Don't be so pessimistic about it. Building a computer game is very similar to building any other application for general use.
I could compare what you said point by point, but instead I'll leave it up to the intelligent people to draw their own connections, but developing any application goes throught he same, if not more problems, as a game. In fact, in most cases a general application is tougher to create because the teams on the project can become so large its impossible to communicate / share all the knowledge applied to the project.
What it all comes down to is that if you have a good plan, good design, and good people anything you create will be a quality product. Marketing is always another story, as is appealing to the masses. What you think will sell isn't always so.
So really what you are saying is that its not a miracle for any studio to stay in business but for any software maker to stay in business.
Because if you ask me, once you create one game, you should have a really good idea about what works, what doesn't work, and how to improve upon your system (system being how it was designed / what you created)... so really, once you can get past the initial release, things should only get better. But that in and of itself is the trick for all developers out there.
So what exactly are you saying? That people should pay more for broadband because compaines do? I fail to see what argument you are making...
We live in a capitalist society. If broadband is too expensive, people won't purchase it...I know that if my bill goes up to the prices you're talking about, forget it. It would be back to dialup for me.
In the public marketplace there is a fine line between need and what we are willing to pay for. Companies will pay those prices because they NEED the speed. And just like you said the public doesen't need it. Just look at me.
Do I NEED broadband? No. Not at all. It is a convience and I use it accordingly. But people don't need a lot of things they pay for. People don't NEED cable tv. I don't, and i don't see the reason that I should pay another 45 dollars a month to AT&T to get it. The networks keep me entertained enough.
So as long as the balence exists between price and service people won't or will (depending on how they value their money / the service) be willing to pay more for broadband.
AT&T Broadband was quick and painless...granted the guy who installed it was a moron, but that is easily overcome.
It was just annoying because he HAD (part of the deal) to hook me up. So he acted all high and mighty telling me this and that about the internet and what to do and doing it as if setting up windows for broadband was rocket science.
I just wish he woulda stayed around so he could have seen me undo what he did and then set up my BSD server / firewall...
Ahhh well. But really, getting turned on was very easy and customer service was no problem to deal with at all.
Average DVD: Cost: 20 dollars What you get: 1.5 - 2.5 hour movie, plus audio commentaries, trailers, making of the movie / behind the scenes, sometimes interactive DVD-ROM stuff for the PC, etc...
Average CD: Cost: ~13 dollars (I think) What you get: Roughly an hour worth of music, maybe a "bonus" track.
Right. I'll shell out money for a DVD over a music CD anyday. You just get more for your buck (besides the fact that CD's are grossly overpriced for the cost of making them compared to a DVD).
Oh ok. so a sport has to generate money to be popular. I see. Yay capitalism.
Your arguments are flawed. Rollarblading is popular, swimming is popular, downloading mp3's are popular, how much money do these wonderful activities generate again?
BTW, I don't personally know *one* native-born American who actually watches soccer on a regular basis
Now you do. You can include some of my friends too if it would make you feel better. Then you would know 7.
I better get back to watching and playing baseball (the most boring game in the world) because its on TV, and anything on TV must generate money and therefore be popular.
I dunno why this is on slashdot, but *I* care about the world cup. So do a lot of americans. Believe it or not, you don't set the standard.
The MLS has grown in popularity so much recently (and not since the USA did well in the cup).
In fact soccer is the #2 played team sport behind basketball in the US. Why don't you go and do some research to see how things really are before you go and embarrass yourself.
unlike soccer which is played in a couple of European and Sth American countries
Right right. England, scottland, ireland, france, germany, spain, italy, czech rep, poland, argentina, brazil, mexico, S. korea, russia, etc.. (these are just a *small* smattering of places)
I think it depends on where you're at. I'm in the NW Chicago suburbs and there were 5 midnight showings at the AMC in Barrington. All were sold out.
The next day I went again at 9:30 (had my tickets in advance) and from what i could see on the board most shows were sold out that day too.
These aren't small theaters by any means. there are 4 HUGE ones (i'll take a guess and am probalby totally wrong), about 600 each, and then 2 smaller but large theaters of 450 probably...
The 12:01 shows used the 4 really bug ones and one smaller one. I think it was mixed the next day.
I'd say that that's pretty good.:) So, its all about where you see it it seems...
oh yea... Who's been quoting Spiderman? That's what I thought.
I totally disagree. I thought the music was a wonderful compliment of the movie. True it was super original, but it didn't need to be.
You have to look at how the music compliments the actors. I'm not going to rehash my previous post, so read that, but I thought it played very well with the move.
CGI: not that impressive. i'm really pretty unable to name a specific scene that will lose out when converted to pan & scan. why see this movie in the theater?
You obviously didn't see it in digital. A-maz-ing. I saw it on film and then dig. projection. The difference is like night and day. If you can't see it in digital wait for the DVD, best effects I have ever seen (live action movie wise).
As for the pan and scan comment. there are several scenes that will get hacked...trust me. I can't give you an example but I remember thinking that in the movie.
Action yoda: loses! So now we're left hoping to see him win a fight in ep 3, but i'm guessing we'll be left yearning to see him win a fight even after 3. Also, it was disappointingly obvious that yoda wasn't real since he at no point physically interacts with dokuu.
wow. I can't believe you said that. Yoda didn't lose, but dooku had to "cheat" to get away. Did you watch the same scene as me?
Dokuu: should have been a completely earnest good guy. Imagine how much better a place the storyline would be in right now if everything else had been left the same, but dokuu was earnestly good, and killed by yoda (personally or by his forces, or better yet by anakin).
You're right. Sith should be the good guys.
Jedi sword fights: nothing comparable to ep1. Nothing really exciting. Decent battle with jango fett ends undecided, later jango is completely unable to do anything vs windu. Too obvious intent to have boba clone grow up to kill windu. Sadly, boba is the best actor in the whole movie.
I'm literally laughing at your comments here. You must see 2 movies a year to think boba was the best actor.
Ya know, I can't even go on to respond to the rest of your comments, but I really think you were watching a different movie. I totally felt Anakin's internal conflict and that between him and Obi-Wan.
Acting and everythign else aside, I'd see it just again for the music in the scenes. The way the emperor's theme comes up when Anakin is explaining to Padme about the Tuskin Raiders. The final shots of the clone army preparing for battle with the Imperial March in full effect. The duel sunset theme outside the ranch on Tatooine. The quite hints of the imperial march whenever Anakin slips toward the dark side a little... Sent chills down my spine.
This movie was 1000 times better than ep 1. My only gripes is that the love story was a little too forced. It flowed so well for about half way then became unbelievable. Everything else was great.
I hate it when people complain about the dialogue and other corney stuff. Remeber all that shitty dialogue in the first triligy? Remember how annoying Luke was? Come on people, open your eyes and realize all the Star Wars films are like that.
That was the case the first couple of times. Since then I've been doing more, but hasn't helped too much...probably should set up that firewall I've been to lazy to do. FreeBSD is good for that yes?
Not mine personally, but I had a senior project this year that got pretty messed up from Nimba. The project was a web - based almanac type thing and for some reason she wanted it run by win2k...
Slashdot Mirror
Don't be so pessimistic about it. Building a computer game is very similar to building any other application for general use.
... so really, once you can get past the initial release, things should only get better. But that in and of itself is the trick for all developers out there.
I could compare what you said point by point, but instead I'll leave it up to the intelligent people to draw their own connections, but developing any application goes throught he same, if not more problems, as a game. In fact, in most cases a general application is tougher to create because the teams on the project can become so large its impossible to communicate / share all the knowledge applied to the project.
What it all comes down to is that if you have a good plan, good design, and good people anything you create will be a quality product. Marketing is always another story, as is appealing to the masses. What you think will sell isn't always so.
So really what you are saying is that its not a miracle for any studio to stay in business but for any software maker to stay in business.
Because if you ask me, once you create one game, you should have a really good idea about what works, what doesn't work, and how to improve upon your system (system being how it was designed / what you created)
Do people even watch this show?
... I would have seen more but a fit of vomiting and the need to inflict bodily harm overwhelmed me...
I saw 20 min of an episode once
Fuck yea!!
whatever...
I just bought one last week, and its fan-tas-tic.
So what exactly are you saying? That people should pay more for broadband because compaines do? I fail to see what argument you are making...
We live in a capitalist society. If broadband is too expensive, people won't purchase it...I know that if my bill goes up to the prices you're talking about, forget it. It would be back to dialup for me.
In the public marketplace there is a fine line between need and what we are willing to pay for. Companies will pay those prices because they NEED the speed. And just like you said the public doesen't need it. Just look at me.
Do I NEED broadband? No. Not at all. It is a convience and I use it accordingly. But people don't need a lot of things they pay for. People don't NEED cable tv. I don't, and i don't see the reason that I should pay another 45 dollars a month to AT&T to get it. The networks keep me entertained enough.
So as long as the balence exists between price and service people won't or will (depending on how they value their money / the service) be willing to pay more for broadband.
AT&T Broadband was quick and painless...granted the guy who installed it was a moron, but that is easily overcome.
It was just annoying because he HAD (part of the deal) to hook me up. So he acted all high and mighty telling me this and that about the internet and what to do and doing it as if setting up windows for broadband was rocket science.
I just wish he woulda stayed around so he could have seen me undo what he did and then set up my BSD server / firewall...
Ahhh well. But really, getting turned on was very easy and customer service was no problem to deal with at all.
Man, they got it all wrong. It's not a tomb. It's a powerplant.
http://www.gizapower.com
Seriously. The shit makes sense. It's all just too perfect to be a tomb.
Mark
And to think I used to think that Jurrasic Park was totally unbelievable...
Shame on me.
It took a 'task force' and probalby a stack of money to come to the conclusion that people don't like pop-ups?
How sad...
No, you're just not used to it. I hated it the first time I tried it, but after a little bit of playtime, its just as good as PC FPS games...
Unless its like Titanic or Dark Angel or...
Makes you stupid.
Average DVD:
Cost: 20 dollars
What you get: 1.5 - 2.5 hour movie, plus audio commentaries, trailers, making of the movie / behind the scenes, sometimes interactive DVD-ROM stuff for the PC, etc...
Average CD:
Cost: ~13 dollars (I think)
What you get: Roughly an hour worth of music, maybe a "bonus" track.
Right. I'll shell out money for a DVD over a music CD anyday. You just get more for your buck (besides the fact that CD's are grossly overpriced for the cost of making them compared to a DVD).
Oh ok. so a sport has to generate money to be popular. I see. Yay capitalism.
Your arguments are flawed. Rollarblading is popular, swimming is popular, downloading mp3's are popular, how much money do these wonderful activities generate again?
BTW, I don't personally know *one* native-born American who actually watches soccer on a regular basis
Now you do. You can include some of my friends too if it would make you feel better. Then you would know 7.
I better get back to watching and playing baseball (the most boring game in the world) because its on TV, and anything on TV must generate money and therefore be popular.
I dunno why this is on slashdot, but *I* care about the world cup. So do a lot of americans. Believe it or not, you don't set the standard.
The MLS has grown in popularity so much recently (and not since the USA did well in the cup).
In fact soccer is the #2 played team sport behind basketball in the US. Why don't you go and do some research to see how things really are before you go and embarrass yourself.
Ummm... Go travel. Soccer is player *EVERYWHERE*.
unlike soccer which is played in a couple of European and Sth American countries
Right right. England, scottland, ireland, france, germany, spain, italy, czech rep, poland, argentina, brazil, mexico, S. korea, russia, etc.. (these are just a *small* smattering of places)
So soccer a joke internationally? no. you are.
UAG
Yet ANH (which he did direct) was up for best picture, director,...
I think it depends on where you're at. I'm in the NW Chicago suburbs and there were 5 midnight showings at the AMC in Barrington. All were sold out.
:) So, its all about where you see it it seems...
The next day I went again at 9:30 (had my tickets in advance) and from what i could see on the board most shows were sold out that day too.
These aren't small theaters by any means. there are 4 HUGE ones (i'll take a guess and am probalby totally wrong), about 600 each, and then 2 smaller but large theaters of 450 probably...
The 12:01 shows used the 4 really bug ones and one smaller one. I think it was mixed the next day.
I'd say that that's pretty good.
oh yea...
Who's been quoting Spiderman? That's what I thought.
:(
I totally disagree. I thought the music was a wonderful compliment of the movie. True it was super original, but it didn't need to be.
You have to look at how the music compliments the actors. I'm not going to rehash my previous post, so read that, but I thought it played very well with the move.
CGI: not that impressive. i'm really pretty unable to name a specific scene that will lose out when converted to pan & scan. why see this movie in the theater?
You obviously didn't see it in digital. A-maz-ing. I saw it on film and then dig. projection. The difference is like night and day. If you can't see it in digital wait for the DVD, best effects I have ever seen (live action movie wise).
As for the pan and scan comment. there are several scenes that will get hacked...trust me. I can't give you an example but I remember thinking that in the movie.
Action yoda: loses! So now we're left hoping to see him win a fight in ep 3, but i'm guessing we'll be left yearning to see him win a fight even after 3. Also, it was disappointingly obvious that yoda wasn't real since he at no point physically interacts with dokuu.
wow. I can't believe you said that. Yoda didn't lose, but dooku had to "cheat" to get away. Did you watch the same scene as me?
Dokuu: should have been a completely earnest good guy. Imagine how much better a place the storyline would be in right now if everything else had been left the same, but dokuu was earnestly good, and killed by yoda (personally or by his forces, or better yet by anakin).
You're right. Sith should be the good guys.
Jedi sword fights: nothing comparable to ep1. Nothing really exciting. Decent battle with jango fett ends undecided, later jango is completely unable to do anything vs windu. Too obvious intent to have boba clone grow up to kill windu. Sadly, boba is the best actor in the whole movie.
I'm literally laughing at your comments here. You must see 2 movies a year to think boba was the best actor.
Ya know, I can't even go on to respond to the rest of your comments, but I really think you were watching a different movie. I totally felt Anakin's internal conflict and that between him and Obi-Wan.
Acting and everythign else aside, I'd see it just again for the music in the scenes. The way the emperor's theme comes up when Anakin is explaining to Padme about the Tuskin Raiders. The final shots of the clone army preparing for battle with the Imperial March in full effect. The duel sunset theme outside the ranch on Tatooine. The quite hints of the imperial march whenever Anakin slips toward the dark side a little... Sent chills down my spine.
This movie was 1000 times better than ep 1. My only gripes is that the love story was a little too forced. It flowed so well for about half way then became unbelievable. Everything else was great.
I hate it when people complain about the dialogue and other corney stuff. Remeber all that shitty dialogue in the first triligy? Remember how annoying Luke was? Come on people, open your eyes and realize all the Star Wars films are like that.
I personally liked it better than Ep 4.
She didn't change once when she was on the refugee ship. The next clothing change was back on Naboo (though she did change a bit too much...)
It's spelled "genius".
doh!
I hate you.
:)
That was the case the first couple of times. Since then I've been doing more, but hasn't helped too much...probably should set up that firewall I've been to lazy to do. FreeBSD is good for that yes?
Not mine personally, but I had a senior project this year that got pretty messed up from Nimba. The project was a web - based almanac type thing and for some reason she wanted it run by win2k...