Christ, I could respond to every one of these, but what's the point?
All I do is put fucking peanut butter sandwiches in my VCR and leave my PS1 outside in the rain. Why on earth would that shorten their life expectancy?
Oh, you want a serious answer? My PS1 sat on my desk and I turned it on to play games and off when I was done. My VCR sits in my entertainment center and gets turned on a few times a year to play a movie. They get cleaned when necessary.
As for the friend who went through 4 PS1s? They sat on the floor in front of his TV and got turned on to play games.
What more do you want? Is there some sort of ceremony I'm unaware of to honor my Sony electronics to not make them crap out? My N64, SNES, and NES still work great. My Denon amps still work great. My Toshiba TV and Panasonic DVD players still work great. Of the thousands of dollars I've spent over the years on electronics, all of the stuff that *doesn't* work anymore was built by Sony.
I treat all of my belongings carefully. I have a $200 power conditioner between the wall outlet and my $6000 worth of components. Hell, I just dusted my entertainment center this last weekend. When was the last time *you* did that? Hell, you're the one that repeatedly drops your consoles from the dresser to the floor, and you're accusing *me* of not taking care of my gear?
In short, I'm in a bad mood, so fuck you. Sony makes cheap consumer electronics, and you're full of shit.
Metroid prime did this to a large degree. Almost the entire 'story' was told by reading computer terminals or ancient glyphs. Very little, aside from the introduction/escape to the planet/boss introductions/endgame was done with scripted cut-scenes.
It creates an interesting mix, because it allows players to skip the story entirely if they just want to blow crap up.
Sure, but the DVD-drive stops working after about a year. At least it has done so one my two PS2.
Yeah, I've got a couple friends with broken/glitchy PS2s as well. My PS1 started stuttering badly on audio/video streams after about 3 months of light use (and this was a model bought in '99). A friend of mine went through 4 (four) PS1s over 5 years.
I've also got a $200 Sony VCR that's maybe 3 years old, and has been used maybe 3 dozen times, that has gotten very finicky about playing movies.
I've sworn off Sony electronics. Here's hoping that my CD changer doesn't crap out in the next couple months.
If I fail I must buy another PS2 so that I can play San Andreas this weekend
And this is why my boycott won't work. Too many people are content with the idea of disposable hardware, and just accept the fact that they'll have to buy several of the same machine.
Here's a hint: if people would QUIT BUYING CRAP, maybe Sony would be forced to meet some quality standards. Or, maybe if people bought from Nintendo or Microsoft instead, developers would switch to those platforms.
having a one-sided view as if corporations' "rights" to profit are being violated
Umm, IANAL, but isn't the whole point of "copyright" to grant the copyright holder an exclusive right to copy their work so that they can PROFIT from it?
I'm no corporate sympathizer, but I think your rant is misplaced here. This is not about corporations -- it's about copyright. And, for the most part, Rockstar Games has been a pretty good corporate citizen anyway. It's unfair to compare them to the likes of *AA/Disney.
Newsflash - game industry profits exceeded Hollywood's domestic box-office take a couple years ago. (sorry, can't find a link -- check Gamasutra's news archives)
This does not include: overseas box-office sales pay-per-view DVD sales merchandise tie-ins/marketing cross-promotions TV 'syndication'
It's like saying that I made more money than Bill Gates (but only if you count just the money that Bill Gates found on the ground on his way to work)
Decade, maybe? I don't remember seeing any Intel ads aimed at the general public before the Pentium was released, and that was in what, '94 or '95?
And it's really only been an issue over the past few years (since the P4 came out), because it was designed to achieve such high clock rates relative to the Athlon line.
Unless, of course, you're listening to an Apple zealot comparing performance between a PPC/x86 chip on a particular Photoshop filter and complaining about the 'Mhz myth.'
Not only that, but teaching it where to crap. Oh, joy.
I can only imagine the meeting where that feature made it in... It must have sounded really funny for the first 10 seconds, and then they didn't consider it anymore -- otherwise, they'd have realized that it was just stupid and left it out.
Add to that the fact that your creature is unavailable/useless for a significant part of the game...
I have more respect for Romero... At least his grandiose ideas suck because they're hard to implement, rather than Molyneux's completely incompetent implementations of do-able ideas.
I'd assume that movie theaters will have a little box that will transmit the new data to the DS sometime near the end of the movie so you have to sit through the whole film to get the goodies.
Doubtful. They've already got your money -- why would they care if you stick around for the whole movie? What would be their incentive to 'force' (I use that word lightly. Believe it or not, there are a lot of kids out there that like the movies.) someone to sit through the movie?
Let's pretend that we have candidates A, B, and C.
A believes in positions X. Be believes in positions 'approximately X'. C believes in positions !X.
Now let's pretend that the race is neck-and-neck. Candidates A and B each receive 33% of the vote (or electoral vote. Whatever). Candidate C receives 34% of the vote.
Candidate C wins, despite 66% of the vote being nearly diametrically opposed to his stances, simply because candidates A and B's supporters were so evenly split, despite being so similar.
'spoilers' only work in the minority's favor -- if candidate C had already had 51% of the vote, then it doesn't matter how A and B's supporters split. Though, in my made-up scenario, candidate D might take 2% of C's vote and cause A or B to win, which, IMO, is how it *should* be, since A and B clearly had the popular support anyway. IRV would solve this, because the 2/3 support for position ~X would vote for A, then B, then D, then E, then F, then C. Supporters for C could even help elect B, since his position isn't quite !!X.
Ugh -- that post didn't turn out too pretty. How about if candidate A and B each left the train station at time R with speeds Z and Z'...
They send their kids to the best schools -- because they EARNED the ability to do so.
I agree with part of what you said, but here's a counterexample anyway:
Paris Hilton will be able to send her kids *anywhere* she wants. She will have enough money to invest (or rather, to pay someone else to invest for her) so that she will never have to work a day in her life. She will never need to go to school to learn how to do something useful. If she doesn't ever do anything with her life beyond having her (inherited) money invested for her, her wealth will *still* probably grow.
She will be able to buy still more real estate and build more hotels. She will be able to branch out into other financial ventures if she or her handlers want to. Her options are basically limitless.
Now, let me ask you: did she EARN that ability? Did the medieval princes and princesses EARN their right to the thrones they inherited?
Did George W. EARN his right to run multiple failed ventures before his (failed, in many people's opinions) presidency?
Your argument about wealth breaks down when you take into account 'old money,' and regardless of what you have been led to believe, YOU will NEVER be a part of that old money elite. Nor will I, or anyone else that isn't born into it. And whether you choose to belive it or not, old money is slowly, anonymously, buying up more and more control of our country.
Not in the works, but already out: Tales of Symphonia by Namco for the Gamecube. Took me 49 hours to complete, and that's without doing much of the optional stuff (though there isn't a lot of it). I'm also not a slow player...
I found the story a bit cheezy at times, but that's pretty standard for Japanese-style RPGs, no matter how serious they try to be.
Beten Kaitos is coming out in November, also from Namco, and has been receiving positive buzz since its release in Japan last year.
$500 is NOTHING for golf clubs, let alone green fees.
I know people who use sets of golf clubs that are older than they are. Do you know anyone using a video card for gaming that's more than even 5 years old? Similarly for skiing/snowboarding equipment, cars, and HT stuff. Not only that, but most of that stuff retains a good portion of its value. Video cards do not.
Here's the deal, though: if you can rationalize spending $500 on a video card, good for you. It doesn't change the fact that most people will think you're a moron.
Slightly offtopic, after we got a 5.1 stereo set for the living room TV, watching dvds haven't been the same since. Those two little speakers from the TV just don't cut it (watch Master and Commander on both and you'll hear the difference).
Wow. You just triggered a serious well, duh moment.
You mean my $2500 stereo provides better sound than the tinny-little (yes, tinny, not tiny) speakers on my TV? Who'da thunk it!:)
What's more -- are there actually people out there who don't realize/deny that even a $200 surround package will sound lots better than their TV alone?
The 'browser wars' were never about getting the most popular browser. They were entirely about the fact that Microsoft was scared to death that Netscape was on the verge of developing an alternative OS-independent application deployment platform. i.e. something to compete directly with Windows. The browser wars were fought to keep Windows/Win32 the dominant API, not to make IE the dominant browser.
Now that the market is so fragmented with different browsers of differing levels of compatibility, this cross-platform application deployment is pretty much a pipe dream. Microsoft doesn't care any more.
Many of these have been dealt with sufficiently already, but I'll respond to them on a point-by-point basis:
Gates Millennium Scholarship Program
To train more potential Microsoft employees! Obviously!
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
Only an attempt to keep people alive so that they can buy more Microsoft software!
teachers, administrators, school districts and schools
To obligate them to push a Microsoft curriculum and keep Apple and Linux out of the classroom!
Gates Library Program
Do they have any non-Microsoft Press books at these libraries? Probably not!
Children's Vaccine Program, Maternal Mortality Reduction Program, Malaria Vaccine Initiative, Alliance for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer, global polio eradication, International Vaccine Institute, elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus, Sequella Global Tuberculosis Foundation, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
Again, keep the potential customers alive! This is one of the cornerstones of capitalism -- ever expanding markets!
The guy is obviously evil. That you can't see the motives behind these dubious donations just goes to show how easy it is to buy people's favor!
His point is that, when faced with numbers that heavily favored IE, most Slashdotters approached it with healthy skepticism. Now that the numbers say what Slashdotters want them to say, that skepticism is (unsurprisingly) nowhere to be found.
I haven't RTFA, but I seem to remember waaaaaay back when, before the XBox even came out, Molyneux talking about this game. But in his earlier descriptions, the physical appearance changes had nothing to do with good/evil -- instead, it was things like "swinging a heavy axe will make your character look burlier, while using a one-handed sword will make them leaner. Using magic will cause your hairline to recede." etc.
What happened to that? They already did the stupid good/evil morphing in Black & White. So far, that's all I've heard about in this game. Didn't KOTOR do basically the same thing, too? What's the draw, other than that your character grows horns or halos as the game progresses?
After B&W, I'm inclined to wait several months before thinking about picking this one up. If it can pass the 10-hour test and still be fun to most people, I might give it a try.
Slashdot Mirror
If world gets around that Xboxes are prone to early failure, will people gamble with Xbox2?
If history is any indication (PS1->PS2 owners), Microsoft won't need to worry about scaring away potential buyers.
--Jeremy
Christ, I could respond to every one of these, but what's the point?
All I do is put fucking peanut butter sandwiches in my VCR and leave my PS1 outside in the rain. Why on earth would that shorten their life expectancy?
Oh, you want a serious answer? My PS1 sat on my desk and I turned it on to play games and off when I was done. My VCR sits in my entertainment center and gets turned on a few times a year to play a movie. They get cleaned when necessary.
As for the friend who went through 4 PS1s? They sat on the floor in front of his TV and got turned on to play games.
What more do you want? Is there some sort of ceremony I'm unaware of to honor my Sony electronics to not make them crap out? My N64, SNES, and NES still work great. My Denon amps still work great. My Toshiba TV and Panasonic DVD players still work great. Of the thousands of dollars I've spent over the years on electronics, all of the stuff that *doesn't* work anymore was built by Sony.
I treat all of my belongings carefully. I have a $200 power conditioner between the wall outlet and my $6000 worth of components. Hell, I just dusted my entertainment center this last weekend. When was the last time *you* did that? Hell, you're the one that repeatedly drops your consoles from the dresser to the floor, and you're accusing *me* of not taking care of my gear?
In short, I'm in a bad mood, so fuck you. Sony makes cheap consumer electronics, and you're full of shit.
HAND
--Jeremy
Metroid prime did this to a large degree. Almost the entire 'story' was told by reading computer terminals or ancient glyphs. Very little, aside from the introduction/escape to the planet/boss introductions/endgame was done with scripted cut-scenes.
It creates an interesting mix, because it allows players to skip the story entirely if they just want to blow crap up.
--Jeremy
I believe this would be what you're looking for.
--Jeremy
Sure, but the DVD-drive stops working after about a year. At least it has done so one my two PS2.
Yeah, I've got a couple friends with broken/glitchy PS2s as well. My PS1 started stuttering badly on audio/video streams after about 3 months of light use (and this was a model bought in '99). A friend of mine went through 4 (four) PS1s over 5 years.
I've also got a $200 Sony VCR that's maybe 3 years old, and has been used maybe 3 dozen times, that has gotten very finicky about playing movies.
I've sworn off Sony electronics. Here's hoping that my CD changer doesn't crap out in the next couple months.
If I fail I must buy another PS2 so that I can play San Andreas this weekend
And this is why my boycott won't work. Too many people are content with the idea of disposable hardware, and just accept the fact that they'll have to buy several of the same machine.
Here's a hint: if people would QUIT BUYING CRAP, maybe Sony would be forced to meet some quality standards. Or, maybe if people bought from Nintendo or Microsoft instead, developers would switch to those platforms.
Unfortunately, people KEEP BUYING CRAP.
--Jeremy
Wait wait wait...
.. hurts .... Does .. not .. compute ....
You accuse Nintendo of making games that are 'un-inspired remakes of previous ones"... Ok, to each his own.
But then you defend Doom 3 as being everything that was promised, so that's ok? (And extend the 'pardon' to Quake 4 preemptively as well?)
Head
--Jeremy
having a one-sided view as if corporations' "rights" to profit are being violated
Umm, IANAL, but isn't the whole point of "copyright" to grant the copyright holder an exclusive right to copy their work so that they can PROFIT from it?
I'm no corporate sympathizer, but I think your rant is misplaced here. This is not about corporations -- it's about copyright. And, for the most part, Rockstar Games has been a pretty good corporate citizen anyway. It's unfair to compare them to the likes of *AA/Disney.
--Jeremy
Newsflash - game industry profits exceeded Hollywood's domestic box-office take a couple years ago. (sorry, can't find a link -- check Gamasutra's news archives)
This does not include:
overseas box-office sales
pay-per-view
DVD sales
merchandise tie-ins/marketing cross-promotions
TV 'syndication'
It's like saying that I made more money than Bill Gates (but only if you count just the money that Bill Gates found on the ground on his way to work)
--Jeremy
I almost completely agree that if you're dumb enough to fall for the scam, you deserve it.
I almost completely agree that if you're not strong enough to defend yourself, you deserved to get your ass kicked by that big linebacker guy.
We have this thing called a 'society' around us -- it works best if we HELP LOOK OUT FOR THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE TROUBLE LOOKING OUT FOR THEMSELVES.
--Jeremy
Decades?
Decade, maybe? I don't remember seeing any Intel ads aimed at the general public before the Pentium was released, and that was in what, '94 or '95?
And it's really only been an issue over the past few years (since the P4 came out), because it was designed to achieve such high clock rates relative to the Athlon line.
Unless, of course, you're listening to an Apple zealot comparing performance between a PPC/x86 chip on a particular Photoshop filter and complaining about the 'Mhz myth.'
--Jeremy
I don't know where I could put a keyboard or mouse.
Not only that, but a keyboard/mouse combo would suck for Mario and Zelda games.
Hell, I think it'd probably even suck for Metroid Prime, and that's a first-person game.
--Jeremy
slapping around your ape
... At least his grandiose ideas suck because they're hard to implement, rather than Molyneux's completely incompetent implementations of do-able ideas.
Not only that, but teaching it where to crap. Oh, joy.
I can only imagine the meeting where that feature made it in... It must have sounded really funny for the first 10 seconds, and then they didn't consider it anymore -- otherwise, they'd have realized that it was just stupid and left it out.
Add to that the fact that your creature is unavailable/useless for a significant part of the game...
I have more respect for Romero
--Jeremy
I'd assume that movie theaters will have a little box that will transmit the new data to the DS sometime near the end of the movie so you have to sit through the whole film to get the goodies.
Doubtful. They've already got your money -- why would they care if you stick around for the whole movie? What would be their incentive to 'force' (I use that word lightly. Believe it or not, there are a lot of kids out there that like the movies.) someone to sit through the movie?
--Jeremy
The 'spoiler' effect you cite is just wrong.
Let's pretend that we have candidates A, B, and C.
A believes in positions X. Be believes in positions 'approximately X'. C believes in positions !X.
Now let's pretend that the race is neck-and-neck. Candidates A and B each receive 33% of the vote (or electoral vote. Whatever). Candidate C receives 34% of the vote.
Candidate C wins, despite 66% of the vote being nearly diametrically opposed to his stances, simply because candidates A and B's supporters were so evenly split, despite being so similar.
'spoilers' only work in the minority's favor -- if candidate C had already had 51% of the vote, then it doesn't matter how A and B's supporters split. Though, in my made-up scenario, candidate D might take 2% of C's vote and cause A or B to win, which, IMO, is how it *should* be, since A and B clearly had the popular support anyway. IRV would solve this, because the 2/3 support for position ~X would vote for A, then B, then D, then E, then F, then C. Supporters for C could even help elect B, since his position isn't quite !!X.
Ugh -- that post didn't turn out too pretty. How about if candidate A and B each left the train station at time R with speeds Z and Z'...
--Jeremy
They send their kids to the best schools -- because they EARNED the ability to do so.
I agree with part of what you said, but here's a counterexample anyway:
Paris Hilton will be able to send her kids *anywhere* she wants. She will have enough money to invest (or rather, to pay someone else to invest for her) so that she will never have to work a day in her life. She will never need to go to school to learn how to do something useful. If she doesn't ever do anything with her life beyond having her (inherited) money invested for her, her wealth will *still* probably grow.
She will be able to buy still more real estate and build more hotels. She will be able to branch out into other financial ventures if she or her handlers want to. Her options are basically limitless.
Now, let me ask you: did she EARN that ability? Did the medieval princes and princesses EARN their right to the thrones they inherited?
Did George W. EARN his right to run multiple failed ventures before his (failed, in many people's opinions) presidency?
Your argument about wealth breaks down when you take into account 'old money,' and regardless of what you have been led to believe, YOU will NEVER be a part of that old money elite. Nor will I, or anyone else that isn't born into it. And whether you choose to belive it or not, old money is slowly, anonymously, buying up more and more control of our country.
--Jeremy
By this logic we can deduce that, if a fetus cannot live without a mother than it can be sacrificed.
Only if your logic is based on not understanding what a symbiotic relationship is. Hint: it has nothing to do with money or time.
--Jeremy
Anyone know of a nice long RPG in the works?
Not in the works, but already out: Tales of Symphonia by Namco for the Gamecube. Took me 49 hours to complete, and that's without doing much of the optional stuff (though there isn't a lot of it). I'm also not a slow player...
I found the story a bit cheezy at times, but that's pretty standard for Japanese-style RPGs, no matter how serious they try to be.
Beten Kaitos is coming out in November, also from Namco, and has been receiving positive buzz since its release in Japan last year.
--Jeremy
$500 is NOTHING for golf clubs, let alone green fees.
I know people who use sets of golf clubs that are older than they are. Do you know anyone using a video card for gaming that's more than even 5 years old? Similarly for skiing/snowboarding equipment, cars, and HT stuff. Not only that, but most of that stuff retains a good portion of its value. Video cards do not.
Here's the deal, though: if you can rationalize spending $500 on a video card, good for you. It doesn't change the fact that most people will think you're a moron.
--Jeremy
Slightly offtopic, after we got a 5.1 stereo set for the living room TV, watching dvds haven't been the same since. Those two little speakers from the TV just don't cut it (watch Master and Commander on both and you'll hear the difference).
:)
Wow. You just triggered a serious well, duh moment.
You mean my $2500 stereo provides better sound than the tinny-little (yes, tinny, not tiny) speakers on my TV? Who'da thunk it!
What's more -- are there actually people out there who don't realize/deny that even a $200 surround package will sound lots better than their TV alone?
--Jeremy
The 'browser wars' were never about getting the most popular browser. They were entirely about the fact that Microsoft was scared to death that Netscape was on the verge of developing an alternative OS-independent application deployment platform. i.e. something to compete directly with Windows. The browser wars were fought to keep Windows/Win32 the dominant API, not to make IE the dominant browser.
Now that the market is so fragmented with different browsers of differing levels of compatibility, this cross-platform application deployment is pretty much a pipe dream. Microsoft doesn't care any more.
--Jeremy
the universally underrated and innovative FF8
You misspelled "mind-numbingly boring."
--Jeremy
Many of these have been dealt with sufficiently already, but I'll respond to them on a point-by-point basis:
Gates Millennium Scholarship Program
To train more potential Microsoft employees! Obviously!
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
Only an attempt to keep people alive so that they can buy more Microsoft software!
teachers, administrators, school districts and schools
To obligate them to push a Microsoft curriculum and keep Apple and Linux out of the classroom!
Gates Library Program
Do they have any non-Microsoft Press books at these libraries? Probably not!
Children's Vaccine Program, Maternal Mortality Reduction Program, Malaria Vaccine Initiative, Alliance for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer, global polio eradication, International Vaccine Institute, elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus, Sequella Global Tuberculosis Foundation, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
Again, keep the potential customers alive! This is one of the cornerstones of capitalism -- ever expanding markets!
The guy is obviously evil. That you can't see the motives behind these dubious donations just goes to show how easy it is to buy people's favor!
Bill Gate$ is teh eviL!!1!!!1! OMGOMG!!
--Jeremy
His point is that, when faced with numbers that heavily favored IE, most Slashdotters approached it with healthy skepticism. Now that the numbers say what Slashdotters want them to say, that skepticism is (unsurprisingly) nowhere to be found.
--Jeremy
I haven't RTFA, but I seem to remember waaaaaay back when, before the XBox even came out, Molyneux talking about this game. But in his earlier descriptions, the physical appearance changes had nothing to do with good/evil -- instead, it was things like "swinging a heavy axe will make your character look burlier, while using a one-handed sword will make them leaner. Using magic will cause your hairline to recede." etc.
What happened to that? They already did the stupid good/evil morphing in Black & White. So far, that's all I've heard about in this game. Didn't KOTOR do basically the same thing, too? What's the draw, other than that your character grows horns or halos as the game progresses?
After B&W, I'm inclined to wait several months before thinking about picking this one up. If it can pass the 10-hour test and still be fun to most people, I might give it a try.
--Jeremy
And of course it's dual booting: It has two things it can boot...that makes it dual boot.
Thanks for clearing that up. Boy, those operating systems classes I took in college sure never prepared me for this level of technical discussion!
--Jeremy