"They give a suggested retail price, but if a developer wants to offer a game for $.50 they can."
MS has to be very wary of suggesting a price for games they do not publish... the legality is questionable, and they are still under watch by the FTC.
"And yes it is competitive pricing, and who does that benefit? The consumers."
Sure... in this case, I'd agree with you. Except I don't think this is MS "cutting gamers a break" at all, which was a point of my OP. MS "cutting gamers a break" would be to act outside of their own interests for the benefit of gamers. In this case, MS actions are withinh their own interests... so, they are really cutting themselves a break. The consumer being helped out is secondary.
Also, there is the possibility of predatory pricing -- though I don't think this is even remotely likely, since MS needs 3rd-party developers to try to establish 360 dominance of the console market.
If I were a game publisher and I was risking a ton of dev $$ on a game for a new console, and I was pretty certain that the game wouldn't have a markedly upgraded appearance over late-gen games for the previous console...
You can bet I'd publish a low-risk title like a sequel. Especially until my dev team was able to make better use of the next-gen capabilities.
FTA: "Official price points for games have also been released, and Microsoft Game Studios is cutting gamers a break on their three launch games (Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Kameo: Elements of Power). MGS-published games will retail for $49.99, and third-party games will sell for $59.99."
I really don't see how this is "cutting gamers a break." This is simply competitive pricing. MS is choosing to set a price that will increase sales on MSG games. Also, how will MS set the price on 3rd-party games? Seems shady to me.
Sure hope there's no retaliation by MS to retailers that want to offer a different price, say, $49.99 for third-party games, because that would be, you know, illegal.
FTA, it has more to do with Amazon giving free access to the API. Entrance of a third major player to the market would definitely make a difference, but IIRC, Ebay is losing marketshare to Amazon now.
Also, postings on Ebay resulting from use of the API are up to 22%, I'd guess that Ebay figured out they'd have greater revenue from the per-transaction seller's fees than from charging sellers to use the API, since the volume is high enough.
Not civil charges, not criminal charges. No lawsuit. Usage charges, you know... fees. What it costs you to access, use, or purchase something. In this case, FTA: "Its now-discontinued fee schedule ranged from $1.25 to $2.90 per thousand calls to the eBay engine, and annual membership fees ranging from $500 to $5,000"
As opposed to Amazon.com, FTA: "Amazon does not charge for use of web services interfaces to its core merchant site. Instead, it incentives such as customer referral commissions."
Though it should be noted that Amazon does charge "$0.00015 for each hit to the search engine beyond the 10,000-free transaction per month threshold" via Alexa Internet Services.
FTA: "Of the media companies' new experiments, Peter Storck, president of the Points North Group, a research firm, remarked, 'They are saying let's take the plunge, put the content out there, and figure out how to monetize it.'"
Yes, they'll put the content out before figuring out a business plan for this venture.
FTA: "'This is great goofy stuff that fans are going to love,' Mr. Storck of the Points North Group said."
What a stupid meaningless blurb, but does remind me of Carson.
BTW, Points North Group is a consulting firm, formerly called K-Town Group, that claims expertise in digital media.
Here's a choice quote of Storck's from 4/29/05 http://www.organic.com/about/news_detail.jsp?572:
"'The DVR will prove to be the beginning, the emancipation of marketing -- and content too, but marketing,' said Peter Storck, president of K-Town Group, speaking on a separate panel. 'In some months -- 13, 18, 24 -- the DVR is going to look like the torpedo that broke the dam and crated [sic, I think] new ways of marketing.'"
This guy sure has a way with metaphors. Sure wish he'd have a way with insight.
No, the difference between 'utilize' and 'use' is that when you 'utilize' something, you attempt to gain profit from the action. Not necessarily so, when you 'use' something.
"The only problem is that it seems that the fuel effiency is either misrepresented or not much of an advantage -- our Civic currently gets about 30 city / 34 highway. Consumer Reports has tested a Honda Civic Hybrid and gotten about 40 city / 36 highway, which is both far less than the 47 / 46 advertised, and not worth the $3,000"
Some of the discrepancy is due to driving style. If you romp on the gas, don't expect to see better mileage rates.
"For all we know almost everyone who wants to play videogames online already does."
Yes, for all we know, that is true. But, the number of people who want to play videogames online is growing faster than those people are dying off (this will continue for the next several decades, until the babyboomers croak).
Also, the number of people with access to the internet for gaming is growing. So I don't think we can say that the online videogame market isn't continuing to grow.
I'm familiar with those laws. But my post (and the OP) was about segregated housing, which initially was not codified. Segregated public services are a separate issue.
No. Just happen to believe that's the underlying reason people choose to group together when given the choice, and that's the easiest way of stating it. College was many years ago for me.
"Uh, yeah. Actually it started with slavery. And that's... yeah, that's slavery."
And how was slavery legally codified in early colonial history? It wasn't. Whether or not it was the choice of the individual to segregate, it was not forced by law.
What's really chilling is that people will claim someone else is ignorant, without bothering to point out where they are incorrect or ignorant. J00 R IGNORANT is not a comment even worth making.
Please, if I'm ignorant, clear up the situation by responding, or pointing out why my insight doesn't match up with the situation.
I'd like to know, because I'd rather NOT be ignorant.
Also, please take a look at the OP I responded to in my OP -- my comment was not a general comment about the situation in France, it was specifically to address a point (or a couple points) made in a prior post.
Depends on the game. Typically, Australia is much easier to conquer early in the game, when 2 armies per turn is very significant & can't be busted by a card trade-in.
The Americas are typically hotly contested, plus everyone is aware how powerful someone holding them is once they get settled -- so the other players will make sure you can't hold it.
Actually, Beverly Hills is not ethnically segregated -- it is segregated by wealth. It happens to be that there is a correlation between race and extreme wealth, which is why there are fewer minorities in Beverly Hills.
At the lower end of the income spectrum, there is a lot more diversity of ethnicity, both here in the US and in France. If you look at neighborhhods inhabited by the poor, they do tend to segregate themselves by ethnicity -- people live where they can communicate with their supers, their neighbors, and the people working at shops and restaurants locally. Shared language is a big part of it, shared culture the other.
But if you look at historical segregation in the US, it was initially not a legal issue -- people segregated by choice. And yet it became a huge problem, because of ethnic discrimination, and because of inequal access to public resources (such as police protection, education, transportation, etc). And the fact of the matter remains, that much of the US is still segregated -- yet not formally, and (hopefully) less so every year. However, there is public awareness of the issue, and lots of people working to ensure that public resources are distributed fairly across ethnically segregated localities, and to make sure that public institutions are not segregated.
A lot of areas in France are segregated, though not by legal decree. This is not a problem. The problem is that there is the perception among some people that they are not getting an equitable share of public resources. This is often enabled by segregation, since it's just a matter of reduced funding for public programs in certain areas.
Whether it's intentional racism or not, whether people were segregated by force or by choice, doesn't matter. What matters is that government take the responsibilty that resources are NOT allocated inequitably by race.
If it's a cube, you only have to specify one dimension. But it sounds silly & confusing to say a "3 cube," so people say "3 by 3 cube," and notate as 3x3 cube.
"I bought the "DualDisc" version of the Trey Anastasio CD they show in the EFF write-up. Every time I put it in my 10 year old Sony CD player, it makes a horrible racket."
Funny, same thing happens when my wife plays the Celine Dion CD. But I think in my case, the horrible racket is the intended output.
FTA: "According to enthusiast site ActiveWin, Microsoft plans to launch the console in the California desert during an event billed as "Burning Man meets E3"--references to a popular Nevada desert arts festival and the computer game industry's annual trade show."
Say what? Admittedly, Burning Man has gotten a little commercial in the past couple years, but how is a MS product release anything like Burning Man, other than possibly being in the desert? And how can it be compared to E3, where multiple suppliers/vendors are marketing their product? Are Nintendo and Sony invited to put up major displays?
[sarcasm]Tell you what, come down to my neighborhood pub for my record release party, it'll be like a cross between Woodstock I and GenCon. I promise.[/sarcasm]
"Because most of these consoles are top-loading, this means both that you need to have the unit in an area where you can reach the top easily (and grasp the disc/cartridge), and it also means you need quite a bit of vertical space so that you can lift up that disc/cartridge."
$15 at a hardware store, or $2 at a junkyard, will get you sliders to mount the shelf on, so you don't need as much vertical space -- just slide the shelf out to change the disc/cartridge. This is also very useful when/if you need to fiddle with the connections in the back, and to clean and dust.
Very easy to mount, aligning them properly takes a bit of patience, but well worth it.
Notes: Make sure to leave some vertical clearance space anyway, for airflow.
BTW, this product is a result of DARPA-funded research at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Here's some info from 2002 about research in progress on batteries (you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the part about formic acid research at UI-UC). http://www.batteriesdigest.com/broad_spedtrum.htm
I've snipped the bit on formic acid cells: "The University of Illinois is investigating small formic acid micro fuel cells. These cells run successfully with formic acid concentrations between 5 and 20 M with little crossover or degradation in performance. Formic acid has a lower power density than methanol , but it provides higher peak power and easier water management with little crossover. Formic acid fuel cells also produce higher open circuit potentials and current densities."
Slashdot Mirror
"They give a suggested retail price, but if a developer wants to offer a game for $.50 they can."
MS has to be very wary of suggesting a price for games they do not publish... the legality is questionable, and they are still under watch by the FTC.
"And yes it is competitive pricing, and who does that benefit? The consumers."
Sure... in this case, I'd agree with you. Except I don't think this is MS "cutting gamers a break" at all, which was a point of my OP. MS "cutting gamers a break" would be to act outside of their own interests for the benefit of gamers. In this case, MS actions are withinh their own interests... so, they are really cutting themselves a break. The consumer being helped out is secondary.
Also, there is the possibility of predatory pricing -- though I don't think this is even remotely likely, since MS needs 3rd-party developers to try to establish 360 dominance of the console market.
If I were a game publisher and I was risking a ton of dev $$ on a game for a new console, and I was pretty certain that the game wouldn't have a markedly upgraded appearance over late-gen games for the previous console...
You can bet I'd publish a low-risk title like a sequel. Especially until my dev team was able to make better use of the next-gen capabilities.
FTA: "Official price points for games have also been released, and Microsoft Game Studios is cutting gamers a break on their three launch games (Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Kameo: Elements of Power). MGS-published games will retail for $49.99, and third-party games will sell for $59.99."
I really don't see how this is "cutting gamers a break." This is simply competitive pricing. MS is choosing to set a price that will increase sales on MSG games. Also, how will MS set the price on 3rd-party games? Seems shady to me.
Sure hope there's no retaliation by MS to retailers that want to offer a different price, say, $49.99 for third-party games, because that would be, you know, illegal.
FTA, it has more to do with Amazon giving free access to the API. Entrance of a third major player to the market would definitely make a difference, but IIRC, Ebay is losing marketshare to Amazon now.
Also, postings on Ebay resulting from use of the API are up to 22%, I'd guess that Ebay figured out they'd have greater revenue from the per-transaction seller's fees than from charging sellers to use the API, since the volume is high enough.
"has a damn typo in it... are all editors just going to crap these days?"
Editors cost money. Good editors cost more money. Spellcheck is free. Spelling errors are easily corrected in online publications.
It's not the editors that suck, it's the companies who do not place high value on well-edited work.
RTFA.
Not civil charges, not criminal charges. No lawsuit. Usage charges, you know... fees. What it costs you to access, use, or purchase something. In this case, FTA: "Its now-discontinued fee schedule ranged from $1.25 to $2.90 per thousand calls to the eBay engine, and annual membership fees ranging from $500 to $5,000"
As opposed to Amazon.com, FTA: "Amazon does not charge for use of web services interfaces to its core merchant site. Instead, it incentives such as customer referral commissions."
Though it should be noted that Amazon does charge "$0.00015 for each hit to the search engine beyond the 10,000-free transaction per month threshold" via Alexa Internet Services.
This tech is in competition with DVRs, and so can't limit itself to looking only at current internet users.
Also, AOL/TW will produce a set-top box, like a DVR, so that people currently without internet access can still participate.
Ignoring the extended market is just as big an error as getting distracted from your core market.
FTA: "Of the media companies' new experiments, Peter Storck, president of the Points North Group, a research firm, remarked, 'They are saying let's take the plunge, put the content out there, and figure out how to monetize it.'"
Yes, they'll put the content out before figuring out a business plan for this venture.
FTA: "'This is great goofy stuff that fans are going to love,' Mr. Storck of the Points North Group said."
What a stupid meaningless blurb, but does remind me of Carson.
BTW, Points North Group is a consulting firm, formerly called K-Town Group, that claims expertise in digital media.
Here's a choice quote of Storck's from 4/29/05 http://www.organic.com/about/news_detail.jsp?572:
"'The DVR will prove to be the beginning, the emancipation of marketing -- and content too, but marketing,' said Peter Storck, president of K-Town Group, speaking on a separate panel. 'In some months -- 13, 18, 24 -- the DVR is going to look like the torpedo that broke the dam and crated [sic, I think] new ways of marketing.'"
This guy sure has a way with metaphors. Sure wish he'd have a way with insight.
No, the difference between 'utilize' and 'use' is that when you 'utilize' something, you attempt to gain profit from the action. Not necessarily so, when you 'use' something.
"The only problem is that it seems that the fuel effiency is either misrepresented or not much of an advantage -- our Civic currently gets about 30 city / 34 highway. Consumer Reports has tested a Honda Civic Hybrid and gotten about 40 city / 36 highway, which is both far less than the 47 / 46 advertised, and not worth the $3,000"
b rid-school-usat_x.htm?csp=34
Some of the discrepancy is due to driving style. If you romp on the gas, don't expect to see better mileage rates.
Ford actually has a program to teach people how to get the best fuel efficiency from their hybrids:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-10-14-hy
Thanks for the tip, I'll do it.
"For all we know almost everyone who wants to play videogames online already does."
Yes, for all we know, that is true. But, the number of people who want to play videogames online is growing faster than those people are dying off (this will continue for the next several decades, until the babyboomers croak).
Also, the number of people with access to the internet for gaming is growing. So I don't think we can say that the online videogame market isn't continuing to grow.
I'm familiar with those laws. But my post (and the OP) was about segregated housing, which initially was not codified. Segregated public services are a separate issue.
"Just come from Anthro 101, did you?"
No. Just happen to believe that's the underlying reason people choose to group together when given the choice, and that's the easiest way of stating it. College was many years ago for me.
"Uh, yeah. Actually it started with slavery. And that's... yeah, that's slavery."
And how was slavery legally codified in early colonial history? It wasn't. Whether or not it was the choice of the individual to segregate, it was not forced by law.
What's really chilling is that people will claim someone else is ignorant, without bothering to point out where they are incorrect or ignorant. J00 R IGNORANT is not a comment even worth making.
Please, if I'm ignorant, clear up the situation by responding, or pointing out why my insight doesn't match up with the situation.
I'd like to know, because I'd rather NOT be ignorant.
Also, please take a look at the OP I responded to in my OP -- my comment was not a general comment about the situation in France, it was specifically to address a point (or a couple points) made in a prior post.
Depends on the game. Typically, Australia is much easier to conquer early in the game, when 2 armies per turn is very significant & can't be busted by a card trade-in.
The Americas are typically hotly contested, plus everyone is aware how powerful someone holding them is once they get settled -- so the other players will make sure you can't hold it.
"Part of the trouble in France is that the government is prohibited from keeping any race/ethnicity related statistics."
Youch. I wasn't aware of that. It's chilling that a government would legally bind itself to stick its head in the sand.
The initial research that the product is based on was done at University of Chicago -- Urbana Champaign. Is Urbana-Champaign in France now?
"Beverly Hills is 'ethnically segregated' too."
Actually, Beverly Hills is not ethnically segregated -- it is segregated by wealth. It happens to be that there is a correlation between race and extreme wealth, which is why there are fewer minorities in Beverly Hills.
At the lower end of the income spectrum, there is a lot more diversity of ethnicity, both here in the US and in France. If you look at neighborhhods inhabited by the poor, they do tend to segregate themselves by ethnicity -- people live where they can communicate with their supers, their neighbors, and the people working at shops and restaurants locally. Shared language is a big part of it, shared culture the other.
But if you look at historical segregation in the US, it was initially not a legal issue -- people segregated by choice. And yet it became a huge problem, because of ethnic discrimination, and because of inequal access to public resources (such as police protection, education, transportation, etc). And the fact of the matter remains, that much of the US is still segregated -- yet not formally, and (hopefully) less so every year. However, there is public awareness of the issue, and lots of people working to ensure that public resources are distributed fairly across ethnically segregated localities, and to make sure that public institutions are not segregated.
A lot of areas in France are segregated, though not by legal decree. This is not a problem. The problem is that there is the perception among some people that they are not getting an equitable share of public resources. This is often enabled by segregation, since it's just a matter of reduced funding for public programs in certain areas.
Whether it's intentional racism or not, whether people were segregated by force or by choice, doesn't matter. What matters is that government take the responsibilty that resources are NOT allocated inequitably by race.
If it's a cube, you only have to specify one dimension. But it sounds silly & confusing to say a "3 cube," so people say "3 by 3 cube," and notate as 3x3 cube.
"I bought the "DualDisc" version of the Trey Anastasio CD they show in the EFF write-up. Every time I put it in my 10 year old Sony CD player, it makes a horrible racket."
Funny, same thing happens when my wife plays the Celine Dion CD. But I think in my case, the horrible racket is the intended output.
FTA: "According to enthusiast site ActiveWin, Microsoft plans to launch the console in the California desert during an event billed as "Burning Man meets E3"--references to a popular Nevada desert arts festival and the computer game industry's annual trade show."
Say what? Admittedly, Burning Man has gotten a little commercial in the past couple years, but how is a MS product release anything like Burning Man, other than possibly being in the desert? And how can it be compared to E3, where multiple suppliers/vendors are marketing their product? Are Nintendo and Sony invited to put up major displays?
[sarcasm]Tell you what, come down to my neighborhood pub for my record release party, it'll be like a cross between Woodstock I and GenCon. I promise.[/sarcasm]
"Because most of these consoles are top-loading, this means both that you need to have the unit in an area where you can reach the top easily (and grasp the disc/cartridge), and it also means you need quite a bit of vertical space so that you can lift up that disc/cartridge."
$15 at a hardware store, or $2 at a junkyard, will get you sliders to mount the shelf on, so you don't need as much vertical space -- just slide the shelf out to change the disc/cartridge. This is also very useful when/if you need to fiddle with the connections in the back, and to clean and dust.
Very easy to mount, aligning them properly takes a bit of patience, but well worth it.
Notes: Make sure to leave some vertical clearance space anyway, for airflow.
BTW, this product is a result of DARPA-funded research at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Here's some info from 2002 about research in progress on batteries (you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the part about formic acid research at UI-UC).
http://www.batteriesdigest.com/broad_spedtrum.htm
I've snipped the bit on formic acid cells: "The University of Illinois is investigating small formic acid micro fuel cells. These cells run successfully with formic acid concentrations between 5 and 20 M with little crossover or degradation in performance. Formic acid has a lower power density than methanol , but it provides higher peak power and easier water management with little crossover. Formic acid fuel cells also produce higher open circuit potentials and current densities."
If you're referring to the wet spot, I think the question would be:
"Is that your phone or were you happy to see me?"