I've gotten to the point where I can blow through a commercial break in about 3 seconds, or about 7 *piku*'s (the sound the Tivo makes when you hit the 30sec. button.) I find it a lot more accurate than the normal FFW feature.
I would assume that most people would leave it standby mode like the PS2. This uses very very little power.
To use this application, you'll have to leave your PS3 on all the time, so it's going to use significantly more electricity than if you put it in standby/turn it off. This probably isn't going to be a big deal - maybe 5-7KWH/month - but shouldn't be ignored either.
Tivo calls it an "easter egg". I think Tivo wanted to make it a normal feature, but decided against it after the TV studios growled at them.
Anyways, it takes all of 10 seconds to enable the 30-sec. skip on your Tivo:
Just start playing a program, then hit:
[select] [>] [select] [3] [0] [select] If you did it right, it'll go "ding ding ding" and then the button that used to skip to the 15/30 tic marks, now just skips 30 seconds forward. The only downside to this is that if your Tivo reboots or loses power, you have to re-enter this code in again.
Since many people get up to get something to eat or go to the bathroom during commercials, maybe they figure by TURNING UP THE VOLUME, you'll still be able to hear their ads where ever you go in the house.
I guess the ad people haven't heard about things like VCR/DVRs (fast-forward through ads) or the MUTE button.
I have to wonder if maybe the cable company is doing this, as some channels are much louder than others, while others are way too soft. Comedy Central is so soft, I have to crank the TV's volume up to dangerous levels just hear John Stewart - but when AT&T's ads come on, I have to dive for the remote, lest I blow out my eardrums.
No, Christmas really isn't that big a deal in Japan. While some families exchange gifts, it's by no means universal. When I was in Japan, I never heard anyone (not even from the kids of the host family I was living with) talking about this Bhuddist priest version of Santa giving out gifts.
I went to Tokyo to visit a friend of mine there and arrived bright and early on Christmas day.
The trains were still packed with commuters heading into the office. Kids were still going to school. Stores were all open. And everywhere people were busily tearing down the small Christmas decorations to make room for the REAL holiday decorations for New Years.
Christmas in Japan is very much a "Hallmark holiday". KFC would have you believe that the "traditional" Christmas Eve dinner should consist of a bucket of chicken, with a bowl of corn soup and a potato gratin. Bakeries, meanwhile, insist that you must buy an expensive, Western style layer cake, festoond with white frosting, fruit and a plastic Santa Claus. These so-called Christmas Cakes are only sold until Christmas Eve. (Unmarried women over the age of 24 are disparingly refered to as "Christmas Cakes".)
Pop culture-wise, Christmas Eve is considered a very romantic night. Almost every show, movie, manga, anime, drama, etc. has a romantic Christmas Eve episode, and many romantic pop-songs invoke a snowy Christmas Eve in their lyrics.
New Years, however, is a different matter. Relatives hand over fat, red envelopes stuffed with money to the kids to ensure they have luck and prosperity in the new year. If there's any sort of holiday shopping season, it's in early January when hordes of kids - armed with the equivelant of several hundred dollars - descend on stores in search of comics, toys, and video games...
The same could be said about upgrading to DVD - no new TV or equipment (other than the player - duh) was needed to enjoy the best picture your TV was capable of producing.
Jumping from DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD is less spectactular, unless you DO have a HDTV. Otherwise, you'll simply DVD-esque quality from your expensive player and proprietary disc. I don't even think the first generation players can do anything but play their particular format, so you'll still need your old trusty DVD player.
That's essentially what is happening. Congress had passed a law stating all sets above a certain size must be HD. I don't remember the cutoff though, I think it's currently anything 40" or larger? As time goes on, the cutoff is supposed to move lower and lower. Of course, I don't know what the point of a 10" or smaller HDTV would be...
Still, it's going to take decades to get the majority of people switched over. Just look at the adoption of color TVs. I can remember still having a B&W set until I was in Jr. High School when we inherited one from one of my Great Aunts. I think this was around 1982 or so. B&W sets were still being sold in stores at that time too. (and no, not just tiny portable sets.)
However, most people who DO have HD-capable TVs aren't watching anything that's actually in HD. They see the larger picture, and the improvements you get by using component video cables vs. the single composite cable their old set used, and think "This is HD!" It's a big problem for stores who get barraged by angry customers who suddenly think just because they have a HDTV, that their SD sources (cable, satellite, antenna) will suddenly look as good as the HD demos in the store. They feel "cheated" that they have to buy additional equipment and/or services in order to actually get a HD material.
Granted, as more HDTVs enter the market, cable and satellite providers will step up to make the transition easier and easier for their customers, but the fact remains that most people are just plain ignorant when it comes to A/V technology much less something as new and confusing as HDTV...
As for Divx... Divx might have had a chance IF it had came out before the standard DVD. One of the biggest problems Divx had was that consumers had a choice: Divx, with its myriad of hassles and conditions, or hassle-free, DRM-free, invasion-of-privacy-free DVD. Even then, however, I suspect that Divx would have then been replaced by On-Demand services which would have done away with the whole disc thing all together.
I think "peak" is the wrong word here. I think of it as "delta", as in the difference in performance between the old version and the new version.
When comparing VHS to DVD, the delta in picture quality and sound was VERY large. Just about everyone could appreciate DVD as the superior medium, and the market migrated accordingly.
However, the delta between DVD and these new formats isn't quite as pronounced. Yeah, I'm sure many here could see the difference, but believe me, not everyone can. Plus throw in the fact you need to own a HDTV, and it's just not going to matter to the majority of the market at this time.
To go back to the soundcard comparison, everyone will agree that a sound card will give you better sound than the PC's onboard speaker. But does that mean that everyone here can appreciate the difference between, say, the SB-AWE32 and AWE64? Or, how about the differences between the first and second generations of the Audigy? Would you bother upgrading your Audigy to the Audigy2 (or whatever it's called)? Probably not. The delta between the two isn't worth the extra money.
Video cards still make pretty large strides each generation. Most probably don't upgrade every day a new card comes out, but can agree jumping every 2 or 3 generations is a good idea if you're serious about cutting edge games.
The only way you're going to get people to upgrade is to convince them that the delta is worth the cash. Otherwise, if they won't buy because their current equipment is "good enough."
Of course, issues like: format war, uncertain DRM, expensive players, sub-standard movies, etc. doesn't help things any. After all, it's usually the early adopters who convince their non-early-adopter friends to go buy the thing after seeing it in action at the early adopter's house:-)
Duke is like JonBenet to the gaming media
on
Duke in Trouble?
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
Does anyone honestly care about this game anymore? It's almost as old as the JonBenet murder - and yet the media can't seem to get enough of either story. And just like the JonBenet case,
Maybe they're related? I mean, the JonBenet case was just thrust back into the public's eye, and now this. Coincidence? I think not!
A well done manual should be part of the game experience, not just something you refer to once or twice during the first few minutes of gameplay.
Anyone remember the original manual for Fallout? Yeah, it gave you information on how to play, but the style and everything really put you in the overall mood of the game. Same with the original Wing Commander manual.
And as for those games that have gone to all-PDF/HTML, I say BOO! I hate reading large documents on my computer screen, and I really don't relish the idea of trying to print a huge game manual out at home - especially for something as large and complex as, say, GalCiv. After all, I'm sure we all wouldn't mind trying to print a large 300 page manual on a home printer. Probably cost you more in paper and ink/toner than the game cost in the stores!
Worse still are those games whose manuals are less than worthless because they expect you to buy the "strategy guide" which contains all the information that should have been in the stupid manual in the first place. It's rather insulting to expect your audience to have to pay ADDITIONAL money just to figure out how to play the game.
What about protecting the rest of us from spam being sent through zombie hosts on their network!?
I read an article about a year ago that said that over 60% of the mail leaving Comcast's network was spam, Comcast knew it, but said the problem was "too expensive" for them to fix.
I think they need to turn their spam filters around the other way. Block all outgoing mail. That'll fix the spam problem!
For instance, Yahoo and other sites offer free games (online & otherwise) which are often sponsored by ads. While no money is being spent by the gamer in this case, you can be sure that the longer he plays on such sites, the more money he's generating for the website in question.
Realistically, I think you would have to consider a graph where "money spent" makes up one axis, and "time spent" is the other. This means you could have a heavy spender, who doesn't actually play much ("the collector") and on the other extreme you'd have someone who spends 4-5 hours a day playing a free game. And if you further explored the TYPE of games played by these people (eg. FPS/action/arcade, RPG/adventure, puzzle/card/board) you'd see further patterns.
I know a few people (mainly women, oddly) who don't like playing games, but will sit and watch others play. I think this is partially due to the stories in the game, or just wanting to cheer their S.O. on.
I also know others who were in long distance relationships and would schedule to watch something on TV while on the phone (or IM) as a sort of virtual date. If it worked for TV, why not web-surfing, or even gaming? You could go "shopping" with your IM-buddy, for instance, or meet up in WoW or something.
And back in the days when I MUD'ed, I knew a lot of players who were just there for the social aspect. They weren't there to do quests or kill monsters, and would just hang out in the pubs to chat with other characters as they passed through.
I doubt that's what the article was refering to as a "social gamer" though.
Explain how Blu-Ray - by itself - will result in better HD gaming? Sure, Blu-Ray discs have added space vs. DVD, but we're seeing HD capable games on the 360 fitting on a single DVD with no problems. In fact, most PS2 and XBox games barely filled half filled a single layer DVD.
RPGs, which could run into problems with storage capacity, have been released across multiple discs since the days of the PS1, so this would hardly be something new to the market.
As for Nintendo's discs vs. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, Nintendo's format is ONLY used to play games. Not videos. Sony expects to use the PS3 to help launch Blu-Ray into millions of homes, but this then means if the PS3 flounders, Blu-Ray is basically dead in the water.
Actually, releasing in the US in spring could make sense...
The problem in the past with releasing near Christmas is that the companies ran into manufacturing or supply issues, which severely restricted the number of units they could ship to stores. Yeah, so they ship out 2 to 4 million, but if the market wants, say, 8-10 million, that's a lot of waste in potential sales, no?
If they launched in the US in the springtime with their normal restricted numbers, you know they'll still sell out simply due to interest from the fanboys and the other "Just Gotta Have It!" elements. This would also give the company additional time to resolve any early supply or manufacturing issues, while they start stockpiling for the Christmas rush.
It would also give game companies more time to work on their titles so that there's actually something to play when all those units go on sale at Christmas.
How is it copying Nintendo? There's been motion-sensitive controllers for the PC for a LONG time - predating anything Nintendo produced.
And back in 1995, there was the Sony STR-G3 receiver that used - get this - a motion sensitive, egg shaped remote. To activate the OSD menu, you simply held the remote horizontally like any other remote. Tipping your hand up/down/left/right moved the selector around on the OSD. Then you simply clicked the sole button on the remote to select the item.
Yes, but did you also know there was a "proper order" to the virtue and sin zones with regards to their distance from the gates? Or that Heaven wanted a tightly clustered, heterogenous arrangement vs. Hell's widespread, homogenous zones? This worked out with the roads since Heaven liked short roads, whereas Hell liked long twisty ones.
But none of these "minor details" were listed in the documentation or the strategy guide, and unlike SimCity, where common sense would tell you not to expect high-priced condos next to a big polluting factory, it's not an obvious feature.
But yeah, the game was flawed. Such as, what was the purpose of that whole "balance" aspect? What a pain!
I interviewed for an intern position at Microsoft about 10 years ago.
Normally, interns only do 4 hours of interviews, then they take you out to dinner.
But for some reason, I had 2 different groups competing for me, so I ended up doing EIGHT SOLID HOURS of nothing but trick MENSA questions, hypothetical no-solution questions, and inane programming tricks. I could barely eat lunch because they were still asking question after question. And on top of that, many of the interviewers were quite rude. One even said I was wasting his time because I left out a semicolon on my linked list code, so I told him his interview was over and to take me to the next person. (oddly, that earned his respect...go figure.)
To say I was fried at the end of the day was an understatement. And after all that, the HR rep told me that the groups weren't interested in hiring me as an intern, but wanted me to come back next year when I was going to graduate so I could DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
I told her, as politely as possible, to go jump off a bridge.
Agreed. I'm in QA. My whole job revolves around telling developers that they're "wrong". Being able to deal with proud and strong-minded people while still getting your bugs fixed is a major requirement for any QA engineer.
About that "show them what you're good at it as well" bit...
What I'm good at is NOT solving cutesy trick Mensa questions during a stressful interview, nor recalling minutae about programming language syntax from memory. And yet, these are the same people who think "I'd look it up in a book" is an unacceptable answer.
As for vague questions, you better be able to refine them if the candidate asks. One junior engineer I interviewed with simply asked me to tell her everything I knew about HTML. But what she REALLY wanted was for me to discuss how a generic packet makes its way across the internet. If she'd asked a better question, I would have been better able to figure out what direction she wanted me to take. Instead, I had to hunt and peck for the "right" direction, and all I got in response to suggested topic after topic was "...that's not what I'm looking for..." as an answer. I'm no mind reader. If I were, I'd already be retired, having made my fortune in Vegas.
I was recentally looking for a new job, and was surprised at how many positions were looking for people with my sort of experience level (10+ yrs) but were offering ~20% LESS than what was making 3-4 years ago.
And in case you're wondering, my new job is doing almost the sames sort work I was doing before, but with a 10% raise and much nicer benefits.
Slashdot Mirror
I've gotten to the point where I can blow through a commercial break in about 3 seconds, or about 7 *piku*'s (the sound the Tivo makes when you hit the 30sec. button.) I find it a lot more accurate than the normal FFW feature.
Not quite...
I would assume that most people would leave it standby mode like the PS2. This uses very very little power.
To use this application, you'll have to leave your PS3 on all the time, so it's going to use significantly more electricity than if you put it in standby/turn it off. This probably isn't going to be a big deal - maybe 5-7KWH/month - but shouldn't be ignored either.
Tivo calls it an "easter egg". I think Tivo wanted to make it a normal feature, but decided against it after the TV studios growled at them.
Anyways, it takes all of 10 seconds to enable the 30-sec. skip on your Tivo:
Just start playing a program, then hit:
[select] [>] [select] [3] [0] [select] If you did it right, it'll go "ding ding ding" and then the button that used to skip to the 15/30 tic marks, now just skips 30 seconds forward. The only downside to this is that if your Tivo reboots or loses power, you have to re-enter this code in again.
Since many people get up to get something to eat or go to the bathroom during commercials, maybe they figure by TURNING UP THE VOLUME, you'll still be able to hear their ads where ever you go in the house.
I guess the ad people haven't heard about things like VCR/DVRs (fast-forward through ads) or the MUTE button.
I have to wonder if maybe the cable company is doing this, as some channels are much louder than others, while others are way too soft. Comedy Central is so soft, I have to crank the TV's volume up to dangerous levels just hear John Stewart - but when AT&T's ads come on, I have to dive for the remote, lest I blow out my eardrums.
No, Christmas really isn't that big a deal in Japan. While some families exchange gifts, it's by no means universal. When I was in Japan, I never heard anyone (not even from the kids of the host family I was living with) talking about this Bhuddist priest version of Santa giving out gifts.
I went to Tokyo to visit a friend of mine there and arrived bright and early on Christmas day.
The trains were still packed with commuters heading into the office. Kids were still going to school. Stores were all open. And everywhere people were busily tearing down the small Christmas decorations to make room for the REAL holiday decorations for New Years.
Christmas in Japan is very much a "Hallmark holiday". KFC would have you believe that the "traditional" Christmas Eve dinner should consist of a bucket of chicken, with a bowl of corn soup and a potato gratin. Bakeries, meanwhile, insist that you must buy an expensive, Western style layer cake, festoond with white frosting, fruit and a plastic Santa Claus. These so-called Christmas Cakes are only sold until Christmas Eve. (Unmarried women over the age of 24 are disparingly refered to as "Christmas Cakes".)
Pop culture-wise, Christmas Eve is considered a very romantic night. Almost every show, movie, manga, anime, drama, etc. has a romantic Christmas Eve episode, and many romantic pop-songs invoke a snowy Christmas Eve in their lyrics.
New Years, however, is a different matter. Relatives hand over fat, red envelopes stuffed with money to the kids to ensure they have luck and prosperity in the new year. If there's any sort of holiday shopping season, it's in early January when hordes of kids - armed with the equivelant of several hundred dollars - descend on stores in search of comics, toys, and video games...
The same could be said about upgrading to DVD - no new TV or equipment (other than the player - duh) was needed to enjoy the best picture your TV was capable of producing.
Jumping from DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD is less spectactular, unless you DO have a HDTV. Otherwise, you'll simply DVD-esque quality from your expensive player and proprietary disc. I don't even think the first generation players can do anything but play their particular format, so you'll still need your old trusty DVD player.
That's essentially what is happening. Congress had passed a law stating all sets above a certain size must be HD. I don't remember the cutoff though, I think it's currently anything 40" or larger? As time goes on, the cutoff is supposed to move lower and lower. Of course, I don't know what the point of a 10" or smaller HDTV would be...
Still, it's going to take decades to get the majority of people switched over. Just look at the adoption of color TVs. I can remember still having a B&W set until I was in Jr. High School when we inherited one from one of my Great Aunts. I think this was around 1982 or so. B&W sets were still being sold in stores at that time too. (and no, not just tiny portable sets.)
Use your computer monitor and speakers. Not that hard.
However, most people who DO have HD-capable TVs aren't watching anything that's actually in HD. They see the larger picture, and the improvements you get by using component video cables vs. the single composite cable their old set used, and think "This is HD!" It's a big problem for stores who get barraged by angry customers who suddenly think just because they have a HDTV, that their SD sources (cable, satellite, antenna) will suddenly look as good as the HD demos in the store. They feel "cheated" that they have to buy additional equipment and/or services in order to actually get a HD material.
Granted, as more HDTVs enter the market, cable and satellite providers will step up to make the transition easier and easier for their customers, but the fact remains that most people are just plain ignorant when it comes to A/V technology much less something as new and confusing as HDTV...
As for Divx... Divx might have had a chance IF it had came out before the standard DVD. One of the biggest problems Divx had was that consumers had a choice: Divx, with its myriad of hassles and conditions, or hassle-free, DRM-free, invasion-of-privacy-free DVD. Even then, however, I suspect that Divx would have then been replaced by On-Demand services which would have done away with the whole disc thing all together.
I think "peak" is the wrong word here. I think of it as "delta", as in the difference in performance between the old version and the new version.
:-)
When comparing VHS to DVD, the delta in picture quality and sound was VERY large. Just about everyone could appreciate DVD as the superior medium, and the market migrated accordingly.
However, the delta between DVD and these new formats isn't quite as pronounced. Yeah, I'm sure many here could see the difference, but believe me, not everyone can. Plus throw in the fact you need to own a HDTV, and it's just not going to matter to the majority of the market at this time.
To go back to the soundcard comparison, everyone will agree that a sound card will give you better sound than the PC's onboard speaker. But does that mean that everyone here can appreciate the difference between, say, the SB-AWE32 and AWE64? Or, how about the differences between the first and second generations of the Audigy? Would you bother upgrading your Audigy to the Audigy2 (or whatever it's called)? Probably not. The delta between the two isn't worth the extra money.
Video cards still make pretty large strides each generation. Most probably don't upgrade every day a new card comes out, but can agree jumping every 2 or 3 generations is a good idea if you're serious about cutting edge games.
The only way you're going to get people to upgrade is to convince them that the delta is worth the cash. Otherwise, if they won't buy because their current equipment is "good enough."
Of course, issues like: format war, uncertain DRM, expensive players, sub-standard movies, etc. doesn't help things any. After all, it's usually the early adopters who convince their non-early-adopter friends to go buy the thing after seeing it in action at the early adopter's house
Does anyone honestly care about this game anymore? It's almost as old as the JonBenet murder - and yet the media can't seem to get enough of either story. And just like the JonBenet case,
Maybe they're related? I mean, the JonBenet case was just thrust back into the public's eye, and now this. Coincidence? I think not!
I have to really disagree about the manual.
A well done manual should be part of the game experience, not just something you refer to once or twice during the first few minutes of gameplay.
Anyone remember the original manual for Fallout? Yeah, it gave you information on how to play, but the style and everything really put you in the overall mood of the game. Same with the original Wing Commander manual.
And as for those games that have gone to all-PDF/HTML, I say BOO! I hate reading large documents on my computer screen, and I really don't relish the idea of trying to print a huge game manual out at home - especially for something as large and complex as, say, GalCiv. After all, I'm sure we all wouldn't mind trying to print a large 300 page manual on a home printer. Probably cost you more in paper and ink/toner than the game cost in the stores!
Worse still are those games whose manuals are less than worthless because they expect you to buy the "strategy guide" which contains all the information that should have been in the stupid manual in the first place. It's rather insulting to expect your audience to have to pay ADDITIONAL money just to figure out how to play the game.
Protecting their customers from spam?
What about protecting the rest of us from spam being sent through zombie hosts on their network!?
I read an article about a year ago that said that over 60% of the mail leaving Comcast's network was spam, Comcast knew it, but said the problem was "too expensive" for them to fix.
I think they need to turn their spam filters around the other way. Block all outgoing mail. That'll fix the spam problem!
Hey, wait a minute, they were female geeks (or at least, geeky females).
I don't think money is the only important aspect.
For instance, Yahoo and other sites offer free games (online & otherwise) which are often sponsored by ads. While no money is being spent by the gamer in this case, you can be sure that the longer he plays on such sites, the more money he's generating for the website in question.
Realistically, I think you would have to consider a graph where "money spent" makes up one axis, and "time spent" is the other. This means you could have a heavy spender, who doesn't actually play much ("the collector") and on the other extreme you'd have someone who spends 4-5 hours a day playing a free game. And if you further explored the TYPE of games played by these people (eg. FPS/action/arcade, RPG/adventure, puzzle/card/board) you'd see further patterns.
I know a few people (mainly women, oddly) who don't like playing games, but will sit and watch others play. I think this is partially due to the stories in the game, or just wanting to cheer their S.O. on.
I also know others who were in long distance relationships and would schedule to watch something on TV while on the phone (or IM) as a sort of virtual date. If it worked for TV, why not web-surfing, or even gaming? You could go "shopping" with your IM-buddy, for instance, or meet up in WoW or something.
And back in the days when I MUD'ed, I knew a lot of players who were just there for the social aspect. They weren't there to do quests or kill monsters, and would just hang out in the pubs to chat with other characters as they passed through.
I doubt that's what the article was refering to as a "social gamer" though.
Review of one such controller on planet hardware: http://www.planethardware.com/features/misc/logite ch_wingman_extreme/
I still see them, or a similar knock-off, on shelves from time to time.
The Wii's implementation may be better but the idea is way way old.
The XBox 360 supports HDTV and uses DVD.
Explain how Blu-Ray - by itself - will result in better HD gaming? Sure, Blu-Ray discs have added space vs. DVD, but we're seeing HD capable games on the 360 fitting on a single DVD with no problems. In fact, most PS2 and XBox games barely filled half filled a single layer DVD.
RPGs, which could run into problems with storage capacity, have been released across multiple discs since the days of the PS1, so this would hardly be something new to the market.
As for Nintendo's discs vs. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, Nintendo's format is ONLY used to play games. Not videos. Sony expects to use the PS3 to help launch Blu-Ray into millions of homes, but this then means if the PS3 flounders, Blu-Ray is basically dead in the water.
Actually, releasing in the US in spring could make sense...
The problem in the past with releasing near Christmas is that the companies ran into manufacturing or supply issues, which severely restricted the number of units they could ship to stores. Yeah, so they ship out 2 to 4 million, but if the market wants, say, 8-10 million, that's a lot of waste in potential sales, no?
If they launched in the US in the springtime with their normal restricted numbers, you know they'll still sell out simply due to interest from the fanboys and the other "Just Gotta Have It!" elements. This would also give the company additional time to resolve any early supply or manufacturing issues, while they start stockpiling for the Christmas rush.
It would also give game companies more time to work on their titles so that there's actually something to play when all those units go on sale at Christmas.
How is it copying Nintendo? There's been motion-sensitive controllers for the PC for a LONG time - predating anything Nintendo produced.
d io/RM-VP1.htm
And back in 1995, there was the Sony STR-G3 receiver that used - get this - a motion sensitive, egg shaped remote. To activate the OSD menu, you simply held the remote horizontally like any other remote. Tipping your hand up/down/left/right moved the selector around on the OSD. Then you simply clicked the sole button on the remote to select the item.
Here's one for sale: http://www.dvdremotecontrols.com/Mfrs/Sony/SonyAu
If anything, it's Nintendo that's copying Sony.
Yes, but did you also know there was a "proper order" to the virtue and sin zones with regards to their distance from the gates? Or that Heaven wanted a tightly clustered, heterogenous arrangement vs. Hell's widespread, homogenous zones? This worked out with the roads since Heaven liked short roads, whereas Hell liked long twisty ones.
But none of these "minor details" were listed in the documentation or the strategy guide, and unlike SimCity, where common sense would tell you not to expect high-priced condos next to a big polluting factory, it's not an obvious feature.
But yeah, the game was flawed. Such as, what was the purpose of that whole "balance" aspect? What a pain!
I interviewed for an intern position at Microsoft about 10 years ago.
Normally, interns only do 4 hours of interviews, then they take you out to dinner.
But for some reason, I had 2 different groups competing for me, so I ended up doing EIGHT SOLID HOURS of nothing but trick MENSA questions, hypothetical no-solution questions, and inane programming tricks. I could barely eat lunch because they were still asking question after question. And on top of that, many of the interviewers were quite rude. One even said I was wasting his time because I left out a semicolon on my linked list code, so I told him his interview was over and to take me to the next person. (oddly, that earned his respect...go figure.)
To say I was fried at the end of the day was an understatement. And after all that, the HR rep told me that the groups weren't interested in hiring me as an intern, but wanted me to come back next year when I was going to graduate so I could DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
I told her, as politely as possible, to go jump off a bridge.
Agreed. I'm in QA. My whole job revolves around telling developers that they're "wrong". Being able to deal with proud and strong-minded people while still getting your bugs fixed is a major requirement for any QA engineer.
About that "show them what you're good at it as well" bit...
What I'm good at is NOT solving cutesy trick Mensa questions during a stressful interview, nor recalling minutae about programming language syntax from memory. And yet, these are the same people who think "I'd look it up in a book" is an unacceptable answer.
As for vague questions, you better be able to refine them if the candidate asks. One junior engineer I interviewed with simply asked me to tell her everything I knew about HTML. But what she REALLY wanted was for me to discuss how a generic packet makes its way across the internet. If she'd asked a better question, I would have been better able to figure out what direction she wanted me to take. Instead, I had to hunt and peck for the "right" direction, and all I got in response to suggested topic after topic was "...that's not what I'm looking for..." as an answer. I'm no mind reader. If I were, I'd already be retired, having made my fortune in Vegas.
They don't have to discriminate.
Just underpay.
I was recentally looking for a new job, and was surprised at how many positions were looking for people with my sort of experience level (10+ yrs) but were offering ~20% LESS than what was making 3-4 years ago.
And in case you're wondering, my new job is doing almost the sames sort work I was doing before, but with a 10% raise and much nicer benefits.