"DVD menu designers pulling their heads out of their collective asses."
I really think that this more than anything is the key. I realize that a DVD is not a VHS tape is not a DVD but from a user interface standpoint, DVD menu designers are treating DVDs too much like GUI software and not enough like controls for watching a movie.
When DVDs and players follow these rules, I see no difference in ease of use between the two: Play should ALWAYS play the movie. Fast Formward should ALWAYS fast forward. Rewind should ALWAYS rewind. Stop should ALWAYS stop. Eject should ALWAYS eject. Fast forward and rewind should be clearly distinguishable from next chapter and previous chapter. If the DVD doesn't play the movie by default when inserted, then it should be the default option. There should be a default option for Letterbox vs. Fullscreen that can be changed in the menu but that shouldn't pop up every time I hit play.
Even in my ancient late-70's Curtis Mathes top-loader (which is interestingly enough the tape player my aforementioned grandmother is using right now), we rarely had to mess with tracking on a decent quality tape but I'll go ahead and conceed the point for those who didn't cough up the money for a decent player at the time or who watch a lot of homemade or low quality movies.
But "pressing fast-forward to go over the commercials and trailers, then hit play again when the actual movie starts" is FAR superior to having to sit through previews every time you pop in the DVD becasue the DVD can circumvent your fast-forward controls to prevent you from skipping the previews. (This is especially prevalent on rentals.)
"Oh, you want to see the scene where hero loses the bad guy in a car chase."
No, I just want to watch the f'ing movie. If anything, I'm exceedingly happy that VHS tapes are bad at that sort of thing becauses it keeps my friends and family from jumping into replay after replay instead of just watching the movie. Unlike CDs where I might want to pick out a particular song in an album, I rarely skip around during the movie. I'm guessing if you put random access of the movie through the grandmother test, she won't do it all that often either (even if it is easy to do). Now TV shows on DVD are another story...
Like I said earlier, there are a LOT of advances DVDs made over VHS. I still stand by my statement that DVDs are harder to use for their typical use (watching movies) than VHS tape. It is very nice though not having to worry about if you're getting an SP, LP/EP, or SLP tape when you buy a movie in the DVD age.
"DVD had a similar jump in technology but actually increasing ease of use over VHS"
Hmmm. I don't what can be easier than putting the tape in and pressing play. Surely you're not suggesting that putting a disc in, waiting for the menu screen, and then fiddling with usually poorly-designed menus is easier?
When it comes down to it, my grandmother has never had problems getting a VHS tape to play. I have had problems getting a DVD player to play (lost the remote and the disc wouldn't just play the $%$%#@ movie when I hit "Play" on the DVD player box).
DVD made many advances over VHS. Ease of use is NOT one of them.
There are some cartoons I just LOVED from my youth that I've since realized are not quite as good as I remember them being. I downloaded some Captain N and Thundercats about a year ago and never realized just how bad those shows really were. I'd hate to see Zelda fall to that same fate. I'd like to remember Zelda as the cartoon that I fondly watched just before going to the video store for my weekly video game rental each Friday, not as I'd see it today if I watched it.
"If you were playing a fishing game, before you would just press buttons on a controller held in both hands in front of you. With this, you can move your arm back and forth and cast your bait. It senses depth. As someone who doesn't spend hours per day gaming, I was thrilled with the experience."
Kind of like what I've been doing for 6 years with Sega Bass Fishing? I bought the controller AND game brand new when it came out for about $60, which is the apparently the new price point for this next generation of games.
"so many third-party developers have already commited to the Revolution and many more are very interested"
I wouldn't put too much stock in "commitments." Take a look at the Jaguar FAQ sometime and look at the like of "committed" developers who never even made a game for the system. I will admit that it's much better than nobody making commitments yet.
Just to be thorough, Carlin says that volleyball is actually "racketless team ping pong played with an inflatable ball and a raised net, while standing on the table."
Take it with a grain of salt though. This is the same guy that says gymnastics isn't a sport because Romainians are good at it.
"he doesn't feel like using software licensing and copyright as a weapon to fight political battles"
I might've been a little strong-worded and put some words in Linus' mouth (mostly for entertainment value) but it's really easy to take the above stance when you'd lose if you did use software licensing to fight political battles.
"I _literally_ feel that we do not - as software developers - have the moral right to enforce our rules on hardware manufacturers."
Translation: "I feel that we do not have the muscle - as open source software developers - to force hardware manufactures to bow to our DRM demands. They'll just laugh at us."
Or he could just continue on a workout schedule. That's what my dad did when he left baseball. He kept on working out and cut down significantly on his diet. The workouts were less rigorous but they were good enough. This tennis guy will face a challenge going from tennis pro to pro gamer but he can do if he continues with proper exercise and nutrition.
Lots of baseball players manage to stay in shape after retirement. I imagine a tennis pro can do the same. The biggest weight gains I've seen are off of retired bodybuilders and American football players who previously had to have massive caloric intake to keep up their muscle mass. They just can't seem to adjust to eating a lot less food.
I haven't kept up with tennis since my honeymoon was inadvertently scheduled in London during Wimbledon back in 2000. (I was wondering beforehand why it was so hard to get decent hotel reservations. I quickly found out why.) Is this kid a superstar or something? Is he just a marginal player? I'm just wondering if he's really backing out of a tennis career because of his love of gaming or his fear of success in professional tennis.
I'm not so sure that shoehorning an app (and an OS for that matter) that thinks it's running on a signle node into a cluster is such a good idea. The benefits of a cluster are typically only realized when the underlying software has some idea of what's going on and can organize data sufficiently accross the nodes. At best case, I'm guessing there will be an awfully chatty system in place that may get marginally better performance or may even get worse performance than running the app on a single node.
I agree that we've all come to expect "Madden Karma." Just making sure you weren't confusing it for real bugs. That does sound pretty crappy about the Box. Not that I don't believe you, but I find it odd that the Cube hasn't ever given me such fits with 06. It seems like EA would spend the time necessary to get Madden working best on a more popular platform. As much as I love my Cube, I realize that most Madden players play it on a PS2 or XBox.
I remember playing NCAA 2K2 on the DC once where the other team's QB heaved a ball directly to my DB with none of his receivers anywhere near. I intercepted the pass. The computer game the other team a 1st down where I had intercepted it. That was pretty wacky and that was a Sega game on a Sega hardware platform.
The distributors need to set up a buyback program. In the game pack they should include a postage-paid envelope that you can ship the contents back in for a partial refund of the price when you no longer want the game. Then they won't have to worry about getting cut out of the loop. They can then distribute their own line of used games to whatever stores are interested.
Of course, I really think Steam will be the route they end up going.
Just curious, but what "bugs" are you finding in the Box version? And is this the normal XBox or the 360? The Cube version is pretty solid from what I can tell. The only problem I've seen is the usual Madden Karma that creeps in and works against you when you succeed too much. This is becoming increasingly noticeable now that I am 8-0 on the hardest difficulty settings with the Falcons. I've lost Vick for 5 weeks on a play where he didn't even get touched and then turned the ball over 5 times against Miami after only having 3 turnovers in the previous 7 weeks. Those turnovers weren't even INTs by the new QB (Quincy Carter). They were all fumbles. At least it's better than Blitz Kamra. I've got a Blitz 2000 arcade machine at home jacked up as hard as possible. The computer is getting downright dirty after 54 wins in a row.
The most intersting part of the evolution of video game controllers is what they came up with just before and during the 2600 era. Paddles used to be the standard controller design back when all home systems had some derivation of Pong on them. The Fairchild system had a very interesting controller with a directional stick on top and a stick as the base. The Astrocade also had a similar controller layout. The Telstar arcade was also pretty unique with the Steering Wheel, gun, and paddles all on one unit.
To be fair, they have at least shown us a controller and give us a general idea of how it's supposed to work. That's at least "something" even if it's not as much as a prerendered video. I do see your point however. We do have little to base judgements off of. I just wanted to point out that it's not a new phenomenon. It's a shame the Nintendo fanboys modded you troll. You did have a valid non-trollish point.
"I've never seen so many people let their imaginations spin so wildly out of control about a toy."
You must've missed the build up (and eventual letdown) of everything the PS2 was supposed to do before launch. Anyone remember the Emotion Processor? At one point I'm pretty sure Sony was claiming they'd cure cancer with that one.
I tell you what, you show me US killings on the scale Mao accomplished in China and I'll conceed that I'm "grasping at straws." A few protesters dies in the 60's and their deaths weren't nearly as numerous or intentional as the Tienamen Square massacre. I'm sorry that your hatred for America has blinded you to the point that you equate the United States with Communist China in terms of freedom. I think you're seriously confusing the freedom the United States allows its citizens with its military agenda.
And as far as I've seen, the DMCA and DRM are aimed at protecting copyrighted material. They don't infringe on your freedom of speech or expression. You can talk freely about those works all you'd like. You just can't copy the actual material without consent since those works are not yours.
1. What do rehases have to do with crappy games? There were a TON of crappy titles out for the 2600 in 1983 but they weren't sequels or rehashes for the most part. The worst offenders were the variations on Pac-Man or Space Invaders/Galaxian. I'd say we are better off now than we were then. At least now when I buy a game called M*A*S*H, it might actually be about an aspect of the show instead of being a helicopter shooter game.
2. How is that anything at all like 1983? Were you alive in 1983? Colleges at the time generally taught principles of computer science as part of some other discipline (like math or engineering). Most colleges and universities in the US at the time didn't have a dedicated computer science or computer engineering department, much less a major in game writing like some pseudo-schools have now.
3. I'll conceed that point. Though I would rather play a random game off the shelf today than play the 2600 version of Pac-Man.
"Every car I've ever owned in the USA had the gas tank under the trunk/boot. Several feet BEHIND the passenger."
What kind of car are you driving where there's "several feet" between the rear passengers and the fuel tank? Most of the time the tank is now directly under the trunk which is just behind the rear passengers and sometimes in older cars the tank spreads to just under the back seat. FWIW I still remember my Dad's 1977 Chevrolet Scottsdale (which I drove for a while when first turning 16) had a tank right under the driver and passenger bench.
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"DVD menu designers pulling their heads out of their collective asses."
I really think that this more than anything is the key. I realize that a DVD is not a VHS tape is not a DVD but from a user interface standpoint, DVD menu designers are treating DVDs too much like GUI software and not enough like controls for watching a movie.
When DVDs and players follow these rules, I see no difference in ease of use between the two:
Play should ALWAYS play the movie.
Fast Formward should ALWAYS fast forward.
Rewind should ALWAYS rewind.
Stop should ALWAYS stop.
Eject should ALWAYS eject.
Fast forward and rewind should be clearly distinguishable from next chapter and previous chapter.
If the DVD doesn't play the movie by default when inserted, then it should be the default option.
There should be a default option for Letterbox vs. Fullscreen that can be changed in the menu but that shouldn't pop up every time I hit play.
Even in my ancient late-70's Curtis Mathes top-loader (which is interestingly enough the tape player my aforementioned grandmother is using right now), we rarely had to mess with tracking on a decent quality tape but I'll go ahead and conceed the point for those who didn't cough up the money for a decent player at the time or who watch a lot of homemade or low quality movies.
But "pressing fast-forward to go over the commercials and trailers, then hit play again when the actual movie starts" is FAR superior to having to sit through previews every time you pop in the DVD becasue the DVD can circumvent your fast-forward controls to prevent you from skipping the previews. (This is especially prevalent on rentals.)
"Oh, you want to see the scene where hero loses the bad guy in a car chase."
No, I just want to watch the f'ing movie. If anything, I'm exceedingly happy that VHS tapes are bad at that sort of thing becauses it keeps my friends and family from jumping into replay after replay instead of just watching the movie. Unlike CDs where I might want to pick out a particular song in an album, I rarely skip around during the movie. I'm guessing if you put random access of the movie through the grandmother test, she won't do it all that often either (even if it is easy to do). Now TV shows on DVD are another story...
Like I said earlier, there are a LOT of advances DVDs made over VHS. I still stand by my statement that DVDs are harder to use for their typical use (watching movies) than VHS tape. It is very nice though not having to worry about if you're getting an SP, LP/EP, or SLP tape when you buy a movie in the DVD age.
"DVD had a similar jump in technology but actually increasing ease of use over VHS"
Hmmm. I don't what can be easier than putting the tape in and pressing play. Surely you're not suggesting that putting a disc in, waiting for the menu screen, and then fiddling with usually poorly-designed menus is easier?
When it comes down to it, my grandmother has never had problems getting a VHS tape to play. I have had problems getting a DVD player to play (lost the remote and the disc wouldn't just play the $%$%#@ movie when I hit "Play" on the DVD player box).
DVD made many advances over VHS. Ease of use is NOT one of them.
Oh, I own the GI Joe and Transformer movies and still love to watch both. I still use this line from the GI Joe movie any time it's appropriate:
Lt. Falcon: "You mean I have to walk?"
Sgt. Slaughter: "No! You can run!"
There are some cartoons I just LOVED from my youth that I've since realized are not quite as good as I remember them being. I downloaded some Captain N and Thundercats about a year ago and never realized just how bad those shows really were. I'd hate to see Zelda fall to that same fate. I'd like to remember Zelda as the cartoon that I fondly watched just before going to the video store for my weekly video game rental each Friday, not as I'd see it today if I watched it.
"If you were playing a fishing game, before you would just press buttons on a controller held in both hands in front of you. With this, you can move your arm back and forth and cast your bait. It senses depth. As someone who doesn't spend hours per day gaming, I was thrilled with the experience."
Kind of like what I've been doing for 6 years with Sega Bass Fishing? I bought the controller AND game brand new when it came out for about $60, which is the apparently the new price point for this next generation of games.
"so many third-party developers have already commited to the Revolution and many more are very interested"
I wouldn't put too much stock in "commitments." Take a look at the Jaguar FAQ sometime and look at the like of "committed" developers who never even made a game for the system. I will admit that it's much better than nobody making commitments yet.
Just to be thorough, Carlin says that volleyball is actually "racketless team ping pong played with an inflatable ball and a raised net, while standing on the table." Take it with a grain of salt though. This is the same guy that says gymnastics isn't a sport because Romainians are good at it.
"he doesn't feel like using software licensing and copyright as a weapon to fight political battles"
I might've been a little strong-worded and put some words in Linus' mouth (mostly for entertainment value) but it's really easy to take the above stance when you'd lose if you did use software licensing to fight political battles.
"I _literally_ feel that we do not - as software developers - have the moral right to enforce our rules on hardware manufacturers."
Translation: "I feel that we do not have the muscle - as open source software developers - to force hardware manufactures to bow to our DRM demands. They'll just laugh at us."
Or he could just continue on a workout schedule. That's what my dad did when he left baseball. He kept on working out and cut down significantly on his diet. The workouts were less rigorous but they were good enough. This tennis guy will face a challenge going from tennis pro to pro gamer but he can do if he continues with proper exercise and nutrition.
Lots of baseball players manage to stay in shape after retirement. I imagine a tennis pro can do the same. The biggest weight gains I've seen are off of retired bodybuilders and American football players who previously had to have massive caloric intake to keep up their muscle mass. They just can't seem to adjust to eating a lot less food.
I haven't kept up with tennis since my honeymoon was inadvertently scheduled in London during Wimbledon back in 2000. (I was wondering beforehand why it was so hard to get decent hotel reservations. I quickly found out why.) Is this kid a superstar or something? Is he just a marginal player? I'm just wondering if he's really backing out of a tennis career because of his love of gaming or his fear of success in professional tennis.
I'm not so sure that shoehorning an app (and an OS for that matter) that thinks it's running on a signle node into a cluster is such a good idea. The benefits of a cluster are typically only realized when the underlying software has some idea of what's going on and can organize data sufficiently accross the nodes. At best case, I'm guessing there will be an awfully chatty system in place that may get marginally better performance or may even get worse performance than running the app on a single node.
I agree that we've all come to expect "Madden Karma." Just making sure you weren't confusing it for real bugs. That does sound pretty crappy about the Box. Not that I don't believe you, but I find it odd that the Cube hasn't ever given me such fits with 06. It seems like EA would spend the time necessary to get Madden working best on a more popular platform. As much as I love my Cube, I realize that most Madden players play it on a PS2 or XBox.
I remember playing NCAA 2K2 on the DC once where the other team's QB heaved a ball directly to my DB with none of his receivers anywhere near. I intercepted the pass. The computer game the other team a 1st down where I had intercepted it. That was pretty wacky and that was a Sega game on a Sega hardware platform.
The distributors need to set up a buyback program. In the game pack they should include a postage-paid envelope that you can ship the contents back in for a partial refund of the price when you no longer want the game. Then they won't have to worry about getting cut out of the loop. They can then distribute their own line of used games to whatever stores are interested.
Of course, I really think Steam will be the route they end up going.
"Unfortuntaly I image that teaching kids how to make explosives would get shot down"
Which is part of why humans can't make it interesting either.
Just curious, but what "bugs" are you finding in the Box version? And is this the normal XBox or the 360? The Cube version is pretty solid from what I can tell. The only problem I've seen is the usual Madden Karma that creeps in and works against you when you succeed too much. This is becoming increasingly noticeable now that I am 8-0 on the hardest difficulty settings with the Falcons. I've lost Vick for 5 weeks on a play where he didn't even get touched and then turned the ball over 5 times against Miami after only having 3 turnovers in the previous 7 weeks. Those turnovers weren't even INTs by the new QB (Quincy Carter). They were all fumbles. At least it's better than Blitz Kamra. I've got a Blitz 2000 arcade machine at home jacked up as hard as possible. The computer is getting downright dirty after 54 wins in a row.
Humans have a hard time making Chemistry interesting. How is a computer programmed by a human going to make it any better/more interesting?
The most intersting part of the evolution of video game controllers is what they came up with just before and during the 2600 era. Paddles used to be the standard controller design back when all home systems had some derivation of Pong on them. The Fairchild system had a very interesting controller with a directional stick on top and a stick as the base. The Astrocade also had a similar controller layout. The Telstar arcade was also pretty unique with the Steering Wheel, gun, and paddles all on one unit.
To be fair, they have at least shown us a controller and give us a general idea of how it's supposed to work. That's at least "something" even if it's not as much as a prerendered video. I do see your point however. We do have little to base judgements off of. I just wanted to point out that it's not a new phenomenon. It's a shame the Nintendo fanboys modded you troll. You did have a valid non-trollish point.
"I've never seen so many people let their imaginations spin so wildly out of control about a toy."
You must've missed the build up (and eventual letdown) of everything the PS2 was supposed to do before launch. Anyone remember the Emotion Processor? At one point I'm pretty sure Sony was claiming they'd cure cancer with that one.
I tell you what, you show me US killings on the scale Mao accomplished in China and I'll conceed that I'm "grasping at straws." A few protesters dies in the 60's and their deaths weren't nearly as numerous or intentional as the Tienamen Square massacre. I'm sorry that your hatred for America has blinded you to the point that you equate the United States with Communist China in terms of freedom. I think you're seriously confusing the freedom the United States allows its citizens with its military agenda.
And as far as I've seen, the DMCA and DRM are aimed at protecting copyrighted material. They don't infringe on your freedom of speech or expression. You can talk freely about those works all you'd like. You just can't copy the actual material without consent since those works are not yours.
Or maybe you're confusing Uwe Boll with Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom?
1. What do rehases have to do with crappy games? There were a TON of crappy titles out for the 2600 in 1983 but they weren't sequels or rehashes for the most part. The worst offenders were the variations on Pac-Man or Space Invaders/Galaxian. I'd say we are better off now than we were then. At least now when I buy a game called M*A*S*H, it might actually be about an aspect of the show instead of being a helicopter shooter game.
2. How is that anything at all like 1983? Were you alive in 1983? Colleges at the time generally taught principles of computer science as part of some other discipline (like math or engineering). Most colleges and universities in the US at the time didn't have a dedicated computer science or computer engineering department, much less a major in game writing like some pseudo-schools have now.
3. I'll conceed that point. Though I would rather play a random game off the shelf today than play the 2600 version of Pac-Man.
"Every car I've ever owned in the USA had the gas tank under the trunk/boot. Several feet BEHIND the passenger."
What kind of car are you driving where there's "several feet" between the rear passengers and the fuel tank? Most of the time the tank is now directly under the trunk which is just behind the rear passengers and sometimes in older cars the tank spreads to just under the back seat. FWIW I still remember my Dad's 1977 Chevrolet Scottsdale (which I drove for a while when first turning 16) had a tank right under the driver and passenger bench.