Re:Drupal is great BUT
on
Using Drupal
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· Score: 1
I've built nearly a dozen small-to-medium-sized business sites using Drupal, and I don't see a major reason to stop. Granted, Drupal's stock e-commerce functionality is rather basic, but between its continued development and Ubercart, I find that I can get what I need fairly painlessly.
I don't think I could do a massive site in Drupal, but that's only because I do my work solo.;-) But for small-to-medium-sized sites, it's easily my go-to CMS.
Because you can't fill 10 slideshow pages on the basis of "fun in videogames". Short of sticking in saccharine pictures of Mario, Pikachu, and Pac-Man, anyway.
"Intuitively, if a menu item is highlighted by default (and it was), using the d-pad should change which menu item is selected..."
This is only "intuitive" after you've spent years being accustomed to using D-pad-based control schemes. For ordinary non-geek mortals, the "intuitive" response when seeing a control is to *cough* touch it.
"But the fact remains that many of the games that core gamers enjoy simply do not appeal to a broader audience. And the core audience is not insignificant."
You keep telling yourself that, if it helps you to sleep better at night. But the facts don't bear it out.
Exercise: Take your favorite "core gamer" title on the PlayStation 2 -- God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, whatever -- and count how many copies of a single title in the franchise were sold (no fair lumping all releases of GTA together, for instance).
Now divide that number by the number of PS2s that were sold worldwide -- 117.8 million, according to Wikipedia.
THAT is how (ir)relevant the "core" gamer market is.
"While its not selling as well the other two consoles, though, I should like to point out that 4 million consoles in under a year is nothing to sneeze at."
But I thought Sony was expecting to sell five million without any games...
"Increasingly, I think that 'hardcore' gamer just means 'a gamer who wants better graphics, more channels of audio, and the same old gameplay.'"
Change that to "an elitist prick" and you've got it nailed, IMO. The only people who don't use "hardcore gamer" as sarcasm are the folks who use it to look down their noses at others whose tastes differ from theirs.
"The Wii controller was a good idea, not supporting HD-TV was a bad idea."
Not supporting HD meant the Wii (1) cost less for consumers to buy, and (2) cost less for developers to write titles for. Throw in the fact that HDTV is still a minority in all of the world's video-game markets, and there's no compelling reason for Nintendo to support it other than to satisfy the resolution-counting techno-geeks.
+1 to WillAffeckUW -- unlike the grandparent post, some of us are parents who are glad that Nintendo is making it harder for my family to get harangued by foul-mouthed 10-year-olds who think drawing penises is the height of comedy. Entering a friend code once is a minor inconvenience in comparison to dealing with the endless supply of twits who show up on XBox Live.
...who were drowned out by the cheers of praise from the mainstream non-gaming press. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that compliments from USA Today and The New York Times will help Nintendo more than brickabats from the likes of 1Up.
"The Wii certainly has fun titles... but could I please stop hearing how it will revolutionize gaming?"
It took several years for developers to warm up to the Nintendo DS, but we're finally starting to see games that couldn't have been done with previous systems.
I expect a similar pattern for the Wii remote, as developers slowly migrate from "how can we shoehorn existing controls into this" and go into "How can we do something original with this?" OTOH, I expect the migration period to be shorter than that for the DS -- Capcom's upcoming Zack and Wiki looks like a game that would be impossible to do (control-wise) on a PS3 or XBox 360.
"Out of the 5 people I know who own a Wii, I'm the only one with more than 3 games for it. Everyone else just has Wii Sports, Wii Play, and maybe one of Mario Party/Elebits/Excite Truck. I haven't seen comprehensive numbers, but I suspect that Wii owners buy less software than PS3/360 owners."
That doesn't explain why Wii software (from first and third parties) continue to sell well. Last I looked, the attach rate for the Wii is comparable to that of the XBox 360. Maybe you just have a bad sample.
(Me? Got a Wii last November, and so far I have six games for it, plus 4 Virtual Console titles. This winter's gonna really hit my wallet...)
"When you begin to slander any opposite as manipulative, money-making bastards, one has to question how much he is allowing his personal opinions and beliefs affect his work."
Or maybe the global warming deniers are backed by manipulative, money-making bastards? After lal, ExxonMobil is contributing hundreds of millions every year for a "think tank" that does nothing but debunk global warming with dubious counterarguments.
Because the Wii is more fun than the PS3 (IMO), so the better the Wii does, the better the odds that more fun games will come out for it. Simple as that.
"It has gotten to the point where I feel like I am forcing myself to turn it on once a month or so."
It's a console six months after launch; is this any different than for any other system?
Myself, I've been playing my Wii almost daily since December. It's only taken a crunch-time moonlighting project to derail my Wii gamining time. I'm hoping to get things wrapped up before Mario Strikers and Metroid hit the shelves.
"I can't really imagine what they could come out with for the system that will bring back that hype I felt late last year."
If Metroid, Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, or Mario Kart can't interest you in the least, you need to get yourself checked. Super Mario Galaxy alone looks like a major leap forward in 3D platformers.
System-wide Wii remote calibration would be useless, as you'd have to change it any time you changed playing positions (sitting up, standing, to the side, etc.). Having a quick calibration option before starting a game session is enough.
I personally would love to see Sega do a Virtua Cop compilation on the Wii. Gunning down polygonal bad guys, yes!
Online Wii games are already available. Pokemon Coliseum has been available in Japan for a while, and Mario Strikers Charged Football was released in Europe this week.
"Halo is not a revolutionary game by any stretch of the imagination... The fact that the same is true of Super Mario Brothers, a game made years and years ago (an eternity in video game land) is not even interesting."
True, but the difference is that Super Mario Bros.was revolutionary when it was first introduced, as evident by the numerous SMB clones that followed in its wake. I'm hard-pressed to think of a popular game that played like SMB before SMB was introduced.
Halo, on the other hand, was just the latest iteration of a long line of FPS inspired by Doom and Wolfenstein 3D.
If you need the extra controller, Wii Play is nice and friendly for casuals. It's not worth $50 just for the game, though.
Kororinpa: Marble Mania is a bit more casual-paced, but it's also great for quick pick-up-and-play sessions. I imagine it'd work for your parties if you pass the controller around and have everyone take turns trying the levels.
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I've built nearly a dozen small-to-medium-sized business sites using Drupal, and I don't see a major reason to stop. Granted, Drupal's stock e-commerce functionality is rather basic, but between its continued development and Ubercart, I find that I can get what I need fairly painlessly.
I don't think I could do a massive site in Drupal, but that's only because I do my work solo. ;-) But for small-to-medium-sized sites, it's easily my go-to CMS.
"does that mean the government has found a way to build bottomless pits?"
Yes -- it's called Bush's Damn Fool War
..."But Sony told us rumble was last-gen!" joke.
Because you can't fill 10 slideshow pages on the basis of "fun in videogames". Short of sticking in saccharine pictures of Mario, Pikachu, and Pac-Man, anyway.
"Intuitively, if a menu item is highlighted by default (and it was), using the d-pad should change which menu item is selected..."
This is only "intuitive" after you've spent years being accustomed to using D-pad-based control schemes. For ordinary non-geek mortals, the "intuitive" response when seeing a control is to *cough* touch it.
"It makes me wonder how this generation will play out for Sony. Will they see eventual increases? Or is this their Sega Saturn?"
Sales-wise, it's tracking worse than the Gamecube.
"But the fact remains that many of the games that core gamers enjoy simply do not appeal to a broader audience. And the core audience is not insignificant."
You keep telling yourself that, if it helps you to sleep better at night. But the facts don't bear it out.
Exercise: Take your favorite "core gamer" title on the PlayStation 2 -- God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, whatever -- and count how many copies of a single title in the franchise were sold (no fair lumping all releases of GTA together, for instance).
Now divide that number by the number of PS2s that were sold worldwide -- 117.8 million, according to Wikipedia.
THAT is how (ir)relevant the "core" gamer market is.
"While its not selling as well the other two consoles, though, I should like to point out that 4 million consoles in under a year is nothing to sneeze at."
But I thought Sony was expecting to sell five million without any games...
"Increasingly, I think that 'hardcore' gamer just means 'a gamer who wants better graphics, more channels of audio, and the same old gameplay.'"
Change that to "an elitist prick" and you've got it nailed, IMO. The only people who don't use "hardcore gamer" as sarcasm are the folks who use it to look down their noses at others whose tastes differ from theirs.
"What are the odds of the casual gamer picking up more then just the main party games?"
Judging by the monthly NPD sales figures, not too likely. Sure, Mario Party 8 is going strong, but Resident Evil 4 is no slouch either.
"Wii owners only play shallow games" is the next baseless meme to die, right after "Third party titles don't sell on Nintendo systems."
Ditto to the parent. I've never had any interest in soccer, but Mario Strikers Charged is just insane over-the-top arcady fun.
"The Wii controller was a good idea, not supporting HD-TV was a bad idea."
Not supporting HD meant the Wii (1) cost less for consumers to buy, and (2) cost less for developers to write titles for. Throw in the fact that HDTV is still a minority in all of the world's video-game markets, and there's no compelling reason for Nintendo to support it other than to satisfy the resolution-counting techno-geeks.
"If a duck is your next door neighbor, you really don't want to think about shooting more of her kind."
You can shoot the ducks in Wii Play.
+1 to WillAffeckUW -- unlike the grandparent post, some of us are parents who are glad that Nintendo is making it harder for my family to get harangued by foul-mouthed 10-year-olds who think drawing penises is the height of comedy. Entering a friend code once is a minor inconvenience in comparison to dealing with the endless supply of twits who show up on XBox Live.
...who were drowned out by the cheers of praise from the mainstream non-gaming press. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that compliments from USA Today and The New York Times will help Nintendo more than brickabats from the likes of 1Up.
"The Wii certainly has fun titles... but could I please stop hearing how it will revolutionize gaming?"
It took several years for developers to warm up to the Nintendo DS, but we're finally starting to see games that couldn't have been done with previous systems.
I expect a similar pattern for the Wii remote, as developers slowly migrate from "how can we shoehorn existing controls into this" and go into "How can we do something original with this?" OTOH, I expect the migration period to be shorter than that for the DS -- Capcom's upcoming Zack and Wiki looks like a game that would be impossible to do (control-wise) on a PS3 or XBox 360.
"Out of the 5 people I know who own a Wii, I'm the only one with more than 3 games for it. Everyone else just has Wii Sports, Wii Play, and maybe one of Mario Party/Elebits/Excite Truck. I haven't seen comprehensive numbers, but I suspect that Wii owners buy less software than PS3/360 owners."
That doesn't explain why Wii software (from first and third parties) continue to sell well. Last I looked, the attach rate for the Wii is comparable to that of the XBox 360. Maybe you just have a bad sample.
(Me? Got a Wii last November, and so far I have six games for it, plus 4 Virtual Console titles. This winter's gonna really hit my wallet...)
"When you begin to slander any opposite as manipulative, money-making bastards, one has to question how much he is allowing his personal opinions and beliefs affect his work."
Or maybe the global warming deniers are backed by manipulative, money-making bastards? After lal, ExxonMobil is contributing hundreds of millions every year for a "think tank" that does nothing but debunk global warming with dubious counterarguments.
FUD isn't limited to Microsoft any more.
"The Wii is a gimmick. A very cool gimmick when implemented correctly, but a gimmick none the less."
Someone should save this nugget of wisdom in a time capsule, open it up in ten years, and laugh...
Because the Wii is more fun than the PS3 (IMO), so the better the Wii does, the better the odds that more fun games will come out for it. Simple as that.
"It has gotten to the point where I feel like I am forcing myself to turn it on once a month or so."
It's a console six months after launch; is this any different than for any other system?
Myself, I've been playing my Wii almost daily since December. It's only taken a crunch-time moonlighting project to derail my Wii gamining time. I'm hoping to get things wrapped up before Mario Strikers and Metroid hit the shelves.
"I can't really imagine what they could come out with for the system that will bring back that hype I felt late last year."
If Metroid, Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, or Mario Kart can't interest you in the least, you need to get yourself checked. Super Mario Galaxy alone looks like a major leap forward in 3D platformers.
System-wide Wii remote calibration would be useless, as you'd have to change it any time you changed playing positions (sitting up, standing, to the side, etc.). Having a quick calibration option before starting a game session is enough.
I personally would love to see Sega do a Virtua Cop compilation on the Wii. Gunning down polygonal bad guys, yes!
Online Wii games are already available. Pokemon Coliseum has been available in Japan for a while, and Mario Strikers Charged Football was released in Europe this week.
"Halo is not a revolutionary game by any stretch of the imagination... The fact that the same is true of Super Mario Brothers, a game made years and years ago (an eternity in video game land) is not even interesting."
True, but the difference is that Super Mario Bros. was revolutionary when it was first introduced, as evident by the numerous SMB clones that followed in its wake. I'm hard-pressed to think of a popular game that played like SMB before SMB was introduced.
Halo, on the other hand, was just the latest iteration of a long line of FPS inspired by Doom and Wolfenstein 3D.
If you need the extra controller, Wii Play is nice and friendly for casuals. It's not worth $50 just for the game, though.
Kororinpa: Marble Mania is a bit more casual-paced, but it's also great for quick pick-up-and-play sessions. I imagine it'd work for your parties if you pass the controller around and have everyone take turns trying the levels.