That's because they don't have enough data to profile you. If amazon had camera's in your home, kept track of your entire life, they'd see the pattern of your ego and behaviour and it would get MUCH MUCH better very quickly.
Algorithms CAN predict things very accurately PROVIDED they are given enough data, and with human beings I would imagine that it is only STATISTICAL prediction, since one cannot yet calculate what you will notice or enter into your awareness as you live your life.
I forget who it was that a large part (not all though) of one's life is determined by the scope of ones ability to process information quickly and scope of one's vision and awareness.
"And yes, I have tried to "change the system", but protesting doesn't and never has worked"
I hear you about the difficulty, but it's still a people quality control issue... and a matter of YOUR WILL to start something even if you dont have a lot of success.. I mean how the fuck did the slaves and women get rights? The didn't fuckin chicken out, they gave up a hell of a lot.
You have to think hard enough, you need MONEY and social influence with key institutions to gain a voice, there are many methods if you had the time and inclination to raise money to give yourself a voice. There is also subversive methods (counterfeiting, etc) when the government is out of control, you no longer have to 'play by the rules' once you find a large enough body of citizens to help you, no struggle is one being 'honest bob'.
You could to start a citizen fund to fund police organizations (i.e. so police can't be controlled by threat of loss of wage, you catch them when they fall), if armed police are protesting with you and ignoring business and government can't control the police then other police stations will defect, esp if they attack officers and boom, chain reaction (defection). You got to be creative, you have to convert people to your side then go to a major network and take it over if you must.
There are many groups out there that you could join up with already, it's a matter of - are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle? That's the biggest challenge, can you make the commitment even if that means you die poor? Most people can't because they want certainty of victory and many are too weak willed (hence provoking apathy).
Still I hear you, but ultimately it still comes down to having good citizens who are 'balls to the wall' soldiers, if I could replicate myself into millions of people, I would have striked hard or rioted (Take over a major tv netowrk, etc) until I died of starvation if necessary to stop feeding the gov.
With the internet you can organize dissent very effectively.
So we have a citizen quality control problem, and it's because of historical and market forces partially beyond our control (i.e. religion, culture, group identity, etc). We are really too 'atomized' (petty, concerned about our lifestyle, etc) to do anything about it.
So you can't escape the tax problem (force of history) unless you form your own small village/society thats managable outside of the market system. You can't have markets without governments (i.e. legal system, etc), crime would skyrocket and you'd have a return to a kind of 'market feudalism.
The real problem with governments is that money owns government so really it's been as it has always been: The (new) generation of rich people, having no idea about history become corrupt and fuck everyone over (again). Going back to 'free markets' is not the solution, rich people will finance their own armies and government-like bodies will form of those with the most against those with the least, as it has always been.
Human history shows that with or without governments, systems eventually break down simply because:
-- we don't have population quality control (we become too lazy and compassionate and apathetic) -- we get stuck at work and abdicate our responsibilities teaching our children because we are obsessed with wealth and power (again who's partially at fault is this?? the citizen) -- we don't understand the ego's of the children we're bringing into the world and stop people of bad character from getting the reigns of power -- we have no clue how we make our children suffer in the school system and wonder why they come out f'd up wanting to escape into drugs, etc. -- modern industrial society in terms of speed of life (unreal fast paced life) and speed of displacement of jobs and demands made on people is unsustainable from a psychological perspective.
Those are just a FEW points in my long ass post... anyway! It truly is a matter of will but we're surrounded by mediocre wealth chasing people who don't give a shit, you have to be balls to the wall if you care about the future, even if that means taking a hit to your 'lifestyle' and 'happyness'.
"Taxes are ***forcefully appropriated*** fractions of a man or woman's property or just remuneration (payment) for services or products."
You are taxed by consent, go read how governments are formed. Don't like it? Move to another country... or have the balls to protest, riot and change the system... oh wait most people are too cowardly for that.
"What kind of professor tells undergrads that they don't deserve to have "an educational experience" in 3d, VR, game technology, etc?"
In my opinion he's right on the mark, I think he wanted to filter out weak students wouldn't survive in industry. Plus if I was in his position I wouldn't want students who are simply not interested in the work. Too many teachers have to deal with dumbing down their classes to the lowest common denominator. Not that I disagree that it can be hard or that maybe he's an idiot.
"So... your premise is that the pretty, stupid female community is the same as the capable, skilled female engineer community?"
I've dated beautiful geek girls, some of them are AWFUL. One had the balls to say how much she hated her 'geeky' co-workers because they were all ugly, etc, etc, and go on her big rant.
Women are Dangerous...
Women are not angels of purity and morality, fit for placing on a pedestal. They are human just like the rest of us. Often at work or outside of work you may notice women lying or using other manipulation. They may act jealous, try to make you jealous, use their sexuality to gain power, stir up trouble, and often will not hesitate to ditch you for something shinier - someone with more status, more testosterone, etc.
And as empathetic as women are deemed to be, women will not later wallow in pathos with a solitary tear on her cheek, full of regret for ditching someone. Don't take it personally. Incidentally, now would be a good time to admit that the same is true of many human beings. We are human.
"The power of gameplay, lasting gameplay far outstrips graphics."
I'm sorry but you're theory isn't completely true, I can't stand to play the original Need for speed underground over it's sequel or Most wanted, technically the gameplay hasn't changed that much, it's the overall "feel" of the game and graphics DOES add to the game's feel.
What would god of war be like if they had used the crappy kratos model you see in the 'bonus' menu where they show you all the 'rejected' models or models that didn't make it into the main game?
Graphics matter, very much so, God of war wouldn't be the same game if the characters did not look and "feel" alive. Game developers know this. Both are important: Graphics for thematic acceptability (i.e. games like planescape torment bombed because of their weird visuals, despite the art being great, their was no 'congruence' with enoug peoples aesthetic tastes)
World of warcraft for instance is not a very good game, but people really dig it's Aesthetic. Same goes for Eve: Online, one of the most boring games in the universe (to me).
"Last time I checked we did still have free speech,"
Oh, what is the DMCA? The truth is people are BUYING laws, to limit 'free speech' under the false pretense of "copyright". The whole idea of copyrighting and propertizing information is one of the FEATURES of a modern police state. By turning information into property someone owns you thereby limit freedom of speech. Youtube regularly pulls videos of anti-consumerist writers that are overly critical of consumer culture and money culture in general.
The only one with a serious MOUTH (power) in America is MONEY, where are the networks that cater to actual news and real people? I forgot... they are mostly UNprofitable.
The story doesn't matter, Halo sold on gameplay, period. The awesome vehicles, the cool bad-assness of you being "master chief", ultimate soldier. I mean come on.
The master chief soldier aesthetic is near universally appealing to males.
... their are other purposes of CCTV's, such as to use for increased behavioral analysis to use this data to identify peoples intentions and potential for criminality. To learn more about how human's behave in groups, etc.
They have many more uses then simply catching criminals or reducing crime. There is also the "Zerging" effect, where there are too many people vs. not enough law enforcement, you can't exactly have a good system until you learn how to use it. I imagine it's still in the "growing pains" phase.
While it is "not working" now, that doesn't mean it won't get better with time. I believe it is only a matter of time before things start getting really good.
Right now CCTV's are not much more then measuring devices that help scientists decode human behavior.
Five: Drop out of school young first or 2nd year of high school, go to work full time. Do not buy a car or anything that requires serious economic upkeep. Save every penny. Invest it in real-estate or other profit making venues, while living with your parents. Keep your parents house which is already paid off, rent out the free rooms to tenants to pay the upkeep of the house. Sell your parents business when they die (provided they own one).
Have all the free time to yourself, while the suckers got suckered with the culture of capitalism and independence where "university is everything" and "being a well rounded person and traveling the world matters". Yet they are trapped in debt and die in the middle lower classes and constantly have financial problems, many family's break down under chasing the false American dream. Males committing suicide in because economic and academic pressure is so high.
"It was a cheat that only looks good close up if nothing much is happening. But why don't you get the wakes from the patrolling boats out there rolling in or making it hard to stay in your own boat? If you blow up a helicopter and the pieces fall in the water, where are the waves from that? That's right, they're not there. And that's because the physics of water is Really Really Hard."
Who cares about that level of Water physics? I mean seriously. It adds practically nothing to gameplay, the physics in many games are merely gimmicks, take Bioshock for instance. The water EFFECTS are very beautiful and interesting but you don't need to model the physics of water for it to be immersive. The art, color and sound, and atmosphere built up by the game is far more important then the physics of water.
I mean really... look at all of the best games we've ever played... Take God of war for instance, basically an action-platform game, one of the best games I've ever played who's AI was not overly complicated, but a game that allowed a lot of freedom of action and had well built combat system, tight control, withimmersive camera angles while fighting, all set in a fantastic 'plastic' world in which you were for the most part 'on rails'.
The game EXPERIENCE is most important, what kind of emotions and stimulation you're giving the player matter more then something totally irrelevant to the experience...
When we think of the best games we've ever played, we're not thinking about -- woah, the water physics in that game was 'awesome', we're thinking about something ENTIRELY different, unless the game is based around someone having figured out a way to make it integral to the FUN and enjoyment someone gets out of a game.
... the truth is bioshcok being a game couldn't easily BE like a movie, game makers haven't totally mastered storytelling by merging the best elements of cinema with the best elements of games yet. We're getting their slowly, but I ultimately believe games will one day be 'art', it's juts a matter of time. Part of the real problem is the passive nature of exposition and the desire for the player to be "having fun".
Movies are a passive media, games are not, and the thing with bioshock was if you didn't explore everwhere you'd miss the recorders, they should have just had 'scripted' exposition which you could replay back, the whole pick up recorder bit while congruent-with the game world, the placement of them as not exactly the greatest.
Also bioshock as a game felt unfinished toward the end, the story was interesting for the first part of the game, but by the time you got to Andrew ryan things just seemed to get really weird, and then on your journey to fountain the story loses all cohesiveness really.
I'm sure those interested (both boys and girls) would raise their marks if they could have sex with hot women and men...
Prostitution? Please... this is just business. I am such a capitalist, sometimes I scare myself.
Speaking seriously though, I can see things like Virginia tech not happening if guys had a sexual outlet to deal with stress. I've often wondered if we should legalize prostitution and have laws regarding involuntary celibacy (i.e. government sponsored sex, to keep men from turning into rapists / pedophiles)
... access the source code to force companies to release code of old games into public domain. Since gamers have legal rights to be able to play the games they legally purchased and be able to fix them when they stop working. Freespace 2 SCP would not have been possible without the source, and emulation takes a long time and is imperfect. It would be better if people could expand, update and maintain the actual source.
"This does not impede on your right to do anything."
Actually it does. The Wii allows removable flash memory storage for save games so you could technically edit save files on your PC with tools made by others to give you an advantage in single player games, plus lots of people just like to screw around and see what crazy kinds of things the can get the game to do.
And since technically as a consumer the Wii is a product (not a service) we have rights to own and modify our own save files. While you may think I am splitting hairs, I assure you that in the last PS2 / Gamecube / Xbox generation I hated the fact that I could not edit my save files or mod the save-data... especially when this game to games like F-Zero which would have had cool (even if small) modding opportunities.
Sorry you're wrong, I've played since the NES days, and Zelda was an action RPG, you're trying to define a game by language and not by it's actual characteristics (where is the fun had?)
God of war had secret / special rooms and exploration ('adventure') elements as well. The truth of the matter is Twilight princess and god of war are combat heavy games so the combat better be fun and in TP it wasn't that great because the common enemies were just awful.
"That's just plain wrong. Zelda is a classic adventure game to the core"
Dude "Adventure", is not even a genre when we're dealing with a 3D action rpg! The only really Adventure games are things like Kings Quest and monkey island. The original Zelda was all about dungeon crawling and fighting (i.e. The original NEs) the 2nd Zelda was again, ALL about dungeon crawling and fighting, with a few NPC's here and there. Zelda 3 was the first time zelda became "an adventure". I lived through all these generations, and the "adventure" part was just an excuse.
"Adventure" is just a word that cover the fact that you're going to do fed-ex quests and have a bunch of backtracking, you must be ASLEEP as a gamer man. Man I loved zelda, but when Zelda moved to 3D from a LTTP it lost the "adventure" moniker. I admire all games but you have to define a game by:
1) The camera angle (i.e. first person, vs 3rd) 2) What is the avatar doing primarily and then 2ndary and so forth? Fighting + dungeon crawling. 3) Kratos was just as much of an adventurer when he went on to go beat Ares. The focus was on the story. Don't tell me playing god of war was not an "adventure".
They have an extreme amount in common from how the games actually WORK and PLAY.
Language (i.e. adventure, etc) does not define a game, it's technical characteristics define it. If we replaced all Twilight Princesses enemies with those of god of war and replaced link with Kratos, would it still be an "Adventure"?
The whole word "adventure" is just made up crap to justify less emphasis on combat and more on travelling and mind numbing fed-ex quests. I hated the sea travelling in wind waker because you were bored out of your skull just sitting their drooling for 5-10 minutes at a time getting places and the game world was really empty. Twilight princess didn't come together very well either, the temple in the desert was pretty crap as you could tell from it being a gamecube game.
"Twilight princess and God of War don't really have that much to do with each other."
Nonsense they are both 3rd person combat games with exploration elements. God of war was combat heavy and NPC light. God of war had everything Zelda had, just more complicated combat system and a different theme.
I have to say that while Nintendo is selling lots of Wii's the game is not over yet, developers have to be successful in releasing games on the Wii and see if the demographic which purchased the Wii will bite.
I think the Wii will subsidize the hardcore segment of the market, but I have doubts that the people who bought the Wii for wii sports / Wii play will have much of an interest in hardcore games. I'm taking a wait and see approach. It looks to me like the Xbox and Wii will be king in North america and the PS3 and Wii will be king in Japan.
Nintendo though has been really having problems developing their first party games and the 3rd party software developers have REALLY caught up with Nintendo in terms of game quality.
I was playing Twilight princess and Wind Waker and found myself underwhelmed by it compared to a game like say God of War and God of War 2. They are both action games, but Zelda was not as combat heavy, nor as interesting as other more explorative games.
"I'd rather play videogames than watch someone else play them."
The truth of the matter is, video games CAN be very enjoyable to watch. I used to think the same thing but then after watching a few replays of friends from clan leagues, etc, it can be pretty exciting and tense. As long as the camera angles are done right and also depending on the game. I used to watch Quake 3 arena matches via a mod I forget which it was (Orange smoothie?) and the way the camera's were setup allowed you to observe the interesting parts of the action.
"Yet it is working, unlike in most other games that use a lot more central management of the economy. So he's intersted in talking about what is happening in the economy, not why other games don't work."
While the economy may be working, there are other things that need to be measured. i.e. how much fun are the players in the economy having? Like "Gross national happyness"? Economics is intimately linked with how people feel and percieve the world in the real world.
I'd be interested in knowing how much fun really are people in eve having or are many of them simply just addicted to a boring game out of habit? I'd really like to know.
"having muppets associated with snoopdog may not be what henson wants"
Yeah just like governments and economic idealogues don't want dissent from the status quo. Ownership is tyranny if it infringes on you freedom of speech and freedom of expression for non-commercial ventures lets face it.
"If you're determined to get a free copy of the game, you will wait until a crack is available, and no amount of cajoling, marketing, or DRM will make you buy a copy."
The problem with came copy protection is that it's an ARTIFICIALLY created system. Games are not treated like products when they should be.
You would NEVER buy a car that would stop working or disappear of the company went out of business.
There are three main problems with software as a "service" or "liscense" and some ideas that should be implemented in law (Hey I can dream):
-- Any game who's functionality breaks due to operating system changes or technological progress MUST have it's source code released. (Gamers are investors and therefore have an OWNERSHIP stake in the games they buy).
--Gamers need to have some legal way to force game source into the public domain when their games break, or some sort of legal action taken against the company.
--It would be REALLY NICE of games could be worked on by fans and upgraded over the years as technology progresses and kept "Fresh", instead of making emulators.
Slashdot Mirror
"Amazon almost NEVER guesses something I'd buy."
That's because they don't have enough data to profile you. If amazon had camera's in your home, kept track of your entire life, they'd see the pattern of your ego and behaviour and it would get MUCH MUCH better very quickly.
Algorithms CAN predict things very accurately PROVIDED they are given enough data, and with human beings I would imagine that it is only STATISTICAL prediction, since one cannot yet calculate what you will notice or enter into your awareness as you live your life.
I forget who it was that a large part (not all though) of one's life is determined by the scope of ones ability to process information quickly and scope of one's vision and awareness.
"And yes, I have tried to "change the system", but protesting doesn't and never has worked"
I hear you about the difficulty, but it's still a people quality control issue... and a matter of YOUR WILL to start something even if you dont have a lot of success.. I mean how the fuck did the slaves and women get rights? The didn't fuckin chicken out, they gave up a hell of a lot.
You have to think hard enough, you need MONEY and social influence with key institutions to gain a voice, there are many methods if you had the time and inclination to raise money to give yourself a voice. There is also subversive methods (counterfeiting, etc) when the government is out of control, you no longer have to 'play by the rules' once you find a large enough body of citizens to help you, no struggle is one being 'honest bob'.
You could to start a citizen fund to fund police organizations (i.e. so police can't be controlled by threat of loss of wage, you catch them when they fall), if armed police are protesting with you and ignoring business and government can't control the police then other police stations will defect, esp if they attack officers and boom, chain reaction (defection). You got to be creative, you have to convert people to your side then go to a major network and take it over if you must.
There are many groups out there that you could join up with already, it's a matter of - are you willing to sacrifice your lifestyle? That's the biggest challenge, can you make the commitment even if that means you die poor? Most people can't because they want certainty of victory and many are too weak willed (hence provoking apathy).
Still I hear you, but ultimately it still comes down to having good citizens who are 'balls to the wall' soldiers, if I could replicate myself into millions of people, I would have striked hard or rioted (Take over a major tv netowrk, etc) until I died of starvation if necessary to stop feeding the gov.
With the internet you can organize dissent very effectively.
So we have a citizen quality control problem, and it's because of historical and market forces partially beyond our control (i.e. religion, culture, group identity, etc). We are really too 'atomized' (petty, concerned about our lifestyle, etc) to do anything about it.
So you can't escape the tax problem (force of history) unless you form your own small village/society thats managable outside of the market system. You can't have markets without governments (i.e. legal system, etc), crime would skyrocket and you'd have a return to a kind of 'market feudalism.
The real problem with governments is that money owns government so really it's been as it has always been: The (new) generation of rich people, having no idea about history become corrupt and fuck everyone over (again). Going back to 'free markets' is not the solution, rich people will finance their own armies and government-like bodies will form of those with the most against those with the least, as it has always been.
Human history shows that with or without governments, systems eventually break down simply because:
-- we don't have population quality control (we become too lazy and compassionate and apathetic)
-- we get stuck at work and abdicate our responsibilities teaching our children because we are obsessed with wealth and power (again who's partially at fault is this?? the citizen)
-- we don't understand the ego's of the children we're bringing into the world and stop people of bad character from getting the reigns of power
-- we have no clue how we make our children suffer in the school system and wonder why they come out f'd up wanting to escape into drugs, etc.
-- modern industrial society in terms of speed of life (unreal fast paced life) and speed of displacement of jobs and demands made on people is unsustainable from a psychological perspective.
Those are just a FEW points in my long ass post... anyway! It truly is a matter of will but we're surrounded by mediocre wealth chasing people who don't give a shit, you have to be balls to the wall if you care about the future, even if that means taking a hit to your 'lifestyle' and 'happyness'.
"Taxes are ***forcefully appropriated*** fractions of a man or woman's property or just remuneration (payment) for services or products."
You are taxed by consent, go read how governments are formed. Don't like it? Move to another country... or have the balls to protest, riot and change the system... oh wait most people are too cowardly for that.
"What kind of professor tells undergrads that they don't deserve to have "an educational experience" in 3d, VR, game technology, etc?"
In my opinion he's right on the mark, I think he wanted to filter out weak students wouldn't survive in industry. Plus if I was in his position I wouldn't want students who are simply not interested in the work. Too many teachers have to deal with dumbing down their classes to the lowest common denominator. Not that I disagree that it can be hard or that maybe he's an idiot.
But if I were him I'd probably do the same thing.
"So... your premise is that the pretty, stupid female community is the same as the capable, skilled female engineer community?"
I've dated beautiful geek girls, some of them are AWFUL. One had the balls to say how much she hated her 'geeky' co-workers because they were all ugly, etc, etc, and go on her big rant.
Women are Dangerous...
Women are not angels of purity and morality, fit for placing on a pedestal. They are human just like the rest of us.
Often at work or outside of work you may notice women lying or using other manipulation. They may act jealous, try to make you jealous, use their sexuality to gain power, stir up trouble, and often will not hesitate to ditch you for something shinier - someone with more status, more testosterone, etc.
And as empathetic as women are deemed to be, women will not later wallow in pathos with a solitary tear on her cheek, full of regret for ditching someone. Don't take it personally. Incidentally, now would be a good time to admit that the same is true of many human beings. We are human.
"The power of gameplay, lasting gameplay far outstrips graphics."
I'm sorry but you're theory isn't completely true, I can't stand to play the original Need for speed underground over it's sequel or Most wanted, technically the gameplay hasn't changed that much, it's the overall "feel" of the game and graphics DOES add to the game's feel.
What would god of war be like if they had used the crappy kratos model you see in the 'bonus' menu where they show you all the 'rejected' models or models that didn't make it into the main game?
Graphics matter, very much so, God of war wouldn't be the same game if the characters did not look and "feel" alive. Game developers know this. Both are important: Graphics for thematic acceptability (i.e. games like planescape torment bombed because of their weird visuals, despite the art being great, their was no 'congruence' with enoug peoples aesthetic tastes)
World of warcraft for instance is not a very good game, but people really dig it's Aesthetic. Same goes for Eve: Online, one of the most boring games in the universe (to me).
"I have to disagree with the reviews. I found the game really enjoyable, including the sixaxis controls"
How old are you? and how many games have you played? Are you hardcore or casual? What era did you start gaming?
I think this is a relevant question.
"Last time I checked we did still have free speech,"
Oh, what is the DMCA? The truth is people are BUYING laws, to limit 'free speech' under the false pretense of "copyright". The whole idea of copyrighting and propertizing information is one of the FEATURES of a modern police state. By turning information into property someone owns you thereby limit freedom of speech. Youtube regularly pulls videos of anti-consumerist writers that are overly critical of consumer culture and money culture in general.
The only one with a serious MOUTH (power) in America is MONEY, where are the networks that cater to actual news and real people? I forgot... they are mostly UNprofitable.
Time to go read some Oswald Spengler.
Some info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West
http://www.duke.edu/~aparks/Spengler.html
"The Halo universe might not be 100% original, "
The story doesn't matter, Halo sold on gameplay, period. The awesome vehicles, the cool bad-assness of you being "master chief", ultimate soldier. I mean come on.
The master chief soldier aesthetic is near universally appealing to males.
... their are other purposes of CCTV's, such as to use for increased behavioral analysis to use this data to identify peoples intentions and potential for criminality. To learn more about how human's behave in groups, etc.
They have many more uses then simply catching criminals or reducing crime. There is also the "Zerging" effect, where there are too many people vs. not enough law enforcement, you can't exactly have a good system until you learn how to use it. I imagine it's still in the "growing pains" phase.
While it is "not working" now, that doesn't mean it won't get better with time. I believe it is only a matter of time before things start getting really good.
Right now CCTV's are not much more then measuring devices that help scientists decode human behavior.
You forgot:
Five: Drop out of school young first or 2nd year of high school, go to work full time. Do not buy a car or anything that requires serious economic upkeep. Save every penny. Invest it in real-estate or other profit making venues, while living with your parents. Keep your parents house which is already paid off, rent out the free rooms to tenants to pay the upkeep of the house. Sell your parents business when they die (provided they own one).
Have all the free time to yourself, while the suckers got suckered with the culture of capitalism and independence where "university is everything" and "being a well rounded person and traveling the world matters". Yet they are trapped in debt and die in the middle lower classes and constantly have financial problems, many family's break down under chasing the false American dream. Males committing suicide in because economic and academic pressure is so high.
"It was a cheat that only looks good close up if nothing much is happening. But why don't you get the wakes from the patrolling boats out there rolling in or making it hard to stay in your own boat? If you blow up a helicopter and the pieces fall in the water, where are the waves from that? That's right, they're not there. And that's because the physics of water is Really Really Hard."
Who cares about that level of Water physics? I mean seriously. It adds practically nothing to gameplay, the physics in many games are merely gimmicks, take Bioshock for instance. The water EFFECTS are very beautiful and interesting but you don't need to model the physics of water for it to be immersive. The art, color and sound, and atmosphere built up by the game is far more important then the physics of water.
I mean really... look at all of the best games we've ever played... Take God of war for instance, basically an action-platform game, one of the best games I've ever played who's AI was not overly complicated, but a game that allowed a lot of freedom of action and had well built combat system, tight control, withimmersive camera angles while fighting, all set in a fantastic 'plastic' world in which you were for the most part 'on rails'.
The game EXPERIENCE is most important, what kind of emotions and stimulation you're giving the player matter more then something totally irrelevant to the experience...
When we think of the best games we've ever played, we're not thinking about -- woah, the water physics in that game was 'awesome', we're thinking about something ENTIRELY different, unless the game is based around someone having figured out a way to make it integral to the FUN and enjoyment someone gets out of a game.
... the truth is bioshcok being a game couldn't easily BE like a movie, game makers haven't totally mastered storytelling by merging the best elements of cinema with the best elements of games yet. We're getting their slowly, but I ultimately believe games will one day be 'art', it's juts a matter of time. Part of the real problem is the passive nature of exposition and the desire for the player to be "having fun".
Movies are a passive media, games are not, and the thing with bioshock was if you didn't explore everwhere you'd miss the recorders, they should have just had 'scripted' exposition which you could replay back, the whole pick up recorder bit while congruent-with the game world, the placement of them as not exactly the greatest.
Also bioshock as a game felt unfinished toward the end, the story was interesting for the first part of the game, but by the time you got to Andrew ryan things just seemed to get really weird, and then on your journey to fountain the story loses all cohesiveness really.
I'm sure those interested (both boys and girls) would raise their marks if they could have sex with hot women and men...
Prostitution? Please... this is just business. I am such a capitalist, sometimes I scare myself.
Speaking seriously though, I can see things like Virginia tech not happening if guys had a sexual outlet to deal with stress. I've often wondered if we should legalize prostitution and have laws regarding involuntary celibacy (i.e. government sponsored sex, to keep men from turning into rapists / pedophiles)
All the more reasons, gamers (as investors in said product) need to band together for rights.
... access the source code to force companies to release code of old games into public domain. Since gamers have legal rights to be able to play the games they legally purchased and be able to fix them when they stop working. Freespace 2 SCP would not have been possible without the source, and emulation takes a long time and is imperfect. It would be better if people could expand, update and maintain the actual source.
"This does not impede on your right to do anything."
Actually it does. The Wii allows removable flash memory storage for save games so you could technically edit save files on your PC with tools made by others to give you an advantage in single player games, plus lots of people just like to screw around and see what crazy kinds of things the can get the game to do.
Witness Warhog jumping is an example of us screwing around -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kg52_2XVtI
And since technically as a consumer the Wii is a product (not a service) we have rights to own and modify our own save files. While you may think I am splitting hairs, I assure you that in the last PS2 / Gamecube / Xbox generation I hated the fact that I could not edit my save files or mod the save-data... especially when this game to games like F-Zero which would have had cool (even if small) modding opportunities.
Sorry you're wrong, I've played since the NES days, and Zelda was an action RPG, you're trying to define a game by language and not by it's actual characteristics (where is the fun had?)
God of war had secret / special rooms and exploration ('adventure') elements as well. The truth of the matter is Twilight princess and god of war are combat heavy games so the combat better be fun and in TP it wasn't that great because the common enemies were just awful.
"That's just plain wrong. Zelda is a classic adventure game to the core"
Dude "Adventure", is not even a genre when we're dealing with a 3D action rpg! The only really Adventure games are things like Kings Quest and monkey island. The original Zelda was all about dungeon crawling and fighting (i.e. The original NEs) the 2nd Zelda was again, ALL about dungeon crawling and fighting, with a few NPC's here and there. Zelda 3 was the first time zelda became "an adventure". I lived through all these generations, and the "adventure" part was just an excuse.
"Adventure" is just a word that cover the fact that you're going to do fed-ex quests and have a bunch of backtracking, you must be ASLEEP as a gamer man. Man I loved zelda, but when Zelda moved to 3D from a LTTP it lost the "adventure" moniker. I admire all games but you have to define a game by:
1) The camera angle (i.e. first person, vs 3rd)
2) What is the avatar doing primarily and then 2ndary and so forth? Fighting + dungeon crawling.
3) Kratos was just as much of an adventurer when he went on to go beat Ares. The focus was on the story. Don't tell me playing god of war was not an "adventure".
They have an extreme amount in common from how the games actually WORK and PLAY.
Language (i.e. adventure, etc) does not define a game, it's technical characteristics define it. If we replaced all Twilight Princesses enemies with those of god of war and replaced link with Kratos, would it still be an "Adventure"?
The whole word "adventure" is just made up crap to justify less emphasis on combat and more on travelling and mind numbing fed-ex quests. I hated the sea travelling in wind waker because you were bored out of your skull just sitting their drooling for 5-10 minutes at a time getting places and the game world was really empty. Twilight princess didn't come together very well either, the temple in the desert was pretty crap as you could tell from it being a gamecube game.
"Twilight princess and God of War don't really have that much to do with each other."
Nonsense they are both 3rd person combat games with exploration elements. God of war was combat heavy and NPC light. God of war had everything Zelda had, just more complicated combat system and a different theme.
I have to say that while Nintendo is selling lots of Wii's the game is not over yet, developers have to be successful in releasing games on the Wii and see if the demographic which purchased the Wii will bite.
I think the Wii will subsidize the hardcore segment of the market, but I have doubts that the people who bought the Wii for wii sports / Wii play will have much of an interest in hardcore games. I'm taking a wait and see approach. It looks to me like the Xbox and Wii will be king in North america and the PS3 and Wii will be king in Japan.
Nintendo though has been really having problems developing their first party games and the 3rd party software developers have REALLY caught up with Nintendo in terms of game quality.
I was playing Twilight princess and Wind Waker and found myself underwhelmed by it compared to a game like say God of War and God of War 2. They are both action games, but Zelda was not as combat heavy, nor as interesting as other more explorative games.
"I'd rather play videogames than watch someone else play them."
The truth of the matter is, video games CAN be very enjoyable to watch. I used to think the same thing but then after watching a few replays of friends from clan leagues, etc, it can be pretty exciting and tense. As long as the camera angles are done right and also depending on the game. I used to watch Quake 3 arena matches via a mod I forget which it was (Orange smoothie?) and the way the camera's were setup allowed you to observe the interesting parts of the action.
"Yet it is working, unlike in most other games that use a lot more central management of the economy. So he's intersted in talking about what is happening in the economy, not why other games don't work."
While the economy may be working, there are other things that need to be measured. i.e. how much fun are the players in the economy having? Like "Gross national happyness"? Economics is intimately linked with how people feel and percieve the world in the real world.
I'd be interested in knowing how much fun really are people in eve having or are many of them simply just addicted to a boring game out of habit? I'd really like to know.
"having muppets associated with snoopdog may not be what henson wants"
Yeah just like governments and economic idealogues don't want dissent from the status quo. Ownership is tyranny if it infringes on you freedom of speech and freedom of expression for non-commercial ventures lets face it.
"If you're determined to get a free copy of the game, you will wait until a crack is available, and no amount of cajoling, marketing, or DRM will make you buy a copy."
The problem with came copy protection is that it's an ARTIFICIALLY created system. Games are not treated like products when they should be.
You would NEVER buy a car that would stop working or disappear of the company went out of business.
There are three main problems with software as a "service" or "liscense" and some ideas that should be implemented in law (Hey I can dream):
-- Any game who's functionality breaks due to operating system changes or technological progress MUST have it's source code released. (Gamers are investors and therefore have an OWNERSHIP stake in the games they buy).
--Fan remakes of old games must be allowed. It was a fucking tagedy chrono resurrection got shut down. Link -- http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/
--Gamers need to have some legal way to force game source into the public domain when their games break, or some sort of legal action taken against the company.
--It would be REALLY NICE of games could be worked on by fans and upgraded over the years as technology progresses and kept "Fresh", instead of making emulators.