As opposed to what The Escapist reports, the index does NOT prevent sales. All restrictions placed on indexed games only apply to minors. The game cannot be displayed where minors can see it, cannot be sold to minors, etc but there are no restrictions on what can be done in adult-only venues or below the counter (of course noone will stock an indexed game outside of speciality stores). Only a court can order a complete ban on the grounds that it endangers the order of society.
It's not illicit footwork and there's no law preventing a store from getting copies from another region. Until the game gets an actual ban (that takes a lot more than just a refused rating) it can be sold normally in stores. This sounds more like Sony and Microsoft don't want an unrated game on their system, just as they don't let AO-rated games be released in the US. The console manufacturer CANNOT prevent imports from other EU countries, EU law is very clear about it.
Refusing a rating is the USK-equivalent of an AO rating, it's probably the console manufacturer deciding they don't want that "rating" on their system which is why the PC version is unaffected.
The DS has the annoying two screens and from what I hear, the second screen is used mostly for status that a simple start button press could show instead.
Sometimes yes but not always, many games use the top screen as the game view and the bottom screen as a control panel. For some it acts like a mousepad with buttons, for others it can be e.g. the control panel of a mech or an excerpt from your spellbook.
I've seen a list of the change in national debt for each president (I think it was on Wikipedia or something), overall it looked like the dems are much better at handling that than the repubs, every time the presidency went dem->rep the rate of new debt went up and every time it went rep -> dem it went down.
Nice theory except the USD's value has no bearing on these prices apparently as the PS3 costs 600€ in Europe. If the low USD was the reason for the 600$ price surely the European price would be lower?
You're still spending a lot of processing power. There is always a limit on how much a GPU can render within one frame which influences the amount of detail you can add to the model (even if NURBS allow perfect roundness and don't get converted to polies). That amount of detail causes the depreciation of assets. So if your card can render 65536 NURBS vertices per scene those have to be intelligently allocated to the various objects within. If the next card can render 4x that you can have 4x the detail per object. There will always be depreciation because objects are modeled towards the limits of the hardware, unless you devise a method that can have infinite detail on a given hardware.
Of course if the NURBS get converted to triangles you waste even more power. Manual control allows every edge to be where it needs to be, leaving that to the computer will end up with edges where they aren't really necessary draining power that could have been used elsewhere to define the shape better.
This isn't about making stuff rounder, this is about adding smaller and smaller details to the mesh. Keeping your surface description high-level doesn't make that easier.
Take e.g. the Death Star. If every detail on that thing was modeled and the texture pretty much just a generic metal texture, how would your CSG downres that to a usable level?
Yes but if there's a tile that looks in red light like another tile does in blue light then interpreting them as the same color would be wrong because they only emit the same color under vastly different conditions.
CSG is just a means, you could just as well use NURBS or subdivision to represent a highpoly model. The problem is that you have to downres it to a point where it's not just fewer sides on a cylinder or something but where the entire surface has to change. Details must be removed from the geometry and put onto the texture instead. Some things will be faked with alpha. The software would have to automatically recognize which details are important and need to be kept. Even worse, for organic objects it has to understand where and how the object will deform and how to make that look good. And finally, it's just unnecessary work to model every little detail on a model when 90% of them will be lost in the downressing anyway, that just wastes time and time is money.
Of course simple laws are better but you'll always find people who want to bend them and then the rule lawyering starts and in some situations intuition won't cut it to find someone guilty or not guilty. What's obvious to one person isn't to another and that ends in dispute, the law shoud be capable of resolving such disputes by being clear. Unfortunately complex situations require complex laws to handle.
Different punishments add a different deterrent though: A criminal wants to minimize his jailtime for the crime he's doing, resulting in things like using air guns for robbing a bank since armed robbery bears a higher punishment. With your law a mugger wouldn't have to worry about increasing his punishment and can just kill his victim first. A person who got drunk and punched some guy he had an argument with can just take out a machinegun and plow through a kindergarten since he has nothing to lose anyway. There would be no reason to not shoot first and ask questions later when you're committing a crime anyway. And while you're at it, if the cops get you you die anyway so why not send as many of them to hell as you can?
If they ask that then they get the OS that fits their needs. If they are less specific, e.g. "I need something that does email and text writing" they would be offered the choice between Linux for 0$ and Windows for whatever a new copy of that is going for currently.
No, that'd be the point of this regulation, they'll no longer be allowed to charge less than blank PC + separate Windows license for the bundle, both items will have to be listed separately and cannot have discounts arising from the combination.
Actually the vast majority of people who do buy a HDTV do want to display movies at the higher resolution
Yes but do they want it 500$ (or 600€) worth? If the HD disc player was a free upgrade for their DVD player of course they'd take it, at 50$ most will probably still pay but at 10x that price it's something you really need to save up for (unless you have a really large amount of disposable income which few people do). I really don't see this selling many units, especially not enough to close the gap in sales to the XBox 360 and Wii.
The problem with that stance is that the vast majority of the market wouldn't pay much more for a BRD player than a DVD player and realistically the hi-def formats won't become dominant until you can buy a player for ~50$ so going with a HD player isn't a big decision anymore. Even if I had a HDTV I wouldn't pay 10x the price for a movie player just to up the resolution.
Microsoft isn't a monopoly either then. The laws trigger on someone taking the majority of the market, not the whole market because otherwise a company could keep a puppet competitor around to avoid monopoly status and because one company holding the vast majority of the market is bad enough already.
Slashdot Mirror
As opposed to what The Escapist reports, the index does NOT prevent sales. All restrictions placed on indexed games only apply to minors. The game cannot be displayed where minors can see it, cannot be sold to minors, etc but there are no restrictions on what can be done in adult-only venues or below the counter (of course noone will stock an indexed game outside of speciality stores). Only a court can order a complete ban on the grounds that it endangers the order of society.
It's not illicit footwork and there's no law preventing a store from getting copies from another region. Until the game gets an actual ban (that takes a lot more than just a refused rating) it can be sold normally in stores. This sounds more like Sony and Microsoft don't want an unrated game on their system, just as they don't let AO-rated games be released in the US. The console manufacturer CANNOT prevent imports from other EU countries, EU law is very clear about it.
Refusing a rating is the USK-equivalent of an AO rating, it's probably the console manufacturer deciding they don't want that "rating" on their system which is why the PC version is unaffected.
The DS has the annoying two screens and from what I hear, the second screen is used mostly for status that a simple start button press could show instead.
Sometimes yes but not always, many games use the top screen as the game view and the bottom screen as a control panel. For some it acts like a mousepad with buttons, for others it can be e.g. the control panel of a mech or an excerpt from your spellbook.
What about releasing games that are combined better than the upcoming PC games combined?
I've seen a list of the change in national debt for each president (I think it was on Wikipedia or something), overall it looked like the dems are much better at handling that than the repubs, every time the presidency went dem->rep the rate of new debt went up and every time it went rep -> dem it went down.
Nice theory except the USD's value has no bearing on these prices apparently as the PS3 costs 600€ in Europe. If the low USD was the reason for the 600$ price surely the European price would be lower?
Dunno, I only have the stereo speakers on my TV so I wouldn't notice that.
Anecdotes are not data. Sales data is data and that data clearly states the Wii is leading, the 360 a really close second and the PS3 far behind.
You're still spending a lot of processing power. There is always a limit on how much a GPU can render within one frame which influences the amount of detail you can add to the model (even if NURBS allow perfect roundness and don't get converted to polies). That amount of detail causes the depreciation of assets. So if your card can render 65536 NURBS vertices per scene those have to be intelligently allocated to the various objects within. If the next card can render 4x that you can have 4x the detail per object. There will always be depreciation because objects are modeled towards the limits of the hardware, unless you devise a method that can have infinite detail on a given hardware.
Of course if the NURBS get converted to triangles you waste even more power. Manual control allows every edge to be where it needs to be, leaving that to the computer will end up with edges where they aren't really necessary draining power that could have been used elsewhere to define the shape better.
This isn't about making stuff rounder, this is about adding smaller and smaller details to the mesh. Keeping your surface description high-level doesn't make that easier.
Take e.g. the Death Star. If every detail on that thing was modeled and the texture pretty much just a generic metal texture, how would your CSG downres that to a usable level?
L'enfer, c'est les autres.
Plenty of people are scared of other people, to the point of introducing anti-terror laws.
Yes but if there's a tile that looks in red light like another tile does in blue light then interpreting them as the same color would be wrong because they only emit the same color under vastly different conditions.
CSG is just a means, you could just as well use NURBS or subdivision to represent a highpoly model. The problem is that you have to downres it to a point where it's not just fewer sides on a cylinder or something but where the entire surface has to change. Details must be removed from the geometry and put onto the texture instead. Some things will be faked with alpha. The software would have to automatically recognize which details are important and need to be kept. Even worse, for organic objects it has to understand where and how the object will deform and how to make that look good. And finally, it's just unnecessary work to model every little detail on a model when 90% of them will be lost in the downressing anyway, that just wastes time and time is money.
Of course simple laws are better but you'll always find people who want to bend them and then the rule lawyering starts and in some situations intuition won't cut it to find someone guilty or not guilty. What's obvious to one person isn't to another and that ends in dispute, the law shoud be capable of resolving such disputes by being clear. Unfortunately complex situations require complex laws to handle.
Gouranga!
Different punishments add a different deterrent though: A criminal wants to minimize his jailtime for the crime he's doing, resulting in things like using air guns for robbing a bank since armed robbery bears a higher punishment. With your law a mugger wouldn't have to worry about increasing his punishment and can just kill his victim first. A person who got drunk and punched some guy he had an argument with can just take out a machinegun and plow through a kindergarten since he has nothing to lose anyway. There would be no reason to not shoot first and ask questions later when you're committing a crime anyway. And while you're at it, if the cops get you you die anyway so why not send as many of them to hell as you can?
And? That's still something, it's not like the PS3 has many games over the 360.
It's worthwile for enthusiasts but are those enough of a market to help the PS3 catch up with the other consoles?
If they ask that then they get the OS that fits their needs. If they are less specific, e.g. "I need something that does email and text writing" they would be offered the choice between Linux for 0$ and Windows for whatever a new copy of that is going for currently.
No, that'd be the point of this regulation, they'll no longer be allowed to charge less than blank PC + separate Windows license for the bundle, both items will have to be listed separately and cannot have discounts arising from the combination.
Also Apple is or was under investigation, too. It may be possible that this will apply to Apple as well.
Actually the vast majority of people who do buy a HDTV do want to display movies at the higher resolution
Yes but do they want it 500$ (or 600€) worth? If the HD disc player was a free upgrade for their DVD player of course they'd take it, at 50$ most will probably still pay but at 10x that price it's something you really need to save up for (unless you have a really large amount of disposable income which few people do). I really don't see this selling many units, especially not enough to close the gap in sales to the XBox 360 and Wii.
Killzone or Killzone 2? I recall that being the case for Killzone 1 and was wondering why people were still assuming KZ2 would be a great game.
The problem with that stance is that the vast majority of the market wouldn't pay much more for a BRD player than a DVD player and realistically the hi-def formats won't become dominant until you can buy a player for ~50$ so going with a HD player isn't a big decision anymore. Even if I had a HDTV I wouldn't pay 10x the price for a movie player just to up the resolution.
Microsoft isn't a monopoly either then. The laws trigger on someone taking the majority of the market, not the whole market because otherwise a company could keep a puppet competitor around to avoid monopoly status and because one company holding the vast majority of the market is bad enough already.