ability to mod(which; given USB is available on all consoles; if modding were that important; we'd have it on consoles).
I think the inability to mod is in large part caused by console makers' unwillingness to allow any unapproved executable code to execute. Otherwise, amateur users could make a "total conversion" of some game that would in theory compete with other licensed developers' products. The closest you'll get to official moddability on a console are probably those few games that put an internal level editor front and center, such as LittleBigPlanet, WarioWare DIY, and Super Mario Maker. And even those don't let the user import assets created in a PC program.
Right now, if I had to choose to go without my home PC (actually macbook, haven't owned a desktop PC in a decade) or without my phone, I wouldn't even have to think about it; keep the phone. For work, for any type of content creation, I want a keyboard, mouse, and full size screen. But for consumption, mobile devices are ideal.
The implicit connotations of the term "content consumption" make me feel uneasy. I prefer "creating works" and "viewing works created by others". Now with that out of the way:
Having to choose between a PC and a phone, one or the other, discourages people from even attempting to create works. In fact, if someone is unable to create works for long enough, the situation frames his thoughts into a sort of Stockholm syndrome where he wouldn't even conceive of attempting to create works and becomes more willing to accept restrictions on creating works. That's why for now I carry a small laptop and a flip phone.
It's not necessarily whether you are capable of managing a gaming PC as whether you are willing to spend time doing so. This becomes especially important once a full time job reduces your free time.
Console games but only once they reach a reasonable price point. $7.50 average buy price.
I used to try that. But by the time a PlayStation 2 game hit the bargain bin, its online features would likely have been shut off permanently. Google DNAS error 103. Has this been fixed on PlayStation 4?
Civilization Revolution, $3.49 on mobile, $29.99 on consoles.
For one thing, console game pricing has to account for the possibility of resale, for which the publisher receives no revenue. For another, does the mobile version of Civilization have the "pay or wait years" mechanic like that of Game of War? Some things in that game literally take 58 years to research without paying extra.
Child labour laws don't prevent children from working and earning money, it just limits what they can do and how much they can work.
And until 16, that's pretty close to zero, even during summer vacation in jurisdictions that have one. I'll summarize the situation in Indiana:
Under 12: Only on parents' farm.
12 or 13: Only "as a newspaper carrier, golf caddy, domestic service worker (work performed at a private residence), entertainer (with certain restrictions) or farm laborer," and only with permission of the child's parent. If all these jobs are taken, a child under 14 is out of luck.
14 to 15: A few occupations become available, but only with a work permit approved by the child's parent and the school's principal (or the school district in case of home-schooled students), and only duties not on a long list of duties prohibited prior to 16. Most employers just put a blanket ban on employees under 16 because of the wide variety of prohibited duties. For example, employees under 16 aren't even allowed to fix machines that break, use a ladder to reach things, or put anything into or take anything out of a truck.
16 to 17, prior to graduation or GED: Occupations that are not hazardous become available, but only with a work permit approved by the child's parent and the school's principal (or the school district in case of home-schooled students).
So unless the parent teaches the child how to seek out those few jobs available to a child under 16, the child is out of luck. In fact, my parents actively discouraged me from such. Nor are children allowed to drive a car to and from work.
Also, don't you give your children an allowance?
A lot of parents restrict what their children can buy with an allowance. From a legal standpoint, they don't give the child an allowance as much as allocate an allowance to a trust benefiting the child. Besides, children don't own real estate in which to store a modern console. "My house, my rules."
People don't want to crowd around postage stamp sized portions of a single television
Into what "portions" does a fighting game or a co-op adventure like LEGO $movie divide the screen? Besides, it's only "postage stamp sized" if you pair two to four Bluetooth controllers to an Android phone, as each quadrant of a living room TV is bigger than even the iPad Pro.
They want to be comfortable while playing games and they want to play games with more than a few people at once.
But is this comfort worth buying three copies of each game for a household?
Oh and a touchscreen is fine for many game types.
If it were, then critics wouldn't have panned the Turbo Touch 360 controller so hard. How would you control, say, Mega Man series on a touch screen?
For multiple players to work on a single screen [without causing motion sickness], it has to be something fairly simple, like tennis with a fixed camera
Many shared-screen games, such as fighting games and whatever Bomberman is, do have a mostly fixed camera. If anything, they just move the camera side-to-side and possibly zoom out when the characters get too far apart. But I'll grant that co-op adventure games such as The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon might be a bit more prone to causing motion sickness in susceptible people.
Handheld consoles should be included in the "mobile device" category, which is actually what the article talks about.
The featured article doesn't mention PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS either way. Those systems have thumb sticks and physical buttons, unlike the vast majority of mobile phones and tablets that aren't made by JXD. Not every style of game adapts well to a flat sheet of glass.
mobility is a transformative feature. [...] If I were Microsoft or Sony, I would be very worried.
I don't see why. Microsoft has Windows Phone and Sony has PlayStation Vita. If those companies have mismanaged their mobile platforms, it's their loss.
That depends on how many good games support using two to four controllers plugged into a USB hub. I've seen some games whose console version allows shared-screen multiplayer but whose PC version allows only LAN or online multiplayer. And a lot of games designed around a shared screen rarely if ever leave consoles. Bomberman hasn't seen a PC native release outside East Asia since the Windows 95 era, and 4-player platform fighters tend to be stuck on a console even if they aren't first-party like Super Smash Bros. series or PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Perhaps the only hope for shared-screen multiplayer on PC is indie titles like Duck Game.
Is the console tax really that much more than the 30 percent tax that Google, Amazon, and Apple charge in their respective app stores? No. In fact, it's exactly the same, as Apple announced an App Store with a 30 percent tax months after Microsoft announced Xbox Live Indie Games with a 30 percent tax.
console peasants telling me why consoles are great... I'd love to hear you so much as try
I've tried to sum up Team Peasant's strongest arguments in an article titled Consoles are easy. In case you don't want to click through, what consoles lose in flexibility they gain in ease:
Easy to choose
For system requirements, either you have the platform or you don't. And there's less crap in the stores. Crap on Atari 2600 almost killed the North American video game industry in 1983-84.
Easy to use
Turn it on and go. No driver headaches. No time wasted mapping buttons on a USB/BT generic HID controller. Works offline without losing the offline mode credentials after a month. No mods means less chance of online cheating.
Easy to afford
One console, one TV, two extra controllers, and one copy of four $60 games is cheaper than three gaming PCs, three monitors, and three copies of four $40 games. Disc games mean no risk of hitting your ISP's cap.
Because it means kids are willing to forgo directional control (either arrow keys/WASD or a thumbstick) for a flat sheet of glass and its hard orientation toward point-and-click. And they're willing to forgo sharing an experience on the big screen for playing alone separately.
Don't require app or service X for app or service Y to work.
The only way I can see for this to happen is if all copies of app or service Y contain a statically linked copy of app or service X. So when a vulnerability is found in app or service X, do you want app or service Y to remain vulnerable?
Let me rephrase: It's not possible to legally uninstall the Google Search app without also uninstalling all third-party apps exclusive to Google Play Store. This is the tying about which the FTC appears to be complaining.
Slashdot Mirror
A New Nintendo 3DS XL at $200 looks like a deal until you see an Android-powered JXD S7800B gaming tablet for $150.
If these arguments are weak and lame, I'd like to see your strong and agile counterarguments.
ability to mod(which; given USB is available on all consoles; if modding were that important; we'd have it on consoles).
I think the inability to mod is in large part caused by console makers' unwillingness to allow any unapproved executable code to execute. Otherwise, amateur users could make a "total conversion" of some game that would in theory compete with other licensed developers' products. The closest you'll get to official moddability on a console are probably those few games that put an internal level editor front and center, such as LittleBigPlanet, WarioWare DIY, and Super Mario Maker. And even those don't let the user import assets created in a PC program.
Right now, if I had to choose to go without my home PC (actually macbook, haven't owned a desktop PC in a decade) or without my phone, I wouldn't even have to think about it; keep the phone. For work, for any type of content creation, I want a keyboard, mouse, and full size screen. But for consumption, mobile devices are ideal.
The implicit connotations of the term "content consumption" make me feel uneasy. I prefer "creating works" and "viewing works created by others". Now with that out of the way:
Having to choose between a PC and a phone, one or the other, discourages people from even attempting to create works. In fact, if someone is unable to create works for long enough, the situation frames his thoughts into a sort of Stockholm syndrome where he wouldn't even conceive of attempting to create works and becomes more willing to accept restrictions on creating works. That's why for now I carry a small laptop and a flip phone.
It's not necessarily whether you are capable of managing a gaming PC as whether you are willing to spend time doing so. This becomes especially important once a full time job reduces your free time.
Console games but only once they reach a reasonable price point. $7.50 average buy price.
I used to try that. But by the time a PlayStation 2 game hit the bargain bin, its online features would likely have been shut off permanently. Google DNAS error 103. Has this been fixed on PlayStation 4?
Civilization Revolution, $3.49 on mobile, $29.99 on consoles.
For one thing, console game pricing has to account for the possibility of resale, for which the publisher receives no revenue. For another, does the mobile version of Civilization have the "pay or wait years" mechanic like that of Game of War ? Some things in that game literally take 58 years to research without paying extra.
Child labour laws don't prevent children from working and earning money, it just limits what they can do and how much they can work.
And until 16, that's pretty close to zero, even during summer vacation in jurisdictions that have one. I'll summarize the situation in Indiana:
So unless the parent teaches the child how to seek out those few jobs available to a child under 16, the child is out of luck. In fact, my parents actively discouraged me from such. Nor are children allowed to drive a car to and from work.
Also, don't you give your children an allowance?
A lot of parents restrict what their children can buy with an allowance. From a legal standpoint, they don't give the child an allowance as much as allocate an allowance to a trust benefiting the child. Besides, children don't own real estate in which to store a modern console. "My house, my rules."
People don't want to crowd around postage stamp sized portions of a single television
Into what "portions" does a fighting game or a co-op adventure like LEGO $movie divide the screen? Besides, it's only "postage stamp sized" if you pair two to four Bluetooth controllers to an Android phone, as each quadrant of a living room TV is bigger than even the iPad Pro.
They want to be comfortable while playing games and they want to play games with more than a few people at once.
But is this comfort worth buying three copies of each game for a household?
Oh and a touchscreen is fine for many game types.
If it were, then critics wouldn't have panned the Turbo Touch 360 controller so hard. How would you control, say, Mega Man series on a touch screen?
For multiple players to work on a single screen [without causing motion sickness], it has to be something fairly simple, like tennis with a fixed camera
Many shared-screen games, such as fighting games and whatever Bomberman is, do have a mostly fixed camera. If anything, they just move the camera side-to-side and possibly zoom out when the characters get too far apart. But I'll grant that co-op adventure games such as The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon might be a bit more prone to causing motion sickness in susceptible people.
Handheld consoles should be included in the "mobile device" category, which is actually what the article talks about.
The featured article doesn't mention PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS either way. Those systems have thumb sticks and physical buttons, unlike the vast majority of mobile phones and tablets that aren't made by JXD. Not every style of game adapts well to a flat sheet of glass.
With child labor laws, how are they going to find any money to save?
mobility is a transformative feature. [...] If I were Microsoft or Sony, I would be very worried.
I don't see why. Microsoft has Windows Phone and Sony has PlayStation Vita. If those companies have mismanaged their mobile platforms, it's their loss.
Why couldn't they just as well share the PC?
That depends on how many good games support using two to four controllers plugged into a USB hub. I've seen some games whose console version allows shared-screen multiplayer but whose PC version allows only LAN or online multiplayer. And a lot of games designed around a shared screen rarely if ever leave consoles. Bomberman hasn't seen a PC native release outside East Asia since the Windows 95 era, and 4-player platform fighters tend to be stuck on a console even if they aren't first-party like Super Smash Bros. series or PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Perhaps the only hope for shared-screen multiplayer on PC is indie titles like Duck Game.
But once the child is big enough to use a seat belt without a booster seat, what exactly is so hard about playing games on a laptop?
Also, no console tax.
Is the console tax really that much more than the 30 percent tax that Google, Amazon, and Apple charge in their respective app stores? No. In fact, it's exactly the same, as Apple announced an App Store with a 30 percent tax months after Microsoft announced Xbox Live Indie Games with a 30 percent tax.
Can't exactly bring the console to Red Lobster
If you want to bring your console to Pinocchio's favorite restaurant (source: chapter 13), sure you can. Just make sure it's a PlayStation Vita.
console peasants telling me why consoles are great... I'd love to hear you so much as try
I've tried to sum up Team Peasant's strongest arguments in an article titled Consoles are easy. In case you don't want to click through, what consoles lose in flexibility they gain in ease:
Easy to choose For system requirements, either you have the platform or you don't. And there's less crap in the stores. Crap on Atari 2600 almost killed the North American video game industry in 1983-84. Easy to use Turn it on and go. No driver headaches. No time wasted mapping buttons on a USB/BT generic HID controller. Works offline without losing the offline mode credentials after a month. No mods means less chance of online cheating. Easy to afford One console, one TV, two extra controllers, and one copy of four $60 games is cheaper than three gaming PCs, three monitors, and three copies of four $40 games. Disc games mean no risk of hitting your ISP's cap.Why is this news?
Because it means kids are willing to forgo directional control (either arrow keys/WASD or a thumbstick) for a flat sheet of glass and its hard orientation toward point-and-click. And they're willing to forgo sharing an experience on the big screen for playing alone separately.
Are the LGPL parts part of Android proper or part the Google Play Services (aka "app or service X") that run on top of it?
The Slash software limits headline lengths. Of the following two headlines, which have the same character count, which is preferable?
Don't require app or service X for app or service Y to work.
The only way I can see for this to happen is if all copies of app or service Y contain a statically linked copy of app or service X. So when a vulnerability is found in app or service X, do you want app or service Y to remain vulnerable?
Let me rephrase: It's not possible to legally uninstall the Google Search app without also uninstalling all third-party apps exclusive to Google Play Store. This is the tying about which the FTC appears to be complaining.
Go grab the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code, make your desired changes, and release it.
That would be copyright infringement if the desired changes include Google Play Store without other Google apps.
The problem is Google's tying policy: "If you add Google Play Store, you also have to add all our other crap and make it non-removable."