Twin turbo's are an option as has been stated, but also there is also the ability to produce "enough" low-end torque with a 6. Sure, it isn't the same as an 8 could produce, but on American roadways there is no real *need* for hundreds upon hundreds of lbs. of tourque. Hell, I'll admit it is fun... a lot of fun and I'm not trying to step in and say we all need ultra weak ball-less vehicles... just smarter more efficient ones that still have some fun and zip. The Solstice and the Saturn Sky are a start for instance.
America has always had a love affair with big powerful cars, and you hold on to that as well... I'm not faulting you, I'm just saying that it is time to start shifting away from that. Our roads are more crowded and dangerous than ever with more distractions, I still stand by the fact that 8-cylinders and SUV's need to start to be phased out smartly.
Also, my comments about the poor quality, cheap materials being used is also an argument for the use of slightly more expensive but "exotic" materials. Carbon fiber is a great thing, doesn't need to be expensive and would actually make that $30,000 sports car worth it's price. People are all too accepting of vehicle costs. Of all the overinflated products with price fixing galore, automobiles in the U.S. are just that. We get pissy about the cost of CD's, videogames, computer components... but take it square in the pooper with cars and smile the whole time because we talked the salesman down $500-$1000. A compact commuter could easily be made and sold under $10k, but they price them at $14k and then everyone follows suit and all of a sudden $14k is the new base price.
It is out of hand in many regards. The industry needs to crash badly for real changes to be made, and make no mistake it is coming. All big industries finally get too bloated, inefficient, overpayed, over white collared, overpriced, and glacial moving. Some industries just get put in place quicker than others. The videogame industry has gone through two such shakedowns in it's short existence... Hollywood, music, and U.S. Vehicles are soon to follow.
People just need to get fed up enough, and I'm at that point.
You prove my point if nothing else on a few levels.
A Corvette is a fairly light vehicle, a more efficiently tuned 6-cyl would still provide a seat grabbing experience for the driver and could push those MPG numbers up by at least a 1/3rd if not more. With modern engine technology 8-cyls really offer no massive advantage in daily driving and normal conditions like it was years back.
I'm not lumping them together at all, I'm saying that the day of the 8-cyl engine is long gone and there is no need. very good HP/Torque numbers can be posted without them due to better engineering.
Most of my family is directly tied to the auto industry and has for a number of generations. The actual materials that make up a new car are complete junk. Low cost plastics and thin metal have become the standard in even the most expensive cars, yet car prices have increased steadily and actually grossly accelerated over the past years. Everyone uses the "SUV's are only being sold because they are in demand" line, but in fact the margin on an SUV is astonishingly high totally eclipsing the margins on the lower end models. A typical salesman will only make a "mini" commission on a standard commuter car (around $100 for many) whereas an SUV will bring a commission closer to $500-1000 per sale. Of course marketers, salesmen, and car manufacturers are pumping them out and creating extra artificial demand and enhancing product image.
Also, I am the very first person who will say that hybrids are total bullshit. The extra weight of the batteries you are towing 100% of the time, the creation and disposal of those batteries in a couple years, the extra number of brake pads gone through due to having to stop that extra weight 100% of the time... all for a small electric gain that lasts less than 50% of the time. If anything electric cars relying on batteries are COSTING us much more than an SUV, it is just that the brain damaged owner is to stuck on themselves and their "wonderful" contribution to "greeness" to realize that the energy that was needed to create that battery and the energy involved in recycling it or worse the environmental damage that will be done by the tons of batteries dumped far outweighs the benefits.
About 3-4 years ago, while in college, I wrote a paper on global warming and the professor bashed it and argued with me about his personal view on it as well as giving it low marks. I hadn't taken a radical standpoint, and it was all centered around facts and research. Looks like I wasn't so wrong after all.
While I personally don't believe humans have any great effect on this planet long-term, we can cause ourselves problems short-term and that is the real crux of global warming. In a million years the Earth will return to stasis either by a massive change or by our own actions exterminating ourselves so that the Earth can slowly recover.
What pisses me off are the folks who claim that they are "saving the Earth." You are not saving the Earth, you are saving your own ass. The Earth could care less, and it and a large number of species will easily survive our worst damage and come back and flourish with no problem.
While I'm on my soapbox, SUV's and 8-cylinder engines should be a relic left in the past. Technology has advanced to the point that 4 and 6 cylinder engines can do just about anything except extreme situations... which is fine for larger engines to be used. I don't care about your political affiliation, or the standard rants against SUV's... what I care about are common sense issues and problems. We have technology, USE IT. The auto industry hangs on to outdated and inefficiency at every chance it can, and the large profit margins of the SUV are the only reason they exist. But Joe Consumer eats it all up and has to have a 3-row seating Yukon XL (because bigger has to be better, right?) to spend 50% of it's life carrying 1-2 passengers max. And the smug assholes who think they are so special and priveledged to drive these vehicles need to be shot. They ruin it for everyone, they cause the gas prices I pay daily, they cause a growing number of traffic accidents, and they are generally unsafe drivers. I spend a large amount of time on the road and can easily back up my claims. Tax cuts should not go to SUV drivers, tax cuts should be going to drivers of fuel efficient vehicles of 30+MPG. With no penalty, or incentive to change we are on a collision course with disaster. I'm not talking about wanna-be "green" hybrids that average out to be just above normal efficient 4-cyl engine cars either, just damn COMMON SENSE. Amazingly there were always large families and they managed just fine before SUV's, we can easily get back to that point if only some things would change./endrant
I mean, seriously. When Sony had to try so hard a couple months back to extoll the massive "success" of UMD in every media outlet known to man, that should have been your first clue. Then when they finally wised up and thought to include the UMD for free with a DVD it was too little too late. (many had been calling for this from day 1)
UMD and Blu-Ray are both losers. They are expensive, offer no real benefit to the majority of consumers, and did I mention expensive... add in the low acceptance of the PSP in general and you have a big loss. I expect the Blu-ray to shake out the same way. FTR HDDVD most likely won't blow the doors down at your local retailer either.
Consumers are speaking loud and clear, and have been for over a year with the piss poor game sales. It takes Joe sixpack a little longer to get fed up with mediocrity, but eventually they do. Welcome to that time Sony and MS... best of luck with $500+ systems and $60+games.
I have done review work as well as freelance writing in the videogame industry, and I can 100% say for a fact that my statement about IGN is correct. In fact this topic was touched on just the other day here on/.: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/29/ 1853255
It is unfortunate but sites like IGN that redesign the entire site around a particular product or company have been paid to do so. No one would pay a number of web dev's to ovehaul their site every week just to stay current or be trendy. They are pushing product. That in and of itself is borderline, the only time it becomes an issue with me personally is when the writting becomes tainted as a result. Stories begin to all slant one way... amazingly the same way as the money coming in.
It is no secret that Microsoft has been tossing big bucks at IGN and a number of other online/print outlets in return for favorable reviews and extra coverage.
Oh, and Matt Cassimassina is I believe the guy you are referring to and yes he is a grade A dick. I've had the "pleasure" of meeting him a couple times and I'd rank him right up there with Seanbaby... who I'd happily hunt for sport if given the chance.
If any place should be able to understand the stupid comparisons to the Xbox and how little they mean it should be the/. crowd. The numbers across the board are *better* than the Xbox... and it seems that everyone forgets that the Xbox was NOT streamlined or specialized hardware at all. This is not a bastardized PC tossed together from the spare parts bin, it is a highly specialized dedicated piece of hardware that will easily outpace the Xbox all around.
The Gekko was hands down, the best graphics chip of the last round with 8 texture layers available for *each* poly on screen! It just went majorly unused due to other constraints. Those have been dealt with and addressed, and now the Revolution is able to harness the hardware properly and utilize it.
Comparing the Revolution to the Xbox is about the most useless comparison anyone could have made since they are as similar as cheese and a toothbrush. It is no secret that IGN is receiving MASSIVE dollars from Microsoft for placement and advertising, and not so from Nintendo... if this is how they plan on handling "reviews" and "news" I have officially stopped even glancing IGN's way. How about a in-depth analytical breakdown of these specs and what they really could mean? Nah, lets compare it to the Xbox, talk it down and call it a day.
I never stated you couldn't. And just an FYI the use of the word "obviously" is just a hallmark of a troller.
Please actually read what I said. I am calling for specialized distro's for specific purposes. Instead of 200 basically carbon copy distro's, 200 specialized distro's that scratch an itch. If I'm runnign an embedded system, rather than having to take a run-of-the-mill distro and compile and hack the hell out of it to make it work, I could pick out of a few embedded specific options that only contain embedded specific options, apps, and configurations. They can still be extensible, just not cluttered and filled with everything and the kitchen sink that only 10% applies to my use.
Linux distro's always are an extreme. They either fit on a floppy disk or they take up 4 Cd's or a DVD. Why can there not be specific distro's, 1 CD, targetted and intuitive for their intended use? The average person, even the average IT person, wants a product that is at least semi-tailored for their needs instead of needing to take a big block of stone and chip and carve it into shape. Windows does this with a number of different versions, Apple does this, Linux does not. That is my point. No one wants to hear this or listen... and that is fine, I just wish they would stop acting surprised about it.
Does the average user have an embedded/military/ISA ham radio card? Nope. Are these legitimate uses for Linux? Yep. My point exactly. There are three different audiences with three totally different needs. Windows XP Pro does not work in all three of those situations, they have seperate versions that are focused better on the goal... Linux does not.
It isn't even about performance, it is about unnecessary clutter and useless junk after a point. Kernel compilation could be 3-4 pages less if you would remove a bunch of the useless microchannel ps2 stuff and similar items. Better yet intelligently filter out the useless stuff, such as if you are compiling for 586/686 the ISA/microchannel stuff doesn't even appear.
Cut down the initially installed apps to 1 or 2 choices in each area, and then let the user decide to scrap it and find a better suited one if needed. Same thing in the kernel, give the person the choice to turn on the microchannel branch if he so chooses... THAT is choice. Not throwing it all at the user up front and saying *CHOOSE*!
You "obviously" are an idiot. I'm well aware, and is exactly what I was talking about. Sure, I CAN recompile my brand new 2006 distro to bring it up to speed, but WHY? That is the point. Make 3 different versions available pre-compiled for 486/586/686 and BE LOGICAL you do not NEED ISA/PS2/etc. devices to even be options in a 686 compiled distro.
The problem is that it is not clear, logical, and well thought out. Sure I know I don't have an ISA ham radio card in my PC, but this stupid shit is just confusing to the average person and unnecessarily clutters shit up. That's my point. CUT THE CLUTTER, CUT THE CORD. Linux has the wonderful ability to be perfectly streamlined... yet no one does it and always hides behind the benefit of choice and all that crap. Yes, choice is fine when it is one of 3 or 4 options, when there are 200 text editors and 40 IBM PS2 kernel options IT IS NOT.
I say end legacy support for anything pre-AGP/ATX. This is the one area I have been saying (nay, screaming) for YEARS that Linux should have been focused on. Linux folks thought they were being so handy making that old 486 hang on a little longer, but instead they were shooting themselves in the foot. Apple listened to me (prior art?:) and it has been a big success.
Linux was shipping optimized for 386 all the way up until PIII's were the norm, and if you have even looked at the kernel options when you recompile there are some that are archaic at best. I know that is part of the allure even, but of all the distro's out there none of them cust the cord and have a fully optimized non-legacy system. This is a place where Linux could gain some ground, but no one wants to make a decision and pick a hard and fast set of apps. Ubuntu comes sort of close by only including Gnome, but too much legacy crap is still present there too. With choice and indecision comes weakness and inefficiency. Instead of having 100 different distro's that do nothing particularly well, I'd rather see 100 distro's created for specific causes and be the best they can be for that use.
Apple stepped up and did it to some extent, and the market is wide open for another player to do it better.
That's right fuck Blizzard, and fuck their CEO and his politically correct bullshit. I'm so tired of everyone being so afraid to make decisions and stick to them because of PC pressure.
It's a game. I don't give two shits about the nightelf I'm teamed up with prefering to suck cock while I'm killing 50 bunnies to get a patch of fur to craft a new tunic or whatever lame ass quest I'm on. I don't feel compelled to talk about screwing chicks while I play a game. Gay/lesbian people need to ease up on this force-feeding of their views and lifestyle on everyone else. It's a game, just fucking play it. Period.
All industries like hollywood, Music Industry and soon the games industry need to fall. They are artificial and not really representative of consumers desires. Marketing and hype can carry things pretty far, and make people *believe* it is what they want, but eventually people see through things.
Artificial "cycles" summer/winter movies, re-damn-diculous budgets and salaries, and formulaic "blockbusters." I tend to find the greatest joy out of many lesser known, small budget, and actually talented actors, not the hunk/ho of the week.
Rappers are not actors, hell they aren't even musicians, and if one more bullshit rapper starring movie comes out I'll scream. Sure, the fun popcorn flick every now and then is fine... and we don't need a million indie artsy fartsy movies where you walk away scratching your head... we just need real films.
Small Time, High Fidelity, Big Man on Campus, Pi, Niagra Niagra, Sideways, Memento, etc. Those are all part of my top movies list and they are all fairly low budget or at least devoid of million dollar effects.
Umm, actually you have just shown your total ignorance for everyone to see and it is you who I don't have time for. Do some real reasearch and you will find that Devil Dice was an idie developed product, on the Net Yaroze, and as a result was picked up by Sony. Almost a similar story to Katamari Damacy, which you have no clue about. Oh, and to dismiss Project Offset just shows you are a total idiot. A 3 guy team has created an entire game engine that is leaps and bounds beyond anything else out there, as well as a first-person RPG/FPS unlike anything before it USING their innovative engine. Yeah that is not noteworthy in the least.... go home troll.
Actually I did RTFA, but I still find it stupid at best. Here's the reasoning:
He states indie developers are held back to ripping off 30 year old games because they don't have the money or resources to be original... that is TOTAL bullshit.
Project Offset, Doukutsu, Gish, Devil Dice, Katamari Damacy, are just a few examples. Now especially Project Offset... I'd LOVE to hear his justification for that to fit into his narrow view of indie developers. Oh, and Doom... or about a thousand other indie titles gone big.
To minimalize indie developers as rip-offs and capable of only creating the next web-based puzzle title is the single most insulting thing I have ever read. This guy, in my not so humble opinion, is an asshat. He is a shining example of what is wrong in this industry.
Leave it all to the big boys, just like Hollywood and Pop music... oh, wait, they don't innovate do they? Nope, and if you buy into his shitty view of indie game developers then add the game industry into that list as well because that is where it will fit.
I'm sorry but this is as far from the truth as possible and totally laughable. I have PERSONALLY seen more innovative titles get canned due to the inablity to see the vision or figure out how to market it in my time in the videogame industry than I can even begin to write about.
Publishers and large companies are so focused on establishing themselves and grabbing the biggest slice of the pie as possible right now... innovation is damn near a dirty word when millions could be made on yet another FPS/Homie Simulator/Racing/Sports title.
Look at all the innovation that has come from the big studios over the past 5 years... yeah... exactly why the author of TFA is a moron. EA has really gone above and beyond itself to make each year of Madden sooo amazingly innovative... oh, wait they haven't. This article was just stupid.
Exactly, and I lasted 4 years in the game industry. I did writing and playtesting mainly, there is so much bullshit though on top of all the other stresses that your average 7-11 worker ends up making about the same amount.
Now I do Net Admin work and make twice as much, still stressful, but more "normal." Salaries vary greatly with location, in PA a solid out of college salary is in the mid-high 30's to low 40's. $70k would be like a millionaire in PA.
"What do you propose Nintendo should do, then? Should they never upgrade their products as technology improves because a portion of their customer base may have unlucky timing?"
And this is what you've been basically questioning in your responses the whole time, and it is a valid question.
My answer is for Nintendo to rework its marketing, which has been one area Nintendo has failed in for years due to their strict adherence to a Japanese focus and NOA having basically no power to do much of anything. Most companies get around this problem by advertising their upcoming product in advance so consumers know what is coming and can make informed decisions.
Their entire corporate philosophy and their marketing are all centered around Japan, and America is not even part of the initial equation. This creates the current view of Nintendo in consumers minds, which is basically non-existent except for the Game boy, GBA and original NES.
It's OK to upgrade products and it is OK to innovate, but someone needs to wake up and realize that the two markets are vastly different and need to be treated so. How many people do you know own a GBA Micro? Yep, not many if any at all. But in Japan their culture fits that product, marketing style and it sells. Rapid releases with fairly major improvements in a short period of time are not the way to market to Americans. Multiple versions of the same hardware and add-on's also do not do so well here as there.
NOA and Nintendo of Japan need to almost become two different companies, unlike how NOA is just a mouthpiece for Nintendo of Japan. Different markets need different strategies.
OK, he clearly was going between the two handhelds because he references the amount of time they were available.
When I said a couple months I was saying in general (as far as the general public is concerned it has only been a few months since the push for the Nintendogs/Pokemon editions. While these are not DIFFERENT in any hardware way they are to entice buyers due to the tie-in. So your kid sees the new blue pokedex version and wants it because it is marketed to death, so you buy it, and then three months later the DS Lite with all new features comes out and you feel slighted. Don;t mistake me, I'm not talking about you or I... I am talking about the average Joe consumer.
I have worked on the marketing/advertising side of the gaming industry and am very familiar with it from the viewpoint of the average consumer. Which is where the largest market really is, not in the hardcore/. type crowd. That's what I was referencing when I said two months... to them it has only been two months that the DS has been out because that was when they bought theirs. Logic and reasoning doesn't apply to most consumers, that's why they had to create that old saying about "the customer is always right."
If you truly read what I wrote I explained that I was speaking from the average consumer viewpoint, not my own, not yours, and not from the hardcore videogame fan.
And that would be fine except for the fact that it is NOT the developers having mental farts... it is the publishers who won't give any game that is not "safe" a green light. All the big money dictates what see's the light of day, and right now if it doesn't involve some bullshit gangsta simulator, racing on "dubs", Madden 2k23, or FPS clone #87 it ain't getting published.
The whole industry is fucked up chasing the money right now, and most companies have lost all perspective. That's why I'm hoping beyond all hope that Nintendo smacks them with its big red dick and wakes a few people up.
You keep switching back and forth between the DS and the GBA which is what I was referencing. I understand that the DS has been out for a year, but you need to realize the largest number of sales just came about since the release of Nintendogs... which was only a couple months.
It's easy to also overlook the difference between Joe Sixpack and the/. geek who knows and can quote the release date for any upcoming product. The average person has no idea and is in fact angered when they buy little Johnny or Suzie a brand new DS for a hundred bucks and a new, better one appears on shelves/saturday morning cartoons/magazines/etc. 3 months later. You and I may know its been out for a year and owned ours since day 1, but to a lot of people yesterday when they bought their DS is the day their point of reference starts from.
Also in Japan there have already been a number of "new" DS's, even in the US they did the original, Pokemon special edition, and now the DS Lite. Technically that is three in a year... not counting Nintendogs special editions/bundles. No one is saying Nintendo is evil, just that rapid updates to a new product don't make friends.
"Hey buy the DS it's great!"... two months later... "Hey buy the DS lite it makes the original one look like crap and is sooo much better here, here, and here." And when you are sitting there with your original DS that you just bought you now have a bad image of the company and may be reluctant to make future purchases.
Actually you totally missed the point. No one is saying progress is a bad thing, but to release six versions of the same hardware in half as many years does not create happy consumers. It creates confusion and unhappy adopters who purchase the "old" model only to find a "new and updated" model a month later released.
The DS was a crapshoot for Nintendo. That's why they did so much to make sure people knew it was not the next Gameboy or even part of the same product line.
Actually, Nintendo was very unsure of the DS. In fact they made a major point to make clear that it was not part of the Game Boy line, and they tried to say it was part of its own line. Why bother?
Slashdot Mirror
Twin turbo's are an option as has been stated, but also there is also the ability to produce "enough" low-end torque with a 6. Sure, it isn't the same as an 8 could produce, but on American roadways there is no real *need* for hundreds upon hundreds of lbs. of tourque. Hell, I'll admit it is fun... a lot of fun and I'm not trying to step in and say we all need ultra weak ball-less vehicles... just smarter more efficient ones that still have some fun and zip. The Solstice and the Saturn Sky are a start for instance.
America has always had a love affair with big powerful cars, and you hold on to that as well... I'm not faulting you, I'm just saying that it is time to start shifting away from that. Our roads are more crowded and dangerous than ever with more distractions, I still stand by the fact that 8-cylinders and SUV's need to start to be phased out smartly.
Also, my comments about the poor quality, cheap materials being used is also an argument for the use of slightly more expensive but "exotic" materials. Carbon fiber is a great thing, doesn't need to be expensive and would actually make that $30,000 sports car worth it's price. People are all too accepting of vehicle costs. Of all the overinflated products with price fixing galore, automobiles in the U.S. are just that. We get pissy about the cost of CD's, videogames, computer components... but take it square in the pooper with cars and smile the whole time because we talked the salesman down $500-$1000. A compact commuter could easily be made and sold under $10k, but they price them at $14k and then everyone follows suit and all of a sudden $14k is the new base price.
It is out of hand in many regards. The industry needs to crash badly for real changes to be made, and make no mistake it is coming. All big industries finally get too bloated, inefficient, overpayed, over white collared, overpriced, and glacial moving. Some industries just get put in place quicker than others. The videogame industry has gone through two such shakedowns in it's short existence... Hollywood, music, and U.S. Vehicles are soon to follow.
People just need to get fed up enough, and I'm at that point.
You prove my point if nothing else on a few levels.
A Corvette is a fairly light vehicle, a more efficiently tuned 6-cyl would still provide a seat grabbing experience for the driver and could push those MPG numbers up by at least a 1/3rd if not more. With modern engine technology 8-cyls really offer no massive advantage in daily driving and normal conditions like it was years back.
I'm not lumping them together at all, I'm saying that the day of the 8-cyl engine is long gone and there is no need. very good HP/Torque numbers can be posted without them due to better engineering.
Most of my family is directly tied to the auto industry and has for a number of generations. The actual materials that make up a new car are complete junk. Low cost plastics and thin metal have become the standard in even the most expensive cars, yet car prices have increased steadily and actually grossly accelerated over the past years. Everyone uses the "SUV's are only being sold because they are in demand" line, but in fact the margin on an SUV is astonishingly high totally eclipsing the margins on the lower end models. A typical salesman will only make a "mini" commission on a standard commuter car (around $100 for many) whereas an SUV will bring a commission closer to $500-1000 per sale. Of course marketers, salesmen, and car manufacturers are pumping them out and creating extra artificial demand and enhancing product image.
Also, I am the very first person who will say that hybrids are total bullshit. The extra weight of the batteries you are towing 100% of the time, the creation and disposal of those batteries in a couple years, the extra number of brake pads gone through due to having to stop that extra weight 100% of the time... all for a small electric gain that lasts less than 50% of the time. If anything electric cars relying on batteries are COSTING us much more than an SUV, it is just that the brain damaged owner is to stuck on themselves and their "wonderful" contribution to "greeness" to realize that the energy that was needed to create that battery and the energy involved in recycling it or worse the environmental damage that will be done by the tons of batteries dumped far outweighs the benefits.
About 3-4 years ago, while in college, I wrote a paper on global warming and the professor bashed it and argued with me about his personal view on it as well as giving it low marks. I hadn't taken a radical standpoint, and it was all centered around facts and research. Looks like I wasn't so wrong after all.
/endrant
While I personally don't believe humans have any great effect on this planet long-term, we can cause ourselves problems short-term and that is the real crux of global warming. In a million years the Earth will return to stasis either by a massive change or by our own actions exterminating ourselves so that the Earth can slowly recover.
What pisses me off are the folks who claim that they are "saving the Earth." You are not saving the Earth, you are saving your own ass. The Earth could care less, and it and a large number of species will easily survive our worst damage and come back and flourish with no problem.
While I'm on my soapbox, SUV's and 8-cylinder engines should be a relic left in the past. Technology has advanced to the point that 4 and 6 cylinder engines can do just about anything except extreme situations... which is fine for larger engines to be used. I don't care about your political affiliation, or the standard rants against SUV's... what I care about are common sense issues and problems. We have technology, USE IT. The auto industry hangs on to outdated and inefficiency at every chance it can, and the large profit margins of the SUV are the only reason they exist. But Joe Consumer eats it all up and has to have a 3-row seating Yukon XL (because bigger has to be better, right?) to spend 50% of it's life carrying 1-2 passengers max. And the smug assholes who think they are so special and priveledged to drive these vehicles need to be shot. They ruin it for everyone, they cause the gas prices I pay daily, they cause a growing number of traffic accidents, and they are generally unsafe drivers. I spend a large amount of time on the road and can easily back up my claims. Tax cuts should not go to SUV drivers, tax cuts should be going to drivers of fuel efficient vehicles of 30+MPG. With no penalty, or incentive to change we are on a collision course with disaster. I'm not talking about wanna-be "green" hybrids that average out to be just above normal efficient 4-cyl engine cars either, just damn COMMON SENSE. Amazingly there were always large families and they managed just fine before SUV's, we can easily get back to that point if only some things would change.
I mean, seriously. When Sony had to try so hard a couple months back to extoll the massive "success" of UMD in every media outlet known to man, that should have been your first clue. Then when they finally wised up and thought to include the UMD for free with a DVD it was too little too late. (many had been calling for this from day 1)
UMD and Blu-Ray are both losers. They are expensive, offer no real benefit to the majority of consumers, and did I mention expensive... add in the low acceptance of the PSP in general and you have a big loss. I expect the Blu-ray to shake out the same way. FTR HDDVD most likely won't blow the doors down at your local retailer either.
Consumers are speaking loud and clear, and have been for over a year with the piss poor game sales. It takes Joe sixpack a little longer to get fed up with mediocrity, but eventually they do. Welcome to that time Sony and MS... best of luck with $500+ systems and $60+games.
I have done review work as well as freelance writing in the videogame industry, and I can 100% say for a fact that my statement about IGN is correct. In fact this topic was touched on just the other day here on /.: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/29/ 1853255
It is unfortunate but sites like IGN that redesign the entire site around a particular product or company have been paid to do so. No one would pay a number of web dev's to ovehaul their site every week just to stay current or be trendy. They are pushing product. That in and of itself is borderline, the only time it becomes an issue with me personally is when the writting becomes tainted as a result. Stories begin to all slant one way... amazingly the same way as the money coming in.
It is no secret that Microsoft has been tossing big bucks at IGN and a number of other online/print outlets in return for favorable reviews and extra coverage.
Oh, and Matt Cassimassina is I believe the guy you are referring to and yes he is a grade A dick. I've had the "pleasure" of meeting him a couple times and I'd rank him right up there with Seanbaby... who I'd happily hunt for sport if given the chance.
If any place should be able to understand the stupid comparisons to the Xbox and how little they mean it should be the /. crowd. The numbers across the board are *better* than the Xbox... and it seems that everyone forgets that the Xbox was NOT streamlined or specialized hardware at all. This is not a bastardized PC tossed together from the spare parts bin, it is a highly specialized dedicated piece of hardware that will easily outpace the Xbox all around.
The Gekko was hands down, the best graphics chip of the last round with 8 texture layers available for *each* poly on screen! It just went majorly unused due to other constraints. Those have been dealt with and addressed, and now the Revolution is able to harness the hardware properly and utilize it.
Comparing the Revolution to the Xbox is about the most useless comparison anyone could have made since they are as similar as cheese and a toothbrush. It is no secret that IGN is receiving MASSIVE dollars from Microsoft for placement and advertising, and not so from Nintendo... if this is how they plan on handling "reviews" and "news" I have officially stopped even glancing IGN's way. How about a in-depth analytical breakdown of these specs and what they really could mean? Nah, lets compare it to the Xbox, talk it down and call it a day.
I never stated you couldn't. And just an FYI the use of the word "obviously" is just a hallmark of a troller.
Please actually read what I said. I am calling for specialized distro's for specific purposes. Instead of 200 basically carbon copy distro's, 200 specialized distro's that scratch an itch. If I'm runnign an embedded system, rather than having to take a run-of-the-mill distro and compile and hack the hell out of it to make it work, I could pick out of a few embedded specific options that only contain embedded specific options, apps, and configurations. They can still be extensible, just not cluttered and filled with everything and the kitchen sink that only 10% applies to my use.
Linux distro's always are an extreme. They either fit on a floppy disk or they take up 4 Cd's or a DVD. Why can there not be specific distro's, 1 CD, targetted and intuitive for their intended use? The average person, even the average IT person, wants a product that is at least semi-tailored for their needs instead of needing to take a big block of stone and chip and carve it into shape. Windows does this with a number of different versions, Apple does this, Linux does not. That is my point. No one wants to hear this or listen... and that is fine, I just wish they would stop acting surprised about it.
Does the average user have an embedded/military/ISA ham radio card? Nope. Are these legitimate uses for Linux? Yep. My point exactly. There are three different audiences with three totally different needs. Windows XP Pro does not work in all three of those situations, they have seperate versions that are focused better on the goal... Linux does not.
It isn't even about performance, it is about unnecessary clutter and useless junk after a point. Kernel compilation could be 3-4 pages less if you would remove a bunch of the useless microchannel ps2 stuff and similar items. Better yet intelligently filter out the useless stuff, such as if you are compiling for 586/686 the ISA/microchannel stuff doesn't even appear.
Cut down the initially installed apps to 1 or 2 choices in each area, and then let the user decide to scrap it and find a better suited one if needed. Same thing in the kernel, give the person the choice to turn on the microchannel branch if he so chooses... THAT is choice. Not throwing it all at the user up front and saying *CHOOSE*!
You "obviously" are an idiot. I'm well aware, and is exactly what I was talking about. Sure, I CAN recompile my brand new 2006 distro to bring it up to speed, but WHY? That is the point. Make 3 different versions available pre-compiled for 486/586/686 and BE LOGICAL you do not NEED ISA/PS2/etc. devices to even be options in a 686 compiled distro.
The problem is that it is not clear, logical, and well thought out. Sure I know I don't have an ISA ham radio card in my PC, but this stupid shit is just confusing to the average person and unnecessarily clutters shit up. That's my point. CUT THE CLUTTER, CUT THE CORD. Linux has the wonderful ability to be perfectly streamlined... yet no one does it and always hides behind the benefit of choice and all that crap. Yes, choice is fine when it is one of 3 or 4 options, when there are 200 text editors and 40 IBM PS2 kernel options IT IS NOT.
I say end legacy support for anything pre-AGP/ATX. This is the one area I have been saying (nay, screaming) for YEARS that Linux should have been focused on. Linux folks thought they were being so handy making that old 486 hang on a little longer, but instead they were shooting themselves in the foot. Apple listened to me (prior art? :) and it has been a big success.
Linux was shipping optimized for 386 all the way up until PIII's were the norm, and if you have even looked at the kernel options when you recompile there are some that are archaic at best. I know that is part of the allure even, but of all the distro's out there none of them cust the cord and have a fully optimized non-legacy system. This is a place where Linux could gain some ground, but no one wants to make a decision and pick a hard and fast set of apps. Ubuntu comes sort of close by only including Gnome, but too much legacy crap is still present there too. With choice and indecision comes weakness and inefficiency. Instead of having 100 different distro's that do nothing particularly well, I'd rather see 100 distro's created for specific causes and be the best they can be for that use.
Apple stepped up and did it to some extent, and the market is wide open for another player to do it better.
That's right fuck Blizzard, and fuck their CEO and his politically correct bullshit. I'm so tired of everyone being so afraid to make decisions and stick to them because of PC pressure.
It's a game. I don't give two shits about the nightelf I'm teamed up with prefering to suck cock while I'm killing 50 bunnies to get a patch of fur to craft a new tunic or whatever lame ass quest I'm on. I don't feel compelled to talk about screwing chicks while I play a game. Gay/lesbian people need to ease up on this force-feeding of their views and lifestyle on everyone else. It's a game, just fucking play it. Period.
All industries like hollywood, Music Industry and soon the games industry need to fall. They are artificial and not really representative of consumers desires. Marketing and hype can carry things pretty far, and make people *believe* it is what they want, but eventually people see through things.
Artificial "cycles" summer/winter movies, re-damn-diculous budgets and salaries, and formulaic "blockbusters." I tend to find the greatest joy out of many lesser known, small budget, and actually talented actors, not the hunk/ho of the week.
Rappers are not actors, hell they aren't even musicians, and if one more bullshit rapper starring movie comes out I'll scream. Sure, the fun popcorn flick every now and then is fine... and we don't need a million indie artsy fartsy movies where you walk away scratching your head... we just need real films.
Small Time, High Fidelity, Big Man on Campus, Pi, Niagra Niagra, Sideways, Memento, etc. Those are all part of my top movies list and they are all fairly low budget or at least devoid of million dollar effects.
Was I the only one disappointed to find that it really said "British *Bobbies*"?
Something about that British accent just leaves me powerless, and their "bobbies" aren't so bad either.
Umm, actually you have just shown your total ignorance for everyone to see and it is you who I don't have time for. Do some real reasearch and you will find that Devil Dice was an idie developed product, on the Net Yaroze, and as a result was picked up by Sony. Almost a similar story to Katamari Damacy, which you have no clue about. Oh, and to dismiss Project Offset just shows you are a total idiot. A 3 guy team has created an entire game engine that is leaps and bounds beyond anything else out there, as well as a first-person RPG/FPS unlike anything before it USING their innovative engine. Yeah that is not noteworthy in the least.... go home troll.
Actually I did RTFA, but I still find it stupid at best. Here's the reasoning:
He states indie developers are held back to ripping off 30 year old games because they don't have the money or resources to be original... that is TOTAL bullshit.
Project Offset, Doukutsu, Gish, Devil Dice, Katamari Damacy, are just a few examples. Now especially Project Offset... I'd LOVE to hear his justification for that to fit into his narrow view of indie developers. Oh, and Doom... or about a thousand other indie titles gone big.
To minimalize indie developers as rip-offs and capable of only creating the next web-based puzzle title is the single most insulting thing I have ever read. This guy, in my not so humble opinion, is an asshat. He is a shining example of what is wrong in this industry.
Leave it all to the big boys, just like Hollywood and Pop music... oh, wait, they don't innovate do they? Nope, and if you buy into his shitty view of indie game developers then add the game industry into that list as well because that is where it will fit.
I was a playtester and the games were completed to an alpha stage and then canned. So they were far from story boards, or mock-ups of any sort.
I'm sorry but this is as far from the truth as possible and totally laughable. I have PERSONALLY seen more innovative titles get canned due to the inablity to see the vision or figure out how to market it in my time in the videogame industry than I can even begin to write about.
Publishers and large companies are so focused on establishing themselves and grabbing the biggest slice of the pie as possible right now... innovation is damn near a dirty word when millions could be made on yet another FPS/Homie Simulator/Racing/Sports title.
Look at all the innovation that has come from the big studios over the past 5 years... yeah... exactly why the author of TFA is a moron. EA has really gone above and beyond itself to make each year of Madden sooo amazingly innovative... oh, wait they haven't. This article was just stupid.
Exactly, and I lasted 4 years in the game industry. I did writing and playtesting mainly, there is so much bullshit though on top of all the other stresses that your average 7-11 worker ends up making about the same amount.
Now I do Net Admin work and make twice as much, still stressful, but more "normal." Salaries vary greatly with location, in PA a solid out of college salary is in the mid-high 30's to low 40's. $70k would be like a millionaire in PA.
"What do you propose Nintendo should do, then? Should they never upgrade their products as technology improves because a portion of their customer base may have unlucky timing?"
And this is what you've been basically questioning in your responses the whole time, and it is a valid question.
My answer is for Nintendo to rework its marketing, which has been one area Nintendo has failed in for years due to their strict adherence to a Japanese focus and NOA having basically no power to do much of anything. Most companies get around this problem by advertising their upcoming product in advance so consumers know what is coming and can make informed decisions.
Their entire corporate philosophy and their marketing are all centered around Japan, and America is not even part of the initial equation. This creates the current view of Nintendo in consumers minds, which is basically non-existent except for the Game boy, GBA and original NES.
It's OK to upgrade products and it is OK to innovate, but someone needs to wake up and realize that the two markets are vastly different and need to be treated so. How many people do you know own a GBA Micro? Yep, not many if any at all. But in Japan their culture fits that product, marketing style and it sells. Rapid releases with fairly major improvements in a short period of time are not the way to market to Americans. Multiple versions of the same hardware and add-on's also do not do so well here as there.
NOA and Nintendo of Japan need to almost become two different companies, unlike how NOA is just a mouthpiece for Nintendo of Japan. Different markets need different strategies.
OK, he clearly was going between the two handhelds because he references the amount of time they were available.
/. type crowd. That's what I was referencing when I said two months... to them it has only been two months that the DS has been out because that was when they bought theirs. Logic and reasoning doesn't apply to most consumers, that's why they had to create that old saying about "the customer is always right."
When I said a couple months I was saying in general (as far as the general public is concerned it has only been a few months since the push for the Nintendogs/Pokemon editions. While these are not DIFFERENT in any hardware way they are to entice buyers due to the tie-in. So your kid sees the new blue pokedex version and wants it because it is marketed to death, so you buy it, and then three months later the DS Lite with all new features comes out and you feel slighted. Don;t mistake me, I'm not talking about you or I... I am talking about the average Joe consumer.
I have worked on the marketing/advertising side of the gaming industry and am very familiar with it from the viewpoint of the average consumer. Which is where the largest market really is, not in the hardcore
If you truly read what I wrote I explained that I was speaking from the average consumer viewpoint, not my own, not yours, and not from the hardcore videogame fan.
And that would be fine except for the fact that it is NOT the developers having mental farts... it is the publishers who won't give any game that is not "safe" a green light. All the big money dictates what see's the light of day, and right now if it doesn't involve some bullshit gangsta simulator, racing on "dubs", Madden 2k23, or FPS clone #87 it ain't getting published.
The whole industry is fucked up chasing the money right now, and most companies have lost all perspective. That's why I'm hoping beyond all hope that Nintendo smacks them with its big red dick and wakes a few people up.
I normally don't respond to AC posts, but you sir are as dense as grandma's poundcake.
Please take a reading comprehension class, and then come back when you're all growed up.
You keep switching back and forth between the DS and the GBA which is what I was referencing. I understand that the DS has been out for a year, but you need to realize the largest number of sales just came about since the release of Nintendogs... which was only a couple months.
/. geek who knows and can quote the release date for any upcoming product. The average person has no idea and is in fact angered when they buy little Johnny or Suzie a brand new DS for a hundred bucks and a new, better one appears on shelves/saturday morning cartoons/magazines/etc. 3 months later. You and I may know its been out for a year and owned ours since day 1, but to a lot of people yesterday when they bought their DS is the day their point of reference starts from.
It's easy to also overlook the difference between Joe Sixpack and the
Also in Japan there have already been a number of "new" DS's, even in the US they did the original, Pokemon special edition, and now the DS Lite. Technically that is three in a year... not counting Nintendogs special editions/bundles. No one is saying Nintendo is evil, just that rapid updates to a new product don't make friends.
"Hey buy the DS it's great!"... two months later... "Hey buy the DS lite it makes the original one look like crap and is sooo much better here, here, and here." And when you are sitting there with your original DS that you just bought you now have a bad image of the company and may be reluctant to make future purchases.
Actually you totally missed the point. No one is saying progress is a bad thing, but to release six versions of the same hardware in half as many years does not create happy consumers. It creates confusion and unhappy adopters who purchase the "old" model only to find a "new and updated" model a month later released.
The DS was a crapshoot for Nintendo. That's why they did so much to make sure people knew it was not the next Gameboy or even part of the same product line.
Actually, Nintendo was very unsure of the DS. In fact they made a major point to make clear that it was not part of the Game Boy line, and they tried to say it was part of its own line. Why bother?