The reason these industry experts push crap like high-definition as the FUTURE of gaming is because its something quantifiable. To the average ignorant consumer, if you can impress them with the flashy graphics they'll perceive that as a mark of progress.
Truly innovative gameplay, however, is less quantifiable. It isn't necessarily something you can immediately identify, especially if you've been trained to believe that flashy graphics are the epitomy of innovation. The second risk here is that the consumer isn't necessarily going to like your brand of gameplay, regardless of how innovative it is.
This idea that improved graphics will somehow spur innovation and enable new forms of gameplay is nothing but marketing crap. I'd argue that the Atari 2600 fostered far more creativity than any gaming platform out there today. A developer really had to stretch his imagination to turn a bunch of blocks into some kind of cohesive and entertaining gameplay. Some of those early developers were more innovative and creative than a legion of developers today.
Recreating realism in the form of a game shows the progress hardware has made. On the other hand, it shows a complete lack of imagination on the part of the developer who can't do anything other than copy what was seen in a photograph, and that's not taking into account how badly developers rip off each others' ideas.
From what I've seen IGN is the only site giving this positive reviews. Everyone else says the console is crap. I guess IGN has sold their advertising services in the form of a review, yet again.
And these guys aren't the only ones saying the system is terrible.
Basically it's nothing more than one of those cheap, Chinese Nintendo clones with a NES-type shell. The creators of this system claim this thing has a custom IC with care put into it's design to ensure maximum compatibility. Then it turns out the thing isn't compatible with many games and doesn't quite run others properly.
What I find funny is the IGN site mentioning how innaccurate emulators supposedly are, especially in light of how bad this thing is.
My recommendation is to go out and find the original NES for $20. Either that or find the original Chinese clone. It might have an ugly looking shell, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than this thing.
This is bullshit. This is Europe trying to manipulate the market to give domestic countries the advantage. This is an activity every nation engages in, Europe is just particularly aggressive about it.
If Microsoft were a European company the EU would merrily encourage these same practices and ensure that it would continue to thrive indefinitely.
The consequence of a free market is that there's a risk of one company growing too dominant. I'm all for legislation where necessary. I don't think it's necessary with Microsoft.
Microsoft doesn't prevent anyone from installing a different operating system on their machine. You can have a single machine booting Linux and Windows, with no problem.
Within Windows you can install whatever the hell you want. I can use IM instead of MSN Messenger, Quicktime instead of Windows Media Player, or Firefox instead of Explorer. And the Windows applications aren't going to harass you over it. Try that with a Mac. I still have Mac OS preview and Apple's Quicktime trying to open files they dont even support. I still Macs own email program occassionally popping up. And I have to go into Apple's Safari to set another application as the default. Imagine if Apple were the dominant platform, we'd see far more strict control of our PCs than we do under Windows.
If you don't like Windows develop a damn realistic alternative. Everyone wants their own special version of Linux but no one knows how to organize the movement into a true replacement to Windows. One that doesnt require the average user to understand the intricacies of an operating system or to hunt for specific drivers for every damn device they've got.
Actually, there is a realistic alternative which may actually even be popular. Mac OS X. But no one has managed to convince Apple to produce a PC version.
So who's fault is this? It is Microsoft's fault for being successful? Microsoft may have done some despicable things, and their software is bloated and fraught with problems. However, what they do they do well; they've been able to effectively address the needs of many users.
Let's not be naive here, Microsoft hasn't done anything that most other companies, European, Asian or American haven't done, or wouldn't do if they were in the same situation.
Windows will be replaced by something else eventually. I just hope its because a better product has come along, not because governments have forced a crap alternative on us thanks to their idiotic anti-competitive legislation.
What's funny is that the over-zealous anti-Microsoft people are the very same people would would be anti-Linux if that had been the standard.
The fact that people continue to play that trash is a testament to the power of the Star Wars franchise. I'm sure the game as some great features, but I think the problems and Sony's business practices far overshadow anything positive. Other games have failed for less. If Galaxies had been a generic fantasy game the servers would have already been shut down.
That's true, and it's why consoles have thrived in Japan. On the other hand, who doesn't have a computer in this country? And how hard is it to install a game nowadays? It certainly isn't the ordeal it used to be in the early days of PC gaming.
Put in a CD, wait for the autoplay to bring up the initial interface and click on "install". When it's done, double click on the icon the game puts on your desktop. That's the most work most users have to do.
Consoles are certainly easier to deal with, but that isn't going to last long. Hard drives on consoles are slowly becoming the standard. They're turning into PCs, it's as simple as that.
And you don't need the latest hardware to play any of the current games. Even at lower detail settings you still get better graphics than you'll find on consoles.
This way I can set the keyboard any way I choose, whether it be QWERTY, Dvorak, or any other way that fits my needs. And I can also program it for specific functions, in gaming for example. The best part is that the keys reflect those changes.
There are already a few novel keyboards like this one on the market and laptop keys already allow for added functionality in a limited space. I never liked multiple keystrokes to perform functions and I never will.
This is ridiculous. These so-called experts are full of it. If anything, it's console gaming that's starting on it's path to extinction. First of all, those systems are slowly turning into PCs. Secondly, they have this desire to appeal to non-gamers, which is a market for more accessable via PCs. A non-gamer is far more likely to spend $40-$50 on a PC game than they ever would be to spend $200+ and another $50-$60 for the game. Third, computers are far more pervasive than consoles and I don't see that every changing.
In fact, the main reason consoles have been sustainable thus far is because of all the effort the Japanese gaming industry has put into them. The glory days of consoles are fading. The PC has demonstrated itself a viable platform for gaming long ago. Consoles no longer have any hope of matching a PC's performance, at least not getting dramatically more expensive.
I predict what we will see at some point is a real computing appliance, something with a simplified interface, but powerful enough that the average user can do everything he or she needs, and without needing to deal with the nuisance of installations and whatnot. They can pretty much drop in whatever media the computer uses and game just as easily as they would browse the internet.
The only form of console gaming I expect to persist is portable gaming, and we'll see what form that takes as phones, PDAs and laptops slowly evolve. I don't even see how this is something that can be argued; what doubt is there that PC gaming is thriving? Didn't WoW just hit 5 million subscribers worldwide?
I'm pretty sure I've seen a few myself and local retailers. I tend to suspect its the bigger cities where there are shortages.
My brother did recommend that I should pick up a couple and sell them on ebay for profit. I don't want a xbox360, but if someone wants to pay more than they should for one who am I to stop them?:D
"The conjecture, the interpretation, that's all part of appreciating art."
Good point. You got me there.
I think many people have the tendency to over-analyze art, but I suppose that all comes with the territory. I think it's the use of something mathmatical to analyze something emotional that bothers me, like an expression can be neatly quantified into a percentage of this and that, especially an emotion that has been depicted via a second person.
It looks to me like he's trying to stir things up in order to boost readership.
I never liked game magazines, hell I don't like most magazines, because they're nothing but advertising. Considering the amount of advertising in some of these magazines you'd think they could distribute them for free. I find game magazines to be some of the most obnoxious on the market, topped only by the "lifestyle" crap.
I haven't seen anything in EGM that would indicate they're any different from the rest. Even if they're not directly influencing a review by buying ad space they're doing is with all the free stuff they hand out.
A company sends you a few gifts along with a new game to review. There's a general sense of good will towards the developer that sent the nice stuff. How can they not be biased even on a subconcious level? And, that doesn't even take into account the fact that these guys don't have to pay for these games out of their own pockets.
If they want to do convincing, reasonably unbiased reviews they should be forced to go out and pay for these games out of their own pocket. When they're spending $50-$60 on a mediocre game lets see if their reviews are as positive as they are now.
You create a greater frenzy by making the console hard to come by.
First, the impression is that the system must be good if every last unit is being sold. If there are systems are sitting on the shelves within the first month of release it sends the wrong message.
Second, those that can't get their hands on a console are more likely to get even more anxious about getting their hands on one. It clouds judgement enough that one becomes available they wont think twice about buying it. That is assuming, of course, that the system is actually good and consumers are hearing positive reviews.
Companies aren't likely to be ambitious and ship out enough units to satisfy everyone from the start. So they need to cut back to ensure a shortage.
There are already plenty of idiots with so lacking in patience that they're willing to pay 5 times more for something that you're going to see sitting on shelves everywhere within a month or two. Not to mention that for the most part consumer products aren't priced according to demand anyway.
My life feels complete now that a piece of software has told me what Mona Lisa's expression is. It was money and time well spent. A round of applause for these fine researchers.
Maybe she had to use the toilet and was trying to hold it in. Maybe Leonardo simply got the expression wrong. Maybe it was a mix of emotions given that the painting actually took some time to complete. There are countless sensible explanations for why she looks the way she does, and they're all irrelevant because it's just a work of art.
On the other hand, I'm sure it was Leonardo's dastardly plan was to confound people for centuries as to what Mona Lisa was feeling.
My first thought was that Microsoft may be looking to steal some of Sony's thunder by releasing their own HD-DVD next year.
But thinking on it further, I just don't think there's a need for HD-DVD or BluRay yet. Sure, it might help with marketing, but I think it's still a bit too early to take sides. Most people probably don't even HDTVs yet, which defeats the purpose of an HD-DVD to begin with. Most contemporary PC games, which are more advanced than any console game, still fit comfortably on a single DVD. The only ones really pushing the limits are MMOs. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that there isn't yet an agreement on an HD-DVD standard.
Sony is trying to force BluRay down everyone's throat making it the de facto standard. Microsoft is probably just biding their time to see where things go, maybe hoping that the alternative will gain more support. Not that it matters, the Revolution isn't going to have any HD-DVD support either. I dont think this is going to be an issue for quite a while.
First of all, Cryptic is an American company, based in Texas. I don't know the exact details of how NCSoft got involved, but they acquired the company only after Cryptic had begun developing the game. For all intents and purposes its an American game.
Secondly, how is this racism? I think what Marvel did is complete and utter nonsense. I think Marvel is full of crap. But it's simply competition. This is no different than what happens in South Korea, Japan or anywhere else. In fact, over there they really do go out of their way to ensure domestic companies have a significant advantage over foreign companies. Will you call it racism then, or does the bias only apply to American companies?
The media has been exceedingly eager to portray China in a positive light. It's not surprising considering American and European companies all have moist panties over China.
No one has any principles. The US is willing to tolerate anything in order to get the advantage economically. And Europe is doing exactly the same thing, in fact, in some cases they're going to greater extremes, going as far as selling advanced military hardware to China.
Hell, even Taiwan, the renegade province is investing heavily in China. Taiwanese citizens are going nuts over the booming market there. Countless, some friends of mine included, if they haven't already started doing business over there are seriously considering doing so.
It's possible that by the time China becomes truly influential they may have changed their ways, but I'm not holding my breath.
The bigger danger is if the bubble bursts. The vast majority who are already living in poverty are going to be even worse off, and many in the middle class are going to lose everything they have. Needless to say everyone will start to blame the government. The leadership will have to rally the people in order to distract them from the real problem. I predict the first thing they'd do is invade Taiwan. Then we'll see some real fireworks.
I think China will lose some of its steam once nations start seriously investing in alternatives like India. Unfortunately, I think the US has lost a lot of the drive it once had. That's something China seems to have a lot of; their citizens still manage to have pride in their nation. It's certainly excessive sometimes but it also helps the country excel.
I hate when people cram everything into one giant paragraph and somehow, even though I had everything nicely seperated Slashdot goes and crams it all into one giant block of text. Good job!
I've been in the DDO beta for about a week. It looks better than I expect from what I had seen of the most recent screenshots. Although, while the females look very attractive the males are rather ugly. Not to mention that they look out of too shape considering they're adventurers.
The graphics, however, are a lot better than I had expected from what I had seen in screenshots. It isn't quite on the scale of EQ2, especially as far as character detail is concerned, but the water effects look great and the lighting and bloom is nice. It also runs quite well. I have a 3ghz P4 with a 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro and I play the game at full detail getting roughly 25fps to 30fps. Maybe not perfect, but very playable.
As for the game itself, I was underwhelmed. It's extremely tedious. The whole game seems to be designed around making progress as slow as possible. It also takes a little bit of time before you get the hang of how to fight and I cant say I like having to double-click on everything. The previous week I had tried the WoW 10-day trial and found that game very easy to get into and enjoy.
Levelling is excruciatingly slow, right from the start. It took me hours to fill up my first XP bar and when I finally did I discovered I was still level 1. There are 4 or 5 ranks per level. And there are 10 levels total. I predict a casual gamer will take a month to reach level 2. The highest level character I found online was level 7. A friend mention that the game currently doesn't have any endgame content, but I can't confirm that either way.
And the problem with that is that your progression is limited by your level and the quests you complete. You're restricted to the docks until you complete a few quests. Then you're stuck outside the main city walls until you complete another set of quests. You can't move on to another city until level two.
At least there seem to be a lot of quests available, but the environments tend to all feel the same despite changing tilesets. The puzzles are neat, and quests don't consist of defeating everything in an instance. But it's still a grind. You don't get XP for defeating anything other than some bosses. XP is earned for completing the quest. Fairly early on I also realized that the game is heavily geared towards grouping.
While there are benefits to instancing it tends to isolate you from the greater world, especially since the rest of the world is nothing but cities. While there's no travelling to deal with, for me it makes the experience less immersive. It seems like it follows a model similar to Guild Wars except that game is free.
I don't think your average gamer is going to find DDO particularly appealling, especially those drawn to MMOs like WoW. If you're a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons you might enjoy this game immensely. It seems this game is a bit more demanding than others, which means it may lure some from EQ/EQ2. However, not having an open world to explore and no crafting may make it a turnoff.
If the developers were expecting DDO to have broad appeal I think they're going to be disappointed. I expect this game will attract a select group of gamers.
These articles talk about quantity not quality. I'd like to see other countries provide the level of quality in broadband we experience in the US.
I lived in Taiwan over two years. They have broadband use comparable to South Korea. I was paying $10 a month for the service, but compared to what I get in the US it was garbage. I initially had cable modem, one which required me to dial in anytime I wanted to log on. If I was even lucky enough to get through I was then hit with terrible performance. I was barely able to comfortably browse the web, let alone download anything. The service improved over time, but it was still substandard.
Then, when I moved, I got ADSL. It was a significant improvement, but performance still was far from ideal.
One problem is likely population density, but the main problem is that they just don't care. They constantly cut corners, getting the cheapest equipment they could find, they slap things together and do just enough to keep the servers running. Calling customer support was pointless because all they'd do is apologize and claim they couldn't do anything about it.
Compare that to the cable modem service I have now. Sure, I pay close to $50 a month, but I'm also getting performance comparable to a T3 connection. And, even if I went with one of the cheaper competitors I'm sure I'd still get great performance.
I'm not saying the US doesn't have it's problems, because it's got some serious ones. What companies are charging in the US is getting ridiculous, not only for broadband, but mobile phones and a ton of other services.
However, what I'd really like to see a survey that compares the quality of broadband connections around the world.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason these industry experts push crap like high-definition as the FUTURE of gaming is because its something quantifiable. To the average ignorant consumer, if you can impress them with the flashy graphics they'll perceive that as a mark of progress.
Truly innovative gameplay, however, is less quantifiable. It isn't necessarily something you can immediately identify, especially if you've been trained to believe that flashy graphics are the epitomy of innovation. The second risk here is that the consumer isn't necessarily going to like your brand of gameplay, regardless of how innovative it is.
This idea that improved graphics will somehow spur innovation and enable new forms of gameplay is nothing but marketing crap. I'd argue that the Atari 2600 fostered far more creativity than any gaming platform out there today. A developer really had to stretch his imagination to turn a bunch of blocks into some kind of cohesive and entertaining gameplay. Some of those early developers were more innovative and creative than a legion of developers today.
Recreating realism in the form of a game shows the progress hardware has made. On the other hand, it shows a complete lack of imagination on the part of the developer who can't do anything other than copy what was seen in a photograph, and that's not taking into account how badly developers rip off each others' ideas.
From what I've seen IGN is the only site giving this positive reviews. Everyone else says the console is crap. I guess IGN has sold their advertising services in the form of a review, yet again.
s /6
You can find a less biased review here:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archive
And these guys aren't the only ones saying the system is terrible.
Basically it's nothing more than one of those cheap, Chinese Nintendo clones with a NES-type shell. The creators of this system claim this thing has a custom IC with care put into it's design to ensure maximum compatibility. Then it turns out the thing isn't compatible with many games and doesn't quite run others properly.
What I find funny is the IGN site mentioning how innaccurate emulators supposedly are, especially in light of how bad this thing is.
My recommendation is to go out and find the original NES for $20. Either that or find the original Chinese clone. It might have an ugly looking shell, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper than this thing.
This is bullshit. This is Europe trying to manipulate the market to give domestic countries the advantage. This is an activity every nation engages in, Europe is just particularly aggressive about it.
If Microsoft were a European company the EU would merrily encourage these same practices and ensure that it would continue to thrive indefinitely.
The consequence of a free market is that there's a risk of one company growing too dominant. I'm all for legislation where necessary. I don't think it's necessary with Microsoft.
Microsoft doesn't prevent anyone from installing a different operating system on their machine. You can have a single machine booting Linux and Windows, with no problem.
Within Windows you can install whatever the hell you want. I can use IM instead of MSN Messenger, Quicktime instead of Windows Media Player, or Firefox instead of Explorer. And the Windows applications aren't going to harass you over it. Try that with a Mac. I still have Mac OS preview and Apple's Quicktime trying to open files they dont even support. I still Macs own email program occassionally popping up. And I have to go into Apple's Safari to set another application as the default. Imagine if Apple were the dominant platform, we'd see far more strict control of our PCs than we do under Windows.
If you don't like Windows develop a damn realistic alternative. Everyone wants their own special version of Linux but no one knows how to organize the movement into a true replacement to Windows. One that doesnt require the average user to understand the intricacies of an operating system or to hunt for specific drivers for every damn device they've got.
Actually, there is a realistic alternative which may actually even be popular. Mac OS X. But no one has managed to convince Apple to produce a PC version.
So who's fault is this? It is Microsoft's fault for being successful? Microsoft may have done some despicable things, and their software is bloated and fraught with problems. However, what they do they do well; they've been able to effectively address the needs of many users.
Let's not be naive here, Microsoft hasn't done anything that most other companies, European, Asian or American haven't done, or wouldn't do if they were in the same situation.
Windows will be replaced by something else eventually. I just hope its because a better product has come along, not because governments have forced a crap alternative on us thanks to their idiotic anti-competitive legislation.
What's funny is that the over-zealous anti-Microsoft people are the very same people would would be anti-Linux if that had been the standard.
The fact that people continue to play that trash is a testament to the power of the Star Wars franchise. I'm sure the game as some great features, but I think the problems and Sony's business practices far overshadow anything positive. Other games have failed for less. If Galaxies had been a generic fantasy game the servers would have already been shut down.
That's true, and it's why consoles have thrived in Japan. On the other hand, who doesn't have a computer in this country? And how hard is it to install a game nowadays? It certainly isn't the ordeal it used to be in the early days of PC gaming.
Put in a CD, wait for the autoplay to bring up the initial interface and click on "install". When it's done, double click on the icon the game puts on your desktop. That's the most work most users have to do.
Consoles are certainly easier to deal with, but that isn't going to last long. Hard drives on consoles are slowly becoming the standard. They're turning into PCs, it's as simple as that.
And you don't need the latest hardware to play any of the current games. Even at lower detail settings you still get better graphics than you'll find on consoles.
In my opinion, this is a far more innovative keyboard:
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
This way I can set the keyboard any way I choose, whether it be QWERTY, Dvorak, or any other way that fits my needs. And I can also program it for specific functions, in gaming for example. The best part is that the keys reflect those changes.
There are already a few novel keyboards like this one on the market and laptop keys already allow for added functionality in a limited space. I never liked multiple keystrokes to perform functions and I never will.
This is ridiculous. These so-called experts are full of it. If anything, it's console gaming that's starting on it's path to extinction. First of all, those systems are slowly turning into PCs. Secondly, they have this desire to appeal to non-gamers, which is a market for more accessable via PCs. A non-gamer is far more likely to spend $40-$50 on a PC game than they ever would be to spend $200+ and another $50-$60 for the game. Third, computers are far more pervasive than consoles and I don't see that every changing.
In fact, the main reason consoles have been sustainable thus far is because of all the effort the Japanese gaming industry has put into them. The glory days of consoles are fading. The PC has demonstrated itself a viable platform for gaming long ago. Consoles no longer have any hope of matching a PC's performance, at least not getting dramatically more expensive.
I predict what we will see at some point is a real computing appliance, something with a simplified interface, but powerful enough that the average user can do everything he or she needs, and without needing to deal with the nuisance of installations and whatnot. They can pretty much drop in whatever media the computer uses and game just as easily as they would browse the internet.
The only form of console gaming I expect to persist is portable gaming, and we'll see what form that takes as phones, PDAs and laptops slowly evolve. I don't even see how this is something that can be argued; what doubt is there that PC gaming is thriving? Didn't WoW just hit 5 million subscribers worldwide?
I'm pretty sure I've seen a few myself and local retailers. I tend to suspect its the bigger cities where there are shortages.
:D
My brother did recommend that I should pick up a couple and sell them on ebay for profit. I don't want a xbox360, but if someone wants to pay more than they should for one who am I to stop them?
"The conjecture, the interpretation, that's all part of appreciating art."
Good point. You got me there.
I think many people have the tendency to over-analyze art, but I suppose that all comes with the territory. I think it's the use of something mathmatical to analyze something emotional that bothers me, like an expression can be neatly quantified into a percentage of this and that, especially an emotion that has been depicted via a second person.
"People within the company feel so much pride in this game that they want it to beat the crap out of World of Warcraft."
With a statement like that it's no surprise why Star Wars Galaxies is in the toilet, and their other MMOs aren't far behind.
It looks to me like he's trying to stir things up in order to boost readership.
I never liked game magazines, hell I don't like most magazines, because they're nothing but advertising. Considering the amount of advertising in some of these magazines you'd think they could distribute them for free. I find game magazines to be some of the most obnoxious on the market, topped only by the "lifestyle" crap.
I haven't seen anything in EGM that would indicate they're any different from the rest. Even if they're not directly influencing a review by buying ad space they're doing is with all the free stuff they hand out.
A company sends you a few gifts along with a new game to review. There's a general sense of good will towards the developer that sent the nice stuff. How can they not be biased even on a subconcious level? And, that doesn't even take into account the fact that these guys don't have to pay for these games out of their own pockets.
If they want to do convincing, reasonably unbiased reviews they should be forced to go out and pay for these games out of their own pocket. When they're spending $50-$60 on a mediocre game lets see if their reviews are as positive as they are now.
You create a greater frenzy by making the console hard to come by.
First, the impression is that the system must be good if every last unit is being sold. If there are systems are sitting on the shelves within the first month of release it sends the wrong message.
Second, those that can't get their hands on a console are more likely to get even more anxious about getting their hands on one. It clouds judgement enough that one becomes available they wont think twice about buying it. That is assuming, of course, that the system is actually good and consumers are hearing positive reviews.
Companies aren't likely to be ambitious and ship out enough units to satisfy everyone from the start. So they need to cut back to ensure a shortage.
There are already plenty of idiots with so lacking in patience that they're willing to pay 5 times more for something that you're going to see sitting on shelves everywhere within a month or two. Not to mention that for the most part consumer products aren't priced according to demand anyway.
My life feels complete now that a piece of software has told me what Mona Lisa's expression is. It was money and time well spent. A round of applause for these fine researchers.
Maybe she had to use the toilet and was trying to hold it in. Maybe Leonardo simply got the expression wrong. Maybe it was a mix of emotions given that the painting actually took some time to complete. There are countless sensible explanations for why she looks the way she does, and they're all irrelevant because it's just a work of art.
On the other hand, I'm sure it was Leonardo's dastardly plan was to confound people for centuries as to what Mona Lisa was feeling.
My first thought was that Microsoft may be looking to steal some of Sony's thunder by releasing their own HD-DVD next year.
But thinking on it further, I just don't think there's a need for HD-DVD or BluRay yet. Sure, it might help with marketing, but I think it's still a bit too early to take sides. Most people probably don't even HDTVs yet, which defeats the purpose of an HD-DVD to begin with. Most contemporary PC games, which are more advanced than any console game, still fit comfortably on a single DVD. The only ones really pushing the limits are MMOs. And that doesn't even take into account the fact that there isn't yet an agreement on an HD-DVD standard.
Sony is trying to force BluRay down everyone's throat making it the de facto standard. Microsoft is probably just biding their time to see where things go, maybe hoping that the alternative will gain more support. Not that it matters, the Revolution isn't going to have any HD-DVD support either. I dont think this is going to be an issue for quite a while.
First of all, Cryptic is an American company, based in Texas. I don't know the exact details of how NCSoft got involved, but they acquired the company only after Cryptic had begun developing the game. For all intents and purposes its an American game. Secondly, how is this racism? I think what Marvel did is complete and utter nonsense. I think Marvel is full of crap. But it's simply competition. This is no different than what happens in South Korea, Japan or anywhere else. In fact, over there they really do go out of their way to ensure domestic companies have a significant advantage over foreign companies. Will you call it racism then, or does the bias only apply to American companies?
The media has been exceedingly eager to portray China in a positive light. It's not surprising considering American and European companies all have moist panties over China.
No one has any principles. The US is willing to tolerate anything in order to get the advantage economically. And Europe is doing exactly the same thing, in fact, in some cases they're going to greater extremes, going as far as selling advanced military hardware to China.
Hell, even Taiwan, the renegade province is investing heavily in China. Taiwanese citizens are going nuts over the booming market there. Countless, some friends of mine included, if they haven't already started doing business over there are seriously considering doing so.
It's possible that by the time China becomes truly influential they may have changed their ways, but I'm not holding my breath.
The bigger danger is if the bubble bursts. The vast majority who are already living in poverty are going to be even worse off, and many in the middle class are going to lose everything they have. Needless to say everyone will start to blame the government. The leadership will have to rally the people in order to distract them from the real problem. I predict the first thing they'd do is invade Taiwan. Then we'll see some real fireworks.
I think China will lose some of its steam once nations start seriously investing in alternatives like India. Unfortunately, I think the US has lost a lot of the drive it once had. That's something China seems to have a lot of; their citizens still manage to have pride in their nation. It's certainly excessive sometimes but it also helps the country excel.
Damn...
I hate when people cram everything into one giant paragraph and somehow, even though I had everything nicely seperated Slashdot goes and crams it all into one giant block of text. Good job!
I've been in the DDO beta for about a week. It looks better than I expect from what I had seen of the most recent screenshots. Although, while the females look very attractive the males are rather ugly. Not to mention that they look out of too shape considering they're adventurers. The graphics, however, are a lot better than I had expected from what I had seen in screenshots. It isn't quite on the scale of EQ2, especially as far as character detail is concerned, but the water effects look great and the lighting and bloom is nice. It also runs quite well. I have a 3ghz P4 with a 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro and I play the game at full detail getting roughly 25fps to 30fps. Maybe not perfect, but very playable. As for the game itself, I was underwhelmed. It's extremely tedious. The whole game seems to be designed around making progress as slow as possible. It also takes a little bit of time before you get the hang of how to fight and I cant say I like having to double-click on everything. The previous week I had tried the WoW 10-day trial and found that game very easy to get into and enjoy. Levelling is excruciatingly slow, right from the start. It took me hours to fill up my first XP bar and when I finally did I discovered I was still level 1. There are 4 or 5 ranks per level. And there are 10 levels total. I predict a casual gamer will take a month to reach level 2. The highest level character I found online was level 7. A friend mention that the game currently doesn't have any endgame content, but I can't confirm that either way. And the problem with that is that your progression is limited by your level and the quests you complete. You're restricted to the docks until you complete a few quests. Then you're stuck outside the main city walls until you complete another set of quests. You can't move on to another city until level two. At least there seem to be a lot of quests available, but the environments tend to all feel the same despite changing tilesets. The puzzles are neat, and quests don't consist of defeating everything in an instance. But it's still a grind. You don't get XP for defeating anything other than some bosses. XP is earned for completing the quest. Fairly early on I also realized that the game is heavily geared towards grouping. While there are benefits to instancing it tends to isolate you from the greater world, especially since the rest of the world is nothing but cities. While there's no travelling to deal with, for me it makes the experience less immersive. It seems like it follows a model similar to Guild Wars except that game is free. I don't think your average gamer is going to find DDO particularly appealling, especially those drawn to MMOs like WoW. If you're a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons you might enjoy this game immensely. It seems this game is a bit more demanding than others, which means it may lure some from EQ/EQ2. However, not having an open world to explore and no crafting may make it a turnoff. If the developers were expecting DDO to have broad appeal I think they're going to be disappointed. I expect this game will attract a select group of gamers.
These articles talk about quantity not quality. I'd like to see other countries provide the level of quality in broadband we experience in the US.
I lived in Taiwan over two years. They have broadband use comparable to South Korea. I was paying $10 a month for the service, but compared to what I get in the US it was garbage. I initially had cable modem, one which required me to dial in anytime I wanted to log on. If I was even lucky enough to get through I was then hit with terrible performance. I was barely able to comfortably browse the web, let alone download anything. The service improved over time, but it was still substandard.
Then, when I moved, I got ADSL. It was a significant improvement, but performance still was far from ideal.
One problem is likely population density, but the main problem is that they just don't care. They constantly cut corners, getting the cheapest equipment they could find, they slap things together and do just enough to keep the servers running. Calling customer support was pointless because all they'd do is apologize and claim they couldn't do anything about it.
Compare that to the cable modem service I have now. Sure, I pay close to $50 a month, but I'm also getting performance comparable to a T3 connection. And, even if I went with one of the cheaper competitors I'm sure I'd still get great performance.
I'm not saying the US doesn't have it's problems, because it's got some serious ones. What companies are charging in the US is getting ridiculous, not only for broadband, but mobile phones and a ton of other services.
However, what I'd really like to see a survey that compares the quality of broadband connections around the world.