What constantly astounds me about Mandelson is the lack of furore about the fact that he's unelected. We didn't vote for this man. How the hell did he get to be running the country?
This is Britain, not a democracy, why does he need anyone to vote for him? No-one voted for Brown, and two-thirds of the country voted against the ruling party in the last election yet they were returned with a large majority.
You've never needed an electoral mandate to rule this country, what are you so surprised about?
I don't know where you can legally require the Windows installation needed to play most PC games. Or where you can legally acquire games for free. Especially the ones not even released on the PC. Or the controllers.
Console gamers don't think about PC gamers at all. In fact, they're so rare these days, they probably don't even know that PC gamers even exist. When people think games, they think either consoles, or solitaire/minesweeper.
PC gamers hate consoles as they're marginalising the PC as a gaming platform. But don't worry, you'll still have a steady stream of identical fantasy MMOs to keep you busy, and maybe a few cast-off shitty ports six-months after the console release.
It could be compared to incompatibility between people who watch soap operas and people who'd rather go out for a walk.
I don't think the typical player of, say, WoW (the only modern PC game of any consequence) has time to go for any walks: those rats won't kill themselves.
I'd say that by now pretty much all PCs have an analog TV-out. I know my 10 year old laptop I keep in the kitchen does, as did my 9600Pro, GeForce 6600, and 8800GT.
So, your four graphics cards count as all PCs, ever? If you want to play an anecdote game, my 8500GT has no connectors in common with my TV. And they're in different rooms anyway. And my PC doesn't have bluetooth controllers, and I don't want games being interrupted by general PC error messages or dialogue boxes when I'm playing a game.
As for controllers, most fighting or sports games (basically, the only genres that aren't a huge pain to play with more people) support more than one controller.
You'll find that most sports games on the PC are really shitty ports.
Anybody knows if the latest FIFA/PES supports 22 players simultaneously?
Sales figures suggest otherwise. You'll find that only PC fanboys care about mice, keyboards, APMs etc. Most console gamers just want to have fun and don't care that much about 'pwning' thousands of players online with their 'leet skills'.
If I can get a game on the PC I will choose that over the console usually.
For some games, the PC version will be based on the PS2 version rather than the PS3/360 version, so you have to be careful there. Many times, the PC release is just rushed out to scoop up a few sales if possible.
I'll accept your interpretation if you can clarify the following: How does a startup acquire the capital to "be professional"? And to satisfy "game industry experience", must one have previously worked for a medium to large game developer on a published title before starting his own company?
Let me get this straight, you're complaining that you can't start a company with no investment and no experience working in the industry? Yeah well, I'm having trouble starting up my strip-club chain for similar reasons.
I'll take 2 and 3. I don't even want realism. In fact, 'realistic' graphics just look boring to me. It generally means ten million shades of grey and brown, overcast skies, and everything made out of concrete rubble.
Why is all this new technology and processing power going to make games look less interesting than what I can see out of my window?
Most studies already indicate a work week of 30 hours is roughly as productive as 40 hours for most workers. Extending the work week only creates more web browsing and porn at work,
Only for people sat at computers all day. Someone at a supermarket checkout will produce ten hours more output if they work ten more hours, same goes for factory workers, burger flippers, cleaners, drivers, nurses, barmen, fruit pickers, fishermen etc.
Meaning, for most workers, you're *lucky* to get six productive hours out of them every day.
Depends what you define as 'most'. I'd imagine those studies have a large middle-class, white-collar bias.
Sorry, we dont need someone with a 13th century worldview telling us what to do. Between secular moralists, secular ethics boards, FDA, AMA, et al, we are doing fine thanks.
The same secular moralists telling us all to sleep around, leading to endless teen pregnancies and the spread of STDs? Maybe if more people followed the Pope's idea of not having sex out of wedlock, there wouldn't be so much HIV in Africa.
But then how many modern atheists want some religious guy in a dress telling them not to fuck that slut they just found in a bar?
Btw the Pope was elected to run his own country, which is more than you can say about many world leaders today. Gordon Brown, for example.
Nobody is refused emergency, life-saving care, but that doesn't mean you don't pay for it.
So if you have some potentially-terminal condition, they only treat you when you're on the deathbed and it's too late? That doesn't sound like the best health care in the world.
Nor does insurance companies refusing treatment due to smallprint or technicalities.
They are conservative as in little government intervention in the lives of citizens.
That's not particularly conservative. Government has historically interefered with people's lives way more than they do now. Civil liberties are a progressive movement. Hell, how recently were inter-racial and gay marriages banned in many states?
You do realise that print newspapers subsidise online news? When there is only declining ad revenue left, there'll be nothing but bloggers waiting to copy stories from agencies that don't exist anymore.
Maybe news can be produced by charities, or we can all rely on state broadcasters.
I don't know what business model they should come up with
So, a big long post telling him he's wrong, without actually coming up with any ideas yourself which would prove him wrong.
Funny how all the posts whining that 'information wants to be free', without any understanding of how the world of news actually works, are all getting +5 insightful. Maybe you expect the news to be created by magic fairies from candyland.
HDTV gave people more detail (something they actually wanted) while at the same time freeing up a great deal of radio bandwidth in the switch to digital.
HDTV doesn't free it bandwidth, it takes up several times more space than a normal channel. What the fuck are you talking about?
Actually the main reason is that supermarket carrots are grown for size, appearance and shelf life. A big, straight, bright-orange carrot won't taste the same as a small wonky one as it's been grown specifically take on as much water as possible so it grows quickly, but hasn't actually developed any more sugars or anything that gives flavour.
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This is Britain, not a democracy, why does he need anyone to vote for him? No-one voted for Brown, and two-thirds of the country voted against the ruling party in the last election yet they were returned with a large majority.
You've never needed an electoral mandate to rule this country, what are you so surprised about?
The liking of fatty foods is genetic, the body needs fat. It wants you to eat it.
I don't know where you can legally require the Windows installation needed to play most PC games. Or where you can legally acquire games for free. Especially the ones not even released on the PC. Or the controllers.
Console gamers don't think about PC gamers at all. In fact, they're so rare these days, they probably don't even know that PC gamers even exist. When people think games, they think either consoles, or solitaire/minesweeper.
PC gamers hate consoles as they're marginalising the PC as a gaming platform. But don't worry, you'll still have a steady stream of identical fantasy MMOs to keep you busy, and maybe a few cast-off shitty ports six-months after the console release.
I don't think the typical player of, say, WoW (the only modern PC game of any consequence) has time to go for any walks: those rats won't kill themselves.
So, your four graphics cards count as all PCs, ever? If you want to play an anecdote game, my 8500GT has no connectors in common with my TV. And they're in different rooms anyway. And my PC doesn't have bluetooth controllers, and I don't want games being interrupted by general PC error messages or dialogue boxes when I'm playing a game.
You'll find that most sports games on the PC are really shitty ports.
Twenty in the latest Fifa.
If consoles can output to SDTVs, why can't PCs?
Sales figures suggest otherwise. You'll find that only PC fanboys care about mice, keyboards, APMs etc. Most console gamers just want to have fun and don't care that much about 'pwning' thousands of players online with their 'leet skills'.
For some games, the PC version will be based on the PS2 version rather than the PS3/360 version, so you have to be careful there. Many times, the PC release is just rushed out to scoop up a few sales if possible.
Let me get this straight, you're complaining that you can't start a company with no investment and no experience working in the industry? Yeah well, I'm having trouble starting up my strip-club chain for similar reasons.
I'll take 2 and 3. I don't even want realism. In fact, 'realistic' graphics just look boring to me. It generally means ten million shades of grey and brown, overcast skies, and everything made out of concrete rubble.
Why is all this new technology and processing power going to make games look less interesting than what I can see out of my window?
Only for people sat at computers all day. Someone at a supermarket checkout will produce ten hours more output if they work ten more hours, same goes for factory workers, burger flippers, cleaners, drivers, nurses, barmen, fruit pickers, fishermen etc.
Depends what you define as 'most'. I'd imagine those studies have a large middle-class, white-collar bias.
The same secular moralists telling us all to sleep around, leading to endless teen pregnancies and the spread of STDs? Maybe if more people followed the Pope's idea of not having sex out of wedlock, there wouldn't be so much HIV in Africa.
But then how many modern atheists want some religious guy in a dress telling them not to fuck that slut they just found in a bar?
Btw the Pope was elected to run his own country, which is more than you can say about many world leaders today. Gordon Brown, for example.
I don't think that looks happy at all, it looks confused and surprised.
I've yet to find a way to level up a WoW character other than by killing thousands of mobs or auto-walking up and down a road over and over again.
So if you have some potentially-terminal condition, they only treat you when you're on the deathbed and it's too late? That doesn't sound like the best health care in the world.
Nor does insurance companies refusing treatment due to smallprint or technicalities.
That's not particularly conservative. Government has historically interefered with people's lives way more than they do now. Civil liberties are a progressive movement. Hell, how recently were inter-racial and gay marriages banned in many states?
People who buy the Sun probably don't have Internet access, especially at work.
You do realise that print newspapers subsidise online news? When there is only declining ad revenue left, there'll be nothing but bloggers waiting to copy stories from agencies that don't exist anymore.
Maybe news can be produced by charities, or we can all rely on state broadcasters.
So, a big long post telling him he's wrong, without actually coming up with any ideas yourself which would prove him wrong.
Funny how all the posts whining that 'information wants to be free', without any understanding of how the world of news actually works, are all getting +5 insightful. Maybe you expect the news to be created by magic fairies from candyland.
It's the highest-selling video game franchise of all time, and thus is far more newsworthy than every single article about any other game.
What does English grammar have to do with a German name?
It doesn't really help that either as there's no resistance.
And god forbid there's a few people in the room and one person wants a go on the skiing without spending twenty minutes setting it up.
Actually efficiency goes up with the length of the journey.
Yeah, computer janitors have pretty big egos for people who aren't even clever enough to be programmers.
HDTV doesn't free it bandwidth, it takes up several times more space than a normal channel. What the fuck are you talking about?
Actually the main reason is that supermarket carrots are grown for size, appearance and shelf life. A big, straight, bright-orange carrot won't taste the same as a small wonky one as it's been grown specifically take on as much water as possible so it grows quickly, but hasn't actually developed any more sugars or anything that gives flavour.