World of Warcraft wasn't designed to teach you anything. It was designed to entertain you.
True, but for the exact same reasons as TFA, I don't feel very entertained by the values in WOW. I've avoided MMOGs like the plague because I so thouroughly dislike the fact that someone who spends more time on the game can whip my butt even though we both have the same skill.
When I play Unreal Tournament or Counter Strike, we all start the same. Though it's true that most players who've played alot will be more skillful, the fact is that their skill is in their own head and reflexes, not stored up in some 60th level ass-kicker of a character.
Imagine if were playing sand-lot baseball and one of the neighborhood kids showed up with his baseball-playing robot that has all the skills of Barry Bonds. Personally, I'd tell the kid to fuck off. But what if I couldn't get rid fo the kid because baseball was structured so that everyone got to bring their kick-ass robots any time they want? Well I'd say that the people who claim to be "playing baseball" aren't really playing baseball at all. They may, in fact, be competing at building robots or growing robots or earning money until they can buy the best robot, but they are not playing baseball.
When I show up to PLAY video GAMES, I want to play the game that's on the screan and I want to be playing against the skill of the other player. When I get in a sword fight, I don't want to lose to someones "skill" at buying a great character on e-bay. That, to me, is not "fun"
Life lessons be damned. I just want to play a real game. To me, WOW doesn't count.
Since AAC is an integral part of the MPEG4 standard, and since MPEG4 seems to be gaining momentum in standalone devices, I would think that support for AAC would be a lot more widespread in the future.
Well that's definately something to look forward to for the future, which is, after all, the focus of the article, but right now MP3 is king for anyone who wants portability. Though there are now two iPods in my family, there's also a Windows smartphone. I refuse to lock myself out of future hardware purchases simply because I want a smaller file size.
But how will I know when the future arrives? I don't personally do P2P, but gimmee a call when you notice most of the trading is in AACs. My sense is we have quite a long way to go.
The article states that $900 is the cost to Sony. It won't cost that retail, they always take a hit. The original Xbox cost more to make, than it sold for. It's called a loss leader, look it up.
Then someone, probably many someones, are smoking crack.
Explain to me how Sony is going to make up $400 per console on average if it costs them $900 and they sell for $500? A loss leader is not some magical thing where you sell a $900 item for half price and make a profit. The way it works is that you somehow manage to make more than the cost of the item through some other kind of sales. My question to you is: give me some kind of business model where Sony is going to make $400 bucks per console off some other kind of sales? Put another way, that's about 7 games. If the games cost nothing to make and Sony took home 100% of the profit, they'd have to sell 7 games for each console to break even.
Sony is participating in a mature business where it is the market leader. Market leaders don't give away very much in order to gain market share, because they already have market share. They're in the business to make a profit. They may, in fact make more of a profit off blades than razors, but they won't give away a razor that costs them more than they can make in blades.
That said, TFA is counting costs from a place that is not based in reality. As the IP owner and manufacturer of the Blue-Ray drive, it will not cost Sony anywhere clos to $350 to manufacture a drive and put itinto a Playstation. Their R&D and manufacturing facilities costs can not be put into a per-unit cost in the same way as if they were buying the drives from Toshiba. You can make any kind of argument you want here about 3-year right-offs and the like, but the fact is that those dollars are in reallity going into a whole industy and not just the PS3. Claiming the Blue-Ray drive as a $350 manufacturing cost of the PS3 is like claiming it costs $350 per unit to manufacture Windows Vista. You may be able to cook the numbers that way, but that kind of per-unit cost just isn't relevant to this particular kind of manufacturing.
So many places i know now are running blackberry and so many people i know have blackberry devices i think it will take a long time if it ever does occur for people to switch over to Windows SmartPhones.
Depending on the situation, it will take a much shorter time to switch to Windows Smartphones.
Consider the scenerio where you have an Exchange 2003 Server with an Outlook Web Access (webmail) front end server. Lots of companies either currently have this scenrio or have a similar Exchange 2000 scenerio and will upgrade in a couple of years.. If you have this scenrio, turning on Exchange Active Sync, the technology that makes this happen, is an afternoon of work. Period. It's done. There are no extra licenses, no extra software and no extra infrastruture. Getting approval for it will be increadibly easy, because it carries about the same risks asthe OWA server you're already running.
Now consider you have the exact same scenerio, but also a Blackberry server. It's still painless to turn on EAS, so having the two work side by side is easy. You can have Smartphones and Blackberry offered to your employees. But if you already have EAS and don't have a Blackberry server, how are you going to convince your boss to pony up the cash for Blakberry?
In short, since EAS is "free" (as in "you already paid for it, but didn't know it at the time"), you're far more likely to deploy it than the "expensive" Blackberry server. Thus, MS wins again.
TW
Full disclosure: I've implimented an EAS solution at my company and currently have an Audiovox SMT5600 Windows Smartphone. The Syncing is awesome, though I find myself restarting my phone periodically, something I never had to do with my old Nokias. I've never owned a Blackberry, though the few times I've played with one convinced me they're a fine solution.
Remember, these are the same fuckers that sued the Boy Scounts over a red cross on their "Emergency Preparedness" merit badge; the cross is now green, and has been since 1980.
Wow. The folks who provide humanitarian aid and save lives around the world are "fuckers."
a. They're protecting a trademark. b. They're protecting a reputation. c. That reputation is saving lives in an internationally lawful and humanitarian manner. d. Their reputation is not blowing people away for any reason whatsoever, including your own troops, prisoners, etc, then getting healed up real quick to do the same thing all over again.
Na, I don't think "fuckers" is quite the word I'd use.
Now I like playing video games and I sure don't mind that the you can do things like those outlined in "d" above, but I can understand why an org like this would object to me using their symbol along the way.
This is true, but perceptions can change. AMD has migrated from the "lesser quality" alternative to Intel for many people into a "high quality" alternative. Gas companies have been largely unsuccessful at convincing motorists that their additives make their gas superior, and thus worth the higher price.
Perceptions also change because of, well, perception. If Bob buys his first Blue-Ray disc and can't tell the difference between that and a DVD, there's a good chance he won't continue to buy Blue-Ray. I was never able to perceive the difference with Superbit, so I saved my money. A guy was posting about headphones earlier in the weak, and it turns out my audio perception is much better than his because I'd have no problems buying $100+ headphones while he complained about spending more than $20.
If Blue-Ray makes the difference I think it will (DVD does not look that great on modern HDTVs) then I think they'll have little difficulty convincing the public that it's the superior product and worth the money. But if their eyeballs cant tell the difference, that marketing campaign will only go so far.
The first photo on this page confirms something I've alwasy suspected about the DS and never really liked about it. There's a lot of empy space. IMO, empty space on a portable is a bad thing. It should either be filled up with some more good stuff or eliminated. I think that's one of the reasons the ipods are so popular; they have all the stuff you need, and none of the stuff you don't.
Jeez, why make it so damn complicated. Who needs to show off their headphones at work?
I'm not too sure he's trying to show off. In fact, I suspect he's actually looking for good sound. My first clue was when he wrote "What I'm looking for is a set of headphones with (1) good sound in a wide variety of music..." My second clue was when he said he was looking for "headphones" which are typically used for personal listening as opposed to "giant speakers," which are often used to compare manhood.
My final clue was his opening sentence "In a ever increasing sea of white-earbuds in my office, I broke from the mainstream and recently purchased the iAudio X5..." This suggested to me that he was not as interested in what his officemates thought as much as he was interested in what he liked. I really don't think this meets the definition of "showing off."
I happen to have games in all these genres. Really.
-Monster Truck Madness -Midtown Madness -Crimson Sky -Return to Castle Wolfenstien -I forget the name of the Vietnam game
Although none of these games is actually offensive to the Japanese people, it would be easy to think the last two items were meant as an off color joke. Even if it were, I'm sure it wouldn't be quite as off-color as EA games pitting Americans against the Chinese and all Arab nations in Battlefield two (which I actually enjoy, even as I cringe at the choice of enemies).
I really don't see why some people in this article are trying to insert national pride as a conversation point. I consider it wholly off-topic, Total_Wimp.
It wasn't meant to be nationalistic so much as an expression that, just as Japanese games have a flavor, American games also have a flavor and that flavor needs it's own saluting.
Slashdotters often comment on how much they love things Japanese. Great. No, really, I'm glad you're happy with your choices. But I think the flavor of American games should be recognized as well, not just as genre or nationalism, but by being games especially suited to the taste of the American consumer.
America is steak, Japan is sushi. Why do people associate these foods this way? Japanese people have some of the best steak in the world. I eat sushi regularly, and I love it. But America is steak and Japan is sushi. These things are the flavor of our unique cultures and should be celebrated and respected.
Don't play American games out of a Jingoistic, flag-waving, made-in-America superiority complex. Play them because you like them (if you like them) and don't be afraid to say, "I like them because they appeal to my American tastes." Be proud of who you are.
BTW, if you don't like American games, you wear crushed velvet, you sit down when you pee, and you LOVE broccoli, well, that's alright too. Seriously. Be proud of who you are. Being proud doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) an exclusionary thing.
Amen! There are Japanese games that I love but also whole genre's that I just cant stand. Final Fantasy, any fighting game, any virtual pet, any dancing game, especially those with songs about butterflies; all of these just make me want to curl up in a ball with my hands over my ears.
I hear a lot about how the Xbox does poorly in Japan because the games aren't designed with the taste of the Japanese consumer in mind. Well what about the tastes of the American consumer? I like first person shooters and real-time strategy. I like women with hour-glass figures and sultry voices rather than whiny little girls. I want to shoot every critter on the screen and save all my petting for the afore mentioned hour-glass figured women.
Ok, I do like a lot of Japanese games, but I do not share their tastes in general. I love Monty Python, but I do not eat spotted dick. French bread is great, but you won't ever see me in a beret (or acting like a mime). Yes, the Japanese DO make some good games, but come on people, try to be just a little proud of who you are. If you're American then say it proud: id, Blizzard, Valve and even EA put out some of the most kick-ass games on the planet. 'nuff said.
I don't understand exactly what the point of this is on Slashdot. It's clear that Bill and pals wrote software and expected people to buy it. It's clear that many people pirated that software. It's clear that this made Bill unhappy.
Bill didn't and doesn't want to give his software away. He's well within both his ethical and legal rights to charge for his software. Those who copy and sell his software without his permission are breaking the law and Bill is pointing that out.
I'm missing the "infamous" portion of this entirely.
I do not steal from Steven King when I buy a used copy of one of his books. I do not steal from James Brown when I buy a used CD. No publisher or author has the right to tell me what I can or cannot do with a product I have paid them for.
First and second line: Absolutely correct.
Last line: Incorrect.
If you purchase a CD, you do not have the right to play that music at your restaurant where dozens of patrons can listen to it while they eat. This is considered a public performance and you must pay a seperate fee to do it.
Of course we all know that you can't legaly make a copy of it and then sell that copy without approval of the author.
I realize your point that there should be no restrictions on resale and almost certainly there is currently no legal restriction. But it's important that we understand how our rights are already limited so we can make informed arguments for preserving the few rights we currenlty have. If we know exactly what the current restrictions are, then we have a better shot at making sure that list doesn't grow.
The fact that they can tell you not to make copies does not mean that they can tell you not to sell the copy you have. Us showing them that we understand this short circuits one of their biggest arguments, that we're a bunch of pirates who want no restrictions at all.
Ok, rechargable AA or AAA batteries are not exactly the bees knees, but do you really think the alternative of having a battery that is not user-servicable is better? I'm assuming you're the kind of person who would find a way to replace a non-replaceable battery, but what's your advice for the more technically average user? Buy a new Shuffle when your battery fails?
Apple sold 32 million iPods last year out of a total of 42 million sold since they origionally lauched the first iPod. These are no longer going to early adopters, but rather average folk interested in mainstream products. These are the kind of folks who expect their TV or their Playstation to last 4 to 5 years at least. In two years when all these batteries are going belly up, these folks are gonna be pissed that their only battery replacement option costs as much as it will.
Since when are standard AAA batteries a positive argument when comparing mp3 players?
Based on my last battery pricecheck, you have bought roughly the equivalent of 47 iPod Shuffles just in battery replacement alone over the last 12 months.
You do know they make rechargable AAA batteries, right? But did you also know that when those rechargable AAA batteries stop holding a charge that you can then buy completely new batteries and keep your existing MP3 player?
I just made a credit card purchase of $68.00, not counting shipping to apple to get my daughters 20GB iPod batteries replaced. I'd have much prefered to stop by the Best Buy and spend less than $20 to replace 4 AA nicads.
iPods are nice, but their batteries are a liability. This is not the sort of thing you should be defending.
It's also possible that kids who enjoy street racing might be fond of a street racing video game, instead of two video game fanatics that decided to start street racing after the latest Gran Turismo came out.
This is quite insightful. The same thing happened to my cousin. His mom tried to take away his copy of Grand Theft Auto thinking it was ruining his life but she didn't realize he was really a powerful mob boss who just liked playing the game because it reminded him of his job.
I'm not particularly religious, but I know that our culture takes much of it's world view from our Christian heritage. There was a story in the bible called "the Widows Offering" that I think applies to this comparison.
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything--all she had to live on."
Bill gates is extraordinarily generous for someone as wealthy as he is. He not only has given an astounding percentage of his wealth, but I understand he spends a lot of time researching causes so that his money finds those who he feals have a speacial need. I applaude him.
But he has not given his 40-hour work week. He has not given his safety. His has not given his next meal. He has not given "all [he] had to live on." I will applaud much louder and even stand up and shout for the people who do.
Really? Thanks for the heads up. I just assumed the new "lite" DS would be, well, lighter.
For something around the size of the PSP, I prefer the PSP. Yeah, I know a lot of Slashdotters disagree, but that's what the word "preference" is all about:-).
What I'd really like to see is something around the quality of the PSP or DS (nice, clear 3D graphics and gameplay) but in a form factor mor suitable to carry around all the time. The DS and PSP size portables are really more suitable for someplace you know you'll be waiting, like a doctor's office or a plane trip. They're not really suitable to be carried with you at all times.
The GBA Micro breaks this mold. It's more like an iPod for games, as far as it's always with you utility is concerned. If I had a lot of interest in GBA games, I'd buy one. Too bad that's just not my thing.
Actually, Mini DVD's are CD-sized media that are formatted to hold video. It wouldn't be appropriate for a handheld device. You're probably thinking about cDVD's, sometimes called 3-inch DVD's. They hold somewhat less than a UMD (1.4GB vs. 1.8GB) but might have been considered, if piracy weren't an issue.
I guess it depends on whoyouask, but yes, I was thinking of the 3" verion that holds 1.4GB.
1.4GB would have been fine as far as size is concerned, but, then again, SD cards would have been fine as far as flash memory is concerned. Sony like to go it's own way with this stuff. And just many large Memory Sticks and pre-recorded videos would have been sold if everyone could have inexpensively burned their on-the-go music and video's to inexpensive 3" DVDs?
Piracy was probably an issue, but a small one. Making money reselling 512MB Memory Sticks and HellBoy were probably more important. After all, wouldn't you still have piracy on an MS?
Slot loaders: you're probably right. I'd like to add though that the potential to get gunk in your drive is also pretty high when a full third of the back of your device pops open to insert a UMD.
I'm a PSP owner. I love it, but the thing is big. I've looked at the GBA Micro with quite a bit of envy because of it's small size, but it doesn't have the type of games I prefer to play (read:3d). I've ignored the DS because the device was relatively large as well and I prefered what the PSP offered for that kind of size (that screen is awesome. really.).
This announcement actually gives me reason to look again at the DS. If they would have made it even smaller (think micro) I'd be ready to plunk down my money right now. I personally don't think the DS can match the PSP in offering a console-style gaming experience, but I can part with some greenbacks for something light and fun. Now if only it would play my mp3s....
If not UMD, what? Attach a portable DVD drive to the unit?
Um, yeah. Mini-DVDs(think of the tiny CDs you sometimes see) would have been a great choice. They could have even saved a little space in the console by not using a carrier and making the discs slot loading. It would have saved space for the end-user carrying the discs around as well.
I'm not against UMD. It's certainly no worse than using a proprietery cartridge like Nintendo does. But DVD would have been prefferable.
The PS2 did very well for me, but the PSP has left me cold (and thus unpurchased).
I'm seriously disapointed to see every PSP-related article start with a post similar to this.
This article is about a new type of media that hasn't previously been tried. I'd love to see more people comment on this new thing and leave their overall opinion of the PSP for a more appropriate place.
Slashdot Mirror
World of Warcraft wasn't designed to teach you anything. It was designed to entertain you.
True, but for the exact same reasons as TFA, I don't feel very entertained by the values in WOW. I've avoided MMOGs like the plague because I so thouroughly dislike the fact that someone who spends more time on the game can whip my butt even though we both have the same skill.
When I play Unreal Tournament or Counter Strike, we all start the same. Though it's true that most players who've played alot will be more skillful, the fact is that their skill is in their own head and reflexes, not stored up in some 60th level ass-kicker of a character.
Imagine if were playing sand-lot baseball and one of the neighborhood kids showed up with his baseball-playing robot that has all the skills of Barry Bonds. Personally, I'd tell the kid to fuck off. But what if I couldn't get rid fo the kid because baseball was structured so that everyone got to bring their kick-ass robots any time they want? Well I'd say that the people who claim to be "playing baseball" aren't really playing baseball at all. They may, in fact, be competing at building robots or growing robots or earning money until they can buy the best robot, but they are not playing baseball.
When I show up to PLAY video GAMES, I want to play the game that's on the screan and I want to be playing against the skill of the other player. When I get in a sword fight, I don't want to lose to someones "skill" at buying a great character on e-bay. That, to me, is not "fun"
Life lessons be damned. I just want to play a real game. To me, WOW doesn't count.
TW
Since AAC is an integral part of the MPEG4 standard, and since MPEG4 seems to be gaining momentum in standalone devices, I would think that support for AAC would be a lot more widespread in the future.
Well that's definately something to look forward to for the future, which is, after all, the focus of the article, but right now MP3 is king for anyone who wants portability. Though there are now two iPods in my family, there's also a Windows smartphone. I refuse to lock myself out of future hardware purchases simply because I want a smaller file size.
But how will I know when the future arrives? I don't personally do P2P, but gimmee a call when you notice most of the trading is in AACs. My sense is we have quite a long way to go.
TW
That made me laugh. I do that stuff all the time :-)
The article states that $900 is the cost to Sony. It won't cost that retail, they always take a hit. The original Xbox cost more to make, than it sold for. It's called a loss leader, look it up.
Then someone, probably many someones, are smoking crack.
Explain to me how Sony is going to make up $400 per console on average if it costs them $900 and they sell for $500? A loss leader is not some magical thing where you sell a $900 item for half price and make a profit. The way it works is that you somehow manage to make more than the cost of the item through some other kind of sales. My question to you is: give me some kind of business model where Sony is going to make $400 bucks per console off some other kind of sales? Put another way, that's about 7 games. If the games cost nothing to make and Sony took home 100% of the profit, they'd have to sell 7 games for each console to break even.
Sony is participating in a mature business where it is the market leader. Market leaders don't give away very much in order to gain market share, because they already have market share. They're in the business to make a profit. They may, in fact make more of a profit off blades than razors, but they won't give away a razor that costs them more than they can make in blades.
That said, TFA is counting costs from a place that is not based in reality. As the IP owner and manufacturer of the Blue-Ray drive, it will not cost Sony anywhere clos to $350 to manufacture a drive and put itinto a Playstation. Their R&D and manufacturing facilities costs can not be put into a per-unit cost in the same way as if they were buying the drives from Toshiba. You can make any kind of argument you want here about 3-year right-offs and the like, but the fact is that those dollars are in reallity going into a whole industy and not just the PS3. Claiming the Blue-Ray drive as a $350 manufacturing cost of the PS3 is like claiming it costs $350 per unit to manufacture Windows Vista. You may be able to cook the numbers that way, but that kind of per-unit cost just isn't relevant to this particular kind of manufacturing.
I would be happy with a bigger screen :-) There's pleny of space and it would make eye-candy fans like me plenty happy.
So many places i know now are running blackberry and so many people i know have blackberry devices i think it will take a long time if it ever does occur for people to switch over to Windows SmartPhones.
Depending on the situation, it will take a much shorter time to switch to Windows Smartphones.
Consider the scenerio where you have an Exchange 2003 Server with an Outlook Web Access (webmail) front end server. Lots of companies either currently have this scenrio or have a similar Exchange 2000 scenerio and will upgrade in a couple of years.. If you have this scenrio, turning on Exchange Active Sync, the technology that makes this happen, is an afternoon of work. Period. It's done. There are no extra licenses, no extra software and no extra infrastruture. Getting approval for it will be increadibly easy, because it carries about the same risks asthe OWA server you're already running.
Now consider you have the exact same scenerio, but also a Blackberry server. It's still painless to turn on EAS, so having the two work side by side is easy. You can have Smartphones and Blackberry offered to your employees. But if you already have EAS and don't have a Blackberry server, how are you going to convince your boss to pony up the cash for Blakberry?
In short, since EAS is "free" (as in "you already paid for it, but didn't know it at the time"), you're far more likely to deploy it than the "expensive" Blackberry server. Thus, MS wins again.
TW
Full disclosure: I've implimented an EAS solution at my company and currently have an Audiovox SMT5600 Windows Smartphone. The Syncing is awesome, though I find myself restarting my phone periodically, something I never had to do with my old Nokias. I've never owned a Blackberry, though the few times I've played with one convinced me they're a fine solution.
Remember, these are the same fuckers that sued the Boy Scounts over a red cross on their "Emergency Preparedness" merit badge; the cross is now green, and has been since 1980.
Wow. The folks who provide humanitarian aid and save lives around the world are "fuckers."
a. They're protecting a trademark.
b. They're protecting a reputation.
c. That reputation is saving lives in an internationally lawful and humanitarian manner.
d. Their reputation is not blowing people away for any reason whatsoever, including your own troops, prisoners, etc, then getting healed up real quick to do the same thing all over again.
Na, I don't think "fuckers" is quite the word I'd use.
Now I like playing video games and I sure don't mind that the you can do things like those outlined in "d" above, but I can understand why an org like this would object to me using their symbol along the way.
TW
This is true, but perceptions can change. AMD has migrated from the "lesser quality" alternative to Intel for many people into a "high quality" alternative. Gas companies have been largely unsuccessful at convincing motorists that their additives make their gas superior, and thus worth the higher price.
Perceptions also change because of, well, perception. If Bob buys his first Blue-Ray disc and can't tell the difference between that and a DVD, there's a good chance he won't continue to buy Blue-Ray. I was never able to perceive the difference with Superbit, so I saved my money. A guy was posting about headphones earlier in the weak, and it turns out my audio perception is much better than his because I'd have no problems buying $100+ headphones while he complained about spending more than $20.
If Blue-Ray makes the difference I think it will (DVD does not look that great on modern HDTVs) then I think they'll have little difficulty convincing the public that it's the superior product and worth the money. But if their eyeballs cant tell the difference, that marketing campaign will only go so far.
TW
The first photo on this page confirms something I've alwasy suspected about the DS and never really liked about it. There's a lot of empy space. IMO, empty space on a portable is a bad thing. It should either be filled up with some more good stuff or eliminated. I think that's one of the reasons the ipods are so popular; they have all the stuff you need, and none of the stuff you don't.
TW
Family. Hobby. Job. Any time one starts to lose out to the others you should start to worry. Life needs to find a ballance.
My job is actually too stimulating at the moment. I'd take a small pay cut to find a less interesting one.
TW
Jeez, why make it so damn complicated. Who needs to show off their headphones at work?
I'm not too sure he's trying to show off. In fact, I suspect he's actually looking for good sound. My first clue was when he wrote "What I'm looking for is a set of headphones with (1) good sound in a wide variety of music..." My second clue was when he said he was looking for "headphones" which are typically used for personal listening as opposed to "giant speakers," which are often used to compare manhood.
My final clue was his opening sentence "In a ever increasing sea of white-earbuds in my office, I broke from the mainstream and recently purchased the iAudio X5..." This suggested to me that he was not as interested in what his officemates thought as much as he was interested in what he liked. I really don't think this meets the definition of "showing off."
TW
I happen to have games in all these genres. Really.
-Monster Truck Madness
-Midtown Madness
-Crimson Sky
-Return to Castle Wolfenstien
-I forget the name of the Vietnam game
Although none of these games is actually offensive to the Japanese people, it would be easy to think the last two items were meant as an off color joke. Even if it were, I'm sure it wouldn't be quite as off-color as EA games pitting Americans against the Chinese and all Arab nations in Battlefield two (which I actually enjoy, even as I cringe at the choice of enemies).
TW
I really don't see why some people in this article are trying to insert national pride as a conversation point. I consider it wholly off-topic, Total_Wimp.
It wasn't meant to be nationalistic so much as an expression that, just as Japanese games have a flavor, American games also have a flavor and that flavor needs it's own saluting.
Slashdotters often comment on how much they love things Japanese. Great. No, really, I'm glad you're happy with your choices. But I think the flavor of American games should be recognized as well, not just as genre or nationalism, but by being games especially suited to the taste of the American consumer.
America is steak, Japan is sushi. Why do people associate these foods this way? Japanese people have some of the best steak in the world. I eat sushi regularly, and I love it. But America is steak and Japan is sushi. These things are the flavor of our unique cultures and should be celebrated and respected.
Don't play American games out of a Jingoistic, flag-waving, made-in-America superiority complex. Play them because you like them (if you like them) and don't be afraid to say, "I like them because they appeal to my American tastes." Be proud of who you are.
BTW, if you don't like American games, you wear crushed velvet, you sit down when you pee, and you LOVE broccoli, well, that's alright too. Seriously. Be proud of who you are. Being proud doesn't have to be (and shouldn't be) an exclusionary thing.
TW
Amen! There are Japanese games that I love but also whole genre's that I just cant stand. Final Fantasy, any fighting game, any virtual pet, any dancing game, especially those with songs about butterflies; all of these just make me want to curl up in a ball with my hands over my ears.
I hear a lot about how the Xbox does poorly in Japan because the games aren't designed with the taste of the Japanese consumer in mind. Well what about the tastes of the American consumer? I like first person shooters and real-time strategy. I like women with hour-glass figures and sultry voices rather than whiny little girls. I want to shoot every critter on the screen and save all my petting for the afore mentioned hour-glass figured women.
Trucks! Muscle cars! Planes! World-War II! Vietnam!
Ok, I do like a lot of Japanese games, but I do not share their tastes in general. I love Monty Python, but I do not eat spotted dick. French bread is great, but you won't ever see me in a beret (or acting like a mime). Yes, the Japanese DO make some good games, but come on people, try to be just a little proud of who you are. If you're American then say it proud: id, Blizzard, Valve and even EA put out some of the most kick-ass games on the planet. 'nuff said.
TW
I don't understand exactly what the point of this is on Slashdot. It's clear that Bill and pals wrote software and expected people to buy it. It's clear that many people pirated that software. It's clear that this made Bill unhappy.
Bill didn't and doesn't want to give his software away. He's well within both his ethical and legal rights to charge for his software. Those who copy and sell his software without his permission are breaking the law and Bill is pointing that out.
I'm missing the "infamous" portion of this entirely.
TW
I do not steal from Steven King when I buy a used copy of one of his books.
I do not steal from James Brown when I buy a used CD.
No publisher or author has the right to tell me what I can or cannot do with a product I have paid them for.
First and second line: Absolutely correct.
Last line: Incorrect.
If you purchase a CD, you do not have the right to play that music at your restaurant where dozens of patrons can listen to it while they eat. This is considered a public performance and you must pay a seperate fee to do it.
Of course we all know that you can't legaly make a copy of it and then sell that copy without approval of the author.
I realize your point that there should be no restrictions on resale and almost certainly there is currently no legal restriction. But it's important that we understand how our rights are already limited so we can make informed arguments for preserving the few rights we currenlty have. If we know exactly what the current restrictions are, then we have a better shot at making sure that list doesn't grow.
The fact that they can tell you not to make copies does not mean that they can tell you not to sell the copy you have. Us showing them that we understand this short circuits one of their biggest arguments, that we're a bunch of pirates who want no restrictions at all.
TW
Ok, rechargable AA or AAA batteries are not exactly the bees knees, but do you really think the alternative of having a battery that is not user-servicable is better? I'm assuming you're the kind of person who would find a way to replace a non-replaceable battery, but what's your advice for the more technically average user? Buy a new Shuffle when your battery fails?
Apple sold 32 million iPods last year out of a total of 42 million sold since they origionally lauched the first iPod. These are no longer going to early adopters, but rather average folk interested in mainstream products. These are the kind of folks who expect their TV or their Playstation to last 4 to 5 years at least. In two years when all these batteries are going belly up, these folks are gonna be pissed that their only battery replacement option costs as much as it will.
Since when are standard AAA batteries a positive argument when comparing mp3 players?
Based on my last battery pricecheck, you have bought roughly the equivalent of 47 iPod Shuffles just in battery replacement alone over the last 12 months.
You do know they make rechargable AAA batteries, right? But did you also know that when those rechargable AAA batteries stop holding a charge that you can then buy completely new batteries and keep your existing MP3 player?
I just made a credit card purchase of $68.00, not counting shipping to apple to get my daughters 20GB iPod batteries replaced. I'd have much prefered to stop by the Best Buy and spend less than $20 to replace 4 AA nicads.
iPods are nice, but their batteries are a liability. This is not the sort of thing you should be defending.
TW
It's also possible that kids who enjoy street racing might be fond of a street racing video game, instead of two video game fanatics that decided to start street racing after the latest Gran Turismo came out.
This is quite insightful. The same thing happened to my cousin. His mom tried to take away his copy of Grand Theft Auto thinking it was ruining his life but she didn't realize he was really a powerful mob boss who just liked playing the game because it reminded him of his job.
TW
Bill gates is extraordinarily generous for someone as wealthy as he is. He not only has given an astounding percentage of his wealth, but I understand he spends a lot of time researching causes so that his money finds those who he feals have a speacial need. I applaude him.
But he has not given his 40-hour work week. He has not given his safety. His has not given his next meal. He has not given "all [he] had to live on." I will applaud much louder and even stand up and shout for the people who do.
TW
Really? Thanks for the heads up. I just assumed the new "lite" DS would be, well, lighter.
:-).
For something around the size of the PSP, I prefer the PSP. Yeah, I know a lot of Slashdotters disagree, but that's what the word "preference" is all about
What I'd really like to see is something around the quality of the PSP or DS (nice, clear 3D graphics and gameplay) but in a form factor mor suitable to carry around all the time. The DS and PSP size portables are really more suitable for someplace you know you'll be waiting, like a doctor's office or a plane trip. They're not really suitable to be carried with you at all times.
The GBA Micro breaks this mold. It's more like an iPod for games, as far as it's always with you utility is concerned. If I had a lot of interest in GBA games, I'd buy one. Too bad that's just not my thing.
TW
Actually, Mini DVD's are CD-sized media that are formatted to hold video. It wouldn't be appropriate for a handheld device. You're probably thinking about cDVD's, sometimes called 3-inch DVD's. They hold somewhat less than a UMD (1.4GB vs. 1.8GB) but might have been considered, if piracy weren't an issue.
I guess it depends on who you ask, but yes, I was thinking of the 3" verion that holds 1.4GB.
1.4GB would have been fine as far as size is concerned, but, then again, SD cards would have been fine as far as flash memory is concerned. Sony like to go it's own way with this stuff. And just many large Memory Sticks and pre-recorded videos would have been sold if everyone could have inexpensively burned their on-the-go music and video's to inexpensive 3" DVDs?
Piracy was probably an issue, but a small one. Making money reselling 512MB Memory Sticks and HellBoy were probably more important. After all, wouldn't you still have piracy on an MS?
Slot loaders: you're probably right. I'd like to add though that the potential to get gunk in your drive is also pretty high when a full third of the back of your device pops open to insert a UMD.
TW
I'm a PSP owner. I love it, but the thing is big. I've looked at the GBA Micro with quite a bit of envy because of it's small size, but it doesn't have the type of games I prefer to play (read:3d). I've ignored the DS because the device was relatively large as well and I prefered what the PSP offered for that kind of size (that screen is awesome. really.).
This announcement actually gives me reason to look again at the DS. If they would have made it even smaller (think micro) I'd be ready to plunk down my money right now. I personally don't think the DS can match the PSP in offering a console-style gaming experience, but I can part with some greenbacks for something light and fun. Now if only it would play my mp3s....
TW
If not UMD, what? Attach a portable DVD drive to the unit?
Um, yeah. Mini-DVDs(think of the tiny CDs you sometimes see) would have been a great choice. They could have even saved a little space in the console by not using a carrier and making the discs slot loading. It would have saved space for the end-user carrying the discs around as well.
I'm not against UMD. It's certainly no worse than using a proprietery cartridge like Nintendo does. But DVD would have been prefferable.
TW
The PS2 did very well for me, but the PSP has left me cold (and thus unpurchased).
I'm seriously disapointed to see every PSP-related article start with a post similar to this.
This article is about a new type of media that hasn't previously been tried. I'd love to see more people comment on this new thing and leave their overall opinion of the PSP for a more appropriate place.
Thanks,
TW