What the industry seems to ignore is that the downloadable and web-game market (Bejeweled, Diner Dash, etc.) are wildly popular with women. The hardcore gaming market will always cater to men, because there will never be a big market for women. Why? Because women, generally, don't like competition. They don't like harsh challenges. They like to "play", not struggle to win. When you were a kid and out tackling other kids or hitting baseballs through the neighbor's window, what was your kid sister doing? Playing with dolls! That should tell you something! This kind of play is embodied in games like Bejeweled, Diner Dash, The Sims, etc. Stop looking for problems where they don't exist. You don't hear me complaining that women don't watch enough porn.
"However, as you point out, who cares about "per population?!" These types of inventions affect everyone, their value isn't diluted the more people they help."
Perhaps because with more people should come more people making things.
Microsoft already has Xbox Live! Arcade, which allows you to download and purchase a lot of these games right on your Xbox. The Xbox 360 will additionally have Arcade built in. As far as them having the advantage over other consoles, I disagree. The Nintendo Revolution's main selling point is the downloading of additional games and content. In addition to this, there have been numerous talks from Nintendo to several independent developers about creating content more focused on gameplay than technology. And at the price point that I think we all know Nintendo's aiming for, the Revolution will be a much more viable solution for such "casual" gamers.
While the reason shopping carts are abandoned so frequently has been discussed ad nauseum, a major issue remains that I think a lot of 'geeks' are missing: The time it takes an online shopper to actually purchase an item they find online.
Unfortunately, I disagree that it's primarily because of comparison shopping. The vast majority of people on the Internet today are non-geeks, (ie. average folks), and most, I dare say, don't even know many places to shop online in the first place. Geeks are great at looking around at other places for better prices online, however, to the average Joe, the Web is a very scary place. "Could this be a scam?" "What if it doesn't work when it arrives?"
That's not to say that the potential customer is walking (walking?) around terrified of every link or button. However, my guess is that they feel a lot more comfortable buying from an online store that has a real-world counterpart. WalMart, Barnes and Noble, etc. Because of this, they may even go so far as to think that it's faster to go down to the store and buy it there. Provided it's even offered there.
More often than not, it's either not available in their local store, or it's cheaper online. They muster up what little online-courage they can, and click "Order". Now that process, in and of itself, is a fairly scary one. "We will never give out your credit card number to 3rd parties." "We'll never give out any personal information to other parties." "Error: the following security certificate is from a different domain! While it's possible an unintedned audience may view your data, if you trust this website, accept the certificate." Jeeze, people. These scare me, and I've been an avid online user since DOS CompuServe. It's somewhat akin to the cashier at JCPenny saying, "I promise, sir, I won't stab you in the eyeball."
Face it, if you have trouble talking to girls because you're not well versed in flirting, average Joe is twice as terrified of this "Internet thing", running rampant with viruses, diseases, hackers, thieves, pedophiles, serial killers, and Amazon.com. I can't blame him.
If as noted Cell is as powerfull as they say it will be then nothing will be touching the ps3
Power is nothing. The PS1 was integer based, non-texture-blending, nasty resolution, bitch to program for. The N64 was FAR superior in every respect than storage. Full screen anti-aliasing, bilinear filtered textures, the works. Xbox is far superior to the PS2. Who's winning?
By the same token: which systems were released first, and won market share? Which systems had a multi-national market? Those are much more important than processing speed, though the systems do have to be roughly comparable.
1:Will cell live up to the hype
No. Cell processing, as an idea and method, are better, but this particular processor are not as powerful as people would like to believe.
2:Can MS market to the japanese crowd
They sure are trying really hard to. With some of the developers they've got, and their system coming out first, they may just win it.
3:What the hell are nintendo up to
Long as it's not another Virtual Boy, I think it's safe to know they're going to stick in the game/toy market, because MS and Sony are obviously trying to reach different types of audiences. Why people even bother comparing Nintendo to MS and Sony is beyond me. As cool as super-awesome-3D-shader-blended-real-time-lighting -highdef-output graphics are, one thing that most developers have forgotten is how to make a game.
Making a game used to be about making it fun. But with the race to make the hardware more powerful to provide a more immersive experience, I think they forgot why they were making games in the first place. They're just making really fancy toys, but most come out like it's this really serious issue. That's not to say that there's no place for that, but what have all the most successful and super-popular games have in common? They're games! Not "experiences". Fun first, atmoshphere last.
You get what you give. They sure did come up with some very unique concepts, however, they weren't very fun to play. As much as I hate (read: hate, hate, hate, hate, hate) the Sims, it is an incredibly original concept. I remember watching the trailer that came on a couple other Maxis products years before the Sims was released, and I thought, "Jeeze, this is gonna be crappy. Gimme more SimCity" Boy was I wrong. (Again, I don't like it, but I understand it's level of innovation).
Point is, there is plenty of room in the world for unique and original games (*koff*Katamari*koff*), however, you also need to make them fun. This is the element that was sorely lacking from the two games I played from Elixir. The presentation was fantastic, but it seems to take more than a 95% failure rate for companies to realize that is the least important factor if gameplay is neglected.
It is a game, after all. If it doesn't feel like you're playing a game, then you're probably not playing it.
I'm reading a lot of talk about how it'll be a step backward, the emulators can't be as good as the ones already out there, it'll only be good if they release some ultra-rare games, etc. I suppose most are missing the point: It would be legal to play the ROMs.
And, cmon, don't do any of this "but I own a copy of [blah-blah], but I'd rather play it in MAME". If you've got an arcade cabinet, I DOUBT you'd be playing it in MAME (not to say there aren't plenty of reasons to). Point is, the major malfunction with the emulation scene is that it's by and large an illegal community. Unfortunately, though, this is gonna be somewhat similar to these boxes and boxes of 1930's DVDs you find at Walmart. Most people won't even think twice about looking at them, the few that do will be happy to get to play a copy of Super Mario Bros., etc. But to top it off: they can now claim that distributing ROMs on the internet is stealing sales. (Ie. prosecuting in heavy numbers the distributors of ROMs, similar to how they are doing with movies, music, etc. My 2 cents.
What you're interested in is solid-state storage, which you can google. The main problem with your plan is, if the power goes out, you've lost everything. Even trying to flush everything to the hard drive will take dangerously long. (Writing 15GB to harddisk is no small task!) The solid state storage machines out there are basically computers with lots of RAM, but the RAM is backed by battery, so even if it's unplugged, it stores its state, and then backs up to hard disk, automatically. Trying to get a PC to do this for you would be much trouble. Remember: UPSing a whole computer is a lot different than keeping RAM charged!:)
FTA: ""If the character drinks a Pepsi to get health points, it doesn't bug me," Mr. Fisher said."
I'm a fan of Pepsi. I prefer it. But drinking Pepsi for health points is probably the worst idea ever!:) It's one thing to eat a hearty turkey and gain some benefit, but Pepsi...? Maybe increase speed a little, but even there, adrenaline packs or something would be a better design decision.
Either way, fanboys, it doesn't really matter what we think of the idea. They're going to be a huge part of video gaming in the future, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's already taken over television (which, frankly, probably wouldn't exist without it), radio, movies, magazines. Basically every source of entertainment. Except books. But even there, they tend to advertise their own products on the last few pages, or the cover. But, as long as it's not annoying, I can't imagine many people would have a problem with it. We may even see some interesting ads:
"Pepsi Cola - Neo's beverage of choice! Try one today!"
The concept is interesting, although I hardly see this type of thing ever getting very big. Unfortunately, especially in the U.S., too many people will be against this kind of alternative teaching, probably likening it to getting kids to stay off drugs by encouraging them to try them first. I doubt there'd be much support for this outside the ISECOM, even though this type of experience would benefit anyone going into the network administration sector.
FTA: "The school believes there could be jobs out there for this new breed of ethical hacker."
There are, and have been for quite some time. The FBI employs at least one former hacker, that I know of. There is an article that explores this a bit more, though it's a little dated.
Besides, high school kids already have too many freedoms: open campus lunches, driver's licenses, free thinking. We need to put an end to this now!;)
FTA: "But, in the midsized companies, adding Linux would create a multiplatform company where a Microsoft-only shop existed previously."
Keep in mind, while medium sized businesses may "comprise the bulk of American business", this is only the current situation. As smaller businesses grow, there will be an influx of Linux based organizations in the medium-sized business world. Adding Linux to a Windows based infrastructure is inherintly more expensive (because you have to pay for the upkeep of two systems). But a computing infrastructure based entirely on Linux is, as far as I know, cheaper in the long run.
Also, as Linux becomes a better candidate for a desktop platform, its adoption as a viable computing platform will only increase. The state of Linux is, now, significantly more advanced than it was just 2 years ago. 2 years from now, even more so.
"An Australian security firm is about to launch a clustered Linux distribution based on openMosix..."
You're kidding me, right? CHAOS has been out for some 2 years (at least). Unless I'm misunderstanding, or another Australian organization is doing this...:
Slashdot Mirror
What the industry seems to ignore is that the downloadable and web-game market (Bejeweled, Diner Dash, etc.) are wildly popular with women. The hardcore gaming market will always cater to men, because there will never be a big market for women. Why? Because women, generally, don't like competition. They don't like harsh challenges. They like to "play", not struggle to win. When you were a kid and out tackling other kids or hitting baseballs through the neighbor's window, what was your kid sister doing? Playing with dolls! That should tell you something! This kind of play is embodied in games like Bejeweled, Diner Dash, The Sims, etc. Stop looking for problems where they don't exist. You don't hear me complaining that women don't watch enough porn.
"However, as you point out, who cares about "per population?!" These types of inventions affect everyone, their value isn't diluted the more people they help."
Perhaps because with more people should come more people making things.
In other news, a secretary at Microsoft (MSFT) accidentally uses decimal in wrong place and purchases 3/4 of the US military. Accidentally.
Microsoft already has Xbox Live! Arcade, which allows you to download and purchase a lot of these games right on your Xbox. The Xbox 360 will additionally have Arcade built in. As far as them having the advantage over other consoles, I disagree. The Nintendo Revolution's main selling point is the downloading of additional games and content. In addition to this, there have been numerous talks from Nintendo to several independent developers about creating content more focused on gameplay than technology. And at the price point that I think we all know Nintendo's aiming for, the Revolution will be a much more viable solution for such "casual" gamers.
Now I just need a way of inducing a BSOD so I can test it.
...[boots computer] ... Yep. It works.
From the post: "Xbox 360 Confirmed For November"...
;)
..."What's more, the 360 will probably be released this November.
Hmmmmmm.......looks like the Slashdot editors are just making stuff up now!
While the reason shopping carts are abandoned so frequently has been discussed ad nauseum, a major issue remains that I think a lot of 'geeks' are missing: The time it takes an online shopper to actually purchase an item they find online.
Unfortunately, I disagree that it's primarily because of comparison shopping. The vast majority of people on the Internet today are non-geeks, (ie. average folks), and most, I dare say, don't even know many places to shop online in the first place. Geeks are great at looking around at other places for better prices online, however, to the average Joe, the Web is a very scary place. "Could this be a scam?" "What if it doesn't work when it arrives?"
That's not to say that the potential customer is walking (walking?) around terrified of every link or button. However, my guess is that they feel a lot more comfortable buying from an online store that has a real-world counterpart. WalMart, Barnes and Noble, etc. Because of this, they may even go so far as to think that it's faster to go down to the store and buy it there. Provided it's even offered there.
More often than not, it's either not available in their local store, or it's cheaper online. They muster up what little online-courage they can, and click "Order". Now that process, in and of itself, is a fairly scary one. "We will never give out your credit card number to 3rd parties." "We'll never give out any personal information to other parties." "Error: the following security certificate is from a different domain! While it's possible an unintedned audience may view your data, if you trust this website, accept the certificate." Jeeze, people. These scare me, and I've been an avid online user since DOS CompuServe. It's somewhat akin to the cashier at JCPenny saying, "I promise, sir, I won't stab you in the eyeball."
Face it, if you have trouble talking to girls because you're not well versed in flirting, average Joe is twice as terrified of this "Internet thing", running rampant with viruses, diseases, hackers, thieves, pedophiles, serial killers, and Amazon.com. I can't blame him.
If as noted Cell is as powerfull as they say it will be then nothing will be touching the ps3
g -highdef-output graphics are, one thing that most developers have forgotten is how to make a game.
Power is nothing. The PS1 was integer based, non-texture-blending, nasty resolution, bitch to program for. The N64 was FAR superior in every respect than storage. Full screen anti-aliasing, bilinear filtered textures, the works. Xbox is far superior to the PS2. Who's winning?
By the same token: which systems were released first, and won market share? Which systems had a multi-national market? Those are much more important than processing speed, though the systems do have to be roughly comparable.
1:Will cell live up to the hype
No. Cell processing, as an idea and method, are better, but this particular processor are not as powerful as people would like to believe.
2:Can MS market to the japanese crowd
They sure are trying really hard to. With some of the developers they've got, and their system coming out first, they may just win it.
3:What the hell are nintendo up to
Long as it's not another Virtual Boy, I think it's safe to know they're going to stick in the game/toy market, because MS and Sony are obviously trying to reach different types of audiences. Why people even bother comparing Nintendo to MS and Sony is beyond me. As cool as super-awesome-3D-shader-blended-real-time-lightin
Making a game used to be about making it fun. But with the race to make the hardware more powerful to provide a more immersive experience, I think they forgot why they were making games in the first place. They're just making really fancy toys, but most come out like it's this really serious issue. That's not to say that there's no place for that, but what have all the most successful and super-popular games have in common? They're games! Not "experiences". Fun first, atmoshphere last.
You get what you give. They sure did come up with some very unique concepts, however, they weren't very fun to play. As much as I hate (read: hate, hate, hate, hate, hate) the Sims, it is an incredibly original concept. I remember watching the trailer that came on a couple other Maxis products years before the Sims was released, and I thought, "Jeeze, this is gonna be crappy. Gimme more SimCity" Boy was I wrong. (Again, I don't like it, but I understand it's level of innovation).
Point is, there is plenty of room in the world for unique and original games (*koff*Katamari*koff*), however, you also need to make them fun. This is the element that was sorely lacking from the two games I played from Elixir. The presentation was fantastic, but it seems to take more than a 95% failure rate for companies to realize that is the least important factor if gameplay is neglected.
It is a game, after all. If it doesn't feel like you're playing a game, then you're probably not playing it.
It's amazing what they're coming up with these days. Fusion, time travel... Multiple posts. Cmon.
I'm reading a lot of talk about how it'll be a step backward, the emulators can't be as good as the ones already out there, it'll only be good if they release some ultra-rare games, etc. I suppose most are missing the point: It would be legal to play the ROMs.
And, cmon, don't do any of this "but I own a copy of [blah-blah], but I'd rather play it in MAME". If you've got an arcade cabinet, I DOUBT you'd be playing it in MAME (not to say there aren't plenty of reasons to). Point is, the major malfunction with the emulation scene is that it's by and large an illegal community. Unfortunately, though, this is gonna be somewhat similar to these boxes and boxes of 1930's DVDs you find at Walmart. Most people won't even think twice about looking at them, the few that do will be happy to get to play a copy of Super Mario Bros., etc. But to top it off: they can now claim that distributing ROMs on the internet is stealing sales. (Ie. prosecuting in heavy numbers the distributors of ROMs, similar to how they are doing with movies, music, etc. My 2 cents.
Isn't this already part of the "official" Tetris releases? ... No? ... hmmm....I've really gotta work on that...
FTA: "Imagine players slapping down $.99 to buy a one-of-a-kind, fully tricked-out racing car to be the envy of their buddies," says Microsoft
What would be even more "tricked-out" would be not having to pay for it. Ladies and gents: In game customizations will now cost you a buck a pop.
I know "The Sims" would be so much more fun if I had to spend my money on their furniture, rather than Simoleans.
FTA: As IBM Director of Technology for Cell Technology Jim Jahle puts it, Cell "really represents a supercomputer on a chip."
Interesting. I think a more accurate statement may be: Cell "really represents a supercomputer on several chips."
What you're interested in is solid-state storage, which you can google. The main problem with your plan is, if the power goes out, you've lost everything. Even trying to flush everything to the hard drive will take dangerously long. (Writing 15GB to harddisk is no small task!) The solid state storage machines out there are basically computers with lots of RAM, but the RAM is backed by battery, so even if it's unplugged, it stores its state, and then backs up to hard disk, automatically. Trying to get a PC to do this for you would be much trouble. Remember: UPSing a whole computer is a lot different than keeping RAM charged! :)
"It's like they're trying to trap you: 'Have you ever tried sugar, or cocaine?'" -Mitch Hedberg
"Could these moves signal the beginning of a period of rapid improvement in Free drivers for video cards?"
I doubt it. Just a coincidence. Wishful thinking. Once nVidia releases open source drivers, you may start to think otherwise.
"Will this year be any different?"
Well, god I hope so. A year in which every major hit was a sequel? Originality would be a nice change of pace.
FTA: ""If the character drinks a Pepsi to get health points, it doesn't bug me," Mr. Fisher said."
:) It's one thing to eat a hearty turkey and gain some benefit, but Pepsi...? Maybe increase speed a little, but even there, adrenaline packs or something would be a better design decision.
;)
I'm a fan of Pepsi. I prefer it. But drinking Pepsi for health points is probably the worst idea ever!
Either way, fanboys, it doesn't really matter what we think of the idea. They're going to be a huge part of video gaming in the future, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's already taken over television (which, frankly, probably wouldn't exist without it), radio, movies, magazines. Basically every source of entertainment. Except books. But even there, they tend to advertise their own products on the last few pages, or the cover. But, as long as it's not annoying, I can't imagine many people would have a problem with it. We may even see some interesting ads:
"Pepsi Cola - Neo's beverage of choice! Try one today!"
Or, maybe that would suck too...
God, I hope these robots aren't running Windows...
The concept is interesting, although I hardly see this type of thing ever getting very big. Unfortunately, especially in the U.S., too many people will be against this kind of alternative teaching, probably likening it to getting kids to stay off drugs by encouraging them to try them first. I doubt there'd be much support for this outside the ISECOM, even though this type of experience would benefit anyone going into the network administration sector.
;)
FTA: "The school believes there could be jobs out there for this new breed of ethical hacker."
There are, and have been for quite some time. The FBI employs at least one former hacker, that I know of. There is an article that explores this a bit more, though it's a little dated.
Besides, high school kids already have too many freedoms: open campus lunches, driver's licenses, free thinking. We need to put an end to this now!
FTA: "But, in the midsized companies, adding Linux would create a multiplatform company where a Microsoft-only shop existed previously."
Keep in mind, while medium sized businesses may "comprise the bulk of American business", this is only the current situation. As smaller businesses grow, there will be an influx of Linux based organizations in the medium-sized business world. Adding Linux to a Windows based infrastructure is inherintly more expensive (because you have to pay for the upkeep of two systems). But a computing infrastructure based entirely on Linux is, as far as I know, cheaper in the long run.
Also, as Linux becomes a better candidate for a desktop platform, its adoption as a viable computing platform will only increase. The state of Linux is, now, significantly more advanced than it was just 2 years ago. 2 years from now, even more so.
" I have to ask, what in the bloody hell is a "pocket" peanut butter and jam sandiwch?"
It's similar to a Pocket Monster (Pokemon), but with less grissle.
And you'd really get into trouble if you tried to make PB&J's with $2 bills...
"An Australian security firm is about to launch a clustered Linux distribution based on openMosix..."
You're kidding me, right? CHAOS has been out for some 2 years (at least). Unless I'm misunderstanding, or another Australian organization is doing this...:
CHAOS Distro
But what do I know.