That was a great historical account of the game from a person who sounds quite reasonable, level-headed, and into Star Wars. I hope Smedley read this. You sound like the ideal, long-term player that you'd imagine MMO's should want more than any other. If SWG can't keep a decent gamer like you around and willing to pay for their product, they are running on borrowed time.
the timing of this news couldn't be more amusing. about a week ago i started reading the Gizmondo SEC 10-K and 10-Q filings. They read like a sordid and unbelivable Grisham novel. spouses were being paid huge "consultant" fees while the company staved-off lawsuits by paying with worthless stock. execs were giving themselves huge car allowances while the company had no liquidity. partnerships set-up by the execs were being used to funnel corporate accounts. they were being sued for dumb stuff like not paying rent or their marketing firm. and through all this and losses in the hunreds of millions, the execs themselves were making obscene salaries and bonuses in the millions.
none of those occurances are necessarily uncommon or illegal, but taken together it all just smelled bad. it all jut seemed like the company was being used as a device for the execs to make money rather than anything tangible, and that they were all acting totally unethically. que Enron, i thought.
well, not but a week later here we see the truth writ large that the company is a den of thieves and a ship for fools.
reading the sociology, the psychology and the implied subtext of SEC filings is my new bedtime reading.
"fan editions" shouldn't even be an issue
on
Sid Meier Responds
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
this is a great example of how peoples notion of *what culture is* is being hugely diluted by the massive corporate push for expanded intellectual property rights.
back in the Good Old Days, kids used to be able to draw inspiration from comic books, movies, games, art, books, and anything else to make their own. i'd wager that we've all done it at one point or another, because its not only a way of learning, its a way of consuming, interpreting, and reproducing culture. sure a lot of it was straight out copying. but no one mistook the original for the interpretation.
Now, the open-source movement is trying to make its own Civ tribute. There's no mistaking that their efforts are a pale imitation of the original, an interpretation of something that inspired them. Yet here we go with the corporatist bravado -- from an artist like Sid Meyer fer gawd sakes! Does Take Two really feel threatened by the equivalent of a childs interpretation? should they?
obviously, i'm not talking about propogating Madonnas latest MP3 across the net anymore than i'm saying people should indiscriminantly copy the retail version of Civ4. i'm talking about the right to take that MP3, rip sections from it, mix it in your own interpretation, and share it with the world. i'm talking about drawing inspiration from a great game, taking what you like from it, complimenting the author with your own efforts, and sharing that with who ever cares. that should be the right we all enjoy for all time, not the right for some abstract entity to keep making money off us long after death. or is that why you makes games Sid?
i don't think so. artists, programmers, designers, and all the other creative producers of intellectual property should remember what the production and reproduction of culture means: that their work will live beyond them and be enjjoyed by as many people as possible. nuts to Take Two and Sid Meyer for forgetting that people -- not dollars -- is what their efforts are all about.
"we can create the environment and tools enabling to happen. We're also very iterative in our work and keep continuous feedback cycles on the features we do, then regularly improve them based on that feedback."
i am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
indeed. if their modus operandi is so overwhelmed by notions of "property" (the art of exclusion) rather than "culture" (the art of communication), i think they need to stop and think of the following truths that are no longer as self-evident as they ought to be:
(1) music and culture existed before corporations; (2) no one actually needs a corporation to make music; (3) no one actually needs a corporation to promote their music anymore; (4) no one actually needs a corporation to distribute their music globally anymore; (5) i don't need a corporation to tell me what music i like, or which is good.
Seems more likely to me that the corporate mouthpiece's insulting and condescending *existence* is a privlege, and not a right...
that "story" was a really boring piece of analysis that used a lot of words to say nothing. so allow me to throw down some analytical building blocks that show how the Revo could be the ultimate 3rd party system.
fact is that the Revo is going to be cheap compared to the 360 and PS3, and that physics-based gameplay with a natural, "3D" input system is going to be fun as hell to play. not only will canonical genres like sports, FPS and racing games be freed from the abstract stupidity of the "2D" standard controller, but a whole new market for whimsical and amusing physics-based mini-games and puzzlers will be instantly created. we're already seeing this market emerge on the mouse-and-keyboard interface of the PC, so just imagine what could happen if a standardized "3D" controller were at the center of it all. because there is no question that such games are loved by casual gamers and a wider, as yet untapped gaming audience, the only concern is whether or not nintendo will allow this market to flourish by releasing (or allowing downloads) of such $10-25 gems.
in that regard, the "home" button on the Revo controller is the real story here; if it takes me to a one-time fee per game, download-on-demand dashboard, i'll be sharing a gaming heaven with a lot of other people.
i think the Revo controller is what companies like EA have been looking for too. their own executives have been noting that their sports games at least are becoming repetative and derivative, and that this is starting to hurt year-over-year sales. merely slapping even fancier graphics on an old product is only going to improve sales so much, if at all, while also increasing development costs. the Revo controller frees companies like EA to innovate gamplay in a way we havn't known since the dawn of 3D graphics in general. you don't think they are going to want to take advantage of that kind of novelty while simultaneously avoiding the graphics arms race defining PS3 and 360 competition? LOLERSKATES.
finally, let us not forget that the Revo console includes ports for standard gamecube controllers. not only does this ensure backwards compatability, it ensures forwards compatability for ports that use a more "traditional" controller input system.
frankly, i'm pumped. the Revo has got me excited about the next-gen consoles in a way that PS3 and 360 didnt at all.
Slashdot Mirror
That was a great historical account of the game from a person who sounds quite reasonable, level-headed, and into Star Wars. I hope Smedley read this. You sound like the ideal, long-term player that you'd imagine MMO's should want more than any other. If SWG can't keep a decent gamer like you around and willing to pay for their product, they are running on borrowed time.
the timing of this news couldn't be more amusing. about a week ago i started reading the Gizmondo SEC 10-K and 10-Q filings. They read like a sordid and unbelivable Grisham novel. spouses were being paid huge "consultant" fees while the company staved-off lawsuits by paying with worthless stock. execs were giving themselves huge car allowances while the company had no liquidity. partnerships set-up by the execs were being used to funnel corporate accounts. they were being sued for dumb stuff like not paying rent or their marketing firm. and through all this and losses in the hunreds of millions, the execs themselves were making obscene salaries and bonuses in the millions.
none of those occurances are necessarily uncommon or illegal, but taken together it all just smelled bad. it all jut seemed like the company was being used as a device for the execs to make money rather than anything tangible, and that they were all acting totally unethically. que Enron, i thought.
well, not but a week later here we see the truth writ large that the company is a den of thieves and a ship for fools.
reading the sociology, the psychology and the implied subtext of SEC filings is my new bedtime reading.
this is a great example of how peoples notion of *what culture is* is being hugely diluted by the massive corporate push for expanded intellectual property rights.
back in the Good Old Days, kids used to be able to draw inspiration from comic books, movies, games, art, books, and anything else to make their own. i'd wager that we've all done it at one point or another, because its not only a way of learning, its a way of consuming, interpreting, and reproducing culture. sure a lot of it was straight out copying. but no one mistook the original for the interpretation.
Now, the open-source movement is trying to make its own Civ tribute. There's no mistaking that their efforts are a pale imitation of the original, an interpretation of something that inspired them. Yet here we go with the corporatist bravado -- from an artist like Sid Meyer fer gawd sakes! Does Take Two really feel threatened by the equivalent of a childs interpretation? should they?
obviously, i'm not talking about propogating Madonnas latest MP3 across the net anymore than i'm saying people should indiscriminantly copy the retail version of Civ4. i'm talking about the right to take that MP3, rip sections from it, mix it in your own interpretation, and share it with the world. i'm talking about drawing inspiration from a great game, taking what you like from it, complimenting the author with your own efforts, and sharing that with who ever cares. that should be the right we all enjoy for all time, not the right for some abstract entity to keep making money off us long after death. or is that why you makes games Sid?
i don't think so. artists, programmers, designers, and all the other creative producers of intellectual property should remember what the production and reproduction of culture means: that their work will live beyond them and be enjjoyed by as many people as possible. nuts to Take Two and Sid Meyer for forgetting that people -- not dollars -- is what their efforts are all about.
"we can create the environment and tools enabling to happen. We're also very iterative in our work and keep continuous feedback cycles on the features we do, then regularly improve them based on that feedback."
i am interested in your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
indeed. if their modus operandi is so overwhelmed by notions of "property" (the art of exclusion) rather than "culture" (the art of communication), i think they need to stop and think of the following truths that are no longer as self-evident as they ought to be:
(1) music and culture existed before corporations;
(2) no one actually needs a corporation to make music;
(3) no one actually needs a corporation to promote their music anymore;
(4) no one actually needs a corporation to distribute their music globally anymore;
(5) i don't need a corporation to tell me what music i like, or which is good.
Seems more likely to me that the corporate mouthpiece's insulting and condescending *existence* is a privlege, and not a right...
that "story" was a really boring piece of analysis that used a lot of words to say nothing. so allow me to throw down some analytical building blocks that show how the Revo could be the ultimate 3rd party system.
fact is that the Revo is going to be cheap compared to the 360 and PS3, and that physics-based gameplay with a natural, "3D" input system is going to be fun as hell to play. not only will canonical genres like sports, FPS and racing games be freed from the abstract stupidity of the "2D" standard controller, but a whole new market for whimsical and amusing physics-based mini-games and puzzlers will be instantly created. we're already seeing this market emerge on the mouse-and-keyboard interface of the PC, so just imagine what could happen if a standardized "3D" controller were at the center of it all. because there is no question that such games are loved by casual gamers and a wider, as yet untapped gaming audience, the only concern is whether or not nintendo will allow this market to flourish by releasing (or allowing downloads) of such $10-25 gems.
in that regard, the "home" button on the Revo controller is the real story here; if it takes me to a one-time fee per game, download-on-demand dashboard, i'll be sharing a gaming heaven with a lot of other people.
i think the Revo controller is what companies like EA have been looking for too. their own executives have been noting that their sports games at least are becoming repetative and derivative, and that this is starting to hurt year-over-year sales. merely slapping even fancier graphics on an old product is only going to improve sales so much, if at all, while also increasing development costs. the Revo controller frees companies like EA to innovate gamplay in a way we havn't known since the dawn of 3D graphics in general. you don't think they are going to want to take advantage of that kind of novelty while simultaneously avoiding the graphics arms race defining PS3 and 360 competition? LOLERSKATES.
finally, let us not forget that the Revo console includes ports for standard gamecube controllers. not only does this ensure backwards compatability, it ensures forwards compatability for ports that use a more "traditional" controller input system.
frankly, i'm pumped. the Revo has got me excited about the next-gen consoles in a way that PS3 and 360 didnt at all.