But I don't think they affect Apple the way they affect Napster or BuyMusic.com. Apple might come out of this stronger than MS does...
Apple has a head start and a competing file format in AAC. If the MSN store can play the files you've downloaded from Napster, etc., then they're the ones who should be worried.
The kicker is, at least in the OS X version of iTunes, there are signs of WMA support (dig around through the package contents of iTunes). If iTunes, and the iPod, open up and use WMA before (or when) the MSN store opens, that's another blow to MS. Apple just needs to keep iTunes and the iPod tightly integrated with one another, open to other file formats (WMA and Ogg Vorbis come to mind), and keep marketing the hell out of the iPod.
Bringing the iPod's price down would be nice, too.;)
I think Apple only stands to gain here. The WMA-based stores are the ones who are facing trouble.
Now if they could only use this data to somehow put out better music...
I don't think there's a lack of good music being recorded - I think there's a lack of good music being marketed.
For every John Coltrane or Cibo Matto or Ani DiFranco song being downloaded over P2P, Britney Spears is being downloaded at rates 100 times more. Do you know how difficult it is to find the Seatbelts' (Yoko Kanno's soundtracks for Cowboy Bebop) music over P2P? And Bebop's a relatively popular anime over here. What about music that doesn't have that sort of avenue to market itself? I suspect the "better" music isn't being downloaded.
And the stats the recording companies get show that, which reinforces the audience's "obvious need" to see Britney chasing Madonna around a bedroom in a video. Thus, they continue to market said brand of music, and we continue hearing it and thinking we want it.
If you want to see the market shift to "better" music, then this is a case where you have to get people to not only download things over P2P, but to make sure that they buy the albums they like (yes, I said "buy" because even the little labels and the self-published artists are spending money to record - it's not free (yet)). That will help bring better music to the marketplace, but I doubt we will ever see a truly diverse popular music scene...
Oooo...that's right. I grabbed one of those for $10 at my TRU earlier this year. Excellent value for a really good game on the N64.
Crawling around your local TRUs can be fruitful. There are a ton of N64, PSone and Dreamcast games still to be had there. A few still have Genesis games (I have yet to see any Saturn titles floating around)! Granted, some of the old games are still way too expensive (Powerpuff Girls on N64 is still $40, at least at my TRU) but then you find some great deals like Paper Mario...
Check on the TRU sales for Black Friday, too. Recently they have been doing some "Buy one, get one free" sales right out of the blue. I got Def Jam Vendetta and NBA Street Volume 2 for my GameCube about two months back for $50 together. I should think they'll have some nice deals come 11/28.
Well, first, you should check your facts: the GCN cost $250 when it first came out. I bought it two weeks after release. That, plus the GB Player, three more controllers, the GCN-GBA cable, two memory cards and ales tax...well, I've probably spent over $400 on hardware. And I have yet to buy the broadband adapter.
Now, back to the topic at hand by quoting the update on the story: Update: 11/13 23:44 GMT by S: GameSpot has a very cryptic clarification from Nintendo, that "the new product will be a unique item that is different from any traditional machine", and will be "be [neither] a home console nor a portable machine."
So it won't be a new console or an iQue. However, I think a device to allow game downloads would fit that description.
Backwards compatibility is key, I agree with that. But it wasn't the lack of "bc" that killed Sega in the hardware business. What killed them was poor handling of the post-Genesis sytems. If the Dreamcast had been backwards compatible with the Saturn and Sega CD, would that have saved them? No, because the people who bought the DC were already Sega fans. More than likely, they had Saturns sitting next to their TVs. I know I didn't buy my DC until it was $79 and Sega had announced it was going away...but I wasn't a Saturn owner. I am a Genesis owner (actually, I own two), but the Saturn was so bungled, and the DC was so rushed, that Sega lost me after the Genesis.
However, since we know it won't be a console, I guess the speculation is wide open...
If they follow Sega's pattern, then they deserve what's coming to them. And I'm a Nintendo fanboy who's saying this. It just wouldn't be a smart business move. I know I wouldn't go out to buy a replacement system after spending close to $400 on my GCN in just hardware (GC, GB Player, three extra controllers, GB-GC connector cable) since November, 2001. I will not appreciate a move by Nintendo to release a $249-$399 system in November, 2004, and I doubt many others will, either.
First out of the starting gate is rarely the strongest in the field. It may, technically, be strong, but if the right decisons aren't made at the right times... disaster will loom and loyal customers will leave.
Now, if it's a "GameCube 1.5" with the broadband and the GB Player built-in, etc., then I doubt many people would be upset. But an entirely new system? Bad, bad, bad idea.
I agree that you can do it, but Nintendo ain't making any money on it, are they?;)
Think about it: you drop in the iQue disc, go to the iQue store, and pick up the game you want, all on the GCN and your TV. Apple has proven people will do it with music, even though it isn't profitable for them unless you buy an iPod to take your music with you. Nintendo has a different way to make the money because: 1) you would need Nintendo hardware; and 2) Nintendo owns those ROMs and would make money on them (unlike Apple, not owning the music).
Now, what would be cool is renting the game online if you don't want to just buy the ROM...
That could be very cool...and would explain why Nintendo's been holding off on telling their online strategy to people. The iQue may just be a tester to see if people will do it. With China's love affair with bootlegs, Nintendo may be testing issues and bugs they see in the distribution system and fix them in China, on the iQue, before they send it out to the other regions.
It may also explain why George Harrison (NOA's president) has gone on record as not knowing what the big announcement will be next year. Something like this would be big, but not as major as a switch to a new console.
There is basic evidence pointing to this: there have been no developer machines sent out. There's no way in hell Nintendo's going to launch a new console three years after launching the current one without sending out development kits.
Maybe, just maybe, there is an iQue add-on for the GCN. Perhaps, using an iTunes-type store, we'll be able to buy older Nintendo ROMs over the Internet (using the broadband or modem adpaters, perhaps?) and put them on Flash cards, which we can then use on the iQue add-on for the GCN.
A "million-ish" consoles? The GCN should be caught up by Christmas.
BTW, I did try it. I had a friend's, and Halo, for a week. Then I gave it back and don't miss it a bit.
I prefer to play games that are enjoyable and will stand the test of time. Halo isn't (it's overrated - admit it) and won't. Eternal Darkness, The Wind Waker and Pikmin, among others, will.
And, for the demographics: I'm 30, male, white, work in IT, have networked my house, play online games with my friends and coworkers, watch sports and action movies. I am the person MS has in mind with the Xbox. And, boy, did they screw up...
I'm not willing to spend money on a console with no staying power. I will be playing my GCN games years from now. Can you say that about the Xbox?
I'm not trying to be contentious, but I have to take issue with a few things in your statement:
1) Even with falling sales, the PS2 is so far ahead of the pack that it's going to take a while for the Xbox and GCN combined to equal the PS2 numbers out there. Remember, there were points where the Bandai WonderSwan was outselling the Xbox in Japan. And MS had beeen fighting tooth and nail for a foothold over there.
2) You did read the post on here last week that said Nintendo has doubled its marketshare, right? As a GCN owner of two years, I can say that people will get more for their money and time out of the GCN and its library, added with the Game Boy Player and its massive library, than they would from an Xbox (from a purely non-hacker's stance).
Don't get me wrong: I don't mind the Xbox being a third player in the market (though I don't trust MS's stated intentions), but I think it's a console without a stated mission. What is there that you can do with an Xbox that you can't do with other stuff? Halo has been ported, KOTOR is on the PC soon...so where does that leave the Xbox?
I suspect that Xbox sales are beginning to wane, though they may pick up if the price is cut soon. MS is moving on "Xbox Next" as quickly as possible because they know this one has been a colossal dud. North American marketshare is the 500lb gorilla, but one can't dismiss the other markets and expect a failure in those markets to sustain itself on just strong North American sales.
With the exception that you can regain some (not all) of your cash on the game by selling it on Half or going to EB Games or Game Stop and selling it back to them. Once you spend the money on the ticket at the movie, that money's long gone...
Read the last line in Through the Looking-glass by Lewis Carroll. I do suggest reading the entire book, but the very last line is exactly what the Wachowskis are leaving you with in the third movie.
Dan, you're on the right track. You also have to realize there is a game of chess being played here, and not between the machines and the humans. A chessboard is, of course, a matrix. The Oracle is also considered "mother" by a few folks...another connection to the word "matrix." Titling the movies as "The Matrix..." doesn't mean that it is just referring to the various definitions one can find for that word...and there are a lot.
Every encounter Neo has is akin to Alice making her way across the chessboard. Every time he is informed about certain things, there is a nugget or five of important information in there.
As for you playa-haters out there: This trilogy is excellent. The Wachowskis are brilliant and they're created a piece of art that works on so many different levels that there are going to be people who will not pay attention and will not "get it." It doesn't take being an intellectual, or having a film studies degree, etc., to figure this story out. Just pay attention - the movies are more than the surface entertainment presents. If you want something lighter, go see Scary Movie 3 (no, I'm not knocking it - I love Zucker's flicks and hope to see this one soon). Then when you're ready to work, go see Revolutions.
Congrats on paying attention, Dan. Now if we can get the others to try it they might understand what's going on...
No, you didn't read it. You saw what you wanted to. You hit the "reply" button and fired a message off, thinking that quoting me supported you.
It doesn't. I've graded more than a few English papers in my time and, trust me, just because you quoted something doesn't mean you read it within the context or even understood it.
If you wanted to discuss it, you just had to ask. I'm a pretty approachable and talkative guy if you're nice. You don't even have to say please, but asking would be nice.
In a nutshell, the Canadians needed to come to a compromise, otherwise the country was going to break apart. The anglophiles were agressive towards the francophiles, and the francophiles were dismissive of the anglophiles to the point of isolation from the rest of the country. It's not a difficult thing to wrap your mind around. Cultural differences cause these sort of things across the world. Sometimes it breaks out into segregation and aparteid, which then takes action by the people to break apart.
Other times, millions of people can be slaughtered and innocent bystanders can be blown to bits when a bus is destroyed.
In this case, before the violence went to far (and there was violence), the Canadians struck a compromise...and that compromise still haunts them, but what other solution is there? Pierre Trudeau writes a great deal about it in his Memoirs. I suggest checking it out. Not only for that, but also to learn about one of the most flambouyant and interesting leaders a country in the West has ever had...
As for this being/. and none of this discussion having any effect: You never know. Dismissively saying "this is Slashdot" basically means that you don't believe that worthy discussions can come out of this forum. I think you're rather wrong on that point, but we'll have to agree to disagree...but I would put to you: why are you here and continuing the conversation if there isn't some worth, some value, to the discussion?;)
I would suggest not whining, though, and maybe working on changing things. Nothing's going to get done educating us on how the laws in Canada work (though I appreciate it) because, in the end, there's nothing we will ever be able to do about it.
You may believe that one person can't change it, but it's always amazing what happens when a group of "one persons" come together and discuss the issue in a civil manner. From my vantage point in Detroit, there's a preference, on both sides, to hurl insults at each other, but there are always people in the background who are willing to put in hard work for change. I know the current state of affairs was a compromise (I read Trudeau's Memoirs on a long train trip back from Montreal), but it is a step in the right direction. No one seems to have picked up the banner after he left office 20 years ago, however...
I, for one, would like to see this come to a good end that everyone can agree on because, frankly, we in the States have a similar problem brewing: we can't come to grips how large our Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking (metro Detroit has the largest population of Arabs outside of the Middle East) populations are, so we ignore it and sweep it under the rug. Who knows when southern California and south Texas start making noises like the Quebecois? Hopefully you folks can help lead the way and help us find a solution to that issue when we stumble over it.
Otherwise, in 10 or 20 years we'll be faced with bilingual packaging in the US...and the strife that helped bring that into being...
Then, again, it's up to the Canadians to work that out. Until that happens, the law is the law and Quebec has the right to enforce it. If I were selling product in Quebec I would have to abide by their wishes or leave. How many international compnaies already do? Thousands, I would suspect. Why should videogame publishers be held to a different standard?
I'm not saying I agree with the xenophobia something like this reeks of. I'm saying that those of us who aren't Canadian can't sit and whine about "the Frogs" not allowing more English into Quebec because we deem it "stoopid." Those of us who are Americans should be focusing on the imperialist moves our country is making on the rest of the world, not an isolationalist culture in a country that's not ours and that has not made any violent moves towards us. Now, if the separtists started getting violent in a Northern Ireland fashion, then we may need to pay more attention.
This is something the Canadians have to work out for themselves and, I suspect, they eventually will. Montreal is an English-speaking cosmopolitan city (my wife and I don't speak a lick of French and had a great time). Eventually, more open-minded people will filter throughout Quebec. It may take a century, but I suspect that the issues will resolve themselves at some point.
And the resolution won't come from Slashdotters telling the Quebecois to grow up.:p
The point is: Canadians need to work this out for themselves. The laws are there, whether they're controversial or not, which means that a company wanting to sell in that part of the world needs to abide by the laws until they change.
I never said they were moral, I only said they exist and must be worked with. Again, whining on/. doesn't change anything in the real world.
Move to Quebec and work to change the law if you think it's ridiculous. I don't live there and, if I choose to visit, I have to deal with what's there, not what I want to be there.
You may not be American, but you are definitely spouting off a very stereotypical American view there...
Yes, they do. And Canada has to face issues of cultural difference and how that affects the society at large. This issue is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems Canada has to deal with on this front.
Read what I wrote, not what your narrow little mind wants to see.
The law is on the books. It's up to the Canadians to make the changes. Whining on/. isn't going to change anything, and that goes double if said whiners are people outside of Canada.
I'm not going to defend the status quo in Quebec or the shaky relationship they have with the rest of Canada. Those struggles are up to the the Canadians to figure out.
HOWEVER, I will defend the right of the Quebecois government to uphold their laws and the laws of Canada. Those laws were put in place for a reason, a legitimate reason, and, being an American who lives in Detroit and travels to Canada (including Montreal) quite frequently, I think it is an imperfect, but workable, solution to the social and cultural issues Canada faces.
As for the software publishers:
Everyone else can translate their packages for the Canadian market. You can, too. It just isn't that hard of an undertaking. My suggestion is that the publishers take a hint from many of the DVDs sold in Canada: use reversible cover inserts in the keep cases. One side is Canadian English, one is Quebecois French.
I agree with ObiWanKenblowme - the OT isn't great art, neither are the new movies. But I try to look at them the same way I did the originals - as a kid. And, you know what? That works.
As for the cartoon: they aren't little stories for each episode, it's three or so big stories broken up into episodes. I want to say that the three stories break into one for Anakin, one for Obi-wan and one for Kit Fisto (or, at least, that's how the website seems to set it up). So you are getting different characters fighting different battles on different planets over the course of 20 episodes. Think of it as a movie, but you're just getting to watch the film one scene at a time...
Slashdot Mirror
Apple has a head start and a competing file format in AAC. If the MSN store can play the files you've downloaded from Napster, etc., then they're the ones who should be worried.
The kicker is, at least in the OS X version of iTunes, there are signs of WMA support (dig around through the package contents of iTunes). If iTunes, and the iPod, open up and use WMA before (or when) the MSN store opens, that's another blow to MS. Apple just needs to keep iTunes and the iPod tightly integrated with one another, open to other file formats (WMA and Ogg Vorbis come to mind), and keep marketing the hell out of the iPod.
Bringing the iPod's price down would be nice, too. ;)
I think Apple only stands to gain here. The WMA-based stores are the ones who are facing trouble.
I don't think there's a lack of good music being recorded - I think there's a lack of good music being marketed.
For every John Coltrane or Cibo Matto or Ani DiFranco song being downloaded over P2P, Britney Spears is being downloaded at rates 100 times more. Do you know how difficult it is to find the Seatbelts' (Yoko Kanno's soundtracks for Cowboy Bebop) music over P2P? And Bebop's a relatively popular anime over here. What about music that doesn't have that sort of avenue to market itself? I suspect the "better" music isn't being downloaded.
And the stats the recording companies get show that, which reinforces the audience's "obvious need" to see Britney chasing Madonna around a bedroom in a video. Thus, they continue to market said brand of music, and we continue hearing it and thinking we want it.
If you want to see the market shift to "better" music, then this is a case where you have to get people to not only download things over P2P, but to make sure that they buy the albums they like (yes, I said "buy" because even the little labels and the self-published artists are spending money to record - it's not free (yet)). That will help bring better music to the marketplace, but I doubt we will ever see a truly diverse popular music scene...
Crawling around your local TRUs can be fruitful. There are a ton of N64, PSone and Dreamcast games still to be had there. A few still have Genesis games (I have yet to see any Saturn titles floating around)! Granted, some of the old games are still way too expensive (Powerpuff Girls on N64 is still $40, at least at my TRU) but then you find some great deals like Paper Mario...
Check on the TRU sales for Black Friday, too. Recently they have been doing some "Buy one, get one free" sales right out of the blue. I got Def Jam Vendetta and NBA Street Volume 2 for my GameCube about two months back for $50 together. I should think they'll have some nice deals come 11/28.
I second the vote on Ikaruga. Hell, buy yourself a used GameCube and pick this up. You will not be disappointed...
Now, back to the topic at hand by quoting the update on the story: Update: 11/13 23:44 GMT by S: GameSpot has a very cryptic clarification from Nintendo, that "the new product will be a unique item that is different from any traditional machine", and will be "be [neither] a home console nor a portable machine."
So it won't be a new console or an iQue. However, I think a device to allow game downloads would fit that description.
Backwards compatibility is key, I agree with that. But it wasn't the lack of "bc" that killed Sega in the hardware business. What killed them was poor handling of the post-Genesis sytems. If the Dreamcast had been backwards compatible with the Saturn and Sega CD, would that have saved them? No, because the people who bought the DC were already Sega fans. More than likely, they had Saturns sitting next to their TVs. I know I didn't buy my DC until it was $79 and Sega had announced it was going away...but I wasn't a Saturn owner. I am a Genesis owner (actually, I own two), but the Saturn was so bungled, and the DC was so rushed, that Sega lost me after the Genesis.
However, since we know it won't be a console, I guess the speculation is wide open...
1) Saturn; and
2) Dreamcast.
If they follow Sega's pattern, then they deserve what's coming to them. And I'm a Nintendo fanboy who's saying this. It just wouldn't be a smart business move. I know I wouldn't go out to buy a replacement system after spending close to $400 on my GCN in just hardware (GC, GB Player, three extra controllers, GB-GC connector cable) since November, 2001. I will not appreciate a move by Nintendo to release a $249-$399 system in November, 2004, and I doubt many others will, either.
First out of the starting gate is rarely the strongest in the field. It may, technically, be strong, but if the right decisons aren't made at the right times... disaster will loom and loyal customers will leave.
Now, if it's a "GameCube 1.5" with the broadband and the GB Player built-in, etc., then I doubt many people would be upset. But an entirely new system? Bad, bad, bad idea.
Think about it: you drop in the iQue disc, go to the iQue store, and pick up the game you want, all on the GCN and your TV. Apple has proven people will do it with music, even though it isn't profitable for them unless you buy an iPod to take your music with you. Nintendo has a different way to make the money because: 1) you would need Nintendo hardware; and 2) Nintendo owns those ROMs and would make money on them (unlike Apple, not owning the music).
Now, what would be cool is renting the game online if you don't want to just buy the ROM...
That could be very cool...and would explain why Nintendo's been holding off on telling their online strategy to people. The iQue may just be a tester to see if people will do it. With China's love affair with bootlegs, Nintendo may be testing issues and bugs they see in the distribution system and fix them in China, on the iQue, before they send it out to the other regions.
It may also explain why George Harrison (NOA's president) has gone on record as not knowing what the big announcement will be next year. Something like this would be big, but not as major as a switch to a new console.
Maybe, just maybe, there is an iQue add-on for the GCN. Perhaps, using an iTunes-type store, we'll be able to buy older Nintendo ROMs over the Internet (using the broadband or modem adpaters, perhaps?) and put them on Flash cards, which we can then use on the iQue add-on for the GCN.
That makes sense. A new console doesn't.
BTW, I did try it. I had a friend's, and Halo, for a week. Then I gave it back and don't miss it a bit.
I prefer to play games that are enjoyable and will stand the test of time. Halo isn't (it's overrated - admit it) and won't. Eternal Darkness, The Wind Waker and Pikmin, among others, will.
And, for the demographics: I'm 30, male, white, work in IT, have networked my house, play online games with my friends and coworkers, watch sports and action movies. I am the person MS has in mind with the Xbox. And, boy, did they screw up...
I'm not willing to spend money on a console with no staying power. I will be playing my GCN games years from now. Can you say that about the Xbox?
1) Even with falling sales, the PS2 is so far ahead of the pack that it's going to take a while for the Xbox and GCN combined to equal the PS2 numbers out there. Remember, there were points where the Bandai WonderSwan was outselling the Xbox in Japan. And MS had beeen fighting tooth and nail for a foothold over there.
2) You did read the post on here last week that said Nintendo has doubled its marketshare, right? As a GCN owner of two years, I can say that people will get more for their money and time out of the GCN and its library, added with the Game Boy Player and its massive library, than they would from an Xbox (from a purely non-hacker's stance).
Don't get me wrong: I don't mind the Xbox being a third player in the market (though I don't trust MS's stated intentions), but I think it's a console without a stated mission. What is there that you can do with an Xbox that you can't do with other stuff? Halo has been ported, KOTOR is on the PC soon...so where does that leave the Xbox?
I suspect that Xbox sales are beginning to wane, though they may pick up if the price is cut soon. MS is moving on "Xbox Next" as quickly as possible because they know this one has been a colossal dud. North American marketshare is the 500lb gorilla, but one can't dismiss the other markets and expect a failure in those markets to sustain itself on just strong North American sales.
With the exception that you can regain some (not all) of your cash on the game by selling it on Half or going to EB Games or Game Stop and selling it back to them. Once you spend the money on the ticket at the movie, that money's long gone...
How did I not say anything? Is there a place you were confused? If so, instead of dismissing it, ask. I will explain...
Read the last line in Through the Looking-glass by Lewis Carroll. I do suggest reading the entire book, but the very last line is exactly what the Wachowskis are leaving you with in the third movie.
Every encounter Neo has is akin to Alice making her way across the chessboard. Every time he is informed about certain things, there is a nugget or five of important information in there.
As for you playa-haters out there: This trilogy is excellent. The Wachowskis are brilliant and they're created a piece of art that works on so many different levels that there are going to be people who will not pay attention and will not "get it." It doesn't take being an intellectual, or having a film studies degree, etc., to figure this story out. Just pay attention - the movies are more than the surface entertainment presents. If you want something lighter, go see Scary Movie 3 (no, I'm not knocking it - I love Zucker's flicks and hope to see this one soon). Then when you're ready to work, go see Revolutions.
Congrats on paying attention, Dan. Now if we can get the others to try it they might understand what's going on...
It doesn't. I've graded more than a few English papers in my time and, trust me, just because you quoted something doesn't mean you read it within the context or even understood it.
If you wanted to discuss it, you just had to ask. I'm a pretty approachable and talkative guy if you're nice. You don't even have to say please, but asking would be nice.
In a nutshell, the Canadians needed to come to a compromise, otherwise the country was going to break apart. The anglophiles were agressive towards the francophiles, and the francophiles were dismissive of the anglophiles to the point of isolation from the rest of the country. It's not a difficult thing to wrap your mind around. Cultural differences cause these sort of things across the world. Sometimes it breaks out into segregation and aparteid, which then takes action by the people to break apart.
Other times, millions of people can be slaughtered and innocent bystanders can be blown to bits when a bus is destroyed.
In this case, before the violence went to far (and there was violence), the Canadians struck a compromise...and that compromise still haunts them, but what other solution is there? Pierre Trudeau writes a great deal about it in his Memoirs. I suggest checking it out. Not only for that, but also to learn about one of the most flambouyant and interesting leaders a country in the West has ever had...
As for this being /. and none of this discussion having any effect: You never know. Dismissively saying "this is Slashdot" basically means that you don't believe that worthy discussions can come out of this forum. I think you're rather wrong on that point, but we'll have to agree to disagree...but I would put to you: why are you here and continuing the conversation if there isn't some worth, some value, to the discussion? ;)
Have a good night.
I would suggest not whining, though, and maybe working on changing things. Nothing's going to get done educating us on how the laws in Canada work (though I appreciate it) because, in the end, there's nothing we will ever be able to do about it.
You may believe that one person can't change it, but it's always amazing what happens when a group of "one persons" come together and discuss the issue in a civil manner. From my vantage point in Detroit, there's a preference, on both sides, to hurl insults at each other, but there are always people in the background who are willing to put in hard work for change. I know the current state of affairs was a compromise (I read Trudeau's Memoirs on a long train trip back from Montreal), but it is a step in the right direction. No one seems to have picked up the banner after he left office 20 years ago, however...
I, for one, would like to see this come to a good end that everyone can agree on because, frankly, we in the States have a similar problem brewing: we can't come to grips how large our Spanish-speaking and Arabic-speaking (metro Detroit has the largest population of Arabs outside of the Middle East) populations are, so we ignore it and sweep it under the rug. Who knows when southern California and south Texas start making noises like the Quebecois? Hopefully you folks can help lead the way and help us find a solution to that issue when we stumble over it.
Otherwise, in 10 or 20 years we'll be faced with bilingual packaging in the US...and the strife that helped bring that into being...
I'm not saying I agree with the xenophobia something like this reeks of. I'm saying that those of us who aren't Canadian can't sit and whine about "the Frogs" not allowing more English into Quebec because we deem it "stoopid." Those of us who are Americans should be focusing on the imperialist moves our country is making on the rest of the world, not an isolationalist culture in a country that's not ours and that has not made any violent moves towards us. Now, if the separtists started getting violent in a Northern Ireland fashion, then we may need to pay more attention.
This is something the Canadians have to work out for themselves and, I suspect, they eventually will. Montreal is an English-speaking cosmopolitan city (my wife and I don't speak a lick of French and had a great time). Eventually, more open-minded people will filter throughout Quebec. It may take a century, but I suspect that the issues will resolve themselves at some point.
And the resolution won't come from Slashdotters telling the Quebecois to grow up. :p
The games themselves do not have to be in French. The packaging and manuals have to be.
I presume there may be a subtitle law floating around at some point, too, but the localization needed on the game itself is close to nil.
I never said they were moral, I only said they exist and must be worked with. Again, whining on /. doesn't change anything in the real world.
You may not be American, but you are definitely spouting off a very stereotypical American view there...
Not a difficult concept.
The law is on the books. It's up to the Canadians to make the changes. Whining on /. isn't going to change anything, and that goes double if said whiners are people outside of Canada.
It reads like, from what I can tell, that there may be French-only items with no English translation that are being pulled.
I'm not going to defend the status quo in Quebec or the shaky relationship they have with the rest of Canada. Those struggles are up to the the Canadians to figure out.
HOWEVER, I will defend the right of the Quebecois government to uphold their laws and the laws of Canada. Those laws were put in place for a reason, a legitimate reason, and, being an American who lives in Detroit and travels to Canada (including Montreal) quite frequently, I think it is an imperfect, but workable, solution to the social and cultural issues Canada faces.
As for the software publishers:
Everyone else can translate their packages for the Canadian market. You can, too. It just isn't that hard of an undertaking. My suggestion is that the publishers take a hint from many of the DVDs sold in Canada: use reversible cover inserts in the keep cases. One side is Canadian English, one is Quebecois French.
As for the cartoon: they aren't little stories for each episode, it's three or so big stories broken up into episodes. I want to say that the three stories break into one for Anakin, one for Obi-wan and one for Kit Fisto (or, at least, that's how the website seems to set it up). So you are getting different characters fighting different battles on different planets over the course of 20 episodes. Think of it as a movie, but you're just getting to watch the film one scene at a time...