Fun cannot be realized through more processor power, better looking faces or AI.
Right on. I suppose you could argue that those things make a game more marketable though, which is really what these people are primarily concerned with.
The only point of the IR tracking setup is for putting a cursor on the screen. Using it as some sort of calibrator might be a benefit, but it's not a solution. Calibration isn't the issue; the issue is that it simply can't register some movements.
I better add this before someone else does. Gyroscopes won't give you spacial positioning either, but at least they will give you more rotational data to allow more movements and better transitions.
I am skeptical. The biggest red flag is that this is a multi-console game with extra features tacked on for the Wii. But I also have doubts about their ability to create a satisfying light saber experience with the Wiimote. When you have only accelerometers at your disposal, you won't be able to precisely wave the light saber left and right. Instead you'll only be able to register tilts and forces. This means that while it might recognize that you are holding the Wiimote horizontally, it won't ever know the position of the saber in relation to your body, and it won't necessarily have enough information to make a smooth transition to that point. There's a reason a lot of games have glitchy Wiimote support. For things like sword fighting, it really needs some gyroscopes.
Easier is one thing, faster is another. Honestly if the networks want to stay ahead, they should host their own torrents of the shows, in good quality, with the commercials built into the file and release them before they air. You could have the episode before it comes out on TV and thus many hours before the episode is released by other groups. Though, the folks are just going to download your ep and clip the commercials out. So you might want to imbed them in the show, or do quick ten second flashes of stuff from time to time.
I think they can stay ahead of the curve if they really need to. However, I don't think they will.
I'd settle for them releasing the DVDs in a timely manner.
I don't own a PS3 (I do own a Wii), but although it is in 3rd place the sales for it are still substantial. This is true for the PSP as well. It makes me wonder how this generation will play out for Sony. Will they see eventual increases? Or is this their Sega Saturn?
What I can beleive is who many people agree with these license terms. If just 1% refused and returnd the product for a re-fund the terms would change. Consummers are stupid.
They're not stupid, they just couldn't care less what some silly EULA says. And why should they? Who has it even ticked off besides a few million nerds, half of who run Linux anyway? People react to real problems, not philosophical ones, especially when it has to do with a $100 product.
Advantages: It's a game school! You are submersing yourself entirely into a video game development culture. You are nearly assured to be surrounding yourself with like-minded peers, and you'll probably have a lot of fun and creative output regardless of the quality of the teaching.
Disadvantages: You gotta pay for it, in both time and money.
If you are really into video games and really want to become a designer, consider these two options. Option one, you attend a video game school and enjoy the above advantages. If you don't learn everything you want to know, there will be other ways to do so. Option two, you get a traditional education with what you think is going to make yourself the most money. You may very well end up hanging out with a bunch of people who don't even like video games, let alone want to create them, and before you know it you too begin to lose interest, and ultimately, you lose your motivation.
You don't have to attend a silly game school to make games, but I'm a big believer in pursuing your interests thoroughly lest they fade away. If your way of doing this is going to a game school, go for it. As a game publisher, who would you hire? A non-gaming corporate code monkey who just happens to have the necessary skills, or someone who has immersed themselves in game design culture and taken the initiative to educate themselves about it?
Actually, they do it just because of what you say - they will make more money selling 2 items to people who only want that and 5 items to people who want 5 but won't pay $6.25 for them - by offering bundles they are able to get a greater combined revenue - if they sold them at $1 they'd still get the % sale but only $2 from you - this way they get 50 cents more.
You're right, that one was a bad example. Let's replace it with Baskin Robbins having a "free cone" day.
A casino has a cheap buffet because they *hope* you are going to gamble before/after you eat. You, being a clever person, attend the buffet and leave without spending a dime on the slot machines.
Arby's has a "five for five" deal where you buy five items for five bucks because they *hope* you will spend five dollars instead of, say, two dollars. You, being a clever person, realize you only want two of the five items, so you spend $2.50 on two items and leave.
Circuit City sells printers for only $30 because they *hope* you are going to pay $20 for a high-margin Monster Cable. You, being a clever person, buy the cheap printer and purchase a generic cable for $2 from Fry's.
CNN.com offers their content for free because they *hope* you will click on their ads (or at least glance at them) while you visit. You, being a clever person, ignore the ads or disable them outright.
The point is, any free or below-cost business model is a risk that the provider has accepted, and they are inherently providing these extra "benefits" at *no obligation* to the consumer. If the provider isn't willing to run the risk of people not following their suggestions, then it is time to turn that suggestion into an obligation (pay websites, or otherwise restricted-access websites). This is not a morality issue for the consumer, it is a business issue for the provider.
Slashdot editors have, according to them, spent a lot of time playing games, and they are often fooled by junk pretending to be science. I'm guessing that there is a connection between their game playing and their ignorance of the real world.
Or it could be all those darn fiction books they've been reading, or all that rock 'n roll music, or those crazy good-for-nothing cartoons.
From what I here, Flash support in alternative devices (e.g. Nintendo Wii) is hindered by the fact that you can't get a Flash 8 SDK. I'm assuming then that YouTube currently requires only Flash 7, which implies that improved video quality (requiring a new Flash version) will break compatibility.
I've always thought cereal boxes would be the ideal place to put videogame demos. Not glued to the front of $10 magazines. Alas, I've never even seen it tried. The only things I've seen are free cheapo titles included for the sole purpose of promoting the cereal itself.
Sorry if this sounds too obvious, but the next internet will be invisible. It won't be "crammed" into a web browser because new standards will be created and adopted to accomplish new tasks. The OS will essentially be the browser, and vice versa.
It will be like a network terminal in that most of the operating system will function remotely, but it will still allow users to customize all the local hardware and store things off-line like a normal PC. The difference is, everything will "just work." You add a new video card (that is, until video processing becomes remote as well), the remote operating system instantly has the correct drivers ready without any further user interaction. Apps, including storage-intensive apps like games, are stored remotely and are never installed, only "launched" with the click of a button (or perhaps purchased first, and then launched). The bandwidth and server horsepower will both be there.
Performance will be sacrificed at first, but as hardware technology advances nobody will care anymore. Remember back when we wanted all our games written in assembly language? Control will also be sacrificed, but again, people will stop caring. Those who want a machine they can have control over will stick with old-fashioned operating systems like Linux, but the general population will just relinquish control and go with whatever InterOS interface ships with their PC. The technology will be so standardized that every PC manufacturer will have their own custom version of it. Either that, or Microsoft will just start giving it away for free.
With less local control over software, more privacy concerns will be raised, but, even moreso than today, this will be battled via a natural system of checks and balances, where various apps are sold or freely provided to counter the privacy concerns raised by other apps.
I disagree. Responsiveness is important, but I've never encountered a situation where the frame rate was good and the machine couldn't read my keyboard clicks fast enough.
I've always had a bit of unwelcome latency in my controls for Serious Sam (the original). The framerate is great; it's the input that's slow.
It makes sense since it's easy to pretend the Wiimote is a golf club. With football, what are you supposed to do, pretend it's a football?
That said, I wasn't too impressed with the swing controls in TW. The only way for me to get consistent swings was to choose the dumbed down control scheme.
So how many Greatest Hits titles exist for the new consoles? None, because the stuff is too new to discount. It takes a while for the competition among developers to really heat up, once they are competing with releases that are several years old.
I see no reason to expect high prices to stay, when we all know the bargain bin is waiting to be filled once these next-gen games grow older.
Apologies for not reading the article or even any of the comments. Linux has "failed" with desktop consumers because it hasn't been consumer-centric for very long (and may still not be for many people). Let's look at the facts:
Windows: - Ships with nearly every PC - Designed for dunces - Runs 99% of the software consumers pick up off the shelf
Linux: - Has only recently begun to (optionally) ship with desktops - Was originally designed for tech-savvy nerds - Runs a bunch of apps consumers have never heard of and have never seen on the store shelves
It doesn't seem likely that we can protect our orbiting assets too far into the future. At least with ground-based systems we might have some countermeasures in place. Won't satellites be sitting ducks for the foreseeable future? If air traffic controllers spend years becoming acclimated to a GPS system, how quickly (if at all) will they be able to switch to a backup system?
Our group has a team room available (we usually sit in cubes) for the rare times when we decide to go in there and use it. I too feel it is a productive environment, but I struggle to decide how it is best implemented.
Team Room only
Pros:
- You get great cooperation and communication
- Everyone feels accountable
- Lots of camaraderie
- People get competitive and thus more productive
Cons:
- Everyone feels pressured to look busy, even when they aren't
- No personal space
- Pressure to be there when the earliest person arrives and when the latest person leaves will often interfere with your personal life or lead to burnout, or both
Cube or Office / Team Room combination
Pros:
- All the benefits of a team room, when people feel motivated to work in there
- All the benefits of a personal work space
Cons:
- People are unlikely to leave their cube/office unless they are forced
- If your company doesn't provide laptops, switching PCs is a pain
- Shuffling paper and property around is a pain regardless
In the end I would think that some sort of combination would be the most effective, but some guidance from management would be important. If I were in charge I might try encouraging the team to be in the team room during the middle hours of the day, say 10am to 3pm, and I would only ask such a thing if a large project were underway.
Slightly off-topic, I also had a rather "Big Brother" (by my standards) idea about how to deal with web use: discourage web browsing (block the ports?) on workstations, but at the same time provide a break lounge stocked with PCs where you were free to browse any time you felt like it. This would simply remove a significant distraction from your work area. While rather strict sounding, I actually thought up this idea to benefit myself, since I often struggle with the distraction. I know one thing: I'd much rather work at a place that blocked my ports but didn't watch the clock than a place that let me run amok yet watched eagle-eyed for me to be there every day at 8am sharp, with tightly regulated break times.
He's probably the best at it, but it's not entirely due to his charisma. It's mostly based on Apple's careful track record of never crying wolf. That is, never over-hyping something that isn't truly cool in one way or another.
Slashdot Mirror
Wait no longer! http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Light-Saber-Battle/dp/B00061I4CE/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1957806-5602037?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1190299121&sr=8-1
The only point of the IR tracking setup is for putting a cursor on the screen. Using it as some sort of calibrator might be a benefit, but it's not a solution. Calibration isn't the issue; the issue is that it simply can't register some movements.
I better add this before someone else does. Gyroscopes won't give you spacial positioning either, but at least they will give you more rotational data to allow more movements and better transitions.
I am skeptical. The biggest red flag is that this is a multi-console game with extra features tacked on for the Wii. But I also have doubts about their ability to create a satisfying light saber experience with the Wiimote. When you have only accelerometers at your disposal, you won't be able to precisely wave the light saber left and right. Instead you'll only be able to register tilts and forces. This means that while it might recognize that you are holding the Wiimote horizontally, it won't ever know the position of the saber in relation to your body, and it won't necessarily have enough information to make a smooth transition to that point. There's a reason a lot of games have glitchy Wiimote support. For things like sword fighting, it really needs some gyroscopes.
I don't own a PS3 (I do own a Wii), but although it is in 3rd place the sales for it are still substantial. This is true for the PSP as well. It makes me wonder how this generation will play out for Sony. Will they see eventual increases? Or is this their Sega Saturn?
Advantages:
It's a game school! You are submersing yourself entirely into a video game development culture. You are nearly assured to be surrounding yourself with like-minded peers, and you'll probably have a lot of fun and creative output regardless of the quality of the teaching.
Disadvantages:
You gotta pay for it, in both time and money.
If you are really into video games and really want to become a designer, consider these two options. Option one, you attend a video game school and enjoy the above advantages. If you don't learn everything you want to know, there will be other ways to do so. Option two, you get a traditional education with what you think is going to make yourself the most money. You may very well end up hanging out with a bunch of people who don't even like video games, let alone want to create them, and before you know it you too begin to lose interest, and ultimately, you lose your motivation.
You don't have to attend a silly game school to make games, but I'm a big believer in pursuing your interests thoroughly lest they fade away. If your way of doing this is going to a game school, go for it. As a game publisher, who would you hire? A non-gaming corporate code monkey who just happens to have the necessary skills, or someone who has immersed themselves in game design culture and taken the initiative to educate themselves about it?
A casino has a cheap buffet because they *hope* you are going to gamble before/after you eat. You, being a clever person, attend the buffet and leave without spending a dime on the slot machines.
Arby's has a "five for five" deal where you buy five items for five bucks because they *hope* you will spend five dollars instead of, say, two dollars. You, being a clever person, realize you only want two of the five items, so you spend $2.50 on two items and leave.
Circuit City sells printers for only $30 because they *hope* you are going to pay $20 for a high-margin Monster Cable. You, being a clever person, buy the cheap printer and purchase a generic cable for $2 from Fry's.
CNN.com offers their content for free because they *hope* you will click on their ads (or at least glance at them) while you visit. You, being a clever person, ignore the ads or disable them outright.
The point is, any free or below-cost business model is a risk that the provider has accepted, and they are inherently providing these extra "benefits" at *no obligation* to the consumer. If the provider isn't willing to run the risk of people not following their suggestions, then it is time to turn that suggestion into an obligation (pay websites, or otherwise restricted-access websites). This is not a morality issue for the consumer, it is a business issue for the provider.
An edit button would be nice right about now.
From what I here, Flash support in alternative devices (e.g. Nintendo Wii) is hindered by the fact that you can't get a Flash 8 SDK. I'm assuming then that YouTube currently requires only Flash 7, which implies that improved video quality (requiring a new Flash version) will break compatibility.
I've always thought cereal boxes would be the ideal place to put videogame demos. Not glued to the front of $10 magazines. Alas, I've never even seen it tried. The only things I've seen are free cheapo titles included for the sole purpose of promoting the cereal itself.
Sorry if this sounds too obvious, but the next internet will be invisible. It won't be "crammed" into a web browser because new standards will be created and adopted to accomplish new tasks. The OS will essentially be the browser, and vice versa.
It will be like a network terminal in that most of the operating system will function remotely, but it will still allow users to customize all the local hardware and store things off-line like a normal PC. The difference is, everything will "just work." You add a new video card (that is, until video processing becomes remote as well), the remote operating system instantly has the correct drivers ready without any further user interaction. Apps, including storage-intensive apps like games, are stored remotely and are never installed, only "launched" with the click of a button (or perhaps purchased first, and then launched). The bandwidth and server horsepower will both be there.
Performance will be sacrificed at first, but as hardware technology advances nobody will care anymore. Remember back when we wanted all our games written in assembly language? Control will also be sacrificed, but again, people will stop caring. Those who want a machine they can have control over will stick with old-fashioned operating systems like Linux, but the general population will just relinquish control and go with whatever InterOS interface ships with their PC. The technology will be so standardized that every PC manufacturer will have their own custom version of it. Either that, or Microsoft will just start giving it away for free.
With less local control over software, more privacy concerns will be raised, but, even moreso than today, this will be battled via a natural system of checks and balances, where various apps are sold or freely provided to counter the privacy concerns raised by other apps.
It makes sense since it's easy to pretend the Wiimote is a golf club. With football, what are you supposed to do, pretend it's a football? That said, I wasn't too impressed with the swing controls in TW. The only way for me to get consistent swings was to choose the dumbed down control scheme.
So how many Greatest Hits titles exist for the new consoles? None, because the stuff is too new to discount. It takes a while for the competition among developers to really heat up, once they are competing with releases that are several years old. I see no reason to expect high prices to stay, when we all know the bargain bin is waiting to be filled once these next-gen games grow older.
Apologies for not reading the article or even any of the comments. Linux has "failed" with desktop consumers because it hasn't been consumer-centric for very long (and may still not be for many people). Let's look at the facts:
Windows:
- Ships with nearly every PC
- Designed for dunces
- Runs 99% of the software consumers pick up off the shelf
Linux:
- Has only recently begun to (optionally) ship with desktops
- Was originally designed for tech-savvy nerds
- Runs a bunch of apps consumers have never heard of and have never seen on the store shelves
Duh!
It doesn't seem likely that we can protect our orbiting assets too far into the future. At least with ground-based systems we might have some countermeasures in place. Won't satellites be sitting ducks for the foreseeable future? If air traffic controllers spend years becoming acclimated to a GPS system, how quickly (if at all) will they be able to switch to a backup system?
Our group has a team room available (we usually sit in cubes) for the rare times when we decide to go in there and use it. I too feel it is a productive environment, but I struggle to decide how it is best implemented. Team Room only Pros: - You get great cooperation and communication - Everyone feels accountable - Lots of camaraderie - People get competitive and thus more productive Cons: - Everyone feels pressured to look busy, even when they aren't - No personal space - Pressure to be there when the earliest person arrives and when the latest person leaves will often interfere with your personal life or lead to burnout, or both Cube or Office / Team Room combination Pros: - All the benefits of a team room, when people feel motivated to work in there - All the benefits of a personal work space Cons: - People are unlikely to leave their cube/office unless they are forced - If your company doesn't provide laptops, switching PCs is a pain - Shuffling paper and property around is a pain regardless In the end I would think that some sort of combination would be the most effective, but some guidance from management would be important. If I were in charge I might try encouraging the team to be in the team room during the middle hours of the day, say 10am to 3pm, and I would only ask such a thing if a large project were underway. Slightly off-topic, I also had a rather "Big Brother" (by my standards) idea about how to deal with web use: discourage web browsing (block the ports?) on workstations, but at the same time provide a break lounge stocked with PCs where you were free to browse any time you felt like it. This would simply remove a significant distraction from your work area. While rather strict sounding, I actually thought up this idea to benefit myself, since I often struggle with the distraction. I know one thing: I'd much rather work at a place that blocked my ports but didn't watch the clock than a place that let me run amok yet watched eagle-eyed for me to be there every day at 8am sharp, with tightly regulated break times.
He's probably the best at it, but it's not entirely due to his charisma. It's mostly based on Apple's careful track record of never crying wolf. That is, never over-hyping something that isn't truly cool in one way or another.