The reason for Nintendo's weakening position in the console market over the past decade is paradoxical (using Definition #1 for the word "paradox" of course): Nintendo doesn't do enough from a game perspective (relying on old franchises instead of new ideas, not to mention the lack of third parties) yet does too much from a system perspective (stuff like the insistence of cartridge media for the N64 and the overprioritizing of form factor for the Gamecube may look nice on paper, but may not do so well in practice). Add to that the kiddy image that Nintendo does little to combat and it's no surprise that the GC is third of three in America.
Really, the only thing that's keeping Nintendo in plenty of cash is their monopoly on the portable market. I doubt the PSP will topple that, but it's only a matter of time before that security blanket will be gone, and with the DS it looks like Nintendo is starting to do too much there as well.
Well, the N64 was a failure (or at least a middling quasi-success like the pre-SNES Genesis) despite selling 30 million units. A lot of the people who bought those units didn't buy very many games for them, and as we all know, games are the lifeblood of any console. I personally bought exactly two games for my N64, and one of them was at launch.
Oh, I get it. Spare apostrophe. If only/. had editors.
What spare apostrophe? "[T]he game's notable for its connections..." is grammatically correct, though "the game is" would be more formal. Maybe you should make sure that your knowledge of English is correct before you start making fun of others'.
Pfft. Gamespot is far less of a corporate whore than either IGN or Gamespy, though I'm still boggled as to how they gave WoW GOTY honors over all of the other great games that came out this holiday season.
The Zelda games are not RPGs except for the second one, which wasn't very well received. The only RPG series Nintendo has made which have gotten any real following are Mother/Earthbound and Fire Emblem.
Are all the people who posted in the last article that "See, piracy doesn't affect gaming and even helps it" going to now revise their opinions?
No, because they don't need to. The fact that the video game industry "only" makes $10 billion a year doesn't say anything about piracy's effect on it. If the industry really was bigger than Hollywood, that would've, because in order for that to happen, video games would have to be doing amazingly well.
I hear that the game is actually playable now. Of course, it was fixed too late to keep its reputation from hitting the gutter, which is why FunCom is doing stuff like this now. At any rate, I might as well try it. I'm not a big fan of MMORPGs but a free year is a free year.
I can't believe that this year's Spike TV Video Game Awards show was so bad; it came as a complete surprise to me. That's all I have time to say since I'm cooking something; I have to go into the kitchen and touch my stove to make sure it's still hot.
First of all, I should note the obvious fact that this can do nothing but harm to NFL football video games. Competition is better than no competition except when competition would interfere with use of the product (which is not the case here).
But I think most of the people here are overestimating the amount of good that a viable competitor to the Madden franchise would've done. There's only so much innovation that can be done with a video game that's based on a sport, since a sport's rules are almost set in stone. (This assumes that the game is meant to be realistic, like Madden is. Games like Tecmo Super Bowl and NFL Blitz were never meant to be lifelike, so they have a lot more latitude.) If there was some sort of possible revolutionary innovation, doesn't anyone think that it would've happened by now? It's not like Madden has been the only football game in the past ten years.
The reason why there are no teachers is that teachers below the collegiate level don't get paid worth a damn, even taking the four months of holidays into account. It's the old chicken/egg syndrome.
Really, though, we don't need to put more funding into education as much as we need to stop giving all of the money that's there to pencil-pushers.
Actually, it's self-evident that legalizing drugs would lead to a lower crime rate, as possessing, distributing, and using those drugs are currently crimes. As for lowering the rate of other crimes, the fact that many crimes are committed due to addicts' need for drug money should make the effect of the massive drop in price after legalization rather obvious.
Most crime in the US is actually a direct result of the War on Drugs. End that and legalize or decriminalize at least some more drugs and you'll see crime rates drop considerably. Oh, and divert some of the massive amounts of funds we're wasting on that "war" to education and welfare for further decreases. That, of course, would have a positive effect on our prison system.
Freedom is one of the most important things a person has. Most people wouldn't want to go to jail even if it was luxurious, and even if they were poor.
That said, I agree that giving prisoners things like this doesn't exactly help to keep recidivism down.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason for Nintendo's weakening position in the console market over the past decade is paradoxical (using Definition #1 for the word "paradox" of course): Nintendo doesn't do enough from a game perspective (relying on old franchises instead of new ideas, not to mention the lack of third parties) yet does too much from a system perspective (stuff like the insistence of cartridge media for the N64 and the overprioritizing of form factor for the Gamecube may look nice on paper, but may not do so well in practice). Add to that the kiddy image that Nintendo does little to combat and it's no surprise that the GC is third of three in America.
Really, the only thing that's keeping Nintendo in plenty of cash is their monopoly on the portable market. I doubt the PSP will topple that, but it's only a matter of time before that security blanket will be gone, and with the DS it looks like Nintendo is starting to do too much there as well.
Rob
Well, the N64 was a failure (or at least a middling quasi-success like the pre-SNES Genesis) despite selling 30 million units. A lot of the people who bought those units didn't buy very many games for them, and as we all know, games are the lifeblood of any console. I personally bought exactly two games for my N64, and one of them was at launch.
Rob
Your reply came three hours late but you still win, sir.
Rob (Why didn't I think of that?)
Oh, I get it. Spare apostrophe. If only /. had editors.
What spare apostrophe? "[T]he game's notable for its connections..." is grammatically correct, though "the game is" would be more formal. Maybe you should make sure that your knowledge of English is correct before you start making fun of others'.
Rob
Pfft. Gamespot is far less of a corporate whore than either IGN or Gamespy, though I'm still boggled as to how they gave WoW GOTY honors over all of the other great games that came out this holiday season.
Rob
http://www.bash.org/?426401
Rob
Yup.
Rob
The Zelda games are not RPGs except for the second one, which wasn't very well received. The only RPG series Nintendo has made which have gotten any real following are Mother/Earthbound and Fire Emblem.
Rob
I personally find that on WinXP, GTA Classic stutters horribly, but on Win98 it works fine.
Rob
Enter the Matrix generated entirely too much revenue.
Rob
FF8 had the best gameplay in the series, with the possible exception of FFX-2.
That said, ITYM "Final Fantasy >=IV."
Rob
Are all the people who posted in the last article that "See, piracy doesn't affect gaming and even helps it" going to now revise their opinions?
No, because they don't need to. The fact that the video game industry "only" makes $10 billion a year doesn't say anything about piracy's effect on it. If the industry really was bigger than Hollywood, that would've, because in order for that to happen, video games would have to be doing amazingly well.
Rob
I hear that the game is actually playable now. Of course, it was fixed too late to keep its reputation from hitting the gutter, which is why FunCom is doing stuff like this now. At any rate, I might as well try it. I'm not a big fan of MMORPGs but a free year is a free year.
Rob
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=132833&cid=110 95265
Rob
I can't believe that this year's Spike TV Video Game Awards show was so bad; it came as a complete surprise to me. That's all I have time to say since I'm cooking something; I have to go into the kitchen and touch my stove to make sure it's still hot.
Rob
Two lines back you complain about Nintendo being too cut-throat, and now you're unhappy they weren't cut-throat enough?
I didn't see any complaining in the post you're replying to, simply a list of Nintendo failures.
It's beginning to seem that Sony has now lost Square Enix to Nintendo nowadays
Why's that? Because Square released a crappy game for the GC so they could get into the portable market? Square cares about money, not Nintendo.
Nintendo's continued existence in the hardware wars suggest otherwise.
Nintendo's continued existence has little to do with the N64, or the GC for that matter.
Rob
First of all, I should note the obvious fact that this can do nothing but harm to NFL football video games. Competition is better than no competition except when competition would interfere with use of the product (which is not the case here).
But I think most of the people here are overestimating the amount of good that a viable competitor to the Madden franchise would've done. There's only so much innovation that can be done with a video game that's based on a sport, since a sport's rules are almost set in stone. (This assumes that the game is meant to be realistic, like Madden is. Games like Tecmo Super Bowl and NFL Blitz were never meant to be lifelike, so they have a lot more latitude.) If there was some sort of possible revolutionary innovation, doesn't anyone think that it would've happened by now? It's not like Madden has been the only football game in the past ten years.
Rob
Both, but NOD is cooler. Like the man said, Kane is awesome.
Rob
You mean Tiberian Sun, right? Tiberian Dawn is the official name for the original game.
Rob
The reason why there are no teachers is that teachers below the collegiate level don't get paid worth a damn, even taking the four months of holidays into account. It's the old chicken/egg syndrome.
Really, though, we don't need to put more funding into education as much as we need to stop giving all of the money that's there to pencil-pushers.
Rob
Actually, it's self-evident that legalizing drugs would lead to a lower crime rate, as possessing, distributing, and using those drugs are currently crimes. As for lowering the rate of other crimes, the fact that many crimes are committed due to addicts' need for drug money should make the effect of the massive drop in price after legalization rather obvious.
Rob
There would be few people in prison if we only detained people who wanted to be there.
Rob
If murder, robbery, and rape don't harm other people, then they should be legalized.
Rob
Most crime in the US is actually a direct result of the War on Drugs. End that and legalize or decriminalize at least some more drugs and you'll see crime rates drop considerably. Oh, and divert some of the massive amounts of funds we're wasting on that "war" to education and welfare for further decreases. That, of course, would have a positive effect on our prison system.
Rob
Freedom is one of the most important things a person has. Most people wouldn't want to go to jail even if it was luxurious, and even if they were poor.
That said, I agree that giving prisoners things like this doesn't exactly help to keep recidivism down.
Rob