Agreed with the stubbornness and unwillingness to allow the user to configure things the way they see fit. And, just to provide a concrete example or two, the Ctrl-Enter debacle of a couple years back, which they still haven't put back in in any way, shape, or form outside of hand-hacking.gtkrc. Or removing the protocol icons from the buddy list (admittedly, they came to a compromise on this with adding protocol icons on the other side of the buddy list entry, but only after a few months of stubborn refusal in the face of numerous complaints).
But hey, maybe a fork will have other benefits. Like finally, FINALLY getting the voice and video extensions that were promised to users back when it was going to be Gaim 2.0 and/or the gaim-vv plugin...
Actually, if I'm not mistaken, TFA claims that the researchers are using those exact vectors to do their counterattacks. As in, they mess with the encryption key so that any data that comes in from the controllers or other bots will be reported as bogus due to the controller/bot keys not matching. This, in a large way, renders the bot harmless, as it will now ignore all orders, expecting something signed by a key that will never arrive.
It's honestly a clever way to pull it off, though it does open the door to a malicious someone planting a legitimate key to someone else's commands, assuming it's as easy as the researchers seem to indicate to plant a bogus one. Or re-attacking the machine to put a Storm key back in.
Whining Dev: "Waaah! This 1280x1024 screen is too small! I can't see all my code on it!" Manufacturer: "All right, fine, here's a 1600x1200 screen." WD: "Wellll... okay, you live THIS time..." DVD Watcher: "Hey! Why can't I watch my DVDs in widescreen on my laptop?" M: "Fine, fine, here's a 1920x1200 screen." DW: "Yaaaaay! And my desktop looks so much bigger, too!" WD: "HEY HEY HEY! What the hell is this? My screen isn't tall enough now! I want more height so I can see more code!" M: "But... but that's the exact same screen height you used to have and just bugged for a few minutes ago. It's the width that's-" WD: "TALLER SCREEN NOW FOR I AM INCAPABLE OF RUNNING MY CODE EDITOR NOT-MAXIMIZED AND IT IS WHOLLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE FOR ME TO FIND OTHER USES FOR THE EXTRA WIDTH" M: *deep sigh*
I think you've got it, but to try to make it a bit clearer:
If someone buys a song/album, they industry counts it as an $X gain in their records. That's the normal part.
If someone pirates a song/album, the industry counts it as an $X loss in their records. This is where they get their annual "zomg teh big scary internets are costing us eleventy hojillion dollars a YEER!!!! i <3 my private jet" statements from.
But, if someone pirates a song/album and then turns around and buys it because he or she likes it, the industry counts it as BOTH a $X loss due to piracy AND a $X gain due to the sale. That's what he's talking about. They have no way of knowing if the $X gain was due to the $X "loss" from actually listening to the song(s) first, so it goes down in both records, even if the $X gain should replace (not just neutralize) the $X "loss".
That, if I am not mistaken, is where the big scary loss figures come from. They assume that it keeps inflating the "loss" column, instead of what it should be doing, erasing from the losses. This is how they can cry over the so-called massive losses sustained from piracy while raking in ever-growing profits year after year. It's either a culture of stupidity that makes them unaware/unwilling to realize this, or a culture of greed that makes them think they can somehow translate their imaginary "loss" into profits by litigation.
Just my interpretation of it. It's probably the same as what you were thinking.
At work I've downloaded a Linux DVD in like 7 minutes. Really, that is to the point where extra speed wouldn't make a ton of difference.
Obligatory Homer Simpson quote (modified): "7 minutes? But I want it now!"
Though out of all seriousness, I think there'd be a Field of Dreams situation if everyone had a pipe like that. If we all had that speed, someone would make content to fill it. Might not just be an internet data line. Might be digital TV data, phone data, etc, etc. In fact, that's what the summary states, she has the capability for (not necessarily the need for nor is actually using) tons of HD channels with a line that fast.
You can do more with a connection like that than just internet stuff, is what I'm saying.
You assume wrong. It's more like a hardcore TCP/IP packet. These are, in fact, torrents which use every possible function of the torrent protocol, and uses them all to absurd extremes. One or two seeds and trackers? Please. Thousands of seeds and hundreds of redundant trackers on each torrent file. Uses every single port on the machine. Got a webserver set up on 80? Too bad, it's hardcore torrent time, and that port's being taken over.
The content is actually just the string "HELLOWORLD" repeated one billion times, though.
Sure, the summary might make it hard to fathom the sheer loneliness and inevitable disposability of the astronaut in question, but it stops just short of the key element. Quoth Mr. McLane immediately afterward:
"And to that end, I will humbly suggest the honor go to Dr. Horace Biggles, the professor in the office next to mine with lifelong dreams of exploration. I do not wish to toot my own horn and put on a humbler-than-thou air, but I am perfectly willing to forgo this amazing opportunity to my esteemed colleague. I am even willing to forgive him for his constant 'borrowing' of my office supplies, leaving the coffee pot empty, stealing every girl I have ever gone out with, and having the nerve to show me up at the space grant conference with his stupid, worthless moon buggy design that is so stupid and worthless and what're you gonna do with it on MARS, pretty boy? Huh? Yeah, let's see that Nobel Prize-winning super-efficient ventilation system of yours work in an iron-rich atmosphere! Advanced heat dissipation my ass!
"In conclusion, Dr. Biggles would be the perfect person to shoot off to Mars, alone, on a one-way trip. I believe we can begin testing tomorrow, before he gets to the coffee machine."
One game that's been hanging around my local Gameworks for years is "Brave Firefighters", a Sega game (in Gameworks, so that part isn't surprising) which involved the player using a fire hose apparatus (decorative; it was essentially a standard light gun past that) that strapped over the shoulder in an effort to stop a raging fire in a mansion.
As soon as I put this thing on my shoulder, I looked at what I was wearing: what looked like a long blaster with a hose extending behind me. Past that, there was one thing I couldn't get out my head. If you combined that with the Time Crisis footpedals (to spring the traps), you would have Ghostbusters the arcade game.
Now, I'm well aware this that we're talking about is going to be a console and/or PC game, most likely, but I still think that, using Brave Firefighters as a physical model, you could make a pretty sweet Ghostbusters arcade game. Then again, if they, say, made this for the Wii and had a proton pack and trap adapter that you could plug a Wiimote into...
You do have a point about western markets (i.e. me) more likely to enjoy rhythm games with western songs in it. That's the entire reason Elite Beat Agents exists as a distinct game from... erm... whatever the original Japanese version was, I keep forgetting the name. The songlist is entirely different, the missions are different, and it all in all has a different feel. Switch markets, switch cultures, switch the game up. Basic marketing.
But honestly, the Bemani division may be catching on, if only slightly. Their cash cow is still the DDR series, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It has to be; they haven't really released any US version of DDR since DDR:USA, yet most US arcades (yes, of the few left) can be found with an imported, possibly illegal, definitely untranslated DDR machine in it.
But then comes DDR Supernova, what I believe is the latest in the arcade series (I could be wrong; I like DDR more than most people, I would guess, but I hold no claims in being an expert on the subject). Looking at the game, it appears that they geared it directly for a western market. I mean, besides the fact that the menus and warning screens are in English. In addition to a smattering of songs from past DDR games, it also comes with numerous mixes and/or edits of otherwise western songs. I've seen Jerk It Out, a dance mix of Angel Is A Centerfold, and one or two songs by Janet Jackson in the lineup, and I haven't even looked at it that much in-depth. I'd say that they're possibly getting into the western markets with their rhythm games.
In terms of Guitar Freaks, an arcade nearby has it, and I do enjoy it, but the Guitar Hero series has far too much of a foothold in the US market. If Bemani has plans on reworking Guitar Freaks for western markets, they may be too late already.
So in essence, he's kinda sorta a walking straw man argumentative fallacy. Except that this particular straw man wants to rush out and make his case himself, so you really can't blame his opposition for making the fallacy.
Why... yes. 802.11n will, undoubtedly, kill off wired networking. Because I know I'd simply love to switch my network over to an all-wireless setup that can easily be disrupted by radio or electromagnetic interference*, is all but trivial to sniff unless you have clever hacks in play on commercial-grade routers, has a nasty overhead translating the physical layer to raw data, and is terribly slower than gigabit ethernet**. Ooo, sign me up for that!
Wireless networking has its use. Wired networking has its use. It's as simple as that.
*: Yes, technically, wired networks can be, too, just not to the same extent. **: Fine, I only have 100BaseT, not gigabit, but the point stands.
I'd guess you're thinking of 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker. Sounds about right, but I think it also had objects on the truck's dashboard sliding back and forth as you turned, as well as dangly things hanging from various knobs, all depending on which truck you were driving.
"I mean seriously, we spent billions in research to create the ultimate movie-music-email-web-OS-media center-life support device and billions more in marketing costs selling it to people, and all of a sudden these 'gae-mehrs', as they call themselves, swoop in and buy it for this piece of shit 'electronic video display game supplement' feature we tossed in at the last second. I mean, who the hell do these 'gae-mehrs' think they are, anyway? They really should show some respect; don't they know what a game console is for?"
Seriously, I consider myself to be perhaps more than a small bit of a Nintendo fanboy. I used to defend the N64 and the Gamecube against naysayers saying nay. Even I was cynical that Wii would get anywhere.
I can't blame EA for this. Less bizzare concepts than this have tanked in the past.
I showed this video to a friend of mine yesterday. I told him the basic premise of the website and what to expect when he got there. This friend of mine is a bit of a faithful Apple fan, to be sure.
The phrase "Someone should be shot for that" came up during the resulting discussion. Great times!
I don't think he's joking. A while back, he also blended one of his old iPods once he got a new one, and I he auctioned the results of THAT, too. Granted, back then I don't think they also had the DVD to offer. Or the blender and T-shirt.
And now that I look at it, I made year a static field when I clearly am using it in a non-static context in the second constructor. Wow, that was stupid of me.
Perhaps, but that's only one use of PGP/GPG. You can also send entirely non-encrypted messages that have a digital signature from your key to authenticate that the message came from you. You can also use it to get a digital signature of files you're distributing. More secure than MD5 (etc, etc) hashing (in theory, at least, given only you have the private key to generate the signature), should prove that you created and approve the file (so you don't have unscrupulous people attacking your server and hiding unscrupulous things in your files), etc.
To be honest, I've never used PGP/GPG to encrypt outgoing messages. I mean, I understand the use some subset of people may have for shared-key encryption like that, but for far more people, it's more usable as a signing mechanism.
Concatenation of the discussion between my brother and I immediately after we heard about the crash:
At first, it appeared to be a problem with the IndyCar extensions to X, given the user was able to take it down to a console-based tow truck (it wasn't pretty, but it at least got a controlled shutdown). However, further investigation showed it was definitely a hardware issue, as the system couldn't get back on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway network after a full restart of the engine. Most probable cause was a network collision.
Well, of course Miyamoto could make Halo. It's an FPS. Follow them back to History. getMisterIKnowMoreOldGamesThanYou(). getOldestFPSInMemory() and trace them forward through Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Unreal, and Halo, and you can pick out a fairly predictable evolutionary pattern. More graphics, "cooler" weapons, advance the engine a bit, make it more badass, good, print it, you've got a new FPS. That's not how Miyamoto does things.
Of course, if he were to make an FPS, it'd probably wind up with an engine that supported jumping puzzles in a non-intrusive way (somehow he would; I'm not the design god here). And have a quirky sense of design, not the normal "I R SPACE MERC I KILL U" layout. And the weapons would be strange and unconventional, requiring more strategy than "get the biggest gun and kill things fasterer". And...
Hang on a sec. That might rock. Miyamoto, please do design an FPS! That might be interesting!
What I call a "plot loss" in a video game works once in a while, but definitely needs to be done in moderation. For example, if it's obvious to a seasoned gamer that you will lose a given battle/challenge/etc (needed for a plot element), then it's not as much a hassle. As in, if it's clear from the get-go that you're drastically outclassed by your foe, he/she/it/they has/have no obvious weak points, and/or the battle is blatantly unfair and is over with quickly, it's cool, many gamers will understand this. Even if it's not so much an extreme outclassing, if it becomes clear that you seriously won't win this and this is the way the story unfolds, that's acceptable.
The problem comes if there's no hint to this. Or to put it in other terms, if the game is toying with you. As in, a battle seems to otherwise be fair and "normal", all your attacks and/or moves appear to be behaving properly (i.e. they appear to "hit", not "clang off harmlessly"), but whatever you're challenging just always seems to have a slight edge in that it plain and simply will not lose. Case in point: The field runner in Ocarina of Time. Link is challenged to a race across Hyrule Field. You're never given any impression that this is a fixed race, there's no way to "unfix" it (i.e. this isn't a plot situation where Link has to uncover a cheater), and the only way to discover this is by giving up, wasting your time empty-handed (or use a cheat device, which reveals the problem when he claims he won with a time of -1 seconds). Things like this could easily be taken as direct insults to the player, worse if the player unloaded all or most of a difficult-to-replenish or non-replenishable resource (expensive healing potions, stat-boosting effects, rare one-time attack items, etc) in the process.
So all in all, sure, it works once in a while. Just don't insult the player in the process.
Funny, in the past I've said something similar to my friends, but I said "Chu Chu Rocket" instead of "Rocket Jockey", and "the DS" instead of "the Wii". With WFC multiplayer as need be.
I'm not saying your way is wrong. Not at all. In fact, I'd say both ought to be quite feasible.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed with the stubbornness and unwillingness to allow the user to configure things the way they see fit. And, just to provide a concrete example or two, the Ctrl-Enter debacle of a couple years back, which they still haven't put back in in any way, shape, or form outside of hand-hacking .gtkrc. Or removing the protocol icons from the buddy list (admittedly, they came to a compromise on this with adding protocol icons on the other side of the buddy list entry, but only after a few months of stubborn refusal in the face of numerous complaints).
But hey, maybe a fork will have other benefits. Like finally, FINALLY getting the voice and video extensions that were promised to users back when it was going to be Gaim 2.0 and/or the gaim-vv plugin...
Actually, if I'm not mistaken, TFA claims that the researchers are using those exact vectors to do their counterattacks. As in, they mess with the encryption key so that any data that comes in from the controllers or other bots will be reported as bogus due to the controller/bot keys not matching. This, in a large way, renders the bot harmless, as it will now ignore all orders, expecting something signed by a key that will never arrive.
It's honestly a clever way to pull it off, though it does open the door to a malicious someone planting a legitimate key to someone else's commands, assuming it's as easy as the researchers seem to indicate to plant a bogus one. Or re-attacking the machine to put a Storm key back in.
Whining Dev: "Waaah! This 1280x1024 screen is too small! I can't see all my code on it!"
Manufacturer: "All right, fine, here's a 1600x1200 screen."
WD: "Wellll... okay, you live THIS time..."
DVD Watcher: "Hey! Why can't I watch my DVDs in widescreen on my laptop?"
M: "Fine, fine, here's a 1920x1200 screen."
DW: "Yaaaaay! And my desktop looks so much bigger, too!"
WD: "HEY HEY HEY! What the hell is this? My screen isn't tall enough now! I want more height so I can see more code!"
M: "But... but that's the exact same screen height you used to have and just bugged for a few minutes ago. It's the width that's-"
WD: "TALLER SCREEN NOW FOR I AM INCAPABLE OF RUNNING MY CODE EDITOR NOT-MAXIMIZED AND IT IS WHOLLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE FOR ME TO FIND OTHER USES FOR THE EXTRA WIDTH"
M: *deep sigh*
I think you've got it, but to try to make it a bit clearer:
If someone buys a song/album, they industry counts it as an $X gain in their records. That's the normal part.
If someone pirates a song/album, the industry counts it as an $X loss in their records. This is where they get their annual "zomg teh big scary internets are costing us eleventy hojillion dollars a YEER!!!! i <3 my private jet" statements from.
But, if someone pirates a song/album and then turns around and buys it because he or she likes it, the industry counts it as BOTH a $X loss due to piracy AND a $X gain due to the sale. That's what he's talking about. They have no way of knowing if the $X gain was due to the $X "loss" from actually listening to the song(s) first, so it goes down in both records, even if the $X gain should replace (not just neutralize) the $X "loss".
That, if I am not mistaken, is where the big scary loss figures come from. They assume that it keeps inflating the "loss" column, instead of what it should be doing, erasing from the losses. This is how they can cry over the so-called massive losses sustained from piracy while raking in ever-growing profits year after year. It's either a culture of stupidity that makes them unaware/unwilling to realize this, or a culture of greed that makes them think they can somehow translate their imaginary "loss" into profits by litigation.
Just my interpretation of it. It's probably the same as what you were thinking.
Obligatory Homer Simpson quote (modified): "7 minutes? But I want it now!"
Though out of all seriousness, I think there'd be a Field of Dreams situation if everyone had a pipe like that. If we all had that speed, someone would make content to fill it. Might not just be an internet data line. Might be digital TV data, phone data, etc, etc. In fact, that's what the summary states, she has the capability for (not necessarily the need for nor is actually using) tons of HD channels with a line that fast.
You can do more with a connection like that than just internet stuff, is what I'm saying.
You assume wrong. It's more like a hardcore TCP/IP packet. These are, in fact, torrents which use every possible function of the torrent protocol, and uses them all to absurd extremes. One or two seeds and trackers? Please. Thousands of seeds and hundreds of redundant trackers on each torrent file. Uses every single port on the machine. Got a webserver set up on 80? Too bad, it's hardcore torrent time, and that port's being taken over.
The content is actually just the string "HELLOWORLD" repeated one billion times, though.
One game that's been hanging around my local Gameworks for years is "Brave Firefighters", a Sega game (in Gameworks, so that part isn't surprising) which involved the player using a fire hose apparatus (decorative; it was essentially a standard light gun past that) that strapped over the shoulder in an effort to stop a raging fire in a mansion.
As soon as I put this thing on my shoulder, I looked at what I was wearing: what looked like a long blaster with a hose extending behind me. Past that, there was one thing I couldn't get out my head. If you combined that with the Time Crisis footpedals (to spring the traps), you would have Ghostbusters the arcade game.
Now, I'm well aware this that we're talking about is going to be a console and/or PC game, most likely, but I still think that, using Brave Firefighters as a physical model, you could make a pretty sweet Ghostbusters arcade game. Then again, if they, say, made this for the Wii and had a proton pack and trap adapter that you could plug a Wiimote into...
Quick comparisons, Mario and Santa Claus:
[Overweight] Mario: YES; Santa: YES
[Dressed in red] Mario: YES; Santa: YES
[Facial hair] Mario: Moustache; Santa: Beard
[Hair color] Mario: Brown; Santa: White
[Headgear] Mario: Cap with 'M'; Santa: Floppy conical hat
[Frequency] Mario: Annual/Bi-Annual*; Santa: Annual
[Lineage] Mario: Unknown**; Santa: Elf (Jolly)
*: Rough estimate of release frequency of new Mario games
**: Is he human? A mushroom person? What is he, anyway?
Tough call, but I'm still gonna give this one to Santa Claus. Mario might be able to save Peach, but he's got a bit to go to save Christmas.
You do have a point about western markets (i.e. me) more likely to enjoy rhythm games with western songs in it. That's the entire reason Elite Beat Agents exists as a distinct game from... erm... whatever the original Japanese version was, I keep forgetting the name. The songlist is entirely different, the missions are different, and it all in all has a different feel. Switch markets, switch cultures, switch the game up. Basic marketing.
But honestly, the Bemani division may be catching on, if only slightly. Their cash cow is still the DDR series, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It has to be; they haven't really released any US version of DDR since DDR:USA, yet most US arcades (yes, of the few left) can be found with an imported, possibly illegal, definitely untranslated DDR machine in it.
But then comes DDR Supernova, what I believe is the latest in the arcade series (I could be wrong; I like DDR more than most people, I would guess, but I hold no claims in being an expert on the subject). Looking at the game, it appears that they geared it directly for a western market. I mean, besides the fact that the menus and warning screens are in English. In addition to a smattering of songs from past DDR games, it also comes with numerous mixes and/or edits of otherwise western songs. I've seen Jerk It Out, a dance mix of Angel Is A Centerfold, and one or two songs by Janet Jackson in the lineup, and I haven't even looked at it that much in-depth. I'd say that they're possibly getting into the western markets with their rhythm games.
In terms of Guitar Freaks, an arcade nearby has it, and I do enjoy it, but the Guitar Hero series has far too much of a foothold in the US market. If Bemani has plans on reworking Guitar Freaks for western markets, they may be too late already.
Just my opinion on the matter.
So in essence, he's kinda sorta a walking straw man argumentative fallacy. Except that this particular straw man wants to rush out and make his case himself, so you really can't blame his opposition for making the fallacy.
Why... yes. 802.11n will, undoubtedly, kill off wired networking. Because I know I'd simply love to switch my network over to an all-wireless setup that can easily be disrupted by radio or electromagnetic interference*, is all but trivial to sniff unless you have clever hacks in play on commercial-grade routers, has a nasty overhead translating the physical layer to raw data, and is terribly slower than gigabit ethernet**. Ooo, sign me up for that!
Wireless networking has its use. Wired networking has its use. It's as simple as that.
*: Yes, technically, wired networks can be, too, just not to the same extent.
**: Fine, I only have 100BaseT, not gigabit, but the point stands.
I'd guess you're thinking of 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker. Sounds about right, but I think it also had objects on the truck's dashboard sliding back and forth as you turned, as well as dangly things hanging from various knobs, all depending on which truck you were driving.
All in all, more argument for prior art.
"I mean seriously, we spent billions in research to create the ultimate movie-music-email-web-OS-media center-life support device and billions more in marketing costs selling it to people, and all of a sudden these 'gae-mehrs', as they call themselves, swoop in and buy it for this piece of shit 'electronic video display game supplement' feature we tossed in at the last second. I mean, who the hell do these 'gae-mehrs' think they are, anyway? They really should show some respect; don't they know what a game console is for?"
Seriously, I consider myself to be perhaps more than a small bit of a Nintendo fanboy. I used to defend the N64 and the Gamecube against naysayers saying nay. Even I was cynical that Wii would get anywhere.
I can't blame EA for this. Less bizzare concepts than this have tanked in the past.
I showed this video to a friend of mine yesterday. I told him the basic premise of the website and what to expect when he got there. This friend of mine is a bit of a faithful Apple fan, to be sure.
The phrase "Someone should be shot for that" came up during the resulting discussion. Great times!
I don't think he's joking. A while back, he also blended one of his old iPods once he got a new one, and I he auctioned the results of THAT, too. Granted, back then I don't think they also had the DVD to offer. Or the blender and T-shirt.
And now that I look at it, I made year a static field when I clearly am using it in a non-static context in the second constructor. Wow, that was stupid of me.
public class YearOfLinuxDesktop extends SlashdotArticle {
private static year = 1995;
public YearOfLinuxDesktop() { }
public YearOfLinuxDesktop(int year) {
this.year = year;
}
public String getNextArticle() {
year++;
return "Is " + year + " the year of the Linux Desktop?"
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
YearOfLinuxDesktop yold = new YearOfLinuxDesktop();
while(1) {
System.out.println(yold.getNextArticle());
Thread.sleep(31536000000L);
System.out.println("Nope, apparently not, but...");
}
}
}
Wait... forgot the @deprecated tag. Oh, well, the FreeBSDIsDead class has the same functionality, I'm sure nobody'll use this one...
Perhaps, but that's only one use of PGP/GPG. You can also send entirely non-encrypted messages that have a digital signature from your key to authenticate that the message came from you. You can also use it to get a digital signature of files you're distributing. More secure than MD5 (etc, etc) hashing (in theory, at least, given only you have the private key to generate the signature), should prove that you created and approve the file (so you don't have unscrupulous people attacking your server and hiding unscrupulous things in your files), etc.
To be honest, I've never used PGP/GPG to encrypt outgoing messages. I mean, I understand the use some subset of people may have for shared-key encryption like that, but for far more people, it's more usable as a signing mechanism.
Concatenation of the discussion between my brother and I immediately after we heard about the crash:
At first, it appeared to be a problem with the IndyCar extensions to X, given the user was able to take it down to a console-based tow truck (it wasn't pretty, but it at least got a controlled shutdown). However, further investigation showed it was definitely a hardware issue, as the system couldn't get back on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway network after a full restart of the engine. Most probable cause was a network collision.
Well, of course Miyamoto could make Halo. It's an FPS. Follow them back to History. getMisterIKnowMoreOldGamesThanYou(). getOldestFPSInMemory() and trace them forward through Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Unreal, and Halo, and you can pick out a fairly predictable evolutionary pattern. More graphics, "cooler" weapons, advance the engine a bit, make it more badass, good, print it, you've got a new FPS. That's not how Miyamoto does things.
Of course, if he were to make an FPS, it'd probably wind up with an engine that supported jumping puzzles in a non-intrusive way (somehow he would; I'm not the design god here). And have a quirky sense of design, not the normal "I R SPACE MERC I KILL U" layout. And the weapons would be strange and unconventional, requiring more strategy than "get the biggest gun and kill things fasterer". And...
Hang on a sec. That might rock. Miyamoto, please do design an FPS! That might be interesting!
What I call a "plot loss" in a video game works once in a while, but definitely needs to be done in moderation. For example, if it's obvious to a seasoned gamer that you will lose a given battle/challenge/etc (needed for a plot element), then it's not as much a hassle. As in, if it's clear from the get-go that you're drastically outclassed by your foe, he/she/it/they has/have no obvious weak points, and/or the battle is blatantly unfair and is over with quickly, it's cool, many gamers will understand this. Even if it's not so much an extreme outclassing, if it becomes clear that you seriously won't win this and this is the way the story unfolds, that's acceptable.
The problem comes if there's no hint to this. Or to put it in other terms, if the game is toying with you. As in, a battle seems to otherwise be fair and "normal", all your attacks and/or moves appear to be behaving properly (i.e. they appear to "hit", not "clang off harmlessly"), but whatever you're challenging just always seems to have a slight edge in that it plain and simply will not lose. Case in point: The field runner in Ocarina of Time. Link is challenged to a race across Hyrule Field. You're never given any impression that this is a fixed race, there's no way to "unfix" it (i.e. this isn't a plot situation where Link has to uncover a cheater), and the only way to discover this is by giving up, wasting your time empty-handed (or use a cheat device, which reveals the problem when he claims he won with a time of -1 seconds). Things like this could easily be taken as direct insults to the player, worse if the player unloaded all or most of a difficult-to-replenish or non-replenishable resource (expensive healing potions, stat-boosting effects, rare one-time attack items, etc) in the process.
So all in all, sure, it works once in a while. Just don't insult the player in the process.
Funny, I thought I heard this before. Like, around the time XP was coming out. And how Microsoft hired Gilbert Gottfried to voice the lousy chunk of wire to advertise how Clippy was dead and gone with Office XP.
Give it another six years when Windows Vienna comes out (given how much a success Vista is). We'll be able to relive this story all over again!
Funny, in the past I've said something similar to my friends, but I said "Chu Chu Rocket" instead of "Rocket Jockey", and "the DS" instead of "the Wii". With WFC multiplayer as need be.
I'm not saying your way is wrong. Not at all. In fact, I'd say both ought to be quite feasible.