How about using some sort of portable id storage device (like a USB keydrive or a Dallas Semiconductor Crypto I-Button) to store the activation. No more concerns about installing the software on hundreds of computers. Just tie the id storage device to the software somehow, and take the id device where-ever you need to run the software from.
You just carry it around in your pocket, huh?
So, are you glad to see me or are you just here to do my taxes?
(Which would be insulting since I imagine the id device would be real small...)
The problem is that there just aren't enough actual vigilantes, even though it's a popular fantasy. Please people, if you're gonna go wacko don't just lash out at everyone in your general vicinity.
If you're gonna freak out, go after someone who deserves it.
I was wondering about this as well. With FPS games, a low framerate and/or not being in control of the rapidly changing image (so you don't know how it's going to change) are the primary causes of nausea. Jerky graphics and watching someone else play are bad.
The article didn't mention how many frames per second were displayed and did not mention even what was in the movie. What was shown? I'd be more prone to being motion sick if being shown footage from the inside of a fighter jet doing stunts...
If you think of the human body as a computer. This would be equivalent to discovering a new port through which we can recieve additional information.
It means that we might be able to absorb more information faster and easier.
As long as they confine their search for new "ports" above the waist, I'm fine with it.
But an HD-DVD is not a regular DVD, is it. Why is it that the DVD is anti-consumer because its replacement will have unreasonable restrictions placed on it? Does that mean VHS was also anti-consumer because of its replacement's replacement?
No, the point of it was that the MPAA might not be as smart as the article writer suggests. They just haven't made as dumb of a mistake as the RIAA yet (though not for lack of trying, such as opposing VCR, coming up with DivX standard(not the codex)). But they might still be.
Television broadcasters offering it is one thing, making consumers upgrade is entirely different. Also how many channels is that? One?
Umm... my understanding is all TV broadcasters being all channels. Also, if you believe that the broadcasters will pay the money for the necessary upgrades to broadcast HD TV signals and not want to promote it and charge more money for it...
Do you know that in olden times many people never dumped their black&white TVs until they finally broke.
Just because they didn't dump them didn't mean they didn't also buy colour TVs before they dumped them. Besides the adoption rate for new technologies is getting faster (DVDs are a good example, they were around for awhile, then when DVD players got cheaper, they took off, and DVD players got even cheaper, etc.)
No, HD-DVD is not coming in the next year. but surely within the next decade and highly likely within the next 5 years.
You do realize that HD TVs cost thousands don't you? That they are also not mainstream?
I live in Canada, so I just went for a quick check at what I think is the most common US electronics retailer:
27" HDTV for $500.
Besides which, FCC has mandated that all television broadcasters offer HDTV digital broadcast by 2006. HDTV is coming, and it will be mainstream. A new format for movies taking advantage of it is also inevitable. Currently, that format is HD-DVD, which will not be playable on PCs (amongst other restrictions).
I will agree that the movie industry has made more concessions to fans than the music recording industry has (not hard). But maybe the MPAA will manage to fool the public with video quality good enough that you can see each individual pore on Val Kilmer's face or somesuch. The technology behind HD-DVD seems pretty good, it's just the restrictions (intended to stop copying) that suck.
Except that the current DVDs don't take advantage of the higher resolution of HD TVs. There has to be something next (inevitably with more capacity, higher resolution and hopefully more options for things like subtitles). They've decided that what's next is HD-DVD.
The question now is, if there is a large enough consumer backlash when HD-DVDs arrive to replace DVDs, will the industry replace it with a more consumer-friendly medium immediately, or just try to wait us out, so that your only choice to own movies is on HD-DVD?
All of the discs can play on devices from my four year old DVD-ROM drive to the latest progressive scan player from Panasonic without a hitch. Yeah, that sure fits the definition of anti-consumer.
Unfortunately, the HD-DVDs that they've decided to use in the future will have many more restrictions, including being unplayable in PCs.
Maybe the MPAA isn't as smart as the article writer thinks. I actually feel that they fell ass-backwards into success in the case of DVDs. (Although actual competition, unlike in the music recording industry, probably helped the DVD).
That's the beauty of it, if he doesn't get it, then he'll just be confused. If he does get it then he is a Slashdotter or a meteorologist and you'll have a whole lot more ammunition to mock him with.
What Ms. Fryer is suggesting is that developers make games that are easy to control, challenging but not frustrating and appeal to "a hardcore 15 year-old gamer as well as someone older who just wants to have fun."
Isn't that what Nintendo has been trying to do all along (and I would say succeeded in with Super Mario 64 and the Zelda series)?
Remember that "Xbox not for pansies" flash ad making fun of Mario?
The instant I saw "I'd hate to paraprhase Dave Perry", I knew what you were going to quote. I'm not yet sure if that's a good (or healthy) thing.
I believe that randomly generated trees have shown up before. The question then is how important is it that the tree is the same every time you see it? In some games where objects are persistent to a certain extent (say you drop something and it stays there, this is happens more in PC games), it can be jarring when they suddenly disappear (I left items in my office in Deus Ex and was pissed when they vanished.)
But those are items that you actually effect. If there isn't any real way to interact with the tree and if it doesn't really affect gameplay other than providing scenery then I don't think players will really notice. For example, who really pays attention to trees on the side of the road? On the other hand, a tree in a shooting game would block line of sight, and so a randomly generated tree could affect gameplay and level design.
I agree that the developer should be in overall control, but if the player can't do anything that surprises the developer, then it probably isn't very interactive gaming. It's a balancing act between controlling the gaming experience and letting the player create it themselves. Most games go with giving the player the illusion of creating their own experience. This works fairly well since most casual gamers really don't have the either the creativity or motivation to create their own unique play experience and it's difficult to give players really well designed tools to do so. (By tools I mean game actions generally, like Mario's jumps, flips, kicks etc. in Super Mario 64).
I'm not saying that it's a good idea to give a kid a box of matches, a gallon of gas and tell them to have a good time in their bedroom. That sort of thing should done outside after all.
So, you're not for them having sex in front of a blazing fire at home, but all for exhibitionism? Kinky.
I have often noticed that I don't talk much unless the topic is truly interesting to me (and I want to know more). This makes me feel bad sometimes because it feels like I'm just pumping people for information. It's almost interrogative (not really, but it can feel that way).
The worst thing is when the other person looks at you like a stunned bunny because they were just making small talk and weren't actually expecting to be challenged mentally in any way.
I guess being an introvert means that you're always looking for stuff to drag back into your cave (mind) with you so you can examine it or pick it apart.
I agree with this. Gamers will download large patches, mods and movies for games.
Have you checked out the high-res Half-Life 2 movies? They're at least 50 MBs each if I remember correctly.
Summary : google + wireless = inforamtion available for everybody everywhere. They compare it to omniscience and thus gods (btw, where is the other part traditionnaly associated to gods, omnipotence:) ?).
I suppose you could bring in the old adage that knowledge is power. If I know enough or can find whatever information I want, then there isn't much that couldn't be done.
They may not be getting money from prosecuting these guys, but as the article says:
"But the monetary award, Wellborn said, is less of a victory than the injunction."
The spammers take up bandwith and this guy was using stolen credit card numbers for his accounts. Maybe if the costs and damage to the reputations of large companies gets high enough, there'll be changes that make it easier to stop and penalize spammers.
"I blame Fox for this completely. Does anyone remember Space Above and Beyond? Personally I never paid it much heed until it was on Sci-Fi. That was a great freakin' show. Knowing Fox killed that one, Firefly never really had a chance."
I agree that Space: Above and Beyond was great. And there's still no DVDs. Hopefully if Firefly does well on DVD, Fox will look at releasing S:AaB.
I play Counter-Strike exclusively on a server (public with admins) where there are many regulars. The jibes and taunts and camaraderie are the biggest reason I still play. It isn't about the kill count at all.
There was one regular who hid his cheating well. There was always the suspicion, but he managed to avoid it until a new anti-cheat caught him (several times, so it wasn't an error) and banned him. Maybe he thought that his high scores got him respect or something. But after a few months he came back (sans cheats, and getting terrible scores), and tried to work his way back into the group. He was friendly enough, but no one engaged him in a truly friendly way anymore. The trust was gone, and any respect was gone. I respect guys that just really try to play with the team much more than the guys with 3 to 1 kill ratios. You may suck, but cheaters don't even try to suck. They let the cheat play for them.
I think cheating is more rampant on densely populated public servers because it's like the idea that punching someone in the dark is a victimless crime. It's sad that the best way to avoid cheaters is to play on a more exclusive server, but at the same time, I've never had more fun online than I've had with these friends I've found.
Slashdot Mirror
How about using some sort of portable id storage device (like a USB keydrive or a Dallas Semiconductor Crypto I-Button) to store the activation. No more concerns about installing the software on hundreds of computers. Just tie the id storage device to the software somehow, and take the id device where-ever you need to run the software from.
You just carry it around in your pocket, huh?
So, are you glad to see me or are you just here to do my taxes?
(Which would be insulting since I imagine the id device would be real small...)
The problem is that there just aren't enough actual vigilantes, even though it's a popular fantasy. Please people, if you're gonna go wacko don't just lash out at everyone in your general vicinity.
If you're gonna freak out, go after someone who deserves it.
I was wondering about this as well. With FPS games, a low framerate and/or not being in control of the rapidly changing image (so you don't know how it's going to change) are the primary causes of nausea. Jerky graphics and watching someone else play are bad.
The article didn't mention how many frames per second were displayed and did not mention even what was in the movie. What was shown? I'd be more prone to being motion sick if being shown footage from the inside of a fighter jet doing stunts...
If you think of the human body as a computer. This would be equivalent to discovering a new port through which we can recieve additional information. It means that we might be able to absorb more information faster and easier.
As long as they confine their search for new "ports" above the waist, I'm fine with it.
Ah... I was wrong. Good to know.
*codec not codex. Divx was a pay-per-play DVD scheme. It failed miserably.
But an HD-DVD is not a regular DVD, is it. Why is it that the DVD is anti-consumer because its replacement will have unreasonable restrictions placed on it? Does that mean VHS was also anti-consumer because of its replacement's replacement?
No, the point of it was that the MPAA might not be as smart as the article writer suggests. They just haven't made as dumb of a mistake as the RIAA yet (though not for lack of trying, such as opposing VCR, coming up with DivX standard(not the codex)). But they might still be.
Television broadcasters offering it is one thing, making consumers upgrade is entirely different. Also how many channels is that? One?
Umm... my understanding is all TV broadcasters being all channels. Also, if you believe that the broadcasters will pay the money for the necessary upgrades to broadcast HD TV signals and not want to promote it and charge more money for it...
Do you know that in olden times many people never dumped their black&white TVs until they finally broke.
Just because they didn't dump them didn't mean they didn't also buy colour TVs before they dumped them. Besides the adoption rate for new technologies is getting faster (DVDs are a good example, they were around for awhile, then when DVD players got cheaper, they took off, and DVD players got even cheaper, etc.)
No, HD-DVD is not coming in the next year. but surely within the next decade and highly likely within the next 5 years.
You do realize that HD TVs cost thousands don't you? That they are also not mainstream?
I live in Canada, so I just went for a quick check at what I think is the most common US electronics retailer:
27" HDTV for $500.
Besides which, FCC has mandated that all television broadcasters offer HDTV digital broadcast by 2006. HDTV is coming, and it will be mainstream. A new format for movies taking advantage of it is also inevitable. Currently, that format is HD-DVD, which will not be playable on PCs (amongst other restrictions).
I will agree that the movie industry has made more concessions to fans than the music recording industry has (not hard). But maybe the MPAA will manage to fool the public with video quality good enough that you can see each individual pore on Val Kilmer's face or somesuch. The technology behind HD-DVD seems pretty good, it's just the restrictions (intended to stop copying) that suck.
Except that the current DVDs don't take advantage of the higher resolution of HD TVs. There has to be something next (inevitably with more capacity, higher resolution and hopefully more options for things like subtitles). They've decided that what's next is HD-DVD.
The question now is, if there is a large enough consumer backlash when HD-DVDs arrive to replace DVDs, will the industry replace it with a more consumer-friendly medium immediately, or just try to wait us out, so that your only choice to own movies is on HD-DVD?
Your post is almost totally right on. Except...
citing the recent Star Wars movies as "classic films" pretty much invalidates your ability to judge the quality of things here (probably).
All of the discs can play on devices from my four year old DVD-ROM drive to the latest progressive scan player from Panasonic without a hitch. Yeah, that sure fits the definition of anti-consumer.
Unfortunately, the HD-DVDs that they've decided to use in the future will have many more restrictions, including being unplayable in PCs.
Maybe the MPAA isn't as smart as the article writer thinks. I actually feel that they fell ass-backwards into success in the case of DVDs. (Although actual competition, unlike in the music recording industry, probably helped the DVD).
Do you, for one, welcome your new Canadian overlords?
I haven't been able to find any pics of people using it as a phone. Not even on the N-gage's official site...
I guess it really does make you look stupid if no one will alow themselves being photographed doing it...
"Our artists' names are being used to lure kids and defraud them into finding pornography," said Mr. Glazier of the R.I.A.A.
Like say... R. Kelly?
That's the beauty of it, if he doesn't get it, then he'll just be confused. If he does get it then he is a Slashdotter or a meteorologist and you'll have a whole lot more ammunition to mock him with.
What Ms. Fryer is suggesting is that developers make games that are easy to control, challenging but not frustrating and appeal to "a hardcore 15 year-old gamer as well as someone older who just wants to have fun." Isn't that what Nintendo has been trying to do all along (and I would say succeeded in with Super Mario 64 and the Zelda series)? Remember that "Xbox not for pansies" flash ad making fun of Mario?
The instant I saw "I'd hate to paraprhase Dave Perry", I knew what you were going to quote. I'm not yet sure if that's a good (or healthy) thing. I believe that randomly generated trees have shown up before. The question then is how important is it that the tree is the same every time you see it? In some games where objects are persistent to a certain extent (say you drop something and it stays there, this is happens more in PC games), it can be jarring when they suddenly disappear (I left items in my office in Deus Ex and was pissed when they vanished.) But those are items that you actually effect. If there isn't any real way to interact with the tree and if it doesn't really affect gameplay other than providing scenery then I don't think players will really notice. For example, who really pays attention to trees on the side of the road? On the other hand, a tree in a shooting game would block line of sight, and so a randomly generated tree could affect gameplay and level design. I agree that the developer should be in overall control, but if the player can't do anything that surprises the developer, then it probably isn't very interactive gaming. It's a balancing act between controlling the gaming experience and letting the player create it themselves. Most games go with giving the player the illusion of creating their own experience. This works fairly well since most casual gamers really don't have the either the creativity or motivation to create their own unique play experience and it's difficult to give players really well designed tools to do so. (By tools I mean game actions generally, like Mario's jumps, flips, kicks etc. in Super Mario 64).
I'm not saying that it's a good idea to give a kid a box of matches, a gallon of gas and tell them to have a good time in their bedroom. That sort of thing should done outside after all. So, you're not for them having sex in front of a blazing fire at home, but all for exhibitionism? Kinky.
I absolutely agree with your analysis here.
I have often noticed that I don't talk much unless the topic is truly interesting to me (and I want to know more). This makes me feel bad sometimes because it feels like I'm just pumping people for information. It's almost interrogative (not really, but it can feel that way).
The worst thing is when the other person looks at you like a stunned bunny because they were just making small talk and weren't actually expecting to be challenged mentally in any way.
I guess being an introvert means that you're always looking for stuff to drag back into your cave (mind) with you so you can examine it or pick it apart.
I agree with this. Gamers will download large patches, mods and movies for games. Have you checked out the high-res Half-Life 2 movies? They're at least 50 MBs each if I remember correctly.
Summary : google + wireless = inforamtion available for everybody everywhere. They compare it to omniscience and thus gods (btw, where is the other part traditionnaly associated to gods, omnipotence :) ?).
I suppose you could bring in the old adage that knowledge is power. If I know enough or can find whatever information I want, then there isn't much that couldn't be done.
They may not be getting money from prosecuting these guys, but as the article says:
"But the monetary award, Wellborn said, is less of a victory than the injunction."
The spammers take up bandwith and this guy was using stolen credit card numbers for his accounts. Maybe if the costs and damage to the reputations of large companies gets high enough, there'll be changes that make it easier to stop and penalize spammers.
"I blame Fox for this completely. Does anyone remember Space Above and Beyond? Personally I never paid it much heed until it was on Sci-Fi. That was a great freakin' show. Knowing Fox killed that one, Firefly never really had a chance."
I agree that Space: Above and Beyond was great. And there's still no DVDs. Hopefully if Firefly does well on DVD, Fox will look at releasing S:AaB.
I play Counter-Strike exclusively on a server (public with admins) where there are many regulars. The jibes and taunts and camaraderie are the biggest reason I still play. It isn't about the kill count at all. There was one regular who hid his cheating well. There was always the suspicion, but he managed to avoid it until a new anti-cheat caught him (several times, so it wasn't an error) and banned him. Maybe he thought that his high scores got him respect or something. But after a few months he came back (sans cheats, and getting terrible scores), and tried to work his way back into the group. He was friendly enough, but no one engaged him in a truly friendly way anymore. The trust was gone, and any respect was gone. I respect guys that just really try to play with the team much more than the guys with 3 to 1 kill ratios. You may suck, but cheaters don't even try to suck. They let the cheat play for them. I think cheating is more rampant on densely populated public servers because it's like the idea that punching someone in the dark is a victimless crime. It's sad that the best way to avoid cheaters is to play on a more exclusive server, but at the same time, I've never had more fun online than I've had with these friends I've found.