"It said research showed that in Europe's two biggest digital markets -- Britain and Germany -- more music fans are now legally downloading music than illegally file-swapping."
This seems to have little to do with any anti-piracy efforts from the record labels and much more to do with the wide-spread availability of legal markets for digital music for the first time.
I deliberately said MMO, not MMORPG. It is hard for me to exactly define how they would implement online play. That's up to the imagineers at Nintendo. But I think there's a good reason for them to do it. As good as Wind Waker was, and it WAS good, it was essentially the same game as Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time. They would be running the franchise into the ground by not innovating and making the same game over and over again. You can also argue Mario Sunshine was the same as Mario 64, which many have. I think fearing a change in the franchise is fairly foolish as Nintendo has dones it before fairly successfully. For example, many balked at the idea of 3D Zelda. Why balk at the idea of an online Zelda? It seems like a natural progression to me, especially as Nintendo is embracing online gameplay.
Well, it is a big deal in the sense that we've never seen Link die before (well we've obviously died in a Zelda game before but never... you know what I mean!). If you assume continuity amongst the various games, it's fairly difficult to determine a cohesive timeline of events although the games do provide various hints (such as the intro to SNES's Link to the Past referring to the events of N64's Ocarina of Time). But amongst the different chronologies, some of which can be easily found by googling "zelda timeline", there's a concensus that there pretty much has to be more than one Link. If that is the case, if Link dies in Twilight Princess, that doesn't mean that Link won't come back in the next game. It just means it will be a different Link.
Also, I think the correct way to interpret Miyamato-san's comments are that the next game in the series, presumably on the Revolution, will be different in gameplay, not story. Can I hear a "Hell Yea!" for a massively multiplayer Zelda?
That would seem like a daunting task. Judging from the screenshots of the first chapter, the game may take place in numerous settings from the older games (especially 6 "Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow", arguably the best one). The "art" in this case seems to be most of the 3d models and textures. Removing King's Quest from this project would remove any reason to make it, IMHO. I really hope this gets sorted out somehow. I loved the the King's Quest series and Vivendi's end to the series, King's Quest 8 Mask of Eternity, was a travesty. I seriously doubt Vivendi is going to make any profits from the King's Quest brandname, so why not let it go ahead? It's not like they were trying to make money. They don't even have ads on their site!
Whilst writing this, I realized what's going on: http://www.gametap.com/. Sierra, aka Vivendi, has got some games on there it seems, but no adventure games of yore. So let's see how this plays out.
Good for them. They really took a hit, financially, after the failure of Uru, a legitimate attempt at producing an original product based on the Myst formula. Thankfully, they've closed the book (har har) on the Myst franchise with the recently released, and aptly named, Myst V: End of Ages. As much as I love those games, they've become increasingly formulaic and watered down, especially when it comes to their difficulty and length (which are related). Their masterpiece, Riven, was the most difficult adventure game I've ever played, and it remains one of my favorites for that very reason. Uru could have come close to achieving that level of quality had more people played it. I'm hoping they follow through on their plans to produce a new franchise and to stay away from all things Myst. I really think they burden of making Myst games has been holding them back creatively.
From the article: "The United States argues that a single addressing system is what makes the Internet so powerful, and moves to set up multiple Internets would be in no one's interest."
Also how does the rejection of Activision lead to his firing?
RTFA: "The Journal reports that it is [Adrian] Carmack's contention that the other id owners deliberately rejected all of Activision's offers so they could then fire him, thereby acquiring his shares for a fraction of what the publisher would have paid for them. He claims that his fellow co-owners, which control a combined 59 percent of id, began a death-of-a-1,000-cuts-style approach to force him out--closely monitoring his hours, stripping him of privileges, and denying him access to board-related documents. The other board members also ceased redistributing profits as dividends in 2004 (for the five years prior to that, Carmack had received approximately $3.5 million per year)."
1) Girl wearing very small, tight shirt thing with HUGE boobs, low cut short shorts with a thong showing, and a big ass sword.
2) Woman wearing tight chain mail top, with smaller boobs than #1, a VERY revealing chainmail underwear, no pants, and a big ass axe.
3) Woman wearing nothing in a field of flowers, positioned in a "tasteful" way (i.e. you can't see her nipples or hoo-ha), but no big ass weapon (boo!).
4) Woman dressed as goth with tight black latex/leather pants and tight black latex/leather top, bellybutton visible behind mesh across belly, and a pussy...cat.
5) Mermaid with anime eyes, nether regions and nipples obscured by scales, but the "cleavage" of the boobs are still skin!
6) Creature with the head from the Queen in the Alien movies and body of a model, boobs "tastefully" hidden.
And the odd one out is some skeleton with a cloak. But it could be female!
Just FYI to the editors of Slashdot: The link in the article contains a page with links to a sample of the ripped movie and a torrent to the movie itself. I'm not sure what/.'s stance is on offering that kind of info, so I'm just suggesting that maybe you want to remove the link.
FTA: "It's a global hit - and every publisher in the industry is furiously trying to figure out how to replicate it."
The trick to all this is so simple, so of course the big developers can't figure it out: just make a good game. What differentiates WoW from it's competitors is that it is a well produced, well thought out game. If developers put as much time into producing good products, then themoney will follow. It's that simple.
I hate it when two companies engage in this kind of protracting foreplay. Just merge or buy-out or whatever and be done with it. Now we're going to have to endure at least 3 more/. articles on this subject.
If Google were planning on buying out Skype, why would they release a version of Google Talk with their own implementation of voice chat? Doesn't make much sense to me. Furthermore, has Google ever bought a company worth that much before? Most of their aqcuisitions seem to be companies that have good software but aren't very popular, therefore, they Google gets quite a bargain by purchasing them for far less than they're worth. Skype doesn't fit that bill, imo.
Isn't the only version out so far the one shipped with dev kits? We could assume that various programs and features aren't complete yet, including the security allowing which hardware it'll run on.
A successful game is not necessarily a good game, and vice versa. Anyway, I didn't mean seething to have any negative connotation. Just to emphasize the action of the collective masses that a single, well publicized, hotly anticipated launch title brings about.
Actually, it can be fairly objective. There can be no doubt that a Grand Theft Auto, a Halo, or a Zelda will sell systems. The seething masses who will define the success of a console with their purchasing power can be easily swayed by a large title with major brand recognition. I think its fairly objective (in the sense that most people will agree) to glance at a list of software and say this title is going to sell a system. What you personally want to buy is irrelevent because niche title does not a successful system make.
I had remembered that shortly after I made the post. But how much you want to bet that the feature will be getting more adspace and promotion for the new system?
Five will get you twenty that now they're considering putting in a V-chip style device. What better feature to advertise to parents than the ability to lock out Mature or Adults Only games in light of the recent ridiculousness?
I'm tired of it crashing on me after 30 min of play. So maybe now they'll finally patch the damn game! And all it took was a much publicized sex scene scandal a call for action from some US senators...
Slashdot Mirror
This seems to have little to do with any anti-piracy efforts from the record labels and much more to do with the wide-spread availability of legal markets for digital music for the first time.
I deliberately said MMO, not MMORPG. It is hard for me to exactly define how they would implement online play. That's up to the imagineers at Nintendo. But I think there's a good reason for them to do it. As good as Wind Waker was, and it WAS good, it was essentially the same game as Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time. They would be running the franchise into the ground by not innovating and making the same game over and over again. You can also argue Mario Sunshine was the same as Mario 64, which many have. I think fearing a change in the franchise is fairly foolish as Nintendo has dones it before fairly successfully. For example, many balked at the idea of 3D Zelda. Why balk at the idea of an online Zelda? It seems like a natural progression to me, especially as Nintendo is embracing online gameplay.
Also, I think the correct way to interpret Miyamato-san's comments are that the next game in the series, presumably on the Revolution, will be different in gameplay, not story. Can I hear a "Hell Yea!" for a massively multiplayer Zelda?
That would seem like a daunting task. Judging from the screenshots of the first chapter, the game may take place in numerous settings from the older games (especially 6 "Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow", arguably the best one). The "art" in this case seems to be most of the 3d models and textures. Removing King's Quest from this project would remove any reason to make it, IMHO. I really hope this gets sorted out somehow. I loved the the King's Quest series and Vivendi's end to the series, King's Quest 8 Mask of Eternity, was a travesty. I seriously doubt Vivendi is going to make any profits from the King's Quest brandname, so why not let it go ahead? It's not like they were trying to make money. They don't even have ads on their site!
Whilst writing this, I realized what's going on: http://www.gametap.com/. Sierra, aka Vivendi, has got some games on there it seems, but no adventure games of yore. So let's see how this plays out.
According to the schedule on the website, chemistry gets awarded tomorrow and peace on Friday.
A long monotonous speech or piece of writing.
It's a new word for me. Maybe it's new for someone else.
Good for them. They really took a hit, financially, after the failure of Uru, a legitimate attempt at producing an original product based on the Myst formula. Thankfully, they've closed the book (har har) on the Myst franchise with the recently released, and aptly named, Myst V: End of Ages. As much as I love those games, they've become increasingly formulaic and watered down, especially when it comes to their difficulty and length (which are related). Their masterpiece, Riven, was the most difficult adventure game I've ever played, and it remains one of my favorites for that very reason. Uru could have come close to achieving that level of quality had more people played it. I'm hoping they follow through on their plans to produce a new franchise and to stay away from all things Myst. I really think they burden of making Myst games has been holding them back creatively.
So that's what Bush meant by the internets!
RTFA: "The Journal reports that it is [Adrian] Carmack's contention that the other id owners deliberately rejected all of Activision's offers so they could then fire him, thereby acquiring his shares for a fraction of what the publisher would have paid for them. He claims that his fellow co-owners, which control a combined 59 percent of id, began a death-of-a-1,000-cuts-style approach to force him out--closely monitoring his hours, stripping him of privileges, and denying him access to board-related documents. The other board members also ceased redistributing profits as dividends in 2004 (for the five years prior to that, Carmack had received approximately $3.5 million per year)."
1) Girl wearing very small, tight shirt thing with HUGE boobs, low cut short shorts with a thong showing, and a big ass sword.
2) Woman wearing tight chain mail top, with smaller boobs than #1, a VERY revealing chainmail underwear, no pants, and a big ass axe.
3) Woman wearing nothing in a field of flowers, positioned in a "tasteful" way (i.e. you can't see her nipples or hoo-ha), but no big ass weapon (boo!).
4) Woman dressed as goth with tight black latex/leather pants and tight black latex/leather top, bellybutton visible behind mesh across belly, and a pussy...cat.
5) Mermaid with anime eyes, nether regions and nipples obscured by scales, but the "cleavage" of the boobs are still skin!
6) Creature with the head from the Queen in the Alien movies and body of a model, boobs "tastefully" hidden.
And the odd one out is some skeleton with a cloak. But it could be female!
All but one of the renders on the company's online gallery page features gratuitous cleavage. Just thought I'd throw that out there...
Just FYI to the editors of Slashdot: The link in the article contains a page with links to a sample of the ripped movie and a torrent to the movie itself. I'm not sure what /.'s stance is on offering that kind of info, so I'm just suggesting that maybe you want to remove the link.
The trick to all this is so simple, so of course the big developers can't figure it out: just make a good game. What differentiates WoW from it's competitors is that it is a well produced, well thought out game. If developers put as much time into producing good products, then themoney will follow. It's that simple.
We've crashed your server! Happy Birthday!
I bet there's one person who reads every /. comment just find the ones where s/he can make some joke about dupes.
I hate it when two companies engage in this kind of protracting foreplay. Just merge or buy-out or whatever and be done with it. Now we're going to have to endure at least 3 more /. articles on this subject.
If Google were planning on buying out Skype, why would they release a version of Google Talk with their own implementation of voice chat? Doesn't make much sense to me. Furthermore, has Google ever bought a company worth that much before? Most of their aqcuisitions seem to be companies that have good software but aren't very popular, therefore, they Google gets quite a bargain by purchasing them for far less than they're worth. Skype doesn't fit that bill, imo.
Grad students, rejoice!
Isn't the only version out so far the one shipped with dev kits? We could assume that various programs and features aren't complete yet, including the security allowing which hardware it'll run on.
A successful game is not necessarily a good game, and vice versa. Anyway, I didn't mean seething to have any negative connotation. Just to emphasize the action of the collective masses that a single, well publicized, hotly anticipated launch title brings about.
Actually, it can be fairly objective. There can be no doubt that a Grand Theft Auto, a Halo, or a Zelda will sell systems. The seething masses who will define the success of a console with their purchasing power can be easily swayed by a large title with major brand recognition. I think its fairly objective (in the sense that most people will agree) to glance at a list of software and say this title is going to sell a system. What you personally want to buy is irrelevent because niche title does not a successful system make.
Anyone see a must-have title that will sell systems? Because I don't.
I had remembered that shortly after I made the post. But how much you want to bet that the feature will be getting more adspace and promotion for the new system?
Five will get you twenty that now they're considering putting in a V-chip style device. What better feature to advertise to parents than the ability to lock out Mature or Adults Only games in light of the recent ridiculousness?
I'm tired of it crashing on me after 30 min of play. So maybe now they'll finally patch the damn game! And all it took was a much publicized sex scene scandal a call for action from some US senators...