After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.
"Instead, in theme with everything George Lucas has written since Empire Strikes Back, we've decided to launch a digitally-enhanced text-adventure game featuring that beloved of beloved characters, Jar Jar Binks."
You wake up, alive but disoriented. You are in a dark cave. Your torch flickers wildly. >strangle self You can't strangle yourself. >axe self in the head You don't have an axe. >KILL SELF!!!! You don't see a self. >Fucking game Kiss your mother with that mouth? >burn meesa with torch As you drop the torch on yourself in your comical, clumsy, stupid, moronic way that isn't particularly funny, it goes out on your flame retardant outfit. Darkness envelops you. >ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I'm afraid I don't understand that. >Get ye flask You can't get ye flask. >quit Mwuhahahaha! You can't quit! Welcome to hell. You are Jar Jar. No, wait. You are eaten by a grue.
Speaking of which, does anyone have a DVD-version of the Original series? Let's just call it 'Star Wars: The One that Lucas didn't F*** Up.' The Han Solo Greedo scene followed by the obviously digitally-edited Jabba is perhaps one of the biggest movie F-ups in the history of cinema, second only to Jar-Jar. It only worsens it to know that I can't find a DVD of the original.
I doubt this will be the case. If you can't get them at your local store, just go to amazon or ebay. Hell, I just bought one myself on ebay for 60 bucks. Believe me they aren't selling out anywhere on the web from what I can tell. I've noticed the Platinum color is more popular, but you can still get Indigo, and it's the same thing.
Anyway, I'm guessing this movement is the result of a lot of things. The big one is the price. $99 bucks for a new game system is not unprecedented, but it has certainly been a while since they were selling that low.
Two, they've tied in their best-selling GBA portable into their system very well, people who have that GBA are now interested in the games that run on both, etc.
Three, have you looked at their games lately? Mario Party 5 and Mario Kart Double Dash are amazingly fun, family games. I recently switched from PS2 to GameCube because my girlfriend loves Mario Kart and she thinks Manhunt is disgusting (it really is, too). They've got a really wide variety and they focus less on adult-themed games.
Four, the DVD market has expanded fully. Back when the PS2 and later the Xbox was launched, very few people had DVD players - the PS2 was an attempt to get people to buy a device that could play games and DVDs. Now that the market is flooded with 40 and 50 dollar DVD players, people don't need the PS2 for that reason, plus most PS2s don't have the kind of full-feature DVD aspects like 5.1 surround. Plus, the PS2 has maxed out on graphics. The Gamecube's graphics are better.
Five, it's trendy. Nintendo is sort of like the Apple of the video game world. They release different gamecube and gameboy colors, they appeal to old school by re-using old games like Mario 3 and incorporating a gameboy player so you can play those games on a TV, and they stick to their niche market. 2-D games, 3-D games, they have it all. Sure it costs more, but that's just smart marketing.
Let's face it, there's no such thing as a greatest game ever. Super Mario Bros 3 was maybe the standard for its time, and before that, I dunno, Pong, but a lot of games nowadays have depth that isn't pinned down by that 16k of memory you could use. Arguably they're better but then they're still not necessarily as enjoyable.
Maybe you could put up a list of games that have the greatest historical significance, but history is written by the victors, ie. the Nintendos of the era and not the Ataris. Whose to say that some games on the TurboGrafix 16 or NeoGeo weren't the best for their time? And how do you even approach this with numbers and different age groups?
Back in the day, there could be some sort of consensus, maybe, because the demographic was similar. But now you have 50-yr olds who play, you have teenagers whose minds have been captivated (I would almost say brainwashed) by Anime and Pokemon. Different people define greatness differently in a game. It's like defining the greatest movies - a futile exercise created by basic greed - the AFI wants you to buy their newest AFI100 DVD or VHS, just as Lucas wants to sell you his newest 6-movie Super Humungo Collector's Director's Extended Limited Edition Star Wars set. Nevermind that Citizen Kane bored me, it had historical significance. People will no doubt continue to do these lists, as companies like GameSpy release Top10 after Top10 so they can keep people interested in going to their site so they can sell ads and subscription and generate new debate. Now granted, I think these current debates are fun, and you might even find a game you hadn't heard of sorting through them. But raw numbers aren't going to tell you what game is best.
I agree, it's a great feature. Although after reading through the 'features' of the game and their stat system and the 'archetypes' I have to come to the conclusion that it's the same as any other genre of game. In fact, there's really nothing innovative about it at all with regards to other MMORPGs. In fact, it looks lacking.
Archetypes is nothing more than a fancy word for 'class.' Now I've played DAOC before (nothing else) but from what I remember from that game, here's the breakdown for their 'archetype' system.
- The Controller. This is the Bard type. This character mezmerizes or holds characters in place. He does some buffing. This is about it. Aside from the fact that the Controller probably doesn't sing.
- The Tanker. This is the warrior character of the group. It has lots of hps, can do some damage but is mostly around to shield the rest of the group from attacks. Big whoop.
- The Blaster. This is the Mage of the group. Lots of damage, specializes in ranged attacks, lots of damage, low hps. It even says they can look like Drow Elves in the Gamespy article, which is quite funny to me because i mean, it's a goddamn elf mage!
- The Defender. Please. Paladin/Ranger character. Good at defending, some buffing abilities. Might as well give it some shield and scale armor.
- The Scrapper. Paladin, maybe Rogue/Thief character? It also fits into the Warrior stereotype, not much else here.
Now granted, These 'archetypes' are basically it.
Let's look down the road. You're a superhero, you fight monsters daily, not much else. You get powerups every so often, you can fly (so can everyone else at this point in the game). You can't build any new weapons apparently, there's no player vs player, sure xping with friends is probably much more interesting with sidekicks but it seems to me that you're sort of cheapening the game by making a sidekick that powerful.
In the end, I just don't see how this game differs enough to make it interesting.
I'm still waiting for a good console MMORPG. A video card to support this probably wouldn't be too bad, but I've yet to see a breakout MMORPG for console. Unfortunately, I think that'll have to wait until the next gen of console games, I've a feeling that console MMORPGs are holding back for things like PS3s.
No games exist that yet have the variables to account for everything. There are several factors influencing the growth of MMORPGs:
1) Built-in console gaming. Many more people play on consoles than PCs. Sure, there are console MMORPGs and the Xbox has built-in ethernet, but the PS2 and GameCube require adapters and the Xbox charges a yearly fee for access. You won't see true growth until a huge penetration in this market takes place. I'm thinking the next gen stuff will begin to do this.
2) Undeveloped/underdeveloped worlds. There is no server farm currently available that has the ability to create an entire world not bound by limits, and it may never happen, although I think it may happen in the next twenty years. MMORPGs have bought into the expansion pack mentality, which means you not only pay a monthly fee but you have to pay more now so you can access more? It's a ripoff. Of course, let's be realistic, no one can spend 7 years *cough* Doom 3 *cough* working on one project without releasing it, but most of the MMORPGs I've seen are released with tons and tons of buggy code.
3) Realistic worlds. Can we please cut down that tree with an axe, or set fire to a village, or smash that city wall? Can players then be set on fire when in a burning building? Can they be strangled to death? I think we're heading more and more toward VR but no one has yet managed to make a leap to it.
4) Boring leveling. Why is every game so hardcore on what level you are at? Why can't games be skill-based? You play a game long enough and you become skilled, in the same way you play a fighting game long enough and you can beat the button-smashers. Currently there is nothing like that, the 'skill' involves playing for months on end and killing boring creatures.
5) Player-built material. When will it finally move away from big companies supplying these, and go into open source type of framework like neverwinter nights? Maybe never, unless you want to allow anyone to release a console gaming title. And for that matter, why can't anyone release a console gaming title? Why do they have to pay Nintendo and Sony rediculous licensing fees? I have no answer to this, but it seems worlds would be much more interesting if you built a skeleton and allowed people to build on it. Playing a MMORPG game is like an amusement park ride. You ride it a few times, you enjoy it some, eventually it loses interest. Games that allow for player creativity do more for players. Games that allow for object building will the new norm, if you ask me. The more a person can do with a world, the more immersion, the longer the person will stay.
This is the dumbest law I've ever seen. There are so many implications it's not funny.
1) Carjacker's paradise. Carjacker now has a good 30 seconds while the person is blowing into a fucking tube.
2) Disease. What about rental cars? What if a friend wants to drive you home in your car and you're sick. What if you've got Obsessive Compulsive disorder? Did they really think this through?
3) Emergency. I can't wait until someone sues the state because they couldn't get someone to the hospital because it took them an extra 30 seconds to start the fucking car OR it was life or death and they were drunk. If my kid or wife was dying and I was drunk and I had no other choice, I'd risk it.
4) People with lung problems can't drive now? What if you have asthma? Does this cause problems? I don't know but I suspect there could be problems.
They should have much stricter drunk driving laws for DUI offenders, not make breathalizers necessary for every citizen. If that becomes law and I lived there, I'd probably exit the state.
Maybe you could get SCO to sue the RIAA if they use Linux on their machines, and vice versa? Oh if it were only possible to get them both suing each other, and maybe take themselves out in the process. Or maybe just nuke em both.
While I'm not a big fan of the gamecube in many ways, such as its fairly ugly control scheme (maybe i'm just a playstation snob) I love the sort of family/party gaming attitude it brings to the table. My girlfriend can play the same games, unlike a lot of the stuff out for XBox and Playstation (although Sony is pretty diverse, they also make games like Manhunt) Old school Mario will not be soon forgotten.
Still, I think it's sad that the Playstation has really changed the face of games, to the point where now 3D is required in every game. Let's face it, there is more control, but it's harder to get into a game now when there is no standard between three or four games, R1 moves you left in one game, analog stick in another, R2 in yet another...it makes it hard to get into a game and be able to come back to it after even a few days if you've forgotten the controls.
Maybe it's the old school in me, but what happened to more 2D games? I highly doubt that everything has been exhausted in this department. And why has there not been a successful VR platform or a big change in accessories? DDR basically uses the old nintendo pad. I was really hoping by now there'd be a huge improvement in peripherals. Eye Toy is an example of some innovation, so is feedback. I think the short-lived product cycles are stifling innovation in these categories.
For now, I think graphics are respectable. So why not go from here and begin to innovate the whole genre? Make some more interesting games. Take a page from Dreamcast and make quality games, not a host of crappy sequels.
I would disagree with several things about this article, though I agree about the wack job; he's always there. I had one at the last place I worked, he loved to talk and talk and ask extremely dumb and often went into a long story. Everyone in the room pretty much looked at each other like, "Jesus, won't he stop talking?" but of course that was useless...
I work in support, and I can say that meetings are good for keeping everyone up-to-date with policies, procedures, informing them of important deadlines, and encouraging everyone to work as a team to meet common goals and discuss areas for improvement. They aren't always a waste of everyone's time. There are obvious exceptions, of course, but companies are like ships; you have to constantly maintain them and avoid mutinies.
However, I'll also say that generally speaking, managers very seldom take others' input on anything, and when you make a suggestion, they often address it with a 'yes we're working on that' like you just tried to take their job from them by recommending something. If you're a manager, please try not being such an asshole. We're not trying to hurt your egos. We just want to help. This are why most people hate management.
I think college, in fact, is overrated in a lot of ways, putting yourself 60K in debt is not worth it. I'd recommend a cheap state school if possible, or community college for the first two years of college. Keep in mind, a lot of people change their minds after two years in college, and decide they want to do something else (or may just not like the field).
Moreover, I think technology is becoming extremely competitive. Better to try a field like nursing or maybe look for something in biotech.
In any case, if you want to do something in technology, be prepared to study hard and keep learning, tech is one of those fields requiring constant reeducation to maintain an edge.
This isn't very specific, although it'll be interesting to see how this is implemented. And who knows, maybe make a movie out of it eventually? Maybe that's why the Hulk was excluded, after all Hulk tanked while X-men and Spider-Man were both popular movies.
Darl is a moron. SCO has been doing this for years. SCO won't win, it doesn't matter how much congressional lobbying occurs.
They are going up against some giants in the tech world. I'm fairly confident that 1) They don't have a case and 2) They are getting desparate with this. Either way, I think we're beginning to see SCO try to inflate their stock price before they collapse.
But seriously, while there are security issues involved, I don't think it would be the worst idea in the world to submit a game to an open source or expert group prior to release to examine the source code and tweak game design for many companies. Obviously, NDAs abound, but there are worse things in the world than releasing an awful, awful game. As always, money is the underlying factor. But look at Daikatana. They could have used some independant observers when they released that atrocity.
Yeah, but will they freely release it? Verizon fought this one in court, although I believe they lost. But what about smaller ISPs. What about NAT? How far will RIAA go to sue intranet users? What about corporate intranets. When those companies find out they are subject to lawsuits, they'll destroy peoples' careers as well. This is an awful precedent to a music licensing model which is highly outdated. And it's amusing that a lot of people I know now use Apple's iTunes, which funds this. When will people realize the RIAA is a monopoly? When five large corporations control 90% of the music, and they form one large lobbying group/lawsuit group, they are essentially controlling pricing and funding a monopoly. It's disgusting.
If you want to get a CCNA, just read the book by Todd Lammle. When I went to study for it last year, everyone in my group recommended Lammle, and guess what? It's good. Very good.
I do too for some games, but I also dislike the idea of having everything in one location. I'm against this in a console settings. As I see it, there are two ways game companies can do this:
1) You download the game onto a hard drive device. Hard drives are a lot different than individual media. If you pay 500 to download 10 games, and your hard drive dies, you lose all of the games. You have to then wait until a replacement drive comes, and even then, whose to say there won't be problems with getting those games back? Currently, with CDs/DVDs, if a CD or DVD gets scratched up, you may have to replace it, but you certainly won't have to replace every disc.
2) The company stores this. In other words, I'm paying for a product that I have access to only over the network. What if the network goes down? What if I have a bad link for whatever reason? What if some asshole launches a DOS attack on my site? I just don't want the media company to have that kind of control. I don't want to pay for 'virtual ownership' and frankly, the bandwidth won't exist for many years.
I would much rather prefer something more along the lines of solid state memory chips or drives before I would consider this sort of technology transferrable. For PCs, this is fine; PC games have worked by this model for a while. But I won't pay 30 bucks for a PC game online if I can get a real physical disc for the game for 10 bucks more, and if it comes with a guide, even better.
This just in....SCO is suing themselves for owning the rights to UNIX. Darl McBride had this for comments:
"We cannot sit idly by and let our company steal source code from ourselves. Therefore, SCO is suing users of Caldera Linux, as they have apparently infringed upon use of SCO's UNIX source code. We decided oh, 8 billion would be about right."
I agree. I know the movie Enemy at the Gates was an awful, awful movie, historically speaking, but snipers were one of the reasons the Germans got bogged down in Stalingrad.
I do agree, however, that the bolt-action rifle should take time to load. That being said, I personally love the snipers' abilities. I think it'll be much more interesting when 3-D graphics make sniper rifles shine at distances to signal their presence, too, and make them vulnerable to things like RPGs once graphics will include things like walls that can be blown up.
Slashdot Mirror
After careful evaluation of current market place realities and underlying economic considerations, we've decided that this was not the appropriate time to launch a graphic adventure on the PC.
"Instead, in theme with everything George Lucas has written since Empire Strikes Back, we've decided to launch a digitally-enhanced text-adventure game featuring that beloved of beloved characters, Jar Jar Binks."
You wake up, alive but disoriented. You are in a dark cave. Your torch flickers wildly.
>strangle self
You can't strangle yourself.
>axe self in the head
You don't have an axe.
>KILL SELF!!!!
You don't see a self.
>Fucking game
Kiss your mother with that mouth?
>burn meesa with torch
As you drop the torch on yourself in your comical, clumsy, stupid, moronic way that isn't particularly funny, it goes out on your flame retardant outfit. Darkness envelops you.
>ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
I'm afraid I don't understand that.
>Get ye flask
You can't get ye flask.
>quit
Mwuhahahaha! You can't quit! Welcome to hell. You are Jar Jar. No, wait. You are eaten by a grue.
Speaking of which, does anyone have a DVD-version of the Original series? Let's just call it 'Star Wars: The One that Lucas didn't F*** Up.' The Han Solo Greedo scene followed by the obviously digitally-edited Jabba is perhaps one of the biggest movie F-ups in the history of cinema, second only to Jar-Jar. It only worsens it to know that I can't find a DVD of the original.
I doubt this will be the case. If you can't get them at your local store, just go to amazon or ebay. Hell, I just bought one myself on ebay for 60 bucks. Believe me they aren't selling out anywhere on the web from what I can tell. I've noticed the Platinum color is more popular, but you can still get Indigo, and it's the same thing.
Anyway, I'm guessing this movement is the result of a lot of things. The big one is the price. $99 bucks for a new game system is not unprecedented, but it has certainly been a while since they were selling that low.
Two, they've tied in their best-selling GBA portable into their system very well, people who have that GBA are now interested in the games that run on both, etc.
Three, have you looked at their games lately? Mario Party 5 and Mario Kart Double Dash are amazingly fun, family games. I recently switched from PS2 to GameCube because my girlfriend loves Mario Kart and she thinks Manhunt is disgusting
(it really is, too). They've got a really wide variety and they focus less on adult-themed games.
Four, the DVD market has expanded fully. Back when the PS2 and later the Xbox was launched, very few people had DVD players - the PS2 was an attempt to get people to buy a device that could play games and DVDs. Now that the market is flooded with 40 and 50 dollar DVD players, people don't need the PS2 for that reason, plus most PS2s don't have the kind of full-feature DVD aspects like 5.1 surround. Plus, the PS2 has maxed out on graphics. The Gamecube's graphics are better.
Five, it's trendy. Nintendo is sort of like the Apple of the video game world. They release different gamecube and gameboy colors, they appeal to old school by re-using old games like Mario 3 and incorporating a gameboy player so you can play those games on a TV, and they stick to their niche market. 2-D games, 3-D games, they have it all. Sure it costs more, but that's just smart marketing.
Let's face it, there's no such thing as a greatest game ever. Super Mario Bros 3 was maybe the standard for its time, and before that, I dunno, Pong, but a lot of games nowadays have depth that isn't pinned down by that 16k of memory you could use. Arguably they're better but then they're still not necessarily as enjoyable.
Maybe you could put up a list of games that have the greatest historical significance, but history is written by the victors, ie. the Nintendos of the era and not the Ataris. Whose to say that some games on the TurboGrafix 16 or NeoGeo weren't the best for their time? And how do you even approach this with numbers and different age groups?
Back in the day, there could be some sort of consensus, maybe, because the demographic was similar. But now you have 50-yr olds who play, you have teenagers whose minds have been captivated (I would almost say brainwashed) by Anime and Pokemon. Different people define greatness differently in a game. It's like defining the greatest movies - a futile exercise created by basic greed - the AFI wants you to buy their newest AFI100 DVD or VHS, just as Lucas wants to sell you his newest 6-movie Super Humungo Collector's Director's Extended Limited Edition Star Wars set. Nevermind that Citizen Kane bored me, it had historical significance. People will no doubt continue to do these lists, as companies like GameSpy release Top10 after Top10 so they can keep people interested in going to their site so they can sell ads and subscription and generate new debate. Now granted, I think these current debates are fun, and you might even find a game you hadn't heard of sorting through them. But raw numbers aren't going to tell you what game is best.
I agree, it's a great feature. Although after reading through the 'features' of the game and their stat system and the 'archetypes' I have to come to the conclusion that it's the same as any other genre of game. In fact, there's really nothing innovative about it at all with regards to other MMORPGs. In fact, it looks lacking.
Archetypes is nothing more than a fancy word for 'class.' Now I've played DAOC before (nothing else) but from what I remember from that game, here's the breakdown for their 'archetype' system.
- The Controller. This is the Bard type. This character mezmerizes or holds characters in place. He does some buffing. This is about it. Aside from the fact that the Controller probably doesn't sing.
- The Tanker. This is the warrior character of the group. It has lots of hps, can do some damage but is mostly around to shield the rest of the group from attacks. Big whoop.
- The Blaster. This is the Mage of the group. Lots of damage, specializes in ranged attacks, lots of damage, low hps. It even says they can look like Drow Elves in the Gamespy article, which is quite funny to me because i mean, it's a goddamn elf mage!
- The Defender. Please. Paladin/Ranger character. Good at defending, some buffing abilities. Might as well give it some shield and scale armor.
- The Scrapper. Paladin, maybe Rogue/Thief character? It also fits into the Warrior stereotype, not much else here.
Now granted, These 'archetypes' are basically it.
Let's look down the road. You're a superhero, you fight monsters daily, not much else. You get powerups every so often, you can fly (so can everyone else at this point in the game). You can't build any new weapons apparently, there's no player vs player, sure xping with friends is probably much more interesting with sidekicks but it seems to me that you're sort of cheapening the game by making a sidekick that powerful.
In the end, I just don't see how this game differs enough to make it interesting.
I'm still waiting for a good console MMORPG. A video card to support this probably wouldn't be too bad, but I've yet to see a breakout MMORPG for console. Unfortunately, I think that'll have to wait until the next gen of console games, I've a feeling that console MMORPGs are holding back for things like PS3s.
No games exist that yet have the variables to account for everything. There are several factors influencing the growth of MMORPGs:
1) Built-in console gaming. Many more people play on consoles than PCs. Sure, there are console MMORPGs and the Xbox has built-in ethernet, but the PS2 and GameCube require adapters and the Xbox charges a yearly fee for access. You won't see true growth until a huge penetration in this market takes place. I'm thinking the next gen stuff will begin to do this.
2) Undeveloped/underdeveloped worlds. There is no server farm currently available that has the ability to create an entire world not bound by limits, and it may never happen, although I think it may happen in the next twenty years. MMORPGs have bought into the expansion pack mentality, which means you not only pay a monthly fee but you have to pay more now so you can access more? It's a ripoff. Of course, let's be realistic, no one can spend 7 years *cough* Doom 3 *cough* working on one project without releasing it, but most of the MMORPGs I've seen are released with tons and tons of buggy code.
3) Realistic worlds. Can we please cut down that tree with an axe, or set fire to a village, or smash that city wall? Can players then be set on fire when in a burning building? Can they be strangled to death? I think we're heading more and more toward VR but no one has yet managed to make a leap to it.
4) Boring leveling. Why is every game so hardcore on what level you are at? Why can't games be skill-based? You play a game long enough and you become skilled, in the same way you play a fighting game long enough and you can beat the button-smashers. Currently there is nothing like that, the 'skill' involves playing for months on end and killing boring creatures.
5) Player-built material. When will it finally move away from big companies supplying these, and go into open source type of framework like neverwinter nights? Maybe never, unless you want to allow anyone to release a console gaming title. And for that matter, why can't anyone release a console gaming title? Why do they have to pay Nintendo and Sony rediculous licensing fees? I have no answer to this, but it seems worlds would be much more interesting if you built a skeleton and allowed people to build on it. Playing a MMORPG game is like an amusement park ride. You ride it a few times, you enjoy it some, eventually it loses interest. Games that allow for player creativity do more for players. Games that allow for object building will the new norm, if you ask me. The more a person can do with a world, the more immersion, the longer the person will stay.
In this, let's just call it a Metaverse if you will...can I keep my Katana?
- Hiro
This is the dumbest law I've ever seen.
There are so many implications it's not funny.
1) Carjacker's paradise. Carjacker now has a good 30 seconds while the person is blowing into a fucking tube.
2) Disease. What about rental cars? What if a friend wants to drive you home in your car and you're sick. What if you've got Obsessive Compulsive disorder? Did they really think this through?
3) Emergency. I can't wait until someone sues the state because they couldn't get someone to the hospital because it took them an extra 30 seconds to start the fucking car OR it was life or death and they were drunk. If my kid or wife was dying and I was drunk and I had no other choice, I'd risk it.
4) People with lung problems can't drive now? What if you have asthma? Does this cause problems? I don't know but I suspect there could be problems.
They should have much stricter drunk driving laws for DUI offenders, not make breathalizers necessary for every citizen. If that becomes law and I lived there, I'd probably exit the state.
Maybe you could get SCO to sue the RIAA if they use Linux on their machines, and vice versa? Oh if it were only possible to get them both suing each other, and maybe take themselves out in the process. Or maybe just nuke em both.
While I'm not a big fan of the gamecube in many ways, such as its fairly ugly control scheme (maybe i'm just a playstation snob) I love the sort of family/party gaming attitude it brings to the table. My girlfriend can play the same games, unlike a lot of the stuff out for XBox and Playstation (although Sony is pretty diverse, they also make games like Manhunt) Old school Mario will not be soon forgotten.
Still, I think it's sad that the Playstation has really changed the face of games, to the point where now 3D is required in every game. Let's face it, there is more control, but it's harder to get into a game now when there is no standard between three or four games, R1 moves you left in one game, analog stick in another, R2 in yet another...it makes it hard to get into a game and be able to come back to it after even a few days if you've forgotten the controls.
Maybe it's the old school in me, but what happened to more 2D games? I highly doubt that everything has been exhausted in this department. And why has there not been a successful VR platform or a big change in accessories? DDR basically uses the old nintendo pad. I was really hoping by now there'd be a huge improvement in peripherals. Eye Toy is an example of some innovation, so is feedback. I think the short-lived product cycles are stifling innovation in these categories.
For now, I think graphics are respectable. So why not go from here and begin to innovate the whole genre? Make some more interesting games. Take a page from Dreamcast and make quality games, not a host of crappy sequels.
MyDoom.Forever!
Obligatory "Mmmmmmm....donuts" reference.
I would disagree with several things about this article, though I agree about the wack job; he's always there. I had one at the last place I worked, he loved to talk and talk and ask extremely dumb and often went into a long story. Everyone in the room pretty much looked at each other like, "Jesus, won't he stop talking?" but of course that was useless...
I work in support, and I can say that meetings are good for keeping everyone up-to-date with policies, procedures, informing them of important deadlines, and encouraging everyone to work as a team to meet common goals and discuss areas for improvement. They aren't always a waste of everyone's time. There are obvious exceptions, of course, but companies are like ships; you have to constantly maintain them and avoid mutinies.
However, I'll also say that generally speaking, managers very seldom take others' input on anything, and when you make a suggestion, they often address it with a 'yes we're working on that' like you just tried to take their job from them by recommending something. If you're a manager, please try not being such an asshole. We're not trying to hurt your egos. We just want to help. This are why most people hate management.
I think college, in fact, is overrated in a lot of ways, putting yourself 60K in debt is not worth it. I'd recommend a cheap state school if possible, or community college for the first two years of college. Keep in mind, a lot of people change their minds after two years in college, and decide they want to do something else (or may just not like the field).
Moreover, I think technology is becoming extremely competitive. Better to try a field like nursing or maybe look for something in biotech.
In any case, if you want to do something in technology, be prepared to study hard and keep learning, tech is one of those fields requiring constant reeducation to maintain an edge.
This isn't very specific, although it'll be interesting to see how this is implemented. And who knows, maybe make a movie out of it eventually? Maybe that's why the Hulk was excluded, after all Hulk tanked while X-men and Spider-Man were both popular movies.
wanna make a joke trillion dollar bill to represent the deficit with a disingenious picture of GWB as a protest?
You'd need seven of them...No, wait 8....9....
That you sat through watching all of that. This requires watching the shit-eating, THEN watching the puking, THEN watching the puke/shit eating...
I'd take tentacle porn over that any day.
Oh fun. Another SCO story.
Darl is a moron. SCO has been doing this for years. SCO won't win, it doesn't matter how much congressional lobbying occurs.
They are going up against some giants in the tech world. I'm fairly confident that 1) They don't have a case and 2) They are getting desparate with this. Either way, I think we're beginning to see SCO try to inflate their stock price before they collapse.
Bug Rigs...
But seriously, while there are security issues involved, I don't think it would be the worst idea in the world to submit a game to an open source or expert group prior to release to examine the source code and tweak game design for many companies. Obviously, NDAs abound, but there are worse things in the world than releasing an awful, awful game. As always, money is the underlying factor. But look at Daikatana. They could have used some independant observers when they released that atrocity.
Yeah, but will they freely release it? Verizon fought this one in court, although I believe they lost. But what about smaller ISPs. What about NAT? How far will RIAA go to sue intranet users? What about corporate intranets. When those companies find out they are subject to lawsuits, they'll destroy peoples' careers as well. This is an awful precedent to a music licensing model which is highly outdated. And it's amusing that a lot of people I know now use Apple's iTunes, which funds this. When will people realize the RIAA is a monopoly? When five large corporations control 90% of the music, and they form one large lobbying group/lawsuit group, they are essentially controlling pricing and funding a monopoly. It's disgusting.
If you want to get a CCNA, just read the book by Todd Lammle. When I went to study for it last year, everyone in my group recommended Lammle, and guess what? It's good. Very good.
I do too for some games, but I also dislike the idea of having everything in one location. I'm against this in a console settings. As I see it, there are two ways game companies can do this:
1) You download the game onto a hard drive device. Hard drives are a lot different than individual media. If you pay 500 to download 10 games, and your hard drive dies, you lose all of the games. You have to then wait until a replacement drive comes, and even then, whose to say there won't be problems with getting those games back? Currently, with CDs/DVDs, if a CD or DVD gets scratched up, you may have to replace it, but you certainly won't have to replace every disc.
2) The company stores this. In other words, I'm paying for a product that I have access to only over the network. What if the network goes down? What if I have a bad link for whatever reason? What if some asshole launches a DOS attack on my site? I just don't want the media company to have that kind of control. I don't want to pay for 'virtual ownership' and frankly, the bandwidth won't exist for many years.
I would much rather prefer something more along the lines of solid state memory chips or drives before I would consider this sort of technology transferrable. For PCs, this is fine; PC games have worked by this model for a while. But I won't pay 30 bucks for a PC game online if I can get a real physical disc for the game for 10 bucks more, and if it comes with a guide, even better.
This just in....SCO is suing themselves for owning the rights to UNIX. Darl McBride had this for comments:
"We cannot sit idly by and let our company steal source code from ourselves. Therefore, SCO is suing users of Caldera Linux, as they have apparently infringed upon use of SCO's UNIX source code. We decided oh, 8 billion would be about right."
I agree. I know the movie Enemy at the Gates was an awful, awful movie, historically speaking, but snipers were one of the reasons the Germans got bogged down in Stalingrad.
I do agree, however, that the bolt-action rifle should take time to load. That being said, I personally love the snipers' abilities. I think it'll be much more interesting when 3-D graphics make sniper rifles shine at distances to signal their presence, too, and make them vulnerable to things like RPGs once graphics will include things like walls that can be blown up.
Yes, according to Duke Nukem's staff, the awards show will be sometime in late, oh, let's just say July of 2004. That seems about right.