It should also be noted that they're all UNDERGRADUATES... A population with one of the highest percentages of people drinking and doing drugs--they tend to have the free time and the disposable income for such hobbies... or at least the ones who didn't have to work/take out huge loans to pay for their studies...
Personally, I don't think either format will win. My personal belief is that they're creating a solution to a "problem" that doesn't exist yet. They are building a product that would be useful to less than 10% of the worldwide market (those who actually have HDTVs). I see these new formats as a way of pushing more restrictive DRM and with the "format war" I see it very likely that they'll just bleed each other to death.
It's an even lesser known fact that when the PS2 first launched in Japan that despite it selling out, few people were buying any games... The PS2 was the least expensive DVD player available in Japan at the time (much like the PS3 will be the least expensive high def disc player worldwide) and the games at the launch of the PS2 were lackluster (many suffering from anti-aliasing and other problems). People bought the systems just as a DVD player during the first few months--although I'm sure that most (if not all) of them bought at least one game after the first 3 months of the Japanese launch (when better games started coming out/programming issues were fixed).
I heard it was to prevent piracy. As the corporate versions (w/ multiple/unlimited licenses) will not have some of the features a home user/pirate may want. I doubt this will have any actual effect on the amount of piracy, but hey let them think what they want...
Also, supposedly the Ultimate edition (the one that let's you tweak performance for games and has all the "best" features from all versions) will have extra security features (including a call home feature) in an attempt to prevent piracy, since this is clearly the version most pirates/gamers will want. My guess, is they'll sell very few copies of this but that hundreds/thousands/millions of people will get their hands on pirated copies of it...
But we'll see what happens...
All titles were for current gen systems, so it may just be that all next-gen titles are to be kept secret until the actual event. Also worth noting is that Square appears to be fully supporting the DS (with 3 titles announced) and only throwing the PSP some crumbs (in terms of 1 game). This is a reverse of the consoles, where Square developed soly for PS2, but through Nintendo some crumbs (FF:CC) on the GameCube (because I believe Nintendo told Square they had to develop at least one GC title if they wanted to develop titles for the GBA). This, to me, reinforces the fact that the PSP is slowly bleeding to death (at least outside of the States).
XBox had a harddrive standard and it wasn't used for patches (or not that I've seen), so there shouldn't be any reason to fear.
Of course, with XBox in order to get ANY type of online service you needed a paid subscription... so maybe now that some online services will be free on all consoles one of those "services" will be patches for games shipped before they were actually ready... In which case, I plan to vote with my wallet and write an nasty letter to any publisher that pulls such a stunt...
*Off Topic* Speaking of which, I owe Blockbust a nasty letter for a) never having copies of games I'm looking for in stock and b) carrying PSP games but not DS games (last I checked there were more DS's out there than PSPs...)
Speaking of people not wanting the 17" because it's too large... For me, the 15" is even too large (I have a perfectly capbable desktop, and just need something small and light for mobile purposes). Anybody have any idea when the 12" is going to be out? That I'd be interested in. Or a Mac Tablet, but I figure the 12" will be out MUCH sooner, and I'm looking at a new laptop by August at the latest.
Reverse their fortunes was solely about the market share. While forming a niche is nice, every company wants to be the top dog. With strong third party support and a price that undercuts their competitors, Nintendo can regain that top spot (a spot that I, personally, feel they deserve--as long as they don't abuse it like they did last time they held the position). Plus, I remember reading somewhere before about a comment Iwata made before the launch of the DS that if the new handheld and the new console don't succeed that Nintendo would have to consider folding out of the game because even though they may have profited from the GameCube they thought of it as a failure.
When you decide to build from commodity parts, you're deciding to sacrifice performance for development speed. Maybe the XBox 360 won't be as good as the PS3, but it will certainly be more available and cheaper than it.
Which is the same reason Nintendo's "underpowered" system shouldn't be ignored. They're parts are even more readily available than those in the 360 (with the possible exception of the controllers) so they should be able to roll them out quickly right out of the gate and with some EXCELLENT first party titles. If they can just get Konami, Square Enix, Capcom, et al to fully commit to at least one launch game (or soon after launch) than they may be able to reverse their recent console fortunes.
Just ramping up production won't mean more people buying them. Maybe some none sports/FPS games would help things out. Or a game that you can't buy for $10 less on the older generation (might not be as pretty, but it's $10 less and is just as fun). Lower system price would be nice too, as only the early adopters (most of which have their 360 already) are willing to pay $400+ for a system with little original content.
I did for a little bit, but the interface/playback was fairly crappy. The XBox had a vastly superior DVD playback/interface (in my opinion) so once I purchased an XBox that became my DVD player. The menu system of the PS2 DVD features were hard to navigate and the default settings (which it always seemed to revert to--there didn't appear to be an option to save custom settings) was less than ideal for playback on my TV. Plus, I felt that that XBox produced a SLIGHTLY better picture and richer sound than the PS2 did for DVDs.
Still, IF I decide to get a PS3 then it will definitely be my Blu-Ray disc player (and I have no plans to purchase either a Blu-Ray or an HD-DVD player any time in the next 3 years). But I also have no plans to buy a $500 console any time in the next 3 years either... Nor even a $300 console. Once it gets to $200 or less (and has some good games) then we'll talk--until then:
Viva La Revolution!
Oh, I don't really care about first post. I only put it there because if people DO get it, then somebody seems to always comment about the fact that they DON'T say first post...
There have been experiments with different voltages to distinguish more than just on/off (although I don't know if it was done by the Russians), and from what I've heard/read such experiments have proven less than successful because the voltage/currency/whatever isn't always consistent (power spikes and such). Unless you're talking about the light on/off thing--in which case I don't know, but it shouldn't be too hard to determine just the on/off state (as that's basically how fiber optic cables work from my very limited understanding of them).
In soviet russia hypothesis test you!
I knew that the answers returned from quantam computing weren't finite/exact (which is what scares me from a programming standpoint--although it excites me from a theoretical standpoint), but with all the hype around quantam computing it had seemed like people were trying to position it to replace (at least eventually--especially since it'll be awhile before we get to even scientific use of quantam computing) digital computing. Good to hear that's not the plan though.
I also still think this light idea is great because it seems (to me) to be the quickest route to breaking free of silicon/electrical computer and continuing the progress of Moore's law.
The idea of programming for a quantam computer is daunting to me (and the idea of any user--AT THIS TIME--needing the power of it besides research labs/hackers is hard for me to fathom); however, I've always thought going optical would be a great move--faster than electricity, but still conceptually the same. In addition, if we wanted to it wouldn't be that hard to change it from binary (light on/light off) to amounts of light (of course the same thing could be done with electric interconnects but by voltage--just not as consistently)--and that is good in terms of AI as the human mind uses more complex interconnects than binary... Speed is almost always a good thing though.
First Post?
Correct on all accounts EXCEPT making phone calls. Despite being made by Nokia, their tablet is not a phone--nor would I want it to be... Personally, I would buy it too if it had a keyboard (more storage would be nice too, but really the biggest drawback is no keyboard--some things are just easier with a keyboard and I'm a big proponent of tablet/pen technologies).
$20/hour to scan pictures? At least you aren't cheap like a lot of these people saying $5/hour for the job (or one was a flat $20), but $20/hour for a simple task is REALLY high. If teenagers won't do it for less than that, hire an illegal for half that--and they'll probably do a better job to because they value the money more.
(Just a note--I posted the parent of the one I'm replying to; just posted as AC on accident). That out of the way... I do the same thing you do in terms of value by hour of entertainment. However, I just don't have the time (any more) to spend 10 hours or more playing an online game each week. I have maybe 2-3 hours to put into gaming each week. Plus, I like a new experience every so often and don't want to spend the amount I could spend on 2-4 games on just one game. While it can be argued that with online games it's always a new experience each time you play it because the game world is controlled by the players; I feel that (for me) more often than not the online game tends to be pretty much the same thing--although I DO really like the social aspects of them with the building alliances/guilds/power/wealth/war--I still feel that they rely too much on the pointless leveling that has long been the plague of all RPGs. I love RPGs for their stories (which online ones tend not to have--the few exceptions being Phantasy Star Online, Guild Wars, and a few others), but the leveling always tends to get tedious (and you HAVE to level--otherwise you can't beat that super annoying boss or get that elusive ultimate item). However, spreading my money across multiple games allows me to have a diverse gaming experience: some stragety from Pikmin; some RPG fun from Elder Scrolls or the FF; and some sports action from Mario Super Strikers (one of the few sports games that I actually enjoy--reminds me of the old Mutant League series, that I REALLY hope will be one of the Genesis games available for the Revolution).
See, I hadn't even bothered reading a review of B&W 2, let alone playing it... Fable was a huge disappointment to me and B&W was fun like 5 years ago, but I just didn't feel like playing more of the same with its sequel. But if the sequel was that much of a let down then it seems fairly likely that the problem might just be the studio is floundering. Just because Molyneux made great games at one point, doesn't mean he can run a successful studio now. Hype/fan base can only take you so far.
Maybe Lionhead Studios Just Isn't Doing Well?
on
Molyneux Rumour Control
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Rumors are all very good and all... but they're just that--rumors. The same things would happen if the studio was floundering because they aren't making enough returns from their investments. Fable was, disappointing, to say the least. There was lots of hype surrounding it, but it just didn't live up to all the hype. Sales were fairly good, but a game of that kind isn't exactly inexpensive to make. Black & White 2 just came out too far after the original Black & White and is another game that definitely isn't inexpensive to make... I personally don't think that the studio is doing that poorly, but I'm just playing devil's advocate and pointing out that these are signs of things other than a possible buy out...
With my M-Audio Revolution 7.1 enabled, my system idles along at about 1% of system usage (if that). With my M-Audio card enabled, it idles at like 29%. Add to that BeyondTV, and it's a recipe for disaster... If you're running a multi-purpose media box, the "normal" CPU load is much higher and the dual core is a must have. However, I'm not willing to shell out $300+ just yet (especially since I just built this box a year ago)--so I just run it with the sound card disabled unless I'm listening to music (I have an onboard sound card as well, which is sufficient for just watching TV and the few PC games I play--but for music, I like the crisper/clearer sound that the M-Audio card provides).
I love BeyondTV, but it should be noted that it is resource hungry--at least if you make the mistake of buying a piece of crap ATI All-in-Wonder card that doesn't do MPEG enconding on the hardware:-(... ATI's even crappier Media Center records using less resources than BeyondTV, but the features aren't there and the recording quality is considerably crappier than BeyondTV. BeyondTV is full featured, easy to use, easy to set up, and very sleek.
Oh, it would also be nice if they had an option so it doesn't record a temporary version of a show you're currently watching (as that will stop it from eating up my CPU)--especially since I hardly ever feel like rewinding a show I wasn't already planning to record myself.
Slashdot Mirror
This court case was in the UK...
It should also be noted that they're all UNDERGRADUATES... A population with one of the highest percentages of people drinking and doing drugs--they tend to have the free time and the disposable income for such hobbies... or at least the ones who didn't have to work/take out huge loans to pay for their studies...
Personally, I don't think either format will win. My personal belief is that they're creating a solution to a "problem" that doesn't exist yet. They are building a product that would be useful to less than 10% of the worldwide market (those who actually have HDTVs). I see these new formats as a way of pushing more restrictive DRM and with the "format war" I see it very likely that they'll just bleed each other to death.
It's an even lesser known fact that when the PS2 first launched in Japan that despite it selling out, few people were buying any games... The PS2 was the least expensive DVD player available in Japan at the time (much like the PS3 will be the least expensive high def disc player worldwide) and the games at the launch of the PS2 were lackluster (many suffering from anti-aliasing and other problems). People bought the systems just as a DVD player during the first few months--although I'm sure that most (if not all) of them bought at least one game after the first 3 months of the Japanese launch (when better games started coming out/programming issues were fixed).
Actually, I'd probably start sabotaging my own work. Now we know why EA games tend to suck... Thanks for the insight!
I heard it was to prevent piracy. As the corporate versions (w/ multiple/unlimited licenses) will not have some of the features a home user/pirate may want. I doubt this will have any actual effect on the amount of piracy, but hey let them think what they want... Also, supposedly the Ultimate edition (the one that let's you tweak performance for games and has all the "best" features from all versions) will have extra security features (including a call home feature) in an attempt to prevent piracy, since this is clearly the version most pirates/gamers will want. My guess, is they'll sell very few copies of this but that hundreds/thousands/millions of people will get their hands on pirated copies of it... But we'll see what happens...
All titles were for current gen systems, so it may just be that all next-gen titles are to be kept secret until the actual event. Also worth noting is that Square appears to be fully supporting the DS (with 3 titles announced) and only throwing the PSP some crumbs (in terms of 1 game). This is a reverse of the consoles, where Square developed soly for PS2, but through Nintendo some crumbs (FF:CC) on the GameCube (because I believe Nintendo told Square they had to develop at least one GC title if they wanted to develop titles for the GBA). This, to me, reinforces the fact that the PSP is slowly bleeding to death (at least outside of the States).
XBox had a harddrive standard and it wasn't used for patches (or not that I've seen), so there shouldn't be any reason to fear. Of course, with XBox in order to get ANY type of online service you needed a paid subscription... so maybe now that some online services will be free on all consoles one of those "services" will be patches for games shipped before they were actually ready... In which case, I plan to vote with my wallet and write an nasty letter to any publisher that pulls such a stunt... *Off Topic* Speaking of which, I owe Blockbust a nasty letter for a) never having copies of games I'm looking for in stock and b) carrying PSP games but not DS games (last I checked there were more DS's out there than PSPs...)
Speaking of people not wanting the 17" because it's too large... For me, the 15" is even too large (I have a perfectly capbable desktop, and just need something small and light for mobile purposes). Anybody have any idea when the 12" is going to be out? That I'd be interested in. Or a Mac Tablet, but I figure the 12" will be out MUCH sooner, and I'm looking at a new laptop by August at the latest.
Reverse their fortunes was solely about the market share. While forming a niche is nice, every company wants to be the top dog. With strong third party support and a price that undercuts their competitors, Nintendo can regain that top spot (a spot that I, personally, feel they deserve--as long as they don't abuse it like they did last time they held the position). Plus, I remember reading somewhere before about a comment Iwata made before the launch of the DS that if the new handheld and the new console don't succeed that Nintendo would have to consider folding out of the game because even though they may have profited from the GameCube they thought of it as a failure.
When you decide to build from commodity parts, you're deciding to sacrifice performance for development speed. Maybe the XBox 360 won't be as good as the PS3, but it will certainly be more available and cheaper than it. Which is the same reason Nintendo's "underpowered" system shouldn't be ignored. They're parts are even more readily available than those in the 360 (with the possible exception of the controllers) so they should be able to roll them out quickly right out of the gate and with some EXCELLENT first party titles. If they can just get Konami, Square Enix, Capcom, et al to fully commit to at least one launch game (or soon after launch) than they may be able to reverse their recent console fortunes.
Just ramping up production won't mean more people buying them. Maybe some none sports/FPS games would help things out. Or a game that you can't buy for $10 less on the older generation (might not be as pretty, but it's $10 less and is just as fun). Lower system price would be nice too, as only the early adopters (most of which have their 360 already) are willing to pay $400+ for a system with little original content.
I did for a little bit, but the interface/playback was fairly crappy. The XBox had a vastly superior DVD playback/interface (in my opinion) so once I purchased an XBox that became my DVD player. The menu system of the PS2 DVD features were hard to navigate and the default settings (which it always seemed to revert to--there didn't appear to be an option to save custom settings) was less than ideal for playback on my TV. Plus, I felt that that XBox produced a SLIGHTLY better picture and richer sound than the PS2 did for DVDs. Still, IF I decide to get a PS3 then it will definitely be my Blu-Ray disc player (and I have no plans to purchase either a Blu-Ray or an HD-DVD player any time in the next 3 years). But I also have no plans to buy a $500 console any time in the next 3 years either... Nor even a $300 console. Once it gets to $200 or less (and has some good games) then we'll talk--until then: Viva La Revolution!
Oh, I don't really care about first post. I only put it there because if people DO get it, then somebody seems to always comment about the fact that they DON'T say first post...
There have been experiments with different voltages to distinguish more than just on/off (although I don't know if it was done by the Russians), and from what I've heard/read such experiments have proven less than successful because the voltage/currency/whatever isn't always consistent (power spikes and such). Unless you're talking about the light on/off thing--in which case I don't know, but it shouldn't be too hard to determine just the on/off state (as that's basically how fiber optic cables work from my very limited understanding of them). In soviet russia hypothesis test you!
I knew that the answers returned from quantam computing weren't finite/exact (which is what scares me from a programming standpoint--although it excites me from a theoretical standpoint), but with all the hype around quantam computing it had seemed like people were trying to position it to replace (at least eventually--especially since it'll be awhile before we get to even scientific use of quantam computing) digital computing. Good to hear that's not the plan though. I also still think this light idea is great because it seems (to me) to be the quickest route to breaking free of silicon/electrical computer and continuing the progress of Moore's law.
The idea of programming for a quantam computer is daunting to me (and the idea of any user--AT THIS TIME--needing the power of it besides research labs/hackers is hard for me to fathom); however, I've always thought going optical would be a great move--faster than electricity, but still conceptually the same. In addition, if we wanted to it wouldn't be that hard to change it from binary (light on/light off) to amounts of light (of course the same thing could be done with electric interconnects but by voltage--just not as consistently)--and that is good in terms of AI as the human mind uses more complex interconnects than binary... Speed is almost always a good thing though. First Post?
Correct on all accounts EXCEPT making phone calls. Despite being made by Nokia, their tablet is not a phone--nor would I want it to be... Personally, I would buy it too if it had a keyboard (more storage would be nice too, but really the biggest drawback is no keyboard--some things are just easier with a keyboard and I'm a big proponent of tablet/pen technologies).
$20/hour to scan pictures? At least you aren't cheap like a lot of these people saying $5/hour for the job (or one was a flat $20), but $20/hour for a simple task is REALLY high. If teenagers won't do it for less than that, hire an illegal for half that--and they'll probably do a better job to because they value the money more.
For those too lazy to read TFA...
499 Euro - 599 Euro
Out of my price range...
Viva la Revolution!
(Just a note--I posted the parent of the one I'm replying to; just posted as AC on accident). That out of the way... I do the same thing you do in terms of value by hour of entertainment. However, I just don't have the time (any more) to spend 10 hours or more playing an online game each week. I have maybe 2-3 hours to put into gaming each week. Plus, I like a new experience every so often and don't want to spend the amount I could spend on 2-4 games on just one game. While it can be argued that with online games it's always a new experience each time you play it because the game world is controlled by the players; I feel that (for me) more often than not the online game tends to be pretty much the same thing--although I DO really like the social aspects of them with the building alliances/guilds/power/wealth/war--I still feel that they rely too much on the pointless leveling that has long been the plague of all RPGs. I love RPGs for their stories (which online ones tend not to have--the few exceptions being Phantasy Star Online, Guild Wars, and a few others), but the leveling always tends to get tedious (and you HAVE to level--otherwise you can't beat that super annoying boss or get that elusive ultimate item). However, spreading my money across multiple games allows me to have a diverse gaming experience: some stragety from Pikmin; some RPG fun from Elder Scrolls or the FF; and some sports action from Mario Super Strikers (one of the few sports games that I actually enjoy--reminds me of the old Mutant League series, that I REALLY hope will be one of the Genesis games available for the Revolution).
See, I hadn't even bothered reading a review of B&W 2, let alone playing it... Fable was a huge disappointment to me and B&W was fun like 5 years ago, but I just didn't feel like playing more of the same with its sequel. But if the sequel was that much of a let down then it seems fairly likely that the problem might just be the studio is floundering. Just because Molyneux made great games at one point, doesn't mean he can run a successful studio now. Hype/fan base can only take you so far.
Rumors are all very good and all... but they're just that--rumors. The same things would happen if the studio was floundering because they aren't making enough returns from their investments. Fable was, disappointing, to say the least. There was lots of hype surrounding it, but it just didn't live up to all the hype. Sales were fairly good, but a game of that kind isn't exactly inexpensive to make. Black & White 2 just came out too far after the original Black & White and is another game that definitely isn't inexpensive to make... I personally don't think that the studio is doing that poorly, but I'm just playing devil's advocate and pointing out that these are signs of things other than a possible buy out...
With my M-Audio Revolution 7.1 enabled, my system idles along at about 1% of system usage (if that). With my M-Audio card enabled, it idles at like 29%. Add to that BeyondTV, and it's a recipe for disaster... If you're running a multi-purpose media box, the "normal" CPU load is much higher and the dual core is a must have. However, I'm not willing to shell out $300+ just yet (especially since I just built this box a year ago)--so I just run it with the sound card disabled unless I'm listening to music (I have an onboard sound card as well, which is sufficient for just watching TV and the few PC games I play--but for music, I like the crisper/clearer sound that the M-Audio card provides).
I love BeyondTV, but it should be noted that it is resource hungry--at least if you make the mistake of buying a piece of crap ATI All-in-Wonder card that doesn't do MPEG enconding on the hardware :-(... ATI's even crappier Media Center records using less resources than BeyondTV, but the features aren't there and the recording quality is considerably crappier than BeyondTV. BeyondTV is full featured, easy to use, easy to set up, and very sleek.
Oh, it would also be nice if they had an option so it doesn't record a temporary version of a show you're currently watching (as that will stop it from eating up my CPU)--especially since I hardly ever feel like rewinding a show I wasn't already planning to record myself.