Well, this is actually sort of my point-- it's a fine concept for basing a rhythm game around, but it's not suited to DDR as the game's coded now. It would need to be matched with something based more on movement and less on impact.
The accelerometer point is interesting, but how sensitive are we talking here? How long would your feet have to be still to register? Could you do sets of 1/8th or 1/16th note steps in rapid succession with it?
It's not a matter of time; I've destroyed pads inside of a few weeks with one or two hours a day of play. The factor is how difficult the songs you choose to play are. Songs with over 300 BPM or a lot of steps cued to 1/8th notes-- basically most Heavy and Oni difficulty songs-- are simply too much for dance pads to handle for very long. Often songs on this difficulty level can have something like 400 steps to complete inside of two minutes. It subjects the pad to a horrible pounding, assuming it doesn't slide around on your floor so much that you can't really finish the song. The pads are perfectly adequate if you only play on Basic, Light, or most Standard songs-- which it sounds like is all your pad is being used for. At that level the pads are totally adequate and can last upwards of a year.
Most skilled DDR players, however, end up abandoning the $30 pads entirely in favor of playing exclusively in arcades, or investing in $100+ metal pads that can be rooted in place and have heavy-duty sensors that won't break down under the strain of difficult songs. Yes, every controller wears out over time, but even the cheapest, most basic console controllers are engineered to last at least five years and are considered horrible pieces of crap if they don't. It's certainly unheard of for, say, a highly skilled Halo player to regularly break his controllers as part of using his skills. Cheap, basic DDR controllers aren't even adequate to high-level gameplay over anything like an extended period of time, though. It's because DDR Heavy and Oni setsteps are still designed primarily with arcade and metal-pad set-ups in mind, even for console exclusive titles. If you're not just someone who plays around with the game but instead wants to beat the toughest challenges in the game... frequently you can't.
I've used the Wii and I avidly play DDR. Simple sensor mapping would not be sensitive enough for what DDR gameplay, as the game stands now, requires. You could write a cool rhythm game based around motion sensing (and maybe finally get a home version of stuff like ParaPara), but you couldn't use motion sensing to replace the dance mat in DDR without grossly oversimplifying the gameplay. Instead of having to actually _hit_ a step with some force and a true weight/stance shift, you'd just have to make sure your legs moved enough to trigger the sensor. You wouldn't have to actually put weight on the stepping foot or have it stay in place for long, and that would completely change the flow of the game once you got past the most basic levels of play.
Remote sensing would be highly impractical to DDR as the game stands. It's basically a giant game of Simon with your feet, so you really need a button analogue to step on. It's true most commercial $30 dance pads right now are lacking compared to the strain DDR gameplay can put on them, but this is one ill the Wiimote can't cure.
Mod parent up. This is completely true-- most teachers are control freaks. It is not unusual for someone to stick to teaching largely for the psychological satisfaction that comes from controlling and dominating a room full of helpless kids. I haven't just heard stories of teachers badmouthing and mocking their own students, I've seen it happen. Yeah, this is just the bad teachers, but increasingly the bad teachers aren't disciplined because of staff shortages and an ability to present themselves as authoritarians rather than bullies. Our entire public education system right now makes me sick; it's little more than vehicle for forcing students to get used to accepting institutionalized social discrimination and cruelty.
PS3 games aren't being resold frequently. There honestly seems to be very little interest in the PS3's software right now; the only exclusive launch title with any positive buzz around it is Resistance.
My personal opinion is that forcing Sony out of the industry would be bad for everyone involved, but especially consumers; it would simply reduce things to Microsoft and Nintendo in the immediate future. In practical terms, this would probably work out to Microsoft locking down the American and European console market, while Nintendo locked down the portable market, and a stagnation of software quality followed all-around. Truly interesting portable games didn't happen until Nintendo felt the need to beat off a competitor, and likewise, Microsoft only bothered to make truly interesting hardware because they had to beat off a competitor. Sony's dominance of the industry is in many ways bad, but three balanced companies constantly at each other's throats would only be good for us. That's what I hope comes out of this hardware generation: stalemate.
Sony's done two launches with an excess of product and two launches with a woeful undersupply of product. Of course, people only remember the undersupply, because this can be used to villify Sony. And man, do people hate them some Sony these days.
Nitpick: how is backwards compatibility a "classic Nintendo move"? This is the first Nintendo console that will be backwards-compatible with the previous hardware generation. Nintendo's first flirtation with backwards compatibility was the Game Boy Color. They seemed uninterested in bringing backwards compatibility to consoles until Sony proved what a consumer incentive that was with the PS2. Unsurprisingly, backwards compatibility was heavily emphasized for the Game Boy Advance, which launched in Japan about a year after the PS2. They couldn't go with backwards compatibility with the GameCube because they desperately needed to get away from the N64's cartridge format, so the Wii is really their first shot at introducing it.
Nintendo's hardly in a "losing" position - they're the only company right now that's turning a consistent profit. They're not going anywhere, and people will still have lots of hardware to choose from in the future.
DDR in its current form is far too difficult for children that young. I could see a market for a DDR-knockoff tailored to the needs of very young players working out well, though....
I have a first-gen Japanese PSP, and it is as heavy as you describe. I bought an American one last week, and was absolutely shocked by how much lighter it was than the original model. It was perhaps one-third to one-half as heavy as the Japanese PSP, and far more comfortable for extended play periods. Carrying it around still requires a case, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.
What's so sad about living in a dorm or apartment complex that doesn't allow pets? I'd much rather have people play Nintendogs a lot in those sorts of buildings than try to drag pets in illegally.
Most of the half-decent arcades I've found lately are in tourist traps - for instance, a hotel I visited in Vegas recently had an absolutely amazing arcade tucked away in it. A new Pump it Up machine, tons of vintage fighting games, a perfectly working original Metal Slug machine... it was fabulous. Similarly, when I go to more local tourist traps like Pigeon Forge or Virginia Beach, I always keep a lookout for good arcades. You often find them attached to Lazer Tag and Go Kart places, selling food and drink nearby. Awesome.
I dunno, hasn't Konami since said that the Dreamcast Castlevania got cancelled for sucking? You'd think gamers would be happy about a cancellation like that.
I wouldn't be so quick to say the N64 is a "well-understood" system. I've read some developer blogs recently that indicate the DS is already using chips based directly on the N64, and that this actually makes the machine much more difficult to work with. Google around and I'm sure you'll find the blog I'm talking about.
This is pretty disappointing material from The Escapist. Their analysis is usually a lot closer to the mark and I've definitely come to expect better research from them. A lot of the assertions they're making about the industry's history here just aren't true, and have been debunked. Did the author just use fansites for his sources or something?
Japanese won't play Halo for the reason they won't play most FPS:
1) Games that simulate pointing guns at others from the first person are viewed as excessively violent and offensive. No, seriously, I can dig up quotes from Japanese gamers on this if you want. Third person is okay for some reason, I recall GTA being a hit over there with import fans.
2) Many Japanese gamers experience acute motion sickness when trying to play FPS, any FPS. This phenomenon is well-documented and has lead to the entire FPS genre from Doom on being massively unpopular in Japan. Another one where I can dig up quotes if you like.
So why's it shocking that Japanese don't want to play a game that offends and nauseates them? Protectionism plays some role in the XBox's low numbers in Japan, but it's not the dominating reason. I would point at racism and the disproportionate amount of FPS on the system, myself. 360 might've done better if MS partnered with a Japanese company and emphasized the amount of racing titles, but the Japanese public will never play their games-- or Western games, for that matter-- on an American console as long as there's any alternative.
SNES and Dreamcast aren't valid points. The 16-bit generation ended with Sega and Nintendo neck and neck; the Dreamcast lasted 18 months before PS2 crushed it.
Both good systems, mind you, but you've gotta face facts.
Had this same feeling reading through it. Some of the writing was really good, this one was just a glorified MB rant. And calling it "The Contrarian" was laughable... "Nintendo is about to die" is one of the urban legends gamers like to repeat to themselves the most, in all defiance of facts. Nintendo posted record profits this quarter; they aren't going anywhere.
Dickens is considered great more for historical influence than quality. A lot of books have been critted and duly acknowledged as really quite dreadful, but very popular. This is why you don't read too much Dickens in secondary school, but then get buried in it in English courses (or so I'm told, anyway).
he Pratchett comparison is a bit more on the mark, though I'd argue that Pratchett is considered a very great writer in a lot of quarters and just doesn't get much attention because of his genre. I imagine he'll be regarded as kindly as Douglas Adams in the long run, and I think I've seen Pratchett novels on assigned reading lists.
All this in mind, I can't say I really agree with that assessment; I don't see how Tetris is any less a classic piece of game design for simply not having a plot. It's just a game where storytelling is not a part of the game experience, and I failt to see how that makes it any "less" than a game with a narrative.
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Well, this is actually sort of my point-- it's a fine concept for basing a rhythm game around, but it's not suited to DDR as the game's coded now. It would need to be matched with something based more on movement and less on impact.
The accelerometer point is interesting, but how sensitive are we talking here? How long would your feet have to be still to register? Could you do sets of 1/8th or 1/16th note steps in rapid succession with it?
It's not a matter of time; I've destroyed pads inside of a few weeks with one or two hours a day of play. The factor is how difficult the songs you choose to play are. Songs with over 300 BPM or a lot of steps cued to 1/8th notes-- basically most Heavy and Oni difficulty songs-- are simply too much for dance pads to handle for very long. Often songs on this difficulty level can have something like 400 steps to complete inside of two minutes. It subjects the pad to a horrible pounding, assuming it doesn't slide around on your floor so much that you can't really finish the song. The pads are perfectly adequate if you only play on Basic, Light, or most Standard songs-- which it sounds like is all your pad is being used for. At that level the pads are totally adequate and can last upwards of a year.
Most skilled DDR players, however, end up abandoning the $30 pads entirely in favor of playing exclusively in arcades, or investing in $100+ metal pads that can be rooted in place and have heavy-duty sensors that won't break down under the strain of difficult songs. Yes, every controller wears out over time, but even the cheapest, most basic console controllers are engineered to last at least five years and are considered horrible pieces of crap if they don't. It's certainly unheard of for, say, a highly skilled Halo player to regularly break his controllers as part of using his skills. Cheap, basic DDR controllers aren't even adequate to high-level gameplay over anything like an extended period of time, though. It's because DDR Heavy and Oni setsteps are still designed primarily with arcade and metal-pad set-ups in mind, even for console exclusive titles. If you're not just someone who plays around with the game but instead wants to beat the toughest challenges in the game... frequently you can't.
I've used the Wii and I avidly play DDR. Simple sensor mapping would not be sensitive enough for what DDR gameplay, as the game stands now, requires. You could write a cool rhythm game based around motion sensing (and maybe finally get a home version of stuff like ParaPara), but you couldn't use motion sensing to replace the dance mat in DDR without grossly oversimplifying the gameplay. Instead of having to actually _hit_ a step with some force and a true weight/stance shift, you'd just have to make sure your legs moved enough to trigger the sensor. You wouldn't have to actually put weight on the stepping foot or have it stay in place for long, and that would completely change the flow of the game once you got past the most basic levels of play.
Remote sensing would be highly impractical to DDR as the game stands. It's basically a giant game of Simon with your feet, so you really need a button analogue to step on. It's true most commercial $30 dance pads right now are lacking compared to the strain DDR gameplay can put on them, but this is one ill the Wiimote can't cure.
Mod parent up. This is completely true-- most teachers are control freaks. It is not unusual for someone to stick to teaching largely for the psychological satisfaction that comes from controlling and dominating a room full of helpless kids. I haven't just heard stories of teachers badmouthing and mocking their own students, I've seen it happen. Yeah, this is just the bad teachers, but increasingly the bad teachers aren't disciplined because of staff shortages and an ability to present themselves as authoritarians rather than bullies. Our entire public education system right now makes me sick; it's little more than vehicle for forcing students to get used to accepting institutionalized social discrimination and cruelty.
PS3 games aren't being resold frequently. There honestly seems to be very little interest in the PS3's software right now; the only exclusive launch title with any positive buzz around it is Resistance.
My personal opinion is that forcing Sony out of the industry would be bad for everyone involved, but especially consumers; it would simply reduce things to Microsoft and Nintendo in the immediate future. In practical terms, this would probably work out to Microsoft locking down the American and European console market, while Nintendo locked down the portable market, and a stagnation of software quality followed all-around. Truly interesting portable games didn't happen until Nintendo felt the need to beat off a competitor, and likewise, Microsoft only bothered to make truly interesting hardware because they had to beat off a competitor. Sony's dominance of the industry is in many ways bad, but three balanced companies constantly at each other's throats would only be good for us. That's what I hope comes out of this hardware generation: stalemate.
Sony's done two launches with an excess of product and two launches with a woeful undersupply of product. Of course, people only remember the undersupply, because this can be used to villify Sony. And man, do people hate them some Sony these days.
Nitpick: how is backwards compatibility a "classic Nintendo move"? This is the first Nintendo console that will be backwards-compatible with the previous hardware generation. Nintendo's first flirtation with backwards compatibility was the Game Boy Color. They seemed uninterested in bringing backwards compatibility to consoles until Sony proved what a consumer incentive that was with the PS2. Unsurprisingly, backwards compatibility was heavily emphasized for the Game Boy Advance, which launched in Japan about a year after the PS2. They couldn't go with backwards compatibility with the GameCube because they desperately needed to get away from the N64's cartridge format, so the Wii is really their first shot at introducing it.
Nintendo's hardly in a "losing" position - they're the only company right now that's turning a consistent profit. They're not going anywhere, and people will still have lots of hardware to choose from in the future.
DDR in its current form is far too difficult for children that young. I could see a market for a DDR-knockoff tailored to the needs of very young players working out well, though....
I have a first-gen Japanese PSP, and it is as heavy as you describe. I bought an American one last week, and was absolutely shocked by how much lighter it was than the original model. It was perhaps one-third to one-half as heavy as the Japanese PSP, and far more comfortable for extended play periods. Carrying it around still requires a case, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.
The sarcasm is what makes it insightful!
I don't remember much about being a child other than being depressed a lot.
What's so sad about living in a dorm or apartment complex that doesn't allow pets? I'd much rather have people play Nintendogs a lot in those sorts of buildings than try to drag pets in illegally.
Most of the half-decent arcades I've found lately are in tourist traps - for instance, a hotel I visited in Vegas recently had an absolutely amazing arcade tucked away in it. A new Pump it Up machine, tons of vintage fighting games, a perfectly working original Metal Slug machine... it was fabulous. Similarly, when I go to more local tourist traps like Pigeon Forge or Virginia Beach, I always keep a lookout for good arcades. You often find them attached to Lazer Tag and Go Kart places, selling food and drink nearby. Awesome.
I dunno, hasn't Konami since said that the Dreamcast Castlevania got cancelled for sucking? You'd think gamers would be happy about a cancellation like that.
I wouldn't be so quick to say the N64 is a "well-understood" system. I've read some developer blogs recently that indicate the DS is already using chips based directly on the N64, and that this actually makes the machine much more difficult to work with. Google around and I'm sure you'll find the blog I'm talking about.
This is pretty disappointing material from The Escapist. Their analysis is usually a lot closer to the mark and I've definitely come to expect better research from them. A lot of the assertions they're making about the industry's history here just aren't true, and have been debunked. Did the author just use fansites for his sources or something?
You can do the mod on a PS2 with an Action Replay code. And there's a much smaller version of the PC mod than the one you linked to.
Japanese won't play Halo for the reason they won't play most FPS:
1) Games that simulate pointing guns at others from the first person are viewed as excessively violent and offensive. No, seriously, I can dig up quotes from Japanese gamers on this if you want. Third person is okay for some reason, I recall GTA being a hit over there with import fans.
2) Many Japanese gamers experience acute motion sickness when trying to play FPS, any FPS. This phenomenon is well-documented and has lead to the entire FPS genre from Doom on being massively unpopular in Japan. Another one where I can dig up quotes if you like.
So why's it shocking that Japanese don't want to play a game that offends and nauseates them? Protectionism plays some role in the XBox's low numbers in Japan, but it's not the dominating reason. I would point at racism and the disproportionate amount of FPS on the system, myself. 360 might've done better if MS partnered with a Japanese company and emphasized the amount of racing titles, but the Japanese public will never play their games-- or Western games, for that matter-- on an American console as long as there's any alternative.
SNES and Dreamcast aren't valid points. The 16-bit generation ended with Sega and Nintendo neck and neck; the Dreamcast lasted 18 months before PS2 crushed it.
Both good systems, mind you, but you've gotta face facts.
Had this same feeling reading through it. Some of the writing was really good, this one was just a glorified MB rant. And calling it "The Contrarian" was laughable... "Nintendo is about to die" is one of the urban legends gamers like to repeat to themselves the most, in all defiance of facts. Nintendo posted record profits this quarter; they aren't going anywhere.
Was the HDD ever announced to be anything other than an optional feature, though? I don't recall Sony ever announcing otherwise.
But, hell, I also haven't been paying close attention to PS3 spec announcements for exactly the reason you mentioned.
Dickens is considered great more for historical influence than quality. A lot of books have been critted and duly acknowledged as really quite dreadful, but very popular. This is why you don't read too much Dickens in secondary school, but then get buried in it in English courses (or so I'm told, anyway).
he Pratchett comparison is a bit more on the mark, though I'd argue that Pratchett is considered a very great writer in a lot of quarters and just doesn't get much attention because of his genre. I imagine he'll be regarded as kindly as Douglas Adams in the long run, and I think I've seen Pratchett novels on assigned reading lists.
All this in mind, I can't say I really agree with that assessment; I don't see how Tetris is any less a classic piece of game design for simply not having a plot. It's just a game where storytelling is not a part of the game experience, and I failt to see how that makes it any "less" than a game with a narrative.