I think the most important line in the article is when the non-booth babe character tells the interviewer, "These women KNOW what they're doing with their bodies."
I found it interesting that that person was so elitist (assuming that it wasn't an act). "I'm better than mundane booth babes because instead of being hired to appear at E3 because of my looks, I was hired to appear in a video game because of them."
BTW, I'm pretty sure the booth babes realize that they're doing a job which entails objectification and geeks. That doesn't mean that they can't make fun of (or at least pity) said geeks... much like how some of this/. thread is making fun of them.
No, seriously, Ultima 8 sucks because it goes away from everything that made the other Ultimas worth playing (the changes in Final Fantasy 7 and Quake 3 are nowhere near as drastic), and Ultima 9 sucked because it was half-finished at time of release and didn't run well on the PCs of the time (I suggest people who didn't like it try it again, this time with patches). Has nothing to do with being an oldskool sadsack.
Saying women are "objects" in Ballers is an understatement. They are actually purchased in the game, just like a house or car.
Is this like in Fight Night 2004, where you "buy" women who act as your valets? In that case, you're not buying the women, you're buying their services.
It would definitely be bribery if it were true, but I think that by "claims of 'bribery' are likely overblown," the blurb meant that the rumors of review-buying are likely false.
I will always 'analyze' a movie that bores me (Citizen Kane) to have a worse story then one that doesn't (for example Star Trek 6)
And unless you could come up with a reasoned argument as to why Star Trek 6 has a better story than Citizen Kane, you'd be wrong. "Better" in this case means "better written" and so forth.
Greatest is also subjective.
Incorrect. Greatness is measured by influence, which is quite objective.
Actually, the fact that the analyzer is biased doesn't make the analysis completely subjective. It is not entirely subjective to say that Citizen Kane has a better story than Manos: Hands of Fate, for example. A person could obviously like Manos better than Citizen Kane or vice versa, but that has nothing to do with analysis.
Now take a final fantasy game. Theme is everything. If you replace everything in a final fantasy game with a generic distinguishing shape the game would fall apart.
That's silly. It wouldn't fall apart because theme is everything, but because you'd have no clue what the hell you were doing or why you were supposed to be doing it. All of the Final Fantasy games (and console RPGs in general) have varying amounts of gameplay; the theme just butresses it. You could say the same thing about Super Mario Brothers. You yourself say that a person wouldn't want to play a game where all of the SMB objects were replaced with generics, but why would that be if it wasn't due to the lack of a theme?
How long does it normally take to get the CD key? I started waiting in line about an hour ago and I still haven't gotten it. I even changed the invalid email address on my FilePlanet ID and submitted the Ground Control signup sheet again to make sure it didn't get sent to the wrong place (which it shouldn't have, I put the proper email address on the signup sheet in the first place).
There are very few hollywood screen actors that can actually act, let alone give a voice to a character.
You do realize that it's quite possible for a bad voice actor to be a good stage/screen actor and vice versa, right? There's a lot more to screen acting than vocal inflection.
Since Bungie was only mentioned at the end of the article, and Ambrosia wasn't mentioned at all, even though they are responsible for the best Mac-only games in existence.
Anyway, I coincidentally replayed Deja Vu for the NES last night; that brought back some fun memories. I knew the three NES ICOM games were just ports, but I didn't know they were originally on the Macintosh (I assumed PC or Amiga).
Cheating may be antisocial, annoying, bad, immoral or whatever but it's not illegal.
Did I say that it was? Maybe you should look up what the word "similar" means.
Never mind the fact that cheating is likely a breach of Counterstrike's EULA, which would indeed make it a legal (civil) issue at any rate. And if you think that EULAs are invalid? Well, a lot of people feel the same way about copyright.
Someone someday may literally die because of someone confusing metre and meter because Americans want to spell both as "meter".
It's already happened. My poor brother (God rest his soul) cut off his own legs in order to meet the qualifications for a job. Oh, if only we told him that that's not what "meter maid" meant!
One day, I will have vengeance on those bastard Americans who killed my brother. Damn you, Webster! Damn you all to hell!
If substantial infringing use was all it took to shut down a network, why do Kaaza, Gnutella and WinMX still exist?
Because they're decentralized. It's a lot harder to shut down a decentralized network than a centralized one. If it were possible to easily shut those networks down, it would've happened a long time ago.
BTW, you can't copyright a song name. That's silly. The lawsuit was definitely about Napster's utility in pirating music, and the main thrust of the judge's ruling was that the Napster defense had failed to demonstrate "substantial noninfringing use."
The most interesting thing about this is that if it went to court (unlikely), there could be judicial review on the validity of EULAs. After all, I think the EULA would be the only thing Valve would have in its argument (I find it doubtful that the court would consider exploiting a bug in a game as damaging as exploiting a bug in an application or OS). And the validity of EULAs is very suspect, as has been argued many times on/. as well as other places.
Napster was shut down because any legitimate function it may have had was vastly overshadowed by the illegal activity that took place on its network. I'd say a similar argument holds for cheating in online games.
The person who played the character to level 245 didn't skip the majority of the world.
So what? It's not a 1:1 correspondence; the Level 245 characters tend to come from one person making characters and selling them as a job. Besides, you're not refuting his point at all; if the person who bought the character instead started from scratch, then you'd have two people playing through the game instead of one.
Rob (I almost typed "paying" up there instead of "playing." That certainly would've been apropos)
And remember when they destroyed their rep with one game that was so buggy it was nearly unplayable. (What was it called, Outpost or something?)
They didn't destroy their rep with Outpost. They destroyed their rep with Outpost, Betrayal at Antara, King's Quest 8, and a bunch of other crappy games that came out in the mid-90's.
Then they seemed to decide they wanted to be publishers, not developers, had one huge hit (Half-Life).
If you're going to count Half-Life as a Sierra game, you might as well mention Starsiege Tribes, too. Oh, and Homeworld. And No One Lives Forever. And maybe SWAT 3 and Empire Earth.
Just because they stopped making good adventure games doesn't mean that they stopped making good games period.
People are complaining about game developers focusing on men, and yet a lot of games I've seen appeal at least as well to women (The Sims being the most obvious example, but there are plenty of others). The number of games now-a-days that portray women as helpless sex objects is really rather small, and a number of those also have strong female characters at the same time (GTA3 comes to mind). They're also balanced by the growing number of games with female leads.
It would be nice to see female designers bring their viewpoints to the fray, but it's certainly not necessary in order to get a bigger female demographic. It's already getting bigger as it is!
Really, this whole issue is kind of offensive to male game designers. It suggests that none of them would know how to please a woman with a roadmap and instructions.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the most important line in the article is when the non-booth babe character tells the interviewer, "These women KNOW what they're doing with their bodies."
/. thread is making fun of them.
I found it interesting that that person was so elitist (assuming that it wasn't an act). "I'm better than mundane booth babes because instead of being hired to appear at E3 because of my looks, I was hired to appear in a video game because of them."
BTW, I'm pretty sure the booth babes realize that they're doing a job which entails objectification and geeks. That doesn't mean that they can't make fun of (or at least pity) said geeks... much like how some of this
Rob
No, seriously, Ultima 8 sucks because it goes away from everything that made the other Ultimas worth playing (the changes in Final Fantasy 7 and Quake 3 are nowhere near as drastic), and Ultima 9 sucked because it was half-finished at time of release and didn't run well on the PCs of the time (I suggest people who didn't like it try it again, this time with patches). Has nothing to do with being an oldskool sadsack.
Rob
Saying women are "objects" in Ballers is an understatement. They are actually purchased in the game, just like a house or car.
Is this like in Fight Night 2004, where you "buy" women who act as your valets? In that case, you're not buying the women, you're buying their services.
Rob (Not those kinds of services)
Tried and failed. If they couldn't buy Square then, I very much doubt they could buy Squeeeeeenix now.
Rob
It would definitely be bribery if it were true, but I think that by "claims of 'bribery' are likely overblown," the blurb meant that the rumors of review-buying are likely false.
Rob
I will always 'analyze' a movie that bores me (Citizen Kane) to have a worse story then one that doesn't (for example Star Trek 6)
And unless you could come up with a reasoned argument as to why Star Trek 6 has a better story than Citizen Kane, you'd be wrong. "Better" in this case means "better written" and so forth.
Greatest is also subjective.
Incorrect. Greatness is measured by influence, which is quite objective.
Rob
Many people would say "Oh Contraire!"
"Many people" meaning "you and about three other people"? Lara Croft moves like a shopping cart with a defective wheel.
Rob
Actually, the fact that the analyzer is biased doesn't make the analysis completely subjective. It is not entirely subjective to say that Citizen Kane has a better story than Manos: Hands of Fate, for example. A person could obviously like Manos better than Citizen Kane or vice versa, but that has nothing to do with analysis.
Rob
Now take a final fantasy game. Theme is everything. If you replace everything in a final fantasy game with a generic distinguishing shape the game would fall apart.
That's silly. It wouldn't fall apart because theme is everything, but because you'd have no clue what the hell you were doing or why you were supposed to be doing it. All of the Final Fantasy games (and console RPGs in general) have varying amounts of gameplay; the theme just butresses it. You could say the same thing about Super Mario Brothers. You yourself say that a person wouldn't want to play a game where all of the SMB objects were replaced with generics, but why would that be if it wasn't due to the lack of a theme?
Rob
You get the key during installation. You have to have a FilePlanet ID, of course.
Rob
How long does it normally take to get the CD key? I started waiting in line about an hour ago and I still haven't gotten it. I even changed the invalid email address on my FilePlanet ID and submitted the Ground Control signup sheet again to make sure it didn't get sent to the wrong place (which it shouldn't have, I put the proper email address on the signup sheet in the first place).
Rob
There are very few hollywood screen actors that can actually act, let alone give a voice to a character.
You do realize that it's quite possible for a bad voice actor to be a good stage/screen actor and vice versa, right? There's a lot more to screen acting than vocal inflection.
Rob
Since Bungie was only mentioned at the end of the article, and Ambrosia wasn't mentioned at all, even though they are responsible for the best Mac-only games in existence.
Anyway, I coincidentally replayed Deja Vu for the NES last night; that brought back some fun memories. I knew the three NES ICOM games were just ports, but I didn't know they were originally on the Macintosh (I assumed PC or Amiga).
Rob
Cheating may be antisocial, annoying, bad, immoral or whatever but it's not illegal.
Did I say that it was? Maybe you should look up what the word "similar" means.
Never mind the fact that cheating is likely a breach of Counterstrike's EULA, which would indeed make it a legal (civil) issue at any rate. And if you think that EULAs are invalid? Well, a lot of people feel the same way about copyright.
Rob
That's technically the Cannon Fodder 2 theme song, unless the Amiga version of Cannon Fodder 1 had it. Great song, though.
Rob
Here's what I saw when I read your post:
"Anyone who says that one of these portables is better than the other is an idiot. Now, here's a list of reasons why the PSP is weaker than the DS."
I agree with the points you've given, but come on now.
Rob
Someone someday may literally die because of someone confusing metre and meter because Americans want to spell both as "meter".
It's already happened. My poor brother (God rest his soul) cut off his own legs in order to meet the qualifications for a job. Oh, if only we told him that that's not what "meter maid" meant!
One day, I will have vengeance on those bastard Americans who killed my brother. Damn you, Webster! Damn you all to hell!
Rob
He first said that CS would never be a sport, then he said that CS players would never make a good living from it. Two different ideas.
As for why CS will never be a sport, I've already said something about that in an earlier thread.
Rob
If substantial infringing use was all it took to shut down a network, why do Kaaza, Gnutella and WinMX still exist?
Because they're decentralized. It's a lot harder to shut down a decentralized network than a centralized one. If it were possible to easily shut those networks down, it would've happened a long time ago.
BTW, you can't copyright a song name. That's silly. The lawsuit was definitely about Napster's utility in pirating music, and the main thrust of the judge's ruling was that the Napster defense had failed to demonstrate "substantial noninfringing use."
Rob
The most interesting thing about this is that if it went to court (unlikely), there could be judicial review on the validity of EULAs. After all, I think the EULA would be the only thing Valve would have in its argument (I find it doubtful that the court would consider exploiting a bug in a game as damaging as exploiting a bug in an application or OS). And the validity of EULAs is very suspect, as has been argued many times on /. as well as other places.
Rob
Napster was shut down because any legitimate function it may have had was vastly overshadowed by the illegal activity that took place on its network. I'd say a similar argument holds for cheating in online games.
Rob
The person who played the character to level 245 didn't skip the majority of the world.
So what? It's not a 1:1 correspondence; the Level 245 characters tend to come from one person making characters and selling them as a job. Besides, you're not refuting his point at all; if the person who bought the character instead started from scratch, then you'd have two people playing through the game instead of one.
Rob (I almost typed "paying" up there instead of "playing." That certainly would've been apropos)
Last I knew the GameCube owned a small percentage more of the Market then the Xbox. ...in Japan.
Rob
And remember when they destroyed their rep with one game that was so buggy it was nearly unplayable. (What was it called, Outpost or something?)
They didn't destroy their rep with Outpost. They destroyed their rep with Outpost, Betrayal at Antara, King's Quest 8, and a bunch of other crappy games that came out in the mid-90's.
Then they seemed to decide they wanted to be publishers, not developers, had one huge hit (Half-Life).
If you're going to count Half-Life as a Sierra game, you might as well mention Starsiege Tribes, too. Oh, and Homeworld. And No One Lives Forever. And maybe SWAT 3 and Empire Earth.
Just because they stopped making good adventure games doesn't mean that they stopped making good games period.
Rob
People are complaining about game developers focusing on men, and yet a lot of games I've seen appeal at least as well to women (The Sims being the most obvious example, but there are plenty of others). The number of games now-a-days that portray women as helpless sex objects is really rather small, and a number of those also have strong female characters at the same time (GTA3 comes to mind). They're also balanced by the growing number of games with female leads.
It would be nice to see female designers bring their viewpoints to the fray, but it's certainly not necessary in order to get a bigger female demographic. It's already getting bigger as it is!
Really, this whole issue is kind of offensive to male game designers. It suggests that none of them would know how to please a woman with a roadmap and instructions.
Rob