I also call bullshit on the $100m figure. I bet there is a lot of 'Hollywood Accounting' going on there.
I also wonder how much it would be without all the cut-scene filler they seem to enjoy spending a fortune on
these days.
Like you know better than the pros at blizzard what sells games. Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahhaa.
My most central E3 memory was some guy working for Ubisoft. He was standing on a podium with probably fifty guys in their early twenties all around watching footage of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and he's shouting into his little headset, "Do you guys like airborne assassinations?" And everyone goes, "Yeah!" I just turned away and was like, "Jesus wept."
Yes. This is what is wrong with games today. This guy gets it.
No doubt there are similarities between real world photography and carefully-arranged game "screenshots," but I think you haven't seen much fine art photography if you really think these are in the same category.
Well, if you are charged $10 for a service with ads that costs a business $20 to provide with some reasonable expectation of profit, that means the other $10 that you didn't have to pay is coming from ad revenue.
If you want to argue that they should have charged consumers $20 for the product and gotten rid of the ads, then that's fine, but business owners aren't stupid: they do what works. Such a plan would almost certainly mean they will sell less of the product/service, reach a smaller audience (fewer will buy at $20/ea), and probably lose net revenue.
It's just sortof a business reality in many markets. This is the same reason you almost always see ads in magazines even when you paid for a subscription. In fact, in many magazines ad sales are the primary form of revenue.
Actually, an indie game developer in the UK has said that this is not a huge deal (for him at least) because they lowered the business tax rate 1% instead, and this way he doesn't have to fill out any forms for his games business to get a boost.
I wanted to sign up but the page doesn't seem to work. The button doesn't do anything and the menus are blank. Does anyone else see the same thing? I'm thinking maybe it's a prerelease or not ready yet.
Game publishers are going to be all over this technology if they can make it work because it means the game source code never has to be released and, implemented correctly, the games will be impossible to crack.
I'm not too happy about it, but it's the future. If not now, probably this decade or early next.
We found that boys and girls who regularly played at least one Mature-rated game title were signicantly more likely to endorse four reasons for play: to compete and win, to get anger out, liking to “mod” games, and liking “the guns and other weapons”.
The only thing that's weird is the game modding link, but my guess is that that variable is confounded with some other facto that they didn't correct for. They also noted men like to mod much more than women.
Well, a lot of RPGs (which are usually based around a "story," at least in the JRPG sense) could probably get down to 3-4 hours easily if you took out all the random battles, walking to places, random sidequests,...
The other problem is that people tend to remember games' stories fondly if they liked the game rather than evaluating games' stories on their own merits. It's difficult to critique parts of a whole objectively even for amateur or professional reviewers who do it all the time.
The first game was so-so when it came out -- worth playing, but not worth getting excited over -- but it was overrated. Now? Nah, just wait for Diablo 3 or try Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup or something like that.
Frankly I don't think it’s a franchise worth resurrecting. No memorable characters or IP. They are just trying to ride off the title's name recognition, that's it, really.
I'm surprised more game companies aren't taking advantage of streaming and even static online video. If you look around youtube, most of the game videos are "Let's Play's" or other fan material, not official content. Maybe they don't think it's worth the effort.
It's true. Actually, most ANY multilayer gaming tends to require a huge amount of effort and commitment if you want to rise near the top ranks, even among the so called "casual" players who don't make any money or win any prizes or get any kind of real-life reward. Look at any of the FPSs or MMORPGs that have something approaching a ladder: you won't even get in the top 10,000 unless you spend 40 hours a week on it for a significant amount of time.
I agree. I was glad that at least no one here seems to try to have made a comparison between this vehicle and a vehicle from an automotive manufacturer with far shorter range, which often happens in these sorts of threads. Make that thing street legal with at least a 3-star safety rating and then see how far it will go!
I spent a few months playing openttd pretty hardcore, and I agree, the AI is awful. It's not even really that much fun to play competitively against other people because if someone gets an early lead it's very hard to catch up, and there are some really annoying issues with right-aways and bridges (those might have been fixed since I last played, though).
So IMHO openttd doesn't really shine as a competitive game, what's FAR more fun is trying to build crazy-ass HUUUUUUUUGGGE networks. Check out some of the past games from the openttd co-op to get an idea: http://www.openttdcoop.org/ it's really a thing of beauty to see a train system with 1000+ long trains operating efficiently. It's like your daddy's old model train set times 10,000...
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, I hope this will be as good as Spore!
Oops, just kidding.
It reads more like a "well-known people who are expected to be inducted into any such list" compilation rather than an award of merit.
Hmm... So just like the Nobel Laureates list, then?
Oh... Carry on.
He was trying to win the new Slashdot Moron Achievement. Duh.
I also call bullshit on the $100m figure. I bet there is a lot of 'Hollywood Accounting' going on there. I also wonder how much it would be without all the cut-scene filler they seem to enjoy spending a fortune on these days.
Like you know better than the pros at blizzard what sells games. Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahhaa.
When I was a kid I was writing my own apps. Now get off my lawn!
Yes. This is what is wrong with games today. This guy gets it.
No doubt there are similarities between real world photography and carefully-arranged game "screenshots," but I think you haven't seen much fine art photography if you really think these are in the same category.
The midichlorians in my swimming pool were neutralized by all your midicholorine
Looks like they forgot about bcc. Whoops.
If an electric SUV causes 2x the load of a normal car and a normal car isn't a problem, then a bunch of SUVs probably wouldn't be a problem either.
Well, if you are charged $10 for a service with ads that costs a business $20 to provide with some reasonable expectation of profit, that means the other $10 that you didn't have to pay is coming from ad revenue.
If you want to argue that they should have charged consumers $20 for the product and gotten rid of the ads, then that's fine, but business owners aren't stupid: they do what works. Such a plan would almost certainly mean they will sell less of the product/service, reach a smaller audience (fewer will buy at $20/ea), and probably lose net revenue.
It's just sortof a business reality in many markets. This is the same reason you almost always see ads in magazines even when you paid for a subscription. In fact, in many magazines ad sales are the primary form of revenue.
Civ 4 map plots are squares. Civ 5 are hexagons. I don't see an easy conversion process that won't produce real not-just-semantic map differences
Someone at reddit posted a diagram of how to do this fairly easily: http://i.imgur.com/lpJRd.png
The only problem is with moving resources out of city limits, etc... things which may or may not be practical problems.
Actually, an indie game developer in the UK has said that this is not a huge deal (for him at least) because they lowered the business tax rate 1% instead, and this way he doesn't have to fill out any forms for his games business to get a boost.
I wanted to sign up but the page doesn't seem to work. The button doesn't do anything and the menus are blank. Does anyone else see the same thing? I'm thinking maybe it's a prerelease or not ready yet.
Game publishers are going to be all over this technology if they can make it work because it means the game source code never has to be released and, implemented correctly, the games will be impossible to crack.
I'm not too happy about it, but it's the future. If not now, probably this decade or early next.
Yep, pretty much. But sony is still king of the "custom connector," "custom memory stick," custom every damn thing.
And can anyone guess why the slim 360 is more expensive when they're releasing an expensive add-on like Kinect?
You can use the cross-eye method for viewing stereo videos on youtube.
The only thing that's weird is the game modding link, but my guess is that that variable is confounded with some other facto that they didn't correct for. They also noted men like to mod much more than women.
Well, a lot of RPGs (which are usually based around a "story," at least in the JRPG sense) could probably get down to 3-4 hours easily if you took out all the random battles, walking to places, random sidequests, ...
The other problem is that people tend to remember games' stories fondly if they liked the game rather than evaluating games' stories on their own merits. It's difficult to critique parts of a whole objectively even for amateur or professional reviewers who do it all the time.
The first game was so-so when it came out -- worth playing, but not worth getting excited over -- but it was overrated. Now? Nah, just wait for Diablo 3 or try Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup or something like that.
Frankly I don't think it’s a franchise worth resurrecting. No memorable characters or IP. They are just trying to ride off the title's name recognition, that's it, really.
I'm surprised more game companies aren't taking advantage of streaming and even static online video. If you look around youtube, most of the game videos are "Let's Play's" or other fan material, not official content. Maybe they don't think it's worth the effort.
It's true. Actually, most ANY multilayer gaming tends to require a huge amount of effort and commitment if you want to rise near the top ranks, even among the so called "casual" players who don't make any money or win any prizes or get any kind of real-life reward. Look at any of the FPSs or MMORPGs that have something approaching a ladder: you won't even get in the top 10,000 unless you spend 40 hours a week on it for a significant amount of time.
40 hours a week is a pretty serious commitment.
I agree. I was glad that at least no one here seems to try to have made a comparison between this vehicle and a vehicle from an automotive manufacturer with far shorter range, which often happens in these sorts of threads. Make that thing street legal with at least a 3-star safety rating and then see how far it will go!
It may be bias, but it's also very archetypal. The "female in need of rescue" is a powerful story element that has been used for thousands of years.
I spent a few months playing openttd pretty hardcore, and I agree, the AI is awful. It's not even really that much fun to play competitively against other people because if someone gets an early lead it's very hard to catch up, and there are some really annoying issues with right-aways and bridges (those might have been fixed since I last played, though).
So IMHO openttd doesn't really shine as a competitive game, what's FAR more fun is trying to build crazy-ass HUUUUUUUUGGGE networks. Check out some of the past games from the openttd co-op to get an idea: http://www.openttdcoop.org/ it's really a thing of beauty to see a train system with 1000+ long trains operating efficiently. It's like your daddy's old model train set times 10,000...