Played it. Err, tried to play it. I don't know how it was for you, but for me it was very buggy, crash prone and had an extremely odd to use interface.
"At least we got some neat videogames out of the Matrix trilogy."
We did? I though Enter the Matrix was a piece of crap. Were there others? The MMO hasn't launched yet, and I can't believe there are people interested in playing it.
I won't argue the merits of the Star Wars universe, I admit it's pretty goofy and the last two movies lacked a lot of the fun factor that made the goofiness excusable in the first three. However, as far as games goes, I'd give the nod to Star Wars. Most of them have sucked, but several have been decent:
Battlefront (unbalanced, buggy, but oddly amusing) Republic Commando Knights of the Old Republic the X-Wing and Tie Fighter series
On the other hand, Force Commander was so bad it may just negate any good from other releases. And of course the MMO HAS launched and I can't believe there are people interested in playing it.
Which is how the old (1986) Newtek (pre video Toaster) Digiview Digitizer for the Amiga computer worked. You had one monochrome camera and attached a filter wheel to it. The filter wheel had red, green and blue filters. You took three pics and the software combined them into a color image. And yes kids that's how difficult it was to digitize porno mags back in the '80s.
"Here's a challenge for MMORPG makers... cut out the fucking grind and give us content all the way. Offline RPG makers can do it, why the fuck can't you?"
To be fair, single player offline RPGs tend to be much more linear. They do have a bit of grind, but obviously it's much less grind between story encounters.
And obviously, while you might power through a single player RPG in a couple weeks - a MMO company needs to keep you playing and paying for longer.
I'll have to read the article, but I hope it provides insight into the location and specs of the Suck located at Sony Online Entertainment. It's long been speculated that the Suck resides close to management, although others have argued that is was transferred to the support department. It may in fact be on a office routing list hitting each department in turn. I myself would venture a guess that is near or even attached to the Machine of EverGrind which could possibly be causing the Suck to increase in size.
"most people would follow a path of lesser resistance and just pay to have higher level chars"
Seeing as about the only reason to get to the higher levels is to experience the high level content once you have completed the low levels, it always struck me as odd that there are people who would want to just jump to the late game.
I can understand someone who has already grinded a character up to high level wanting a shortcut for a second character.
Your hypothesis is most definately correct. Evey post featuring the word "N-Gage" is in fact funny. Indeed studies have gone so far as to suggest upwards of 75% of all jokes would achieve much more laughter if their punch lines were simply replaced with the word "N-Gage".
"Warren: I never minded piracy. Anyone who minds about piracy is full of shit. Anyone who pirates your game wasn't going to buy it anyway!"
It might help that his games are huge bestsellers, but I much prefer this attitude to the "count every copy as a lost sale" mentality that the BSA uses in there numbers for the cost of piracy.
In this DRM headed world, how long before the media companies get congress to declare a "war on copyright infringement". Maybe we can start locking up people for an illicit copy of Doom 3. I guss they could hang out with the busted for a joint crowd.
The key phrase here is "in my opinion". Jackson had to make a lot of compromises to make this series successful. You may think that "it would take an active effort to make it bad to not make money" but the fantasy genre has always been a notably poor performer at the box office. In order to succeed financially Jackson had to create a movie which would appeal not to geeks, D&D players, fans of the LOTR books, but a movie with universal appeal.
The result is a series of movies that purists are always going to have problems with. Personally I was amazed by how people who usually were more interested in seeing the latest Vin Diesal action flick were drawn in to the story. The LOTR movies achieved a huge level of mainstream popularity. I also think that it's worth noting that it would have been hard to find a director willing to commit to such a harsh production schedule and willing to immerse himself in the source material. Jackson's dedication was impressive and I loved being able to anticipate each movie one year after another rather than waiting two or three years between them.
I also applaud the creation of the extended versions which are really a first in the DVD business, seeing as so much additional footage was taking through full production and added in. No he's not the best director ever, but he succeeded in a difficult task and the result however you may wish to discredit it is a hell of a lot better than those cartoons with the toad faced hobbits.
If I was ordered to pay $65 million and I got myself into the trouble the way he did of course I would do the same. I seriously doubt that would happen as I don't think I could ever ooze the same kind of slimy business tactics this man is capable of.
"Until he agreed to the $65 million settlement, Jain had avoided paying any claims out of his own pocket, according to interviews and court records. InfoSpace or insurance policies had covered the tab.
Jain is hoping he won't have to dip into his wallet for the $65 million judgment, either. He has hired new lawyers and is suing his old law firm, Perkins Coie, for legal malpractice. He says the insider-trading snafu was the firm's fault. "
SO he got a judgement against him for $65 million and is STILL trying to worm out of it by claiming he is incredibly stupid and that the law firm coerced him into insider trading.
"He further dismissed Marvel's claim for a judicial declaration that defendants are not an online service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which offers a degree of protection in such cases."
I never even would have thought of using that as a defense, although in retrospect I guess it makes a degree of sense.
This is the same protection afforded to ISPs that make them not liable for transfer of copyrighted materials over their connections.
The difference to me is that NCsoft is providing the tool (software) which is allegedly being used to create the infringing works whereas an ISP is merely the transport mechanism that could be used for illegal copyrighted works.
The comparison to the VCR case is very interesting as well. The VCR can also be used as a transport mechanism for duplication of illegal copyrighted works, but it is not a tool that can create materials that violate copyrights.
Go NCsoft! Throw Marvel out of the courtroom!
And for everyone who says that Marvel MUST file this lawsuit or risk losing rights to its intellectual property - if so how come we haven't seen identical suits filed by DC Comics and other superhero creators?
I worked at a dotcom company from 1996-1999. The company had horrible, spiteful management and an everchanging business plan. I worked long hours for what averaged out to little pay. We got no compensation for overtime. As a cynical joke I would hand out a glow in the dark alien sticker to each member of my team when they pulled their first 24+ hour shift. I was passionate about the job and invested a lot of myself into it. Both in work and emotionally. Bad mistake. I got fired in September of 1999 because of some arguments I had with management concerning lack of focus and a coherent business plan. Or I suppose from the management side it would be called insubordination. While I was distraught at the time, getting fired was the best thing that happened to me. In 99 my web skills were still highly valued and got me entry into a small company (12 employees) handling both Internet and general IT. 4 months after I was hired the dotcom bubble started to burst. I got to watch and laugh as the company I was formally with imploded and exploded in graphic detail. I got to go to the equipment auction when they finally folded and see all of the little alien head stickers on the computers. 5 years later and that little 12 man operation has grown to a group of seven companies totalling over 150 employees.
"As a game designer, I want to make games like these but I also like being able to buy food."
Absolutely. Just the same as in any other media, video games aren't any different. It's the same reason why we get crap churned out of Hollywood and have to look for the gems.
And just like Hollywood, so many of these games are produced very professionally with technically excellent design, but many of them lack (um for lack of a better term) soul. They just don't feel like anyone had fun MAKING the game or really had something novel they WANTED to express.
A game doesn't have to be completely off the wall and different to be good, as Half Life 2 has shown - I just bemoan the lack of attempts to try anything original. I'm kind of wondering how Sid Meier's Pirates is going to do on the Xbox. Sure it's based on an old game, but it seems so fresh because it plays so differently from anything else out there.
"On a side note, I think it would be very cool if they exposed the functionality to hackers more."
So do I! But I seriously doubt we will see something like that. They make the money off of the game licensing so they have no real interest in selling systems (at a loss) which will be used to run non-licensed software.
Jawas without cloaks! Hot Tusken on Tusken raiding! Watch as Mon Mothma shows Ackbar her trap! See Han's solo action! (He shoots first!) Steamy TK42 1 on 1 action! See Luke "bullseye" those wamp rats back on the farm! Find out which Jedi really has the biggest saber! Slave girls drunk on Qui Gon Jin!
As if being called "Tetris" stopped that game from being popular. I don't think there is a good American name for it - to be frank the game SOUNDS really stupid when you read about it. About the only thing they could have called it that would make any sense would be like "Roll Up". Maybe they should have just shortened it to Katamari. Then again "Metal Gear Solid Katamari World Eater" might have garnered more attention.
"The *actual* game of these games is just "make the number bigger", which is a very primitive goal (think Pac-Man). You're paying $10+ a month just to play Pac-Man.
Other games tend to have more complex goals, like "get to the next stage, see more of the world, advance the story"."
This isn't really a fair assessment of an MMO. Yes the core aspect of the game revolves around leveling, much as in an RPG. You can't kill the Foozle the Wizard until you've leveled up, acquired power magic items etc. Essentially you can't kill Foozle until you can make big enough numbers to reduce his big number while having bigger numbers to withstand his big number attacks.
In an MMO its the same way, you need to level in order to explore new areas of the game, fight new baddies, compete with in higher level PVP fights, do the high end quests etc. Yes there is no end game per se, but how can there be given the context of the game? You quit playing when you've seen enough, done enough that it's become boring to you or when something newer comes along. After World of Warcraft was released, I went through two disintegrating super groups on City of Heroes as players left for fresher pastures.
Sure there are players who just level for the sake of leveling. I see them all the time in City of Heroes. I just keep wondering why they want to power level to the cap as quick as possible without actually playing the game.
I've always avoided MMOs until City of Heroes came out and I've been playing it for about nine months now. I started out being crazy obsessed, but after awhile the NEED to play softened and I became a much more casual player. I think most people would fit in this category.
The one big element that noone ever seems to mention is the social one. For many people, the "game" aspects are less important than the social aspect. They've met people in game and it becomes a social outlet. So it isn't just game playing instead of watching TV, it's game playing instead of going out to a bar or club to socialize. In fact I would argue that the social aspect is largely what keeps people in a MMO inspite of any game play defects. I mean people STILL play Ultime Online.
As to the pay per month model. I have spent less money on games as a result of playing an MMO. $10-$15 a month is about $30 cheaper than a full price new game. I would say I typically would buy 2-4 new games a month. When I am heavily into an MMO it's maybe 0-1 other game purchases.
As for it being Pac-Man, while I enjoy Pac-Man, that is just plain silly. Aside from the amazing environments and dynamic team play, there is character growth and development just like an RPG. Getting new skills and powers that radically change how your character interacts with the world is a blast.
The only problem is the same as with offline gaming. If you are obsessed to the point where it is affecting your life in bad ways (relationships deteriorating, work suffering etc.) than you have a problem.
God, I'd really like to see some truly innovative game designs get released. Everyone seems to forget that before RTS and FPS became genres they came about from single games exploring a new space. I think the only really innovative game I've played recently is Katamari Damacy. And they released it here as a low cost title, I guess because they didn't think any Americans would want to play something so unusual. Hell, even the end credits were great!
While not exactly the same idea - there was a game called Portal (more like an interactive novel really) that came out in 1986 whith a similar device. You played an astronaut who returns to an empty planet Earth. You unravel the story of what happened through interacting with a global network called "WorldNet" (remember this game was pre Internet era). When I played the game back in the '80s I found it really unique. It was interesting to uncover the story elements by going through the databases. Another game of interest is Suspended, an Infocom text adventure. In this case you were the central intelligence in control of an automated planet. You get woken up from cryogenic suspension because, of course, all hell as broken loose with the automated computer systems. To find out what is wrong and fix it - you interacted with six robots each which had different functions (sight, hearing, computer access etc.). Gee, just thinking about how creative the concepts were in these games as well as the Emily Dickinson concepts is making me kind of depressed. I highly doubt anything like Suspended or Portal would get produced today - unless maybe you gave the protaganist a large rocket launcher. The same goes for Emily Dickinson, we'd end up with American McGee's Emily Dickinson. Now entering level "Funeral, in my Brain" - prepare to die Emily!
Hey! There really are free iPods! I got my iPod Mini absolutely free with no strings attached! All I had to do was attend a free Verizon seminar on VOIP and be lucky enough to win the door prize. Easy!
A good point... except who is it that get made into games? Are we likely to see a Will Smith FPS where he jiggys bad guys into being better people? I think the only Will Smith games you are gonna see are pickups from movie licenses where he has a gun (i.e. Bad Boys).
"You astutely noted Asian developers. Smarter people than you or I have written smarty stuff on why modern Japanese pop culture idolizes white Americans and I'd be doing it an injustice by trying to summarize it since I haven't read beyond the abstracts. If you're interested, I can point you in the right journals."
While I am aware of the "idolization" issues, quite a number of games, both Asian developed (Japan and Korea predominantly) and American developed games which use an Asian style, feature Asian protaganists. I would argue that this is far more common in video game media than it is in American TV or movies where Asian actors barely register on the radar.
Slashdot Mirror
Played it. Err, tried to play it. I don't know how it was for you, but for me it was very buggy, crash prone and had an extremely odd to use interface.
"At least we got some neat videogames out of the Matrix trilogy."
We did? I though Enter the Matrix was a piece of crap. Were there others? The MMO hasn't launched yet, and I can't believe there are people interested in playing it.
I won't argue the merits of the Star Wars universe, I admit it's pretty goofy and the last two movies lacked a lot of the fun factor that made the goofiness excusable in the first three. However, as far as games goes, I'd give the nod to Star Wars. Most of them have sucked, but several have been decent:
Battlefront (unbalanced, buggy, but oddly amusing)
Republic Commando
Knights of the Old Republic
the X-Wing and Tie Fighter series
On the other hand, Force Commander was so bad it may just negate any good from other releases.
And of course the MMO HAS launched and I can't believe there are people interested in playing it.
Which is how the old (1986) Newtek (pre video Toaster) Digiview Digitizer for the Amiga computer worked. You had one monochrome camera and attached a filter wheel to it. The filter wheel had red, green and blue filters. You took three pics and the software combined them into a color image.
And yes kids that's how difficult it was to digitize porno mags back in the '80s.
To be fair, single player offline RPGs tend to be much more linear. They do have a bit of grind, but obviously it's much less grind between story encounters.
And obviously, while you might power through a single player RPG in a couple weeks - a MMO company needs to keep you playing and paying for longer.
I'll have to read the article, but I hope it provides insight into the location and specs of the Suck located at Sony Online Entertainment.
It's long been speculated that the Suck resides close to management, although others have argued that is was transferred to the support department. It may in fact be on a office routing list hitting each department in turn.
I myself would venture a guess that is near or even attached to the Machine of EverGrind which could possibly be causing the Suck to increase in size.
Seeing as about the only reason to get to the higher levels is to experience the high level content once you have completed the low levels, it always struck me as odd that there are people who would want to just jump to the late game.
I can understand someone who has already grinded a character up to high level wanting a shortcut for a second character.
Your hypothesis is most definately correct. Evey post featuring the word "N-Gage" is in fact funny.
Indeed studies have gone so far as to suggest upwards of 75% of all jokes would achieve much more laughter if their punch lines were simply replaced with the word "N-Gage".
It might help that his games are huge bestsellers, but I much prefer this attitude to the "count every copy as a lost sale" mentality that the BSA uses in there numbers for the cost of piracy.
In this DRM headed world, how long before the media companies get congress to declare a "war on copyright infringement". Maybe we can start locking up people for an illicit copy of Doom 3. I guss they could hang out with the busted for a joint crowd.
The key phrase here is "in my opinion". Jackson had to make a lot of compromises to make this series successful. You may think that "it would take an active effort to make it bad to not make money" but the fantasy genre has always been a notably poor performer at the box office. In order to succeed financially Jackson had to create a movie which would appeal not to geeks, D&D players, fans of the LOTR books, but a movie with universal appeal.
The result is a series of movies that purists are always going to have problems with. Personally I was amazed by how people who usually were more interested in seeing the latest Vin Diesal action flick were drawn in to the story. The LOTR movies achieved a huge level of mainstream popularity.
I also think that it's worth noting that it would have been hard to find a director willing to commit to such a harsh production schedule and willing to immerse himself in the source material. Jackson's dedication was impressive and I loved being able to anticipate each movie one year after another rather than waiting two or three years between them.
I also applaud the creation of the extended versions which are really a first in the DVD business, seeing as so much additional footage was taking through full production and added in.
No he's not the best director ever, but he succeeded in a difficult task and the result however you may wish to discredit it is a hell of a lot better than those cartoons with the toad faced hobbits.
If I was ordered to pay $65 million and I got myself into the trouble the way he did of course I would do the same. I seriously doubt that would happen as I don't think I could ever ooze the same kind of slimy business tactics this man is capable of.
"Until he agreed to the $65 million settlement, Jain had avoided paying any claims out of his own pocket, according to interviews and court records. InfoSpace or insurance policies had covered the tab.
Jain is hoping he won't have to dip into his wallet for the $65 million judgment, either. He has hired new lawyers and is suing his old law firm, Perkins Coie, for legal malpractice. He says the insider-trading snafu was the firm's fault. "
SO he got a judgement against him for $65 million and is STILL trying to worm out of it by claiming he is incredibly stupid and that the law firm coerced him into insider trading.
"He further dismissed Marvel's claim for a judicial declaration that defendants are not an online service provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which offers a degree of protection in such cases."
I never even would have thought of using that as a defense, although in retrospect I guess it makes a degree of sense.
This is the same protection afforded to ISPs that make them not liable for transfer of copyrighted materials over their connections.
The difference to me is that NCsoft is providing the tool (software) which is allegedly being used to create the infringing works whereas an ISP is merely the transport mechanism that could be used for illegal copyrighted works.
The comparison to the VCR case is very interesting as well. The VCR can also be used as a transport mechanism for duplication of illegal copyrighted works, but it is not a tool that can create materials that violate copyrights.
Go NCsoft! Throw Marvel out of the courtroom!
And for everyone who says that Marvel MUST file this lawsuit or risk losing rights to its intellectual property - if so how come we haven't seen identical suits filed by DC Comics and other superhero creators?
I worked at a dotcom company from 1996-1999. The company had horrible, spiteful management and an everchanging business plan. I worked long hours for what averaged out to little pay. We got no compensation for overtime. As a cynical joke I would hand out a glow in the dark alien sticker to each member of my team when they pulled their first 24+ hour shift.
I was passionate about the job and invested a lot of myself into it. Both in work and emotionally. Bad mistake.
I got fired in September of 1999 because of some arguments I had with management concerning lack of focus and a coherent business plan. Or I suppose from the management side it would be called insubordination.
While I was distraught at the time, getting fired was the best thing that happened to me. In 99 my web skills were still highly valued and got me entry into a small company (12 employees) handling both Internet and general IT.
4 months after I was hired the dotcom bubble started to burst. I got to watch and laugh as the company I was formally with imploded and exploded in graphic detail. I got to go to the equipment auction when they finally folded and see all of the little alien head stickers on the computers.
5 years later and that little 12 man operation has grown to a group of seven companies totalling over 150 employees.
Absolutely. Just the same as in any other media, video games aren't any different. It's the same reason why we get crap churned out of Hollywood and have to look for the gems.
And just like Hollywood, so many of these games are produced very professionally with technically excellent design, but many of them lack (um for lack of a better term) soul. They just don't feel like anyone had fun MAKING the game or really had something novel they WANTED to express.
A game doesn't have to be completely off the wall and different to be good, as Half Life 2 has shown - I just bemoan the lack of attempts to try anything original. I'm kind of wondering how Sid Meier's Pirates is going to do on the Xbox. Sure it's based on an old game, but it seems so fresh because it plays so differently from anything else out there.
So do I! But I seriously doubt we will see something like that. They make the money off of the game licensing so they have no real interest in selling systems (at a loss) which will be used to run non-licensed software.
Jawas without cloaks!
Hot Tusken on Tusken raiding!
Watch as Mon Mothma shows Ackbar her trap!
See Han's solo action! (He shoots first!)
Steamy TK42 1 on 1 action!
See Luke "bullseye" those wamp rats back on the farm!
Find out which Jedi really has the biggest saber!
Slave girls drunk on Qui Gon Jin!
And yes finally Amidala with hot grits!
As if being called "Tetris" stopped that game from being popular.
I don't think there is a good American name for it - to be frank the game SOUNDS really stupid when you read about it. About the only thing they could have called it that would make any sense would be like "Roll Up".
Maybe they should have just shortened it to Katamari.
Then again "Metal Gear Solid Katamari World Eater" might have garnered more attention.
Other games tend to have more complex goals, like "get to the next stage, see more of the world, advance the story"."
This isn't really a fair assessment of an MMO. Yes the core aspect of the game revolves around leveling, much as in an RPG. You can't kill the Foozle the Wizard until you've leveled up, acquired power magic items etc. Essentially you can't kill Foozle until you can make big enough numbers to reduce his big number while having bigger numbers to withstand his big number attacks.
In an MMO its the same way, you need to level in order to explore new areas of the game, fight new baddies, compete with in higher level PVP fights, do the high end quests etc. Yes there is no end game per se, but how can there be given the context of the game? You quit playing when you've seen enough, done enough that it's become boring to you or when something newer comes along. After World of Warcraft was released, I went through two disintegrating super groups on City of Heroes as players left for fresher pastures.
Sure there are players who just level for the sake of leveling. I see them all the time in City of Heroes. I just keep wondering why they want to power level to the cap as quick as possible without actually playing the game.
I've always avoided MMOs until City of Heroes came out and I've been playing it for about nine months now. I started out being crazy obsessed, but after awhile the NEED to play softened and I became a much more casual player. I think most people would fit in this category.
The one big element that noone ever seems to mention is the social one. For many people, the "game" aspects are less important than the social aspect. They've met people in game and it becomes a social outlet. So it isn't just game playing instead of watching TV, it's game playing instead of going out to a bar or club to socialize. In fact I would argue that the social aspect is largely what keeps people in a MMO inspite of any game play defects. I mean people STILL play Ultime Online.
As to the pay per month model. I have spent less money on games as a result of playing an MMO. $10-$15 a month is about $30 cheaper than a full price new game. I would say I typically would buy 2-4 new games a month. When I am heavily into an MMO it's maybe 0-1 other game purchases.
As for it being Pac-Man, while I enjoy Pac-Man, that is just plain silly. Aside from the amazing environments and dynamic team play, there is character growth and development just like an RPG. Getting new skills and powers that radically change how your character interacts with the world is a blast.
The only problem is the same as with offline gaming. If you are obsessed to the point where it is affecting your life in bad ways (relationships deteriorating, work suffering etc.) than you have a problem.
"According to AA, two or three pints a night means you are an alcoholic."
Well accordin' to ma bleeding Scott and Irish heritage, two ta three pints a night is a bloody dry spell.
God, I'd really like to see some truly innovative game designs get released. Everyone seems to forget that before RTS and FPS became genres they came about from single games exploring a new space.
I think the only really innovative game I've played recently is Katamari Damacy. And they released it here as a low cost title, I guess because they didn't think any Americans would want to play something so unusual. Hell, even the end credits were great!
While not exactly the same idea - there was a game called Portal (more like an interactive novel really) that came out in 1986 whith a similar device. You played an astronaut who returns to an empty planet Earth. You unravel the story of what happened through interacting with a global network called "WorldNet" (remember this game was pre Internet era).
When I played the game back in the '80s I found it really unique. It was interesting to uncover the story elements by going through the databases.
Another game of interest is Suspended, an Infocom text adventure. In this case you were the central intelligence in control of an automated planet. You get woken up from cryogenic suspension because, of course, all hell as broken loose with the automated computer systems. To find out what is wrong and fix it - you interacted with six robots each which had different functions (sight, hearing, computer access etc.).
Gee, just thinking about how creative the concepts were in these games as well as the Emily Dickinson concepts is making me kind of depressed. I highly doubt anything like Suspended or Portal would get produced today - unless maybe you gave the protaganist a large rocket launcher. The same goes for Emily Dickinson, we'd end up with American McGee's Emily Dickinson. Now entering level "Funeral, in my Brain" - prepare to die Emily!
Hey! There really are free iPods! I got my iPod Mini absolutely free with no strings attached!
All I had to do was attend a free Verizon seminar on VOIP and be lucky enough to win the door prize.
Easy!
A good point... except who is it that get made into games?
Are we likely to see a Will Smith FPS where he jiggys bad guys into being better people?
I think the only Will Smith games you are gonna see are pickups from movie licenses where he has a gun (i.e. Bad Boys).
"You astutely noted Asian developers. Smarter people than you or I have written smarty stuff on why modern Japanese pop culture idolizes white Americans and I'd be doing it an injustice by trying to summarize it since I haven't read beyond the abstracts. If you're interested, I can point you in the right journals."
While I am aware of the "idolization" issues, quite a number of games, both Asian developed (Japan and Korea predominantly) and American developed games which use an Asian style, feature Asian protaganists. I would argue that this is far more common in video game media than it is in American TV or movies where Asian actors barely register on the radar.
Ah! Woooooo!
Jam on!
(grabs crotch to trigger special move)