I own a 200 pound Neopolitan Mastiff. He has never been trained as a guard dog, but I can promise you that if the 'It Takes A Thief' people showed up on my block, they would bypass my house in about 1/2 a second after seeing him. I don't lock my doors when I leave during the day, hell, I would feel sorry for anyone that went into the house uninvited. My brother, whom the dog knows well, has a few moments of uncertainty when he stops by and needs to grab something from the house when I am not home, as my dog will rush him at the door barking and generally flinging drool everywhere until he recognizes him. First time he stopped by he ended up opening the door, walking a step in, and promptly turning around and bailing out of the house when the dog came at him. On the other hand, people who come in with me are met with a wagging tail and slobbery kisses. Most people think of a 'big' dog is a Rotty or something in the 100-150 pound range. Once you get a dog that comes close to outweighing you and is over 6' when standing on it's hind legs, 'big' has a whole new meaning.
It would be wise for someone that's not played either to not comment until YOU get hands on -- I'm talking to you Slashdot.
You must be new he..... oh, wait... nevermind
Your point being? LOL In all honesty, I was addicted to the game. I would get off work, come straight home, and start playing till the early hours of the morning, catch a few hours of sleep and start the whole process all over again. The weekends were spent in front of the computer as long as I could. Right before I sold the account, the previous 3 months I was out of work on FMLA for severe depression (which, in hindsight, I attribute to the amount of time I was playing the game and not anything else), and spent easily 14-16 hours a day playing the game.
It had become my life. I was one of the top people on the server, and my mindset was that if I stopped playing as much as I did I would drop in 'standing'. Rather sad to think about it now. A good year and a half pretty much wasted.
Back when SWG was at it's heyday, I was one of the first people on my server to unlock the Jedi archtype. After playing it for a few weeks and realizing that the entire class was borked, I put the account on eBay for $300... at the end of a week long auction, it sold for over $1600. I couldn't believe that anyone would pay that much for a game account, and was sure that it was some scammer. But, the funds got transfered from France through PayPal, and it was legit. I still to this day get a laugh out of it... my wife gets a bigger laugh (she is an accountant) when she realized that I made ~$0.50/hr on the deal!
Oh my god.... the humanity of it!!! I always knew that there was something fishy about our neighbors up north, now I know. How do you survive?! Think of the children!;)
"Shut up! Fuck you! You fuckin' dick! Always naysaying! Everything I create! You piece of shit! You create something! Like Spore! You fuckin' shit! You fuckin' sit in your tower! Ya fuckin' nap-- "....
My appologies to Tenacious D, but I get tired of all the 'naysaying' when a company announces they are going to be releasing a game on both console and PC....
Alright, a box full of shit for $30 just in time for christmas? It's like my childhood all over again!!
All jokes aside, they just need to scrap the game and go back to the drawing board. SWG use to be a great game, engaging, etc.etc. Not going to go into the whole rant, you all have heard it before. Yet another reason why I dislike $ony, god... I am almost to the point where I dislike them more then Microsoft. (Hey, I said almost!!)
Glad to see that we could find some common ground here. In all actuality, I think that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are really trying too hard. While those people with neophilia are rushing out to buy both the players and the movies, I don't see the average person finding anything so 'wow' about them. Their DVD players will work just fine. In the current state of the technology, they won't really see that much of a difference. Heck, I am always one to jump on the new technology bandwagon, have a HDTV with HDMI, and have no inclination to buy either player.
While I do own an Xbox360 (along with a PS2 (on my 3rd due to failed drives) and xbox) due to the blunders of $ony lately, I refuse to give them anymore of my money. I use to be a firm supporter, from digital cameras to laptops all the way to cdr's. But in the last 5 years, the quality has gone to shit, and the price keeps climbing. While not really a fan of Nintendo the last couple of systems, I think that the rest of my family will enjoy the Wii, and will be buying that as my second system.
Yeah, reading back on my post, I guess I do come across as an asshole. Sorry about that, stressful day at work. And the whole $ony thing, it has to do with the rootkit... it hid the files using the $? After the M$ stuff, I thought that it was fitting. I agree, and even admit, to being an anti-sony fanboi fanboi. I just get tired of reading so much fud on both sides of the fence without anything backing it up.
Ah, yes. Of course I am a 'fanboi', if I disagree with your conclusions.
Actually, I use fanboi to describe someone who slavishly supports a particular item.
Console 'excitement' is always measured relative to its competitors. That's where I got that. Infantile spelling of Sony with a $ noted.
Huh? Since when is excitement measured relative to it's competitors? This comment makes no sense. And $ony is a joke on the rootkit, rather clever if I don't say so myself. Hoping that it catches on.
Yes, that is the number being tossed around at the moment, but if its all right with you, I'll pass judgement when there's something shipping.
Ummm... that was the price announced by $ony. It's fine with me if you want to wait to pass judgement, though =)
First source admits that the Samsung player has an HDMI scaler bug, and notes that the movies are encoded with MPEG-2, not AVC. Your second source repeats what the first one said, if you'd read your own links. Third source, your most credible, links to an AV forum where the guys who ran out and bought HD-DVD players are announcing that - suprise! - they like their new toys. It is what it is, but this is hardly an authoritative dataset!
Hmmm... then show me one review that says Blu-Ray is better then HD-DVD in it's current form. The OP stated that hd-dvd was whooping blu-ray, and from what I can find on the net, he's right.
And this proves... what? That we haven't seen blu-ray demonstrated properly, with a proper codec (VC-1/AVC) yet. That is all. Its worth noting, but if you take from this that all blu-ray discs will be MPEG-2, you are dead wrong.
You stated to the OP that he was wrong. I was just proving his point that the current blu-ray disks are encoded in MPEG-2. Maybe you should read back to what you posted to the OP.
You misread. I wasn't saying the Samsung had issues - I specifically mentioned those. I was speaking to the GP's point about blu-ray being like UMD, and as I said, they are totally different animals. UMD is not backwards compatible with anything, for starters. Who's the fanboi now?
No, you didn't mention that. What I mentioned was that the blu-ray players currently only read one layer, which you said was unfounded. And I wouldn't call myself a fanboi, more of a anti-fanboi of $ony.
And I agree with your willingness to discuss these machines without....pigeon-holing.... wait....what the hell exactly does that mean?
I feel the need to call fanboi on your entire response...
Sure there are die-hard, rabid, Playstation fanatics who would still buy one if the price was your first born. But if you look at the fact that Sony has always had lame launch titles, the PSP's consumer excitement around it's launch could be described as "apathetic" with the die hard fans camping out for a product that didn't even sell out....
Its true that the DS is handily beating the PSP in sales, especially since the DS Lite launched; but apathetic is alittle strong. The PSP is selling about half as well as the DS. That's still something like 200k units per month.
Considering that the DS or sales numbers were not even brought into the discussion, where the hell did this come from? The OP was describing the consumer exitement about the PSP and the less then spectacular launch titles for the system, which after the die hard $ony fans had gotten theirs, dropped to apathetic. I don't know anyone that was excited about the PSP mainly due to the lackluster titles at launch.
Root kit lost a lot of fans...
Rootkit fiasco lost a lot of nerd fans. Jo Q Public still has no clue. They don't even know what a rootkit is.
That's funny... I get asked all the time by people who know that I am into computers about it. It was featured on the network news, CNN, MSNBC, etc. etc.
... as did Sony's double talk arrogance and bad mouthing of their competition, and lets not forget the clear rip-offs of Nintendo's Wii-mote and Microsoft's Guide button,
Arrogance: check.
Wii rip-off: undecided. Its a natural progression, the tilt sensor they added, if you ask me. More likely this feature was bumped up in priority when Sony saw the impression the Wii remote made. I can see that one either way to be honest. This is sort of like saying that every single digital music player is ripping off the iPod.
MS 'guide' button: what are you talking about? I don't even know what this is. Hardly a feature that's touted as interesting, at any rate.
Natural progression? I think you hit the nail on the head, though. When $ony saw the impression that the Wii controller made, they made the feature a priority... it has nothing to do with saying digital music players are ripping off the i-pod. It's like another music player coming out with a click wheel.
and perhaps most importantly THE PRICE.
Price is bad, I agree. Way bad in comparison to the other consoles, specifically. Of course, we don't actually know the final price yet.
Ummm... where have you been? The price has been known for quite awhile now. $499 for the basic, $599 for upgraded system.
Heck the reason for the high price was because of the Blu-Ray drive, and reviews thus far have shown that HD-DVD is stomping all over Blu-Ray.
Really! I'd like to see that. Cite a source?
HD-DVD has 2 layer discs (15gig per layer/30gig total) and uses the awesome VC-1 codec.
So? Blu-ray has a max storage of 200 gigs, over six layers. The codec is irrelevant; you can write a Blu-ray disc with MPEG-2, or the awesome VC-1 codec, OR the 'even awesomer' AVC codec. HD-DVD can only use MS-approved codecs and by the way, that has DRM built-in to the wrapper. (H.264/AVC does not necessarily have this stipulation (weak praise I know), but ALL MS codecs will have to deal with this.)
A six layer blu-ray disk has not been produced outside of the lab, and may be years (if ever) before it is able to be mass produced. Where do you come up with that hd-dvd can only use MS approved codecs? You are just spouting FUD now, as blue-ra
a computer entertainment system (Playstation3) and a video game and entertainment system(Xbox360)? Is Sony still trying to push the whole "this isn't a console, it's a computer" thing? They are both frickn video game systems, no matter how you cut it!!
I for one welcome our new chemically assisted spatially controlled field evaporated tip overlords... hmmm... that doesn't roll off the tongue well, now does it?
Hmmm... good point. I would say that I fit that definition as well. Games are a fun diversion, but I wouldn't go out of my way to play the newest game-of-the-week. I would say, though, that I am a techno-computer geek, and like to keep my computer as close to top of the line as my wallet allows. This does have the side effect of allowing me to play pretty much any game out there, now that I think about it. =)
While this may be flamebait, I am going to hazard a guess that the 'casual' gamer probably has more disposable income then a 'hard core' gamer. I know alot of people that would love to be able to spend 20+ hours a week playing a game, getting to know it's in and outs, becoming a proficient player. But, due to having to go to work, it's not possible. I am not implying that hard core gamers don't work, or don't make a decent living, but IMO if you compared the salaries of those that consider themselves 'hard core' gamers compared to those that consider themselves 'casual' gamers, that there would be quite a discrepancy in dollar amounts.
I consider myself a casual gamer, and I run a top of the line Crossfire ATI setup with a dual- core AMD64 and 2 gigs of low latency ram. I maybe play a few hours a week, if at that. Why the setup? I am older, I can afford it now, and the games that I do play I want to look great and perform the same. When I was younger I could get away with a lower end system playing new games because I couldn't afford it and the quality wasn't that important. Now I want the 16xAA, high resolution, huge textures. While gameplay is still important, I enjoy the visuals more.
It seems to me that the executives of companies are on the verge of finally discovering a way into the mainstream with gaming. Sure, they are creating games for the 'hard core', which IMO seems to be the 20-something sect with alot of free time on their hands and not alot of money, or the slightly younger group that still live at home, with lots of free time, and daddy's wallet.
What some companies are discovering, Nintendo comes to mind, is that games do not have to take hours to become proficient in, and many many hours to complete. Those of us in our thirties, the ones that grew up on Atari 2400's and Pong attached to our TV's through RF splitters, don't have that kind of time anymore to set aside for gaming. But we still like to occasionally sit down (stand in line, etc.) and play a little here and there. But our kids have lots of free time.
Instead of targeting a console or handheld at the 'hard core', make it appeal to both the young and old. There is nothing wrong with having the latest 'OMGL33T' game on the same console as something that takes little time to play.
As to TFA, I think that they are mistaken in their assumption that someone playing a non hard-core game is going to 'graduate' to a more advanced title. I imagine alot of us have 'graduated' outside of the more advanced titles and are looking for something with a little more depth that doesn't take away from the lives that we live in terms of time.
Slashdot Mirror
I own a 200 pound Neopolitan Mastiff. He has never been trained as a guard dog, but I can promise you that if the 'It Takes A Thief' people showed up on my block, they would bypass my house in about 1/2 a second after seeing him. I don't lock my doors when I leave during the day, hell, I would feel sorry for anyone that went into the house uninvited. My brother, whom the dog knows well, has a few moments of uncertainty when he stops by and needs to grab something from the house when I am not home, as my dog will rush him at the door barking and generally flinging drool everywhere until he recognizes him. First time he stopped by he ended up opening the door, walking a step in, and promptly turning around and bailing out of the house when the dog came at him. On the other hand, people who come in with me are met with a wagging tail and slobbery kisses. Most people think of a 'big' dog is a Rotty or something in the 100-150 pound range. Once you get a dog that comes close to outweighing you and is over 6' when standing on it's hind legs, 'big' has a whole new meaning.
I think your hair would be amusing to see!
It would be wise for someone that's not played either to not comment until YOU get hands on -- I'm talking to you Slashdot. You must be new he..... oh, wait... nevermind
Your point being? LOL In all honesty, I was addicted to the game. I would get off work, come straight home, and start playing till the early hours of the morning, catch a few hours of sleep and start the whole process all over again. The weekends were spent in front of the computer as long as I could. Right before I sold the account, the previous 3 months I was out of work on FMLA for severe depression (which, in hindsight, I attribute to the amount of time I was playing the game and not anything else), and spent easily 14-16 hours a day playing the game.
It had become my life. I was one of the top people on the server, and my mindset was that if I stopped playing as much as I did I would drop in 'standing'. Rather sad to think about it now. A good year and a half pretty much wasted.
Back when SWG was at it's heyday, I was one of the first people on my server to unlock the Jedi archtype. After playing it for a few weeks and realizing that the entire class was borked, I put the account on eBay for $300... at the end of a week long auction, it sold for over $1600. I couldn't believe that anyone would pay that much for a game account, and was sure that it was some scammer. But, the funds got transfered from France through PayPal, and it was legit. I still to this day get a laugh out of it... my wife gets a bigger laugh (she is an accountant) when she realized that I made ~$0.50/hr on the deal!
Oh my god.... the humanity of it!!! I always knew that there was something fishy about our neighbors up north, now I know. How do you survive?! Think of the children! ;)
I can even go without coffee for days on end if I choose to.
Go without coffee? I was going to call you on this, but I realized that you must just drink more Mt. Dew on those days...
"Shut up! Fuck you! You fuckin' dick! Always naysaying! Everything I create! You piece of shit! You create something! Like Spore! You fuckin' shit! You fuckin' sit in your tower! Ya fuckin' nap-- ".... My appologies to Tenacious D, but I get tired of all the 'naysaying' when a company announces they are going to be releasing a game on both console and PC....
If anyone ever needs 22 levels of 'slacking off', let me know... I think I got that level covered ;)
Alright, a box full of shit for $30 just in time for christmas? It's like my childhood all over again!!
All jokes aside, they just need to scrap the game and go back to the drawing board. SWG use to be a great game, engaging, etc.etc. Not going to go into the whole rant, you all have heard it before. Yet another reason why I dislike $ony, god... I am almost to the point where I dislike them more then Microsoft. (Hey, I said almost!!)
If I had mod points, oh insightful AC, you would be getting some. But alas, this week I have come up dry.
Glad to see that we could find some common ground here. In all actuality, I think that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are really trying too hard. While those people with neophilia are rushing out to buy both the players and the movies, I don't see the average person finding anything so 'wow' about them. Their DVD players will work just fine. In the current state of the technology, they won't really see that much of a difference. Heck, I am always one to jump on the new technology bandwagon, have a HDTV with HDMI, and have no inclination to buy either player.
While I do own an Xbox360 (along with a PS2 (on my 3rd due to failed drives) and xbox) due to the blunders of $ony lately, I refuse to give them anymore of my money. I use to be a firm supporter, from digital cameras to laptops all the way to cdr's. But in the last 5 years, the quality has gone to shit, and the price keeps climbing. While not really a fan of Nintendo the last couple of systems, I think that the rest of my family will enjoy the Wii, and will be buying that as my second system.
Yeah, reading back on my post, I guess I do come across as an asshole. Sorry about that, stressful day at work. And the whole $ony thing, it has to do with the rootkit... it hid the files using the $? After the M$ stuff, I thought that it was fitting. I agree, and even admit, to being an anti-sony fanboi fanboi. I just get tired of reading so much fud on both sides of the fence without anything backing it up.
Ah, yes. Of course I am a 'fanboi', if I disagree with your conclusions.
....pigeon-holing.... wait....what the hell exactly does that mean?
Actually, I use fanboi to describe someone who slavishly supports a particular item.
Console 'excitement' is always measured relative to its competitors. That's where I got that. Infantile spelling of Sony with a $ noted.
Huh? Since when is excitement measured relative to it's competitors? This comment makes no sense. And $ony is a joke on the rootkit, rather clever if I don't say so myself. Hoping that it catches on.
Yes, that is the number being tossed around at the moment, but if its all right with you, I'll pass judgement when there's something shipping.
Ummm... that was the price announced by $ony. It's fine with me if you want to wait to pass judgement, though =)
First source admits that the Samsung player has an HDMI scaler bug, and notes that the movies are encoded with MPEG-2, not AVC. Your second source repeats what the first one said, if you'd read your own links. Third source, your most credible, links to an AV forum where the guys who ran out and bought HD-DVD players are announcing that - suprise! - they like their new toys. It is what it is, but this is hardly an authoritative dataset!
Hmmm... then show me one review that says Blu-Ray is better then HD-DVD in it's current form. The OP stated that hd-dvd was whooping blu-ray, and from what I can find on the net, he's right.
And this proves... what? That we haven't seen blu-ray demonstrated properly, with a proper codec (VC-1/AVC) yet. That is all. Its worth noting, but if you take from this that all blu-ray discs will be MPEG-2, you are dead wrong.
You stated to the OP that he was wrong. I was just proving his point that the current blu-ray disks are encoded in MPEG-2. Maybe you should read back to what you posted to the OP.
You misread. I wasn't saying the Samsung had issues - I specifically mentioned those. I was speaking to the GP's point about blu-ray being like UMD, and as I said, they are totally different animals. UMD is not backwards compatible with anything, for starters. Who's the fanboi now?
No, you didn't mention that. What I mentioned was that the blu-ray players currently only read one layer, which you said was unfounded. And I wouldn't call myself a fanboi, more of a anti-fanboi of $ony.
And I agree with your willingness to discuss these machines without
I feel the need to call fanboi on your entire response...
... as did Sony's double talk arrogance and bad mouthing of their competition, and lets not forget the clear rip-offs of Nintendo's Wii-mote and Microsoft's Guide button,
Sure there are die-hard, rabid, Playstation fanatics who would still buy one if the price was your first born. But if you look at the fact that Sony has always had lame launch titles, the PSP's consumer excitement around it's launch could be described as "apathetic" with the die hard fans camping out for a product that didn't even sell out....
Its true that the DS is handily beating the PSP in sales, especially since the DS Lite launched; but apathetic is alittle strong. The PSP is selling about half as well as the DS. That's still something like 200k units per month.
Considering that the DS or sales numbers were not even brought into the discussion, where the hell did this come from? The OP was describing the consumer exitement about the PSP and the less then spectacular launch titles for the system, which after the die hard $ony fans had gotten theirs, dropped to apathetic. I don't know anyone that was excited about the PSP mainly due to the lackluster titles at launch.
Root kit lost a lot of fans...
Rootkit fiasco lost a lot of nerd fans. Jo Q Public still has no clue. They don't even know what a rootkit is.
That's funny... I get asked all the time by people who know that I am into computers about it. It was featured on the network news, CNN, MSNBC, etc. etc.
Arrogance: check.
Wii rip-off: undecided. Its a natural progression, the tilt sensor they added, if you ask me. More likely this feature was bumped up in priority when Sony saw the impression the Wii remote made. I can see that one either way to be honest. This is sort of like saying that every single digital music player is ripping off the iPod.
MS 'guide' button: what are you talking about? I don't even know what this is. Hardly a feature that's touted as interesting, at any rate.
Natural progression? I think you hit the nail on the head, though. When $ony saw the impression that the Wii controller made, they made the feature a priority... it has nothing to do with saying digital music players are ripping off the i-pod. It's like another music player coming out with a click wheel.
and perhaps most importantly THE PRICE.
Price is bad, I agree. Way bad in comparison to the other consoles, specifically. Of course, we don't actually know the final price yet.
Ummm... where have you been? The price has been known for quite awhile now. $499 for the basic, $599 for upgraded system.
Heck the reason for the high price was because of the Blu-Ray drive, and reviews thus far have shown that HD-DVD is stomping all over Blu-Ray. Really! I'd like to see that. Cite a source?
Here
Here
and here
HD-DVD has 2 layer discs (15gig per layer/30gig total) and uses the awesome VC-1 codec.
So? Blu-ray has a max storage of 200 gigs, over six layers. The codec is irrelevant; you can write a Blu-ray disc with MPEG-2, or the awesome VC-1 codec, OR the 'even awesomer' AVC codec. HD-DVD can only use MS-approved codecs and by the way, that has DRM built-in to the wrapper. (H.264/AVC does not necessarily have this stipulation (weak praise I know), but ALL MS codecs will have to deal with this.)
A six layer blu-ray disk has not been produced outside of the lab, and may be years (if ever) before it is able to be mass produced. Where do you come up with that hd-dvd can only use MS approved codecs? You are just spouting FUD now, as blue-ra
Noooooooooooooooo!!!! WHY, God, WHY!?!
a computer entertainment system (Playstation3) and a video game and entertainment system(Xbox360)? Is Sony still trying to push the whole "this isn't a console, it's a computer" thing? They are both frickn video game systems, no matter how you cut it!!
be considered offensive in the US (mainly the glorification of young girls in sailor suits as "sexy")
/.'ers find offense in cute asian girls in sailor suits!
I don't know about you, but I am guessing that few, if any, of the
I for one welcome our new chemically assisted spatially controlled field evaporated tip overlords... hmmm... that doesn't roll off the tongue well, now does it?
Hmmm... good point. I would say that I fit that definition as well. Games are a fun diversion, but I wouldn't go out of my way to play the newest game-of-the-week. I would say, though, that I am a techno-computer geek, and like to keep my computer as close to top of the line as my wallet allows. This does have the side effect of allowing me to play pretty much any game out there, now that I think about it. =)
Heh... yeah, I think your right =)
While this may be flamebait, I am going to hazard a guess that the 'casual' gamer probably has more disposable income then a 'hard core' gamer. I know alot of people that would love to be able to spend 20+ hours a week playing a game, getting to know it's in and outs, becoming a proficient player. But, due to having to go to work, it's not possible. I am not implying that hard core gamers don't work, or don't make a decent living, but IMO if you compared the salaries of those that consider themselves 'hard core' gamers compared to those that consider themselves 'casual' gamers, that there would be quite a discrepancy in dollar amounts.
I consider myself a casual gamer, and I run a top of the line Crossfire ATI setup with a dual- core AMD64 and 2 gigs of low latency ram. I maybe play a few hours a week, if at that. Why the setup? I am older, I can afford it now, and the games that I do play I want to look great and perform the same. When I was younger I could get away with a lower end system playing new games because I couldn't afford it and the quality wasn't that important. Now I want the 16xAA, high resolution, huge textures. While gameplay is still important, I enjoy the visuals more.
It seems to me that the executives of companies are on the verge of finally discovering a way into the mainstream with gaming. Sure, they are creating games for the 'hard core', which IMO seems to be the 20-something sect with alot of free time on their hands and not alot of money, or the slightly younger group that still live at home, with lots of free time, and daddy's wallet.
What some companies are discovering, Nintendo comes to mind, is that games do not have to take hours to become proficient in, and many many hours to complete. Those of us in our thirties, the ones that grew up on Atari 2400's and Pong attached to our TV's through RF splitters, don't have that kind of time anymore to set aside for gaming. But we still like to occasionally sit down (stand in line, etc.) and play a little here and there. But our kids have lots of free time.
Instead of targeting a console or handheld at the 'hard core', make it appeal to both the young and old. There is nothing wrong with having the latest 'OMGL33T' game on the same console as something that takes little time to play.
As to TFA, I think that they are mistaken in their assumption that someone playing a non hard-core game is going to 'graduate' to a more advanced title. I imagine alot of us have 'graduated' outside of the more advanced titles and are looking for something with a little more depth that doesn't take away from the lives that we live in terms of time.
The 360 is out and is the best system ev0r! /peerpressure