Non-state sanctioned media is illegal and generally punishably by imprisonment.
I'm Chinese woking in America.
If you are then you're in the extreme minority. Immigrants typically and historically work in groups/unions/organizations to get things done back in their home countries, not post on internet forums alone acting like they know the secret to world peace.
I seldom read/see different opinion from outside world on media.
BBC? The public access channel? That all Spanish channel (which, admittedly, I never watch because I can't understand a word of it and theres no subtitles)? All the footage major U.S. media companies show of anti-U.S. foreign policy protests in foreign countries? Hell I see more foreign news than domestic news these days than ever before. Whatever happened to half the news being filled with simply shootings and reports about how crime increased by.5%?
Everthing I do can be traced, your bank, credit card, personal info, etc. I'm trapped.
In Communist China, banks are state owned and controlled. Credit cards are only for the rich and wealthy, and if you sink into debt, they lock you in jail on false charges (guilty until proven innocent) until you pay up.
If the U.S. is a trap, then the name of the game is get-out-of-the-trap-thats-over-lava and get-into-the-trap-thats-safe-on-the-ground.
Yet it turns out that discounting new releases also results in higher sales.
Discounting new releases means higher sales? No, really?/sarcasm
Gamers have asked for new releases to come down in price sooner, rather than waiting for the company to think 'well gee, sales and hype have hit rock bottom lets try discounting games now that everyone already bought second-hand copies and hope we make some more sales.'
Actually, I play WoW and I've seen and reporting people for calling other players 'faggots', 'niggers' and 'towel heads' (I have no clue why people use this). Most GMs will usually just blow you off for reporting this though, let alone the fact that the average wait time for a GM to respond is roughly 20 to 45 minutes. Lets not forget they censor their own official forums. Oh and last but not least, (at least on RP servers) you CANNOT talk to players on the other faction because they PURPOSELY scramble the chat (and yes, attempting to decode their filters is a bannable offense which leads to insane amounts of out of game communications and planning).
I know people who have had their cars broken into only to have a CD player or a cheap $50 camera stolen.
Hell my brother had it car broken into once. The window smashed by a chunk of concrete (it was still inside) and the only thing missing was his coat, sunglasses and a broken camera we were always too lazy to simply take out.
Really? Could you list some games released within the past 3 years that have 'months' of replay value? And no, user made content doesn't count.
And for the record, the last game I played was Call of Duty 2. I beat it on Average on a weekend. No cheats. Haven't touched it since. 'Borrowed' it from a friend who beat it himself and got bored with it. Online play bores us both since we don't have the time to memorize maps, weapon sounds, develop a twitch reaction time and deal with all the idiotic kiddies online.
Maybe not as dynamis or complex, but certainly more bandwidth intensive. (Streaming videos to millions of users? Unless they use a Bittorrent style network, I'd hate to see the bandwidth bill.)
Besides, the game has been out for almost a year now, you'd think that that would've upgrading their systems enough by now.
Fanboyism aside, is there any good reason why the market shouldn't be pretty evenly split among 3 or 4 consoles from 3 or 4 solid companies?
Economics basically.
1 company/console = bad. No competition leads to no progress/innovation/change. (See: Atari, Madden series, and Microsoft's Windows.) 2~3 companies/consoles = good. Competition goes insane trying to outdo one another leads to mass innovations/changes. Consumers win and (generally) the fight boils down to two remaining victors. (See: SNES vs Genesis war with the Jaguar being the 3rd and the loser) 4+ companies/consoles = awful. Market turns into a mess. 3rd party developers don't know who to support, consumers are left confused and angry by exclusives on systems they didn't buy, and it basicly turns into a 'who can out bleed money longer than the others' fight. (See: early video game console history)
A good player still takes at least 4-5 days of playtime (or more) to hit level 60.
On a PvE server, maybe. On PvP servers, most players generally spend weeks (or even months if you play 'casually') just getting through levels 20-40. I hit level 60 in about 20 days playtime on my first character on a PvE server, on a PvP server? I still haven't broken level 30 yet and I'm nearing the 15 day playtime cause I get randomly interrupted/ambushed/ganked/corpse camped in contested territories (why is the Horde Shaman totem quest right outside of an Alliance town?) Oh and god forbid you set your Hearthstone to a town thats being seiged by the enemy faction. A level 60er can one shot anyone under level 30, let alone run them down with their mounts.
Level 60 players in WoW need something to do besides run oversized instances, gank low level players and constantly do Battlegrounds. Death is a joke (gee wow, you have to walk back to your death and/or pay some gold to repair your gear), instances have long been complained about being boring and Battlegrounds STILL suffers from the unequal Alliance : Horde ratios on some servers. The parent post is right, WoW is a TOO easy for a MMO. Other than time, theres absolutely no risk or real penalty in the game for anything. Even 'dishonorable' kills are somewhat of a joke given how few Civilian NPCs there are.
Can anyone give a plausible scenario where Microsoft can remain relevant to the next gen race?
Theres two plausible scenarios that can play out that'll serious help Microsoft's 360.
1. The PS3 launch is more or less as bad as the 360's. (Remember, they bungled the PS2 AND the PSP launches so it is possible) Between the 360's early foothold on the market and the lack of any first-gen titles that take advantage of the hardware (which is true for ANY hardware), the PS3 crumbles between the 360's early launch the Nintendo Revolution's 'we complement, not replace, the 360 and/or PS3' strategy. Throw in Sony's poor economic state and the fact that the PS2 is simply far too old to be of any contest and after 3 or so years, the PS3 is axed to cut losses.
2. Blu-Ray doesn't catch on for whatever reason, take your pick from too high costs to dislike of DRM to movie studios/customers do not support it (again, likely given Sony's past). Because of the added costs from the Blu-Ray drive and the lack of the same movie support the PS2 recieved with DVDs, the PS3 flounders since it cannot support itself solely as a video game system due to the extreme hardware costs. Again Nintendo survives with its video game-only system strategy and Microsoft survives either from HD-DVDs or it simply drives the PS3 off the market.
People in the forums were complaining that lower-levels weren't helping the collection effort. Seems the lower-level people were in the right this time.
Of course the lowbies were right. Everyone whos read up on the topic knows its going to be all high level content thats unlocked. Unless Blizzard plans on making the unlocked areas 'neutral ground' (as in no open PvP allowed even on PvP servers), low level players would just be ganked on sight by the sheer number of the level 60ers running around. Its a former/current war-zone area, anyone under a certain level is just going to get his face smashed in either by the mobs there or by the opposing side.
Two quotes taken from the WoW community site:
The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will house two massive, unique dungeons - the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, a 20-man raid dungeon, and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, a 40-man raid dungeon.
Shiromar looked up at the sky and remembered a time when the sun had been eclipsed by dragons; when the Qiraji and silithid flooded over the legions of night elves in seemingly eternal waves; when hope seemed but a shadow. It seemed as if none would survive those terrible months; yet here she was, standing before the sacred barrier that saved their lives all those years ago, during the War of the Shifting Sands...
Oh yeah, that new area sounds real appealing. A 20-man and 40-man raid area in a former warzone region, lowbies will be all over that!/sarcasm
I'm no big fan of Microsoft (I modded my Xbox), but to count them out just because the 360 launch wasn't perfect just says 'Sony fanboy'. I mean, comon, it hasn't even been out for a year and you write it off? If you write off the 360 based on this argument, the PS2 is a massive failure given the poor launch, horrible launch games and pathetic hardware even for the time it launched.
The PS2 looks like it is on track to hit 120+ million as it winds down its life over the next couple of years.
120+ million?! Jeez, way to pull numbers out of your ass. I don't think ANY video game system has even come close to the 100 million mark (sans the Gameboy and all its upgrades and PCs which aren't dedicated game systems).
and 140-150 million PS3s over the next five years sounds like a reasonable lifetime installed base for the console.
140-150 million PS3s over 5 years? Holy shit! Thats an average of 28~30 million PS3s sold EACH YEAR. Will the PS3 surf the net, record TV shows, burn CDs/DVDs/Blu-Ray discs, cook my dinner, cure diseases, power my house, pay my bills and post on/. for me?
The early reports on the first PS3 games are glowing from people who have seen them firsthand.
What 'early reports'? Every single report I've heard about the PS3 has been muzzled by a NDA, reeked of hype or been so vague the Nintendo Revolution controller rumors sounded more likely.
And the porn industry is officially throwing their weight behind BluRay. RIP HD-DVD...
Says who? Between Sony's recent DRM fiasco and Microsoft's 'no DRM because we don't have a stake in it' decision making, most analysts generally agree that HD-DVD will be more likely to be adopted. (And lets not forget Sony's current attempts to force UMDs upon the handheld/portable market with their PSP.)
There are childrens' games where the option of violence is not available, of course, but it seems to have more moral value if the player instead chooses to avoid violent action of their own volition.
The problem here is simple and straight-forward. To what extent of removing a gamer's ability to interact/affect the outcome should be allowed/restricted? There are plenty of games out there that offer the OPTION of non-violence (MGS2 and 3 most notable) whereas others FORCE non-violent options upon the player (civil unrest in Civilization games being the most annoying/notable/well known.)
Give too much freedom/too little punishment and you get games like GTA. (The police are coming after me? Ha! Those pistols are nothing against my SMG and bulletproof car.) Give too much punishment/too little freedom and you get games like Postal or Morrowind. (Games where, unless you're cheating, one guard/police officer can usually singlehandedly kill/arrest/stop you.)
Then invite their children to the U.S., educate them 'the American way' and then send them back to promote a pro-democratic/a pro-republic/the pro-communist and work our way from there. Quit complaining about 'Microsoft bows down to foreign government' while the U.S., U.N., E.U. and other trade organizations/governments allows China to violate labor laws (poor safety, lack of minimum wage, etc), make a mockery of the WTO (World Trade Organization, see labor law violations) and (back to the topic at hand) censor the internet (one way or another).
Pioneer last week at the Consumer Electronics Show unveiled a standalone Blu-Ray player for $1,800. Obviously, Pioneer's earning some profit there - and Sony will almost certainly subsidize the cost of the drives, but you're still looking at an expensive bit of hardware.
This little bit here is what makes the whole article newsworthy. Assuming Pioneer (or whoever manufactures it is) manages to cut production costs in half, you're still looking at a whopping $900 machine. Cut that in half again (assume the technology/parts are more common/cheaper by now) and you're looking at around $450. Cut that in half AGAIN (at this point you're being overly generous given the fact that the PS3 is due for launch within a 6 month area) and you're looking at a $225 machine BEFORE ADDING anything else.
Theres also the unreleased/unspecified price tag of the Cell processor, the rest of the hardware, the modifications needed to turning it into a video game console and then of course everything else that comes with launching a new product (marketing, shipping, manufacturing, etc). Assume ALL the hardware additions cost $100 (this includes the Cell processor so I'm being generous here) and the modifications $50, you're looking at a $475 machine. Tack on an extra $25 for everything else (shipping, defects, one free controller, etc) and $500 isn't out of range for the PS3.
For the most part games that 'don't make it' are, arguably, ALWAYS case by case basis. Heres 3 games/series, that 'didn't make it' for reasons unknown.
1. Final Fantasy 2(NES JP), 3(NES JP) and 5 (SNES JP). Yes, 2 and 5 were remade for the PS1 and 3 is being remade for the DS, but sans (VERY late) remakes, these games never saw U.S. soil. (Take your pick of reasons for each game ranging from 'too experimental' or 'it was too risky economically'.)
2. The entire Sakura Wars series. Given the sheer number of games and its popularity in Japan, its more or less considered to be a conspiracy as to why the games (or the anime, or the manga or the movies) haven't made it over here.
3. Any musical related game than DDR. (Either guitar, drums, or DJ-styled arcade game systems. Reasons/excuses not to bring it over here galore)
The problem is when the PSP was initially hyped/launched, Sony paraded it around as though it was a Gameboy killer, not a iPod or portable-DVD player killer. Sony bragged about how the larger screen and insanely superior hardware would crush the GBA and DS much like the PS1 crushed the N64. (Better hardware? They HAVE to win! It plays music and movies? Bonus points!)
Even their lineup (and arguably current games-to-movie ratio) reflects this mentality. The number of PSP games were/are much higher than the number of UMD movies with the only worthwhile movie at launch/early in its life being Spider-Man 2 (and that just a tie-in to the DVD release).
The sheer amount of work required to bypass security systems have driving PSP hackers to a level unheard of in the hacker's gaming community. (Updates for a video game system? On a HANDHELD no less?! Microsoft's Xbox has security systems as well but only if you connect to Xbox Live so thats arguably acceptable for anti-cheating purposes.) The homebrewed PSP community more or less shuns any new PSP games or movies in fear of getting an update rendering their heavily modded system into a $300 paperweight.
Fast forward to today, and people aren't sure what the hell the PSP is supposed to be. Video game system? No, too few games, most are ports and some don't even fit the system well. iPod killer? No, the memory sticks simply cost too much to even be considered an iPod rival. A replacement for portable-DVD players? No, too expensive, can't play DVDs and lack of UMD support from Hollywood.
Generally, even if you take into the average Chinese salary into account, Chinese media (movies, music, games, etc) are all fairly priced. This is additionally thanks to the fact that shipping is drastically cut due to close proximity to the factories/cities (unless you live out in the rural farmland.) And then of course theres the fact that most media (most notably movies) are made on budgets the size of American indie files, and movies are made VERY fast and VERY cheap (you could film half a kung fu fighting movie just video taping two martial artists sparring one another outside). Add this all up and pirating Chinese media is just a waste of time (unless you live outside of the country).
As for the government turning a blind eye to piracy, this is painfully true. Stories of visiting tourists reportly seeing whole racks of pirated media publicly on sale in the open have been the norm for a couple years already. The media has simply lost interest in it because its so commonly seenen/reported/known/documented.
The problems/advantages between 2D and 3D really depends on the genre.
I don't think anyone can imagine a modern 2D FPS game on anything weaker than a cellphone anymore.
Some/Few platformers have success in the change from 2D to 3D (Super Mario 64 anyone? Super Mario Sunshine to a lesser degree and the Crash Bandicoot series deserves mention).
Fighting games have (arguably) gotten worse with the change since development time and cost have risen without any major improvements to the genre. (Where the 4-8 player action? A royal rumble styled mode? Why is online play still spotty or flat-out not included? And could we get some new series besides Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter and Soul Blade/Caliber?)
Adventure games? Yes, development costs have risen and interest in the genre has dropped off the chart but given the fact that EA is allowed to recycle its own game engine, make minor graphical upgrades and virtually no gameplay changes every year, adventure games have no excuse (other than the problem of thinking up new adventures.)
Strategy games have simply adopted the same mentality as the majority of the game industry, Graphics != Better gameplay. See : Age of Empires 3, Age of Mythology, and Civilization 4.
People have always experienced knowledge overloads as far back as knowledge has been collected. How many people know the names, dates and locations of every major military battle of the 20th century? 19th century? 18th century? What about famous authors? Famous poets? Can you recite the dates every U.S. president died on? This is not science either, this is just history and English/Literature knowledge.
And then there are other more complex/obscure fields of knowledge: medicine, physics, engineering, the occult, computers, magnets, plastics, metals, law, government, the list goes on. Overload or Lazy?
Except in cases like that, theres no clear evidence regarding whos doing the posting. How do you know a company didn't hire another company to do the advertising and had nothing to do with where they were posted? Maybe they were put up by a random fanboy who simply wanted his favorite band to get some advertisement, should the band be punished for that? Hell, maybe they were put up by a competitor who wanted to smear their reputation, theres no evidence.
In this case, the evidence is clear. The styles are too similar, the art is too consistant, the placement is clearly thoughtout and then we have the company and the people involved identified and admittedly connected to Sony. Sony CLEARLY knew what was going on and DEFINATELY hired these people to put up this graffiti. The evidence ultimately points to Sony saying with the 'artists' claiming "don't blame us, Sony paid us to do this."
Philadelphia has strict billboard regulations. Companies have to get a permit from the city's Licenses and Inspections Department before putting up an advertisement.
Sony did not get permission ahead of time for its graffiti ads, the L&I office confirmed yesterday.
L&I intended to issue a violation to the property owner and inform Sony that such advertising required a permit, said a department official who asked not to be identified.
Putting up posters isn't much better when you don't get permission. Push the case hard enough and you can claim its graffiti by saying its lowering the value of your property or because its covering legitimately used wallspace without permission. And then of course, there are walls that are marked 'Do not put up posters' all over nearly every major city.
Linux names are acronyms. Acronyms are easier to type and remember.
Just because Linux names are acronyms, doesn't mean their any easier to remember. Wth does GIMP stand for? GNU? VLC? GNOME?
Hell, some people don't even know what IBM (International Business Machines), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or EU (European Union) stand for. If Joe Average can't remember such common public acronyms, what makes you think they're going to bother remembering Linux acronyms?
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Non-state sanctioned media is illegal and generally punishably by imprisonment.
I'm Chinese woking in America.
If you are then you're in the extreme minority. Immigrants typically and historically work in groups/unions/organizations to get things done back in their home countries, not post on internet forums alone acting like they know the secret to world peace.
I seldom read/see different opinion from outside world on media.
BBC? The public access channel? That all Spanish channel (which, admittedly, I never watch because I can't understand a word of it and theres no subtitles)? All the footage major U.S. media companies show of anti-U.S. foreign policy protests in foreign countries? Hell I see more foreign news than domestic news these days than ever before. Whatever happened to half the news being filled with simply shootings and reports about how crime increased by .5%?
Everthing I do can be traced, your bank, credit card, personal info, etc. I'm trapped.
In Communist China, banks are state owned and controlled. Credit cards are only for the rich and wealthy, and if you sink into debt, they lock you in jail on false charges (guilty until proven innocent) until you pay up.
If the U.S. is a trap, then the name of the game is get-out-of-the-trap-thats-over-lava and get-into-the-trap-thats-safe-on-the-ground.
Discounting new releases means higher sales? No, really? /sarcasm
Gamers have asked for new releases to come down in price sooner, rather than waiting for the company to think 'well gee, sales and hype have hit rock bottom lets try discounting games now that everyone already bought second-hand copies and hope we make some more sales.'
Actually, I play WoW and I've seen and reporting people for calling other players 'faggots', 'niggers' and 'towel heads' (I have no clue why people use this). Most GMs will usually just blow you off for reporting this though, let alone the fact that the average wait time for a GM to respond is roughly 20 to 45 minutes. Lets not forget they censor their own official forums. Oh and last but not least, (at least on RP servers) you CANNOT talk to players on the other faction because they PURPOSELY scramble the chat (and yes, attempting to decode their filters is a bannable offense which leads to insane amounts of out of game communications and planning).
Hell my brother had it car broken into once. The window smashed by a chunk of concrete (it was still inside) and the only thing missing was his coat, sunglasses and a broken camera we were always too lazy to simply take out.
Sony again fails to pick up the ball on the the games department of the PSP.
Really? Could you list some games released within the past 3 years that have 'months' of replay value? And no, user made content doesn't count.
And for the record, the last game I played was Call of Duty 2. I beat it on Average on a weekend. No cheats. Haven't touched it since. 'Borrowed' it from a friend who beat it himself and got bored with it. Online play bores us both since we don't have the time to memorize maps, weapon sounds, develop a twitch reaction time and deal with all the idiotic kiddies online.
Besides, the game has been out for almost a year now, you'd think that that would've upgrading their systems enough by now.
Economics basically.
1 company/console = bad. No competition leads to no progress/innovation/change. (See: Atari, Madden series, and Microsoft's Windows.)
2~3 companies/consoles = good. Competition goes insane trying to outdo one another leads to mass innovations/changes. Consumers win and (generally) the fight boils down to two remaining victors. (See: SNES vs Genesis war with the Jaguar being the 3rd and the loser)
4+ companies/consoles = awful. Market turns into a mess. 3rd party developers don't know who to support, consumers are left confused and angry by exclusives on systems they didn't buy, and it basicly turns into a 'who can out bleed money longer than the others' fight. (See: early video game console history)
On a PvE server, maybe. On PvP servers, most players generally spend weeks (or even months if you play 'casually') just getting through levels 20-40. I hit level 60 in about 20 days playtime on my first character on a PvE server, on a PvP server? I still haven't broken level 30 yet and I'm nearing the 15 day playtime cause I get randomly interrupted/ambushed/ganked/corpse camped in contested territories (why is the Horde Shaman totem quest right outside of an Alliance town?) Oh and god forbid you set your Hearthstone to a town thats being seiged by the enemy faction. A level 60er can one shot anyone under level 30, let alone run them down with their mounts.
Level 60 players in WoW need something to do besides run oversized instances, gank low level players and constantly do Battlegrounds. Death is a joke (gee wow, you have to walk back to your death and/or pay some gold to repair your gear), instances have long been complained about being boring and Battlegrounds STILL suffers from the unequal Alliance : Horde ratios on some servers. The parent post is right, WoW is a TOO easy for a MMO. Other than time, theres absolutely no risk or real penalty in the game for anything. Even 'dishonorable' kills are somewhat of a joke given how few Civilian NPCs there are.
Theres two plausible scenarios that can play out that'll serious help Microsoft's 360.
1. The PS3 launch is more or less as bad as the 360's. (Remember, they bungled the PS2 AND the PSP launches so it is possible) Between the 360's early foothold on the market and the lack of any first-gen titles that take advantage of the hardware (which is true for ANY hardware), the PS3 crumbles between the 360's early launch the Nintendo Revolution's 'we complement, not replace, the 360 and/or PS3' strategy. Throw in Sony's poor economic state and the fact that the PS2 is simply far too old to be of any contest and after 3 or so years, the PS3 is axed to cut losses.
2. Blu-Ray doesn't catch on for whatever reason, take your pick from too high costs to dislike of DRM to movie studios/customers do not support it (again, likely given Sony's past). Because of the added costs from the Blu-Ray drive and the lack of the same movie support the PS2 recieved with DVDs, the PS3 flounders since it cannot support itself solely as a video game system due to the extreme hardware costs. Again Nintendo survives with its video game-only system strategy and Microsoft survives either from HD-DVDs or it simply drives the PS3 off the market.
Of course the lowbies were right. Everyone whos read up on the topic knows its going to be all high level content thats unlocked. Unless Blizzard plans on making the unlocked areas 'neutral ground' (as in no open PvP allowed even on PvP servers), low level players would just be ganked on sight by the sheer number of the level 60ers running around. Its a former/current war-zone area, anyone under a certain level is just going to get his face smashed in either by the mobs there or by the opposing side.
Two quotes taken from the WoW community site :
The Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will house two massive, unique dungeons - the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, a 20-man raid dungeon, and the Temple of Ahn'Qiraj, a 40-man raid dungeon.
Shiromar looked up at the sky and remembered a time when the sun had been eclipsed by dragons; when the Qiraji and silithid flooded over the legions of night elves in seemingly eternal waves; when hope seemed but a shadow. It seemed as if none would survive those terrible months; yet here she was, standing before the sacred barrier that saved their lives all those years ago, during the War of the Shifting Sands...
Oh yeah, that new area sounds real appealing. A 20-man and 40-man raid area in a former warzone region, lowbies will be all over that! /sarcasm
The PS2 looks like it is on track to hit 120+ million as it winds down its life over the next couple of years.
120+ million?! Jeez, way to pull numbers out of your ass. I don't think ANY video game system has even come close to the 100 million mark (sans the Gameboy and all its upgrades and PCs which aren't dedicated game systems).
and 140-150 million PS3s over the next five years sounds like a reasonable lifetime installed base for the console.
140-150 million PS3s over 5 years? Holy shit! Thats an average of 28~30 million PS3s sold EACH YEAR. Will the PS3 surf the net, record TV shows, burn CDs/DVDs/Blu-Ray discs, cook my dinner, cure diseases, power my house, pay my bills and post on /. for me?
The early reports on the first PS3 games are glowing from people who have seen them firsthand.
What 'early reports'? Every single report I've heard about the PS3 has been muzzled by a NDA, reeked of hype or been so vague the Nintendo Revolution controller rumors sounded more likely.
And the porn industry is officially throwing their weight behind BluRay. RIP HD-DVD...
Says who? Between Sony's recent DRM fiasco and Microsoft's 'no DRM because we don't have a stake in it' decision making, most analysts generally agree that HD-DVD will be more likely to be adopted. (And lets not forget Sony's current attempts to force UMDs upon the handheld/portable market with their PSP.)
The problem here is simple and straight-forward. To what extent of removing a gamer's ability to interact/affect the outcome should be allowed/restricted? There are plenty of games out there that offer the OPTION of non-violence (MGS2 and 3 most notable) whereas others FORCE non-violent options upon the player (civil unrest in Civilization games being the most annoying/notable/well known.)
Give too much freedom/too little punishment and you get games like GTA. (The police are coming after me? Ha! Those pistols are nothing against my SMG and bulletproof car.) Give too much punishment/too little freedom and you get games like Postal or Morrowind. (Games where, unless you're cheating, one guard/police officer can usually singlehandedly kill/arrest/stop you.)
Then invite their children to the U.S., educate them 'the American way' and then send them back to promote a pro-democratic/a pro-republic/the pro-communist and work our way from there. Quit complaining about 'Microsoft bows down to foreign government' while the U.S., U.N., E.U. and other trade organizations/governments allows China to violate labor laws (poor safety, lack of minimum wage, etc), make a mockery of the WTO (World Trade Organization, see labor law violations) and (back to the topic at hand) censor the internet (one way or another).
Is it just me or does it sound like EA is simply trying to goad people back into buying expansion packs again simply by renaming and repackaging them?
This little bit here is what makes the whole article newsworthy. Assuming Pioneer (or whoever manufactures it is) manages to cut production costs in half, you're still looking at a whopping $900 machine. Cut that in half again (assume the technology/parts are more common/cheaper by now) and you're looking at around $450. Cut that in half AGAIN (at this point you're being overly generous given the fact that the PS3 is due for launch within a 6 month area) and you're looking at a $225 machine BEFORE ADDING anything else.
Theres also the unreleased/unspecified price tag of the Cell processor, the rest of the hardware, the modifications needed to turning it into a video game console and then of course everything else that comes with launching a new product (marketing, shipping, manufacturing, etc). Assume ALL the hardware additions cost $100 (this includes the Cell processor so I'm being generous here) and the modifications $50, you're looking at a $475 machine. Tack on an extra $25 for everything else (shipping, defects, one free controller, etc) and $500 isn't out of range for the PS3.
1. Final Fantasy 2(NES JP), 3(NES JP) and 5 (SNES JP). Yes, 2 and 5 were remade for the PS1 and 3 is being remade for the DS, but sans (VERY late) remakes, these games never saw U.S. soil. (Take your pick of reasons for each game ranging from 'too experimental' or 'it was too risky economically'.)
2. The entire Sakura Wars series. Given the sheer number of games and its popularity in Japan, its more or less considered to be a conspiracy as to why the games (or the anime, or the manga or the movies) haven't made it over here.
3. Any musical related game than DDR. (Either guitar, drums, or DJ-styled arcade game systems. Reasons/excuses not to bring it over here galore)
Even their lineup (and arguably current games-to-movie ratio) reflects this mentality. The number of PSP games were/are much higher than the number of UMD movies with the only worthwhile movie at launch/early in its life being Spider-Man 2 (and that just a tie-in to the DVD release).
The sheer amount of work required to bypass security systems have driving PSP hackers to a level unheard of in the hacker's gaming community. (Updates for a video game system? On a HANDHELD no less?! Microsoft's Xbox has security systems as well but only if you connect to Xbox Live so thats arguably acceptable for anti-cheating purposes.) The homebrewed PSP community more or less shuns any new PSP games or movies in fear of getting an update rendering their heavily modded system into a $300 paperweight.
Fast forward to today, and people aren't sure what the hell the PSP is supposed to be. Video game system? No, too few games, most are ports and some don't even fit the system well. iPod killer? No, the memory sticks simply cost too much to even be considered an iPod rival. A replacement for portable-DVD players? No, too expensive, can't play DVDs and lack of UMD support from Hollywood.
Given the fact that gameplay is really what matters the most in games 90% of the time, is that such a bad thing?
As for the government turning a blind eye to piracy, this is painfully true. Stories of visiting tourists reportly seeing whole racks of pirated media publicly on sale in the open have been the norm for a couple years already. The media has simply lost interest in it because its so commonly seenen/reported/known/documented.
I don't think anyone can imagine a modern 2D FPS game on anything weaker than a cellphone anymore.
Some/Few platformers have success in the change from 2D to 3D (Super Mario 64 anyone? Super Mario Sunshine to a lesser degree and the Crash Bandicoot series deserves mention).
Fighting games have (arguably) gotten worse with the change since development time and cost have risen without any major improvements to the genre. (Where the 4-8 player action? A royal rumble styled mode? Why is online play still spotty or flat-out not included? And could we get some new series besides Dead or Alive, Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter and Soul Blade/Caliber?)
Adventure games? Yes, development costs have risen and interest in the genre has dropped off the chart but given the fact that EA is allowed to recycle its own game engine, make minor graphical upgrades and virtually no gameplay changes every year, adventure games have no excuse (other than the problem of thinking up new adventures.)
Strategy games have simply adopted the same mentality as the majority of the game industry, Graphics != Better gameplay. See : Age of Empires 3, Age of Mythology, and Civilization 4.
And then there are other more complex/obscure fields of knowledge: medicine, physics, engineering, the occult, computers, magnets, plastics, metals, law, government, the list goes on. Overload or Lazy?
In this case, the evidence is clear. The styles are too similar, the art is too consistant, the placement is clearly thoughtout and then we have the company and the people involved identified and admittedly connected to Sony. Sony CLEARLY knew what was going on and DEFINATELY hired these people to put up this graffiti. The evidence ultimately points to Sony saying with the 'artists' claiming "don't blame us, Sony paid us to do this."
Sony did not get permission ahead of time for its graffiti ads, the L&I office confirmed yesterday.
L&I intended to issue a violation to the property owner and inform Sony that such advertising required a permit, said a department official who asked not to be identified.
Putting up posters isn't much better when you don't get permission. Push the case hard enough and you can claim its graffiti by saying its lowering the value of your property or because its covering legitimately used wallspace without permission. And then of course, there are walls that are marked 'Do not put up posters' all over nearly every major city.
Just because Linux names are acronyms, doesn't mean their any easier to remember. Wth does GIMP stand for? GNU? VLC? GNOME?
Hell, some people don't even know what IBM (International Business Machines), NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or EU (European Union) stand for. If Joe Average can't remember such common public acronyms, what makes you think they're going to bother remembering Linux acronyms?