"That could fun to eavesdrop on: The company suits trying to act like they're gungho for Linux, and the Microsoft Salesdrones trying to test for smoke and mirrors."
Any suit that knows enough words to pretend to be "into" the OSS "scene" is by default more intelligent than the average Microsoft representative.
"And they are just now coming out with Kingdom Hearts International, which is basically the American version but with jap subs. Must not have done too well if they think they can make people buy a second copy."
You're assuming that people bought it because it was a good game. People bought Kingdom Hearts for the very same reasons people went to go see Phantom Menace. Heck, they were made for the same reason: to whore a profitable IP line for all it's worth.
"This has nothing to do with the Sony/Nintendo/Square politics, but rather the fact that there are something like 50+ Million PS2s out there and only like 20 Million X-Box and Game Gubes (combined). While it might benefit them to release a version of FF11 for every console, given it has a subscription, it probably wouldn't be worthwhile for them to abandon the PS2."
Alright, so my posts are beginning to sound like a broken record...
Sony may have console dominance as of now (I'm tempted to say that all bets are off after this Christmas, though), Nintendo does have a wildcard in the form of the Game Boy Advance.
As you mentioned before, Square is getting lazy, which is demonstrated by the way they have been releasing old games again (Anthology, Chronicles, etc...). IIRC, they were even talking about re-releasing VII, VIII and IX as DVD games for the PS2.
However, I through VI are 2-D games, and nobody in their right minds would make 2-D games for a modern console (unless they were Miyamoto or something). Which leaves handhelds.
They re-released I and II for the WonderSwan Color, but the WSC hardware just isn't up to playing SNES games. It may not even be up to an improved version of III. But even if it were equal to or even superior to the Game Boy Advance, the WSC has the major market disadvantage of not having the words "Game Boy" written on it. I'm thinking it will be at least another half-decade until anybody else is foolish enough to go up against the Game Boy legacy again.
Square "needs" to get onto the Game Boy Advance if they still want to milk their old licenses for all they're worth (reminds me a bit of George Lucas). And Yamauchi, being the miserable (yet still lovable) curmudgeon that he is, won't let Square publish on the Game Boy Advance unless they also publish on the GameCube.
"Square Enix will most likely continue to ignore the GameCube"
No, they won't. Square wants to get in on the Game Boy Advance in the worst way and Yamauchi won't let them unless they also do something on the GameCube. Unless Square is interested in flushing more money down the tubes on yet another failed hand-held...
"It actually goes back to the N64 and Nintendo's decision to use cartridges instead of the CD format."
Actually, it goes back just a tad further. There's been bad blood between Nintendo and Square over the way Nintendo showed favoratism towards Enix. For example, when a bigger Super Famicom cartridge came out, they didn't let Square have it until the next Dragon Quest game came out on it.
Also, Square was unhappy with Nintendo's (ultimately wise) decision not to make a CD add-on for the Super Famicom. They wanted to make Seiken Densetsu 2 (aka "Secret of Mana") much larger than it was.
"Ads for Final Fantasy 7 made the point that a cartridge-based system had no chance of making such a beautiful game."
Not that they knew back then that Zelda: OoT would bitch-slap FF VII's sales soon afterward...
"The bad blood lasted until early this year, when Nintendo struck a deal to bring Square games back to Nintendo consoles."
To be honest, it was more like Square striking a deal, as they were ultimately the ones that had to change their behavior.
Square wanted to re-make the first few Final Fantasy games as handhelds, but there was the slight problem of Nintendo 0wnzoring the handheld market for the past decade or so. Square, with their typical prima-donna attitude (yes, I'm biased) told Nintendo that they would develop for the Game Boy Color but not the GameCube. Yamauchi told them to sit on it and rotate.
Square dropped the idea of using the Game Boy Color and, continuing with their "I'm so pretty" attitude, decided to hitch a ride on Bandai's pending WonderSwan Color. Square ignored the 8 year history of Game Boy putting the smackdown on any and all competitors, seemingly with the attide of "Any system that we publish on will automatically sell well!"
The WonderSwan Color hit the shelves (packaged with Final Fantasy I, no less) not long before the Game Boy Advance came out. Final Fantasy fans bought the WonderSwan Color and Final Fantasy I (and only Final Fantasy I) and oohed and ahhed about how much better it looked than the original Famicom game. Square, on the other hand, was suspiciously silent about how the WonderSwan Color's performance is somewhere between that of a Sega Master System (8-bit hardware, superior to the NES) and the Sega Genesis (16-bit hardware, inferior to the SNES). On the other hand, the Game Boy Advance's 2-D capabilities have been compared to that of the Sega Saturn. Like it or not, if Square wanted to improve on any Final Fantasy games after III (or perhaps even after II... III is a pretty damned impressive game for the Famicom and has yet to be released for the WSC), it most certainly was not going to be on the WonderSwan Color.
The WonderSwan Color fades into history just like so many other worthy (and several unworthy) competitors. Square still wants to re-make those old Final Fantasy games. And Nintendo has all the cards.
So Square capitulated and agreed to publish games for the GameCube (a Final Fantasy spin-off and possibly the pending MMORPG). And Yamauchi laughed all the way to the bank.
"I think they simply got caught up in the visuals, and were "oohhhhh" and "ahhhhhhhh"-ing themselves......"
They've been doing that to themselves since FF VII. It looked like they were coming out of it when IX came out, but X demonstrated that IX was one last "hurrah" for FF as a game. Which really makes me wonder what the heck they expect to do with an MMORPG. How do you work hours and hours of FMV into an MMORPG?
The day I realized that there would never be any more Final Fantasy games like IX again is the day I put my PlayStation 2 up for auction on eBay.
"Wrong. It covers new works, not the original Livid."
Yeah, and I suppose it's also perfectly legal to download MP3s and ROMs so long as you delete them after 24 hours, right? Do you believe everything you read on the 'net?
Here's a gedanken experiment for you: Is it legal to distribute crack if you can demonstrate that the batch predates when crack was made illegal?
"I'm an American businessman in the import- export business..."
OK, this is like the umpteenth time you've posted this one in one form or the other. You need a little variety in your trolling. Perhaps if you also worked in references to BSD, goatse.cx and CmdrTaco...
"The latter uses your private property for public advertising space, perhaps implying your support for the campaign. The former is simply garbage that can't reflect poorly on you."
So? They're both examples of using my private property without my consent for their own personal gain. The fact that the potential audiences are different doesn't change the fact that it's still all my property.
"solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section."
Plaintiffs (read "MPAA") point out that DeCSS gives you the ability to make perfect copies of DVDs. Therefore (they argue), DeCSS is not distributed "solely for the purpose of enabling..."
"DMCA does not cover software or hardware created BEFORE the begginning of 2000"
RTFL. You can write it (maybe), but you can't distribute it. It doesn't matter if the program was written in in the Nineteenth Century: If it's available for download today, the host is in violation of the DMCA.
This means you have the right to re-invent the wheel.
" that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title."
This means you can't share your work. All your friends have to re-invent the wheel on their own.
" I seem to recall that the NSA has had problems over the past several years, trying to sort out the insane quantity of data to pick out the droplets of information they needed to know about. This has been likened to trying to drink from a fire house with a straw.
This was a major contributing fact in not getting enough warning in advance to stop September 11th."
But here's the beauty of the plan for politicians: the information, although not interpreted, is collected. So when the "evidence" turns up in NSA or FBI databases after the fact, your elected officials can simply and easily shift blame to the particular agency in question. This isn't about national security, it's about job security.
What? You say we need more interpreters and translators much more than we need information gathering? That takes too much time. We need our new knee-jerk reactions to terrorism and we need them now! Something we can point to and say next election "See? We're fighting terrorism here!" Now hurry up, before I miss my photo op...
You don't need to see our legislation... These are not the riders you're looking for... We can go about our junkets... Vote for me...
"If Dole or someone sends me email, I would just block their address."
But then you'd be changing how your e-mail account works around Dole's e-mail campaign, not the other way around. You've got your priorities out of whack. If her campaign is responsible for abusing my information resources without my permission, it should fall to her, not me, to rectify the problem.
"They go out of their way to NOT honor people's requests."
There shouldn't be a need to make a request to begin with.
"I don't mind Guido. He's a nice guy. When he breaks your kneecap, he won't break the other one if you ask nicely."
"but I think mass-mailing voters with your (noncommercial) campaign message is acceptable"
I will no more accept unsolicited political advertisements in my mailbox any more than I would accept somebody's political campaign putting signs up in my front yard/bumper sticker on my car/etc. without my permission.
I've come to the conclusion that the advertising mediums that you see advertised are the ones that don't work. For example, a billboard or a mall map that says "You too can rent this space!" are obviously examples of advertising mediums that don't work (the "Rent this space!" ad is obviously not working because it's still there). Even ClearChannel is trying to fill up radio advertising time slots (that they obviously weren't able to sell) with "Advertise with us!" ads.
With that being said, how many of us have gotten e-mails telling us about the wonders of spamming?
"An OS needs a command line interface to get some things done."
But the NT command line isn't DOS, it's an NT command line. Just because they look the same doesn't mean they are. If the NT command line is DOS, then DOS is a *nix distro.
Slashdot Mirror
"Everything else was negligible or lost money."
Does that list include Xbox, UltimateTV and/or Web^H^H^HMSNTV?
"That could fun to eavesdrop on: The company suits trying to act like they're gungho for Linux, and the Microsoft Salesdrones trying to test for smoke and mirrors."
Any suit that knows enough words to pretend to be "into" the OSS "scene" is by default more intelligent than the average Microsoft representative.
"And they are just now coming out with Kingdom Hearts International, which is basically the American version but with jap subs. Must not have done too well if they think they can make people buy a second copy ."
You're assuming that people bought it because it was a good game. People bought Kingdom Hearts for the very same reasons people went to go see Phantom Menace. Heck, they were made for the same reason: to whore a profitable IP line for all it's worth.
"My first thought at any news into the video game industry is, "What does this have to do with Microsoft?""
Of course, that's the question most Slashdotters ask themselves whenever they see a new article on here...
Sega just released Phantasy Star Collection (I through III) for the Game Boy Advance.
"This has nothing to do with the Sony/Nintendo/Square politics, but rather the fact that there are something like 50+ Million PS2s out there and only like 20 Million X-Box and Game Gubes (combined). While it might benefit them to release a version of FF11 for every console, given it has a subscription, it probably wouldn't be worthwhile for them to abandon the PS2."
Alright, so my posts are beginning to sound like a broken record...
Sony may have console dominance as of now (I'm tempted to say that all bets are off after this Christmas, though), Nintendo does have a wildcard in the form of the Game Boy Advance.
As you mentioned before, Square is getting lazy, which is demonstrated by the way they have been releasing old games again (Anthology, Chronicles, etc...). IIRC, they were even talking about re-releasing VII, VIII and IX as DVD games for the PS2.
However, I through VI are 2-D games, and nobody in their right minds would make 2-D games for a modern console (unless they were Miyamoto or something). Which leaves handhelds.
They re-released I and II for the WonderSwan Color, but the WSC hardware just isn't up to playing SNES games. It may not even be up to an improved version of III. But even if it were equal to or even superior to the Game Boy Advance, the WSC has the major market disadvantage of not having the words "Game Boy" written on it. I'm thinking it will be at least another half-decade until anybody else is foolish enough to go up against the Game Boy legacy again.
Square "needs" to get onto the Game Boy Advance if they still want to milk their old licenses for all they're worth (reminds me a bit of George Lucas). And Yamauchi, being the miserable (yet still lovable) curmudgeon that he is, won't let Square publish on the Game Boy Advance unless they also publish on the GameCube.
"Square Enix will most likely continue to ignore the GameCube"
No, they won't. Square wants to get in on the Game Boy Advance in the worst way and Yamauchi won't let them unless they also do something on the GameCube. Unless Square is interested in flushing more money down the tubes on yet another failed hand-held...
Nit-picking.
"It actually goes back to the N64 and Nintendo's decision to use cartridges instead of the CD format."
Actually, it goes back just a tad further. There's been bad blood between Nintendo and Square over the way Nintendo showed favoratism towards Enix. For example, when a bigger Super Famicom cartridge came out, they didn't let Square have it until the next Dragon Quest game came out on it.
Also, Square was unhappy with Nintendo's (ultimately wise) decision not to make a CD add-on for the Super Famicom. They wanted to make Seiken Densetsu 2 (aka "Secret of Mana") much larger than it was.
"Ads for Final Fantasy 7 made the point that a cartridge-based system had no chance of making such a beautiful game."
Not that they knew back then that Zelda: OoT would bitch-slap FF VII's sales soon afterward...
"The bad blood lasted until early this year, when Nintendo struck a deal to bring Square games back to Nintendo consoles."
To be honest, it was more like Square striking a deal, as they were ultimately the ones that had to change their behavior.
Square wanted to re-make the first few Final Fantasy games as handhelds, but there was the slight problem of Nintendo 0wnzoring the handheld market for the past decade or so. Square, with their typical prima-donna attitude (yes, I'm biased) told Nintendo that they would develop for the Game Boy Color but not the GameCube. Yamauchi told them to sit on it and rotate.
Square dropped the idea of using the Game Boy Color and, continuing with their "I'm so pretty" attitude, decided to hitch a ride on Bandai's pending WonderSwan Color. Square ignored the 8 year history of Game Boy putting the smackdown on any and all competitors, seemingly with the attide of "Any system that we publish on will automatically sell well!"
The WonderSwan Color hit the shelves (packaged with Final Fantasy I, no less) not long before the Game Boy Advance came out. Final Fantasy fans bought the WonderSwan Color and Final Fantasy I (and only Final Fantasy I) and oohed and ahhed about how much better it looked than the original Famicom game. Square, on the other hand, was suspiciously silent about how the WonderSwan Color's performance is somewhere between that of a Sega Master System (8-bit hardware, superior to the NES) and the Sega Genesis (16-bit hardware, inferior to the SNES). On the other hand, the Game Boy Advance's 2-D capabilities have been compared to that of the Sega Saturn. Like it or not, if Square wanted to improve on any Final Fantasy games after III (or perhaps even after II... III is a pretty damned impressive game for the Famicom and has yet to be released for the WSC), it most certainly was not going to be on the WonderSwan Color.
The WonderSwan Color fades into history just like so many other worthy (and several unworthy) competitors. Square still wants to re-make those old Final Fantasy games. And Nintendo has all the cards.
So Square capitulated and agreed to publish games for the GameCube (a Final Fantasy spin-off and possibly the pending MMORPG). And Yamauchi laughed all the way to the bank.
"I think they simply got caught up in the visuals, and were "oohhhhh" and "ahhhhhhhh"-ing themselves......"
They've been doing that to themselves since FF VII. It looked like they were coming out of it when IX came out, but X demonstrated that IX was one last "hurrah" for FF as a game. Which really makes me wonder what the heck they expect to do with an MMORPG. How do you work hours and hours of FMV into an MMORPG?
The day I realized that there would never be any more Final Fantasy games like IX again is the day I put my PlayStation 2 up for auction on eBay.
"The only Final Fantasy title that even came close to doing this was the first one, at least the tiny bit of tech in it was truly alien to the world."
Yeah, that explains that whole space station dungeon, complete with WarMech.
"Wrong. It covers new works, not the original Livid."
Yeah, and I suppose it's also perfectly legal to download MP3s and ROMs so long as you delete them after 24 hours, right? Do you believe everything you read on the 'net?
Here's a gedanken experiment for you: Is it legal to distribute crack if you can demonstrate that the batch predates when crack was made illegal?
"I'm an American businessman in the import- export business..."
OK, this is like the umpteenth time you've posted this one in one form or the other. You need a little variety in your trolling. Perhaps if you also worked in references to BSD, goatse.cx and CmdrTaco...
"The latter uses your private property for public advertising space, perhaps implying your support for the campaign. The former is simply garbage that can't reflect poorly on you."
So? They're both examples of using my private property without my consent for their own personal gain. The fact that the potential audiences are different doesn't change the fact that it's still all my property.
"solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title or violate applicable law other than this section."
Plaintiffs (read "MPAA") point out that DeCSS gives you the ability to make perfect copies of DVDs. Therefore (they argue), DeCSS is not distributed "solely for the purpose of enabling..."
"DMCA does not cover software or hardware created BEFORE the begginning of 2000"
RTFL. You can write it (maybe), but you can't distribute it. It doesn't matter if the program was written in in the Nineteenth Century: If it's available for download today, the host is in violation of the DMCA.
"Reverse Engineering."
This means you have the right to re-invent the wheel.
" that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title."
This means you can't share your work. All your friends have to re-invent the wheel on their own.
Does that mean it's the right choice to play DVDs on BSD?
"1.) Read this [slashdot.org].
2.) Change the name from me to you, my senator to yours."
Dear Senator Landrieu/Terrell/whoever wins the election next week:
404 File Not Found
Sincerely,
David Iwancio
(My, what a heartfelt letter...)
" I seem to recall that the NSA has had problems over the past several years, trying to sort out the insane quantity of data to pick out the droplets of information they needed to know about. This has been likened to trying to drink from a fire house with a straw.
This was a major contributing fact in not getting enough warning in advance to stop September 11th."
But here's the beauty of the plan for politicians: the information, although not interpreted, is collected. So when the "evidence" turns up in NSA or FBI databases after the fact, your elected officials can simply and easily shift blame to the particular agency in question. This isn't about national security, it's about job security.
What? You say we need more interpreters and translators much more than we need information gathering? That takes too much time. We need our new knee-jerk reactions to terrorism and we need them now! Something we can point to and say next election "See? We're fighting terrorism here!" Now hurry up, before I miss my photo op...
You don't need to see our legislation... These are not the riders you're looking for... We can go about our junkets... Vote for me...
"If Dole or someone sends me email, I would just block their address."
But then you'd be changing how your e-mail account works around Dole's e-mail campaign, not the other way around. You've got your priorities out of whack. If her campaign is responsible for abusing my information resources without my permission, it should fall to her, not me, to rectify the problem.
"They go out of their way to NOT honor people's requests."
There shouldn't be a need to make a request to begin with.
"I don't mind Guido. He's a nice guy. When he breaks your kneecap, he won't break the other one if you ask nicely."
"but I think mass-mailing voters with your (noncommercial) campaign message is acceptable"
I will no more accept unsolicited political advertisements in my mailbox any more than I would accept somebody's political campaign putting signs up in my front yard/bumper sticker on my car/etc. without my permission.
"Is there an acceptable level of role-playing?"
I wanna cast a spell!
"It always made me wonder what kind of marketing genius is willing to piss off some of their customers that badly."
The kind that noticed that he still bought the resistor.
"Shack Sales Clerk: Uhmm... That's like a VCR, right? We've got all our VCRs on that wall right over there."
Radio Shack: You've got questions? So do we!
I've come to the conclusion that the advertising mediums that you see advertised are the ones that don't work. For example, a billboard or a mall map that says "You too can rent this space!" are obviously examples of advertising mediums that don't work (the "Rent this space!" ad is obviously not working because it's still there). Even ClearChannel is trying to fill up radio advertising time slots (that they obviously weren't able to sell) with "Advertise with us!" ads.
With that being said, how many of us have gotten e-mails telling us about the wonders of spamming?
"An OS needs a command line interface to get some things done."
But the NT command line isn't DOS, it's an NT command line. Just because they look the same doesn't mean they are. If the NT command line is DOS, then DOS is a *nix distro.
There is no DOS, only Zuul.