Now since I have been saturated by the "culture of violence" how do these supposed experts explain my not being a violent or devient person?
Are you serious?
First of all, the research which parent cited did exactly not claim that you'd become violent in normal situations by playing violent games.
Second, you don't know how you'd feel if you had not done all the things you've done.
Third, you are a single person. You're not a statistic. You're not objectively judging yourself. There's no control group. You're not an experiment running in a controlled situation. You're a single human being looking at yourself.
Your not being violent does not prove anything at all.
Then the U.K. should start acting like it has an adversarial system and treat people as innocent until proven guilty.
Unlike the US, they actually do that.
Banning violent games because they might cause someone to be violent themselves is not conductive to this goal.
Your second sentence is not logically connected to the first sentence. If a government "bans" a game (which, by the way, the UK did not do), then buying it makes you guilty of violating that law.
In the name of political correctness, values and morality have eroded to appease a few in the minority.
How in the world is homosexuality immoral?
Necause the Federal Republic that is the U.S. has been twisted so much, the minority now gets to dictate to the majority. If the U.S. was a true Democracy, then the rule of the majority would speak for itself.
Unfortunately, you have no clue about what a democracy is. Here's a hint: Democracy does not mean dictatorship of the majority.
Accepting homosexuality as something normal is not the minority dictating the majority, it's simply the majority showing a bit of respect for the minorty.
I think ZDNet got it wrong. This is not about online journalism. This is about a rumors site publishing trade secrets.
Apple certainly never said that online journalists aren't journalists. They probably said that rumor sites publishing trade secrets are not journalists, and they're right. No real journalist behaves like that and simply prints a company's trade secret if there's no public interest in doing so (and please not that an interested public is not the same as public interest.
Apple's in the right here, and it has got nothing to do with online journalism, a blogger's rights or anything else like that.
"I'm not really interested in it. I don't think a controller should have that much influence on the enjoyment of games."
Have you ever played Katamari Damacy? (...) The entire game is played with two joysticks
So what you're saying is that Katamari Damacy would not have been possible with a controller without two analog sticks? That's, like, every console generation before the current one.
Not to mention that it was Nintendo who introduced the analog stick. But that shouldn't have that much influence on the enjoyment of games, right?
Try this, replace the word "controller" with the words "flashy graphics" in his quotes and I think you'll start getting a better sense of where he's coming from.
I agree that he probably meant the comment to be understood like this. However, I still don't agree.
Flashy graphics have a very small influence on the kind of games that are possible and on the gamer's enjoyment of the game.
The controller, however, can fundamentally change what games are possible (e.g. RTS games hardly work without a mouse) and can make specific genres much more enjoyable (e.g. Metroid Prime on the DS is the first portable FPS that is actually fun to play).
If you compare a fundamentally new controller to updated graphics, you're not doing the controller justice.
When you talk about movies, books, games, and other media, "mature" has a very clear alternate meaning, even if the boundries are arguable.
Well, if you define "mature" as "not suitable for children", then I could agree with that. But then you're making a statement on children (children can't play mature games). However, the orignal quote did the opposite: It made a statement on adults (adults want to play mature games). You said "Mature gamers automatically are drawn to mature subjects", which is absolutely not how you defined "mature" just now.
The first definition ("children can't play mature games") I can agree with. The second ("adults want to play mature games") I can't.
Then you have movies like Seven, Silence of the Lambs, and other classics. These movies are built almost entirely around violence, (...).
Wrong. They're built around strong stories and strong actors. Violence is part of the story, which makes these movies unsuitable for children, but violence does not automatically make a movie "mature".
If you want a movie built almost entirely around violence, watch "Final Destination", or maybe "House of the Dead". Very mature movies, eh?
the difference is, unlike me, they think they are better. (...) at's actually a fairly significant subset of the Mac using population, large enough for non-Mac users to notice. (...) I'm talking about the Mac bigots who exude a sense of innate superiority because they use a Macintosh.
I don't see this. It's porbably similar to the recent Southpark episode with the Hybrid owners: They aren't smug (at least none of the ones I know), but people often perceive them to be smug because they unintendionally remind them of their own shortcomings:-P
It's the same with everything. I know people who get angry at religions people: "But they think they're better than me because they think they'll go to heaven and I'll burn in hell, and they only wear those stupid kippas to remind me of how better they feel." Meh. Most people aren't smug and don't feel superior just because they drive a Hybrid, own a Mac or think they'll go to heaven. It's your perception of them.
(And for the record, while I own a PowerBook (and a self-built PC dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu for gaming and MythTV, which most certainly does make me a nerd, but also does not make me superior to anyone), I don't own a Hybrid (in fact, I don't own a car at all), I'm not religious, and I have no big-screen TV. I simply never got the impression that those people felt any superior to me)
You don't see owners of any other brand get so defensive about their choices either:
That's because you don't have to defend yourself if you bought a Lenovo or a Dell. You don't constantly get "Oh, but I thought Dell was about to go out of business?" "But it's not compatible! Can I still send you.doc files?" "You know, my computer cost half as much and is twice as fast! Your computer is just pretty and for artsy types..."
But if you bought a Mac because you think we think you're someone special for having done so, well... you're wrong.
I have used Macs on occasion, but in my 7 years of sound design for videogames my primary tools have all been on Windows and PCs.
Gah, I hate the cliché that you need a Porsche to drive fast. Sure, Porsches are fast, but I've been doing street races with my hummer for seven years now!
Anyway, there are lots of Windows users doing creative stuff, and lots of Mac users doing non-creative stuff. That doesn't change the fact that Apple is disproportionally strong in the creative market.
Apple is the brand for people that are willing to pay a premium for their personal computers in order to suggest that they, themselves, have some degree of "artistic-ness", or at least style.
That's pretty arrogant.
People who work with their computers buy what's best for the job. For some people, it's Macs, for others, it's PCs. So you buy PCs. Good for you. Others buy Macs. That doesn't make them better or worse than you, it just means they need a different OS to "make that statement with the quality of [their] work."
Is there a single American game series that has (if I'm counting right) over a dozen sequels each?
Every single EA sports franchise?:-)
Sequels aren't a bad thing per se. The bad thing is when stuff doesn't change between versions of a game. Look at Mario's Jump-N-Run games. There have never been more than two versions using the same game mechanics (Mario 1 and Mario: Lost Levels, and possible Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine), while most western FPS use the same engines and mechanics even in different franchises.
There certainly isnt enough games for it (...) If you have a choice, pick up a PSP over the DS.
Awesome idea. Buy the game console without the games.
If you convince enough gullible people to buy PSPs, maybe somebody is going to make a few games, too. In the meantime, the rest of us will be happy playing tons of utterly awesome games on our DS consoles.
How many 20-something males do you think will happily admit they played and loved Mario Sunshine?
I'm 26 and male. I own and love Sunshine. Most of my (male, similarly aged) friends play and love it too, and those who don't play it see absolutely no problem with 26 years old males playing games like Sunshine.
We own both Mario Kart: Double Dash and Burnout 2. Guess which game is being played more often? Not Burnout.
In fact, the game most often played around here is Super Monkey Ball 2. Hardly an "adult oriented" game.
Nintendo games aren't aimed at children. They're aimed at everyone who wants to have fun and isn't so insecure that he can't play games without blood, gore and tits.
I've been playing through old LucasArts adventure games with my DS
What do I need to do this? I used to play them on my P800, but I switched to a Treo and they run too slow to be playable. I own a DS and would love to play these games on it.
Twenty years ago games were not as fun as they are today.
This is just as stupid a generalization as "everything used to be better". Some games (or even whole genres) used to be better, others are better now. Ice Hockey on the NES is still a whole lot more fun than any recent hockey game. Similarly, Punch-Out quite frankly still beats the crap out of any modern boxing game. Super Mario World on the SNES was probably one of the best Jump-N-Run-games, and the Sonic games on the Megadrive haven't been surpassed until the DS version of Sonic.
On the other hand, games like Total Annihilation, Halo or Metroid Prime simply weren't possible until very recently or are a whole lot more fun on modern consoles.
So some games and genres have improved, others have become worse, and even others simply aren't being made anymore. But games in general haven't become better or worse.
I disagree. He seems to be a real asshole. He's rarely openly aggressive, but he starts out being really annoying and passive-aggressive, constantly slams Ubunto for no good reason (as it turns out, his hardware was broken), and quickly turns to insulting the people trying to help him.
Some choice quotes:
"But it's my fault, really. I should never have believed all that crap about "providing access to all"."
"I thought -- probably because of all the liberation/openness rhetoric of Ubuntu -- I wouldn't need Microsoft software to get Ubuntu to work. Guess that's not the case."
"So in other words, you didn't read my first post, in which I said that the disc is fine and I've tried reinstalling multiple times. This just makes my day."
"Seems like a fishing expedition there."
"Okay, why not just tell me how to get into the boot loader?"
"Just yesterday I thought I knew what chutzpah was.
"Starting on the right foot" would include "not getting locked out of my computer because I installed a OS billed as 'Linux for Human Beings' ". "Starting on the right foot" would include finding instructions that answer the frequently asked question of "how do I set up a new partition and install to that partition?". "Starting on the right foot" would include an Ubuntu forum that doesn't take me a week of trying to access from different computers and connections before it consistently loads.
Stop making excuses. So I wouldn't answer what Windows version it is. Can anyone think of any reason why one version of Windows over another would cause GRUB error 25? No? Okay then.
The problem is not the devices, or the Windows version, or getting the latest install CD, or scratches on the install CD. The problem is the boot loader. The problem has already been diagnosed. You just want to chase all these wild geese because you don't want to admit that maybe this "access for all" OS has a serious problem.
Would somebody just tell me how to edit, modify, fix, whatever, the boot loader? That's all. It should be really simple, given the rigorous testing that they would put a software capable of locking you out of your computer through."
"I downloaded it, burned it to a CD, bought a new hard drive, installed the distro, locked myself out of my computer, spent countless hours getting help from my brother through each step of the way solely so I could have a real story about how a Linux distro fucked me over. I was so willing to tarnish the reputation of Ubuntu that I did all that, devious schemer that I am. And to top it all off, I literally, *jumped* at the chance to wait for "ubuntuforums.org" to load so I could be subjected to "advice" like "Can't get into your computer? I know! Go open Linux and post your menu.1st file!" My doctor always told me my blood pressure was too low.
But it's no big deal, right? So what if I can't get it to run? I'm just one person. It's not like Ubuntu is intended to be usable by everyone, right? It's not like I can believe what they say at ubuntu.com."
"And you've reached a new low."
"There's a really simple solution to all of this that should have been the second post: tell me how to edit the boot loader. If you really want to expand the Ubuntu user base (i.e., if you don't use this forum merely to degrade people who are trying to get it installed), you'd tell me that. You still have a chance."
And so on.
I don't like Linux. I use a Mac, and I use Windows at work. I have absolutely no interest in Ubuntu. And I still think he's extremely unfriendly. He's telling the very people who try to help him that they've "reached a new low". Wow.
Remember, he wants these people to help him. They're not paid to help him. They do it out of the goodness of their heart (or maybe they have some leass altruistic reason, but hey sure as hell don't have to help him), yet all he does is insult them and demand a solution which is simply not possible in this here reality.
It's kinda weird how long it took until the others went from being apologetic to calling him what he was.
He's going to have to find a way to convince everyone in the world that they are both worth the time and money.
Actually, I don't think so. I would guess that most casual gamers will find the Revolution to be an attractive proposition: Interesting console, acceptable price and fun games for the whole family. Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, don't need to be convinced to buy more than one console. If the Revolution turns out to have a few great games (Metroid Prime Revolution?), they will buy it.
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I'd rate you up if I could. Funniest comment today :-D
Next question, please. Maybe this time you can come up with something that actually adds to the discussion. Good luck.
Are you serious?
First of all, the research which parent cited did exactly not claim that you'd become violent in normal situations by playing violent games.
Second, you don't know how you'd feel if you had not done all the things you've done.
Third, you are a single person. You're not a statistic. You're not objectively judging yourself. There's no control group. You're not an experiment running in a controlled situation. You're a single human being looking at yourself.
Your not being violent does not prove anything at all.
Unlike the US, they actually do that.
Your second sentence is not logically connected to the first sentence. If a government "bans" a game (which, by the way, the UK did not do), then buying it makes you guilty of violating that law.
How in the world is homosexuality immoral?
Unfortunately, you have no clue about what a democracy is. Here's a hint: Democracy does not mean dictatorship of the majority.
Accepting homosexuality as something normal is not the minority dictating the majority, it's simply the majority showing a bit of respect for the minorty.
...such as AIFF and Apple Lossless.
Also, these systems don't use the headphone jack to get the music. They use the dock connector, which allows for much higher quality.
I think ZDNet got it wrong. This is not about online journalism. This is about a rumors site publishing trade secrets.
Apple certainly never said that online journalists aren't journalists. They probably said that rumor sites publishing trade secrets are not journalists, and they're right. No real journalist behaves like that and simply prints a company's trade secret if there's no public interest in doing so (and please not that an interested public is not the same as public interest.
Apple's in the right here, and it has got nothing to do with online journalism, a blogger's rights or anything else like that.
The argument is about whether games are art, not whether playing games is art.
So what you're saying is that Katamari Damacy would not have been possible with a controller without two analog sticks? That's, like, every console generation before the current one.
Not to mention that it was Nintendo who introduced the analog stick. But that shouldn't have that much influence on the enjoyment of games, right?
I agree that he probably meant the comment to be understood like this. However, I still don't agree.
Flashy graphics have a very small influence on the kind of games that are possible and on the gamer's enjoyment of the game.
The controller, however, can fundamentally change what games are possible (e.g. RTS games hardly work without a mouse) and can make specific genres much more enjoyable (e.g. Metroid Prime on the DS is the first portable FPS that is actually fun to play).
If you compare a fundamentally new controller to updated graphics, you're not doing the controller justice.
Well, if you define "mature" as "not suitable for children", then I could agree with that. But then you're making a statement on children (children can't play mature games). However, the orignal quote did the opposite: It made a statement on adults (adults want to play mature games). You said "Mature gamers automatically are drawn to mature subjects", which is absolutely not how you defined "mature" just now.
The first definition ("children can't play mature games") I can agree with. The second ("adults want to play mature games") I can't.
Wrong. They're built around strong stories and strong actors. Violence is part of the story, which makes these movies unsuitable for children, but violence does not automatically make a movie "mature".
If you want a movie built almost entirely around violence, watch "Final Destination", or maybe "House of the Dead". Very mature movies, eh?
I don't see this. It's porbably similar to the recent Southpark episode with the Hybrid owners: They aren't smug (at least none of the ones I know), but people often perceive them to be smug because they unintendionally remind them of their own shortcomings :-P
It's the same with everything. I know people who get angry at religions people: "But they think they're better than me because they think they'll go to heaven and I'll burn in hell, and they only wear those stupid kippas to remind me of how better they feel." Meh. Most people aren't smug and don't feel superior just because they drive a Hybrid, own a Mac or think they'll go to heaven. It's your perception of them.
(And for the record, while I own a PowerBook (and a self-built PC dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu for gaming and MythTV, which most certainly does make me a nerd, but also does not make me superior to anyone), I don't own a Hybrid (in fact, I don't own a car at all), I'm not religious, and I have no big-screen TV. I simply never got the impression that those people felt any superior to me)
That's because you don't have to defend yourself if you bought a Lenovo or a Dell. You don't constantly get "Oh, but I thought Dell was about to go out of business?" "But it's not compatible! Can I still send you .doc files?" "You know, my computer cost half as much and is twice as fast! Your computer is just pretty and for artsy types..."
Methinks you're just jealous :-P
The fact that people are looking for causes for crime does not mean that those who commit the crime aren't responsible.
Gah, I hate the cliché that you need a Porsche to drive fast. Sure, Porsches are fast, but I've been doing street races with my hummer for seven years now!
Anyway, there are lots of Windows users doing creative stuff, and lots of Mac users doing non-creative stuff. That doesn't change the fact that Apple is disproportionally strong in the creative market.
That's pretty arrogant.
People who work with their computers buy what's best for the job. For some people, it's Macs, for others, it's PCs. So you buy PCs. Good for you. Others buy Macs. That doesn't make them better or worse than you, it just means they need a different OS to "make that statement with the quality of [their] work."
And no, Macs don't cost more than comparable PCs.
Every single EA sports franchise? :-)
Sequels aren't a bad thing per se. The bad thing is when stuff doesn't change between versions of a game. Look at Mario's Jump-N-Run games. There have never been more than two versions using the same game mechanics (Mario 1 and Mario: Lost Levels, and possible Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine), while most western FPS use the same engines and mechanics even in different franchises.
The DS does play Lumines. It's just called Meteos :-)
Seriously, though, since Tetris DS, all other puzzle games are dead. And there are plenty of awesome puzzle games on the DS.
Awesome idea. Buy the game console without the games.
If you convince enough gullible people to buy PSPs, maybe somebody is going to make a few games, too. In the meantime, the rest of us will be happy playing tons of utterly awesome games on our DS consoles.
I'm 26 and male. I own and love Sunshine. Most of my (male, similarly aged) friends play and love it too, and those who don't play it see absolutely no problem with 26 years old males playing games like Sunshine.
We own both Mario Kart: Double Dash and Burnout 2. Guess which game is being played more often? Not Burnout.
In fact, the game most often played around here is Super Monkey Ball 2. Hardly an "adult oriented" game.
Nintendo games aren't aimed at children. They're aimed at everyone who wants to have fun and isn't so insecure that he can't play games without blood, gore and tits.
What do I need to do this? I used to play them on my P800, but I switched to a Treo and they run too slow to be playable. I own a DS and would love to play these games on it.
This is just as stupid a generalization as "everything used to be better". Some games (or even whole genres) used to be better, others are better now. Ice Hockey on the NES is still a whole lot more fun than any recent hockey game. Similarly, Punch-Out quite frankly still beats the crap out of any modern boxing game. Super Mario World on the SNES was probably one of the best Jump-N-Run-games, and the Sonic games on the Megadrive haven't been surpassed until the DS version of Sonic.
On the other hand, games like Total Annihilation, Halo or Metroid Prime simply weren't possible until very recently or are a whole lot more fun on modern consoles.
So some games and genres have improved, others have become worse, and even others simply aren't being made anymore. But games in general haven't become better or worse.
I disagree. He seems to be a real asshole. He's rarely openly aggressive, but he starts out being really annoying and passive-aggressive, constantly slams Ubunto for no good reason (as it turns out, his hardware was broken), and quickly turns to insulting the people trying to help him.
Some choice quotes:
And so on.
I don't like Linux. I use a Mac, and I use Windows at work. I have absolutely no interest in Ubuntu. And I still think he's extremely unfriendly. He's telling the very people who try to help him that they've "reached a new low". Wow.
Remember, he wants these people to help him. They're not paid to help him. They do it out of the goodness of their heart (or maybe they have some leass altruistic reason, but hey sure as hell don't have to help him), yet all he does is insult them and demand a solution which is simply not possible in this here reality.
It's kinda weird how long it took until the others went from being apologetic to calling him what he was.
What an ass.
Actually, I don't think so. I would guess that most casual gamers will find the Revolution to be an attractive proposition: Interesting console, acceptable price and fun games for the whole family. Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, don't need to be convinced to buy more than one console. If the Revolution turns out to have a few great games (Metroid Prime Revolution?), they will buy it.