"This case has huge implications for OSS projects with coders in the U.S., as it may inhibit, among other things, the ability of American coders to contribute to projects that violate U.S. software patents."
It seems like they're talking about closing a pretty major legal loophole here. Why shouldn't it be illegal for an American in America to violate American patent law? I mean, if you want to say that software patents should be illegal anyway, that's fine, but preserving a loophole in the law probably isn't the best way to change the status quo...
Yeah, and they shouldn't let Britney Spears upload her latest single, it sucks!...c'mon, dude, you know that if some video podcast show started whining that Apple wouldn't let them post their shows because it didn't meet their "high-res quality standards," the Slashdot whining about Apple arrogance/Naziism would be twice as long and virulent.
Mac: How about if I load up Windows? PC: Oh, s'cool then. Mac: It sure is great that this is the year 2006, when any Mac new enough to run top-end games can also boot into Windows, isn't it? PC: Yeah, truly this is an era when only those addicted to outdated tropes continue to bitch about Mac gaming. Mac: Indeed.
"What's even more exasperating about this situation is that Kerry wouldn't have had the power to change the abortion laws and Bush hasn't done a damn thing about them either. This makes the "my body my right" crowd just as idiotic."
While I agree that abortion is focused on too much in American political point, you're wrong here. Bush appointed two conservative Supreme Court justices, who are much more likely than any potential Kerry appointee to overturn earlier court decisions on abortion.
It seems like a lot of Costikyan's beliefs about "what gamers want" are just examples of wishful thinking based on what's good for (small) developers. Apparently we don't want good graphics or up-to-date features; we should be just as willing to pay $20 for a game from 2002 as we are to pay the same for a game from 2006. We also don't want pricy next-gen graphics, complex multi-player options, talented voice acting, expansive gameworlds, or anything else that makes it expensive to design a modern game. Nope, we want "gameplay," that mystical quality that sold a billion copies of Tetris and Pac-Man.
I don't think the facts bear him out on this. Well, let me qualify that; gamers DO want good gameplay, but we're also most willing to pay good money for games that are on the cutting edge in terms of graphics and the rest of it. I know when *I* saw the trailers for White Knight Tale and Bioshock, I started wishing I had ludicrous amount of money to blow on an Xbox 360 or PS3.
To focus on this article in particular, of COURSE people aren't willing to pay as much for older games. Just look at all the posts here on Slashdot complaining about the prices Nintendo is charging for its classic games through the Wii online dealie; for modern gamers, $5 is too much to pay for some of the best gameplay in history when the game itself is decades out of date. Sure, $60+ is a silly amount to charge for games, but it's not extortion or anything. Gamers know they can just wait a couple months for the price to go down. The people who pay $70 for a new game are the ones who think it's WORTH $70 to have it NOW. Why would a game-maker NOT want to make it available to them? And likewise, I'm sure game-makers would charge $20 for 10-year-old games if anyone was willing to pay that much, but quite simply, they're not. It's not like publishers are intentionally ignoring this viable revenue stream from people who are lining up to pay for old games; there's simply no market for them. Saying that games aren't fruit doesn't change that.
From my understanding, the "Made in the USA" thing was just another publicity tactic to raise Walmart's profile, because even then everybody hated them.
"There is one avenue of harmony that seems to pervade all people, regardless of race, color, creed and ethnicity. It is a unifying factor that calls to it men and women, young and old, from every stretch of the nation and the world beyond. It is the world of games - particularly video/online games."
Except the vast majority of gamers are white males. I like how the article writer's counter to this is that IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND MOVIES, there are a lot of non-whites playing video games... interesting metric there.
And except that most online gaming communities are fuller of racist swears than any real-world place I've seen - probably mostly from bored preteens trying to get a rise out of people by saying Something Naughty, but still.
And except that as soon as any actual evidence of race or ethnicity comes into the mix - as soon as people find out someone is gay or female or black or whatever "IRL" - you're stuck with the same old racial stereotypes and assumptions again. Usually amplified because of the aforementioned intolerant attitude of gaming communities.
Everyone keeps getting modded up for variations on this comment, like Slashdot as a whole has conveniently forgotten that Congress does stuff like extending copyright every time Disney has its lobbyists ask real nicely.
You don't think these software companies, and especially useless leach-on-society patent-hoarding lawsuit wranglers, will be sucking up to Congress to extend patents in another couple decades?
*waves fingers three inches in front of Ada_Rules's eyes*
Think of it this way. The airplane belongs to the airline and they're letting us ride it, so they get to make the rules about what we do in it. It's in their best interest to keep the passengers happy on the whole. (They often fail miserably at this, but anyway.) Passengers will be happier if they don't have to listen to the guy next to them yakking away. So the airline says you can only sit on their plane if you promise not to call anyone until you land.
Sound like an unfair deal? Flap yours arms really hard and enjoy your trans-Atlantic sojourn. It's your right, after all.
"Given the outright failure of other music services, it is clear that users prefer DRM-free music, and are willing to pay for it and take the trouble to rip it."
...OR, this data could suggest that when people want to pay money for music, they want to see a physical copy of it in their hands.
...OR, it could be that they prefer a lossless CD-quality copy of the music to a compressed AAC copy (which is a difference unrelated to DRM, as has been copiously discussed on this thread).
But no, I'm sure all those millions of iPod owners out there are just as concerned about their "consumer rights" as the readers of Slashdot.
Um, WoW has about 1 million subscribers in Europe and 1.5-2 million in the US market. If you want to discount all the Asian markets, the chart would look even MORE lopsided: EQ et al. would have under 300k, WoW would have 3 million, and Lineage I & II and Runescape wouldn't even be there in between.
It's called a "framework."
on
Remaking The World
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
And it's not exactly a revolutionary concept - it seems like pretty much every stage play written in the past 20 years has at least one scene with audience participation, "breaking the fourth wall," or something of the kind.
For that matter, Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance does almost the exact same thing. (You play as a kid sucked into a video game.)
And, of course, there was an entire huge four-novel series ("Otherland," written by Tad Williams) with pretty much the exact same plot years ago, even down to the "kids playing an MMO fall into mysterious comas" aspect.
Personally, the framework strikes me as kind of cutesy and ineffective in a video game context, because the writers have to strive to make us care about TWO levels of characters when it's hard enough to make us care about one.
But an even FAIRER comparison will be to do exactly what they did and let us know how much consumers can expect to PAY for it.
Why should we, as customers, care how much money the manufacturer and retailer are making? I wanna know what it's going to cost ME. The prices listed are in the format customers expect: sales tax not included for the US, VAT included for Europe.
"I love how in these comments where they kiss Nintendo's backside, they always point to their own console."
It's an old rhetorical strategy: act like Nintendo is so beneath your notice as a competitor that you can afford to indulge them. The way Sony and Microsoft see it, they're currently regarded as the forerunners in this generation, with Wii retaining Nintendo's "kiddie" reputation among hardcore gamers. So they take pains to reinforce that perception: they paint Wee as a fun toy, but not as real competition.
Of course, they're probably partly right. Nintendo ISN'T aiming for the "hardcore" demographic specifically; they seem to be trying to pull an iPod and make a nerdy gadget into a trendy accessory. Here's hoping they succeed; gamers could certainly use the added cultural cache, and Nintendo games do tend to be genuinely FUN in a way few others even attempt.
Funny, I had the opposite problem with Ubuntu. XP installed my (dirt common) PCI wireless networking card just fine, but Ubuntu couldn't figure the darn thing out. Even after I got the drivers installed and ndiswrapper figured out, it keeps saying there's no signal (despite five-bar reception in Windows). I could probably find a solution if I was willing to get help from the Ubuntu forums and so on, but it's still pretty annoying.
In other words, I don't think you can give the clear advantage to Linux here.
You don't have to research the factual details of those sites to realize that what they contain is NOT an attempt at "newsgathering." Go look at the quote cited by the great-great... um, ancestor post again.
"Is it really tacky of me to smile at the nightly scenes on TV showing Arab, Afghani and Pakistani Muslims bombing mosques and killing their Muslim brothers, sisters and children at a brisk pace because that's all they know how to do?"
Regardless of whether it's accurate or not, this is not news. This is opinion. It should not be linked as a news story. To link it as a news story is to dismiss the entire concept of unbiased journalism. The fact that I disagree with the opinion is beside the point; I wouldn't want Google News to link MoveOn.org either, because it is NOT NEWS.
Slashdot Mirror
"This case has huge implications for OSS projects with coders in the U.S., as it may inhibit, among other things, the ability of American coders to contribute to projects that violate U.S. software patents."
It seems like they're talking about closing a pretty major legal loophole here. Why shouldn't it be illegal for an American in America to violate American patent law? I mean, if you want to say that software patents should be illegal anyway, that's fine, but preserving a loophole in the law probably isn't the best way to change the status quo...
Yeah, and they shouldn't let Britney Spears upload her latest single, it sucks! ...c'mon, dude, you know that if some video podcast show started whining that Apple wouldn't let them post their shows because it didn't meet their "high-res quality standards," the Slashdot whining about Apple arrogance/Naziism would be twice as long and virulent.
"But, please, please! No CD-i." Aw, how will I complete my Zelda game collection? :-(
As soon as the RIAA and MPAA decided to go along with "pirate" as the preferred term for a downloader of unlicensed material.
If they could've gotten people talking about music "thievery" or even something dry like "unlicensed copying," people might take them seriously.
But "piracy"... how the heck can we consider it a serious offense? ARR, MATEYS!
...but will it run Linux?
Mac: How about if I load up Windows?
PC: Oh, s'cool then.
Mac: It sure is great that this is the year 2006, when any Mac new enough to run top-end games can also boot into Windows, isn't it?
PC: Yeah, truly this is an era when only those addicted to outdated tropes continue to bitch about Mac gaming.
Mac: Indeed.
Scale down the icons, genius.
OSX works fine on pretty much anything from the first-gen iMac on up, although you might have to add some more memory for the older models.
"What's even more exasperating about this situation is that Kerry wouldn't have had the power to change the abortion laws and Bush hasn't done a damn thing about them either. This makes the "my body my right" crowd just as idiotic."
While I agree that abortion is focused on too much in American political point, you're wrong here. Bush appointed two conservative Supreme Court justices, who are much more likely than any potential Kerry appointee to overturn earlier court decisions on abortion.
It seems like a lot of Costikyan's beliefs about "what gamers want" are just examples of wishful thinking based on what's good for (small) developers. Apparently we don't want good graphics or up-to-date features; we should be just as willing to pay $20 for a game from 2002 as we are to pay the same for a game from 2006. We also don't want pricy next-gen graphics, complex multi-player options, talented voice acting, expansive gameworlds, or anything else that makes it expensive to design a modern game. Nope, we want "gameplay," that mystical quality that sold a billion copies of Tetris and Pac-Man.
I don't think the facts bear him out on this. Well, let me qualify that; gamers DO want good gameplay, but we're also most willing to pay good money for games that are on the cutting edge in terms of graphics and the rest of it. I know when *I* saw the trailers for White Knight Tale and Bioshock, I started wishing I had ludicrous amount of money to blow on an Xbox 360 or PS3.
To focus on this article in particular, of COURSE people aren't willing to pay as much for older games. Just look at all the posts here on Slashdot complaining about the prices Nintendo is charging for its classic games through the Wii online dealie; for modern gamers, $5 is too much to pay for some of the best gameplay in history when the game itself is decades out of date. Sure, $60+ is a silly amount to charge for games, but it's not extortion or anything. Gamers know they can just wait a couple months for the price to go down. The people who pay $70 for a new game are the ones who think it's WORTH $70 to have it NOW. Why would a game-maker NOT want to make it available to them? And likewise, I'm sure game-makers would charge $20 for 10-year-old games if anyone was willing to pay that much, but quite simply, they're not. It's not like publishers are intentionally ignoring this viable revenue stream from people who are lining up to pay for old games; there's simply no market for them. Saying that games aren't fruit doesn't change that.
From my understanding, the "Made in the USA" thing was just another publicity tactic to raise Walmart's profile, because even then everybody hated them.
"There is one avenue of harmony that seems to pervade all people, regardless of race, color, creed and ethnicity. It is a unifying factor that calls to it men and women, young and old, from every stretch of the nation and the world beyond. It is the world of games - particularly video/online games."
Except the vast majority of gamers are white males. I like how the article writer's counter to this is that IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND MOVIES, there are a lot of non-whites playing video games... interesting metric there.
And except that most online gaming communities are fuller of racist swears than any real-world place I've seen - probably mostly from bored preteens trying to get a rise out of people by saying Something Naughty, but still.
And except that as soon as any actual evidence of race or ethnicity comes into the mix - as soon as people find out someone is gay or female or black or whatever "IRL" - you're stuck with the same old racial stereotypes and assumptions again. Usually amplified because of the aforementioned intolerant attitude of gaming communities.
Everyone keeps getting modded up for variations on this comment, like Slashdot as a whole has conveniently forgotten that Congress does stuff like extending copyright every time Disney has its lobbyists ask real nicely. You don't think these software companies, and especially useless leach-on-society patent-hoarding lawsuit wranglers, will be sucking up to Congress to extend patents in another couple decades?
*waves fingers three inches in front of Ada_Rules's eyes*
Think of it this way. The airplane belongs to the airline and they're letting us ride it, so they get to make the rules about what we do in it. It's in their best interest to keep the passengers happy on the whole. (They often fail miserably at this, but anyway.) Passengers will be happier if they don't have to listen to the guy next to them yakking away. So the airline says you can only sit on their plane if you promise not to call anyone until you land.
Sound like an unfair deal? Flap yours arms really hard and enjoy your trans-Atlantic sojourn. It's your right, after all.
Because this vinyl craze is another retro thing, and if you're gonna go retro you go back 20 years, not 5.
Actually, I'm pretty sure Team Fortress 2 has been "upcoming" since the last Golden Age of gaming...
"Given the outright failure of other music services, it is clear that users prefer DRM-free music, and are willing to pay for it and take the trouble to rip it."
But no, I'm sure all those millions of iPod owners out there are just as concerned about their "consumer rights" as the readers of Slashdot.
Then you should go click on the "Analysis" link on the side there and actually read it.
Um, WoW has about 1 million subscribers in Europe and 1.5-2 million in the US market. If you want to discount all the Asian markets, the chart would look even MORE lopsided: EQ et al. would have under 300k, WoW would have 3 million, and Lineage I & II and Runescape wouldn't even be there in between.
And it's not exactly a revolutionary concept - it seems like pretty much every stage play written in the past 20 years has at least one scene with audience participation, "breaking the fourth wall," or something of the kind.
For that matter, Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance does almost the exact same thing. (You play as a kid sucked into a video game.)
And, of course, there was an entire huge four-novel series ("Otherland," written by Tad Williams) with pretty much the exact same plot years ago, even down to the "kids playing an MMO fall into mysterious comas" aspect.
Personally, the framework strikes me as kind of cutesy and ineffective in a video game context, because the writers have to strive to make us care about TWO levels of characters when it's hard enough to make us care about one.
You think the Wii is going to be able to hook up to Internet2? The research university pipeline? Really?
I think it's fair to say that Wii only will be surfing the singular-Internet-with-a-capital-"I", and Zonk was being colloquial.
But an even FAIRER comparison will be to do exactly what they did and let us know how much consumers can expect to PAY for it.
Why should we, as customers, care how much money the manufacturer and retailer are making? I wanna know what it's going to cost ME. The prices listed are in the format customers expect: sales tax not included for the US, VAT included for Europe.
"I love how in these comments where they kiss Nintendo's backside, they always point to their own console."
It's an old rhetorical strategy: act like Nintendo is so beneath your notice as a competitor that you can afford to indulge them. The way Sony and Microsoft see it, they're currently regarded as the forerunners in this generation, with Wii retaining Nintendo's "kiddie" reputation among hardcore gamers. So they take pains to reinforce that perception: they paint Wee as a fun toy, but not as real competition.
Of course, they're probably partly right. Nintendo ISN'T aiming for the "hardcore" demographic specifically; they seem to be trying to pull an iPod and make a nerdy gadget into a trendy accessory. Here's hoping they succeed; gamers could certainly use the added cultural cache, and Nintendo games do tend to be genuinely FUN in a way few others even attempt.
Funny, I had the opposite problem with Ubuntu. XP installed my (dirt common) PCI wireless networking card just fine, but Ubuntu couldn't figure the darn thing out. Even after I got the drivers installed and ndiswrapper figured out, it keeps saying there's no signal (despite five-bar reception in Windows). I could probably find a solution if I was willing to get help from the Ubuntu forums and so on, but it's still pretty annoying.
In other words, I don't think you can give the clear advantage to Linux here.
You don't have to research the factual details of those sites to realize that what they contain is NOT an attempt at "newsgathering." Go look at the quote cited by the great-great... um, ancestor post again.
"Is it really tacky of me to smile at the nightly scenes on TV showing Arab, Afghani and Pakistani Muslims bombing mosques and killing their Muslim brothers, sisters and children at a brisk pace because that's all they know how to do?"
Regardless of whether it's accurate or not, this is not news. This is opinion. It should not be linked as a news story. To link it as a news story is to dismiss the entire concept of unbiased journalism. The fact that I disagree with the opinion is beside the point; I wouldn't want Google News to link MoveOn.org either, because it is NOT NEWS.