You could get good DVD players (Panasonic brand) in $150 in late 2000. That's half the price of the PS2 when it came out. I didn't have a DVD player and I thought it was a good selling point when I got my PS2 in 2001, but I did not think it was a "very cheap" DVD player.
The DVD player contributed it, but it is by far the "real" reason it was so successful.
This is not a justification for the PS3 price. I think its high. But I do think this phenomenon is interesting.)
Fabulous new mobile phone, lots of bells and whistles = people happily pay $500
Fabulous new video iPod, lots of nice features = people giddily pay $500
Fabulous new game console, nex-gen features = people freak out, say $500 is way way too much.
Uhh... how did this get modded interesting? There are no $500 iPods. I know there are $500 phones but the only people I know that have these phones were paid for by their place of work. Most people that have $300 phones got them heavily discounted with a plan. Unless you were talking about currency other than USD, I am not sure where you got these numbers.
While your idea may sound good, but I would rather have two "pretty good" people who can work together versus one "excellent" person? Why? Don't put all your eggs in one basket. (redundancy)
What if the excellent person wants to go on vacation to Europe for two weeks and server melts you can't get him on his cell phone for 8 hours? What if he gets hit by a bus or quits? From his side, he would probably have a nicer vacation knowing there is someone there to take care of things. You can say "well a really excellent guy would leave a backup plan that a monkey could follow", I doubt you could grab Eileen from accounting to slap a server together.
I would say that Dreamcast would be more a B or B+, but I totally get the same feel for the DS and Dreamcast when you are talking about off-genre and niche games. Maybe it is just the color of my white DS Lite is a bit reminiscent of the Dreamcast.
Good for you and your ego. Well, I was born in 79 and played Dragon Warrior when it came out in the US, but I wasnt sure what year. So maybe earlier than 10, but not as young as you, my elite friend.
Maybe I am wrong, but I don't see an age range. When I was 10 years old I started playing RPGs, so I think an RPG is definately OK for a 10-12 year old. Children's Hospitals still have children up into teen years (up to 18 I think).
Yes, I totally agree with what you are saying. I touched on this briefly the other day http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=203727&c id=16658763. I really think Chris Roberts started with WC1 because he thought it would be a success then move on to WC2. Total ego. He should have started with WC2, then gone to WC3. I mean, your character in WC1 never even spoke and was really only known as "Bluehair" (other then the name you gave him or "Hotshot" in the Sega CD version). WC1 really set a really nice universe set up, but left it too open for some movie writer to mold it into derivative Hollywood crap.
Well, they hate 2D games in the US more than Japan apparently. Look into Working Designs, they had ongoing problems with Sony not approving the 2D RPG games they wanted to translate from Japan. In one instance they had to bundle two games together (Growlancer: Generations) and sell it as one game to get approval, when they wanted to sell the games seperately. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_designs Growlanser Generations sold well, but of course not better than it would have sold as two separate titles. We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out, and other games approved.
I played SH2 before SH1, so I was freaked out more by it. I was expecting a Resident Evil "jump out and scare you" type game but I got something totally different. There really wasn't a specific scary part, but the audio really helped. The whole freaking game scared me. Even at the start when you are walking down the path in the fog I could swear there were footsteps following me... but when you stop, they stop.
Sometimes while playing I couldn't tell if the controller was rumbling or if I was shaking...
I think Wing Commander had great potential to be a good movie. There was already a close to movie quality story going on in WC2. Yet, Chris Roberts opted to start with WC1, a great game but a relatively weak storyline to WC2. Yeah, it might have been a little hokey trying to bring everyone up to speed with the characters, but it could have been done.
The only video game movie that I would say is good is Silent Hill. It could have been better, but overall I was satisfied, and I am a big fan of the games.
Don't hang me, but Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil movies have been good popcorn movies, but really not really good enough I would buy the DVD or anything.
I don't have mod points, but I totally agree with this. I have been out of college for 5 years, and my first job took about 2 years to basically learn all the existing code and my job got to the point where it was too "boring", so I spent a year trying to take my skills to the next level. Well, I learned some stuff but switching jobs took me to the next level 10 times faster then me reading a book and playing around with stuff on my own. Working with bigger systems and more advanced programmers really brought me to the next level. Now I am to the point where it is getting boring again and I am not sure what I can do to keep learning without jumping ship for bigger brighter things.
Do you work with other programmers? Are they content to spin their wheels all day? Competition can also be good thing, and its nice to have someone else really into coding.
Most people do not play WoW the way this guy plays it. He sees it as organization a team of people, statistics, and a learning experience. He's a leader, but he is by far the minority. Not everyone in WoW can be a leader, and I would say very few people are trying to mentally make the most of playing the game.
What is up with people saying that they've made so many "friends" in WoW? Look, if you meet up with someone in RL that you met in WoW in and you get along, that's more of a friend. Talking to someone in guild chat about how their day at school was is not really personally knowing someone, and definitely not someone I would consider as a real "friend".
I think he may be refering to a US law that protects minor's information. I'm not sure the details of the law or what this spyware is collecting exactly, but this could be an issue.
I'm sure it's not your only complaint, but Steam does not insist on running on startup. I simply used MSCONFIG to remove it from startup and Steam has not tried to put itself back in there like QT and Real does. I'm sure there might be a setting in Steam as well, but I have not locked.
What I am suggesting is instead of dropping it a trash can, drop it a box and give it to someone who DOES NOT WORK FOR THAT COMPANY will take the time.
For example, I had a hard drive die and I bought a replacement immedately. I gave the old drive to my brother who is in college and said if he wanted to go through the RMA process to get a refurbished drive, go ahead. He did, and got a much bigger hard drive for next to nothing.
How were you denied a chance to play Shadow of the Colossus? Its a greatest hit now so its all over big retail stores and I still see at every store I go to. I agree you we are denied unique games based publisher funding, but not on shelf space.
I think instead of throwing away drives you could work out a donation deal or a deal where you get a little money back for the drives. Someone out there is willing to spend the time and take the risk with refurbished drives. When you buy the drives the warranty isn't free you know, its built into the cost.
I totally hate the concept of micropayments like the horse armor. However, the thing that bugged me MOST about horse armor is that when Oblivion was released it was a mess -- with several show stopping bugs. But there we were a few weeks after the release and they release some stupid horse armor that you can buy. Please, instead of using resources for horse armor they should have been working on getting out a patch. At least show us that you are trying to fix the game with all your resources, not working on ways to squeeze the consumer.
I don't have mod points to mod up your comment, so I'll mention that slashdotters were speculationg that the price would be $200, but no one at Nintendo ever promised it to be $200. There was just speculation by people outside of Nintendo, then an an annoucement of price by Nintendo... $250, quit crying.
Uh what? I'm pretty sure there were plenty of movies with guns in the 50s. WWII movies and Cowboys and Indians for sure. Maybe it was portrayed differently but they didn't use pointy sticks in those movies (well, maybe the Indians).
I agree with everything you said up to the helmet thing. Part of what is cool about this game and Morrowind is that you are free to do things like that.
Slashdot Mirror
You could get good DVD players (Panasonic brand) in $150 in late 2000. That's half the price of the PS2 when it came out. I didn't have a DVD player and I thought it was a good selling point when I got my PS2 in 2001, but I did not think it was a "very cheap" DVD player.
The DVD player contributed it, but it is by far the "real" reason it was so successful.
This is not a justification for the PS3 price. I think its high. But I do think this phenomenon is interesting.) Fabulous new mobile phone, lots of bells and whistles = people happily pay $500 Fabulous new video iPod, lots of nice features = people giddily pay $500 Fabulous new game console, nex-gen features = people freak out, say $500 is way way too much. Uhh... how did this get modded interesting? There are no $500 iPods. I know there are $500 phones but the only people I know that have these phones were paid for by their place of work. Most people that have $300 phones got them heavily discounted with a plan. Unless you were talking about currency other than USD, I am not sure where you got these numbers.
While your idea may sound good, but I would rather have two "pretty good" people who can work together versus one "excellent" person? Why? Don't put all your eggs in one basket. (redundancy) What if the excellent person wants to go on vacation to Europe for two weeks and server melts you can't get him on his cell phone for 8 hours? What if he gets hit by a bus or quits? From his side, he would probably have a nicer vacation knowing there is someone there to take care of things. You can say "well a really excellent guy would leave a backup plan that a monkey could follow", I doubt you could grab Eileen from accounting to slap a server together.
I would say that Dreamcast would be more a B or B+, but I totally get the same feel for the DS and Dreamcast when you are talking about off-genre and niche games. Maybe it is just the color of my white DS Lite is a bit reminiscent of the Dreamcast.
Heh sorry, I am bad at reading tone in text.
Now GIT OFF MY LAWN YOUNGIN!!!
Good for you and your ego. Well, I was born in 79 and played Dragon Warrior when it came out in the US, but I wasnt sure what year. So maybe earlier than 10, but not as young as you, my elite friend.
Maybe I am wrong, but I don't see an age range. When I was 10 years old I started playing RPGs, so I think an RPG is definately OK for a 10-12 year old. Children's Hospitals still have children up into teen years (up to 18 I think).
Yes, I totally agree with what you are saying. I touched on this briefly the other day http://books.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=203727&c id=16658763. I really think Chris Roberts started with WC1 because he thought it would be a success then move on to WC2. Total ego. He should have started with WC2, then gone to WC3. I mean, your character in WC1 never even spoke and was really only known as "Bluehair" (other then the name you gave him or "Hotshot" in the Sega CD version). WC1 really set a really nice universe set up, but left it too open for some movie writer to mold it into derivative Hollywood crap.
Well, they hate 2D games in the US more than Japan apparently. Look into Working Designs, they had ongoing problems with Sony not approving the 2D RPG games they wanted to translate from Japan. In one instance they had to bundle two games together (Growlancer: Generations) and sell it as one game to get approval, when they wanted to sell the games seperately. From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_designs
Growlanser Generations sold well, but of course not better than it would have sold as two separate titles. We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out, and other games approved.
Working Designs is now out of business.
I played SH2 before SH1, so I was freaked out more by it. I was expecting a Resident Evil "jump out and scare you" type game but I got something totally different. There really wasn't a specific scary part, but the audio really helped. The whole freaking game scared me. Even at the start when you are walking down the path in the fog I could swear there were footsteps following me... but when you stop, they stop.
Sometimes while playing I couldn't tell if the controller was rumbling or if I was shaking...
I think Wing Commander had great potential to be a good movie. There was already a close to movie quality story going on in WC2. Yet, Chris Roberts opted to start with WC1, a great game but a relatively weak storyline to WC2. Yeah, it might have been a little hokey trying to bring everyone up to speed with the characters, but it could have been done.
The only video game movie that I would say is good is Silent Hill. It could have been better, but overall I was satisfied, and I am a big fan of the games. Don't hang me, but Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil movies have been good popcorn movies, but really not really good enough I would buy the DVD or anything.
I don't have mod points, but I totally agree with this. I have been out of college for 5 years, and my first job took about 2 years to basically learn all the existing code and my job got to the point where it was too "boring", so I spent a year trying to take my skills to the next level. Well, I learned some stuff but switching jobs took me to the next level 10 times faster then me reading a book and playing around with stuff on my own. Working with bigger systems and more advanced programmers really brought me to the next level. Now I am to the point where it is getting boring again and I am not sure what I can do to keep learning without jumping ship for bigger brighter things.
Do you work with other programmers? Are they content to spin their wheels all day? Competition can also be good thing, and its nice to have someone else really into coding.
I thought the same thing. A quick google search reminded me that I got it from a Devil May Cry 2 preview. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/devilmaycry2/ne ws.html?sid=2880617
Most people do not play WoW the way this guy plays it. He sees it as organization a team of people, statistics, and a learning experience. He's a leader, but he is by far the minority. Not everyone in WoW can be a leader, and I would say very few people are trying to mentally make the most of playing the game.
What is up with people saying that they've made so many "friends" in WoW? Look, if you meet up with someone in RL that you met in WoW in and you get along, that's more of a friend. Talking to someone in guild chat about how their day at school was is not really personally knowing someone, and definitely not someone I would consider as a real "friend".
I think he may be refering to a US law that protects minor's information. I'm not sure the details of the law or what this spyware is collecting exactly, but this could be an issue.
I'm sure it's not your only complaint, but Steam does not insist on running on startup. I simply used MSCONFIG to remove it from startup and Steam has not tried to put itself back in there like QT and Real does. I'm sure there might be a setting in Steam as well, but I have not locked.
What I am suggesting is instead of dropping it a trash can, drop it a box and give it to someone who DOES NOT WORK FOR THAT COMPANY will take the time. For example, I had a hard drive die and I bought a replacement immedately. I gave the old drive to my brother who is in college and said if he wanted to go through the RMA process to get a refurbished drive, go ahead. He did, and got a much bigger hard drive for next to nothing.
How were you denied a chance to play Shadow of the Colossus? Its a greatest hit now so its all over big retail stores and I still see at every store I go to. I agree you we are denied unique games based publisher funding, but not on shelf space.
I think instead of throwing away drives you could work out a donation deal or a deal where you get a little money back for the drives. Someone out there is willing to spend the time and take the risk with refurbished drives. When you buy the drives the warranty isn't free you know, its built into the cost.
I totally hate the concept of micropayments like the horse armor. However, the thing that bugged me MOST about horse armor is that when Oblivion was released it was a mess -- with several show stopping bugs. But there we were a few weeks after the release and they release some stupid horse armor that you can buy. Please, instead of using resources for horse armor they should have been working on getting out a patch. At least show us that you are trying to fix the game with all your resources, not working on ways to squeeze the consumer.
I don't have mod points to mod up your comment, so I'll mention that slashdotters were speculationg that the price would be $200, but no one at Nintendo ever promised it to be $200. There was just speculation by people outside of Nintendo, then an an annoucement of price by Nintendo... $250, quit crying.
Uh what? I'm pretty sure there were plenty of movies with guns in the 50s. WWII movies and Cowboys and Indians for sure. Maybe it was portrayed differently but they didn't use pointy sticks in those movies (well, maybe the Indians).
Heh... you goth served him
I agree with everything you said up to the helmet thing. Part of what is cool about this game and Morrowind is that you are free to do things like that.
Can you post a link where Nintendo ever lied about the price? I think you have mistaken industry guestimates with offical Nintendo statements.