Oh I definitely agree with you, they're VERY right. But I consider myself a "seasoned" mmorpg player, and even though there's the regular beta whines and other such noise there are the extremely constructive cricisisms that I look for in forums. Sometimes you run across something that say reminds you of why you stopped playing game x, or why you LOVED game y. That's usually what I look for, the positive AND negative flavor of a game, from the players' perspective.
Filtering out the fanboy and naysayer noise can be challenging, but LucasArts has effectively taken that right away as far as their official forum is concerned.
Oh they WERE whoring it out thusly. Lots of people in their forums whined (whiners in a game forum??! *gasp*) that they were paying money and never being able to properly achieve their ultimate goal. Well too bad. How boring would it be if EVERYONE was a Jedi in SWG?
Kinda hard to tell on SWG's official community how the real player reactions are given the fact that they closed the official forums off to the public. Before anyone takes this propaganda as a clear indicator they should run out to buy the game it's probably a good idea to take a gander at some fan-run forums for some real opinions on the good and bad of the game.
We nerds should have had this researched years ago. Who leaves cookie research to scientists!? There are hundred page sites out there detailing the physical changes adverse environments cause on peeps and twinkies, and yet nothing done about the lowly cookie.
I wasn't speaking as a general look at the video game industry historically, I'm simply saying that today in 2003 this is what's going on. And if you have any evidence to the CONTRARY feel free to present it:)
Losing cash on hardware is the norm. Console developers always make their cash more on the software and third party hardware licenses than anything else.
It's amazing what they've done with the PS2 really. For a platform that is supposed to be technically inferior in every way to the others out there Konami seems to be doing some amazing things with it still.
This is an extremely smart, well put together comment the likes of which are rarely seen on Slashdot. Now why can't you pull that one out the next time someone bitches up a storm about an overflow issue in a Microsoft product? I don't mean to play MS zealot here or anything, just asking the question.
Personally, I think quicksaves are the absolute best solution to the problem. Agreeably they can be constantly used as you can save after every step you take in the game. However, it does allow people to save as much as they're comfortable with. If someone doesn't prefer to save as often, they don't have to. If someone's saves every two seconds then they have that option too. At least you're leaving it open for user choice.
Well, whether the greater/. crowd realizes it or not, there's a lot of us who regularly contribute around here that develop on the Microsoft platform and do so willingly. Lets face it, there's lots of work out there for this stuff, and if I can make money doing it then great. While at times Slashdot can be rather hostile towards Microsoft anything, it's still a pretty good resource for interesting IT information and wacky links.
You got all that from an game preview? Even worse, an IGN game preview? Wow. GTA3 sounded pretty damn linear too, what with you having to do missions for various mob bosses and such. But there was so much more to the game that the previews suggested, and I bet that'll be the case with Manhunt. Bottom line: game previews suck. They're never an indication of how good a game will be on release.
I find it hard to believe it's not legally binding when they're not being unreasonable in what they're making a user agree too. That, and he/she is confirming their acceptance of the agreement (regardless of whether they actually read the thing through or not).
You may pay to use the system and expect tons of stuff, but the fact of the matter is that in every MMORPG out there you have to accept a mile-long EULA before even being able to put in your login and password. That EULA covers the game developer's/distributor's ass against anything like this (or anything at all, really). Yes, he put lots of effort into the game, yes it does suck that he lost his items, but the unfortunate truth is that is as far as this lawsuit is going to get.
Uhm, maybe it's different in home edition than pro (although I doubt it), but mine did NOT come up enabled at all by default. First time in it notified of the feature, then asked if you want to turn it on. You're then put into the configuration window for it where if you enable it, THEN by default it selects automatic all the way. But it's right there in your face, available to be turned off right then and there.
No doubt you'll get lots of replies from registered and AC slashdotters on this one, with some negative points. Myself, I agree with you. I made a serious push to use Linux at home and would probably be running it as my primary OS if those dependency issues weren't such a pain in the ass. I'm sure there are tools and techniques out there that make it easier too, and no doubt someone will let us know that in a reply to your message, but there's only so much of that stuff I want to do after doing it all day at work.:)
While I agree with most of what you're saying, I had to laugh when you got the part about how, before SWG's release when they pulled vehicles you show a screenshot of WoW, before its release with players on horses. You have no idea whether those horses will still be there when WoW launches, nor do you have any idea how much WoW might change for the worse. The game's not even in beta yet.
Does anyone have irrefutable proof that a major respected game reviewer/site has taken money from a publisher to jack of review scores? I've never read an article or news story anywhere that proves beyond a doubt this has happened, at least to any reviewer or site that anyone gives a crap about. Does anyone on/. have a link on this at all?
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Filtering out the fanboy and naysayer noise can be challenging, but LucasArts has effectively taken that right away as far as their official forum is concerned.
Oh they WERE whoring it out thusly. Lots of people in their forums whined (whiners in a game forum??! *gasp*) that they were paying money and never being able to properly achieve their ultimate goal. Well too bad. How boring would it be if EVERYONE was a Jedi in SWG?
Kinda hard to tell on SWG's official community how the real player reactions are given the fact that they closed the official forums off to the public. Before anyone takes this propaganda as a clear indicator they should run out to buy the game it's probably a good idea to take a gander at some fan-run forums for some real opinions on the good and bad of the game.
We nerds should have had this researched years ago. Who leaves cookie research to scientists!? There are hundred page sites out there detailing the physical changes adverse environments cause on peeps and twinkies, and yet nothing done about the lowly cookie.
I wasn't speaking as a general look at the video game industry historically, I'm simply saying that today in 2003 this is what's going on. And if you have any evidence to the CONTRARY feel free to present it :)
Losing cash on hardware is the norm. Console developers always make their cash more on the software and third party hardware licenses than anything else.
There seems to be a retard club for these PR guys or something. :)
KOTOR wasn't developed in the US, Bioware is a Canadian company.
Don't forget the top notch jiggle physics.
It's amazing what they've done with the PS2 really. For a platform that is supposed to be technically inferior in every way to the others out there Konami seems to be doing some amazing things with it still.
This is an extremely smart, well put together comment the likes of which are rarely seen on Slashdot. Now why can't you pull that one out the next time someone bitches up a storm about an overflow issue in a Microsoft product? I don't mean to play MS zealot here or anything, just asking the question.
*draws dual 9mms* It's a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they patch something.
Personally, I think quicksaves are the absolute best solution to the problem. Agreeably they can be constantly used as you can save after every step you take in the game. However, it does allow people to save as much as they're comfortable with. If someone doesn't prefer to save as often, they don't have to. If someone's saves every two seconds then they have that option too. At least you're leaving it open for user choice.
guhhh..
Well, whether the greater /. crowd realizes it or not, there's a lot of us who regularly contribute around here that develop on the Microsoft platform and do so willingly. Lets face it, there's lots of work out there for this stuff, and if I can make money doing it then great. While at times Slashdot can be rather hostile towards Microsoft anything, it's still a pretty good resource for interesting IT information and wacky links.
Some very nifty CG use. The whole thing about being inside a painting, smearing things in the world was just unreal.
You got all that from an game preview? Even worse, an IGN game preview? Wow. GTA3 sounded pretty damn linear too, what with you having to do missions for various mob bosses and such. But there was so much more to the game that the previews suggested, and I bet that'll be the case with Manhunt. Bottom line: game previews suck. They're never an indication of how good a game will be on release.
I find it hard to believe it's not legally binding when they're not being unreasonable in what they're making a user agree too. That, and he/she is confirming their acceptance of the agreement (regardless of whether they actually read the thing through or not).
You may pay to use the system and expect tons of stuff, but the fact of the matter is that in every MMORPG out there you have to accept a mile-long EULA before even being able to put in your login and password. That EULA covers the game developer's/distributor's ass against anything like this (or anything at all, really). Yes, he put lots of effort into the game, yes it does suck that he lost his items, but the unfortunate truth is that is as far as this lawsuit is going to get.
Uhm, maybe it's different in home edition than pro (although I doubt it), but mine did NOT come up enabled at all by default. First time in it notified of the feature, then asked if you want to turn it on. You're then put into the configuration window for it where if you enable it, THEN by default it selects automatic all the way. But it's right there in your face, available to be turned off right then and there.
Not really, since every day there are many viruses/worms/whatevers out there that have payloads set to go off on that specific date.
No doubt you'll get lots of replies from registered and AC slashdotters on this one, with some negative points. Myself, I agree with you. I made a serious push to use Linux at home and would probably be running it as my primary OS if those dependency issues weren't such a pain in the ass. I'm sure there are tools and techniques out there that make it easier too, and no doubt someone will let us know that in a reply to your message, but there's only so much of that stuff I want to do after doing it all day at work. :)
Seems to be the relative unknowns that release the best stuff these days. Look at the guys who did Metroid Prime.
While I agree with most of what you're saying, I had to laugh when you got the part about how, before SWG's release when they pulled vehicles you show a screenshot of WoW, before its release with players on horses. You have no idea whether those horses will still be there when WoW launches, nor do you have any idea how much WoW might change for the worse. The game's not even in beta yet.
Does anyone have irrefutable proof that a major respected game reviewer/site has taken money from a publisher to jack of review scores? I've never read an article or news story anywhere that proves beyond a doubt this has happened, at least to any reviewer or site that anyone gives a crap about. Does anyone on /. have a link on this at all?