Let me preface by saying i play guitar with my roommates/friends and we have a great time damn near daily with it.
However, we bought guitar hero and an extra guitar (2 total).. It's a BLAST for us.. The memorization and trial/error is pretty fun.. And I gotta tell you... Playing some of those songs on expert mode is really a ton of fun.
The easier difficulty levels are well.. BORING AND SEEM TO RELATE MINIMALLY TO THE MUSIC. I HATE THEM.
The game is only fun on hard or above.. It takes a while to get good at them but just skip the medium levels altogether and save yourself some time.
Plus, my non musician friends who play it have a hell of a time playing by watching.. It takes them all a while to play by LISTENING instead of with their eyes.
I'd have to say there's some redeeming qualities that could cross over to playing actual music. Sense of rhythm, coordination (using 1 finger per fret instead of moving your hand all over the place to play something that'd be simple if you'd just train your pinkie)...
All in all though it's just a fun game.
P.S. - If you don't own a musical instrument or sing and are a human... I don't care what you say.. You are missing out. 15 minutes every few days is all it takes. After a bit of elbow grease you'll get to the point where you can just start screwing around. Learn a single scale and play around with it making little melodies. Sooner or later you'll understand what it means to MAKE music and not just passively listen to music and your world will change.
I am the uber frugal type.. I would not pay for an HDTV... However my friend just moved into my house after his tour in Iraq where he was doing nothing but accumulating hazard pay..
He bought an HDTV for $700... And i have to say.. WOW
It makes a HUGE difference. We had the xbox360 configured to a lower resolution so that we could watch some media center video in a different aspect or whatever... Then we played some games and were like.. this looks HORRIBLE. That's when i truly realized how important 1080i is. Once we switched to 1080i it made all the difference in the world.
If you're anything like me then you'll use psychological tactics (i don't need, who needs? what a waste of money) to avoid the expense.. However, after seeing the contribution that TV makes to our full house... I am starting to realize how important a single nice TV can be.
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HD is important.
However thank you Nintendo for making the Wii so cost effective. I want your console and don't have the money my army friend does.. With the cost of a wii and extra controller setup i can afford 2 additional games on TOP of the bundled wii sports.
Well, really.. With quest management, a fun storyline, and instant-travel options Oblivion fixes a lot of problems with Morrowind.
Morrowind's largest downfall is that the freedom overwhelmed many players and made them forget that all they had to do was follow the storyline. Instead people got used to breaking and entering and murder, then complained that there wasn't enough "form".
With Oblivion it's easy to keep track of what you're supposed to do to continue the storyline. Alternately, you can do whatever you want.
I find the gameplay significantly better. I'm always earning new abilities and enhancing old ones, and a huge difference between WoW and Oblivion is that with WoW i felt incredibly restricted as to what I could do. There were so many hard barriers that I was unable to pass until I'm the right level. There's little room for cunning or alternate solutions to problems. You're too low level, you can't get the quest (ALWAYS).
Oblivion on the other hand allows me to sneak through dungeons with creatures much more powerful than me while I loot stuff that I wouldn't be able to get if it was so restricted based on level. Not only that, each of many abilities are constantly evolving as you play so your character really grows in unique ways, unlike WoW where respeccing and equipment is the limit of individuality.
All in all I'm sick and tired of MMOs.. They focus too much on keeping the player down. I feel totally oppressed in that environment. I like games that let me play how I want. The freedom could overwhelm some, but the quest manager should really help them overcome the problem. Just make a quest your active quest and voila... Red arrow on your compass. Anyone should be able to handle that. Add to all of that superier graphics and sound, actual Physics, and far superior AI and I'm a happy camper.
Sure you can't chat with people without alt+tabbing, and it'd be nice to share my gameworld with a close friend or two... but honestly... I'm tired of being called a fag anyway.
I like WoW fine enough... but it was just a game to keep me interested while I waited for a single player RPG. You know... something with real content and playability.. Something designed around giving the player abilities rather than handicapping them.
I bought Oblivion and it was well worth it. Throw away those MMOs and play something with atmosphere.
Is anyone else completely appalled by the fact that god of war is incredibly uninspired everywhere EXCEPT graphics? I played it and kept thinking... been here done that.. I had to put it down after a few hours. What a waste of a rental. BOOOOORING.
I don't even think it was that great. Tired boring gameplay wrapped up in pretty graphics?
I mean come on... I forced myself through block puzzles and simple button timing "mini games" for about an hour before I just shut it off. My brother was more compelled to play through, so unfortunately I was privy to watching boring puzzle after boring puzzle interrupting devil may cry ripoff fights at a difficulty level suitable for 8 year old children. The game was rated for adults!
Then again, I suppose most adults would be more challenged by this silly game than children.
I keep a legal pad next to my desk.. It lists all of my projects. As I complete them I cross them off the list.
Every day I come into work I write a new list first thing. On that list are the tasks I hope to either complete or work on in the day. As you complete the tasks you check them off of this and the aforefementioned list. To the left of the tasks I write priority numbers. Which tasks are the most important for me to complete today. If for some reason a task doesn't fit this mold, you're not writing your tasks appropriately. Don't write "program more on X and Y app.." as a task. Write "Analyze X Bug", "Develop X part of Y feature". What you DON'T want to do is get to a task and say to yourself, "*sigh*... now how do I go about starting this?" Make it clear and easy to conceptualize. When writing the list actually figure out and name the next real step... THEN write the task on your list.
Start plugging away at your prioritized list. If anyone presents you with new tasks, feel free to add them to the list. Then consider their prioritization and reprioritize he list if you need to. You should be working on the highest priority task at any given time. It's perfectly acceptable to put short term tasks high in priority simply because they need to be done Today and can be completed somewhat quickly.
It's your job as a sentient employee to determine what you can and can't get done in an day. Assuming you're not just a voiceless work horse.
You may be inundated with a million small tasks coming at you at once, but it's YOUR job to be productive. If you can't be productive with the way your coworkers interact with you... do something about it. Start at ticket system and standardize procedures for interacting with you. Your coworkers understand that you can only do so much in the day (and if they don't, it's your fault). Express you problems with management and suggest realistic methods of resolving them. Management can be slow to adopt change, which is why you have to clearly represent the advantages.
YOU are responsible for being productive, and it comes down to YOUR algorithms. Do not blame the technology and do not blame your coworkers. Work is challenging.. if it wasn't you wouldn't need to be there. If you are absolutely forbidden from making your work environment more suitable for productivity well.... I don't know, I've just never seen that situation.
People have been ineffective at their work since people existed.. It's to be expected. Learn how to deal with it or continue your old trend. Just don't blame the technology.
People just expect to waltz into their work and sit down and do some repetitive mindless work (because that's the easiest kind of work to get in the habit of doing). I just perceive it as laziness.
I played for a few months before I realized Blizzard didn't care about me.
I'm in your category #1
"1. short term, high paying customers - These are casual gamers. They play maybe several months but don't stay on. They lose interest or are alienated by the hardcore players. This is me, btw"
I'm in this category simply because Blizzard doesn't care about my demographic. They kept censoring and harassing me while I just tried to have a good time with my friends. I wasn't interested in griefing other players or being obnoxious like the 13 year olds who populate the games.
Blizzard didn't care about me, and even though I enjoyed the game I had to quit because I just felt demoralized.
Despite the language filter that defaulted to ON, btw. I was reported a number of times for saying four letter words as I normally would in my normal life. Aw, f@#k the cat just knocked over my drink. etc etc etc. If you've ever played the game you'll know that there's little kids (children and adults alike) who get a sense of power for reporting other players for not being the way they think someone SHOULD be.
I had no freedom to be myself, so why would I want to play the damn game? It's just words people. The simple fact that I can't even talk in a way that's perfectly legally acceptable in real life is just ludicrous. I'm not a child, and everyone who complains when I "curse" after THEY themselves turn off their language censor needs to grow the f!@k up.
I would have to say that sure, you're right. But it's an oversimplified view when you don't take into consideration how they CREATE the situations that alienate the "casual" gamers and prevent them from becoming "hardcore gamers".
They'll make tons of money and none of this will matter.
But they won't earn a single dollar from me. If they start to care about me some time... I'll know... But yea f!@king right....
Actually America teaches that skill = freedom. The skill to analyze opportunities, and the skills to take them. If you are a serious person who can identify the opportunites around you, you can live your life by doing things you enjoy. Over and over you see talented people applying themselves making a living off doing things they enjoy while the less opportunity wise folk will grudge through doing things the only way they've had the imagination to.
There's opportunities to be had all over the place, and if you don't see them you may want to consider brainstorming ways to build that analytical skill. Find someone who has it and study their algorithms.
What made the playstation sell copies after it was old news was the advanced library of titles. Unfortunately XBOX simply doesn't have these. They may earn a leg with sports fans and those FPS fans who like Halo. But xbox is hardly a giant as far as library is concerned.
If that person is public relations they should probably be fired. When I read that article I was disgusted at the irritation lack of patience communicated by the 'mouthpiece', which truly made me feel as if the company is more of a black market group than a legitimate service. I didn't feel so much this way until they started getting 'angry'.
You're supposed to get to know your reviewers and that way when they tell you things you know where it's coming from. What does that reviewer say in his other reviews of games that you've liked, etc? These are just people. You have to treat them as individuals.
very low. I don't even know why I check here any more. cq-ef.net has way more crap than games.slashdot.org and it's not all complete BS like this article. Pathetic..
I've been waiting and waiting and what do i get? Lament of Innocence? Barf. Your fans want a new symphony of the night like game! DADDY NEEDS HIS MEDICINE.
Why would they trade in that part of the market share? They're making money off each console being sold. That's more than you can say about Sony and Microsoft.
Slashdot Mirror
Let me preface by saying i play guitar with my roommates/friends and we have a great time damn near daily with it.
However, we bought guitar hero and an extra guitar (2 total).. It's a BLAST for us.. The memorization and trial/error is pretty fun.. And I gotta tell you... Playing some of those songs on expert mode is really a ton of fun.
The easier difficulty levels are well.. BORING AND SEEM TO RELATE MINIMALLY TO THE MUSIC. I HATE THEM.
The game is only fun on hard or above.. It takes a while to get good at them but just skip the medium levels altogether and save yourself some time.
Plus, my non musician friends who play it have a hell of a time playing by watching.. It takes them all a while to play by LISTENING instead of with their eyes.
I'd have to say there's some redeeming qualities that could cross over to playing actual music. Sense of rhythm, coordination (using 1 finger per fret instead of moving your hand all over the place to play something that'd be simple if you'd just train your pinkie)...
All in all though it's just a fun game.
P.S. - If you don't own a musical instrument or sing and are a human... I don't care what you say.. You are missing out. 15 minutes every few days is all it takes. After a bit of elbow grease you'll get to the point where you can just start screwing around. Learn a single scale and play around with it making little melodies. Sooner or later you'll understand what it means to MAKE music and not just passively listen to music and your world will change.
Seriously... YES it does matter.
I am the uber frugal type.. I would not pay for an HDTV... However my friend just moved into my house after his tour in Iraq where he was doing nothing but accumulating hazard pay..
He bought an HDTV for $700... And i have to say.. WOW
It makes a HUGE difference. We had the xbox360 configured to a lower resolution so that we could watch some media center video in a different aspect or whatever... Then we played some games and were like.. this looks HORRIBLE. That's when i truly realized how important 1080i is. Once we switched to 1080i it made all the difference in the world.
If you're anything like me then you'll use psychological tactics (i don't need, who needs? what a waste of money) to avoid the expense.. However, after seeing the contribution that TV makes to our full house... I am starting to realize how important a single nice TV can be.
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes HD is important.
However thank you Nintendo for making the Wii so cost effective. I want your console and don't have the money my army friend does.. With the cost of a wii and extra controller setup i can afford 2 additional games on TOP of the bundled wii sports.
Prolly not that great a uni then for nerdeqsue enlightenment.
Yea, you like playing with dolls with friends. whoop de doo
Well, really.. With quest management, a fun storyline, and instant-travel options Oblivion fixes a lot of problems with Morrowind.
Morrowind's largest downfall is that the freedom overwhelmed many players and made them forget that all they had to do was follow the storyline. Instead people got used to breaking and entering and murder, then complained that there wasn't enough "form".
With Oblivion it's easy to keep track of what you're supposed to do to continue the storyline. Alternately, you can do whatever you want.
I find the gameplay significantly better. I'm always earning new abilities and enhancing old ones, and a huge difference between WoW and Oblivion is that with WoW i felt incredibly restricted as to what I could do. There were so many hard barriers that I was unable to pass until I'm the right level. There's little room for cunning or alternate solutions to problems. You're too low level, you can't get the quest (ALWAYS).
Oblivion on the other hand allows me to sneak through dungeons with creatures much more powerful than me while I loot stuff that I wouldn't be able to get if it was so restricted based on level. Not only that, each of many abilities are constantly evolving as you play so your character really grows in unique ways, unlike WoW where respeccing and equipment is the limit of individuality.
All in all I'm sick and tired of MMOs.. They focus too much on keeping the player down. I feel totally oppressed in that environment. I like games that let me play how I want. The freedom could overwhelm some, but the quest manager should really help them overcome the problem. Just make a quest your active quest and voila... Red arrow on your compass. Anyone should be able to handle that. Add to all of that superier graphics and sound, actual Physics, and far superior AI and I'm a happy camper.
Sure you can't chat with people without alt+tabbing, and it'd be nice to share my gameworld with a close friend or two... but honestly... I'm tired of being called a fag anyway.
I like WoW fine enough... but it was just a game to keep me interested while I waited for a single player RPG. You know... something with real content and playability.. Something designed around giving the player abilities rather than handicapping them.
I bought Oblivion and it was well worth it. Throw away those MMOs and play something with atmosphere.
Is it just me or is the very notion that humans could play at anything other than humanity pure arrogance?
Is anyone else completely appalled by the fact that god of war is incredibly uninspired everywhere EXCEPT graphics? I played it and kept thinking... been here done that.. I had to put it down after a few hours. What a waste of a rental. BOOOOORING.
I don't even think it was that great. Tired boring gameplay wrapped up in pretty graphics?
I mean come on... I forced myself through block puzzles and simple button timing "mini games" for about an hour before I just shut it off. My brother was more compelled to play through, so unfortunately I was privy to watching boring puzzle after boring puzzle interrupting devil may cry ripoff fights at a difficulty level suitable for 8 year old children. The game was rated for adults!
Then again, I suppose most adults would be more challenged by this silly game than children.
I'm appalled.
Honestly this is ridiculous...
I keep a legal pad next to my desk.. It lists all of my projects. As I complete them I cross them off the list.
Every day I come into work I write a new list first thing. On that list are the tasks I hope to either complete or work on in the day. As you complete the tasks you check them off of this and the aforefementioned list. To the left of the tasks I write priority numbers. Which tasks are the most important for me to complete today. If for some reason a task doesn't fit this mold, you're not writing your tasks appropriately. Don't write "program more on X and Y app.." as a task. Write "Analyze X Bug", "Develop X part of Y feature". What you DON'T want to do is get to a task and say to yourself, "*sigh*... now how do I go about starting this?" Make it clear and easy to conceptualize. When writing the list actually figure out and name the next real step... THEN write the task on your list.
Start plugging away at your prioritized list. If anyone presents you with new tasks, feel free to add them to the list. Then consider their prioritization and reprioritize he list if you need to. You should be working on the highest priority task at any given time. It's perfectly acceptable to put short term tasks high in priority simply because they need to be done Today and can be completed somewhat quickly.
It's your job as a sentient employee to determine what you can and can't get done in an day. Assuming you're not just a voiceless work horse.
You may be inundated with a million small tasks coming at you at once, but it's YOUR job to be productive. If you can't be productive with the way your coworkers interact with you... do something about it. Start at ticket system and standardize procedures for interacting with you. Your coworkers understand that you can only do so much in the day (and if they don't, it's your fault). Express you problems with management and suggest realistic methods of resolving them. Management can be slow to adopt change, which is why you have to clearly represent the advantages.
YOU are responsible for being productive, and it comes down to YOUR algorithms. Do not blame the technology and do not blame your coworkers. Work is challenging.. if it wasn't you wouldn't need to be there. If you are absolutely forbidden from making your work environment more suitable for productivity well.... I don't know, I've just never seen that situation.
People have been ineffective at their work since people existed.. It's to be expected. Learn how to deal with it or continue your old trend. Just don't blame the technology.
People just expect to waltz into their work and sit down and do some repetitive mindless work (because that's the easiest kind of work to get in the habit of doing). I just perceive it as laziness.
I played for a few months before I realized Blizzard didn't care about me.
I'm in your category #1
"1. short term, high paying customers - These are casual gamers. They play maybe several months but don't stay on. They lose interest or are alienated by the hardcore players. This is me, btw"
I'm in this category simply because Blizzard doesn't care about my demographic. They kept censoring and harassing me while I just tried to have a good time with my friends. I wasn't interested in griefing other players or being obnoxious like the 13 year olds who populate the games.
Blizzard didn't care about me, and even though I enjoyed the game I had to quit because I just felt demoralized.
Despite the language filter that defaulted to ON, btw. I was reported a number of times for saying four letter words as I normally would in my normal life. Aw, f@#k the cat just knocked over my drink. etc etc etc. If you've ever played the game you'll know that there's little kids (children and adults alike) who get a sense of power for reporting other players for not being the way they think someone SHOULD be.
I had no freedom to be myself, so why would I want to play the damn game? It's just words people. The simple fact that I can't even talk in a way that's perfectly legally acceptable in real life is just ludicrous. I'm not a child, and everyone who complains when I "curse" after THEY themselves turn off their language censor needs to grow the f!@k up.
I would have to say that sure, you're right. But it's an oversimplified view when you don't take into consideration how they CREATE the situations that alienate the "casual" gamers and prevent them from becoming "hardcore gamers".
They'll make tons of money and none of this will matter.
But they won't earn a single dollar from me. If they start to care about me some time... I'll know... But yea f!@king right....
Actually America teaches that skill = freedom. The skill to analyze opportunities, and the skills to take them. If you are a serious person who can identify the opportunites around you, you can live your life by doing things you enjoy. Over and over you see talented people applying themselves making a living off doing things they enjoy while the less opportunity wise folk will grudge through doing things the only way they've had the imagination to.
There's opportunities to be had all over the place, and if you don't see them you may want to consider brainstorming ways to build that analytical skill. Find someone who has it and study their algorithms.
*wack off motion*
Noone to blame but themselves for what? Being the financial leader in the console game market? You're insane.
What made the playstation sell copies after it was old news was the advanced library of titles. Unfortunately XBOX simply doesn't have these. They may earn a leg with sports fans and those FPS fans who like Halo. But xbox is hardly a giant as far as library is concerned.
If that person is public relations they should probably be fired. When I read that article I was disgusted at the irritation lack of patience communicated by the 'mouthpiece', which truly made me feel as if the company is more of a black market group than a legitimate service. I didn't feel so much this way until they started getting 'angry'.
You're supposed to get to know your reviewers and that way when they tell you things you know where it's coming from. What does that reviewer say in his other reviews of games that you've liked, etc? These are just people. You have to treat them as individuals.
........ why bother? it's going to be hardcore noncompetitive with the obvious gaming solution.
just learn to dual boot people, jesus =P
more serious game coverage than slashdot, woo hoo
very low. I don't even know why I check here any more. cq-ef.net has way more crap than games.slashdot.org and it's not all complete BS like this article. Pathetic..
sanitize life for all of your citizens. Reduce the amount of lifestyle variation in your culture. It's your own downfall. So get crackin!
This is a stupid topic.
how unforgiving you are.
I've been waiting and waiting and what do i get? Lament of Innocence? Barf. Your fans want a new symphony of the night like game! DADDY NEEDS HIS MEDICINE.
Why would they trade in that part of the market share? They're making money off each console being sold. That's more than you can say about Sony and Microsoft.