"5) Now this may be irrelevant soon if video-on-demand takes off."
I'm having a difficult time imagining that video on demand will 'take off' and wipe out Netflix. I suppose it's possible, but we'd need a service that's available everywhere, has a humungoidginormous library, and is roughly the same price as Netflix. Maybe I'm narrow minded, but I don't connect this level of VoD service with the word 'soon'.
"Did anyone else notice that the background color of the "tab" for the story on the front page was red? Next refresh it was back to normal gray again."
"For me personal rights are more important than the plan of a company to make money in some specific way. If that plan doesn't work out, I think it's up to the company to come up with another idea."
On the one hand, I agree. I think that things like pop-up blockers are a way of expressing consumer dissatisfaction with certain forms of advertising. I am no exception, I intentionally run a pop-up blocker. It's a great way of letting a website know that it's being unreasonable.
On the other hand, I think there has to be an understanding between the visitors and the operators of a site. It costs money to run a site. If you use a site like LiveJournal a lot, but do everything you can to make sure no ads are displayed, then you must be aware that you are contributing to the potential demise of the site. It is for this reason that I do not run a banner or Flash blocker. In Slashdot's case, for example, I think it is counter-productive to block their banner ads. It's not annoying to me, and I like conversing on here. Seems fair to me. If the cost of going to the site isn't worth the visit, then don't go.
"I just thought I'd point out that a lot of consoles have had this happen. The PS2 has gone through a bunch of revisions, and I remember reading that when Nintendo redesigned the Super NES, part of the reason was to reduce the number of chips they had to put into it."
I was a video game salesman back in 95/96. The original PSOnes frequently went defective not long after the 90 day warranty, usually resulting in skipping etc. On top of that, there was a trick that involved booting the PSOne with the door open to play import games. At one point, Sony released a version of the Playstation that DIDN'T allow the region-free trick, plus it was improved so that far fewer machines went defective. Unfortunately, this seemed to cause compatibility problems with some games. He said that a lady brought a game back claiming it wouldn't run. He sent her home with another fresh, new copy. That one and the 3rd one that went home didn't run either. He ended up exchanging the system itself. He called Sony to talk about this and they angrily denied that any fiddled-with units were ever released. He asked them how that could be since the region-free trick didn't work anymore, and they just ended up angrier. (note: I should probably point out that the person he was talking too was probably just ill-informed, as opposed to Sony just generally being angry. Heh.)
I'm starting to get the picture that putting out a mass-market game console is really really hard.
"Ah, setting my friend modifier so I never see your clueless posts. You're saying you don't know what to think of something unless someone else tells you.
"Ok, now I agree that what is hanging on most office walls is an expensive waste of space, but by saying it in this way, it makes the guy sound like he's saying art doesn't matter to people."
Given that the context of that quote was productivity, I don't see what's so appauling about what he said.
"It's actually kind of funny when you remember that Microsoft always disputed other Windows developers' claims that they couldn't compete against Microsoft's own Windows applications for much the same reason. The term "Chinese wall" comes to mind."
Amusingly enough, both Opera and Firefox are proof that both those claims are frivilous.
"The fact that they link to it doesn't bother me so much as the fact that because not as much of the Wall Street Journal is online as say, the New York Times, the articles are generally posted at least a week after I've already read them."
To be fair, consider how Slashdot gets its news. I'm a Nintendo fan boy. I run around finding all kinds of Nintendo related news. Often times, I find those news here on Slashdot as well. Doesn't bother me for the simple reason that I know how Slashdot gets its stories. Slashdot is more like VH1's "Best Week Ever" than CNN.
"Actually GoW2 is fairly tightly tuned to the PS2. It would be difficult to do the same game on the GameCube, because it doesn't have as much memory. Plus you'd need at least four discs for all the content."
The GameCube has hardware texture compression, the PS2 does not. It's difficult to imagine that would be any trouble. As for storage, do you have a source that says they're using a full 6 gig for the game? Do we even know why it would take that much? The chances are pretty darned good they could still make it work out just fine.
"While I don't think editors should "bitchslap" threads, it's hard to ignore the fact that every single comment in that thread is in fact off-topic...."
Well, duh! All of those threads say 'off-topic' after they've been modded down!
"The PS2 will most likely sell more units starting this year until the system goes out of production in the next few years than either the GameCube or Xbox did over their entire lifetimes."
Perhaps, but Sony spent a hell of a lot of money to get that marketshare. (heh Microsoft's expenditures are far more humourous.) Nintendo has a fraction of it and they ended up with more money. Sony is 'sooo goooood'? Or is it "Sony is sooo rich"? Don't forget that this is the same Sony that made wild claims about the power of the PS2. Good hype can make any product explode on the market. (See: Windows) Sell enough systems, the game companies will risk more to make better games.
"The PS2 is a technological masterpiece. The PS2 hardware was pretty much finalized back in 1997 and just look at the new God of War 2 footage from GDC:"
Masterpiece? I don't know where you got the idea that it was finalized (or near it) in 1997. It wasn't even announced until 99. Why would they use 3 year old hardware for a product with a '10 year life span'? Heck, if they had that much time, they would have launched the slim-unit first. Simpler hardware, cheaper to produce, less defect-prone. Technical masterpiece? Hardly. The sad fact is that God of War 2 could easily be made for the GC and the XBOX, and in all likelihood, it would look better because they don't suffer from the same silly bottlenecks as the PS2 hardware does.
Sure, the PS2 is a 'must-have' system. No problem saying that. But technical masterpiece? The GC came out only a year later, it was cheaper, simpler to manufacture, profitable, and more powerful. No, I'm not calling it a technical masterpiece, but it's certainly more elegant than the PS2.
"It's too much money for a platform that is going to be abandoned within a year."
Um, the PS2 already has a proven library behind it. If you're just now jumping on the bandwagon, that $100 is going to be money well spent. Who cares if the new stuff isn't going to be coming out much longer? It's not like you've got less to play than the guy who bought it at launch. You will, however, have paid a good deal less than he did.
"If a DDR pad is a motion device - then so is a standard game controller."
Seeing as how I've never seen anybody with a controller dancing around, I cannot say I agree. Besides, if you really get down to it, motion tracking devices are a little more than a set of switches. If you step on the DDR pad, your motion has been 'detected'. Wave your hand in front of the U Force, you're interrupting a beam, triggering a switch. Blah blah blah. It's like saying a skateboard is the same thing as a bicycle just because they run on wheels.
"It's an insane idea that you are commiting a crime, just because you don't conform to the behaviour a company would like to see."
I never called it stealing. But you have to be honest with yourself: You're taking something without giving something in return. I don't care what you call it, just don't call it 'right'.
"Of course, Microsoft is going to argue that they fix vulns silently to prevent the 'bad guys' from using the patch info to create attacks, but this is refuted by the same researcher:"
I'm not really sure how the statement you posted really refutes it. He's right under the assumption that the attackers are aware of that particular flaw existing. But if Microsoft (or a good samartian) finds it first, then why wouldn't staying mum mean less risk of attack? We can metaphor joust about it, but I wouldn't say the argument is totally hot air.
Don't confuse this post as support of MS's practices here. I don't agree with it. If I know an exploit is out there, even though I don't have the skills to build my own patch, I can at least take other steps to minimize or even prevent damage from happening. I just don't entirely blame Microsoft for advertising to the world the exact details of how to be a total butthead on the internet.
" I'm not a big fan of the GTA series, but I've been around people who were, and listening to the parodies of actual radio advertisement and seeing the parodies of billboards was a clever and fun way to make the game world more interesting. "
Funny you should mention that because one of the most lauded features of Vice City was the use of real songs in the sound track. One of the other laudable features was just how similar to the cities they were portraying the levels were. GTA is one of those games that I think would have benefitted from in-game advertising. Just another step closer to being in the game. Then again, I'm talking about the soda machines advertising Sprite, not CJ stopping to pump up his Reebok shoes.
"1. The only advertisement that will really continue to flourish are the sorts of things that make it to the Super Bowl commercials, which is to say that they'll actually be entertaining."
This is a diverse market. One has to be careful about using the word 'only' when making generalizations like this. It's difficult to picture something like Google's text ads going anywhere any-time soon for the simple reason that they're relevent and the message is short and clear.
"2. "Advertising" as an industry will basically keel over and die, because products will eventually reach a point at which they will stand or fall on their own merits. The internet means that the exchange of information is certainly possible; all that remains is for people to realize that 99% of advertisement has nothing to do with the product and everything to do with making as much noise to get as much attention (negative OR positive) as possible."
VERY unlikely. Sure, you can go looking for stuff on the internet. Sure, you can go find it and read reviews. Fine, great, perfect. The problem is that there is SO MUCH STUFF to go out and buy that there will ALWAYS be a market for advertising. All an advertisement has to do is make you aware that a product exists. That's it. The work is done. When it's time for you to solve a problem that a particular product can solve, you'll remember it and look it up. This will not go away.
"I just buy what I want (or need) and any advertisement aimed at me beyond the introduction of new products is doomed to failure."
I find that rather unlikely. It is inevitable that you are going to find yourself with a problem that a commercial product can solve. Maybe it's a clogged drain. Maybe it's a new video card. Maybe it's dinner time. You're going to call up a list of solutions, and gee golly gosh, an advertised product is going to pop into your mind. Sure you'll do your omework on it. Sure you'll read 'honest' reviews. Sure you'll search for the best deal, as opposed to buying it at Circuit City where it was advertised. Doesn't matter. Advertising still made you aware of it.
Advertising isn't going anywhere. As long as there are products to sell, there'll be advertisements backing them up. The mode of advertisement might change (i.e. pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-reacharounds...), but the industry isn't doomed to death.
In other news, I'm going to put on my Nostradamus hat and predict that with the explosion in blogging lately, we'll see more companies offering referall rewards to people who write reviews of their products. I also see the demise of that system happening a year or two later.
"Do you think the 'oil companies' would really buy this patent for the sole purpose of burying it?"
What's so hard to believe about it? Oil's a cash cow. Buy the patent, maintain your margins. From a business perspective, it would be dumb for them not to do this.
"Ebert began by explaining why he felt a game (particularly the shoot-shoot, point-scoring kind) was not an experience equivalent to that of reading a great novel like, say, 'The Great Gatsby,' because games don't delve very deeply into what it means to be human."
That's nice and all, but there are plenty of books that fail to delve very deeply into what it means to be human. Maybe not every game is art, but you cannot say all games AREN'T art.
"I still think that streaming is the wrong solution here. I'd much rather they send stuff to my DVR in off peak times and I'll play it when I want."
Can't say I 100% agree with that. The big difference with streaming is that you can start watching right away. Now you're talking about waiting until off-peek hours to finally get your show to watch. In some cases, that would be absolutely fine, in others well that's a bit of a wait.
Honestly, I would like a solution that implemented both.
"Totally OT - are you talking about Farscape? I don't believe there is such and episode of Futurama, and Farscape does have The Pilot (with caps) whereas Futurama just has a pilot (no caps).:)"
OH man. I was thinking Farscape, and I typed Futurama. Geez. Yes, you're right. Man, double embarrasment.
Slashdot Mirror
"5) Now this may be irrelevant soon if video-on-demand takes off."
I'm having a difficult time imagining that video on demand will 'take off' and wipe out Netflix. I suppose it's possible, but we'd need a service that's available everywhere, has a humungoidginormous library, and is roughly the same price as Netflix. Maybe I'm narrow minded, but I don't connect this level of VoD service with the word 'soon'.
"Did anyone else notice that the background color of the "tab" for the story on the front page was red? Next refresh it was back to normal gray again."
What, you've never seen Slashdot go to Red Alert?
"For me personal rights are more important than the plan of a company to make money in some specific way. If that plan doesn't work out, I think it's up to the company to come up with another idea."
On the one hand, I agree. I think that things like pop-up blockers are a way of expressing consumer dissatisfaction with certain forms of advertising. I am no exception, I intentionally run a pop-up blocker. It's a great way of letting a website know that it's being unreasonable.
On the other hand, I think there has to be an understanding between the visitors and the operators of a site. It costs money to run a site. If you use a site like LiveJournal a lot, but do everything you can to make sure no ads are displayed, then you must be aware that you are contributing to the potential demise of the site. It is for this reason that I do not run a banner or Flash blocker. In Slashdot's case, for example, I think it is counter-productive to block their banner ads. It's not annoying to me, and I like conversing on here. Seems fair to me. If the cost of going to the site isn't worth the visit, then don't go.
I don't think we totally disagree, here.
"I just thought I'd point out that a lot of consoles have had this happen. The PS2 has gone through a bunch of revisions, and I remember reading that when Nintendo redesigned the Super NES, part of the reason was to reduce the number of chips they had to put into it."
I was a video game salesman back in 95/96. The original PSOnes frequently went defective not long after the 90 day warranty, usually resulting in skipping etc. On top of that, there was a trick that involved booting the PSOne with the door open to play import games. At one point, Sony released a version of the Playstation that DIDN'T allow the region-free trick, plus it was improved so that far fewer machines went defective. Unfortunately, this seemed to cause compatibility problems with some games. He said that a lady brought a game back claiming it wouldn't run. He sent her home with another fresh, new copy. That one and the 3rd one that went home didn't run either. He ended up exchanging the system itself. He called Sony to talk about this and they angrily denied that any fiddled-with units were ever released. He asked them how that could be since the region-free trick didn't work anymore, and they just ended up angrier. (note: I should probably point out that the person he was talking too was probably just ill-informed, as opposed to Sony just generally being angry. Heh.)
I'm starting to get the picture that putting out a mass-market game console is really really hard.
"Ah, setting my friend modifier so I never see your clueless posts. You're saying you don't know what to think of something unless someone else tells you.
You're stupid."
THat's a strange reaction to a silly joke.
Frankly, I'm saddened that they're going to pursue this but NOT a Deep Space Nine movie.
"Ok, now I agree that what is hanging on most office walls is an expensive waste of space, but by saying it in this way, it makes the guy sound like he's saying art doesn't matter to people."
Given that the context of that quote was productivity, I don't see what's so appauling about what he said.
"It's actually kind of funny when you remember that Microsoft always disputed other Windows developers' claims that they couldn't compete against Microsoft's own Windows applications for much the same reason. The term "Chinese wall" comes to mind."
Amusingly enough, both Opera and Firefox are proof that both those claims are frivilous.
"The fact that they link to it doesn't bother me so much as the fact that because not as much of the Wall Street Journal is online as say, the New York Times, the articles are generally posted at least a week after I've already read them."
To be fair, consider how Slashdot gets its news. I'm a Nintendo fan boy. I run around finding all kinds of Nintendo related news. Often times, I find those news here on Slashdot as well. Doesn't bother me for the simple reason that I know how Slashdot gets its stories. Slashdot is more like VH1's "Best Week Ever" than CNN.
"Actually GoW2 is fairly tightly tuned to the PS2. It would be difficult to do the same game on the GameCube, because it doesn't have as much memory. Plus you'd need at least four discs for all the content."
The GameCube has hardware texture compression, the PS2 does not. It's difficult to imagine that would be any trouble. As for storage, do you have a source that says they're using a full 6 gig for the game? Do we even know why it would take that much? The chances are pretty darned good they could still make it work out just fine.
"While I don't think editors should "bitchslap" threads, it's hard to ignore the fact that every single comment in that thread is in fact off-topic ...."
Well, duh! All of those threads say 'off-topic' after they've been modded down!
"The PS2 will most likely sell more units starting this year until the system goes out of production in the next few years than either the GameCube or Xbox did over their entire lifetimes."
Perhaps, but Sony spent a hell of a lot of money to get that marketshare. (heh Microsoft's expenditures are far more humourous.) Nintendo has a fraction of it and they ended up with more money. Sony is 'sooo goooood'? Or is it "Sony is sooo rich"? Don't forget that this is the same Sony that made wild claims about the power of the PS2. Good hype can make any product explode on the market. (See: Windows) Sell enough systems, the game companies will risk more to make better games.
"The PS2 is a technological masterpiece. The PS2 hardware was pretty much finalized back in 1997 and just look at the new God of War 2 footage from GDC:"
Masterpiece? I don't know where you got the idea that it was finalized (or near it) in 1997. It wasn't even announced until 99. Why would they use 3 year old hardware for a product with a '10 year life span'? Heck, if they had that much time, they would have launched the slim-unit first. Simpler hardware, cheaper to produce, less defect-prone. Technical masterpiece? Hardly. The sad fact is that God of War 2 could easily be made for the GC and the XBOX, and in all likelihood, it would look better because they don't suffer from the same silly bottlenecks as the PS2 hardware does.
Sure, the PS2 is a 'must-have' system. No problem saying that. But technical masterpiece? The GC came out only a year later, it was cheaper, simpler to manufacture, profitable, and more powerful. No, I'm not calling it a technical masterpiece, but it's certainly more elegant than the PS2.
"It's too much money for a platform that is going to be abandoned within a year."
Um, the PS2 already has a proven library behind it. If you're just now jumping on the bandwagon, that $100 is going to be money well spent. Who cares if the new stuff isn't going to be coming out much longer? It's not like you've got less to play than the guy who bought it at launch. You will, however, have paid a good deal less than he did.
"If a DDR pad is a motion device - then so is a standard game controller."
Seeing as how I've never seen anybody with a controller dancing around, I cannot say I agree. Besides, if you really get down to it, motion tracking devices are a little more than a set of switches. If you step on the DDR pad, your motion has been 'detected'. Wave your hand in front of the U Force, you're interrupting a beam, triggering a switch. Blah blah blah. It's like saying a skateboard is the same thing as a bicycle just because they run on wheels.
"It's an insane idea that you are commiting a crime, just because you don't conform to the behaviour a company would like to see."
I never called it stealing. But you have to be honest with yourself: You're taking something without giving something in return. I don't care what you call it, just don't call it 'right'.
"Those don't use motion detection. They're just standard buttons and switches used in new ways."
It's still a motion device. Watch a good DDR player, you'll get the idea.
"Of course, Microsoft is going to argue that they fix vulns silently to prevent the 'bad guys' from using the patch info to create attacks, but this is refuted by the same researcher:"
I'm not really sure how the statement you posted really refutes it. He's right under the assumption that the attackers are aware of that particular flaw existing. But if Microsoft (or a good samartian) finds it first, then why wouldn't staying mum mean less risk of attack? We can metaphor joust about it, but I wouldn't say the argument is totally hot air.
Don't confuse this post as support of MS's practices here. I don't agree with it. If I know an exploit is out there, even though I don't have the skills to build my own patch, I can at least take other steps to minimize or even prevent damage from happening. I just don't entirely blame Microsoft for advertising to the world the exact details of how to be a total butthead on the internet.
" I'm not a big fan of the GTA series, but I've been around people who were, and listening to the parodies of actual radio advertisement and seeing the parodies of billboards was a clever and fun way to make the game world more interesting. "
Funny you should mention that because one of the most lauded features of Vice City was the use of real songs in the sound track. One of the other laudable features was just how similar to the cities they were portraying the levels were. GTA is one of those games that I think would have benefitted from in-game advertising. Just another step closer to being in the game. Then again, I'm talking about the soda machines advertising Sprite, not CJ stopping to pump up his Reebok shoes.
"1. The only advertisement that will really continue to flourish are the sorts of things that make it to the Super Bowl commercials, which is to say that they'll actually be entertaining."
This is a diverse market. One has to be careful about using the word 'only' when making generalizations like this. It's difficult to picture something like Google's text ads going anywhere any-time soon for the simple reason that they're relevent and the message is short and clear.
"2. "Advertising" as an industry will basically keel over and die, because products will eventually reach a point at which they will stand or fall on their own merits. The internet means that the exchange of information is certainly possible; all that remains is for people to realize that 99% of advertisement has nothing to do with the product and everything to do with making as much noise to get as much attention (negative OR positive) as possible."
VERY unlikely. Sure, you can go looking for stuff on the internet. Sure, you can go find it and read reviews. Fine, great, perfect. The problem is that there is SO MUCH STUFF to go out and buy that there will ALWAYS be a market for advertising. All an advertisement has to do is make you aware that a product exists. That's it. The work is done. When it's time for you to solve a problem that a particular product can solve, you'll remember it and look it up. This will not go away.
"I just buy what I want (or need) and any advertisement aimed at me beyond the introduction of new products is doomed to failure."
I find that rather unlikely. It is inevitable that you are going to find yourself with a problem that a commercial product can solve. Maybe it's a clogged drain. Maybe it's a new video card. Maybe it's dinner time. You're going to call up a list of solutions, and gee golly gosh, an advertised product is going to pop into your mind. Sure you'll do your omework on it. Sure you'll read 'honest' reviews. Sure you'll search for the best deal, as opposed to buying it at Circuit City where it was advertised. Doesn't matter. Advertising still made you aware of it.
Advertising isn't going anywhere. As long as there are products to sell, there'll be advertisements backing them up. The mode of advertisement might change (i.e. pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-reacharounds...), but the industry isn't doomed to death.
In other news, I'm going to put on my Nostradamus hat and predict that with the explosion in blogging lately, we'll see more companies offering referall rewards to people who write reviews of their products. I also see the demise of that system happening a year or two later.
"I loathe ads, they get blocked."
Fine. Then LJ or any other website has every right to block you. Fair's fair, right?
"What is the incentive to bury it?"
They control the supply of the fuels we use now. Not so easy with alternatives.
"Do you think the 'oil companies' would really buy this patent for the sole purpose of burying it?"
What's so hard to believe about it? Oil's a cash cow. Buy the patent, maintain your margins. From a business perspective, it would be dumb for them not to do this.
"Ebert began by explaining why he felt a game (particularly the shoot-shoot, point-scoring kind) was not an experience equivalent to that of reading a great novel like, say, 'The Great Gatsby,' because games don't delve very deeply into what it means to be human."
That's nice and all, but there are plenty of books that fail to delve very deeply into what it means to be human. Maybe not every game is art, but you cannot say all games AREN'T art.
"1 - most Internet Service Providers severely cripple your upload speed, so getting large amounts of data to the virtual hard drive is impractical"
Having a car is impractical because it'd take you 3 days to drive from Kansas to California.
"I still think that streaming is the wrong solution here. I'd much rather they send stuff to my DVR in off peak times and I'll play it when I want."
Can't say I 100% agree with that. The big difference with streaming is that you can start watching right away. Now you're talking about waiting until off-peek hours to finally get your show to watch. In some cases, that would be absolutely fine, in others well that's a bit of a wait.
Honestly, I would like a solution that implemented both.
"Totally OT - are you talking about Farscape? I don't believe there is such and episode of Futurama, and Farscape does have The Pilot (with caps) whereas Futurama just has a pilot (no caps). :)"
:)
OH man. I was thinking Farscape, and I typed Futurama. Geez. Yes, you're right. Man, double embarrasment.
Hehe. Thanks, man.