No Offense to IT geeks or such, I mean I am one too. But that money should be gotten by the fees and funds. Do something where if you don't have a contract, it costs 10-20 more a month. But the phones SHOULD be free to do what I wish with them, true an unlocked phone should cost a little more, but let it be buyable. And let's have honesty in the cellphone providerswith the "true cost" of the cell phones. It's true latest tech won't be 50-100, but a Nokia low-end phone shouldn't be 100 bucks and 100 bucks off with a contract. It should be 20 and never change.. When I get a land line put in I don't have to get a specific phone to use with it, why is cellular so different? We made Sim card phones and they work great, but the problem is when you lock them you eliminated what made the Sim card phones so great...
One thing to remember is that most telcos when they start up DONT make profit, most COMPANIES don't make profit in the first year, people seem shocked when they don't. Why should we allow telcos to get away with these acts to make them different than a normal company?
Do you think Microsoft made a million bucks the first year? nope, they struggled for a long time. There was a time their only product was Basic on Altair, and people paid for their code and waited to recieve it. and then someone got the code themselves and shared it with friends who had already paid. Now did Microsoft accept this? nope. They screamed about piracy? But these people had already paid for the code, and had yet to get it?
The bottom line is basically this. All companies are the same, no matter the industry, with the exception of "intellectual property" companies (idea makers, and to an extent program makers) You will need to front money to allow your company to produce product X (whether it be cellular reception, or airplane parts) The first money you will recieve will NEVER pay off the money you paid for the equipment, but it should pay off the yearly depreciation for your equipment (not the initial depreciation though, which is a LOT) so in the first year you'll lose money because of the inital depreciation but you will see if you're making enough to go on. As you progress you'll make the same or more, depending on your business and workers, and as time goes on you'll make more and more money, but the fact remains no matter what industry you're likely not going to make money right of the gate. And this is a hard fact for people to realize. Acting like it is unfair doesn't make a difference, every major company had this problem, either with production of Intellectual profiting, manufacturing, or other stuff. The only thing I can say is that these companies and investors need to realize that a company is not a cash cow, and need to realize that not everyone is going to get rich in the first couple years just because you hear you are.
Blanket article. I get sick of this, yes the people who is going to flat out STEAL music which is also prone to shoplift (aka steal) and cheat, will of course use P2P now if they can.
But that's with any method, those who want to sample music or try music they can't buy (I still have yet to find a non import version of DJ Sammy's first album of which the RIAA gets nothing for that, and I can't find my copy of DJ Sammy's "Heaven album" so I grabbed that one so I still have my copy while I search for it.) arn't going to say "I use P2P, maybe I should cheat on the next test." or "I got that music for free, I know I'm going to steal this PS2 game."
The corrolation is INCORRECT. That's the problem.
The correct corrolation is more likely to be "Those who cheat and lie and try to steal when they can, will use P2P to steal music more efficently" (and remember that's likely going to be the guy with 30,000 music files all from American CDs)
Anyone interested in how corrolations are misleading, or other interesting but hard to swallow facts (note these facts are hard to swallow only because no one would believe it with out proof, but the proof is there and solid, and believable, though it's shocking), should check out a book Freakonomics, ISBN number 006073132X.
And here's the biggest problem with the article. That article is published in OTTAWA! so the people there arn't under american jurisdiction. It allows them to sample american music with out dealing with imported goods (yes it's considered imported)
have any of you ever tried to buy a phone from motorola directly? You can't. They don't sell them like that. Personally I'd rather buy phones from the makers, instead of the insanely marked up phones they sell the contracts with.
Phone's cost, 50-100 dollars. Mark up to make profit 10-20 dollars. Mark Up by companies to make contracts appealing, 50-100 dollars.
It's a bullshit industry because every cellular company is out there to get you into contracts by offering new phones instead of keeping a good old phone. That's one of the reasons T-mobile appeals to me and others, because they offer short 1 year contracts. Hopefully that one company won't change.
Ok so there's some good answers here already, but here's where it gets to be important.
NEVER rely on the fans, make a great game on your own with fan added content is the max you should do... Never rely on the gamer to make the game.
The important note here, is What Star Wars Galaxies has taught gamers. Basically when Star wars galaxies came out it relied on a name... (star wars) so people bought in, but there was NOTHING to do, all the beta people really didn't help, most people were given a site into it and they yawned.
So when the game came out it did poorly. What did the people who made the game say? That it was the fault of the PLAYERS! Honestly this is the exact reason they sited for the mmorpg's failing. This of course pissed off what fans they had and almost ended the game.
The biggest thing you must do as someone else meantioned? Don't piss off the fans, don't attack them, don't tell them not to do stuff. If you want a fan community, you need to realize you're going to have to give up some "rights" if people hack your game to change minor things, and they enjoy it, congradulate them. As long as they buy your game you should be happy with anyone who takes an interest in your game.
Another example I will give is World of Warcraft, now there's a "plague" apparently going on, sounds like it sucks, but when I saw that I was like "wait a second, SWEET!" they were letting a major glitch go because it acted like something else, and people enjoyed it. The major towns were screwed, but you know just by seeing that it made me interested, because the GMs and programmers were make a positive out of a negative, and giving everyone a good time as it goes. That alone is possibly the best thing you can do. Yes people died (but if you play WoW you know you don't lose much for death) but people probably had fun with it. Made the world a little less friendly but also made people enjoy it, and changed the dynamics of the game accidently. Overall I can't imagine anything they could have done any better when it's a glitch.
Basically three rules
Don't rely on your fans.
Don't take yourself too seriously. It will ruin your company straight out if in the game everything must be Serious. Even if it's a serious game, relax a bit sometimes.
The very idea of the Console, makes it near impossible. We don't need mods or huge online sections of the game, we just need enjoyable games. You make great games you get fans. Some examples of minor interaction are MGS (MGS2 has all tags from real people's names, might be only in substance) and We Love Katamari (basically the entire game is a thank you for the fans.) But some of the best games is the ones that people feel like they get a large choice system in different ways.
Look at Ratchet and Clank, you choose your weapon in each situation, no weapon is always great so it's fun, You choose which mission, what problem and so on to tackle. Same with Sly Cooper and to an extent Jak.
The whole idea now is that you need to make the consumer feel like they have a choice in the game, Morrowind really got a lot of leverage because the game developes around the character even before mods are put in, then you factor in mods and each game feels tailor made.
The whole point I'm making is that you need a game where the user feels like he has a say. Notice, NOT A choice such as buying a different version, those piss off people because your forcing a decision. A "say" is "whether I go to Azeroth now or in a couple hours after I check out this other new dungeon."
At least that's what I think will allow you to have a community, making each game a unique experience should go a long way with creating a community.
Episode 2 was released early a week early.. So by their logic every day it's released early loses them money right?
So now math time, 320 Million for Episode II Episode 3 gets 380... so each day a movie is out costs 10 Million.
So now let's apply that, there was a work print of boiler room I saw approximetly 6 monthes before it came out. By this math it's 1.2 Billion dollars that work print stole from that movie.
Every time that the MPAA claims losses for early releases and stuff like that I laugh, because it's ridiculious, don't they realize that it's getting meantioned for free by news organization, it means the film is wanted, I had a copy of Episode 2 5 days before it's release, I didn't watch it, some of my friends did, we all went to a Midnight (technically illegal, but they still don't stop those?) showing the night before of the official release and we still payed the over inflated prices.
Now let me show you true math, the effects of overblown hype.
Matrix 1 171 Million was received as a great movie, Matrix 2 281 Million was received as meh. Matrix 3 139 Million
So what do we see here? A great movie can overinflate the sequal by almost 200 percent. But a poor second movie will cut the profit of the hype by 50 percent or make the original numbers even lose money.
Now which is more likely? Episode II's early release lost it money, or the fact that Episode one was received as pure crap costed them almost 100 Million? (episode I easily broke 400, for 430 Million gross in america
And then Episode 2 was seen as a decent movie (not great so it's not going to double the money of the original) so 50 million MORE came in for episode 3?
Now proof of how a good movie helps? Lotr Fellowship 315m LOTR Two Towers 340m LOTR Return 377m.
So which do you think is it? piracy or the fact that a movie wasn't as good as the hype? I think these figures start to show you a different picture.
And if anyone doubts this?
Daredevil 105m Elektra 24m
All data was obtained by IMDB, it's Box Office Gross in America only.
Burnout revenge freaking rocked this year, it's not more of the same.. well it is, but that's ALL you need. More crashes, more areas, and more cars. That alone made this game a 10/10 in my book, the fact it's agressive high octane driving just gets my juices flowing every time I play a game in the series.
If it does go yearly the big improvements might get cut down but if the amount of tracks and type of tracks stay at this level it won't be bad.
The only problem it has is difficulty being low. but overall it was a very solid follow up to Burnout 3.
The other option is that it's going how some games go. MainGame, expansion, new MainGame, expansion. Similar to how GTA sorta did for the first and third game (if you call VC a expansion which it is in many ways)
Virtual Boy's failure was at the level where you would be expected to commit hari kari long ago. Granted the Japanese business enviroment has changed in the last century radically, but it still was a massive failure in the extremes (sorry to say but it was) and the shame gotten from it was horrible.
Remember in America a failure isn't critical to your career in some cases, Windows ME probably didn't get many people fired, in Japan a critical failure like that would likely have entire departments liquidated.
Though I have to sigh and say "at least Virtual Boy was a step in the right direction"
Actually with the 5 billion they spent on the Xbox last 4 years of which they made a net profit off of just the system and games(not counting the marketing if I remember right) of... oh wait it was a net loss. (Actually look at the numbers, it was)
I don't see a market campaign I liked from most companies, give us a commerical we can kick back and watch it that's a different situation, show a game and what not that's a consumable. Last I checked when I watched football, the commercials during the football game are quite entertaining.
What I wouldn't like is hearing about the commerical about how amazing it is and wonderful and how it will be out in 10 hours, then learning it's out, then looking at it, and finding out it's in Japanese and tells the story of the Peach boy (Momotaro?) Granted I would enjoy it but most people would be like "what the fuck"... (Granted this is in english but NOT for americans so why are we hearing about it?)
The latter is what Microsoft is hoping for. and that type of Marketing (which Microsoft does backflips for) never will appeal to me, I don't remember many Xbox game's adds that really interested me, though the Ps2 games have made me look up from what ever I'm doing.
Want to make me happy and buy your games? take that 5 Billion (8.4 for Xbox 360), cut the price of the system to 100 bucks or give me the system, guess what in that case I would be buying 3-5 games a year. Rather than leaving me free to ridicule the ads that you are paying the billions for. (no I don't think they would do it but it would help them sell more if they infused their system's budget with that money rather than trying to make us pay money for their system with the expensive ads)
Here's a hint. You don't release a site and have all the americans buzzing about it and then have it all be a EU based site. We know the EU and JPN are the target markets for Xbox 360, they don't need to really sell it here.
It's not Ecocentric, it's the fact that why not make it a global contest or a EU and USA contest, rather then just EU? I mean they basically say "We'll fly a European to America for the launch event". Last I checked the Internet was a global enviroment, not a EU only based one or a USA based one. If you want to make something exclusive meantion it somewhere before you have viewers fill out 3 forms giving info (in this case e-mail)
His Sequal at the heart was a "thank you" to the fans who loved the game. I gotta say it worked, it was the same as the original but different enough to be enjoy able, it was 10 bucks more than the original (30) but you know what? It was perfectly fine.
Too bad 90 percent of the articles is fluff, and almost none of it is about the creator. "Look people, People liked this game 'Katamari Damacy'" but what else should I expect from mtv.com?... Music? *cracks up*
YAWN! just like that other game where you had to guess passwords and stuff, it's another promotional bullshit site.
And let's dick over all American fans even though the site is a.com we'll make sure it's Europe only...
Seriously screw the Xbox 360 if this is they type of crap they do. They are trying to get a global audience, good, but it feels like America is about to get shafted by americans (as if Microsoft hasn't shafted Americans before?)
Anyone else getting sick of these promotions that the Xbox team has put together to tease and just annoy us just so everyone will talk about the xbox 360? Here's a hint team. If you have a good system (see PS2, PS3, Snes, Nes, and Gensis) you don't need to constantly remind people about your system.
Experience and prediction
on
Ask Sid Meier
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· Score: 1
You've been in the industry for over a decade and probably seen most everything, the short slow downs, the rapid improvements. In what ways has the industry evolved and in what ways have the gaming industry fallen according to you? And in which ways do you see the future really going in the long run?
There's a little difference between matching an old design and ripping it off. TR-1 didn't have the touch pad, or a view screen. The fact that they look the same is an homage if anything.
Look at the great books through history many of them are similar, especially in Sci Fi. Some are blantant rip off but others give honor to those they reference. There's a difference there and that's the difference between Windows and the Ipod. Windows has constantly ripped off the Macintosh's interface, and yet given no credit, acting like it's their own idea (as well as tabbed browsing, and other special features that they have "given" us) The TR 1 was a small device that played transmited music with a knob to tune, the Ipod is a small device that plays music stored on a 1 gig hard drive. Now to me that doesn't sound like a rip off, it's a homage they look similar.
I have to say the retro idea is a good move for the Ipod, that's worked in the past, and they just updated it to look better, feel better and work better. No one ever though a Transistor radio would do Mp3s or such and they wouldn't but something that looks similar that does what the Ipod does is ok in my book. Especially once I get my Time Machine working. 1950s here I come!!
Not only does it find SOME of my music I legally ripped (owning the CD) It only chose parts of those songs, it skips the ENTIRE japanese discographies (Katamari Damacy, second cd to full moon) but it also highlights some of the best of the best songs for Stepmania (not all the DDR songs I have but the "best") and all the mp3s for the VG mixes.
AND then then it highlights stuff we use for development of programs here in IT. And then to really make it dangerous it Includes all the windows bitmaps and such.
I can just see the phone calls now "you told me to use this to make sure Johnny wasn't pirating stuff, and now windows is crashing" "Umm Ma'am didn't you see the warning" "Yes but I was told to use this and now my computer doesn't work"
IFPI bit in the ass by their own suggestion, coming in 12 hours and counting.
Access for the sake of access doesn't help much. We don't need to have instant access to everything in the world, granted we should be able to get it but we don't need to be able to use it in ways such as these. As long as regulators can see stuff like this, the general populace doesn't need to. They can however see outcomes of certain cases and so on.
The problem is America is in the Information age (or the nano Tech age) and we are celebrating the fact that we can get so much information we don't think "should we be allowed to have this' Google earth is great, but it also can be used as a planning device (granted there are many other forms to use to plan stuff, so it shouldn't leave but we need to consider all usages)
It's the same level as leaving VNC on a computer with no password is fine, but you have to consider what can be done if they access that computer? That's what really gets people into trouble. And it's the same with Access.
Do we really need allow people to have complete access to such things as medical records, grades in school and so on? Privacy advocates would scream yes, but those who advocate access to information say no.
I have to say that those in power (IT or management) need to use their brain to figure out what can really help the US or their clients, rather then what's "easier" or creates less work for them.
Apparently after seeing Daikatana and Doom 3 (or Quake 3 which I didn't care for that much but was solid) You can see where each guy exceled during Doom started and where their falling was. (apparently i'd have to Carmacks was hiring Romero, and Romero's was over hyping his shit.)
You know I always loved to crash the planes in Flight Sim (my dad is a pilot) and I'm a big RPG fan.
Of course then again, while it was fun they never had a good animation, and for some reason those failures to thread the World Trade Centers... don't seem to be as "funny" as they were back then... ok they still are funny, but not as laugh out loud.
The problem is that most of the games you play that are action just are testies burners, not emotional escapes. An RPG has characters you work with for 20 hours or so, compare that to about the 5 hours you play most games, or the 10 hours for extremely long games? It's not the same. In fact look how much story there is in that 10 hours?
There are exceptions, such as MGS and MGS2 and MGS3 all of them fine for evoking emotions, but Hideo is a genius at that. But I don't know many games, or even RPGs that can evoke those emotions any more, FFX did well, Xenosaga always does good, but the fare we have now compared to some of those the SNES rpgs is poor. Though I have sorta loved Rachet and clank recently and it does move me at times.
It's all about the characters development, and story, not about the game, and that doesn't mean a emotional game is good, I love the testies burners too. But for a great game in my book I need great character dev, and great story.
Well duh, one of the studio's who made LOTR's Special Effects is involved in Evangelion, so of course Jackson can't be allowed to elave, and now we must punish him for King Kong!
And when is the Wackoski brothers going to start making Quake the Movie?
In the end they would attack anywhere, and a single launch, could cause a nuclear attack.
The problem with the change over was that it wasn't "that" peaceful (though your right relatively it was), tanks were mobilized in the street, there was attacks on goverment buildings. It's not about lifes being at stake, it's about loss of power. The people losing power knew they likely wouldn't gain power again easily, especially after the west's work to poison the name of Communism (My opinion is that it was a good idea, doesn't work, but doesn't mean all the propeganda was "ok")
We understand that many sides of war are human, it's something I pray commanders never forget, but that doesn't mean you don't fight the war. The people in Iraq are "defending their country" but the problem is they are murdering our people to do it and we're likely going to kill theirs if we need to. We're both human but the fact is war or power both have issues that run deeper then these things.
I'm sure if you polled everyone at the end of the Cold war "what are the communists" you'd hear more than a few people say "Dirty Evil Bastards, which we should kill them all". I'm sure they would have such nicities to say about us also.
It's more about the hatred and fear of them that we have harvested from the era's the predated us (mccarthism and such) than anything else.
But the fact is even if their was no chance of missles being shot at us, that makes the peacemakers useless (I'm sure we felt safer with them but it's like a twilight zone episode when we are ready to kill them and then we charge over there and we find out they starved out 20 years ago)
But this is all opinion, perhaps we will never know what saved us from this, and that's fine, but a good debate and opinions is always appreciated by me.
The only problem I have with the article is it didn't win the Cold War, it did help us in it. But the only way we "won" the cold war was not by our hand. When the USSR was falling apart and the end was nigh, it was by the grace of god that the leaders of the falling communist state, didn't just say "fuck it" and launch their missles.
It was by their work, not our work that the end was peaceful as it was, at that point it wasn't a deterent because look at them now, they lost everything, but they chose the peaceful means of leaving the office.
Granted the missles did deter them from attacking earlier, but to be honest it's a deterent, not a win in the columns. An important difference.
My point was really to say, that even though digital library might be the wave of the future, this guy doesn't have to worry, people will continue to buy books even if they are free online. (I'm considering purchasing the art of war if I find a good translation) I'm not saying Google is doing something wrong. In fact it can only help, but that it wouldn't destroy the book industry just because it's freely available. In it's height, I knew people that used Napster but still got CDs when they enjoyed the full CD.
I'm not discounting either side, I'm just saying there's a lot to say for the books, even though this one guy thinks it's the end for them.
I don't know if that's a clever jab at me (if so kudos, it made me smile) or a comment my post was poor (if so I don't see how)
My point is basically, while the library is good and all, it's not going to eradicate books, I still read many things in paper form. However stuff I don't save I'll read online, news I get faster online, and I don't care enough to pay for it (even though I'm in finace, yesterday's news is... well 24 hours late)
I belong to hundreds of forums, I keep a journal at livejournal.com but it's all passing, I do want to keep them mind you, but the journal is about thoughts, not really memories to me. (yes they are similar but I record my impressions instead of the moment or a trink to remind me what really happened, minor difference but important)
But I think there's still something to be said for a page of a book, rather then a text file (though they are both fine, they have different usages)
But for me, I need the paper, I've tried time and again to read a book online, I can get Art of War in about a million translations online, but I want a paper copy, because that one I bring on trips, I can feel the page, and I somehow feel more complete with the paper book.
I've read Mad on the computer, I own the 7 disc collection, but it's not the same, I can't do the fold in myself, try to figure out the joke, and laugh, it's all done for me, and it bores me. Most of the fun of flipping the page is missing, and the computer is a cold medium.
Let me get into that a minute, when I say cold I don't mean physically, I mean "spiritually". You come to a computer and it doesn't breath life when it pulls a page. Yes playing a game it definatly breaths a life all of it's own but when I read a book, I feel no life. Hell read a hand written composition from anyone and you're sure to get more life then any of those boring lifeless compositions you wrote in Highschool or College, where they force you to use a computer.
With hand writing you see the anger and the ferocity that people feel, the timidness, the self worth, and the genius of an author. Some of us including myself succeed because our hand writing will get almost violent to the point of illegability, but many people are hindered by the computer because the inner art of the word is almost completely lost.
Don't try to tell me about the warmth of the internet, I've never read a loving email that can match a simple handwritten letter. I can't match the love in it no matter how many words I use.
So we can see the computer or mass printing obviously will leave us lacking something. And then remove the paper all together and you lose another dynamic. Get an old book out of your closet, you smell the dust, perhaps see the water you spilt on it, a piece of food, or other memories. You might even remember you and a lover cuddling up reading your own books and holding each other, just from the paper. Google can't reproduce that, you can't cuddle up easily to read off a computer, maybe a PDA but there's no warmth, it's not organic, and it feels impure to read great old works on such technology to many people.
So for me at least I'll love the digital library in theory but I'll always want to buy complete copies of any books I want to read for anything more than a passing glance or reference because there's something that paper can handle where the computer loses it. I'll get knowledge about the book from google but there's still a person here who will buy the books anyways.
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No Offense to IT geeks or such, I mean I am one too. But that money should be gotten by the fees and funds. Do something where if you don't have a contract, it costs 10-20 more a month. But the phones SHOULD be free to do what I wish with them, true an unlocked phone should cost a little more, but let it be buyable. And let's have honesty in the cellphone providerswith the "true cost" of the cell phones. It's true latest tech won't be 50-100, but a Nokia low-end phone shouldn't be 100 bucks and 100 bucks off with a contract. It should be 20 and never change.. When I get a land line put in I don't have to get a specific phone to use with it, why is cellular so different? We made Sim card phones and they work great, but the problem is when you lock them you eliminated what made the Sim card phones so great...
One thing to remember is that most telcos when they start up DONT make profit, most COMPANIES don't make profit in the first year, people seem shocked when they don't. Why should we allow telcos to get away with these acts to make them different than a normal company?
Do you think Microsoft made a million bucks the first year? nope, they struggled for a long time. There was a time their only product was Basic on Altair, and people paid for their code and waited to recieve it. and then someone got the code themselves and shared it with friends who had already paid. Now did Microsoft accept this? nope. They screamed about piracy? But these people had already paid for the code, and had yet to get it?
The bottom line is basically this. All companies are the same, no matter the industry, with the exception of "intellectual property" companies (idea makers, and to an extent program makers) You will need to front money to allow your company to produce product X (whether it be cellular reception, or airplane parts) The first money you will recieve will NEVER pay off the money you paid for the equipment, but it should pay off the yearly depreciation for your equipment (not the initial depreciation though, which is a LOT) so in the first year you'll lose money because of the inital depreciation but you will see if you're making enough to go on. As you progress you'll make the same or more, depending on your business and workers, and as time goes on you'll make more and more money, but the fact remains no matter what industry you're likely not going to make money right of the gate. And this is a hard fact for people to realize. Acting like it is unfair doesn't make a difference, every major company had this problem, either with production of Intellectual profiting, manufacturing, or other stuff. The only thing I can say is that these companies and investors need to realize that a company is not a cash cow, and need to realize that not everyone is going to get rich in the first couple years just because you hear you are.
Blanket article. I get sick of this, yes the people who is going to flat out STEAL music which is also prone to shoplift (aka steal) and cheat, will of course use P2P now if they can.
But that's with any method, those who want to sample music or try music they can't buy (I still have yet to find a non import version of DJ Sammy's first album of which the RIAA gets nothing for that, and I can't find my copy of DJ Sammy's "Heaven album" so I grabbed that one so I still have my copy while I search for it.) arn't going to say "I use P2P, maybe I should cheat on the next test." or "I got that music for free, I know I'm going to steal this PS2 game."
The corrolation is INCORRECT. That's the problem.
The correct corrolation is more likely to be "Those who cheat and lie and try to steal when they can, will use P2P to steal music more efficently" (and remember that's likely going to be the guy with 30,000 music files all from American CDs)
Anyone interested in how corrolations are misleading, or other interesting but hard to swallow facts (note these facts are hard to swallow only because no one would believe it with out proof, but the proof is there and solid, and believable, though it's shocking), should check out a book Freakonomics, ISBN number 006073132X.
And here's the biggest problem with the article. That article is published in OTTAWA! so the people there arn't under american jurisdiction. It allows them to sample american music with out dealing with imported goods (yes it's considered imported)
have any of you ever tried to buy a phone from motorola directly? You can't. They don't sell them like that. Personally I'd rather buy phones from the makers, instead of the insanely marked up phones they sell the contracts with.
Phone's cost, 50-100 dollars.
Mark up to make profit 10-20 dollars.
Mark Up by companies to make contracts appealing, 50-100 dollars.
It's a bullshit industry because every cellular company is out there to get you into contracts by offering new phones instead of keeping a good old phone. That's one of the reasons T-mobile appeals to me and others, because they offer short 1 year contracts. Hopefully that one company won't change.
Ok so there's some good answers here already, but here's where it gets to be important.
NEVER rely on the fans, make a great game on your own with fan added content is the max you should do... Never rely on the gamer to make the game.
The important note here, is What Star Wars Galaxies has taught gamers. Basically when Star wars galaxies came out it relied on a name... (star wars) so people bought in, but there was NOTHING to do, all the beta people really didn't help, most people were given a site into it and they yawned.
So when the game came out it did poorly. What did the people who made the game say? That it was the fault of the PLAYERS! Honestly this is the exact reason they sited for the mmorpg's failing. This of course pissed off what fans they had and almost ended the game.
The biggest thing you must do as someone else meantioned? Don't piss off the fans, don't attack them, don't tell them not to do stuff. If you want a fan community, you need to realize you're going to have to give up some "rights" if people hack your game to change minor things, and they enjoy it, congradulate them. As long as they buy your game you should be happy with anyone who takes an interest in your game.
Another example I will give is World of Warcraft, now there's a "plague" apparently going on, sounds like it sucks, but when I saw that I was like "wait a second, SWEET!" they were letting a major glitch go because it acted like something else, and people enjoyed it. The major towns were screwed, but you know just by seeing that it made me interested, because the GMs and programmers were make a positive out of a negative, and giving everyone a good time as it goes. That alone is possibly the best thing you can do. Yes people died (but if you play WoW you know you don't lose much for death) but people probably had fun with it. Made the world a little less friendly but also made people enjoy it, and changed the dynamics of the game accidently. Overall I can't imagine anything they could have done any better when it's a glitch.
Basically three rules
Don't rely on your fans.
Don't take yourself too seriously. It will ruin your company straight out if in the game everything must be Serious. Even if it's a serious game, relax a bit sometimes.
NEVER attack your fans with laws.
The very idea of the Console, makes it near impossible. We don't need mods or huge online sections of the game, we just need enjoyable games. You make great games you get fans. Some examples of minor interaction are MGS (MGS2 has all tags from real people's names, might be only in substance) and We Love Katamari (basically the entire game is a thank you for the fans.) But some of the best games is the ones that people feel like they get a large choice system in different ways.
Look at Ratchet and Clank, you choose your weapon in each situation, no weapon is always great so it's fun, You choose which mission, what problem and so on to tackle. Same with Sly Cooper and to an extent Jak.
The whole idea now is that you need to make the consumer feel like they have a choice in the game, Morrowind really got a lot of leverage because the game developes around the character even before mods are put in, then you factor in mods and each game feels tailor made.
The whole point I'm making is that you need a game where the user feels like he has a say. Notice, NOT A choice such as buying a different version, those piss off people because your forcing a decision. A "say" is "whether I go to Azeroth now or in a couple hours after I check out this other new dungeon."
At least that's what I think will allow you to have a community, making each game a unique experience should go a long way with creating a community.
Episode 2 was released early a week early.. So by their logic every day it's released early loses them money right?
So now math time, 320 Million for Episode II Episode 3 gets 380... so each day a movie is out costs 10 Million.
So now let's apply that, there was a work print of boiler room I saw approximetly 6 monthes before it came out. By this math it's 1.2 Billion dollars that work print stole from that movie.
Every time that the MPAA claims losses for early releases and stuff like that I laugh, because it's ridiculious, don't they realize that it's getting meantioned for free by news organization, it means the film is wanted, I had a copy of Episode 2 5 days before it's release, I didn't watch it, some of my friends did, we all went to a Midnight (technically illegal, but they still don't stop those?) showing the night before of the official release and we still payed the over inflated prices.
Now let me show you true math, the effects of overblown hype.
Matrix 1 171 Million was received as a great movie,
Matrix 2 281 Million was received as meh.
Matrix 3 139 Million
So what do we see here? A great movie can overinflate the sequal by almost 200 percent. But a poor second movie will cut the profit of the hype by 50 percent or make the original numbers even lose money.
Now which is more likely? Episode II's early release lost it money, or the fact that Episode one was received as pure crap costed them almost 100 Million? (episode I easily broke 400, for 430 Million gross in america
And then Episode 2 was seen as a decent movie (not great so it's not going to double the money of the original) so 50 million MORE came in for episode 3?
Now proof of how a good movie helps?
Lotr Fellowship 315m
LOTR Two Towers 340m
LOTR Return 377m.
So which do you think is it? piracy or the fact that a movie wasn't as good as the hype? I think these figures start to show you a different picture.
And if anyone doubts this?
Daredevil 105m
Elektra 24m
All data was obtained by IMDB, it's Box Office Gross in America only.
Burnout revenge freaking rocked this year, it's not more of the same.. well it is, but that's ALL you need. More crashes, more areas, and more cars. That alone made this game a 10/10 in my book, the fact it's agressive high octane driving just gets my juices flowing every time I play a game in the series.
If it does go yearly the big improvements might get cut down but if the amount of tracks and type of tracks stay at this level it won't be bad.
The only problem it has is difficulty being low. but overall it was a very solid follow up to Burnout 3.
The other option is that it's going how some games go. MainGame, expansion, new MainGame, expansion. Similar to how GTA sorta did for the first and third game (if you call VC a expansion which it is in many ways)
Virtual Boy's failure was at the level where you would be expected to commit hari kari long ago. Granted the Japanese business enviroment has changed in the last century radically, but it still was a massive failure in the extremes (sorry to say but it was) and the shame gotten from it was horrible.
Remember in America a failure isn't critical to your career in some cases, Windows ME probably didn't get many people fired, in Japan a critical failure like that would likely have entire departments liquidated.
Though I have to sigh and say "at least Virtual Boy was a step in the right direction"
Actually with the 5 billion they spent on the Xbox last 4 years of which they made a net profit off of just the system and games(not counting the marketing if I remember right) of ... oh wait it was a net loss. (Actually look at the numbers, it was)
I don't see a market campaign I liked from most companies, give us a commerical we can kick back and watch it that's a different situation, show a game and what not that's a consumable. Last I checked when I watched football, the commercials during the football game are quite entertaining.
What I wouldn't like is hearing about the commerical about how amazing it is and wonderful and how it will be out in 10 hours, then learning it's out, then looking at it, and finding out it's in Japanese and tells the story of the Peach boy (Momotaro?) Granted I would enjoy it but most people would be like "what the fuck"... (Granted this is in english but NOT for americans so why are we hearing about it?)
The latter is what Microsoft is hoping for. and that type of Marketing (which Microsoft does backflips for) never will appeal to me, I don't remember many Xbox game's adds that really interested me, though the Ps2 games have made me look up from what ever I'm doing.
Want to make me happy and buy your games? take that 5 Billion (8.4 for Xbox 360), cut the price of the system to 100 bucks or give me the system, guess what in that case I would be buying 3-5 games a year. Rather than leaving me free to ridicule the ads that you are paying the billions for. (no I don't think they would do it but it would help them sell more if they infused their system's budget with that money rather than trying to make us pay money for their system with the expensive ads)
Here's a hint. You don't release a site and have all the americans buzzing about it and then have it all be a EU based site. We know the EU and JPN are the target markets for Xbox 360, they don't need to really sell it here.
It's not Ecocentric, it's the fact that why not make it a global contest or a EU and USA contest, rather then just EU? I mean they basically say "We'll fly a European to America for the launch event". Last I checked the Internet was a global enviroment, not a EU only based one or a USA based one. If you want to make something exclusive meantion it somewhere before you have viewers fill out 3 forms giving info (in this case e-mail)
His Sequal at the heart was a "thank you" to the fans who loved the game. I gotta say it worked, it was the same as the original but different enough to be enjoy able, it was 10 bucks more than the original (30) but you know what? It was perfectly fine.
... Music? *cracks up*
Too bad 90 percent of the articles is fluff, and almost none of it is about the creator. "Look people, People liked this game 'Katamari Damacy'" but what else should I expect from mtv.com?
YAWN! just like that other game where you had to guess passwords and stuff, it's another promotional bullshit site.
.com we'll make sure it's Europe only...
And let's dick over all American fans even though the site is a
Seriously screw the Xbox 360 if this is they type of crap they do. They are trying to get a global audience, good, but it feels like America is about to get shafted by americans (as if Microsoft hasn't shafted Americans before?)
Anyone else getting sick of these promotions that the Xbox team has put together to tease and just annoy us just so everyone will talk about the xbox 360? Here's a hint team. If you have a good system (see PS2, PS3, Snes, Nes, and Gensis) you don't need to constantly remind people about your system.
You've been in the industry for over a decade and probably seen most everything, the short slow downs, the rapid improvements. In what ways has the industry evolved and in what ways have the gaming industry fallen according to you? And in which ways do you see the future really going in the long run?
There's a little difference between matching an old design and ripping it off. TR-1 didn't have the touch pad, or a view screen. The fact that they look the same is an homage if anything.
Look at the great books through history many of them are similar, especially in Sci Fi. Some are blantant rip off but others give honor to those they reference. There's a difference there and that's the difference between Windows and the Ipod. Windows has constantly ripped off the Macintosh's interface, and yet given no credit, acting like it's their own idea (as well as tabbed browsing, and other special features that they have "given" us) The TR 1 was a small device that played transmited music with a knob to tune, the Ipod is a small device that plays music stored on a 1 gig hard drive. Now to me that doesn't sound like a rip off, it's a homage they look similar.
I have to say the retro idea is a good move for the Ipod, that's worked in the past, and they just updated it to look better, feel better and work better. No one ever though a Transistor radio would do Mp3s or such and they wouldn't but something that looks similar that does what the Ipod does is ok in my book. Especially once I get my Time Machine working. 1950s here I come!!
Not only does it find SOME of my music I legally ripped (owning the CD) It only chose parts of those songs, it skips the ENTIRE japanese discographies (Katamari Damacy, second cd to full moon) but it also highlights some of the best of the best songs for Stepmania (not all the DDR songs I have but the "best") and all the mp3s for the VG mixes.
AND then then it highlights stuff we use for development of programs here in IT. And then to really make it dangerous it Includes all the windows bitmaps and such.
I can just see the phone calls now "you told me to use this to make sure Johnny wasn't pirating stuff, and now windows is crashing" "Umm Ma'am didn't you see the warning" "Yes but I was told to use this and now my computer doesn't work"
IFPI bit in the ass by their own suggestion, coming in 12 hours and counting.
Access for the sake of access doesn't help much. We don't need to have instant access to everything in the world, granted we should be able to get it but we don't need to be able to use it in ways such as these. As long as regulators can see stuff like this, the general populace doesn't need to. They can however see outcomes of certain cases and so on.
The problem is America is in the Information age (or the nano Tech age) and we are celebrating the fact that we can get so much information we don't think "should we be allowed to have this' Google earth is great, but it also can be used as a planning device (granted there are many other forms to use to plan stuff, so it shouldn't leave but we need to consider all usages)
It's the same level as leaving VNC on a computer with no password is fine, but you have to consider what can be done if they access that computer? That's what really gets people into trouble. And it's the same with Access.
Do we really need allow people to have complete access to such things as medical records, grades in school and so on? Privacy advocates would scream yes, but those who advocate access to information say no.
I have to say that those in power (IT or management) need to use their brain to figure out what can really help the US or their clients, rather then what's "easier" or creates less work for them.
Apparently after seeing Daikatana and Doom 3 (or Quake 3 which I didn't care for that much but was solid) You can see where each guy exceled during Doom started and where their falling was. (apparently i'd have to Carmacks was hiring Romero, and Romero's was over hyping his shit.)
Sweet, Jokes about Duke Nukem Forever are getting old, and look here comes Romero to be the butt of our jokes again!
You know I always loved to crash the planes in Flight Sim (my dad is a pilot) and I'm a big RPG fan.
Of course then again, while it was fun they never had a good animation, and for some reason those failures to thread the World Trade Centers... don't seem to be as "funny" as they were back then... ok they still are funny, but not as laugh out loud.
The problem is that most of the games you play that are action just are testies burners, not emotional escapes. An RPG has characters you work with for 20 hours or so, compare that to about the 5 hours you play most games, or the 10 hours for extremely long games? It's not the same. In fact look how much story there is in that 10 hours?
There are exceptions, such as MGS and MGS2 and MGS3 all of them fine for evoking emotions, but Hideo is a genius at that. But I don't know many games, or even RPGs that can evoke those emotions any more, FFX did well, Xenosaga always does good, but the fare we have now compared to some of those the SNES rpgs is poor. Though I have sorta loved Rachet and clank recently and it does move me at times.
It's all about the characters development, and story, not about the game, and that doesn't mean a emotional game is good, I love the testies burners too. But for a great game in my book I need great character dev, and great story.
Well duh, one of the studio's who made LOTR's Special Effects is involved in Evangelion, so of course Jackson can't be allowed to elave, and now we must punish him for King Kong!
And when is the Wackoski brothers going to start making Quake the Movie?
In the end they would attack anywhere, and a single launch, could cause a nuclear attack.
The problem with the change over was that it wasn't "that" peaceful (though your right relatively it was), tanks were mobilized in the street, there was attacks on goverment buildings. It's not about lifes being at stake, it's about loss of power. The people losing power knew they likely wouldn't gain power again easily, especially after the west's work to poison the name of Communism (My opinion is that it was a good idea, doesn't work, but doesn't mean all the propeganda was "ok")
We understand that many sides of war are human, it's something I pray commanders never forget, but that doesn't mean you don't fight the war. The people in Iraq are "defending their country" but the problem is they are murdering our people to do it and we're likely going to kill theirs if we need to. We're both human but the fact is war or power both have issues that run deeper then these things.
I'm sure if you polled everyone at the end of the Cold war "what are the communists" you'd hear more than a few people say "Dirty Evil Bastards, which we should kill them all". I'm sure they would have such nicities to say about us also.
It's more about the hatred and fear of them that we have harvested from the era's the predated us (mccarthism and such) than anything else.
But the fact is even if their was no chance of missles being shot at us, that makes the peacemakers useless (I'm sure we felt safer with them but it's like a twilight zone episode when we are ready to kill them and then we charge over there and we find out they starved out 20 years ago)
But this is all opinion, perhaps we will never know what saved us from this, and that's fine, but a good debate and opinions is always appreciated by me.
wow 71 foot tall, 8 diametere and 10 warheads.
The only problem I have with the article is it didn't win the Cold War, it did help us in it. But the only way we "won" the cold war was not by our hand. When the USSR was falling apart and the end was nigh, it was by the grace of god that the leaders of the falling communist state, didn't just say "fuck it" and launch their missles.
It was by their work, not our work that the end was peaceful as it was, at that point it wasn't a deterent because look at them now, they lost everything, but they chose the peaceful means of leaving the office.
Granted the missles did deter them from attacking earlier, but to be honest it's a deterent, not a win in the columns. An important difference.
My point was really to say, that even though digital library might be the wave of the future, this guy doesn't have to worry, people will continue to buy books even if they are free online. (I'm considering purchasing the art of war if I find a good translation) I'm not saying Google is doing something wrong. In fact it can only help, but that it wouldn't destroy the book industry just because it's freely available. In it's height, I knew people that used Napster but still got CDs when they enjoyed the full CD.
I'm not discounting either side, I'm just saying there's a lot to say for the books, even though this one guy thinks it's the end for them.
I don't know if that's a clever jab at me (if so kudos, it made me smile) or a comment my post was poor (if so I don't see how)
My point is basically, while the library is good and all, it's not going to eradicate books, I still read many things in paper form. However stuff I don't save I'll read online, news I get faster online, and I don't care enough to pay for it (even though I'm in finace, yesterday's news is... well 24 hours late)
I belong to hundreds of forums, I keep a journal at livejournal.com but it's all passing, I do want to keep them mind you, but the journal is about thoughts, not really memories to me. (yes they are similar but I record my impressions instead of the moment or a trink to remind me what really happened, minor difference but important)
But I think there's still something to be said for a page of a book, rather then a text file (though they are both fine, they have different usages)
But for me, I need the paper, I've tried time and again to read a book online, I can get Art of War in about a million translations online, but I want a paper copy, because that one I bring on trips, I can feel the page, and I somehow feel more complete with the paper book.
I've read Mad on the computer, I own the 7 disc collection, but it's not the same, I can't do the fold in myself, try to figure out the joke, and laugh, it's all done for me, and it bores me. Most of the fun of flipping the page is missing, and the computer is a cold medium.
Let me get into that a minute, when I say cold I don't mean physically, I mean "spiritually". You come to a computer and it doesn't breath life when it pulls a page. Yes playing a game it definatly breaths a life all of it's own but when I read a book, I feel no life. Hell read a hand written composition from anyone and you're sure to get more life then any of those boring lifeless compositions you wrote in Highschool or College, where they force you to use a computer.
With hand writing you see the anger and the ferocity that people feel, the timidness, the self worth, and the genius of an author. Some of us including myself succeed because our hand writing will get almost violent to the point of illegability, but many people are hindered by the computer because the inner art of the word is almost completely lost.
Don't try to tell me about the warmth of the internet, I've never read a loving email that can match a simple handwritten letter. I can't match the love in it no matter how many words I use.
So we can see the computer or mass printing obviously will leave us lacking something. And then remove the paper all together and you lose another dynamic. Get an old book out of your closet, you smell the dust, perhaps see the water you spilt on it, a piece of food, or other memories. You might even remember you and a lover cuddling up reading your own books and holding each other, just from the paper. Google can't reproduce that, you can't cuddle up easily to read off a computer, maybe a PDA but there's no warmth, it's not organic, and it feels impure to read great old works on such technology to many people.
So for me at least I'll love the digital library in theory but I'll always want to buy complete copies of any books I want to read for anything more than a passing glance or reference because there's something that paper can handle where the computer loses it. I'll get knowledge about the book from google but there's still a person here who will buy the books anyways.