This is true... for a while. The thing is, if you're dominating so much, the ranking tends to increase far more rapidly. It took me far, far fewer games to get to rank 10 in team skirmish than in big team skirmish, which I mostly started playing Halo 2 with.
In that sense, the rankings are working as good as can be expected.
Where it falls apart, though, is when you want to play with your variably ranked (and skilled) friends. In that case, the games can get a bit mismatched (especially if you're ranked by "clan" and not be individual ranks).
This dependence on preorders HURTS the smaller games and prevents them from getting into gamer's hands. Take Katamari Damacy, for example. This game got a LOT of word-of-mouth buzz after release. BUT, well, you see, the geniuses at EB and other game retailers decided that this was a game that only warranted three/four copies per store. And, just like that, there was a massive shortage of the game AT NO FAULT OF THE PUBLISHER.
I also had a store sell my preordered copy of a game to someone other than me this week, and since everyone ordered only one copy of this game, I can't fucking get it now.
I'm so sick of game retailers and their bullshit (like the new game "warranty" scam that EB has going) that I'm pretty much going to try to rely on the bigger brand electronics retailers for my game purchases (Best Buy and Futureshop).
What the hell you talking about? The "producers", the big game dork Vin Diesel being one, had this all in mind. I mean, how does "Chronicles of Riddick" have nothing to do with the game? It's about Riddick and his, yeah, chronicles before the movies.
Now, personally, I hated the movies and hate Vin Diesel as an actor, but what they did with Riddick the game was astounding. And to dismiss it because it doesn't have multiplayer is idiotic.
Yup, they sure do. It's just that they either ignore or dump the good games (BG&E), or they XTREME-them-up with stupid nu-metal rock and increase the gratuitous violence level (PP), or they make vastly inferior and glitchy versions of their games under the same name as the superior title (GR2 PS2 vs XBox), or... they release Charlie's Angels.
Since everyone else seems to be regurgitating the same old tired links (OCRemix), I figured it would be good to mention one that isn't quite as tired (and enjoyable):
http://gamingfm.com
I am not affiliated with the site, but I am a long-time listener. Yes.
The "Music From Final Fantasy" concert was a one time show, and was successful enough to spawn a tour that could reach those of us lucky to not be living in LA.
Missing the point. It's HARDWARE supported, but it's dependent on the software to use it. The Japanese Mr. Driller game SOFTWARE supports the HARDWARE by allowing download play off of ONE CART, but the N.American release doesn't, requiring multi-cart link play. It's a software decisions -- and a stupid one -- not a hardware problem. Geez.
I think you're missing the point of flickr. Flickr isn't a photo archive, it's a photo sharing site. There's a huge distinction. Want to look at pictures of Shanghai? http://flickr.com/photos/tags/shanghai/
Want to see what people are posting in your city? Subscribe to the tag's RSS feed.
Want to display images on your site? Pool together common interest groups? Etc etc.
Don't think of Flickr as an online repository for your images, think of it as a delicious+Friendster+Blogger+moblog-like photo service.
I don't know about you or about the person that you responded to, but *I* survive by being close to work, close to ammenities, and close to the retailers I need (food, mostly). Everything else is just there and doesn't impact me at all. I hate my neighbours and I hate the people in my neighbourhood.
You don't need a forced community to make a living. You can find many connections and social interaction in other aspects of life... *gasp* maybe even outside of your neighbourhood (at a show, at work/school, doing an activity, etc etc).
Being forced to interact with people I don't want to interact with is just plain annoying and arrogant.
Why would they lower their profit margins because people can't steal their product? The average person doesn't look at it as "it's ripped-off less frequently so it should cost less" -- they see it as "these prices are the same as for the XBox and PS2, that seems fair".
The thing with Metroid Prime is that it wasn't really intended to be sequence-breakable (ask Retro). There were just a bunch of pleasant accidents discovered by many obsessive people, many of which used slight bugs and exploits.
They removed a lot of the things for the European release (like the all important jump-off-your-ship to get the boots RIGHT AT THE START trick) because, well, because they were "bugs".
I don't understand why they couldn't have seen this community using those bugs and just kept them in, but if anything, I think they wanted a really linear experience. HOPEFULLY, they've learned a bit since Prime (and Zero Mission should have clued them in to it) and did incorporate such features, but I'm not holding my breath.
Nothing wrong with dedicated, original-scores. I'd rather have those than licensed crap (though it depends on context). However, Halo's soundtrack features..... HOOBASTANK. -1000 Crap
> I think there's still room in the market for a third pillar of a game system.
There already is a "third pillar of gaming" blossoming: mobile gaming. Especially in Asia. It's not as big here, as our phones are years behind, but it is getting huge in Japan and growing in Europe and all the major game developers are jumping on board (like Square-Enix, and EA).
The problem with that argument is that it applies to every crappy game. I remember a friend renting the awful South Park game for the N64 back in high-school. It was absolutely horrid, yet we had fun just criticizing and cussing at the game the whole time.
At that point, you're not enjoying the game, you're enjoying the company. And if you need that company there to enjoy the game, then the game isn't good to begin with.
I've seen conflicting reports, but I think it's safe to assume that the PSP will not support mp3. Many liken the PSP to the iPod which is completely wrong, as Sony already has a hard-drive equipped player trying to compete against the iPod. And that DEDICATED music machine... does it support mp3? NOPE.
Which is quite idiotic. Sony has some good game software talent and good hardware talent, but they are being controlled by their music/movie divisions. Their media divisions are holding back inovation in their hardware divisions. Sony is stagnating.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, I was looking forward to it too. I still have the trailers and the promo Franke music they had for it. SELF PLUG: I have some of it here.
This is true... for a while. The thing is, if you're dominating so much, the ranking tends to increase far more rapidly. It took me far, far fewer games to get to rank 10 in team skirmish than in big team skirmish, which I mostly started playing Halo 2 with.
In that sense, the rankings are working as good as can be expected.
Where it falls apart, though, is when you want to play with your variably ranked (and skilled) friends. In that case, the games can get a bit mismatched (especially if you're ranked by "clan" and not be individual ranks).
It only helps the big triple-A release companies.
This dependence on preorders HURTS the smaller games and prevents them from getting into gamer's hands. Take Katamari Damacy, for example. This game got a LOT of word-of-mouth buzz after release. BUT, well, you see, the geniuses at EB and other game retailers decided that this was a game that only warranted three/four copies per store. And, just like that, there was a massive shortage of the game AT NO FAULT OF THE PUBLISHER.
I also had a store sell my preordered copy of a game to someone other than me this week, and since everyone ordered only one copy of this game, I can't fucking get it now.
I'm so sick of game retailers and their bullshit (like the new game "warranty" scam that EB has going) that I'm pretty much going to try to rely on the bigger brand electronics retailers for my game purchases (Best Buy and Futureshop).
What the hell you talking about? The "producers", the big game dork Vin Diesel being one, had this all in mind. I mean, how does "Chronicles of Riddick" have nothing to do with the game? It's about Riddick and his, yeah, chronicles before the movies.
Now, personally, I hated the movies and hate Vin Diesel as an actor, but what they did with Riddick the game was astounding. And to dismiss it because it doesn't have multiplayer is idiotic.
I can't wait for it to be released over here.
Before you start waiting, start praying that this is going to be localized... cause as it stands, there has been NO word for a North American release.
It is obvious that this is part of a conspiracy by the Patriots to cause an "apparent malfunction" within GW.
FISSION MAILED.
Ubi (who I feel make great games).
Yup, they sure do. It's just that they either ignore or dump the good games (BG&E), or they XTREME-them-up with stupid nu-metal rock and increase the gratuitous violence level (PP), or they make vastly inferior and glitchy versions of their games under the same name as the superior title (GR2 PS2 vs XBox), or... they release Charlie's Angels.
Since everyone else seems to be regurgitating the same old tired links (OCRemix), I figured it would be good to mention one that isn't quite as tired (and enjoyable):
http://gamingfm.com
I am not affiliated with the site, but I am a long-time listener. Yes.
The key word is "tour".
The "Music From Final Fantasy" concert was a one time show, and was successful enough to spawn a tour that could reach those of us lucky to not be living in LA.
It wouldn't be too bad.
I'd imagine that the Symphony setting (and ticket price) would scare away the basement dwelling geeks quite handily.
I hope they don't stop.
I'm still holding out for Final Fantasy X-2-2
Wow. Japanese game has prominently Japanese car licenses? STOP THE PRESSES.
"ludicrous taxes" ?
Perhaps you should visit, um, Japan or Canada or pretty much all of Europe.
Missing the point. It's HARDWARE supported, but it's dependent on the software to use it. The Japanese Mr. Driller game SOFTWARE supports the HARDWARE by allowing download play off of ONE CART, but the N.American release doesn't, requiring multi-cart link play. It's a software decisions -- and a stupid one -- not a hardware problem. Geez.
I think you're missing the point of flickr. Flickr isn't a photo archive, it's a photo sharing site. There's a huge distinction. Want to look at pictures of Shanghai? http://flickr.com/photos/tags/shanghai/ Want to see what people are posting in your city? Subscribe to the tag's RSS feed. Want to display images on your site? Pool together common interest groups? Etc etc.
Don't think of Flickr as an online repository for your images, think of it as a delicious+Friendster+Blogger+moblog-like photo service.
Atleast out of the 1,030,205 dopes, we'll probably get a few, clever gems.
Just like Slashdot comments.
I don't know about you or about the person that you responded to, but *I* survive by being close to work, close to ammenities, and close to the retailers I need (food, mostly). Everything else is just there and doesn't impact me at all. I hate my neighbours and I hate the people in my neighbourhood.
You don't need a forced community to make a living. You can find many connections and social interaction in other aspects of life... *gasp* maybe even outside of your neighbourhood (at a show, at work/school, doing an activity, etc etc).
Being forced to interact with people I don't want to interact with is just plain annoying and arrogant.
Why would they lower their profit margins because people can't steal their product? The average person doesn't look at it as "it's ripped-off less frequently so it should cost less" -- they see it as "these prices are the same as for the XBox and PS2, that seems fair".
The thing with Metroid Prime is that it wasn't really intended to be sequence-breakable (ask Retro). There were just a bunch of pleasant accidents discovered by many obsessive people, many of which used slight bugs and exploits.
They removed a lot of the things for the European release (like the all important jump-off-your-ship to get the boots RIGHT AT THE START trick) because, well, because they were "bugs".
I don't understand why they couldn't have seen this community using those bugs and just kept them in, but if anything, I think they wanted a really linear experience. HOPEFULLY, they've learned a bit since Prime (and Zero Mission should have clued them in to it) and did incorporate such features, but I'm not holding my breath.
Nothing wrong with dedicated, original-scores. I'd rather have those than licensed crap (though it depends on context). However, Halo's soundtrack features..... HOOBASTANK. -1000 Crap
It's a DIFFERENT Tiger Electronics, not to be confused with the makers of such wonderful devices as the Game.com.
Developer System
depends on who you ask, though.
> I think there's still room in the market for a third pillar of a game system.
There already is a "third pillar of gaming" blossoming: mobile gaming. Especially in Asia. It's not as big here, as our phones are years behind, but it is getting huge in Japan and growing in Europe and all the major game developers are jumping on board (like Square-Enix, and EA).
The problem with that argument is that it applies to every crappy game. I remember a friend renting the awful South Park game for the N64 back in high-school. It was absolutely horrid, yet we had fun just criticizing and cussing at the game the whole time.
At that point, you're not enjoying the game, you're enjoying the company. And if you need that company there to enjoy the game, then the game isn't good to begin with.
I've seen conflicting reports, but I think it's safe to assume that the PSP will not support mp3. Many liken the PSP to the iPod which is completely wrong, as Sony already has a hard-drive equipped player trying to compete against the iPod. And that DEDICATED music machine... does it support mp3? NOPE.
Which is quite idiotic. Sony has some good game software talent and good hardware talent, but they are being controlled by their music/movie divisions. Their media divisions are holding back inovation in their hardware divisions. Sony is stagnating.
Canadian Department?
Corona!?
You know nothing of this country, do you?