I had a ton of fun in highschool making new levels for Descent. I don't think the editor (Devil) shipped with it, or was even endorsed by the creators of the game, but I sure had a lot of fun with that. Descent3 shipped with an editor out of the box, although I never did as much editing on that as it was way more complex the the one for the original Descent. Descent was fun in that it didn't follow a true 3D model, so you could do things like have a door in the middle of a room, that led to a bigger room.
Canonical may be forcing people to use PCs like they use cellphones, but people don't like this.
You may not like this (I don't either), but people in general like a computer that is an appliance. This is the reason that the iPad (and other applie products) has caught on so well in the past few years. People never liked dealing with drivers, compatibility, registry editors, getting apps from reliable sources, or system configuration. They want a device that just does what they need, and they don't care if it's highly configurable, so long as it turns on and works every time they go to use it.
In Canada, this is how it's always worked, I can't believe the US is any different. The pure financial facts are that it costs more to train an engineer than an English major. The funny flip side is that for the most part, the Arts majors are still the ones complaining about tuition, because there's a lot more scholarships, and well paid internships (co-op education) for engineering students than for arts students. Think about it, most Arts classes can be much bigger, and don't require any supplies apart from books (which is paid for by the student), and a big room. In engineering, science and others, there's lots of lab equipment to pay for. Not only that, but engineering usually requires more actual classes and teaching time during each semester.
What's better is the old PC games type system with no centralized server. Get your buddy to host a server on their own machine, and you connect with all your friends. Or find other public servers on the internet. This PSN outage just goes to show that a single network for all games on the system is just waiting for something bad to happen. Things don't need to be this centralized.
Also, is a scientist working at a financial firm no longer a scientist simply because they aren't in lab? Using a STEM (Sci, Tech, Eng, Math) degree for a non-science oriented company can many times be very rewarding, exciting, and pay quite well, assuming you get into the right firm. There's no rule that just because you get a degree in science, that you have to be doing pure research, working for a university or some such.
Same thing happened in Canada. GM, Ford, Chrysler cut back on their employees, and Honda and Toyota now make quite a few cars in Canada. For things that are easier to ship, this doesn't happen, but for cars, it really makes sense to manufacture them close to where they are sold.
I did it. Seriously. It's a big nuisance to have to switch discs everytime you want to switch games, especially on the Wii when many times you are just playing party games. Emulating a retail system is fine as long as you own the actual games. Although emulation of current systems is so slow that I would have to wonder why you would even want to attempt this.
We don't own a car either, but we live in Canada. Almost all the grocery stores off delivery, but I'm unaware of any that do the shopping for you. We go the grocery store to pick up all the heavy items with a longer shelf life about once a month, and we get them delivered. About $8, which is quite pricey, I guess, but when you consider we're getting about $300 worth of stuff it doesn't make much difference. All the fresh stuff we pick up weekly between 1 or 2 trips to the store. Getting by without a car is do-able if you're willing to make a few changes.
This!!! I was talking with a co-worker about this very same idea. He buys junky crap all the time from Chinese websites. Once in a while he gets scammed, and many times he has to spend significant amounts of time going back and forth with the seller. Sure the item eventually gets delivered, or he eventually gets a refund, but it's a significant time waste. He says "I'm on the internet anyway, what does it matter if I have to spend the time sending off emails, or checking the order status of the things I've been waiting months for". And to that I said "I'm watching TV, what does it matter if I'm watching a the Young and the Restless". Sure you could be playing a crappy title, and technically are still playing video games. But if you're going to sit down for an hour to play a game, you might as well play something really good, otherwise you might as well be playing E.T. on the Atari.
There's another problem here though. Sure the $60 game might be worth it, and might actually provide 60 times more value than the $1. However, are you prepared to devote the time to the $60 game that would make it worth it? I have 3 or 4 $60 games that I haven't bothered to complete, because I just don't have the time for that right now (3 kids). I would probably be better off just buying $15 games, instead of $60 games, and actually having time to enjoy the whole game, and getting everything I pay for, instead of having a bunch of half finished games lying around. I'm not that big on $1 games, but I am a big fan of some of the $5-$15 games I see on WiiWare that are really well done. I think the problem is, is that most of the people who have the time for $60 games are teenagers and university kids, who likely don't have all that much money to spend on $60 games. When all the games were $60, then you'd get a bunch of adults buying the game too, but many of them would probably never finish the game. Now that the adults of $15,$5, and $1 options, you'll see a lot less people buying a $60 game that they never intend to finish.
The last sentence sums it up perfectly. I'm sure you could find lots of people who wanted to program console games. But you won't entice them by shoving them in a cubicle for 16 hours a day, for (relatively) little pay, and with no control over what's going on with the project. Entice people with nice offices, nice equipment, good salaries, realistic deadlines, and good hours, and you'll probably have no trouble getting developers to work for you.
Might be nice to be able to boot into android on a standard laptop, or just run it in a VM (not an emulator). I would like to be able to use android, without having to buy a dedicated device.
Sounds a lot like selling iPods to me. Person buys an iPod from the retailer, they buy iTunes cards from the retailer. Optionally they can just buy stuff straight from Apple with their credit card. The retailer basically only gets money from the initial sale of the iPod. But the retailers haven't killed the iPod yet. What made the PSP Go so different.
I think the only cases where DRM really affects the user are in PC games, or in the more rare cases like the Sony Root kit fiasco. Not many regular joes complain about DRM on their game consoles, but it's still there. Same goes for DVD players and iPods (video at least, even most didn't notice the music DRM when it existed).
I agree with this. If you've ever watched This film is not yet rated, you can see just how bad ratings boards with no oversight can be. Basically, if you are a big enough studio, They will help you get an NC-17 rating down to an R, but if you're just a small guy, they will just give you NC-17, without saying what you need to cut to get the rating changed, or why the rating was even given. I could really see this being an important step. Make the questionaire open for everyone to see. And let consumers see the entire questionaire with all answers if they really want to. In order to inform themselves if the game is appropriate. I think a lot less people would be complaining about ratings in games and movies if the process was completely transparent, and everyone got the same treatment.
Yeah, Living in Canada, I always laugh when they talk about water conservation. Not that we should waste it, but we have much bigger environmental problems to worry about. If there was anywhere near a shortage, it wouldn't cost only a couple buck for a cubic meter (1000 L). Most of the problems with water in this world are a distribution problem, not a supply problem. And water is something that is quite expensive to transport. It's not like you can dehydrate the water to bring the weight down.
It's the same problem that exists for digital music sales. I've often seen new release CDs sell cheaper than the same album on iTunes. Digital items should be much cheaper, and get more sales in volume (because manufacturing and distribution are free). Make things cheap enough to get impulse sales. Charge $2 for an ebook or $2 for an album, and just sti back and watch people buy 100 times more stuff.
This has nothing to do with laws but only to do with studios licensing their stuff. I've been with them since the first month they came out. Have to say, that the Canadian selection while still not great, is quite a bit better than it used to be, and getting better every week. I'm sure in a year or two they'll be up to just as much stuff as the US. Until that time, i'm still happy to support a business model that I really like, even if I only watch 4 movies a month for my $8. Still cheaper and more convenient than renting.
I think the same goes for things like GIMP. If you just try clicking around, you will probably get totally lost. However, if you just read some tutorials, and google for answers when you get stuck, you'll find it's not that hard to use. People assume that just because they can't figure something out by clicking around, that the UI is bad.
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WMI is really powerful, I only wish the documentation was better. You can do some really powerful things with VBScript and WMI.
I had a ton of fun in highschool making new levels for Descent. I don't think the editor (Devil) shipped with it, or was even endorsed by the creators of the game, but I sure had a lot of fun with that. Descent3 shipped with an editor out of the box, although I never did as much editing on that as it was way more complex the the one for the original Descent. Descent was fun in that it didn't follow a true 3D model, so you could do things like have a door in the middle of a room, that led to a bigger room.
You may not like this (I don't either), but people in general like a computer that is an appliance. This is the reason that the iPad (and other applie products) has caught on so well in the past few years. People never liked dealing with drivers, compatibility, registry editors, getting apps from reliable sources, or system configuration. They want a device that just does what they need, and they don't care if it's highly configurable, so long as it turns on and works every time they go to use it.
In Canada, this is how it's always worked, I can't believe the US is any different. The pure financial facts are that it costs more to train an engineer than an English major. The funny flip side is that for the most part, the Arts majors are still the ones complaining about tuition, because there's a lot more scholarships, and well paid internships (co-op education) for engineering students than for arts students. Think about it, most Arts classes can be much bigger, and don't require any supplies apart from books (which is paid for by the student), and a big room. In engineering, science and others, there's lots of lab equipment to pay for. Not only that, but engineering usually requires more actual classes and teaching time during each semester.
What's better is the old PC games type system with no centralized server. Get your buddy to host a server on their own machine, and you connect with all your friends. Or find other public servers on the internet. This PSN outage just goes to show that a single network for all games on the system is just waiting for something bad to happen. Things don't need to be this centralized.
Also, is a scientist working at a financial firm no longer a scientist simply because they aren't in lab? Using a STEM (Sci, Tech, Eng, Math) degree for a non-science oriented company can many times be very rewarding, exciting, and pay quite well, assuming you get into the right firm. There's no rule that just because you get a degree in science, that you have to be doing pure research, working for a university or some such.
Same thing happened in Canada. GM, Ford, Chrysler cut back on their employees, and Honda and Toyota now make quite a few cars in Canada. For things that are easier to ship, this doesn't happen, but for cars, it really makes sense to manufacture them close to where they are sold.
I did it. Seriously. It's a big nuisance to have to switch discs everytime you want to switch games, especially on the Wii when many times you are just playing party games. Emulating a retail system is fine as long as you own the actual games. Although emulation of current systems is so slow that I would have to wonder why you would even want to attempt this.
OMG!!! Did you tell them about the World Trade Center? Obligatory XKCD
We don't own a car either, but we live in Canada. Almost all the grocery stores off delivery, but I'm unaware of any that do the shopping for you. We go the grocery store to pick up all the heavy items with a longer shelf life about once a month, and we get them delivered. About $8, which is quite pricey, I guess, but when you consider we're getting about $300 worth of stuff it doesn't make much difference. All the fresh stuff we pick up weekly between 1 or 2 trips to the store. Getting by without a car is do-able if you're willing to make a few changes.
Even if the limbs are better, removing the natural limb will still have serious complications
This!!! I was talking with a co-worker about this very same idea. He buys junky crap all the time from Chinese websites. Once in a while he gets scammed, and many times he has to spend significant amounts of time going back and forth with the seller. Sure the item eventually gets delivered, or he eventually gets a refund, but it's a significant time waste. He says "I'm on the internet anyway, what does it matter if I have to spend the time sending off emails, or checking the order status of the things I've been waiting months for". And to that I said "I'm watching TV, what does it matter if I'm watching a the Young and the Restless". Sure you could be playing a crappy title, and technically are still playing video games. But if you're going to sit down for an hour to play a game, you might as well play something really good, otherwise you might as well be playing E.T. on the Atari.
There's another problem here though. Sure the $60 game might be worth it, and might actually provide 60 times more value than the $1. However, are you prepared to devote the time to the $60 game that would make it worth it? I have 3 or 4 $60 games that I haven't bothered to complete, because I just don't have the time for that right now (3 kids). I would probably be better off just buying $15 games, instead of $60 games, and actually having time to enjoy the whole game, and getting everything I pay for, instead of having a bunch of half finished games lying around. I'm not that big on $1 games, but I am a big fan of some of the $5-$15 games I see on WiiWare that are really well done. I think the problem is, is that most of the people who have the time for $60 games are teenagers and university kids, who likely don't have all that much money to spend on $60 games. When all the games were $60, then you'd get a bunch of adults buying the game too, but many of them would probably never finish the game. Now that the adults of $15,$5, and $1 options, you'll see a lot less people buying a $60 game that they never intend to finish.
The last sentence sums it up perfectly. I'm sure you could find lots of people who wanted to program console games. But you won't entice them by shoving them in a cubicle for 16 hours a day, for (relatively) little pay, and with no control over what's going on with the project. Entice people with nice offices, nice equipment, good salaries, realistic deadlines, and good hours, and you'll probably have no trouble getting developers to work for you.
Might be nice to be able to boot into android on a standard laptop, or just run it in a VM (not an emulator). I would like to be able to use android, without having to buy a dedicated device.
Sounds a lot like selling iPods to me. Person buys an iPod from the retailer, they buy iTunes cards from the retailer. Optionally they can just buy stuff straight from Apple with their credit card. The retailer basically only gets money from the initial sale of the iPod. But the retailers haven't killed the iPod yet. What made the PSP Go so different.
I think the only cases where DRM really affects the user are in PC games, or in the more rare cases like the Sony Root kit fiasco. Not many regular joes complain about DRM on their game consoles, but it's still there. Same goes for DVD players and iPods (video at least, even most didn't notice the music DRM when it existed).
I agree with this. If you've ever watched This film is not yet rated, you can see just how bad ratings boards with no oversight can be. Basically, if you are a big enough studio, They will help you get an NC-17 rating down to an R, but if you're just a small guy, they will just give you NC-17, without saying what you need to cut to get the rating changed, or why the rating was even given. I could really see this being an important step. Make the questionaire open for everyone to see. And let consumers see the entire questionaire with all answers if they really want to. In order to inform themselves if the game is appropriate. I think a lot less people would be complaining about ratings in games and movies if the process was completely transparent, and everyone got the same treatment.
what if the instructions on the website tell them to open a command prompt and type
sh DancingBunnings.sh
Many people are stupid enough to do it if you promise they'll see something funny.
I see no problem as long as you allow null values.
Ontario recently made a decision to shut down all the coal power plants. They are phasing them out. There are better sources of electricity out there.
Yeah, Living in Canada, I always laugh when they talk about water conservation. Not that we should waste it, but we have much bigger environmental problems to worry about. If there was anywhere near a shortage, it wouldn't cost only a couple buck for a cubic meter (1000 L). Most of the problems with water in this world are a distribution problem, not a supply problem. And water is something that is quite expensive to transport. It's not like you can dehydrate the water to bring the weight down.
It's the same problem that exists for digital music sales. I've often seen new release CDs sell cheaper than the same album on iTunes. Digital items should be much cheaper, and get more sales in volume (because manufacturing and distribution are free). Make things cheap enough to get impulse sales. Charge $2 for an ebook or $2 for an album, and just sti back and watch people buy 100 times more stuff.
This has nothing to do with laws but only to do with studios licensing their stuff. I've been with them since the first month they came out. Have to say, that the Canadian selection while still not great, is quite a bit better than it used to be, and getting better every week. I'm sure in a year or two they'll be up to just as much stuff as the US. Until that time, i'm still happy to support a business model that I really like, even if I only watch 4 movies a month for my $8. Still cheaper and more convenient than renting.
I think the same goes for things like GIMP. If you just try clicking around, you will probably get totally lost. However, if you just read some tutorials, and google for answers when you get stuck, you'll find it's not that hard to use. People assume that just because they can't figure something out by clicking around, that the UI is bad.