I think Microsoft feels it's important to do this because PDF is becoming a truly universal format, and they want to jump onto the bandwagon without giving Adobe any credit in any way for it.
Now, PDF is a first-class file format in OS-X, and OpenOffice can create them fairly easily. Building PDF capability into Word must strike Microsoft as being just a little too interoperable.
The format will be open and available for royalty-free licensing, and will be based on XML.
Um, the words "open" and "licensing" are not compatible. Not in my book leastways.
Can we expect Microsoft to do this right? If they do, I think it could be a good thing.
How come? What is there that Metro can do that PDF, or for that matter Word combined with Wordviewer, can't? I guess it would be nice to have OS support for a portable document format, but does Microsoft really have to invent an entirely new format to do that?
The only other game I know of that got all-10s was Ocarina of Time.
Re:Such Innovation In a Time of Little
on
We Love Katamari
·
· Score: 1
And as I replied to you earlier, I do like Katamari Damacy. You just can't hold it up and expect it to be proof that Japan has a creative edge over the rest of the world's game developers as so many here seem all to eager to do.
And as I said, the Japanese are not more original than Americans (in fact my money's on *less* because of their cooperative culture), but because of the various ways their game industry evolved separately from ours they have a better chance, for example, of a quirky game like Katamari Damacy being released by Namco, a giant publisher. U.S. game designers are perfectly capable of making such games, but good luck getting them made unless you're already a big name.
And good luck becoming a big name, these days, unless you've proven you haven't got a creative bone in your body.
Re:Such Innovation In a Time of Little
on
We Love Katamari
·
· Score: 1
Play games that are good. Don't throw blanket statements over large chunks of the world. Deciding that a game that rewards playing for 80 hours to get the Blade of Obsessive Button Mashing or that features a sticky ball against quirky music and art somehow elevates an entire country's work above that of the rest of the world does not make it so.
Hey now, Katamari Damacy is genius. It would be so if it were made in Rhodesia.
Japan *does* tend to have a greater degree of originality in their games than in the western world, but this is not because of some innate advantage held by the Japanese. Their game industry just evolved along somewhat different lines than the U.S. one, and it just sort of happened. There certainly *are* bad, me-too games in Japan, and lots of them, but overall things are slightly better there: in the U.S., for a big game studio to allow you to make an interesting, never-done-before design, you have to either be a big name first (and even then expect problems -- Will Wright had a lot of trouble getting The Sims made, focus groups hated it) or go the independent route. In Japan, at least, there's a little more leeway -- even if it is just a little.
Re:Such Innovation In a Time of Little
on
We Love Katamari
·
· Score: 1
Whoa, wait a second, so the secret to a good game is just to be "quirky"?
It really helps. Atari Games created the game industry, and survived for an amazingly long time, by doing just that.
All that gameplay and smooth control and crap are just kludges, and all I really ahve to do is come up with something so far out in left field that no one in their right mind would have imagined it before in video game form?
I would love to play such a game. Unfortunately, your description doesn't fit the bill -- it actually sounds like someone tried too hard, in a Boogerman kind of way.
Of course there's more to it than just being quirky, but I'd rather have quirky than Yet Another FPS, or Final Fantasy wannabe.
Bug Smasher Pro! Stomp that beetle and see how many points you get!
Do you realize you just described part of Super Mario Bros?
Let me paraphrase Roger Ebert, who originally spoke of movies: "It's not what the game is about, it's how it's about it." Katamari Damacy would have tanked if it weren't for the implementation, and there's a lot to the game, technically speaking. It's got a good physics simulation for the ball, it has a graphics engine that can seemlessly scale from 5cm to 800m, and the tank-like maneuvering system simultaneously provide a fine degree of control for the ball while also providing camera controls.
* The person to whom I responded thought the reference in the title of that blog was to a user called "Drinky Crow" on a website. * That user's name was a reference to Maakies, so likely the web site's title is a reference to that, and not to that user. That's what I was pointing out.
What did I accomplish? Very little. But then, so did the person I was replying to. None of this is very important, but importance has never been a requirement for posting on Slashdot.
It's easy for people who program software or are otherwise interested in the software ecosystem to see that software patents are a bad thing. The question is, how are they that different from patents in other industries?
Because, unlike other industries where a patent covers an expression of an idea, in software development the patent is dangerously close to being the idea itself. There were things I came up with on my own in my bedroom at the age of 14, playing around on my Commodore 64, that probably conflicted with a software patent out there, somewhere. That strikes me as dangerously wrong.
As for patents outside of software... well things like business method patents are also kind of screwy. Isn't true that the current patent laws say anything that can be created by man can be patented? I think that's inherently dangerous, and it's only a matter of time before it becomes really troublesome.
On patents, as they were practiced before, I don't have enough information to say one way or another, but I'm bothered by the idea that I can tell someone else, someone I've never had any contact with, to stop doing something, because I did it first and registered it.
No matter what the founding fathers said, something about this seems wrong. I understand that patents were created in order to safeguard against specific problems with the marketplace, but I don't even know if they're currently doing their job in that regard -- off the top of my head, how about how quickly the other PVRs caught up with Tivo?
Argh, I could have explained that a little better. Let me correct myself before one of you gents does it for me.
Gigantic disparities of wealth? They may or may not be unavoidable in a virtual world. What is more likely to be avoidable is people transferring their real-world wealth into the virtual setting.
That's what I'm right about. That's what I'm hooray about.
It's because the entire point of a virtual world, or at least with these game-oriented fantasy ones (not things like Second Life), is to provide its users with a pretend reality that's supposedly separate from the real one.
It's true that people with more time to spend on the world tend to advance faster than those who don't, and that's a real-world concern. That's a flaw in these designs, and not a strength. Outright selling the items just intensifies the flaw.
People don't play things like Everquest so they can be subjected to the same kind of gigantic disparity of wealth that infests the real world, but to escape that kind of thing. It may be impossible to escape that kind of thing completely, but you can bloody well not give it a big hug and call it brother, too.
You're probably right that it's a reference to Drinky Crow, but the source of that name is not some damn moderator one some semi-obscure game website.
Drinky Crow is a character from Tony Millionare's comib Maakies, which may still be semi-obscure, but it's a hell of a lot less obscure than Gaming-Age.com. Drinky Crow is the character on the left-hand side of the banner at the top of the page.
You wanna see an animated Drinky Crow? Go rent (or better yet, buy, because it's great) the documentary on They Might Be Giants, Gigantic. About midway through, there's a short, inexplicable cartoon segment. The character who comes out of a ship onto an island and introduces the segment on coffee? That's Drinky Crow.
Now that's out of the way....
Actually, I'm rather interested in Nintendogs. Virtual pets are one thing, but obsessively realistic virtual pets are something else entirely. And remember in Japan, many people don't have the opportunity to keep their own animal because they live in shoeboxes. Shoeboxes with draconian animal rules and extremely large damage deposits.
The problem may have something to do with the way people play. I suspect most people play by attempting to fit the current block in with the ones already on the field without leaving gaps.
But there's another way to play, which is to try to make lines one line above the current "surface" of the bin, while being careful not to leave blocks above that line that would leave gaps after the line clears.
It seems to me like if you do that, and also abandon the urge to make setups for Tetrises (which would be close to impossible under this system anyway since they depend on a single type of block), one might be able to survive for longer than eight lines. This is just a guess mind you, I'd have to actually try the game to know for sure, however.
Oooh, pictures of the Xbox! Details on the PS3! A complete lack of information on whatever Nintendo's next system is going to be! Never let it be said that Slashdot is immune to hype.
I understand that without these kinds of stories that Games section would be a full third less busy, but come ON. Sometimes there's just nothing meaningful to say on a topic!
So why was there so much furor over GIF not so long ago? It relied on a patented compression technique. That's only over because the patent finally expired.
I hate to once again echo the Slashdot party line on this, but software patents are just BAD.
Heh, me, I like the idea that the "ending" is actually another level that you can play.
The movie clip part of the ending is interesting because -- look carefully -- there's nothing 3D or rendered about it. All of the "movies" in the game are just large flat graphics being pushed around. Yet, it fits perfectly. I kind of hope they keep that style with the upcoming sequel.
Or vice versa? Play the new game with the old look? After all, the new Zelda plays on a modified Wind Waker engine. Would probably be almost feasible, in fact.
1. FF VI: the bit with Celes jumping off the cliff.
Someone's already mentioned this. I kind of look down on it now (as most Final Fantasy games) as being shamelessly melodramatic, but it did have an effect on me. But there's a better example in the same game....
I always thought, since I found out about it anyway, that Shadow was a well-done character in that game. He's not just mysterious, he's *minimalist*. There are just not that many words expended on his behalf. He's the only character who can die permanently, and because having him survive into the second half of the game requires waiting until the last second to complete an important timed section, I reckon most people don't even know he can survive until the ending.
But anyway, Shadow has these really creepy dream sequences that occaisionally pop up when you stay at inns. He also has a daughter, who is never explictly named by the game, but the game gives you more than enough clues to piece together who she is. (Hint: Check the "useable by" list on the starting accessories of various party members if Shadow is available, and you'll probably figure it out eventually.) Because you have to piece that bit of the game's most enigmatic character's life together yourself, I think it's amazingly effective.
2. Lufia and the Fortress of Doom The story in this one is grossly underrated, and is arguably the best thing about it. (The combat is interminable.) It's written with a style and wit that makes it worthwhile to wander around and just talk with people. And it's definitely an effective ending, though none of the later games ever adequately explain it. (Despite the ominious promise that appears onscreen if you wait for a while after the ending concludes....)
3. Grandia and Grandia II Again, like Lufia, the dialogue is written with surprising livliness. Some people think it's a flaw in the first Grandia, but I think it's beneficial that for two-thirds of the game you don't really have a *reason* for wandering around and exploring new lands. The characters don't really need one, and the only really false notes sounded by the game come near the end, when some things happen basically because the plot demands that they do. Grandia II has gotten something of a bum rap, it may not have that adventursome theme and characters but the dialogue writing is at least as good as the first game.
4. Katamari Damacy It's impossible to think about the world quite the same way ever again the first time, in the Make the Moon level, you get the ball big enough that you can roam the ocean freely. Once you hit 600 meters and can pick up the mountain, you're then big enough to grab everything in the whole game; nothing will ever bump you around again. It's an empowering moment.
I was in high school and going through the usual geek/teen problems, stumbling home depressed at night to play Wasteland. I'll never forget the scene where, after gathering chemicals and other inventory items, you help those two guys with radiation sickness back to health (Metal Maniac and I forget the other's name).
I like to think everyone has these moments of empathy with fictional characters, or anyone with half a brain in their head. Good story.
Psst! Go to the website and listen to the trailer for the Quandary Phase.
Short response: it might not be a retcon! There appear to be some significant differences between the upcoming two series and the books....
According to the production diaries, Adams wanted the third series to stick to the book fairly closely, but thought himself that the fourth and fifth books needed some editing. And they're actually going to try to tie up loose ends in the radio show.
I don't see what these people who are complaining this story has nothing to do with technology are complaining about, this is perfectly relevant in my opinion.
Ultimately, the article's point is that PR people aren't necessarily bad, but that lazy reporters who don't do work beyond what the PR people give them are. Lending weight to this is how the "liberal" mainstream media has refused to report on the Bush administration concerning little beyond what are in the press releases the White House gives them. So there is a problem with the media, but it isn't liberalism: it's laziness.
No, you are not. I, for example, think these have been made way too much about.
On some level I like the idea, but I also think it can be taken too far. And using them to promote something that bears no real relationship to the "alternate reality" game (itself a fairly misleading term) strikes me as being rather mercenary.
I know *why* they try to prevent users from running their own code. I'm just saying it's weird that, if the company does a *worse* job in this area, the console becomes *more* valuable to consumers.
All I'm saying is, these kinds of expectation bubbles tend to pop in the long run.
Slashdot Mirror
I think Microsoft feels it's important to do this because PDF is becoming a truly universal format, and they want to jump onto the bandwagon without giving Adobe any credit in any way for it.
Now, PDF is a first-class file format in OS-X, and OpenOffice can create them fairly easily. Building PDF capability into Word must strike Microsoft as being just a little too interoperable.
The format will be open and available for royalty-free licensing, and will be based on XML.
Um, the words "open" and "licensing" are not compatible. Not in my book leastways.
Can we expect Microsoft to do this right? If they do, I think it could be a good thing.
How come? What is there that Metro can do that PDF, or for that matter Word combined with Wordviewer, can't? I guess it would be nice to have OS support for a portable document format, but does Microsoft really have to invent an entirely new format to do that?
It's true.
The only other game I know of that got all-10s was Ocarina of Time.
And as I replied to you earlier, I do like Katamari Damacy. You just can't hold it up and expect it to be proof that Japan has a creative edge over the rest of the world's game developers as so many here seem all to eager to do.
And as I said, the Japanese are not more original than Americans (in fact my money's on *less* because of their cooperative culture), but because of the various ways their game industry evolved separately from ours they have a better chance, for example, of a quirky game like Katamari Damacy being released by Namco, a giant publisher. U.S. game designers are perfectly capable of making such games, but good luck getting them made unless you're already a big name.
And good luck becoming a big name, these days, unless you've proven you haven't got a creative bone in your body.
You have the right to remain silent!
Play games that are good. Don't throw blanket statements over large chunks of the world. Deciding that a game that rewards playing for 80 hours to get the Blade of Obsessive Button Mashing or that features a sticky ball against quirky music and art somehow elevates an entire country's work above that of the rest of the world does not make it so.
Hey now, Katamari Damacy is genius. It would be so if it were made in Rhodesia.
Japan *does* tend to have a greater degree of originality in their games than in the western world, but this is not because of some innate advantage held by the Japanese. Their game industry just evolved along somewhat different lines than the U.S. one, and it just sort of happened. There certainly *are* bad, me-too games in Japan, and lots of them, but overall things are slightly better there: in the U.S., for a big game studio to allow you to make an interesting, never-done-before design, you have to either be a big name first (and even then expect problems -- Will Wright had a lot of trouble getting The Sims made, focus groups hated it) or go the independent route. In Japan, at least, there's a little more leeway -- even if it is just a little.
Whoa, wait a second, so the secret to a good game is just to be "quirky"?
It really helps. Atari Games created the game industry, and survived for an amazingly long time, by doing just that.
All that gameplay and smooth control and crap are just kludges, and all I really ahve to do is come up with something so far out in left field that no one in their right mind would have imagined it before in video game form?
I would love to play such a game. Unfortunately, your description doesn't fit the bill -- it actually sounds like someone tried too hard, in a Boogerman kind of way.
Of course there's more to it than just being quirky, but I'd rather have quirky than Yet Another FPS, or Final Fantasy wannabe.
Bug Smasher Pro! Stomp that beetle and see how many points you get!
Do you realize you just described part of Super Mario Bros?
Let me paraphrase Roger Ebert, who originally spoke of movies: "It's not what the game is about, it's how it's about it." Katamari Damacy would have tanked if it weren't for the implementation, and there's a lot to the game, technically speaking. It's got a good physics simulation for the ball, it has a graphics engine that can seemlessly scale from 5cm to 800m, and the tank-like maneuvering system simultaneously provide a fine degree of control for the ball while also providing camera controls.
* The person to whom I responded thought the reference in the title of that blog was to a user called "Drinky Crow" on a website.
* That user's name was a reference to Maakies, so likely the web site's title is a reference to that, and not to that user. That's what I was pointing out.
What did I accomplish? Very little. But then, so did the person I was replying to. None of this is very important, but importance has never been a requirement for posting on Slashdot.
Heh, that's one of my favorite Simpsons moments.
You forgot to mention, however, that the camera was *inside* the bowl, looking up through the water.
I'd go into more detail, but I had a bad experience with a certain website, with "cx" as its domain name, as a child....
It's easy for people who program software or are otherwise interested in the software ecosystem to see that software patents are a bad thing. The question is, how are they that different from patents in other industries?
Because, unlike other industries where a patent covers an expression of an idea, in software development the patent is dangerously close to being the idea itself. There were things I came up with on my own in my bedroom at the age of 14, playing around on my Commodore 64, that probably conflicted with a software patent out there, somewhere. That strikes me as dangerously wrong.
As for patents outside of software... well things like business method patents are also kind of screwy. Isn't true that the current patent laws say anything that can be created by man can be patented? I think that's inherently dangerous, and it's only a matter of time before it becomes really troublesome.
On patents, as they were practiced before, I don't have enough information to say one way or another, but I'm bothered by the idea that I can tell someone else, someone I've never had any contact with, to stop doing something, because I did it first and registered it.
No matter what the founding fathers said, something about this seems wrong. I understand that patents were created in order to safeguard against specific problems with the marketplace, but I don't even know if they're currently doing their job in that regard -- off the top of my head, how about how quickly the other PVRs caught up with Tivo?
Argh, I could have explained that a little better. Let me correct myself before one of you gents does it for me.
Gigantic disparities of wealth? They may or may not be unavoidable in a virtual world. What is more likely to be avoidable is people transferring their real-world wealth into the virtual setting.
That's what I'm right about. That's what I'm hooray about.
It's because the entire point of a virtual world, or at least with these game-oriented fantasy ones (not things like Second Life), is to provide its users with a pretend reality that's supposedly separate from the real one.
It's true that people with more time to spend on the world tend to advance faster than those who don't, and that's a real-world concern. That's a flaw in these designs, and not a strength. Outright selling the items just intensifies the flaw.
People don't play things like Everquest so they can be subjected to the same kind of gigantic disparity of wealth that infests the real world, but to escape that kind of thing. It may be impossible to escape that kind of thing completely, but you can bloody well not give it a big hug and call it brother, too.
I'm right! Hooray!
Oh for the love of Pete!
You're probably right that it's a reference to Drinky Crow, but the source of that name is not some damn moderator one some semi-obscure game website.
Drinky Crow is a character from Tony Millionare's comib Maakies, which may still be semi-obscure, but it's a hell of a lot less obscure than Gaming-Age.com. Drinky Crow is the character on the left-hand side of the banner at the top of the page.
You wanna see an animated Drinky Crow? Go rent (or better yet, buy, because it's great) the documentary on They Might Be Giants, Gigantic. About midway through, there's a short, inexplicable cartoon segment. The character who comes out of a ship onto an island and introduces the segment on coffee? That's Drinky Crow.
Now that's out of the way....
Actually, I'm rather interested in Nintendogs. Virtual pets are one thing, but obsessively realistic virtual pets are something else entirely. And remember in Japan, many people don't have the opportunity to keep their own animal because they live in shoeboxes. Shoeboxes with draconian animal rules and extremely large damage deposits.
The problem may have something to do with the way people play. I suspect most people play by attempting to fit the current block in with the ones already on the field without leaving gaps.
But there's another way to play, which is to try to make lines one line above the current "surface" of the bin, while being careful not to leave blocks above that line that would leave gaps after the line clears.
It seems to me like if you do that, and also abandon the urge to make setups for Tetrises (which would be close to impossible under this system anyway since they depend on a single type of block), one might be able to survive for longer than eight lines. This is just a guess mind you, I'd have to actually try the game to know for sure, however.
True evil is more subtle.
Joel: "For example, how do you feel about Adoph Hitler?"
Crow: "Well, he was bad, yeah."
Joel: "Okay, now how do you feel about the band Styx?"
Crow: "Oh I don't know, they had a couple of good songs, but... oh my god Joel, you're right!"
Enough already!
Oooh, pictures of the Xbox! Details on the PS3! A complete lack of information on whatever Nintendo's next system is going to be! Never let it be said that Slashdot is immune to hype.
I understand that without these kinds of stories that Games section would be a full third less busy, but come ON. Sometimes there's just nothing meaningful to say on a topic!
So why was there so much furor over GIF not so long ago? It relied on a patented compression technique. That's only over because the patent finally expired.
I hate to once again echo the Slashdot party line on this, but software patents are just BAD.
Heh, me, I like the idea that the "ending" is actually another level that you can play.
The movie clip part of the ending is interesting because -- look carefully -- there's nothing 3D or rendered about it. All of the "movies" in the game are just large flat graphics being pushed around. Yet, it fits perfectly. I kind of hope they keep that style with the upcoming sequel.
Or vice versa? Play the new game with the old look? After all, the new Zelda plays on a modified Wind Waker engine. Would probably be almost feasible, in fact.
1. FF VI: the bit with Celes jumping off the cliff.
Someone's already mentioned this. I kind of look down on it now (as most Final Fantasy games) as being shamelessly melodramatic, but it did have an effect on me. But there's a better example in the same game....
I always thought, since I found out about it anyway, that Shadow was a well-done character in that game. He's not just mysterious, he's *minimalist*. There are just not that many words expended on his behalf. He's the only character who can die permanently, and because having him survive into the second half of the game requires waiting until the last second to complete an important timed section, I reckon most people don't even know he can survive until the ending.
But anyway, Shadow has these really creepy dream sequences that occaisionally pop up when you stay at inns. He also has a daughter, who is never explictly named by the game, but the game gives you more than enough clues to piece together who she is. (Hint: Check the "useable by" list on the starting accessories of various party members if Shadow is available, and you'll probably figure it out eventually.) Because you have to piece that bit of the game's most enigmatic character's life together yourself, I think it's amazingly effective.
2. Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
The story in this one is grossly underrated, and is arguably the best thing about it. (The combat is interminable.) It's written with a style and wit that makes it worthwhile to wander around and just talk with people. And it's definitely an effective ending, though none of the later games ever adequately explain it. (Despite the ominious promise that appears onscreen if you wait for a while after the ending concludes....)
3. Grandia and Grandia II
Again, like Lufia, the dialogue is written with surprising livliness. Some people think it's a flaw in the first Grandia, but I think it's beneficial that for two-thirds of the game you don't really have a *reason* for wandering around and exploring new lands. The characters don't really need one, and the only really false notes sounded by the game come near the end, when some things happen basically because the plot demands that they do. Grandia II has gotten something of a bum rap, it may not have that adventursome theme and characters but the dialogue writing is at least as good as the first game.
4. Katamari Damacy
It's impossible to think about the world quite the same way ever again the first time, in the Make the Moon level, you get the ball big enough that you can roam the ocean freely. Once you hit 600 meters and can pick up the mountain, you're then big enough to grab everything in the whole game; nothing will ever bump you around again. It's an empowering moment.
I was in high school and going through the usual geek/teen problems, stumbling home depressed at night to play Wasteland. I'll never forget the scene where, after gathering chemicals and other inventory items, you help those two guys with radiation sickness back to health (Metal Maniac and I forget the other's name).
I like to think everyone has these moments of empathy with fictional characters, or anyone with half a brain in their head. Good story.
Psst! Go to the website and listen to the trailer for the Quandary Phase.
Short response: it might not be a retcon! There appear to be some significant differences between the upcoming two series and the books....
According to the production diaries, Adams wanted the third series to stick to the book fairly closely, but thought himself that the fourth and fifth books needed some editing. And they're actually going to try to tie up loose ends in the radio show.
I don't see what these people who are complaining this story has nothing to do with technology are complaining about, this is perfectly relevant in my opinion.
Ultimately, the article's point is that PR people aren't necessarily bad, but that lazy reporters who don't do work beyond what the PR people give them are. Lending weight to this is how the "liberal" mainstream media has refused to report on the Bush administration concerning little beyond what are in the press releases the White House gives them. So there is a problem with the media, but it isn't liberalism: it's laziness.
Granted.
But imagine a Paranoia LARP. An entirely new way to lose friendships!
No, you are not. I, for example, think these have been made way too much about.
On some level I like the idea, but I also think it can be taken too far. And using them to promote something that bears no real relationship to the "alternate reality" game (itself a fairly misleading term) strikes me as being rather mercenary.
I know *why* they try to prevent users from running their own code. I'm just saying it's weird that, if the company does a *worse* job in this area, the console becomes *more* valuable to consumers.
All I'm saying is, these kinds of expectation bubbles tend to pop in the long run.