Have a look at the booth sizes
on
The E3 of 1995
·
· Score: 1
Man, I can't believe how TINY they are. The big hall has the big 3 console makers now... and not much more room. The PC hall usually has a big Microsoft booth, and good sized Lucas Arts... see how tiny THOSE 2 were? And Nintendo not in with the other big dogs of the console world? Wow, how things have change. It is just cool seeing some of the old names... like Spektrum Holobyte? HAHAHAHA Man.. I have not heard that name in years.
Kentai Hall. Where there is about 85% crap, 14% crap except if it fits in a niche that you are into... and about 1% ultra cool. If you have a media flag, it can be a VERY scary place. I also suggest trying to check it out on the first day. People there tend to be more genuine than those up stairs... but day in and day out of people calling the hall the low-rent district I think wears on them.
Another place to look, is back-corners of big booths. You can find some gems in those places, especially the big booths that Nintendo/Sony/MS will be putting up.
One thing to remember about previews, is that you are playing a game in the rough. I have played pre-alpha builds of games, and have seen some cool items in games, that were later pulled. That can change a game pretty drastically, from what you saw. Previews are part of a game's marketting strategy. You don't see a lot of previews of an entire game, but of a few levels, that the developer/publisher choose to show you. They give you an idea of what the game is about. Reviews, on the other hand, are written based on what you will get to put in your machine. I may get hyped up by previews... but I wait for reviews before making any real choice.
I have always been a little mixed on this one. On one hand, you have the case that people have made. A modern game, with vending machiens showing fritos and Pepsi is probaly better than machines showing cornies and nasal blaster cola drinks. I have found some of the names are funny, but usually they are jaring. In Burnout, you have some real ads (axe, I think). They ADD to the experience. I really don't mind that all. I remember back in the Q2 days, a buddy found a coke texture, and put it on a billboard, because it looked right.
Now, that is the positive. Of course, marketting people, to make a buck, will screw up a good thing. The latest version of Swat 4 and the latest expansion add "dynamic" ads. The first one, was the Hills have eyes... not TOO jarring, until you saw it on about 1/2 or more of the walls. Then, it became a MAJOR distraction. Then, you go to the other side, the next ad had William Shatner on the history channel. Seeing that poster everywhere, at a RAVE... IS completely jarring. This is an example of BAD advertising.
I agree with others, as well. If ads make the publisher money, then I, as a consumer, should have to pay less. Say, free online gameplay in a MMORPG, and maybe 1/2 price for a game. I can handle that, for the level of ads there are right now. Look at what Burger King is doing. I don't have a problem with that $5 for a game, that features their product. Good for them.
To me, the real issue with in-game advertising is this. How will it be used? If it helps the game out, put it in. If it detracts from the game, don't put it in, or if you do, give me a GOOD compelling pricebreak. I think that is where the middle ground for this issue should be.
There is always hope that the next scheme is decent... and not destructive. I know that game developers have released games without copy protection, and after that experience, went back to copy protection. I honestly think that you need some minor form of protection, to keep the clueless from just copying the product. I think you really run into 2 classes of gamers. The casual, "I put the CD in the drive, and it runs" crowd, and the rest that know at least how to go to a crack site.:-) I think the former crowd is generally much larger than the latter, which is why copy-protection really does work.
This is great news. With all the crap that Starforce has done to people's computers. Finally a major publisher is paying attention to the protests for their customers. Score 1 for us!
How many guys won't pretty much melt, at the site of a crying woman? We maybe fast, and good at mathmatics, but when it comes to being the one in the background running everything, women can beat us hands down.
It is almost like we are just some pawns in some game at times.:-)
Those 2 were, to me, the defining dreamcast experience, for me. Though, I think you could kind of make a case for Hydro Thunder. (porting that arcade game to the console was cool... though, it was really more than the console could handle). I also really liked Rush 2049. The DC really did have some wonderful games. Heck, the only real sports game I picked up in the past several years, was the NFL 2k title.:-) Using the little display in the controller to pick plays, was pure brilliance. (so, I would have to add NFL 2k to that group)
So... some moron disagrees with my opinion and marks my post as a troll? Jeeze you just HAVE to love Slashdot moderation. So... what part of my post was a troll... the part that I think $2,500 for a PC that can run XP just like a $1000 PC seems an awful lot? The fact that the OS is nicer than XP? Is that the troll? Or was it my little joke about multi-button mice?
Sorry, I should have explained myself better. Out of all of the people I have worked with, the artists are MAC people. Everyone else uses a PC. You ask an artist where they learned to use the MAC, and the lion's share, learned it at College. Those that did not, were getting the same equipment that another illistrator had. Several years ago, MACs had the advantage when it came to audio/video hardware. Hands down, they were better than PCs. At some point, the PCs caught up. Saying that the OS is pretty, is not compelling enough to me, to spend 250% more for my hardware. The other poster said he chose OSX, because it is Linux. I doubt that there are LEGIONS of LINUX users also lining up to use MACs.
I love how all the Mac supporters say that they have the best OS in the world. That is all fine and dandy, and I admit, I have not used it much, but it looks pretty. On the other hand, I use the OS to load my programs. That is about it. Most production software used on MACs are either on the PC, or have something EXTREMELY similiar. The reason Macs have a market (IMHO) is that college students learn on a mac, because their instructor taught them on a mac.
I find it odd that so many people are jumping up and down, at the thought of being able to run XP on their $2,500 MAC... just as well as their $1,000 PC. The problem I have with macs, is that they are appliances. When they get old, you toss them. They do not have the same expandabiilty of a PC. And heaven forbid that something goes wrong, hard-ware wise! I admit, the Mac has a cleaner interface. Much cleaner/nicer. But, that is what it has going for it. There are not a lot of programs that are MAC only. And the major audio/video programs that used to run best on a MAC, now run just as good, on a PC.
Finally, from a gamer's perspective... won't today's modern, 5 (or so) buttom mouse just make the poor little mac implode? Isn't that why they have only used 1 button for SO many years?
I could have SWORN in school, we had learned there were 2 ice ages in our past. And that the tempature changes. The earth kind of "wobbles" as it goes around the sun. When it wobbles closer, it gets hotter, when it wobbles away, it gets cooler. So, the tempature is cyclic, we go down/up, down/up. How is a rising temp that bad? It has been going on, throughout Earth's history.
I guess people have this strange assumption that they will jump on a server with people that have been playing a game for 2 years, and think they can do well against them. Just to let you know, you probably won't. The best way to learn is to hook up with an outfit. Assume you will die a lot. But, you can spawn in near by. Not a big deal. This is a fun game. Just not a simple game, like Counter Strike.
Our daughter has been signing since before she was 12 months old. We have not really taught her much. She knows eat, drink, milk, more, and cookie. (You would be amazed how fast they pick up a sign, for something they REALLY like... like cookie):-)
We have a couple of baby sign type DVDs... but don't use them often. Probably should. She also says several words, now... though, she has not really put words to the signs yet.
In my last job, I was working our tier 1 desk. Our desk ran with 8 people. We all got paid pretty well, because we were good at what we did. The problem, is that another company came in, and told the head honchos at the company I contracted at that they could do it for far less per person. The head honchos agreed, and after training the TWENTY people to replace our 8, we got moved to other projects or let go. I hear that they are doing it to our tier 2, now. I find it kind of surprising that 20 people is cheaper than 8. And, I also know that they have high turnover, while our tier 1 desk had extremely low turnover, and most of THAT was to move up. (The company I worked for, at the time had a 3.3% turn over rate, and they were a contractor.)
I have to call bullcrap to that one! I have lost 2 jobs in the past 5 years to outsourcing to foriegn companies. The last job was a pretty dang good job. I don't see a lot of IT management getting outsourced, just those of us in the trenches... any bets the people making the claims that outsourcing is over-blown are also the management types that magically keep their jobs through every round of layoffs and outsourcing?
This sounds a lot olike Uwe Boll's way of making game-based movies. I bet these teams could seal some pretty lucrative deals with Uwe, to give him access to their IP!
They no longer need to sell software. They sell a little hard drive with Windows (SU) installed. It plugs into the computer, it goes out, and configures itself to the system. So, you have a computer that boots faster. This would be your "boot device".
Kind of cool, but I could see problems. Only MS could get to the drive, so other OSes have a harder-time in a multi-boot scenerio.
Since your OS and your drive are one, you want to upgrade your computer? Nope! You need a new OS disk to put into a new computer. Sorry.
Some cool stuff could happen from this development... but some very annoying things could crop up as well.
Self Publishing isn't always easy, but Garage Games seems to have hit upon a good balance. They release game engines as a sandbox for developers, let them create great games, and then help the developers distribute the game. Some of the top developers are showing up on Xbox Live, and before that were quite successive. (Marble Blast, Dark Horizons: Lore, Tube Twist, Orbz are a few)
I know several people that want to own a phsyical piece of property (CD in this case), and would spend extra money, just to have the shiny CD. Not to mention those people that don't have enough knowlege about computers to actually figure out how to download music. Add to that, the hassle of having to burn music onto a CDR to play in your car, and I can STILL see a vibrant market for CDs. Give it several more years, and then I think the market will shrink further.
As someone else pointed out, if you are going past a pop machine, it makes more sense to see say Coke or Pepsi, instead of some made-up cola name. Same with billboards.
There are ads in Burnout Revenge. They add to the environment, and I really don't mind them.
On the flip side, you have SWAT 4. It seems that there are posters about every 10 feet advetising SOMETHING. Last week, it was The Hills have Eyes, this week it is the History Channel show with Shatner's head plastered everywhere.
I don't mind advertising... as long as I get a break in the price. I am NOT seeing that happen. Hell, in SWAT 4, it was perfectly fine, until they patched it to force streaming ads.
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Man, I can't believe how TINY they are. The big hall has the big 3 console makers now... and not much more room. The PC hall usually has a big Microsoft booth, and good sized Lucas Arts... see how tiny THOSE 2 were? And Nintendo not in with the other big dogs of the console world? Wow, how things have change. It is just cool seeing some of the old names... like Spektrum Holobyte? HAHAHAHA Man.. I have not heard that name in years.
Holy Cow! I didn't know it had changed! :-) Now, I am REALLY interested in this one.
Kentai Hall. Where there is about 85% crap, 14% crap except if it fits in a niche that you are into... and about 1% ultra cool. If you have a media flag, it can be a VERY scary place. I also suggest trying to check it out on the first day. People there tend to be more genuine than those up stairs... but day in and day out of people calling the hall the low-rent district I think wears on them. Another place to look, is back-corners of big booths. You can find some gems in those places, especially the big booths that Nintendo/Sony/MS will be putting up.
One thing to remember about previews, is that you are playing a game in the rough. I have played pre-alpha builds of games, and have seen some cool items in games, that were later pulled. That can change a game pretty drastically, from what you saw. Previews are part of a game's marketting strategy. You don't see a lot of previews of an entire game, but of a few levels, that the developer/publisher choose to show you. They give you an idea of what the game is about. Reviews, on the other hand, are written based on what you will get to put in your machine. I may get hyped up by previews... but I wait for reviews before making any real choice.
I have always been a little mixed on this one. On one hand, you have the case that people have made. A modern game, with vending machiens showing fritos and Pepsi is probaly better than machines showing cornies and nasal blaster cola drinks. I have found some of the names are funny, but usually they are jaring. In Burnout, you have some real ads (axe, I think). They ADD to the experience. I really don't mind that all. I remember back in the Q2 days, a buddy found a coke texture, and put it on a billboard, because it looked right. Now, that is the positive. Of course, marketting people, to make a buck, will screw up a good thing. The latest version of Swat 4 and the latest expansion add "dynamic" ads. The first one, was the Hills have eyes... not TOO jarring, until you saw it on about 1/2 or more of the walls. Then, it became a MAJOR distraction. Then, you go to the other side, the next ad had William Shatner on the history channel. Seeing that poster everywhere, at a RAVE... IS completely jarring. This is an example of BAD advertising. I agree with others, as well. If ads make the publisher money, then I, as a consumer, should have to pay less. Say, free online gameplay in a MMORPG, and maybe 1/2 price for a game. I can handle that, for the level of ads there are right now. Look at what Burger King is doing. I don't have a problem with that $5 for a game, that features their product. Good for them. To me, the real issue with in-game advertising is this. How will it be used? If it helps the game out, put it in. If it detracts from the game, don't put it in, or if you do, give me a GOOD compelling pricebreak. I think that is where the middle ground for this issue should be.
There is always hope that the next scheme is decent... and not destructive. I know that game developers have released games without copy protection, and after that experience, went back to copy protection. I honestly think that you need some minor form of protection, to keep the clueless from just copying the product. I think you really run into 2 classes of gamers. The casual, "I put the CD in the drive, and it runs" crowd, and the rest that know at least how to go to a crack site. :-) I think the former crowd is generally much larger than the latter, which is why copy-protection really does work.
This is great news. With all the crap that Starforce has done to people's computers. Finally a major publisher is paying attention to the protests for their customers. Score 1 for us!
How many guys won't pretty much melt, at the site of a crying woman? We maybe fast, and good at mathmatics, but when it comes to being the one in the background running everything, women can beat us hands down. It is almost like we are just some pawns in some game at times. :-)
Those 2 were, to me, the defining dreamcast experience, for me. Though, I think you could kind of make a case for Hydro Thunder. (porting that arcade game to the console was cool... though, it was really more than the console could handle). I also really liked Rush 2049. The DC really did have some wonderful games. Heck, the only real sports game I picked up in the past several years, was the NFL 2k title. :-) Using the little display in the controller to pick plays, was pure brilliance. (so, I would have to add NFL 2k to that group)
So... some moron disagrees with my opinion and marks my post as a troll? Jeeze you just HAVE to love Slashdot moderation. So... what part of my post was a troll... the part that I think $2,500 for a PC that can run XP just like a $1000 PC seems an awful lot? The fact that the OS is nicer than XP? Is that the troll? Or was it my little joke about multi-button mice?
Sorry, I should have explained myself better. Out of all of the people I have worked with, the artists are MAC people. Everyone else uses a PC. You ask an artist where they learned to use the MAC, and the lion's share, learned it at College. Those that did not, were getting the same equipment that another illistrator had. Several years ago, MACs had the advantage when it came to audio/video hardware. Hands down, they were better than PCs. At some point, the PCs caught up. Saying that the OS is pretty, is not compelling enough to me, to spend 250% more for my hardware. The other poster said he chose OSX, because it is Linux. I doubt that there are LEGIONS of LINUX users also lining up to use MACs.
I love how all the Mac supporters say that they have the best OS in the world. That is all fine and dandy, and I admit, I have not used it much, but it looks pretty. On the other hand, I use the OS to load my programs. That is about it. Most production software used on MACs are either on the PC, or have something EXTREMELY similiar. The reason Macs have a market (IMHO) is that college students learn on a mac, because their instructor taught them on a mac.
I find it odd that so many people are jumping up and down, at the thought of being able to run XP on their $2,500 MAC... just as well as their $1,000 PC. The problem I have with macs, is that they are appliances. When they get old, you toss them. They do not have the same expandabiilty of a PC. And heaven forbid that something goes wrong, hard-ware wise! I admit, the Mac has a cleaner interface. Much cleaner/nicer. But, that is what it has going for it. There are not a lot of programs that are MAC only. And the major audio/video programs that used to run best on a MAC, now run just as good, on a PC. Finally, from a gamer's perspective... won't today's modern, 5 (or so) buttom mouse just make the poor little mac implode? Isn't that why they have only used 1 button for SO many years?
I could have SWORN in school, we had learned there were 2 ice ages in our past. And that the tempature changes. The earth kind of "wobbles" as it goes around the sun. When it wobbles closer, it gets hotter, when it wobbles away, it gets cooler. So, the tempature is cyclic, we go down/up, down/up. How is a rising temp that bad? It has been going on, throughout Earth's history.
That would be very cool. Jazz Jackrabbit and Gauntlet are how I got my wife into playing games, back when we were dating. :-) I really miss that game.
I gave up on it because of this, as well. This... and well, just the waiting queues. The backend on the servers has always pretty much sucked.
I guess people have this strange assumption that they will jump on a server with people that have been playing a game for 2 years, and think they can do well against them. Just to let you know, you probably won't. The best way to learn is to hook up with an outfit. Assume you will die a lot. But, you can spawn in near by. Not a big deal. This is a fun game. Just not a simple game, like Counter Strike.
Our daughter has been signing since before she was 12 months old. We have not really taught her much. She knows eat, drink, milk, more, and cookie. (You would be amazed how fast they pick up a sign, for something they REALLY like... like cookie) :-)
We have a couple of baby sign type DVDs... but don't use them often. Probably should. She also says several words, now... though, she has not really put words to the signs yet.
In my last job, I was working our tier 1 desk. Our desk ran with 8 people. We all got paid pretty well, because we were good at what we did. The problem, is that another company came in, and told the head honchos at the company I contracted at that they could do it for far less per person. The head honchos agreed, and after training the TWENTY people to replace our 8, we got moved to other projects or let go. I hear that they are doing it to our tier 2, now. I find it kind of surprising that 20 people is cheaper than 8. And, I also know that they have high turnover, while our tier 1 desk had extremely low turnover, and most of THAT was to move up. (The company I worked for, at the time had a 3.3% turn over rate, and they were a contractor.)
I have to call bullcrap to that one! I have lost 2 jobs in the past 5 years to outsourcing to foriegn companies. The last job was a pretty dang good job. I don't see a lot of IT management getting outsourced, just those of us in the trenches... any bets the people making the claims that outsourcing is over-blown are also the management types that magically keep their jobs through every round of layoffs and outsourcing?
This sounds a lot olike Uwe Boll's way of making game-based movies. I bet these teams could seal some pretty lucrative deals with Uwe, to give him access to their IP!
They no longer need to sell software. They sell a little hard drive with Windows (SU) installed. It plugs into the computer, it goes out, and configures itself to the system. So, you have a computer that boots faster. This would be your "boot device". Kind of cool, but I could see problems. Only MS could get to the drive, so other OSes have a harder-time in a multi-boot scenerio. Since your OS and your drive are one, you want to upgrade your computer? Nope! You need a new OS disk to put into a new computer. Sorry. Some cool stuff could happen from this development... but some very annoying things could crop up as well.
Self Publishing isn't always easy, but Garage Games seems to have hit upon a good balance. They release game engines as a sandbox for developers, let them create great games, and then help the developers distribute the game. Some of the top developers are showing up on Xbox Live, and before that were quite successive. (Marble Blast, Dark Horizons: Lore, Tube Twist, Orbz are a few)
I know several people that want to own a phsyical piece of property (CD in this case), and would spend extra money, just to have the shiny CD. Not to mention those people that don't have enough knowlege about computers to actually figure out how to download music. Add to that, the hassle of having to burn music onto a CDR to play in your car, and I can STILL see a vibrant market for CDs. Give it several more years, and then I think the market will shrink further.
As someone else pointed out, if you are going past a pop machine, it makes more sense to see say Coke or Pepsi, instead of some made-up cola name. Same with billboards. There are ads in Burnout Revenge. They add to the environment, and I really don't mind them. On the flip side, you have SWAT 4. It seems that there are posters about every 10 feet advetising SOMETHING. Last week, it was The Hills have Eyes, this week it is the History Channel show with Shatner's head plastered everywhere. I don't mind advertising... as long as I get a break in the price. I am NOT seeing that happen. Hell, in SWAT 4, it was perfectly fine, until they patched it to force streaming ads.