one to the other a reasonable enough idea.
END COMMUNICATION
I can see the fark headline now.
HIV Vaccine reduced viral load by 90%. Still no cure for Cancer, but this is also nice.
END COMMUNICATION
Super Monkey ball is the best game wherein you are rolling a ball. I will hear no arguments contrary to this.
END COMMUNICATION
Lets see here....
You increase the polygon count a few orders of magnitude.
Increase the texture resolution, and the number of textures used by a similar amount.
Add extra information needed for the physics engine to act correctly on the various bits of geometry.
One can expect the raw data size of a given level to increase a great deal.
Disk and memory I/O has not scaled nearly as fast as advances in processor speed and graphics card tech.
END COMMUNICATION
Heh. Thats why I added the bit about someone having to actually compell you to reveal the info.
In the books I refered to, the rule was that if no one accuses you of doing something wrong, then no crime was committed. That kind of thing allows the typical marginal speeding that everyone seems to indulge in.
The fact that you feel entitled to speed when you beleive that it will do no harm is a separate issue, in my opinion.
END COMMUNICATION
In a fiction series I read recently (Hominids / Humans / Hybreds by Robert J. Sawyer), in the Neanderthal world, everyone had an implanted companiion that recorded everything their host did, and uploaded it to an Alibi Archive. Essentially, everyone had a personal blackbox that they could look through later, or that could be used against them in criminal proceedings.
One of the effects this had was that no one would be able to make false accusations against you, because your alibi archive would vindicate you instantly. It also meant that no one could really get away with crime.
Of course, that view of things was largly utopian. The general arguement against this sort of tech in reality is that humans tend to be corruptible. So I dont think that trying such a concept for every person is ideal.
However, for things like using a car, I dont see it as a problem. As long is the recording media is practically impossible to tamper with, (in so far as any attempt to alter the contents would be detected as an alteration). And also, the laws would need to be written such that they could only demand to see very specific time segments in the recording. Assuming that only yourself and government authorities could access it, it would solve alot of problems.
- No one would drive like an asshat if someone would compell them to prove that they werent.
- You would have ironclad proof against bogus tickets and insurance charges.
- The only thing you really give up for the two previous items is the ability to lie about the above two.
Then again, I dont drive at all, so its all a non issue to me.
END COMMUNICATION
They can avoid it the same way that the new movie, "The Incredibles" avoided completely ripping off the Fantastic 4.
Even though 3 of the 4 main characters had literal power matches to the Fantastic 4, they werent direct ripoffs.
An indirect ripoff is to be expected. But its not too hard to throw a cape and tights on someone and have it not be a Superman ripoff. Just make the guy blond, and dont use blue tights and a red cape.
END COMMUNICATION
If Marvel is suing because I can play City of Heros and create a character that is modeled after, say, the Incredible Hulk, that is a large green superstrong hero, then they are in the wrong.
But if cryptic is puting out advertisements with characters that look to have the same powers and appearance of various Marvel Superheroes, like the Hulk, or Cyclops, or Spiderman, then Marvel has a point.
My opinion regardless of written law:
I think that Cryptic has the right to make a game where i can design a superhero of my choosing, regardless of what I used as inspiration.
I think that Cryptic cannot market their game by trading on the popularity of characters created by Marvel without Marvels permission.
END COMMUNICATION
EA was not expecting people to work those hours when not on schedule.
EA is demanding those hours to stay on shcedule. The schedule is essentially set up to assume those brutal hours from the start, from what I understand of the situation.
END COMMUNICATION
I will concede that the hours that your friend works are not unreasonable. I will also admit to having no first hand experience with respect to EA's working conditions.
But the game industry is a small one as far as reputations go. And nothing in that EA spouse's blog entry was particularly shocking or at all to me. EA has that kind of reputation among my peers. I will presume there is a reason for it.
That said, while EA has the worst rep, those practicies are much standard for labour practices within my industry. All of the larger 'meat shops' have that repuation to one degree or another.
END COMMUNICATION
I am a game programmer. And this story does not really tell me anything new about EA. The larger game developers really are little more then human meat factories as far as labour practices go.
From my standpoint, EA represents all that is bad about the game industry. They stamp out sequels with no originality. If EA puts out something new, its because they bought the company that made it. And they offer the worst possible hours. They probably pay very well, but your pretty much working 2 full time jobs for that cash.
However, pretty much every game developer I have met, except the rankest newbies to the industry, are fully aware of how EA operates. And EA is hardly the only offender. I have some co-workers who worked for Acclaim, and the same kind of hours were expected.
Death march hours suck. Employers who schedule a project expecting every one to work death march hours are retarded. I personally would never take a job from EA, or any company I view as a human meat factory, unless the alternative was unemployment.
But EA and the rest are the status quo in the game industry. For all the companys faults, EA does know how to be profitiable. Small game studios will not be able to thrive until they can get their game to market without the help of one of the big publishers. That wont happen until services like valves 'Steam' are viable.
Happily though, my job kicks ass. I probably could make more money at EA, but at my job, I dont have to work a Death march schedule. I suspect my company will do quite well for its self in the long run for it.
END COMMUNICATION
I have always wondered why the hell programming jobs seem to be concentrated so damn heavily on the west coast. It is probably more of a population density thing, but really, there is no reason why alot of IT work could not happen in places like Saskatchewan, Manatoba, and the corresponding US states just south of them.
END COMMUNICATION
You dont buy music because you want your farvorite artist to afford his new porsche. You buy it because you want to listen to a good song.
While it is all well and good to support an artist you like, you dont buy music because you like the artist. You buy it because you like the art.
Likewise, the only thing that should matter when buying music (or video games, or going to a movie) is if you enjoy it or not.
END COMMUNICATION
You can take a look at any Liberal Arts major. They are great with people, but suck at math and science.
END COMMUNICATION
I suppose I will have to be more specific for my 'big 5'.
1) Politics: in the sense of social programs, citizens rights, freedom of speech.
2) Religion: in the sense of "My god is right and your going to hell you loony Hindu Twit"
3) Abortion: "Its murder" vs "A fetus is not alive, and its a choice". A Muslim and a Christion will probably agree on this, and disagree on other aspects.
4) Capital Punishment: Some christians support it, others dont, so its not specifically religion, though opinions tend to derive from ones faith.
5) Same Sex Relationships: As with capitol punishments, this tends to break down along lines of religious fundamentalists, but I am sure there are christians out there who are also homosexual.
Anyway, opinions on the last 3 often derive from ones personal beleifs, but because there is room for disagreements among those who share the same basic faith or political affiliation, I separate them.
END COMMUNICATION
It helps, but it need not be.
Politics falls under "Stuff that Matters". And Politics tends to invade every thread that refers to lawmaking. Politics is filthy, nasty, and tedius business that is of critical importance, and that people feel strongly about.
It is important to have a good forum where inteligent people can discuss and debate their views. But no one can promise that any discussion about any of the big 5 offensive topics (Politics, Religion, Abortion, Capitol Punishment, and Same Sex relationships) will remain inteligent. This thread is sort of like a designated area for otherwise inteligent slashdotters to act just as retarded as other people about everyday things (as opposed to acting retarded about Linux vs Microsoft, or whatever).
Besides, I am Canadian, and I find the whole thing to be quite entertaining in a scary sort of way.
END COMMUNICATION
PS2 is king as far as raw numbers go. A game that only does moderately well on the PS2, (say, 10% of PS2 owners buy game X) would need a much greater penetration on Gamecube or X-Box to match the sales.
When the PS2 has about 50 million units sold, and the gamecube / X-Box have about 5 million each, then hitting 10% on the PS2 is going to match hitting 90% on the other platforms.
And the only publisher that can expect to get 90% penetration on the Gamecube is Nintendo, and that is with one of their flagship titles.
END COMMUNICATION
"By the way, since the XBox 2 will use the PowerPC G5, it shouldn't be that difficult to port future XBox games to the Power Mac G5 and the iMac, both of which are 64-bit now."
While this is possibly true from a raw technical standpoint, There are many reasons for this not to happen.
1) X-Box Exclusive content is probalby published by Microsoft.
2) Console games usually do not port well to PC. There are exceptions, but a game designed around using a game pad adapts poorly to mouse + keyboard control.
3) I dont think that Microsoft will permit anyone to port Direct X to OS X.
END COMMUNICATION
What I want is a genetically engineered cockroach that is the size of a common house cat. Now that would be a pet worth having.
END COMMUNICATION
While this cannot hurt the DS, it is not a huge accomplishment, to my mind. The modified and slimmed down PS2 is only going to really intrest a limited number of people.
1) Lunatics who must buy every Sony Console.
2) People replacing old / broken PS2 consoles.
3) People purchasing their first PS2.
The PS2 is on the downswing of its life cycle. Its still a popular console, but by now, pretty much everyone who wants one already has one. It would be more impressive if it was outselling all versions of the PS2 combined, since the new PS2 does not have the HD support.
END COMMUNICATION