Like most things, not allowing patches has positives and negatives. Obviously, not allowing patches means that a flawed build remains a flawed build. It also gives extra incentive to actually ship a working product, though. The obvious counter to that is that many games are rushed out regardless, either with known problems, or with insufficient time for testing. So yeah, multiple problems. A "no patching" policy alone might be okay. Combined with tight schedules, it becomes a problem in some cases.
Publishers are starting to jump on the DVD bandwagon. Unreal Tournament 2004 has CD and DVD versions (and a nice "Editor's Choice Edition" DVD version that packs in a bunch of mods and such). Myst 4 is DVD-only (it comes on TWO DVDs, and includes Myst 3 on another DVD). The Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance port was DVD-only back in early/mid-2003. UT2004 and MGS2 both have massive hard drive installs, though (I think 5 GB and 7 GB respectively).
From the Wired article about this panel, it sounded like Molyneux was using the presentation as an opportunity to show off an engine he was already working on.
I should also note that the anime I've seen at the Belcourt has been subtitled with Japanese audio, while the ones I've seen at Regal have been good quality English dubs. I'm not sure if that's the determining factor for which theater it gets to (are there English dubs of GitS2 and Tokyo Godfathers?) or if it's just the theater manager's choice.
It's playing on an arthouse screen in Nashville for a week starting on Friday. Not sure when the official US release of Appleseed was/is. The same theater had Ghost in the Shell 2 on its opening weekend, so maybe there's just some Masamune fanaticism going on there.
I was surprised that Nashville's only real arthouse type theater had GitS2 on its US opening week, on the larger of the two screens at said theater. The same theater also had Tokyo Godfathers, but that was significantly after the US premiere. I'm hoping the Otomo name will be enough to get Steamboy at least to that theater, maybe a bigger one or two, and hopefully soon. The Cowboy Bebop movie was at a particular Regal Cinemas theater that tends to get the slightly better known little-known movies for a week, but that was only like the week before it came out on DVD.
All that said, the only anime I've seen playing on more than one screen in middle Tennessee was Spirited Away, and that was after all the Oscar rumblings; it was only at that Regal theater previously. Spirited Away is also the only one I've seen play for more than one week around here.
Oh, hey, that arthouse theater will be showing Appleseed for a week starting Friday! Whee! And Sky Blue for a couple of days in April... though Sky Blue is Korean. No mention of Steamboy on their site (http://www.belcourt.org/). I guess I can hope that's because it will be at the Regal...
Those are official Nintendo hubs, though, right? Reminds me of the floppy disk writing stations Nintendo apparently had in Japan when they released the disk drive for the Famicom. I want to say that Metroid was originally a floppy exclusive title, but I don't recall.
Ah, interesting, but yeah, too restrictive for my tastes. You'd think they'd offer that as an option and still allow files manually copied onto the mapped/mounted drive to be played, too. Annoying, and further support for my resolve to resist the iPod.
Despite that, I still think the Sony player has a decent chance of playing songs transferred to the player through other means than the included software. If not, then my next flash player (if I get one) will probably be another MuVo.
I would assume the use of the proprietary software is optional, maybe only required to transfer songs you might buy online from Sony, I don't know about that. Don't iPods work as USB drives, too? I know my Creative MuVo works just fine as a USB flash drive. Also, I have a Sony CD player that also plays MP3s (and ATRAC3, of course). I know it came with software, but I've never installed it. I just burn a data disc with MP3s on it and it reads and plays them with no problem. I doubt Sony would cripple their player that thoroughly when the industry standard seems to be that the players double as removable storage.
Creative's MuVo player line (the first major brand MP3 player that I know of to do the "doubles as a teeny and convenient USB flash drive" deal) now are USB 2.0, have LCD displays, and at least some of the models have an FM tuner. I got one of the first-generation 128MB ones (no display, no tuner), and it's performed pretty well. Even with just 128MB, though, the lack of display sometimes frustrated me; I can't imagine trying to use the 1GB Shuffle for anything beyond its apparently single use of random play. Apple has done an amazing job of branding (and vendor lock-in to iTunes) with their iPod line to the point that to most people it is synonymous with "MP3 player" despite entering the game relatively late.
Bah, now you're scaring me. Wasn't a big part of that scenario that the broadcasts were passed through a customization box/filter of sorts to tailor the experience to the viewer? I read a short-ish and none-too-in-depth article on Wired the other day about the incredible personalization/customization of information delivery possible today that allows many people to pretty much just see what they want to with little fear of being presented with views that would challenge preconceptions. Obviously it's not nearly so complete or pervasive or all-encompassing as what Bradbury depicted, but I realized that I hadn't even given it much thought until I read that article. Obviously information delivery isn't at the point yet where one can be completely subsumed by comforting and reassuring sameness, but it's closer for a lot of people than one would initially think. Along with the wonderful ability of one to connect with a group of people of a similar mindset over the Internet comes a potentially decreased interaction with people who see things differently.
An interesting thing I've noticed is that larger community sites tend to present more conflict than the social networking type environments. For example, there's almost always someone ready to strike back with a counter argument on Slashdot, and even if it's just to be contrary, it still offers an opposing or at least different view of a subject. While Slashdot still obviously caters to a relatively thin slice of overall events, the discussion of those tends to reveal different frames of reference in which to view them. On the other hand, through my traversals of places like LiveJournal, where the users choose both the topic and the viewpoint, and everyone hosts their own reference frame's home, I notice an interesting tendency for vast networks of nearly identical views to be interconnected and to some degree isolated except for a few tenuous links from other reference frames.
Bah, crazy insane tangent. Now I'm interested in this social dynamic divide. But I'll probably explore it no further. Lousy lack of motivation...
It might be that those more heavily invested in the gaming culture will have a more complete knowledge of the average and maybe even the extremes of those affected (or not) by games. Being immersed in the culture can provide insights and truths that studies can't. Likewise, I'm sure competently performed studies can provide useful information that an intelligent gamer can't. I think there need to be more efforts like this to connect those outside that are trying to find out about (or destroy, I don't know) gaming as a feature of our culture with those more familiar with gaming. It's obviously stupid to have people who know nothing about gaming legislating it out of legitimacy. But it's also not a good idea to leave it totally up to those enamored with the genre. Either way there's going to be some blindness to potential issues. I'm not advocating the superiority of one position or another.
As a gamer myself, though, I think the ESRB does as good a job of ratings as does whoever rates movies (MPAA? I can't remember). There needs to be more awareness of the rating system, and of the fact that gaming is not just for kids, and thus not all games are intended for a young audience.
I... what? No one even knows what the console will be like. How are you already passing judgment? Also, how are profitable consoles "strikes?" What game are we playing? I'll admit that the N64's good game selection was a bit anemic, but I've been very impressed with the Gamecube, and until Halo 2's giant hype machine, the Gamecube was still neck and neck with the XBox domestically.
How many people were studied? Depending on sample size, is a 2 percent difference statistically significant? What of the fact that some with violent tendencies may have sought out the games, rather than being influenced thereby? Are these "video games" in general, or was some class of "violent" games studied?
Sloppy studies of this annoy me, partly because it stigmatizes an activity that I enjoy, and partly because I really want to know the extent of effects, if any, that exposure to violent media has before I'm having to guide children of my own.
Even when you focus on another window, that menu exists until you quit the application. OS X seems to handle the idea of Applications a bit differently than Windows: even if all windows of an application are closed, it remains running until you do a File-->Quit or Apple+Q to quit the program. That and the fact that the menu stays at the top (and not on the Window) seems to be the hardest thing to get used to when switching. It took me a while, and I'm still not sure whether I prefer the Windows or OS X method. They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Other family members use my Mini on occasion and I invariably find applications left open but with all the windows closed.
I'm also not sure what to think of the "One icon per application" thing, and I'm not sure whether it "groups running instances" of the program like you suggest, or if the program just instantiates separate windows within a single instance of the program itself. Regardless of the underlying workings, it definitely reduces clutter and makes switching bewteen applications easier, but switching between windows within an application can be annoying, though Expose can be helpful if I can remember to use it.
The interfaces are different, but there are enough similarities to make switching at once easy and confounding. The problems are made more apparent by those trying to find the perfection that the OS X evangelists constantly promote.
I've definitely found the interface to be a mixed experience. There are parts that I really like, and there are parts that I'm still trying to get used to, and there are a few parts that are annoying (text boxes especially--I very very badly want "Home" and "End" to work like they do in Windows).
Yeah, but the plane holds 18,000 pounds of fuel when full, and the round-the-world flight is expected to last what, 80 hours? Full-tank short test flights dumping fuel would be dumping TONS of it if low fuel levels are required for a safe landing.
The little asterisk next to his user name means he's a subscriber and thus is able to see the summary early, but can't post until it's shown on the main page (or however it works. The point is that subscribers can see the article--and thus write long responses--before everyone else).
The thing is, just as Halo 1 introduced the console world to the LAN party, Halo 2 is now the driving force behind Internet multiplayer gaming on consoles right now. There are countless hours of play time beyond what is apparently an underwhelming single player experience. And yeah, I know there were many Live-enabled games before Halo 2, but Live subscription rates surged dramatically at Halo 2's release.
The problem now is figuring out if there's anything new that Halo 3 can bring to the table other than a conclusion of the story and improved graphics (I guess we're all assuming this will be on the next XBox?).
Slashdot Mirror
Like most things, not allowing patches has positives and negatives. Obviously, not allowing patches means that a flawed build remains a flawed build. It also gives extra incentive to actually ship a working product, though. The obvious counter to that is that many games are rushed out regardless, either with known problems, or with insufficient time for testing. So yeah, multiple problems. A "no patching" policy alone might be okay. Combined with tight schedules, it becomes a problem in some cases.
Publishers are starting to jump on the DVD bandwagon. Unreal Tournament 2004 has CD and DVD versions (and a nice "Editor's Choice Edition" DVD version that packs in a bunch of mods and such). Myst 4 is DVD-only (it comes on TWO DVDs, and includes Myst 3 on another DVD). The Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance port was DVD-only back in early/mid-2003. UT2004 and MGS2 both have massive hard drive installs, though (I think 5 GB and 7 GB respectively).
From the Wired article about this panel, it sounded like Molyneux was using the presentation as an opportunity to show off an engine he was already working on.
Ah, so you've decided to pursue Type 2, then, have you? Good luck with that.
I should also note that the anime I've seen at the Belcourt has been subtitled with Japanese audio, while the ones I've seen at Regal have been good quality English dubs. I'm not sure if that's the determining factor for which theater it gets to (are there English dubs of GitS2 and Tokyo Godfathers?) or if it's just the theater manager's choice.
It's playing on an arthouse screen in Nashville for a week starting on Friday. Not sure when the official US release of Appleseed was/is. The same theater had Ghost in the Shell 2 on its opening weekend, so maybe there's just some Masamune fanaticism going on there.
All that said, the only anime I've seen playing on more than one screen in middle Tennessee was Spirited Away, and that was after all the Oscar rumblings; it was only at that Regal theater previously. Spirited Away is also the only one I've seen play for more than one week around here.
Oh, hey, that arthouse theater will be showing Appleseed for a week starting Friday! Whee! And Sky Blue for a couple of days in April... though Sky Blue is Korean. No mention of Steamboy on their site (http://www.belcourt.org/). I guess I can hope that's because it will be at the Regal...
Those are official Nintendo hubs, though, right? Reminds me of the floppy disk writing stations Nintendo apparently had in Japan when they released the disk drive for the Famicom. I want to say that Metroid was originally a floppy exclusive title, but I don't recall.
Despite that, I still think the Sony player has a decent chance of playing songs transferred to the player through other means than the included software. If not, then my next flash player (if I get one) will probably be another MuVo.
I would assume the use of the proprietary software is optional, maybe only required to transfer songs you might buy online from Sony, I don't know about that. Don't iPods work as USB drives, too? I know my Creative MuVo works just fine as a USB flash drive. Also, I have a Sony CD player that also plays MP3s (and ATRAC3, of course). I know it came with software, but I've never installed it. I just burn a data disc with MP3s on it and it reads and plays them with no problem. I doubt Sony would cripple their player that thoroughly when the industry standard seems to be that the players double as removable storage.
Creative's MuVo player line (the first major brand MP3 player that I know of to do the "doubles as a teeny and convenient USB flash drive" deal) now are USB 2.0, have LCD displays, and at least some of the models have an FM tuner. I got one of the first-generation 128MB ones (no display, no tuner), and it's performed pretty well. Even with just 128MB, though, the lack of display sometimes frustrated me; I can't imagine trying to use the 1GB Shuffle for anything beyond its apparently single use of random play. Apple has done an amazing job of branding (and vendor lock-in to iTunes) with their iPod line to the point that to most people it is synonymous with "MP3 player" despite entering the game relatively late.
I saw reference to a plasma TV of similar size somewhere in this thread. Might that be what you're thinking about? This one's LCD.
An interesting thing I've noticed is that larger community sites tend to present more conflict than the social networking type environments. For example, there's almost always someone ready to strike back with a counter argument on Slashdot, and even if it's just to be contrary, it still offers an opposing or at least different view of a subject. While Slashdot still obviously caters to a relatively thin slice of overall events, the discussion of those tends to reveal different frames of reference in which to view them. On the other hand, through my traversals of places like LiveJournal, where the users choose both the topic and the viewpoint, and everyone hosts their own reference frame's home, I notice an interesting tendency for vast networks of nearly identical views to be interconnected and to some degree isolated except for a few tenuous links from other reference frames.
Bah, crazy insane tangent. Now I'm interested in this social dynamic divide. But I'll probably explore it no further. Lousy lack of motivation...
And the reading device can be disguised as a Flowbee!
As a gamer myself, though, I think the ESRB does as good a job of ratings as does whoever rates movies (MPAA? I can't remember). There needs to be more awareness of the rating system, and of the fact that gaming is not just for kids, and thus not all games are intended for a young audience.
I... what? No one even knows what the console will be like. How are you already passing judgment? Also, how are profitable consoles "strikes?" What game are we playing? I'll admit that the N64's good game selection was a bit anemic, but I've been very impressed with the Gamecube, and until Halo 2's giant hype machine, the Gamecube was still neck and neck with the XBox domestically.
Yeah, and now I hear there's a crime with the same name! Who can deny that the game affected our culture negatively?
Sloppy studies of this annoy me, partly because it stigmatizes an activity that I enjoy, and partly because I really want to know the extent of effects, if any, that exposure to violent media has before I'm having to guide children of my own.
I'm also not sure what to think of the "One icon per application" thing, and I'm not sure whether it "groups running instances" of the program like you suggest, or if the program just instantiates separate windows within a single instance of the program itself. Regardless of the underlying workings, it definitely reduces clutter and makes switching bewteen applications easier, but switching between windows within an application can be annoying, though Expose can be helpful if I can remember to use it.
The interfaces are different, but there are enough similarities to make switching at once easy and confounding. The problems are made more apparent by those trying to find the perfection that the OS X evangelists constantly promote.
I've definitely found the interface to be a mixed experience. There are parts that I really like, and there are parts that I'm still trying to get used to, and there are a few parts that are annoying (text boxes especially--I very very badly want "Home" and "End" to work like they do in Windows).
And having their own servers Slashdotted sets a better example?
The plan seems to be to land in Hawaii if they decide to cancel it.
Yeah, but the plane holds 18,000 pounds of fuel when full, and the round-the-world flight is expected to last what, 80 hours? Full-tank short test flights dumping fuel would be dumping TONS of it if low fuel levels are required for a safe landing.
Don't forget the ever-popular "The RIAA is a cartel, not a monopoly!"
The little asterisk next to his user name means he's a subscriber and thus is able to see the summary early, but can't post until it's shown on the main page (or however it works. The point is that subscribers can see the article--and thus write long responses--before everyone else).
The problem now is figuring out if there's anything new that Halo 3 can bring to the table other than a conclusion of the story and improved graphics (I guess we're all assuming this will be on the next XBox?).