English is all over the world, and other languages are fast losing ground (Chinese of course is ahead of even English).
What do you mean losing ground? World languages (aka French, Spanish, and English mainly), rarely serve as nothing more than a second language to non-native speakers. The very reason you hear 5 different languages going to the grocier store is proof in itself - people may very well learn second languages, but by nature you revert to your native tounge as soon as you can.
I can think of a number of First Nations languages that are barely spoken anymore
"The price argument is equally ridiculous. This is a high-end mobile phone *and* a handheld console we're talking about here. What do you expect?"
High end mobile phone is like $150 and you can get a GBA for like $70 and it has a library of hundreds of games. That's $220 for two devices that do their respective jobs MUCH better than the N-Gage.
"it's true that the game change method is a little cumbersome, but I'm betting it's been done because the machine just has to be shut off when the game is changed"
No, Nokia just did a really shitty job a integrating two products.
I listened to Koster speak last Spring at the GDC. I think you understand his role in the company, and his interests in gaming. When he states he is reading about psych, anthro, and soc, he is doing it because he wants to understand what makes these games fun for people.
They really screwed up from the start. What kind of crackhead came up with a system where you spend hours upon hours building up a character that you will quit playing as soon as you unlock the force slot? If they want to make players happy AND make them stick around for a long time, they should make the Jedi class available to everyone from the start. BUT, make it really hard - through both time involvment AND ability/knowledge, to be a good jedi. That way every weenie who wants to be a jedi gets their wish, but only the ones who take time to develop their character actually get to be the kind of jedi that we saw in the movies.
I don`t care who you are, or what you make, but never should a product have the phrase "stroke it" in it unless you`re in the pr0n business. It just has the wrong implications!
You honestly havn't a clue about Japanese culture. The Japanese view of an attractive male body is quite contrary to our overly-homophobic steroid-driven desires in the West. Your quite accurate description of Sqauresoft's male heros IS exactly what Japanese want to see in heros. Tall, slim, no body fat, big colorful/non-colored (anything but black!) hair, etc. They want their women to look the same with one key difference: big boobs.
That said, if you don't like that, then don't play Japanese games. Buy an XBOX or something that bleeds American and will give you a hero that looks like Vin Diesel.
PS. I do find it hard shopping for clothing here:( I can never tell the men's section from the women's.
Yeah, blah blah blah. What's the big deal if they run themselves out of business? Just like in the post dot bomb era, a successful company, with a patient (aka actual, profitable) business plan will emerge to replace them.
What I want is a portable device that I can plug into my TV, like a VCR, and record shows to watch later when I'm on the train. A portable TIVO of sorts. Any takers please?
Oh, and on Blizzard - Warcraft 3 has been selling well compared to most other games, but relatively poorly compared to the other top Blizzard games. Starcraft 2 is the only game they could make now that would interest me, although I'm not sure they could make it right since so many core Blizzard folk left this year.
Umm, no one from the Starcraft team left Blizzard. All the people that left were from Blizzard NORTH, which produces the Diablo series.
This sort of social engineering, so easy to accomplish in Windows, requires far more steps and far greater effort on the part of the Linux user. Instead of just reading an email (... just reading an email?!?), a Linux user would have to read the email, save the attachment, give the attachment executable permissions, and then run the executable. Even as less sophisticated users begin to migrate to Linux, they may not understand exactly why they can't just execute attachments, but they will still have to go through the steps. As Martha Stewart would say, this is a good thing. Further, due to the strong community around Linux, new users will receive education and encouragement in areas such as email security that are currently lacking in the Windows world, which should help to alleviate any concerns on the part of newbies.
Yes, until someone decides to add that functionality to a mail program. Things like having a 4 step process to read email attachments is WHY linux is not seeing mainstream growth. The average person cares a heck of a lot more about convenience than security.
Unless they release a free server that players can connect to after they take their servers down, all they're getting from me is two middle fingers. Seriously, if I buy an online game, I expect to be able to play it online for several years at least, not taken down like the PSO1 servers.
I wouldn't be suprised if they were to release a PC version in the future (especially because of the XBOX release.) Yet, Nihilistic is pretty small - 20 to 30 people I think, which is stretching it to produce the game across the 3 console systems.
I played it in Nihilistic's studio. (I know someone who works there.) The gameplay rocks. It's on par with the gameplay of Metroid for the Gamecube.
If you played starcraft a lot, it's quite thrilling to see all of the enimies and units rendered in a 3D world. Somehow, a zergling or hydralisk looks a hell-of-a-lot more scary when they're running at you in a first person perspective.
In short, if you liked starcraft a lot, and you like 3D shooters, you will like this game.
However software exists which makes a good effort at reading the discs, so it is only a matter of time before we'll see Linux or NetBSD running on the thing.
But it's really too bad that it is so difficult, because Nintendo could have sold the devices at $199 for a nice profit, including a Linux disk or something, making it a simple browse the web from the set-top solution, etc.
And how big do you honestly think the "I wanna buy a cube to run linux/etc on!" market is? A couple hundred? A couple thousand? I'm sure these people are worth basing their pricing structure on, rather than the hundreds of thousands that buy the console to play games..
Slashdot Mirror
English is all over the world, and other languages are fast losing ground (Chinese of course is ahead of even English).
What do you mean losing ground? World languages (aka French, Spanish, and English mainly), rarely serve as nothing more than a second language to non-native speakers. The very reason you hear 5 different languages going to the grocier store is proof in itself - people may very well learn second languages, but by nature you revert to your native tounge as soon as you can.
I can think of a number of First Nations languages that are barely spoken anymore
Such as?
It's really sad that Darl's shining moment during the interview was an O.J. joke...
...giving Mormons a bad name, one day at a time.
"The price argument is equally ridiculous. This is a high-end mobile phone *and* a handheld console we're talking about here. What do you expect?"
High end mobile phone is like $150 and you can get a GBA for like $70 and it has a library of hundreds of games. That's $220 for two devices that do their respective jobs MUCH better than the N-Gage.
"it's true that the game change method is a little cumbersome, but I'm betting it's been done because the machine just has to be shut off when the game is changed"
No, Nokia just did a really shitty job a integrating two products.
I listened to Koster speak last Spring at the GDC. I think you understand his role in the company, and his interests in gaming. When he states he is reading about psych, anthro, and soc, he is doing it because he wants to understand what makes these games fun for people.
Just a fair warning bro: CIA will be arriving at your door within the hour.
They really screwed up from the start. What kind of crackhead came up with a system where you spend hours upon hours building up a character that you will quit playing as soon as you unlock the force slot? If they want to make players happy AND make them stick around for a long time, they should make the Jedi class available to everyone from the start. BUT, make it really hard - through both time involvment AND ability/knowledge, to be a good jedi. That way every weenie who wants to be a jedi gets their wish, but only the ones who take time to develop their character actually get to be the kind of jedi that we saw in the movies.
Grats on falling for what was obviously a troll, fatass! Get out and get some sun, you've probably never seen it!
On slashdot, one must simply make statements conforming to an already-formed general consensus (ie: open office has issues) to be modded +insightful.
I don`t care who you are, or what you make, but never should a product have the phrase "stroke it" in it unless you`re in the pr0n business. It just has the wrong implications!
You honestly havn't a clue about Japanese culture. The Japanese view of an attractive male body is quite contrary to our overly-homophobic steroid-driven desires in the West. Your quite accurate description of Sqauresoft's male heros IS exactly what Japanese want to see in heros. Tall, slim, no body fat, big colorful/non-colored (anything but black!) hair, etc. They want their women to look the same with one key difference: big boobs.
That said, if you don't like that, then don't play Japanese games. Buy an XBOX or something that bleeds American and will give you a hero that looks like Vin Diesel.
PS. I do find it hard shopping for clothing here :( I can never tell the men's section from the women's.
same difference if you're waiting for the industry to build up around your IP. ^_^
Yeah, blah blah blah. What's the big deal if they run themselves out of business? Just like in the post dot bomb era, a successful company, with a patient (aka actual, profitable) business plan will emerge to replace them.
You're using BASIC.
"Three page rant" would be a better title, though it is very well written.
What I want is a portable device that I can plug into my TV, like a VCR, and record shows to watch later when I'm on the train. A portable TIVO of sorts. Any takers please?
Umm, no one from the Starcraft team left Blizzard. All the people that left were from Blizzard NORTH, which produces the Diablo series.
Yes, until someone decides to add that functionality to a mail program. Things like having a 4 step process to read email attachments is WHY linux is not seeing mainstream growth. The average person cares a heck of a lot more about convenience than security.
Unless they release a free server that players can connect to after they take their servers down, all they're getting from me is two middle fingers. Seriously, if I buy an online game, I expect to be able to play it online for several years at least, not taken down like the PSO1 servers.
Your horrid use of bold makes me NOT want to read your comment despite any insight you might actually have.
and in other unrelated news, Blizzard raised the price of Starcraft and Diablo to their original retail prices of $49.99
I wouldn't be suprised if they were to release a PC version in the future (especially because of the XBOX release.) Yet, Nihilistic is pretty small - 20 to 30 people I think, which is stretching it to produce the game across the 3 console systems.
If you played starcraft a lot, it's quite thrilling to see all of the enimies and units rendered in a 3D world. Somehow, a zergling or hydralisk looks a hell-of-a-lot more scary when they're running at you in a first person perspective.
In short, if you liked starcraft a lot, and you like 3D shooters, you will like this game.
And how big do you honestly think the "I wanna buy a cube to run linux/etc on!" market is? A couple hundred? A couple thousand? I'm sure these people are worth basing their pricing structure on, rather than the hundreds of thousands that buy the console to play games..
HEY I cried at the end of FF10!@!