Weren't you just saying you hated having to over-darken your art, but you were forced to do that because of the lower-poly models?
I'm not sure why you think lower-poly models imply darker art.
we decided to increase your polygon budget
Well, this would be nice, in an ideal world... but in the world of games programming, where optimisation is just a nice word for "shave it all down and cram it in until we run at 30 fps because we have to ship tomorrow", it just doesn't happen that way.:)
Nothing against you, but too many people claim to be too many things on the Internet.
No worries. Maybe this out of date bit of info will help convince you.:)
you can also spend more time optimizing the code and can therefore offer brighter, more colourful graphics.
Are you for real?
Programmer: "Hey, I just managed to save a couple thousand cycles per frame with some clever inlining, loop unrolling and judicious use of PowerPC assembler."
Artist: "Great! I'll bump up the saturation on the 'graphics' by 7%"
Having spent 6 years now in the games industry, I can assure you it doesn't quite work this way.
Oh, and all the other stuff you said too is quite debatable.
I really need to find it again so that I can post the exact reference when needed. In that rant, Stallman unambiguously made it clear that he considers making money from software to be *bad*, period.
Even still, would I be barred from selling Japanese imports in a game store if I worked there?
Probably. Even in Chinatown, where the store owners are Chinese and the clientelle is almost 100% Chinese, all signs must predominantly be in French.
Is there a fine for breaking this regulation?
Yes, and possible jail time.
but outside of the city of Quebec, English is the main spoken language, right?
Quebec is a city and a province. Outside the province of Quebec, which is 25% of the population of Canada, there are significant French speaking minorities in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, parts of Ontario, and that's about it.
Are there many French Canadians left who aren't bi-lingual?
A quick Google will pull up lots of other articles, I just picked one.
In short, a levy is paid on blank "audio" media (how they tell the different between blank "data" CDs and blank "audio" CDs is a bit beyond me). This levy gets dispersed to copyright holders in some magic way; in exchange Canadians are expressly allowed private copying, including peer-to-peer file sharing.
A couple of things are different about games than normal Joe User applications, and the biggest one is that games get reviewed, and most reviews are fairly independent assessments (as opposed to, say, "reviews" of Microsoft Office, which most of the time is just sandbag marketting). In addition, these reviews are read by the target consumer, whereas I doubt very much Joe User "researches" his purchase of Windows XP like a typical gamer researches his purchase of Madden 2003.
Given this, game companies have to be a bit more on the ball when it comes to bugs, since reviews along the lines of "this game is buggy" can really hurt sales.
On the console side, Sony, Nintendo and (yes) Microsoft have very strict standards when it comes to bugs in shipping games on their consoles. There is no such oversight in the regular user application world.
Of course, like any big company, Microsoft is not a monolith.
Uh...
monolith... 2 a person or thing like a monolith [a single block of stone, esp. shaped into a pillar or monument] in being massive, immovable, or solidly uniform.
Oxford English Reference Dictionary
Sounds like Microsoft to me. So what was the point of that last sentence?
Sony would be pretty retarded to not put PSOne and PS2 compatibility into the PS3.
Well, yes, but, Sony would be more retarded to not expend effort to get developers good and ready for making PS3 games by launch first, and then worry about backwards compatability later. Especially given the rumours of the complexity of the PS3.
Not very many people are going to buy a PS3 just so they can keep on playing their PS2 games... it will all be about the PS3 titles at launch.
The current gaming industry is nothing short of a classical oligopoly.
Classical? The Motion Picture Association of Ancient Rome?:)
More seriously...
none of the independent games is actually successful enough to either become mainstream or force the big publishers from their limbo
You're saying independent games aren't successful enough. They aren't sucessful because they don't sell. They don't sell because people aren't buying. That's my point.
I once had an idea for a DVD 'film' that would just be scraps of video, selected at the user's whim, constructed in just such a way that you could do your own sleuthing and piece together the film in your own way.
In a world where 85% of games are solved with a gun, where are the original and innovative ideas?
Still sitting on the shelves of your local EB, not being purchased.
What happens when every game follows a tried and true formula?
Publishers make money for little risk.
Where do the new ideas go if we can't have games like Viewtiful Joe, Shenmue, and Jet Grind Radio?
Not sure I understand that question.
Did innovative, rather than mainstream, games send the Dreamcast to an early grave rather than the PS2's more bland, yet conforming, lineup of titles?
Possibly, although I personally think Sony just plain did a better sell job in the mainstream media for the PS2 over the Dreamcast.
For anyone who laments "Why do companies continue to pump out this sludge?", the answer is pretty simple: because consumers continue to buy.
<speculation> Perhaps in these times of economic recession, people are more likely to go with the "sure thing" (guns, explosions, sequels, etc) with their entertainment dollar than with "riskier" purchases.</speculation>
Slashdot Mirror
Programmer: "Hey, I just managed to save a couple thousand cycles per frame with some clever inlining, loop unrolling and judicious use of PowerPC assembler."
Artist: "Great! I'll bump up the saturation on the 'graphics' by 7%"
Having spent 6 years now in the games industry, I can assure you it doesn't quite work this way.
Oh, and all the other stuff you said too is quite debatable.
BBC is also running the story here.
Repeat 20 times for good measure.
No, they aren't. That's exactly the point. Even if MS doesn't know about them, it's still theirs, by the letter and spirit of that clause.Hope that helps.
In short, a levy is paid on blank "audio" media (how they tell the different between blank "data" CDs and blank "audio" CDs is a bit beyond me). This levy gets dispersed to copyright holders in some magic way; in exchange Canadians are expressly allowed private copying, including peer-to-peer file sharing.
Blame Canada.
Given this, game companies have to be a bit more on the ball when it comes to bugs, since reviews along the lines of "this game is buggy" can really hurt sales.
On the console side, Sony, Nintendo and (yes) Microsoft have very strict standards when it comes to bugs in shipping games on their consoles. There is no such oversight in the regular user application world.
"Lucky for you, this stuff doesn't work" -- Cashier at nutrition store as grossly overweight Homer buys Weight Gain powder (episode 3F05)
The people of this great state are facing several problems:
- People don't understand what "one page bullet point memos" are; and
- One page bullet point memos, once understood, are difficult to write.
I urge you to solve these problems by passing legislation that:- would require that all publicly funded schools immediately implement one page bullet point memo writing classes;
- would allocated funds for running television ads to raise awareness about one page bullet point memos among the general population.
Sincerely,John Q. Voter.
And let's not forget crisitunity.
Sounds like Microsoft to me. So what was the point of that last sentence?
Not very many people are going to buy a PS3 just so they can keep on playing their PS2 games... it will all be about the PS3 titles at launch.
... and more likely for building a PS3 emulator to get into the hands of developers before the actual hardware is ready.
Something is very wrong with that... that doesn't sound like a healthy democracy.
(In case you care, the 100% match for me was "Libertarian candidate")
Now we know what Jean Chretien's /. ID is... greyrax, where's my tax refund?
More seriously...
You're saying independent games aren't successful enough. They aren't sucessful because they don't sell. They don't sell because people aren't buying. That's my point.QED
To follow the pirates into the cave, turn to page 45.
To run away screaming like a little girl, turn to page 13.
Those were the days.
For anyone who laments "Why do companies continue to pump out this sludge?", the answer is pretty simple: because consumers continue to buy.
<speculation> Perhaps in these times of economic recession, people are more likely to go with the "sure thing" (guns, explosions, sequels, etc) with their entertainment dollar than with "riskier" purchases.</speculation>