To quote Alanis, isn't it ironic? Nintendo patents a boatload of things they're not even using this generation? And they happen to be things its two competitors are using?
Lets see...
Mass storage device:
Xbox: Check
PS2: Optional, but available, check.
Voice communications:
Xbox: Check, for every online game
PS2: Check, for certain online games
League Tables:
Xbox: Check, with certain games
PS2: Certain games, maybe?
I think this is why patents are so dangerous. Companies use them to reserve ideas they don't even implement. It's one thing to protect something innovative you came up with, but to try to reserve something obvious, that you're not even going to use in the near future, just to keep it away from everyone else?
It's a video game. Why decide on a percentage of people who are gay? They could all have an open mind and judge you on how you treat them, rather than a predetermined set of values that determine whether they're gay, bi, hetero, whatever.
Actually, it seems like it would involve less coding. Instead of having to do a gender check on every potential love interest to determine whether or not they were a valid recipient of your marriage proposal, they could just leave the gender check out. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it, but...
Have you ever noticed the lack of asian characters in Japanese developed games? Most characters seem to be cookie cutter caucasians. FFX is one of the few that comes to mind that had any characters with asian features, and even then, there was a disparity between the in game look of the characters and their look in the CG cinemas. They looked caucasian in the normal gameplay, and had asian features in the CGs.
Sure, there's your standard types who will pirate anything, but I am of the personal opinion that a lot of piracy could be lessoned if the games were distributed faster to the stores, and if price were cheaper.
Take ESPN 2K4 this year. It's $20 bucks, and it's a top notch high quality game. Games that cheap are almost not worth pirating, as you have to spend a few hours downloading them, then unarchiving them, and burning them. You wasted four hours when you could have went to the store and in 15 minutes come home with the $20 game. I'm sure some people still pirated it, but I'm also sure a lot less people pirated it than if it were the full $49.99.
Another problem is the distribution. A lot of games go gold and then just sit in a warehouse. This is probably due to some marketing genious who
figured out if it came out two weeks later, it would make more money due to less competition of other games, blockbuster movies, or something else that came out. This gives the pirates more time to get ahold of it, crack it, and distribute it. And if you have a casual pirate who was willing to buy the game, and is anxiously awaiting it, if it comes out a week prior to ship date through the pirate channels, they're going to go that route instead. Depending on their morals, they might still buy it, but they also might not.
Okay, so if they went your route for "good design", and multiple people could safely be named FragBastard, then how the heck do you add your friend FragBastard to your list? How do you know which of the 50 FragBastard names that pop up in return to your search are your friend?
Especially since you can't get on to their network until you call them and tell them your new MAC. Or rather, call them, tell them you have a new modem, and they remotely get your MAC and register it.
Actually, I personally think they're also stupid in game making. It's been so oft delayed, by the time it comes out, it's likely to be a whole lot less revolutionary than it seemed at first.
I don't buy the argument that they had to re-hacker proof the game, thus spending all this time. It's going to get hacked anyway. Spend a month obfuscating and reorganizing your code, and ship it out. My main beef, I guess, is that it wasn't as done as they claimed back pre source theft when they claimed it was going to ship 9/30/2003. But I digress...
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To quote Alanis, isn't it ironic? Nintendo patents a boatload of things they're not even using this generation? And they happen to be things its two competitors are using? Lets see... Mass storage device: Xbox: Check PS2: Optional, but available, check. Voice communications: Xbox: Check, for every online game PS2: Check, for certain online games League Tables: Xbox: Check, with certain games PS2: Certain games, maybe? I think this is why patents are so dangerous. Companies use them to reserve ideas they don't even implement. It's one thing to protect something innovative you came up with, but to try to reserve something obvious, that you're not even going to use in the near future, just to keep it away from everyone else?
It's a video game. Why decide on a percentage of people who are gay? They could all have an open mind and judge you on how you treat them, rather than a predetermined set of values that determine whether they're gay, bi, hetero, whatever.
The sims did this, and it worked.
Actually, it seems like it would involve less coding. Instead of having to do a gender check on every potential love interest to determine whether or not they were a valid recipient of your marriage proposal, they could just leave the gender check out. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying it, but...
Have you ever noticed the lack of asian characters in Japanese developed games? Most characters seem to be cookie cutter caucasians. FFX is one of the few that comes to mind that had any characters with asian features, and even then, there was a disparity between the in game look of the characters and their look in the CG cinemas. They looked caucasian in the normal gameplay, and had asian features in the CGs.
Sure, there's your standard types who will pirate anything, but I am of the personal opinion that a lot of piracy could be lessoned if the games were distributed faster to the stores, and if price were cheaper. Take ESPN 2K4 this year. It's $20 bucks, and it's a top notch high quality game. Games that cheap are almost not worth pirating, as you have to spend a few hours downloading them, then unarchiving them, and burning them. You wasted four hours when you could have went to the store and in 15 minutes come home with the $20 game. I'm sure some people still pirated it, but I'm also sure a lot less people pirated it than if it were the full $49.99. Another problem is the distribution. A lot of games go gold and then just sit in a warehouse. This is probably due to some marketing genious who figured out if it came out two weeks later, it would make more money due to less competition of other games, blockbuster movies, or something else that came out. This gives the pirates more time to get ahold of it, crack it, and distribute it. And if you have a casual pirate who was willing to buy the game, and is anxiously awaiting it, if it comes out a week prior to ship date through the pirate channels, they're going to go that route instead. Depending on their morals, they might still buy it, but they also might not.
Okay, so if they went your route for "good design", and multiple people could safely be named FragBastard, then how the heck do you add your friend FragBastard to your list? How do you know which of the 50 FragBastard names that pop up in return to your search are your friend?
Your "good design" shows a lack of "foresight".
Actually, if you're reading /., the question of whether or not you're a geek is irrelevant and already answered.
Especially since you can't get on to their network until you call them and tell them your new MAC. Or rather, call them, tell them you have a new modem, and they remotely get your MAC and register it.
Actually, I personally think they're also stupid in game making. It's been so oft delayed, by the time it comes out, it's likely to be a whole lot less revolutionary than it seemed at first.
I don't buy the argument that they had to re-hacker proof the game, thus spending all this time. It's going to get hacked anyway. Spend a month obfuscating and reorganizing your code, and ship it out. My main beef, I guess, is that it wasn't as done as they claimed back pre source theft when they claimed it was going to ship 9/30/2003. But I digress...