Please. Get a passport. Travel a little. Visit some other countries that scare you a little and then talk about "repressive societies".
If the patriot act is the best example of an "abomination" you can think of, you certainly haven't seen much of the world.
Yes, I believe in a free society where everyone can speak out against whatever ails them. But the parent post just reeks of teen angst and an intellect that has never ventured far beyond home, or the recycled rants of Green Day on MTV.
With all due respect, if a company is out to make a dollar, discrimination isn't a problem. Think this through. If a company (Wal-Mart is a popular target) wants to make the most amount of money, they will hire the cheapest labor they can get away with.
In fact, if you look at Wal-Mart's problems of late, it is because they hired minorities of questionable immigration status. That's a "diversity" issue of another sort.
I'm not defending anyone here, but do not equate all evils as mutually supportive. Just because Greed and Discrimination are both bad --- it doesn't mean they go hand-in-hand.
Actually (re:Peart), Ignorance and Prejudice and Fear go hand-in-hand;)
So the BILLIONS of dollars of his OWN MONEY he gives away means nothing in your eyes?
Perhaps your real problem with him is a little more personal... that someone you obviously dislike is doing more good in the world than you or I... or probably everyone posting on Slashdot today.
I'm sure the sick and dying of the third world would rather have Gates buy them medicine than listen to your smug rejoinders
As far as I know, the medicine doesn't have Windows stickers on them.
When you buy an used car, it's not only less money for GM but also less money for the Union Workers and the new car dealer.
Every dollar spent on used cars is money that wont be available to the auto industry. Used cars resellers are parasites depriving the auto manufacturers from a much needed income.
If you like cars please support your industry: buy new cars.
I don't know where anyone gets the idea that E3 is for "game journos". The real work at E3 gets done between two sets of people:
1. Game Producers pitching to Retail Buyers
2. Game Developers pitching to Game Publishers
Case in point, Atari only lets people into their booth by appointment. Frustrating for the digital-camera crowd, but Atari is there for business. The lookie-loos are stopped at the door.
Most game industry people I know don't give a rat's ass about game journalists. In spite of what we thing about how great Slashdot/Games or Kotaku is, publishers really don't care about them because they do not see a relationship between talking to some blogger and making money.
My friend, a producer for a major publisher, only really cares about talking to the buyer for Target, Wal-Mart, and other retail chains. He sees the time spend demoing his product to bloggers as a waste of his time. Frankly, he gets the press he needs by talking with PC Gamer and other established media outlets throughout the year.
If you can go to E3, do. It's fun. But unless you have real business there (i.e. you're going to spend or make money), consider yourself fortunate. I know I do:)
So... if the game takes a "neutral" stance on violence, I wonder how many development hours were spent on urination, immolation, and battery vs. charity,commerce,and altruism. If Postal provides the same level of reward and gameplay experience in both cases, then yes, RWS can make that claim.
As anyone who played the game knows, the game only rewards violent unsocial behavior (social behavior is allowed, simply not rewarded). This is absolutely fine, because that is what their customers want.
I just have a problem with a disingenuous developer pretending their software is something it isn't. I'm all for freedom of expression in any media, just be honest about what you're expressing.
This is actually pretty smart on MS's part. They've covered all their bases, and left enough uncertainty that a BR drive is not out of the question. Which "accessories" they produce will be demand-driven.
Sony, on the other hand, *may* be committing the PSP blunder again. While the PSP has excellent support for various media, it hasn't translated into game sales -- people are happy with emulators and self-ripped DVD files (neither of which lines Sony's pockets). Similarly, people who have a PS3 Blue-Ray player may not buy games for it. Sony is definitely taking the riskier route.
IMHO, it all comes down to the PS3 price point. If their target is gamers, I think anything over $400 is a mistake.
Don't confuse Trademark with Patent.
EA is just protecting the name "System Shock" in a given context. In fact, I'm surprised the context was not more broad, i.e. games on a computer.
Avalon Hill (moment of silence) used to put a notice on each of their games, to the effect:
"'Up Front' is Avalon Hill's trademark name for World War 2 card game"
The first wave of LA games were as good as the first wave of EA games:
1. Rescue on Fractalus
2. BallBlazer
3. The Eidolon
4. Koronis Rift
Not to troll, but LA has also ended up like EA. If either has a game I want, it is more by wild coincidence than any concious effort on their part. I wish there was a publisher (like early LA/early EA) that actually sought out a limited number of fantastic games.
Maybe I'm ill-informed... does anyone know of any such publisher?
The PS3 and 360 will be indistinguishable from each other.
Let's hope this isn't known as the FPS/Sports generation.
Another Gem from TFA...
on
Hacking the Xbox
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
Know your enemy - and talk to them. They are not terrorists that you are not supposed to negotiate with. [story about how they approached MS]... But as they refused to talk, we were forced to release the exploits, and they were lucky we heavily obfuscated our solutions so in order to slow down people interested in using it for copies.
Apparently, the hackers are more like kidnappers that you have to negotiate with.
So I have it now: Bad Hacker == terrorist, Good Hacker == kidnapper
No Linux hackers ever attacked the Playstation. When you are fair, people don't fight you.
What they're trying to say here is, "Since Sony put out a commercial Linux kit, Linux hackers didn't hack the PS2". I would venture a guess (from experience and Linux/PS2 sales) that Linux hackers did not gravitate toward the XBox because commercial Linux was not available for it, but because it is a cheap x86 box with hard drive and USB ports.
I do however, find the hackers sense of "ethics" quite laughable -- That they are some sort of heroes "fighting" an "unfair" company. Typical hacker rationale: Locking it gives us the right to crack it.
Watching Sony abandon loyal fans in an effort to get more people in reminds me of a recent fleecing that I (and other Mechwarrior fans) got when they retired the set of miniatures.
For those who don't know, Mechwarrior (MW) was a really cool minatures game put out by WizKids (of MageKnight fame... and yes, I know the FASA MW game before it....) So I bought a crapload of minatures, played the game, loved it, and then the hammer dropped. They basically said "We're changing everything, dear players, but we're doing it FOR YOU!... By the way, you know all those minatures you've collected? Yeah, they're being retired."
So they came out with new rules, new minatures, whatever. I suppose they just expected me to run out and drop another couple hundred on new minis. Needless to say, I boxed it all up in the garage and haven't played since.
By locking my copy of HL2 to me and only me (my steam account), I now have to pay TEN DOLLARS for the privelege of reselling the game to someone else (the cost of re-registering the game to another account, assuming of course some buyer on Ebay would want to/know how to do this). Of course, I didn't know this when I shelled out 55 bucks for the game.
I won't ever buy a Steam game again. UNLESS I'm absolutely sure I'd never want to sell it, or it's so cheap I wouldn't bother reselling it.
Needless to say, I only know this because I wanted to sell HL2. Fool me once, Valve...
It worked well for the following reason: PS2's market share made releasing on that platform MANDATORY. It didn't matter how hard porting to PS2 was... there were 4x the amount of PS2s than XBoxes or GCs. In fact, most cross-platform games were coded PRIMARILY for PS2, since it was the hardest to port to.
I dare say Sony won't have that big of a lead this generation, so yes, now it is relevant for them.
Slashdot Mirror
You've sold me, sir! Clearly no one with an XBOX uses XBL.
Put your favorite distro on the *cheap* computer ( I have Debian running on a Pentium I, thank you )
Put Windows on the kick ass computer for games.
You put the resources where they're needed. The great thing about Linux is that it doesn't need a lot of resources.
Mod me up for proof!
If the patriot act is the best example of an "abomination" you can think of, you certainly haven't seen much of the world.
Yes, I believe in a free society where everyone can speak out against whatever ails them. But the parent post just reeks of teen angst and an intellect that has never ventured far beyond home, or the recycled rants of Green Day on MTV.
Obviously you have never worked for the Federal Government.
In fact, if you look at Wal-Mart's problems of late, it is because they hired minorities of questionable immigration status. That's a "diversity" issue of another sort.
I'm not defending anyone here, but do not equate all evils as mutually supportive. Just because Greed and Discrimination are both bad --- it doesn't mean they go hand-in-hand.
Actually (re:Peart), Ignorance and Prejudice and Fear go hand-in-hand ;)
Dr. Smart, I presume?
Good to hear from you, Mr. Jobs!
Perhaps your real problem with him is a little more personal... that someone you obviously dislike is doing more good in the world than you or I... or probably everyone posting on Slashdot today.
I'm sure the sick and dying of the third world would rather have Gates buy them medicine than listen to your smug rejoinders
As far as I know, the medicine doesn't have Windows stickers on them.
You definitely can compare sales of used cars and sales of used videogames, I explained it above.
When you buy an used car, it's not only less money for GM but also less money for the Union Workers and the new car dealer. Every dollar spent on used cars is money that wont be available to the auto industry. Used cars resellers are parasites depriving the auto manufacturers from a much needed income. If you like cars please support your industry: buy new cars.
1. Game Producers pitching to Retail Buyers
2. Game Developers pitching to Game Publishers
Case in point, Atari only lets people into their booth by appointment. Frustrating for the digital-camera crowd, but Atari is there for business. The lookie-loos are stopped at the door.
Most game industry people I know don't give a rat's ass about game journalists. In spite of what we thing about how great Slashdot/Games or Kotaku is, publishers really don't care about them because they do not see a relationship between talking to some blogger and making money.
My friend, a producer for a major publisher, only really cares about talking to the buyer for Target, Wal-Mart, and other retail chains. He sees the time spend demoing his product to bloggers as a waste of his time. Frankly, he gets the press he needs by talking with PC Gamer and other established media outlets throughout the year.
If you can go to E3, do. It's fun. But unless you have real business there (i.e. you're going to spend or make money), consider yourself fortunate. I know I do :)
Every unbiased source I can find puts the two consoles neck and neck... "technically".
Unless Sony has made some, new, recent announcement about their hardware, that just sounds like Sony Fanboy wishful thinking.
As anyone who played the game knows, the game only rewards violent unsocial behavior (social behavior is allowed, simply not rewarded). This is absolutely fine, because that is what their customers want.
I just have a problem with a disingenuous developer pretending their software is something it isn't. I'm all for freedom of expression in any media, just be honest about what you're expressing.
Sony, on the other hand, *may* be committing the PSP blunder again. While the PSP has excellent support for various media, it hasn't translated into game sales -- people are happy with emulators and self-ripped DVD files (neither of which lines Sony's pockets). Similarly, people who have a PS3 Blue-Ray player may not buy games for it. Sony is definitely taking the riskier route.
IMHO, it all comes down to the PS3 price point. If their target is gamers, I think anything over $400 is a mistake.
Yes, that sounds like a bargain, but the Cell processor is *not* configured that way.
Cell = 1 PPE (power processor element) + 7 x SPE (synergistic processor element)
This is far from a 8 x PPC CPU, which would certainly be worth $500.
If you want symmetric processing, go ahead and get the XBox 360 (3xPPC), and wait for the mod chip.
Don't confuse Trademark with Patent. EA is just protecting the name "System Shock" in a given context. In fact, I'm surprised the context was not more broad, i.e. games on a computer. Avalon Hill (moment of silence) used to put a notice on each of their games, to the effect: "'Up Front' is Avalon Hill's trademark name for World War 2 card game"
1. Rescue on Fractalus
2. BallBlazer
3. The Eidolon
4. Koronis Rift
Not to troll, but LA has also ended up like EA. If either has a game I want, it is more by wild coincidence than any concious effort on their part. I wish there was a publisher (like early LA/early EA) that actually sought out a limited number of fantastic games.
Maybe I'm ill-informed... does anyone know of any such publisher?
Let's hope this isn't known as the FPS/Sports generation.
Apparently, the hackers are more like kidnappers that you have to negotiate with.
So I have it now: Bad Hacker == terrorist, Good Hacker == kidnapper
What they're trying to say here is, "Since Sony put out a commercial Linux kit, Linux hackers didn't hack the PS2". I would venture a guess (from experience and Linux/PS2 sales) that Linux hackers did not gravitate toward the XBox because commercial Linux was not available for it, but because it is a cheap x86 box with hard drive and USB ports.
I do however, find the hackers sense of "ethics" quite laughable -- That they are some sort of heroes "fighting" an "unfair" company. Typical hacker rationale: Locking it gives us the right to crack it.
For those who don't know, Mechwarrior (MW) was a really cool minatures game put out by WizKids (of MageKnight fame... and yes, I know the FASA MW game before it....) So I bought a crapload of minatures, played the game, loved it, and then the hammer dropped. They basically said "We're changing everything, dear players, but we're doing it FOR YOU!... By the way, you know all those minatures you've collected? Yeah, they're being retired."
So they came out with new rules, new minatures, whatever. I suppose they just expected me to run out and drop another couple hundred on new minis. Needless to say, I boxed it all up in the garage and haven't played since.
Screw you, Wizkids.
and screw you too, SOE
Next Up: Linux user won't pay for programs, Windows user runs one program at a time.
I won't ever buy a Steam game again. UNLESS I'm absolutely sure I'd never want to sell it, or it's so cheap I wouldn't bother reselling it.
Needless to say, I only know this because I wanted to sell HL2. Fool me once, Valve...
I dare say Sony won't have that big of a lead this generation, so yes, now it is relevant for them.