Heh. My wife just bought one of these for her grandmother, since their 5 year old machine is on it's last legs. First thing I said when I started it up was 'damn, is that fan broken or something?!'
And then I spent the rest of the night cussing out Microsoft's File and Software Transfer wizard. Fscking thing is supposed to be easy.
Will we use legislation, education, or some other method to make sure children are not exposed to video games which are inappropriate for them?
I'll take 'some other method'. I'd like to call it parenting. It's a radical concept: you actually watch what your child does, monitor what they watch, read, etc, and when they try to get something you do not feel is appropriate for them, you tell them no, and take it away.
At no point in this process does the government, the industry, or anyone aside from myself responsible for how my child grows up. Just me.
If you are famous, but not a gamer, you can go to E3 and be a pretty face promoting the newest video of what this new game should look like.
If you are famous, and a gamer, you can go to E3 and actually try out the newest build of new game X.
If you aren't famous, but are a gamer (ie: the person they want to buy the game) you aren't allowed to go, and get what bits and pieces G4's talking heads spout out, which is basically nothing more than fluff and hype.
How many teenagers do you know sitting there and videotaping the movie? Granted, I don't have facts, but I don't think Little Billy has a thought in his head beyond 'oooo, this candy is good, yay explosions!'. And if he did, that little PSA with Joe the Stunt Man going on about how downloading a movie steals candy from his children and then kicks his grandmother in the teeth isn't going to stop them. Nor does it add any 'guilt'. Society, for good or for bad, has it ingrained in their heads that downloading movies/shows/music off the internet is a good thing to them.
"I was playing a Rifleman/Commando on test and the Improved Sniper Shot with a rocket launcher was freekin (sic) awesome fun."
What kind of sniper uses a rocket launcher? It completely blows the whole concept of 'sniper' out of the water.
"Most the complaints are from people who just don't understand or know how to take advantage of the new system."
That's the chief complaint of everyone I've ran across: They didn't need a new system. Everyone I've talked to liked how the old system worked. Their problem was that the classes/weaponry/etc were unbalanced. The basic mechanics and ideas of the system, they had no problem with.
So instead of working with what they had and making the old system work, they've instead tossed in a system ripped off from Everquest 2. People were paying for Star Wars Galaxies, not Everquest2 in space. That's the major complaint I'm hearing.
Can't wait to see your business plans: "1. Hire artists. 2. ????. 3. Not pay them!"
I think the RIAA would be pissed at you for ripping off their business model, actually.
On topic, your arguement is reasonable. Yes, people need to eat. If you want something, you should be paying for it, so the artist that created it can pay his bills. The problem with the current system is that the artist that created the new album that Joe Suburbia just downloaded isn't getting paid his fair dues. It's been broken down before, the CD makes millions, and the artist, more often than not, makes pennies on every thousand their album makes.
That's why the copyright system is broke, and this whole thing is draconian. The system, as it stands now, only serves to line the pockets of the few CEOs at the top of the recording studios, and the people who actually do the work get gruel.
Attack of the Show is just yesterday's Slashdot frontpage, most of the time.
Their whole advertising is so out of whack. 'We get you the good sh*t before it's gone!'. BS. It should be 'We'll show you yesterday's slashdot news today!'
Do you think the administrators want to give _training_ to those weird kids that dress in black, read _books_ (BOOKS, for gods sakes!), and don't religiously follow the school's football team?
Good god, that's insanity! Now, like some other poster said, get your football helmet on and go KILL that other team, for school pride! YEAH!
Did you ever stop to think that maybe some of the reason that most movies suck lately is b/c they are trying to avoid the R rating? They stick to things that will be safe that they can get the most numbers in.
That's the exact point I was trying to make. If the major chains (Wal-Mart, Target, EB Games, Gamestop, etc) stop purchasing games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, sales of such games will go down, and publishers (not developers, but publishers) will be less likely to let their developers make such games.
We're already starting to see it in the industry; look at how many games this year were sequels. How many original (as in not Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc) were there this year?
The masses are fucking idiots, and don't realize that a 'new' name (Katamari Damacy, for instance, even though I admit I don't know how well it's sold. It's the one original game I can think of) can be just as good as a sequel.
So Publishers are less likely to let the developers follow through on an original idea, instead putting all the publishing money into sequels.
Going back to my point, if the Publishers find that there is less money in M-rated games, they will be less likely to fund the development of M-rated games.
Which would end up with the Video Game industry turning into the Movie industry; bland kiddy fare developed specifically not to garner an M-rated. Granted, alot of T-rated games are still fun, but I like my swearing, cussing, murder, mayhem as much as the next guy, where the story calls for it (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, for instance). Imagine if Rockstar was forced to make Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a T-rated game... that's what we'd have to look forward to if this bill passed.
The problem is that if the stores get in trouble for selling M rated games to minors, they are going to be less likely to sell M rated games, period If they know that there's the posibility of a fine for having the newest M-rated game out on the shelf, they just won't stock it.
You might think that's fine and dandy, but look at it on this scale: Wal-Mart decides that because there is now a law against selling M-Rated games to minors, they'll just hedge their bets and stop selling M-Rated games. Wal-Mart, being a huge chain of stores, is no longer buying M-Rated games from the distributor. This information gets back to the publishers, who see that M-Rated games are not selling as much as E-rated games, not because of quality, but because of market penetration. Therefore, the publisher will be less likely to fund the development of an M-Rated game. Simply because there's not as much money in it as there is for E-rated games.
The same has happened with the movie industry. In the 80s, practically every action flick was rated R. Nowadays, however, action flicks are rated PG-13. Not because our tastes have changed; compare Terminator to Terminator 3 as to how much gets blown up, destroyed, etc etc etc. But because people are more likely to see a movie rated PG-13 than they are one rated R.
The X-Box is a success, even when it loses over 1 billion dollars, because Microsoft is loaded.
Seriously, I bet Bill Gates loses that kind of money in the wash.
As for Sony's processor shortage.... hell yeah it's a marketing ploy. I'm just an uneducated fool posting on/., and I could have told you that they'd need more than 200,000 PSP units, or more PStwo units than what they shipped. Sony is creating demand. Well, not so much demand, but generating more hype. 'OMG!!! teh n3w ps2 is soooooo cool!!! i need it!!! omg!!! u don't have it?!! i must have it!!!'
Everyone cried about DRM on music but the game publishers get to walk right in?
I don't know about you, but I've read alot of outcry about Steam and Half-Life 2 on/. alone, not counting the handful of other forums.
However, as I'm no longer 17, I can relate to where my parents were coming from. The internet is a pretty fucked up place (hell, look at/.), and when my kid gets to the age where he can use the computer, or the neurojack rig, or VR goggles, or whatever, damn straight I'm going to be keeping an eye on what he sees and does.
Of course, by then I do hope I'll have taught him enough sense about right, wrong, ethics, etc, that he won't do anything stupid. But then again, part of growing up is making some mistakes. It's just a parents job to keep the kid from making the really bad ones (going to meet that '17yrold hottie' he met in chat, or deciding that the Jocks in school look alot like pinkies from Doom, and need to be chainsawed.)
Slashdot Mirror
But that just means Tim Roberts gets off. And we wouldn't want that, would we?
And then I spent the rest of the night cussing out Microsoft's File and Software Transfer wizard. Fscking thing is supposed to be easy.
Will we use legislation, education, or some other method to make sure children are not exposed to video games which are inappropriate for them?
I'll take 'some other method'. I'd like to call it parenting. It's a radical concept: you actually watch what your child does, monitor what they watch, read, etc, and when they try to get something you do not feel is appropriate for them, you tell them no, and take it away.
At no point in this process does the government, the industry, or anyone aside from myself responsible for how my child grows up. Just me.
Just FRIGHTENING, isn't it?
Yes I am, and don't call me Shirley.
If you are famous, but not a gamer, you can go to E3 and be a pretty face promoting the newest video of what this new game should look like.
If you are famous, and a gamer, you can go to E3 and actually try out the newest build of new game X.
If you aren't famous, but are a gamer (ie: the person they want to buy the game) you aren't allowed to go, and get what bits and pieces G4's talking heads spout out, which is basically nothing more than fluff and hype.
That's where the bitching generates from.
They'll be put on the robot reservations! Even robotcheetah-Hesh!
Just wait. Soon the Book Printers Association of America will come after you for theft!
I thought the typical X-Box user didn't care about performance either, just getting their new copy of last year's Madden game with this years roster.
"I was playing a Rifleman/Commando on test and the Improved Sniper Shot with a rocket launcher was freekin (sic) awesome fun."
What kind of sniper uses a rocket launcher? It completely blows the whole concept of 'sniper' out of the water.
"Most the complaints are from people who just don't understand or know how to take advantage of the new system."
That's the chief complaint of everyone I've ran across: They didn't need a new system. Everyone I've talked to liked how the old system worked. Their problem was that the classes/weaponry/etc were unbalanced. The basic mechanics and ideas of the system, they had no problem with.
So instead of working with what they had and making the old system work, they've instead tossed in a system ripped off from Everquest 2. People were paying for Star Wars Galaxies, not Everquest2 in space. That's the major complaint I'm hearing.
I think the RIAA would be pissed at you for ripping off their business model, actually.
On topic, your arguement is reasonable. Yes, people need to eat. If you want something, you should be paying for it, so the artist that created it can pay his bills. The problem with the current system is that the artist that created the new album that Joe Suburbia just downloaded isn't getting paid his fair dues. It's been broken down before, the CD makes millions, and the artist, more often than not, makes pennies on every thousand their album makes.
That's why the copyright system is broke, and this whole thing is draconian. The system, as it stands now, only serves to line the pockets of the few CEOs at the top of the recording studios, and the people who actually do the work get gruel.
Their whole advertising is so out of whack. 'We get you the good sh*t before it's gone!'. BS. It should be 'We'll show you yesterday's slashdot news today!'
Do you think the administrators want to give _training_ to those weird kids that dress in black, read _books_ (BOOKS, for gods sakes!), and don't religiously follow the school's football team?
Good god, that's insanity! Now, like some other poster said, get your football helmet on and go KILL that other team, for school pride! YEAH!
What the heck does 'H2G2' mean?
That's the exact point I was trying to make. If the major chains (Wal-Mart, Target, EB Games, Gamestop, etc) stop purchasing games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, sales of such games will go down, and publishers (not developers, but publishers) will be less likely to let their developers make such games.
We're already starting to see it in the industry; look at how many games this year were sequels. How many original (as in not Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, etc) were there this year?
The masses are fucking idiots, and don't realize that a 'new' name (Katamari Damacy, for instance, even though I admit I don't know how well it's sold. It's the one original game I can think of) can be just as good as a sequel.
So Publishers are less likely to let the developers follow through on an original idea, instead putting all the publishing money into sequels.
Going back to my point, if the Publishers find that there is less money in M-rated games, they will be less likely to fund the development of M-rated games.
Which would end up with the Video Game industry turning into the Movie industry; bland kiddy fare developed specifically not to garner an M-rated. Granted, alot of T-rated games are still fun, but I like my swearing, cussing, murder, mayhem as much as the next guy, where the story calls for it (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, for instance). Imagine if Rockstar was forced to make Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a T-rated game... that's what we'd have to look forward to if this bill passed.
*Sits back and waits for equal parts troll, offtopic, and funny mods to come in.*
You might think that's fine and dandy, but look at it on this scale: Wal-Mart decides that because there is now a law against selling M-Rated games to minors, they'll just hedge their bets and stop selling M-Rated games. Wal-Mart, being a huge chain of stores, is no longer buying M-Rated games from the distributor. This information gets back to the publishers, who see that M-Rated games are not selling as much as E-rated games, not because of quality, but because of market penetration. Therefore, the publisher will be less likely to fund the development of an M-Rated game. Simply because there's not as much money in it as there is for E-rated games.
The same has happened with the movie industry. In the 80s, practically every action flick was rated R. Nowadays, however, action flicks are rated PG-13. Not because our tastes have changed; compare Terminator to Terminator 3 as to how much gets blown up, destroyed, etc etc etc. But because people are more likely to see a movie rated PG-13 than they are one rated R.
Seriously, I bet Bill Gates loses that kind of money in the wash.
As for Sony's processor shortage.... hell yeah it's a marketing ploy. I'm just an uneducated fool posting on /., and I could have told you that they'd need more than 200,000 PSP units, or more PStwo units than what they shipped. Sony is creating demand. Well, not so much demand, but generating more hype. 'OMG!!! teh n3w ps2 is soooooo cool!!! i need it!!! omg!!! u don't have it?!! i must have it!!!'
When was the last time you read an article in Rolling Stone complaining about DRM?
My response was to the parent poster going on about his hypothetical parents telling him no, or wait, or something.
This isn't another 'microsoft sucks!!1' /. post, but an observation on his business practices.
"You said you were COMBING YOUR HAIR!!!!!!!"
So it's basically the PC Version of Spider-Man 2: The Game, but with Spongebob Squarepants instead of Peter Parker? :)
Everyone cried about DRM on music but the game publishers get to walk right in? I don't know about you, but I've read alot of outcry about Steam and Half-Life 2 on /. alone, not counting the handful of other forums.
However, as I'm no longer 17, I can relate to where my parents were coming from. The internet is a pretty fucked up place (hell, look at /.), and when my kid gets to the age where he can use the computer, or the neurojack rig, or VR goggles, or whatever, damn straight I'm going to be keeping an eye on what he sees and does.
Of course, by then I do hope I'll have taught him enough sense about right, wrong, ethics, etc, that he won't do anything stupid. But then again, part of growing up is making some mistakes. It's just a parents job to keep the kid from making the really bad ones (going to meet that '17yrold hottie' he met in chat, or deciding that the Jocks in school look alot like pinkies from Doom, and need to be chainsawed.)