That is where XSN is great though. You can enter tournaments that have 64 people. I will probably never be #1, or even #10. But I'm usually somewhere in the middle. That's a good feeling for us crappy older gamers.
But not so great for whoever comes in as #64.
But I understand what you're saying, and agree. I also suck at online games (well, at games in general), and prefer games where I can play and play poorly than games where being bad means I can't play. It's even worse when I'm merrily playing a single player fighting game in an arcade when someone sits at the machine across from me and joins in. When they kick my butt so badly that I can't even move, I'll just get up after the first round and go watch them play against my now-abandoned character. What's better is that they usually don't realize that the player across from them has left their chair, and I can watch them really sweat and strain to pull off flawless combos to prevent any counterattacks, not realizing that there's noone there who could do a counterattack anyway.
The article is about MS sports games, not all sports games. MS sports games have never sold as well as EA, etc., so basically they're leaving sports to the sports games makers, and focussing their in-house effort on other types of games.
He's basically saying he's going to circumvent copyright/trademark law (no, I'm not a lawyer) because they own the name but he wants to do a sequel.
IAalsoNAL (making us brethren!), but it really depends on what part of Rez Sega owns. If it's the name and likeness, he can produce a game with a different name and different graphics, but with the same gameplay style, and be legally safe. That's where Goldmember, etc. have problems.
Really, if you think of it, if game style were part of copyright/trademark law, there would be no game genres. Only one company could make first person shooters, only one company could make power up shooters, only one company could make RPGs, etc. The same with movies. It's not so much the core mechanics as the name and visuals that seem to be protected.
My uncle bought me some "land on the moon". Sure, now I realize that it's just a con, but when I was a kid I thought it was just about the coolest present I ever got. I still have the deed. And I still think that uncle had about the coolest tastes in presents ever.
So will it be monetarily valuable for that kid when he grows up? No. But will it be emotionally valuable? You betcha.
Between the allure of high-speed Internet services, computer games and other activities, "you begin to have the ability to get entertained and distracted in a million ways, and not just television," said Rishad Tobaccowala, an executive with the Starcom MediaVest Group.
The world is an amazing place. There have always been millions of ways to be entertained and distracted. People are just too lazy to get up from their chairs to do so. Games and the internet have just provided a way to be entertained without getting up.
Sure DVD players weren't big in Japan, but why get a PS2 for PS1 games when you could've bought a PS1 at half price at PS2's launch?
You said it yourself: DVD players weren't big in Japan. And they were as expensive as hell. My friend's girlfriend hates video games, and she bought a PS2, because it was about half the price of the cheapest DVD player on the market. And myself: I bought a PS2, and I love the fact that it can play PS1 games. Sure, I could buy a PS1, but my apartment is tiny. It's bad enough that I have both a PS2 and an XBox, but adding a PS1 would just be too much...I don't know where I'd put it.
Because you can hawk your old system to defray the costs of the new system, without losing the ability to play your games.
But, as has been said by some, the real incentive is for people who don't have the system already. For example, if I'm a GC owner only, and I decide to get either a PS3 or an XBox Next, backwards compatibility will be huge. With a backwards compatible system, I have a choice of hundreds of games on launch day, while without backwards compatibility, I have a choice of around 10.
I'm going to guess that you're talking about the American launch. The Japanese launch was bad. Bad bad. Not Anarchy Online bad, of course, but definitely not good. According to a coworker, just getting logged on and staying logged on was a challenge.
Yeah, I debated whether or not to use the weekly multimags, but shied against it because: they're printed on super super cheap lowgrade recycled paper, they're intended to read and junked, and they contain a bunch of different comics. With a background like that, they're guaranteed to be cheaper than U.S. comics. I figured a compilation book would be the closest approximation I could give that would be fair.
But, as you can see, either way, we're talking much cheaper than the U.S. I don't know what the printing costs are, but if we look at the cost to the consumer per page, we've got:
US Comic: 12.3 cents per page
Japanese Compilation: 2.0 cents per page
Japanese phonebook comic: 0.4 cents per page
If we assume that the cost to the consumer is tied in any way to the printing cost, it looks like saving printing costs would be a much smaller factor in Japan than it would in the U.S.
Since I don't live in Japan, I'm not in a position to comment on the market there but if Marvel or DC released a system like this, the reduction in printing costs could lead to a system much like network television - where advertisers are paying for the development of content and all the company has to deliver is mindshare.
Hmm...I can't profess to say much about this particular situation, but I can give you a little background on the comic situation in Japan.
I believe that the printing costs for comics in Japan are much lower than in America, as all comics are in black and white, and they don't have to publish/stock 30 page comic every week, but a 200 page comic every 2 months or so. Witness the fact that, for example, the next New Xmen comic will be 32 pages and cost $3.95, while the new Gabachitare I bought a few days ago is 230 pages and costs $4.66.
I don't have any proof that comics cost less to make, but the anecdotal evidence seems to point at that conclusion.
Good post. I disagree completely, but I don't think your opinions are invalid.
The problem with a Matrix game is that it is based on a movie with, essentially, one real hero and a few sidekicks. Although it would be interesting to try to be another great hero, the license is one that will attract people who want to be Neo. This parallels with SWG, where one might decide to be a Jabba type smuggler baron, but instead everyone wants to be jedis. It's not that the license is one where there is only one path, but that people who like the license will probably want to go with the path of the main hero/heroes or the main villain/villains (For SWG, I'd wager that the big goals are Luke, Han, maybe Chewie, versus Darth Vader/Maul and Boba Fett).
Dune, on the other hand, follows generations of heroes, of vastly different types (only read the first few books, but Paul is extraordinarily different from his kids). Also, the fan base, though superhardcore, is relatively small, so many players won't know who they are "supposed" to want to be. The world is also different enough that many occupations would be new and interesting, while in the Matrix, any occupations other than "hacker", "hero", and "ship pilot" would end up being really close to ordinary jobs ("firearm manufacturer", etc.).
Maybe it's just me, but in Dune I could see someone trying to be a Freman, Bene Gesserit, an Atreides hero, etc. just because they are so unusual and different from eachother.
And apologies about any Dune based misspellings or inaccuracies. It's been over a decade since I read a Dune book.
Um...it's not a "narrow view of definitions", it's the actual definition. I mean, I don't complain if someone says the Sun is hot that their definition of "Sun" is narrow and that it should include ice cubes.
Look, you didn't know what embrace and extend meant. Now you do. Just consider it a learning experience. Don't attack the poster for being a troll just because he was right and you were wrong.
At the time the article was written, true. Right now, true. However, during the span between about 6 months ago and last week? False. They had a whole thread called "photos of the Phantom" (or something along those lines) on their forum, with clearly real photos of...well...of a PC with a case mod, but that's what the Phantom basically is anyway.
Plus, looking around on various game sites will find youpictures of the Phantom, the back input panel, etc.
"Additionally, I don't see how hard it is to believe in the Phantom's existence"
I'd like to have evidence, not faith.
I understand where you're coming from, and I disagree with the parent, but I don't think any more faith is needed to believe that some aspect of the Phantom exists than for me to believe you if you tell me you own a computer. Sure, you could do all your Slashdotting from an internet cafe, but if you tell me you have a computer, I'll believe you without evidence, because it's not a difficult matter. In the same way, for some working prototype of the Phantom to exist takes no real faith: it's just a computer with an unsual contents delivery platform. If the prototype doesn't have the contents delivery section finished, it's just a computer.
I'll take it on faith, without evidence, that Infinium owns at least one computer.
Actually, my guess is that they're underestimating the impact of PA. Since PA is basically talking smack, and HardOCP is talking facts, they're more worried about the effects on investors from actual dirt being dug up. Investors are unlikely to be swayed by PA's implications that Infinium's CEO is on LSD or kills dogs to orgasm, while the HardOCP article would make them look very hard at where they were going to put their money.
On a side note, PA has been talking about going out to actually see the Phantom (apparently, they've been invited to check it out but have ignored the invitation, which comes as a bit of a shock)
I believe (and this is where my memory gets fuzzy), that that's the new system they've adopted. Japanese currency has the serial number in the top left and bottom right of the bill (same as US currency?), which is what they're using now.
Actually, I believe their old way of doing it was not through banks, but pachinko parlors. Really, though, relying on my memory on this is bad, as I only remember the barest of details (90% of 9 bills to make 10 bills, and it not being technically illegal at the time)
Which, ironically, is the same thing that happened in Japan a few years ago. The law, at the time, was that 90% of the bill had to exist to have it replaced. Some clever criminal types decided to cut 10% off of 9 10,000 yen ($100 dollar) bills, and reassemble it to be 10 90% complete bills. These were then redeemed (mostly at gambling institutions) for proper bills, and the cycle was continued. Needless to say, the law has since been changed.
Yeah, so why did you yell again? It wasn't you getting the award...
Because it's human nature to enjoy being validated, even if it's just a validation of your tastes. Just as children enjoy being told that their drawings are good, adults enjoy having some aspect of their personality praised, whether it's their sense of humor or their taste in movies.
Just to be clear, I haven't even seen ROTK (not out on DVD where I live); I'm speaking generally.
That's fair, and, in fact, on re-read your initial post was pretty clear. My mind must have been preoccupied. I thought I understood what you were saying, but it likes like I totally missed the point. Sorry.
Slashdot Mirror
True, but how does that negate what the parent says?
"Michael Jordan is a great basketball player."
"That's because he's much taller than your average person."
And?
That is where XSN is great though. You can enter tournaments that have 64 people. I will probably never be #1, or even #10. But I'm usually somewhere in the middle. That's a good feeling for us crappy older gamers.
But not so great for whoever comes in as #64.
But I understand what you're saying, and agree. I also suck at online games (well, at games in general), and prefer games where I can play and play poorly than games where being bad means I can't play. It's even worse when I'm merrily playing a single player fighting game in an arcade when someone sits at the machine across from me and joins in. When they kick my butt so badly that I can't even move, I'll just get up after the first round and go watch them play against my now-abandoned character. What's better is that they usually don't realize that the player across from them has left their chair, and I can watch them really sweat and strain to pull off flawless combos to prevent any counterattacks, not realizing that there's noone there who could do a counterattack anyway.
The article is about MS sports games, not all sports games. MS sports games have never sold as well as EA, etc., so basically they're leaving sports to the sports games makers, and focussing their in-house effort on other types of games.
He's basically saying he's going to circumvent copyright/trademark law (no, I'm not a lawyer) because they own the name but he wants to do a sequel.
IAalsoNAL (making us brethren!), but it really depends on what part of Rez Sega owns. If it's the name and likeness, he can produce a game with a different name and different graphics, but with the same gameplay style, and be legally safe. That's where Goldmember, etc. have problems.
Really, if you think of it, if game style were part of copyright/trademark law, there would be no game genres. Only one company could make first person shooters, only one company could make power up shooters, only one company could make RPGs, etc. The same with movies. It's not so much the core mechanics as the name and visuals that seem to be protected.
My uncle bought me some "land on the moon". Sure, now I realize that it's just a con, but when I was a kid I thought it was just about the coolest present I ever got. I still have the deed. And I still think that uncle had about the coolest tastes in presents ever.
So will it be monetarily valuable for that kid when he grows up? No. But will it be emotionally valuable? You betcha.
Between the allure of high-speed Internet services, computer games and other activities, "you begin to have the ability to get entertained and distracted in a million ways, and not just television," said Rishad Tobaccowala, an executive with the Starcom MediaVest Group.
The world is an amazing place. There have always been millions of ways to be entertained and distracted. People are just too lazy to get up from their chairs to do so. Games and the internet have just provided a way to be entertained without getting up.
thats why muggings dont happen in America.
Tell that to my mom or my college roommate.
Sure DVD players weren't big in Japan, but why get a PS2 for PS1 games when you could've bought a PS1 at half price at PS2's launch?
You said it yourself: DVD players weren't big in Japan. And they were as expensive as hell. My friend's girlfriend hates video games, and she bought a PS2, because it was about half the price of the cheapest DVD player on the market. And myself: I bought a PS2, and I love the fact that it can play PS1 games. Sure, I could buy a PS1, but my apartment is tiny. It's bad enough that I have both a PS2 and an XBox, but adding a PS1 would just be too much...I don't know where I'd put it.
Because you can hawk your old system to defray the costs of the new system, without losing the ability to play your games.
But, as has been said by some, the real incentive is for people who don't have the system already. For example, if I'm a GC owner only, and I decide to get either a PS3 or an XBox Next, backwards compatibility will be huge. With a backwards compatible system, I have a choice of hundreds of games on launch day, while without backwards compatibility, I have a choice of around 10.
Me too...Does it mean "former step-brother"?
I'm going to guess that you're talking about the American launch. The Japanese launch was bad. Bad bad. Not Anarchy Online bad, of course, but definitely not good. According to a coworker, just getting logged on and staying logged on was a challenge.
But, as you can see, either way, we're talking much cheaper than the U.S. I don't know what the printing costs are, but if we look at the cost to the consumer per page, we've got:
- US Comic: 12.3 cents per page
- Japanese Compilation: 2.0 cents per page
- Japanese phonebook comic: 0.4 cents per page
If we assume that the cost to the consumer is tied in any way to the printing cost, it looks like saving printing costs would be a much smaller factor in Japan than it would in the U.S.Since I don't live in Japan, I'm not in a position to comment on the market there but if Marvel or DC released a system like this, the reduction in printing costs could lead to a system much like network television - where advertisers are paying for the development of content and all the company has to deliver is mindshare.
Hmm...I can't profess to say much about this particular situation, but I can give you a little background on the comic situation in Japan.
I believe that the printing costs for comics in Japan are much lower than in America, as all comics are in black and white, and they don't have to publish/stock 30 page comic every week, but a 200 page comic every 2 months or so. Witness the fact that, for example, the next New Xmen comic will be 32 pages and cost $3.95, while the new Gabachitare I bought a few days ago is 230 pages and costs $4.66.
I don't have any proof that comics cost less to make, but the anecdotal evidence seems to point at that conclusion.
Good post. I disagree completely, but I don't think your opinions are invalid.
The problem with a Matrix game is that it is based on a movie with, essentially, one real hero and a few sidekicks. Although it would be interesting to try to be another great hero, the license is one that will attract people who want to be Neo. This parallels with SWG, where one might decide to be a Jabba type smuggler baron, but instead everyone wants to be jedis. It's not that the license is one where there is only one path, but that people who like the license will probably want to go with the path of the main hero/heroes or the main villain/villains (For SWG, I'd wager that the big goals are Luke, Han, maybe Chewie, versus Darth Vader/Maul and Boba Fett).
Dune, on the other hand, follows generations of heroes, of vastly different types (only read the first few books, but Paul is extraordinarily different from his kids). Also, the fan base, though superhardcore, is relatively small, so many players won't know who they are "supposed" to want to be. The world is also different enough that many occupations would be new and interesting, while in the Matrix, any occupations other than "hacker", "hero", and "ship pilot" would end up being really close to ordinary jobs ("firearm manufacturer", etc.).
Maybe it's just me, but in Dune I could see someone trying to be a Freman, Bene Gesserit, an Atreides hero, etc. just because they are so unusual and different from eachother.
And apologies about any Dune based misspellings or inaccuracies. It's been over a decade since I read a Dune book.
Um...it's not a "narrow view of definitions", it's the actual definition. I mean, I don't complain if someone says the Sun is hot that their definition of "Sun" is narrow and that it should include ice cubes.
Look, you didn't know what embrace and extend meant. Now you do. Just consider it a learning experience. Don't attack the poster for being a troll just because he was right and you were wrong.
Color me stupid for not even thinking of the NDA counterdefense. Damn, and I was looking forward to hearing their impressions.
At the time the article was written, true. Right now, true. However, during the span between about 6 months ago and last week? False. They had a whole thread called "photos of the Phantom" (or something along those lines) on their forum, with clearly real photos of...well...of a PC with a case mod, but that's what the Phantom basically is anyway.
Plus, looking around on various game sites will find youpictures of the Phantom, the back input panel, etc.
"Additionally, I don't see how hard it is to believe in the Phantom's existence"
I'd like to have evidence, not faith.
I understand where you're coming from, and I disagree with the parent, but I don't think any more faith is needed to believe that some aspect of the Phantom exists than for me to believe you if you tell me you own a computer. Sure, you could do all your Slashdotting from an internet cafe, but if you tell me you have a computer, I'll believe you without evidence, because it's not a difficult matter. In the same way, for some working prototype of the Phantom to exist takes no real faith: it's just a computer with an unsual contents delivery platform. If the prototype doesn't have the contents delivery section finished, it's just a computer.
I'll take it on faith, without evidence, that Infinium owns at least one computer.
Actually, my guess is that they're underestimating the impact of PA. Since PA is basically talking smack, and HardOCP is talking facts, they're more worried about the effects on investors from actual dirt being dug up. Investors are unlikely to be swayed by PA's implications that Infinium's CEO is on LSD or kills dogs to orgasm, while the HardOCP article would make them look very hard at where they were going to put their money.
On a side note, PA has been talking about going out to actually see the Phantom (apparently, they've been invited to check it out but have ignored the invitation, which comes as a bit of a shock)
Agreed, in principle, but in this case, the issue appeals much more to people who are interested in gaming than to people who are interested in YRO.
I believe (and this is where my memory gets fuzzy), that that's the new system they've adopted. Japanese currency has the serial number in the top left and bottom right of the bill (same as US currency?), which is what they're using now. Actually, I believe their old way of doing it was not through banks, but pachinko parlors. Really, though, relying on my memory on this is bad, as I only remember the barest of details (90% of 9 bills to make 10 bills, and it not being technically illegal at the time)
Which, ironically, is the same thing that happened in Japan a few years ago. The law, at the time, was that 90% of the bill had to exist to have it replaced. Some clever criminal types decided to cut 10% off of 9 10,000 yen ($100 dollar) bills, and reassemble it to be 10 90% complete bills. These were then redeemed (mostly at gambling institutions) for proper bills, and the cycle was continued. Needless to say, the law has since been changed.
Yahoo!!!
Yeah, so why did you yell again? It wasn't you getting the award...
Because it's human nature to enjoy being validated, even if it's just a validation of your tastes. Just as children enjoy being told that their drawings are good, adults enjoy having some aspect of their personality praised, whether it's their sense of humor or their taste in movies.
Just to be clear, I haven't even seen ROTK (not out on DVD where I live); I'm speaking generally.
That's fair, and, in fact, on re-read your initial post was pretty clear. My mind must have been preoccupied. I thought I understood what you were saying, but it likes like I totally missed the point. Sorry.