That is well put. I agree with your assessment of HL2, which was still very good, and offered something new, but didn't have the same "thrills" that the first had. I still say an in universe/time small game where you play as DOG could be quite humorous and fun. Been thinking about it more: Just the gravity gun in the right hand and a missile launcher in the left. No weapon swapping. And with regular but temporary powerups to make the gravity gun the GOOD one, where you can pickup live people and toss them like rag dolls. And when you die, you are revived by cut scenes of Kliner and/or Alyx repairing you, and scolding you for getting yourself in trouble. A series of maps with a final destination of some kind, maybe where you meet up with Alyx and Gordon before all the water towers, etc. Lots of potential for raw, fun destruction with humorous results. I always thought that they could have expanded on DOG if given time or the right venue.
Wish I could mod, if for no other reason that to make and play that game.
Case in point: Valve games are the only games I buy at full retail before they come out. Everything else, I wait until they go on sale. Partly because I trust their quality, and honestly, partly out of customer loyalty.
Which is why I didn't say HL3 or HL4, just "the next game". There is also the potential for a prequel, or a game from a different point of view, like they did with Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Simply staying in the same time and universe, there is huge potential for a game where you don't even see Gordon, as a Combine, or play a citizen that organizes the underground railroad, etc. Personally, I would love to play a game as DOG, with the gravity gun and maybe one or two other "powers", doing combat while Gordon is elsewhere. Just kicking Combine ass and breaking stuff. These would likely be smaller/shorter games, but the potential is still there for some cool $19.99 games or part of a pack of games, like the Orange Box.
They would be expanding on the current universe, and while not adding much depth, they would add breadth to the series while being easy enough to keep to the original canon. While Opposing Force and Blue Shift were not as good as the original HL, (the main issues that held them back was some game play quirkiness and some of the tasks were a bit too much of a grind) but they were still good games in the same universe and worth playing through more than once.
What about Half Life? Is this franchise dead or something?
I doubt it, they are supposedly working on the last Episode, but I'm not shocked that it is taking so long. Remember, whatever happens in the last episode, it sets the stage for the next game. You don't want to kill off people who would be handy later on. The franchise is still very popular, very profitable, and the highest ranking games on Metacritic's website. The rumors of the franchise's death have been greatly exaggerated.
They are talking about making the last episode much scarier, which I think is the right thing to do. I remember the first Half-life literally giving me chill bumps, and making me jump with the head crabs and other assorted critters. The last interview that Gabe gave on it (that I am aware of) was a few months ago: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/03/26/valve-wants-their-next-half-life-to-scare-you/
My typos aside, that was my point as well. The problem with releasing unvetted information is you aren't always sure the info is correct, and sometimes you have to wonder who is leaking info and what do they have to gain. ie: you become a tool for someone else's motives. And when it comes to military info, I lean toward being very careful about releasing info (disclaimer: I'm a vet) but when there is wrongdoing, yes, someone needs to hang. Just slapping it on Wikileaks isn't the answer in this case, it just made more problems. I don't agree with the govt about muzzling them, but I wish they would act with a bit more discretion, and MAYBE releasing to someone other than "everyone" would be the better course of action for the first few months.
It doesn't matter if the machine is always wrong, as long as you can still buy a Diet Coke from it. It doesn't force you to drink one of their suggestions, but the novelty of the machine will attract some people, and if it is sitting next to a "dumb" vending machine, most people will at least try it instead, assuming the prices are the same. And the potential added sales of "Would you like a Nutribar with your Diet Coke?", which can't be too far behind, WILL increase sales.
All firemen like dashing through a burning warehouse. That is why they become firemen, at least all the ones I know. They want to "do good" and/or be a hero, and/or get that extreme adrenalin rush that only real world danger gives you. The cards are just something to do between buzzes. Only a few are pyros looking for a constructive outlet.
Eventually Windows will be seen as "risky", so we will have to sneak it in the back door and install it on computers. And the wheel goes round.
Ok, maybe not. Like you, I'm wondering wtf is the story. Linux has been the adolescent struggling to sit at the big people table since the early 90s. Eventually it gets old enough to as some of the old farts die off.
Many people drive 30k a year, particularly salesmen. And I'm not complaining against overconsumption. I'm smart enough to know that the US economy relies on overconsumption. Been in marketing for 20 years, I'm paid to add fuel to the fire and make people want to buy stuff they really don't need. It's good to be in America.
The obvious lesson here is that if you *MUST* either download a song, or scam thousands of businesses out of hundreds of dollars each, the federal government wants you to NOT download the song. Why else would the punishment/fines be higher?
Nope, I buy nice cars, I just *want* to drive cars with less than 200k on them and less than 8 years old. Most people want the same thing, so it isn't unusual at all. They still run fine when I sell them. My lifestyle requires that the car be relatively nice and very reliable.
Also, if he was going to use them to pay for subscription, and now he must use cash to pay, then yes, he lost real money, for every month he has to pay real cash to play.
Well, if the company was making a decent profit, then the investors would get their return in dividends, which would also make the company easier to sell whole to other investors. But for companies that size (multi-billion) it isn't that easy to find buyers, granted. Many companies never IPO and do fine, but they rely on being actually profitable.
I rack up 150,000 miles or more in 5 years just in my car. I'm not the only one. I generally buy cars that have a few miles on them and are around 2-3 years old, since that is when most of the depreciation hits, and don't really want to trust a car with over 150k miles on it since I rely on my car so much. A 5 year old car with 150k miles on it is perfectly fine for someone else who works close to home and just wants something newer but not necessarily lower miles, for cheap.
And the average person who drives 12k a year still changes cars frequently. People get bored with the same old car, want something new. That is fine, as that puts decent cars into the used market that are 5 years old and have 60k miles on them, for about half of a new car or less.
YOU might not change cars that often, and likely your idea of keeping the car longer makes better financial success. That isn't the engine that drives the economy in the US though. What drives our overconsumption style economy is, well, overconsumption. If people only bought the things they *NEED*, our entire economy would collapse over night.
They are actually looking forward to the IPO so that they can spend some of the initial capital making some (to use his words) "much needed improvements."
Over the last 20 years, I can't help but notice that every time they have an IPO, to make some "much needed improvements", all the original founders start driving really expensive cars and move into very different neighborhoods. Not that I blame them, but part of me always thinks that an IPO is always planned to happen at the zenith of their theoretical worth, before the reality of the a poor business model kicks in and everyone realizes you can't make much money doing whatever it is the company does. Netscape is the prime example. But then again, while I've never used Skype, I can see much more utility in what they are doing than just a web browser.
Sounds like an idea for a website, send in your photos of your downed Google drones, with you standing there holding it up like a 10 point buck. Googlefail.com or some such.
As someone else pointed out, China. The US actually lags behind the rest of the developed world, and part of the developing world, when it comes to broadband. The only place we lead is in the price: We have the most expensive broadband. We only represent 5% of the world population, that's it. I would imagine that *most* software sells more outside the US than inside, and most piracy is likely in places like China, like I said, that make less than $20 per day.
Even in Mexico, the last reported average wage was around $5 a day, yet many Mexicans have computers, typically older US computers that we virtually throw away. (I used to sell to Mexico buyers, who picked up US electronics cheap in Texas to sell in Mexico, pawnshops, etc.) They aren't going to pay $50 for a game, that is two weeks salary. They are going to pirate everything they get. Why? Because just to install Windows and Office would be half a year's wages. MS and other charge much lower prices in these countries, but smaller game producers don't, so the reasons for pirating are even greater. Imagine that a game costs more than Office because of no discounts.
So while you might *think* that poor countries don't have computers and internet, you would be wrong. They have less computers per capita, and more sparse connectivity, but it is easily available. They also have many, many more cyber cafes than we do in the US, per capita. And much of the computers they have are used systems or lower end systems because of cost, but a little research will demonstrate how well connected the developing nations really are. One of the best "inbetween" examples: South Korea's broadband availability and usage literally blows out the US, is 10x faster, and it costs less.
How many of those "pirates" live in places where $20 is a more than a whole day's wage? I know it is impossible to get a metric on it, but piracy by people in countries entirely too poor to ever pay retail for games is a wholly different animal than a much of middle class kids living in the burbs of the U.S., and there are plenty of computers in these countries. Also, what about those of us that download cracks or entire cracked games that we actually purchased but don't want to have to insert the damn CD in every time we play? I probably have a dozen games that I bought but cracked via download that they would count as "pirated", even though I have the box. This is the main reason why I try to use Steam for all my games now. I don't mind paying, but I don't want to have to keep up with all the disks and boxes, etc. just to play something I already paid for.
Part of the piracy problem IS the DRM. Pirates deliver a better product than the distributors of the game, as it takes less hassle to simply start the game.
Seems that pollination by the bees would qualify as an "Act of God", so the legal damage (ie: crops must be destroyed) should be covered by crop insurance.
If you are making $200,000 with $1,000,000 bonuses, you have a vested interest in things NOT changing. Many businesses have higher up employees who get bonuses greater than their base salary, and those guys don't want to sacrifice short term profits for long term stability. "Why should I get my bonus cut in half due to reinvestment just to make the business stronger in 10 years, when I likely won't be here?". The bank industry is another example of how this screws up a business. Managers are more worried about their quarterly reports than the long term stability of the company.
This is the prime example of the disadvantage of publicly owned companies. While it is easier to get capital for expansion, privately held companies tend to have longer term thinking. Dominos pizza didn't go public until 2004, and did an excellent job of expanding before then. Chick-fil-A is privately held and the 2nd largest chicken restaurant chain the in US and wildly profitable due to a long term approach to business. There are other examples as well. AOL is the counterexample, where they focused on short term gains and had little (or poorly thought out) long term planning.
The problem was they were raking it in too thick to want to change until it was too late. The other point is that most companies don't stay in business forever. They have been around 27 years and has made more total profit than 99% of businesses. Their time is just over and I don't think anything can reverse their downward momentum. Last one to leave AOL, please turn off the light.
Um, yes I do. I generally reply no differently to AC's than reg'ed users. Most people are ignorant of how oppressive Saudi Arabia is because they are our "friend", and it shows.
Slashdot Mirror
That is well put. I agree with your assessment of HL2, which was still very good, and offered something new, but didn't have the same "thrills" that the first had. I still say an in universe/time small game where you play as DOG could be quite humorous and fun. Been thinking about it more: Just the gravity gun in the right hand and a missile launcher in the left. No weapon swapping. And with regular but temporary powerups to make the gravity gun the GOOD one, where you can pickup live people and toss them like rag dolls. And when you die, you are revived by cut scenes of Kliner and/or Alyx repairing you, and scolding you for getting yourself in trouble. A series of maps with a final destination of some kind, maybe where you meet up with Alyx and Gordon before all the water towers, etc. Lots of potential for raw, fun destruction with humorous results. I always thought that they could have expanded on DOG if given time or the right venue.
Wish I could mod, if for no other reason that to make and play that game.
Case in point: Valve games are the only games I buy at full retail before they come out. Everything else, I wait until they go on sale. Partly because I trust their quality, and honestly, partly out of customer loyalty.
Which is why I didn't say HL3 or HL4, just "the next game". There is also the potential for a prequel, or a game from a different point of view, like they did with Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Simply staying in the same time and universe, there is huge potential for a game where you don't even see Gordon, as a Combine, or play a citizen that organizes the underground railroad, etc. Personally, I would love to play a game as DOG, with the gravity gun and maybe one or two other "powers", doing combat while Gordon is elsewhere. Just kicking Combine ass and breaking stuff. These would likely be smaller/shorter games, but the potential is still there for some cool $19.99 games or part of a pack of games, like the Orange Box.
They would be expanding on the current universe, and while not adding much depth, they would add breadth to the series while being easy enough to keep to the original canon. While Opposing Force and Blue Shift were not as good as the original HL, (the main issues that held them back was some game play quirkiness and some of the tasks were a bit too much of a grind) but they were still good games in the same universe and worth playing through more than once.
What about Half Life? Is this franchise dead or something?
I doubt it, they are supposedly working on the last Episode, but I'm not shocked that it is taking so long. Remember, whatever happens in the last episode, it sets the stage for the next game. You don't want to kill off people who would be handy later on. The franchise is still very popular, very profitable, and the highest ranking games on Metacritic's website. The rumors of the franchise's death have been greatly exaggerated.
They are talking about making the last episode much scarier, which I think is the right thing to do. I remember the first Half-life literally giving me chill bumps, and making me jump with the head crabs and other assorted critters. The last interview that Gabe gave on it (that I am aware of) was a few months ago: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/03/26/valve-wants-their-next-half-life-to-scare-you/
My typos aside, that was my point as well. The problem with releasing unvetted information is you aren't always sure the info is correct, and sometimes you have to wonder who is leaking info and what do they have to gain. ie: you become a tool for someone else's motives. And when it comes to military info, I lean toward being very careful about releasing info (disclaimer: I'm a vet) but when there is wrongdoing, yes, someone needs to hang. Just slapping it on Wikileaks isn't the answer in this case, it just made more problems. I don't agree with the govt about muzzling them, but I wish they would act with a bit more discretion, and MAYBE releasing to someone other than "everyone" would be the better course of action for the first few months.
It doesn't matter if the machine is always wrong, as long as you can still buy a Diet Coke from it. It doesn't force you to drink one of their suggestions, but the novelty of the machine will attract some people, and if it is sitting next to a "dumb" vending machine, most people will at least try it instead, assuming the prices are the same. And the potential added sales of "Would you like a Nutribar with your Diet Coke?", which can't be too far behind, WILL increase sales.
Perhaps leaking everything you can get your hands on it's always the best thing to do. Just a thought.
All firemen like dashing through a burning warehouse. That is why they become firemen, at least all the ones I know. They want to "do good" and/or be a hero, and/or get that extreme adrenalin rush that only real world danger gives you. The cards are just something to do between buzzes. Only a few are pyros looking for a constructive outlet.
But we allied with Open Source. We have always been at war with Closed Source.
Eventually Windows will be seen as "risky", so we will have to sneak it in the back door and install it on computers. And the wheel goes round.
Ok, maybe not. Like you, I'm wondering wtf is the story. Linux has been the adolescent struggling to sit at the big people table since the early 90s. Eventually it gets old enough to as some of the old farts die off.
Many people drive 30k a year, particularly salesmen. And I'm not complaining against overconsumption. I'm smart enough to know that the US economy relies on overconsumption. Been in marketing for 20 years, I'm paid to add fuel to the fire and make people want to buy stuff they really don't need. It's good to be in America.
The obvious lesson here is that if you *MUST* either download a song, or scam thousands of businesses out of hundreds of dollars each, the federal government wants you to NOT download the song. Why else would the punishment/fines be higher?
Nope, I buy nice cars, I just *want* to drive cars with less than 200k on them and less than 8 years old. Most people want the same thing, so it isn't unusual at all. They still run fine when I sell them. My lifestyle requires that the car be relatively nice and very reliable.
Also, if he was going to use them to pay for subscription, and now he must use cash to pay, then yes, he lost real money, for every month he has to pay real cash to play.
Well, if the company was making a decent profit, then the investors would get their return in dividends, which would also make the company easier to sell whole to other investors. But for companies that size (multi-billion) it isn't that easy to find buyers, granted. Many companies never IPO and do fine, but they rely on being actually profitable.
What kind of moron only keeps a car 5 years?
I rack up 150,000 miles or more in 5 years just in my car. I'm not the only one. I generally buy cars that have a few miles on them and are around 2-3 years old, since that is when most of the depreciation hits, and don't really want to trust a car with over 150k miles on it since I rely on my car so much. A 5 year old car with 150k miles on it is perfectly fine for someone else who works close to home and just wants something newer but not necessarily lower miles, for cheap.
And the average person who drives 12k a year still changes cars frequently. People get bored with the same old car, want something new. That is fine, as that puts decent cars into the used market that are 5 years old and have 60k miles on them, for about half of a new car or less.
YOU might not change cars that often, and likely your idea of keeping the car longer makes better financial success. That isn't the engine that drives the economy in the US though. What drives our overconsumption style economy is, well, overconsumption. If people only bought the things they *NEED*, our entire economy would collapse over night.
They are actually looking forward to the IPO so that they can spend some of the initial capital making some (to use his words) "much needed improvements."
Over the last 20 years, I can't help but notice that every time they have an IPO, to make some "much needed improvements", all the original founders start driving really expensive cars and move into very different neighborhoods. Not that I blame them, but part of me always thinks that an IPO is always planned to happen at the zenith of their theoretical worth, before the reality of the a poor business model kicks in and everyone realizes you can't make much money doing whatever it is the company does. Netscape is the prime example. But then again, while I've never used Skype, I can see much more utility in what they are doing than just a web browser.
Pull the trigger and it's garbage.
Sounds like an idea for a website, send in your photos of your downed Google drones, with you standing there holding it up like a 10 point buck. Googlefail.com or some such.
They can carry spy-o-scopes, but that doesn't mean they will.
Yes, because everyone knows that Google would never spy on anyone.
As someone else pointed out, China. The US actually lags behind the rest of the developed world, and part of the developing world, when it comes to broadband. The only place we lead is in the price: We have the most expensive broadband. We only represent 5% of the world population, that's it. I would imagine that *most* software sells more outside the US than inside, and most piracy is likely in places like China, like I said, that make less than $20 per day.
Even in Mexico, the last reported average wage was around $5 a day, yet many Mexicans have computers, typically older US computers that we virtually throw away. (I used to sell to Mexico buyers, who picked up US electronics cheap in Texas to sell in Mexico, pawnshops, etc.) They aren't going to pay $50 for a game, that is two weeks salary. They are going to pirate everything they get. Why? Because just to install Windows and Office would be half a year's wages. MS and other charge much lower prices in these countries, but smaller game producers don't, so the reasons for pirating are even greater. Imagine that a game costs more than Office because of no discounts.
So while you might *think* that poor countries don't have computers and internet, you would be wrong. They have less computers per capita, and more sparse connectivity, but it is easily available. They also have many, many more cyber cafes than we do in the US, per capita. And much of the computers they have are used systems or lower end systems because of cost, but a little research will demonstrate how well connected the developing nations really are. One of the best "inbetween" examples: South Korea's broadband availability and usage literally blows out the US, is 10x faster, and it costs less.
How many of those "pirates" live in places where $20 is a more than a whole day's wage? I know it is impossible to get a metric on it, but piracy by people in countries entirely too poor to ever pay retail for games is a wholly different animal than a much of middle class kids living in the burbs of the U.S., and there are plenty of computers in these countries. Also, what about those of us that download cracks or entire cracked games that we actually purchased but don't want to have to insert the damn CD in every time we play? I probably have a dozen games that I bought but cracked via download that they would count as "pirated", even though I have the box. This is the main reason why I try to use Steam for all my games now. I don't mind paying, but I don't want to have to keep up with all the disks and boxes, etc. just to play something I already paid for.
Part of the piracy problem IS the DRM. Pirates deliver a better product than the distributors of the game, as it takes less hassle to simply start the game.
Seems that pollination by the bees would qualify as an "Act of God", so the legal damage (ie: crops must be destroyed) should be covered by crop insurance.
Too abstract?
If you are making $200,000 with $1,000,000 bonuses, you have a vested interest in things NOT changing. Many businesses have higher up employees who get bonuses greater than their base salary, and those guys don't want to sacrifice short term profits for long term stability. "Why should I get my bonus cut in half due to reinvestment just to make the business stronger in 10 years, when I likely won't be here?". The bank industry is another example of how this screws up a business. Managers are more worried about their quarterly reports than the long term stability of the company.
This is the prime example of the disadvantage of publicly owned companies. While it is easier to get capital for expansion, privately held companies tend to have longer term thinking. Dominos pizza didn't go public until 2004, and did an excellent job of expanding before then. Chick-fil-A is privately held and the 2nd largest chicken restaurant chain the in US and wildly profitable due to a long term approach to business. There are other examples as well. AOL is the counterexample, where they focused on short term gains and had little (or poorly thought out) long term planning.
The problem was they were raking it in too thick to want to change until it was too late. The other point is that most companies don't stay in business forever. They have been around 27 years and has made more total profit than 99% of businesses. Their time is just over and I don't think anything can reverse their downward momentum. Last one to leave AOL, please turn off the light.
Um, yes I do. I generally reply no differently to AC's than reg'ed users. Most people are ignorant of how oppressive Saudi Arabia is because they are our "friend", and it shows.