Maybe it is just me, but is a game for linux really marketable? How many linux-only games have turned a profit? How many linux ports of other games have sold enough copies to make up for the porting effort?
How do you market a game to users of an OS that: A) Is currently focused on servers B) When "on the desktop," are being run (in general) by people who want all of their software to be free (beer and speech) C) Is planning on making it harder for hardware vendors to create/distribute closed software in the form of drivers
If this ever gets off the ground (low chance), and if it makes it to completion (extrememly low chance), would it even sell enough to make up for the marketing costs? I worked on a game for free for a while, during which time I had a day job which was VERY slack (this was not long after working on a game for an actual game dev house/publisher). Even so, it took many months to get to the point where we even had an idea of the kinds of tools that would be required to generate/integrate the content into the engine.
I'd love to see this work, but realistically, it won't. Not at this point.
Game sequels are the game programers remaking the same game to push the latest hardware and add new things that at the time of the orignal game where not possible.
Actually, typical game sequels are the publishers/developer shops trying to make some "easy" money. A lot of the work is already done: name recognition, game design, internal toolsets. Some of the actual game code might be "reusable" as well, with some tweaking (or none, depending on the game).
I've worked in the game industry in the past, and this has been my experience... YMMV.
Not every launch. Just every launch that is accompanied by a filmed collision event. Remember, the day of launch, they knew something had fallen from the tank to the left wing. Sure, they all decided it was 3 oz. of foam and couldn't have done much damage. I think it's irresponsible, though, that no attempt was made to actually inspect the wing. A launch-collision event is an anomaly -- it requires extra effort.
Just the preparations and equipment needed to do this would add significant resource requirements. Consider the possibility that one of seven crew members would have to be available to perform the inspection. That crew member would have to be trained in his/her normal duties as well as the duties of a shuttle inspector.
And as many other people have mentioned, in the current (and forseeable future) state of affairs in manned orbital space flight, there really was no safe way to deal with any serious problem.
I have the utmost respect for our astronauts, but really, they must have known that the danger existed. How can one strap oneself to so much rocket fuel and not know that there is some level of danger? Until there is sufficient space infrastructure that such things (assuming it was damage caused before the re-entry sequence) can be repaired, that danger exists.
In the name of competition, the government is forcing the ILECs to lease their lines out below cost.
Actually, they are forcing the ILECs to lease the lines out below market, which is quite a bit different than below cost. It doesn't make the situation much better, as the ILECs still "lose" money in the deal. But isn't that what competition is all about?
I was quite pleased with the backward compatibility. I can play Castlevania:Symphony of the Night without having to keep my PSOne hooked up on the main TV, which means the kids (very young kids) can have the PSOne to do whatever they please with!
If you didn't see this coming, you have some serious reality issues. This is the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the initial annoucement of the cracking attempt.
Take a look at the history of the Game Boy... there were plenty of minimal-change iterations, and none of them affected gameplay or development. The only ones that did make a difference were the Game Boy Color's release, and the GBA's release... oh, you were joking:p
As a poster above mentioned, the average FPS doesn't paint the whole picture. If the average is 120fps, I can pretty much guarantee that you will see dips below 72 Hz (in Quake 3). I personally tune my settings to the best that can maintain 75Hz during intense combat... and until I got my GF4 a while back, the settings were fairly low.
Completely valid points. I think that the freedom of using "anonymous cash" should never, ever disappear. However, when I want to have the convenience of instantaneous cashless transactions, I'd like to have it. When I roll through a McDonald's drive-thru it'd be nice to be able to just flash a badge and be done with it. When I want to buy an , I'll drop by the ATM beforehand...
In the future, credit cards may move to PIN-based authentication rather than hand-written signatures, and that will speed up checkout lines as well.
That would be awesome, since using my check card for debits costs me between $0.5 and $1 per transaction. Even faster than all that is my SpeedPass from Mobil... no PIN required (but don't let go of that sucker!). I'd love to see more than Exxon/Mobil gas station + food mart locations accepting SpeedPass, like, say, Arby's:)
I live near Washington, D.C., USA, and I rarely use cash... I have a "check card" that is basically a Mastercard that deducts directly from my checking account. Since I've started using it (about 3 years ago), I've found that carrying cash is more and more a pain in the ass. The only time I carry more than $20 cash is when I know I'm going somewhere that doesn't take Visa/MC... and the only place I can think of off the top of my head is a nightclub that I go to see shows (930 Club in D.C.). The crappy little deli in my office building takes credit, and now several local fast-food places (McD's and BK) take credit. Some of the other small restaurants I go to have an ATM on-location, and the check card is my ATM card as well.
Some people probably complain that using credit to pay for stuff takes longer than paying with cash, but many times recently, I've done unscientific timings. Basically, when the person in front of me in line is paying cash, and I plan to use my check card, I time how long it takes for the person to "move along" after the ringing-up of the purchase is finished. I've found that unless the cashier is quick with counting out change (or has an automatic coin-change-dispenser), paying with credit only takes about 5 seconds longer. Of course, some credit-payers are slow, probably from inexperience... I know I was when I first got the check card.
According to Pricewatch, GF4 TI 4200 64MB is $110 with free ground shipping. Overclockable to TI 4400 speeds with no modification.
It's no TI 4600 (or Radeon 9700 Pro), but it'll play every game on the market just as well (or at least nearly as well, for the 99.99% of gamers that can't tell the difference between 30 fps and 75 fps) as the Radeon.
However, Pricewatch is also showing the 9700 Pro for $232 including shipping, so take your pick. Given ATI's software track record, I am personally choosing to wait for Doom 3's performance to be tested on both...
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe it is just me, but is a game for linux really marketable? How many linux-only games have turned a profit? How many linux ports of other games have sold enough copies to make up for the porting effort?
How do you market a game to users of an OS that:
A) Is currently focused on servers
B) When "on the desktop," are being run (in general) by people who want all of their software to be free (beer and speech)
C) Is planning on making it harder for hardware vendors to create/distribute closed software in the form of drivers
If this ever gets off the ground (low chance), and if it makes it to completion (extrememly low chance), would it even sell enough to make up for the marketing costs? I worked on a game for free for a while, during which time I had a day job which was VERY slack (this was not long after working on a game for an actual game dev house/publisher). Even so, it took many months to get to the point where we even had an idea of the kinds of tools that would be required to generate/integrate the content into the engine.
I'd love to see this work, but realistically, it won't. Not at this point.
by Anonymous Coward
We now return you to the regular schedule of grunting, barbaric xenophobia and American diplomacy. Assuming there is a distinction.
Let me guess, you are French?
There's a big difference between xenophobia and lack of respect... respect is given where respect is earned
Game sequels are the game programers remaking the same game to push the latest hardware and add new things that at the time of the orignal game where not possible.
Actually, typical game sequels are the publishers/developer shops trying to make some "easy" money. A lot of the work is already done: name recognition, game design, internal toolsets. Some of the actual game code might be "reusable" as well, with some tweaking (or none, depending on the game).
I've worked in the game industry in the past, and this has been my experience... YMMV.
Not every launch. Just every launch that is accompanied by a filmed collision event. Remember, the day of launch, they knew something had fallen from the tank to the left wing. Sure, they all decided it was 3 oz. of foam and couldn't have done much damage. I think it's irresponsible, though, that no attempt was made to actually inspect the wing. A launch-collision event is an anomaly -- it requires extra effort.
Just the preparations and equipment needed to do this would add significant resource requirements. Consider the possibility that one of seven crew members would have to be available to perform the inspection. That crew member would have to be trained in his/her normal duties as well as the duties of a shuttle inspector.
And as many other people have mentioned, in the current (and forseeable future) state of affairs in manned orbital space flight, there really was no safe way to deal with any serious problem.
I have the utmost respect for our astronauts, but really, they must have known that the danger existed. How can one strap oneself to so much rocket fuel and not know that there is some level of danger? Until there is sufficient space infrastructure that such things (assuming it was damage caused before the re-entry sequence) can be repaired, that danger exists.
In the name of competition, the government is forcing the ILECs to lease their lines out below cost.
Actually, they are forcing the ILECs to lease the lines out below market, which is quite a bit different than below cost. It doesn't make the situation much better, as the ILECs still "lose" money in the deal. But isn't that what competition is all about?
actually, if all the bad guys had worn Groucho glasses
:)
Just wanted to let you know that I nearly had a mouthful of water forcefully ejected from my nose when I read that... WARN A GUY!
I didn't see the movie, but the comment "evil mirror images of the Star Trek Crew" made me wonder: did the evil mirror images have little goatees?
RULE Love me two times baby, once for tomorrow once cause I got AIDS!
Especially 16 1.75L bottles of liquor... that's just a little more expensive than 16 1.75's of Senator's Club Vodka
Apparently the Bar Monkey is serving Harvey Mudd's web site as well...
Don't you mean Service Pack 42? I mean, damn... three years and only one SP?
I was quite pleased with the backward compatibility. I can play Castlevania:Symphony of the Night without having to keep my PSOne hooked up on the main TV, which means the kids (very young kids) can have the PSOne to do whatever they please with!
If you didn't see this coming, you have some serious reality issues. This is the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the initial annoucement of the cracking attempt.
Take a look at the history of the Game Boy... there were plenty of minimal-change iterations, and none of them affected gameplay or development. The only ones that did make a difference were the Game Boy Color's release, and the GBA's release... oh, you were joking :p
As a poster above mentioned, the average FPS doesn't paint the whole picture. If the average is 120fps, I can pretty much guarantee that you will see dips below 72 Hz (in Quake 3). I personally tune my settings to the best that can maintain 75Hz during intense combat... and until I got my GF4 a while back, the settings were fairly low.
I think he meant the big AmigaOS comeback...
Completely valid points. I think that the freedom of using "anonymous cash" should never, ever disappear. However, when I want to have the convenience of instantaneous cashless transactions, I'd like to have it. When I roll through a McDonald's drive-thru it'd be nice to be able to just flash a badge and be done with it. When I want to buy an , I'll drop by the ATM beforehand...
In the future, credit cards may move to PIN-based authentication rather than hand-written signatures, and that will speed up checkout lines as well.
:)
That would be awesome, since using my check card for debits costs me between $0.5 and $1 per transaction. Even faster than all that is my SpeedPass from Mobil... no PIN required (but don't let go of that sucker!). I'd love to see more than Exxon/Mobil gas station + food mart locations accepting SpeedPass, like, say, Arby's
I live near Washington, D.C., USA, and I rarely use cash... I have a "check card" that is basically a Mastercard that deducts directly from my checking account. Since I've started using it (about 3 years ago), I've found that carrying cash is more and more a pain in the ass. The only time I carry more than $20 cash is when I know I'm going somewhere that doesn't take Visa/MC... and the only place I can think of off the top of my head is a nightclub that I go to see shows (930 Club in D.C.). The crappy little deli in my office building takes credit, and now several local fast-food places (McD's and BK) take credit. Some of the other small restaurants I go to have an ATM on-location, and the check card is my ATM card as well.
Some people probably complain that using credit to pay for stuff takes longer than paying with cash, but many times recently, I've done unscientific timings. Basically, when the person in front of me in line is paying cash, and I plan to use my check card, I time how long it takes for the person to "move along" after the ringing-up of the purchase is finished. I've found that unless the cashier is quick with counting out change (or has an automatic coin-change-dispenser), paying with credit only takes about 5 seconds longer. Of course, some credit-payers are slow, probably from inexperience... I know I was when I first got the check card.
Update: The PRO model is actually $276.
"I am personally choosing to wait for Doom 3's performance to be tested on both"
I meant the 9700 Pro and the GF FX.
According to Pricewatch, GF4 TI 4200 64MB is $110 with free ground shipping. Overclockable to TI 4400 speeds with no modification.
It's no TI 4600 (or Radeon 9700 Pro), but it'll play every game on the market just as well (or at least nearly as well, for the 99.99% of gamers that can't tell the difference between 30 fps and 75 fps) as the Radeon.
However, Pricewatch is also showing the 9700 Pro for $232 including shipping, so take your pick. Given ATI's software track record, I am personally choosing to wait for Doom 3's performance to be tested on both...
I wonder if the editor thought the same thing, didn't read it, and posted it!
I've said it before and I'll say it again:
D(uke) N(ukem) F(orever)
D(id) N(ot) F(inish)
Coincidence? Perhaps...
Yeah, but the total cost of an Xbox plus modchip > PS2 ethernet + Qcast... after all, Xbox costs $200 + 1 soul ;-)
Seriously though, for PS2 owners and people that aren't into the modchip scene, Qcast looks quite nice.
So they just need to add a smart wind system and some industrial strength fans!