Really, the last thing I want to see while using MS Word on a University computer is a giant flashing box that says "YOU'RE THE ONE MILLIONTH PERSON TO TYPE A PAPER ON THIS COMPUTER!!!"
Speaking of that, whenever I see one of those, I think to myself "Do I really want to do business with a company that starts out by lying to me?"
What the hell are you smoking? Most products whether you care to admit it or not are ripped off or heavily influenced by products that preceded them. You claim Sony "stole" Second Life, but the fact is that Second Life ripped off from The Sims Online, VRML (and wannabes), IRC, various 3D IRCs and MUDs. And by your reasoning The Sims "stole" from Little Computer Person which "stole" it's ideas from pet ownership. You claim Sony "stole" from the Mii, yet it's funny you don't mention countless MMPORGS that offered customisable characters way before the Mii turned up. Or Mr Potato Head if you care to go that far back. You claim they're knocking off achievements, yet achievements are just an extension of the sort of stats that you could see in GTA III, way before XBox Live popularised them. Or medals / awards in every day life if you care to think that way.
Firstly, please calm down a little. You're the one using the word "stole", he said "ripped off". He was more referring to sony claiming that this was a "Big New Thing", when clearly, it isn't. At all. It is ripping something off when you claim it's new when it isn't at all.
And if you're complaining about Sony "stealing", why not complain about Microsoft or Nintendo stealing. After all Microsoft is producing knockoffs of Gran Turismo with Forza, or GTA with Crackdown, or Pokemon / Dragonball Z with Blue Dragon? And couldn't you claim Nintendo is "stealing" by adding networking to their console after it proved successful in the XBox? Or Nintendo "stealing" a motion controller even though Sony has the patent on it? Or Apple "stealing" ideas from MP3 players which appeared way before the iPod ever did. etc.
Did any of those say that they originated these ideas? Does Forza say "THE FIRST REALISTIC RACING GAME, EVER" on the box? Does Blue Dragon ever clain innovation in the RPG world? I don't think so. Oh, and the gamecube network adapter came out christmas of '02, while Xbox Live went live November of '02. I bet it was in production for more than a month, eh? And yes, the motion controller deal, Sony just has this funny habit of seeing a competitor's work and coming out with something similar a few months later. And the main selling point of the iPod was a hard drive in something that size (gee, that's pretty new) and its slick interface (completly new!), not that it plays MP3s.
While you may have a valid point in that some things progress to others, it is something else entirely when a company claims to have made something new when they just tacked something else on. Would you call it innovative if I added harmony to Beethoven's 9th symphony? Of course not! Even though I "innovated" and "progressed" and "added on", you'd still call it "Stealing", "ripping off", etc.
Well, I have no idea. Personally, I saw the article and went "WTF, I could have done that." It really, as far as I can tell, doesn't do anything special. Besides, due to L'Hospital's rule, 0/0 can be, well, anything.
I hate to put it this way, but "It'll make sense when you're older". And by older, I mean when you take a higher math course. What is the square root of -1 equal to then? Nothing? Something? Saying it's "imaginary" is merely a construct that allows us to muck with things. We could say they're "happy fun times" numbers, with the symbol "hft", and it'd mean the same thing.
What we might see is that NTSC/American Wiis are pseudo region free (for 1st party games), while the PAL/UK versions have region codes in the 1st party games. The other story said that developers could region lock games if they saw fit.
It's not just Japanese. We've got this image that the Japanese are these hardcore-ubergamers, when the truth is they pale in comparison to the Koreans. Yes, Koreans. Take the Arcade game "Strider Hiryu 2". In both the American and Japanese releases, your lifebar is set to 5 and the difficulty at 4 (medium). The "rest of Asia" release? Lifebar at 4 and difficulty at 8, or max. This same pattern shows up in many games. And, through it all, the Koreans still hold the world titles for things like DDR, Starcraft, and Guild Wars.
Oh... my friends and I always called it the "Magic Quake Pocket", as the change weapon animations in Quake 3 had the player look down and the gun shrink into their pocket while another one jumped out of it.
And besides, "Magic Quake Pocket" is a lot more catchy than "Hammerspace":-P
...I thought that, while they added optional bosses to the game, they also cut the random encounter rate down to like a third of what it was - which is disgusting to think of 3 times more random battles than the already atrocious amount.
You're ignoring facts in the very page you linked. All Stars was released in Japan, just as "dumbed down" as the American and European version.
Check it yourself. The rom's called "Super Mario Collection (J)".
Slashdot Mirror
Google offers free internet?
Google text ads bother you more than BUILD YOUR OWN ZWINKY and YET ANOTHER ANNOYING MOVING FLASH AD does?
Really, the last thing I want to see while using MS Word on a University computer is a giant flashing box that says "YOU'RE THE ONE MILLIONTH PERSON TO TYPE A PAPER ON THIS COMPUTER!!!"
Speaking of that, whenever I see one of those, I think to myself "Do I really want to do business with a company that starts out by lying to me?"
A quick google search revealed this.
Probably the prettiest language out there is lolcode.
Here's hello world:
HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
VISIBLE "HAI WORLD!"
KTHXBYE
It doesn't get more beautiful than that.
Complete Robot? You mean they dedicated a book to warforged? (I'm so, so sorry, I'm a D&D geek at heart).
Bidirectional Pocket Pc Sync.
I'd switch in an instant if it had support.
Erm... I think the intent was "whim" not "wimp"...
So, what? Do you go instead to console games where the copy protection is far worse, yet less noticeable?
Nobody said copyright infringement was legal.
;-).
Just less illegal
"The obvious threat hid the insidious one."
-Emperor Sun, Jade Empire
You're funny.
What the hell are you smoking? Most products whether you care to admit it or not are ripped off or heavily influenced by products that preceded them. You claim Sony "stole" Second Life, but the fact is that Second Life ripped off from The Sims Online, VRML (and wannabes), IRC, various 3D IRCs and MUDs. And by your reasoning The Sims "stole" from Little Computer Person which "stole" it's ideas from pet ownership. You claim Sony "stole" from the Mii, yet it's funny you don't mention countless MMPORGS that offered customisable characters way before the Mii turned up. Or Mr Potato Head if you care to go that far back. You claim they're knocking off achievements, yet achievements are just an extension of the sort of stats that you could see in GTA III, way before XBox Live popularised them. Or medals / awards in every day life if you care to think that way.
Firstly, please calm down a little. You're the one using the word "stole", he said "ripped off". He was more referring to sony claiming that this was a "Big New Thing", when clearly, it isn't. At all. It is ripping something off when you claim it's new when it isn't at all.
And if you're complaining about Sony "stealing", why not complain about Microsoft or Nintendo stealing. After all Microsoft is producing knockoffs of Gran Turismo with Forza, or GTA with Crackdown, or Pokemon / Dragonball Z with Blue Dragon? And couldn't you claim Nintendo is "stealing" by adding networking to their console after it proved successful in the XBox? Or Nintendo "stealing" a motion controller even though Sony has the patent on it? Or Apple "stealing" ideas from MP3 players which appeared way before the iPod ever did. etc.
Did any of those say that they originated these ideas? Does Forza say "THE FIRST REALISTIC RACING GAME, EVER" on the box? Does Blue Dragon ever clain innovation in the RPG world? I don't think so. Oh, and the gamecube network adapter came out christmas of '02, while Xbox Live went live November of '02. I bet it was in production for more than a month, eh? And yes, the motion controller deal, Sony just has this funny habit of seeing a competitor's work and coming out with something similar a few months later. And the main selling point of the iPod was a hard drive in something that size (gee, that's pretty new) and its slick interface (completly new!), not that it plays MP3s.
While you may have a valid point in that some things progress to others, it is something else entirely when a company claims to have made something new when they just tacked something else on. Would you call it innovative if I added harmony to Beethoven's 9th symphony? Of course not! Even though I "innovated" and "progressed" and "added on", you'd still call it "Stealing", "ripping off", etc.
I have a feeling you'd have posted something different if you knew that this man was both married and dropped out of Grad school to make CRPGs.
So, Jeff, do you feel that your own games have these problems, or no?
Well, I have no idea. Personally, I saw the article and went "WTF, I could have done that." It really, as far as I can tell, doesn't do anything special. Besides, due to L'Hospital's rule, 0/0 can be, well, anything.
I hate to put it this way, but "It'll make sense when you're older". And by older, I mean when you take a higher math course. What is the square root of -1 equal to then? Nothing? Something? Saying it's "imaginary" is merely a construct that allows us to muck with things. We could say they're "happy fun times" numbers, with the symbol "hft", and it'd mean the same thing.
What we might see is that NTSC/American Wiis are pseudo region free (for 1st party games), while the PAL/UK versions have region codes in the 1st party games. The other story said that developers could region lock games if they saw fit.
...are you rich? Because if not, I honestly don't understand why you'd defend them.
Maybe the old worms, like Armageddon. It just went downhill after 3D, and hasn't picked back up.
It's not just Japanese. We've got this image that the Japanese are these hardcore-ubergamers, when the truth is they pale in comparison to the Koreans. Yes, Koreans. Take the Arcade game "Strider Hiryu 2". In both the American and Japanese releases, your lifebar is set to 5 and the difficulty at 4 (medium). The "rest of Asia" release? Lifebar at 4 and difficulty at 8, or max. This same pattern shows up in many games. And, through it all, the Koreans still hold the world titles for things like DDR, Starcraft, and Guild Wars.
Oh... my friends and I always called it the "Magic Quake Pocket", as the change weapon animations in Quake 3 had the player look down and the gun shrink into their pocket while another one jumped out of it.
:-P
And besides, "Magic Quake Pocket" is a lot more catchy than "Hammerspace"
...I thought that, while they added optional bosses to the game, they also cut the random encounter rate down to like a third of what it was - which is disgusting to think of 3 times more random battles than the already atrocious amount.
See an above comment about the FF7 re-release. While they got more random battles, they hated it anyways.
You're ignoring facts in the very page you linked. All Stars was released in Japan, just as "dumbed down" as the American and European version. Check it yourself. The rom's called "Super Mario Collection (J)".
Wasn't a "rip off", Doki! Doki! Panic was made by the same team as the other marios.