Somebody said to me that George should just cut together a 45-minute special effects feature (like the Terminator 3D ride at Universal Studios) and call it what it is; a CGI ride.
Stop trying to shove this square peg into the round hole of drama and cinema; that's not what it is any more. This is not about human drama and character and emotion any more than the Bond films are about international politics. The action scenes don't dazzle because they're charged with emotion for the characters; they dazzle because of the technology, the pretty lights.
That's not a bad thing; I'm a sucker for fireworks. But save us the time; don't try to force awkward romance scenes, cobbled together from scenes from other movies into your effects feature. Do what you do best, George. Give us the ride and save us the hour and a half of plot setup.
That was of course flamebait, but allow me to foolishly respond:
More people are living better now on this Earth than at any time in its history.
Medicine is far more advanced and plentiful than at any time in the world's history.
Uncontaminated water is more plentiful and readily available than at any time in the world's history.
Uncontaminated food is more plentiful and readily available than at any time in the world's history.
Electricity and labor-saving devices are more plentiful and readily available than at any time in the world's history.
The average life span of a human behind is higher now than at any time in the world's history.
It's a wonderful time to be a alive.
Of course people are suffering... that is always true, and always has been. But technology has made billions of lives easier and in some ways more fulfilling than ever before.
Literacy is more widely spread than ever before. The great books are more readily available to common people than ever before.
You say VCR's are standardized. As in, they all play the same tapes.
I look at the GC game shelf. I see:
Super Smash Brothers. Wave Race. Tony Hawk. SSX Tricky. Madden Football. Crazy Taxi. A nice lineup of Sega games.
I look at the X-Box shelf. I see:
Halo. Tony Hawk. SSX Tricky. Madden Football. A nice lineup of Sega games.
I look at the PS2:
FF X. Tony Hawk. SSX Tricky, Madden Football,a nice lineup of Sega games...
Get my point? Soon you'll be able to play 80% of the world's software library regardless of which console you buy. The only difference will be a few unique games and extra features (want DVD playback? Want a hard drive? Spend a little more for a different console. Want a better picture, better sound, more features? Spend a little more for a better VCR).
And don't get me started on PC gaming. I put in 16 hours trying to fix Max Payne issues on my PC before I got it running smoothly (new video card drivers! Download the patch! Check their message board for a workaround! Call tech support! Reinstall Windows! Download the latest version of DirectX!!!) Screw that. Let me pop in Halo or Perfect Dark or MGS2 and go. Plug and play, baby.
If it weren't for the Starcrafts and Civ III's of the world I wouldn't do PC gaming at all... somebody explain to me again why those games can't be done on the X-Box?
I have friends who think that... who say that regardless of my recent GameCube purchase, two years from now I'll buy an X-Box. Not because I want to.. but becaue I'll have to.
He figures by then MS will have offered Square 100 million to make X-Box exclusives... they'll be the only Console with the Matrix 2 game... they'll buy EA... Nintendo will dump the GC to become an X-Box software developer.
I personally think Microsoft is big, but not that big... this is a massive market and even a player with the weight of MicroSoft will have trouble just buying up all of Main street.
But at the same time I'm shocked at the way they've thrown around cash to muscle (or buy) their way into this market. $500 million buys a hell of a lot of marketing... and it's no coincidence that my local software retailer had a HUGE X-Box display and kiosk, and only a tiny poster advertising GameCube in back of the store.
I think I mentioned that somewhere below... can anyone tell me why Wal-Mart is excluded?
My local software-specialty stores and Toys R Us and Target have been sold out of GC's for weeks... but my local Wal-Mart keeps getting them in again and again. I don't know if that really means anything in the long run, but Nintendo does seem to make Wal-Mart a priority for their shipments (their target audience, kids, are more likely to go to Wal-Mart than Electronics Boutique).
Either way I don't think Nintendo will have any problem getting a good-sized user base in place.
Nintendo insists those are sell-through numbers. But who can trust them? They claim their initial shipment of 700,000 (150,000 of which went to rental places like Blockbuster, display kiosks, and the Mexican and Canadian market) sold out in the first two weeks and that they have sold - to consumers - more than 800,000 total.
If that's true then that is the fastest Nintendo has ever gotten rid of 800,000 TV consoles. If it's true.
Let me ask you this. Nintendo complained when NPD released their figures (which mirrored the article exactly, making me think they're using the same research) that they didn't take department stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart into account, that they only surveyed speciality retailers like Babbages and Electronics Boutique and whatnot, and that Wal-Mart is in fact the biggest seller of GameCubes.
I have no way of knowing if that really matters or if that would change the numbers, but I can say that while my local Target, Babbages, and EB have been sold out of GC's for weeks, they keep reappearing on the shelves of my local Wal-Mart (as in, Nintendo is making Wal-Mart a priority for shipments).
To me the most shocking part of the article is the horrifying rate at which the game industry is growing (did they say 36% this year!?!?!)
What that means for the console race... well once upon a time selling 700,000 consoles in 3 weeks was something to smile about... now that puts you in a distant third place. Even with the pie split three ways, the individual pieces are now bigger than the whole pie was ten years ago.
So there is plenty of room for three players. If in the long run Nintendo "only" sells 12 million GameCubes as opposed to Microsoft's 18 million and Sony's 23 million, I think there will be plenty of profit to be had.
So to ask which console will "win" the console wars is like asking which VCR manufacturer will "win" the VCR wars. The market is too big for that now. In fact, come 2005 I wouldn't be shocked to find a couple of more players in the ring...
...but not with the GameCube. According to the big N the Gameboy Advance has sold 20% more units in that span than any of the hook-to-a-TV consoles.
That would indicate about 1.2 million in sales (if Nintendo is to be believed; I haven't heard any independent data) and would also back up Nintendo's claim that they've sold as many total game machines as both of their competitors combined (with the GC and GBA).
So don't be surprised if from their position in "third place" they wind up making more profit this year than either of their competitors.
True, for some it's just petty dick measuring (my console is kicking your console's ass!!)
But for me I keep a close eye on the sales because I know the software makers won't support a failed machine. Thus, I could end up with a Saturn/Dreamcast where there are some great games for two years and then the system is dead. Bad deal for those who spent hundreds on the system.
No, if I'm gonna buy a Gamecube, I want to be SURE that good games will still be coming out for Christmas 2004. I want that return on my investment. I don't want another 3DO.
So, yeah, I watch to make sure the console is selling and people are supporting it. If the N64 had died right away, sure I still would have gotten Goldeneye... but would I have gotten Perfect Dark or Majora's Mask? I don't think so. The user base wouldn't have been big enough to make it worth the risk. And if the N64 had had playstation-like sales, wouldn't Nintendo have been more willing to do another Mario game for it? And wouldn't Square have been more tempted to make games for it?
I was at the super bowl, and passed by their face-scanning cameras. Unfortunately for me, there was an arrest warrant out at the time for Antonio Banderas. And sure enough, when the system scanned my mug, a red flag popped up.
"Come with us, Antonio," said the security guys as they hustled me away, my shirt falling open to reveal my sweatily perfect pectoral muscles.
"You've got the wrong guy!" I pleaded, helplessly.
"Yeah, yeah. Your perfectly formed abdominal muscles won't save you now, Antonio."
It took two weeks to straighten it out. Ladies and gentlemen, Big Brother is here.
Though that theory doesn't explain all network stereotypes. Why, for instance, is every single gay character depicted as a clean, good-hearted, middle-class, sassy best-friend type?
Just give me one good evil gay crime boss. That's all I ask.
I haven't been able to access hotmail for the last 11 hours. That's by far the longest outage I've seen in my 3 years of using it, checking it several times a day. I've never seen it down for more than a couple of hours. THIS IS A STORY, GUYS. There are MILLIONS of us Hotmail users.
Is something I'm working on for my site, where when a person logs in, the server detects cross-references their IP address with a national database of bank accounts. Then, for each click, the system automatically withdraws $1.00 from their checking account. Then, at the end of each month a statement is sent to the users notifying them of how much they have spent, so they can keep track.
This system would be totally invisible to the reader, and would not interfere with the content in any way (no distractions like banner ads, or annoying notification that the transaction is taking place at all). Everybody would be happy.
What good is it to have tiny nukes if we have no ability to deliver them to other planets, where hostile alien races are sure to be setting up a similar attack on us? We must strike first to establish humanity's supremacy in the galaxy, and a super-fast spaceship with horrifyingly destructive weapons is the first step.
The two-party system has advantages. First of all, it almost ensures that the winner be the MAJORITY winner. That's important in a democracy, to know that (or to at least think that) most of us supported this guy, so he's the man. Think of the problems that would be caused by these election results:
Bush 26%
Gore 21%
Nader 18%
Buchanan 13%
Browne 6 %
Trump 4 %
Other 3 %
The guy ruling the country only has 26% support? That's the stuff revolutions are made of, and this is the type of thing a limited party system avoids. Trust me, it's very intentional.
Also, the two-party system is around because it makes things simpler. Who has the time to research a field of 45 candidates, none of whom can be easily categorized? Only a select few.
Under the system we have, without looking into things at all you can get a general sense of what each guy stands for, just by the fact that one guy has an elephant next to his name and the other guy has a donkey. We Americans are busy people, with a lot on our minds. We need our simplicity now and then.
No, I don't understand why a Republican has to be opposed to abortion, in favor of the death penalty, and in favor of lower taxes, all at the same time. What do those three issues have to do with each other? Nothing. Yet a republican is expected to support all three. And Democrats are the same way. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense. And yes, in a way, it works.
Again, we can't just look at the system and say it's bad; we have to ask ourselves if another system would work better. And I have yet to hear any suggestions that make me want to scrap the one we have.
"...But give me liberty, the right to walk down the streets and say what I want, to not live in fear of violence..."
Make up your mind. If you truly want to walk down the street without fear of violence, then give the authorities the ability to punish the violent. Bush isn't the one who makes you afraid to walk down the street; it's the murderers who walk out of prison unpunished. The men Bush had killed were killers themselves.
Don't you get it? Because of the iron-fisted rule of the evil corporations, I only have a $2,000 PC instead of a $5,000 one. I don't know what "highest standard of living" utopia you live in, but my television screen is a tiny 19 inches corner to corner. I don't have a home theater system; just a cheapie $199.99 DVD player attached to some old speakers. I'm lucky if I get to eat out once a week.
Capitalism has failed. Any system that can only provide me a six year-old car, and my wife an eight year-old car, is broken. My dishwasher makes a funny rattling noise when I run it. My central air heating/air conditioning unit will have to be replaced in the next five years. This is not a society, my friend. This is a scarred, blackened, Hellish wasteland. How we have survived this long is truly a testimony to the human spirit.
IT is time for the common man to revolt. No longer should most of us have to put up with measely 56K connections and 50-channel basic cable. That computer I mentioned earlier? A Packard Bell. That's right. With an S3 Virge video card.
Indeed, this is truly one million times worse than the Blade Runner future horror we have all feared. DAMN YOU, MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS!!!!!!!!
It's about time we got rid of that old morality thing anyway. It really doesn't serve a purpose anymore.
In these modern, enlightened times (we have the INTERNET now!) there is no reason to limit things like porn, objectification of women, sex with strangers, sex with multiple partners, sex with children, sex with animals, sex with family members, out of wedlock births, teen pregnancies...
... rape...
...and so on. Therefore, we need to get our children into the world of porn NOW, so they will be properly trained for this new society.
So, yeah, it's about time we got rid of those "legacy systems" and installed this new, upgraded system of amoral anarchy. Then we will finally be free!!
Should we also have an armed revolution because little kids can't get into porno theaters and live strip shows?
There's no censorship there... just keeping the kids out of the sex game until they're old enough to handle it. So don't go grabbing your gun and 'Don't Tread On Me' snake flag yet, cowboy.
defending everyone else...
on
Trigger Happy
·
· Score: 2
Absolutely. Same with cars, too. I think it's outrageous that the average idiot can drive a car simply by operating a steering wheel and a gas pedal.
The user interface for a car should be made so complex that only experienced mechanics can drive them. Sure, almost all of you will have to go to school for a few years to learn how, but that's just the price you should have to pay for your driving privileges.
Slashdot Mirror
Ugh. Thank you George Lucas for jumping on Hollywood's nipple bandwagon.
Somebody said to me that George should just cut together a 45-minute special effects feature (like the Terminator 3D ride at Universal Studios) and call it what it is; a CGI ride.
Stop trying to shove this square peg into the round hole of drama and cinema; that's not what it is any more. This is not about human drama and character and emotion any more than the Bond films are about international politics. The action scenes don't dazzle because they're charged with emotion for the characters; they dazzle because of the technology, the pretty lights.
That's not a bad thing; I'm a sucker for fireworks. But save us the time; don't try to force awkward romance scenes, cobbled together from scenes from other movies into your effects feature. Do what you do best, George. Give us the ride and save us the hour and a half of plot setup.
That was of course flamebait, but allow me to foolishly respond:
More people are living better now on this Earth than at any time in its history.
Medicine is far more advanced and plentiful than at any time in the world's history.
Uncontaminated water is more plentiful and readily available than at any time in the world's history.
Uncontaminated food is more plentiful and readily available than at any time in the world's history.
Electricity and labor-saving devices are more plentiful and readily available than at any time in the world's history.
The average life span of a human behind is higher now than at any time in the world's history.
It's a wonderful time to be a alive.
Of course people are suffering... that is always true, and always has been. But technology has made billions of lives easier and in some ways more fulfilling than ever before.
Literacy is more widely spread than ever before. The great books are more readily available to common people than ever before.
And here's why.
You say VCR's are standardized. As in, they all play the same tapes.
I look at the GC game shelf. I see:
Super Smash Brothers. Wave Race. Tony Hawk. SSX Tricky. Madden Football. Crazy Taxi. A nice lineup of Sega games.
I look at the X-Box shelf. I see:
Halo. Tony Hawk. SSX Tricky. Madden Football. A nice lineup of Sega games.
I look at the PS2:
FF X. Tony Hawk. SSX Tricky, Madden Football,a nice lineup of Sega games...
Get my point? Soon you'll be able to play 80% of the world's software library regardless of which console you buy. The only difference will be a few unique games and extra features (want DVD playback? Want a hard drive? Spend a little more for a different console. Want a better picture, better sound, more features? Spend a little more for a better VCR).
And don't get me started on PC gaming. I put in 16 hours trying to fix Max Payne issues on my PC before I got it running smoothly (new video card drivers! Download the patch! Check their message board for a workaround! Call tech support! Reinstall Windows! Download the latest version of DirectX!!!) Screw that. Let me pop in Halo or Perfect Dark or MGS2 and go. Plug and play, baby.
If it weren't for the Starcrafts and Civ III's of the world I wouldn't do PC gaming at all... somebody explain to me again why those games can't be done on the X-Box?
Just imagine the above post a couple of inches down, as a response to Merlin's, and it will make more sense.
Or not.
I have friends who think that... who say that regardless of my recent GameCube purchase, two years from now I'll buy an X-Box. Not because I want to.. but becaue I'll have to.
He figures by then MS will have offered Square 100 million to make X-Box exclusives... they'll be the only Console with the Matrix 2 game... they'll buy EA... Nintendo will dump the GC to become an X-Box software developer.
I personally think Microsoft is big, but not that big... this is a massive market and even a player with the weight of MicroSoft will have trouble just buying up all of Main street.
But at the same time I'm shocked at the way they've thrown around cash to muscle (or buy) their way into this market. $500 million buys a hell of a lot of marketing... and it's no coincidence that my local software retailer had a HUGE X-Box display and kiosk, and only a tiny poster advertising GameCube in back of the store.
Money and influence. But still...
I think I mentioned that somewhere below... can anyone tell me why Wal-Mart is excluded?
My local software-specialty stores and Toys R Us and Target have been sold out of GC's for weeks... but my local Wal-Mart keeps getting them in again and again. I don't know if that really means anything in the long run, but Nintendo does seem to make Wal-Mart a priority for their shipments (their target audience, kids, are more likely to go to Wal-Mart than Electronics Boutique).
Either way I don't think Nintendo will have any problem getting a good-sized user base in place.
Nintendo insists those are sell-through numbers. But who can trust them? They claim their initial shipment of 700,000 (150,000 of which went to rental places like Blockbuster, display kiosks, and the Mexican and Canadian market) sold out in the first two weeks and that they have sold - to consumers - more than 800,000 total.
If that's true then that is the fastest Nintendo has ever gotten rid of 800,000 TV consoles. If it's true.
Let me ask you this. Nintendo complained when NPD released their figures (which mirrored the article exactly, making me think they're using the same research) that they didn't take department stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart into account, that they only surveyed speciality retailers like Babbages and Electronics Boutique and whatnot, and that Wal-Mart is in fact the biggest seller of GameCubes.
I have no way of knowing if that really matters or if that would change the numbers, but I can say that while my local Target, Babbages, and EB have been sold out of GC's for weeks, they keep reappearing on the shelves of my local Wal-Mart (as in, Nintendo is making Wal-Mart a priority for shipments).
To me the most shocking part of the article is the horrifying rate at which the game industry is growing (did they say 36% this year!?!?!)
What that means for the console race... well once upon a time selling 700,000 consoles in 3 weeks was something to smile about... now that puts you in a distant third place. Even with the pie split three ways, the individual pieces are now bigger than the whole pie was ten years ago.
So there is plenty of room for three players. If in the long run Nintendo "only" sells 12 million GameCubes as opposed to Microsoft's 18 million and Sony's 23 million, I think there will be plenty of profit to be had.
So to ask which console will "win" the console wars is like asking which VCR manufacturer will "win" the VCR wars. The market is too big for that now. In fact, come 2005 I wouldn't be shocked to find a couple of more players in the ring...
...but not with the GameCube. According to the big N the Gameboy Advance has sold 20% more units in that span than any of the hook-to-a-TV consoles.
That would indicate about 1.2 million in sales (if Nintendo is to be believed; I haven't heard any independent data) and would also back up Nintendo's claim that they've sold as many total game machines as both of their competitors combined (with the GC and GBA).
So don't be surprised if from their position in "third place" they wind up making more profit this year than either of their competitors.
True, for some it's just petty dick measuring (my console is kicking your console's ass!!)
But for me I keep a close eye on the sales because I know the software makers won't support a failed machine. Thus, I could end up with a Saturn/Dreamcast where there are some great games for two years and then the system is dead. Bad deal for those who spent hundreds on the system.
No, if I'm gonna buy a Gamecube, I want to be SURE that good games will still be coming out for Christmas 2004. I want that return on my investment. I don't want another 3DO.
So, yeah, I watch to make sure the console is selling and people are supporting it. If the N64 had died right away, sure I still would have gotten Goldeneye... but would I have gotten Perfect Dark or Majora's Mask? I don't think so. The user base wouldn't have been big enough to make it worth the risk. And if the N64 had had playstation-like sales, wouldn't Nintendo have been more willing to do another Mario game for it? And wouldn't Square have been more tempted to make games for it?
I was at the super bowl, and passed by their face-scanning cameras. Unfortunately for me, there was an arrest warrant out at the time for Antonio Banderas. And sure enough, when the system scanned my mug, a red flag popped up.
"Come with us, Antonio," said the security guys as they hustled me away, my shirt falling open to reveal my sweatily perfect pectoral muscles.
"You've got the wrong guy!" I pleaded, helplessly.
"Yeah, yeah. Your perfectly formed abdominal muscles won't save you now, Antonio."
It took two weeks to straighten it out. Ladies and gentlemen, Big Brother is here.
Though that theory doesn't explain all network stereotypes. Why, for instance, is every single gay character depicted as a clean, good-hearted, middle-class, sassy best-friend type?
Just give me one good evil gay crime boss. That's all I ask.
``Twenty Four.''...a real-time drama that plays out over 24 episodes."
A real-time drama that chronicles all 24 hours of a particular day... can't wait for those eight "sleeping" episodes.
Not for me it isn't. Can't get into Hotmail or MSN or microsoft.com. Just tried fifteen seconds ago.
I haven't been able to access hotmail for the last 11 hours. That's by far the longest outage I've seen in my 3 years of using it, checking it several times a day. I've never seen it down for more than a couple of hours. THIS IS A STORY, GUYS. There are MILLIONS of us Hotmail users.
Is something I'm working on for my site, where when a person logs in, the server detects cross-references their IP address with a national database of bank accounts. Then, for each click, the system automatically withdraws $1.00 from their checking account. Then, at the end of each month a statement is sent to the users notifying them of how much they have spent, so they can keep track. This system would be totally invisible to the reader, and would not interfere with the content in any way (no distractions like banner ads, or annoying notification that the transaction is taking place at all). Everybody would be happy.
What good is it to have tiny nukes if we have no ability to deliver them to other planets, where hostile alien races are sure to be setting up a similar attack on us? We must strike first to establish humanity's supremacy in the galaxy, and a super-fast spaceship with horrifyingly destructive weapons is the first step.
The two-party system has advantages. First of all, it almost ensures that the winner be the MAJORITY winner. That's important in a democracy, to know that (or to at least think that) most of us supported this guy, so he's the man. Think of the problems that would be caused by these election results:
Bush 26%
Gore 21%
Nader 18%
Buchanan 13%
Browne 6 %
Trump 4 %
Other 3 %
The guy ruling the country only has 26% support? That's the stuff revolutions are made of, and this is the type of thing a limited party system avoids. Trust me, it's very intentional.
Also, the two-party system is around because it makes things simpler. Who has the time to research a field of 45 candidates, none of whom can be easily categorized? Only a select few.
Under the system we have, without looking into things at all you can get a general sense of what each guy stands for, just by the fact that one guy has an elephant next to his name and the other guy has a donkey. We Americans are busy people, with a lot on our minds. We need our simplicity now and then.
No, I don't understand why a Republican has to be opposed to abortion, in favor of the death penalty, and in favor of lower taxes, all at the same time. What do those three issues have to do with each other? Nothing. Yet a republican is expected to support all three. And Democrats are the same way. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense. And yes, in a way, it works.
Again, we can't just look at the system and say it's bad; we have to ask ourselves if another system would work better. And I have yet to hear any suggestions that make me want to scrap the one we have.
...is the other 99% of us who don't want it. Sorry. The system works pretty well for most of us.
"Dubya has killed almost 150 people in Texas."
"...But give me liberty, the right to walk down the streets and say what I want, to not live in fear of violence..."
Make up your mind. If you truly want to walk down the street without fear of violence, then give the authorities the ability to punish the violent. Bush isn't the one who makes you afraid to walk down the street; it's the murderers who walk out of prison unpunished. The men Bush had killed were killers themselves.
Don't you get it? Because of the iron-fisted rule of the evil corporations, I only have a $2,000 PC instead of a $5,000 one. I don't know what "highest standard of living" utopia you live in, but my television screen is a tiny 19 inches corner to corner. I don't have a home theater system; just a cheapie $199.99 DVD player attached to some old speakers. I'm lucky if I get to eat out once a week.
Capitalism has failed. Any system that can only provide me a six year-old car, and my wife an eight year-old car, is broken. My dishwasher makes a funny rattling noise when I run it. My central air heating/air conditioning unit will have to be replaced in the next five years. This is not a society, my friend. This is a scarred, blackened, Hellish wasteland. How we have survived this long is truly a testimony to the human spirit.
IT is time for the common man to revolt. No longer should most of us have to put up with measely 56K connections and 50-channel basic cable. That computer I mentioned earlier? A Packard Bell. That's right. With an S3 Virge video card.
Indeed, this is truly one million times worse than the Blade Runner future horror we have all feared. DAMN YOU, MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS!!!!!!!!
It's about time we got rid of that old morality thing anyway. It really doesn't serve a purpose anymore.
... rape...
...and so on. Therefore, we need to get our children into the world of porn NOW, so they will be properly trained for this new society.
In these modern, enlightened times (we have the INTERNET now!) there is no reason to limit things like porn, objectification of women, sex with strangers, sex with multiple partners, sex with children, sex with animals, sex with family members, out of wedlock births, teen pregnancies...
So, yeah, it's about time we got rid of those "legacy systems" and installed this new, upgraded system of amoral anarchy. Then we will finally be free!!
Should we also have an armed revolution because little kids can't get into porno theaters and live strip shows?
There's no censorship there... just keeping the kids out of the sex game until they're old enough to handle it. So don't go grabbing your gun and 'Don't Tread On Me' snake flag yet, cowboy.
Absolutely. Same with cars, too. I think it's outrageous that the average idiot can drive a car simply by operating a steering wheel and a gas pedal.
The user interface for a car should be made so complex that only experienced mechanics can drive them. Sure, almost all of you will have to go to school for a few years to learn how, but that's just the price you should have to pay for your driving privileges.