A few days before the hack was noticed, over 200 SoE employees were laid off. It could be that Sony noticed that the PSN hack came from the SoE department, not that SoE itself was hacked.
Game developers/publishers already submit a long questionnaire and a video detailing every instance of everything that might affect the rating. They're already on their honor to do this honestly. All this move involves is removing the human element, which was intended to be objective anyways, and replace it with automated computer analysis. They honestly probably already have an algorithm to determine how many swears gives a Teen rating or Profanity label; counting the exact number can be done by voice recognition, if it's not already part of the questionnaire.
Cannibalizing sales from themselves is preferable to free downloads cannibalizing their sales. $10 cannibalizing $10 is better than $0 cannibalizing $10. Distributors don't care if their $10 comes from old or new songs. If you look at music sales, they ARE shrinking recently. The long tail of old music is apparently large enough to justify the lobbying dollars required to get these copyright extensions passed, as long as that is true they will keep lobbying for extensions.
I imagine it's less 'corruption' and more 'indoctrination'. Imagine a conversation going something like this: "When music goes into public domain, its potential for economic use is wasted. In order to maximize economic activity the copyright term on music needs to be lengthened." Throw in some statistics about the number of people employed in the music industry who remaster old music, and dollar amounts of how much is made from old music. Add some emotional pleas saying how poor old ladies like Yoko Ono etc. won't make any money from their relatives' legacy. Basically they argue that economic purposes always trump public good, because economy is more important than anything. They probably even believe it, too.
Unshielded ships may make female fetuses infertile by killing their eggs. This is no big deal if we're colonizing, say, Mars, as it's only a 6 month trip. If we had a generation ship going to Alpha Centauri this may be a problem, but that doesn't tie into Hawking's assertion that we need to colonize space. This is because colonizing another solar system before colonizing other bodies in our own solar system would be asinine. By the time we've colonized every planet and moon we can set foot on, we'll have the technology to shield our space ships from cosmic rays.
Big-name games that cost $10 million to develop and have $25 million marketing budgets aren't going to be $1 any time soon, the market just isn't large enough to sell 50 million+ copies, at any price. Only 50 million Xbox 360s have been sold, for reference.
The console makers set the licensing fee that publishers pay per disc, AFAIK it's a flat fee, so disc games will never be $1. Do you think Wal-Mart would bother stocking $1 games? They might set up a RedBox-style machine that spits out discs, but the shelf space used for the traditional route would no longer be feasible.
Publishers are running scared because they know the future is in digital distribution, and precedent is being set, while they're still on the fence twiddling their thumbs, for $1 games being the norm. This is problematic as $1 is a suboptimal price for many games, especially high-quality games with a massive advertising budget. The main reason it 'works' in the mobile phone space is due to the mechanics of toplists and how they're self-influencing. Console makers could halt this simply by eliminating the ability for end users to browse and download games via toplists. They could be replaced by alternative, possibly more complex lists.
For downloadable games with low (under $200k) budgets, it's alot iffier if a $1 standard is bad or not, as the market is definitely theoretically large enough to make it sustainable. When cellphones start coming out with analog sticks and buttons (like the PSP phone) and still have $1 games then I might start worrying.
Most vaccines present weakened viruses so that the body's immune system will know how to fight it. Once it's gained a +5 Antibody of Influenza-Slaying, it can defeat the higher-level flu viruses. This treatment is a substance that boosts T-cell count, so it doesn't only work as a vaccine.
In the anime 'a certain scientific railgun' something akin to electromagnetic waves emitted by human brains are manipulated to create a networked supercomputing cluster. Now it seems not so totally sci-fi. This probably also helps explain why powerful electromagnetic wave-emitting devices attached to the skull can disable specific parts of the brain in experiments used to e.g. treat/temporarily induce autism.
Only the special 'playpack' games can be played with this monthly flat fee, which is a portion of their total selection. Oddly, some games are available via the playpack but can't be otherwise played (purchased/rented) via OnLive.
Oftentimes when a government committee sets and recommends guidelines, another part of government makes a law turning the recommendation into a mandate. It's the reason why there's so much opposition to US bills that would declare English the national language: a day later it's passed, bills would be proposed making "the national language" the only one written on government forms, spoken in schools etc. Today they give power to parents, tomorrow they fine the parents for not using this power.
TFA says that those who play games are more likely to be involved in certain types of accidents, but doesn't say whether they controlled for age. The accidents they're more likely to be involved in? Running red lights, road rage, or "low-percentage passes" whatever that means. I suspect playing Gran Turismo doesn't lead to running red lights or road rage.
Make it clear what input you want from users, make it specific. If you just say "here's a forum, post your comments" then you'll get lots of random whining. If you try to implement every single idea mentioned in the forum it'll end up as design by committee, and maintaining one creator's vision is usually a better idea. Game designed by committee: Yet Another WW2 FPS. Game designed by visionary: Super Mario Galaxy. Which would you rather make? After a while look for someone with many well-thought-out posts and offer to make them an unpaid moderator. Check up periodically to make sure your mod isn't slacking off or godmodding, and have them email you every now and then summarizing users' legitimate gripes/bug reports/suggestions.
The article basically says that despite all the advancements for the genre, the starting area quests feel like more of the same from previous MMOs. That's not a minus so much as a "not so big of a plus". Personally I'm waiting to see what they do with the endgame, Bioware promised something secret and revolutionary years before it was revealed to be a Star Wars MMO. WoW's endgame (raiding) was designed by the leader of the lead hardcore raiding guild from Everquest, so MMO endgames have failed to evolve for the past 10 years.
Sony is/was losing money on every sale, banking on making it up in licensing fees from the games purchased for each console sold. When thousands of PS3s are used in applications like this, they're losing money subsidizing cheap supercomputing, which they're not interested in doing. The question is if the amount they're saving is more than they're losing from bad publicity and gamers' purchasing decisions hinging on OtherOS, I imagine it's about break even.
This is for server/enterprise usage, not consumer usage. That said, it could scale to the number of cores necessary to make realtime raytracing work at 60fps for computer games. Raytracing could be the killer app for cloud gaming services like OnLive, where the power to do it is unavailable for consumer computers, or prohibitively expensive. The only way Microsoft etc. would be able to have comparable graphics in a console in the next few years is if it were rental-only like the Neo-Geo originally was.
What if you could buy a code that unlocks your CPU's multiplier? Instead of buying a special K-model CPU with the multiplier unlocked at a $100 premium, you can buy the normal processor and then unlock it later if you want. Or you can get a cheaper code that unlocks the multiplier within a certain range, allowing for some but not extreme overclockability.
It's called consignment and it's a common way for indie musicians to get their CDs into music stores, so that the store doesn't take a risk buying something that won't sell. For Walmart it means they don't have to bargain-bin overstock, an arrangement I'm sure every retailer would enjoy if they had enough power to demand it.
Not with retail stores at least; you don't have to pay Calvin Klein because you never signed a contract with them. The only reason you have to pay Walmart is due to shoplifting laws, not contract law. Conversely, you signed a contract with Verizon and that presumably contained a contract with DirectTV as well buried in fine print, in another document they never sent you but you could've mailed to ask for, or was contained in those 'terms which we may change at our discretion without notifying you'.
Slashdot Mirror
A few days before the hack was noticed, over 200 SoE employees were laid off. It could be that Sony noticed that the PSN hack came from the SoE department, not that SoE itself was hacked.
Game developers/publishers already submit a long questionnaire and a video detailing every instance of everything that might affect the rating. They're already on their honor to do this honestly. All this move involves is removing the human element, which was intended to be objective anyways, and replace it with automated computer analysis. They honestly probably already have an algorithm to determine how many swears gives a Teen rating or Profanity label; counting the exact number can be done by voice recognition, if it's not already part of the questionnaire.
Cannibalizing sales from themselves is preferable to free downloads cannibalizing their sales. $10 cannibalizing $10 is better than $0 cannibalizing $10. Distributors don't care if their $10 comes from old or new songs.
If you look at music sales, they ARE shrinking recently. The long tail of old music is apparently large enough to justify the lobbying dollars required to get these copyright extensions passed, as long as that is true they will keep lobbying for extensions.
I imagine it's less 'corruption' and more 'indoctrination'.
Imagine a conversation going something like this: "When music goes into public domain, its potential for economic use is wasted. In order to maximize economic activity the copyright term on music needs to be lengthened."
Throw in some statistics about the number of people employed in the music industry who remaster old music, and dollar amounts of how much is made from old music. Add some emotional pleas saying how poor old ladies like Yoko Ono etc. won't make any money from their relatives' legacy.
Basically they argue that economic purposes always trump public good, because economy is more important than anything. They probably even believe it, too.
Unshielded ships may make female fetuses infertile by killing their eggs. This is no big deal if we're colonizing, say, Mars, as it's only a 6 month trip. If we had a generation ship going to Alpha Centauri this may be a problem, but that doesn't tie into Hawking's assertion that we need to colonize space. This is because colonizing another solar system before colonizing other bodies in our own solar system would be asinine. By the time we've colonized every planet and moon we can set foot on, we'll have the technology to shield our space ships from cosmic rays.
Government program undermined by Lowriders.
Big-name games that cost $10 million to develop and have $25 million marketing budgets aren't going to be $1 any time soon, the market just isn't large enough to sell 50 million+ copies, at any price. Only 50 million Xbox 360s have been sold, for reference.
The console makers set the licensing fee that publishers pay per disc, AFAIK it's a flat fee, so disc games will never be $1. Do you think Wal-Mart would bother stocking $1 games? They might set up a RedBox-style machine that spits out discs, but the shelf space used for the traditional route would no longer be feasible.
Publishers are running scared because they know the future is in digital distribution, and precedent is being set, while they're still on the fence twiddling their thumbs, for $1 games being the norm. This is problematic as $1 is a suboptimal price for many games, especially high-quality games with a massive advertising budget. The main reason it 'works' in the mobile phone space is due to the mechanics of toplists and how they're self-influencing. Console makers could halt this simply by eliminating the ability for end users to browse and download games via toplists. They could be replaced by alternative, possibly more complex lists.
For downloadable games with low (under $200k) budgets, it's alot iffier if a $1 standard is bad or not, as the market is definitely theoretically large enough to make it sustainable. When cellphones start coming out with analog sticks and buttons (like the PSP phone) and still have $1 games then I might start worrying.
Most vaccines present weakened viruses so that the body's immune system will know how to fight it. Once it's gained a +5 Antibody of Influenza-Slaying, it can defeat the higher-level flu viruses.
This treatment is a substance that boosts T-cell count, so it doesn't only work as a vaccine.
In the anime 'a certain scientific railgun' something akin to electromagnetic waves emitted by human brains are manipulated to create a networked supercomputing cluster. Now it seems not so totally sci-fi.
This probably also helps explain why powerful electromagnetic wave-emitting devices attached to the skull can disable specific parts of the brain in experiments used to e.g. treat/temporarily induce autism.
can we stop killing each other and focus on space exploration now?
No. Get back to work. - The Management
Only the special 'playpack' games can be played with this monthly flat fee, which is a portion of their total selection. Oddly, some games are available via the playpack but can't be otherwise played (purchased/rented) via OnLive.
Oftentimes when a government committee sets and recommends guidelines, another part of government makes a law turning the recommendation into a mandate. It's the reason why there's so much opposition to US bills that would declare English the national language: a day later it's passed, bills would be proposed making "the national language" the only one written on government forms, spoken in schools etc.
Today they give power to parents, tomorrow they fine the parents for not using this power.
You mean like a server setting its IPv6 IP to some kind of hash of its domain name?
TFA says that those who play games are more likely to be involved in certain types of accidents, but doesn't say whether they controlled for age. The accidents they're more likely to be involved in? Running red lights, road rage, or "low-percentage passes" whatever that means. I suspect playing Gran Turismo doesn't lead to running red lights or road rage.
Make it clear what input you want from users, make it specific. If you just say "here's a forum, post your comments" then you'll get lots of random whining. If you try to implement every single idea mentioned in the forum it'll end up as design by committee, and maintaining one creator's vision is usually a better idea. Game designed by committee: Yet Another WW2 FPS. Game designed by visionary: Super Mario Galaxy. Which would you rather make?
After a while look for someone with many well-thought-out posts and offer to make them an unpaid moderator. Check up periodically to make sure your mod isn't slacking off or godmodding, and have them email you every now and then summarizing users' legitimate gripes/bug reports/suggestions.
this is what happens when big companies with stockholders get innovative small outfits like bioware in their grip.
EA Exec: "You have failed me"
*throws Bioware's lifeless husk against the bulkhead*
The article basically says that despite all the advancements for the genre, the starting area quests feel like more of the same from previous MMOs. That's not a minus so much as a "not so big of a plus".
Personally I'm waiting to see what they do with the endgame, Bioware promised something secret and revolutionary years before it was revealed to be a Star Wars MMO. WoW's endgame (raiding) was designed by the leader of the lead hardcore raiding guild from Everquest, so MMO endgames have failed to evolve for the past 10 years.
Sony is/was losing money on every sale, banking on making it up in licensing fees from the games purchased for each console sold. When thousands of PS3s are used in applications like this, they're losing money subsidizing cheap supercomputing, which they're not interested in doing. The question is if the amount they're saving is more than they're losing from bad publicity and gamers' purchasing decisions hinging on OtherOS, I imagine it's about break even.
Coming soon: indium arsenide condoms!
captcha: seeding
This is for server/enterprise usage, not consumer usage. That said, it could scale to the number of cores necessary to make realtime raytracing work at 60fps for computer games. Raytracing could be the killer app for cloud gaming services like OnLive, where the power to do it is unavailable for consumer computers, or prohibitively expensive. The only way Microsoft etc. would be able to have comparable graphics in a console in the next few years is if it were rental-only like the Neo-Geo originally was.
That would only work if the center were a vacuum. Which would be pretty cool, until your CPU implodes.
What if you could buy a code that unlocks your CPU's multiplier? Instead of buying a special K-model CPU with the multiplier unlocked at a $100 premium, you can buy the normal processor and then unlock it later if you want. Or you can get a cheaper code that unlocks the multiplier within a certain range, allowing for some but not extreme overclockability.
Unlock codes aren't copyrightable, so wait until the required code is reverse-engineered
It's called consignment and it's a common way for indie musicians to get their CDs into music stores, so that the store doesn't take a risk buying something that won't sell. For Walmart it means they don't have to bargain-bin overstock, an arrangement I'm sure every retailer would enjoy if they had enough power to demand it.
Not with retail stores at least; you don't have to pay Calvin Klein because you never signed a contract with them. The only reason you have to pay Walmart is due to shoplifting laws, not contract law. Conversely, you signed a contract with Verizon and that presumably contained a contract with DirectTV as well buried in fine print, in another document they never sent you but you could've mailed to ask for, or was contained in those 'terms which we may change at our discretion without notifying you'.