A lot of times I see people bemoan one cell phone company or another for coverage when the issue at least partially lies with the phone. It's a two-dimensional equation and far too often it's not being treated that way. I know my Cingular coverage used to stink until I switched phones and then all of a sudden the dropped calls and poor coverage I got magically went away. I'm now pretty happy with Cingular after I got rid of my old phone. I do realize that there are plenty of examples where the fault lies squarely on the provider's shoulders but it's important to at least keep in mind that the fault could lie in the phone. I don't know if this partiular study takes that into account (I won't pay for the article) but I've never seen one that does take that into consideration.
"It's important to note, however, that our ads are created and managed under the exact same guidelines, principles, practices and algorithms as the ads of any other advertiser. Likewise, we use the very same tools and account interface."
But Google knows their own search algorithms. I'll bet if I were privvy to the same knowledge, I could make AdWords ads that rival Google's. They play by the same rules but only they know the rules.
Sol Cutter and I respectfully disagree. I would otherwise be all for disavowing all knowledge of the CD-i but that would mean disavowing knowledge of the only CD-i game worth having: Burn Cycle. It hasn't held up well but in its day it was fantastic.
And who are these Wachowskis you speak of? The closest thing I can find is an anceint word "Wachowski" which translates to "people who blatantly rip off the greatest works of science fiction in the 20th Century (especially Gibson and Dick) and turn them into rather poor kung fu movies with poor acting and flashy special effects."
It was one disc if I remember correctly (maybe two). My PC at the time was still a 25MHz 386sx so I don't know if the DOS version was terrible on everyone's computer or just mine. The CD-i version was sweet but not worth finding a working CD-i, MPEG card, and game now for. The Windows 95 version of 7th Guest I played recently was close enough.
"For most gamers, the adventures of Link and the story of Zelda have never failed to deliver."
Only because most gamers were spared the horror of playing one of the two CD-i Zelda games. I picked up a refurb CD-i dirt cheap for the time ($100 w/the MPEG cart) for the 7th Guest and decided to try out the Mask of Gamelion (sp?) while I was at it. Not only was that easily the worst game I've ever played (and I've played ET for the 2600), I was dumb enough to pay $35 for it. That is one scenario where the "adventures of Link and the story of Zelda" SERIOUSLY failed to deliver.
"especially since computing power isn't limited to graphics, better physic engines would definitely be something that would benefit a motion sensing controller a lot."
While what you say is technically true, I don't see too many console games going around improving physics engines all that much. This argument reminds me of the salesmen claiming the Commodore 64 can run educational programs, too. Sure it can but that's not how it's being used.
"but a good sign of a console's failure is when the manufacturer quits making consoles."
It'd be nice to know what you're talking about before posting. By your logic, the PC-FX was a failure as that was the last console made by NEC (and it was). The TurboGrafx wasn't even the second to last system NEC made. That dubious honor goes to the SuperGrafx (also a failure). And the Neo Geo wasn't even close to being the last console SNK made. Here's a list. Note that they are all followups to the Neo Geo (and all largely failures).
The soft drink industry is probably one of the worst places you could attempt such an example due to the convoluted nature of product ownership.
Country Time is owned by Dr Pepper/7UP who is in turn owned by Cadbury Schweppes. It's always hard to tell if a product is Cadbury Schweppes since they don't bottles their own beverages. Sometimes a Coca-Cola bottler will bottle them, sometimes a Pepsi bottler, and sometimes someone else entirely will bottle them based on the area. The nearest Pepsi equivalent would be Sierra Mist (Sprite is owned by Coca-Cola). In fact, Sierra Mist came about because Pepsi wanted to hock their own product in the lemon-lime cola segment to replace the distribution deal they had with 7UP. Does Sierra Mist cannibalize 7UP sales? In the bottlers' views maybe but not in Pepsico or Cadbury's view.
"most of that money is used to finance states or normal people debts and gain even more money from that, which, on the overal, is loss for the economy."
How is that a loss for the economy? If the people/businesses/gov'ts stood to lose big on borrowing, they wouldn't. Business borrow money to fund projects that return more than they pay in interest. People borrow to buy homes that end up being worth far more than they've paid in interest. Ok, maybe the gov'ts squander more often than not. But to call making funds available to borrow a "loss for the economy" is completely absurd. It takes wealth to make wealth. With loans you can use someone else's wealth to make your own wealth. The downside is that you have to pay them interest on that loan. It's not a perfect system but more often than not, it is a good thing.
"These people practice hours on end just like professional sports players."
I had to practice for hours on end to get good at my profession. You don't see people paying to watch me sit at a computer and code every day. Popularity of a sport (or semi-sport for the folks who have a strict defenition of "sport") has nothing to do with the work involved. If there's a video game that enough people enjoy watching in its entirety, then it may be viable as a sport. If I had to wager, I'd bet either a capture the flag FPS or RTS game would be the easiest to present in a live format since there's at most two primary focus points as far as action is concerned in either. That's discarding sports-based video games sice their presentation would be relatively straight forward.
How many of those cop dramas do you actually watch? My wife is a big fan of the genre so I get roped into it more often than not. The ones that are aired on network television have suprisingly little shooting at one another. Most of the network cop dramas consist of cops whining about business and professional relationships with a little crime solving mixed in.
"The graphics and gameplay show only extremely minor improvements year on year"
Graphics are easy to see without playing. However, I don't see how you can deduce the gameplay characteristics of a game series you've never played. As a semi-regular Madden buyer, I'll address the issue anyways. Those improvements are incremental but if you look at how long it ususally takes to develop a sequel to a game (2-3 years) and what Madden has done in that amount of time, the changes are typically quite drastic. That would explain where the money went. I still maintain that I'd rather play Madden 07 than Madden 06 with 07's roster and that's been true every year except for IMHO some exceptionally poor showings from 2001 to 2003 (in Madden years).
Why post on-topic when you can blatantly go off-topic and get modded up for it? This is a nuts and bolts Tivo article. It's not about considering one DVR solution over another. No other solution is even on the table here. I'm not the biggest fan of Tivo but I'm getting a bit sick of these folks who feels some sort of duty to shove in a reference to MythTV every time Tivo is mentioned. I for one won't be amazed by links about MythTV but I can't read a single DVR article that doesn't have some wonky poster extolling the virtues of MythTV. We get it. We know. Stick to the topic.
"And what would happen to you if you turned down their offer? You would die, wouldn't you? Not a very good bargaining position if you ask me."
Then it's a good thing that's not how things actually work. When's the last time you had to go to the hospital in the US and they denied treatment becuase they thought you were unable to pay? If it happened at all, then you should get yourself a good lawyer and sue the pants off that hospital. As mandated by law, hospitals provide treatment regarless of your ability to pay. Then they come after you for the pay. That whole coming after you part is pretty expensive for them. If you voluntarily pay, they'll be willing to take less money to do that. A lot less. It's better than hiring some lawyers only to find that you already filed bankruptcy and they won't get any money at all.
"When you go negotiate the price of a new car you don't have to buy the car, you can just go away and by the car later at a different location."
True but when the hospital is billing you for medical services, you've already got what you need since the bill comes after the service.
"I also think it should be illegal for hospitals and doctors to 'negotiate' rates with insurance companies."
Why not? They'll negotiate with you. In fact if you can pay them promptly, they'll cut you a better deal than they'll cut any insurance company. Insurance companies have a nasty habit of holding onto payment well after it's due. If you can get cash in hand or even set up a payment plan with the hospital, they'll take it at a great loss (compared to their asking price). They won't advertise that because then the insurance companies wouldn't think they are getting a deal.
This would be like making it illegal to negotiate on new car prices. Sure the car dealer has a high MSRP, but you're a fool to pay it. Our insurance system has it's problems, but hospitals and doctors being free to negotiate prices isn't one of them.
"If part of an industry that is (very) close to the cause of pollution suggests to take certain actions that mostlikely will cost them money in the short run, then you know something is wrong."
Or you know that car manufacturer runs a cleaner shop than their competitors and will benefit from such a tax. Don't ever think business has more than one goal. Sometimes it's worth it to pay a little more if it means your competitors will pay a lot more.
Well she had to get plutonium back to herself somehow. I'm sure in 1985 you can get plutonium at your local conrer store but in the 1930's it's a bit harder to come by.
"It really doesn't matter what you think of the Wii. The lines waiting for teh PS3 this morning were completely full. The prices on eBay are already legendary. You won't see that with Sunday's launch of the Wii."
Only because Wii has more units available. Right now we know nothing of the true demand for a PS3. We just know that there's demand for more than 200,000 units in the US. Given the eBay pricing, we may also know that the demand is significantly higher but we still don't know by how much. Sales could crap out early but with a small hard core fanbase. On the other hand, sales could chug well into the millions given an ample supply. We really don't know yet.
For a person that chides someone for jumping to conclusions for how good the Wii will be, you sure do seem to jump to your own conclusions on the PS3's overall demand.
"wouldn't you want to have a handoff for something like this?"
This already exists. It's called an escrow service.
"what's to say people at ups or fedex aren't scanning boxes with a x-ray machine to identify a box with a ps3 in it...and "lose it"."
The same thing that says people in other professions also should not steal: they'll lose their job and may wind up in jail if caught. That might not stop some FedEx/UPS/USPS employees but I imagine the lion's share of them aren't going to risk their job (all 3 of which have nice benefits and excellent retirement packages though not a flashy payscale) over a $600 game system. And whoever is paying out that insurance is going to be pretty motivated to find the culprit(s).
I'm sure fraud will happen but far more people will conduct perfectly legal transactions than not.
Even if you have to find a used copy of the game, Saturn console, 2 multitaps, and 10 controllers to play it in all its glory, it is far worth it. Without any sort of networking mumbo-jumbo, you can play with up to 10 players! 10 player Bomberman is great. 8 player is better with a bigger variety of levels. Anyone can pick up Bomberman in a few minutes to play it and from what I've always seen, newbies are pretty evenly matched to seasoned players because the seasoned players get cocky and make more mistakes. And instead of the usual droll of bombermen in different colors, in multiplayer you get to choose characters from previous Hudsonsoft games like Bonk or Milon or Master Hudson (from Adventure Island). It's a shame it came to the US a system with such little popularity. I pull out my Saturn far more often than any other old system I have (including Dreamcast) just so I can play the ultimate manifestation of 2D Bomberman (and Legend of Oasis but that's not a multiplayer game).
I didn't know about that. One thing I didn't consider is that most (though not all) of the consoles I mentioned were released in Japan quite a bit before they were released here in the States. I suppose it is also possible that those system had issues that were resolved well before they were brought here (as in the Famicom example).
So what were the launch issues and bugs with the 2600, the NES (remember, their big issue came well after launch), SNES, TG16, Genesis, Gameboy, Jaguar, Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, or Gamecube?
Can you name launch issues with even two or three of the above?
Most appliances work. Gaming consoles used to be appliances but the more they veer towards being general computing machines and the more they veer towards working with a wide variety of hardware, the more they veer towards having hardware and software issues. But for the record, most consoles DON'T have some kind of issue or bug at launch. Most of them work just fine at launch.
"computer science is a lot more than just clicking around on a computer..."
Computer Science is also a lot more than just programming. There are plenty of theory guys who aren't all that sharp when it comes to actual programming but very much belong in Computer Science. I'm not saying they shouldn't be given F's in programming-specific classes if they deserve it, but there are plenty of CS degree paths that don't do much more than entry level programming and that is a good thing.
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A lot of times I see people bemoan one cell phone company or another for coverage when the issue at least partially lies with the phone. It's a two-dimensional equation and far too often it's not being treated that way. I know my Cingular coverage used to stink until I switched phones and then all of a sudden the dropped calls and poor coverage I got magically went away. I'm now pretty happy with Cingular after I got rid of my old phone. I do realize that there are plenty of examples where the fault lies squarely on the provider's shoulders but it's important to at least keep in mind that the fault could lie in the phone. I don't know if this partiular study takes that into account (I won't pay for the article) but I've never seen one that does take that into consideration.
"It's important to note, however, that our ads are created and managed under the exact same guidelines, principles, practices and algorithms as the ads of any other advertiser. Likewise, we use the very same tools and account interface."
But Google knows their own search algorithms. I'll bet if I were privvy to the same knowledge, I could make AdWords ads that rival Google's. They play by the same rules but only they know the rules.
"There was no such thing as the CD-i"
Sol Cutter and I respectfully disagree. I would otherwise be all for disavowing all knowledge of the CD-i but that would mean disavowing knowledge of the only CD-i game worth having: Burn Cycle. It hasn't held up well but in its day it was fantastic.
And who are these Wachowskis you speak of? The closest thing I can find is an anceint word "Wachowski" which translates to "people who blatantly rip off the greatest works of science fiction in the 20th Century (especially Gibson and Dick) and turn them into rather poor kung fu movies with poor acting and flashy special effects."
It was one disc if I remember correctly (maybe two). My PC at the time was still a 25MHz 386sx so I don't know if the DOS version was terrible on everyone's computer or just mine. The CD-i version was sweet but not worth finding a working CD-i, MPEG card, and game now for. The Windows 95 version of 7th Guest I played recently was close enough.
"For most gamers, the adventures of Link and the story of Zelda have never failed to deliver."
Only because most gamers were spared the horror of playing one of the two CD-i Zelda games. I picked up a refurb CD-i dirt cheap for the time ($100 w/the MPEG cart) for the 7th Guest and decided to try out the Mask of Gamelion (sp?) while I was at it. Not only was that easily the worst game I've ever played (and I've played ET for the 2600), I was dumb enough to pay $35 for it. That is one scenario where the "adventures of Link and the story of Zelda" SERIOUSLY failed to deliver.
Really. These guys used to strap them on like backpacks when they went to work everyday.
"especially since computing power isn't limited to graphics, better physic engines would definitely be something that would benefit a motion sensing controller a lot."
While what you say is technically true, I don't see too many console games going around improving physics engines all that much. This argument reminds me of the salesmen claiming the Commodore 64 can run educational programs, too. Sure it can but that's not how it's being used.
"but a good sign of a console's failure is when the manufacturer quits making consoles."
It'd be nice to know what you're talking about before posting. By your logic, the PC-FX was a failure as that was the last console made by NEC (and it was). The TurboGrafx wasn't even the second to last system NEC made. That dubious honor goes to the SuperGrafx (also a failure). And the Neo Geo wasn't even close to being the last console SNK made. Here's a list. Note that they are all followups to the Neo Geo (and all largely failures).
The soft drink industry is probably one of the worst places you could attempt such an example due to the convoluted nature of product ownership.
Country Time is owned by Dr Pepper/7UP who is in turn owned by Cadbury Schweppes. It's always hard to tell if a product is Cadbury Schweppes since they don't bottles their own beverages. Sometimes a Coca-Cola bottler will bottle them, sometimes a Pepsi bottler, and sometimes someone else entirely will bottle them based on the area. The nearest Pepsi equivalent would be Sierra Mist (Sprite is owned by Coca-Cola). In fact, Sierra Mist came about because Pepsi wanted to hock their own product in the lemon-lime cola segment to replace the distribution deal they had with 7UP. Does Sierra Mist cannibalize 7UP sales? In the bottlers' views maybe but not in Pepsico or Cadbury's view.
"most of that money is used to finance states or normal people debts and gain even more money from that, which, on the overal, is loss for the economy."
How is that a loss for the economy? If the people/businesses/gov'ts stood to lose big on borrowing, they wouldn't. Business borrow money to fund projects that return more than they pay in interest. People borrow to buy homes that end up being worth far more than they've paid in interest. Ok, maybe the gov'ts squander more often than not. But to call making funds available to borrow a "loss for the economy" is completely absurd. It takes wealth to make wealth. With loans you can use someone else's wealth to make your own wealth. The downside is that you have to pay them interest on that loan. It's not a perfect system but more often than not, it is a good thing.
"These people practice hours on end just like professional sports players."
I had to practice for hours on end to get good at my profession. You don't see people paying to watch me sit at a computer and code every day. Popularity of a sport (or semi-sport for the folks who have a strict defenition of "sport") has nothing to do with the work involved. If there's a video game that enough people enjoy watching in its entirety, then it may be viable as a sport. If I had to wager, I'd bet either a capture the flag FPS or RTS game would be the easiest to present in a live format since there's at most two primary focus points as far as action is concerned in either. That's discarding sports-based video games sice their presentation would be relatively straight forward.
How many of those cop dramas do you actually watch? My wife is a big fan of the genre so I get roped into it more often than not. The ones that are aired on network television have suprisingly little shooting at one another. Most of the network cop dramas consist of cops whining about business and professional relationships with a little crime solving mixed in.
"The graphics and gameplay show only extremely minor improvements year on year"
Graphics are easy to see without playing. However, I don't see how you can deduce the gameplay characteristics of a game series you've never played. As a semi-regular Madden buyer, I'll address the issue anyways. Those improvements are incremental but if you look at how long it ususally takes to develop a sequel to a game (2-3 years) and what Madden has done in that amount of time, the changes are typically quite drastic. That would explain where the money went. I still maintain that I'd rather play Madden 07 than Madden 06 with 07's roster and that's been true every year except for IMHO some exceptionally poor showings from 2001 to 2003 (in Madden years).
"Why TiVo when you can MythTV?"
Why post on-topic when you can blatantly go off-topic and get modded up for it? This is a nuts and bolts Tivo article. It's not about considering one DVR solution over another. No other solution is even on the table here. I'm not the biggest fan of Tivo but I'm getting a bit sick of these folks who feels some sort of duty to shove in a reference to MythTV every time Tivo is mentioned. I for one won't be amazed by links about MythTV but I can't read a single DVR article that doesn't have some wonky poster extolling the virtues of MythTV. We get it. We know. Stick to the topic.
"And what would happen to you if you turned down their offer? You would die, wouldn't you? Not a very good bargaining position if you ask me."
Then it's a good thing that's not how things actually work. When's the last time you had to go to the hospital in the US and they denied treatment becuase they thought you were unable to pay? If it happened at all, then you should get yourself a good lawyer and sue the pants off that hospital. As mandated by law, hospitals provide treatment regarless of your ability to pay. Then they come after you for the pay. That whole coming after you part is pretty expensive for them. If you voluntarily pay, they'll be willing to take less money to do that. A lot less. It's better than hiring some lawyers only to find that you already filed bankruptcy and they won't get any money at all.
"When you go negotiate the price of a new car you don't have to buy the car, you can just go away and by the car later at a different location."
True but when the hospital is billing you for medical services, you've already got what you need since the bill comes after the service.
"I also think it should be illegal for hospitals and doctors to 'negotiate' rates with insurance companies."
Why not? They'll negotiate with you. In fact if you can pay them promptly, they'll cut you a better deal than they'll cut any insurance company. Insurance companies have a nasty habit of holding onto payment well after it's due. If you can get cash in hand or even set up a payment plan with the hospital, they'll take it at a great loss (compared to their asking price). They won't advertise that because then the insurance companies wouldn't think they are getting a deal.
This would be like making it illegal to negotiate on new car prices. Sure the car dealer has a high MSRP, but you're a fool to pay it. Our insurance system has it's problems, but hospitals and doctors being free to negotiate prices isn't one of them.
"If part of an industry that is (very) close to the cause of pollution suggests to take certain actions that mostlikely will cost them money in the short run, then you know something is wrong."
Or you know that car manufacturer runs a cleaner shop than their competitors and will benefit from such a tax. Don't ever think business has more than one goal. Sometimes it's worth it to pay a little more if it means your competitors will pay a lot more.
Well she had to get plutonium back to herself somehow. I'm sure in 1985 you can get plutonium at your local conrer store but in the 1930's it's a bit harder to come by.
Take off, hoser! It's Bob and Doug McKenzie. And they're going to be making their game in 3B.
"It really doesn't matter what you think of the Wii. The lines waiting for teh PS3 this morning were completely full. The prices on eBay are already legendary. You won't see that with Sunday's launch of the Wii."
Only because Wii has more units available. Right now we know nothing of the true demand for a PS3. We just know that there's demand for more than 200,000 units in the US. Given the eBay pricing, we may also know that the demand is significantly higher but we still don't know by how much. Sales could crap out early but with a small hard core fanbase. On the other hand, sales could chug well into the millions given an ample supply. We really don't know yet.
For a person that chides someone for jumping to conclusions for how good the Wii will be, you sure do seem to jump to your own conclusions on the PS3's overall demand.
"wouldn't you want to have a handoff for something like this?"
...and "lose it"."
This already exists. It's called an escrow service.
"what's to say people at ups or fedex aren't scanning boxes with a x-ray machine to identify a box with a ps3 in it
The same thing that says people in other professions also should not steal: they'll lose their job and may wind up in jail if caught. That might not stop some FedEx/UPS/USPS employees but I imagine the lion's share of them aren't going to risk their job (all 3 of which have nice benefits and excellent retirement packages though not a flashy payscale) over a $600 game system. And whoever is paying out that insurance is going to be pretty motivated to find the culprit(s).
I'm sure fraud will happen but far more people will conduct perfectly legal transactions than not.
Even if you have to find a used copy of the game, Saturn console, 2 multitaps, and 10 controllers to play it in all its glory, it is far worth it. Without any sort of networking mumbo-jumbo, you can play with up to 10 players! 10 player Bomberman is great. 8 player is better with a bigger variety of levels. Anyone can pick up Bomberman in a few minutes to play it and from what I've always seen, newbies are pretty evenly matched to seasoned players because the seasoned players get cocky and make more mistakes. And instead of the usual droll of bombermen in different colors, in multiplayer you get to choose characters from previous Hudsonsoft games like Bonk or Milon or Master Hudson (from Adventure Island). It's a shame it came to the US a system with such little popularity. I pull out my Saturn far more often than any other old system I have (including Dreamcast) just so I can play the ultimate manifestation of 2D Bomberman (and Legend of Oasis but that's not a multiplayer game).
I didn't know about that. One thing I didn't consider is that most (though not all) of the consoles I mentioned were released in Japan quite a bit before they were released here in the States. I suppose it is also possible that those system had issues that were resolved well before they were brought here (as in the Famicom example).
So what were the launch issues and bugs with the 2600, the NES (remember, their big issue came well after launch), SNES, TG16, Genesis, Gameboy, Jaguar, Saturn, N64, Dreamcast, or Gamecube?
Can you name launch issues with even two or three of the above?
Most appliances work. Gaming consoles used to be appliances but the more they veer towards being general computing machines and the more they veer towards working with a wide variety of hardware, the more they veer towards having hardware and software issues. But for the record, most consoles DON'T have some kind of issue or bug at launch. Most of them work just fine at launch.
"computer science is a lot more than just clicking around on a computer..."
Computer Science is also a lot more than just programming. There are plenty of theory guys who aren't all that sharp when it comes to actual programming but very much belong in Computer Science. I'm not saying they shouldn't be given F's in programming-specific classes if they deserve it, but there are plenty of CS degree paths that don't do much more than entry level programming and that is a good thing.