Apparently Bill Clinton also experimented with the metric system.
On Delaware Route 1, which first opened in 1995, the exit numbers are marked using metric measurements (km). However, the mile markers still use the imperial measurements (mile).
It's quite confusing to pass mile marker 100 near exit 164.
The same argument was made around the era of the Vietnam war; if you can die for your country at age 18, why can't you consume alcohol? Some states (perhaps even the whole country?) actually did lower the drinking age to 18. However, the number of DUI's skyrocketed, so the federal government started providing incentives for the states to raise the drinking age back to 21 and eventually they all did.
I was born in 1984 so obviously I wasn't alive for any of this. But my parents were around age 18-20 when this happened. They've always told me how they were able to drink legally while they were in college.;-)
I'll admit I didn't RTFA, but I don't see how games are the next MTV.
With a music video, the video portion exists for the purpose of enhancing the music. If you take away the music, the video portion alone is pretty much useless. Furthermore, because the musical artist [usually] has creative control over the music video, the content of the video is usually related to the content of the music. For example, a song about war will probably have war imagery in the video, and a song about getting laid will probably have a hot girl in the video, etc. This allows the video and the music to be enjoyed hand-in-hand, so if you like the content of the music video, you'll probably like the content of the music (even if you don't like the way it sounds).
However, I don't believe music is ever the primary focus of video games. Even in video games like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, the primary focus is pressing the right buttons at the right time, in the order that is displayed on the screen. Yes, these games would be pretty stupid without the music in the background to dance/play to, but the music is still not the primary focus of these games. And in games like Tony Hawk or Grand Theft Auto, you could completely remove the music and the gameplay would be unchanged. Furthermore, the content of the game is unrelated to the content of the music. For example, I enjoy playing mock guitar to a song written by The Donnas. But I despise not only the way their music sounds, but also the content of their music.
If anything, music in video games is more analagous to music in Hollywood movies. And while having a song in a Hollywood movie is definitely good for business, it's not nearly as influential as having a music video on MTV in the 1980's and early 1990's.
N64 was my first console ever, and also my last (although I am considering buying a Wii). I played my fair share of games for SNES, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 at friends' houses but I never owned any of those systems. I bought the N64 a couple weeks after launch. As I was only 12 at the time, my friend and I pooled our money together to buy one and he had to trade in his SNES. (Eventually we pooled our money to buy a 2nd one so we each had one.)
So perhaps I am a bit biased in my opinion, but I always thought N64 was an underrated system. Who could forget such great games as:
Super Mario 64
Starfox 64
Goldeneye 007
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Super Smash Bros.
Donkey Kong 64
Mario Kart 64
Perfect Dark
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
I also got many hours of enjoyment out of the following games, even though most people considered them to be mediocre:
Mario Party 3
Mario Tennis
Waverace 64
Blast Corps
Gauntlet Legends
Diddy Kong Racing
Misson: Impossible
NFL Blitz
Quest 64
With the exception of NFL Blitz and Gauntlet Legends, all of those titles were exclusive to N64. In the past 10 years, I have only seen 4 non-PC games that would make me want to give up my N64 for a different console:
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
Super Smash Bros Melee (GameCube)
Mario Party 7 (GameCube)
I am not going to deny that there weren't other good console games out there, but I certainly wasn't exposed to them....
I used a free 7-day trial of Audiogalaxy Rhapsody a couple months ago (which I enjoyed), but I had some problems with it that could be relevant for your service as well:
1. Price $0.99 per song may be okay for a single track, but if you're the type of person who usually purchases whole albums, buying music online is a rip-off. For albums that have 15 tracks, you are still paying $15 for the CD but you AREN'T getting CD-quality music (remember, MP3 is lossy); nor do you get the actual disc, jewel case, or printed artwork. If you are going to sell music for $0.99 per track, the end-user should get a discount for purchasing the whole album. Personally I will never pay more than $8 for a full album in MP3 format, no matter how many tracks.
2. Availability Selling music online will NOT work unless EVERY record company makes their music available to online retailers. This is especially true if you plan to charge a subscription fee on a per-month basis; I would not pay for an online music service unless all the music I wanted to purchase was available. This factor is out of your control since you cannot force record companies to give you their music, but since you are focusing on the Indie genre I don't think you should have a problem; it's mostly the big record companies that are choosing not to make their music available to online retailers.
3. New Releases Taking a trip to the music store at midnight for a new release is not uncommon for die-hard music fans. In order to compete with this, you should have a policy for new releases where you guarantee new music will appear on your service within 2-3 days of the release (if not on the day of the release).
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently Bill Clinton also experimented with the metric system.
On Delaware Route 1, which first opened in 1995, the exit numbers are marked using metric measurements (km). However, the mile markers still use the imperial measurements (mile).
It's quite confusing to pass mile marker 100 near exit 164.
The same argument was made around the era of the Vietnam war; if you can die for your country at age 18, why can't you consume alcohol? Some states (perhaps even the whole country?) actually did lower the drinking age to 18. However, the number of DUI's skyrocketed, so the federal government started providing incentives for the states to raise the drinking age back to 21 and eventually they all did.
;-)
I was born in 1984 so obviously I wasn't alive for any of this. But my parents were around age 18-20 when this happened. They've always told me how they were able to drink legally while they were in college.
I'll admit I didn't RTFA, but I don't see how games are the next MTV.
With a music video, the video portion exists for the purpose of enhancing the music. If you take away the music, the video portion alone is pretty much useless. Furthermore, because the musical artist [usually] has creative control over the music video, the content of the video is usually related to the content of the music. For example, a song about war will probably have war imagery in the video, and a song about getting laid will probably have a hot girl in the video, etc. This allows the video and the music to be enjoyed hand-in-hand, so if you like the content of the music video, you'll probably like the content of the music (even if you don't like the way it sounds).
However, I don't believe music is ever the primary focus of video games. Even in video games like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, the primary focus is pressing the right buttons at the right time, in the order that is displayed on the screen. Yes, these games would be pretty stupid without the music in the background to dance/play to, but the music is still not the primary focus of these games. And in games like Tony Hawk or Grand Theft Auto, you could completely remove the music and the gameplay would be unchanged. Furthermore, the content of the game is unrelated to the content of the music. For example, I enjoy playing mock guitar to a song written by The Donnas. But I despise not only the way their music sounds, but also the content of their music.
If anything, music in video games is more analagous to music in Hollywood movies. And while having a song in a Hollywood movie is definitely good for business, it's not nearly as influential as having a music video on MTV in the 1980's and early 1990's.
N64 was my first console ever, and also my last (although I am considering buying a Wii). I played my fair share of games for SNES, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 at friends' houses but I never owned any of those systems. I bought the N64 a couple weeks after launch. As I was only 12 at the time, my friend and I pooled our money together to buy one and he had to trade in his SNES. (Eventually we pooled our money to buy a 2nd one so we each had one.)
So perhaps I am a bit biased in my opinion, but I always thought N64 was an underrated system. Who could forget such great games as:
Super Mario 64
Starfox 64
Goldeneye 007
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Super Smash Bros.
Donkey Kong 64
Mario Kart 64
Perfect Dark
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
I also got many hours of enjoyment out of the following games, even though most people considered them to be mediocre:
Mario Party 3
Mario Tennis
Waverace 64
Blast Corps
Gauntlet Legends
Diddy Kong Racing
Misson: Impossible
NFL Blitz
Quest 64
With the exception of NFL Blitz and Gauntlet Legends, all of those titles were exclusive to N64. In the past 10 years, I have only seen 4 non-PC games that would make me want to give up my N64 for a different console:
Guitar Hero (PS2)
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
Super Smash Bros Melee (GameCube)
Mario Party 7 (GameCube)
I am not going to deny that there weren't other good console games out there, but I certainly wasn't exposed to them....
I used a free 7-day trial of Audiogalaxy Rhapsody a couple months ago (which I enjoyed), but I had some problems with it that could be relevant for your service as well:
1. Price $0.99 per song may be okay for a single track, but if you're the type of person who usually purchases whole albums, buying music online is a rip-off. For albums that have 15 tracks, you are still paying $15 for the CD but you AREN'T getting CD-quality music (remember, MP3 is lossy); nor do you get the actual disc, jewel case, or printed artwork. If you are going to sell music for $0.99 per track, the end-user should get a discount for purchasing the whole album. Personally I will never pay more than $8 for a full album in MP3 format, no matter how many tracks.
2. Availability Selling music online will NOT work unless EVERY record company makes their music available to online retailers. This is especially true if you plan to charge a subscription fee on a per-month basis; I would not pay for an online music service unless all the music I wanted to purchase was available. This factor is out of your control since you cannot force record companies to give you their music, but since you are focusing on the Indie genre I don't think you should have a problem; it's mostly the big record companies that are choosing not to make their music available to online retailers.
3. New Releases Taking a trip to the music store at midnight for a new release is not uncommon for die-hard music fans. In order to compete with this, you should have a policy for new releases where you guarantee new music will appear on your service within 2-3 days of the release (if not on the day of the release).