The market works like this. The movie studios have a monopoly on the their individual movies. They abuse this monopoly to over charge retailers and consumers for DVDs. The studios open a new channel and use incentive pricing to help bring it to life. The very large and very powerful retailers see this as an opertunity to attack the monopolies that are making profits that the retailers could be making instead.
This is an effort by Walmart and Target to lower the price of DVDs even farther then they already have to increase the volume that they sell. This is two groups that are far to large and powerful to operate smoothly in a free market fighting for territory. It's a lot better for the consumer then for these two groups to get along.
I agree with you that this is not currently a Golden Age by the defination. But by that defination there never was a Golden Age of gaming. Golden Age is a loaded term that only works if you think things where better then they are now. The Greeks and Romans looked back and thought that there was some historic time when gods and men walked the earth and everything was sweetness and light. Much like Eden. Then Man's nature caused us to fall and everything has been shit since then.
If you look at historical evidence. Life in all regards has gotten nothing but better for all of human history (minus short local minimas).
Now I think that the reviewer was using the term Golden Age in a different sense. I think that they believe this is the best time to be a gamer there has ever been. Which I heartily agree with.
Why should a police officer beable to arrest someone for driving erratically and being a potential danger. If someone is stone cold sober and they are a danger to other people they should be in just as much trouble as someone who is drunk.
I think things would work out better if cops did more to get bad drivers off the roads rather then just drunks.
People are certainly safer and richer. Safer, look at the number of work related deaths as a percentage of population from 1950 to today. Richer, compare the average portion of income spent on luxuries like eating out.
As far as happier, people have signifigantly more control over how they spend their time and what they do. People tend to settle in to a level of happiness based not on their current condition, but on what they compare it to. Find someone and compare what they would have had in the 50's to what they have now and see if what they have now makes them happy.
Oh but Halo sells system. I think they might try to use Halo to sell more harddrives. It's certainly going to have downloadable content and push the 360 to limits. Why not go that extra step and require a hard drive. It would sell a lot of hard drives.
Yeah. I actually drove by the site this morning at 7am. Just seeing the lines was enough to convince me that I didn't want any part of it. And I even got up early for all of this.
Interestingly the sale had originally been scheduled for the previous week then got delayed. They should have changed the price too.
Yeah. I actually drove by the site this morning at 7am. Just seeing the lines was enough to convince me that I didn't want any part of it. Stupid getting up early.
Without those jobs available for people to make a living, what are they going to do to support themselves and their families?
You are looking at it like there is a limited amount of work to do in the world and we have to spread it around so everyone has something to do.
I would say that by and large the world does as much work as it can manage to do. If there are available resources someone will use them to do something productive.
I understand that it doesn't always look this way on the personal level. But overall I would say it follows the unlimited opportunity and limited workforce model more then the opposite model.
That's a bit over the top. Pretty much all of the stuff in the collector's edition that they cut from the game was because they could get it to balance correctly.
They specifcally say that they didn't include the ATV because they couldn't figure out a reason to have it in the game either single or multiplayer.
All of the aliens that where left out where half finished ugly looking things.
In any creative enterprise, you consider things that you later deside are a bad idea.
First the article isn't very interesting. Basically the Halo2 AI uses virtual sences and can make ally requests. It also uses lots of level designere set locations.
Second the AI doesn't sound very advanced. It seems a lot like the stuff the Half-life AI was doing back in '97. Maybe it's just the target audience of the article, but is seems like they are trying to make the AI seem very simple.
First the article isn't very interesting. Basically the Halo2 AI uses virtual sences and can make ally requests. It also uses lots of level designere set locations.
Second the AI doesn't sound very advanced. It seems a lot like the stuff the Half-life AI was doing back in '97. Maybe it's just the target audience of the article, but is seems like they are trying to make the AI seem very simple.
> how does "hating" someone have any logical >correlation with whether their positions or courses >of action are appropriate or inappropriate?
It relates directly to their positions if your "hatred" is based entirely on their positions. I don't think anyone outside of a country has much of an opinion about a country's rulers other then about the ruler's positions and actions. In this case I believe that the people hate Bush, hate him because of the actions he has taken.
Ok, the whole Iraq thing. I agree that a violent over through of a dictator is a possible way to work toward a safer Middle East. If that is the course of action our country wants to taken then I think it should be discussed. If Bush wanted to attack Iraq for those reasons then he lied to me and rest of the American people. I can not and will not abide by a US president lying about major decisions effecting our entire country.
Fuck that. I remember Wolfenstein 3d and Catacombs Abyss in addition to all of those that you listed. Half-life is a better game. Unless Value changed drastically Half-Life 2 will be a better game then Doom 3. The will both still be AAA products, but I fully expect Half-life 2 to be a better game and more fun to play. I expect Doom 3 to be more awe inspiring and technically amazing.
The company would be able to keep costs down for a while until some foreign company figured out that they could do everything cheaper and sell it in this country at a huge profit. Then everyone at all of the companies would be out on the street.
I don't see any reason to be so overly protective of jobs here. If the jobs go over to foriegn contries then that will create a middle class in countries that may not have one. This new middle class will buy lots of stuff, likely from companies that are geared to provide things to the middle class, like American Companies.
I agree that we run the risk of sinking ot the least common denominator, but I would also point out that it also provides an escape from least common denominator programming. Take TechTV for example. It's a nice idea, but it's target for most everyone, because it has to be. With the ability to be an al a carte channel it could be come far more technical in nature to cater to those people who are actually willing to pay for something that provides usefull content.
I think it's more likely that this competition will force the channels to be better. Why would some small time channel cater to the lowest common denominator when the said denominator is already watching ESPN and MTV?
Some people will likely stop shelling out money for new games, but that harldy means that there won't be a market for new games. Look at the music industry. After a certain age most people buy very little new music. They have enough music, but every year there are more teenagers and they want new music for the sake of it being new. The same effect will drive a continuing interest in new games.
Now that I think of it, movies are even a better example. Not much is changing in the movie industry but people still buy new movies.
I had a class where there professor wrote the main text book and edited the secondary book of assorted readings. You probably would have liked it. He willfully left things out of the book that he thought were important enough to teach to the class and test on.
Personally it fucking pissed me off that he didn't have the decence to put everything that he thought was important into the text book.
I haven't seen any mini DVDs available, but I imagine they will be around eventually.
The discs also read from outside in rather then inside out.
Just the size issue has seemed to completely stop and dupping scene for the Gamecube. Lots of crappy solutions for both the Xbox and the PS2, but no solutions crappy or otherwise for the Cube.
When you are sitting near stop and go traffic with a large truck behind you your rear view mirror is of no use. If you side mirrors are adjusted to see the edge of your car, you should be able to what is coming in either of the lanes next to you. If you have the mirrors set wider (to cover more area) you will not be able to see as far back in the lanes and will likly miss some traveling at more the 15 mph faster then you.
To further the point, the best security is complete obscurity. If no one knows you have a server no can hack it. Or, if no one knows that you stashed your treasure in the woods no one can steal it. Unfortunatly complete obscurity is impossible for most things. Having an IP address removes the possibiltity for your server to have complete obscurity.
Which brings up another point. The more obscure some thing is the less effect it can have on the world at large. Interesting.
I don't thinke the GBA connecter is intended to get you to buy a handheld. I think it's a handy thank you to people who already have both. For most things it's just a cool little extra.
It is also possiblly opening game styles. Final Fantasy Crystal Cronicles will support 4 player action if all four players have GBAs. There is also PacMan vs. This allows three people to plays as ghosts on the tv with limited visibility and the four person can play pacman on a GBA.
Like I said it's not clearing the shelves of cubes, but it is a nice extra for some people. It helps make more Nintendo fanboys.
Your issue with wait times is likely due to the fact that neflix depriorites you based on how many movies you watch. The more activity that you have the farther back in the line of people for a given movie you are. I got Underworld through netflix like two weeks ago.
Personally I don't have a problem with this system. I think it's reasonable that people who are paying significantly more per DVD get better responces. Although months is stupid.
Interesting. I had not seen it as a final fantasy reference before. Personally I saw it as an homage to comics. My favorite part of The second movie was Neo putting his one fist forward in a classic superman pose as he flies out of the exploding building.
Personally I thought the story was fantastic. Although I think that largely because I find it really cool that someone had the balls to tell a post-modern story in a video game that wasn't just a comedy.
I can agree that if you don't dig post-modernism the story is probably pretty stupid.
I think the game play was an evolution of that found in MGS1. If you didn't like the MGS1 gameplay I imagine it was subpar.
Downloading songs does not make the recoding industry single song any more then radio does. Britney Spears and INSYNC might only make single songs, but is that really any different then the current system?
Albums as an art for are limited by CDs. If we move to a strictly file based system, there will still be albums, but they will have the flexibility to be longer or shorter then common wisdom says they should be.
Slashdot Mirror
The market works like this. The movie studios have a monopoly on the their individual movies. They abuse this monopoly to over charge retailers and consumers for DVDs. The studios open a new channel and use incentive pricing to help bring it to life. The very large and very powerful retailers see this as an opertunity to attack the monopolies that are making profits that the retailers could be making instead.
This is an effort by Walmart and Target to lower the price of DVDs even farther then they already have to increase the volume that they sell. This is two groups that are far to large and powerful to operate smoothly in a free market fighting for territory. It's a lot better for the consumer then for these two groups to get along.
I agree with you that this is not currently a Golden Age by the defination. But by that defination there never was a Golden Age of gaming. Golden Age is a loaded term that only works if you think things where better then they are now. The Greeks and Romans looked back and thought that there was some historic time when gods and men walked the earth and everything was sweetness and light. Much like Eden. Then Man's nature caused us to fall and everything has been shit since then.
If you look at historical evidence. Life in all regards has gotten nothing but better for all of human history (minus short local minimas).
Now I think that the reviewer was using the term Golden Age in a different sense. I think that they believe this is the best time to be a gamer there has ever been. Which I heartily agree with.
Why should a police officer beable to arrest someone for driving erratically and being a potential danger. If someone is stone cold sober and they are a danger to other people they should be in just as much trouble as someone who is drunk.
I think things would work out better if cops did more to get bad drivers off the roads rather then just drunks.
People are certainly safer and richer. Safer, look at the number of work related deaths as a percentage of population from 1950 to today. Richer, compare the average portion of income spent on luxuries like eating out.
As far as happier, people have signifigantly more control over how they spend their time and what they do. People tend to settle in to a level of happiness based not on their current condition, but on what they compare it to. Find someone and compare what they would have had in the 50's to what they have now and see if what they have now makes them happy.
Oh but Halo sells system. I think they might try to use Halo to sell more harddrives. It's certainly going to have downloadable content and push the 360 to limits. Why not go that extra step and require a hard drive. It would sell a lot of hard drives.
Yeah. I actually drove by the site this morning at 7am. Just seeing the lines was enough to convince me that I didn't want any part of it. And I even got up early for all of this.
Interestingly the sale had originally been scheduled for the previous week then got delayed. They should have changed the price too.
Yeah. I actually drove by the site this morning at 7am. Just seeing the lines was enough to convince me that I didn't want any part of it. Stupid getting up early.
Without those jobs available for people to make a living, what are they going to do to support themselves and their families?
You are looking at it like there is a limited amount of work to do in the world and we have to spread it around so everyone has something to do.
I would say that by and large the world does as much work as it can manage to do. If there are available resources someone will use them to do something productive.
I understand that it doesn't always look this way on the personal level. But overall I would say it follows the unlimited opportunity and limited workforce model more then the opposite model.
That's a bit over the top. Pretty much all of the stuff in the collector's edition that they cut from the game was because they could get it to balance correctly.
They specifcally say that they didn't include the ATV because they couldn't figure out a reason to have it in the game either single or multiplayer.
All of the aliens that where left out where half finished ugly looking things.
In any creative enterprise, you consider things that you later deside are a bad idea.
First the article isn't very interesting. Basically the Halo2 AI uses virtual sences and can make ally requests. It also uses lots of level designere set locations.
Second the AI doesn't sound very advanced. It seems a lot like the stuff the Half-life AI was doing back in '97. Maybe it's just the target audience of the article, but is seems like they are trying to make the AI seem very simple.
First the article isn't very interesting. Basically the Halo2 AI uses virtual sences and can make ally requests. It also uses lots of level designere set locations.
Second the AI doesn't sound very advanced. It seems a lot like the stuff the Half-life AI was doing back in '97. Maybe it's just the target audience of the article, but is seems like they are trying to make the AI seem very simple.
Two points:
> how does "hating" someone have any logical
>correlation with whether their positions or courses
>of action are appropriate or inappropriate?
It relates directly to their positions if your "hatred" is based entirely on their positions. I don't think anyone outside of a country has much of an opinion about a country's rulers other then about the ruler's positions and actions. In this case I believe that the people hate Bush, hate him because of the actions he has taken.
Ok, the whole Iraq thing. I agree that a violent over through of a dictator is a possible way to work toward a safer Middle East. If that is the course of action our country wants to taken then I think it should be discussed. If Bush wanted to attack Iraq for those reasons then he lied to me and rest of the American people. I can not and will not abide by a US president lying about major decisions effecting our entire country.
Fuck that. I remember Wolfenstein 3d and Catacombs Abyss in addition to all of those that you listed. Half-life is a better game. Unless Value changed drastically Half-Life 2 will be a better game then Doom 3. The will both still be AAA products, but I fully expect Half-life 2 to be a better game and more fun to play. I expect Doom 3 to be more awe inspiring and technically amazing.
The company would be able to keep costs down for a while until some foreign company figured out that they could do everything cheaper and sell it in this country at a huge profit. Then everyone at all of the companies would be out on the street.
I don't see any reason to be so overly protective of jobs here. If the jobs go over to foriegn contries then that will create a middle class in countries that may not have one. This new middle class will buy lots of stuff, likely from companies that are geared to provide things to the middle class, like American Companies.
I agree that we run the risk of sinking ot the least common denominator, but I would also point out that it also provides an escape from least common denominator programming. Take TechTV for example. It's a nice idea, but it's target for most everyone, because it has to be. With the ability to be an al a carte channel it could be come far more technical in nature to cater to those people who are actually willing to pay for something that provides usefull content.
I think it's more likely that this competition will force the channels to be better. Why would some small time channel cater to the lowest common denominator when the said denominator is already watching ESPN and MTV?
Some people will likely stop shelling out money for new games, but that harldy means that there won't be a market for new games. Look at the music industry. After a certain age most people buy very little new music. They have enough music, but every year there are more teenagers and they want new music for the sake of it being new. The same effect will drive a continuing interest in new games.
Now that I think of it, movies are even a better example. Not much is changing in the movie industry but people still buy new movies.
I had a class where there professor wrote the main text book and edited the secondary book of assorted readings. You probably would have liked it. He willfully left things out of the book that he thought were important enough to teach to the class and test on.
Personally it fucking pissed me off that he didn't have the decence to put everything that he thought was important into the text book.
I haven't seen any mini DVDs available, but I imagine they will be around eventually.
The discs also read from outside in rather then inside out.
Just the size issue has seemed to completely stop and dupping scene for the Gamecube. Lots of crappy solutions for both the Xbox and the PS2, but no solutions crappy or otherwise for the Cube.
When you are sitting near stop and go traffic with a large truck behind you your rear view mirror is of no use. If you side mirrors are adjusted to see the edge of your car, you should be able to what is coming in either of the lanes next to you. If you have the mirrors set wider (to cover more area) you will not be able to see as far back in the lanes and will likly miss some traveling at more the 15 mph faster then you.
Oh the Humanity! I have no mod points!
To further the point, the best security is complete obscurity. If no one knows you have a server no can hack it. Or, if no one knows that you stashed your treasure in the woods no one can steal it. Unfortunatly complete obscurity is impossible for most things. Having an IP address removes the possibiltity for your server to have complete obscurity.
Which brings up another point. The more obscure some thing is the less effect it can have on the world at large. Interesting.
I don't thinke the GBA connecter is intended to get you to buy a handheld. I think it's a handy thank you to people who already have both. For most things it's just a cool little extra.
It is also possiblly opening game styles. Final Fantasy Crystal Cronicles will support 4 player action if all four players have GBAs. There is also PacMan vs. This allows three people to plays as ghosts on the tv with limited visibility and the four person can play pacman on a GBA.
Like I said it's not clearing the shelves of cubes, but it is a nice extra for some people. It helps make more Nintendo fanboys.
Your issue with wait times is likely due to the fact that neflix depriorites you based on how many movies you watch. The more activity that you have the farther back in the line of people for a given movie you are. I got Underworld through netflix like two weeks ago.
Personally I don't have a problem with this system. I think it's reasonable that people who are paying significantly more per DVD get better responces. Although months is stupid.
Interesting. I had not seen it as a final fantasy reference before. Personally I saw it as an homage to comics. My favorite part of The second movie was Neo putting his one fist forward in a classic superman pose as he flies out of the exploding building.
Personally I thought the story was fantastic. Although I think that largely because I find it really cool that someone had the balls to tell a post-modern story in a video game that wasn't just a comedy.
I can agree that if you don't dig post-modernism the story is probably pretty stupid.
I think the game play was an evolution of that found in MGS1. If you didn't like the MGS1 gameplay I imagine it was subpar.
Downloading songs does not make the recoding industry single song any more then radio does. Britney Spears and INSYNC might only make single songs, but is that really any different then the current system?
Albums as an art for are limited by CDs. If we move to a strictly file based system, there will still be albums, but they will have the flexibility to be longer or shorter then common wisdom says they should be.