If I get a few hours a week to game, I am pretty happy. Everything I've read about WoW leads me to believe that I will really not do well there. But those screen shots are truly exquisite. So help me out,/. folks. Can WoW be enjoyed by a family guy approaching over the hill?
I think this has less to do with Microsoft than with Bungie's obsession with balancing play. If you believe Bungie's updates, each weapon is meticulously play tested for balance, fairness, and fun. It would be fairly impossible to have the same experience on a PC as a 360. No matter what side of the controller/keyboard debate/debacle you fall on, they are clearly different beasts.
Did anyone play pick up basketball games at their local playground growing up? Racist, sexist, homophobic, profane... you name it! It was called smack talk and some people were incredible at it. This is the modern day equivalent. If you are a 30-year gamer with a job (like me) and you go into a game filled with teenagers... guess what? Smack talk.
It's no different than heading to your local basketball court and trying to hang with the teenagers there.
This is in now way FUD. The Halo 2 multi-player experience was nearly destroyed by hackers who used any number of cheats. As a casual player with legal copies of games, I am thrilled that Microsoft kicks those guys off.
This is for folks like me, who don't touch their PC's for gaming. The only multi-experience I have is on Xbox Live. If Microsoft can extend the subscription that I already have onto a home PC or my laptop at work, I might be tempted to do more PC gaming... especially when I have to travel with work.
Rather than a "greedy" move, it seems pretty smart to me. I get more out of my current subscription and maybe use my home PC for more than a hyped-up Internet browser.
I have been working for several years under a grant from the federal government to improve health care provider access to critical information about people's health records. The largest problem we run into is trying to uniquely identify a patient and correctly match it to people's health information, which can be dispersed across many institutions.
The potential benefits to public health of a Federal ID are astounding, especially when you look at the under served and public health population. Likewise, the amount of money governments and institutions are pouring into solving this problem is outrageous.
As a country, we are pouring money down the drain trying to save this, and are actually increasing the risk of privacy theft. "Master Patient Indexes" are being built in every state to collect demographic data and try to match and de-duplicate records. This is completely unnecessary if there were a federal ID in place.
All of you criticizing this move by Microsoft, have you considered that you are not the target market Microsoft wants?
I currently love Live on the 360, but I won't touch my PC for gaming. My wife needs it for work and I hate keeping up with the upgrades. I might be convinced to take advantage of Live on my PC, however. I'll bet there's a lot of folks like myself. If enough of us started using the PC for gaming... that might change the declining trend (with the exception of WoW) of gaming on the PC.
I can't find good coverage for the 360 that doesn't pander to Microsoft or the game companies, certainly nothing out there like the PC Gamer style of neutral and harsh critique. For us over 30 gamers, we just don't have the time to weed through game bins anymore and I've fallen prey to Xbox Magazine's corporate pandering on more than one occasion already.
If Microsoft had initially charged $600 when 360's were trading on ebay for over $1000, they would have made a tidy profit and could have dropped the price by now. Sony would be smart to learn from the Microsoft mistake and price high during the initial demand, then rapidly drop price as demand wanes. This would solidify the perceived value of the PS3 as very high (perhaps higher than the 360) but still enable them to match price down the road.
Give Sony some credit guys, they MIGHT actually be thinking ahead from a business standpoint.
Slashdot Mirror
"Italy earthquake leaves 130 dead and scores more trapped under rubble" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/06/italy-earthquake-victims I'd say being off by a week or so in this case isn't bad science at all.
If I get a few hours a week to game, I am pretty happy. Everything I've read about WoW leads me to believe that I will really not do well there. But those screen shots are truly exquisite. So help me out, /. folks. Can WoW be enjoyed by a family guy approaching over the hill?
I think this has less to do with Microsoft than with Bungie's obsession with balancing play. If you believe Bungie's updates, each weapon is meticulously play tested for balance, fairness, and fun. It would be fairly impossible to have the same experience on a PC as a 360. No matter what side of the controller/keyboard debate/debacle you fall on, they are clearly different beasts.
Did anyone play pick up basketball games at their local playground growing up? Racist, sexist, homophobic, profane... you name it! It was called smack talk and some people were incredible at it. This is the modern day equivalent. If you are a 30-year gamer with a job (like me) and you go into a game filled with teenagers... guess what? Smack talk. It's no different than heading to your local basketball court and trying to hang with the teenagers there.
This is in now way FUD. The Halo 2 multi-player experience was nearly destroyed by hackers who used any number of cheats. As a casual player with legal copies of games, I am thrilled that Microsoft kicks those guys off.
This is for folks like me, who don't touch their PC's for gaming. The only multi-experience I have is on Xbox Live. If Microsoft can extend the subscription that I already have onto a home PC or my laptop at work, I might be tempted to do more PC gaming... especially when I have to travel with work. Rather than a "greedy" move, it seems pretty smart to me. I get more out of my current subscription and maybe use my home PC for more than a hyped-up Internet browser.
I have been working for several years under a grant from the federal government to improve health care provider access to critical information about people's health records. The largest problem we run into is trying to uniquely identify a patient and correctly match it to people's health information, which can be dispersed across many institutions. The potential benefits to public health of a Federal ID are astounding, especially when you look at the under served and public health population. Likewise, the amount of money governments and institutions are pouring into solving this problem is outrageous. As a country, we are pouring money down the drain trying to save this, and are actually increasing the risk of privacy theft. "Master Patient Indexes" are being built in every state to collect demographic data and try to match and de-duplicate records. This is completely unnecessary if there were a federal ID in place.
All of you criticizing this move by Microsoft, have you considered that you are not the target market Microsoft wants? I currently love Live on the 360, but I won't touch my PC for gaming. My wife needs it for work and I hate keeping up with the upgrades. I might be convinced to take advantage of Live on my PC, however. I'll bet there's a lot of folks like myself. If enough of us started using the PC for gaming... that might change the declining trend (with the exception of WoW) of gaming on the PC.
I can't find good coverage for the 360 that doesn't pander to Microsoft or the game companies, certainly nothing out there like the PC Gamer style of neutral and harsh critique. For us over 30 gamers, we just don't have the time to weed through game bins anymore and I've fallen prey to Xbox Magazine's corporate pandering on more than one occasion already.
If Microsoft had initially charged $600 when 360's were trading on ebay for over $1000, they would have made a tidy profit and could have dropped the price by now. Sony would be smart to learn from the Microsoft mistake and price high during the initial demand, then rapidly drop price as demand wanes. This would solidify the perceived value of the PS3 as very high (perhaps higher than the 360) but still enable them to match price down the road. Give Sony some credit guys, they MIGHT actually be thinking ahead from a business standpoint.