Not all of us are Star Wars fans. Regardless of how well done the branded, molded Lego crap is, it's still branded, molded Lego crap. The Harry Potter & Spiderman stuff is crap. The new sports lines ("Look! A Lego Dennis Rodman!") are crap. And yes, Lego sets based off of terrible films that are the Star Wars films are crap.
I appreciate the fact that you like Star Wars lego. That's fine with me. But in no way, shape, or form does it make up for the lack of *real* Space lego made from original Lego "brand" properties (Blacktron, M-Tron, Space Police, etc.)
First, they switch out their creative product lines (I'm thinking primarily of the wonderful space sets they had 10-25 years ago) for Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Spider Man. Next, they slowly kill Mindstorms? I haven't bought any Lego since they dropped their space lines for branded crap, and if they continue with these poor marketing decisions, I doubt they'll be of any real influence by the time my oldest is old enough to play with Lego. (And don't get me started on how they've been screwing around with Duplo over the last couple of years!)
On the plus side, at least they keep on churning out basic tubs.
What you're saying is very true, but if you changed/. so that somebody's scores aren't viewable, and "reviews" of posts are anonymous to everybody except/. and aren't modable, it might just work for academic articles. Heh, as far as/. proper goes, it'd be nice if there was a meta-submission system where people could vote on whether a particular story would make it to the front page, or relegated to a subsection;)
"I was teasing about geeks not gettin' any. You must be new here, because it's one of those running Slashdot jokes that stories involving sex don't belong on Slashdot."
Huh? What do you mean? The story is about babies... I don't see the connection.
You want Amazon to get rid of all those reviews? There's a very easy way to do so: Amazon can stop selling your book. See how easy that was, and everybody wins!
...but what the hell is Lego thinking as of late? Okay, so you've got a lawsuit against a competitor because their product is similar. I can see that. But why in the world did they move from terrific, wonderful, *creative* designs to essentially marketing Harry Potter and Star Wars sets? Blacktron (new and old), Space Police, M-Tron... Lego used to put out extremely interesting sets 10-15 years ago, and then all of a sudden they decided that creativity was no longer necessary and sold their soul to IP.
I'm glad that Mega Bloks won the suit - they, at least, put out more creative sets than Lego (not to mention they're Canadian). Lego, if you're listening, I've got lots of disposable income and a fondness towards your brand, but if all you're going to is brand other people's IP, you're not going to have me as a customer.
Seriously, though, how is encouraging students to read in l33t sp33k "raising educational standards"? The only educational standard that's being addressed is grammar and spelling: not only are these great works being themselves butchered, but they're discouraging students from actually *reading* the originals - unless, of course, they're like me and can't read l33t at all, and need the originals like the Rosetta Stone to translate these cryptic messages appearing on their cell phones
What use is it to teach kids about masterpieces of English literature without teaching them how to properly read them? As far as I'm concerned, this is doubleplusungood. You want kids to get more into Shakespeare? Take them to see a play, which is how Shakespeare intended us to experience his works! Hell, even watching BBC's Pride and Prejudice is better than "Evry1GtsMaryd."
The Revolution will NOT be backwards compatible beyond the Gamecube - unless you think that they're going to include cartridge slots? Any games previous to Gamecube that are playable on the Revolution will be those that Nintendo decides to sell/rent/whatever from their online service. And they'll be played on what? Yes, software emulators.
From IGN's Revolution FAQ: "At E3 2005, Shigeru Miyamoto said: "We have not set a price or determined a list of software for the Nintendo Revolution download service. But, we're looking at this as a consumer service and not so much from the business end. What we want to do is provide the product that is going to make the Revolution the console that people want in their homes. So it actually might be driven from the consumer end rather than from us. You know, the games that they most want might be the ones that we do. From a technological point, we can do any of them. It's just, we haven't determined which ones we'll do yet.""
If they're not looking at selling these ROMs from a business end, it seems to me that they're going to either give them away or sell them for a negligible price. Now, this might not be "backwards compatibility" with the NES, SNES, and N64, but it's as close as you're going to get. I'd rather get these ROMs legally from Nintendo than play them illegally through an Xbox/Xbox360 anyway.
Re:Metroid Makes the Gender Arbitrary
on
The Samus Mystique
·
· Score: 1
While I agree with the author that more realistic renditions of females as people as opposed to objects needs to be done, I hardly consider Samus to be representative of this as her sex is completely arbitrary to the gameplay and in fact is only revealed in the very end of Super Metroid in a 'look whos inside' type of way.
The idea is that women can do the same things as men can, right? So you've got various male characters in the Castlevania series kicking zombie butt through various locales, and you've got a female character in the Metroid series kicking Metroid butt through various locales. The first is a stereotype, the second shows that women can kick ass too.
Your points about Archer & Alyx are well-taken, but the role of Metroid-killer doesn't necessitate a woman - the person in the power armour could be a guy, and it wouldn't change the plot in any significant way. The fact that the designers chose to use a woman rather than a man is, in my opinion, rather progressive, especially since she doesn't romp around in her undergarments whilst killing aliens.
There sure is: the revo will be backwards compatible for gamecube (and earlier Nintendo) consoles, and the PS3 is apparently backwards compatible (if not 100%, then close to it). If the Xbox360 is only partially BC and the other two are (for the most part), then they could be shooting themselves in the foot with regard to competition in the next gen. If somebody needs to keep their Xbox to play Xbox games because it won't play *all* their Xbox games, what's to stop this theoretical person from getting a PS3 or Revo instead?
I wasn't actually here to shun anything. I'm here to state that I have a preference that Nintendo doesn't fulfill.
If I recall correctly, you basically said that Nintendo primarily markets games to kids. This isn't true. I could care less what your preferences are; I haven't bought a PS2 simply because I don't like the cost/reliability of the hardware, and I haven't bought an XBox because most of the AAA games that are released for it are also released on the PC.
That is all. I wasn't suggesting that you not buy your Nintendo and live happily ever after. But then, feel free to read the rest of the posts here - you're right at home with the rest that couldn't seem to get my point either.
Pretending to be a martyr doesn't make your points any more valid. People are criticising you because your perspective is far too narrow.
You're right, kids games are made for all consoles. But lots more are made for the nintendo platform than anything else.
So what? I fail to see your point. I have a gamecube, and yet surprisingly I'm able to enjoy a few quality titles without being forced to play anything with Barbie or Spongebob Squarepants in it.
Listing off a bunch of GBA titles is silly, since the GBA didn't have the power to create anything that I wanted to see.
I wasn't aware that tactical strategy games, for example, required a resolution of 1600x1200 with 4xAA to enjoy them. I'm not saying that you have to rush out and buy a Gamecube/Gameboy or you're an idiot, but refusing to play several excellent games simply because you think that the graphics won't be pretty enough is extremely shallow.
Some of them have been ported to other consoles (you fail to mention this) - consoles which I feel have a better selection of games than what Nintendo is pushing.
Of course the PS2 has a better selection of games, but quantity does not equal quality. And hey, nobody's forcing you to only buy one console - why, you could actually own two, or even *three*!
You've made two distinct classes of statements in this story: you don't like Nintendo, and Nintendo makes kiddie systems. The first is an opinion, the second is patently absurd.
Not to say all 'cartoonish' games are kid's games, but many of them are. I didn't dismiss many of these games out of hand either - I've played them. I didn't like them. I'm sorry if it bothers you that I'm more disposed towards tactical strategy
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GCN), Battalion Wars (GCN), Fire Emblem (GBA), Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (GBA), Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA), Tactics Ogre (GBA), Advance Wars 1 & 2 (GBA)...
gratuitous violence
Eternal Darkness (GCN), Killer 7 (GCN), Resident Evils (GCN; violent, if not scary), Alien Hominid (GCN), Ninja Five-0 (GBA)...
adult humor
Alien Hominid (again), Viewtiful Joe (though no longer a GCN exclusive), Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars (GBA)...
and simulators
"Simulator" is a bit vague. Every console has driving simulators, including the GBA and GCN. Both Nintendo consoles even have "life simulators" like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing. But if you're using "simulator" to mean, for instance, flight simulator, you're not going to find *any* console that has anything close to IL2-Sturmakov).
as opposed to cute characters jumping from block to block over lava to eat fruit for health.
I'm not going to go through all the counter-examples of games like this on the PS2 or Xbox, but suffice to say that *kid's* games are made for all consoles, not just Nintendo's. If you were to shun a console because it has a few games made exclusively for children, you wouldn't be playing anything.
Sigh. Another one who doesn't get it. Cartoon graphics and cute characters don't necessarily make a kid's game. "Fairly Odd Parents: Breakin' Da Rules" for the XBox is a game that's marketed towards kids; Super Monkey Ball is a game marketed towards *everybody*. As one of the other posters mentioned, just because a certain game doesn't have blood, gore, or sex, does that mean that it's a kid's game? By that definition, Lumines is a kid's game, Tetris is a kid's game, Solitare is a kid's game...
But along with everything you've said, doesn't it make sense that the only kind of person who would classify the GC as childish would be somebody who doesn't own one, or play one on a regular basis? I could care less what the graphics look like, as long as the gameplay is *fun*. Fate, for instance (a Diablo clone recently released as shareware) has very kiddy graphics, but at its heart it's an entertaining game!
At any rate, I agree with you, and wish that people would recognise that a few kiddy games do not equal a kiddy system (which was what I was trying to do by giving some examples of kiddy PS2 and Xbox games - apparently a mod didn't agree).
If they'd designed the GameCube a little differently, say with a DVD drive in it instead of their cutesy discs...
If they'd not gunned for the kiddie games company role (which has always been a failing of Nintendo...)...
Even if you're not looking at M-rated games, there are several excellent games that are enjoyable for all ages, including F-Zero GX, Mario Kart, Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Pikmin, and Viewtiful Joe. I'd also like to see a kid play Ikaruga for more than five minutes before moving on to something easier. Finally, the PS2 has games like Powerpuff Girls Relish Rampage, Monsters Inc., and Piglet's Little Game, while the XBox has such Triple-A titles as Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, Tom and Jerry: The War of the Whiskers, and Fairly Odd Parents: Breakin' Da Rules. Does that mean that Microsoft and Sony were "gunning for the kiddie games company role" too? Cutesy graphics does not necessarily equal "kiddie games."
Have you used Amazon's "look inside this book" feature? You can either flip through the book electronically, or search for keywords; Amazon then lists all the instances of a particular keyword in the book, as well as the context. It's incredibly useful.
But why in the world would I want to *buy* a page when I can look at it for free right now?
So, let me get this straight: Coca Cola has a monopoly on Coca Cola Classic beverages, McDonalds has a monopoly on Big Macs, and Starbucks has a monopoly on Mocha Fraps. This doesn't mean that Coca Cola has a monopoly on cola products, McDonalds on hamburgers, or Starbucks on iced coffee drinks, eh? Microsoft might have exclusive control over (legal) copies of Windows, but they aren't the only vendor that sells operating systems for x86 systems, which is what this article is about. If the argument is that Microsoft is monopolistic because they're the only ones who can sell Windows, then Coca Cola, McDonalds, and Starbucks are also monopolies based on the above products. Far from it: Microsoft has competition from Linspire, and therefore can't be classified as a monopoly in S. Korea.
Microsoft might be monopolistic and engage in unethical business practices, but that doesn't necessarily make it a monopoly: Linspire is an acceptable substitute for the Windows operating system. As far as I know, Windows doesn't disallow you from formatting your hard drive and installing a competitor, so the definition of Microsoft as a monopoly is only applicable in the sense that they're the only ones who develop, market, and sell Windows.
...Ghost was announced in 2001 as being developed by Nihilistic Software. Then it changed hands from Nihilistic to Swingin' Ape Studios. Nihilistic had completed 85% of the engine and 40% of level design, but Ape scrapped most of this (according to an interview earlier this year) in favour of a new engine(?) and entirely different story. Now they've changed it to a PS2 and XBox-title only, and four years after production began, they're shifting the focus from single-player to multi-player. I'm taking bets that the game is going to merge productions with Duke Nukem Forever, and the resulting unholy union will only be playable on the Infinium Labs Phantom.
What I meant was that you seemed to be applying your comments equally to all consoles, when in reality it seems as if you were only talking about the XBox. Absolutely nothing to do with your English skills (which are *far* better than my German skills, believe me).
"Console," in the sense that you're using, doesn't mean "console"; you're talking specifically about XBoxen, hmm? I'm not exactly sure about PS2 -> PC ports, but I *know* that there aren't any GC -> PC ports in North America.
Slashdot Mirror
I appreciate the fact that you like Star Wars lego. That's fine with me. But in no way, shape, or form does it make up for the lack of *real* Space lego made from original Lego "brand" properties (Blacktron, M-Tron, Space Police, etc.)
On the plus side, at least they keep on churning out basic tubs.
What you're saying is very true, but if you changed /. so that somebody's scores aren't viewable, and "reviews" of posts are anonymous to everybody except /. and aren't modable, it might just work for academic articles. Heh, as far as /. proper goes, it'd be nice if there was a meta-submission system where people could vote on whether a particular story would make it to the front page, or relegated to a subsection ;)
Samsung - quiet, fast, reliable, good warranty. I'm currently using a Samsung Spinpoint SP2014N 200GB PATA 7200 drive - great, great stuff.
Heh, no, Regina. Friesen is a pretty common name on the prairies.
Huh? What do you mean? The story is about babies... I don't see the connection.
You want Amazon to get rid of all those reviews? There's a very easy way to do so: Amazon can stop selling your book. See how easy that was, and everybody wins!
Bloody hell... well, I stand corrected. (Doesn't change the fact about Lego, though ;) )
I'm glad that Mega Bloks won the suit - they, at least, put out more creative sets than Lego (not to mention they're Canadian). Lego, if you're listening, I've got lots of disposable income and a fondness towards your brand, but if all you're going to is brand other people's IP, you're not going to have me as a customer.
What use is it to teach kids about masterpieces of English literature without teaching them how to properly read them? As far as I'm concerned, this is doubleplusungood. You want kids to get more into Shakespeare? Take them to see a play, which is how Shakespeare intended us to experience his works! Hell, even watching BBC's Pride and Prejudice is better than "Evry1GtsMaryd."
From IGN's Revolution FAQ: "At E3 2005, Shigeru Miyamoto said: "We have not set a price or determined a list of software for the Nintendo Revolution download service. But, we're looking at this as a consumer service and not so much from the business end. What we want to do is provide the product that is going to make the Revolution the console that people want in their homes. So it actually might be driven from the consumer end rather than from us. You know, the games that they most want might be the ones that we do. From a technological point, we can do any of them. It's just, we haven't determined which ones we'll do yet.""
If they're not looking at selling these ROMs from a business end, it seems to me that they're going to either give them away or sell them for a negligible price. Now, this might not be "backwards compatibility" with the NES, SNES, and N64, but it's as close as you're going to get. I'd rather get these ROMs legally from Nintendo than play them illegally through an Xbox/Xbox360 anyway.
The idea is that women can do the same things as men can, right? So you've got various male characters in the Castlevania series kicking zombie butt through various locales, and you've got a female character in the Metroid series kicking Metroid butt through various locales. The first is a stereotype, the second shows that women can kick ass too.
Your points about Archer & Alyx are well-taken, but the role of Metroid-killer doesn't necessitate a woman - the person in the power armour could be a guy, and it wouldn't change the plot in any significant way. The fact that the designers chose to use a woman rather than a man is, in my opinion, rather progressive, especially since she doesn't romp around in her undergarments whilst killing aliens.
There sure is: the revo will be backwards compatible for gamecube (and earlier Nintendo) consoles, and the PS3 is apparently backwards compatible (if not 100%, then close to it). If the Xbox360 is only partially BC and the other two are (for the most part), then they could be shooting themselves in the foot with regard to competition in the next gen. If somebody needs to keep their Xbox to play Xbox games because it won't play *all* their Xbox games, what's to stop this theoretical person from getting a PS3 or Revo instead?
If I recall correctly, you basically said that Nintendo primarily markets games to kids. This isn't true. I could care less what your preferences are; I haven't bought a PS2 simply because I don't like the cost/reliability of the hardware, and I haven't bought an XBox because most of the AAA games that are released for it are also released on the PC.
Pretending to be a martyr doesn't make your points any more valid. People are criticising you because your perspective is far too narrow.
So what? I fail to see your point. I have a gamecube, and yet surprisingly I'm able to enjoy a few quality titles without being forced to play anything with Barbie or Spongebob Squarepants in it.
I wasn't aware that tactical strategy games, for example, required a resolution of 1600x1200 with 4xAA to enjoy them. I'm not saying that you have to rush out and buy a Gamecube/Gameboy or you're an idiot, but refusing to play several excellent games simply because you think that the graphics won't be pretty enough is extremely shallow.
Of course the PS2 has a better selection of games, but quantity does not equal quality. And hey, nobody's forcing you to only buy one console - why, you could actually own two, or even *three*!
You've made two distinct classes of statements in this story: you don't like Nintendo, and Nintendo makes kiddie systems. The first is an opinion, the second is patently absurd.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GCN), Battalion Wars (GCN), Fire Emblem (GBA), Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones (GBA), Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA), Tactics Ogre (GBA), Advance Wars 1 & 2 (GBA)...
Eternal Darkness (GCN), Killer 7 (GCN), Resident Evils (GCN; violent, if not scary), Alien Hominid (GCN), Ninja Five-0 (GBA)...
Alien Hominid (again), Viewtiful Joe (though no longer a GCN exclusive), Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars (GBA)...
"Simulator" is a bit vague. Every console has driving simulators, including the GBA and GCN. Both Nintendo consoles even have "life simulators" like Harvest Moon or Animal Crossing. But if you're using "simulator" to mean, for instance, flight simulator, you're not going to find *any* console that has anything close to IL2-Sturmakov).
I'm not going to go through all the counter-examples of games like this on the PS2 or Xbox, but suffice to say that *kid's* games are made for all consoles, not just Nintendo's. If you were to shun a console because it has a few games made exclusively for children, you wouldn't be playing anything.
Sigh. Another one who doesn't get it. Cartoon graphics and cute characters don't necessarily make a kid's game. "Fairly Odd Parents: Breakin' Da Rules" for the XBox is a game that's marketed towards kids; Super Monkey Ball is a game marketed towards *everybody*. As one of the other posters mentioned, just because a certain game doesn't have blood, gore, or sex, does that mean that it's a kid's game? By that definition, Lumines is a kid's game, Tetris is a kid's game, Solitare is a kid's game...
Gah! Wish I would have found that site *before* I ordered a new video card on Saturday! Excellent, excellent site! Wish I had mod points.
At any rate, I agree with you, and wish that people would recognise that a few kiddy games do not equal a kiddy system (which was what I was trying to do by giving some examples of kiddy PS2 and Xbox games - apparently a mod didn't agree).
I always find it amusing when people slam the Gamecube because it's too kiddy. Invariably, people who make this claim don't own the console. Repeat after me: the Gamecube is not kiddy, despite repeated claims to the contrary.
Even if you're not looking at M-rated games, there are several excellent games that are enjoyable for all ages, including F-Zero GX, Mario Kart, Metroid Prime 1 & 2, Pikmin, and Viewtiful Joe. I'd also like to see a kid play Ikaruga for more than five minutes before moving on to something easier. Finally, the PS2 has games like Powerpuff Girls Relish Rampage, Monsters Inc., and Piglet's Little Game, while the XBox has such Triple-A titles as Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure, Tom and Jerry: The War of the Whiskers, and Fairly Odd Parents: Breakin' Da Rules. Does that mean that Microsoft and Sony were "gunning for the kiddie games company role" too? Cutesy graphics does not necessarily equal "kiddie games."
But why in the world would I want to *buy* a page when I can look at it for free right now?
Microsoft might be monopolistic and engage in unethical business practices, but that doesn't necessarily make it a monopoly: Linspire is an acceptable substitute for the Windows operating system. As far as I know, Windows doesn't disallow you from formatting your hard drive and installing a competitor, so the definition of Microsoft as a monopoly is only applicable in the sense that they're the only ones who develop, market, and sell Windows.
I'm in Canada too - isn't it possible to use that credit on Amazon.com? I'd much rather do that than actually get the cash!
...Ghost was announced in 2001 as being developed by Nihilistic Software. Then it changed hands from Nihilistic to Swingin' Ape Studios. Nihilistic had completed 85% of the engine and 40% of level design, but Ape scrapped most of this (according to an interview earlier this year) in favour of a new engine(?) and entirely different story. Now they've changed it to a PS2 and XBox-title only, and four years after production began, they're shifting the focus from single-player to multi-player. I'm taking bets that the game is going to merge productions with Duke Nukem Forever, and the resulting unholy union will only be playable on the Infinium Labs Phantom.
What I meant was that you seemed to be applying your comments equally to all consoles, when in reality it seems as if you were only talking about the XBox. Absolutely nothing to do with your English skills (which are *far* better than my German skills, believe me).
"Console," in the sense that you're using, doesn't mean "console"; you're talking specifically about XBoxen, hmm? I'm not exactly sure about PS2 -> PC ports, but I *know* that there aren't any GC -> PC ports in North America.