Not everyone can upgrade their PC every year to keep up with the latest game, especially when that game is a rehash of games you already have. Not everyone has a spare $50 on tap every 3 months. But maybe they have a spare $5 on tap every month.
Subscription models, or releasing "modules," is really the way to go for the future. Small payments over time for extended content may be successful. In other words, make a damn good game that everyone wants, and then extend the game in ways that make it last over time.
1. Subscription model. For games like MMOs, everyone pays a monthly fee. Every few months, there is a patch that adds a new dungeon, area, or similar content for players to explore along with new equipment. This has already been a proven model, given WoW's popularity. It could feasably be extended to other game genres to a lesser degree, like highly competetive FPS games.
2. Modules model. This is basically creating an expansion pack, but scaled down in size and price. Release a small module addition to the game for a small fee once in a while. This could be extended to almost any genre of game. For RPGs, an adventure module with some new equipment. For FPS games, some new maps/missions and maybe a new weapon. This would better target single-player or small multiplayer games since these would be optional updates.
Many of the great Super NES and Genesis games still have excellent replay value. Some of the fad titles and the crap shooter/fighter clones don't withstand the test of time when replayed. However, the true classics like Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Final Fantasy 4-6, Phantasy Star 2 & 4, the Sonic games, etc. are still as fun to play as they were back in the day.
I was a little dismayed seeing some of the "creative" changes that Bay seemed to be applying to this film. I can handle Optimus Prime being a long-nose truck, mainly because in some iterations of the franchise (i.e. Armada), he does appear that way. However, the decision to paint him with flames, as well as making Bumblebee a Camero, indicated to me that Bay had no regard for the original personalities of the Transformers. Basically he just wanted to make everything be "eXXXXXtreeeme" as possible.
Cullen voicing Prime will at least ensure that some elements of character's original personality will stay intact, and this is probably the selling point for me seeing the movie.
The most classic example of the Japanese getting a "harder" release is Final Fantasy 4. I am unsure why Final Fantasy 4 "Easy Type" was translated (originally as FF2 in the US) rather than normal type. Final Fantasy 1 is still harder, but saw US Release. Both the PS1 re-release and the GBA re-release of FF4 are based off of the normal game rather than the easier version. However, I don't think this is a rule of thumb looking at it. Here are some specific counter-examples I can think of.
1. I believe reading that in the Japanese version of Battle Arena Toshinden (a PS1 launch title), the "desperation" moves could be done with the shoulder buttons rather than the more difficult control sequences of the US Version. I can't confirm that, though.
2. Working Designs pumped up the difficulty of many of their Sega CD localizations. Apparently games like Lunar 2 and Popful Mail are considerably harder in the US versions. Vic Ireland apparently thought that the Japanese versions were too easy.
3. Final Fantasy 7 actually added the optional, more difficult bosses, to the US release rather than the Japanese release. I think they did a re-release in Japan with those additions, however.
4. FPS games are not as popular in Japan, likely due to the high complexity of the controls that are possible in those games.
FF4 (the real version) is the best in the series, in my opinion.
It is difficult without being ridiculously so. The boss enemies are tough, and you don't have ridiculous limit breaks or way overpowered summons to do the job for you (FF4 summons are weak compared to those in the later games, IMO).
It has some of the best characters, remembered by their personalities and character development, not their outlandish character designs like Cloud & Co. It had a reasonable plot that was actually completed and not rushed, and an ending that made sense.
I remember EGM being pretty awesome from like 1990-1994. Then around 1995 they decided to shrink the magazines down to a smaller size, and the suck factor seemed to increase dramatically. Would you say they are as good as they were during the early 90s?
... but I used to remember gaming magazines being a lot better than they currently are. I remember thick issues with lots of great information, previews, import info, commentary by reviewers who were real game players (if they thought a game sucked, they would say it), and so forth. The magazines were made by gamers, for gamers, or so it felt. Even Nintendo Power (completely controlled by Nintendo) seemed better back then.
Nowadays it seems like almost every game gets at least a 7/10 (or numerically similar value... unless it is a total crap title made by a noname publisher that wouldn't advertise anyway), reviewers are wannabe journalists, not gamers, etc. Through no fault of a magazine, new info and tips are available much faster on the web than could ever be put into a monthly magazine. Either way, the magazines just seem to be devoid the feeling of "genuine gamer culture" that I remembered from the 16-bit days.
Maybe it was the web that killed the magazines of old. Maybe I'm an old fogey now.
I agree, they're the only dudes bad enough to save President Ronnie!
What to expect... more costs to the consumer!
on
Net Neutrality or Not?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The costs that content providers will be passed off to the consumer in one way or another. I expect internet access from your ISP to remain relatively the same. A lot of people would simply stop using the internet if the cost was raised by even $20 a month for the average user. No, these charges will be passed on in other, creative ways that will hide them from the average consumer (who has no clue that this battle is even being fought right now, they're too busy watching Lost), or be presented to consumers in a way where they will be upset at the "content provider" rather than the telcos.
- Do you play World of Warcraft or another MMO? Expect the monthly fee to double, since they will need to become a preferred provider to every major telco in order to keep their connection speeds fast enough. Otherwise, the game won't be playable for their customers.
- Want to shop at Amazon.com or another online store? Expect there to be a non-trivial surcharge tacked on to every item so that the store can pay up.
- Enoy reading online news? Be prepared to see four times as many ads or be forced to pay a few bucks for a subscription. The news providers will need the extra money to be preferred content providers.
- And the fate of bloggers, small web comics, independent music artists, etc. that won't ever be able to generate the money to pay for being preferred providers? Expect the speeds their pages load to be about ten times slower than they are now.
Oh, and when the telcos get to "upgrading the internet," expect to see the bill in your taxes. It'll likely be subsidized heavily by the government. That way the telcos can charge you even more for the "upgraded" internet they didn't even have to pay for in the first place.
Fans: Original Star Wars on DVD... but something seems wrong about it. Crap, this is the remastered one in which Han doesn't shoot first, and other such travesties.
Lucas: This DVD is my ORIGINAL vision, I'll never re-release the theatrical versions of the films.
Fans: But we really would prefer the original version.
Lucas: Nope, never going to do it.
Fans: I guess it is better than nothing since the Dog ate my VHS tapes. *Buys DVD Set*
Lucas: *Waits two Years* Hey guys, I decided I am going to re-release the old theatrical version of the original triliogy. For a couple hundred bucks, you can see Han shoot first again.
Fans: Finally! Wait a second, we already bought your remastered DVD when you said you wouldn't do this! Now you want us to buy it again?
Modders make 3rd. party hacks for plenty of PC games that result in naked characters. This has occured in FPS games for quite some time, and many other games. I guess ALL PC games should just be rated "M" because of this?
When the giant dragon drops game currency, the player should not be taxed. The virtual currency has no real world value if it remains in the virtual world.
It only has value once sold for real world money. When the player sells their virtual currency on eBay or wherever, someone pays them money for it. That is income, and should be reported and taxed as such. Why the hell do we need special laws for crap like this?
Funny. I thought the first Mortal Kombat movie actually kicked ass in that b-movie kinda way. Christopher Lambert was pretty entertaining in it. Most of the other video game movies I've seen [i]have been[/i] total crap, though.
Want to know what the result will be? Nobody will host websites in the US. They'll just host it in another country where these laws don't apply, and pay less since that hosting company doesn't have to store extra weblogs.
And indirectly, this will cost American citizens jobs and make it impossible for small companies or individuals to have any servers because they can't afford the hardware to store logs like this.
I agree on Last Order. I haven't looked at the North American DVD details, but I hope they are including that with the movie. I may still get the Advent Children DVD for the "show off my home theater" factor... not sure.
I've seen the movie. Advent Children continues the tradition of subpar plot paired with awesome visuals, and is basically a huge action sequence with bits and pieces of a dumb plot sprinkled in. The plot may have been cool had they developed it, but that would have gotten in the way of the fights!
Basically, it is worth seeing for the cool effects and the fanboyism of seeing all the characters, but don't go in expecting a coherant plot.
Seriously, why bother? Berman already destroyed the future of the franchise, and now they're going to go back and destroy the legacy of Kirk and Spock?
It isn't a bad idea in theory (unless a virus write can figure out how to change this setting in the OS). but I can see how security companies could say that it is anticompetative unless MS includes all of their sites as well.
I'm not saying they will, but I could see how they could.
The main problem is not that you can't block MS addresses, it is that MS is only preventing their addresses from being blocked. Since they are now getting into the security business, this gives them what could be seen as an unfair advantage.
Let us say that Joe User gets a piece of Malware, so he decides to visit a security company to find a solution to his problem. However, the malware has modified his hosts file to block security company web pages from being accessed, which is extremely typical. Joe User is not experienced enough to even know there is a hosts file that he could change back.
Joe User's first attempt would likely be to norton.com, symantec.com (both go to Symantec's main page), or mcafee.com, since these names are pretty much synonymous with antivirus software. However, all of those are blocked and he can't access them.
However, if he goes to microsoft.com, he can go there since the hosts file is subverted in the OS. Since he can't spend the time to figure out why he can't access the others, he purchases Microsoft's AV solution.
Slashdot Mirror
Not everyone can upgrade their PC every year to keep up with the latest game, especially when that game is a rehash of games you already have. Not everyone has a spare $50 on tap every 3 months. But maybe they have a spare $5 on tap every month.
Subscription models, or releasing "modules," is really the way to go for the future. Small payments over time for extended content may be successful. In other words, make a damn good game that everyone wants, and then extend the game in ways that make it last over time.
1. Subscription model. For games like MMOs, everyone pays a monthly fee. Every few months, there is a patch that adds a new dungeon, area, or similar content for players to explore along with new equipment. This has already been a proven model, given WoW's popularity. It could feasably be extended to other game genres to a lesser degree, like highly competetive FPS games.
2. Modules model. This is basically creating an expansion pack, but scaled down in size and price. Release a small module addition to the game for a small fee once in a while. This could be extended to almost any genre of game. For RPGs, an adventure module with some new equipment. For FPS games, some new maps/missions and maybe a new weapon. This would better target single-player or small multiplayer games since these would be optional updates.
Many of the great Super NES and Genesis games still have excellent replay value. Some of the fad titles and the crap shooter/fighter clones don't withstand the test of time when replayed. However, the true classics like Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Final Fantasy 4-6, Phantasy Star 2 & 4, the Sonic games, etc. are still as fun to play as they were back in the day.
Darn! Someone beat me to the snakes on the mutha-#%&@$# plane comment.
I was a little dismayed seeing some of the "creative" changes that Bay seemed to be applying to this film. I can handle Optimus Prime being a long-nose truck, mainly because in some iterations of the franchise (i.e. Armada), he does appear that way. However, the decision to paint him with flames, as well as making Bumblebee a Camero, indicated to me that Bay had no regard for the original personalities of the Transformers. Basically he just wanted to make everything be "eXXXXXtreeeme" as possible.
Cullen voicing Prime will at least ensure that some elements of character's original personality will stay intact, and this is probably the selling point for me seeing the movie.
The most classic example of the Japanese getting a "harder" release is Final Fantasy 4. I am unsure why Final Fantasy 4 "Easy Type" was translated (originally as FF2 in the US) rather than normal type. Final Fantasy 1 is still harder, but saw US Release. Both the PS1 re-release and the GBA re-release of FF4 are based off of the normal game rather than the easier version. However, I don't think this is a rule of thumb looking at it. Here are some specific counter-examples I can think of.
1. I believe reading that in the Japanese version of Battle Arena Toshinden (a PS1 launch title), the "desperation" moves could be done with the shoulder buttons rather than the more difficult control sequences of the US Version. I can't confirm that, though.
2. Working Designs pumped up the difficulty of many of their Sega CD localizations. Apparently games like Lunar 2 and Popful Mail are considerably harder in the US versions. Vic Ireland apparently thought that the Japanese versions were too easy.
3. Final Fantasy 7 actually added the optional, more difficult bosses, to the US release rather than the Japanese release. I think they did a re-release in Japan with those additions, however.
4. FPS games are not as popular in Japan, likely due to the high complexity of the controls that are possible in those games.
FF4 (the real version) is the best in the series, in my opinion.
It is difficult without being ridiculously so. The boss enemies are tough, and you don't have ridiculous limit breaks or way overpowered summons to do the job for you (FF4 summons are weak compared to those in the later games, IMO).
It has some of the best characters, remembered by their personalities and character development, not their outlandish character designs like Cloud & Co. It had a reasonable plot that was actually completed and not rushed, and an ending that made sense.
I remember EGM being pretty awesome from like 1990-1994. Then around 1995 they decided to shrink the magazines down to a smaller size, and the suck factor seemed to increase dramatically. Would you say they are as good as they were during the early 90s?
... but I used to remember gaming magazines being a lot better than they currently are. I remember thick issues with lots of great information, previews, import info, commentary by reviewers who were real game players (if they thought a game sucked, they would say it), and so forth. The magazines were made by gamers, for gamers, or so it felt. Even Nintendo Power (completely controlled by Nintendo) seemed better back then.
Nowadays it seems like almost every game gets at least a 7/10 (or numerically similar value... unless it is a total crap title made by a noname publisher that wouldn't advertise anyway), reviewers are wannabe journalists, not gamers, etc. Through no fault of a magazine, new info and tips are available much faster on the web than could ever be put into a monthly magazine. Either way, the magazines just seem to be devoid the feeling of "genuine gamer culture" that I remembered from the 16-bit days.
Maybe it was the web that killed the magazines of old. Maybe I'm an old fogey now.
I agree, they're the only dudes bad enough to save President Ronnie!
The costs that content providers will be passed off to the consumer in one way or another. I expect internet access from your ISP to remain relatively the same. A lot of people would simply stop using the internet if the cost was raised by even $20 a month for the average user. No, these charges will be passed on in other, creative ways that will hide them from the average consumer (who has no clue that this battle is even being fought right now, they're too busy watching Lost), or be presented to consumers in a way where they will be upset at the "content provider" rather than the telcos.
- Do you play World of Warcraft or another MMO? Expect the monthly fee to double, since they will need to become a preferred provider to every major telco in order to keep their connection speeds fast enough. Otherwise, the game won't be playable for their customers.
- Want to shop at Amazon.com or another online store? Expect there to be a non-trivial surcharge tacked on to every item so that the store can pay up.
- Enoy reading online news? Be prepared to see four times as many ads or be forced to pay a few bucks for a subscription. The news providers will need the extra money to be preferred content providers.
- And the fate of bloggers, small web comics, independent music artists, etc. that won't ever be able to generate the money to pay for being preferred providers? Expect the speeds their pages load to be about ten times slower than they are now.
Oh, and when the telcos get to "upgrading the internet," expect to see the bill in your taxes. It'll likely be subsidized heavily by the government. That way the telcos can charge you even more for the "upgraded" internet they didn't even have to pay for in the first place.
If CNET can fabricate wacky speculative rumors, so I can I!
Muwahahahaha!
Not to be redundant, but I'd pick just about anything over Moby Dick.
Unfortunately, it seems that politicians in the US and UK are using 1984 as a "how-to" manual.
I'm not sure to mod this troll, or funny.
Fans: Original Star Wars on DVD... but something seems wrong about it. Crap, this is the remastered one in which Han doesn't shoot first, and other such travesties.
Lucas: This DVD is my ORIGINAL vision, I'll never re-release the theatrical versions of the films.
Fans: But we really would prefer the original version.
Lucas: Nope, never going to do it.
Fans: I guess it is better than nothing since the Dog ate my VHS tapes. *Buys DVD Set*
Lucas: *Waits two Years* Hey guys, I decided I am going to re-release the old theatrical version of the original triliogy. For a couple hundred bucks, you can see Han shoot first again.
Fans: Finally! Wait a second, we already bought your remastered DVD when you said you wouldn't do this! Now you want us to buy it again?
Lucas: That's your problem, suckers!
Modders make 3rd. party hacks for plenty of PC games that result in naked characters. This has occured in FPS games for quite some time, and many other games. I guess ALL PC games should just be rated "M" because of this?
When the giant dragon drops game currency, the player should not be taxed. The virtual currency has no real world value if it remains in the virtual world.
It only has value once sold for real world money. When the player sells their virtual currency on eBay or wherever, someone pays them money for it. That is income, and should be reported and taxed as such. Why the hell do we need special laws for crap like this?
Funny. I thought the first Mortal Kombat movie actually kicked ass in that b-movie kinda way. Christopher Lambert was pretty entertaining in it. Most of the other video game movies I've seen [i]have been[/i] total crap, though.
Want to know what the result will be? Nobody will host websites in the US. They'll just host it in another country where these laws don't apply, and pay less since that hosting company doesn't have to store extra weblogs.
And indirectly, this will cost American citizens jobs and make it impossible for small companies or individuals to have any servers because they can't afford the hardware to store logs like this.
I agree on Last Order. I haven't looked at the North American DVD details, but I hope they are including that with the movie. I may still get the Advent Children DVD for the "show off my home theater" factor... not sure.
I've seen the movie. Advent Children continues the tradition of subpar plot paired with awesome visuals, and is basically a huge action sequence with bits and pieces of a dumb plot sprinkled in. The plot may have been cool had they developed it, but that would have gotten in the way of the fights!
Basically, it is worth seeing for the cool effects and the fanboyism of seeing all the characters, but don't go in expecting a coherant plot.
Seriously, why bother? Berman already destroyed the future of the franchise, and now they're going to go back and destroy the legacy of Kirk and Spock?
Just... no....
It isn't a bad idea in theory (unless a virus write can figure out how to change this setting in the OS). but I can see how security companies could say that it is anticompetative unless MS includes all of their sites as well.
I'm not saying they will, but I could see how they could.
You have to have already installed a Symantec product to get this functionality, though. It isn't built into the OS.
The main problem is not that you can't block MS addresses, it is that MS is only preventing their addresses from being blocked. Since they are now getting into the security business, this gives them what could be seen as an unfair advantage.
Let us say that Joe User gets a piece of Malware, so he decides to visit a security company to find a solution to his problem. However, the malware has modified his hosts file to block security company web pages from being accessed, which is extremely typical. Joe User is not experienced enough to even know there is a hosts file that he could change back.
Joe User's first attempt would likely be to norton.com, symantec.com (both go to Symantec's main page), or mcafee.com, since these names are pretty much synonymous with antivirus software. However, all of those are blocked and he can't access them.
However, if he goes to microsoft.com, he can go there since the hosts file is subverted in the OS. Since he can't spend the time to figure out why he can't access the others, he purchases Microsoft's AV solution.