"I believe the future is in charging lots of users small sums for things the want.. like iTunes."
I believe this is the future too, whether or not that is a good thing is another question entirely. For example, EA is selling smaller and smaller expansions for the BF2 series, which I think will ultimately culimate in them selling a weapon pack. Want upgraded weapons? Pay $5.
Unfortunately, what happens when you can suddenly charge a very small amount for things is that everybody wants to charge for everything. We will witness the same thing that happened when subscriptions became big except on a much more ridiculous scale. Not everything is valuable enough to charge for, and even some things that are valuable enough SHOULDN'T be charged for out of principle.
I'm just fortunate that I personally have the tech skills necessary to continue getting what I want for free should I need to. Does that make me a pirate? Yes. Now ask me if I give a damn after being bent over by all these companies.
"I'm one of the people mentioned that don't like to tie myself into monthly contracts. The fact that a phone will make less profit for the phone companies should not make a difference as to whether it is sold here. I'm sure there are many people who just want a phone to be a phone.
Crappy (for us, the 'consumers') corporate decisions like this happen every day, and we're going to need to speak up sooner or later if we want anything to change."
This is a nice cheerful thought, and I'm not surprised it got modded up in the Fairy Land that is the Slashdot moderation system...but NEWSFLASH! Corporations do not exist to give the consumers what they want. They exist to make money. Often times the two concepts run hand in hand but in this case that is not necessarily the case. Unlike the Sony rootkit fiasco, there is no real legal reason for these companies to start changing their ways. They found a profitable business model and they are NOT about to switch over to a less profitable one. Don't like it? Find a better way for them to make money that also benefits consumers.
As someone with Tmobile, who is interested in switching and taking my phone with me, how would I go about getting the unlock code from them...and then what would I do once I GOT that unlock code? Do I enter it in somewhere? Do I have to take it to a store to do?
As an ad exec in this much sought after demographic I'd have to agree with you, but only partially. What you will find is that advertisers do not focus the bulk of their media spends on TV for us nerds, because they learned long ago that the internet is a much use of their media dollars. You see, geeks tend to do something WAY more than normal TV watchers...we research. Take a look sometime at the ads that appear on fan sites and all the show encyclopedia sites...take a look at some of the big brand names that show up there. That's where those advertisers are hitting. The smart ones at least.
"Also, a friend of mine told me that he noticed a printout of his last years taxes lying on the desk in a (rich) girls fathers office and got dumped shortly after."
Now if only there were a way to deal with people like that. Perhaps someone should start a site to list gold-diggers. I know they have one for girls to post about guys who cheat...Although I do wonder what legal ramifications there would be.
"Designed for gamers, by gamers" That's completely unimpressive, especially when it comes to audio equipment. What the hell do "gamers" bring to the table- Requests for bigger 'splosions? Special detectors for when Mommy calls dinner's ready?
No kidding...I personally would prefer to see "Designed for gamers, by audio headphone design/engineering specialists". But that's just me.
"I keep reading comments about this new tagging system, but I'm not seeing the tags. Where are you finding this stuff? Is it subscriber-only?"
Nope, not a subscriber....If it helps i'm using the latest version of Firefox. But I don't think that should affect it at all. Very odd.
Re:We need a real life game like this!
on
Playing The Escape
·
· Score: 1
"Obvious fake. You can't put someone in a trance that easily, and it's not very legal to abduct an unwilling participant like that, especially without first checking if he has any kind of cardiac or neurological disorder. Sorry."
Very good point...I'd also like to point out some very odd behavior that was observed in the video...lets just run down the list shall we?
1. His friends don't react. If all of a sudden your friend is playing a video game in a pub and passes out and some strange men come and tell you to do what they say and come with them as they drag your friend out what would you do? Follow them blindly? I know I'd start swinging first and ask questions later.
2. Why didn't his friends also go into the trance?
3. If you find yourself in a game...and see a weapon on the ground that doesn't look familiar what would you do with it? You fire a couple shots to guage the effectiveness, check for ammo...and most importantly, try to figure out why the thing looks like a damn paintball gun.
4. You encounter the zombie chick. It appears you are shooting paintballs...and while they are effective...wouldn't grabbing the gun by the barrel and using it as a bludgeoning weapon be even MORE effective? Also...why isn't this guy shooting these zombies in the head? And if he was, how in the HELL were they not reacting like humans. Paintballs HURT dammit!
5. Why did he not violently attack the guy who was running this at the end when he went to put him back into a trance? If I was that freaked out, I'd be shooting first and asking questions later.
Anybody have any backup info on this to confirm whether it is a fake or not?
"Artificial muscles would definitely require skeletal reinforcement."
Bingo. If they were to be used on a human frame at least.
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was "Sweet! They created Myomer bundles like they have in Battletech!" For any that are curious, here is the Wikipedia entry for Myomer bundles in Battletech.
While the habanero joke is funny....parent should be modded down. He ripped the joke off the headline of the Fark article which was posted earlier tonight. Plagiarizing is bad mmmk?
While I'm glad that they're taking this approach...so far its all talk. I'll believe it when I see it. But I really wish more companies would realize that in order to get rid of piracy, they need to make it easier to get/use their content legally than it is to pirate it.
As an ad exec, I'd like to comment on this story and some of the posts I've seen.
First, I have in my hand the ad in question. As to its content...well, anybody who thinks that they're trying to sell sex in this game is an idiot. The image of the woman is to play off the headline which is "Beautifully Executed". Yes, the woman is their to catch your eye, but in reality the goal is to make you see the bullethole and read the headline. The sex appeal is merely a side-effect. The reason this ad does not go deeper than that is because this ad is CLEARLY targeting existing fans of the game. Otherwise you would see your typical release ad which has screenshots and nicely rendered images that try to trick the gamer into thinking "Holy crap it looks that good?!".
Forgive the lack of a link to the post, but somewhere in the story thread someone posted that people who are fans of the series just want to know when the next one is coming out, which this ad does very well.
Now...as for the issue of gamer advertising as a whole...yes, it sucks big fat donkey balls and I will be the first to admit it. I have a folder on my desk for all of the bad advertisements I come across and a good portion of them are for gamers. Just leafing through here for a couple examples will find the one for Magic: The Gathering where the headline was "The geek billionaire lifestyle begins with Magic: The Gathering"...and while it was probably made to look intentionally bad...it really just falls flat and plain out sucks.
The next two crappy ads stink of some copywriter who knows nothing about gamers playing a couple online games to pick up jargon and making it sound like it couldn't be more canned if they tried. The recent ads for Sound Blaster have the copy: "You with Sound Blaster X-Fi. Them with Motherboard Audio. Them...PWNED!". The other example is for BF2: Special Forces...and while I love the BF series (aside from the horrendous glitches and bugs and EA) this ad just just made me laugh at how horrible the copy was...."Zipline, flashbang, teargas, grappling hook. So many n00bs, so little time."
Honestly...if these people had done any research they would know how corporate and idiotic they sound. This doesn't encourage gamers to buy your game, it encourages them to mock the hell out of you. If a company doesn't know how to communicate with its customers, how can the customer think that they'll be able to make a product they'll like? Thats the entire point of advertising.
If any game companies or agencies of those companies are reading this, I'd love to discuss it with you in more detail and invite you to email me at mlsrsvp@aol.com (yes...AOL...but its an old account, cry me a river). Seriously, gamers are not idiots. Many of them are young and impressionable, but this new generation has become acutely aware of how companies try to "be like one of them" and they can spot this garbage a mile away. In the end, they might still buy the game, but it sure as hell won't be in any part due to the current advertising out there.
For visualizing code, I'd say this is something very interesting...however when it comes to making work fun by combining it with a game....
The thing people need to understand is that the reason games are fun is because of the random reward structure in them. You don't get random rewards when you code...only random problems with sometimes unlikely solutions.
While someone may overall find it still worth playing...that is fine...but it really is as simple as "don't like their rules, don't play".
Legally, it is not a question of whether you should have to read every rule or not. The rules are there, you agreed...if you break them you suffer the consequences. Thus, if you want to avoid breaking them, you should read them. Now...considering every possible interpretation is another matter, which is why lawyers exist. However what this guy did was a very clearcut case of botting and he deserves what he got.
If people want to gripe about the form responses....thats one thing. I mean, Blizzard could obviously have made a better effort to handle this...however the ultimate decision they made sounds quite reasonable. If this idiot didn't realize that you couldn't bot in WoW...he deserves this.
"If Blizzard want their players to worship at the altar of the great Time Sink, then they can expect them to use things like this to make it less mind-numbingly tedious."
If you don't want to play The Great Time Sink....why would you be giving Blizzard your money in the first place? They have their rules, and this guy broke them. You don't want to play by their rules, don't play their game.
Well...they both try to fleece gamers out of extra money with glitz, marketing speak and pretty cases...seems like a match made in heaven!
Of course Alienware does actually make quality computers, and I purchased one myself since I don't have the time to build my own...but here's a tip....order from their small business line. Its WAAAY cheaper, you get the same components for the most part...and the only thing lacking is the flashy case that screams "Alienware just scammed me out of $500 bucks for this case".
"First and foremost, they will roll NEED on any item that drops, regardless of whether they can or would use it. As far as I can tell, they don't understand the difference between NEED and Greed."
Um....what part of "they sell loot to get gold to sell for cash" don't you understand? They roll NEED so they can increase their revenue...its not a question of Need vs Greed...its a question of "how can I get more crap to sell".
I am one of many who saw the Spore video and nearly wet himself. If this game lives up to the hype (well...if you can call a very in-depth live gameplay demonstration hype) it will be a major blockbuster.
One of the things I am concerned about is that while it is absolutely fantastic how they plan on integrating the content of other players into your worlds....I want a method to limit the inclusion of that content to just my friends. Which sounds more fun to you....having a little "survival of the fittest" contest with random creatures from people you have never met, or having a biological death-match against the creations of your circle of friends? If anybody knows of the details of this aspect, please by all means fill me in.
Also, recently on Fark I saw a game posted that bears a striking resemblance in gameplay to the first level of Spore (as demonstrated in the video). This is called Flow and is quite excellent...albeit not finished. Still very fun to play through though.
Whats interesting is that only SOME FPS's cause this for me.
Black - I recently purchased this and within several minutes I had a headache and felt very nauseous. I attribute part of this to the slow controls...you can't move around the screen anywhere NEAR as quickly as with a mouse on a PC, which really helps with the motion sickness for me. I'm returning this because the game itself is boring after you get past the eye candy.
Golden Eye - The only levels I could play were the Library and any outdoor level without getting ill.
Halflife - I can play this one for a bit but eventually it does me in.
BF:1942, BF:Vietnam, BF2 - For some reason...I can play this for hours and hours and hours on end without feeling the slightest bit of nausea. I would be curious if others have experienced this as well. I honestly don't have a clue as to why this game is so different, but I'm glad it does because its my favorite out there right now. Anybody have any suggestions as to why the Battlefield series has no effect on me?
"If I have to read three articles a day about the PS3 until it launches in December or whenever - I'm going to stop reading Slashdot. "
No kidding...I am so frigging sick of the ramp-up marketing madness surrounding the consoles...its just plain disgusting. I'll be glad that there's no information on it. It all comes down to the games, now whatever marketing buzz you can generate over your system. Gamers will look at marketing and say "oh cool" but they won't make their buying decision based on that alone, the majority of them may be stupid, but not THAT stupid.
So I made a similar post yesterday...but I'm basically wondering this:
If you don't have the programming skills, but have ideas that would make good competition...where do you get started? Especially with web services development? Also, where's a good starting place to learn about the hosting you would need for something like this. I know there are cheap ways to host this much data and expensive ways, so does anybody know what kind of setup Flickr is using?
BTW, kudos to this kid, and since I saw he posted on here, I was wondering...do you know a lot of programming languages? Or did you just learn what was required for this project?
Re:Coming at ya like a (slow) freight train ...
on
A Look at IPTV
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· Score: 2, Insightful
"One more prediction: Watch for a la carte TV to become a reality in the next 2-3 years. The reason being that as all of this competition heats up, networks (think Turner or Discovery) will start to wake-up to the fact that there is a niche of viewers out there who would like to pay them directly for delivery of a reasonable-quality stream over the broadband connection they already have... and that they can deliver that product without giving the cable company (or the telco) a sniff of the fee."
Unfortunately, I think this is the one innovation that all providers (including AT&T) will be fighting tooth and nail. The majority of idiots who they hope will migrate to this won't be begging for a la carte tv, so they will have proof that "people want bundles!" which they will continue to ram down our throats because they make more money off of them right now than they supposedly would off of a la carte. Of course, since none of them have ventured to try this nobody can be sure. The only example they have is premium channels like Showtime and HBO who....well....who have done quite well for themselves because of their EXCELLENT content that people willing to pay a premium for.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe this is the future too, whether or not that is a good thing is another question entirely. For example, EA is selling smaller and smaller expansions for the BF2 series, which I think will ultimately culimate in them selling a weapon pack. Want upgraded weapons? Pay $5.
Unfortunately, what happens when you can suddenly charge a very small amount for things is that everybody wants to charge for everything. We will witness the same thing that happened when subscriptions became big except on a much more ridiculous scale. Not everything is valuable enough to charge for, and even some things that are valuable enough SHOULDN'T be charged for out of principle.
I'm just fortunate that I personally have the tech skills necessary to continue getting what I want for free should I need to. Does that make me a pirate? Yes. Now ask me if I give a damn after being bent over by all these companies.
This is a nice cheerful thought, and I'm not surprised it got modded up in the Fairy Land that is the Slashdot moderation system...but NEWSFLASH! Corporations do not exist to give the consumers what they want. They exist to make money. Often times the two concepts run hand in hand but in this case that is not necessarily the case. Unlike the Sony rootkit fiasco, there is no real legal reason for these companies to start changing their ways. They found a profitable business model and they are NOT about to switch over to a less profitable one. Don't like it? Find a better way for them to make money that also benefits consumers.
Now if only there were a way to deal with people like that. Perhaps someone should start a site to list gold-diggers. I know they have one for girls to post about guys who cheat...Although I do wonder what legal ramifications there would be.
No kidding...I personally would prefer to see "Designed for gamers, by audio headphone design/engineering specialists". But that's just me.
Nope, not a subscriber....If it helps i'm using the latest version of Firefox. But I don't think that should affect it at all. Very odd.
Very good point...I'd also like to point out some very odd behavior that was observed in the video...lets just run down the list shall we?
1. His friends don't react. If all of a sudden your friend is playing a video game in a pub and passes out and some strange men come and tell you to do what they say and come with them as they drag your friend out what would you do? Follow them blindly? I know I'd start swinging first and ask questions later.
2. Why didn't his friends also go into the trance?
3. If you find yourself in a game...and see a weapon on the ground that doesn't look familiar what would you do with it? You fire a couple shots to guage the effectiveness, check for ammo...and most importantly, try to figure out why the thing looks like a damn paintball gun.
4. You encounter the zombie chick. It appears you are shooting paintballs...and while they are effective...wouldn't grabbing the gun by the barrel and using it as a bludgeoning weapon be even MORE effective? Also...why isn't this guy shooting these zombies in the head? And if he was, how in the HELL were they not reacting like humans. Paintballs HURT dammit!
5. Why did he not violently attack the guy who was running this at the end when he went to put him back into a trance? If I was that freaked out, I'd be shooting first and asking questions later.
Anybody have any backup info on this to confirm whether it is a fake or not?
That, or a breast implant factory...not sure which would be more fun...
Bingo. If they were to be used on a human frame at least.
The first thing that popped into my mind when I read this was "Sweet! They created Myomer bundles like they have in Battletech!" For any that are curious, here is the Wikipedia entry for Myomer bundles in Battletech.
First, I have in my hand the ad in question. As to its content...well, anybody who thinks that they're trying to sell sex in this game is an idiot. The image of the woman is to play off the headline which is "Beautifully Executed". Yes, the woman is their to catch your eye, but in reality the goal is to make you see the bullethole and read the headline. The sex appeal is merely a side-effect. The reason this ad does not go deeper than that is because this ad is CLEARLY targeting existing fans of the game. Otherwise you would see your typical release ad which has screenshots and nicely rendered images that try to trick the gamer into thinking "Holy crap it looks that good?!".
Forgive the lack of a link to the post, but somewhere in the story thread someone posted that people who are fans of the series just want to know when the next one is coming out, which this ad does very well.
Now...as for the issue of gamer advertising as a whole...yes, it sucks big fat donkey balls and I will be the first to admit it. I have a folder on my desk for all of the bad advertisements I come across and a good portion of them are for gamers. Just leafing through here for a couple examples will find the one for Magic: The Gathering where the headline was "The geek billionaire lifestyle begins with Magic: The Gathering"...and while it was probably made to look intentionally bad...it really just falls flat and plain out sucks.
The next two crappy ads stink of some copywriter who knows nothing about gamers playing a couple online games to pick up jargon and making it sound like it couldn't be more canned if they tried. The recent ads for Sound Blaster have the copy: "You with Sound Blaster X-Fi. Them with Motherboard Audio. Them...PWNED!". The other example is for BF2: Special Forces...and while I love the BF series (aside from the horrendous glitches and bugs and EA) this ad just just made me laugh at how horrible the copy was...."Zipline, flashbang, teargas, grappling hook. So many n00bs, so little time."
Honestly...if these people had done any research they would know how corporate and idiotic they sound. This doesn't encourage gamers to buy your game, it encourages them to mock the hell out of you. If a company doesn't know how to communicate with its customers, how can the customer think that they'll be able to make a product they'll like? Thats the entire point of advertising.
If any game companies or agencies of those companies are reading this, I'd love to discuss it with you in more detail and invite you to email me at mlsrsvp@aol.com (yes...AOL...but its an old account, cry me a river). Seriously, gamers are not idiots. Many of them are young and impressionable, but this new generation has become acutely aware of how companies try to "be like one of them" and they can spot this garbage a mile away. In the end, they might still buy the game, but it sure as hell won't be in any part due to the current advertising out there.
The thing people need to understand is that the reason games are fun is because of the random reward structure in them. You don't get random rewards when you code...only random problems with sometimes unlikely solutions.
Legally, it is not a question of whether you should have to read every rule or not. The rules are there, you agreed...if you break them you suffer the consequences. Thus, if you want to avoid breaking them, you should read them. Now...considering every possible interpretation is another matter, which is why lawyers exist. However what this guy did was a very clearcut case of botting and he deserves what he got.
If people want to gripe about the form responses....thats one thing. I mean, Blizzard could obviously have made a better effort to handle this...however the ultimate decision they made sounds quite reasonable. If this idiot didn't realize that you couldn't bot in WoW...he deserves this.
If you don't want to play The Great Time Sink....why would you be giving Blizzard your money in the first place? They have their rules, and this guy broke them. You don't want to play by their rules, don't play their game.
Of course Alienware does actually make quality computers, and I purchased one myself since I don't have the time to build my own...but here's a tip....order from their small business line. Its WAAAY cheaper, you get the same components for the most part...and the only thing lacking is the flashy case that screams "Alienware just scammed me out of $500 bucks for this case".
Um....what part of "they sell loot to get gold to sell for cash" don't you understand? They roll NEED so they can increase their revenue...its not a question of Need vs Greed...its a question of "how can I get more crap to sell".
One of the things I am concerned about is that while it is absolutely fantastic how they plan on integrating the content of other players into your worlds....I want a method to limit the inclusion of that content to just my friends. Which sounds more fun to you....having a little "survival of the fittest" contest with random creatures from people you have never met, or having a biological death-match against the creations of your circle of friends? If anybody knows of the details of this aspect, please by all means fill me in.
Also, recently on Fark I saw a game posted that bears a striking resemblance in gameplay to the first level of Spore (as demonstrated in the video). This is called Flow and is quite excellent...albeit not finished. Still very fun to play through though.
Flow
Black - I recently purchased this and within several minutes I had a headache and felt very nauseous. I attribute part of this to the slow controls...you can't move around the screen anywhere NEAR as quickly as with a mouse on a PC, which really helps with the motion sickness for me. I'm returning this because the game itself is boring after you get past the eye candy.
Golden Eye - The only levels I could play were the Library and any outdoor level without getting ill.
Halflife - I can play this one for a bit but eventually it does me in.
BF:1942, BF:Vietnam, BF2 - For some reason...I can play this for hours and hours and hours on end without feeling the slightest bit of nausea. I would be curious if others have experienced this as well. I honestly don't have a clue as to why this game is so different, but I'm glad it does because its my favorite out there right now. Anybody have any suggestions as to why the Battlefield series has no effect on me?
No kidding...I am so frigging sick of the ramp-up marketing madness surrounding the consoles...its just plain disgusting. I'll be glad that there's no information on it. It all comes down to the games, now whatever marketing buzz you can generate over your system. Gamers will look at marketing and say "oh cool" but they won't make their buying decision based on that alone, the majority of them may be stupid, but not THAT stupid.
If you don't have the programming skills, but have ideas that would make good competition...where do you get started? Especially with web services development? Also, where's a good starting place to learn about the hosting you would need for something like this. I know there are cheap ways to host this much data and expensive ways, so does anybody know what kind of setup Flickr is using?
BTW, kudos to this kid, and since I saw he posted on here, I was wondering...do you know a lot of programming languages? Or did you just learn what was required for this project?
Unfortunately, I think this is the one innovation that all providers (including AT&T) will be fighting tooth and nail. The majority of idiots who they hope will migrate to this won't be begging for a la carte tv, so they will have proof that "people want bundles!" which they will continue to ram down our throats because they make more money off of them right now than they supposedly would off of a la carte. Of course, since none of them have ventured to try this nobody can be sure. The only example they have is premium channels like Showtime and HBO who....well....who have done quite well for themselves because of their EXCELLENT content that people willing to pay a premium for.