It might have something to do with Google Chrome, and Mozilla revenue coming almost exclusively from Google...
I'm not sure what's the solution in this case, but in regards to news...it would probably better if Google allowed this "exodus"; in case of every major news topic there would be sources left in Google index which are obliged to remain free to access.
Where have you been? PCI video cards were being released long after AGP died. And were quite expensive then (and just before, when coexisting with AGP)
Cars, choosing them is one of the areas where decisions of people are being extremely influenced by perceptions and urban myths.
You know your extremely visible purchase will be witnessed by many people, you might want them to look at it in particular (depending on the area) way. Also, since it's a non-trivial expense, you rationalize your choices excessively. All this creates quite complex behaviors.
Rest of the world - not exactly, I guess. You can certainly find off-limits places with similar outcome for most of the world though.
WTC map reconstructed partly from archive photos. Mosque in Mecca (hm, though probably that applies to any mosque at all or any church in country which considers itself primarily "under one true faith"). Imperial palace in Japan. Birmingham palace (though the last two might end up really accurate in L4D). Mogadishu (imagine to turmoil after that...)
Essentially, you need only one individual, whatever the motivation. It's easy to offense people.
Hey, one of the unpleasant side effects of games becoming popular. It was what we wanted, not being shunned by "respectable people", right? Well, we have it. Who said it will be all roses; once something becomes greater part of society, it is more at whim of society.
Yes, you're a blatant example of disconnect from reality, so prevalent among those who have to make themselves feel better through mental masturbation.
Anybody sensible knows that claim of PC DRM being "just an addon" is moronic; that's one of the main reasons why PC gaming goes down the drain (and why some people like Stardock, among few other publishers). in contrast you almost never hear about bitching at console DRM, (when was the last such big story?), at least not among non-pirates.
You're ridiculous in trying to attach disk-less games to this; they are mostly a PC trend, that is outside 2nd hand market on any platform.
"Argument" about abandonment of console games gave me giggles, seriously (I can't wait what's happening further down:) ) - you really can't comprehend that console games generally don't depend on external services? That's the whole point. You pop the disk into any console, at any console, and it just works.
Oh, how cute, seeing that supposed "stopping 2nd sale" doesn't happen for console games is suddenly "thick". Since you don't know much about gaming world outside of PC games in Australia...look, publishers can bitch all they want about 2nd hand sales but the fact of the matter is that they aren't going after it (retailers? are you kidding? eBay, syndicated lists, forums...look them up, handy stuff). Which would be trivial & with good justification - after all, the largest benefactors of such situation would be console manufacturers. Yet they chose not to implement DRM such pervasive as in the case of PC.
And BTW, amusing how somebody for whom EN is a 3rd language can use it with grater finesse...because using "pervasive" in such context is perfectly justified, you troglodyte. On consoles DRM concerns only its implementers & pirates, its invisible for gamers. On PCs otoh...it pervades much more aspects of gaming - hitting legitimate customers the most, creating risk of semi-random incompatibilities, complicating 2nd hand market greatly, creating a need to defeat it at all - things which don't happen on consoles
The thing I was hinting there at, and which you just proven is that you're so self-delusional than you think having an FDD drive in a modern PC is in any way representative. You're not even in as group that's counted in percents; permils at most. BTW, I would really like to laugh at how potential FDD DRM from that time works on USB drive in modern OS...
Do you really have so little imagination and understanding of the market that I need to describe the situation in which a game can have zero cost? Very well, if you insist it is so... Imagine you want to buy some game, not now and not old, that has fairly stable prices at eBay auctions. Which are nonetheless fluctuating a bit, obviously. You find a good deal, pay $X + $Y of shipping cost. You get it, you play it, decide for whatever reason you don't want to keep it, and sell it a month or two later, when prices are still fluctuating around the same rough value. And...you manage to sell it for $(X+Y).
There...was it really that hard?
Besides, this was one of sub-scenarios, quite borderline at that. The point was about buying mostly used games. Possible selling of them later wasn't the part of primary argument...which I clarified...too bad you failed to understand it. Perhaps the failure stems from the fact that you're fixated on so called "retailers" (commercial avenues, I imagine)
And funny, the way you quoted me implies that the conclusion about my neutrality stems from the simple information about me playing games on both platforms, it is therefore self-evident by the mere fact; thank you.
And see, they main reason from your disconnect from reality somewhat the other way around (magnified only by one effect: when games don't determine the time for PC upgrade, the upgrades are much rarer; the upfront cost for both gaming and non-gaming PC is otherwise very simi
Don't count on clones of "other hallmark FPS games" that you mention (at least not on any bearable level of quality)
Quakelikes are easy to make not only thanks to engines for the taking but also relatively easy game asset creation (it helps that there are lots of map makers, itself thanks to higher relative ease of making deathmatch map than interesting single player level)
Well, perhaps Serious Sam at some point, that can be made more or less procedurally.
Don't try to pretend you are unable to understand what I'm talking about...
On PC you have DRM that relies on more or less individual keys for each copy. Buying used you have no guarantee you are the only one who knows the key. You have online authentication servers even for single player games (and many examples of very limiting TOS in regards to how many times and who can authenticate, it was covered on Slashdot to death; also no guarantee of those servers staying alive). Last but not least, games are abandoned in regards to patches and sometimes OS updates/etc. introduce incompatibility. Since DRM is all software it must rely on...tricks.
As a matter of fact, it is common consensus on Slashdot that PC-style DRM has the primary goal of stopping second-hand market
In contrast, on consoles...YES, DRM is less pervasive. Perhaps not in the technical sense, but hardware implementation is what causes the DRM to be absolutely invisible to the user and non-problematic. If the disk is original, it will work, no matter who owns it.
You ignored it and now you try to spin in some silly way.
(and it's ridiculous that you must resolve to advocate efforts to brake supposedly "non-pervasive" PC DRM to be able to defend your position (besides ACTA will probably bring DMCA to all of us...). Heck, your beyond ridiculous. Modern PCs with floppy drive?:D )
My argument doesn't rely at all on selling games one owns, that's a nice side-effect if you don't like that particular game. It relies on buying used games first and foremost. But it's no wonder you were unable to comprehend that, seeing you were also unable to comprehend that "zero cost" applies when one buys AND sells used. Mistakes (getting a game you don't like) are cheap in this way. Heck, you are even convinced that the old myth of consoles loosing money on every sale is true - that happens only at the beginning, X360 & PS3 are long past that point (plus it's less of a problem then many people think, with manufacturers earning their cut early on peripherals)
And generally - look, understand that you're trying to be a smart-ass with somebody who currently chooses both kinds of platforms. Knows well and enjoys both. You're just blinded by trying to justify your one-sided choice (granted, people like you act funny when, say, they talk with me how they also love GalCiv2, can't help but mention "yeah, our games are great, not like those of stupid console users"...just before I announce that I also greatly enjoy consoles; so at least it has some value as entertainment)
BTW, newsflash - PC monitors can be used with consoles cheaply; though living in fantasy world you might have not known that. Also, most games that really make the PC gaming shine are perfectly playable on cheapest laptops; for the small portion that isn't - I can wait, that keeps the costs down even more (though it's nice that you finance my hardware upgrades, keep up the good work)
OTOH, it is a bit comforting, in a way, that if the nuclear exchange were to happen, it would actually look quite...nice;)
(after all even if only few percent of the rockets would malfunction in similar fashion, there would lots of such sights, without hundreds of rockets flying)
It was happening at quite high altitude, visible from vast distance, so it wasn't really at the doorstep of Norway, probably.
Plus Russia doesn't have exactly that much of a coastline as the first glance at many typical maps would suggest - the northern regions are quite close to the north pole, so they end up heavily "distorted" in certain map projections.
Or this Android phone of yours is considered by Samsung to be a bad experience, so they have no hard feelings in abandoning it and concentrating on their own platform;p
They are big enough for it to quickly become popular; I wouldn't be surprised if a year from now it will have more marketshare than Android...
Maybe Android was simply a foray into alien territory for them that they didn't like? Maybe that's what pushed them towards creating Bada. Samsung doesn't seem to abandon its own platforms; they're sticking with roughly the same non-touchscreen and touchscreen ones for quite some time.
S40 and S60 aren't unified. S40 isn't Symbian! At most you can see many features previously reserved for S60 trickling down to S40 phones (they even have Webkit browser now...)
What parent probably meant is that Nokia moves towards writing apps in Qt on both Symbian and Maemo (where he is wrong is in suggesting that constitutes "most of their devices")
Today data mining techniques, search engines and data analysis/feedback systems would be considered AI back around 20 years ago.
Actually...who says that they aren't? We have a very limited image of what we consider an AI, mirrored very good in "the question whether a machine can think is no more interesting then whether a submarine can swim".
Singularity will probably take us by surprise. Heck, we might hardly notice it long time after it happens; not realizing that, for example, as a humanity we operate in hive-mind manner. Which is already true to some degree...
I might have confused SS2 with some other big & great game (Thief possibly?), in which there are massive artifacts due to deficiencies of current Nv drivers. Anyway the point isn't about one specific game (hey, its worshipers will find a way if they still play it) but that you must expect issues if you're looking into familiarizing yourself with old games regularly.
Sure, maintaining is "extra cost", but the point was that it's comparatively less problematic than doing similarly with some old PC. Certainly much less time consuming.
And what would you do with some DOS game that your computer is unable (speed wise) to run in DOSbox? DOS Glide game? (or some even more obscure GFX API) There are no options to run those optimally except on old hardware. Either way includes more hassle than "get console from the drawer, plug it in, play"
Less pervasive DRM for example, one not relying on keys and/or authentication.
Meaning one important thing...it is much more realistic to resale console games, or even buy them used outright (and resale is also an option in the latter case of course, if you don't feel like keeping the game; usually you can do it at around the same or even slightly higher price, meaning that the cost of such consoles games is better then ZERO)
Console gaming is dirt cheap. Getting a console and a laptop for work - still cheaper.
Or Steam... This is not a case of platform. It's the making of publishers.
Accidentally, you give some credence to my claim that Microsoft is responsible for muddling the waters, nullifying the strengths of both kinds of platforms.
PS. Also, by saying that the games of 5 years ago were universally well made you simply display a bad case of selective memory. There was always crap. You simply don't remember it that much. Claims like yours were made since the beginning of recorded history (whether about youth, arts generally, morality...whatever). They were always rubbish. In few decades you will remember current day as "Golden Age of Gaming"
Console games rarely allow for devices that are not shipped inside the box.
That's not really true, as actually evidenced by the number of different kinds of controllers for consoles (steering wheels, Negcon, G-con, Namco Arcade Stick, Rockband controllers)
On PCs game is either tailored only for a mouse (which results in horrible game mechanics when ported almost without changes to console; heck, it isn't even playable with standard nowadays on PCs touchpad) or...the only other widely available & used on PC non-standard kind of controller, that I'm aware of, is steering wheel. Nothing else.
(yes, I don't treat joypads as non-standard;p And most PC gamers I know claimed their keyboard is just as good, if not better..usually just before their asses being handed on a platter by me in some competitive single-machine multiplayer game)
Slashdot Mirror
It might have something to do with Google Chrome, and Mozilla revenue coming almost exclusively from Google...
I'm not sure what's the solution in this case, but in regards to news...it would probably better if Google allowed this "exodus"; in case of every major news topic there would be sources left in Google index which are obliged to remain free to access.
Where have you been? PCI video cards were being released long after AGP died. And were quite expensive then (and just before, when coexisting with AGP)
Wow! Sign me in! (this Finland of yours) It's slightly cheaper here in Poland, with around three times lower median income.
Cars, choosing them is one of the areas where decisions of people are being extremely influenced by perceptions and urban myths.
You know your extremely visible purchase will be witnessed by many people, you might want them to look at it in particular (depending on the area) way. Also, since it's a non-trivial expense, you rationalize your choices excessively. All this creates quite complex behaviors.
Rest of the world - not exactly, I guess. You can certainly find off-limits places with similar outcome for most of the world though.
WTC map reconstructed partly from archive photos. Mosque in Mecca (hm, though probably that applies to any mosque at all or any church in country which considers itself primarily "under one true faith"). Imperial palace in Japan. Birmingham palace (though the last two might end up really accurate in L4D). Mogadishu (imagine to turmoil after that...)
Essentially, you need only one individual, whatever the motivation. It's easy to offense people.
Hey, one of the unpleasant side effects of games becoming popular. It was what we wanted, not being shunned by "respectable people", right? Well, we have it. Who said it will be all roses; once something becomes greater part of society, it is more at whim of society.
Isn't that on similar level of "hard" (perhaps even on greater...) to simply streaming the image to client with sufficiently low latency?
Yes, you're a blatant example of disconnect from reality, so prevalent among those who have to make themselves feel better through mental masturbation.
Anybody sensible knows that claim of PC DRM being "just an addon" is moronic; that's one of the main reasons why PC gaming goes down the drain (and why some people like Stardock, among few other publishers). in contrast you almost never hear about bitching at console DRM, (when was the last such big story?), at least not among non-pirates.
You're ridiculous in trying to attach disk-less games to this; they are mostly a PC trend, that is outside 2nd hand market on any platform.
"Argument" about abandonment of console games gave me giggles, seriously (I can't wait what's happening further down :) ) - you really can't comprehend that console games generally don't depend on external services? That's the whole point. You pop the disk into any console, at any console, and it just works.
Oh, how cute, seeing that supposed "stopping 2nd sale" doesn't happen for console games is suddenly "thick". Since you don't know much about gaming world outside of PC games in Australia...look, publishers can bitch all they want about 2nd hand sales but the fact of the matter is that they aren't going after it (retailers? are you kidding? eBay, syndicated lists, forums...look them up, handy stuff). Which would be trivial & with good justification - after all, the largest benefactors of such situation would be console manufacturers. Yet they chose not to implement DRM such pervasive as in the case of PC.
And BTW, amusing how somebody for whom EN is a 3rd language can use it with grater finesse...because using "pervasive" in such context is perfectly justified, you troglodyte. On consoles DRM concerns only its implementers & pirates, its invisible for gamers. On PCs otoh...it pervades much more aspects of gaming - hitting legitimate customers the most, creating risk of semi-random incompatibilities, complicating 2nd hand market greatly, creating a need to defeat it at all - things which don't happen on consoles
The thing I was hinting there at, and which you just proven is that you're so self-delusional than you think having an FDD drive in a modern PC is in any way representative. You're not even in as group that's counted in percents; permils at most. BTW, I would really like to laugh at how potential FDD DRM from that time works on USB drive in modern OS...
Do you really have so little imagination and understanding of the market that I need to describe the situation in which a game can have zero cost? Very well, if you insist it is so...
Imagine you want to buy some game, not now and not old, that has fairly stable prices at eBay auctions. Which are nonetheless fluctuating a bit, obviously. You find a good deal, pay $X + $Y of shipping cost. You get it, you play it, decide for whatever reason you don't want to keep it, and sell it a month or two later, when prices are still fluctuating around the same rough value. And...you manage to sell it for $(X+Y).
There...was it really that hard?
Besides, this was one of sub-scenarios, quite borderline at that. The point was about buying mostly used games. Possible selling of them later wasn't the part of primary argument...which I clarified...too bad you failed to understand it. Perhaps the failure stems from the fact that you're fixated on so called "retailers" (commercial avenues, I imagine)
And funny, the way you quoted me implies that the conclusion about my neutrality stems from the simple information about me playing games on both platforms, it is therefore self-evident by the mere fact; thank you.
And see, they main reason from your disconnect from reality somewhat the other way around (magnified only by one effect: when games don't determine the time for PC upgrade, the upgrades are much rarer; the upfront cost for both gaming and non-gaming PC is otherwise very simi
Don't count on clones of "other hallmark FPS games" that you mention (at least not on any bearable level of quality)
Quakelikes are easy to make not only thanks to engines for the taking but also relatively easy game asset creation (it helps that there are lots of map makers, itself thanks to higher relative ease of making deathmatch map than interesting single player level)
Well, perhaps Serious Sam at some point, that can be made more or less procedurally.
I'd say it's noticeably worse than Q3 graphically. Remember it's not only about the engine, also art assets.
Any sufficiently advanced cheating is indistinguishable from skill.
Don't try to pretend you are unable to understand what I'm talking about...
On PC you have DRM that relies on more or less individual keys for each copy. Buying used you have no guarantee you are the only one who knows the key. You have online authentication servers even for single player games (and many examples of very limiting TOS in regards to how many times and who can authenticate, it was covered on Slashdot to death; also no guarantee of those servers staying alive). Last but not least, games are abandoned in regards to patches and sometimes OS updates/etc. introduce incompatibility. Since DRM is all software it must rely on...tricks.
As a matter of fact, it is common consensus on Slashdot that PC-style DRM has the primary goal of stopping second-hand market
In contrast, on consoles...YES, DRM is less pervasive. Perhaps not in the technical sense, but hardware implementation is what causes the DRM to be absolutely invisible to the user and non-problematic. If the disk is original, it will work, no matter who owns it.
You ignored it and now you try to spin in some silly way.
(and it's ridiculous that you must resolve to advocate efforts to brake supposedly "non-pervasive" PC DRM to be able to defend your position (besides ACTA will probably bring DMCA to all of us...). Heck, your beyond ridiculous. Modern PCs with floppy drive? :D )
My argument doesn't rely at all on selling games one owns, that's a nice side-effect if you don't like that particular game. It relies on buying used games first and foremost. But it's no wonder you were unable to comprehend that, seeing you were also unable to comprehend that "zero cost" applies when one buys AND sells used. Mistakes (getting a game you don't like) are cheap in this way. Heck, you are even convinced that the old myth of consoles loosing money on every sale is true - that happens only at the beginning, X360 & PS3 are long past that point (plus it's less of a problem then many people think, with manufacturers earning their cut early on peripherals)
And generally - look, understand that you're trying to be a smart-ass with somebody who currently chooses both kinds of platforms. Knows well and enjoys both. You're just blinded by trying to justify your one-sided choice (granted, people like you act funny when, say, they talk with me how they also love GalCiv2, can't help but mention "yeah, our games are great, not like those of stupid console users"...just before I announce that I also greatly enjoy consoles; so at least it has some value as entertainment)
BTW, newsflash - PC monitors can be used with consoles cheaply; though living in fantasy world you might have not known that. Also, most games that really make the PC gaming shine are perfectly playable on cheapest laptops; for the small portion that isn't - I can wait, that keeps the costs down even more (though it's nice that you finance my hardware upgrades, keep up the good work)
OTOH, it is a bit comforting, in a way, that if the nuclear exchange were to happen, it would actually look quite...nice ;)
(after all even if only few percent of the rockets would malfunction in similar fashion, there would lots of such sights, without hundreds of rockets flying)
As the previous thread almost managed to show, perhaps at confusion stemming from "the second coming...of Odin"?
Russia probably doesn't like pope very much, after all...
It was happening at quite high altitude, visible from vast distance, so it wasn't really at the doorstep of Norway, probably.
Plus Russia doesn't have exactly that much of a coastline as the first glance at many typical maps would suggest - the northern regions are quite close to the north pole, so they end up heavily "distorted" in certain map projections.
It might be just a bad case of corporate momentum...
Or this Android phone of yours is considered by Samsung to be a bad experience, so they have no hard feelings in abandoning it and concentrating on their own platform ;p
They are big enough for it to quickly become popular; I wouldn't be surprised if a year from now it will have more marketshare than Android...
Maybe Android was simply a foray into alien territory for them that they didn't like? Maybe that's what pushed them towards creating Bada. Samsung doesn't seem to abandon its own platforms; they're sticking with roughly the same non-touchscreen and touchscreen ones for quite some time.
Samsung is one of the largest cellphone manufacturers, second only to Nokia and significantly ahead of rest of the pack.
Whatever Samsung wants to be popular, will be popular.
S40 and S60 aren't unified. S40 isn't Symbian! At most you can see many features previously reserved for S60 trickling down to S40 phones (they even have Webkit browser now...)
What parent probably meant is that Nokia moves towards writing apps in Qt on both Symbian and Maemo (where he is wrong is in suggesting that constitutes "most of their devices")
Unless you count j2me...
Today data mining techniques, search engines and data analysis/feedback systems would be considered AI back around 20 years ago.
Actually...who says that they aren't? We have a very limited image of what we consider an AI, mirrored very good in "the question whether a machine can think is no more interesting then whether a submarine can swim".
Singularity will probably take us by surprise. Heck, we might hardly notice it long time after it happens; not realizing that, for example, as a humanity we operate in hive-mind manner. Which is already true to some degree...
Fine. Persuade US to stop engaging in needless wars before proposing the diversion of costs from such wasteful and harm0inucing projects as LHC.
I might have confused SS2 with some other big & great game (Thief possibly?), in which there are massive artifacts due to deficiencies of current Nv drivers. Anyway the point isn't about one specific game (hey, its worshipers will find a way if they still play it) but that you must expect issues if you're looking into familiarizing yourself with old games regularly.
Sure, maintaining is "extra cost", but the point was that it's comparatively less problematic than doing similarly with some old PC. Certainly much less time consuming.
And what would you do with some DOS game that your computer is unable (speed wise) to run in DOSbox? DOS Glide game? (or some even more obscure GFX API) There are no options to run those optimally except on old hardware. Either way includes more hassle than "get console from the drawer, plug it in, play"
You totally ignore other important factors.
Less pervasive DRM for example, one not relying on keys and/or authentication.
Meaning one important thing...it is much more realistic to resale console games, or even buy them used outright (and resale is also an option in the latter case of course, if you don't feel like keeping the game; usually you can do it at around the same or even slightly higher price, meaning that the cost of such consoles games is better then ZERO)
Console gaming is dirt cheap. Getting a console and a laptop for work - still cheaper.
Or Steam...
This is not a case of platform. It's the making of publishers.
Accidentally, you give some credence to my claim that Microsoft is responsible for muddling the waters, nullifying the strengths of both kinds of platforms.
PS. Also, by saying that the games of 5 years ago were universally well made you simply display a bad case of selective memory. There was always crap. You simply don't remember it that much.
Claims like yours were made since the beginning of recorded history (whether about youth, arts generally, morality...whatever). They were always rubbish. In few decades you will remember current day as "Golden Age of Gaming"
Console games rarely allow for devices that are not shipped inside the box.
That's not really true, as actually evidenced by the number of different kinds of controllers for consoles (steering wheels, Negcon, G-con, Namco Arcade Stick, Rockband controllers)
On PCs game is either tailored only for a mouse (which results in horrible game mechanics when ported almost without changes to console; heck, it isn't even playable with standard nowadays on PCs touchpad) or...the only other widely available & used on PC non-standard kind of controller, that I'm aware of, is steering wheel. Nothing else.
(yes, I don't treat joypads as non-standard ;p And most PC gamers I know claimed their keyboard is just as good, if not better..usually just before their asses being handed on a platter by me in some competitive single-machine multiplayer game)