I'm an enchanter and I'm in a chatty guild, but I don't think that I'm a casual player
Well, I'm in two guilds but I'm a casual player, as I have both a social life and a job.
I personally was offended when my son joined a guild and they dropped him once they had enough guild members, only using him for the 10 signature requirement. In real life, I would hunt down that guild and grief them for eternity. Luckily, he never told me their names.
Some guilds seem overly complex, others seem fairly good. One guild is fairly new, doesn't even have a tabard, but is a great gang, mostly women or guys who play women characters as who they are. They give you grief for wanting to learn cooking, though.
Seriously, the whole challenge combat thing bores the living daylights out of me - I had enough of that in the Army, don't want to do that as a civilian.
Why can't I have multiple professions? In real life, I've actually done most of the professions to an expert level - before I was 24! Mining, engineering, leatherworking, blacksmithing...
Now, a level cap on that might be good - you can only learn a 3rd or 4th profession after you go up another 10 levels... but never?
Here in the US, as opposed to say Japan or the EU, we pay for our $500 cell phones in multi-year contracts for phone services, so we actually think it costs us $50 for a phone, since it's bundled with our overpriced service.
In other places you pay the actual price of the phone and your wireless service is $10 to $20 a month.
The same thing will happen with the iPhone - US and Canadian customers will be offered a plan where we basically amortize the cost of the iPhone over 2 or 3 years of wireless service, and end up paying much more than we would if we kept it separate.
True, but as I recall, I have had Animal Crossings villages on my GameCube that had both a cat and a dog as neighbors and they got along fairly well. So I can't see why you can't export both the cat and dog neighbors from Wii Animal Crossings into Wii Sims Pets and also export Wii Sims Pets into Wii Animal Crossing as neighbors.
But it's possible the other characters - lion, eagle, bear, etc - might not be eligible, even though I've seen a number of people do really lame Sims 2: Pets versions of bears and lions (using a dog or cat template).
Fur patterns might be difficult though. Spots are ok, but the multi-layer fur settings for Sims 2: Pets might not work in Wii Sims or Wii Animal Crossing.
Thank GOD I read this post. Otherwise I would have been completely off guard with no means of anticipating any further hardware revisions despite (as you said) they have a habit of releasing new hardware in less than 2 years. I wonder when the next one will hit?
Well, the US won't go to HDTV until 2009, so if I was a marketer or planning person (which I used to be), I would aim for 2009 December release for the next Wii major upgrade - and include HDMI as well as some cool peripherals the after-market had glommed onto.
I thought Mii clothing could be only one color. Even ACPG allowed up to 15 colors in a 32x32 pixel texture for clothing. I wonder how Nintendo plans to reconcile these, and how it plans to reconcile charging for haircuts in ACWW with the predefined haircuts of Mii Channel.
I think as I read the plans, it sounds like you can Import your Mii into Animal Crossing for the Wii and Sims for the Wii (which I will call Wii Animal Crossing and Wii Sims) - once they are imported, you can modify their clothing (using player-designed patterns and clothing you received as gifts) and hair cuts etc. Expect a limited pallete in Wii Animal Crossing for face structure and hair - much more Mii in feel - but a wider pallete for Wii Sims for face, hair, and body, since that's a big deal in that. I did notice the Wii Sims seemed to all have similar bodies though, it was very much more Wii Animal Crossing in feel, so I'm not sure how much variation you get.
My question: can you import your Wii Animal Crossing neighbors into Wii Sims as Pets and can you export your Wii Sims Pets into Wii Animal Crossing as animal neighbors? That would be cool.
I myself am waiting for Animal Crossing Thwii because I beat the GameCube version yesterday.
I too am waiting for a Mii-enabled Animal Crossing Three that uses Wii Sims houses.
But, this makes me realize they forgot to ask some things.
[from the article] how will Nintendo's online plans evolve?
PK: Some of that friend code stuff is really built for the mass consumer, not just the gaming world. The Wii has tons of different offerings and a lot of it was brand new. The remote, brand new. The way in which it interfaces with the screen, brand new. The channel concept, brand new. And I think if we launched it and plunked it down and said to the absolutely uninitiated, "Here's 18 things it can do," I can guarantee you it would stay in the box. It's just too intimidating. So we really strategically wanted to roll out having nearly a year talking about the remote and getting people ready, why it's unique, because it is the Einstein of the system.
And then talking about the different things the box can do and then entering with the Virtual Console piece of it and the Wii Shop channel, introducing the channels one a time--the Mii channel has taken off and people really love that. Then ultimately we did weather, news and there's a lot more to come, but we're kind of rolling it out in a fashion that is consumable for people who are not highly experienced--and also giving you guys a chance to really explore it. And online stuff has come in the Pokemon game that has launched in Japan, and it definitely will come here and I think people will be very pleased with it. But I also think we've seen other companies launch with the entire menu of stuff, and I don't think all of it gets utilized at the start.
To me, that says that Mii-enabling many games is a prime area.
So, the three things they should have asked:
1. What will your 2009/2010 Wii 2.0 for HDTV have for chips and strength?
2. Will your Wii 2.0 be HD-DVD or will you region-lock it by choosing Sony's Blu-Ray format?
3. Can we have a Hamster dance-off game? And will there be a sequel to Duck Hunt for the Wii, involving small miniature dogs?
That's one of the key reasons to support HD-DVD -- it doesn't have region coding, whereas Blu-Ray does.
Well, that made my decision for me - my son watches a lot of anime from Japan, and it won't always play, so it looks like we'll be going HD-DVD when we get an HDTV set in 2009.
When the market actually will sell top of the line flat panel 1080p HDTV sets with more than 40 inches that just work, and you can buy the winner.
It probably won't be Sony, cause they're in a world of hurt, though. But whatever you get, make sure it isn't region-encoded.
The content will be there at that point, the price will be reasonable, and whatever you buy will work for the next 5 years before they decide we have to use something else.
Well, no. See for well over a century we have been an independent country up here in Canada.
Not only that, but unlike the US, Canada has equal rights for women, permits gay marriages, and solved the whole abortion debate decades ago.
Plus, they have Nelly Furtado. Think about it...
And, at one point, I happened to be away from my Army unit on back-to-back training courses when the Queen visited - and so was the only member of my unit not to have a medal from that visit. Dang.
I already have a Nintendo DS wireless adaptor which I have hooked up to my laptop, but I wanted a hardwired connection, actually. Hence, the Nintendo Wii LAN adapter.
But your link was very informative, and if there is still a shortage soon, I may get the cable that way.
Actually, it's more that great graphics and an affordable system are mutually exclusive. I don't have $500 or $600 to spend on a game system. Even if I get a 360 (I like it, but it's still a little too expensive) it doesn't look all that impressive on a standard TV (I've heard some games don't even size the text to be legible on SD) and I just do not have the money for an HDTV. However, the Wii is perfect for my old TV. That's why I'm a Nintendo fan. I still play my ps2, though.
I agree. I have a decent sized digital TV - but it is not more than 40 inch - and it is not 1080p - on a standard TV, when you sit on my couch, it just isn't different enough to force me to pay more than twice as much and $10 extra per game for "quality" that I can't use.
I will re-evaluate my gaming console in 2009, when I buy a new HDTV for $300 (1080p, top of the line) - and see what consoles work well and have fun games on them.
In the meantime, Guitar Hero is coming out on the Wii before summer!
Technically the least expensive consoles are the Gamecube and the PS2, both of which sold less than the Wii. There's more to the equation than just price. The games play a very large role.
Not only that, but I actually bought a couple of GameCube games to play on my Wii, since I still have a couple of wireless controllers for it. Sims 2: Pets, for example. Remember, not only do they work, the graphics are crisper and the load times are minimal.
It is far more important how dramatic the drop in xBox360 and PS3 sales was.
In other words, those stacks of boxes you see in gameshops are not an illusion, but just the tip of the stockroom iceberg.
Now if I could only find a Wii LAN adapter and WiiPlay... at least I am starting to see one or two Wii consoles at various stores in Seattle, but they tend to disappear quickly. Can't even get the LAN adapter or Wii Play if I drive to the store when they say they have them - gone by the time I get there.
Guess people really don't care that much about Talladega Nights...
Turn off aero. Turn on "Windows Classic" desktop theme. You're good to go with 1GB of memory. Microsoft could tell you the same thing, but then the best features that they offer in this bloated release won't even be used (and it is these features MS is stressing based on print ads and commercials).
But if you turn off Aero and all that stuff, why bother upgrading in the first place?
So that you can see the Black Screen of Are You Sure You Want To Run That Program?
Now, I've been flamed by people for saying that you actually need 2 GB with a fully loaded WinVista machine to actually use it well - playing a game in foreground while it does a virus check in background and you have a few documents and database links open in the background.
But you don't need 4 GB.
Can you use it? Sure. But you really only need 2 GB if you have a decent video card - which you better have.
Just because you need 2 GB doesn't mean the sweet spot is twice that.
I think when I looked at the lineup this past weekend before going on a fruitless search for Wii Play or a Wii LAN adaptor, that I found that most of the role-playing games aren't scheduled for release before May, June, or July for the most part.
Nothing like using your vorpal sword on a dungeon crawl to rev up the blood!
i think this is completely incorrect. i can bring the wii to a small "party" and that is all that anyone does all night. i walked into a guitar hero 2 party and happened to be carrying the wii and the guitars went flying in the frenzy to plug it in.
The good news is that Guitar Hero will be available on the Wii in it's next incarnation! Scheduled for July 2007 or so, as I recall.
No, they said they would give you the option on Dell dual and quad core servers only.
If you just wanted a desktop or laptop, it was not an option.
I remember, as I tried to buy a laptop from them at the time, and eventually had to talk on the phone with them to hear that I had no choice and would have to buy WindowsXP at least. So I ended up buying a cheaper WinXP laptop from a different company, just to spite them.
And for those who say they can't find them, I saw at least three consoles at the GameStop a block east of Northgate Mall, and one at the EBX/Gamestop in Westlake Mall, here in Seattle.
Now, if you want to complain about a shortage of Wii LAN adapters, I agree, I've been on a fruitless chase for those, but they just released them.
The magic isn't gone, it's just that people are using them and having fun. Lots of new game releases coming out - too many games, not enough time.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm an enchanter and I'm in a chatty guild, but I don't think that I'm a casual player
Well, I'm in two guilds but I'm a casual player, as I have both a social life and a job.
I personally was offended when my son joined a guild and they dropped him once they had enough guild members, only using him for the 10 signature requirement. In real life, I would hunt down that guild and grief them for eternity. Luckily, he never told me their names.
Some guilds seem overly complex, others seem fairly good. One guild is fairly new, doesn't even have a tabard, but is a great gang, mostly women or guys who play women characters as who they are. They give you grief for wanting to learn cooking, though.
There is a Linux port ? woaw !! that's great. Or PC = Windows ?
... I would like one for Wii.
Not only that, but in addition to Linux - I'm ditching my WinXP laptop when it won't "work" anymore
Seriously, the whole challenge combat thing bores the living daylights out of me - I had enough of that in the Army, don't want to do that as a civilian.
...
... but never?
Why can't I have multiple professions? In real life, I've actually done most of the professions to an expert level - before I was 24! Mining, engineering, leatherworking, blacksmithing
Now, a level cap on that might be good - you can only learn a 3rd or 4th profession after you go up another 10 levels
The survey is backwards. It asks first if the person is interested in the iPhone _and then_ what price they'll pay.
Well, they tried to get people to pay for it who said they didn't want it, but they just kept hanging up on them.
Can you give me $500 for this pile of sludge? Thanks!
Here in the US, as opposed to say Japan or the EU, we pay for our $500 cell phones in multi-year contracts for phone services, so we actually think it costs us $50 for a phone, since it's bundled with our overpriced service.
In other places you pay the actual price of the phone and your wireless service is $10 to $20 a month.
The same thing will happen with the iPhone - US and Canadian customers will be offered a plan where we basically amortize the cost of the iPhone over 2 or 3 years of wireless service, and end up paying much more than we would if we kept it separate.
True, but as I recall, I have had Animal Crossings villages on my GameCube that had both a cat and a dog as neighbors and they got along fairly well. So I can't see why you can't export both the cat and dog neighbors from Wii Animal Crossings into Wii Sims Pets and also export Wii Sims Pets into Wii Animal Crossing as neighbors.
But it's possible the other characters - lion, eagle, bear, etc - might not be eligible, even though I've seen a number of people do really lame Sims 2: Pets versions of bears and lions (using a dog or cat template).
Fur patterns might be difficult though. Spots are ok, but the multi-layer fur settings for Sims 2: Pets might not work in Wii Sims or Wii Animal Crossing.
Thank GOD I read this post. Otherwise I would have been completely off guard with no means of anticipating any further hardware revisions despite (as you said) they have a habit of releasing new hardware in less than 2 years. I wonder when the next one will hit?
Well, the US won't go to HDTV until 2009, so if I was a marketer or planning person (which I used to be), I would aim for 2009 December release for the next Wii major upgrade - and include HDMI as well as some cool peripherals the after-market had glommed onto.
I thought Mii clothing could be only one color. Even ACPG allowed up to 15 colors in a 32x32 pixel texture for clothing. I wonder how Nintendo plans to reconcile these, and how it plans to reconcile charging for haircuts in ACWW with the predefined haircuts of Mii Channel.
I think as I read the plans, it sounds like you can Import your Mii into Animal Crossing for the Wii and Sims for the Wii (which I will call Wii Animal Crossing and Wii Sims) - once they are imported, you can modify their clothing (using player-designed patterns and clothing you received as gifts) and hair cuts etc. Expect a limited pallete in Wii Animal Crossing for face structure and hair - much more Mii in feel - but a wider pallete for Wii Sims for face, hair, and body, since that's a big deal in that. I did notice the Wii Sims seemed to all have similar bodies though, it was very much more Wii Animal Crossing in feel, so I'm not sure how much variation you get.
My question: can you import your Wii Animal Crossing neighbors into Wii Sims as Pets and can you export your Wii Sims Pets into Wii Animal Crossing as animal neighbors? That would be cool.
I myself am waiting for Animal Crossing Thwii because I beat the GameCube version yesterday.
I too am waiting for a Mii-enabled Animal Crossing Three that uses Wii Sims houses.
But, this makes me realize they forgot to ask some things.
[from the article] how will Nintendo's online plans evolve?
PK: Some of that friend code stuff is really built for the mass consumer, not just the gaming world. The Wii has tons of different offerings and a lot of it was brand new. The remote, brand new. The way in which it interfaces with the screen, brand new. The channel concept, brand new. And I think if we launched it and plunked it down and said to the absolutely uninitiated, "Here's 18 things it can do," I can guarantee you it would stay in the box. It's just too intimidating. So we really strategically wanted to roll out having nearly a year talking about the remote and getting people ready, why it's unique, because it is the Einstein of the system.
And then talking about the different things the box can do and then entering with the Virtual Console piece of it and the Wii Shop channel, introducing the channels one a time--the Mii channel has taken off and people really love that. Then ultimately we did weather, news and there's a lot more to come, but we're kind of rolling it out in a fashion that is consumable for people who are not highly experienced--and also giving you guys a chance to really explore it. And online stuff has come in the Pokemon game that has launched in Japan, and it definitely will come here and I think people will be very pleased with it. But I also think we've seen other companies launch with the entire menu of stuff, and I don't think all of it gets utilized at the start.
To me, that says that Mii-enabling many games is a prime area.
So, the three things they should have asked:
1. What will your 2009/2010 Wii 2.0 for HDTV have for chips and strength?
2. Will your Wii 2.0 be HD-DVD or will you region-lock it by choosing Sony's Blu-Ray format?
3. Can we have a Hamster dance-off game? And will there be a sequel to Duck Hunt for the Wii, involving small miniature dogs?
It's at the Oscars.
...
I'll be on the Gore/Obama 08 ticket
That's one of the key reasons to support HD-DVD -- it doesn't have region coding, whereas Blu-Ray does.
Well, that made my decision for me - my son watches a lot of anime from Japan, and it won't always play, so it looks like we'll be going HD-DVD when we get an HDTV set in 2009.
When the market actually will sell top of the line flat panel 1080p HDTV sets with more than 40 inches that just work, and you can buy the winner.
It probably won't be Sony, cause they're in a world of hurt, though. But whatever you get, make sure it isn't region-encoded.
The content will be there at that point, the price will be reasonable, and whatever you buy will work for the next 5 years before they decide we have to use something else.
Well, no. See for well over a century we have been an independent country up here in Canada.
...
Not only that, but unlike the US, Canada has equal rights for women, permits gay marriages, and solved the whole abortion debate decades ago.
Plus, they have Nelly Furtado. Think about it
And, at one point, I happened to be away from my Army unit on back-to-back training courses when the Queen visited - and so was the only member of my unit not to have a medal from that visit. Dang.
I already have a Nintendo DS wireless adaptor which I have hooked up to my laptop, but I wanted a hardwired connection, actually. Hence, the Nintendo Wii LAN adapter.
But your link was very informative, and if there is still a shortage soon, I may get the cable that way.
Actually, it's more that great graphics and an affordable system are mutually exclusive. I don't have $500 or $600 to spend on a game system. Even if I get a 360 (I like it, but it's still a little too expensive) it doesn't look all that impressive on a standard TV (I've heard some games don't even size the text to be legible on SD) and I just do not have the money for an HDTV. However, the Wii is perfect for my old TV. That's why I'm a Nintendo fan. I still play my ps2, though.
I agree. I have a decent sized digital TV - but it is not more than 40 inch - and it is not 1080p - on a standard TV, when you sit on my couch, it just isn't different enough to force me to pay more than twice as much and $10 extra per game for "quality" that I can't use.
I will re-evaluate my gaming console in 2009, when I buy a new HDTV for $300 (1080p, top of the line) - and see what consoles work well and have fun games on them.
In the meantime, Guitar Hero is coming out on the Wii before summer!
So Sony is losing money to Nintendo on the front end (hardware) and the back end (software).
Not only that, but Apple is attacking them on the DRM Music front and that is showing up in their metrics for music sales.
Technically the least expensive consoles are the Gamecube and the PS2, both of which sold less than the Wii. There's more to the equation than just price. The games play a very large role.
Not only that, but I actually bought a couple of GameCube games to play on my Wii, since I still have a couple of wireless controllers for it. Sims 2: Pets, for example. Remember, not only do they work, the graphics are crisper and the load times are minimal.
It is far more important how dramatic the drop in xBox360 and PS3 sales was.
... at least I am starting to see one or two Wii consoles at various stores in Seattle, but they tend to disappear quickly. Can't even get the LAN adapter or Wii Play if I drive to the store when they say they have them - gone by the time I get there.
...
In other words, those stacks of boxes you see in gameshops are not an illusion, but just the tip of the stockroom iceberg.
Now if I could only find a Wii LAN adapter and WiiPlay
Guess people really don't care that much about Talladega Nights
Hi!
You seem to be looking for a Windows Vista feature list.
Do you want me to find a Windows Vista feature list?
I'm sorry, but counting those as features is what got us here in the first place.
Turn off aero. Turn on "Windows Classic" desktop theme. You're good to go with 1GB of memory. Microsoft could tell you the same thing, but then the best features that they offer in this bloated release won't even be used (and it is these features MS is stressing based on print ads and commercials).
But if you turn off Aero and all that stuff, why bother upgrading in the first place?
So that you can see the Black Screen of Are You Sure You Want To Run That Program?
Now, I've been flamed by people for saying that you actually need 2 GB with a fully loaded WinVista machine to actually use it well - playing a game in foreground while it does a virus check in background and you have a few documents and database links open in the background.
But you don't need 4 GB.
Can you use it? Sure. But you really only need 2 GB if you have a decent video card - which you better have.
Just because you need 2 GB doesn't mean the sweet spot is twice that.
I think when I looked at the lineup this past weekend before going on a fruitless search for Wii Play or a Wii LAN adaptor, that I found that most of the role-playing games aren't scheduled for release before May, June, or July for the most part.
Nothing like using your vorpal sword on a dungeon crawl to rev up the blood!
i think this is completely incorrect. i can bring the wii to a small "party" and that is all that anyone does all night. i walked into a guitar hero 2 party and happened to be carrying the wii and the guitars went flying in the frenzy to plug it in.
The good news is that Guitar Hero will be available on the Wii in it's next incarnation! Scheduled for July 2007 or so, as I recall.
No, they said they would give you the option on Dell dual and quad core servers only.
If you just wanted a desktop or laptop, it was not an option.
I remember, as I tried to buy a laptop from them at the time, and eventually had to talk on the phone with them to hear that I had no choice and would have to buy WindowsXP at least. So I ended up buying a cheaper WinXP laptop from a different company, just to spite them.
And for those who say they can't find them, I saw at least three consoles at the GameStop a block east of Northgate Mall, and one at the EBX/Gamestop in Westlake Mall, here in Seattle.
Now, if you want to complain about a shortage of Wii LAN adapters, I agree, I've been on a fruitless chase for those, but they just released them.
The magic isn't gone, it's just that people are using them and having fun. Lots of new game releases coming out - too many games, not enough time.