Unlike the rating system for the MPAA, the ESRB ratings are still considered solely in the context of children, because the old fogies in office don't seem to realize that video games are moving/have moved beyond the child market of entertainment. G and PG movies are considered relatively safe for children, and probably automatically mean that it is a child's movie of some kind. PG-13 can mean anything from a young adult movie to something like Live Free or Die Hard. In that case, we see the content in a trailer and determine, "Okay, that looks all right for my kids," or, "There's no way I'm taking my child to see that one." R and NC-17 are considered exclusively to be movies for adults.
With ESRB ratings, you're stuck with the children's context of everything because these morons assume the games are made for children. They're not. An M-Rated game is not intended for your 10-year-old in the exact same way an R-Rated movie isn't. The real problem here is that objections to video games and their content are based solely on the idea that, by their very nature, they're intended for children. That's an opinion that needs to change. Not the ratings system, or the content.
If CD sales dropped from 400,000 units to 200,000 units, I'd call that "a lot."
If digital sales went up from 100 songs per person to 300 songs per person, I'd call that "a lot."
However, these numbers aren't anywhere near relative. There's almost not even a grounds for comparison. It's a lot trickier to compare these sales than you would think.
Not that I'm defending the industry, almost all of their woes at the moment can be attributed to their own actions.
My first instinct would be no. These machines are used for a short period; testing and then election day. The misaligned signatures on the keypads in the stores are due to a lack of calibration after many, many uses for long periods of time. I'm willing to bet most stores don't have an IT guy who goes around and calibrates those screens each day.
Voting machines, on the other hand, should be brand new and freshly calibrated in prep for election day. The use that these machines will get in one day is nowhere near so bad as to need recalibration so often that votes should be miscounted. My Nintendo DS Lite has a better touchscreen than that.
Okay, so let's have all of those women who organized so heavily for breast cancer awareness to use their combined resources to make a Cancer Awareness month. Let's make everyone aware that Lung cancer is preventable in most cases by not smoking. Prostate, breast, colon, and testicular cancer can be detected early with regular exams(I'm sure there are others, but those are the only ones I can think of at the moment). Why should those who are so devoted to breast cancer awareness be so single-minded? It's obviously worked with breast cancer, let's apply those resources to other cancers.
No, actually, they're nothing alike. Dell Vs. Apple is nearly a totally different arena. When people think of the iPod they don't think "Apple computers" they think "Portable music and music store." The iPod market is the exact opposite of Apple's computer market. Apple's market showing for the iPod is dominating while their computers have a marginal market presence at best. Microsoft, on the other hand is synonymous with computers for the average joe, while for the same average joe, Apple is synonymous with incompatability. Apple is selling the iPod BRAND as much as it is selling the product. That's why the Zune is being pitched as a seperate brand altogether. Notice all marketing material simply says "Zune" not "Microsoft Zune." Apple recognizes its own strategies when put into action. The Zune brand does that nicely, nearly as nicely at this point as iTunes. The only thing that might make the Zune the underdog at this point is its late entry into the game. But Microsoft has shown in the past that it is ready, willing and able to outlast its competitors, so don't think Apple hasn't already thought of a lot of what this article points out. The question is, can they come up with a viable competitive offering that doesn't simply look like a hapless "me too" attempt? You may call the Zune a "me too" product, but it takes several departures from the iPod product which, in my opinion, set it above the iPod.
Keep in mind, Apple took a crapple at the idea of MS undercutting their 30 GB player and lowered their prices. That move alone shows that there is at least some merit in this article and the idea that Apple may be nervous about the Zune.
At this point, the ESRB, as well as the video games industry in general, are both aware of what could happen should another ratings scandal take place. No one would be foolish enough to hide the violence from the ESRB to obtain a disingenuous rating. Plus, requiring longer periods of review for the ratings board, I think, is a good thing, but also, somewhat pointless. If you play 10 hours or 24 hours, it's not likely that a violent game is going to be all happy and peachy at the beginning, and then suddenly halfway through reveal tremendous amounts of gory violence.
This is a knee-jerk reaction to a non-existant problem. Longer reviews of both GTA: SA and Oblivion would not have revealed either situation in normal gameplay. Both were exploited by third parties after the fact. Their ratings would not have changed. Admittedly, it was foolish for Rockstar not to remove the hot coffee features completely, and for Bethesda to leave that topless texture on the disc, but unless the ESRB starts employing hackers and programmers to digg through the game's content as a whole aside from playing it, these things will continue to go unnoticed until found by third parties should they ever occur again.
Legislating this is a stab at "Save the Children" for an election boost. The Do-Nothing congress of the 21st century will probably fail at doing anything here as well.
Though, I will admit that $500 is almost an acceptable budget for a system to me, however that is b/c I am ussed to dropping $500+ when ever I upgrade my computer...
$500 is around what I'm budgeting for the Wii. In order for any game system to be worth anything to you when you take it home that day, you'll have to fork over at least another $50-$60 for one game (Save the Wii, if Wii Sports is REALLY all you want to stick with). That's if you only want to stay one-player too. Then fork over extra for the controller... If you have an HDMI compliant television, that's a good chunk for an HDMI cable... $500 is quickly turning into $600 for the conservative new PS3 owner, and could easily balloon to $800 for the one who saved every cent that crossed his path.
If you have, then you know the whole trilogy focuses on two children, both running from violent, dangerous adults out to steal their souls essentially. They don't have any time to BE children, they're too busy saving the world(s). What's he trying to prove?
I can run Oblivion on 1024x768 on that machine, as well as Doom 3. I have since built a new one, in prep for Windows Vista, and therefore have gone on the cheap side for a vid card solution with a 7900 GT, so as not to feel too bad about replacing a fairly new vid card when DX10 rolls around.
But make sure you actually HAVE a 9700 to test on before you start tossing random stats out there.
I just got tired of games crashing my computer. Or segfaulting in the middle of the action.
Then learn to take care of your system.
I swear, 90% of these arguments are ridiculous. Unless you want the ABSOLUTE best performance, the HIGHEST graphics resolution, and the FASTEST load times, none of which are necessary to enjoy a PC game, you can have a PC with about a 6 year lifespan for the advancement of games. I had a 5 year old ATI Radeon 9700 AIW up until VERY recently, which handled Oblivion just fine. Maybe not at ridiculously high resolutions, and not with anti-aliasing or some of the other fun features newer vid cards have, but I still enjoy the game tremendously.
I'm not in favor of one style of gaming over the other. Console has its good games and exclusives, which work very well on that platform. PCs are UNDENIABLY better for FPSs and RTSs.
I like both. I like to have fun.
This guy seems to think PC gamers justifying their position on gaming are compensating for what they unconciously believe was a bad purchase. I think console gamers are justifying sticking only to console in order to comfort themselves for missing out on the great PC titles out there. Either way, this guy is full of shite.
(Scene: We see 2 men, standing next to each other, one in a suit, looking a little more distinguished and professional, the other in a hoodie, with ripped-up, faded jeans, looking rather young and, "hip"... Backdrop is a non-descript washed-out white)
Zune: Hi, I'm a Zune.
iPod: And I'm an iPod.
Zune: You know a Zune can do a lot of great things. It can play videos, store and play all of your favorite music, and...
iPod(interrupting): Well, an iPod can do all of that too. (pauses, looking at the previously out-of-view left hand of the suited-up man) What's... What's that?
Zune: Oh, this is a Wi-Fi antenna. I'm Wi-Fi active.
iPod (Frowns overexaggeratedly)
Zune: Uh-oh, that's the sad face... Hang on, I think I know what to do to fix this, I saw it on the internet... (Suited-up man picks up the younger man and body slams him)
iPod (on the ground, looking straight up, not at the camera): Thanks man.
Zune: No problem.
The motto of anything in life should be Keep It Simple, Stupid.
1. Hardware-based drivers simply adds another layer of interface, another place for something to go wrong. The software side has to eventually interface with the hardware, and adding another layer of drivers does nothing to facilitate this process.
2. STOP BEING SO DAMNED PROPRIETARY. Sure, trade secrets and everything. I understand that much. But how much sense would it make to keep HOW to interact with the card secret? It's like saying, "I wrote this great song on the piano, and since you only need 24 keys to play it instead of all 88, I'll only give you the 24 keys." Sure, most of the time, when you're playing the piano, you don't need ALL 88 keys, but it sure is nice to have them if you need them.
Bottom line: the matter of whether or not WGA will prevent a copy of Windows from running remains unsettled.
This may be the case, and I caught that interesting choice of words myself...
...But there is more to consider here. Do you honestly expect Microsoft to go ahead with a Windows killswitch after making this announcement? To the common user afflicted by defective WGA authentications, a Windows killswitch is no different than essentially turning off their computer. Implementing such a killswitch would cause this statement to resurface, and make them look like fools. Techies and otherwise intelligent people will notice the language difference, but honestly these minor differences in semantics mean nothing to Joe Blow running an OEM copy of Windows legally that arbitrarily fails WGA. If he turns on his computer one day, and sees - "Windows Genuine Advantage has determined your copy of Windows may not be authentic. Windows will now shut down. Contact Microsoft support at 1-800-123-4567 to acquire a Genuine Windows license," and he heard this statement from Microsoft, he's not a happy camper.
That's a fantastic idea... Although there would need to be some polishing.
For example, fee ranges differing based on how many games you want access to...
One character slot per game to dispel the profit loss from offering a cheaper subscription, with one-time fees for extra character slots...
Still, I wouldn't subscribe to it anyway because I hate the idea of having to pay to play something I already paid for. GW all the way for me.
I would say that neither made a very strong case for their respective sides, but Craig did the best job.
The Telco guy said, "Net Neutrality is bad." But failed to supply a good, factual "why". Instead, he promoted what services could potentially be offered if "government regulation" is prevented. He tosses in buzz-words with negative connotations (e.g. "government-monitored," "socialized," "special interest") , along side good-sounding ideas, but fails to offer anything of substance. It made me laugh when he tried to describe Net Neutrality in the same terms that Net Neutrality proponents describe telco regulation.
Craig's reply lacks factual references as well, but provides some good examples. Basically, it points out all of the bad things that the telcos could do if net neutrality wasn't preserved. I rather like the telephone analogy. But this isn't the most convincing argument against the telcos I've seen.
I may have been a bit unfair, considering there were probably size constraints on both. I doubt, however, more room to write would've improved the Telco's argument.
Slashdot Mirror
Unlike the rating system for the MPAA, the ESRB ratings are still considered solely in the context of children, because the old fogies in office don't seem to realize that video games are moving/have moved beyond the child market of entertainment. G and PG movies are considered relatively safe for children, and probably automatically mean that it is a child's movie of some kind. PG-13 can mean anything from a young adult movie to something like Live Free or Die Hard. In that case, we see the content in a trailer and determine, "Okay, that looks all right for my kids," or, "There's no way I'm taking my child to see that one." R and NC-17 are considered exclusively to be movies for adults.
With ESRB ratings, you're stuck with the children's context of everything because these morons assume the games are made for children. They're not. An M-Rated game is not intended for your 10-year-old in the exact same way an R-Rated movie isn't. The real problem here is that objections to video games and their content are based solely on the idea that, by their very nature, they're intended for children. That's an opinion that needs to change. Not the ratings system, or the content.
What kind of math is that?
If CD sales dropped from 400,000 units to 200,000 units, I'd call that "a lot."
If digital sales went up from 100 songs per person to 300 songs per person, I'd call that "a lot."
However, these numbers aren't anywhere near relative. There's almost not even a grounds for comparison. It's a lot trickier to compare these sales than you would think.
Not that I'm defending the industry, almost all of their woes at the moment can be attributed to their own actions.
Oh, go get ye flask.
Getting dizzy from that spin...
My first instinct would be no. These machines are used for a short period; testing and then election day. The misaligned signatures on the keypads in the stores are due to a lack of calibration after many, many uses for long periods of time. I'm willing to bet most stores don't have an IT guy who goes around and calibrates those screens each day.
Voting machines, on the other hand, should be brand new and freshly calibrated in prep for election day. The use that these machines will get in one day is nowhere near so bad as to need recalibration so often that votes should be miscounted. My Nintendo DS Lite has a better touchscreen than that.
Okay, so let's have all of those women who organized so heavily for breast cancer awareness to use their combined resources to make a Cancer Awareness month. Let's make everyone aware that Lung cancer is preventable in most cases by not smoking. Prostate, breast, colon, and testicular cancer can be detected early with regular exams(I'm sure there are others, but those are the only ones I can think of at the moment). Why should those who are so devoted to breast cancer awareness be so single-minded? It's obviously worked with breast cancer, let's apply those resources to other cancers.
No, actually, they're nothing alike. Dell Vs. Apple is nearly a totally different arena. When people think of the iPod they don't think "Apple computers" they think "Portable music and music store." The iPod market is the exact opposite of Apple's computer market. Apple's market showing for the iPod is dominating while their computers have a marginal market presence at best. Microsoft, on the other hand is synonymous with computers for the average joe, while for the same average joe, Apple is synonymous with incompatability. Apple is selling the iPod BRAND as much as it is selling the product. That's why the Zune is being pitched as a seperate brand altogether. Notice all marketing material simply says "Zune" not "Microsoft Zune." Apple recognizes its own strategies when put into action. The Zune brand does that nicely, nearly as nicely at this point as iTunes. The only thing that might make the Zune the underdog at this point is its late entry into the game. But Microsoft has shown in the past that it is ready, willing and able to outlast its competitors, so don't think Apple hasn't already thought of a lot of what this article points out. The question is, can they come up with a viable competitive offering that doesn't simply look like a hapless "me too" attempt? You may call the Zune a "me too" product, but it takes several departures from the iPod product which, in my opinion, set it above the iPod.
Don't get too overconfident in the Apple brand.
Keep in mind, Apple took a crapple at the idea of MS undercutting their 30 GB player and lowered their prices. That move alone shows that there is at least some merit in this article and the idea that Apple may be nervous about the Zune.
At this point, the ESRB, as well as the video games industry in general, are both aware of what could happen should another ratings scandal take place. No one would be foolish enough to hide the violence from the ESRB to obtain a disingenuous rating. Plus, requiring longer periods of review for the ratings board, I think, is a good thing, but also, somewhat pointless. If you play 10 hours or 24 hours, it's not likely that a violent game is going to be all happy and peachy at the beginning, and then suddenly halfway through reveal tremendous amounts of gory violence.
This is a knee-jerk reaction to a non-existant problem. Longer reviews of both GTA: SA and Oblivion would not have revealed either situation in normal gameplay. Both were exploited by third parties after the fact. Their ratings would not have changed. Admittedly, it was foolish for Rockstar not to remove the hot coffee features completely, and for Bethesda to leave that topless texture on the disc, but unless the ESRB starts employing hackers and programmers to digg through the game's content as a whole aside from playing it, these things will continue to go unnoticed until found by third parties should they ever occur again.
Legislating this is a stab at "Save the Children" for an election boost. The Do-Nothing congress of the 21st century will probably fail at doing anything here as well.
Though, I will admit that $500 is almost an acceptable budget for a system to me, however that is b/c I am ussed to dropping $500+ when ever I upgrade my computer...
$500 is around what I'm budgeting for the Wii. In order for any game system to be worth anything to you when you take it home that day, you'll have to fork over at least another $50-$60 for one game (Save the Wii, if Wii Sports is REALLY all you want to stick with). That's if you only want to stay one-player too. Then fork over extra for the controller... If you have an HDMI compliant television, that's a good chunk for an HDMI cable... $500 is quickly turning into $600 for the conservative new PS3 owner, and could easily balloon to $800 for the one who saved every cent that crossed his path.
If you have, then you know the whole trilogy focuses on two children, both running from violent, dangerous adults out to steal their souls essentially. They don't have any time to BE children, they're too busy saving the world(s). What's he trying to prove?
I can run Oblivion on 1024x768 on that machine, as well as Doom 3. I have since built a new one, in prep for Windows Vista, and therefore have gone on the cheap side for a vid card solution with a 7900 GT, so as not to feel too bad about replacing a fairly new vid card when DX10 rolls around.
But make sure you actually HAVE a 9700 to test on before you start tossing random stats out there.
I just got tired of games crashing my computer. Or segfaulting in the middle of the action.
Then learn to take care of your system. I swear, 90% of these arguments are ridiculous. Unless you want the ABSOLUTE best performance, the HIGHEST graphics resolution, and the FASTEST load times, none of which are necessary to enjoy a PC game, you can have a PC with about a 6 year lifespan for the advancement of games. I had a 5 year old ATI Radeon 9700 AIW up until VERY recently, which handled Oblivion just fine. Maybe not at ridiculously high resolutions, and not with anti-aliasing or some of the other fun features newer vid cards have, but I still enjoy the game tremendously.
I'm not in favor of one style of gaming over the other. Console has its good games and exclusives, which work very well on that platform. PCs are UNDENIABLY better for FPSs and RTSs.
I like both. I like to have fun.
This guy seems to think PC gamers justifying their position on gaming are compensating for what they unconciously believe was a bad purchase. I think console gamers are justifying sticking only to console in order to comfort themselves for missing out on the great PC titles out there. Either way, this guy is full of shite.
Maybe Todd could call up Seth... Inject a little humor into it as well.
(Scene: We see 2 men, standing next to each other, one in a suit, looking a little more distinguished and professional, the other in a hoodie, with ripped-up, faded jeans, looking rather young and, "hip"... Backdrop is a non-descript washed-out white)
Zune: Hi, I'm a Zune.
iPod: And I'm an iPod.
Zune: You know a Zune can do a lot of great things. It can play videos, store and play all of your favorite music, and...
iPod(interrupting): Well, an iPod can do all of that too. (pauses, looking at the previously out-of-view left hand of the suited-up man) What's... What's that?
Zune: Oh, this is a Wi-Fi antenna. I'm Wi-Fi active.
iPod (Frowns overexaggeratedly)
Zune: Uh-oh, that's the sad face... Hang on, I think I know what to do to fix this, I saw it on the internet... (Suited-up man picks up the younger man and body slams him)
iPod (on the ground, looking straight up, not at the camera): Thanks man.
Zune: No problem.
No actually, whales are next up for the warning.
Or you could just make one of these.
The motto of anything in life should be Keep It Simple, Stupid.
1. Hardware-based drivers simply adds another layer of interface, another place for something to go wrong. The software side has to eventually interface with the hardware, and adding another layer of drivers does nothing to facilitate this process.
2. STOP BEING SO DAMNED PROPRIETARY. Sure, trade secrets and everything. I understand that much. But how much sense would it make to keep HOW to interact with the card secret? It's like saying, "I wrote this great song on the piano, and since you only need 24 keys to play it instead of all 88, I'll only give you the 24 keys." Sure, most of the time, when you're playing the piano, you don't need ALL 88 keys, but it sure is nice to have them if you need them.
So simple, it's almost stupid.
"...US Government declares eating violent."
Wouldn't you rather play a nice game of chess?
Bottom line: the matter of whether or not WGA will prevent a copy of Windows from running remains unsettled.
...But there is more to consider here. Do you honestly expect Microsoft to go ahead with a Windows killswitch after making this announcement? To the common user afflicted by defective WGA authentications, a Windows killswitch is no different than essentially turning off their computer. Implementing such a killswitch would cause this statement to resurface, and make them look like fools. Techies and otherwise intelligent people will notice the language difference, but honestly these minor differences in semantics mean nothing to Joe Blow running an OEM copy of Windows legally that arbitrarily fails WGA. If he turns on his computer one day, and sees - "Windows Genuine Advantage has determined your copy of Windows may not be authentic. Windows will now shut down. Contact Microsoft support at 1-800-123-4567 to acquire a Genuine Windows license," and he heard this statement from Microsoft, he's not a happy camper.
This may be the case, and I caught that interesting choice of words myself...
That's a fantastic idea... Although there would need to be some polishing.
For example, fee ranges differing based on how many games you want access to...
One character slot per game to dispel the profit loss from offering a cheaper subscription, with one-time fees for extra character slots...
Still, I wouldn't subscribe to it anyway because I hate the idea of having to pay to play something I already paid for. GW all the way for me.
I would say that neither made a very strong case for their respective sides, but Craig did the best job.
The Telco guy said, "Net Neutrality is bad." But failed to supply a good, factual "why". Instead, he promoted what services could potentially be offered if "government regulation" is prevented. He tosses in buzz-words with negative connotations (e.g. "government-monitored," "socialized," "special interest") , along side good-sounding ideas, but fails to offer anything of substance. It made me laugh when he tried to describe Net Neutrality in the same terms that Net Neutrality proponents describe telco regulation.
Craig's reply lacks factual references as well, but provides some good examples. Basically, it points out all of the bad things that the telcos could do if net neutrality wasn't preserved. I rather like the telephone analogy. But this isn't the most convincing argument against the telcos I've seen.
I may have been a bit unfair, considering there were probably size constraints on both. I doubt, however, more room to write would've improved the Telco's argument.
I would contend that those users who use FireFox now already don't trust IE and will stick with it FireFox, despite the integration of features.
FireFox has one feature IE does not: A low profile.
Um, that's a black DS. Not a DS Lite.