Why Nintendo put it like that in new classic controller then? They are suddenly "misjudged"? Try to appeal? Sony?... Or didn't you notice direct succesion Saturn analog -> Dreamcast -> Xbox as the real reason behind current layout of X360? (and they've still made it quite close to DS...)
Most importantly, if you read my post more carefully, you'll see that it's mostly about in which positions the thumb is able to make particular types of movement. When close to relaxed, when not in line with palm, when close to DS sticks (if you hold it properly, two fingers on triggers; most people don't, that's the most major fault of DS) you're unable to use that much strenght, but fine movements work great. When inline - a bit the other way around.
Yes I am, I hear that BS far too often, and in much too blunt way (I guess because "pure" PC-gamers I interact with assume (as always - that's quite close to "ass") that speaking such BS around me will only further their circle of mutual adoration - after all, I also play "hardcore" PC games, I couldn't possibly be one of those dumb console owners...)
And yeah, we sorta agree. We both see the "problem" (personally I think we'll be fine - you just have to learn that since now you will not like every major game that "fits" your genre/topic...as is already the case with movies, books, music,...). The thing is - you see it only from one perspective which leads you to incorrect interpretation of causes (one which makes you look not exactly better than supposedly "dumb" console users...). That might actually worsen the problem - by not seeing few existing underlying factors:
1) Xbox-style consoles (BTW, for some reason, only MS-consoles were ever cheerished by "PC magazines", at least here...what a mistake that was). PCs and consoles must be separate to considerable degree, so publishers won't toy with the idea of hybrid games.
2) cheap bling. Just, for once, put you money where your mouth is and don't let games which are only tech-demos get good reviews. Boycott them, completelly. OTOH promote real artism, which is extremelly rare now (and one of the reasons is, on gfx side of things...MS, with homogenising (how's that "one market, one company" works in practice?...) influence of DirectX libs; but Larabee with its promise of fully custom pipeline has the potential of improving that a bit; also, some consoles don't fare bad, with devs writing on the metal)
When we as consumers will remember about those two factors, perhaps we might improve things a bit. But don't hope for too much, because #3 is most important:
3) games are mainstream (again...). Which means that majority of players (on BOTH types of platforms) won't mind #1 & #2, just as typical consumers don't mind such things in movies or music.
And you know what? That's fine. You will still have games you like anyway. Perhaps, perhaps, broader appeal of games will even bring some real new talent...
Or you might just continue to marvel at your elitism far more than is healthy.
And you can check that yourself - just relax your hand (holding arm in the same orientation like when playing on a pad). Your thumb won't be in the place of GC/Xbox/Dreamcast stick. It will be in the place of DS stick.
OTOH when in upper left you can supply greater force with your thumb more easily, so that's a good place for d-pad.
But you don't have to believe me, just look at how all joypad vendors gravitate slowly towards the layout which DualShock holds for almost 13 years...
Console games are not dumbing down your PC games. The things you talk about are hybrids. They are also awfull from the point of view of old console gamers - they might just as well call them "PC games", because their awfullness stems directly from the fact that they are targeted for the simultaneus release on a PC. But you wouldn't agree that's an accurate description of reality, right?
Just so it will be more clear, let me rephrase what you wrote from the point of view of consoles:
Mind you, PC games are fine, but I wish more dev time were spent on true console games. I feel that gaming as a whole is suffering a bit right now, between the shift of focus to primarily PC-style games, casual games, Peggle, and (especially) the cancer that is DLC (//FFS, MAN, YOU REALLY THINK THAT CONSOLES BROUGHT MODS/DOWNLOADS/PATCHES TO GAMES?! REALLY?!?!). In the long run it'll probably be fine, but I'd love to see what would happen with more (not all, just more) titles being aimed at the platform that brought us so many amazing, deep games.
I know it's a futile wish, but it's what thing would be like in the world in my head where we all ride unicorns that fart rainbows and shit gold. Anyway, like I said, I'm not worried about PCs killing deeper gaming long-term (hell, my recent purchase of gaming PC has shown me first-hand that consoles and PCs aren't so different any more--I had to put the fucking DVD into the drive each time I wanted to play!)--DLC might do it, but PCs themselves won't.
...and it's still BS
Games have become less "hardcore" (whatever that means...) simply because they are not driven anymore by wishes of early adopters - they've become mainstream on both consoles and PCs (because the platforms themselves have become mainstream), so the gameplays is obviously also more mainstream...
Plus, thank MS for bringing development of games for both platforms much, much closer - PHBs running game publishing companies think it's "obvious" to target both platforms. When in reality it's a horrible idea. You end up with...hybrids that are a product of compromise, that loose strong points of both platforms.
Speaking as a long time gamer on both types of systems (I care about the game, not so much about on what it runs), so I might have a better grip on reality... (if you wonder - nowadays, on PC, mostly Galciv2 and Stalker, also constant addiction to Fallouts, Diablos, *shocks)
You experience is quite off from typical gamer, then - as evidenced by disappearance of vertical/horizontal/walking shooters that tried to use the keyboard as it were just another type of pad (when PC devs figured out that PC gamers don't have a device for twitch keypresses, but have one to point at things; that's why Abuse works on a PC, and Megaman/Castlevania/Metal Slug doesn't)
Same thing with Chromium B.S.U. - it's a different kind of game (though, IMHO, using analogue stick for the kind of movement from Chromium would be better - with mouse you end up either with unrealistically quick movements (after all..."pointing"; so why have the ship in there at all?) or the feel of disconnect between the movement of mouse and onscreen object). One that is built around good pointing device, and lack of twitch-keypresses one.
sniping someone in the head in a fast-paced game You're thinking here "Quake-style FPP" only, not "fast-paced game". That you consider this style of game as representative of "most non-simulator games" shows only how you limit your horizons
Mouse is appriopriate only in two types of games: those that have GUI-style controls (and that includes, surprise, some simulators. Of cities, for example) and those that are build around pointing things (not shooting; lightgun games do that)
PS. And pleeeease, cut out the "console games are dumbing our games" crap, you elitist #$%&. Those games you are mumbling about are hybrids, aiming for middle ground (it's "sensible" since the times MS made developing for consoles very close to developing for Win...), missing out the strenghts of BOTH types of platform; not good also on consoles from the point of view of older gamers (that's what we get for games becoming mainstream...but OTOH we still have more than enough of the more "hardcore" ones)
I have always maintained that people have unrealistically positive judgment about artifacts of their youth. Like you with the flat brick, too few buttons and purely digital goodness of the SNES controller.
Like me with Dual Shock. Though in this case...for some reason every next generation of classic controllers from competing manufacturers were becoming closer to Dual Shock, even though they really tried to be different at first. DS otoh - virtually unchanged since...1996? (Dual Analogue Controller, Japanese version with rumble) There is a reason for that...
You might love Nintendo more than SCE, but there were sound reasons why the latter kicked N ass for almost a decade. I'd say SCE had indeed created the best "classic" console to date with the driving concepts behind PS1 (and PS2 to a lesser degree). That includes the controller.
There are just a few trackers that can come even close to TPB, not "thousands". And TPB is by far the best of those few (with many "torrent sites" using, in reality, tpb as a tracker), with largest numbers of files and longest times they remain usable.
Maybe somebody will finally do something with the speed of bt but with catalog/etc. in freenet/tor/i2c kind of network (so it won't be shut down; but it must have controlling owners so it can be kept nice & tidy)
Now, now, be gentle to them. It might be just ignorance, living in a bubble.
They've learned about the properties of standard Nokia & Siemens telecommunications equipment from the news. They probably not even know what "Cisco" is, nevermind that it's a US company.
That's a very valid criticism in the case of reCAPTCHA, unfortunately...
However, I seem to remember something similar to reCAPTCHA that operates not on whole words, but on individual symbols. Might work. Even if doesn't exist (can't find it...) it shouldn't be too hard to implement.
Also, learn at least the basics of modern history...
After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence. Red Army went away only after many years of struggle. There was bloodshed practically in every Soviet satellite country.
In Iran (and many other failed states), no external force is imposing the current brutal government on the Iranians. The folks running the government are Iranian. The president is Iranian. The secret police are Iranian. The thugs who will torture and kill democracy advocates are Iranian. Except for presence of external force (which was present for large part of modern Iran), all this was true in former soviet republics.
If the democracy advocates attempt to establish a genuine democracy in Iran, violence will occur. Why? A large percentage of the population supports the brutal government and will kill the democracy advocates. Let us not merely condemn the Iranian government. We must condemn Iranian culture. Its product is the authoritarian state. When democracy advocates attempted to establish a genuine democracies in soviet republics,for many years violence was the result. Even though majority of population supported the changes. The state of affairs had nothing to do with local culture. Minority that held power was enough.
We should not intervene in the current crisis in Iran. If the overwhelming majority of Iranians (like the overwhelming majority of Poles) truly support democracy, human rights, and peace with Israel, then a liberal Western democracy will arise -- without any violence. Right now, the overwhelming majority clearly oppose the creation of a liberal Western democracy. The Iranians love a brutal Islamic theocracy. You know nothing about the struggle of Poland for democracy. There was violence, people died, change didn't come for many years. And actually it might have come much sooner if, for example, Western Allies didn't handle Eastern Europe on a plate to Stalin. Or didn't let military aggresion on Czechoslovakia in the 60's. And so on... If there was some kind of intervention
You conveniently dismiss the long term effects on people/mindsets/society due to decades of mangling in their affairs.
Make no mistake, current Iran is in large part the product of this mangling. Would it be better without it? I don't know. Would it be different? Hell yeah.
Speaking from one of new EU memberstates that will, I guess, suffer from burden of "homo sovieticus" mindset still for a generation or two - 20 years after regaining independence after five decades of ocupation.
Of course I've meant licensing; but in practise it means the same as copyright - "having it", but only in given area.
And sure it doesn't make sense.
It's just the way it is, with record companies still living in the age of physical recordings and localised broadcast media. In that past age there were good arguments for such licensing deals - markets & broadcasts were local and you can't be everywhere. Now it's just artificial limitation making legal usage less atractive.
What you write is not a problem at all in principle - simply do a trick with perspective by using powerful zoom (the landscape will look largery the same, but the image of moons will be significantly enlarged - actually, that's also how you make "stunning" images of Luna)
Of course it depends on the presence of adequate optics on the rovers; I don't know if they posses it.
Well, of course; it depends on capacity of image sensors (I suspect this one's fine, especially at twilight/when making composite picture) and being able to do tricks with perspective (essentially: powerful zoom; and tbh I have some doubts with this requirement)
There are projects that use captchas to digitize old texts, NASA could put those parts which don't lend themselves to OCR as captchas on their webpage.
And OTOH those $200 billion are 1% of Gross National Income of the EU. Any fines are pocket change.
Also, how many times it has to be said that the EU primarily fines...surprise!...European companies. You just don't hear about it at all in the US.
As a personal sidenote - I wouldn't be at the least surprised if MS or Intel fines are still smaller then the amount they managed to profit due to uncompetitive practices, due to hurting the free market. Either way, now the market simply gets even.
Different owners of copyrights in the given region.
Also, difficulty with extracting profit via ads (that's why Last.fm now streams full songs only in Germany, UK and US; at least the rest of its funtionality works)
BTW, that's why I prefer Last.fm - its recommendation engine works with local files, so it doesn't even really matter that I can't stream anymore (not living in Germany or UK...)
Plus the idea of impartial algorithms of Last.fm worked for me better than "experts" of Pandora - the latter played either things I don't like, or...ones that I already know; it couldn't make the jump to music that perhaps isn't very similar to what I'm listening to, but one that I would probably like (because it's listened by large number of my partial musical neigbours)
Slashdot Mirror
Why Nintendo put it like that in new classic controller then? They are suddenly "misjudged"? Try to appeal? Sony?... Or didn't you notice direct succesion Saturn analog -> Dreamcast -> Xbox as the real reason behind current layout of X360? (and they've still made it quite close to DS...)
Most importantly, if you read my post more carefully, you'll see that it's mostly about in which positions the thumb is able to make particular types of movement. When close to relaxed, when not in line with palm, when close to DS sticks (if you hold it properly, two fingers on triggers; most people don't, that's the most major fault of DS) you're unable to use that much strenght, but fine movements work great. When inline - a bit the other way around.
Yes I am, I hear that BS far too often, and in much too blunt way (I guess because "pure" PC-gamers I interact with assume (as always - that's quite close to "ass") that speaking such BS around me will only further their circle of mutual adoration - after all, I also play "hardcore" PC games, I couldn't possibly be one of those dumb console owners...)
And yeah, we sorta agree. We both see the "problem" (personally I think we'll be fine - you just have to learn that since now you will not like every major game that "fits" your genre/topic...as is already the case with movies, books, music, ...). The thing is - you see it only from one perspective which leads you to incorrect interpretation of causes (one which makes you look not exactly better than supposedly "dumb" console users...). That might actually worsen the problem - by not seeing few existing underlying factors:
1) Xbox-style consoles (BTW, for some reason, only MS-consoles were ever cheerished by "PC magazines", at least here...what a mistake that was). PCs and consoles must be separate to considerable degree, so publishers won't toy with the idea of hybrid games.
2) cheap bling. Just, for once, put you money where your mouth is and don't let games which are only tech-demos get good reviews. Boycott them, completelly. OTOH promote real artism, which is extremelly rare now (and one of the reasons is, on gfx side of things...MS, with homogenising (how's that "one market, one company" works in practice?...) influence of DirectX libs; but Larabee with its promise of fully custom pipeline has the potential of improving that a bit; also, some consoles don't fare bad, with devs writing on the metal)
When we as consumers will remember about those two factors, perhaps we might improve things a bit. But don't hope for too much, because #3 is most important:
3) games are mainstream (again...). Which means that majority of players (on BOTH types of platforms) won't mind #1 & #2, just as typical consumers don't mind such things in movies or music.
And you know what? That's fine. You will still have games you like anyway. Perhaps, perhaps, broader appeal of games will even bring some real new talent...
Or you might just continue to marvel at your elitism far more than is healthy.
And you can check that yourself - just relax your hand (holding arm in the same orientation like when playing on a pad). Your thumb won't be in the place of GC/Xbox/Dreamcast stick. It will be in the place of DS stick.
OTOH when in upper left you can supply greater force with your thumb more easily, so that's a good place for d-pad.
But you don't have to believe me, just look at how all joypad vendors gravitate slowly towards the layout which DualShock holds for almost 13 years...
Have you really read what I wrote?
Console games are not dumbing down your PC games. The things you talk about are hybrids. They are also awfull from the point of view of old console gamers - they might just as well call them "PC games", because their awfullness stems directly from the fact that they are targeted for the simultaneus release on a PC. But you wouldn't agree that's an accurate description of reality, right?
Just so it will be more clear, let me rephrase what you wrote from the point of view of consoles:
Mind you, PC games are fine, but I wish more dev time were spent on true console games. I feel that gaming as a whole is suffering a bit right now, between the shift of focus to primarily PC-style games, casual games, Peggle, and (especially) the cancer that is DLC (//FFS, MAN, YOU REALLY THINK THAT CONSOLES BROUGHT MODS/DOWNLOADS/PATCHES TO GAMES?! REALLY?!?!). In the long run it'll probably be fine, but I'd love to see what would happen with more (not all, just more) titles being aimed at the platform that brought us so many amazing, deep games.
I know it's a futile wish, but it's what thing would be like in the world in my head where we all ride unicorns that fart rainbows and shit gold. Anyway, like I said, I'm not worried about PCs killing deeper gaming long-term (hell, my recent purchase of gaming PC has shown me first-hand that consoles and PCs aren't so different any more--I had to put the fucking DVD into the drive each time I wanted to play!)--DLC might do it, but PCs themselves won't.
...and it's still BS
Games have become less "hardcore" (whatever that means...) simply because they are not driven anymore by wishes of early adopters - they've become mainstream on both consoles and PCs (because the platforms themselves have become mainstream), so the gameplays is obviously also more mainstream...
Plus, thank MS for bringing development of games for both platforms much, much closer - PHBs running game publishing companies think it's "obvious" to target both platforms. When in reality it's a horrible idea. You end up with...hybrids that are a product of compromise, that loose strong points of both platforms.
Speaking as a long time gamer on both types of systems (I care about the game, not so much about on what it runs), so I might have a better grip on reality... (if you wonder - nowadays, on PC, mostly Galciv2 and Stalker, also constant addiction to Fallouts, Diablos, *shocks)
You experience is quite off from typical gamer, then - as evidenced by disappearance of vertical/horizontal/walking shooters that tried to use the keyboard as it were just another type of pad (when PC devs figured out that PC gamers don't have a device for twitch keypresses, but have one to point at things; that's why Abuse works on a PC, and Megaman/Castlevania/Metal Slug doesn't)
Same thing with Chromium B.S.U. - it's a different kind of game (though, IMHO, using analogue stick for the kind of movement from Chromium would be better - with mouse you end up either with unrealistically quick movements (after all..."pointing"; so why have the ship in there at all?) or the feel of disconnect between the movement of mouse and onscreen object). One that is built around good pointing device, and lack of twitch-keypresses one.
sniping someone in the head in a fast-paced game
You're thinking here "Quake-style FPP" only, not "fast-paced game". That you consider this style of game as representative of "most non-simulator games" shows only how you limit your horizons
Mouse is appriopriate only in two types of games: those that have GUI-style controls (and that includes, surprise, some simulators. Of cities, for example) and those that are build around pointing things (not shooting; lightgun games do that)
Just because joypad isn't good for mecha game, doesn't make keyboard + mouse that much better...
Behold the perfection: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Battalion (the only downside of that game was Xbox 1...) There was also a bit less extreme dual joystick for PS1.
PS. And pleeeease, cut out the "console games are dumbing our games" crap, you elitist #$%&. Those games you are mumbling about are hybrids, aiming for middle ground (it's "sensible" since the times MS made developing for consoles very close to developing for Win...), missing out the strenghts of BOTH types of platform; not good also on consoles from the point of view of older gamers (that's what we get for games becoming mainstream...but OTOH we still have more than enough of the more "hardcore" ones)
I have always maintained that people have unrealistically positive judgment about artifacts of their youth. Like you with the flat brick, too few buttons and purely digital goodness of the SNES controller.
Like me with Dual Shock. Though in this case...for some reason every next generation of classic controllers from competing manufacturers were becoming closer to Dual Shock, even though they really tried to be different at first. DS otoh - virtually unchanged since...1996? (Dual Analogue Controller, Japanese version with rumble) There is a reason for that...
You might love Nintendo more than SCE, but there were sound reasons why the latter kicked N ass for almost a decade. I'd say SCE had indeed created the best "classic" console to date with the driving concepts behind PS1 (and PS2 to a lesser degree). That includes the controller.
There are just a few trackers that can come even close to TPB, not "thousands". And TPB is by far the best of those few (with many "torrent sites" using, in reality, tpb as a tracker), with largest numbers of files and longest times they remain usable.
Maybe somebody will finally do something with the speed of bt but with catalog/etc. in freenet/tor/i2c kind of network (so it won't be shut down; but it must have controlling owners so it can be kept nice & tidy)
Now, now, be gentle to them. It might be just ignorance, living in a bubble.
They've learned about the properties of standard Nokia & Siemens telecommunications equipment from the news. They probably not even know what "Cisco" is, nevermind that it's a US company.
That's a very valid criticism in the case of reCAPTCHA, unfortunately...
However, I seem to remember something similar to reCAPTCHA that operates not on whole words, but on individual symbols. Might work. Even if doesn't exist (can't find it...) it shouldn't be too hard to implement.
You could read my others posts in this sub-thread before replying...
Also, learn at least the basics of modern history...
After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe, the peoples of each nation in Eastern Europe rapidly established a genuine democracy and a free market. Except for Romania (where its people killed their dictator), there was no violence.
Red Army went away only after many years of struggle. There was bloodshed practically in every Soviet satellite country.
In Iran (and many other failed states), no external force is imposing the current brutal government on the Iranians. The folks running the government are Iranian. The president is Iranian. The secret police are Iranian. The thugs who will torture and kill democracy advocates are Iranian.
Except for presence of external force (which was present for large part of modern Iran), all this was true in former soviet republics.
If the democracy advocates attempt to establish a genuine democracy in Iran, violence will occur. Why? A large percentage of the population supports the brutal government and will kill the democracy advocates.
Let us not merely condemn the Iranian government. We must condemn Iranian culture. Its product is the authoritarian state.
When democracy advocates attempted to establish a genuine democracies in soviet republics,for many years violence was the result. Even though majority of population supported the changes. The state of affairs had nothing to do with local culture. Minority that held power was enough.
We should not intervene in the current crisis in Iran. If the overwhelming majority of Iranians (like the overwhelming majority of Poles) truly support democracy, human rights, and peace with Israel, then a liberal Western democracy will arise -- without any violence. Right now, the overwhelming majority clearly oppose the creation of a liberal Western democracy. The Iranians love a brutal Islamic theocracy.
You know nothing about the struggle of Poland for democracy. There was violence, people died, change didn't come for many years.
And actually it might have come much sooner if, for example, Western Allies didn't handle Eastern Europe on a plate to Stalin. Or didn't let military aggresion on Czechoslovakia in the 60's. And so on... If there was some kind of intervention
You conveniently dismiss the long term effects on people/mindsets/society due to decades of mangling in their affairs.
Make no mistake, current Iran is in large part the product of this mangling. Would it be better without it? I don't know. Would it be different? Hell yeah.
Speaking from one of new EU memberstates that will, I guess, suffer from burden of "homo sovieticus" mindset still for a generation or two - 20 years after regaining independence after five decades of ocupation.
There are far more individual numbers/letters/etc. in those notes than equations.
Of course I've meant licensing; but in practise it means the same as copyright - "having it", but only in given area.
And sure it doesn't make sense.
It's just the way it is, with record companies still living in the age of physical recordings and localised broadcast media. In that past age there were good arguments for such licensing deals - markets & broadcasts were local and you can't be everywhere. Now it's just artificial limitation making legal usage less atractive.
What you write is not a problem at all in principle - simply do a trick with perspective by using powerful zoom (the landscape will look largery the same, but the image of moons will be significantly enlarged - actually, that's also how you make "stunning" images of Luna)
Of course it depends on the presence of adequate optics on the rovers; I don't know if they posses it.
Well, of course; it depends on capacity of image sensors (I suspect this one's fine, especially at twilight/when making composite picture) and being able to do tricks with perspective (essentially: powerful zoom; and tbh I have some doubts with this requirement)
Captchas.
There are projects that use captchas to digitize old texts, NASA could put those parts which don't lend themselves to OCR as captchas on their webpage.
Please, please, please...make a photo of those two moons on night/twilight sky, with barely visible ground/horizon
Ultimate romantic picture for all geeks throughout the world ;>
That would be a nice advice if not for MS making the switch as hard as possible... (by using anticompetitive practices in the past)
And OTOH those $200 billion are 1% of Gross National Income of the EU. Any fines are pocket change.
Also, how many times it has to be said that the EU primarily fines...surprise!...European companies. You just don't hear about it at all in the US.
As a personal sidenote - I wouldn't be at the least surprised if MS or Intel fines are still smaller then the amount they managed to profit due to uncompetitive practices, due to hurting the free market. Either way, now the market simply gets even.
Different owners of copyrights in the given region.
Also, difficulty with extracting profit via ads (that's why Last.fm now streams full songs only in Germany, UK and US; at least the rest of its funtionality works)
Though one can still listen to previews of tracks, that's often enough when checking recommendations.
And adding here another thought that I have after my previous comment to the story - does it all show disconnect of Americans from outside world? ;)
Yes, very old.
BTW, that's why I prefer Last.fm - its recommendation engine works with local files, so it doesn't even really matter that I can't stream anymore (not living in Germany or UK...)
Plus the idea of impartial algorithms of Last.fm worked for me better than "experts" of Pandora - the latter played either things I don't like, or...ones that I already know; it couldn't make the jump to music that perhaps isn't very similar to what I'm listening to, but one that I would probably like (because it's listened by large number of my partial musical neigbours)