Uhh, what corporate structure are you referring to? If you read the original HardOCP report, you'd know that there appears to be *no* company. It's just this Roberts guy ripping investors off as he has apparently done several times before. I sincerely hope you were kidding about even considering investing in Infinium.
I'd heard somwhere once that a large part of the reason for this is that on average, the Japanese consumer is a lot more tolerant of immature, or not ready for prime time technology. I guess its just for the cool factor. But what it boils down to is that they basically beta test a lot of stuff for us, so that Americans get the quality they demand.
You must not have played many MMOs if you think WoW is one big level grind. At least there are quests, and not just you killing 585,972 mobs to get to a high enough level that you can start in with the "real" content.
Why can MSFT pull off XBox Live for 50 bucks a year, but the MMOG guys can't do it for much less than 20 bucks a month?
Because Microsoft doesn't need to make a profit from it maybe? The whole Xbox business unit leaks money like a sieve, but they don't care because they're making headway into the industry. Game companies don't have such luxuries.
The problem is that if they lose the revenue from initial sales, that fee will be more like $20 a month. Or did you think you were paying for the packaging? But I definitely agree that free trials are essential for mass MMO adoption. WoW got it right, download and play for free, then if you want to continue, buy a retail box and pay the monthly fee.
I tend to take the opposite view. Sure, 500k people signed up to play the game *for free*, but how many of those are going to dish out the $50 +15/mo? By contrast, how many people that intend to purchase the game wouldn't have signed up for the open beta? WoW is gonna be huge no doubt, but 1.5 - 2 million huge? I don't think so.
I agree completely. I've had friends that play MMOs (EQ, SWG, etc), and I just was never able to get into them. I never bought one, or even played much, because they just looked about as exciting as watching paint dry. I'm a huge Blizzard fan though, so I jumped on the open beta for WoW, and now I'm hooked. Was it because WoW is a terrific game (which it is), or just because they let me test drive it before I spent my money?? $15 a month isn't pocket change for a computer game that still costs you $50 up front. I don't think a trial is too much to ask for before making that kind of committment.
I for one am tired of the pharse "iPod killer". The iPod is entrenched to the point that it is going to take more than a superior product to unseat it. It's going to take a strong marketing campaign, and tight integration with a popular download service. I can't speak to the latter (since I own an iPod and use the iTMS), but I do know that I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or even many print ads for a non iPod music player.
Nothing, as long as it's not the day of the election. Seriously, if you haven't made up your mind by now, we're all better off with you not voting at all. Vote for whomever you like, but have a good reason for doing so.
Take a look at the polls here (I'm in Durham) and you'll see why Bush feels pretty good. At the State Fair last a couple of weeks ago, you could of mistaken it for a Bush rally - there were that many people with Bush/Cheney stickers. I predict a Kerry/Edwards win in Orange and Durham counties, and that's about it.
that Apple would need to start shipping some graphics boards that have some real horsepower before they even think about porting modern games like HL2. Even the boards that they ship in the G5s are a joke compared to the best available (which is what you should be getting at that price). Anyway, that arguement aside, I don't think that games are really the killer app that is going to drive people to Macs. They should focus on reducing costs, and keep with the whole digital media hub philosophy and applications thing.
So you think that the legalization of not only pot, but also hard, more dangerous drugs is more important than things like, oh I dunno, fundemantalist Islamists who want to kill Americans, or seniors who can't afford drugs to help them stay alive, or the education of our children? Vote for whomever you like, but have a fucking reason for doing so other than the legalization of mind altering drugs that make you even more oblivious to the real issues in our world to day than you already are. Go smoke up, stoner.
You don't even need that anymore. A recent Firefox checkin duplicates this functionality without having to use an extension. Just download a recent nightly.
"I'm guessin' you don't have children (or, especially, grandchildren)."
That's true. But I never said no one would want the feature. I just don't think it's going to be the must-have feature that pushes people that are on the fence into picking up an iPod, especially when you need to pay $200 more to get it (20GB vs this one).
They're not going to market it as a 5G, but rather the top of the line 4G. From TFA:
"The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499."
Photos, eh? No thanks. I'm all in favor of throwing some additional functionality into the iPod, but I'm not sure photos should be it, any more than I'm sure that a camera goes with a cell-phone. I for one would rather them port iCal to Windows and add some more advanced PDA functionality to the iPod. People who already want an iPod might finally drop the cash if it was also a decent PDA and could replace their old Palm or what have you. That's something people need. Does anyone really need a a portable digital photo album? If simple transportation is your goal, the iPod already does that. . .
Just what we need, another bitch-beer. This sure is great marketing though:
"Anheuser-Busch designed the new brew for 21- to 27-year-old drinkers who seek novel beverages and switch drinks more frequently according to mood and occasion"
Translation? We're getting trounced by the liquor companies in the "girls who just recently turned 21 and don't like the taste of *real* beer demographic", so here's our obligatory entry into the "malt beverage" foray, but unlike those other companies, we'll come right out and call ours beer, since after all, we're Anheuser-Busch. Anyway enough ranting, I'm off to get another Zim^H^H^HGuiness.
I know the fact that this release was gonna be Java 5 is old news, but I can't believe they did it considering all the crap they took last time about Java 1.2 really being Java 2. What the hell happened to Javas 3 and 4?
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Uhh, what corporate structure are you referring to? If you read the original HardOCP report, you'd know that there appears to be *no* company. It's just this Roberts guy ripping investors off as he has apparently done several times before. I sincerely hope you were kidding about even considering investing in Infinium.
I'd heard somwhere once that a large part of the reason for this is that on average, the Japanese consumer is a lot more tolerant of immature, or not ready for prime time technology. I guess its just for the cool factor. But what it boils down to is that they basically beta test a lot of stuff for us, so that Americans get the quality they demand.
You must not have played many MMOs if you think WoW is one big level grind. At least there are quests, and not just you killing 585,972 mobs to get to a high enough level that you can start in with the "real" content.
Why can MSFT pull off XBox Live for 50 bucks a year, but the MMOG guys can't do it for much less than 20 bucks a month?
Because Microsoft doesn't need to make a profit from it maybe? The whole Xbox business unit leaks money like a sieve, but they don't care because they're making headway into the industry. Game companies don't have such luxuries.
The problem is that if they lose the revenue from initial sales, that fee will be more like $20 a month. Or did you think you were paying for the packaging? But I definitely agree that free trials are essential for mass MMO adoption. WoW got it right, download and play for free, then if you want to continue, buy a retail box and pay the monthly fee.
I tend to take the opposite view. Sure, 500k people signed up to play the game *for free*, but how many of those are going to dish out the $50 +15/mo? By contrast, how many people that intend to purchase the game wouldn't have signed up for the open beta? WoW is gonna be huge no doubt, but 1.5 - 2 million huge? I don't think so.
I agree completely. I've had friends that play MMOs (EQ, SWG, etc), and I just was never able to get into them. I never bought one, or even played much, because they just looked about as exciting as watching paint dry. I'm a huge Blizzard fan though, so I jumped on the open beta for WoW, and now I'm hooked. Was it because WoW is a terrific game (which it is), or just because they let me test drive it before I spent my money?? $15 a month isn't pocket change for a computer game that still costs you $50 up front. I don't think a trial is too much to ask for before making that kind of committment.
one of the hurdles in getting a H-1B is getting the state's department of labor to sign off that the wage level is kosher.
Oh yeah, I'm sure the labor department is totally up on what the current wages are among, of all things, *tech* jobs. Riiiight.
Wouldn't it technically be an ExTerminator??
That's why you need Robot Insurance
I for one am tired of the pharse "iPod killer". The iPod is entrenched to the point that it is going to take more than a superior product to unseat it. It's going to take a strong marketing campaign, and tight integration with a popular download service. I can't speak to the latter (since I own an iPod and use the iTMS), but I do know that I don't recall ever seeing a TV commercial or even many print ads for a non iPod music player.
No problem. Just figure out where to insert the Eh's and you're all set.
So, what's wrong with undecided voters?
Nothing, as long as it's not the day of the election. Seriously, if you haven't made up your mind by now, we're all better off with you not voting at all. Vote for whomever you like, but have a good reason for doing so.
Take a look at the polls here (I'm in Durham) and you'll see why Bush feels pretty good. At the State Fair last a couple of weeks ago, you could of mistaken it for a Bush rally - there were that many people with Bush/Cheney stickers. I predict a Kerry/Edwards win in Orange and Durham counties, and that's about it.
that Apple would need to start shipping some graphics boards that have some real horsepower before they even think about porting modern games like HL2. Even the boards that they ship in the G5s are a joke compared to the best available (which is what you should be getting at that price). Anyway, that arguement aside, I don't think that games are really the killer app that is going to drive people to Macs. They should focus on reducing costs, and keep with the whole digital media hub philosophy and applications thing.
Macs are about 20% of the installed userbase.
/., but still. . . personally, I think 20% is a ridiculously high figure.
Care to provide any facts to back up that statement? I know this is
So you think that the legalization of not only pot, but also hard, more dangerous drugs is more important than things like, oh I dunno, fundemantalist Islamists who want to kill Americans, or seniors who can't afford drugs to help them stay alive, or the education of our children? Vote for whomever you like, but have a fucking reason for doing so other than the legalization of mind altering drugs that make you even more oblivious to the real issues in our world to day than you already are. Go smoke up, stoner.
You don't even need that anymore. A recent Firefox checkin duplicates this functionality without having to use an extension. Just download a recent nightly.
"I'm guessin' you don't have children (or, especially, grandchildren)."
That's true. But I never said no one would want the feature. I just don't think it's going to be the must-have feature that pushes people that are on the fence into picking up an iPod, especially when you need to pay $200 more to get it (20GB vs this one).
They're not going to market it as a 5G, but rather the top of the line 4G. From TFA:
"The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499."
Photos, eh? No thanks. I'm all in favor of throwing some additional functionality into the iPod, but I'm not sure photos should be it, any more than I'm sure that a camera goes with a cell-phone. I for one would rather them port iCal to Windows and add some more advanced PDA functionality to the iPod. People who already want an iPod might finally drop the cash if it was also a decent PDA and could replace their old Palm or what have you. That's something people need. Does anyone really need a a portable digital photo album? If simple transportation is your goal, the iPod already does that. . .
Just what we need, another bitch-beer. This sure is great marketing though:
"Anheuser-Busch designed the new brew for 21- to 27-year-old drinkers who seek novel beverages and switch drinks more frequently according to mood and occasion"
Translation? We're getting trounced by the liquor companies in the "girls who just recently turned 21 and don't like the taste of *real* beer demographic", so here's our obligatory entry into the "malt beverage" foray, but unlike those other companies, we'll come right out and call ours beer, since after all, we're Anheuser-Busch. Anyway enough ranting, I'm off to get another Zim^H^H^HGuiness.
I've really become spoiled by the lack of telephone solicitations. I have to say that this is one law the government really did right.
I know the fact that this release was gonna be Java 5 is old news, but I can't believe they did it considering all the crap they took last time about Java 1.2 really being Java 2. What the hell happened to Javas 3 and 4?
I knew it, I'm surrounded by Assholes!!!