Nintendo and Sega have come together in the following ways:
They collaborated to found the ESRB, which let game content be as "controversial" as movies.
Both NOA and SOA have published games for Hudson, Treasure, and Camelot. In Camelot's case, they worked closely with the developer, yielding Shining Force, Mario Golf and Mario's Tennis.
They're two of the few companies that collaborate software and hardware under one roof.
Nintendo has some things in common with Apple:
Both make hardware and software.
Both are obsessed with ergonomics and holism.
Both purchase PowerPC chips, ATI graphics chips, and Matsushita optical drives.
Sega has some things in common with Apple:
Both were big consumers of 68000 chips.
Both make hardware and software.
Sega is beginning to publish some Mac games.
Dreamcast owners and Mac owners can compete online.
I think it would be a good idea for Nintendo, Sega and Apple to collaborate on something. What, I don't know.
That's true, but remember that nowadays it's cool for people to talk about stuff they know nothing about. So when Hawking can't get attention by talking about physics of the universe, he'll do it by talking about the earth. Peer pressure, what a shame.
But nothing else can stop piracy. Pay-per-click prevents piracy by putting in the users hands the smallest piece of the program possible that is still capable of running. In order to pirate pay-per-click software, an end user must capture the program as thousands of separate pieces, must re-assemble and re-compile them just right, and then create a server that uses them, and then find the serving software, which has he has never seen and exists thousands of miles away. In contrast, traditional software is sold as a self-contained lump that end-users can pirate easily onto CD-Rs. With a fast internet connection, the end user needs only click a mouse button to instantly pirate lumpware everywhere in the world. Until someone invents a practical pay-per-click system, copyrights can no longer exist.
Whether or not this is good is up to debate. While broadband piracy could make possible plenty of selfless, open-source projects, it would also stop artists who need money to work. But with a pay-per-click system, both amateurs and professionals could thrive. Open-sorcerers could put their works on an ad-based server, while closed-sorcerers who want money for their work could distribute it by pay-per-click. Even better, media creators could distribute their works under the following four methods simultaneously: large number of general ads, small number of customized ads, pay-per-click, and pay-once-use-forever.
Also, please be aware that today's media companies know that, no matter how much information they acquire about their customers, they must not abuse their customers privacy nor give them the feeling that they are abusing their customers privacy. However they implement pay-per-click will guarantee that each and every customer's private info remains private. If the media companies can't promise this, they'll go bankrupt, lose their reputation, and get sued at the Supreme Court, all at once. Knowing that, rest assured that when Big Brother starts watching you 24/7, He'll be sure to do it in the nicest way possible.
Now that PC owners have pirated everything under the sun, one thing is clear: Physical media is obsolete. Anything you put on a disc can and will be pirated ad nausem. To solve this, all media must be put on pay-per-usage streaming servers, and media makers must convince users to have fast internet connections and small hard drives while protecting their customers' privacy and convincing those customers that they are safe. There must also be a method by which children, inapplicable for credit cards, can pay money over the internet as fast as they can click a hyperlink, and it must be secure and documentable. Piracy will continue to blossom unfettered until all of these measures are enacted.
Why is crap easy to find while quality is hard to find? Because money isn't talking. How so? Well, when it comes to purchasable things like paintings, cars, boats, high-end PCs, houses, etc., there are only a few people who want the quality stuff, but they can get them because they're willing to spend big bucks on them.
For an example, Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger for the Super NES. They were as good as and had R&D&manufacturing costs the same as other SNES games, but since they were made for "geeky kids" (200k-400k SNES owners), compared to their contemporary Donkey Kong Country, which was made for "normal kids" (7+ million SNES owners), FF6 and CT had to spread their profit margin over fewer copies, thus raising the price. However, the few people who wanted them would pay any price for them, so they sold for $70-80, compared to DKC which sold for $60 in most places. I paid $80 for FF6, and loved every minute of that game, as did the others who bought it; in 1995 Nintendo Power magazine and Nintendo's AOL site were dominated by FF6 and Chrono Trigger messages and articles because the few people who bought them were super-vocal, like Linux users. All things related to those games were expensive, but very tuned to their fans, because those fans knew exactly what they wanted and were willing to pay big bucks.
If all SNES games were required to sell for $60 apiece, FF6 and Chrono Trigger could not have existed. For a similar reason, good-but-geeky TV shows and movies never make money because TV networks and Blockbuster Video don't know how to make lots of money from a few people like Nintendo and Squaresoft did in 1995.
That is why I like the net. On the net, every TV show/movie can have banner ads individualized by cookies, or be pay-per-view. The net can also be broad and blind like network TV and Blockbuster. So tactful niche shows can exist right alongside worthless mass-markety crap. In the future on the net, finely-tuned shows made for just a few thousand people will exist. You may have to pay $20 per hour to see them, but DAMN will they be fine!
Exo-Squad was another good All-American series. Its story, which was on-going, was very deep; the human race created genetically-engineered superhumans to do all needed menial labor, but they got tired of being slaves so they started to conquer earth. The story revolved around a small squad of human mech-drivers who were always on the verge of death, yet somehow always got into the most important fights. I really liked it, though I didn't see how it came out. I don't know of any Japanese cartoons to compare it to, but I imagine it could have done well in Japan if dubbed into Japanese.
It's possible that Gates, Jim Clark and others might be leading research projects at Harvard and Stanford right now if corporatism wasn't so strong today. Or, perhaps, their minds are merely made for corporate life and as scientists they might just be 2nd rate. Perhaps corporatism and capitalism might go in waves, with the best of research occuring early in a century and the best of business happening late in a century. After all, the oil and steel barons got their start in the late 1800s.
Well Jon, if we're such slaves to our dollar, why are We the People so obsessed with the welfare of the old? Why do we try to prevent Alzheimers research if all it does is prolong the lives of people who drain our tax dollars and paychecks? If all our politicians, left and right, are bought by Big Money, then why do they emphasize social security and retirement, and not sending the elderly to the gas chambers?
I'm guessing that we are not quite as obsessed with money as you think. It's certainly a big concern, but since we are an affluent society we have the luxury to look out for others. You might be surprised to know that the socialist wave of the 1960s and happened when this country was richest, and that Hitler was able to make Germany forget its morals when it was poorest.
Corporatism has been a major part of humanity since the late 1800s, and people were afraid of its power even then. But if corporatism is as unstoppable a force as you say, then we all would have been marching in lockstep to the tune of profit and efficiency since long before you were born. Since free speech, philanthropy, social programs and religion still exist, I think that has not happened. You must question your own motives as well. If you are so opposed to corporatism, then why do you write for such as corporatist a web site as Slashdot, riddled with banner-ads, promoted by Time Magazine, and occasional visited from millionaire game developer John Carmack? If you really believed in your own cause, you'd write for a donation-run, ad-free web site. I have one myself; feel free to write for it sometime.
So I think you can allay your fears for now. As strong as the forces of greed are, so are the forces of generosity. As long as we remain wealthy and in touch, the world we live in, different as it is from any time past, should more resemble Kennedy's U.S. than Hitler's Germany.
The subcontinent of Europe, stretching from Portugal to the western edge of Russia, is larger than the U.S. If that entire area, run by over a dozens different federal governments, has settled on a single standard, then the U.S., a comparable area run by a single federal government, can sure do it.
Well, Disney IS responsible for Phantasia and and Phantasia 2000, and their version of Sorcerer's Apprentice supposedly is an exact interpretation of the original story. However, they're also responsible for Brittney Spears.
I use Optimus Titanium Pro 35 headphones. I'd hardly call those tinny. With them I can tell the difference between a VBR MP3 and the CD original, if only barely.
The only answer to advertizing on the web is pay-per-click, except of course on catalog sites like Amazon or Sega which are one large ad already. It could be as little as $0.01 per search on a search engine, or $0.01 per page view on news sites. Some sites could even charge by fractions of a cent ($0.0001 per second per stock ticker, say) and round up to the nearest cent at the end of the month. And there should be some way to get kids into this because they'll accept it most readily. Of course the charges will add up, but in return you will have no ads, thus faster loading. That or make all web sites paid for by taxes.
The way to make consumers give up manuals is to make in-game manuals EXTREMELY friendly. One way is to make the game keep certain gameplay info onscreen at all times. Think of Zelda 64, and how it puts the whole controller button layout on the screen, as well as uses lots of "baloons" to say how each character and item works. In this sense, it's a good idea for users to buy bigger monitors, hopefully LCDs, so that there's so much space that giving up 20-25% of it to info is no problem.
If they're going to do that, they might as well use a really fancy model or uniquely shaped box. They could use a toy, or a hologram. When a boxing game comes out, they could have a little punchind doll.
Even better than putting data on CD-ROMs is putting it on the web. Just make sure your PC doesn't use much power because you're going to keep it on a lot.
It is quite nice that millions of PlayStation and Dreamcast discs have sold with CD-sized cases. Unfortunately, Japanese PlayStation2 games ship in DVD-sized cases.
If we cut down all those trees, how are we going to put O2 back into the atmosphere? And besides, recycling just puts paper back in circulation a few more times before disposal. Might as well make the most of each tree.
Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo and Sega have come together in the following ways:
They collaborated to found the ESRB, which let game content be as "controversial" as movies.
Both NOA and SOA have published games for Hudson, Treasure, and Camelot. In Camelot's case, they worked closely with the developer, yielding Shining Force, Mario Golf and Mario's Tennis.
They're two of the few companies that collaborate software and hardware under one roof.
Nintendo has some things in common with Apple:
Both make hardware and software.
Both are obsessed with ergonomics and holism.
Both purchase PowerPC chips, ATI graphics chips, and Matsushita optical drives.
Sega has some things in common with Apple:
Both were big consumers of 68000 chips.
Both make hardware and software.
Sega is beginning to publish some Mac games.
Dreamcast owners and Mac owners can compete online.
I think it would be a good idea for Nintendo, Sega and Apple to collaborate on something. What, I don't know.
I believe the the first video game in space was a Game Boy with Tetris. It was about 1991 I think.
Couldn't Sony just create a leaseable engine that uses the VPU and bandwidth, thus sparing others from doing it?
Imagine the Dick Tracy impressions people will be doing once they add a cel-modem to it for video!
That's true, but remember that nowadays it's cool for people to talk about stuff they know nothing about. So when Hawking can't get attention by talking about physics of the universe, he'll do it by talking about the earth. Peer pressure, what a shame.
But nothing else can stop piracy. Pay-per-click prevents piracy by putting in the users hands the smallest piece of the program possible that is still capable of running. In order to pirate pay-per-click software, an end user must capture the program as thousands of separate pieces, must re-assemble and re-compile them just right, and then create a server that uses them, and then find the serving software, which has he has never seen and exists thousands of miles away. In contrast, traditional software is sold as a self-contained lump that end-users can pirate easily onto CD-Rs. With a fast internet connection, the end user needs only click a mouse button to instantly pirate lumpware everywhere in the world. Until someone invents a practical pay-per-click system, copyrights can no longer exist.
Whether or not this is good is up to debate. While broadband piracy could make possible plenty of selfless, open-source projects, it would also stop artists who need money to work. But with a pay-per-click system, both amateurs and professionals could thrive. Open-sorcerers could put their works on an ad-based server, while closed-sorcerers who want money for their work could distribute it by pay-per-click. Even better, media creators could distribute their works under the following four methods simultaneously: large number of general ads, small number of customized ads, pay-per-click, and pay-once-use-forever.
Also, please be aware that today's media companies know that, no matter how much information they acquire about their customers, they must not abuse their customers privacy nor give them the feeling that they are abusing their customers privacy. However they implement pay-per-click will guarantee that each and every customer's private info remains private. If the media companies can't promise this, they'll go bankrupt, lose their reputation, and get sued at the Supreme Court, all at once. Knowing that, rest assured that when Big Brother starts watching you 24/7, He'll be sure to do it in the nicest way possible.
If you can watch DivX movies on a Mac, then plug your iBook into your TV.
Now that PC owners have pirated everything under the sun, one thing is clear: Physical media is obsolete. Anything you put on a disc can and will be pirated ad nausem. To solve this, all media must be put on pay-per-usage streaming servers, and media makers must convince users to have fast internet connections and small hard drives while protecting their customers' privacy and convincing those customers that they are safe. There must also be a method by which children, inapplicable for credit cards, can pay money over the internet as fast as they can click a hyperlink, and it must be secure and documentable. Piracy will continue to blossom unfettered until all of these measures are enacted.
If Nintendo dropped the copyrighted "DVD" logo, would N-Cube be allowed to play DVD-movies without the $20 fee?
Why is crap easy to find while quality is hard to find? Because money isn't talking. How so? Well, when it comes to purchasable things like paintings, cars, boats, high-end PCs, houses, etc., there are only a few people who want the quality stuff, but they can get them because they're willing to spend big bucks on them.
For an example, Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger for the Super NES. They were as good as and had R&D&manufacturing costs the same as other SNES games, but since they were made for "geeky kids" (200k-400k SNES owners), compared to their contemporary Donkey Kong Country, which was made for "normal kids" (7+ million SNES owners), FF6 and CT had to spread their profit margin over fewer copies, thus raising the price. However, the few people who wanted them would pay any price for them, so they sold for $70-80, compared to DKC which sold for $60 in most places. I paid $80 for FF6, and loved every minute of that game, as did the others who bought it; in 1995 Nintendo Power magazine and Nintendo's AOL site were dominated by FF6 and Chrono Trigger messages and articles because the few people who bought them were super-vocal, like Linux users. All things related to those games were expensive, but very tuned to their fans, because those fans knew exactly what they wanted and were willing to pay big bucks.
If all SNES games were required to sell for $60 apiece, FF6 and Chrono Trigger could not have existed. For a similar reason, good-but-geeky TV shows and movies never make money because TV networks and Blockbuster Video don't know how to make lots of money from a few people like Nintendo and Squaresoft did in 1995.
That is why I like the net. On the net, every TV show/movie can have banner ads individualized by cookies, or be pay-per-view. The net can also be broad and blind like network TV and Blockbuster. So tactful niche shows can exist right alongside worthless mass-markety crap. In the future on the net, finely-tuned shows made for just a few thousand people will exist. You may have to pay $20 per hour to see them, but DAMN will they be fine!
Exo-Squad was another good All-American series. Its story, which was on-going, was very deep; the human race created genetically-engineered superhumans to do all needed menial labor, but they got tired of being slaves so they started to conquer earth. The story revolved around a small squad of human mech-drivers who were always on the verge of death, yet somehow always got into the most important fights. I really liked it, though I didn't see how it came out. I don't know of any Japanese cartoons to compare it to, but I imagine it could have done well in Japan if dubbed into Japanese.
It's possible that Gates, Jim Clark and others might be leading research projects at Harvard and Stanford right now if corporatism wasn't so strong today. Or, perhaps, their minds are merely made for corporate life and as scientists they might just be 2nd rate. Perhaps corporatism and capitalism might go in waves, with the best of research occuring early in a century and the best of business happening late in a century. After all, the oil and steel barons got their start in the late 1800s.
Well Jon, if we're such slaves to our dollar, why are We the People so obsessed with the welfare of the old? Why do we try to prevent Alzheimers research if all it does is prolong the lives of people who drain our tax dollars and paychecks? If all our politicians, left and right, are bought by Big Money, then why do they emphasize social security and retirement, and not sending the elderly to the gas chambers?
I'm guessing that we are not quite as obsessed with money as you think. It's certainly a big concern, but since we are an affluent society we have the luxury to look out for others. You might be surprised to know that the socialist wave of the 1960s and happened when this country was richest, and that Hitler was able to make Germany forget its morals when it was poorest.
Corporatism has been a major part of humanity since the late 1800s, and people were afraid of its power even then. But if corporatism is as unstoppable a force as you say, then we all would have been marching in lockstep to the tune of profit and efficiency since long before you were born. Since free speech, philanthropy, social programs and religion still exist, I think that has not happened. You must question your own motives as well. If you are so opposed to corporatism, then why do you write for such as corporatist a web site as Slashdot, riddled with banner-ads, promoted by Time Magazine, and occasional visited from millionaire game developer John Carmack? If you really believed in your own cause, you'd write for a donation-run, ad-free web site. I have one myself; feel free to write for it sometime.
So I think you can allay your fears for now. As strong as the forces of greed are, so are the forces of generosity. As long as we remain wealthy and in touch, the world we live in, different as it is from any time past, should more resemble Kennedy's U.S. than Hitler's Germany.
The subcontinent of Europe, stretching from Portugal to the western edge of Russia, is larger than the U.S. If that entire area, run by over a dozens different federal governments, has settled on a single standard, then the U.S., a comparable area run by a single federal government, can sure do it.
Well, Disney IS responsible for Phantasia and and Phantasia 2000, and their version of Sorcerer's Apprentice supposedly is an exact interpretation of the original story. However, they're also responsible for Brittney Spears.
I use Optimus Titanium Pro 35 headphones. I'd hardly call those tinny. With them I can tell the difference between a VBR MP3 and the CD original, if only barely.
The only answer to advertizing on the web is pay-per-click, except of course on catalog sites like Amazon or Sega which are one large ad already. It could be as little as $0.01 per search on a search engine, or $0.01 per page view on news sites. Some sites could even charge by fractions of a cent ($0.0001 per second per stock ticker, say) and round up to the nearest cent at the end of the month. And there should be some way to get kids into this because they'll accept it most readily. Of course the charges will add up, but in return you will have no ads, thus faster loading. That or make all web sites paid for by taxes.
What do you want to do, cut down trees until cardboard costs more than the CDs it houses?
The way to make consumers give up manuals is to make in-game manuals EXTREMELY friendly. One way is to make the game keep certain gameplay info onscreen at all times. Think of Zelda 64, and how it puts the whole controller button layout on the screen, as well as uses lots of "baloons" to say how each character and item works. In this sense, it's a good idea for users to buy bigger monitors, hopefully LCDs, so that there's so much space that giving up 20-25% of it to info is no problem.
If they're going to do that, they might as well use a really fancy model or uniquely shaped box. They could use a toy, or a hologram. When a boxing game comes out, they could have a little punchind doll.
Even better than putting data on CD-ROMs is putting it on the web. Just make sure your PC doesn't use much power because you're going to keep it on a lot.
It is quite nice that millions of PlayStation and Dreamcast discs have sold with CD-sized cases. Unfortunately, Japanese PlayStation2 games ship in DVD-sized cases.
Why not sell a bare CD?
DVD cases are too big. Use CD cases!
If we cut down all those trees, how are we going to put O2 back into the atmosphere? And besides, recycling just puts paper back in circulation a few more times before disposal. Might as well make the most of each tree.