But then we have to look at the realities of what happens when the rest of the world gets empowered. For example, this recent Slashdot post: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/22/20 30248 discusses the future of IT in America.
For many of the people who responded, the outlook was bleak due to outsourcing to countries where the labor is cheaper. Thus, the IT industry in the U.S. weakens, keeping recent college graduates out of the positions they went to school for.
Should we care? Should we keep the knowledge to ourselves, in order to keep our economy strong?
Usually that depends on which side of the issue you are on...are you one of the people negatively affected by the world-wide expansion of tech professionals, or not.
So while it may seem like something we should do (empowering the rest of the world) not everyone agrees. And this does not just apply to the US, and not just to the tech industry.
Do you think that the people who run the banana plantations want their employees to be educated?
They seen 3d and they don't want to go back. I have shown a 6 year old Pac Man, about 2 months ago. And all I heard was, "this is boring...can I jump? "
Better graphics does not automatically mean lesser gameplay. This is an oft repeated mantra of the 'games were better when I was a kid' set.
Strangely, the parents of those people think that games were better when they made you THINK, like Scrabble.
And their parents thought it was best when games made you PRODUCTIVE like being chained to a loom for 60 hours a week.
But really, today's games generally have far more depth than their predecessors. It's not like Missile Command was rocket science. Compare that to something like Rise of Nations.
In fact, Rise of Nations would have been impossible to do WITHOUT the graphics, because there are so many different types of units to represent.
Or look at something like a good First Person Shooter. In Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, a key part of the game is having the enemy blend in with the environment. This just doesn't happen when you only have 256 colors at 400x600.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) did ship with a relatively small number of maps. But the game is HUGE, I think they really delivered a LOT for what I paid.
The single player campaign was pretty good. Looked great, played well, no complaints at all.
The multiplayer game is humongous. There are 50 zillion was to set up a game. Different modes, co-op, team, single. There are on-line co-op missions, objective games, etc. etc.
The maps they included look fantastic, and some of them are big...no...EXTRA GRANDE. Maybe I've missed something along the way, but I don't remember a multiplayer map in any game that is as large as Old Town or Treasury in GRAW. There is a ton of detail, and each area is individualized- not repetitive levels like Halo2. (Which I also like a lot, but there is a lot of repetition)
Judging the multiplayer by the number of maps is doing the game a great injustice. It is far, far deeper than that. The GAMEPLAY is what can change, not just the surroundings.
Although I would greet new maps with open arms...I just want to say that they delivered enough content that the number of maps doesn't count against it.
I've owned 4 MiniDisc players, and I will say that they *could* have been great.
I loved the hardware- for the time they came out they were the smallest thing out there. The removeable disks did provide an 'unlimited' amount of storage. The battery life was awesome.
But as the author of the article mentioned, the achilles heel of the whole operation was the software.
SONIC STAGE *is* a steaming pile of shit. There is no way around that- it is one of the worst pieces of software I have ever used. And because you are forced to use Sonic State to use a MiniDisc player you are completely screwed over.
At the time I bought them (3-4 years ago) the hardware was A++. But the software is so crappy I would give the whole thing a D+.
Sony can really manage to screw some stuff up. And that is one reason I am not excited about the PS3 with Blu-Ray.
(Why did I buy 4? Well, the first one was great, but I lost it after only 2 days. So when I bought another one, I also picked one up for my wife and daughter.)
You're right on target there. "Nintendo is all about innovation."
Bullshit.
Nintendo is just a *little* different. Not a big deal. And they just keep recycling all of the same stuff. Yes, it is different from other people, but it is the same crap they've been selling for years.
Obviously your post insinuates that I have never paid a plumber, and therefore either are not very experience, or I still live in a situation where I don't hire plumbers (parents/apartment/etc.). So just by asking the question you make it obvious that you consider yourself superior in at least 2 different ways.
Umm...yes, I have paid a plumber (yay! I'm in the club!). And that was the point of my post.
Plumbers get paid a lot of money. An IT guy who makes his living crawling under desks doesn't make nearly as much. Even though both get paid, neither is a 'professional'.
Yet the plumber can make a lot of money. But there is a social difference between a professional job and a very high-paid blue-collar job.
I have never taken advice from anyone on Slashdot, because as we all know, every single one of us is a self-righteous prick.
But, I am going to follow your advice. As soon as I finish this post, I am going to get off my ass and go iron my clothes. I am giving a presentation today, and I was thinking that my clothes ('business casual' is my usual form of dress) were fine just coming out of the dryer.
I am going to take that extra step, and actually iron my shirt and pants. Because you are right- the 10 minutes I spend doing that will serve me much better than reading the ramblings of the incoherent fools here on Slashdot.
With absolutely no sarcasm, I thank you for the suggestion, and I want you to know that you have reached out to at least one person today.
Being a 'professional' does not just mean you get paid. That is the literal definition, professional means a whole lot more. Just as the comments way above talk about 'acting white'. That doesn't mean you put on a little makeup. There is more to it. (If you want details, just ask- I am a professional at acting white)
And the guy who crawls under desks? He is NOT a 'professional'. He is a 21st century plumber. One who probably gets paid less than a 20th century plumber.
Except that by the 1950's lynching was just about dead (pun intended) in the United States. A lynching of a white man by that time was unheard of.
Perhaps Einstein would not have been accepted in the post-plantation society, but the chance of him being lynched was far less than the chance of being killed by lightning.
I searched high and low for a single example of a white man lynched in Mississippi in the 1950's. I could not find any. Do you have any examples to cite?
Or is it just your own prejudice that makes you believe that the Klan (and others) has far more power than it really does?
Can anyone name a private industry that is NOT driven by the desire for sales?
Religion? Nope...all about the sales. Entertainment? Sex? Automobiles? Healthcare?
Nope...they all want sales too. In fact, as far as I can tell, that is pretty much the definition of 'an industry' a group of organizations that all sell similar stuff.
Of course Hollywood, and Bollywood, and Silicon Valley and every other place wants to sell crap. That is why they are in business.
To the people who responded to your message and said, "Well this isn't part of the game..."
YES- it IS part of the game. And it isn't too bad. I spent a fair amount of time taking pictures of my cars in different places. They've got a lot of nice controls, and you can do all types of cool stuff. (Blur filters, lighting, angle, the whole 9 yards)
An arbitrary organization can make up arbitrary rules and call them 'standards'.
A huge number of people can agree upon something, without the arbitrary organization giving it creedence, and it is called a 'de-facto standard'.
Different people are impressed by different types of standards. Not surprisingly, most people adhere to the de-facto standards (which is pretty much the definition) and don't realize it. They don't care- they only want stuff to work.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
No...it's not like iTunes, because the content is in HD, not Shit-D.
Amazon doesn't do the pre-payment. You get charged each time you make a purchase. Which you then have to deal with on your credit card bill. With XBLA I only charge my credit card occasionally.
And with Amazon, of course you don't get what you ordered right away, the usually have to ship it to you.
Except for things like audiobooks. Which is a *bad* thing to order from Amazon for compatibility reasons. (Do they still do audiobooks?)
But for me, these arcade games are just the little sprinkles on top of the icing on the cake.
Ghost Recon- now that is the cake- and the icing. Call of Duty- lotsa cake, but some fucked up icing. PGR 3 - carrot cake- which is cake, but I hate all of the guys on line who have a fit when you rub fenders with them. How is it that a single game can attract so many self-righteous jerks who feel that I am being an asshole, just because I am not GOOD at a game, and therefore can't drive in a straight line?
Hell, I've even spent some time playing Robotron on XBLA. Which is almost an exact port of a 20+ year old game. But it is still fun. And my $400 console is what delivers it to my fat ass while I sit on the couch, so I'm happy.
I *love* fancy, shiny, beautiful graphics. I really think they can add to a game. But if a game is good, I don't need those graphics. So I don't mind playing a game that could be played in last generation's consoles, as long as it is still fun.
Just a disclaimer though, it bugs the crap out of me that many people tend to think LESS of a game because of shiny and fancy graphics. Like there were only 1,000 hours of development available, and the time put into graphics was time taken away from 'gameplay'. I don't think games always need them, but I do think they benefit from them. But the XBLA games are usually the type that are based on very simplistic, repetitive gameplay- which is fun no matter what they look like.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, empowering people is a great thing.
0 30248 discusses the future of IT in America.
But then we have to look at the realities of what happens when the rest of the world gets empowered. For example, this recent Slashdot post: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/22/2
For many of the people who responded, the outlook was bleak due to outsourcing to countries where the labor is cheaper. Thus, the IT industry in the U.S. weakens, keeping recent college graduates out of the positions they went to school for.
Should we care? Should we keep the knowledge to ourselves, in order to keep our economy strong?
Usually that depends on which side of the issue you are on...are you one of the people negatively affected by the world-wide expansion of tech professionals, or not.
So while it may seem like something we should do (empowering the rest of the world) not everyone agrees. And this does not just apply to the US, and not just to the tech industry.
Do you think that the people who run the banana plantations want their employees to be educated?
Many of your comments are correct, but you are (partway) wrong about the cable.
If you get the premium version, you get component (and composite) cables in the box.
Actually, do NOT take the test.
Then the test has already proven itself by weeding out one person who can't follow instructions.
Have you put a 6 year old in front of Pac Man?
They seen 3d and they don't want to go back. I have shown a 6 year old Pac Man, about 2 months ago. And all I heard was, "this is boring...can I jump? "
Lightspeed manages to find the right girls. Not always the hottest, but the ones you might really want to be with.
And if you've ever watched the Tawny Stone videos...that girl is a clown, and a freak. Not a bad combo.
Damn, I hate when anonymous cowards make these idiotic posts. There is no person to pin this on.
Take a look at the difference between 'hurdle' and 'hurtle'...and the aforementioned 'throne' problem.
I am *not* a grammar Nazi.
But that article was horrible. 'Thrown' instead of 'throne', a bunch of they're/there mistakes. 'Hurtle'?
I am starting to see the advantages of the print media- at least they had editors.
Yes, they have...and they still do.
Better graphics does not automatically mean lesser gameplay. This is an oft repeated mantra of the 'games were better when I was a kid' set.
Strangely, the parents of those people think that games were better when they made you THINK, like Scrabble.
And their parents thought it was best when games made you PRODUCTIVE like being chained to a loom for 60 hours a week.
But really, today's games generally have far more depth than their predecessors. It's not like Missile Command was rocket science. Compare that to something like Rise of Nations.
In fact, Rise of Nations would have been impossible to do WITHOUT the graphics, because there are so many different types of units to represent.
Or look at something like a good First Person Shooter. In Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, a key part of the game is having the enemy blend in with the environment. This just doesn't happen when you only have 256 colors at 400x600.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) did ship with a relatively small number of maps. But the game is HUGE, I think they really delivered a LOT for what I paid.
The single player campaign was pretty good. Looked great, played well, no complaints at all.
The multiplayer game is humongous. There are 50 zillion was to set up a game. Different modes, co-op, team, single. There are on-line co-op missions, objective games, etc. etc.
The maps they included look fantastic, and some of them are big...no...EXTRA GRANDE. Maybe I've missed something along the way, but I don't remember a multiplayer map in any game that is as large as Old Town or Treasury in GRAW. There is a ton of detail, and each area is individualized- not repetitive levels like Halo2. (Which I also like a lot, but there is a lot of repetition)
Judging the multiplayer by the number of maps is doing the game a great injustice. It is far, far deeper than that. The GAMEPLAY is what can change, not just the surroundings.
Although I would greet new maps with open arms...I just want to say that they delivered enough content that the number of maps doesn't count against it.
Instead of buying a Mac, or installing OSx...or importing a Japanise MD, I went the easy way.
I bought 3 Rio Carbons. Super small, work perfectly, hold 5-6 gigs (I have two versions) of music, and I can use them as an external hard-drive.
Sony missed their chance to make the MD a good format. Flash and HD based players have eclipsed them by now.
I've owned 4 MiniDisc players, and I will say that they *could* have been great.
I loved the hardware- for the time they came out they were the smallest thing out there. The removeable disks did provide an 'unlimited' amount of storage. The battery life was awesome.
But as the author of the article mentioned, the achilles heel of the whole operation was the software.
SONIC STAGE *is* a steaming pile of shit. There is no way around that- it is one of the worst pieces of software I have ever used. And because you are forced to use Sonic State to use a MiniDisc player you are completely screwed over.
At the time I bought them (3-4 years ago) the hardware was A++. But the software is so crappy I would give the whole thing a D+.
Sony can really manage to screw some stuff up. And that is one reason I am not excited about the PS3 with Blu-Ray.
(Why did I buy 4? Well, the first one was great, but I lost it after only 2 days. So when I bought another one, I also picked one up for my wife and daughter.)
You're right. Instead of the enemy being Mexican, they should have set it in China.
Or Korea.
That would have been much better localization.
You're right on target there. "Nintendo is all about innovation."
Bullshit.
Nintendo is just a *little* different. Not a big deal. And they just keep recycling all of the same stuff. Yes, it is different from other people, but it is the same crap they've been selling for years.
Obviously your post insinuates that I have never paid a plumber, and therefore either are not very experience, or I still live in a situation where I don't hire plumbers (parents/apartment/etc.). So just by asking the question you make it obvious that you consider yourself superior in at least 2 different ways.
Umm...yes, I have paid a plumber (yay! I'm in the club!). And that was the point of my post.
Plumbers get paid a lot of money. An IT guy who makes his living crawling under desks doesn't make nearly as much. Even though both get paid, neither is a 'professional'.
Yet the plumber can make a lot of money. But there is a social difference between a professional job and a very high-paid blue-collar job.
You sir are an absolute winner.
I have never taken advice from anyone on Slashdot, because as we all know, every single one of us is a self-righteous prick.
But, I am going to follow your advice. As soon as I finish this post, I am going to get off my ass and go iron my clothes. I am giving a presentation today, and I was thinking that my clothes ('business casual' is my usual form of dress) were fine just coming out of the dryer.
I am going to take that extra step, and actually iron my shirt and pants. Because you are right- the 10 minutes I spend doing that will serve me much better than reading the ramblings of the incoherent fools here on Slashdot.
With absolutely no sarcasm, I thank you for the suggestion, and I want you to know that you have reached out to at least one person today.
Being a 'professional' does not just mean you get paid. That is the literal definition, professional means a whole lot more. Just as the comments way above talk about 'acting white'. That doesn't mean you put on a little makeup. There is more to it. (If you want details, just ask- I am a professional at acting white)
And the guy who crawls under desks? He is NOT a 'professional'. He is a 21st century plumber. One who probably gets paid less than a 20th century plumber.
Except that by the 1950's lynching was just about dead (pun intended) in the United States. A lynching of a white man by that time was unheard of.
Perhaps Einstein would not have been accepted in the post-plantation society, but the chance of him being lynched was far less than the chance of being killed by lightning.
I searched high and low for a single example of a white man lynched in Mississippi in the 1950's. I could not find any. Do you have any examples to cite?
Or is it just your own prejudice that makes you believe that the Klan (and others) has far more power than it really does?
Can anyone name a private industry that is NOT driven by the desire for sales?
Religion? Nope...all about the sales.
Entertainment? Sex? Automobiles? Healthcare?
Nope...they all want sales too. In fact, as far as I can tell, that is pretty much the definition of 'an industry' a group of organizations that all sell similar stuff.
Of course Hollywood, and Bollywood, and Silicon Valley and every other place wants to sell crap. That is why they are in business.
To the people who responded to your message and said, "Well this isn't part of the game..."
YES- it IS part of the game. And it isn't too bad. I spent a fair amount of time taking pictures of my cars in different places. They've got a lot of nice controls, and you can do all types of cool stuff. (Blur filters, lighting, angle, the whole 9 yards)
What's that you say? Taking pictures is stupid?
Did you ever play Pokemon Snap?
Standards are a difficult thing to understand....
An arbitrary organization can make up arbitrary rules and call them 'standards'.
A huge number of people can agree upon something, without the arbitrary organization giving it creedence, and it is called a 'de-facto standard'.
Different people are impressed by different types of standards. Not surprisingly, most people adhere to the de-facto standards (which is pretty much the definition) and don't realize it. They don't care- they only want stuff to work.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
Yeah, only about 250 million Americans, and a butt-load of Japanese will know what he is talking about.
No...it's not like iTunes, because the content is in HD, not Shit-D.
Amazon doesn't do the pre-payment. You get charged each time you make a purchase. Which you then have to deal with on your credit card bill. With XBLA I only charge my credit card occasionally.
And with Amazon, of course you don't get what you ordered right away, the usually have to ship it to you.
Except for things like audiobooks. Which is a *bad* thing to order from Amazon for compatibility reasons. (Do they still do audiobooks?)
But for me, these arcade games are just the little sprinkles on top of the icing on the cake.
Ghost Recon- now that is the cake- and the icing.
Call of Duty- lotsa cake, but some fucked up icing.
PGR 3 - carrot cake- which is cake, but I hate all of the guys on line who have a fit when you rub fenders with them. How is it that a single game can attract so many self-righteous jerks who feel that I am being an asshole, just because I am not GOOD at a game, and therefore can't drive in a straight line?
Hell, I've even spent some time playing Robotron on XBLA. Which is almost an exact port of a 20+ year old game. But it is still fun. And my $400 console is what delivers it to my fat ass while I sit on the couch, so I'm happy.
I *love* fancy, shiny, beautiful graphics. I really think they can add to a game. But if a game is good, I don't need those graphics. So I don't mind playing a game that could be played in last generation's consoles, as long as it is still fun.
Just a disclaimer though, it bugs the crap out of me that many people tend to think LESS of a game because of shiny and fancy graphics. Like there were only 1,000 hours of development available, and the time put into graphics was time taken away from 'gameplay'. I don't think games always need them, but I do think they benefit from them. But the XBLA games are usually the type that are based on very simplistic, repetitive gameplay- which is fun no matter what they look like.
Ah...someone who paid more attention that I did during the Major Nelson interview.
Thanks for the extra info.
Actually, it is a little bit worse than that.
If Microsoft had made the hard-drive STANDARD we could have downloaded bigger games.
For a game to be put on Xbox Live Arcade, it MUST fit on a memory card.
But then again, I don't think any of the games are even close to filling that.