It seems to me that placebos aren't getting better at fixing people, just that statisticians are becoming more efficient at modifying the numbers. Soon they will rule the universe.
This statement about value seems to be a common observation in my country these days. I figure it's important to note that the rapid expansion of normal society into the l33t world of information systems has destabilized many businesses (and thus valuation systems) in the last ten years. Look at second hand books, for example: once a fairly widespread sort of business. Today, at Amazon you can pick up any well-thumbed paperback for the price of shipping, thus most second-hand bookshops can't afford to have that kind of stuff on the shelf. Then you get the weekend-or-maybe-just-holidays-bibliophile who cruises into my shop expecting to drop a buck for a copy of Steinbeck or Burroughs and finds that the only Modern Library copy in the store is twelve bucks. (It's more detailed than that, really..) Point is, it's destabilizing and many people can't really tell what to pay for something. (Oh yeah, re:China too.. and RIAA... and, etc..)
As far as the actual quote from Mr. Lantz: He's right about games being as ancient as man (what is business but a game?) but there is a subtle detail in specifics (re:Plato): A computer game utilizes media as a primary factor in the "playing" behavior of humans. Notice the way that a game like American Football doesn't actually require any visual or aural media, but there is in fact quite a lot of it. The uniforms, the logos, and even the music of which certain select tracks have become the usual sounds at a game.
Perhaps computer games are an extension of games like Battleships or Hangman, where the media provides a specific enhancement of the player's imaginations or artistic side. However you cut it, they are art and they are a very young art. The proliferation of Flash games has totally boggled me and I wouldn't have expected it even ten years ago. It will be a rocky road, just like it was for Gutenberg's book... just don't insult me games, Mr. Lantz.
Once upon a time, the pianoforte was the most useful tool any working musician must have. As a working musician, the laptop I have recently acquired (after decades of desktops) has rapidly shown me that things have changed. With me everywhere I go, this little blue-gray tool contains all of my full scores and I can work on my music with ease.. if I am at a gig and want to record, it is at hand to not only record but to burn copies for other people immediately. If I need to make a multi-track recording, I basically have a full music studio at hand. For those people who create electronic music using Reason or Live, the laptop is the perfect device, either sitting in a cafe and composing or high atop a mountain playing music for the nocturnal ravers (that's what they do in my town.)
As far as being an instrument in itself, the laptop has every possibility of doing so, especially with a small midi input device which I have seen at school on numerous occasions.
My laptop is now my best friend, and I'm sure that many other modern musicians will agree.
It seems to me that not only are all these new cards eye candy generators but that they are also helping to decrease the quality of the games that are being produced (not on purpose, of course.) For each new iteration of GPU that comes out, every coder in the industry that has five minutes to spare is going to do her best to learn and experiment with the new technology. Then, by the time they begin to get a grip on the stuff, the accellerated GPU Moores' law kicks in and then there's a whole new load of things to learn. We're not all Carmack, you know.. The term 'cinematic' also implies a linear story in pictures to me, and that really doesn't coincide with my vision of video games, y'know? Whether or not we agree on this, production managers in charge of game design are doing to strive for cinema and leave us with games that are more like Myst than Zork or Nethack. And it's rather comedic, I feel, that there's not a game in my local gaming shop for PC that takes full advantage of a GF2.. not to mention my GF4ti. Perhaps this is all just a great gap for all of the opensource/shareware kids out there to fill with games of value and content; without masses of eye candy and production values.
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't H.R. 3200 sort of like DirectX 4?
It seems to me that placebos aren't getting better at fixing people, just that statisticians are becoming more efficient at modifying the numbers. Soon they will rule the universe.
This statement about value seems to be a common observation in my country these days. I figure it's important to note that the rapid expansion of normal society into the l33t world of information systems has destabilized many businesses (and thus valuation systems) in the last ten years. Look at second hand books, for example: once a fairly widespread sort of business. Today, at Amazon you can pick up any well-thumbed paperback for the price of shipping, thus most second-hand bookshops can't afford to have that kind of stuff on the shelf. Then you get the weekend-or-maybe-just-holidays-bibliophile who cruises into my shop expecting to drop a buck for a copy of Steinbeck or Burroughs and finds that the only Modern Library copy in the store is twelve bucks. (It's more detailed than that, really..) Point is, it's destabilizing and many people can't really tell what to pay for something. (Oh yeah, re:China too.. and RIAA... and, etc..) As far as the actual quote from Mr. Lantz: He's right about games being as ancient as man (what is business but a game?) but there is a subtle detail in specifics (re:Plato): A computer game utilizes media as a primary factor in the "playing" behavior of humans. Notice the way that a game like American Football doesn't actually require any visual or aural media, but there is in fact quite a lot of it. The uniforms, the logos, and even the music of which certain select tracks have become the usual sounds at a game. Perhaps computer games are an extension of games like Battleships or Hangman, where the media provides a specific enhancement of the player's imaginations or artistic side. However you cut it, they are art and they are a very young art. The proliferation of Flash games has totally boggled me and I wouldn't have expected it even ten years ago. It will be a rocky road, just like it was for Gutenberg's book... just don't insult me games, Mr. Lantz.
Once upon a time, the pianoforte was the most useful tool any working musician must have. As a working musician, the laptop I have recently acquired (after decades of desktops) has rapidly shown me that things have changed. With me everywhere I go, this little blue-gray tool contains all of my full scores and I can work on my music with ease.. if I am at a gig and want to record, it is at hand to not only record but to burn copies for other people immediately. If I need to make a multi-track recording, I basically have a full music studio at hand. For those people who create electronic music using Reason or Live, the laptop is the perfect device, either sitting in a cafe and composing or high atop a mountain playing music for the nocturnal ravers (that's what they do in my town.) As far as being an instrument in itself, the laptop has every possibility of doing so, especially with a small midi input device which I have seen at school on numerous occasions. My laptop is now my best friend, and I'm sure that many other modern musicians will agree.
It seems to me that not only are all these new cards eye candy generators but that they are also helping to decrease the quality of the games that are being produced (not on purpose, of course.)
For each new iteration of GPU that comes out, every coder in the industry that has five minutes to spare is going to do her best to learn and experiment with the new technology. Then, by the time they begin to get a grip on the stuff, the accellerated GPU Moores' law kicks in and then there's a whole new load of things to learn. We're not all Carmack, you know..
The term 'cinematic' also implies a linear story in pictures to me, and that really doesn't coincide with my vision of video games, y'know? Whether or not we agree on this, production managers in charge of game design are doing to strive for cinema and leave us with games that are more like Myst than Zork or Nethack.
And it's rather comedic, I feel, that there's not a game in my local gaming shop for PC that takes full advantage of a GF2.. not to mention my GF4ti.
Perhaps this is all just a great gap for all of the opensource/shareware kids out there to fill with games of value and content; without masses of eye candy and production values.
(imho)
Keen