I haven't ever really had any complaints about how long it takes for videos and music to load, which all sit on a little low power file server at my house. However, games and some applications are certainly a different story.
Granted, I probably don't represent your average user. But I do think your average user could benefit from a combination hard drive layout and would even notice the increase in speed!
I agree with this observation. Its one of the things that annoys the hell out of me when its inserted in otherwise cool FPS like Enemy Territory with its XP system. Or even counterstrike with its money system. There's a huge skill disparity between the masters and the noobs in FPS games anyway, and its already an exercise in frustration for poor players. But then these games double punish new players, in Wolfenstein: ET players that play a lot not only have the practice and skill advantage, but they also have better weapons and abilities in game. The goal of course was to reward players for winning, but a couple things were forgotten when this idea was implimented:
1) Winning is its own reward, this is a game, it doesn't need or deserve extra incentives. 2) This double punishes the losing team, they lose and are then handicapped for the next round.
Teams are always stacked in public servers, and this gameplay convention just pours salt into the gaping wound.
These same issues apply to MMORPG. Rabid fans that have been playing a long time complain on the message boards for more loot and uber weapons to justify their playtime, and the developers give them to them. What they don't hear is the new players that just give up because they were forced to start out so far behind. Part of me thinks that while rewards for quests are cool, perhaps its not a very fun game if people are doing it just for the loot. It starts to sound like work to me.
Some one (Maybe TFA?) pointed out that UO didn't really have this disparity. Maxed out grandmasters weren't able to chop down armies of noobs for the hell of it. If a group of 5-10 skilled noob players ganged up on the master he was in real trouble. This seems to be the balance that a game should strive for, IMO. You are rewarded with more power, but you're never really an unstoppable force. How many demi gods are there really room for anyway?
It certainly brings up some interesting points. MMORPGs are a pretty young genre, if you go by just the number of titles. But even WoW pretty much just refines the same old design. I certainly feel some of its tenets could use rethinking. But perhaps some things, like the endless grind, are part of the business model.
No problem. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't done the same thing on occasion. I think I need a punching bag in my basement sometimes!
With consoles becoming so popular of late I'm wondering if games on the PC are going to become a bit of a niche market in the future....It wouldn't suprise me too much if in 2008 MS brought out an Office Suite for the XBox 360 "Home Appliance Version" or whatever, bundled with a wireless keyboard and mouse. Wouldn't that throw a spanner in works! It would certainly send a shiver through the PC industry.
Despite my love for PC games above all others, I think its a real possibility that PC Gaming will be, at least to some extent, pushed into a niche. Fewer and fewer games really stretch their legs on the PC these days, being developed as a console title first and a PC port second. I can't blame the developers either, its where the money is.
I've sort of wondered about the same thing witht he 360. Is MS looking to sell its own computer appliance in the future? I have to wonder about their business model here, it seems like they would just be stealing sales from themselves. And in fact, I'd argue they've been doing just that with the xbox and now the 360. So far, they seem to have resisted KB/M support on their consoles. But as they continue to tie the xbox360 and PC together, they eat away at the PCs viability as a platform. If they have the same games and the same interface (live!) and MS gives in the KB/M...why would anyone game on a PC? And while games are hardly the only draw to windows, how many people have you heard say "I'd switch to linux if there games on it."
I wonder how the big box makers would respond to this if it does happen?
Apple TV Pros: setup is as easy as can be, it's small and silent form factor will be good for home theaters, and the interface and remote control are intuitive. Cons: HDTV only, playback is limited to formats playable within iTunes, and no internet functionality other than movie trailers."
Sounds worse then a regular TV, am I missing something? Whats the big deal with this thing?
I actually think he was alluding to the fact that most of these "The computer fucked up" situations were actually just human errors that are being blamed on the computer. Its the same as the "blame it on microsoft" stuff you get to do in IT. (Yes, its often at least partially their fault...but that didn't stop me from occasionally throwing a littl extra blame their way.) The computer in an inanimate object who won't get fired, nor does it care what happens...so you blame it on the computer. And since so many people do this, everyone accepts it.
Previous poster was a bit more tongue in check, but his basic point is quite correct. Amazon can't drop the price too...and they don't have to eat the cost of tax since they didn't have to pay it in the first place.
Yes...I think the security problems caused by the monoculture can definately be solved by making the various installs of this operating system as close to identical as possible. Furthermore, we should post all of these assumed similarities somewhere that all can see.
Heh, thats not to say any other OS would do great as the defacto standard either. I'm no big fan of windows these days, but if linux or macOS were top dog they'd be the target too. I just have to question the wisdom of this logic: This isn't working, so lets do it even harder!
All those points may well be quite valid for those applications. However, would you say that those applications would be the primary usage of directX10...or would it be those much less critical games? While times may have changed, I find it hard to believe that the primary usage for directX10 is going to be operating theatre software or mining drill control systems.
As for my "tunnel vision opinions"...the topic and summary is about OpenGL and DirectX10 adoption, with the summary focusing on game developers. Additionally, most responses appear to focus on game development. Forgive me for focusing on the topic of this discussion, instead of the topic of your previously unrevealed specialty work. I should not have assumed you to be a game developer, and for that I apologize. However, given the context of the discussion it wasn't really some kind of far flung idea. Regardless, I wasn't looking to refute your points about whether directX10 was or was not easy to develop on in any capacity. I was simply pointing out that, for games at least, it likely isn't reducing the development workload on marketable titles at all. At least, not until vista becomes a majority of the installed base.
Well I hope its easier to use. That will signifigantly reduce the amount of *extra* work you'll have to do, after writing the directx9 render path anyway that you'll need if you expect the game to sell. I'd expect the marketing boys won't let the old render path disappear until vista has a pretty serious adoption percentage among users. No one knows when that will be, but given the rate of things there's no reason to think it'll be any faster then XP's adoption...and it'll probably be slower.
A lot of smaller companies seem to have abandoned an optional OpenGL renderer the past few years, focusing solely on directx since its the defacto standard. I can only assume they did this because the cost of grabbing those few people that prefered that OGL renderer was not worth the extra time/cost. Without a directX10 for XP though, Microsoft has basically cut the market again...with much more definated lines this time. If you're looking to cut costs by not doing extra renderers, OpenGL is the only man in town now.
DirectX10 may well be much easier to work with, but since its no longer a simple matter of including the latest directx redistributable on your game CD for your customers to load with the installer...your target demographic has just been cut. Time will tell if the people behind OpenGL take advantage of this void or not. We live in interesting times!
I wouldn't say insidieous, I'd say ingenius. I remember how much enjoyment I gleaned from running around in Starsiege: Tribes repairing broken generators. I sucked at that game, but I loved fixing those generators...why? Because I wished stuff in real life was so easy. Totally destroyed burned-out hulk of an old generator? Oh man, this thing is going to take days to fix...wait a minute, I just point this repair laser at it and...*wooga-wooga-wooga* all done! If only real work were so easy!
I don't know how long the share holders are going to fall for that...sooner or later they'll realize that in consumers eyes they are equivalent goods, and they're choosing the other one!
Betamax was a better technology than VHS.
Says who? People wanted a cheaper recorder, even at the expense of some quality. VHS provided them that, Beta did not. Most people just wanted to be able to record shows, they weren't videophiles. And tape recorders were extremely expensive when they came out. Today it might be a difference of $15 between players, but back then it was like $500...of 1980s money!
The Macintosh was a better computer than the (early) IBM PCs.
Businesses bought most of the early PCs, as well as serious hobbiests. Businesses wanted cheap machines to push documents around and hobbiests were also likely quite price sensitive. For all of the flaws in DOS, it provided what the market wanted. The Mac aimed at a niche. The larger market wanted the cheap, open standard IBM PC.
Diesel engines are a better technology that gasoline engines (compare US and Europe adoptation)
There's a lot of factors at play here, some poor government policies, some differences in the market and some real examples of better technology losing out. I like diesel, and feel like the US has unfairly demonized it as dirty. But you also have to factor in people in the US loving fast cars, and that diesel isn't perfect for some of the colder climates in the US.
The SEGA Dreamcast console had better hardware than the Playstation 2..
I got nothing here, I never bought one but it was a pretty cool machine.:P The Dreamcast was a little ahead of its time though, there just wasn't that great of an infrastructure in place to support those online components.
They're probably opposed to it because: 1) Biodiesel made from algae is far more efficient 2) The subsidies are just a kick back to the corn lobby 3) The US can't grow enough corn to entirely replace gasoline 4) Corn is also our food source
Well, I don't care for the greenies, but those are my reasons for opposing it. I think we should set up some tanks of dirty seawater in the american southwest and create biodiesel as a replacement instead. I do suspect the greenies reasons are as you said, agricultural sprawl.
I agree. This is whats so annoying. Valve positions themselves as the champion of episodic gaming, then when it comes time for execution they do virtually everything completely wrong. Its like they don't even actually understand what episodic games are suppose to be. I personally don't care for episodic games, but understanding that there is a audience out there hungry for them its pretty annoying to watch valve botch delivery over and over again.
Its "release often" with new levels and story. Thats it. You must meet the release date to make episodic gaming work. I guess its not surprising that valve, who in their short history has made their name a synonym for delays screws this up so bad. Is something holding the release up? Then cut it. Console ports? New graphical features? Cut it, and release it later. There will be more episodes, you can include the features then. And your stuff comes over the steam platform...release now, add that crap later. Parent said, the focus is on content...and I'd say content delivered regularly.
Its in the name, episodic. They want people to come home on friday (end of the month, quarter, whatever) and go "Oh good! Its X day! I'll go buy the latest episode off of steam!" The very idea of episodic gaming business model is that it becomes habit to buy the episodes. This doesn't work if the people come home and go "Oh good! Its X day!" and then find out the episodic is delayed until next tuesday. You move the schedule around and they're going to stop looking out for the release. You can't expect people to make buying your games a habit if you can't make releasing it on time a habit too. And here's a little secret...all the episodes don't even have to be good, just the first few and most of the rest. Same way with TV shows, even my favorite shows have crummy episodes that I watch anyway because...its a habit.
I always knew they thought it. I'd say part of Microsofts empire, a larger part then they will ever admit, was built on the back of piracy. Microsoft was content to sit back and let home users pass their disks around, for a very long time...even during the dongle craziness of the 1980s. They didn't even have any copy protection on their disks IIRC. Why? Because the businesses would still buy it anyway, and once all the home users were used to MS there was pressure for the businesses to buy it.
It was actually a clever marketing strategy. Now that they're the defacto standard they can tighten the grip. People will squirm, a few will slip through their fingers...but most will likely grin and bear it.
I think he's just pointing out that Microsoft supposed new "commitment" to PC gaming is anything but that. He has a vested interest here, because as a guy that works at a PC game company he has to deal with all the bullshit that ensues.
The "Games for Windows" initiative, if you really look at its goals, will do nothing but turn the PC into a clunky and more expensive xbox 360. In short, it'll strip the PC of its advantages in order to make it similar to console gaming. The trouble with this is, of course, that its just setting PC gaming up for the fall. If its the same as a 360, but more expensive, everyone will just buy a 360.
Microsoft hasn't really done dick for developers, or at least their gift has barbs in it. DX10 abandoning compatibility on XP has forced developers back into developing for two APIs, developing for the older API (dx9) or developing for one API that has very little market penetration. GfW certification is just another way to extract a few more dollars out of them in exchange for getting their name in a Games list under the start menu.
I agree with Doug's sentiments, I think MS is humping and will soon be dumping PC gaming to move Vista. Think about it, what has Microsoft actually done for PC gaming since the xbox came out? Wooed developers off the platform to work on xbox games, then gave us some late, sloppy ports of console games. Of course, Doug is probably screaming more then usual since valve has pretty much locked themselves to Microsoft (HL2 doesn't even have an OpenGL mode does it? Its a purely windows title and I've heard its a real bitch to get it working under wine/cedega). I'm not saying linux was some sort of viable alternative really, windows is pretty much the defacto game OS...but if Valve had at least setup an OpenGL renderer they'd have a little wiggle room in what they wanted to do with the HL2 engine.
Steam does do this...pretty much. Like the other guy said, there are tons of non-valve games on the service. They also push out some older games from publishers like activision I believe. Additionally, there are some steam only games, many of which are quite good.
Why are they doing it then? Why don't they go teach English in Asia or join the private sector if its such a bad deal? No disrespect to teachers, they perform an important service, but if the market conditions aren't good enough maybe its time to move onto something else.
Is it fair? Probably not. But its not like teachers are the only ones that whine about their profession not paying enough, pretty much everyone does. Teaching is a fairly safe profession (compared to things like construction work, fisherman, police officer, etc), there are jobs available everywhere (meaning you can live anywhere in the country) its government funded so its a fairly stable profession with stable demand. These things are all built into the salary in some way.
They love you teach? Thats great! I love to play video games and drink beer, but that doesn't mean the market is going to pay me a lot of money to do those things.
What gets me about this is its true there aren't enough good math teachers, because math is a complex subject thats difficult to teach. A good math teacher requires a good understanding of an abstract subject as well as the people skills required to effectively teach. Individuals that possess both these talents are rare. Individuals that could learn both if there was an incentive, a little less so. This rarity means they should command a higher salary IMO.
I've thought the same thing. While small, specific mold stuff like little guns or antenae or whatever were cool...the new stuff looks like glorified model kits. To many movie tie ins.
This is probably a large concern for them. We've already seen some of the 'job loss' due to the rise of better special effects technology. I read somewhere dwarfs were complaining they had less roles these days. Lets face it though, they were of course going to be the first to go and they won't be the last either.
Wasn't there a stupid Al Pacino movie about this? Obviously the execution was kind of overblown but it IS happening. Look at how many of the most popular movies are all CG these days...with regular actors doing the voices. How long before they start cutting some costs by hiring real voice actors...who can do more then just their own voice? The only reason regular actors haven't been subplanted is the technology isn't there yet.
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't ever really had any complaints about how long it takes for videos and music to load, which all sit on a little low power file server at my house. However, games and some applications are certainly a different story.
Granted, I probably don't represent your average user. But I do think your average user could benefit from a combination hard drive layout and would even notice the increase in speed!
I agree with this observation. Its one of the things that annoys the hell out of me when its inserted in otherwise cool FPS like Enemy Territory with its XP system. Or even counterstrike with its money system. There's a huge skill disparity between the masters and the noobs in FPS games anyway, and its already an exercise in frustration for poor players. But then these games double punish new players, in Wolfenstein: ET players that play a lot not only have the practice and skill advantage, but they also have better weapons and abilities in game. The goal of course was to reward players for winning, but a couple things were forgotten when this idea was implimented:
1) Winning is its own reward, this is a game, it doesn't need or deserve extra incentives.
2) This double punishes the losing team, they lose and are then handicapped for the next round.
Teams are always stacked in public servers, and this gameplay convention just pours salt into the gaping wound.
These same issues apply to MMORPG. Rabid fans that have been playing a long time complain on the message boards for more loot and uber weapons to justify their playtime, and the developers give them to them. What they don't hear is the new players that just give up because they were forced to start out so far behind. Part of me thinks that while rewards for quests are cool, perhaps its not a very fun game if people are doing it just for the loot. It starts to sound like work to me.
Some one (Maybe TFA?) pointed out that UO didn't really have this disparity. Maxed out grandmasters weren't able to chop down armies of noobs for the hell of it. If a group of 5-10 skilled noob players ganged up on the master he was in real trouble. This seems to be the balance that a game should strive for, IMO. You are rewarded with more power, but you're never really an unstoppable force. How many demi gods are there really room for anyway?
It certainly brings up some interesting points. MMORPGs are a pretty young genre, if you go by just the number of titles. But even WoW pretty much just refines the same old design. I certainly feel some of its tenets could use rethinking. But perhaps some things, like the endless grind, are part of the business model.
The weakest link has pretty much always been the people. Security methods change, but the principles behind social engineering are pretty stable.
Despite my love for PC games above all others, I think its a real possibility that PC Gaming will be, at least to some extent, pushed into a niche. Fewer and fewer games really stretch their legs on the PC these days, being developed as a console title first and a PC port second. I can't blame the developers either, its where the money is.
I've sort of wondered about the same thing witht he 360. Is MS looking to sell its own computer appliance in the future? I have to wonder about their business model here, it seems like they would just be stealing sales from themselves. And in fact, I'd argue they've been doing just that with the xbox and now the 360. So far, they seem to have resisted KB/M support on their consoles. But as they continue to tie the xbox360 and PC together, they eat away at the PCs viability as a platform. If they have the same games and the same interface (live!) and MS gives in the KB/M...why would anyone game on a PC? And while games are hardly the only draw to windows, how many people have you heard say "I'd switch to linux if there games on it."
I wonder how the big box makers would respond to this if it does happen?
Sounds worse then a regular TV, am I missing something? Whats the big deal with this thing?
I actually think he was alluding to the fact that most of these "The computer fucked up" situations were actually just human errors that are being blamed on the computer. Its the same as the "blame it on microsoft" stuff you get to do in IT. (Yes, its often at least partially their fault...but that didn't stop me from occasionally throwing a littl extra blame their way.) The computer in an inanimate object who won't get fired, nor does it care what happens...so you blame it on the computer. And since so many people do this, everyone accepts it.
Previous poster was a bit more tongue in check, but his basic point is quite correct. Amazon can't drop the price too...and they don't have to eat the cost of tax since they didn't have to pay it in the first place.
Yes...I think the security problems caused by the monoculture can definately be solved by making the various installs of this operating system as close to identical as possible. Furthermore, we should post all of these assumed similarities somewhere that all can see.
Heh, thats not to say any other OS would do great as the defacto standard either. I'm no big fan of windows these days, but if linux or macOS were top dog they'd be the target too. I just have to question the wisdom of this logic: This isn't working, so lets do it even harder!
All those points may well be quite valid for those applications. However, would you say that those applications would be the primary usage of directX10...or would it be those much less critical games? While times may have changed, I find it hard to believe that the primary usage for directX10 is going to be operating theatre software or mining drill control systems.
As for my "tunnel vision opinions"...the topic and summary is about OpenGL and DirectX10 adoption, with the summary focusing on game developers. Additionally, most responses appear to focus on game development. Forgive me for focusing on the topic of this discussion, instead of the topic of your previously unrevealed specialty work. I should not have assumed you to be a game developer, and for that I apologize. However, given the context of the discussion it wasn't really some kind of far flung idea. Regardless, I wasn't looking to refute your points about whether directX10 was or was not easy to develop on in any capacity. I was simply pointing out that, for games at least, it likely isn't reducing the development workload on marketable titles at all. At least, not until vista becomes a majority of the installed base.
What lack of later versions of directX for windows 2000? DirectX9c works on 2000 fine.
Well I hope its easier to use. That will signifigantly reduce the amount of *extra* work you'll have to do, after writing the directx9 render path anyway that you'll need if you expect the game to sell. I'd expect the marketing boys won't let the old render path disappear until vista has a pretty serious adoption percentage among users. No one knows when that will be, but given the rate of things there's no reason to think it'll be any faster then XP's adoption...and it'll probably be slower.
A lot of smaller companies seem to have abandoned an optional OpenGL renderer the past few years, focusing solely on directx since its the defacto standard. I can only assume they did this because the cost of grabbing those few people that prefered that OGL renderer was not worth the extra time/cost. Without a directX10 for XP though, Microsoft has basically cut the market again...with much more definated lines this time. If you're looking to cut costs by not doing extra renderers, OpenGL is the only man in town now.
DirectX10 may well be much easier to work with, but since its no longer a simple matter of including the latest directx redistributable on your game CD for your customers to load with the installer...your target demographic has just been cut. Time will tell if the people behind OpenGL take advantage of this void or not. We live in interesting times!
I wouldn't say insidieous, I'd say ingenius. I remember how much enjoyment I gleaned from running around in Starsiege: Tribes repairing broken generators. I sucked at that game, but I loved fixing those generators...why? Because I wished stuff in real life was so easy. Totally destroyed burned-out hulk of an old generator? Oh man, this thing is going to take days to fix...wait a minute, I just point this repair laser at it and...*wooga-wooga-wooga* all done! If only real work were so easy!
I don't know how long the share holders are going to fall for that...sooner or later they'll realize that in consumers eyes they are equivalent goods, and they're choosing the other one!
Betamax was a better technology than VHS.
:P The Dreamcast was a little ahead of its time though, there just wasn't that great of an infrastructure in place to support those online components.
Says who? People wanted a cheaper recorder, even at the expense of some quality. VHS provided them that, Beta did not. Most people just wanted to be able to record shows, they weren't videophiles. And tape recorders were extremely expensive when they came out. Today it might be a difference of $15 between players, but back then it was like $500...of 1980s money!
The Macintosh was a better computer than the (early) IBM PCs.
Businesses bought most of the early PCs, as well as serious hobbiests. Businesses wanted cheap machines to push documents around and hobbiests were also likely quite price sensitive. For all of the flaws in DOS, it provided what the market wanted. The Mac aimed at a niche. The larger market wanted the cheap, open standard IBM PC.
Diesel engines are a better technology that gasoline engines (compare US and Europe adoptation)
There's a lot of factors at play here, some poor government policies, some differences in the market and some real examples of better technology losing out. I like diesel, and feel like the US has unfairly demonized it as dirty. But you also have to factor in people in the US loving fast cars, and that diesel isn't perfect for some of the colder climates in the US.
The SEGA Dreamcast console had better hardware than the Playstation 2..
I got nothing here, I never bought one but it was a pretty cool machine.
They're probably opposed to it because:
1) Biodiesel made from algae is far more efficient
2) The subsidies are just a kick back to the corn lobby
3) The US can't grow enough corn to entirely replace gasoline
4) Corn is also our food source
Well, I don't care for the greenies, but those are my reasons for opposing it. I think we should set up some tanks of dirty seawater in the american southwest and create biodiesel as a replacement instead. I do suspect the greenies reasons are as you said, agricultural sprawl.
I agree. This is whats so annoying. Valve positions themselves as the champion of episodic gaming, then when it comes time for execution they do virtually everything completely wrong. Its like they don't even actually understand what episodic games are suppose to be. I personally don't care for episodic games, but understanding that there is a audience out there hungry for them its pretty annoying to watch valve botch delivery over and over again.
Its "release often" with new levels and story. Thats it. You must meet the release date to make episodic gaming work. I guess its not surprising that valve, who in their short history has made their name a synonym for delays screws this up so bad. Is something holding the release up? Then cut it. Console ports? New graphical features? Cut it, and release it later. There will be more episodes, you can include the features then. And your stuff comes over the steam platform...release now, add that crap later. Parent said, the focus is on content...and I'd say content delivered regularly.
Its in the name, episodic. They want people to come home on friday (end of the month, quarter, whatever) and go "Oh good! Its X day! I'll go buy the latest episode off of steam!" The very idea of episodic gaming business model is that it becomes habit to buy the episodes. This doesn't work if the people come home and go "Oh good! Its X day!" and then find out the episodic is delayed until next tuesday. You move the schedule around and they're going to stop looking out for the release. You can't expect people to make buying your games a habit if you can't make releasing it on time a habit too. And here's a little secret...all the episodes don't even have to be good, just the first few and most of the rest. Same way with TV shows, even my favorite shows have crummy episodes that I watch anyway because...its a habit.
I always knew they thought it. I'd say part of Microsofts empire, a larger part then they will ever admit, was built on the back of piracy. Microsoft was content to sit back and let home users pass their disks around, for a very long time...even during the dongle craziness of the 1980s. They didn't even have any copy protection on their disks IIRC. Why? Because the businesses would still buy it anyway, and once all the home users were used to MS there was pressure for the businesses to buy it.
It was actually a clever marketing strategy. Now that they're the defacto standard they can tighten the grip. People will squirm, a few will slip through their fingers...but most will likely grin and bear it.
I think he's just pointing out that Microsoft supposed new "commitment" to PC gaming is anything but that. He has a vested interest here, because as a guy that works at a PC game company he has to deal with all the bullshit that ensues.
The "Games for Windows" initiative, if you really look at its goals, will do nothing but turn the PC into a clunky and more expensive xbox 360. In short, it'll strip the PC of its advantages in order to make it similar to console gaming. The trouble with this is, of course, that its just setting PC gaming up for the fall. If its the same as a 360, but more expensive, everyone will just buy a 360.
Microsoft hasn't really done dick for developers, or at least their gift has barbs in it. DX10 abandoning compatibility on XP has forced developers back into developing for two APIs, developing for the older API (dx9) or developing for one API that has very little market penetration. GfW certification is just another way to extract a few more dollars out of them in exchange for getting their name in a Games list under the start menu.
I agree with Doug's sentiments, I think MS is humping and will soon be dumping PC gaming to move Vista. Think about it, what has Microsoft actually done for PC gaming since the xbox came out? Wooed developers off the platform to work on xbox games, then gave us some late, sloppy ports of console games. Of course, Doug is probably screaming more then usual since valve has pretty much locked themselves to Microsoft (HL2 doesn't even have an OpenGL mode does it? Its a purely windows title and I've heard its a real bitch to get it working under wine/cedega). I'm not saying linux was some sort of viable alternative really, windows is pretty much the defacto game OS...but if Valve had at least setup an OpenGL renderer they'd have a little wiggle room in what they wanted to do with the HL2 engine.
Steam does do this...pretty much. Like the other guy said, there are tons of non-valve games on the service. They also push out some older games from publishers like activision I believe. Additionally, there are some steam only games, many of which are quite good.
Why are they doing it then? Why don't they go teach English in Asia or join the private sector if its such a bad deal? No disrespect to teachers, they perform an important service, but if the market conditions aren't good enough maybe its time to move onto something else.
Is it fair? Probably not. But its not like teachers are the only ones that whine about their profession not paying enough, pretty much everyone does. Teaching is a fairly safe profession (compared to things like construction work, fisherman, police officer, etc), there are jobs available everywhere (meaning you can live anywhere in the country) its government funded so its a fairly stable profession with stable demand. These things are all built into the salary in some way.
They love you teach? Thats great! I love to play video games and drink beer, but that doesn't mean the market is going to pay me a lot of money to do those things.
What gets me about this is its true there aren't enough good math teachers, because math is a complex subject thats difficult to teach. A good math teacher requires a good understanding of an abstract subject as well as the people skills required to effectively teach. Individuals that possess both these talents are rare. Individuals that could learn both if there was an incentive, a little less so. This rarity means they should command a higher salary IMO.
I've thought the same thing. While small, specific mold stuff like little guns or antenae or whatever were cool...the new stuff looks like glorified model kits. To many movie tie ins.
Bioshock delayed! Unacceptable. Prepare for ramming speed!
Only Steve Ballmers of level 10 or higher receive ability to perform the picture of kids squirting attack.
This is probably a large concern for them. We've already seen some of the 'job loss' due to the rise of better special effects technology. I read somewhere dwarfs were complaining they had less roles these days. Lets face it though, they were of course going to be the first to go and they won't be the last either.
Wasn't there a stupid Al Pacino movie about this? Obviously the execution was kind of overblown but it IS happening. Look at how many of the most popular movies are all CG these days...with regular actors doing the voices. How long before they start cutting some costs by hiring real voice actors...who can do more then just their own voice? The only reason regular actors haven't been subplanted is the technology isn't there yet.