Ninendo has also announced dev kits for indies. Problem is, they currently seem to have a shortage of dev kits since all big developers are moving to the Wii. In February, they postponed the dev kit release for indies:-(
Not sure where this is standing now. It seems at least some indies are getting dev kits, because there have been some Wii games announcement from them in the past few days.
Is this letter genuine? I mean, seriously? He's claiming that he's praying for crap to happen to Take Two? Wow, what a devout christian. And the idiocy doesn't stop there:
First he writes:
I encourage folks to read Psalm 35, a Psalm of David, which is brilliant in its entirety (since God Himself wrote it)
and then he finishes with
Amen, and Praise be to God Almighty, maker of Heaven, Earth, and yes, the maker even video games
Ignoring all the mistakes he makes, if Jack claims that something is brilliant because god wrote it, and then claims that god wrote all video games, doesn't that make all video games brilliant?
Personally, I think he's a heretic. We all know that god didn't make all video games. He only made some of the Mario games, the early Donkey Kong games, Zelda and Pikmin. I mean, Jack is talking about Miyamoto, isn't he?
Why does anyone listen to this guy? His blog is a poorly-written pamphlet filled with entries that are either obvious, moronic or both. What does he even do? Doees he have some kind of job, other than writing crap about stuff he has no clue about?
Can we just ignore him until he does something of value?
Well, I think it's at least obvious that Mac users aren't some kind of homogenous mass of psychopathic fancily-dressed iPod-wielding Steve Jobs worshippers.
We shouldn't sell our independence and liberty down the river for the sake of some enviromental cause
Even if that made any kind of sense, destroying the environment is akin to suicide. If you'd rather die than give up some independence, well, it's unfortunate that you intend to take the rest of us with you.
I can completely back xtracto up on this one. I've bought a few virtual console games and they are glitchy. Super Mario Bros., to be specific, has the character sprites flicker as they animate.
Dude, that's exactly the opposite of what xtracto has been complaining about. He said that Nintendo's emulation was not accurate enough (and I'm guessing the problem he's seeing is only due to the different controller, not due to the game). You just complained that the emulation was too accurate (i.e. they did not fix the flickering, which was a result of the limiations of the NES hardware).
This is exactly what Nintendo has to deal with: Some people want old glitches fixed, others want perfect emulation. Nintendo seems to lean towards perfect emulation, but they did change some things, such as passwords, in certain NES games. Probably no intentional changes, though.
The other justifications usually come from the fact that they either just tend to listen to the marketing hype
How's that for some cognitive dissonance. "I don't understand why people chose Macs. But I know all about Computers. Thus, people who chose Macs must be stupid fucks who just tend to listen to the marketing hype."
The Windows version of Photoshop sucks. It uses that weird Window-in-a-Window paradigm which makes it really hard to compare files open in Photoshop to files open in other apps. I truly dislike that application. Also, I think color management on Macs is simpler, and the Mac offers other creative apps which are not available on Windows, such as Aperture or Final Cut Pro (granted, both are from Apple, but these are kind of important apps for many graphic artists and photographers).
(Finally an answer worthy of a response:-) - turns out gp was just a sad Troll who posts on/. claiming to be a rich connoisseur of fine wine or something. I now regret answering his flamebait, frankly)
Not really sure what your objection to my post is. I never claimed there were no good PSP games (in fact, I quite enjoy a few of them, such as the new Ghosts N'Goblins). I most certainly did not claim that nobody could possibly like the PSP. I like it. I have to admit that I use it mainly to watch 24, Lost and Prison Break during train rides while the DS is my main portable gaming machine (actually, the GBA micro probably is, since it's so small that I always have it with me), but I do like the PSP.
I have to object to a few things you say though. First, mature games. This is something I've said before and I will most likely say again: "M" rated games like GTA are not mature. In fact, the overdone violence is downright childish. If you want a mature console, the DS is the one to go for. It actually has games targeted at adults: Brain Training, DS Guitar M-06 (I'm serious, this will notl appeal to kids, but I find it awesome, and I do actually play the guitar), Hotel Dusk, or Clubhouse Games. If I look at the PSP games in my local games store, I see mostly violent crap aimed at male teens, and car racers aimed at male teens (and a few violent car racers aimed at... well, you get the point). If I look at the DS selection, I see a wide variety of games targeted all ages and both genders.
Second, I find it somewhat hard to believe that somebody could not like Mario Kart. I can't see how this could possibly be a matter of taste. Have you actually played the game? I have yet to find somebody who has played this game and does not like it. What exactly is it that puts you off? The colorful graphics? If so, you're denying yourself one of the most fun games in recent memory.
Third, I did not imply that grandparent might be paid by Sony because he likes the PSP, but due to his outlandish claims about how Wipeout owns F-Zero (as I said, these are both great franchises and not very similar to begin with), or how there is not one single game on the DS which he likes. If you claim something like that, you're either a mindless fanboy, or you're paid to spout crap.
Fourth, "you folks"? What folks do you think I belong to? I did not realize that I need to be in some kind of group in order to be allowed to defend Nintendo.
Fifth and finally, why are all people defending Sony always posting as Anonymous Cowards?
Which is precisely my point: If it becomes a financial risk for a company to behave like an insane sociopath, it will stop doing that. That is why we must reward companies which behave better (at the moment, Nintendo) and punish those which behave worse (at the moment, Sony and Microsoft).
In addition to that, we can help avoiding monopolies, because if a company becomes a monopoly, they also become more insane almost by definition.
You're not sending a clear message to it
I think the consumer's message to Sony is obvious enough. And even if it is not, there's an effect: If we only buy from sane companies, eventually, only sane companies will be left, even if the insane ones don't learn anything from the consumers' behavior.
And it's not as if only the BMG part of Sony was responsible for all of the insanity that Sony has been up to lately.
You make it sound as if a company either behaved perfectly, or was evil. Nintendo is not perfect (althought definitely better than during the NES times), but between Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft, it's really no contest. Nintendo has done nothing even remotely approaching what Microsoft and Sony have done. If you want to ignore that, fine, but then you're part of the general problem leading to corporations behaving like insane sociopaths. And this is not something that only applies to videogames, either. If we want corporations to behave less evil, we need to reward those which do behave better than others.
The idea with friend codes is simple: It only allows you to talk to people you already know outside of the game. It does not prevent you from playing against people whose friend code you don't have, you simply won't be able to talk to them.
Let me repeat that: You can ignore friend codes and still play online games. You don't get the more sophisticated matchmaking stuff, but you can play online very easily.
The reason for friend codes is simple: If some pedophile is looking for kids, he won't be able to find them using Nintendo's online service. It's not a useful strategy against pedophiles, but it is an useful strategy for Nintendo: They can avoid the blame if something happens. Let's not forget that there were mainstream media reports about how pedophiles can get to children using the DS's chat application. And then there was this guy who actually kidnapped children and had an Xbox gamertag. Nintendo has a lot to lose here with regards to public opinion.
Personally, I don't mind friend codes per se. I usually don't want to talk to the people I play with, I just want to race them in Mario Kart or destroy them in Tetris. And I can easily fill in friend codes for the people I actually want to talk to. The only real problem with friend codes is that you have to enter them anew for each game on the DS. Hopefully, Nintendo has fixed that problem with the Wii.
Actually, there seems to be some stupid scare mongering piece in TV every other week, telling viewers about how dangerous online games are, or how predators can get to kids using the DS's chat application. Nintendo is trying to make sure that gamers can only talk to people they found outside of Nintendo's online service, thus making sure that if something happens, they are not the ones that take the blame.
the GTA games are just plain fun, Wipeout Pure is what F-zero could have been - it's awesome (...) I don't know, slashdot is just filled with PSP FUD - I just don't get it. There isn't a single DS game that interests me, and the graphics are just terrible. Small screens and jagged edges just suck. (...) It is an accessory to their uber-game filled life, and maybe the novelty is a big bonus.
As an owner of both consoles, I think you're full of it.
Having played GTA on both the PS2 and the PC, it's obvious that control on the PSP is simply broken. Wipeout may be a fun game, but "what F-Zero could have been"? Give me a break. Both franchises are great, and they aren't that similar to begin with. And yes, I own both the first GTA and Wipeout for the PSP.
There is not a single game on the DS that interests you? Really? This is a console that sports games such as Mario Kart DS, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Meteos (you like Lumines - which is great, by the way - but not Meteos? Huh?), Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Tetris DS, two Super Mario jump-n-runs, Metroid Prime: Hunters, a non-crappy Sonic game, a whole bunch of great adventure games (Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory) and tons of other awesome games. And you don't like a single one of them?
When the Internet first started to become popular, people always expected things to become threedimensional. Boo.com allowed users to show 3D versions of their wares. VRML was supposed to replace HTML and turn the Internet into some kind of 3D cyberspace. Everyone thought file browsers would become 3D - remember Jurassic Park? Apple had this weird 3D web browser (I think it was called Soap or something). And Apple, always trying to be the innovator, even gave out CDs with virtual stores in them: You could walk through an Apple store, look at computers and talk to weird avatars. When creating online shops, customers always wanted to recreate their own real shops. "Can we have a 3D version of our shop where the user walks through the aisles and puts things into a virtual shopping cart?"
Guess what, that idea is broken. For games, 3D can add something to the experience. But if you actually want something done, like talking to somebody, or buying something, or joining a game, you need to have an interface that suits the device you're using. Namely, the TV. Your TV is 2D, not 3D. You wanna buy a book on amazon? You enter the title or author, and there it is. No need to walk through a 3D store and get lost because you ended up in the wrong section. Wanna chat with somebody? Click on their name in your chat app of choice and start typing. No need to walk through a 3D world, trying to find them. Wanna watch a movie? Hit youtube, enter what you like, click, watch. You don't want to go to a virtual cinema, figure out which room your movie is playing, and find a place where you can actually see the screen.
Don't reproduce the worst parts of real life in a computer interface!
Games can be 3D because the creator intentionally creates obstacles for the user. Gamers want to have "hard" interfaces. Otherwise, the game would not be fun (and even so, people complain about 3D jump-n-runs - timing jumps is much easier in 2D!). But if you actually want to get things done, 3D just gets in your way.
Home looks like the wet dream of a Sony executive right out of the early 90s. Maybe they invented the time machine or something, but I really thought we had finally figured out that 3D interfaces are not a good idea for most types of software.
Sony is not a communist organization. They need to make money to keep the shareholders happy.
I think you're kind of missing the point of the criticism. Nobody thinks Sony should not be allowed to make money. However, I, as a customer, don't care about whether they make money or not. It does not influence my decisions. I evaluate their product based on whether I enjoy it. If it's an ad-filled piece of marketing, I will avoid it.
Not because I hate the fact that Sony makes money, but because it simply does not appeal to me.
I agree. The Wii will get the exclusives by definition. You can't really port a game like Elebits or Second Opinion or Wario Ware (or even Rayman - although it did receive a port, it's hardly the same game without the Wii remote) to the PS3 or the 360. There is, however, nothing in the PS3 or 360 which would keep a game from being ported from one to the other. For all intents and purposes, they are equal consoles.
All the Cube owners I know own more, and more diverse games than the Xbox owners I know. Many Xbox owners seems to own the Halos, Fable, and a Project Gotham, as well as some second-tier games. Cube owners, on the other hand, seem to have more diverse tastes. Most own several multipalyer party games - Super Monkey Ball, Mario Party, Mario Kart, stuff like that. Then there are the big single-player games. Zelda, Resident Evil 4, Beyond Good and Evil (which is also available for other consoles, of course, but seems to mainly have been bought by Cube owners). Cube owners also tend to go for quirky games. I actually know people who own Killer 7:-)
So... My anecdotal evidence beats your anecdotal evidence:-)
Pong was definitely important. And what, no Zelda? Also, while Super Mario Bros. 3 was an important game, I'd say that Super Mario Bros. was more important, even though Mario 3 was the better game, and is still a strong game today. What about Space Invaders? Marathon? Wolfenstein? Why Doom?
I own a Nintendo DS. It's pretty much the same business model. I can only buy software licensed by Nintendo, and Nintendo gets paid for third-party software. I also own a GP2X. It runs an open-source OS, I can write my own software and install whatever the hell I want.
Guess which one gets more use.
There's ideals, and then there's practicality. I need a cell phone for my work. I need it to work and to get out of the way. If an open phone does that, I'll pay for it. Until that happens, I'll gladly take the restrictions in exchange for something that is actually usable.
The funny thing is, Apple will be the one making money from people like you. There will be third-party iPhone apps, sold through the iTunes store, just like they sell iPod games right now.
Slashdot Mirror
Ninendo has also announced dev kits for indies. Problem is, they currently seem to have a shortage of dev kits since all big developers are moving to the Wii. In February, they postponed the dev kit release for indies :-(
Not sure where this is standing now. It seems at least some indies are getting dev kits, because there have been some Wii games announcement from them in the past few days.
Is this letter genuine? I mean, seriously? He's claiming that he's praying for crap to happen to Take Two? Wow, what a devout christian. And the idiocy doesn't stop there:
First he writes:
and then he finishes with
Ignoring all the mistakes he makes, if Jack claims that something is brilliant because god wrote it, and then claims that god wrote all video games, doesn't that make all video games brilliant?
Personally, I think he's a heretic. We all know that god didn't make all video games. He only made some of the Mario games, the early Donkey Kong games, Zelda and Pikmin. I mean, Jack is talking about Miyamoto, isn't he?
That's actually a common occurence on the NES which could only display a limited number of sprites next to each other horizontally.
Why does anyone listen to this guy? His blog is a poorly-written pamphlet filled with entries that are either obvious, moronic or both. What does he even do? Doees he have some kind of job, other than writing crap about stuff he has no clue about?
Can we just ignore him until he does something of value?
Well, I think it's at least obvious that Mac users aren't some kind of homogenous mass of psychopathic fancily-dressed iPod-wielding Steve Jobs worshippers.
Even if that made any kind of sense, destroying the environment is akin to suicide. If you'd rather die than give up some independence, well, it's unfortunate that you intend to take the rest of us with you.
Dude, that's exactly the opposite of what xtracto has been complaining about. He said that Nintendo's emulation was not accurate enough (and I'm guessing the problem he's seeing is only due to the different controller, not due to the game). You just complained that the emulation was too accurate (i.e. they did not fix the flickering, which was a result of the limiations of the NES hardware).
This is exactly what Nintendo has to deal with: Some people want old glitches fixed, others want perfect emulation. Nintendo seems to lean towards perfect emulation, but they did change some things, such as passwords, in certain NES games. Probably no intentional changes, though.
How's that for some cognitive dissonance. "I don't understand why people chose Macs. But I know all about Computers. Thus, people who chose Macs must be stupid fucks who just tend to listen to the marketing hype."
Wow.
The Windows version of Photoshop sucks. It uses that weird Window-in-a-Window paradigm which makes it really hard to compare files open in Photoshop to files open in other apps. I truly dislike that application. Also, I think color management on Macs is simpler, and the Mac offers other creative apps which are not available on Windows, such as Aperture or Final Cut Pro (granted, both are from Apple, but these are kind of important apps for many graphic artists and photographers).
(Finally an answer worthy of a response :-) - turns out gp was just a sad Troll who posts on /. claiming to be a rich connoisseur of fine wine or something. I now regret answering his flamebait, frankly)
Not really sure what your objection to my post is. I never claimed there were no good PSP games (in fact, I quite enjoy a few of them, such as the new Ghosts N'Goblins). I most certainly did not claim that nobody could possibly like the PSP. I like it. I have to admit that I use it mainly to watch 24, Lost and Prison Break during train rides while the DS is my main portable gaming machine (actually, the GBA micro probably is, since it's so small that I always have it with me), but I do like the PSP.
I have to object to a few things you say though. First, mature games. This is something I've said before and I will most likely say again: "M" rated games like GTA are not mature. In fact, the overdone violence is downright childish. If you want a mature console, the DS is the one to go for. It actually has games targeted at adults: Brain Training, DS Guitar M-06 (I'm serious, this will notl appeal to kids, but I find it awesome, and I do actually play the guitar), Hotel Dusk, or Clubhouse Games. If I look at the PSP games in my local games store, I see mostly violent crap aimed at male teens, and car racers aimed at male teens (and a few violent car racers aimed at... well, you get the point). If I look at the DS selection, I see a wide variety of games targeted all ages and both genders.
Second, I find it somewhat hard to believe that somebody could not like Mario Kart. I can't see how this could possibly be a matter of taste. Have you actually played the game? I have yet to find somebody who has played this game and does not like it. What exactly is it that puts you off? The colorful graphics? If so, you're denying yourself one of the most fun games in recent memory.
Third, I did not imply that grandparent might be paid by Sony because he likes the PSP, but due to his outlandish claims about how Wipeout owns F-Zero (as I said, these are both great franchises and not very similar to begin with), or how there is not one single game on the DS which he likes. If you claim something like that, you're either a mindless fanboy, or you're paid to spout crap.
Fourth, "you folks"? What folks do you think I belong to? I did not realize that I need to be in some kind of group in order to be allowed to defend Nintendo.
Fifth and finally, why are all people defending Sony always posting as Anonymous Cowards?
Which is precisely my point: If it becomes a financial risk for a company to behave like an insane sociopath, it will stop doing that. That is why we must reward companies which behave better (at the moment, Nintendo) and punish those which behave worse (at the moment, Sony and Microsoft).
In addition to that, we can help avoiding monopolies, because if a company becomes a monopoly, they also become more insane almost by definition.
I think the consumer's message to Sony is obvious enough. And even if it is not, there's an effect: If we only buy from sane companies, eventually, only sane companies will be left, even if the insane ones don't learn anything from the consumers' behavior.
And it's not as if only the BMG part of Sony was responsible for all of the insanity that Sony has been up to lately.
The Wii version, because it's novel and more fun?
You make it sound as if a company either behaved perfectly, or was evil. Nintendo is not perfect (althought definitely better than during the NES times), but between Nintendo and Sony/Microsoft, it's really no contest. Nintendo has done nothing even remotely approaching what Microsoft and Sony have done. If you want to ignore that, fine, but then you're part of the general problem leading to corporations behaving like insane sociopaths. And this is not something that only applies to videogames, either. If we want corporations to behave less evil, we need to reward those which do behave better than others.
The idea with friend codes is simple: It only allows you to talk to people you already know outside of the game. It does not prevent you from playing against people whose friend code you don't have, you simply won't be able to talk to them.
Let me repeat that: You can ignore friend codes and still play online games. You don't get the more sophisticated matchmaking stuff, but you can play online very easily.
The reason for friend codes is simple: If some pedophile is looking for kids, he won't be able to find them using Nintendo's online service. It's not a useful strategy against pedophiles, but it is an useful strategy for Nintendo: They can avoid the blame if something happens. Let's not forget that there were mainstream media reports about how pedophiles can get to children using the DS's chat application. And then there was this guy who actually kidnapped children and had an Xbox gamertag. Nintendo has a lot to lose here with regards to public opinion.
Personally, I don't mind friend codes per se. I usually don't want to talk to the people I play with, I just want to race them in Mario Kart or destroy them in Tetris. And I can easily fill in friend codes for the people I actually want to talk to. The only real problem with friend codes is that you have to enter them anew for each game on the DS. Hopefully, Nintendo has fixed that problem with the Wii.
Actually, there seems to be some stupid scare mongering piece in TV every other week, telling viewers about how dangerous online games are, or how predators can get to kids using the DS's chat application. Nintendo is trying to make sure that gamers can only talk to people they found outside of Nintendo's online service, thus making sure that if something happens, they are not the ones that take the blame.
As an owner of both consoles, I think you're full of it.
Having played GTA on both the PS2 and the PC, it's obvious that control on the PSP is simply broken. Wipeout may be a fun game, but "what F-Zero could have been"? Give me a break. Both franchises are great, and they aren't that similar to begin with. And yes, I own both the first GTA and Wipeout for the PSP.
There is not a single game on the DS that interests you? Really? This is a console that sports games such as Mario Kart DS, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Meteos (you like Lumines - which is great, by the way - but not Meteos? Huh?), Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Tetris DS, two Super Mario jump-n-runs, Metroid Prime: Hunters, a non-crappy Sonic game, a whole bunch of great adventure games (Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory) and tons of other awesome games. And you don't like a single one of them?
So, how much did Sony pay you?
I pretty much agree with what you're writing.
When the Internet first started to become popular, people always expected things to become threedimensional. Boo.com allowed users to show 3D versions of their wares. VRML was supposed to replace HTML and turn the Internet into some kind of 3D cyberspace. Everyone thought file browsers would become 3D - remember Jurassic Park? Apple had this weird 3D web browser (I think it was called Soap or something). And Apple, always trying to be the innovator, even gave out CDs with virtual stores in them: You could walk through an Apple store, look at computers and talk to weird avatars. When creating online shops, customers always wanted to recreate their own real shops. "Can we have a 3D version of our shop where the user walks through the aisles and puts things into a virtual shopping cart?"
Guess what, that idea is broken. For games, 3D can add something to the experience. But if you actually want something done, like talking to somebody, or buying something, or joining a game, you need to have an interface that suits the device you're using. Namely, the TV. Your TV is 2D, not 3D. You wanna buy a book on amazon? You enter the title or author, and there it is. No need to walk through a 3D store and get lost because you ended up in the wrong section. Wanna chat with somebody? Click on their name in your chat app of choice and start typing. No need to walk through a 3D world, trying to find them. Wanna watch a movie? Hit youtube, enter what you like, click, watch. You don't want to go to a virtual cinema, figure out which room your movie is playing, and find a place where you can actually see the screen.
Don't reproduce the worst parts of real life in a computer interface!
Games can be 3D because the creator intentionally creates obstacles for the user. Gamers want to have "hard" interfaces. Otherwise, the game would not be fun (and even so, people complain about 3D jump-n-runs - timing jumps is much easier in 2D!). But if you actually want to get things done, 3D just gets in your way.
Home looks like the wet dream of a Sony executive right out of the early 90s. Maybe they invented the time machine or something, but I really thought we had finally figured out that 3D interfaces are not a good idea for most types of software.
I think you're kind of missing the point of the criticism. Nobody thinks Sony should not be allowed to make money. However, I, as a customer, don't care about whether they make money or not. It does not influence my decisions. I evaluate their product based on whether I enjoy it. If it's an ad-filled piece of marketing, I will avoid it.
Not because I hate the fact that Sony makes money, but because it simply does not appeal to me.
I agree. The Wii will get the exclusives by definition. You can't really port a game like Elebits or Second Opinion or Wario Ware (or even Rayman - although it did receive a port, it's hardly the same game without the Wii remote) to the PS3 or the 360. There is, however, nothing in the PS3 or 360 which would keep a game from being ported from one to the other. For all intents and purposes, they are equal consoles.
All the Cube owners I know own more, and more diverse games than the Xbox owners I know. Many Xbox owners seems to own the Halos, Fable, and a Project Gotham, as well as some second-tier games. Cube owners, on the other hand, seem to have more diverse tastes. Most own several multipalyer party games - Super Monkey Ball, Mario Party, Mario Kart, stuff like that. Then there are the big single-player games. Zelda, Resident Evil 4, Beyond Good and Evil (which is also available for other consoles, of course, but seems to mainly have been bought by Cube owners). Cube owners also tend to go for quirky games. I actually know people who own Killer 7 :-)
:-)
So... My anecdotal evidence beats your anecdotal evidence
While MS does publish DS games, publishing games for the Wii, which competes directly with the 360, seems very unlikely.
Pong was definitely important. And what, no Zelda? Also, while Super Mario Bros. 3 was an important game, I'd say that Super Mario Bros. was more important, even though Mario 3 was the better game, and is still a strong game today. What about Space Invaders? Marathon? Wolfenstein? Why Doom?
I own a Nintendo DS. It's pretty much the same business model. I can only buy software licensed by Nintendo, and Nintendo gets paid for third-party software. I also own a GP2X. It runs an open-source OS, I can write my own software and install whatever the hell I want.
Guess which one gets more use.
There's ideals, and then there's practicality. I need a cell phone for my work. I need it to work and to get out of the way. If an open phone does that, I'll pay for it. Until that happens, I'll gladly take the restrictions in exchange for something that is actually usable.
The funny thing is, Apple will be the one making money from people like you. There will be third-party iPhone apps, sold through the iTunes store, just like they sell iPod games right now.
While you can't play modern games on a Pippin, you probably can play movies on it (not sure), and the Newton definitely still syncs with Mac OS X.