The raids are getting better in WoW. The Naxx ones look really fun.
MC is a boring zerg, Onyxia only slightly less so. BWL is so-so. Certainly it' s better than MC.
The stuff they added after those though has gotten progressively more interesting. Most of ZG is alot more entertaining than MC and Ony. And the Rajaxx fight in AQ20 is still boatloads of fun.
The company is marketing a realized set of game mechanics -- those game mechanics are the product. It's hard to meaningfully seperate a buisness plan from the product that that business plan is selling.
Okay, you don't like legislation affecting video games, we get it.
But please, your blog entry comes off as incoherent, at best, and childish at worst.
a) You start off with a straw man. No legislators are calling for people to burn video games. No legislators are claiming that they're the root of all evil.
b) You take a quote from someone who runs Common Sense Media -- an lobbying organization that also happens to provide rating services -- at face value. In the same article you call journalists lazy.
c) You mistakenly cite GTA as the "start" of this. "This" has been going on since Doom. GTA3, and Hot Coffee, weren't out when Colubine happened, if you remember.
d) You waffle, and end up attacking video games yourself by saying "I wouldn't let my children anywhere near one of these games", and that the game sucked. That's like defending Manhunt by saying it was so bad people wouldn't play it.
e) You talk with "a psychologist". No citations, no refernces, no studies that indicate when a child can seperate reality from fantasy. Just your word.
f) You commit the fallacy of accident -- just because you haven't been violent, means that video games don't make people violent. That's not proof, that's circumstance.
g) You site crime statistics that are meaningless in support of your proof. There are well understood reasons why the crime rate dropped nationwide in 1993. This does not preclude, in any way, video games from having a detremental effect.
h) You "read studies" -- you don't cite, you don't reference, you selectively remember. For someone with an alleged Master's degree, you sure as hell don't know how to form an argument.
By the way, I live in a province where the government regulates video games and movies. Oddly, I'm still able to go to EB and buy GTA if I want. And my son can't.
I can't for the life of me figure out why that's bad.
a) fail (most likely) b) be a niche title (second-rate production values)
Most consumers don't have patience for a game that's actively hostile to them. So either the game will fail, or the game will intentionally not be marketed to the mainstream.
Similarly, complex universal remotes retail for about $19.95. You can usually find them much cheaper than MSRP.
Considering that the Wiimote has zero relationship to a traditional IR remote, other than shape, I don't see what this is supposed to mean.
However, that doesn't change your point -- accelerometers are dirt cheap, they're included in every laptop hard drive made for the past who-knows-how-long. Similarly, the cirutry that interacts with the sensor bar can't be too costly either -- really, all it has to be is a radio receiver/transmitter, and a chip to do the positional calculations. As long as they find a cheap source for the parts, the cost of this technology to produce is neglegible. None of it is complex, in terms of the amount of silicon needed.
I don't think Sony is capable of NOT trying to control a format. The PS3 is simply thier attempt to get an installed base of Blu-Ray players, fast, and beat out HD-DVD. The rest of the company is simply using the PS division to futher thier own ends.
WHY they need to control a format is up for grabs -- it's possible it's just thier culture, or the dogma handed down by the leaders that has been followed for decades. But this is the exact same thing as Beta, MD, Memory Sticks, and UMD -- all of which failed to get any support outside of Sony products.
The PS3 is expensive, but it's the only player in it's domain in Japan -- the Xbox 360 has, somehow, been less successful than the original Xbox over there.
There's also an interesting column about E3's fallout in Japan that makes the next-gen battle much different over there. It's interesting to note that if the PS3 will be bringing demo/content delivery services to Japan, it would be a revolutionary first, given that Japan's gaming landscape is much different than North America's (difference: Nintendo managed to get game rentals outlawed there back in the day. So game magazines have much more clout, which a demo download service could disrupt.)
As for the "Dual Shock copy" that is the Classic Controller it's been said that it will only be used for Virtual Console games, and it really looks more like an SNES controller with two analog stick than it does a Dual Shock.
That's probably because that's all the Dual Shock is -- an SNES controller with an extra shoulder button, and two analog sticks (+ rumble).
Remember from where the PS1 came -- a failed collaboration with Nintendo for an SNES CD-ROM unit.
Remember how PS2 homebrew development exploded when the PS2 Linux kit came out? Remember how many new and exciting independant games were released for the PS2?
There is an accelerometer in the nunchuk-attachment, and there are tilt sensors and the triangulating circutry in the main wiimote.
The idea is that with the tilt sensors (i.e. a gyroscope-on-a-chip) and the triangulation from the sensor bar, you can determine the position and orientation of the wiimote at any given time.
Some games would only need orientation information, and wouldn't require positional information (most FPSes probably fall into this category).
The accelerometer in the nunchuck-attachment was presumably added so you can "push" things, i.e. players in madden, or doors in other games.
If you exclude the pressure sensitivity on the buttons (which was tried with the PS2, and failed to be useful), you're describing the Wii's controller.
There is, however, an accelerometer in the other half of the nunchuck-style setup. It's been quoted as used in madden to do footbally-stuff I don't understand.
What I really want to know is where they fit the Interocitor.
It seems to me that the thing that makes DS games so popular with women is: No hand-held game is small enough for your back jeans pocket, but the DS fits in a purse.
I have a PSP (mainly for airplane travel amusement), and I've seen purses that are smaller than this thing, especially with the hard drive & extended battery attached. There's no way any woman could toss it in her handbag with her phone, money, keys, make-up, etc. unless she was carrying on of those big honkin' messenger bags, in which case she might as well take a whole freakin' laptop.
But the DS is only slightly larger than a typical make-up case. A woman who is already carrying around a half-full purse won't even notice the addition of a DS until the mood strikes her to take it out and play it.
These points are nonsensical. The two portables are virtually identical in size and weight.
DS: 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.9 mm (5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 inches) PSP: 170.0 x 74.0 x 23.0 mm (6.7 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches)
As several people have pointed out, Nintendo's strategy to reach out to non-gamers has been a massive success on the DS.
People aren't intimidated by technology. Everyone has a computer and keyboard and wires and mice. And that's the problem -- the gamepad is less intuitive than a mouse-based interface.
No one calls a mouse an "optical camera-based motion control device". And they're not going to think of a Wii controller in those terms either, it's either going to be intuitive when they try it out, or it's not.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it a cornflower blue shirt?
Polygons aren't that bad, when used appropriately
BTW, all the character models in the New SMB were 3D models.
The raids are getting better in WoW. The Naxx ones look really fun.
MC is a boring zerg, Onyxia only slightly less so. BWL is so-so. Certainly it' s better than MC.
The stuff they added after those though has gotten progressively more interesting. Most of ZG is alot more entertaining than MC and Ony. And the Rajaxx fight in AQ20 is still boatloads of fun.
You can't seperate them in an MMORPG.
The company is marketing a realized set of game mechanics -- those game mechanics are the product. It's hard to meaningfully seperate a buisness plan from the product that that business plan is selling.
Dear Random Nobody,
Okay, you don't like legislation affecting video games, we get it.
But please, your blog entry comes off as incoherent, at best, and childish at worst.
a) You start off with a straw man. No legislators are calling for people to burn video games. No legislators are claiming that they're the root of all evil.
b) You take a quote from someone who runs Common Sense Media -- an lobbying organization that also happens to provide rating services -- at face value. In the same article you call journalists lazy.
c) You mistakenly cite GTA as the "start" of this. "This" has been going on since Doom. GTA3, and Hot Coffee, weren't out when Colubine happened, if you remember.
d) You waffle, and end up attacking video games yourself by saying "I wouldn't let my children anywhere near one of these games", and that the game sucked. That's like defending Manhunt by saying it was so bad people wouldn't play it.
e) You talk with "a psychologist". No citations, no refernces, no studies that indicate when a child can seperate reality from fantasy. Just your word.
f) You commit the fallacy of accident -- just because you haven't been violent, means that video games don't make people violent. That's not proof, that's circumstance.
g) You site crime statistics that are meaningless in support of your proof. There are well understood reasons why the crime rate dropped nationwide in 1993. This does not preclude, in any way, video games from having a detremental effect.
h) You "read studies" -- you don't cite, you don't reference, you selectively remember. For someone with an alleged Master's degree, you sure as hell don't know how to form an argument.
By the way, I live in a province where the government regulates video games and movies. Oddly, I'm still able to go to EB and buy GTA if I want. And my son can't.
I can't for the life of me figure out why that's bad.
Wow, incoherent random blog entry from some guy who thinks he's saying something new.
I lost count of the straw men in there about midway through...
These are games.
Actually, MMORPGs are hobbies. Or part-time jobs. They have characteristics of both.
But they're not just "games" these days.
Then it will either
a) fail (most likely)
b) be a niche title (second-rate production values)
Most consumers don't have patience for a game that's actively hostile to them. So either the game will fail, or the game will intentionally not be marketed to the mainstream.
Similarly, complex universal remotes retail for about $19.95. You can usually find them much cheaper than MSRP.
Considering that the Wiimote has zero relationship to a traditional IR remote, other than shape, I don't see what this is supposed to mean.
However, that doesn't change your point -- accelerometers are dirt cheap, they're included in every laptop hard drive made for the past who-knows-how-long. Similarly, the cirutry that interacts with the sensor bar can't be too costly either -- really, all it has to be is a radio receiver/transmitter, and a chip to do the positional calculations. As long as they find a cheap source for the parts, the cost of this technology to produce is neglegible. None of it is complex, in terms of the amount of silicon needed.
The only things that may possibly affect this will be the addition of 512 MB built-in flash memory
Huh? 512M of SD Memory is $15 right now.
They can't.
I don't think Sony is capable of NOT trying to control a format. The PS3 is simply thier attempt to get an installed base of Blu-Ray players, fast, and beat out HD-DVD. The rest of the company is simply using the PS division to futher thier own ends.
WHY they need to control a format is up for grabs -- it's possible it's just thier culture, or the dogma handed down by the leaders that has been followed for decades. But this is the exact same thing as Beta, MD, Memory Sticks, and UMD -- all of which failed to get any support outside of Sony products.
The PS3 is expensive, but it's the only player in it's domain in Japan -- the Xbox 360 has, somehow, been less successful than the original Xbox over there.
There's also an interesting column about E3's fallout in Japan that makes the next-gen battle much different over there. It's interesting to note that if the PS3 will be bringing demo/content delivery services to Japan, it would be a revolutionary first, given that Japan's gaming landscape is much different than North America's (difference: Nintendo managed to get game rentals outlawed there back in the day. So game magazines have much more clout, which a demo download service could disrupt.)
Correction, it's a homage to Warhammer.
Which is a homage to Lord of the Rings.
So how many posts do you have to make a day to meet your quota?
Just curious, I'd like a job shilling if I'm ever layed off.
You do know that Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was released in October 2005, don't you?
As for the "Dual Shock copy" that is the Classic Controller it's been said that it will only be used for Virtual Console games, and it really looks more like an SNES controller with two analog stick than it does a Dual Shock.
That's probably because that's all the Dual Shock is -- an SNES controller with an extra shoulder button, and two analog sticks (+ rumble).
Remember from where the PS1 came -- a failed collaboration with Nintendo for an SNES CD-ROM unit.
Remember how PS2 homebrew development exploded when the PS2 Linux kit came out? Remember how many new and exciting independant games were released for the PS2?
This is going to be awesome.
(The following is my understanding)
There is an accelerometer in the nunchuk-attachment, and there are tilt sensors and the triangulating circutry in the main wiimote.
The idea is that with the tilt sensors (i.e. a gyroscope-on-a-chip) and the triangulation from the sensor bar, you can determine the position and orientation of the wiimote at any given time.
Some games would only need orientation information, and wouldn't require positional information (most FPSes probably fall into this category).
The accelerometer in the nunchuck-attachment was presumably added so you can "push" things, i.e. players in madden, or doors in other games.
If you exclude the pressure sensitivity on the buttons (which was tried with the PS2, and failed to be useful), you're describing the Wii's controller.
Doh. Second try.
I watched it. The audience seemed comatose throughout the entire presentation, and I don't blame them.
At least I didn't watch it live, so I could skip parts.
Here's the google video of it.
And this has to do with the originator of UNIX how...?
It's the gamecube hardware, only faster. Since Linux has been ported to the GameCube, it stands to reason it could run on Wii.
There is, however, an accelerometer in the other half of the nunchuck-style setup. It's been quoted as used in madden to do footbally-stuff I don't understand.
What I really want to know is where they fit the Interocitor.
It seems to me that the thing that makes DS games so popular with women is: No hand-held game is small enough for your back jeans pocket, but the DS fits in a purse.
I have a PSP (mainly for airplane travel amusement), and I've seen purses that are smaller than this thing, especially with the hard drive & extended battery attached. There's no way any woman could toss it in her handbag with her phone, money, keys, make-up, etc. unless she was carrying on of those big honkin' messenger bags, in which case she might as well take a whole freakin' laptop.
But the DS is only slightly larger than a typical make-up case. A woman who is already carrying around a half-full purse won't even notice the addition of a DS until the mood strikes her to take it out and play it.
These points are nonsensical. The two portables are virtually identical in size and weight.
DS: 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.9 mm (5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 inches)
PSP: 170.0 x 74.0 x 23.0 mm (6.7 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches)
As several people have pointed out, Nintendo's strategy to reach out to non-gamers has been a massive success on the DS.
People aren't intimidated by technology. Everyone has a computer and keyboard and wires and mice. And that's the problem -- the gamepad is less intuitive than a mouse-based interface.
No one calls a mouse an "optical camera-based motion control device". And they're not going to think of a Wii controller in those terms either, it's either going to be intuitive when they try it out, or it's not.