Looking at the situation, a good candidate may very well not be a science at all.
Non-Americans are able to learn just as well as any American, given sufficient investiment in their education. This is something India and China are doing. So no single field of study is going to put anyone on top for long. IP and patent wars will eventually stabilize, as Indian and Chinese companies gain enough patents in their names to make American companies wary of going after them, for fear of being sued themselves. So damn near anything you pick is only going to last a short time. Shorter now than years ago.
So what advantages, other than education, do I have as an American? A recent study puts myself and many Americans like me in the top 2% of the world's richest people. In fact, we (the lucky 2%) own half the world's wealth.
The answer may simply be capital.
In my 401(k), I have enough cash to start several small businesses in other countries. Doing so would be downright insane, as I (probably) do not know the language, culture, needs or niches of that country. But there certainly would be locals who do, but who lack the funds. Setting up easier (and safer) ways for those with cash to invest with those who need it would provide investment income for Americans, jobs for the lesser-educated in other countries (after all, the grocery store in Bangaluru I could have a 20% share of would be employing less educated workers to man the cash registers), and grow economies on both sides.
Just to clarify, I do NOT think this would be easy, solve all the world's problems, or is something that should be attempted now. Financial infrastructure for transfers, bill collecting, etc would need to be strengthened. Groups of investors looking to do the same thing would be needed to spread the risk around. There would be costs of translators to broker the deals, investigators to make sure purchased inventory actually exists, etc. Of course, all of these things would mean jobs for those with advanced degrees.
It would also require a strong dollar, and America's capital NOT be syphoned off. It would require more savings at home, and more security in potential markets... er, I mean, foreign countries.
Would I like all scientific breakthroughs to be made in America by American scientists working for American companies or American universities? Sure. That'd be peachy keen. But if the cure for cancer, or a 100% efficient $0.01/m^2 solar panel is discovered/created in China, or a huge leap forward in strong AI is made in India, I'm certainly going to be cheering just as hard. The application of those advancements will be help those with money, and as an American, I am fortunate enough to have been given one hell of a good head start in that department.
My in-Laws, and more recently, Uncle's reaction to the system had me convinced that Nintendo had a winner on their hands. However, there's still a BIG question as to whether or not their enjoyment of the console, or dozen or so hours of play time I've had with family members over the past two weeks, will translate into a single sale. Will they decide that the system is something that would be just as fun playing at home by themselves, or will they simply look back at fond memories they had spending time with us?
I love my grandmother's meatloaf, but I don't make it myself. It's just not the same.
People like you miss the point; the 'regulations' are not meant to absolve parents of their responsibility, and they don't excuse parental indifference or outright failure of responsibility, but are meant to provide a decent fallback for children who are failed by their parents.
You know, I disagree with you, but I must say this has to be one of the first pro-video-game-regulation arguments I've seen on Slashdot or anywhere else that is more than A) both sides spouting their already-stated "facts", B) "witty" retorts, C) crappy analogies or D) insults. You've obviously identified where the other person is coming from and targeting your argument to counter the oppositions arguments rather than shouting them down. Thank you, that's refreshing.
1) 2 AA. A pair comes with each of them, and they seem to last a while. My player one remote is still registering at 50 -> 75% charge. Going to invest in rechargables eventually.
2) Of my four multiplayer games (ie no Zelda, but including WiiSports) three of them would require multiple nunchucks at a given time. Rayman and WiiSports could theoretically pass the add-on back and forth for alternating games, but many of the mini-games are simultaneous, head-to-head play and would require a second. The fourth is Rampage:TD, and I don't include it simply because I THINK you can play it without a nunchuck at all (movement via the D-pad on the remote), but I wouldn't. In short, a second nunchuck would certainly be in my "must haves" category.
Note: this is just for my way of playing. Zelda is single player, of course, and the only thing WiiSports would need the second nunchuck for would be multiplayer boxing. So if it's for solo play, you could skip the added expense.
When I got my Wii I had pre-ordered Zelda, and Marvel: UA. On impulse at the store, I picked up Rayman Ravening Rabbids and Rampage: Total Destruction.
Zelda is a solid buy. I have some problems with it, but nothing earth shattering.
Rampage: TD was worth the money, but just barely. Comes with the original Rampage, and (I believe) the SNES version. The new version is enjoyable as multiplayer, though I was shocked to find out it maxed out at 2 players. The Wii controls are tacked on, and I'm sure the game would be just as enjoyable on another system.
Marvel: UA was a waste of money. Popped it in for 30 minutes, and my girlfriend and I (both comic book fans) decided we'd rather go back to Wii Sports.
Rayman Ravening Rabbids was a game I actually rank above Zelda in value. Solo, it is mildly amusing, but it's a fun party game. The controls are simple to master, but the minigames are difficult enough to have high replay value. Try out "Bunnies Love Hip Hop Part 2" for an example of this. The fact that the turn-based multiplayer version of the plunger FPSes require you to pass the controller around rather than everyone using the controller they've been using for EVERY OTHER DAMN GAME is an annoying UI problem, but not a game-breaking one.
The biggest shock was how much my in-Laws loved playing over Thanksgiving. The two non-gaming ~60 y.o.'s picked up every minigame they were exposed to immediately. In fact, my mother-in-law's bowling tips added 60 points to my game. My father-in-law loved the crunching noises people made as Lizzie ate a group of tourists... (hrm, okay, that was mildly disturbing). They went from considering video games things kids do to asking to play the instant they finished their pumpkin pie. The biggest sign that Nintendo had succeeded in doing what it was supposed to was when "Okay, we'll try it for a while" turned into "well, if you don't mind, could we".
Final warnings: if you are purchasing the system for the Wii Store or Internet features, wait. The functionality is slow, unreliable, and as I found out on Friday, can end up temporarily bricking* your Wii. I'm sure they'll get things fixed eventually, but as someone hoping for a quick, painless online experience, it's been quite disappointing.
[*] After attempting to access the store, all Wiimotes refused to acknowledge they were synced. Wii refused to resync them because it was convinced it had four synced Wiimotes already registered. No input to the Wii was possible. 10 minute phone call to Nintendo acknowledged it was a known issue, and they were able to give me a fix that got me up and running again. Still, I have yet to have a good experience with the Wii online.
It must vary from store to store, as my experience was the exact opposite. I was two people behind the cut off point. The manager took my name and phone number, and called around to the various other places in the area. Two hours later he called and told me he had gotten me a preorder 25 miles away, and that I could stop by tomorrow to pay and pick up the reciept.
That Gamestop (Latham Farms in Latham, NY) is definitely getting more of my business.
Well, if they actually come through on ship day. =P
Disclaimer: I'm not a big racing fan, so feel free to point out gaping holes in my assumptions.
I would be curious to see how much time you could trim by asking the companies whose cars you are featuring in your game for surface models of their vehicles. The information for various tracks could be purchased, from the track owners, or racers whose sponsors analyze every possible piece of data for that quarter-second advantage over their opponents. While the artwork for backgrounds can look spectacular, the need for extreme detail is low, as you are passing the surrouding buildings at high speed.
For an extensive RPG to work, dozens of monster models have to be thought up and modeled, then digitized with artwork then added. Even the most generic of creatures, say "Goblin" or "Dragon" has got to be created from scratch. Detailed scenes are expected, so artwork is crucial. RPG's also have higher requirements in the area of dialogue, story writing, voice acting, and (arguably) cut-scenes.
I won't say that making a good racing game is easier or cheaper than making a good RPG, but it would seem to be much easier to do a good job in a hurry. There are many short-cuts available to racing games that not only shorten development time, but add to the realism of the game (such as detailed models directly from the company).
Er, no. The First Amendment promises that you will not be subject to criminal prosecution for your speech. If I call my boss a *bleep*, or start singing showtunes in the middle of Psychology 101, I am not Constitutionally protected against consequences. I just won't be arrested for it.
By your argument: "The US Constitution guarentees that you will not suffer the consequences of censorship nor retaliation for what you say", then Slashdot lowering my karma, or restricting me from posting due to troll/flamebait posts is a violation of my civil rights. This is not the case.
Unfortunately, people claim Free Speech protection so often and from private entities, that when true violations of it occur, such as cartoonists getting visits from the Secret Service for insulting the President (not just the current one), are arrested at peaceful protests, etc. the true violations get lost in the noise.
The difference is a la carte programming takes your subscriber dollars away from the channels that show content you don't approve of. For example, subscribing to HBO, but having the V-chip block shows you don't approve of doesn't give HBO incentive to change the content they show. They still get their money either way. If I want to subscribe to PAX, and get Mtv forcibly bundled into the same package, I have no recourse to use my dollars to "vote against" inappropriate content on Mtv without canceling PAX. With the channel-by-channel option, I can cancel one to send a message that I don't approve of what they are doing.
Well, not sure I should say "I" because I watch neither, and enjoy risque content, but my point remains the same. Chances are, like you, I'd just take five channels and local programming, and ditch the rest.
Letting people who are offended by certain programming turn off the channel, instead of petitioning the government to censor the programming on a channel they can't help but get because of the bundling would be a good thing for both concerned parents, and those of us who like our programming smutty.
"You'd prefer an unfinished game rushed to launch a few weeks early, as opposed to a polished and perfected game?"
No. If I preferred that, I would have said, "I wish they had just rushed the game out to meet the deadline, rather than polishing and perfecting it." What I did say was "[I] Really wish the Zelda ship date hadn't slipped."
Saying "I really wish the garbage truck hadn't dinged my fender this morning." does not mean I wish garbage pickup would skip my street. One can lament a situation without inferring that the reasons behind it were not justified.
Actually, the numbers make me (Nintendo fanboy) a little nervous.
While Mario Kart DS and the wireless intiative should boost DS sales, I'm not seeing a blockbuster release for the Gamecube for the holidays. If their profits fall too much right before the Revolution's launch, the story may turn to Nintendo's financial woes and make generating buzz about the new system more difficult.
Really wish the Zelda ship date hadn't slipped. =(
While I agree with the gist of your post, I'll just mention that a lot of people aren't looking for blood and hookers, but rather consider "mature games" and "multi-player first person shooters" interchangable. Admittedly, the Gamecube does not have a huge library of these types of games. Indeed, without stronger networking capabilities, these type of games would be lost on the system. Hopefully if the Revolution's controller is as well-suited to FPS's as it looks to be, we'll have fewer people dismissing the Revolution as a "kiddy" system.
Disclaimer: Card Carrying Nintendo Fanboy, so take my comments as coming from such.
Nintendo does have mature games. Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil are examples. They will always carry family-friendly/kiddy games. You have listed examples of them. It is perfectly possible, and perfectly reasonable to do both. The existance of one does not preclude the existance of the other. In fact, limiting their audience by dropping one or the other would be an unwise choice. Most of your comments, such as your belief that they will add handles and such to the console seems to stem from the idea that they are a kiddy console. I would encourage you to rent a Gamecube and fire up some of their mature games to convince yourself otherwise. You really will have a blast.
The way I see it, if they have the controller working as flawlessly as people are hoping, they will have a real hit on their hands. If it is even SLIGHTLY under expectations, retail stores will be reclassifying them as paperweights to get rid of inventory. I don't believe there is a middle ground on this.
I'm guessing situations like that are relatively rare. After all, if the money involved in the transaction is truly trivial, most customers wouldn't waste their time calling a service line in the first place.
Customers for most companies generate more income with each sale than fifteen minutes with a service rep costs. Especially if that customer service rep is outsourced, cheaper labor. Repeat problem customers may be more trouble than they are worth, but that decision would be made by a human being.
"Evidently you don't work in customer service. Fed-up, pissed off people are who I don't want to talk to. Also, stupid people are who I don't want to talk to. "
I can see how someone on the front lines wouldn't want to talk to them, but (as you've said) the executives paying for the system want the system to cost them as little as possible, and make them as much as possible. Making them as much as possible usually means keeping customers, even if they infuriate their customer service reps.
As for stupid people, the author of the list referenced in the article seems both highly intelligent and well-off. That's the type of customer that companies that don't depend on volume for profit wants to keep happy and loyal. After all, that's why they pay people to handle customer service for them.
Really? I'm having no troubles loading it. With it being the middle of the afternoon on Turkey day*, I'm guessing Slashdot is not at its full destructive force.
[*] before someone says anything, I KNOW not everyone lives in the USA, but enough/.'ers seem to that the effect should be weakened.
"Or, big companies will simply introduce more sophisticated system. I think people get carried away and forget who is still behind and in control of the system."
Unfortunately, there's a ceiling on how advanced the systems can get. If things seem to be getting completely FUBARed, there has to be a choice made on what the default is. If the input completely flies in the face of what the program is expecting, the system designer has to make a choice as to how he handles the customer. Short of a call system capable of passing a Turing test, he can either A) drop the call and say "I'm sorry, the system can't figure out what you are doing. Tough. *click*" or B) pass the call on to a human who can intelligently handle the situation. I'm willing to bet in 99% of the situations where five '0' presses result in five "I'm sorry, that's not a valid option" replies, and the sixth connects to an agent, it's the system playing it safe.
Random button smashing usually denotes a fed-up, pissed off customer, and that's the last kind of customer you want the system to simply give up on.
I may just be overly pessimistic here, but I don't think Nintendo intends this feature to get used. If someone starts screaming at them that one of their "overly violent" video games caused their son to... I don't know, jump up and down on the family pet turtle... Nintendo could reply:
"How awful! We're very sorry that this violence made it through the hardware lock-out we have in place to let parents control this sort of thing. Your machine MUST be defective. Oh, wait, you WEREN'T using the lock-out? Even though we broadcast it as a feature on the front of our box, in the packaging, at initial start-up, on the instruction manual for the console, on the box of each game, and in the instruction manual for each game? Er... right. We'll let our lawyers take care of this."
"RPG/Adventure - Kameo, probably the best launch title out there. Great game."
Have you played it? For how long?
This is intended to be neither sarcastic, nor an attack. I'm simply an RPG fan, who skipped the XBox as it did not seem to have as much going for it in that department as the PS2 *coughFF Xcough*. I have my PC for MMORPG's, but if there were a couple nice RPG's for the XBox 360, I may give it another look.
I think he missed the real point of the criticism with his defense. I think the idea of different tiers of packaging and possible upgrades is a good idea. But I think many people believe that internal storage is no longer one of the "optional" features that can be removed to cut the cost of the machine.
This entire article grates on my nerves. But if I had to pick one thing to grouse about, it would have to be the management-bashing.
Some time ago at work, we had a bit of a fire that needed to be put out with one of our products. Everyone assumed that the guy with the most knowledge of that part of the product (let's call him "Joe") would be the one to take care of it. The boss ignored this, and assigned the work to me. Joe and I were both very stunned at this, because I had never even looked at the code in question. None of this made sense. The boss explained that since we had project funding for the other things that Joe was working on right now, and I was between projects, he wanted Joe to continue working on the funded project. It was a non-technical, management decision.
But it still didn't make sense to me. It would take me two or three days to get the code working the way it needed to, while Joe could do it in one. The wisdom of my boss was made clear later in the month, when some other changes needed to be made to the product in question, and he had two developers who were both able to handle it, no problem.
Technical advice is all well and good, but management is supposed to keep their eyes on the bigger picture, and part of their job is to be a filter for the business decisions the engineers should not have to worry about. If you tell them the code will take eight days, and they tell you that it has to be done in six, they very well may have a reason for doing so. If a customer or contract states that something is required in six days, the most beautiful, elegant piece of software ever written will go to waste if it takes eight. Sure, constantly compromising on code quality will get you in trouble, and give your company a reputation for bad code. But sometimes even the best plans run into hard deadlines or unforseen time-crunches.
In short, if your boss tells you to do something that doesn't make sense to you, or isn't as technologically sound as the path you suggest, the solution is not to jump ship. Most people I've worked for have been happy to explain their reasoning if I've asked. Truly exceptional managers will walk the line between keeping crap and politics off the plates of their developers, and giving the engineers the general reasons of why they need to do things this way. Truly exceptional engineers will acknowledge that there is more to the company than the tech, and meet them halfway on this.
"Canadians illegally download 14 music CDs or other files from the Internet for every file they take from the web legally, a new recording-industry poll suggests."
Pretty sure just by viewing the article I downloaded 15 files or so from the web legally (ads, banners, the text, spacers, etc.) so I'd better get cracking to download 210 CD's before I can look at another web page...
Slashdot Mirror
So, do tell, what IS the Next Big Thing(TM)?
Looking at the situation, a good candidate may very well not be a science at all.
Non-Americans are able to learn just as well as any American, given sufficient investiment in their education. This is something India and China are doing. So no single field of study is going to put anyone on top for long. IP and patent wars will eventually stabilize, as Indian and Chinese companies gain enough patents in their names to make American companies wary of going after them, for fear of being sued themselves. So damn near anything you pick is only going to last a short time. Shorter now than years ago.
So what advantages, other than education, do I have as an American? A recent study puts myself and many Americans like me in the top 2% of the world's richest people. In fact, we (the lucky 2%) own half the world's wealth.
The answer may simply be capital.
In my 401(k), I have enough cash to start several small businesses in other countries. Doing so would be downright insane, as I (probably) do not know the language, culture, needs or niches of that country. But there certainly would be locals who do, but who lack the funds. Setting up easier (and safer) ways for those with cash to invest with those who need it would provide investment income for Americans, jobs for the lesser-educated in other countries (after all, the grocery store in Bangaluru I could have a 20% share of would be employing less educated workers to man the cash registers), and grow economies on both sides.
Just to clarify, I do NOT think this would be easy, solve all the world's problems, or is something that should be attempted now. Financial infrastructure for transfers, bill collecting, etc would need to be strengthened. Groups of investors looking to do the same thing would be needed to spread the risk around. There would be costs of translators to broker the deals, investigators to make sure purchased inventory actually exists, etc. Of course, all of these things would mean jobs for those with advanced degrees.
It would also require a strong dollar, and America's capital NOT be syphoned off. It would require more savings at home, and more security in potential markets... er, I mean, foreign countries.
Would I like all scientific breakthroughs to be made in America by American scientists working for American companies or American universities? Sure. That'd be peachy keen. But if the cure for cancer, or a 100% efficient $0.01/m^2 solar panel is discovered/created in China, or a huge leap forward in strong AI is made in India, I'm certainly going to be cheering just as hard. The application of those advancements will be help those with money, and as an American, I am fortunate enough to have been given one hell of a good head start in that department.
My in-Laws, and more recently, Uncle's reaction to the system had me convinced that Nintendo had a winner on their hands. However, there's still a BIG question as to whether or not their enjoyment of the console, or dozen or so hours of play time I've had with family members over the past two weeks, will translate into a single sale. Will they decide that the system is something that would be just as fun playing at home by themselves, or will they simply look back at fond memories they had spending time with us?
I love my grandmother's meatloaf, but I don't make it myself. It's just not the same.
People like you miss the point; the 'regulations' are not meant to absolve parents of their responsibility, and they don't excuse parental indifference or outright failure of responsibility, but are meant to provide a decent fallback for children who are failed by their parents.
You know, I disagree with you, but I must say this has to be one of the first pro-video-game-regulation arguments I've seen on Slashdot or anywhere else that is more than A) both sides spouting their already-stated "facts", B) "witty" retorts, C) crappy analogies or D) insults. You've obviously identified where the other person is coming from and targeting your argument to counter the oppositions arguments rather than shouting them down. Thank you, that's refreshing.
1) 2 AA. A pair comes with each of them, and they seem to last a while. My player one remote is still registering at 50 -> 75% charge. Going to invest in rechargables eventually.
2) Of my four multiplayer games (ie no Zelda, but including WiiSports) three of them would require multiple nunchucks at a given time. Rayman and WiiSports could theoretically pass the add-on back and forth for alternating games, but many of the mini-games are simultaneous, head-to-head play and would require a second. The fourth is Rampage:TD, and I don't include it simply because I THINK you can play it without a nunchuck at all (movement via the D-pad on the remote), but I wouldn't. In short, a second nunchuck would certainly be in my "must haves" category.
Note: this is just for my way of playing. Zelda is single player, of course, and the only thing WiiSports would need the second nunchuck for would be multiplayer boxing. So if it's for solo play, you could skip the added expense.
When I got my Wii I had pre-ordered Zelda, and Marvel: UA. On impulse at the store, I picked up Rayman Ravening Rabbids and Rampage: Total Destruction.
Zelda is a solid buy. I have some problems with it, but nothing earth shattering.
Rampage: TD was worth the money, but just barely. Comes with the original Rampage, and (I believe) the SNES version. The new version is enjoyable as multiplayer, though I was shocked to find out it maxed out at 2 players. The Wii controls are tacked on, and I'm sure the game would be just as enjoyable on another system.
Marvel: UA was a waste of money. Popped it in for 30 minutes, and my girlfriend and I (both comic book fans) decided we'd rather go back to Wii Sports.
Rayman Ravening Rabbids was a game I actually rank above Zelda in value. Solo, it is mildly amusing, but it's a fun party game. The controls are simple to master, but the minigames are difficult enough to have high replay value. Try out "Bunnies Love Hip Hop Part 2" for an example of this. The fact that the turn-based multiplayer version of the plunger FPSes require you to pass the controller around rather than everyone using the controller they've been using for EVERY OTHER DAMN GAME is an annoying UI problem, but not a game-breaking one.
The biggest shock was how much my in-Laws loved playing over Thanksgiving. The two non-gaming ~60 y.o.'s picked up every minigame they were exposed to immediately. In fact, my mother-in-law's bowling tips added 60 points to my game. My father-in-law loved the crunching noises people made as Lizzie ate a group of tourists... (hrm, okay, that was mildly disturbing). They went from considering video games things kids do to asking to play the instant they finished their pumpkin pie. The biggest sign that Nintendo had succeeded in doing what it was supposed to was when "Okay, we'll try it for a while" turned into "well, if you don't mind, could we".
Final warnings: if you are purchasing the system for the Wii Store or Internet features, wait. The functionality is slow, unreliable, and as I found out on Friday, can end up temporarily bricking* your Wii. I'm sure they'll get things fixed eventually, but as someone hoping for a quick, painless online experience, it's been quite disappointing.
[*] After attempting to access the store, all Wiimotes refused to acknowledge they were synced. Wii refused to resync them because it was convinced it had four synced Wiimotes already registered. No input to the Wii was possible. 10 minute phone call to Nintendo acknowledged it was a known issue, and they were able to give me a fix that got me up and running again. Still, I have yet to have a good experience with the Wii online.
It must vary from store to store, as my experience was the exact opposite. I was two people behind the cut off point. The manager took my name and phone number, and called around to the various other places in the area. Two hours later he called and told me he had gotten me a preorder 25 miles away, and that I could stop by tomorrow to pay and pick up the reciept.
That Gamestop (Latham Farms in Latham, NY) is definitely getting more of my business.
Well, if they actually come through on ship day. =P
Disclaimer: I'm not a big racing fan, so feel free to point out gaping holes in my assumptions.
I would be curious to see how much time you could trim by asking the companies whose cars you are featuring in your game for surface models of their vehicles. The information for various tracks could be purchased, from the track owners, or racers whose sponsors analyze every possible piece of data for that quarter-second advantage over their opponents. While the artwork for backgrounds can look spectacular, the need for extreme detail is low, as you are passing the surrouding buildings at high speed.
For an extensive RPG to work, dozens of monster models have to be thought up and modeled, then digitized with artwork then added. Even the most generic of creatures, say "Goblin" or "Dragon" has got to be created from scratch. Detailed scenes are expected, so artwork is crucial. RPG's also have higher requirements in the area of dialogue, story writing, voice acting, and (arguably) cut-scenes.
I won't say that making a good racing game is easier or cheaper than making a good RPG, but it would seem to be much easier to do a good job in a hurry. There are many short-cuts available to racing games that not only shorten development time, but add to the realism of the game (such as detailed models directly from the company).
Er, no. The First Amendment promises that you will not be subject to criminal prosecution for your speech. If I call my boss a *bleep*, or start singing showtunes in the middle of Psychology 101, I am not Constitutionally protected against consequences. I just won't be arrested for it.
By your argument: "The US Constitution guarentees that you will not suffer the consequences of censorship nor retaliation for what you say", then Slashdot lowering my karma, or restricting me from posting due to troll/flamebait posts is a violation of my civil rights. This is not the case.
Unfortunately, people claim Free Speech protection so often and from private entities, that when true violations of it occur, such as cartoonists getting visits from the Secret Service for insulting the President (not just the current one), are arrested at peaceful protests, etc. the true violations get lost in the noise.
The difference is a la carte programming takes your subscriber dollars away from the channels that show content you don't approve of. For example, subscribing to HBO, but having the V-chip block shows you don't approve of doesn't give HBO incentive to change the content they show. They still get their money either way. If I want to subscribe to PAX, and get Mtv forcibly bundled into the same package, I have no recourse to use my dollars to "vote against" inappropriate content on Mtv without canceling PAX. With the channel-by-channel option, I can cancel one to send a message that I don't approve of what they are doing.
Well, not sure I should say "I" because I watch neither, and enjoy risque content, but my point remains the same. Chances are, like you, I'd just take five channels and local programming, and ditch the rest.
Letting people who are offended by certain programming turn off the channel, instead of petitioning the government to censor the programming on a channel they can't help but get because of the bundling would be a good thing for both concerned parents, and those of us who like our programming smutty.
"Give me smut and nothing but!"
-Tom Lehrer
"You'd prefer an unfinished game rushed to launch a few weeks early, as opposed to a polished and perfected game?"
No. If I preferred that, I would have said, "I wish they had just rushed the game out to meet the deadline, rather than polishing and perfecting it." What I did say was "[I] Really wish the Zelda ship date hadn't slipped."
Saying "I really wish the garbage truck hadn't dinged my fender this morning." does not mean I wish garbage pickup would skip my street. One can lament a situation without inferring that the reasons behind it were not justified.
Actually, the numbers make me (Nintendo fanboy) a little nervous.
While Mario Kart DS and the wireless intiative should boost DS sales, I'm not seeing a blockbuster release for the Gamecube for the holidays. If their profits fall too much right before the Revolution's launch, the story may turn to Nintendo's financial woes and make generating buzz about the new system more difficult.
Really wish the Zelda ship date hadn't slipped. =(
While I agree with the gist of your post, I'll just mention that a lot of people aren't looking for blood and hookers, but rather consider "mature games" and "multi-player first person shooters" interchangable. Admittedly, the Gamecube does not have a huge library of these types of games. Indeed, without stronger networking capabilities, these type of games would be lost on the system. Hopefully if the Revolution's controller is as well-suited to FPS's as it looks to be, we'll have fewer people dismissing the Revolution as a "kiddy" system.
Disclaimer: Card Carrying Nintendo Fanboy, so take my comments as coming from such.
Nintendo does have mature games. Eternal Darkness, Metroid Prime, and Resident Evil are examples. They will always carry family-friendly/kiddy games. You have listed examples of them. It is perfectly possible, and perfectly reasonable to do both. The existance of one does not preclude the existance of the other. In fact, limiting their audience by dropping one or the other would be an unwise choice. Most of your comments, such as your belief that they will add handles and such to the console seems to stem from the idea that they are a kiddy console. I would encourage you to rent a Gamecube and fire up some of their mature games to convince yourself otherwise. You really will have a blast. The way I see it, if they have the controller working as flawlessly as people are hoping, they will have a real hit on their hands. If it is even SLIGHTLY under expectations, retail stores will be reclassifying them as paperweights to get rid of inventory. I don't believe there is a middle ground on this.
I'm guessing situations like that are relatively rare. After all, if the money involved in the transaction is truly trivial, most customers wouldn't waste their time calling a service line in the first place.
Customers for most companies generate more income with each sale than fifteen minutes with a service rep costs. Especially if that customer service rep is outsourced, cheaper labor. Repeat problem customers may be more trouble than they are worth, but that decision would be made by a human being.
"Evidently you don't work in customer service. Fed-up, pissed off people are who I don't want to talk to. Also, stupid people are who I don't want to talk to. "
I can see how someone on the front lines wouldn't want to talk to them, but (as you've said) the executives paying for the system want the system to cost them as little as possible, and make them as much as possible. Making them as much as possible usually means keeping customers, even if they infuriate their customer service reps.
As for stupid people, the author of the list referenced in the article seems both highly intelligent and well-off. That's the type of customer that companies that don't depend on volume for profit wants to keep happy and loyal. After all, that's why they pay people to handle customer service for them.
Really? I'm having no troubles loading it. With it being the middle of the afternoon on Turkey day*, I'm guessing Slashdot is not at its full destructive force.
/.'ers seem to that the effect should be weakened.
[*] before someone says anything, I KNOW not everyone lives in the USA, but enough
"Or, big companies will simply introduce more sophisticated system. I think people get carried away and forget who is still behind and in control of the system."
Unfortunately, there's a ceiling on how advanced the systems can get. If things seem to be getting completely FUBARed, there has to be a choice made on what the default is. If the input completely flies in the face of what the program is expecting, the system designer has to make a choice as to how he handles the customer. Short of a call system capable of passing a Turing test, he can either A) drop the call and say "I'm sorry, the system can't figure out what you are doing. Tough. *click*" or B) pass the call on to a human who can intelligently handle the situation. I'm willing to bet in 99% of the situations where five '0' presses result in five "I'm sorry, that's not a valid option" replies, and the sixth connects to an agent, it's the system playing it safe.
Random button smashing usually denotes a fed-up, pissed off customer, and that's the last kind of customer you want the system to simply give up on.
I may just be overly pessimistic here, but I don't think Nintendo intends this feature to get used. If someone starts screaming at them that one of their "overly violent" video games caused their son to... I don't know, jump up and down on the family pet turtle... Nintendo could reply:
"How awful! We're very sorry that this violence made it through the hardware lock-out we have in place to let parents control this sort of thing. Your machine MUST be defective. Oh, wait, you WEREN'T using the lock-out? Even though we broadcast it as a feature on the front of our box, in the packaging, at initial start-up, on the instruction manual for the console, on the box of each game, and in the instruction manual for each game? Er... right. We'll let our lawyers take care of this."
"RPG/Adventure - Kameo, probably the best launch title out there. Great game."
Have you played it? For how long?
This is intended to be neither sarcastic, nor an attack. I'm simply an RPG fan, who skipped the XBox as it did not seem to have as much going for it in that department as the PS2 *coughFF Xcough*. I have my PC for MMORPG's, but if there were a couple nice RPG's for the XBox 360, I may give it another look.
Of course, if the company running the game is going to go under, they could always hold another auction.
/auc WTS brand new space resort, $100k. PST kkthnxlol
1. cp space_resort.zone new_space_resort.zone
2. perl -pi*.bak -e "s/Space Resort Alpha/Space Resort Beta/g" new_space_resort.zone
3.
4. Profit!
Better yet, they could ALSO charge other players to access it as an "expanion pack".
Coming Soon:
Rumored but not confirmed:
Of course, none of these may be your cup of tea. But for those of us who are Card Carrying Nintendo Fanboys, there's quite a bit to look forward to.
Now give me Super Smash Bros. DS, dammit...
I think he missed the real point of the criticism with his defense. I think the idea of different tiers of packaging and possible upgrades is a good idea. But I think many people believe that internal storage is no longer one of the "optional" features that can be removed to cut the cost of the machine.
This entire article grates on my nerves. But if I had to pick one thing to grouse about, it would have to be the management-bashing.
Some time ago at work, we had a bit of a fire that needed to be put out with one of our products. Everyone assumed that the guy with the most knowledge of that part of the product (let's call him "Joe") would be the one to take care of it. The boss ignored this, and assigned the work to me. Joe and I were both very stunned at this, because I had never even looked at the code in question. None of this made sense. The boss explained that since we had project funding for the other things that Joe was working on right now, and I was between projects, he wanted Joe to continue working on the funded project. It was a non-technical, management decision.
But it still didn't make sense to me. It would take me two or three days to get the code working the way it needed to, while Joe could do it in one. The wisdom of my boss was made clear later in the month, when some other changes needed to be made to the product in question, and he had two developers who were both able to handle it, no problem.
Technical advice is all well and good, but management is supposed to keep their eyes on the bigger picture, and part of their job is to be a filter for the business decisions the engineers should not have to worry about. If you tell them the code will take eight days, and they tell you that it has to be done in six, they very well may have a reason for doing so. If a customer or contract states that something is required in six days, the most beautiful, elegant piece of software ever written will go to waste if it takes eight. Sure, constantly compromising on code quality will get you in trouble, and give your company a reputation for bad code. But sometimes even the best plans run into hard deadlines or unforseen time-crunches.
In short, if your boss tells you to do something that doesn't make sense to you, or isn't as technologically sound as the path you suggest, the solution is not to jump ship. Most people I've worked for have been happy to explain their reasoning if I've asked. Truly exceptional managers will walk the line between keeping crap and politics off the plates of their developers, and giving the engineers the general reasons of why they need to do things this way. Truly exceptional engineers will acknowledge that there is more to the company than the tech, and meet them halfway on this.
From the article:
"Canadians illegally download 14 music CDs or other files from the Internet for every file they take from the web legally, a new recording-industry poll suggests."
Pretty sure just by viewing the article I downloaded 15 files or so from the web legally (ads, banners, the text, spacers, etc.) so I'd better get cracking to download 210 CD's before I can look at another web page...