If the industry wanted this, they could easily do it out of the profit margins of the larger titles. Easily. So if the industry really believes itself about the lack of innovation that it touts at GDC every year, put your money where your mouth is, and offer some incentive for experimental throw-away games. The way you innovate is make 20 totally different different games and find the one (or parts of some) that works. No one in the art world has every really had a different model.
But that's the thing - the industry doesn't want it. Only game designers and hardcore gamers really care about "innovation". As a game designer myself, I'd love this and heard this suggested in no less than four other places, but the truth is that it isn't really a profitable endeavor.
Why spend X dollars on a B-side that isn't neccessarily related to the A-side game at all when you could spend those X dollars to make the A-side game better (or, in most case, bigger)?
If you can figure out the answer to that which would convince an executive, I'd love to hear it so I can get to work on some B-side games.
By the way, if you are looking for a fun and innovative game, go pick up Katamari Damacy for the PS2. I just picked it up this week and it is the freshest, most original fun I've had on a console in a while - and it is twenty bucks. It gives me hope for this concept in the form of EPs (shorter, cheaper standalone games) rather than B-sides.
EA bought out Maxis and put an end to their product diversity. Now they just stick with one sure-fire money maker and churn out endless expansions and revisions instead of entirely new simulator games.
Come on now, are we really clamoring for more along the lines of SimLife (blech), SimIsle (double blech) and SimHealth (triple blech)?
Well it turns out that the building and the Society of Automotive Engineers http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/sae/ garage seem to occupy the same space. Hum, I wonder what is going to happen to our garage.
"Sorry Mr. Gates, there is a tiny garage where we were going to put your building. Oh well. I heard Case Western needs some money."
Thankfully, many CMU students are still practicing some degree of creative resistance, although a penguin statue allegedly placed on the roof of the student center overnight before the Gates speech was hurriedly removed since apparently CMU values its clean public image more than its students' creativity.
I can tell you go (or went) to CMU by your bitterness and venom.
But please correct me if I am wrong, did not representatives of a student organization personally give Gates a burn of a Linux distro when he came? Surely if the University was that paranoid about projecting a good image to Gates, they would have never let them come close or at least given them some sort of punishment?
No one is forcing you to go to Microsoft here post-graduation. And I haven't run into a CS class yet where you HAD to use Windows. Propaganda is in the eye of the beholder.
That is, of course, because they give out the best bribes and have the best speakers when they pull up.
Seriously, they give away laptops, xboxes, games, copies of visual studio, t-shirts and free food. What more could a geek want?
We got to see Halo up close and personal before the Xbox came out, we got to try out Tablet PCs and those Spot watches while they were still in development. I mean, come on, while the latter two haven't caught on, it's still something neat to tune in for. They brought one of the designers of Crimson Skies in last year and we got to have a great talk offline about game design.
They even bring back honest alumni to talk to us - who actually tell us what sucks about working for Microsoft.
. . that only honest people are smart enough to put the data into an encrypted zip file and email it to their Hotmail account.
I feel much safer knowing MS is looking out for us, can't you just feel that invigorating "innovation" starting to pulsate through your O/S?
Excuse me - i'm getting woozy . . .
So why wouldn't they just block Hotmail, Gmail, etc.? That's what my most recent employer did. I mean, I suppose you could set up your own webmail dealy and not put "mail" anywhere in the domain, but still it seems like a basic security measure to me.
"the correlations between violent media and aggression are stronger than between smoking and lung cancer."
Really? Show me.
I've seen studies that say that the correlation between viewing any media and violence is strong - be it Rugrats or The Sopranos.
I'd also like to see a comparison between how many people are actually hurt because of video games and how many people are actually hurt because of smoking or automobiles or even kitchen utensils. I assure you it isn't even close.
It interfaces with Gmail (all the benefits of MSN/Hotmail, none of the drawbacks! w00t!)
Gmail isn't even out yet. You have no way of knowing that it will have "none of the drawbacks".
Slashdot Mirror
If the industry wanted this, they could easily do it out of the profit margins of the larger titles. Easily. So if the industry really believes itself about the lack of innovation that it touts at GDC every year, put your money where your mouth is, and offer some incentive for experimental throw-away games. The way you innovate is make 20 totally different different games and find the one (or parts of some) that works. No one in the art world has every really had a different model.
But that's the thing - the industry doesn't want it. Only game designers and hardcore gamers really care about "innovation". As a game designer myself, I'd love this and heard this suggested in no less than four other places, but the truth is that it isn't really a profitable endeavor.
Why spend X dollars on a B-side that isn't neccessarily related to the A-side game at all when you could spend those X dollars to make the A-side game better (or, in most case, bigger)?
If you can figure out the answer to that which would convince an executive, I'd love to hear it so I can get to work on some B-side games.
By the way, if you are looking for a fun and innovative game, go pick up Katamari Damacy for the PS2. I just picked it up this week and it is the freshest, most original fun I've had on a console in a while - and it is twenty bucks. It gives me hope for this concept in the form of EPs (shorter, cheaper standalone games) rather than B-sides.
EA bought out Maxis and put an end to their product diversity. Now they just stick with one sure-fire money maker and churn out endless expansions and revisions instead of entirely new simulator games.
Come on now, are we really clamoring for more along the lines of SimLife (blech), SimIsle (double blech) and SimHealth (triple blech)?
That's how Bill originally intended the dashboard to be. They just didn't have the technology in 2001.
Well it turns out that the building and the Society of Automotive Engineers http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/org/sae/ garage seem to occupy the same space. Hum, I wonder what is going to happen to our garage. "Sorry Mr. Gates, there is a tiny garage where we were going to put your building. Oh well. I heard Case Western needs some money."
Thankfully, many CMU students are still practicing some degree of creative resistance, although a penguin statue allegedly placed on the roof of the student center overnight before the Gates speech was hurriedly removed since apparently CMU values its clean public image more than its students' creativity.
I can tell you go (or went) to CMU by your bitterness and venom.
But please correct me if I am wrong, did not representatives of a student organization personally give Gates a burn of a Linux distro when he came? Surely if the University was that paranoid about projecting a good image to Gates, they would have never let them come close or at least given them some sort of punishment?
No one is forcing you to go to Microsoft here post-graduation. And I haven't run into a CS class yet where you HAD to use Windows. Propaganda is in the eye of the beholder.
Brown University got $100M today. Bill's cheap! :)
Brown's Endowment is $1,484,292,000.
CMU's Endowment is approximately $756,000,000.
The schools are approximately the same size.
I know the parent was joking, but with the sorry state of donations to CMU, $20m is pretty impactful.
Please note that this is the one time you can feel safe on clicking a link that says "endowment".
That is, of course, because they give out the best bribes and have the best speakers when they pull up.
Seriously, they give away laptops, xboxes, games, copies of visual studio, t-shirts and free food. What more could a geek want?
We got to see Halo up close and personal before the Xbox came out, we got to try out Tablet PCs and those Spot watches while they were still in development. I mean, come on, while the latter two haven't caught on, it's still something neat to tune in for. They brought one of the designers of Crimson Skies in last year and we got to have a great talk offline about game design.
They even bring back honest alumni to talk to us - who actually tell us what sucks about working for Microsoft.
Evil corporation yes, but damn fine recruiting.
. . that only honest people are smart enough to put the data into an encrypted zip file and email it to their Hotmail account.
I feel much safer knowing MS is looking out for us, can't you just feel that invigorating "innovation" starting to pulsate through your O/S?
Excuse me - i'm getting woozy . . .
So why wouldn't they just block Hotmail, Gmail, etc.? That's what my most recent employer did. I mean, I suppose you could set up your own webmail dealy and not put "mail" anywhere in the domain, but still it seems like a basic security measure to me.
Like these?
Did they think that if they changed the appearance of crosses that this Fantasy Strategy RPG from Japan would be popular with the religious right?
"the correlations between violent media and aggression are stronger than between smoking and lung cancer." Really? Show me. I've seen studies that say that the correlation between viewing any media and violence is strong - be it Rugrats or The Sopranos. I'd also like to see a comparison between how many people are actually hurt because of video games and how many people are actually hurt because of smoking or automobiles or even kitchen utensils. I assure you it isn't even close.
It interfaces with Gmail (all the benefits of MSN/Hotmail, none of the drawbacks! w00t!) Gmail isn't even out yet. You have no way of knowing that it will have "none of the drawbacks".
This picture of the N2 was out a while ago...
Is there a cheat code that lets you win Florida? ::ducks::