What a silly title. Its not an apology. Metzen's said that they wound up not liking how Illidan was just off in the Black Temple, and he doesn't really matter throughout most of the content.
They want a more personal experience in Lich King, in the sense that Arthas will be more in your face. Think Pathaelon the Calculator, who you keep running into as you level in BC. They want Arthas to be more visible and more interesting, rather then off in the background most of the time.
I view it as a good thing. They learned a lot from BC, and that should make for a better expansion this time.
The simple reality is that the PS3 is priced well outside what most people are willing to pay for a game system. When the price comes down, sales will improve.
I have the opposite experience. Whenever I go EB (owned by Gamestop of course) to buy a new game, they don't have any and I get snarky comments about how I should have pre-ordered.
So I walk down the street to the resident big-box store which somehow manages to have copies in stock.
Actually I hated the Hovercraft, due to the gun on it doing very little damage. I usually saved to go directly to an Air Blade, bought a couple of cheap upgrades (tires, guns), then saved for the Battle Tank, which I would upgrade as much as possible.
I've seen both. I'm using it, and its working great for me.
A friend is using it, and its working great on his desktop. On his laptop, he's had major frame rate drops, but it works.
Another friend had to revert to XP due to Vista blue screening so often that he couldn't do anything in WoW.
I think you're right though, the problem is simply that people have XP figured out, and it does the job. There's no reason to go through the expense and hassle of a migration.
At a previous job, my desk was next to two printers. I kept feeling sick, and blamed it on the printers, but its not always easy to convince management of that without some kind of study to point to.
(They did listen, once I started using sick days.)
"The copy protection is good too, which means less of that pesky piracy the music industry keeps banging on about." - From the SACD/DVD-Audio page.
Oh yeah, everybody wants that. The only SACD player I ever saw didn't have a digital output, apparently because the standard didn't allow it due to copy fears. You had to connect a block of six analog outputs. Genius!
"Later on, further innovation came with the NetMD range, which allowed you to copy music on your computer to a MiniDisc at high speeds. MP3s would be transcoded in Sony's ATRAC format before being copied over to the MD recorder, and it was possible to use long-play modes to squeeze even more music on to the diminutive discs."
The transcoding sure wasn't high-speed on most computers of the day, compared to simply copying a CD.
The masses don't read mmorpg.com, they're reading worldofwarcraft.com.
In fact, the chart at mmorpg.com exists soely for the purpose of ballot box stuffing by various smaller game communities. It means even less then your typical Internet poll (which means nothing).
Early commenters don't seem to like this interview very much, but keep in mind these are executives working in what is definitely hostile territory (geek MMO players who dislike gold sellers).
In particular, I found their justification for this being okay despite being against the TOS to be interesting. Its a fair point really, Blizzard has very little legal say in who I give my real life money to. I recently gave a real life friend 400g to help him buy a flying mount, and thats okay. He could also give me $50 as a birthday present, and thats okay. So if I give him 400g and he gives me $50 and we dispense with the friends and birthdays stuff, now its not okay? Blizzard can't tell the difference from their end, all they know is that I gave someone on my friends list 400g.
(Its also interesting that they mention peons4hire being sued for spamming and not for breaking the TOS or for gold selling, as spamming is the only activity there thats actually illegal.)
Obviously they're going to take quite a bit of flak, but they seem to have actually attempted to answer the questions (in executive speak in some cases, but still). If nothing else, this certainly beats the interview with the Turbine exec a while ago.
These are the same people who watched how effective the US No-Fly List is, and decided that we needed our own to keep pesky libera... I mean terrorists off planes.
I do have one beef with your post - this isn't the PC party. The PC party is dead, killed by one of Peter Mackay's many lies. This is the CPC, although as far as I can tell they're basically the Liberals who wear blue instead of red.
If they were smart, they'd have called the forgery a copyright infrigment, then they could lock her away for years.
Isn't it great to live in a society where stealing someones identity and causing all this mayhem is considered worthy of probation (when you're already on probation!), but copying a movie warrants several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties?
"Slashdot: (Question by Soukyan (613538) ) Are there any future plans for improvement of the music system? "
You mean, other then the changes that were announced well before the interview? (His answer effectively is the change in the next patch, which anybody following the game already knows about. No new information there.)
Only seven questions from the interview thread got asked, and at least one was a complete waste of time. Oh well, it could have been interesting.
You do know that it takes two hands to actually play an instrument like a lute, right? Ever tried doing that while holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other?
Throwing around insults because you believe that having to change tools is immersive and I believe its pointless really isn't necessary.
"hard" my ass. There's nothing hard about clicking a button to swap from a mining pick to an axe, and then another button to swap back.
Also nice of you to write such a long reply and fail to answer the question of how making me manually change between a mining pick and a foresting axe is "immersion", but its alright that I can instantly swap from a sword to a lute in combat to cast spells without having to do anything.
In one case they decided "if the player tries to cast a spell, thats fine" and in the other case they decided "if the player wants to chop wood, make them manually change tools first." You've yet to convince me that anything is gained between the two things. (Its even more annoying since the crafting window is bugged, and if you say you want to make 74 Treated Ash, then realize you don't have your axe equipped and equip it, the number you picked goes back to 1 and you have to enter it again. I guess doing things twice is also "immersive" rather then just a poorly polished UI.)
Slashdot Mirror
A very very pathetic attempt at marketing.
Thats why it'll work.
My parents hate video games too. Always have.
They were visiting for my graduation. We have a Wii. I decided to show it to them.
It took about 30 seconds to explain Tennis, 45 more to explain Bowling.
They bought their own Wii a week later. Most of its success is because its not what people traditionally think of as "video games."
What a silly title. Its not an apology. Metzen's said that they wound up not liking how Illidan was just off in the Black Temple, and he doesn't really matter throughout most of the content.
They want a more personal experience in Lich King, in the sense that Arthas will be more in your face. Think Pathaelon the Calculator, who you keep running into as you level in BC. They want Arthas to be more visible and more interesting, rather then off in the background most of the time.
I view it as a good thing. They learned a lot from BC, and that should make for a better expansion this time.
The simple reality is that the PS3 is priced well outside what most people are willing to pay for a game system. When the price comes down, sales will improve.
The thing is too expensive, period.
I have the opposite experience. Whenever I go EB (owned by Gamestop of course) to buy a new game, they don't have any and I get snarky comments about how I should have pre-ordered.
So I walk down the street to the resident big-box store which somehow manages to have copies in stock.
Does this mean I'll actually be able to walk into the store and buy a game without having pre-ordered it two months in advance?
That would be a major improvement for Gamestop.
Actually I hated the Hovercraft, due to the gun on it doing very little damage. I usually saved to go directly to an Air Blade, bought a couple of cheap upgrades (tires, guns), then saved for the Battle Tank, which I would upgrade as much as possible.
The "Racing Game" in question that wasn't mentioned by name is Rock and Roll Racing, which was a lot of fun when you had a friend over to play it.
I've seen both. I'm using it, and its working great for me.
A friend is using it, and its working great on his desktop. On his laptop, he's had major frame rate drops, but it works.
Another friend had to revert to XP due to Vista blue screening so often that he couldn't do anything in WoW.
I think you're right though, the problem is simply that people have XP figured out, and it does the job. There's no reason to go through the expense and hassle of a migration.
No, there isn't. Patent trolls use that to their advantage.
Trademarks have a requirement to enforce it or lose it.
At a previous job, my desk was next to two printers. I kept feeling sick, and blamed it on the printers, but its not always easy to convince management of that without some kind of study to point to.
(They did listen, once I started using sick days.)
I knew Post It Notes were more secure!
Lets see...
"The copy protection is good too, which means less of that pesky piracy the music industry keeps banging on about." - From the SACD/DVD-Audio page.
Oh yeah, everybody wants that. The only SACD player I ever saw didn't have a digital output, apparently because the standard didn't allow it due to copy fears. You had to connect a block of six analog outputs. Genius!
"Later on, further innovation came with the NetMD range, which allowed you to copy music on your computer to a MiniDisc at high speeds. MP3s would be transcoded in Sony's ATRAC format before being copied over to the MD recorder, and it was possible to use long-play modes to squeeze even more music on to the diminutive discs."
The transcoding sure wasn't high-speed on most computers of the day, compared to simply copying a CD.
The masses don't read mmorpg.com, they're reading worldofwarcraft.com.
In fact, the chart at mmorpg.com exists soely for the purpose of ballot box stuffing by various smaller game communities. It means even less then your typical Internet poll (which means nothing).
Early commenters don't seem to like this interview very much, but keep in mind these are executives working in what is definitely hostile territory (geek MMO players who dislike gold sellers).
In particular, I found their justification for this being okay despite being against the TOS to be interesting. Its a fair point really, Blizzard has very little legal say in who I give my real life money to. I recently gave a real life friend 400g to help him buy a flying mount, and thats okay. He could also give me $50 as a birthday present, and thats okay. So if I give him 400g and he gives me $50 and we dispense with the friends and birthdays stuff, now its not okay? Blizzard can't tell the difference from their end, all they know is that I gave someone on my friends list 400g.
(Its also interesting that they mention peons4hire being sued for spamming and not for breaking the TOS or for gold selling, as spamming is the only activity there thats actually illegal.)
Obviously they're going to take quite a bit of flak, but they seem to have actually attempted to answer the questions (in executive speak in some cases, but still). If nothing else, this certainly beats the interview with the Turbine exec a while ago.
Sony's original deal with Sigil was like this, yes.
Then Sigil released a truly awful game and went bankrupt. Thats when Sony bought the game off them.
This wasn't Falling Leaf, it was the crack group Razor 1911.
Falling Leaf hasn't released anything.
These are the same people who watched how effective the US No-Fly List is, and decided that we needed our own to keep pesky libera... I mean terrorists off planes.
I do have one beef with your post - this isn't the PC party. The PC party is dead, killed by one of Peter Mackay's many lies. This is the CPC, although as far as I can tell they're basically the Liberals who wear blue instead of red.
hmm, yeah. There's supposed to be a guild tag in there:
Oh well. Serves me right for not hitting preview.
Imagine the surprise the customers of the are in for!
If they were smart, they'd have called the forgery a copyright infrigment, then they could lock her away for years.
Isn't it great to live in a society where stealing someones identity and causing all this mayhem is considered worthy of probation (when you're already on probation!), but copying a movie warrants several years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties?
A misleading Slashdot story, I'm shocked!
Tell me about it.
"Slashdot: (Question by Soukyan (613538) ) Are there any future plans for improvement of the music system? "
You mean, other then the changes that were announced well before the interview? (His answer effectively is the change in the next patch, which anybody following the game already knows about. No new information there.)
Only seven questions from the interview thread got asked, and at least one was a complete waste of time. Oh well, it could have been interesting.
You do know that it takes two hands to actually play an instrument like a lute, right? Ever tried doing that while holding a sword in one hand and a shield in the other?
Throwing around insults because you believe that having to change tools is immersive and I believe its pointless really isn't necessary.
"hard" my ass. There's nothing hard about clicking a button to swap from a mining pick to an axe, and then another button to swap back.
Also nice of you to write such a long reply and fail to answer the question of how making me manually change between a mining pick and a foresting axe is "immersion", but its alright that I can instantly swap from a sword to a lute in combat to cast spells without having to do anything.
In one case they decided "if the player tries to cast a spell, thats fine" and in the other case they decided "if the player wants to chop wood, make them manually change tools first." You've yet to convince me that anything is gained between the two things. (Its even more annoying since the crafting window is bugged, and if you say you want to make 74 Treated Ash, then realize you don't have your axe equipped and equip it, the number you picked goes back to 1 and you have to enter it again. I guess doing things twice is also "immersive" rather then just a poorly polished UI.)