Well, two of those competitors are Nintendo products, so really there are only three competitors. However, now onto the third revision (which still sounds like an aesthetic revision and not a technological one) maybe the note Nokia should be taking is, "get out of portable gaming!"
They're mucking around with a now outdated product that is only getting older. Maybe as a phone it'll do some business- with boosted gaming performance compared to other mobile phones- but it can never claim to be a true competitor to the DS and PSP (and has a small fraction of the GBA library of games).
If Nokia still wants a piece of this gaming pie, they'll need to drastically overhaul (like you said) the N-gage.
Well, if you look at their history, while they essentially resurrected the video games market, they also severely limited the game developers. In fact, it is this behavior that eventually led to their own fall. Indeed, Nintendo had a grip on home consoles in the 80s that would make Microsoft weep. Granted a grasp that was finally loosened by numerous law suits. A more loyal fanbase? certainly, but only at the cost of so many million more PS2s and Xboxes.
so you're saying that some of the DS's features are not going to counteract the game selection. OK, both have wireless gaming, but DS can cash in on the numerous GBA titles already out there (which is one of the reasons that I will actually be getting a DS). On top of it, I know the battery life will be good. On top of that, I know the sucker will be durable (a big plus for something portable). I imagine that most people who want to watch movies would buy it to play DVDs, not to have to buy a select few of their titles over. Thats a stupid move on Sony's part. Secondly, i like Nintendo's game selection. It may be "kid friendly," but generally they are great to play. These are just factors in favor of Nintendo. Not saying its no contest, obviously Sony knows how to ruin Nintendo's day.
Nintendo is still the big player in the portable game market, holding its own against the N-gage, Zodiac and other mobile phone-based games. This round is Nintendo's to lose.
You're obviously a little bitter, but you have a very good point in there. Nintendo has always not-supported its own peripherals. And it is glaringly obvious that having next-to-nothing as far as broadband play is really hurting them in the US.
However, Nintendo is far more succesful in Japan, and a lot of the products that see little to no use here are actually supported over there. During the N64 debacle, Nintendo ended up scaling back most of the peripheral development (you may recall the vaporware 644DD tape drive). I'm just thankful that Nintendo didn't go the Sega route and sacrifice true innovation for gimmicky extras.
But isn't that part of the idea behind Linux? That it will serve your needs because someone, somewhere is working on it?
The question here isn't that Linux can't support these soundcards (or other hardware) its that people still haven't chosen to support them. Now, being that these are commercial devices, they should have the proper Linux support included when you purchase it. But, if they don't support it out of the box, it should be up to the community (not necesarily you, but someone(or a group of someones) who knows how) to support it.
If you want Linux to truly topple Windows, then you must help people who don't know how to do it themselves.
Does the player have to be connected to a database over the internet? Only having 500 movies saved away is kind of a small selection, compared to the many thousands of films with objectionable content that could be put into the DVD player. Does this player have different "sensitivity" settings, where I could select it to render a film into a G-rating or PG, or PG13(allowing some swearing, or some violence, or some sexual things)? I know that borders on the current rating locks that can be set on most DVD players, but would be embraced by many parents. And of course, the question that really matters is how well does it actually work?
But they also say fuck and shit in the videogame. on top of that, you take control of a pornographic film company. So, really, its only ok, so long as you choose to kill the prostitute (granted its not real, but its still a choice:))
True, but there's a reason that that scene is in a movie. Imagine going to a "scary" movie with all the scare taken out of it simply because you now don't even have to cover your eyes. Its far scarier if you have to protect yourself from that which is unpleasent. The reason these movies get made(horror movies) is to make you feel unsafe. I suppose you do have the right to look away, but I don't think people should be so quick to embrace something that takes the edge out of harsh movies.
There are tons of great movies with little to no objectionable material. Stick to that. If you want something with grit, then you should agree to get a little dirty.
The only way that he could make a compelling third film is if he(Lucas) said "fuck it" and made a few interesting plot twists that may completely clash with Eps 4-6. At least, IMO. I don't think there's really any "hope"(haha) left in the franchise as far as the new movies. It would also be nice to see an "original cut" of Eps 4-6. (han shooting first, no jabba in Ep4, etc.) Just clean up the images, maybe touch up the blaster effects, and leave it at that.
Actually, I played a half-life mod that was placed in revolution era colonies/US (can't recall the name). It was really really fun. You had to really time your shots (which were still for more accurate than a real musket), and of course close quarters combat with a sword or bayonet was quite hilarious as we leaped at each other. The fact that the weapons were "diminished" required you to rely on your strength in numbers as well as coordinating movements. it was a great change of pace.
Actually, if it was possible to easily backup your dvds or games, I'm sure there would be more people who would legally do it. Just like people who used to copy their CDs to listen to in their cars or walkmen. Just as there are tons of people who want to play imported games on their domestic consoles (or foreign dvds on domestic players). Wouldn't having one standard for making these games and consoles be cheaper in the long run?
The other thing that seems missing in the article is any rationale to the practices of region encryption and the like are justified. he just says that people buy mod chips to play foreign games, and makes it sounds like there's something wrong with doing this. I cannot find any justifiable reason to not allow people to play games or watch movies from anywhere in the world. I can listen to a CD i bought in Japan, but I can't watch a DVD from Japan. Why not?
I've had this thought, and i think it could lead to a bit of "standardization" in the PC market. Isn't there, eventually, some sort of upward limit in video card power? I know you can always make them faster or more powerful (or other ambiguous terms) but at some point, how much power do you really need? At some point, programmers will be able to create, literally, just about anything on screen that they want visually with complete clarity and unflinching speed. I'm not saying this will happen in the next cycle of video cards, but I do feel that it could happen, thus reducing the hardware issue inherent in gaming. Is my thinking completely wrong here?
Yeah, but even if Nintendo is pumping out franchise titles (rather than completely original titles) you have to admit that they are really really good. Besides, its not like Xbox or PS2 are coming out of left field with new killer games. The lineups are still cluttered with remakes (Ninja Gaiden, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Splinter Cell, etc.) Nintendo's third party titles, while smaller than the other two companies, is formidable.
In the article, they clearly state that you can avoid detection from the RIAA if you disable sharing in Kazaa. Just because you aren't sharing your files doesn't mean that you can't download more files (though some people will cut you off).
I've seen this written in other newspapers as well (primarily college newpapers). On the one hand they state that its illegal, but at the same time saying "hey, save yourself the risk and continue your thievery, now you won't get caught!" The thing that these papers believe is wrong is getting the university in trouble, not file stealing/sharing.
I know this may just be filler, but the little game center in town just opened three or four months ago, and it seems pretty good. I haven't gone in, but that is simply because I can't spend $5 an hour playing Battlefield 1942.
First off, the name of the place is F.R.A.G (obvious reference to LAn parties, but they also turned it into an acronym, but i don't remember what it stands for). They have about 10 PCs in very stylish cases with large monitors. Walking through the place, you can tell they loaded every machine to really perform. They have them all lined up on one wall, along the other wall are three consoles (one PS2 and 2 Xboxes which are linked). On top of all that they also sell some hardware as well as offering PC repairs. There are two or three Imacs just for people who want to surf the web (which makes sense in this town, since we have no internet cafes). Of course they also sell snacks (mostly chips and that sort, obviously nothing too sticky). They also stock some high quality drinks (no alcohol, but Bawls and other "boutique" drinks like that). Overall the place is clean and well-lit. I've never seen the place packed, but I think this may be because most kids in a college town like this are either already playing these games in the dorms or they are just on their way to shop at Urban Outfitters or go drink. The one thing they need to do is have some sort of event to really get people's attention. It might also help if they lowered their prices or had a "first hit's free kind of deal (first hour or hour and a half is free, maybe coupons or something). Anyway, just giving you an idea of whats out there and how successful it is.
This is exactly why you don't see too many other schools jumping on the wagon. Here at Michigan State (another Big Ten school) the administration is looking rather sceptically at Penn State's actions. It (penn state's napster deal) essentially forces students into this service, which may or may not necesarily have all the songs they want. Not to mention that there are probably a portion of enrolled students who choose not to use the service (when you account for people off campus with slow connections or older students who don't care). And on top of that, it would seem that the university should be more concerned about academics and improving and maintaining real services (like enrollment or online classes).
note: I don't work for MSU's computer labs (though i am a student here), but I have heard from a few higher-ups in Administrative Information Services and from Libraries and Networks.
I think one of the scariest aspects of this game is that the creators' "...goal is to persuade the Recording Industry Association of America to distribute the game free to schools and students across the country."
This game sounds rather half-baked and unimaginative. I don't know too many kids that would sit through this game more than once. The use of the letters FBI is very misleading as the real FBI doesn't bring suits against file-sharers. And as one poster already pointed out, file copying and outright stealing and pillaging are two very different things. It doesn't look like the RIAA would be interested in such a silly (and rather misguided) game.
Wait until Sony comes out with a product that is actually new and not just trying to play catch-up with the Xbox. Got it.
Then again, this is a japan-only release, where the Xbox has sold relatively poorly compared to the GC and PS2. So what should any of us have to worry about?
The drug war and the file-sharing war are very different animals. No one has ever OD'd on music, nor is it generally considered harmful to your health. Not to mention this is a private organization going after people, and not the government. I have a feeling this won't work very well at all. For many of the reasons originally posted but primarily for the fact that they can't sue us all.
And by the way. Did that many people really believe that ad campaign? I thought it was a pretty widely known fact that most marijuana bought in the US is grown in the US.
I'm a big user of minidiscs, however I'm not a profesed "guru", but here's what I understand of ATRAC and MD:
Sony is currently using ATRAC3. It is capable of encoding up to 320 minutes of stereo audio at a bitrate of 36kbps. To quote from minidisc.org: "[ATRAC3]differs substantially from the original, existing ATRAC system, having twice the transform window size (1024 samples [23.2ms], vs. 512 samples [11.6ms]), encoding tone components separately from other spectra, splitting the input signal into 4 bands instead of 3, and using Huffman coding on the final bit stream to squeeze out redundancy." However, Sony has probably gone to a new version of ATRAC3 for this new application of writing to CDs. Sony has basically scrapped the idea of using minidiscs as a data storage medium, at least to the genral public. However, Sony did release a digital camera that wrote to MDdata discs, and there are some professional recorders that record multitrack MD data discs. It is interesting that they're only now starting to apply ATRAC technology outside of the MD format.
For more info on MD and ATRAC encoding, i reccomend Minidisc.org
In response to number 4 on your list. There are games manufacturers who do rush releases and have to make up for it in updates. The title may literally be only 75% done. This is especially true with MMORPGs, though it is rather common throughout game production already.
doesn't microsoft make more money from selling the OS than selling Xboxes? i really don't know, but i'm willing to guess that they can collect from either side. and possibly selling the OS is more cost effective.
I really don't think Mocrosoft is gonna be that concerned. Since Linux is basically free, offices can go ahead and keep linux. However, the international games industry is worth many billions of dollars. Microsoft will take the money however they can get it.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, two of those competitors are Nintendo products, so really there are only three competitors. However, now onto the third revision (which still sounds like an aesthetic revision and not a technological one) maybe the note Nokia should be taking is, "get out of portable gaming!"
They're mucking around with a now outdated product that is only getting older. Maybe as a phone it'll do some business- with boosted gaming performance compared to other mobile phones- but it can never claim to be a true competitor to the DS and PSP (and has a small fraction of the GBA library of games).
If Nokia still wants a piece of this gaming pie, they'll need to drastically overhaul (like you said) the N-gage.
Well, if you look at their history, while they essentially resurrected the video games market, they also severely limited the game developers. In fact, it is this behavior that eventually led to their own fall.
Indeed, Nintendo had a grip on home consoles in the 80s that would make Microsoft weep. Granted a grasp that was finally loosened by numerous law suits.
A more loyal fanbase? certainly, but only at the cost of so many million more PS2s and Xboxes.
so you're saying that some of the DS's features are not going to counteract the game selection. OK, both have wireless gaming, but DS can cash in on the numerous GBA titles already out there (which is one of the reasons that I will actually be getting a DS). On top of it, I know the battery life will be good. On top of that, I know the sucker will be durable (a big plus for something portable).
I imagine that most people who want to watch movies would buy it to play DVDs, not to have to buy a select few of their titles over. Thats a stupid move on Sony's part.
Secondly, i like Nintendo's game selection. It may be "kid friendly," but generally they are great to play. These are just factors in favor of Nintendo. Not saying its no contest, obviously Sony knows how to ruin Nintendo's day.
Nintendo is still the big player in the portable game market, holding its own against the N-gage, Zodiac and other mobile phone-based games. This round is Nintendo's to lose.
You're obviously a little bitter, but you have a very good point in there. Nintendo has always not-supported its own peripherals. And it is glaringly obvious that having next-to-nothing as far as broadband play is really hurting them in the US.
However, Nintendo is far more succesful in Japan, and a lot of the products that see little to no use here are actually supported over there. During the N64 debacle, Nintendo ended up scaling back most of the peripheral development (you may recall the vaporware 644DD tape drive).
I'm just thankful that Nintendo didn't go the Sega route and sacrifice true innovation for gimmicky extras.
But isn't that part of the idea behind Linux? That it will serve your needs because someone, somewhere is working on it? The question here isn't that Linux can't support these soundcards (or other hardware) its that people still haven't chosen to support them. Now, being that these are commercial devices, they should have the proper Linux support included when you purchase it. But, if they don't support it out of the box, it should be up to the community (not necesarily you, but someone(or a group of someones) who knows how) to support it. If you want Linux to truly topple Windows, then you must help people who don't know how to do it themselves.
Does the player have to be connected to a database over the internet? Only having 500 movies saved away is kind of a small selection, compared to the many thousands of films with objectionable content that could be put into the DVD player. Does this player have different "sensitivity" settings, where I could select it to render a film into a G-rating or PG, or PG13(allowing some swearing, or some violence, or some sexual things)? I know that borders on the current rating locks that can be set on most DVD players, but would be embraced by many parents.
And of course, the question that really matters is how well does it actually work?
But they also say fuck and shit in the videogame. on top of that, you take control of a pornographic film company. So, really, its only ok, so long as you choose to kill the prostitute (granted its not real, but its still a choice :))
Just me being the devils advocate
True, but there's a reason that that scene is in a movie. Imagine going to a "scary" movie with all the scare taken out of it simply because you now don't even have to cover your eyes. Its far scarier if you have to protect yourself from that which is unpleasent. The reason these movies get made(horror movies) is to make you feel unsafe.
I suppose you do have the right to look away, but I don't think people should be so quick to embrace something that takes the edge out of harsh movies.
There are tons of great movies with little to no objectionable material. Stick to that. If you want something with grit, then you should agree to get a little dirty.
The only way that he could make a compelling third film is if he(Lucas) said "fuck it" and made a few interesting plot twists that may completely clash with Eps 4-6. At least, IMO. I don't think there's really any "hope"(haha) left in the franchise as far as the new movies.
It would also be nice to see an "original cut" of Eps 4-6. (han shooting first, no jabba in Ep4, etc.) Just clean up the images, maybe touch up the blaster effects, and leave it at that.
David Brin wrote an article about what would help the series Its rather old, but it still is an interesting read.
Actually, I played a half-life mod that was placed in revolution era colonies/US (can't recall the name). It was really really fun. You had to really time your shots (which were still for more accurate than a real musket), and of course close quarters combat with a sword or bayonet was quite hilarious as we leaped at each other. The fact that the weapons were "diminished" required you to rely on your strength in numbers as well as coordinating movements. it was a great change of pace.
Actually, if it was possible to easily backup your dvds or games, I'm sure there would be more people who would legally do it. Just like people who used to copy their CDs to listen to in their cars or walkmen. Just as there are tons of people who want to play imported games on their domestic consoles (or foreign dvds on domestic players). Wouldn't having one standard for making these games and consoles be cheaper in the long run?
The other thing that seems missing in the article is any rationale to the practices of region encryption and the like are justified. he just says that people buy mod chips to play foreign games, and makes it sounds like there's something wrong with doing this.
I cannot find any justifiable reason to not allow people to play games or watch movies from anywhere in the world. I can listen to a CD i bought in Japan, but I can't watch a DVD from Japan. Why not?
A Boy and his Blob.
If feeding jelly beans to grant special powers to a friendly grey ball of slime isn't crazy, I don't know what is.
I've had this thought, and i think it could lead to a bit of "standardization" in the PC market. Isn't there, eventually, some sort of upward limit in video card power? I know you can always make them faster or more powerful (or other ambiguous terms) but at some point, how much power do you really need? At some point, programmers will be able to create, literally, just about anything on screen that they want visually with complete clarity and unflinching speed. I'm not saying this will happen in the next cycle of video cards, but I do feel that it could happen, thus reducing the hardware issue inherent in gaming. Is my thinking completely wrong here?
Yeah, but even if Nintendo is pumping out franchise titles (rather than completely original titles) you have to admit that they are really really good.
Besides, its not like Xbox or PS2 are coming out of left field with new killer games. The lineups are still cluttered with remakes (Ninja Gaiden, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, Splinter Cell, etc.) Nintendo's third party titles, while smaller than the other two companies, is formidable.
In the article, they clearly state that you can avoid detection from the RIAA if you disable sharing in Kazaa. Just because you aren't sharing your files doesn't mean that you can't download more files (though some people will cut you off).
I've seen this written in other newspapers as well (primarily college newpapers). On the one hand they state that its illegal, but at the same time saying "hey, save yourself the risk and continue your thievery, now you won't get caught!"
The thing that these papers believe is wrong is getting the university in trouble, not file stealing/sharing.
I know this may just be filler, but the little game center in town just opened three or four months ago, and it seems pretty good. I haven't gone in, but that is simply because I can't spend $5 an hour playing Battlefield 1942.
First off, the name of the place is F.R.A.G (obvious reference to LAn parties, but they also turned it into an acronym, but i don't remember what it stands for). They have about 10 PCs in very stylish cases with large monitors. Walking through the place, you can tell they loaded every machine to really perform. They have them all lined up on one wall, along the other wall are three consoles (one PS2 and 2 Xboxes which are linked).
On top of all that they also sell some hardware as well as offering PC repairs. There are two or three Imacs just for people who want to surf the web (which makes sense in this town, since we have no internet cafes). Of course they also sell snacks (mostly chips and that sort, obviously nothing too sticky). They also stock some high quality drinks (no alcohol, but Bawls and other "boutique" drinks like that).
Overall the place is clean and well-lit. I've never seen the place packed, but I think this may be because most kids in a college town like this are either already playing these games in the dorms or they are just on their way to shop at Urban Outfitters or go drink. The one thing they need to do is have some sort of event to really get people's attention. It might also help if they lowered their prices or had a "first hit's free kind of deal (first hour or hour and a half is free, maybe coupons or something). Anyway, just giving you an idea of whats out there and how successful it is.
This is exactly why you don't see too many other schools jumping on the wagon. Here at Michigan State (another Big Ten school) the administration is looking rather sceptically at Penn State's actions.
It (penn state's napster deal) essentially forces students into this service, which may or may not necesarily have all the songs they want. Not to mention that there are probably a portion of enrolled students who choose not to use the service (when you account for people off campus with slow connections or older students who don't care). And on top of that, it would seem that the university should be more concerned about academics and improving and maintaining real services (like enrollment or online classes).
note: I don't work for MSU's computer labs (though i am a student here), but I have heard from a few higher-ups in Administrative Information Services and from Libraries and Networks.
I think one of the scariest aspects of this game is that the creators' "...goal is to persuade the Recording Industry Association of America to distribute the game free to schools and students across the country."
This game sounds rather half-baked and unimaginative. I don't know too many kids that would sit through this game more than once. The use of the letters FBI is very misleading as the real FBI doesn't bring suits against file-sharers. And as one poster already pointed out, file copying and outright stealing and pillaging are two very different things. It doesn't look like the RIAA would be interested in such a silly (and rather misguided) game.
Wait until Sony comes out with a product that is actually new and not just trying to play catch-up with the Xbox. Got it. Then again, this is a japan-only release, where the Xbox has sold relatively poorly compared to the GC and PS2. So what should any of us have to worry about?
The drug war and the file-sharing war are very different animals. No one has ever OD'd on music, nor is it generally considered harmful to your health. Not to mention this is a private organization going after people, and not the government. I have a feeling this won't work very well at all. For many of the reasons originally posted but primarily for the fact that they can't sue us all.
And by the way. Did that many people really believe that ad campaign? I thought it was a pretty widely known fact that most marijuana bought in the US is grown in the US.
at the top there that should be 96kbps, not 36. guess i didn't recheck hard enough.
I'm a big user of minidiscs, however I'm not a profesed "guru", but here's what I understand of ATRAC and MD:
Sony is currently using ATRAC3. It is capable of encoding up to 320 minutes of stereo audio at a bitrate of 36kbps.
To quote from minidisc.org: "[ATRAC3]differs substantially from the original, existing ATRAC system, having twice the transform window size (1024 samples [23.2ms], vs. 512 samples [11.6ms]), encoding tone components separately from other spectra, splitting the input signal into 4 bands instead of 3, and using Huffman coding on the final bit stream to squeeze out redundancy." However, Sony has probably gone to a new version of ATRAC3 for this new application of writing to CDs.
Sony has basically scrapped the idea of using minidiscs as a data storage medium, at least to the genral public. However, Sony did release a digital camera that wrote to MDdata discs, and there are some professional recorders that record multitrack MD data discs. It is interesting that they're only now starting to apply ATRAC technology outside of the MD format.
For more info on MD and ATRAC encoding, i reccomend Minidisc.org
In response to number 4 on your list. There are games manufacturers who do rush releases and have to make up for it in updates. The title may literally be only 75% done. This is especially true with MMORPGs, though it is rather common throughout game production already.
doesn't microsoft make more money from selling the OS than selling Xboxes? i really don't know, but i'm willing to guess that they can collect from either side. and possibly selling the OS is more cost effective.
I really don't think Mocrosoft is gonna be that concerned. Since Linux is basically free, offices can go ahead and keep linux. However, the international games industry is worth many billions of dollars. Microsoft will take the money however they can get it.