What stinks the most with eBay is that now sellers can sell their items at fixed price. It sorts of defeats the purpose of auctioning an item.
if now sellers do shill bidding eBay should simply remove the auctioning possibility and just call themselves eFleamarket or something.
But they're much too happy selling at a high price with shill bidding or even higher when the item is rare.
meh...
The only good thing about eBay is the possibility of finding rare/no-longer in production items. That's probably i still go from time to time even when i know i pay more than what its worth.
Not that i dont enjoy them (on the very contrary!) but franchises should never last past 3 or 4 games because they always get worst each time.
A good recipe for a game only works for so long then you need to whip out a new one. I know there are are franchises that just won't die like mega man, dynasty warriors and Final fantasy but then I have to remind you that these games now don't provide nearly as much fun as they did when they began. mind you, FF did evolve with its latest installment.
I've read elsewhere tho that some franchises died too soon, like Wing Commander, or privateer...
please! make a privateer mmog (and don't fuck it up the way turbine fucked dungeons & dragons! or the way sony fucked star wars)
oh eh, you're pumping numbers with air here, making them big balloons.
>> it's the number of people affected according to record. indeed.
>> Let's see, 1 million Wii consoles times, say, 1 million ? now where does that come from ? You only need 10 names to be entitled to a class action.
so let's retake that equation...
10 * 30 = $300 + say... $100 in damage and interest per claimant, that's $1,000 in addition to the $300 for replacements
so what we're saying here is that a class action can range from anywhere between $300 to $300m
but to make it $300m you need 1 million people, that's a LOT of people and an online petition will not do because you need their signature.
Of course big class action suits = big payoff for the lawyer (if he wins), you wanna know why ? because that's a lot of work, especially when the case is incertain. Just getting everyone to sign can be a pain and that's before the suit actually begins. Free work!
Shall i start accounting a VERY rough estimate for that kind of work ? always starting with a million claimants here... *cracks fingers* *whips out calculator*
- Take the time to actually meet the people and convince them to sign I'm gonna put a low average of 5 minutes here. as in everything with some people it takes more time and with some it takes less. so 1/20 * 1,000,000 = 50,000 hours of work ACK!
eek... just getting the signature is 50,000 of work. add with that a very low hourly fee for a lawyer of $100 and you've got a cost of $500,000 BEFORE the lawyer even begins filing a suit. Add to that countless sleepless night revising that, ordering it, documenting it, registering all that and you end up with a TON of work and you're not even started with the suit.
Ok, so the suit is accepted, now what ?
then start adding all the court audition you gotta go to, keep track of, listen to other attorneys, do more research as they will try to break your claim. and god knows in big trials like this it takes time.
but let's say.... a total of 60 days. not in a straight line nor contiguous. merely an average of 8 hours of work per day would mean the whole thing required 480 hours of actual work during the process.
480 * 100 = $48,000 being the actual lawyer fee.
what you dont seem to realize is that the lawyer takes all the risk here. BECAUSE he is on percentage, if he doesn't win, he gets nada, sometimes he gets a base fee but that's rarely the case because usually people agree on percentage fees because they can't afford lawyer fees to begin with.
I'm not saying 25% is right (its a lot) but you should know that percentages are always set in proportion with the work required to even get the settlement sought.
and, like i said at the beginning, you're puffing numbers here. In real life this is not the bulk of the work, more often than not, those you see in the papers and tv do not represent the rest (Jack Thompson anyone ??)
Those lawyers you mention that lives in beverly hills or other fancy places like that, they're not the majority, that's obvious otherwise everyone would be a lawyer.
Its very hard to be a lawyer, you make a lot of enemies and it is a lot of work. I'm not saying lawyers poor people, deserving pity and whatever. of course not!
im repeating myself here but you can't put all class action in the same basket just as much as you can't put all lawyers in the same basket.
Lawyers make a decent living but not because they charge excruciating fees but rather because they are fairly few of them but a big demand. why are there so few lawyers ? because its hard and nerve racking.
lawyers have one of the highest burnout rate, did you know ? All people see about lawyers is the guy in court spitting accusation and wearing a nice robe but i can assure you there's a lot more to it than it seems.
that kind of makes me laugh but since you're touching my line of work I feel compelled to at least specify that most lawyers do not act and/or sue people on their own good will or for their own profit for that matter.
A lawyer requires a client with a problem to act. A client comes, enquires about something bugging them and the lawyer offers advices on the course of action. Not always but sometimes it ends up in a suit against a company or a person. I should also point out that the lawyer does not decide of the settlement the client seeks, that's entirely up to the client, he may however give his own opinion on the amount the settlement should be. Believe it or not, most of the time, the lawyer advise for a lower settlement simply because most of the time the case isn't big enough to justify a big settlement (talking about $100,000+ here).
also, greedy lawyer is hardly right, the lawyer really gets a SMALL fraction of the settlement. In long and hard cases, sometimes the lawyer will agree with its client to take a percentage of the settlement rather than a fixed hourly rate (more common). When that happens, the lawyer may receive more IF 1) he wins the case and 2) the judge agrees on the settlement (he may revise it down himself).
You would be surprised how little money a lawyer gets compared to what his/her clients gets.
You did read correctly, nintendo did a massive recall to replace the straps.
That being said, that doesn't mean anyone isn't allowed to sue them for the damage "suffered" because of the strap.
But because the class action suit is valid doesn't mean its got a winning case. It means someone, somewhere is willing to spend big bucks trying to get bigger bucks in the name of every people who punched a hole in their wall, or tv or window...etc.
Its a fact that everywhere where there's a fault, there will be someone to get compensation/money for it. Why class action and not sue in your own name ? because it multiplies the damage, thus, the compensation receivable from Nintendo.
I don't really agree with it but that doesn't mean its not valid.
The biggest debate in court will be to determine whether the original wii strap was really defective or if Wii users have been abusive in such a way that the Wii strap could not handle the stress.
Then they're gonna debate about what is "abusive use". What is the nature of the abuse ? too much conviction while playing ? Then what about those PS2 button masher games where we have to press faster (and ultimately harder) on the buttons ? Could Sony have predicted its users would be so hard on the remotes ? i know i bought at least 3 new remote controllers for my PS2 because they broke overtime.
the defendant will have to prove that its remote control was used in an abusive manner and they're gonna have to justify that if they think its abusive to begin with, why they agree to recall all the straps ?
and the guy who's suing will have to prove that the wiimote is defective to begin with.
Zune is losing money ? struggling since it release?
Fear not! next year, microsoft will release zune 2007... (codename zune 270) which will feature, amongst other things, a fulyl digital and skinnable interface to fit american "big-thumbs" customers and asian "children pinky" fingers!
though, despite all the technological improvement, much of the zune 270's success relies on Apple's failure to deliver its iPod HyperNano on time and with matching techno breakthrus.
during that time, SanDisk has been known to be working on a revolutional mp3 player allowing its user to control his playlist with his sight using goggles for UI. Alpha test reports lots damaged lamp posts and broken noses.
I never really understood why anyone give a rat's ass about where we come from ?
What difference is it gonna make in your life now ? or in the future ?
Is it gonna change the way we evolve if we think its done otherwise ?
I took christian religion courses all of my youth at school and that never stopped me from turning into an atheist.
IMO, people suing the state for things like that aren't in it for the greater good of the populate (or the evolution for that matter) they're much more in it for comforting their own ego by trying to think about the children.
But you know what, once these children grow into adults, if Darwin is what they like to think that's what they're gonna think... and vice versa so why go and try to make a fuss to convince the world your theory is much better.
>>when a huge multi-national corporation doesn't tell the truth, that's called marketing .
i see where you are going but i need to remind you that deception is as much a category of lies as it is a category of marketing.
deception is an adjective of marketing as in "Sony has used deceptive marketing techniques for its PSP"
in the same way, you could say "Joe has deceived his girlfriend by telling her he did not have an affair with his Linux box". See ? it doesn't matter just how bad or wacko joe is, he lied in a deceptive manner so that his girlfriend would believe what she found on the screen is in fact banana pudding.
>>Even by Zonk standards, this is some impressive spinning -- it's not a defect, it's just that the fantasticness of the Wii is so all-encompassing that the designers couldn't have anticipated how much players would love it!
Ok, point well taken. But in the end, the judge has to apply what call in french "GBS" or "Gros bon sens" - which would best translate as "common sense".
Even in Kazaa never said it was illegal to download/share copyrighted music, its the user's responsability to determine whether his/her actions are liable or not. Kazaa is nothing but a tool, a mean to justify the end. The key point here would be to be able to prove that she was in fact unaware of the legal implications behind sharing MP3s. If it can be proved out of any reasonable doubt that she was unaware then maybe kazaa could be held liable in some way - and that wouldnt be strong enough to make it class action and claim that none of all the users knew it was illegal.
Its like saying, your honor, I know i shot a man, but i didnt know it would kill him, where on the bullet is it said that its lethal ?
Or the shoplifter saying, your honor, i know i did carry a digital camera out of store but i just wanted to try it, the store never said it was illegal.
just where do you draw the line when talking about common knowledge and assuming the guy knows it ?
This is precisely why the U.S. justice system is broken.
Seriously, does she really expects us to believe that she did not know it was illegal, that she could get sued over it ? Seriously ? Nah, she knew full well but much like everyone doing this, we just assume RIAA is not gonna come for regular people like us because its not worth it.
So now she does get sued and she says, was that illegal ? oh im sorry, Kazaa never said that! *pointing finger* damn you Kazaa, you got me in trouble. Now, not only will I sue you but I'll sue you on behalf of all people who didn't know (whisper:this way i can get more money)
But just because the system allows it, tons of folks are suing each other for stupid reasons and to make a quick buck.
My wife is a lawyer and I once asked her why we seldom see these things happening in canada. That's because the justice is different in that here, to win a cause you need a damage, a fault and the correlation between the two. Most of the time, people cannot make a strong argument in the "correlation between the two" part and the case ends there.
a developer usually doesn't have to spend THAT much more time making a UI that works everywhere, as long as its known from the start.
Usually the browser support drops right about when the boss starts giving in to all the bells and whistles features the client wants.
All usual, its always a game of give and take. and there's always a point where it costs too much in terms of development time to do it all so you narrow it down to FF and IE for instance.
but, most of the time, it is feasible to deliver a good ui that works on all modern browsers in a reasonable way so that it satisfies the client, satisfies (most) W3C requirements and dont take too much time to do.
That's because most of the time we fail to explain to the client the importance of not putting the UI on the backburner.
IE allows to develop a page rapidly and make it look pretty in IE only. I actually suspect MS to have done a lot of work to find out how most developers work, find out how they'd want to do things and then make IE to allow them to do that. Who cares if it standard or not.
That's how you develop IE-dependency, have developers be able to get their work done faster and force them to put a "best viewed in IE" label on their page.
Most of the time, a client wont be willing to let you spend 20 hours on the UI. so the dev wants to make a cheap and dirty UI but with the functionality the client wants.
its also part of the reason why tables are so popular (or css less so), its because its so easy and straightforward to work with.
ive been in the area for more or less 10 years now and it always makes me damn when i hear my bosses not explaining properly that a better ui means better usability and a broader audience (more $$$ for the client).
But that is still the reality of things and as long as CSS is not as easy and quick to work with as tables are, people are gonna go for tables or IE-only css sites.
meh, mea culpa, i've thought there was somekind of internal PM system but apparently not.
but the point of what im saying is that it depends on which side of the choir you're standing.
you wanna know why im saying its bold and early ?
first reason is because for a long time people always suspected the Wii would be good just because of the Wiimote but no one thought it would win. always placing consoles in these order (depending on what's their preferate console)
in every article ive read, journalist and users have placed the Wii as a happy 3rd or happy 2nd. that they would not win because they were appealing to a different market of gamers and yada yada yada.
it was seen as a "family console" (which it is) and that it would not appeal to more hardcore/regular gamers.
but it turns out that it does, it offers a different style of play that appeals to just about anyone, which isnt completely the case of the two others.
I'm saying its bold and early also because that hasnt really begun yet. 360 has been in place for some time and has a lead but PS3 and Wii just got out on the market. Wii isnt completely set up yet and neither is the PS3, struggling with a few hardware failures and also trying to catch up with the demand.
The war will really begin when all 3 consoles are ready for a war.
on a totally personal side of things, it always annoy me when a random/.'er seems to be upset by my personal opinion on things and takes time to post a message with no facts, no nothing, just his own opinion saying im actually wrong... but how can i be wrong when im stating my personal feeling on a situation.
its not like i was saying something like "based on a study by 1up.com, it appears that Wii will win because it has captured 40% of the user base after one week while the PS3 is suffering from a very sluggish start and the 2500 360 powersupply exploded this week". (which is all totally made up btw)
so here i am saying i think Wii will win based on my personal feeling and another/.'er jumps in and tells me i shouldnt feel that way or that at least i should keep it for myself because X amount of other people already thinks like me ? WTH ??
I mean.... dang, we should all tell the linux users to stop saying linux is better than windows because...we already know its better.
We also know that IE is as secure as a swiss cheese so why make a fuss of it everytime we hear about yet another hole ? does it matter how many holes a swiss cheese has ?
its not like i was bashing someone else. i just read that EA is gonna open a new studio just for the Wii and think something like "cool, wii is gaining some importance".
That about sums up why i classify as flaming/troll to come up and post that my post was in fact illegitimate since it has already been mentioned hundreds of time (?)
heh, if you oppose my message and feel like flaming me, feel free to send me a private message where I'll be happy to explain that if havent read all what other/. fanboy say (which i havent) then from my point of view, it is still early and bold.
The fact that you peruse all/. comments and note that there is a tendency doesnt make it any less early and/or bold for me.
if you feel my response is too fanboyish feel free to PM me where we'll be able to spare the/. community the rest of the petty talk.
I'm making a bold early statement here but I predict the Wii will end up largely winner of this third gen console war, not because its powerful but because its so goddamn fun and innovative.
First, I'll remind you that MS, *because* they were there first is now the biggest computer-related company. Gates also happens to be in the top 5 of the richest man - not sure if he is or not the richest man.
I had wish you had taken another example than MS because i dont like the way they do things but you cannot take away the fact that whatever they did succeeded : The got the user base. meaning anyone wanting to get a PC now gets a PC with windows. Not so true in these days but back when the PC market was beginning to explode, who do you think was there to reap the profit with their "Disk Operating System" ? - then later with windows. Being a pioneer does pay. I'm not going to speak about how they acquired DOS or even how they acquired other company because im not sure i agree with all their tactics. BUT they were there first and they reaped all the benefits when people understood just how much a PC is useful. Then they made money with licensing and training so that developers could create applications that would run on their platform. because developers wants the largest user base possible. its not for an obscure reason that most companies do not develop games for linux - not because linux suck (IT DOES NOT!!!) but beacuse it doesnt offer a large user base like windows - not profitable. not something MS would have achieved by just watching torvalds open the way.
everyone that responded to my post seem to think early means crappy or even faulty - but thats not true. just think about..what was it... ID Software . they came up with a new genre of game : 1st person shooter with wolfenstein. Tremendous success right there. But not only because it was a new genre, but because the game was good. Then they made millions afterward with not only doom/heretic and rot but also by selling their 3d engine to other companies. they also made a bunch of cash for being paid to train other people to use their very own engine.
I'm repeating myself but online content, downloadable content is here to stay, it has already proven its here to stay with all the consoles going online, with the hundreds of millions blizzard made with WoW, Warcraft and their XP, Diablo and the XPs...Starcraft. what about bioware ?? and the NWN online community constantly revamping the game. NWN is SO much a better game with all the latest addition (and XPs)
As i stated in an earlier response, im very surprised that Rare even classified that as a risk because online gaming, updatable content is exactly what's in lately. just you wait until they come up with DDR on the PS3 where you can download new songs, and then tell me if downloadable content is any risk at all.
but these... they're gonna work because they're good to begin with, and its what i keep telling, the game has got to be good to begin with. so, Rare, take your time, make a good game, solid. Then let me download fun stuff that will get me playing your game again and again.
Downloadable content doesn't necessarily means unfinished/unpolished content - it means episodic content. Are you gonna tell me that all MMOs out there are in fact botched products only rushed out to make a buck ?
i think not.
downloadable content is only the "online" version of single player/offline games.
If you look at it, downloadable content just means "make money in the same business model MMOs do".
I don't even see why its called a risk to begin with. They don't call it World of Warcrack for nothing, it works. you buy a game for 20ish bucks. you play the basic version for a few hours then, if you like it, you buy the next module/ unlock other character / new music / new art for the game. its really really basic and working already.
BUT! you need a good game to begin with, thats why a lot of MMOs are not making a lot of money, they're not good enough.
And like i said in the beginning, downloadable content doesnt mean botching your product, it means releasing a solid base game and focusing all the resources on keeping the player base and creating good downloadable content.
Slashdot Mirror
What stinks the most with eBay is that now sellers can sell their items at fixed price. It sorts of defeats the purpose of auctioning an item.
if now sellers do shill bidding eBay should simply remove the auctioning possibility and just call themselves eFleamarket or something.
But they're much too happy selling at a high price with shill bidding or even higher when the item is rare.
meh...
The only good thing about eBay is the possibility of finding rare/no-longer in production items. That's probably i still go from time to time even when i know i pay more than what its worth.
Not that i dont enjoy them (on the very contrary!) but franchises should never last past 3 or 4 games because they always get worst each time.
A good recipe for a game only works for so long then you need to whip out a new one. I know there are are franchises that just won't die like mega man, dynasty warriors and Final fantasy but then I have to remind you that these games now don't provide nearly as much fun as they did when they began. mind you, FF did evolve with its latest installment.
I've read elsewhere tho that some franchises died too soon, like Wing Commander, or privateer...
please! make a privateer mmog (and don't fuck it up the way turbine fucked dungeons & dragons! or the way sony fucked star wars)
The things I do for my health ... *hic*
oh eh, you're pumping numbers with air here, making them big balloons.
... $100 in damage and interest per claimant, that's $1,000 in addition to the $300 for replacements
- lawyers-not-one-of-the-eight-best-careers/
>> it's the number of people affected according to record.
indeed.
>> Let's see, 1 million Wii consoles times, say,
1 million ? now where does that come from ? You only need 10 names to be entitled to a class action.
so let's retake that equation...
10 * 30 = $300 + say
so what we're saying here is that a class action can range from anywhere between $300 to $300m
but to make it $300m you need 1 million people, that's a LOT of people and an online petition will not do because you need their signature.
Of course big class action suits = big payoff for the lawyer (if he wins), you wanna know why ? because that's a lot of work, especially when the case is incertain. Just getting everyone to sign can be a pain and that's before the suit actually begins. Free work!
Shall i start accounting a VERY rough estimate for that kind of work ? always starting with a million claimants here...
*cracks fingers*
*whips out calculator*
- Take the time to actually meet the people and convince them to sign
I'm gonna put a low average of 5 minutes here. as in everything with some people it takes more time and with some it takes less.
so 1/20 * 1,000,000 = 50,000 hours of work ACK!
eek... just getting the signature is 50,000 of work. add with that a very low hourly fee for a lawyer of $100 and you've got a cost of $500,000 BEFORE the lawyer even begins filing a suit. Add to that countless sleepless night revising that, ordering it, documenting it, registering all that and you end up with a TON of work and you're not even started with the suit.
Ok, so the suit is accepted, now what ?
then start adding all the court audition you gotta go to, keep track of, listen to other attorneys, do more research as they will try to break your claim. and god knows in big trials like this it takes time.
but let's say.... a total of 60 days. not in a straight line nor contiguous. merely an average of 8 hours of work per day would mean the whole thing required 480 hours of actual work during the process.
480 * 100 = $48,000 being the actual lawyer fee.
what you dont seem to realize is that the lawyer takes all the risk here. BECAUSE he is on percentage, if he doesn't win, he gets nada, sometimes he gets a base fee but that's rarely the case because usually people agree on percentage fees because they can't afford lawyer fees to begin with.
I'm not saying 25% is right (its a lot) but you should know that percentages are always set in proportion with the work required to even get the settlement sought.
and, like i said at the beginning, you're puffing numbers here. In real life this is not the bulk of the work, more often than not, those you see in the papers and tv do not represent the rest (Jack Thompson anyone ??)
Those lawyers you mention that lives in beverly hills or other fancy places like that, they're not the majority, that's obvious otherwise everyone would be a lawyer.
Its very hard to be a lawyer, you make a lot of enemies and it is a lot of work. I'm not saying lawyers poor people, deserving pity and whatever. of course not!
im repeating myself here but you can't put all class action in the same basket just as much as you can't put all lawyers in the same basket.
Lawyers make a decent living but not because they charge excruciating fees but rather because they are fairly few of them but a big demand. why are there so few lawyers ? because its hard and nerve racking.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2006/07/11/careerjournal
lawyers have one of the highest burnout rate, did you know ? All people see about lawyers is the guy in court spitting accusation and wearing a nice robe but i can assure you there's a lot more to it than it seems.
that kind of makes me laugh but since you're touching my line of work I feel compelled to at least specify that most lawyers do not act and/or sue people on their own good will or for their own profit for that matter.
A lawyer requires a client with a problem to act. A client comes, enquires about something bugging them and the lawyer offers advices on the course of action. Not always but sometimes it ends up in a suit against a company or a person. I should also point out that the lawyer does not decide of the settlement the client seeks, that's entirely up to the client, he may however give his own opinion on the amount the settlement should be. Believe it or not, most of the time, the lawyer advise for a lower settlement simply because most of the time the case isn't big enough to justify a big settlement (talking about $100,000+ here).
also, greedy lawyer is hardly right, the lawyer really gets a SMALL fraction of the settlement. In long and hard cases, sometimes the lawyer will agree with its client to take a percentage of the settlement rather than a fixed hourly rate (more common). When that happens, the lawyer may receive more IF 1) he wins the case and 2) the judge agrees on the settlement (he may revise it down himself).
You would be surprised how little money a lawyer gets compared to what his/her clients gets.
You did read correctly, nintendo did a massive recall to replace the straps.
That being said, that doesn't mean anyone isn't allowed to sue them for the damage "suffered" because of the strap.
But because the class action suit is valid doesn't mean its got a winning case. It means someone, somewhere is willing to spend big bucks trying to get bigger bucks in the name of every people who punched a hole in their wall, or tv or window...etc.
Its a fact that everywhere where there's a fault, there will be someone to get compensation/money for it. Why class action and not sue in your own name ? because it multiplies the damage, thus, the compensation receivable from Nintendo.
I don't really agree with it but that doesn't mean its not valid.
The biggest debate in court will be to determine whether the original wii strap was really defective or if Wii users have been abusive in such a way that the Wii strap could not handle the stress.
Then they're gonna debate about what is "abusive use". What is the nature of the abuse ? too much conviction while playing ? Then what about those PS2 button masher games where we have to press faster (and ultimately harder) on the buttons ? Could Sony have predicted its users would be so hard on the remotes ? i know i bought at least 3 new remote controllers for my PS2 because they broke overtime.
the defendant will have to prove that its remote control was used in an abusive manner and they're gonna have to justify that if they think its abusive to begin with, why they agree to recall all the straps ?
and the guy who's suing will have to prove that the wiimote is defective to begin with.
since the article didn't offer one :
p ages/pha6017.htm
Its from Mayfair games :
http://www.mayfairgames.com/
and they use friggin frames so this is the best link i can give. using the main page you can find it in the a-z listing.
http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop/product/phalanx/
Zune is losing money ? struggling since it release?
... (codename zune 270) which will feature, amongst other things, a fulyl digital and skinnable interface to fit american "big-thumbs" customers and asian "children pinky" fingers!
Fear not! next year, microsoft will release zune 2007
though, despite all the technological improvement, much of the zune 270's success relies on Apple's failure to deliver its iPod HyperNano on time and with matching techno breakthrus.
during that time, SanDisk has been known to be working on a revolutional mp3 player allowing its user to control his playlist with his sight using goggles for UI. Alpha test reports lots damaged lamp posts and broken noses.
I never really understood why anyone give a rat's ass about where we come from ?
... and vice versa so why go and try to make a fuss to convince the world your theory is much better.
What difference is it gonna make in your life now ? or in the future ?
Is it gonna change the way we evolve if we think its done otherwise ?
I took christian religion courses all of my youth at school and that never stopped me from turning into an atheist.
IMO, people suing the state for things like that aren't in it for the greater good of the populate (or the evolution for that matter) they're much more in it for comforting their own ego by trying to think about the children.
But you know what, once these children grow into adults, if Darwin is what they like to think that's what they're gonna think
lol, you know what ? i thought i had it nailed down pretty good in my previous post, but i think i like your post better haha.
>>when a huge multi-national corporation doesn't tell the truth, that's called marketing .
i see where you are going but i need to remind you that deception is as much a category of lies as it is a category of marketing.
deception is an adjective of marketing as in "Sony has used deceptive marketing techniques for its PSP"
in the same way, you could say "Joe has deceived his girlfriend by telling her he did not have an affair with his Linux box". See ? it doesn't matter just how bad or wacko joe is, he lied in a deceptive manner so that his girlfriend would believe what she found on the screen is in fact banana pudding.
Syntaxatically yours,
Mr. Period.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/11/03
...to be saying this.
The difference between a beer ad with 20 naked women and the youtube thing is that the beer ad doesnt try to make you think its real.
What sony is doing is not called marketing, its called deception.
I wonder how many failed MMOs its gonna take before they leave good franchise alone ?
... please leave the classics alone so we can still enjoy them!
Pen & Paper D & D : Failure
Star Wars : Failure
LOTR : Failure (I know the MMO isnt out but so far all LOTR games arent all that good)
and know, they're hitting on firefly. *sigh*
If you're really hurting for a good MMO title, Give me Tradewars 2010 !
>>Even by Zonk standards, this is some impressive spinning -- it's not a defect, it's just that the fantasticness of the Wii is so all-encompassing that the designers couldn't have anticipated how much players would love it!
damn, that's a good post LOL
Ok, point well taken. But in the end, the judge has to apply what call in french "GBS" or "Gros bon sens" - which would best translate as "common sense".
Even in Kazaa never said it was illegal to download/share copyrighted music, its the user's responsability to determine whether his/her actions are liable or not. Kazaa is nothing but a tool, a mean to justify the end. The key point here would be to be able to prove that she was in fact unaware of the legal implications behind sharing MP3s. If it can be proved out of any reasonable doubt that she was unaware then maybe kazaa could be held liable in some way - and that wouldnt be strong enough to make it class action and claim that none of all the users knew it was illegal.
Its like saying, your honor, I know i shot a man, but i didnt know it would kill him, where on the bullet is it said that its lethal ?
Or the shoplifter saying, your honor, i know i did carry a digital camera out of store but i just wanted to try it, the store never said it was illegal.
just where do you draw the line when talking about common knowledge and assuming the guy knows it ?
This is precisely why the U.S. justice system is broken.
Seriously, does she really expects us to believe that she did not know it was illegal, that she could get sued over it ? Seriously ? Nah, she knew full well but much like everyone doing this, we just assume RIAA is not gonna come for regular people like us because its not worth it.
So now she does get sued and she says, was that illegal ? oh im sorry, Kazaa never said that! *pointing finger* damn you Kazaa, you got me in trouble. Now, not only will I sue you but I'll sue you on behalf of all people who didn't know (whisper:this way i can get more money)
But just because the system allows it, tons of folks are suing each other for stupid reasons and to make a quick buck.
My wife is a lawyer and I once asked her why we seldom see these things happening in canada. That's because the justice is different in that here, to win a cause you need a damage, a fault and the correlation between the two. Most of the time, people cannot make a strong argument in the "correlation between the two" part and the case ends there.
a developer usually doesn't have to spend THAT much more time making a UI that works everywhere, as long as its known from the start.
Usually the browser support drops right about when the boss starts giving in to all the bells and whistles features the client wants.
All usual, its always a game of give and take. and there's always a point where it costs too much in terms of development time to do it all so you narrow it down to FF and IE for instance.
but, most of the time, it is feasible to deliver a good ui that works on all modern browsers in a reasonable way so that it satisfies the client, satisfies (most) W3C requirements and dont take too much time to do.
That's because most of the time we fail to explain to the client the importance of not putting the UI on the backburner.
IE allows to develop a page rapidly and make it look pretty in IE only. I actually suspect MS to have done a lot of work to find out how most developers work, find out how they'd want to do things and then make IE to allow them to do that. Who cares if it standard or not.
That's how you develop IE-dependency, have developers be able to get their work done faster and force them to put a "best viewed in IE" label on their page.
Most of the time, a client wont be willing to let you spend 20 hours on the UI. so the dev wants to make a cheap and dirty UI but with the functionality the client wants.
its also part of the reason why tables are so popular (or css less so), its because its so easy and straightforward to work with.
ive been in the area for more or less 10 years now and it always makes me damn when i hear my bosses not explaining properly that a better ui means better usability and a broader audience (more $$$ for the client).
But that is still the reality of things and as long as CSS is not as easy and quick to work with as tables are, people are gonna go for tables or IE-only css sites.
It was pretty obvious it was coming, where there's money to be made, there are taxes to be paid (so others can reap some of your benefits too).
There's no such things as free money.
meh, mea culpa, i've thought there was somekind of internal PM system but apparently not.
/.'er seems to be upset by my personal opinion on things and takes time to post a message with no facts, no nothing, just his own opinion saying im actually wrong... but how can i be wrong when im stating my personal feeling on a situation.
/.'er jumps in and tells me i shouldnt feel that way or that at least i should keep it for myself because X amount of other people already thinks like me ? WTH ??
but the point of what im saying is that it depends on which side of the choir you're standing.
you wanna know why im saying its bold and early ?
first reason is because for a long time people always suspected the Wii would be good just because of the Wiimote but no one thought it would win. always placing consoles in these order (depending on what's their preferate console)
360, PS3, Wii
360, Wii, PS3
PS3, 360, Wii
PS3, Wii, 360
in every article ive read, journalist and users have placed the Wii as a happy 3rd or happy 2nd. that they would not win because they were appealing to a different market of gamers and yada yada yada.
it was seen as a "family console" (which it is) and that it would not appeal to more hardcore/regular gamers.
but it turns out that it does, it offers a different style of play that appeals to just about anyone, which isnt completely the case of the two others.
I'm saying its bold and early also because that hasnt really begun yet. 360 has been in place for some time and has a lead but PS3 and Wii just got out on the market. Wii isnt completely set up yet and neither is the PS3, struggling with a few hardware failures and also trying to catch up with the demand.
The war will really begin when all 3 consoles are ready for a war.
on a totally personal side of things, it always annoy me when a random
its not like i was saying something like "based on a study by 1up.com, it appears that Wii will win because it has captured 40% of the user base after one week while the PS3 is suffering from a very sluggish start and the 2500 360 powersupply exploded this week". (which is all totally made up btw)
so here i am saying i think Wii will win based on my personal feeling and another
I mean.... dang, we should all tell the linux users to stop saying linux is better than windows because...we already know its better.
We also know that IE is as secure as a swiss cheese so why make a fuss of it everytime we hear about yet another hole ? does it matter how many holes a swiss cheese has ?
its not like i was bashing someone else. i just read that EA is gonna open a new studio just for the Wii and think something like "cool, wii is gaining some importance".
That about sums up why i classify as flaming/troll to come up and post that my post was in fact illegitimate since it has already been mentioned hundreds of time (?)
heh, if you oppose my message and feel like flaming me, feel free to send me a private message where I'll be happy to explain that if havent read all what other /. fanboy say (which i havent) then from my point of view, it is still early and bold.
/. comments and note that there is a tendency doesnt make it any less early and/or bold for me.
/. community the rest of the petty talk.
The fact that you peruse all
if you feel my response is too fanboyish feel free to PM me where we'll be able to spare the
lol, its true, so unforgivable for a gamer (like me) ... like did not begin with the PSone. dunno why everyone is calling it the third gen.
:)
Edit: replace third gen with Next Gen!
ty both.
I'm making a bold early statement here but I predict the Wii will end up largely winner of this third gen console war, not because its powerful but because its so goddamn fun and innovative.
you're mixing apples and oranges.
..what was it... ID Software . they came up with a new genre of game : 1st person shooter with wolfenstein. Tremendous success right there. But not only because it was a new genre, but because the game was good. Then they made millions afterward with not only doom/heretic and rot but also by selling their 3d engine to other companies. they also made a bunch of cash for being paid to train other people to use their very own engine.
First, I'll remind you that MS, *because* they were there first is now the biggest computer-related company. Gates also happens to be in the top 5 of the richest man - not sure if he is or not the richest man.
I had wish you had taken another example than MS because i dont like the way they do things but you cannot take away the fact that whatever they did succeeded : The got the user base. meaning anyone wanting to get a PC now gets a PC with windows. Not so true in these days but back when the PC market was beginning to explode, who do you think was there to reap the profit with their "Disk Operating System" ? - then later with windows. Being a pioneer does pay. I'm not going to speak about how they acquired DOS or even how they acquired other company because im not sure i agree with all their tactics. BUT they were there first and they reaped all the benefits when people understood just how much a PC is useful. Then they made money with licensing and training so that developers could create applications that would run on their platform. because developers wants the largest user base possible. its not for an obscure reason that most companies do not develop games for linux - not because linux suck (IT DOES NOT!!!) but beacuse it doesnt offer a large user base like windows - not profitable. not something MS would have achieved by just watching torvalds open the way.
everyone that responded to my post seem to think early means crappy or even faulty - but thats not true. just think about
I'm repeating myself but online content, downloadable content is here to stay, it has already proven its here to stay with all the consoles going online, with the hundreds of millions blizzard made with WoW, Warcraft and their XP, Diablo and the XPs...Starcraft. what about bioware ?? and the NWN online community constantly revamping the game. NWN is SO much a better game with all the latest addition (and XPs)
As i stated in an earlier response, im very surprised that Rare even classified that as a risk because online gaming, updatable content is exactly what's in lately. just you wait until they come up with DDR on the PS3 where you can download new songs, and then tell me if downloadable content is any risk at all.
but these... they're gonna work because they're good to begin with, and its what i keep telling, the game has got to be good to begin with. so, Rare, take your time, make a good game, solid. Then let me download fun stuff that will get me playing your game again and again.
Downloadable content doesn't necessarily means unfinished/unpolished content - it means episodic content. Are you gonna tell me that all MMOs out there are in fact botched products only rushed out to make a buck ?
i think not.
downloadable content is only the "online" version of single player/offline games.
If you look at it, downloadable content just means "make money in the same business model MMOs do".
I don't even see why its called a risk to begin with. They don't call it World of Warcrack for nothing, it works. you buy a game for 20ish bucks. you play the basic version for a few hours then, if you like it, you buy the next module/ unlock other character / new music / new art for the game. its really really basic and working already.
BUT! you need a good game to begin with, thats why a lot of MMOs are not making a lot of money, they're not good enough.
And like i said in the beginning, downloadable content doesnt mean botching your product, it means releasing a solid base game and focusing all the resources on keeping the player base and creating good downloadable content.