While in high school, I wrote up an article...and submitted it to Dragon magazine. Editor Kim Mohan sent me a rejection letter, saying this proposed change was "too radical" to publish.
Honestly, proof of this should get you some kind of special annotation to your slashdot username- a flaming asterisk, goblin ASCII art or just...something.
Oh- a word about choices: when I decide to either despise Hannibal Lecter as a monster or admire his capabilities despite his flaws, I'm making a choice. When I decide that "Starry Night" is really about the village in the foreground, I'm making a choice. All these people bitching about videogames as art are really just broadcasting, loudly: "I am a dinosaur, I will soon be extinct."
Implying that all (or a majority) of Halo fans are idiots who will buy anything is just trolling
Again, I'm not implying anything of the sort, Herr Populist, I'm implying Bungie could have a particular disdain for their audience which makes it easy to pull things like this. This is evident in their blithe, "we won't do it if it's too hard", dismissal of the feature. This kind of disdain is common in many successful businesses. If you haven't experienced it, well, consider yourself naive.
to suggest that inadequacies in Halo 2 will lead to inadequacies in Halo 3 is foolish given their stated desire to improve what was unpopular
Oh, well since they said they wanted to improve it, that settles it. This only proves my point further. Google this issue and you'll find, overwhelmingly, it's unpopular as all hell, and the game hasn't even been released yet. Stated intent vs. results? Give me a break.
You'd think it was Diakatana for all the whinging going on. Last time I checked your commentary on my gripes has far exceeded the length of my, well...gripes. Be careful complaining about the complainers, young man, lest you become a complainer. Are you familiar with the term "projection" as it relates to psychology? If you could care less about this feature, why are you even at this topic? I think you knew what you were going to find here.
Right. Because the quality of a game is dependent entirely on its Internet co-op capabilities. Single player, on-line deathmatch, Local co-op and LAN co-op are insignificant features that no-one wants.
I have to remind myself that people don't always read my attempt at humor the same way I do. Chalk it up to the perils of drunk slashdotting, however...
Online Co-op is not some insignificant feature, either. It's not as if implementing online co-op is like solving the remaining Hilbert problems, its a feature that already exists in many successful games, and it exists on a scale similar to what would work in a Halo-type game. News flash: physics and calculus are also "hard".
I'll restate it and maybe it will become clearer: Halo 2 was (by Bungie's own admission) mediocre in far too many places, yet it made a ton of money and is essentially the franchise for Microsoft. Would I need to extrapolate the Pavlovian mechanic any further? I'm sure you're smart enough to follow me.
Bungie has been given precious, "ship when it's done" treatment from Microsoft from the get-go on Halo 3, yet they can't manage to touch all the bases? I honestly thought Bungie was better than that, and I've never heard a developer scream "uncle" quite like this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the video games version of a filler filled album. Whereby an established artist gives us an average/sub-par release due to complacency, degree of difficulty, cocaine addiction, whatever...
Ok guys, you're "not stupid", you know people want the feature, yet, you decide not to give it to us anyway. WTF are you guys, our first girlfriends?? The "if it's too difficult, we won't do it" response REEKS of complacency.
It would not be out of the realm of possibilty to say that the success of a subpar Halo 2 (i.e. no matter what we put out there, those f-ing meatheads will buy it) would fuel a supbar Halo 3. Hope you enjoyed your stay, Bungie
In the recording studio we have a saying that's apropos to any creative endeavor:
"Don't tell me you're gonna rock me. Just rock me."
Hey EA, quick lesson in Coolness 101: do the things you're dreaming of doing first. Secondly, let everyone else talk about how cool/important/innovative it is. Then get back to work. Any deviation from this generally makes you look like a tool.
It's so f-ing simple, you'd think they'd have it figured out by now.
I would hazard a guess that this game wouldn't so much be an entity unto itself, as an extension of their critiques and insight into the gaming world. Look for them to take the piss out of themselves and the games business and culture and its attendant cliches, sacred cows, and (hopefully) personalities.
I don't see how making this game will affect their status as outsiders. The fact that they're making an adventure game (a genre that appeals mainly to longtime and hardcore gamers, and that has been dead to mainstream video game produciton for awhile now) speaks volumes about what their true intents are. This is not going to be a shiny Gears of War clone.
And although they wouldn't say as much, the notion that they have a solid, solid fanbase behind them (PA expo anyone?) can be very liberating when you have to make creative decisions that affect the quality of a game. They know what their fans want. I think this game will be funny, witty, sarcastic, gross, inane, immature and fantastic- much like their comic.
I don't see how someone can get excited about playing online games with a bunch of snot-faced thirteen year olds on what is little more than a stripped down gaming PC in an ugly box.
Explain how the Playstation 3 and its online service are going to be any different?
Unless you have cultivated your own online clique it's either the racist 13 year olds on Xbox or the 30ish basement dwellers running bots on the PC. Pick your poison.
BTW, I have a group of friends on Xbox Live, occasionally we have public games and it's rare that we get either of the aforementioned in either our games.
The Video Game just needs its Pollack, Beatles or Kubrick.
My guess is the guy in TFA is subconsciously lamenting the fact that HE isn't the prophet of his chosen medium, because anyone with a brain knows that a Great Master is an inevitability.
Either way he should shut up. God of War was great, OK, we get it. Move on. Games have soul when the game makers have soul. It's easy.
As far as pitching games like movies: they either are playing the room or don't believe (or understand) the medium. Half Life, for example, is *easily* a better experience than alot of Spielberg flicks. Anybody who doesn't believe that like they believe the sky is blue needs to get the fuck out of the business. Now.
I'm 34, and a parent. I have the quaint idea that a parent should review the content of any thing before they let their children have it if they are so concerned about said content
C'mon maannnn, approaching it that way takes time. Effort. AKA giving a shit. Something most parents don't have or seem to want to give.
Anybody else find it strange that some of the figures that champion this type of meaningless, unenforcable ratings bullshit, like Tipper Gore and Hillary Clinton, are career politicians who probably don't have time to be good parents? When politicians decide to project their guilt that they can't monitor their children's intake we end up with the PMRC and the ESRB.
The new amendments to the constitution shouldn't be banning gay marriage, they should be along the lines of Those who have neither the will nor the time to do so shall not be allowed to raise children.That's "family values"- that would actually improve our lives.
This has happened to me several times...where I've deleted a relationship, business or otherwise, by being brutally honest about it. The truth is that I always, deep down, wanted the relationship/job to end because I couldn't stand my internal bullshit meter going off every three seconds. Of course the opposite is also true, anything I truly want to be a part of will be afforded all maner of clemency.
Maybe this guy just knew that coming up with games for this thing was going to be an ordeal and his subconscious pre-empted him.
Then again, maybe this guy got fired because he is simply a classic dumbass.
Either way, you're now free to go make those soon-to-be-classic-Xbox-360-games now, former Sony developer guy.
Slashdot is not the Wall Street Journal. It is not The New York Times. Slashdot is an informal meeting ground. A town hall. A pub. A bulletin board in the quad on campus. Here people might not properly capitalize a proper noun. They might transpose letters in 'thier'. They might use jargon that isn't in oxford. And all of that is OK with me.
I think it would be sympathetic with this statement to say that slashdot is a pirate radio station (albeit a 100,000 watt one) or a homemade DV tape. In those contexts static and bad lighting is to be expected, and is in fact part of the experience.
I'll admit that the grammar and spelling errors bother me. It especially bothered me when they were added to my own submissions, which I dilligently proofread. My original title for that article was also re-parsed incorrectly, which caused confusion and alot of responses like yours. I accept it as part of the machine. I still truly enjoy this site and its communtiy.
I think, ultimatley, what Taco is trying to say is that while they will attempt to avoid these types of errors, no great new effort is going to surface to combat them. He's directly addressing the complaints. Either live with it and stop complaining, or go elsewhere, because it's not going to change.
Not that I don't appreciate you taking me completley out of context to make a cute little comment...but reread my comment and you'll see the problem is much simpler.
If you buy a blu-ray player you won't be able to play HD-DVD and vice versa. I think this sucks. Perhaps some intellegent person would make it possible to circumvent this in an easy, consumer friendly manner, i.e. a universal player. Myself and many other folks would reward their ingenuity with vast amounts of cash and adulation. Of course, I acknolwedged at the beginning of my post that it's a complete fantasy on my part.
I know this is pure fantasy, but I wish someone could make a damn universal format player so we can all say "sorry, guys, we won't take part in VHS/BETA wars part deaux."
A format war- anyone old enough to remember VHS and BETA sections in the rental place (with different selections) will know what an utter pain in the arse awaits consumers. With Sony owning a movie studio this time around things will no doubt be interesting.
Ahhh, but my friend, money makes all things possible. And likely.
Sony knows that GTA was the best kind of software, i.e. the kind that sells hardware.
The GTA franchise can really get away with murder at this point. It's like Tetris: the core gameplay is just plain fun. Just give it a well thought out wrapper, a couple of new and simple features and it'll be a solid game. Porting the engine to the cell (or creating a new one) is probably going on as. we. speak. If it's not done already.
GTA is exactly like Madden, except instead of a football simulator it's a thug simulator. The sheep requisite for financial success will be satisfied with a slight roster update, for sure.
Gamespot has free streaming video. You'll see reviews for games you're actually considering.
Gamespot is constantly updated and overflowing with content. The internet is the only medium that can possibly cover the games industry. Watch a rerun review for, say, KOTOR II over half a year after the game has come out (and after half the sites worth trusting have reviewed it) and you'll be reminded what a complete farce G4tv is.
The third rate L.A. actors posing as gamers?? I can actually beleive that the editors at Gamespot could beat Ninja Gaiden, or school me at Street Fighter II. Conversely, I have trouble beleiving Morgan Webb could beat herself at pong.
It's hilarious to watch G4tv chase down their demographics like a 14 year old changing his identity from week to week. Reeks of out-of-work showbiz folks. Did I mention that the lead times in television are far too slow to accuratley cover the games industry? G4tv. Stick a fork in it.
Every person who makes games for a living and is breathing right now will have to ask themselves the 16:9 HD question. And that, my friend, makes it totally relevant.
I'd say your little snippet about chess is irrelevant. I know they throw the occasional bone to Kasparov, Deep Blue, whatever...but c'mon, really, have you been reading this site much lately?
Relative to Sony and Nintendo, it most certainly comes more naturally.
Only a fool would think that Microsoft was somehow less equipped than their competitors in terms of infrastructure and know-how to implement a gaming network. Regardless of what was said in Bill's cute little publication (which you're taking totally out of context, BTW), online gaming *was* a priority for the Xbox and it was built in to the system. In the Real World, actions speak louder than words.
Xbox live is clearly the superior online console service, and it's not by accident. That reminds me- *results* also speak louder than words as well.
Imagine: you have a nice little 'Survival Horror' game where your own heartbeat thumps out of the speakers; if you get too excited, the hellhounds will be able to hear you.
So now all that I'll have to do to win Resident Evil 7 is score some Xanax- they'll never even know I'm there! I'll be able to sneak through the whole damn game.
Proper grammar and spelling, like the CD, seem to be heading towards inevitable extinction. I'm not a spelling nazi by a long shot, yet I am increasingly annoyed by the lack of care in the way people craft their words.
Long periods of boredom broken only by adding numbers in your head. I was so happy when my character died and couldn't be resurected.
Your DM must have sucked donkey balls, then. Either that or you must have been that guy who was too cool for D&D, but not cool enough to have anything else to do. I always hated it when you showed up to the gaming sesh.
(sigh) You're right. A game system developed by one of the largest companies in the world, directly competing with a foreign rival who also happens to be one of the most sucessful consumer electronics companies in history- I mean, that shit's just boring!
When you also consider in such un-important facts as: the majority of game developers breathing right now will attempt to express themselves on this platform, the deployment of such powerful hardware on a massive scale, the cultural ramifications of video gaming getting bigger and bigger, that metric shit-tons of talented and intellegent people are participating in and observing this launch- I mean, you're so right: anyone into games, business or culture would be just bored. to. tears. right now.
In all seriousness dude, it's GAMES.slashdot.org. Say it with me- slowly. GAMES dot Slashdot dot org. Got it?
Slashdot Mirror
Honestly, proof of this should get you some kind of special annotation to your slashdot username- a flaming asterisk, goblin ASCII art or just...something.
I have not had this much nerd envy in a while.
This reminds me of traditional jazz musicians in the 50s complaining about that repetitive, simplistic nonsense called Rock n Roll.
Meanwhile, The Beatles.
Oh- a word about choices: when I decide to either despise Hannibal Lecter as a monster or admire his capabilities despite his flaws, I'm making a choice. When I decide that "Starry Night" is really about the village in the foreground, I'm making a choice. All these people bitching about videogames as art are really just broadcasting, loudly: "I am a dinosaur, I will soon be extinct."
Again, I'm not implying anything of the sort, Herr Populist, I'm implying Bungie could have a particular disdain for their audience which makes it easy to pull things like this. This is evident in their blithe, "we won't do it if it's too hard", dismissal of the feature. This kind of disdain is common in many successful businesses. If you haven't experienced it, well, consider yourself naive.
to suggest that inadequacies in Halo 2 will lead to inadequacies in Halo 3 is foolish given their stated desire to improve what was unpopularOh, well since they said they wanted to improve it, that settles it. This only proves my point further. Google this issue and you'll find, overwhelmingly, it's unpopular as all hell, and the game hasn't even been released yet. Stated intent vs. results? Give me a break.
You'd think it was Diakatana for all the whinging going on. Last time I checked your commentary on my gripes has far exceeded the length of my, well...gripes. Be careful complaining about the complainers, young man, lest you become a complainer. Are you familiar with the term "projection" as it relates to psychology? If you could care less about this feature, why are you even at this topic? I think you knew what you were going to find here.I have to remind myself that people don't always read my attempt at humor the same way I do. Chalk it up to the perils of drunk slashdotting, however...
Online Co-op is not some insignificant feature, either. It's not as if implementing online co-op is like solving the remaining Hilbert problems, its a feature that already exists in many successful games, and it exists on a scale similar to what would work in a Halo-type game. News flash: physics and calculus are also "hard".
I'll restate it and maybe it will become clearer: Halo 2 was (by Bungie's own admission) mediocre in far too many places, yet it made a ton of money and is essentially the franchise for Microsoft. Would I need to extrapolate the Pavlovian mechanic any further? I'm sure you're smart enough to follow me.
Bungie has been given precious, "ship when it's done" treatment from Microsoft from the get-go on Halo 3, yet they can't manage to touch all the bases? I honestly thought Bungie was better than that, and I've never heard a developer scream "uncle" quite like this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the video games version of a filler filled album. Whereby an established artist gives us an average/sub-par release due to complacency, degree of difficulty, cocaine addiction, whatever...
Ok guys, you're "not stupid", you know people want the feature, yet, you decide not to give it to us anyway. WTF are you guys, our first girlfriends?? The "if it's too difficult, we won't do it" response REEKS of complacency.
It would not be out of the realm of possibilty to say that the success of a subpar Halo 2 (i.e. no matter what we put out there, those f-ing meatheads will buy it) would fuel a supbar Halo 3. Hope you enjoyed your stay, Bungie
In the recording studio we have a saying that's apropos to any creative endeavor:
"Don't tell me you're gonna rock me. Just rock me."Hey EA, quick lesson in Coolness 101: do the things you're dreaming of doing first. Secondly, let everyone else talk about how cool/important/innovative it is. Then get back to work. Any deviation from this generally makes you look like a tool.
It's so f-ing simple, you'd think they'd have it figured out by now.
I would hazard a guess that this game wouldn't so much be an entity unto itself, as an extension of their critiques and insight into the gaming world. Look for them to take the piss out of themselves and the games business and culture and its attendant cliches, sacred cows, and (hopefully) personalities.
I don't see how making this game will affect their status as outsiders. The fact that they're making an adventure game (a genre that appeals mainly to longtime and hardcore gamers, and that has been dead to mainstream video game produciton for awhile now) speaks volumes about what their true intents are. This is not going to be a shiny Gears of War clone.
And although they wouldn't say as much, the notion that they have a solid, solid fanbase behind them (PA expo anyone?) can be very liberating when you have to make creative decisions that affect the quality of a game. They know what their fans want. I think this game will be funny, witty, sarcastic, gross, inane, immature and fantastic- much like their comic.
Explain how the Playstation 3 and its online service are going to be any different?
Unless you have cultivated your own online clique it's either the racist 13 year olds on Xbox or the 30ish basement dwellers running bots on the PC. Pick your poison.
BTW, I have a group of friends on Xbox Live, occasionally we have public games and it's rare that we get either of the aforementioned in either our games.
My guess is the guy in TFA is subconsciously lamenting the fact that HE isn't the prophet of his chosen medium, because anyone with a brain knows that a Great Master is an inevitability.
Either way he should shut up. God of War was great, OK, we get it. Move on. Games have soul when the game makers have soul. It's easy.
As far as pitching games like movies: they either are playing the room or don't believe (or understand) the medium. Half Life, for example, is *easily* a better experience than alot of Spielberg flicks. Anybody who doesn't believe that like they believe the sky is blue needs to get the fuck out of the business. Now.
C'mon maannnn, approaching it that way takes time. Effort. AKA giving a shit. Something most parents don't have or seem to want to give.
Anybody else find it strange that some of the figures that champion this type of meaningless, unenforcable ratings bullshit, like Tipper Gore and Hillary Clinton, are career politicians who probably don't have time to be good parents? When politicians decide to project their guilt that they can't monitor their children's intake we end up with the PMRC and the ESRB.
The new amendments to the constitution shouldn't be banning gay marriage, they should be along the lines of Those who have neither the will nor the time to do so shall not be allowed to raise children. That's "family values"- that would actually improve our lives.
This has happened to me several times...where I've deleted a relationship, business or otherwise, by being brutally honest about it. The truth is that I always, deep down, wanted the relationship/job to end because I couldn't stand my internal bullshit meter going off every three seconds. Of course the opposite is also true, anything I truly want to be a part of will be afforded all maner of clemency.
Maybe this guy just knew that coming up with games for this thing was going to be an ordeal and his subconscious pre-empted him.
Then again, maybe this guy got fired because he is simply a classic dumbass.
Either way, you're now free to go make those soon-to-be-classic-Xbox-360-games now, former Sony developer guy.
Slashdot is not the Wall Street Journal. It is not The New York Times. Slashdot is an informal meeting ground. A town hall. A pub. A bulletin board in the quad on campus. Here people might not properly capitalize a proper noun. They might transpose letters in 'thier'. They might use jargon that isn't in oxford. And all of that is OK with me.
I think it would be sympathetic with this statement to say that slashdot is a pirate radio station (albeit a 100,000 watt one) or a homemade DV tape. In those contexts static and bad lighting is to be expected, and is in fact part of the experience.
I'll admit that the grammar and spelling errors bother me. It especially bothered me when they were added to my own submissions, which I dilligently proofread. My original title for that article was also re-parsed incorrectly, which caused confusion and alot of responses like yours. I accept it as part of the machine. I still truly enjoy this site and its communtiy.
I think, ultimatley, what Taco is trying to say is that while they will attempt to avoid these types of errors, no great new effort is going to surface to combat them. He's directly addressing the complaints. Either live with it and stop complaining, or go elsewhere, because it's not going to change.
Not that I don't appreciate you taking me completley out of context to make a cute little comment...but reread my comment and you'll see the problem is much simpler.
If you buy a blu-ray player you won't be able to play HD-DVD and vice versa. I think this sucks. Perhaps some intellegent person would make it possible to circumvent this in an easy, consumer friendly manner, i.e. a universal player. Myself and many other folks would reward their ingenuity with vast amounts of cash and adulation. Of course, I acknolwedged at the beginning of my post that it's a complete fantasy on my part.
I know this is pure fantasy, but I wish someone could make a damn universal format player so we can all say "sorry, guys, we won't take part in VHS/BETA wars part deaux."
A format war- anyone old enough to remember VHS and BETA sections in the rental place (with different selections) will know what an utter pain in the arse awaits consumers. With Sony owning a movie studio this time around things will no doubt be interesting.
Your vitriol seems, well, so potent it can't be real. Perhaps, El Guapo, you are again mad at something else and taking it out on...?
Are you part of some Microsoft reverse-psychology street team paid to go on anti-Microsoft trolls to drum up support against slashdot groupthink?
Very clever aligning the Xbox 360 with the Dreamcast (a much revered console 'round these parts). Or did I mean to say not very clever?
Either way, I wish you'd STFU. Pretty please? STFU?
I think this should be a law akin to Moore's. Every worthwhile dev in the industry at least tries to adhere to it.
A good game shipped late is still good. A bad game shipped on time sucks forever.
Currently playing Half Life 2, which illustrates the former part of the law quite nicely.
Ahhh, but my friend, money makes all things possible. And likely.
Sony knows that GTA was the best kind of software, i.e. the kind that sells hardware.
The GTA franchise can really get away with murder at this point. It's like Tetris: the core gameplay is just plain fun. Just give it a well thought out wrapper, a couple of new and simple features and it'll be a solid game. Porting the engine to the cell (or creating a new one) is probably going on as. we. speak. If it's not done already.
GTA is exactly like Madden, except instead of a football simulator it's a thug simulator. The sheep requisite for financial success will be satisfied with a slight roster update, for sure.
Again, who needs gaming TV anyway?
Gamespot has free streaming video. You'll see reviews for games you're actually considering.
Gamespot is constantly updated and overflowing with content. The internet is the only medium that can possibly cover the games industry. Watch a rerun review for, say, KOTOR II over half a year after the game has come out (and after half the sites worth trusting have reviewed it) and you'll be reminded what a complete farce G4tv is.
The third rate L.A. actors posing as gamers?? I can actually beleive that the editors at Gamespot could beat Ninja Gaiden, or school me at Street Fighter II. Conversely, I have trouble beleiving Morgan Webb could beat herself at pong.
It's hilarious to watch G4tv chase down their demographics like a 14 year old changing his identity from week to week. Reeks of out-of-work showbiz folks. Did I mention that the lead times in television are far too slow to accuratley cover the games industry? G4tv. Stick a fork in it.
-1 irrelevant??
Every person who makes games for a living and is breathing right now will have to ask themselves the 16:9 HD question. And that, my friend, makes it totally relevant.
I'd say your little snippet about chess is irrelevant. I know they throw the occasional bone to Kasparov, Deep Blue, whatever...but c'mon, really, have you been reading this site much lately?
Wasn't buying exclusivity to the NFL and eliminating the competition supposed to make them more money?? I just don't get it.
Relative to Sony and Nintendo, it most certainly comes more naturally.
Only a fool would think that Microsoft was somehow less equipped than their competitors in terms of infrastructure and know-how to implement a gaming network. Regardless of what was said in Bill's cute little publication (which you're taking totally out of context, BTW), online gaming *was* a priority for the Xbox and it was built in to the system. In the Real World, actions speak louder than words.
Xbox live is clearly the superior online console service, and it's not by accident. That reminds me- *results* also speak louder than words as well.
Imagine: you have a nice little 'Survival Horror' game where your own heartbeat thumps out of the speakers; if you get too excited, the hellhounds will be able to hear you.
So now all that I'll have to do to win Resident Evil 7 is score some Xanax- they'll never even know I'm there! I'll be able to sneak through the whole damn game.
Santa Clause?
Proper grammar and spelling, like the CD, seem to be heading towards inevitable extinction. I'm not a spelling nazi by a long shot, yet I am increasingly annoyed by the lack of care in the way people craft their words.
Your DM must have sucked donkey balls, then. Either that or you must have been that guy who was too cool for D&D, but not cool enough to have anything else to do. I always hated it when you showed up to the gaming sesh.
(sigh) You're right. A game system developed by one of the largest companies in the world, directly competing with a foreign rival who also happens to be one of the most sucessful consumer electronics companies in history- I mean, that shit's just boring!
When you also consider in such un-important facts as: the majority of game developers breathing right now will attempt to express themselves on this platform, the deployment of such powerful hardware on a massive scale, the cultural ramifications of video gaming getting bigger and bigger, that metric shit-tons of talented and intellegent people are participating in and observing this launch- I mean, you're so right: anyone into games, business or culture would be just bored. to. tears. right now.
In all seriousness dude, it's GAMES.slashdot.org. Say it with me- slowly. GAMES dot Slashdot dot org. Got it?