You are assuming that just because a system comes out later, it means it was in development longer, and you imply that longer development is better (which is usually is, but your kind of off your mark). I have no idea what the Dreamcast development cycle was compared to the PS2, but the Dreamcast had solid release games, and the graphics of the Dreamcast still rival that of the current generation PS2 games (IMHO, one example would be Soul Calibur for DC versus Soul Calibur for PS2).
I definately agree with you about Metal Gear Acid. Why are people so excited about a card game??
1. You say that you sold six hundred thousand units. Is the game not capable of supporting this many users?
No it isn't. We had an untested backup plan that did not work either.
2. If it's true that the server problems are related to the overwhelming number of players, why was no effort made to better distribute players evenly across realms, or allow players and guilds to transfer to less populated servers?
We recommended a lower population server, but did not explain the implications of the choice, so people just made uninformed desicions. (Note: I would take a higher populated server if I didn't know it meant more lag. Do you want to play in a void??)
3. Currently, large scale player raids involving large groups of players experience a huge amount of latency. How do you plan to compensate for this in your upcoming PvP Battlegrounds feature?
Battlegrounds won't lag because we limit the number of people in a battle.
4. What accounts for the frequent "emergency" maintenance downtime? What issues are you attempting to resolve?
Once again we did not compensate for the high number of users. Do you think we had 600k people in our test environment?
5. What issues are you experiencing with your login/authentication servers? It is often the case for myself and the people I play with that we cannot access realms our friends are already logged into.
Once again we did not compensate for the high number of users. Do you think we had 600k people in our test environment?
6. When do you expect to have the worst of these problems resolved?
When enough people get pissed and leave and we finally upgrade. So in about 6 months.
7. Will the European launch utilize the same realms, or will these players be hosted on all new equipment? If they are hosted on new servers, what have you done to ensure that the launch will be free of the problems mentioned above?
We're not sure.
8. What would you have done differently?
Better market research, I guess. We'll get it fixed, don't worry.
Remember, if it gets warmer or cooler it is global warning. How can you argue with 100 years of decent weather data when the Earth has been here for hundreds of millions years?
One thing to remember people, since Sony is the biggest seller of consumer electronics there are going to be more out pissed off ones out there with faulty equipment. I'd like to see some sort of faulty equipment ratio to Panasnic, Samsung, ect. But yes, the Playstations are not known for durability or longevity.
It believe Duchovny stated one of the reasons he wanted to leave the X-Files is that he was getting stiffed on the syndication royalties because FOX sold the syndication to FX for cheap. I definately believe that, because as a newcomer cable channel it was the only show I watched on it (kind of reminds me of the whole TNN/SpikeTV STTNG thing where they got our attention then replaced it with crap). Anyway, he sued FOX over it, but I don't think he won anything -- correct me if I'm wrong. So if anything, he has shown he likes money, and if they make another movie, that's what he'll be getting.
I bought a DVI to HDMI cable (for my Comcast Motorola Box to Panasonic LCD projection screen) for $30 plus shipping at http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVI-hdmi_cables.html. Works great but there isnt much of a difference from component that I noticed.
Is this press release real? Sounds like some MBAs are trying to turn this channel into Nickelodeon for teenagers with ricer cars and a PS2 in the steering wheel instead of an airbag. I'm glad they at least are being straight about sucking, instead of pretending like they still have some TechTV life in them.
I totally agree with your statement. But they way it was posted on slashdot sounds like a victory against our new enemy here. Microsoft: Old and Busted, EA: New Hotness.
They rejected it because it would not have made them enough money. If it did, they would sell in a heartbeat. The NBA doesn't care about our selection, our opinions, especially when will buy it anyway. Really, how many people are going to say "I'm not buying Madden 20xx because EA sucks!!" Probably not enough to impact anything.
Gaming versus sitting on your butt watching TV
on
Gaming Does Good
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Growing up my parents had some moderately strict rules on playing video games, but the TV rules were not nearly as strict. I still see this idea today... people will kind of snicker if I mention I play video games more than watch TV. Am I taking crazy pills or what?! At least I am doing something (moving my hands, THINKING) instead of just being shoveled what is on the TV.
If you RTFA he is plugging a cancer specialist he either has or cancer or maybe a benign tumor that could they thought could be cancerous. But I doubt it is benign if he was having symptoms. Either way he doesn't want to come out and say it.
Does anyone know if MS considers IE as a free (as in cost) program or if it considers it part of the OS?
I could see where they could argue that because IE is a "free" program that you would have to pay for support and other "features". But if they consider it to be part of the OS then they are really just shafting people.
Or how about this question: If Dell includes a "Free" printer with your Dell computer (yeah yeah, it really isnt free with the cable and ink is it? just pretend its free), and it breaks, do they repair it for free? I would guess yes. But I'm not really comparing apples to apples here. Just something to think about i guess.
I wonder if someone has ever made a comment like this support Microsoft software lock in....
Yes, you are correct. But I like toys that are not limited to what the manufacturer intended them to do (or intended them to perpetuate income... I doubt Apple is selling those things at a loss, they aren't paying RETAIL for those mini-hard drives)
...that the themes and elements that you love about Doom are ALL represented strongly in the film...just with some new twists
Hmmm what themes are we looking at here: Monsters Violence Weapons...uh... I'm drawing a blank for any original or non-overkilled movie themes here. Just in the last year we've had Dawn of the Dead, AvP, Resident Evil 2....
The 5+ minute load time mentioned is a bit high. I don't recall the low end spec for the game, but on the family 486DX2/66 with 8 megs of RAM I got it down to 90 seconds to load a mission. There was an 7-8 meg mission file that you could copy over on install that would speed it up considerably. If you didn't copy that file over it would be brutal (but I doubt even 5 minutes unless on a 486/33). And actually, compared to Wing Commander 2, this game was pretty weak in terms of gameplay and story, yet it was still solid. I have every wing commander released for the PC (and the Sega CD) and I consider WC3 to be the weakest.
I've never seen an explanation to this question of mine: If we have only be keeping quality temperature records for the last 100-200 years, and only been taking quality temperature records all over the planet for the last few decades (uninhabited poles, jungles) how in the world can you reach the conclusion that the earth is warming? More less it is warming because it caused by humans?! I know fossil records can be used to -ESTIMATE- temperatures based on the temperature, but how exact can this be? Is it possible that the earth fluctuates temperature in a 3000 year cycle and we are just freaking out over something we don't understand (imagine that)? I accept the possibility of global warming by humans, but where is the proof?
I think we really need a business speak translator. He's my stab at it:
Most important: we recognize that this doesn't get fixed with one email or in one month. It's an on-going process of communication and change. And while I realize that the issue today is how we work - I think we should all remember that there are also a lot of great benefits to working at EA that are not offered at other companies. With some smart thinking and specific actions we will fix these issues and become stronger as a company.
Translation:
Hopefully this memo has given you enough false hope we can string you along for the next year in the same conditions before I have to write another memo promising changes. EA does have the same benefits of other companies out there but since you don't have time to look (because you are working 80 hours a week for us) you will never know, so just assume you are lucky. We aren't fixing anything, if you want to work for a stronger company, stop complaining.
If you are refering to the $60,000 not being low it is all relative. In Chicago 60k is a decent amount, but is totally not worth it if you work 80 hours a week a week. I don't know what the cost of living is by the EA offices but I'm not sure it's not the same as bumblef*ck, iowa. And you figure that $60,000 / 80 hours * 50 weeks in a year (assuming 2 weeks vacation and holidays in there), you are only making 15 bucks an hour (plus benefits). I guess it is your opion of 15 bucks an hour worth it considering your only free time involves sleeping.
You know, I saw an add walking to work today for a Spiderman 2 DVD. It was a picture of the DVD cover and it said "The Adventure Contiues!" I mean really, come on. Some jackass advertising company probably got paid a load for that. "The adventure continues"??? I could have come up with that in 2 seconds. Seriously, maybe if advertisers came up with more creative and less intrusive ways to advertise (i.e. trying to pass a bill that makes it illegal to skip a commerical) maybe we wouldn't hate advertisements so much.
To fight the urge to constantly be upgrading the last 6 years my rule has been I can upgrade motherboard and CPU every other year and on the off year I can get a new video card. Also, never spend more than $150 on a video card, or $200 on a motherboard and processor. Of course some upgrade require new RAM, so it isn't a perfect rule.
Other than that I get a new hard drive about every 3 years and I've had to get a new power supply in there somewhere. This has worked well for me.
Slashdot Mirror
You are assuming that just because a system comes out later, it means it was in development longer, and you imply that longer development is better (which is usually is, but your kind of off your mark). I have no idea what the Dreamcast development cycle was compared to the PS2, but the Dreamcast had solid release games, and the graphics of the Dreamcast still rival that of the current generation PS2 games (IMHO, one example would be Soul Calibur for DC versus Soul Calibur for PS2).
I definately agree with you about Metal Gear Acid. Why are people so excited about a card game??
I can see it now: millions of home videos will have a star wipe between every shot!
1. You say that you sold six hundred thousand units. Is the game not capable of supporting this many users?
No it isn't. We had an untested backup plan that did not work either.
2. If it's true that the server problems are related to the overwhelming number of players, why was no effort made to better distribute players evenly across realms, or allow players and guilds to transfer to less populated servers?
We recommended a lower population server, but did not explain the implications of the choice, so people just made uninformed desicions. (Note: I would take a higher populated server if I didn't know it meant more lag. Do you want to play in a void??)
3. Currently, large scale player raids involving large groups of players experience a huge amount of latency. How do you plan to compensate for this in your upcoming PvP Battlegrounds feature?
Battlegrounds won't lag because we limit the number of people in a battle.
4. What accounts for the frequent "emergency" maintenance downtime? What issues are you attempting to resolve?
Once again we did not compensate for the high number of users. Do you think we had 600k people in our test environment?
5. What issues are you experiencing with your login/authentication servers? It is often the case for myself and the people I play with that we cannot access realms our friends are already logged into.
Once again we did not compensate for the high number of users. Do you think we had 600k people in our test environment?
6. When do you expect to have the worst of these problems resolved?
When enough people get pissed and leave and we finally upgrade. So in about 6 months.
7. Will the European launch utilize the same realms, or will these players be hosted on all new equipment? If they are hosted on new servers, what have you done to ensure that the launch will be free of the problems mentioned above?
We're not sure.
8. What would you have done differently?
Better market research, I guess. We'll get it fixed, don't worry.
Remember, if it gets warmer or cooler it is global warning. How can you argue with 100 years of decent weather data when the Earth has been here for hundreds of millions years?
One thing to remember people, since Sony is the biggest seller of consumer electronics there are going to be more out pissed off ones out there with faulty equipment. I'd like to see some sort of faulty equipment ratio to Panasnic, Samsung, ect. But yes, the Playstations are not known for durability or longevity.
It believe Duchovny stated one of the reasons he wanted to leave the X-Files is that he was getting stiffed on the syndication royalties because FOX sold the syndication to FX for cheap. I definately believe that, because as a newcomer cable channel it was the only show I watched on it (kind of reminds me of the whole TNN/SpikeTV STTNG thing where they got our attention then replaced it with crap). Anyway, he sued FOX over it, but I don't think he won anything -- correct me if I'm wrong. So if anything, he has shown he likes money, and if they make another movie, that's what he'll be getting.
I bought a DVI to HDMI cable (for my Comcast Motorola Box to Panasonic LCD projection screen) for $30 plus shipping at http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/DVI-hdmi_cables .html. Works great but there isnt much of a difference from component that I noticed.
Is this press release real? Sounds like some MBAs are trying to turn this channel into Nickelodeon for teenagers with ricer cars and a PS2 in the steering wheel instead of an airbag. I'm glad they at least are being straight about sucking, instead of pretending like they still have some TechTV life in them.
10 PRINT "I AM COOL"
20 GOTO 10
I'm not yelling either, slashdot lameness filter
I totally agree with your statement. But they way it was posted on slashdot sounds like a victory against our new enemy here. Microsoft: Old and Busted, EA: New Hotness.
They rejected it because it would not have made them enough money. If it did, they would sell in a heartbeat. The NBA doesn't care about our selection, our opinions, especially when will buy it anyway. Really, how many people are going to say "I'm not buying Madden 20xx because EA sucks!!" Probably not enough to impact anything.
Growing up my parents had some moderately strict rules on playing video games, but the TV rules were not nearly as strict. I still see this idea today... people will kind of snicker if I mention I play video games more than watch TV. Am I taking crazy pills or what?! At least I am doing something (moving my hands, THINKING) instead of just being shoveled what is on the TV.
If you RTFA he is plugging a cancer specialist he either has or cancer or maybe a benign tumor that could they thought could be cancerous. But I doubt it is benign if he was having symptoms. Either way he doesn't want to come out and say it.
Does anyone know if MS considers IE as a free (as in cost) program or if it considers it part of the OS? I could see where they could argue that because IE is a "free" program that you would have to pay for support and other "features". But if they consider it to be part of the OS then they are really just shafting people. Or how about this question: If Dell includes a "Free" printer with your Dell computer (yeah yeah, it really isnt free with the cable and ink is it? just pretend its free), and it breaks, do they repair it for free? I would guess yes. But I'm not really comparing apples to apples here. Just something to think about i guess.
In Soviet Russia you Slashdot Slashdot!!
I wonder if someone has ever made a comment like this support Microsoft software lock in.... Yes, you are correct. But I like toys that are not limited to what the manufacturer intended them to do (or intended them to perpetuate income... I doubt Apple is selling those things at a loss, they aren't paying RETAIL for those mini-hard drives)
...that the themes and elements that you love about Doom are ALL represented strongly in the film...just with some new twists
...uh... I'm drawing a blank for any original or non-overkilled movie themes here. Just in the last year we've had Dawn of the Dead, AvP, Resident Evil 2....
Hmmm what themes are we looking at here:
Monsters
Violence
Weapons
It good quality! It have Sony guts!!
The 5+ minute load time mentioned is a bit high. I don't recall the low end spec for the game, but on the family 486DX2/66 with 8 megs of RAM I got it down to 90 seconds to load a mission. There was an 7-8 meg mission file that you could copy over on install that would speed it up considerably. If you didn't copy that file over it would be brutal (but I doubt even 5 minutes unless on a 486/33). And actually, compared to Wing Commander 2, this game was pretty weak in terms of gameplay and story, yet it was still solid. I have every wing commander released for the PC (and the Sega CD) and I consider WC3 to be the weakest.
I've never seen an explanation to this question of mine: If we have only be keeping quality temperature records for the last 100-200 years, and only been taking quality temperature records all over the planet for the last few decades (uninhabited poles, jungles) how in the world can you reach the conclusion that the earth is warming? More less it is warming because it caused by humans?! I know fossil records can be used to -ESTIMATE- temperatures based on the temperature, but how exact can this be? Is it possible that the earth fluctuates temperature in a 3000 year cycle and we are just freaking out over something we don't understand (imagine that)? I accept the possibility of global warming by humans, but where is the proof?
If you are refering to the $60,000 not being low it is all relative. In Chicago 60k is a decent amount, but is totally not worth it if you work 80 hours a week a week. I don't know what the cost of living is by the EA offices but I'm not sure it's not the same as bumblef*ck, iowa. And you figure that $60,000 / 80 hours * 50 weeks in a year (assuming 2 weeks vacation and holidays in there), you are only making 15 bucks an hour (plus benefits). I guess it is your opion of 15 bucks an hour worth it considering your only free time involves sleeping.
You know, I saw an add walking to work today for a Spiderman 2 DVD. It was a picture of the DVD cover and it said "The Adventure Contiues!" I mean really, come on. Some jackass advertising company probably got paid a load for that. "The adventure continues"??? I could have come up with that in 2 seconds. Seriously, maybe if advertisers came up with more creative and less intrusive ways to advertise (i.e. trying to pass a bill that makes it illegal to skip a commerical) maybe we wouldn't hate advertisements so much.
Actually, I had to upgrade the power supply because my new video card needed more power...
To fight the urge to constantly be upgrading the last 6 years my rule has been I can upgrade motherboard and CPU every other year and on the off year I can get a new video card. Also, never spend more than $150 on a video card, or $200 on a motherboard and processor. Of course some upgrade require new RAM, so it isn't a perfect rule.
Other than that I get a new hard drive about every 3 years and I've had to get a new power supply in there somewhere. This has worked well for me.