The Wal-Mart vice president responded with strategy and argument. Snapper is the sort of high-quality nameplate, like Levi Strauss, that Wal-Mart hopes can ultimately make it more Target-like. He suggested that Snapper find a lower-cost contract manufacturer. He suggested producing a separate, lesser-quality line with the Snapper nameplate just for Wal-Mart. Just like Levi did.
Are you sure all that stuff you are buying is really top quality? Are you sure it always will be?
Price pressure eventually has to effect quality. When you shaved costs everywhere you can eventually you save money by saying "So what if we used real vanilla for all these years? Artificial vanilla is just as good!" "Couldn't we use plastic parts instead of metal parts inside this widget? How many people will really look inside?" "I got some tainted meat here, real bad, customers won't know though, I've got a special process that covers it up..."
Oh, and about WoW, I'm sure the version you bought at Walmart was fine... but other games have had to ship Walmart versions because Walmart refused to stock them in M-Rated versions (no, I'm not talking about GTA here, but it happened to Sacrifice). I also recently read that the Comics Code was almost, finally dead... until Walmart single handedly revived it.
"Can a game be as good as War and Peace?" is the wrong question. Here's the right question, "Can a game ever be as good as Dumbo or Fantasia?" (you can also put Nosferatu or Cabinet of Dr. Caligari if you like.)
Games aren't a narrative art form they are a visual art form. Is narrative unimportant? Well, no, it's not entirely unimportant, much as it wasn't unimportant in Watchmen or Da Vinci's Last Supper. (There's actually a better Last Supper to reference by a less well known Rennaissance artist, but I can't think of his name right now. Partly because it's a better example of Rennaisance "pop art," and partly because it doesn't carry the baggage that Da Vinci's name carries. )
Obviously, if you are playing IF, that's an exception, but it's also a tiny niche now (though it used to be a major form).
... Online RPG based on Westwoods old Torg game? It could work, basically the way it worked was this:
There are a bunch of alternative universes, high-tech, high-magic, gothic-horror, techno-horror, pulp-fiction, each one is ruled by a bad guy and all of the bad guys have to listen to a master bad guy.
The rulers of these universes invade earth, and set up reality zones, which mostly conform to the rules of their reality. When someone from a high-tech reality goes to a high-fantasy zone, for instance, his powers are limited but not totally eliminated.
If they could implement these rules in an electronic MMRPG, the results might be fun...
I'm not a huge Sims fan, but I remember my character (in they Sims the brought out for Linux) was doing pretty well on the Life of Crime career track. I think he was a low level soldier for a Mafia orginization by the time I gave up. He was also having an affair with the wife of a local neighborhood guy, and I think he had a pinball machine...
That doesn't work on my Mom, "Ok, you pay me back for those four years of college I sent you to for your Computer Science degree first!"
Re:And Sony wonders why it has problems
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No, I think Al Gore is in it too. He's an intelligent man who has a good head for foreign policy. He became a much more attractive candidate after "losing" the election because it seemed like he loosened up. I was reading somewhere that he might be another Nixon (in terms of a candidate who lost under questionable circumstances and made a comeback, not in terms policy.). He'd be a lot better than Hillary.
I really don't think Schumer has any chance at all.
Re:And Sony wonders why it has problems
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GDC - Sony Keynote
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This is a really good page too... (I'm starting to turn into a starry eyed Russ Feingold fanboy...)
Okay, maybe he doesn't have as much chance of getting the Democratic nomination, but I really think people overestimate Hillary Clinton's chance of winning a general election. (And if she does win, what then? Does the antiwar movement decide "to go along to get along?" Will she roll back the Patriot Act or the vicious anti-immigrant legislation currently wending it's way through Congress? "We can't risk the Republicans retaking the White House," is a refrain that I expect to hear often in the unlikely even she wins.)
Re:And Sony wonders why it has problems
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GDC - Sony Keynote
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· Score: 3, Interesting
Hmm... parent comment was modded as Troll:
The question is, "Why, exactly, does she have Blue state supporters? Or any supporters, anywhere, at all?"
It's not a Troll, because first of all, this based on what I actually believe. Trolling is when you string people along with a fake comment because you want to watch them squirm. You say something that you don't believe that will get people riled up.
I actually think that the person who modded it Troll is a Democrat who figures I'm an evil Republican who hates Hillary Clinton because I'm an evil Republican. Actually, that's not true. I can't imagine voting for a Republican, I want to vote for a peace candidate and a civil liberties candidate. Hillary Clinton is pro-war and anti-civil liberties, so why are the Democrats pushing her? If the Republicans decide to throw the next election by putting up the worst campaigner they can find, she might squeak in.
I really want to understand the logic of her candidacy among ordinary people like the kind of people who moderate Slashdot. Give me a list of positive accomplishments she's done as Senator. A stirring speech opposing the War in Iraq or the Bush administrations massive infringement on our civil liberties something. If you are a Hillary Clinton supporter, understand that I'm either going to vote for a third party candidate or the Democratic candidate in the next election. Why should I vote for her?
Re:And Sony wonders why it has problems
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GDC - Sony Keynote
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· Score: 0, Troll
The question is, "Why, exactly, does she have Blue state supporters? Or any supporters, anywhere, at all?"
Yes, but I hate them for their games division, or more specifically their American games division. You know, the one that forces every classic 2D games series into and inferior 3D version. People still talk about Symphony of the Night anyone talking about the 3D Castlevanias?
"To tell the truth, I don't think it's even that 2D is only possible on handhelds, but more that it's only possible on DS," said Igarashi-san. "Personally speaking, I'd jump at any chance to develop a 2D game for any console, or even the PSP, but those chances are getting fewer and fewer. I feel like the DS is the last fortress of 2D gaming. So if we can get a younger audience with this DS 2D game, and prove to them that 2D gaming is worthwhile and fun, maybe then we can increase the market for that type of game."
-- 2D PSP Castlevania Dreams in Tatters
Anyone think that Metal Slug is going to be better in 3D? I don't know about Working Designs as a company, but I believe what they said about Sony:
"We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out," Ireland wrote of Growlanser, "and other games approved."
One such game the company apparently failed to get approved was the PlayStation 2 action adventure game Goemon.
"Though almost finished and substantially improved from the Japanese release, Goemon is dead for the US, and that was really the final straw," Ireland wrote. "If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done."
-- Working Designs closes up shop
According to Harry Anderson, there are slots in Vegas that never payout, ever. These are usually located in convenience stores or other non-casino venues. You could put a million dollars worth of quarters in one and get nothing back. It was in his Games You Can't Lose book.
Rub Rabbits is a game that is designed to be played with your wife/girlfriend/cute girl next door... or all three if you choose (at different times, I expect!)
You can also play many RTSs cooperatively, say you and your girlfriend playing against two AIs. TA is probably a good choice here, since it will work on older computers, even on Macs (you have to buy the Mac version though, unlike Starcraft). I haven't tried multiplayer of Mac versus PC though.
If RTSs are too fast moving, you could also try Turn Based Strategy such as Heroes of Might and Magic III.
My girlfriend doesn't like games, but if she did, I'd like the option of not playing against her... I could see that leading to tears.
I propose the Damocles Amendment to the Constitution. Any politician who willfully supports or votes for obviously unconstitutional legislating gets chopped in half with a sword.
People shouldn't talk in terms of "slippery slope," they should talk in terms of setting a precedent. Precedent is a very important concept in American law.
If video games are found not to deserve First Amendment protection then laws can be made against them on a state level for any random reason. In this case, a law would be valid restricting video games because they incite violence in children but it would be just as valid if the argument is made that they incite violence in unstable adults.
The First Amendment, as it is currently in the Bill of Rights does not make exceptions for age, either it applies or it doesn't. (For example, obscenity is assumed to not have constitutional protection, the Supreme Court has simply said that it is difficult to define. The video games under discussion, though, such as GTA don't fall anywhere near the obscenity catagory. A transcript of the San Andreas story line, for instance, would be 100% protected speech, no question, as would a movie based on events from the game. The reason why TV is restricted is because the limited number of broadcast channels are licensed by the FCC and the license can be revoked if a broadcaster doesn't toe the line. Yeah, that's a weaselly scam, but that's the rational.)
In fact if this is the case, any state can make any law banning games, as they would no longer be assumed to have Constitutional protection. (For example, if games were considered a cause of obesity, low test scores, or ADD those would all be valid reasons for a ban as well. As would the reason, "we just don't like them in our state.")
It's true that alcohol isn't banned everywhere in the United States anymore, but there are still dry areas, including in Tennessee, unsurprisingly:
Lynchburg is located in Moore County, Tennessee which is officially a "dry county". That means, no alcoholic beverages may be sold within Moore County. Ironically, there are 48 warehouses with over 200 million liters of Jack Daniel's Sour Mash Whiskey stored in barrels on the hill outside of Lynchburg. The distillery is permitted to sell special collector bottles of whiskey only to tourists from outside the county.
-- Lynchburg, Tennessee
Alcohol has never been assumed to have constitutional protection, and the Amendment repealing Prohibition didn't change this, just made it no longer constitutionally banned.
Rulings that have been made, and later overturned, against video games have argued that they are not speech or expression and therefore not entitled to First Amendment protection. However, so far, all such rulings have been over turned, so laws restricting video games are unconstitutional.
wrong picture about the UK and essentially all European countries -- like it's all gloom and depression here, right, we're all on the verge of killing ourselves
Well, to be fair you are living under the tender ministrations of Tony Blair, that'd make anyone depressed...
Slashdot Mirror
She also tends to be incredulous when I tell her I don't know something, "Then what did I send you to school for?!?"
Price pressure eventually has to effect quality. When you shaved costs everywhere you can eventually you save money by saying "So what if we used real vanilla for all these years? Artificial vanilla is just as good!" "Couldn't we use plastic parts instead of metal parts inside this widget? How many people will really look inside?" "I got some tainted meat here, real bad, customers won't know though, I've got a special process that covers it up..."
Oh, and about WoW, I'm sure the version you bought at Walmart was fine... but other games have had to ship Walmart versions because Walmart refused to stock them in M-Rated versions (no, I'm not talking about GTA here, but it happened to Sacrifice). I also recently read that the Comics Code was almost, finally dead... until Walmart single handedly revived it.
Games aren't a narrative art form they are a visual art form. Is narrative unimportant? Well, no, it's not entirely unimportant, much as it wasn't unimportant in Watchmen or Da Vinci's Last Supper. (There's actually a better Last Supper to reference by a less well known Rennaissance artist, but I can't think of his name right now. Partly because it's a better example of Rennaisance "pop art," and partly because it doesn't carry the baggage that Da Vinci's name carries. )
Obviously, if you are playing IF, that's an exception, but it's also a tiny niche now (though it used to be a major form).
There are a bunch of alternative universes, high-tech, high-magic, gothic-horror, techno-horror, pulp-fiction, each one is ruled by a bad guy and all of the bad guys have to listen to a master bad guy.
The rulers of these universes invade earth, and set up reality zones, which mostly conform to the rules of their reality. When someone from a high-tech reality goes to a high-fantasy zone, for instance, his powers are limited but not totally eliminated.
If they could implement these rules in an electronic MMRPG, the results might be fun...
Those were good times... good times... sigh...
That doesn't work on my Mom, "Ok, you pay me back for those four years of college I sent you to for your Computer Science degree first!"
I really don't think Schumer has any chance at all.
Statement of Senator Russ Feingold on his Amendments to the Bankruptcy Bill
Okay, maybe he doesn't have as much chance of getting the Democratic nomination, but I really think people overestimate Hillary Clinton's chance of winning a general election. (And if she does win, what then? Does the antiwar movement decide "to go along to get along?" Will she roll back the Patriot Act or the vicious anti-immigrant legislation currently wending it's way through Congress? "We can't risk the Republicans retaking the White House," is a refrain that I expect to hear often in the unlikely even she wins.)
It's not a Troll, because first of all, this based on what I actually believe. Trolling is when you string people along with a fake comment because you want to watch them squirm. You say something that you don't believe that will get people riled up.
I actually think that the person who modded it Troll is a Democrat who figures I'm an evil Republican who hates Hillary Clinton because I'm an evil Republican. Actually, that's not true. I can't imagine voting for a Republican, I want to vote for a peace candidate and a civil liberties candidate. Hillary Clinton is pro-war and anti-civil liberties, so why are the Democrats pushing her? If the Republicans decide to throw the next election by putting up the worst campaigner they can find, she might squeak in.
I really want to understand the logic of her candidacy among ordinary people like the kind of people who moderate Slashdot. Give me a list of positive accomplishments she's done as Senator. A stirring speech opposing the War in Iraq or the Bush administrations massive infringement on our civil liberties something. If you are a Hillary Clinton supporter, understand that I'm either going to vote for a third party candidate or the Democratic candidate in the next election. Why should I vote for her?
Left-libertarianism
Anyone think that Metal Slug is going to be better in 3D? I don't know about Working Designs as a company, but I believe what they said about Sony:
According to Harry Anderson, there are slots in Vegas that never payout, ever. These are usually located in convenience stores or other non-casino venues. You could put a million dollars worth of quarters in one and get nothing back. It was in his Games You Can't Lose book.
Rub Rabbits is a game that is designed to be played with your wife/girlfriend/cute girl next door... or all three if you choose (at different times, I expect!)
If RTSs are too fast moving, you could also try Turn Based Strategy such as Heroes of Might and Magic III.
My girlfriend doesn't like games, but if she did, I'd like the option of not playing against her... I could see that leading to tears.
Perhaps, like Walmart, he is a mix of the worst aspects of both....
Hot Chicks, Rock Music, Evil Masterminds, Superweapons, Giant Squids...
Sigh, Real Communists are so boring....
I propose the Damocles Amendment to the Constitution. Any politician who willfully supports or votes for obviously unconstitutional legislating gets chopped in half with a sword.
What does democracy have to do with Illinois politics?
If video games are found not to deserve First Amendment protection then laws can be made against them on a state level for any random reason. In this case, a law would be valid restricting video games because they incite violence in children but it would be just as valid if the argument is made that they incite violence in unstable adults.
The First Amendment, as it is currently in the Bill of Rights does not make exceptions for age, either it applies or it doesn't. (For example, obscenity is assumed to not have constitutional protection, the Supreme Court has simply said that it is difficult to define. The video games under discussion, though, such as GTA don't fall anywhere near the obscenity catagory. A transcript of the San Andreas story line, for instance, would be 100% protected speech, no question, as would a movie based on events from the game. The reason why TV is restricted is because the limited number of broadcast channels are licensed by the FCC and the license can be revoked if a broadcaster doesn't toe the line. Yeah, that's a weaselly scam, but that's the rational.)
In fact if this is the case, any state can make any law banning games, as they would no longer be assumed to have Constitutional protection. (For example, if games were considered a cause of obesity, low test scores, or ADD those would all be valid reasons for a ban as well. As would the reason, "we just don't like them in our state.")
It's true that alcohol isn't banned everywhere in the United States anymore, but there are still dry areas, including in Tennessee, unsurprisingly:
Alcohol has never been assumed to have constitutional protection, and the Amendment repealing Prohibition didn't change this, just made it no longer constitutionally banned.Rulings that have been made, and later overturned, against video games have argued that they are not speech or expression and therefore not entitled to First Amendment protection. However, so far, all such rulings have been over turned, so laws restricting video games are unconstitutional.
Oops, thought you were in the UK... not in my ancestral homeland... missed the sig.
1. Night of the Living Dead: Cooper (and Family) vs. Ben (and Friends)
2. Dawn of the Dead: Ex-SWAT & Reporter group vs. Biker Gang
3. Day of the Dead: Soldiers vs. Scientists (with a third faction, the Civilians, trying to ignore both).
4. Land of the Dead: Kaufman (and Militia) vs. Cholo (and Rogue Militia) vs. Poor of Pittsburgh vs. Smart Zombies (lead by Big Daddy)
I do a lot of things on impulse, it keeps life interesting.