Thanks to the Zero Attention Span Theater Generation we get vapid video games (as opposed to substantive ones of old)
Substantive games like...Pac-Man and Tetris? Or maybe you meant those complex, nuanced tabletop games like Solitaire or Cribbage. Seriously, do you really desire to play Xenogears while you're waiting in line at the bank? Think of the implications that has for your battery life. Sorry, I agree that everyone needs to work on their attention span, but putting long, complicated games on the cell phone just doesn't make sense.
Even if 1/2 the people stopped voting for democrats or republicans those same democrats and republicans would still win, by a larger magin in fact due to fragmentation between Libertarians, Consitutional, Socialist, Communists, Green, and Independent candidates.
Actually, what happens is that every time the 3rd parties start to gain traction, one of the major parties adopts some of their platform. This has happened throughout the history of the United States and it's a good thing. So those 3rd parties aren't as useless as you'd think.
I cant see DLC-only being limited to being your console only. These companies know that even though there has been less emphasis on playing together with friends in the home (as opposed to over the internet) in recent years, its still a major reason to own a console and a major part of the video game experience. So, the companies like Microsoft could easily follow the steam approach, where a user could login to there friends console through Xbox Live, download the games and DLC that they have and still enjoy the gaming experience with there friends, only to be booted off if he signed in somewhere else. Still though, its a long way away.
I hope you're right. But you can forget about giving out your username and password for PSN or Live so your friend can download stuff...that is linked to a credit card and Mom and Dad won't stand for that! Not to mention, your friend might not have any room on his hard drive, and he might have to wait hours to download the game...if he doesn't exceed his download cap. I hope disc-based games are here to stay, but it just doesn't look like that is the case.
I'd liken genetic manipulation to interbreeding. Some people think it should be moral to marry your cousin or even sibling. They can even make a good case for why they should be entitled to do so. But if you scaled that right up to the entire populations, we'd all end up inbred, sickly and probably mentally retarded within a hundred or so years. Genetic selection promises much the same outcome, except genetic homogeneity will occur on a population wide scale.
Let's deal with facts instead of taboos. 'Inbreeding' with your cousin does not significantly increase the risk of your child having genetic defects. Marrying your cousin has only been taboo in Western countries for about the last 100 years.
Inductively scaling procreation rights up can easily lead us to a tall, trim, blue eyed, blond haired, heap of flu-ridden corpses. The very fact that this clinic offered such frivolities as eye and hair colour screening shows that this is exactly what will happen if we replace proven randomness with such vapid heuristics.
What exactly has randomness "proven", anyway? That people still exist? We haven't evolved some kind of godlike immunity to disease that will be unraveled by idiots paying way too much money in order to ensure that their child has blonde hair. For someone who professes such faith in randomness, you don't seem to think it has much power. Honestly, the sky will not fall if people pre-screen their babies for eye or hair color.
Since I grew up playing sports, which are interactive and challenging, playing video games feels like the most boring waste of time that could possibly exist.
It wouldn't be any different. I guess I should have put a smiley on it. Steam is shit, but at least it kinda works for PC because most games are 1 player per PC. On a console with multiple players, that could be a real hassle. I should say, "will be a real hassle," because it's gonna happen.
PS I'm not singling Microsoft out, I'm sure Sony has something in the works too...the day that my console choice affects my broadband provider choice is the day I go PC only for games (and hope my broadband provider has a deal with Steam).
This generation has seen console gaming taking the first painful steps into HD. Sony and Microsoft have lost billions on this step, while the comparibly simple Wii is far more profitable. So what are they going to do to increase profits for the next generation?
That's simple-next generation consoles will be entirely DLC-only. Forget about exchanging games, bringing your games over to a friends' house, etc. All games will be download-only and you'll max out your broadband cap by downloading a single game, unless you switch to a certain broadband provider that has a deal worked out with Microsoft so that M$ downloads don't count against your cap.
Which one of you PERL jockeys went and changed a good thing? Damn dudes, I know you have to do something all day, but seriously...going back to the 2001 Slashdot design would be a good thing. Screw all this Web 2.0 horseshit!
I'm afraid Nintendo stopped a great thing with Retro Studios and started a strange amalgamation with Team Ninja for their Metroid series. When I played Metroid (every game minus the DS Hunters and pinball), the main themes involved exploration, discovery, and isolation. Those are very mature elements (see Myst).
Ascribing maturity certain aspects of a video game? I wouldn't exactly call that mature!
Team Ninja isn't known for their dramatic story-telling, nor for complex games. When someone throws out Team Ninja, images of a dude in sunglasses, bloody gore, and fanservice physics come into view.
"Fanservice physics"? Really? What the hell are you talking about? You're on another planet-Planet Whiny Fanboy. Give it a rest.
The Wii is targeted toward a casual audience. How many people can be expected to buy a separate SD card to save downloaded content?
People who are familiar with memory cards from previous console generations will have no problem with this. Those that only have Wii Sports and don't understand anything else are a lost cause anyway. Nintendo's already made a huge profit off of them anyway. Better they make some money off them than none at all, like Microsoft and Sony (although I assume some people bought the PS3 merely as a Bluray player).
You can't base a business model around that, whereas Microsoft can build XBox Live around downloaded movies, TV shows, games, demos, etc. They know everybody has a hard drive, most of them 60GB. With the Wii, they have to assume that most users only have 512MB.
Except that Microsoft sells a model of 360 without a hard drive...with less storage than the Wii. So there goes your theory. Oh, and Nintendo is making billions while Microsoft is losing billions. So maybe you should rethink your criticism of business models while you're at it.
The Wii's graphics aren't a great match for the times. Everything is going HD, and with good reason: HD is becoming commonplace. So a gaming console that's not built with 16x9 and 720p (at least) as basic assumptions is a bit awkward.
Yep, and due to that horrible misstep, Nintendo's only made billions...whereas they could have made an HD-capable console like Sony or Microsoft, and lost billions! BTW, the Wii does support 16x9.
Providing the exact same software on the Wii, but with an HD chipset would work. Granted, with the higher resolutions you'd be more likely to see the rough edges of the low-poly models, or the limits in the resolution of the textures - but on the other hand, there wouldn't be jaggies everywhere - even without antialiasing, going from 480p to 720p would reduce the apparent effect of aliased edges tremendously: 'cause you've got more pixels and 'cause the pixels are square at 16x9.
Again, the Wii does support 16x9. You're not even aware of that? Then you probably don't know about scaling, and why the one in your TV apparently sucks.
Shovelware will always exist, and in that sense it doesn't matter whether your interface uses buttons, motion control, or sexbots.
USPTO #27,435,209. Method to control virtual objects through erotic stimulation. Player uses sex robot ("sexbot") to manipulate on-screen objects. By inserting penis into robot and thrusting, player receives pleasurable feedback.
I have to admit to buying multiple copies of games due to memory failure of the brain. I just give the old copy to friends. I own over 100 Xbox360 games, 70 % of those I don't play anymore.
Are you looking for new friends? Where do I put in an application?
Great post. People on Slashdot would rather indulge in easy, knee-jerk cynicism than face the truth about newspapers-that they provide a valuable service. The problem is, a lot of papers would still be profitable if the industry weren't so consolidated. Take the Houston Chronicle, for example-it's profitable in its own right, but it's tied to that boat-anchor known as the Hearst Newspapers. Perhaps breaking up the conglomerates and and allowing each paper to take a local approach would be advantageous.
Bloggers are doing the research today. It's the Journalists who are cherry-picking other people's hard work. The big newspapers deserve to die.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. The journalists are still doing all the work in engaging people. OP is right-bloggers just aggregrate and editorialize over existing news sources. If they didn't have newspaper websites to rely on, they wouldn't have anything to say.
Cheap processed foods almost completely devoid of value, mind-poisoning media, pharmaceuticals to mediate the symptoms of our sickness and addiction, lies, damned lies... someone tell me the great benefits left to us at this time in history by these maggots?
Higher standard of living, greater freedom, and longer lifespan than any time in history? A peaceful and stable society? I could go on, but you're probably spray painting an "A" on the side of a strip mall somewhere, so I'll just go enjoy my life.
Since most people don't get bitten to a degree they notice (e.g. "I have to use my iPod? Oh well, I guess I like it anyway so that's okay" rather than "What? I bought music and I can't use it how I want to, like I'd be able to with a CD? That's just ridiculous!") and so the industry carries ever onwards, implementing mechanisms that won't affect the illegal copies but may affect some legitimate copies.
No, the industry is moving away from DRM. In fact, the major players (Amazon and Apple) don't use it anymore. So, you're completely wrong but you got modded up anyway. Way to go, moderators.
Wow, I missed 2 games, both of which came out very early in the PS3's life cycle. Developers have tried it, found it lacking, and have either quit using it or given the option to disable it. Most games on PS3 are ports of 360 games anyway, and thus don't have any SixAxis support at all. So again, I'm kinda not seeing your point.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks to the Zero Attention Span Theater Generation we get vapid video games (as opposed to substantive ones of old)
Substantive games like...Pac-Man and Tetris? Or maybe you meant those complex, nuanced tabletop games like Solitaire or Cribbage. Seriously, do you really desire to play Xenogears while you're waiting in line at the bank? Think of the implications that has for your battery life. Sorry, I agree that everyone needs to work on their attention span, but putting long, complicated games on the cell phone just doesn't make sense.
Even if 1/2 the people stopped voting for democrats or republicans those same democrats and republicans would still win, by a larger magin in fact due to fragmentation between Libertarians, Consitutional, Socialist, Communists, Green, and Independent candidates.
Actually, what happens is that every time the 3rd parties start to gain traction, one of the major parties adopts some of their platform. This has happened throughout the history of the United States and it's a good thing. So those 3rd parties aren't as useless as you'd think.
I cant see DLC-only being limited to being your console only. These companies know that even though there has been less emphasis on playing together with friends in the home (as opposed to over the internet) in recent years, its still a major reason to own a console and a major part of the video game experience. So, the companies like Microsoft could easily follow the steam approach, where a user could login to there friends console through Xbox Live, download the games and DLC that they have and still enjoy the gaming experience with there friends, only to be booted off if he signed in somewhere else. Still though, its a long way away.
I hope you're right. But you can forget about giving out your username and password for PSN or Live so your friend can download stuff...that is linked to a credit card and Mom and Dad won't stand for that! Not to mention, your friend might not have any room on his hard drive, and he might have to wait hours to download the game...if he doesn't exceed his download cap. I hope disc-based games are here to stay, but it just doesn't look like that is the case.
I'd liken genetic manipulation to interbreeding. Some people think it should be moral to marry your cousin or even sibling. They can even make a good case for why they should be entitled to do so. But if you scaled that right up to the entire populations, we'd all end up inbred, sickly and probably mentally retarded within a hundred or so years. Genetic selection promises much the same outcome, except genetic homogeneity will occur on a population wide scale.
Let's deal with facts instead of taboos. 'Inbreeding' with your cousin does not significantly increase the risk of your child having genetic defects. Marrying your cousin has only been taboo in Western countries for about the last 100 years.
Inductively scaling procreation rights up can easily lead us to a tall, trim, blue eyed, blond haired, heap of flu-ridden corpses. The very fact that this clinic offered such frivolities as eye and hair colour screening shows that this is exactly what will happen if we replace proven randomness with such vapid heuristics.
What exactly has randomness "proven", anyway? That people still exist? We haven't evolved some kind of godlike immunity to disease that will be unraveled by idiots paying way too much money in order to ensure that their child has blonde hair. For someone who professes such faith in randomness, you don't seem to think it has much power. Honestly, the sky will not fall if people pre-screen their babies for eye or hair color.
Since I grew up playing sports, which are interactive and challenging, playing video games feels like the most boring waste of time that could possibly exist.
It wouldn't be any different. I guess I should have put a smiley on it. Steam is shit, but at least it kinda works for PC because most games are 1 player per PC. On a console with multiple players, that could be a real hassle. I should say, "will be a real hassle," because it's gonna happen.
Look out for New Super Mario Bros! It's 4 player!
PS I'm not singling Microsoft out, I'm sure Sony has something in the works too...the day that my console choice affects my broadband provider choice is the day I go PC only for games (and hope my broadband provider has a deal with Steam).
This generation has seen console gaming taking the first painful steps into HD. Sony and Microsoft have lost billions on this step, while the comparibly simple Wii is far more profitable. So what are they going to do to increase profits for the next generation?
That's simple-next generation consoles will be entirely DLC-only. Forget about exchanging games, bringing your games over to a friends' house, etc. All games will be download-only and you'll max out your broadband cap by downloading a single game, unless you switch to a certain broadband provider that has a deal worked out with Microsoft so that M$ downloads don't count against your cap.
Which one of you PERL jockeys went and changed a good thing? Damn dudes, I know you have to do something all day, but seriously...going back to the 2001 Slashdot design would be a good thing. Screw all this Web 2.0 horseshit!
I think most ATMs used to run OS/2 up until about 10 years ago. I'm waiting for the ATM that runs Mac OS X!
I'm afraid Nintendo stopped a great thing with Retro Studios and started a strange amalgamation with Team Ninja for their Metroid series. When I played Metroid (every game minus the DS Hunters and pinball), the main themes involved exploration, discovery, and isolation. Those are very mature elements (see Myst).
Ascribing maturity certain aspects of a video game? I wouldn't exactly call that mature!
Team Ninja isn't known for their dramatic story-telling, nor for complex games. When someone throws out Team Ninja, images of a dude in sunglasses, bloody gore, and fanservice physics come into view.
"Fanservice physics"? Really? What the hell are you talking about? You're on another planet-Planet Whiny Fanboy. Give it a rest.
The Wii is targeted toward a casual audience. How many people can be expected to buy a separate SD card to save downloaded content?
People who are familiar with memory cards from previous console generations will have no problem with this. Those that only have Wii Sports and don't understand anything else are a lost cause anyway. Nintendo's already made a huge profit off of them anyway. Better they make some money off them than none at all, like Microsoft and Sony (although I assume some people bought the PS3 merely as a Bluray player).
You can't base a business model around that, whereas Microsoft can build XBox Live around downloaded movies, TV shows, games, demos, etc. They know everybody has a hard drive, most of them 60GB. With the Wii, they have to assume that most users only have 512MB.
Except that Microsoft sells a model of 360 without a hard drive...with less storage than the Wii. So there goes your theory. Oh, and Nintendo is making billions while Microsoft is losing billions. So maybe you should rethink your criticism of business models while you're at it.
The Wii's graphics aren't a great match for the times. Everything is going HD, and with good reason: HD is becoming commonplace. So a gaming console that's not built with 16x9 and 720p (at least) as basic assumptions is a bit awkward.
Yep, and due to that horrible misstep, Nintendo's only made billions...whereas they could have made an HD-capable console like Sony or Microsoft, and lost billions! BTW, the Wii does support 16x9.
Providing the exact same software on the Wii, but with an HD chipset would work. Granted, with the higher resolutions you'd be more likely to see the rough edges of the low-poly models, or the limits in the resolution of the textures - but on the other hand, there wouldn't be jaggies everywhere - even without antialiasing, going from 480p to 720p would reduce the apparent effect of aliased edges tremendously: 'cause you've got more pixels and 'cause the pixels are square at 16x9.
Again, the Wii does support 16x9. You're not even aware of that? Then you probably don't know about scaling, and why the one in your TV apparently sucks.
How 'bout a few rounds of Punch-Out, scro?
Shovelware will always exist, and in that sense it doesn't matter whether your interface uses buttons, motion control, or sexbots.
USPTO #27,435,209. Method to control virtual objects through erotic stimulation. Player uses sex robot ("sexbot") to manipulate on-screen objects. By inserting penis into robot and thrusting, player receives pleasurable feedback.
I have to admit to buying multiple copies of games due to memory failure of the brain. I just give the old copy to friends. I own over 100 Xbox360 games, 70 % of those I don't play anymore.
Are you looking for new friends? Where do I put in an application?
Great post. People on Slashdot would rather indulge in easy, knee-jerk cynicism than face the truth about newspapers-that they provide a valuable service. The problem is, a lot of papers would still be profitable if the industry weren't so consolidated. Take the Houston Chronicle, for example-it's profitable in its own right, but it's tied to that boat-anchor known as the Hearst Newspapers. Perhaps breaking up the conglomerates and and allowing each paper to take a local approach would be advantageous.
Bloggers are doing the research today. It's the Journalists who are cherry-picking other people's hard work. The big newspapers deserve to die.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. The journalists are still doing all the work in engaging people. OP is right-bloggers just aggregrate and editorialize over existing news sources. If they didn't have newspaper websites to rely on, they wouldn't have anything to say.
I agree with you about Steam and PC games, but your first post doesn't mention games at all.
Cheap processed foods almost completely devoid of value, mind-poisoning media, pharmaceuticals to mediate the symptoms of our sickness and addiction, lies, damned lies... someone tell me the great benefits left to us at this time in history by these maggots?
Higher standard of living, greater freedom, and longer lifespan than any time in history? A peaceful and stable society? I could go on, but you're probably spray painting an "A" on the side of a strip mall somewhere, so I'll just go enjoy my life.
Since most people don't get bitten to a degree they notice (e.g. "I have to use my iPod? Oh well, I guess I like it anyway so that's okay" rather than "What? I bought music and I can't use it how I want to, like I'd be able to with a CD? That's just ridiculous!") and so the industry carries ever onwards, implementing mechanisms that won't affect the illegal copies but may affect some legitimate copies.
No, the industry is moving away from DRM. In fact, the major players (Amazon and Apple) don't use it anymore. So, you're completely wrong but you got modded up anyway. Way to go, moderators.
We won in Vietnam by separating the combatants from the civilians.
Are you Ho Chi Minh?
Wow, I missed 2 games, both of which came out very early in the PS3's life cycle. Developers have tried it, found it lacking, and have either quit using it or given the option to disable it. Most games on PS3 are ports of 360 games anyway, and thus don't have any SixAxis support at all. So again, I'm kinda not seeing your point.
I'm not terribly happy it's in the PS3 six-axis either. Ultimately that's why I bought an Xbox360.
"Flower" is the only game I know where six-axis is required. And it actually works very well.