Surprisingly, Doom3 is excellent at immersion, background story and story line. This is the frustrating part.
From my point of view, Doom3 had everything to be a great game (great graphics, good physics, loads of media and background, voice acting, even a refined story!), but they killed it with the gameplay.
Doom3 is a step back of 10 years in gameplay. It plays exactly the same as the original doom: pick a bonus and a monster appear to frag you, pass apoint and monsters will magically pop up behind you.
The atmosphere is oppressive and scary, but the suspence is artificial. You are on a marsian base, but you have "monster closets" everywhere. Imps spawn behind you from portals every few minutes. Zombies crawl out of passages you cannot use.
So, they used every trick in the book to keep you on your toes, but it just gets boring, there is no reason to it.
The few times there are reasons (like the first pinky you meet or the few times the imps were WAITING for you and come jumping around instead of appearing behind), the game is great, but when they cheap and spawn new ennemies on clean area, it just gets tedious.
This is my opinon, especially reinforced after playing HL2, where the developpers dont cheat so much... (you usually see the ennemies coming or know where they come from).
I may be in the minority, but i actually like Steam. It allows me to have my games wherever i want them, whenever i want (as long as i have access to a fat pipe). I travel often enough and it is quite nice to be able to setup a download for a game the night before and play the next day, anywhere, whitout having to bother about actually packing the CD.
Sure, if the service goes bust, i'll be shafted, but until that time comes, i get lots of usage. I installed at least 4 copies of my Steam games, on 4 different computers. I can only play on one at a time, bit it is no real problem to me (somehow, i did not get cloned).
I never had any issue with it, although i can understand people's frustration when they do. All games have issues, with or without Steam and most issues come from the computers (spyware, dodgy hardware...).
Is it an open method? NO! Does it work? sure. I'd love to be able to buy more games this way. Beats the CD way anyday for me.
What is even stranger with eBay is that you can often find the same item in eTail from a reputable eTailer for cheaper (talking about recent, available products).
Go take a look on the eBay HDD page and then browse your micro center ads or favorite etailers or deal sites. Chances are you'll find PLENTY of people ready to pay more on eBay (the offers may need a rebate though...).
Ebay is still *VERY* convenient for outdated or rare hardware.
Here is a fact: Right now Valve is watching you every time you play, and gathering information on your user habits, play times, durations of play, PC settings, hardware configuration, and storing it for market research data.
So much so, that they even RUN a voluntary user poll every few months to grab that data, asking for permission and showing you exactly what they are sending to their server. sigh... [tinfoil hat =ON] I guess it is just to screen their usual shady activities.
Yes, there are HUGE possibilities of abuse from a system like Steam. No, i have not seen that kind of abuse reported up to now. Sure, they do force you to patch your game to the latest update, for better or for worse. So does the latest windows XP (pushing SP2 with any autoupdate now), which you also need to play it.
So, so far, i think Steam is rather benign. No, it did not give any advantage over buying in store. They COULD NOT, as it was in their distribution contract with Vivaldi. We can hope the exp pack will be cheaper on Steam (or exclusively?).
Bullfrog and Origin made great games. Then again, they were mostly centered around great, known, personnaes (Richard Garriot, Peter Molineux...). So, when they realized what their studio became, they just left and joined or created other companies (NCsoft, Lionhead...).
A creative industry is bound to keep smaller, more "indy" studios. They will go through editors for distribution, but the games and creative direction should stay with the studios...
8h a day? 5 days a week? 4 weeks vacations? Hello~~~~? Ubisoft is a french company. This is 35h a week and 5 weeks vacations MINIMUM.
And opposite to the US, work conditions and regulations are actually enforced. There is a dark side to capitalism and deregulation... call it slave labor.
Or the game companies could just kill the market by offering themselves to sell those killer objects.
Mark them as bought (special mark?) but as strong as the other ones. People that are short on time and easy on money (working population, that does NOT have the time to camp at spawn for 3 days) would buy there and people with too much time on their hands would get the "l33T" version from the drop.
As soon as the companies start competing on the offering, the demand will shift to them and the farmers will stop...
On the other hand, you can be sure the hardcore players would complain about it anyway.
The last "one man game" i heard about was "Another World" on the Amiga (and later ported to several platform, including Genesis). It was all done by Eric Chahi, except for the music. He did programing, art and even the box design.
But at the time of the 64k computers, most games were the brain childs of very small teams (1 to 5 people). Now, you need a bigger team, as the public expect content.
Bartle's point is not so much that Instancing is "BAD", more that is detracts from the concept of MMO. In an instanced world, you do not reach the same degree of achievement, as all can do it. Your biggest nemesis are not unique, they are just instances of the same monster.
So, killing that bad ass last boss is not extraordinary, any player reaching that level can do it, no limitation.
I play CoH and i love it, but i understand his criticism. CoH is more a cross of Diablo and Marvel, than a real MMO. Your impact on the world is a resounding 0. You can save the earth (or at least Paragon City) and defeat all the vilains thrown at you and yet, nothing has changed. This is one of the point that actually attracted me to it, as it allows a much more moderate player (only one hour of play/day) to enjoy the game as much as a hard core (although at my own pace). On that note, it is more of a single/group experience, than really MMO. You never play with more than a handful a people (although usually different from session to session).
So, his point is valid, instancing limit your effect on the world. Now, to judge if that is a good thing or not...
His criticism are more of a block than really independant. If you take instancing out, then you need a perma death to avoid a lock in of the world from the power gamers. Perma death forces a rotation of power and compensate for the scarcity of the loot.
It's not a simple problem. The goal is to find a balance of all those elements that work and that everyone can enjoy, both newbies and oldies and both power and recreational gamers.
In truth, i think you cant reach such a consensus and hence you'll have different games caterred to different crowds.
Most sports are teams of 5 to 15, so less than 30 total players, with the ball as an object. As said by a previous poster, what is so freaking Massive about it?
You can find UT or CS servers of 30+ easily and een 40 or 50 and i'd say a FPS is much more demanding in bandwidth/latency.
Then, you'd need to implement the stats tracking, a bit like a clan/team victory keeping. It also has been done already in FPS games.
You say it is difficult to get players to play well together? True, as in any sport... But do you think it is any easier in a team map of a FPs like Ennemy Territory or Assault in UT? You CAN have just a bunch of unrelated and uncoordinated players, but they will get swept by any real team.
In conclusion, i dont see sport games to be a good setting for MMO (I mean it in the sense persistant world, constant on). You just need stat tracking. UT already does that. So, i guess it could be implemented. And sure, i'd say it has potential. Lots of people like to play the star, some like support (otherwise, you would not find that many medics or engineers in ET). A team needs all components and it needs them all to play together.
So, bring back the coop, implement it online, eventually add stats tracking and if really needed experience. I'd say that would be a recipe for success...
Other factors of Fasttrack success at the beginning was that edonkey was really hard to use and that emule is a recent addition to it. They included most of the features that were requested by users (open source...) and especially all the usefull feature that required plug ins or automaters for edonkey.
Another factor was the Morpheus OS that used to be on fasttrack and had a lot of users as it was easier, more powerfull and no spyware.
Now, in the recent years, Fasttrack limited its network to Kazaa only, which it bundled with lots of spyware. The network got attacked by **AA drones and seeded with fake files. Emule made edonkey a lot easier to use. Edonkey programmers took note and updated their app.
So, basically, fastrack goes down in quility and edonkey goes up. The numbers are just inertia...
Edonkey was a very future looking P2P networrk at its conception. It's goal has always been to exchange BIG files (ISO sized), with hashes, verification and possibility to only dump the corrupted part. Now that those file sizes are usual, such a network gets useful...
eMule is perfectly compatible with the edonkey network (at least in my experience).
It only enforces the sharing of data, as you are limited to download at maximum 5x faster than your upload and you are priority based, which means that you have a unique ID and when you upload to someone, you gain points. Hence, the more you uploaded, the more points you have (those credits are only local with the persons you uploaded to) and the higher the priority in those people's queues.
I upload more than i DL (DSL. I have spare bandwidth...) so my downloads are quite fast.
And overnet CANNOT be shut down. The creators have 0 control over it and it does not have ANY server. Even if the guys programming it were to stop tomorrow, the network would live. Nothing can close it except limiting the clients' traffic. To close edonkey, you would already need to close ALL the servers... good luck with that! (although the bigger ones are certainly easy targets)
seriously, this things is gonna draw way too much juice. 333mhz processors, huge screen, optical drive, etc... No matter how good the systems specs are, if battery life doesn't cut it, its going to be smoke by gameboy.
I hate to break all your dream, but technology has moved forward quite a bit since the Gamegear... Both for batteries AND power consumption.
The latest PocketPCs are using a Xscale at 600+MHz and they have HOURS of autonomy. My older Dell PDA (only a 300MHz Xscale) can play games for 6+ hours before needing a recharge (and using a PSX emulator with games on a microdrive)) and the battery was not even that impressive. I could watch a movie for ~1.5h.
Sure, they may not reach the portability level of a GBA (which itself is years behind a Palm, that could live MONTHS on 2 AAA), but it may be *enough*.
I doubt that the PS3's processor will be 65nm considering that the major chipmaking companies are having a hell of a hard time with 90nm anyway and there really isn't a need for the chip to be 65nm right now anyway...
but the PS3 is not planned until Xmas next year... that let plenty of time for the process to mature.
funny to see how the/. crowd is split on such issues.
You can basically feel who are the overworked, busy professionals and the single college people.
This is a PERFECT example of what i call the student paradox. While a student, you have little money and loads of free time. When employed, you have loads of money, but little free time. It is true and apply for basically all leisure activity (gaming, travelling, shopping...).
Why do college student look for the best bargains when they buy? Because they can (or even have to) trade time for money. Workers are ready to take the opposite trade off. When your bank account is healthy, you are ready to pay for your time.
So, no, this guy is not to be shot. Quite the opposite. The demographics and product studies should tell the companies that money CAN be made with shorter games. Do all games have to be short? No. But the very vocal hardcore gamer crowd (well, they have MUCH time to express themselves) is not the only one around gaming and certainly NOT the one with the most disposable income.
Case in point for good short games: I recently finished both Prince of Persia and Beyond Good and Evil. About 12h of game play per game in the medium setting, BUT playable easily and nicely in 1h session. Interesting, nice enough to look at and keeping me coming for more everyday. This can be finished in less than 2 weeks for a casual gamer. It is rewarding. No, i did not buy them the day they came out and hence did not pay full price. Same for Max Payne 1 and 2. I enjoyed them a lot, like a good interactive movie. Doom3 is probably in the same category (although i cant tell, i haven't finished it yet).
Were those games enjoyable? Certainly. Are they easy to pick for both hardcore and casual gamers? Yes. Should they be soold full price? No. Around $30 is reasonnable and well worth it (Hell, you pay $15-20 for a 2h movie on DVD!).
Like people quitting studies and joining the work force, i have had to adapt. Although i loved my non stop gaming sessions in college, i just cannot continue doing it. On the other hand, i stopped "swapping" games with friends and buy all the ones in want.
There SOULD be a market for such games and advertised as such. Do not discard casual gamers just because YOU have 8+ h/day to play.
Oh, and BTW, i still finished Morrowind this way... And i DO have a copy of Deus Ex 2 on my shelf, never played (well, it came as an unfinished Beta and i have to time to debug a paid-for game. I waited for the patches, but by the time they were out, i was already playing something else...)
MMO have evolved toward boring, repetitive actions, PvP for the fun of it and little cooperation. This is a wolf eat wolf world and it is not fun.
The only MMO that keeps me interested is City of Heroes. It is geared toward fun, cooperation, teamwork and missions. You never feel bored, as you never really have to spend a lot of time traveling and even if you do, you have travel powers to shorten those times considerably (plus teleportation of allies if needed). You always feel useful, as you travel streets upon streets with some thugs and petty thiefs sprinkled around, in actions that you can interupt. Your main source of fun are missions, where you can at the same time discover a bit from your gaming universe, get exp, try cooperating (doing things as teams is a big part of the game) and kill badies. You cannot really farm your opponent, as there is no rea lressource to get and not much to buy.
The game mechanics is as the same time suited for latencies and caracter improvement (your touching skill does not depend on your twitch skills) and still let some space for technique, strategy and coop (ranges are important, pulling ennemies toward your group, covering your partners...).
The whole game is designed to be fun and a big cooperation, be it amongst friends or with total stragers. You can even allow lower level characters to get to your level by sidekicking them.
Fun and only fun. You can run around and defeat crime randomly, you can follow mission and gain awards or just some tips on your city or even create a task force (group of heroes) and do some group missions.
All that love the super heroes AND MMO should try it...
Actually, i add to that the opposite argument: the PC market is a victim of its own success.
Let's elaborate:
- the PC has had some great games out in the past year. Those games have a good replay value, enhanced by the fact they work on internet and allow multiplayer setup (think UT, Ennemy territory, warcraft 3...).
- people are still playing those games
- the newer games do not bring much more
- there is only 24h in a day
Hence, why should you buy a newer, but less complete game if you are still happy with the one you have?
The market will pick up with the new expected games if they do not disapoint.
If the newer game is just the same as the last one with better graphics, only the wealthiest part of your audience (the ones able to upgrade) will be interested.
In my case, i used to play a lot of different games, switching very regularly. I now have less time to play and lately, i've played only a handful of games (but i still enjoy them).
This is the paradox of MMO for example. You are supposed to pass an (unhealthily) large amount of time on them, but they expect you to buy a new one every 2 months? Does the sales number quoted include the monthly MMO charges? That number was going up, last i heard...
Morrowind, while wounderfully ambitious, flat out failed when it came to producing a bug free and polished game.
Are you comparing it to Fallout? Because as far as i remember, the fallout games were also horribly bug ridden at release and had to be patched several time before reaching stability... No small bug in my book.
I loved both games (F1, F2 and Morro), but they all were buggy at release. Morro did not prevent me to play though (and F2 did)...
There will always be a segment of the population that steals software. I am willing to bet, however, that this PERCENTAGE of users has not increased over the years (noting that the total number of users, therefore pirates, have).
I would disagree with that. Today, it does not take a PhD to copy most software. A simple CDRW drive ($50), paired with a Xcopy software (or diskjuggler or whatever efficient copy program, but Xcopy is sold in supermarkets...) is enough. This is what scares the software industry. They were lenient against "piracy" because it was done only by a fringe population. Now, Joe six Pack can do it too and it scares them (and as they are greedy bastards, they always want more anyway...).
Then, there's the tinkerers. The college kids who download that $700 photoshop program, or $2000 Matlab program, or $10,000 Maya suite for the purposes of learning it and toying with it. Here's the shocker, by these kids learning these packages because they stole them, they make the software more valuable. Once they get into a real job, and boss asks you to whip together some images, the kid who knows Photoshop is gonna make said company go out and buy that software.
And some company understand that. Alias is actually giving away free copies of Maya for personnal use. Some company got a clue...
Until P2P offers feedback ratings on a combo hash and filename, there's little to be done with it to verify safety except to do one's own "best effort" and pray no one else is able to hide things better than you are able to find them.
Funny, but in ed2k, the files ARE identified by hash and strangely enough, you can leave a comment on the files once downloaded, even a rating. And lots of people just postr a text file with the same name (but a much smaller size) and their rating in the name (like FAKE!) if it happens.
Dont dis p2p. I works quite well at distributing and chains of trust.
Pirating is still wrong, mind you. But the tools are powerful...
Just wanted to chime in about the story telling used in some of the MMORPG.
If you think about it, the story telling and expectancies in a universe are highly linked to this universe subject (heroic quest in med-fan, technological plot in sci-fi...). I'm simplifying, as you can have very different quests, but this is typically what the player is expecting.
Enters City of Heros. In this game the universe is based on the super heroes from comic books (but generic, no trade marks...). The way the story telling is intertweened with the universe is great: you get tips on the universe and the villains through contacts, those are "personnal" (for your character only), but you can ask for help from other heroes. And as in any comic books, your influence in the universe is actually both little and secretive (in most comics, no hero defeats an Archvillain definitly, it is just a passing victory. In the same way, your deeds are hardly known to the common person if you save the earth...).
This setup and universe is actually quite fitting to the MMO games. You have common parts (the streets, with rampant crimes as random encounters) and private parts (the missions), even some longer "story arcs" that can be completed as team only. It allows for both multiplayer, interaction and storytelling. The impact on the world can be seen as limited, but fits well in the setting.
The first MMO to really tempt me. And so far, no disapointment. I'm learning a bit more of the world every time i play and uncover some more plot. Best compromise between MMO and story i've seen so far.
[quote] Unfortunately nforce2 ain't one of those, it WILL do 5.1 audio for games but only analog, it doesn't put out an AC3 5.1 stream for them.[/quote]
and where did you see that?
Nvidia soundstorm is the ONLY PC sound setup that actually ENCODES any stream to fit in an AC3 stream. So, yes, DVD (will be pass through) or 3D (sound) games (stream ENCODED to Dolby Digital) will go through you digital connection (optical or coax, whatever your mobo gives you).
Of course, not ALL nforce2 have the dolby encoder, so if you have a cheapo one with the MCP only (not the MCP-T), you wont get that.
Slashdot Mirror
Surprisingly, Doom3 is excellent at immersion, background story and story line. This is the frustrating part.
From my point of view, Doom3 had everything to be a great game (great graphics, good physics, loads of media and background, voice acting, even a refined story!), but they killed it with the gameplay.
Doom3 is a step back of 10 years in gameplay. It plays exactly the same as the original doom: pick a bonus and a monster appear to frag you, pass apoint and monsters will magically pop up behind you.
The atmosphere is oppressive and scary, but the suspence is artificial. You are on a marsian base, but you have "monster closets" everywhere. Imps spawn behind you from portals every few minutes. Zombies crawl out of passages you cannot use.
So, they used every trick in the book to keep you on your toes, but it just gets boring, there is no reason to it.
The few times there are reasons (like the first pinky you meet or the few times the imps were WAITING for you and come jumping around instead of appearing behind), the game is great, but when they cheap and spawn new ennemies on clean area, it just gets tedious.
This is my opinon, especially reinforced after playing HL2, where the developpers dont cheat so much... (you usually see the ennemies coming or know where they come from).
First they pioneer a non-violent MMO (though I guess IRC could qualify as that).
IRC? non violent?
A lot too much trouting going around to earn this qualifier...
I may be in the minority, but i actually like Steam.
It allows me to have my games wherever i want them, whenever i want (as long as i have access to a fat pipe).
I travel often enough and it is quite nice to be able to setup a download for a game the night before and play the next day, anywhere, whitout having to bother about actually packing the CD.
Sure, if the service goes bust, i'll be shafted, but until that time comes, i get lots of usage. I installed at least 4 copies of my Steam games, on 4 different computers. I can only play on one at a time, bit it is no real problem to me (somehow, i did not get cloned).
I never had any issue with it, although i can understand people's frustration when they do. All games have issues, with or without Steam and most issues come from the computers (spyware, dodgy hardware...).
Is it an open method? NO! Does it work? sure. I'd love to be able to buy more games this way. Beats the CD way anyday for me.
What is even stranger with eBay is that you can often find the same item in eTail from a reputable eTailer for cheaper (talking about recent, available products).
Go take a look on the eBay HDD page and then browse your micro center ads or favorite etailers or deal sites. Chances are you'll find PLENTY of people ready to pay more on eBay (the offers may need a rebate though...).
Ebay is still *VERY* convenient for outdated or rare hardware.
So much so, that they even RUN a voluntary user poll every few months to grab that data, asking for permission and showing you exactly what they are sending to their server. sigh... [tinfoil hat =ON] I guess it is just to screen their usual shady activities.
Yes, there are HUGE possibilities of abuse from a system like Steam. No, i have not seen that kind of abuse reported up to now. Sure, they do force you to patch your game to the latest update, for better or for worse. So does the latest windows XP (pushing SP2 with any autoupdate now), which you also need to play it.
So, so far, i think Steam is rather benign. No, it did not give any advantage over buying in store. They COULD NOT, as it was in their distribution contract with Vivaldi. We can hope the exp pack will be cheaper on Steam (or exclusively?).
The graphic processor of the PS3 is provided by nvidia. They are also providing the tools to take fully advantage of its capabilities.
So, is it really a surprise that they will support OpenGL?
Bullfrog and Origin made great games. Then again, they were mostly centered around great, known, personnaes (Richard Garriot, Peter Molineux...). So, when they realized what their studio became, they just left and joined or created other companies (NCsoft, Lionhead...).
A creative industry is bound to keep smaller, more "indy" studios. They will go through editors for distribution, but the games and creative direction should stay with the studios...
8h a day? 5 days a week? 4 weeks vacations? Hello~~~~?
Ubisoft is a french company.
This is 35h a week and 5 weeks vacations MINIMUM.
And opposite to the US, work conditions and regulations are actually enforced.
There is a dark side to capitalism and deregulation... call it slave labor.
Or the game companies could just kill the market by offering themselves to sell those killer objects.
Mark them as bought (special mark?) but as strong as the other ones. People that are short on time and easy on money (working population, that does NOT have the time to camp at spawn for 3 days) would buy there and people with too much time on their hands would get the "l33T" version from the drop.
As soon as the companies start competing on the offering, the demand will shift to them and the farmers will stop...
On the other hand, you can be sure the hardcore players would complain about it anyway.
The last "one man game" i heard about was "Another World" on the Amiga (and later ported to several platform, including Genesis). It was all done by Eric Chahi, except for the music. He did programing, art and even the box design.
But at the time of the 64k computers, most games were the brain childs of very small teams (1 to 5 people). Now, you need a bigger team, as the public expect content.
Bartle's point is not so much that Instancing is "BAD", more that is detracts from the concept of MMO. In an instanced world, you do not reach the same degree of achievement, as all can do it. Your biggest nemesis are not unique, they are just instances of the same monster.
So, killing that bad ass last boss is not extraordinary, any player reaching that level can do it, no limitation.
I play CoH and i love it, but i understand his criticism. CoH is more a cross of Diablo and Marvel, than a real MMO. Your impact on the world is a resounding 0. You can save the earth (or at least Paragon City) and defeat all the vilains thrown at you and yet, nothing has changed. This is one of the point that actually attracted me to it, as it allows a much more moderate player (only one hour of play/day) to enjoy the game as much as a hard core (although at my own pace). On that note, it is more of a single/group experience, than really MMO. You never play with more than a handful a people (although usually different from session to session).
So, his point is valid, instancing limit your effect on the world. Now, to judge if that is a good thing or not...
His criticism are more of a block than really independant. If you take instancing out, then you need a perma death to avoid a lock in of the world from the power gamers. Perma death forces a rotation of power and compensate for the scarcity of the loot.
It's not a simple problem. The goal is to find a balance of all those elements that work and that everyone can enjoy, both newbies and oldies and both power and recreational gamers.
In truth, i think you cant reach such a consensus and hence you'll have different games caterred to different crowds.
The best video to show to people to explain what the internet is and how it works:
Warriors of the NET
Most sports are teams of 5 to 15, so less than 30 total players, with the ball as an object. As said by a previous poster, what is so freaking Massive about it? You can find UT or CS servers of 30+ easily and een 40 or 50 and i'd say a FPS is much more demanding in bandwidth/latency. Then, you'd need to implement the stats tracking, a bit like a clan/team victory keeping. It also has been done already in FPS games. You say it is difficult to get players to play well together? True, as in any sport... But do you think it is any easier in a team map of a FPs like Ennemy Territory or Assault in UT? You CAN have just a bunch of unrelated and uncoordinated players, but they will get swept by any real team. In conclusion, i dont see sport games to be a good setting for MMO (I mean it in the sense persistant world, constant on). You just need stat tracking. UT already does that. So, i guess it could be implemented. And sure, i'd say it has potential. Lots of people like to play the star, some like support (otherwise, you would not find that many medics or engineers in ET). A team needs all components and it needs them all to play together. So, bring back the coop, implement it online, eventually add stats tracking and if really needed experience. I'd say that would be a recipe for success...
Other factors of Fasttrack success at the beginning was that edonkey was really hard to use and that emule is a recent addition to it. They included most of the features that were requested by users (open source...) and especially all the usefull feature that required plug ins or automaters for edonkey.
Another factor was the Morpheus OS that used to be on fasttrack and had a lot of users as it was easier, more powerfull and no spyware.
Now, in the recent years, Fasttrack limited its network to Kazaa only, which it bundled with lots of spyware. The network got attacked by **AA drones and seeded with fake files. Emule made edonkey a lot easier to use. Edonkey programmers took note and updated their app.
So, basically, fastrack goes down in quility and edonkey goes up. The numbers are just inertia...
Edonkey was a very future looking P2P networrk at its conception. It's goal has always been to exchange BIG files (ISO sized), with hashes, verification and possibility to only dump the corrupted part. Now that those file sizes are usual, such a network gets useful...
eMule is perfectly compatible with the edonkey network (at least in my experience).
It only enforces the sharing of data, as you are limited to download at maximum 5x faster than your upload and you are priority based, which means that you have a unique ID and when you upload to someone, you gain points. Hence, the more you uploaded, the more points you have (those credits are only local with the persons you uploaded to) and the higher the priority in those people's queues.
I upload more than i DL (DSL. I have spare bandwidth...) so my downloads are quite fast.
And overnet CANNOT be shut down. The creators have 0 control over it and it does not have ANY server. Even if the guys programming it were to stop tomorrow, the network would live. Nothing can close it except limiting the clients' traffic. To close edonkey, you would already need to close ALL the servers... good luck with that! (although the bigger ones are certainly easy targets)
seriously, this things is gonna draw way too much juice. 333mhz processors, huge screen, optical drive, etc... No matter how good the systems specs are, if battery life doesn't cut it, its going to be smoke by gameboy.
I hate to break all your dream, but technology has moved forward quite a bit since the Gamegear... Both for batteries AND power consumption.
The latest PocketPCs are using a Xscale at 600+MHz and they have HOURS of autonomy. My older Dell PDA (only a 300MHz Xscale) can play games for 6+ hours before needing a recharge (and using a PSX emulator with games on a microdrive)) and the battery was not even that impressive. I could watch a movie for ~1.5h.
Sure, they may not reach the portability level of a GBA (which itself is years behind a Palm, that could live MONTHS on 2 AAA), but it may be *enough*.
Then again, maybe not... so, wait and see...
I doubt that the PS3's processor will be 65nm considering that the major chipmaking companies are having a hell of a hard time with 90nm anyway and there really isn't a need for the chip to be 65nm right now anyway...
but the PS3 is not planned until Xmas next year... that let plenty of time for the process to mature.
funny to see how the /. crowd is split on such issues.
You can basically feel who are the overworked, busy professionals and the single college people.
This is a PERFECT example of what i call the student paradox. While a student, you have little money and loads of free time. When employed, you have loads of money, but little free time. It is true and apply for basically all leisure activity (gaming, travelling, shopping...).
Why do college student look for the best bargains when they buy? Because they can (or even have to) trade time for money. Workers are ready to take the opposite trade off. When your bank account is healthy, you are ready to pay for your time.
So, no, this guy is not to be shot. Quite the opposite. The demographics and product studies should tell the companies that money CAN be made with shorter games. Do all games have to be short? No. But the very vocal hardcore gamer crowd (well, they have MUCH time to express themselves) is not the only one around gaming and certainly NOT the one with the most disposable income.
Case in point for good short games: I recently finished both Prince of Persia and Beyond Good and Evil. About 12h of game play per game in the medium setting, BUT playable easily and nicely in 1h session. Interesting, nice enough to look at and keeping me coming for more everyday. This can be finished in less than 2 weeks for a casual gamer. It is rewarding. No, i did not buy them the day they came out and hence did not pay full price. Same for Max Payne 1 and 2. I enjoyed them a lot, like a good interactive movie. Doom3 is probably in the same category (although i cant tell, i haven't finished it yet).
Were those games enjoyable? Certainly. Are they easy to pick for both hardcore and casual gamers? Yes. Should they be soold full price? No. Around $30 is reasonnable and well worth it (Hell, you pay $15-20 for a 2h movie on DVD!).
Like people quitting studies and joining the work force, i have had to adapt. Although i loved my non stop gaming sessions in college, i just cannot continue doing it. On the other hand, i stopped "swapping" games with friends and buy all the ones in want.
There SOULD be a market for such games and advertised as such. Do not discard casual gamers just because YOU have 8+ h/day to play.
Oh, and BTW, i still finished Morrowind this way... And i DO have a copy of Deus Ex 2 on my shelf, never played (well, it came as an unfinished Beta and i have to time to debug a paid-for game. I waited for the patches, but by the time they were out, i was already playing something else...)
MMO have evolved toward boring, repetitive actions, PvP for the fun of it and little cooperation. This is a wolf eat wolf world and it is not fun.
The only MMO that keeps me interested is City of Heroes. It is geared toward fun, cooperation, teamwork and missions. You never feel bored, as you never really have to spend a lot of time traveling and even if you do, you have travel powers to shorten those times considerably (plus teleportation of allies if needed). You always feel useful, as you travel streets upon streets with some thugs and petty thiefs sprinkled around, in actions that you can interupt. Your main source of fun are missions, where you can at the same time discover a bit from your gaming universe, get exp, try cooperating (doing things as teams is a big part of the game) and kill badies. You cannot really farm your opponent, as there is no rea lressource to get and not much to buy.
The game mechanics is as the same time suited for latencies and caracter improvement (your touching skill does not depend on your twitch skills) and still let some space for technique, strategy and coop (ranges are important, pulling ennemies toward your group, covering your partners...).
The whole game is designed to be fun and a big cooperation, be it amongst friends or with total stragers. You can even allow lower level characters to get to your level by sidekicking them.
Fun and only fun. You can run around and defeat crime randomly, you can follow mission and gain awards or just some tips on your city or even create a task force (group of heroes) and do some group missions.
All that love the super heroes AND MMO should try it...
Actually, i add to that the opposite argument: the PC market is a victim of its own success.
Let's elaborate:
- the PC has had some great games out in the past year. Those games have a good replay value, enhanced by the fact they work on internet and allow multiplayer setup (think UT, Ennemy territory, warcraft 3...).
- people are still playing those games
- the newer games do not bring much more
- there is only 24h in a day
Hence, why should you buy a newer, but less complete game if you are still happy with the one you have?
The market will pick up with the new expected games if they do not disapoint.
If the newer game is just the same as the last one with better graphics, only the wealthiest part of your audience (the ones able to upgrade) will be interested.
In my case, i used to play a lot of different games, switching very regularly. I now have less time to play and lately, i've played only a handful of games (but i still enjoy them).
This is the paradox of MMO for example. You are supposed to pass an (unhealthily) large amount of time on them, but they expect you to buy a new one every 2 months? Does the sales number quoted include the monthly MMO charges? That number was going up, last i heard...
Are you comparing it to Fallout? Because as far as i remember, the fallout games were also horribly bug ridden at release and had to be patched several time before reaching stability... No small bug in my book.
I loved both games (F1, F2 and Morro), but they all were buggy at release. Morro did not prevent me to play though (and F2 did)...
I would disagree with that. Today, it does not take a PhD to copy most software. A simple CDRW drive ($50), paired with a Xcopy software (or diskjuggler or whatever efficient copy program, but Xcopy is sold in supermarkets...) is enough. This is what scares the software industry. They were lenient against "piracy" because it was done only by a fringe population. Now, Joe six Pack can do it too and it scares them (and as they are greedy bastards, they always want more anyway...).
And some company understand that. Alias is actually giving away free copies of Maya for personnal use. Some company got a clue...
Until P2P offers feedback ratings on a combo hash and filename, there's little to be done with it to verify safety except to do one's own "best effort" and pray no one else is able to hide things better than you are able to find them.
Funny, but in ed2k, the files ARE identified by hash and strangely enough, you can leave a comment on the files once downloaded, even a rating. And lots of people just postr a text file with the same name (but a much smaller size) and their rating in the name (like FAKE!) if it happens.
Dont dis p2p. I works quite well at distributing and chains of trust.
Pirating is still wrong, mind you. But the tools are powerful...
Just wanted to chime in about the story telling used in some of the MMORPG.
If you think about it, the story telling and expectancies in a universe are highly linked to this universe subject (heroic quest in med-fan, technological plot in sci-fi...). I'm simplifying, as you can have very different quests, but this is typically what the player is expecting.
Enters City of Heros. In this game the universe is based on the super heroes from comic books (but generic, no trade marks...). The way the story telling is intertweened with the universe is great: you get tips on the universe and the villains through contacts, those are "personnal" (for your character only), but you can ask for help from other heroes. And as in any comic books, your influence in the universe is actually both little and secretive (in most comics, no hero defeats an Archvillain definitly, it is just a passing victory. In the same way, your deeds are hardly known to the common person if you save the earth...).
This setup and universe is actually quite fitting to the MMO games. You have common parts (the streets, with rampant crimes as random encounters) and private parts (the missions), even some longer "story arcs" that can be completed as team only. It allows for both multiplayer, interaction and storytelling. The impact on the world can be seen as limited, but fits well in the setting.
The first MMO to really tempt me. And so far, no disapointment. I'm learning a bit more of the world every time i play and uncover some more plot. Best compromise between MMO and story i've seen so far.
[quote]
Unfortunately nforce2 ain't one of those, it WILL do 5.1 audio for games but only analog, it doesn't put out an AC3 5.1 stream for them.[/quote]
and where did you see that?
Nvidia soundstorm is the ONLY PC sound setup that actually ENCODES any stream to fit in an AC3 stream. So, yes, DVD (will be pass through) or 3D (sound) games (stream ENCODED to Dolby Digital) will go through you digital connection (optical or coax, whatever your mobo gives you).
Of course, not ALL nforce2 have the dolby encoder, so if you have a cheapo one with the MCP only (not the MCP-T), you wont get that.