I actually have an HTC phone with the old Windows Mobile currently. Yes, after iPhone and Android it sucks ass, but they weren't available back when I bought it. But it sure as hell was better than Symbian and anything else we had back then.
Nokia isn't a newbie. They have a history of making the best mobile devices on the planet, hardware wise. They suck with software. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is actually great OS to new phones. Combined with Nokia's experience with hardware and their history in mobile technology, I think they will actually go far.
Of course this is Slashdot and people here generally hate Microsoft and want to see them fail just so they can post haha comments.. But I think the whole Nokia+MS partnership was great idea for two companies that weren't doing good, both in the different areas of the industry. They basically combined their good sides to let go off their bad sides.
Windows Phone 7.1 and later. And if you have looked at N9 from Nokia, you'd be ignorant to notice how great it is. Both at hardware side from Nokia, and from software side from Microsoft. I was going to buy iPhone before, but now I just want to wait for what Windows Phone 7 mobiles Nokia comes out with.
Of course I forgot to tell how to actually enable it.. It's in your gfx card options, as most recent (within 3-4 years) drivers actually support the feature and you can enable it just for those red/blue glasses. It's not as good, but it works.
This "omg astroturfer" thing on slashdot thing is getting really old..
Actually, if you don't want to pay upfront to test it, you can try it out with the just the regular old movie red/blue 3D glasses. I guess you could make those yourself, but a geek probably has those lying around. Most gfx (at least nvidia) cards supports them with all their cards, even if you don't own the 3D vision ones. It illustrates the effect somewhat, even though it's not as good (you get some color distraction and the quality isn't as good as with shutter glasses). But you don't need to buy the Vision ones and new monitor just to enjoy the technology.
Games are one place where 3D actually makes a huge difference. The information is already there in the graphics card, fully, so it can process it much more better than in movies. I used to play Left4Dead and Left4Dead2 with the NVIDIAs tools with 3D glasses and the game was MUCH more scarier and cooler. I suggest you try it... it's really a completely different and better experience. It works extremely well for scary and FPS games, but I can see it could be strategically used in RTS games too.
At least here console games have always been 60-70 euros. They were that 10-15 years ago, and they still are. They go down in price a lot faster now than 10 years ago though. On PC things like Steam sales and cheap web stores have also brought down prices a lot.
because the anus tends to get torn and bleed much more than the naturally self-lubricating vagina or mouth. Other fact: gay men tend to have A LOT MORE partners than anyone else what with no female inhibitions to put the brakes on things. Being a gay man is a disease. AIDS is an advanced form.
You do know that you can have anal sex with women too, right? Besides, females don't put much brakes to amount of sex men have, not at least for me. Usually they're trying to get sex too often. On the other hand, I do live in Thailand.
And what would you say about having sex with kathoeys? They're originally men, but have turned into women, have boobs and are generally even more beautiful than real women. Is that gay sex if it's pre-op (still have penis), post-op (now they have vagina, but have been men before)?
They don't drool over the fact they're into other men, they're like that because they (even if unknowingly) know that they cannot get that man. Same is true for men in relationships too. Women show much more interest towards you when someone else already has taken you.
A lot of that increase is due to games costing way more than they used to
Wait, what? No they don't. Games have always costed the same amount. In fact, we now have lots of games that are actually cheaper than what most new games were before, thanks to indie games and internet distribution. And yes, even back then there were a few games that cost above the average, for example I remember Sierra's Pro Pilot flight simulator costing more than the average game.
Re:I haven't read the article, but hear me out her
on
Who Killed Videogames?
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· Score: 1
How does work mean it can't be fun? I enjoy both games and my work. In fact, I kind of take my work as a competitive game, and I'm satisfied when I beat my competitors. There's real world rewards too.
Summary or the article don't talk anything about social games, they talk about the whole f2p model and microtransactions. It's not limited to only social games, there are hundreds of games supported this way. Almost all games developed and played in Asia work with this way. Even Blizzard had to change their subscription model there because the gamers weren't use to paying upfront and subscriptions for games. So in Asia WoW players buy hours instead of monthly subscription. It's been slowly coming to western games too, but it has certainly been there longer than Zynga and other Facebook games. They are just a really visible segment, that's all.
TF2, however, was released before western world was used to microtransactions in games. And it wasn't even sold separately, it was part of Orange Box which came with HL2, Portal and Team Fortress 2.
That still doesn't change the fact that it's a direct result of it, and people actually demanded the adaption. Actions usually have consequences, sometimes bad (even though Valve has shown that you can do f2p model good way too). Development still needs to be funded, and people wanted free games. Well, here they are.
However, you do still have lots of normal games too. Those aren't gone even though Facebook has casual games for other people. It just means the gaming market has grown, especially with girls and women.
Re:I haven't read the article, but hear me out her
on
Who Killed Videogames?
·
· Score: 1
It has always been popular model in Asia.
And I don't really agree about achievements.. I think they're nice addition to games, if well done. For example in TF2 the achievements grant you items which you can then use in gameplay, so they're a bit like quests. It also provides more objectives in games - Defense Grid is awesome tower defense game, but I've finished it long time ago. I am, however, still playing it to finish all the missions to get gold medals out of them, or play with specific style (no upgradable towers, use only laser guns etc..) to unlock achievements. Sure, it may be artificial, but in the end what game objectives or quests aren't? They still provide extra value and I actually enjoy doing them, and that's what count. Of course it wont help if the game itself is bad, but it provides nice amount of extra stuff to do.
Re:I haven't read the article, but hear me out her
on
Who Killed Videogames?
·
· Score: 1
Team Fortress 2 is a great example of a well done f2p game with microtransactions. It feels far from crap game and because you can get those items by just playing, crafting or trading, you don't feel like you're constantly pressured to buy something. However, many people do if they really want some item now, providing the developer with income. I have also used the store a few times when I wanted a specific item for the spy (to complete a set and improve it how I wanted to play), but don't feel like I was pressured to do so even though I also originally bought the game when it came out.
Like with the usual games, many f2p games will be shit. Some will be top-notch. The f2p model doesn't change that.
What comes to games market being easy to get into, sure you can now distribute your game more cheaply. But you need to get financing to actually develop the game, even more so if you plan to work with it full time and have a time. Publishers are still highly required for that, as I doubt you can walk to a bank and ask a few million dollars loan to create a game (and you would still get the risk of the game not selling, and hence you would be unable to pay back the loan).
The funny thing is that it's pretty much direct result of piracy. Do you remember all the posts on Slashdot that told record labels and developers to adapt to changing times? Well quite frankly, they did. The results is this - free games with microtransactions, impossible to pirate. All of you actually demanded it, so don't cry now.
Just as a side note, even though I owned TF2 before, it's really enjoyable even as free2play and the item store.
That's bullshit. There's many open source software, especially security and crypto stuff, that only has open source client but they've never given away the server software. And it's fully within GPL license.
It doesn't go to RIAA, it goes to record labels. Those record labels who supported and lend money to the artists to make and record their songs, supported them, advertised them and handled distribution for them. Of course the record label needs to get it's investment back, otherwise they would go bankrupt.
Yeah, and you can't actually join any pages or groups to find those people. For example I follow my favorite games on Facebook, so I get updates about them and also see some discussions. Good example being Team Fortress 2 and Trackmania. Of course, there's no such in Google+, so it's basically dead to me (and many other people).
And without allowing those games Google+ will never succeed as social network. It will be just another niche social network and that isn't exactly what Google wants. They want to make same kind of social network than what Facebook is.
Besides, he said Facebook offers different things for different people, so it suits everyone. That is a good point.
And that's exactly the crowd it won't encourage. So far it's pretty much just tech people there. And when I say there's nothing happening there, people just suggest following some famous tech guys. That's not what I or teens and casual people want to do, they want to follow and talk with their friends.
And that's aside the fact that as a platform Google+ is seriously unfinished and misses great tons of features people expect and need, like events, pages for bands/happenings/random stuff, API access, games and tons of more.
Yep, Cambodia isn't really that safe. It's much safer in Thailand for example. However, I go to Cambodia 3-4 times a year to renew my Thai visa and stay there a couple a weeks, but it always feels kind of unsafe. And last time I was there hundreds of people died on that Phnom Penhs bridge when it got too crowded. If you have to go to hospital, you really don't want to go to Cambodian hospital anyway - every foreigner should try to get to either to Thailand or Singapore in that case, and it's touted everywhere on the web. This is also why I don't think the TPB admin really had to go to hospital.
And soon Google+ will get the same treatment, as currently even their own employees think it sucks. This is what is so stupid with Google - they put out unfinished products all the time and soon enough cancel them completely. Useless to build stuff upon those.
Slashdot Mirror
I actually have an HTC phone with the old Windows Mobile currently. Yes, after iPhone and Android it sucks ass, but they weren't available back when I bought it. But it sure as hell was better than Symbian and anything else we had back then.
Nokia isn't a newbie. They have a history of making the best mobile devices on the planet, hardware wise. They suck with software. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is actually great OS to new phones. Combined with Nokia's experience with hardware and their history in mobile technology, I think they will actually go far.
Of course this is Slashdot and people here generally hate Microsoft and want to see them fail just so they can post haha comments.. But I think the whole Nokia+MS partnership was great idea for two companies that weren't doing good, both in the different areas of the industry. They basically combined their good sides to let go off their bad sides.
Windows Phone 7.1 and later. And if you have looked at N9 from Nokia, you'd be ignorant to notice how great it is. Both at hardware side from Nokia, and from software side from Microsoft. I was going to buy iPhone before, but now I just want to wait for what Windows Phone 7 mobiles Nokia comes out with.
Of course I forgot to tell how to actually enable it.. It's in your gfx card options, as most recent (within 3-4 years) drivers actually support the feature and you can enable it just for those red/blue glasses. It's not as good, but it works.
This "omg astroturfer" thing on slashdot thing is getting really old..
Actually, if you don't want to pay upfront to test it, you can try it out with the just the regular old movie red/blue 3D glasses. I guess you could make those yourself, but a geek probably has those lying around. Most gfx (at least nvidia) cards supports them with all their cards, even if you don't own the 3D vision ones. It illustrates the effect somewhat, even though it's not as good (you get some color distraction and the quality isn't as good as with shutter glasses). But you don't need to buy the Vision ones and new monitor just to enjoy the technology.
Games are one place where 3D actually makes a huge difference. The information is already there in the graphics card, fully, so it can process it much more better than in movies. I used to play Left4Dead and Left4Dead2 with the NVIDIAs tools with 3D glasses and the game was MUCH more scarier and cooler. I suggest you try it... it's really a completely different and better experience. It works extremely well for scary and FPS games, but I can see it could be strategically used in RTS games too.
It was obviously converted from the currency used back then. It still amounted to same.
At least here console games have always been 60-70 euros. They were that 10-15 years ago, and they still are. They go down in price a lot faster now than 10 years ago though. On PC things like Steam sales and cheap web stores have also brought down prices a lot.
because the anus tends to get torn and bleed much more than the naturally self-lubricating vagina or mouth. Other fact: gay men tend to have A LOT MORE partners than anyone else what with no female inhibitions to put the brakes on things. Being a gay man is a disease. AIDS is an advanced form.
You do know that you can have anal sex with women too, right? Besides, females don't put much brakes to amount of sex men have, not at least for me. Usually they're trying to get sex too often. On the other hand, I do live in Thailand.
And what would you say about having sex with kathoeys? They're originally men, but have turned into women, have boobs and are generally even more beautiful than real women. Is that gay sex if it's pre-op (still have penis), post-op (now they have vagina, but have been men before)?
They don't drool over the fact they're into other men, they're like that because they (even if unknowingly) know that they cannot get that man. Same is true for men in relationships too. Women show much more interest towards you when someone else already has taken you.
How is that weird? Guys do the same about women. The falling in love part too.
Also, many girls have told me they like watching gay porn much more than lesbian porn.. which is true for most men too, just in reverse.
A lot of that increase is due to games costing way more than they used to
Wait, what? No they don't. Games have always costed the same amount. In fact, we now have lots of games that are actually cheaper than what most new games were before, thanks to indie games and internet distribution. And yes, even back then there were a few games that cost above the average, for example I remember Sierra's Pro Pilot flight simulator costing more than the average game.
How does work mean it can't be fun? I enjoy both games and my work. In fact, I kind of take my work as a competitive game, and I'm satisfied when I beat my competitors. There's real world rewards too.
Summary or the article don't talk anything about social games, they talk about the whole f2p model and microtransactions. It's not limited to only social games, there are hundreds of games supported this way. Almost all games developed and played in Asia work with this way. Even Blizzard had to change their subscription model there because the gamers weren't use to paying upfront and subscriptions for games. So in Asia WoW players buy hours instead of monthly subscription. It's been slowly coming to western games too, but it has certainly been there longer than Zynga and other Facebook games. They are just a really visible segment, that's all.
TF2, however, was released before western world was used to microtransactions in games. And it wasn't even sold separately, it was part of Orange Box which came with HL2, Portal and Team Fortress 2.
That still doesn't change the fact that it's a direct result of it, and people actually demanded the adaption. Actions usually have consequences, sometimes bad (even though Valve has shown that you can do f2p model good way too). Development still needs to be funded, and people wanted free games. Well, here they are.
However, you do still have lots of normal games too. Those aren't gone even though Facebook has casual games for other people. It just means the gaming market has grown, especially with girls and women.
It has always been popular model in Asia.
And I don't really agree about achievements.. I think they're nice addition to games, if well done. For example in TF2 the achievements grant you items which you can then use in gameplay, so they're a bit like quests. It also provides more objectives in games - Defense Grid is awesome tower defense game, but I've finished it long time ago. I am, however, still playing it to finish all the missions to get gold medals out of them, or play with specific style (no upgradable towers, use only laser guns etc..) to unlock achievements. Sure, it may be artificial, but in the end what game objectives or quests aren't? They still provide extra value and I actually enjoy doing them, and that's what count. Of course it wont help if the game itself is bad, but it provides nice amount of extra stuff to do.
Team Fortress 2 is a great example of a well done f2p game with microtransactions. It feels far from crap game and because you can get those items by just playing, crafting or trading, you don't feel like you're constantly pressured to buy something. However, many people do if they really want some item now, providing the developer with income. I have also used the store a few times when I wanted a specific item for the spy (to complete a set and improve it how I wanted to play), but don't feel like I was pressured to do so even though I also originally bought the game when it came out.
Like with the usual games, many f2p games will be shit. Some will be top-notch. The f2p model doesn't change that.
What comes to games market being easy to get into, sure you can now distribute your game more cheaply. But you need to get financing to actually develop the game, even more so if you plan to work with it full time and have a time. Publishers are still highly required for that, as I doubt you can walk to a bank and ask a few million dollars loan to create a game (and you would still get the risk of the game not selling, and hence you would be unable to pay back the loan).
The funny thing is that it's pretty much direct result of piracy. Do you remember all the posts on Slashdot that told record labels and developers to adapt to changing times? Well quite frankly, they did. The results is this - free games with microtransactions, impossible to pirate. All of you actually demanded it, so don't cry now.
Just as a side note, even though I owned TF2 before, it's really enjoyable even as free2play and the item store.
That's bullshit. There's many open source software, especially security and crypto stuff, that only has open source client but they've never given away the server software. And it's fully within GPL license.
Well, it's up to them to make the contracts and not us on slashdot, isn't it? It's not like anyone forces them to join a label. They can choose.
It doesn't go to RIAA, it goes to record labels. Those record labels who supported and lend money to the artists to make and record their songs, supported them, advertised them and handled distribution for them. Of course the record label needs to get it's investment back, otherwise they would go bankrupt.
Yeah, and you can't actually join any pages or groups to find those people. For example I follow my favorite games on Facebook, so I get updates about them and also see some discussions. Good example being Team Fortress 2 and Trackmania. Of course, there's no such in Google+, so it's basically dead to me (and many other people).
And without allowing those games Google+ will never succeed as social network. It will be just another niche social network and that isn't exactly what Google wants. They want to make same kind of social network than what Facebook is.
Besides, he said Facebook offers different things for different people, so it suits everyone. That is a good point.
And that's exactly the crowd it won't encourage. So far it's pretty much just tech people there. And when I say there's nothing happening there, people just suggest following some famous tech guys. That's not what I or teens and casual people want to do, they want to follow and talk with their friends.
And that's aside the fact that as a platform Google+ is seriously unfinished and misses great tons of features people expect and need, like events, pages for bands/happenings/random stuff, API access, games and tons of more.
Yep, Cambodia isn't really that safe. It's much safer in Thailand for example. However, I go to Cambodia 3-4 times a year to renew my Thai visa and stay there a couple a weeks, but it always feels kind of unsafe. And last time I was there hundreds of people died on that Phnom Penhs bridge when it got too crowded. If you have to go to hospital, you really don't want to go to Cambodian hospital anyway - every foreigner should try to get to either to Thailand or Singapore in that case, and it's touted everywhere on the web. This is also why I don't think the TPB admin really had to go to hospital.
And soon Google+ will get the same treatment, as currently even their own employees think it sucks. This is what is so stupid with Google - they put out unfinished products all the time and soon enough cancel them completely. Useless to build stuff upon those.