So what if farm animals are dumb? What they do in factory farms is still mean. Dogs are dumb, do you think it's okay to put them in tiny tiny cages and give them drugs until they go insane? The reason why they debeak chickens and detail pigs (not shown in the Meatrix) is because the animals will go insane and attack other animals in the vacinity (chickens peaking, pigs biting off tails). At least when it standing "out in the field, chewing its own cud" it's happy. Just because an animal is dumb doesn't mean we have the right to torture it.
This is why you can't take surveys of your friends. If I did the same thing, I'ld get the reverse results, because almost everyone I know plays games more than they read books or go to the movies. Granted, maybe the people I know are wierd since most of them never see movies, but no wierder than his friends, many of which said 'never' to the video game question.
He does make a good pointabout how the ESA survey is flawed, but then he tries to make his survey sound better, and then he falsely accuses the game industry of being 'tawdry'.
For every Betty Bigtits there's a Mickey Mouse [movie]
There are plenty of Mickey Mouse games, way too many I'ld say. Go to Gamestop, look at the PS2 shelf, and count how many Disney games there are. Then count how many "Betty Bigtits" there are. There's one that comes close, BMX XXX, and it's probably not on the shelf anymore because it sucks. It was the game equivalant of "Gigli" for its popularity. There's no other games (Right now, the Lesuire Suit Larry series and the Atati porn games count as much as a 20 year old porno) that come close in terms of 'tawdryness'. Ok, there's Dead or Alive beach volleyball, but there's no nudity, and, unlike any porn movie, it provides fun besides just looking at the girls (girl who played it for months talking her!).
Finally he talks about how the game industry doesn't have enough independent games. While this is a problem, it can't be solved just by telling the game companies to support independent people. Where a book, or even a movie can be made by someone on their own, a game, a full-fledged mainstream competitive game, cannot be. Anyone can write a book, and, to a lesser extent, make a movie that could be competitive (watch "Clerks" sometime, you can tell that the guy had no money when he made it, but it's still a movie you'ld rent from Blockbuster like any other, unlike an independent game you'ld pick up because it's cheap). Untill any random person can make a game, there will be no good independant games.
Before I saw Kill Bill, I thought it wasn't going to be too violent since I heard they used swords instead of guns. After seeing it, I can't imagine any movie with guns that could be more gorier. Limbs and blood flying everywhere. Eew.
As far as outlawing guns, it sounds like a great idea, until you realize that the only people they could round up the guns from is the good people. Most bad people get their guns illegaly or steal them from someone else, so any laws against guns wouldn't affect them. Which would defeat the purpose of outlawing guns.
I don't know anyone who wanted a GC for Zelda or Mario for example
::raises hand
Me! I love WindWaker =)
As for the PS2, I was happy when I got it and I could play DVDs, but after time as DVDs went down to $40, it's not really that special any more. I bought my PS2 for FFX, not for DVD, and if not having DVD playback would have made it cheaper or more durable, the trade-off would have been an easy choice.
While having DVD in a system doesn't guarantee that a system will break, the more stuff you have in something, the harder it is to make sure they all work. With the GameCube, Nintendo only had to make sure that their games played on it. Sony, however, had to make sure their old games, music cds of all ages, DVDs, and the two types of PS2 games (blue and silver) work on their system. Yes, we can say that Sony is cheap and lazy and that's why PS2s break, but they certainly made it harder on themselves than Nintendo did. Considering how cheap DVD players are now, I'ld rather have a separate one than worry that my PS2's gonna go any day.
As for the price, you say that DVDs might have added $20-30 to the price of the PS2. Assuming that's true, while $20-30 isn't that big of a deal, adding a TiVo into PS3 could be a big deal. Currently, TiVos cost about $250. Granted, that's not how much it would add to the cost of a PS3, but I can't imagine it would only add $20-30 like DVDs. Remember, unlike DVDs where they just had it read something else on the same format, adding TiVo would require making the system do something totatly different, recieving and recording TV, instead of just reading whatever was on the disc you gave it. This could add a good chunk fo cost to the PS3, and I really don't feel like paying for something extra that I won't use and give my system yet another point of failure. The same thing goes for any other stupid feature that they want to add. I don't want to pay more for a system that does things I don't want and is more likly to break than a system without those functions.
Oh, and the price is probably going to be higher than $300 for PS3 and XBox Next. I worked at Gamestop until recently, and according to the Sony Representitive, the PS3 is going to be about $500, presumably because of all the extra features it going to have, the whole entertainment center concept rather than a video game system. Which means that much longer until I can afford it.
As for the writer, I don't think he "enjoys hunting down things about which to complain". There has been a lot of talk about the next generation of systems and what stupid features they will have, and the writer just wanted to write an article about whether or not said features are worth it. Considering all the talk about the systems being home entertainment center rather than game consoles, I think that's a worthy discussion.
No, in FF1 you walked into another random battle every 5 steps, a rate which will quickly drive you insane. Without a storyline to encourage, it's really hard to continue facing all the stupid battles.
Don't get me wrong, I love old school RPGs, especially the Final Fantasies. Just not FF1.
AS for FFX, storyline is very important in an RPG. So, it's not surprising that modern RPGs have a lot of movie time. But FFX was no slack in the gameplay department either, as everyone seems to assume. It's like meeting a really attractive girl and assumming she's not as smart because she's so pretty. FFX's like that pretty girl, she's too good to be true, so there has to be something wrong with her.
FFX's gameplay did what I had been looking for a game to do for years: Give each charactor a class, like most RPGs, but then when they master that class, let them have abilities from other classes. Other games either gave so much freedom as to erode the idea of classes, or gave everyone a rigid class and never let them have any other abilities. The sphere grid was masterfully designed with the concept of making sure every charactor had their own class, but letting them have more to do once they mastered their own class. In my game, Yuna become the best fighter of my group, but only after she become the best mage, keeping in line with the idea of her charactor. In other games, that would either be impossible or not surprising at all since Yuna wouldn't have had a class in the first place.
Ok, I'm a little longwinded today. But there's more to FFX than meets the eye. Check it out again. =)
100kb/s on a Bt? Are you doing something special? It's rare for me to get over 10kb/s. Probably because my uploads are at 30kb/s. Does using the experimental client help? I heard that if you lower your upload speed it drops your download, which for me could easily go to zero, defeating the purpose.... This is why I'm not really fond of BT.
At least with 0.6 (in Windows), it doesn't have an installer. You unzip it to the folder you want (any folder), then you click on the MozillaFirebird.exe and it opens. No bloatware or any junk. =)
Does it MSIE javascript without breaking?
I wasn't aware that "MSIE" was a verb now:D
It hasn't for me, but I don't go to javascript pages enough to know definativly.
Bittorrent's only usefull for large files (such as your games =) ). For something as small as Firebird, it would take much longer to download (because of the fact that you have to upload). I love bittorrent for large files that would take hours to download anyways, but I'ld rather just wait for mozilla to come back and then get Firebird.7 than have it take three times as long with bittorrent. =)
~Elley
I would say this qualifies as "Stuff that matters". Or maybe the most controversal and cared about Supreme Court decision I've ever seen isn't important at all. Whatever.
As for "News for Nerds", well, at least for nerds in America (and since not being global hasn't restricted any previous slashdot stories) then see above.
Many cell-phone companies list each call for the month on the bill. Since they bill you per minute, it only makes sense.
Landlines don't bother doing that. Too much work and if you're not charged per minute, you don't care anyways.
~Elley
Slashdot Mirror
Three of the four Xbox ads shown this holiday will feature women or girls in them.
Yeah, but are they really there to encourage girls to play or to get the attentions of boys?
"Look, it's a girl!!!"
So what if farm animals are dumb? What they do in factory farms is still mean. Dogs are dumb, do you think it's okay to put them in tiny tiny cages and give them drugs until they go insane? The reason why they debeak chickens and detail pigs (not shown in the Meatrix) is because the animals will go insane and attack other animals in the vacinity (chickens peaking, pigs biting off tails). At least when it standing "out in the field, chewing its own cud" it's happy. Just because an animal is dumb doesn't mean we have the right to torture it.
Remember, Nintendo's still pulling a nice sized profit. Microsoft, the leader in console online stuff, is losing money badly from its game department.
Or Microsoft could just sue you out of there. That what Nissan did to Nissan Computer Company
Meanies.
(girl who played it for months talking her!).
'her'='here'
This is why you can't take surveys of your friends. If I did the same thing, I'ld get the reverse results, because almost everyone I know plays games more than they read books or go to the movies. Granted, maybe the people I know are wierd since most of them never see movies, but no wierder than his friends, many of which said 'never' to the video game question.
He does make a good pointabout how the ESA survey is flawed, but then he tries to make his survey sound better, and then he falsely accuses the game industry of being 'tawdry'.
For every Betty Bigtits there's a Mickey Mouse [movie]
There are plenty of Mickey Mouse games, way too many I'ld say. Go to Gamestop, look at the PS2 shelf, and count how many Disney games there are. Then count how many "Betty Bigtits" there are. There's one that comes close, BMX XXX, and it's probably not on the shelf anymore because it sucks. It was the game equivalant of "Gigli" for its popularity. There's no other games (Right now, the Lesuire Suit Larry series and the Atati porn games count as much as a 20 year old porno) that come close in terms of 'tawdryness'. Ok, there's Dead or Alive beach volleyball, but there's no nudity, and, unlike any porn movie, it provides fun besides just looking at the girls (girl who played it for months talking her!).
Finally he talks about how the game industry doesn't have enough independent games. While this is a problem, it can't be solved just by telling the game companies to support independent people. Where a book, or even a movie can be made by someone on their own, a game, a full-fledged mainstream competitive game, cannot be. Anyone can write a book, and, to a lesser extent, make a movie that could be competitive (watch "Clerks" sometime, you can tell that the guy had no money when he made it, but it's still a movie you'ld rent from Blockbuster like any other, unlike an independent game you'ld pick up because it's cheap). Untill any random person can make a game, there will be no good independant games.
Dammit, why does XBox have to be made by Microsoft? =(
Before I saw Kill Bill, I thought it wasn't going to be too violent since I heard they used swords instead of guns. After seeing it, I can't imagine any movie with guns that could be more gorier. Limbs and blood flying everywhere. Eew.
As far as outlawing guns, it sounds like a great idea, until you realize that the only people they could round up the guns from is the good people. Most bad people get their guns illegaly or steal them from someone else, so any laws against guns wouldn't affect them. Which would defeat the purpose of outlawing guns.
THUG is a stupid name. Like I'ld ever tell anyone I'm buying the game "THUG". Shortening names is good and all but not if they're stupid.
I don't know anyone who wanted a GC for Zelda or Mario for example
::raises hand
Me! I love WindWaker =)
As for the PS2, I was happy when I got it and I could play DVDs, but after time as DVDs went down to $40, it's not really that special any more. I bought my PS2 for FFX, not for DVD, and if not having DVD playback would have made it cheaper or more durable, the trade-off would have been an easy choice.
While having DVD in a system doesn't guarantee that a system will break, the more stuff you have in something, the harder it is to make sure they all work. With the GameCube, Nintendo only had to make sure that their games played on it. Sony, however, had to make sure their old games, music cds of all ages, DVDs, and the two types of PS2 games (blue and silver) work on their system. Yes, we can say that Sony is cheap and lazy and that's why PS2s break, but they certainly made it harder on themselves than Nintendo did. Considering how cheap DVD players are now, I'ld rather have a separate one than worry that my PS2's gonna go any day.
As for the price, you say that DVDs might have added $20-30 to the price of the PS2. Assuming that's true, while $20-30 isn't that big of a deal, adding a TiVo into PS3 could be a big deal. Currently, TiVos cost about $250. Granted, that's not how much it would add to the cost of a PS3, but I can't imagine it would only add $20-30 like DVDs. Remember, unlike DVDs where they just had it read something else on the same format, adding TiVo would require making the system do something totatly different, recieving and recording TV, instead of just reading whatever was on the disc you gave it. This could add a good chunk fo cost to the PS3, and I really don't feel like paying for something extra that I won't use and give my system yet another point of failure. The same thing goes for any other stupid feature that they want to add. I don't want to pay more for a system that does things I don't want and is more likly to break than a system without those functions.
Oh, and the price is probably going to be higher than $300 for PS3 and XBox Next. I worked at Gamestop until recently, and according to the Sony Representitive, the PS3 is going to be about $500, presumably because of all the extra features it going to have, the whole entertainment center concept rather than a video game system. Which means that much longer until I can afford it.
As for the writer, I don't think he "enjoys hunting down things about which to complain". There has been a lot of talk about the next generation of systems and what stupid features they will have, and the writer just wanted to write an article about whether or not said features are worth it. Considering all the talk about the systems being home entertainment center rather than game consoles, I think that's a worthy discussion.
No, in FF1 you walked into another random battle every 5 steps, a rate which will quickly drive you insane. Without a storyline to encourage, it's really hard to continue facing all the stupid battles.
Don't get me wrong, I love old school RPGs, especially the Final Fantasies. Just not FF1.
AS for FFX, storyline is very important in an RPG. So, it's not surprising that modern RPGs have a lot of movie time. But FFX was no slack in the gameplay department either, as everyone seems to assume. It's like meeting a really attractive girl and assumming she's not as smart because she's so pretty. FFX's like that pretty girl, she's too good to be true, so there has to be something wrong with her.
FFX's gameplay did what I had been looking for a game to do for years: Give each charactor a class, like most RPGs, but then when they master that class, let them have abilities from other classes. Other games either gave so much freedom as to erode the idea of classes, or gave everyone a rigid class and never let them have any other abilities. The sphere grid was masterfully designed with the concept of making sure every charactor had their own class, but letting them have more to do once they mastered their own class. In my game, Yuna become the best fighter of my group, but only after she become the best mage, keeping in line with the idea of her charactor. In other games, that would either be impossible or not surprising at all since Yuna wouldn't have had a class in the first place.
Ok, I'm a little longwinded today. But there's more to FFX than meets the eye. Check it out again. =)
I think Mozilla has an installer, but firebird doesn't. =)
~Elley
100kb/s on a Bt? Are you doing something special? It's rare for me to get over 10kb/s. Probably because my uploads are at 30kb/s. Does using the experimental client help? I heard that if you lower your upload speed it drops your download, which for me could easily go to zero, defeating the purpose.... This is why I'm not really fond of BT.
~Elley
(P.S. Yes, I do have DSL, if you were wondering.)
How on earth do you patent selling something. "Oh, I patented the rights to sell combs, so all you other comb stores must bow to ME!"
Maybe if the patent offices people knew anything about technology... grrrrrr
At least with 0.6 (in Windows), it doesn't have an installer. You unzip it to the folder you want (any folder), then you click on the MozillaFirebird.exe and it opens. No bloatware or any junk. =)
:D
Does it MSIE javascript without breaking?
I wasn't aware that "MSIE" was a verb now
It hasn't for me, but I don't go to javascript pages enough to know definativly.
Bittorrent's only usefull for large files (such as your games =) ). For something as small as Firebird, it would take much longer to download (because of the fact that you have to upload). I love bittorrent for large files that would take hours to download anyways, but I'ld rather just wait for mozilla to come back and then get Firebird .7 than have it take three times as long with bittorrent. =)
~Elley
Guys, firebird is only 6megs big. It's faster to download it directly than to use a torrent.
I would say this qualifies as "Stuff that matters". Or maybe the most controversal and cared about Supreme Court decision I've ever seen isn't important at all. Whatever.
As for "News for Nerds", well, at least for nerds in America (and since not being global hasn't restricted any previous slashdot stories) then see above.
Many cell-phone companies list each call for the month on the bill. Since they bill you per minute, it only makes sense. Landlines don't bother doing that. Too much work and if you're not charged per minute, you don't care anyways. ~Elley
The broadboard add-on thingy is definately pointless, I can't believe anyone would actually sign up for that.
"Here, how about you pay us $15 a month and we'll let you use a crappy product that says "You've got mail!" in a really happy voice."
Cheap dialup is a good idea though, but I'm sad they want to call it Netscape. =(
~Elley