When people start locking up their Sims in Sims 2 just to see them waste away and die, will the press be all over it? No, because the Sims are the media's darling. The mainstream press are the ones that hyped the Sims Online like mad, yet they conveniently forgot to cover the post-launch, when no one was playing.
Really? The LA Times ran a story about this LAST WEEK. It covered the on-going fortune of the MMORPG and drawing in more mainstream gamers. It hit on the horrible failure of the Sims Online. Maybe the LA Times isnt mainstream enough for you? I'd include a link but I read it in the actual print version so it doesn't hyperlink well.
Step right up folks. Get your revisionist history right here. All you need compliments of cgenman. We can provide backup for any prediction of the future you want to make, just by making up the past to look like it will backup your future. How do we do it for the low-low price of nothing? Well its an internet message board of course, where any random person can make up any random past and given enough time, it will get modded up. So get it while there is still time!
I recommend you quit your job immediately. Find another place to work. I am sure someone would gladly accept your paycheck and actually work and not worry about things like this at work.
As a casual observer I have to say that this would seem to strengthen the RIAA's point. By developing their own solution when others would seem to already exist, these colleges lend weight to the notion that the existent services are not designed for "legitimate use", but rather for what they are used for now: Illegitimate use, in the eyes of the RIAA.
Its a non-compete, not a non-work. So what can't these programmers do? Work for EA. What can they do? Just about anything else, even in software. Ubi has about 4 competitors in the world. EA, Activision, Take-Two, VU, and then it falls off from there. Guess what? There are a hell of alot of other companies out there. These programmers are adults. They made choices. They happened to make the dumb choice of so PERFECTLY violating their non-compete clauses that judges are ruling against them. As adults, let them live with their choices. There is no slipperly slope. These idiots did the one thing they were contractually obliged not to do and now they have to live with that. Its called being an adult.
They are adults. They made the poor choice to leave. Why should they have special protection? Sometimes adults make choices, sometimes they are dumb, but they should always accept their choice and live with the ramifications.
That article was some seriously glorious self-love right there. As it turns out, the mainstream press has been reviewing stuff as long as their has been stuff to review. So why would games be any different?
The author supposes that the mainstream press portrays games negatively because of a few eggs, that while not bad per se, are controversial at least. Well, thats not really true. The mainstream press tells the story of those games because they are controversial. This is called "a story", and this sells issues. If we don't want people covering games such as GTA and Postal, don't buy (hence ceasing production of) these games. Those games are part of the large picture and the media tends to report the extreme of all things, note here that games are not special in this way, so why would games be any different. Sounds to me like this issue is as matured as any in the mainstream. As for the Touched by an Angel point (which seems to be the only specific account provided), the writer of that show is allowed any view of the issue he wants. As soon as real people stop dying over Counter-Strike and Everquest, I'll rid myself of the notion that just maybe games can have an effect on people.
The writer of the article questions the ability of the press to be able to comprehend games due to limited exposure. Oh please, touch yourself some more. Yes, a non-games specific writer would not be expected to play games as much as a full-time games writer, but is this bad? In the MAINSTREAM press one would hope the writer most closely matches the audience, ie mainstream. The author then plays terminology nazi, which is always convincing and never sour-grapes sounding. Noone cares if one uses video games or computer games except term nazis and noone cares what they think anyway. If I am reading Maxim for my video game reviews, I would want the writer to think like someone who gets their game reviews from Maxim thinks. Think is a good thing.
As for the young vs old gamer thing. Yes, kids play games more (always will) and they have more time to practice the current game and are better at it because of this. A stupid, grasping point to make in the first place.
I really like this one: In other words, we need to reflect a higher standard than the mainstream press. HA! No article published on the internet will ever be of the same quality as real press. If it was, the writer would be employed by the legitimate press and not some fan(boy)-site.
As for the point of necessary skill as a gamer? Nonsense. Despite some opinion to the contrary, if a game isn't fun within the first hour, on the first level, when will it be fun? Someone reading the mainstream press will want that first level to be fun and will want to know if it is or isnt.
This is just another self-important article by the needy gaming press. It is needy and attention hungry by nature and this article is just one exhibition of that fact.
If you truly believe what you say, can I please have your credit card number, checking account number, social security number, full legal name and any passwords or pin numbers you use?
See, I'm not even going to copy any bits, I just want to move some around. You like to share right? So set the information free! Its just bits on some server somewhere not real physical property.
I'll take the fact that you don't post that information to mean that you are a hypocrite. Please, share with us. You say you like to share.
NanoGator, you have made some good points in the past, some I agreed with and some I didn't.
But did you just say that a company should spend millions of dollars to produce a piece of entertainment software AND THEN the only reason someone should feel like paying money for it is if it includes a small pewter statue or game art? WTF is that?
An interesting question. One could ask the same thing about Coca-Cola and Nike though. Clearly everyone has heard about all three of these products. I suppose the answer may be the same for all three and have nothing to do with operating systems, soft drinks or athletic shoes.
So which is it? Should a publisher put out a demo before the game is gold or after?
If they put out an official demo before, OF COURSE its not final code. In fact, at least part of the development team has to stop working on the main sku to get the demo out so it slows both projects down. So the demo gets into gamers' hands before the game hits the shelf, but everyone gets pissed off because its not bug-free.
If the official demo comes out after the game ships, everyone complains about that and uses it as an excuse to infringe the publisher's copyright and download a warez copy. Huh.
How can the publishers make you happy when you don't even know what you want?
If even one player succeeds in becoming jedi, out of 300,000 players, it will mean there are 100,000,000 times as many Jedi as is realistic.
No amount of Jedi is actually realistic partner. You do know that Star Wars is just some movies for kids and not actual history right? Yes its true. Also, there are no wizards or half-elfs either. With this new information I encourage you to do outside (yes, its alright, don't believe the FUD about the outside) and go fishing. Perhaps you will even catch a bullcarp.
In the thread about Atari reducing its Gamecube support:
The market is finally going to mature and splinter. Microsoft will be the "other" console in the US and Europe and Nintendo will be the "other" console in Japan. This will allow the companies to taylor their products to the different audiences, which continue to grow more and more different everyday. The niche fanboy crowd can always import of course.
This is good news for third party publishers too. With only two consoles to worry about in either market, their development efforts can be more focused on making the best possible end product. So farewell, Big N. I'll always remember the good times we had. IMHO, though, this is a good thing.
For the next time some hippy says "information wants to be free." Well clearly only some information according to the slashbots. If information wants to be free, so be it. If someone is showing you that, in their humble opinion, pepsi is a delicious beverage far superior to other national brands, so be it. If someone is demonstrating that, in their humble opinion, a honda is a mighty fine automobile to drive, so be it.
Oh government, save us from Fox Mulder getting a haircut at supercuts. Look at that basketball player! He's clearly wearing nike shoes! But don't you dare say whose copyright we can and cannot infringe.
From FTC.gov What truth-in-advertising rules apply to advertisers? Under the Federal Trade Commission Act:
advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive; advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and advertisements cannot be unfair. Additional laws apply to ads for specialized products like consumer leases, credit, 900 telephone numbers, and products sold through mail order or telephone sales. And every state has consumer protection laws that govern ads running in that state.
Wow no mention of to what types of advertisements this applies. So I bet it already covers product placement.
Oh Holy Government, deliver us from everyone who sells products. Most Benevolent Government, I cannot get myself to turn the TV off, so please, in thine mercy, clense the airwaves of any chance for profit. I mean, jobs are soooooooo overrated.
If anything could be considered music why do we have a seperate word than sound or noise? All music is sound, but not all sound is music. Experimental "music" is most often just sound and not music at all. And thats okay, but its not music just sounds.
I do find it interesting though, that in a follow-up post you yourself make a value judgement on what is or is not music. Long live musical elitist hypocrisy!
Well, like you hinted at, a developer can actually build an "image". Hell, when Activision was founded back in the day they used the images of the developers to sell the product like David Crane's Pitfall. This still continues today, see Richard Garriott and the non-compete that stung him. See also Sid Meier, American McGee, et al. Just stealing that name away could be huge.
I guess this is a big tactic for EA now. I heard, they are doing the same thing at the new EA LA shovelware plant. Plenty of established video game talent in the West Los Angeles area to poach. This may not turn out to be an isolated incident.
Maybe all this recruitment means the new Sims expansion will be the best one yet!
Slashdot Mirror
When people start locking up their Sims in Sims 2 just to see them waste away and die, will the press be all over it? No, because the Sims are the media's darling. The mainstream press are the ones that hyped the Sims Online like mad, yet they conveniently forgot to cover the post-launch, when no one was playing.
Really? The LA Times ran a story about this LAST WEEK. It covered the on-going fortune of the MMORPG and drawing in more mainstream gamers. It hit on the horrible failure of the Sims Online. Maybe the LA Times isnt mainstream enough for you? I'd include a link but I read it in the actual print version so it doesn't hyperlink well.
Step right up folks. Get your revisionist history right here. All you need compliments of cgenman. We can provide backup for any prediction of the future you want to make, just by making up the past to look like it will backup your future. How do we do it for the low-low price of nothing? Well its an internet message board of course, where any random person can make up any random past and given enough time, it will get modded up. So get it while there is still time!
I recommend you quit your job immediately. Find another place to work. I am sure someone would gladly accept your paycheck and actually work and not worry about things like this at work.
As a casual observer I have to say that this would seem to strengthen the RIAA's point. By developing their own solution when others would seem to already exist, these colleges lend weight to the notion that the existent services are not designed for "legitimate use", but rather for what they are used for now: Illegitimate use, in the eyes of the RIAA.
Anyway, thats just one possible view of this.
Its a non-compete, not a non-work. So what can't these programmers do? Work for EA. What can they do? Just about anything else, even in software. Ubi has about 4 competitors in the world. EA, Activision, Take-Two, VU, and then it falls off from there. Guess what? There are a hell of alot of other companies out there. These programmers are adults. They made choices. They happened to make the dumb choice of so PERFECTLY violating their non-compete clauses that judges are ruling against them. As adults, let them live with their choices. There is no slipperly slope. These idiots did the one thing they were contractually obliged not to do and now they have to live with that. Its called being an adult.
They are adults. They made the poor choice to leave. Why should they have special protection? Sometimes adults make choices, sometimes they are dumb, but they should always accept their choice and live with the ramifications.
That article was some seriously glorious self-love right there. As it turns out, the mainstream press has been reviewing stuff as long as their has been stuff to review. So why would games be any different?
The author supposes that the mainstream press portrays games negatively because of a few eggs, that while not bad per se, are controversial at least. Well, thats not really true. The mainstream press tells the story of those games because they are controversial. This is called "a story", and this sells issues. If we don't want people covering games such as GTA and Postal, don't buy (hence ceasing production of) these games. Those games are part of the large picture and the media tends to report the extreme of all things, note here that games are not special in this way, so why would games be any different. Sounds to me like this issue is as matured as any in the mainstream. As for the Touched by an Angel point (which seems to be the only specific account provided), the writer of that show is allowed any view of the issue he wants. As soon as real people stop dying over Counter-Strike and Everquest, I'll rid myself of the notion that just maybe games can have an effect on people.
The writer of the article questions the ability of the press to be able to comprehend games due to limited exposure. Oh please, touch yourself some more. Yes, a non-games specific writer would not be expected to play games as much as a full-time games writer, but is this bad? In the MAINSTREAM press one would hope the writer most closely matches the audience, ie mainstream. The author then plays terminology nazi, which is always convincing and never sour-grapes sounding. Noone cares if one uses video games or computer games except term nazis and noone cares what they think anyway. If I am reading Maxim for my video game reviews, I would want the writer to think like someone who gets their game reviews from Maxim thinks. Think is a good thing.
As for the young vs old gamer thing. Yes, kids play games more (always will) and they have more time to practice the current game and are better at it because of this. A stupid, grasping point to make in the first place.
I really like this one:
In other words, we need to reflect a higher standard than the mainstream press.
HA! No article published on the internet will ever be of the same quality as real press. If it was, the writer would be employed by the legitimate press and not some fan(boy)-site.
As for the point of necessary skill as a gamer? Nonsense. Despite some opinion to the contrary, if a game isn't fun within the first hour, on the first level, when will it be fun? Someone reading the mainstream press will want that first level to be fun and will want to know if it is or isnt.
This is just another self-important article by the needy gaming press. It is needy and attention hungry by nature and this article is just one exhibition of that fact.
If you truly believe what you say, can I please have your credit card number, checking account number, social security number, full legal name and any passwords or pin numbers you use?
See, I'm not even going to copy any bits, I just want to move some around. You like to share right? So set the information free! Its just bits on some server somewhere not real physical property.
I'll take the fact that you don't post that information to mean that you are a hypocrite. Please, share with us. You say you like to share.
I thought information wanted to be free. This is just information, set it free!
Wait wait wait...
NanoGator, you have made some good points in the past, some I agreed with and some I didn't.
But did you just say that a company should spend millions of dollars to produce a piece of entertainment software AND THEN the only reason someone should feel like paying money for it is if it includes a small pewter statue or game art? WTF is that?
An interesting question. One could ask the same thing about Coca-Cola and Nike though. Clearly everyone has heard about all three of these products. I suppose the answer may be the same for all three and have nothing to do with operating systems, soft drinks or athletic shoes.
Wow, the gamers do it again.
So which is it? Should a publisher put out a demo before the game is gold or after?
If they put out an official demo before, OF COURSE its not final code. In fact, at least part of the development team has to stop working on the main sku to get the demo out so it slows both projects down. So the demo gets into gamers' hands before the game hits the shelf, but everyone gets pissed off because its not bug-free.
If the official demo comes out after the game ships, everyone complains about that and uses it as an excuse to infringe the publisher's copyright and download a warez copy. Huh.
How can the publishers make you happy when you don't even know what you want?
Wow, if you are really THAT paranoid, you should probably just kill yourself.
Nah, I love to say it.
TOLD YOU SO. Alright y'all, fanboy up!
Put on the brakes there tiger.
If even one player succeeds in becoming jedi, out of 300,000 players, it will mean there are 100,000,000 times as many Jedi as is realistic.
No amount of Jedi is actually realistic partner. You do know that Star Wars is just some movies for kids and not actual history right? Yes its true. Also, there are no wizards or half-elfs either. With this new information I encourage you to do outside (yes, its alright, don't believe the FUD about the outside) and go fishing. Perhaps you will even catch a bullcarp.
The one inhabited by fanboys of all ages with Gordon Freeman posters on their walls. Wait! That's Earth!
In the thread about Atari reducing its Gamecube support:
The market is finally going to mature and splinter. Microsoft will be the "other" console in the US and Europe and Nintendo will be the "other" console in Japan. This will allow the companies to taylor their products to the different audiences, which continue to grow more and more different everyday. The niche fanboy crowd can always import of course. This is good news for third party publishers too. With only two consoles to worry about in either market, their development efforts can be more focused on making the best possible end product. So farewell, Big N. I'll always remember the good times we had. IMHO, though, this is a good thing.
Man its painful being on the bleeding edge.
I seriously doubt Nintendo will be raising the price of the 'cube to $149.
For the next time some hippy says "information wants to be free." Well clearly only some information according to the slashbots. If information wants to be free, so be it. If someone is showing you that, in their humble opinion, pepsi is a delicious beverage far superior to other national brands, so be it. If someone is demonstrating that, in their humble opinion, a honda is a mighty fine automobile to drive, so be it.
Oh government, save us from Fox Mulder getting a haircut at supercuts. Look at that basketball player! He's clearly wearing nike shoes! But don't you dare say whose copyright we can and cannot infringe.
From FTC.gov
What truth-in-advertising rules apply to advertisers?
Under the Federal Trade Commission Act:
advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
advertisements cannot be unfair.
Additional laws apply to ads for specialized products like consumer leases, credit, 900 telephone numbers, and products sold through mail order or telephone sales. And every state has consumer protection laws that govern ads running in that state.
Wow no mention of to what types of advertisements this applies. So I bet it already covers product placement.
Oh Holy Government, deliver us from everyone who sells products. Most Benevolent Government, I cannot get myself to turn the TV off, so please, in thine mercy, clense the airwaves of any chance for profit. I mean, jobs are soooooooo overrated.
So is information free, or not?
If you have to explain it, is it ever funny?
If anything could be considered music why do we have a seperate word than sound or noise? All music is sound, but not all sound is music. Experimental "music" is most often just sound and not music at all. And thats okay, but its not music just sounds.
I do find it interesting though, that in a follow-up post you yourself make a value judgement on what is or is not music. Long live musical elitist hypocrisy!
Well, like you hinted at, a developer can actually build an "image". Hell, when Activision was founded back in the day they used the images of the developers to sell the product like David Crane's Pitfall. This still continues today, see Richard Garriott and the non-compete that stung him. See also Sid Meier, American McGee, et al. Just stealing that name away could be huge.
I guess this is a big tactic for EA now. I heard, they are doing the same thing at the new EA LA shovelware plant. Plenty of established video game talent in the West Los Angeles area to poach. This may not turn out to be an isolated incident.
Maybe all this recruitment means the new Sims expansion will be the best one yet!
Ding ding ding we have a winner! Mod parent up!
For the record, in CA food is exempt. Not prepared food at Spago mind you, but unprepared foot at a supermarket is not subject to sales tax.