Intelligent people use SQLite (or Berkeley DB) for apps that don't require a heavyweight DBMS.
Databases are even being used in many situations that would be better addressed using flat files.
Now there's a good point. Is there any good documentation out there on databasing on what is the best solution for what kind of problem? Particularly, I would like to see something between flat-files and DBMS and then between different DBMS.
Though, technically, I'm stuck between whatever our 'host' is giving us (currently PostgreSQL, but usually MySQL, and I dabbled with MSSQL when an intern for the Government), I'd like to know when it might be better to actually just store some stuff in a flat file or even use an XML DB (which one collage professor loved to talked about as a holy grail).
Outside of "Basic Database Theory and Generic SQL" books, a programming class on Databases (how to build tree structures and navigate them, etc), I've never really got any 411 on the benefits of using MSSQL, Oracal, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc and I've never gotten the change to learn more about advanced database features such as stored procedures or functions or whatever they might be called and what they're good for.
Give me a break, what else is it about? They wanted open communication to what know about their future, which means money.
You're confusing money with power which are not the same, but do share similarities.
From the summary (I didn't RTFA), it sounds like he was more concerned about his influence than his paycheck. Which, as the GP pointed out, makes sense given the left a good paying job to start his own company. It sounds like he's also unhappy that the fact that, after being bought out, he had very little say in what happened to the games they make. Which, may or maybe have turned true, which is why he left. He didn't want to 'risk' loosing his voice as Vivandi wouldn't give him a direct answer.
While money is an important driving force of many people in the work place, it's not the only thing that is important. I could be making crap loads more money as a medical software programming monkey than the often ignored importance of a "web-master" but I also wouldn't be enjoying my job as much. Besides the much larger work load and wider range of needed knowledge of being a "web-master" (programmer(front-end and back-end), project-manager, usability expert, network administrator, marketing metrics analyzer, graphical designer, Database Manager, etc), it also allows you more control over the aspect of "your baby"(tm). And that's what a project is for some people. You don't want someone else dictating how to raise "your baby" at every turn. And if push comes to shove, you want the final say.
Some people simple want more power/control/influence than more money. So, no, it's not all about money. For a guy like Roper, he must have had a nice saving account by this time, otherwise, he probably wouldn't have risked starting his own business. I think it had to do with him feeling he lost his influence in the overall decision making (aka communication lines). Which is power, not money.
In the end, there are really only 3 things that dictate ones job choice. Money, Power, Work. 'Work' being what it is you actually do (job description). People are willing to take a pay/power cut for a job they love doing.
If you download a dummy file you can't be accused for infringement can you?
Funny, my cousin once told me this story. When he was young and new at downloading movies, he installed Kazaa or something and tried to see if he could download a film. I think he picked Austin Powers or something.
He "copied" a file from the internet to his computer that was labeled "Austin Powers" but when he played it, it wasn't Austin Powers at all. I believe it was either some obscure old film or a porn or something similar.
Eitherway, he got a call/letter from his cable company telling him the MPAA contacted them for illegal fire sharing of the film "Austin Powers" and that if they got another letter, he would have his service terminated. Needless to say, my cousin didn't really care much about the movie nor was he much interested in file share (other than wanting to see if it was possible) so he uninstaller his program.
It brings up a good question. If you download a file called "X" and you really get a file "Y", did you break copyright laws? What's there to be said about the intent to break the laws?
Seriously though, Google lost the case in Germany, but that doesn't mean they cannot pull out one of those really big checks they give to lottery winners and just write a bunch of zero's on it to buy the guy's trademark. After they drag him through the mud, financially, the guy would probably be happy to be offered a tens or hundreds of millions of dollars (probably stock options).
The two would make a good pair... Thompson and Hilton: The Publicity Whoring Masters
Only, I won't download Jack's amateur video.
Re:This is my single biggest push to free software
on
Vista is Watching You
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· Score: 1
It's really all come down to games for me. If my games would all run on Linux I'd be there tomorrow.
I feel the same. This is an interesting subject for me. I know there are differences between Linux/Win/Mac OS's (winsock vs sockets) however, what's the big reason for games not being cross OS? DirectX? Is OpenGL just not good enough? Basically, anyone know any good books on this subject?
I just find that the AI needs a bit of work - sometimes is far too easy, but it frequently seems to do the impossible.
hehe, I love PQ, but I'm a firm believer that the computer is a cheater! *WOOT* 150 HP and the computer only has 4 HP left! (computer goes) dmg buff, 4-combo, 5-combo skulls, 3-combo gold.. but gets a free turn, 5 combo skulls for 50 dmg!, 3-combo skulls fall down, bleh. I'm dead. =(
The thing I hate even more, after getting a combo, I cannot see the board because the "4-combo" words are still hanging over it. I'm playing a speed game I often miss that 4/5 combo because the words where covering it up when my eyes passed it's spot.
At which time a large audible *gasp* from the crowd, and sweeping pan of the aforementioned veiled area shows that, in-fact, the GPL has been STOLEN! An audible laughter is heard over the loud speakers...
In A.D. 2007, GPL3 was beginning.
Stallman: What happen ? Mechanic: Somebody set up us the iPhone. Operator: We get signal. Stallman: What ! Operator: Main screen turn on. Stallman: It's you !!
JOBS: How are you gentlemen !!
JOBS: All your publicity are belong to us.
JOBS: You are on the way to destruction. Stallman: What you say !!
JOBS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
JOBS: Ha Ha Ha Ha.... Operator: Stallman !! * Stallman: Take off every 'Zig' !! Stallman: You know what you doing. Stallman: Move 'Zig'. Stallman: For great justice.
It was the system that first realy started the maturation of the game industry [...]the PS1 was the first system, especially in Europe, that felt "cool," [...]The Genesis and Super NES were marketed and accepted as kids toys.
I cannot say I disagree with your point of the PS1's important being the system the DID herold in more 'mature' games (read blood, violence, and all kinds of squishy and dark stuff). However, I would disagree that they where the 'first'. Though, I do speak from an American side of the coin, oppose to a European side, which may, indeed be different.
My argument is that Genesis was, in-fact, the first system to do so. At least here in the US, Sega was constantly pushing the "cool" marketing theme compared to the SNES. Ever hear of Mortal Kombat by Ed Boon and John Tobias? There my example of how the Genesis started ushering in the 'mature' audience and tried to be 'ahead of the curve'.
I remember when all the talk was about how the Genesis had all the "blood and fatalities" while the SNES version made the blood into 'sweat' by turning it grey and they replaced some of the more graphical fatalities (Kano's Heart rip was removed or change if I remember and I believe it was Sub-Zero's ripping the head from the body with spine intact was removed or changed as well). Here, I found more info on Wikipedia. This "family friendly" attitude for the SNES (despite the game being much more enjoyable in graphics and controls), really hurt Nintendo and by MKII, they didn't bother changing the game.
It was the Genesis and Mortal Kombat that started politicians calling for banning games and implementing a ratings system, as parents found their kids ripping the heads off of their opponents (who where probably the parents) and blood being "everywhere"(tm) and glorified killing of others. Sound familiar? WAY before the Playstation's time.
Though, as I said, that was the 'real' start of mature gaming on home consoles. The PS1 being available and there had a lot more impact as it was a lot of the things you described. The market was larger by the time the PS1 hit and it influenced more people. While one could say Mortal Kombat was an "isolated incident", any game on the PS1 would call for a state of emergancy.
Though, you'll have to recall, my original argument was not that the PS1/PS2 were not the generation defining systems(ie. the Atari generation, the Nintendo Generation, the Playstation Generation), but that they were not pivotal to the game industry. If Sony never jumped in, someone else would have. I give Sony the respect for having 'been there' and 'done that', and they definitely didn't put roadblocks of "family values" in the way of game designers, like Nintendo does (notices "does" and not "did", because they still do). But I won't say that Sony made the game industry 'mature'. Rather, the game industry was mature, like a hidden cache of oil, and Sony was smart enough to know where to drill.
This is different than my feelings towards the original NES, however. The NES was a major breakthrough. It fought it way through fears and stigmas left behind from the video game industry crash, and walked directly into the popular culture of American and other places in the world. It become so much of a pop-culture that Mario was more popular than Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald.
The Playstation (either of them) and even Sega has never been able to achieve that kind of success. Sega gave it a very strong go with Sonic, but ultimately failed. PS1 tried hard with Crash Bandicoot, but failed. Nintendo had already started the wave, Sega and Sony were merely able to do more with it once it started (as the Genesis was more popular than the SNES, despite being less powerful, which sounds vaguely familiar today. Though, the SNES came back real nicely since it could last longer as a system).
Broken crap under Windows doesn't convert people to use Mac, it just pisses them off.
Which is a better point than some might realize... "normal people" (oppose to tech-heads here on/.) might use iTunes on Windows and be like "god this is a POS! Their computers must be equally bad or much worse!" and never bother consider using a mac.
There is a good possibility that gaming would not be as prevelant and pronounced in our culture had it not been for the PS1/PS2.
I agree to your point that Ken was an important icon to gaming simply because he DID do what he did. However, I disagree with the point that the PS1/PS2 where instrumental to the gaming culture. By the time the PS1/PS2 came along, the gaming industry was doing nothing but picking up steam since it's crash in the late 70's early 80's. With the NES, SNES/Gensis battle, Dreamcast, PC gaming on the rise, advances in technology, etc. the "gaming culture" would not have turned out much different, IMHO.
Simply put, the culture drove the companies/systems not the systems/companies driving the culture. If the PS2 didn't exist, then there would have been someone else, with a similar system. Nintendo probably wouldn't have changed, which means the door for the "mature" console (read violence) would be left open. Maybe the Dreamcast would have been much more popular and Sega would have made the "Dreamcast 2" to fill the historical gap. Maybe it would have been more on the PC? Who knows. I didn't happen. However, the PS2 didn't "change" the culture, but it did "define" it.
Much the way I feel the NES defined my generation and the Atari defined the one before me. Thinking in terms of T-shirts and the ones with the NES, Atari joystick. 10 years from now, that generation be wearing a "Know your roots" T-Shirt with the PS2 dual-shock controller and think it's "retro".
*snickers* hehe, That's what I get for not having my coffee. =P Or maybe I've been too use to/duel. *dual it shall be. Once I did/dual and boy that was a mess!
More interesting will be to see what the retail giants do.
I would say equally interesting. I think a rental giant will have more sway than a retailer as I believe the average consumer rents more than they buy. If I wanted to buy a HD format (well, I wouldn't because regular DVD is all I need, but IF I did, I would get a duel-player), if I had a choice of renting Blu-rays at any number of Blockbusters (I'm also a Blockbuster Online member) or having a hard time finding HD-DVD rentals, I would choose Blu-Ray.
Unless and until either one wins or dual-format players become commonplace
Given the debatable nature of which one is 'better', I have a feeling duel-players will be the real winner here. The movie industry will be segmenting themselves.
I'm not interested in either. Regular DVD's are fine. But I also do not have the money to buy a nice flat-screen 1080p TV, own a PS3 or Xbox 360, and have a killer 7.1 speaker system. Hooking up a HD format to my current setup will give me the same result as a DVD.
Maybe 5 years from now, I'll have the disposable income and the prices will be much lower to actually have a killer setup. I'm interested in HD setups, as I like my "tech-toys", but I'm also a penny pincher and I can wait a few years and save $200 on a new player, that will probably be smaller and have more features.
Hehe, good joke. But in all seriousness, Pixar films (despite their historical connection and purchase by Disney) are ones that I will spend the $15-$20 for. Those films are WORTH buying. For both story and computer animation achievements.
A book in a library is still copyrighted. If you use the libraries photocopier to make an illegal copy of the work "You" are infringing not the library. I believe that that is basically his argument.
A good analogy. But I have to ask, isn't it actually legal to copy small portions of a whole product for 'reasonable' use? Like photocopying a page or writing notes of a book for research, report? But not photocopying the entire book, re-binding it and giving it away (or worse, making a profit from it)?
Blatant advertising. There's even a click-to-order link.
Last I remember, all/. book reviews had links to Barnes & Noble or some other such big-box book store. There's always a top level post in the comments that goes something like this "Why is there always a B&N link to the book? You can find it for $X.XX cheaper at Amazon [link to Amazon page]"
So, it's nice to see the Amazon link right in the article. Though, it's up to the critic to make it good or bad, 'reviews' are always a form of advertisement. It's usually common practice to give away samples as 'media kits' to get reviews in newspapers and magazines.
I'll tell you after years of raiding WOW's end game instances and farming mats for those raids, LOTRO is breath of fresh air.
Yes, LOTRO is a fresh game for me as well. I can progress a character again, without repeating content and waiting (for groups). That pretty much sums up why I'm playing LOTRO now.
There's a certain risk in that, as well as technological difficulty.
Absolutely. You make a good point. Giving the 'keys' to the teenagers working for $7/hour at the big box retailers can be dangerous. But no more dangerous than being able to pick-up a DVD off the shelf and walk out the door with it, or to take the stack of $20 bills from the register or the hottest Wii or PS3 game out of the glass cabinet.
The question is still incentive. What incentive is there for said teenager to 'steal' from this machine oppose to the DVD's currently on the shelf? If they start mass-producing copies to hand out to friends, management will know about it. It would go without saying, that a worker id would be required to run the machine, much like it's required to run a register/till. If they wanted to get one disk, they would still need to take it home and copy it. They would still need to buy regular DVD media or DL DVD media which they're going to loose quality or profit margins to the point that the risk-vs-reward worth is debatable.
Simply put, the only way to get pirates to stop pirating is to make it more expensive (to cost per quality and time) to pirate, too risky for the reward, or remove their reason d'etre.
Technologically speaking, I really don't know how possible it'd be. Normal DVD burners can take 5-10mins to burn a DVD. I would assume, High quality, single purpose burners could do it in a matter of a couple mins. Storage, this day and age, isn't much of a problem. Bandwidth? For big box retailers, probably not a problem. Putting together the actual program? Probably the biggest problem. You'd never get the companies to agree to how to do it, let alone movie companies to agree to sell DVD movies for $5 a pop. They'll still (try to) sell them for $15-20 even if there was relatively little cost in distributing said films anymore. It's usually the case that the more savings they get the bigger profits they make and the most bigger raises they'll give themselves (and investments in other crappy bands), oppose to passing it on to the consumer.
If the MAFIAA provides a valuable service to you, and expects money in exchange, it seems reasonable that you should give them money. If they aren't providing a valueable service, then don't pirate their garbage.
Interesting point. However, what your point lacks is quantity/quality. If it's worth money, how much is it worth? Pirating isn't being done by the masses to give the F-You to the record company and "the man" just because they are a big company, but because they do not believe the product/service they supply is not worth the value they're presenting it at.
Simply put, if pirates could buy brand a new movie on a standard DL-DVD without a box (toss it in a paper slip) for $4-$5, pirates would probably buy it oppose to copying. However, $15-$25 for a new DVD film is not worth it for most people. They probably already paid $10 to see it in the theater or can pay $2-4 to rent it and watch it as many times as they want in the week they have it.
A long time ago, I mentioned this 'dream' of mine. Big box retails (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc) getting a high quality DVD burning machine. You walk up to the counter, ask the person for the film you want, they'll punch in the movie id into their computer and the machine plops out a fresh high-quality burned DVD with sticker art. The clerk tosses the DVD into a paper slip and charges you $4. Maybe you rested a DVD case, and he charges you an extra $2 and prints out the DVD case insert, pulls a plastic DVD case off the shelf and inserts the slip art.
The consumer walks out the door with a $6 DVD, the store doesn't need to bother about inventory space, besides the machine and computer containing the DVD image catalog. Movie houses don't need to spend the time and money running DVD making machines, paying truckers and shippers to drop it off at distribution centers, etc. All they do, is download it into their customers DVD Making machine computers on release day. They can even setup a distribution network (hello bit-torrent), so they only have to upload it into the central Big Box Store system and Big Box Store can be responsible for the band-width for uploading it into all it's stores.
The cost is still more than DIYers but low enough to entice those who might pirate to just buy instead. They don't have to go out and buy a stack of DVD media. They probably get better quality DVD since they're not compressing the image, or removing audio tracks to fit onto a non DL-DVD. They also get a nice fancy art-work sticker, instead of just scrawling the name on with a sharpie marker.
The only way to fight the pirates is to offer the service at the value that it's worth. I think that, in general, people feel the cost of watching a movie isn't what it use to be in a world where entertainment is at your finger tips anywhere you go, from portable video game players, to cell phones, to the internet.
Movie theaters are not the only place one can go to 'escape' reality, anymore. Since the prices continue to climb along with entertainment competition, it's only natural to see demand drop off. It goes for saying that I often won't see a film in the theater anymore (unless it's a blockbuster or I'm a fan) and even then, I make every effort to go the the cheaper matinée. It's now 'wait until DVD' because I can rent it for $1-3. The same philosophy probably goes to those who use to buy DVD's for their collection. However odd it is, that such a crime is fairly socially acceptable.
What I'd actually like instead of a hard drive is the ability for the Wii to read directly from the SD card, instead of forcing me to copy the data from the SD card to the Wii's internal memory before using it.
I agree with you 100% on that. I find it odd that they have this 'expanded memory' but it's pretty much pointless outside of a 'closet' to store stuff you're not using. I wanted to toss my saved games and VC games on it, but nope, Wii cannot read them. I see little point for it, unless 3rd parties can choose to use it for their games.
Slashdot Mirror
Now there's a good point. Is there any good documentation out there on databasing on what is the best solution for what kind of problem? Particularly, I would like to see something between flat-files and DBMS and then between different DBMS.
Though, technically, I'm stuck between whatever our 'host' is giving us (currently PostgreSQL, but usually MySQL, and I dabbled with MSSQL when an intern for the Government), I'd like to know when it might be better to actually just store some stuff in a flat file or even use an XML DB (which one collage professor loved to talked about as a holy grail).
Outside of "Basic Database Theory and Generic SQL" books, a programming class on Databases (how to build tree structures and navigate them, etc), I've never really got any 411 on the benefits of using MSSQL, Oracal, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc and I've never gotten the change to learn more about advanced database features such as stored procedures or functions or whatever they might be called and what they're good for.
Recommended books, anyone?
Cheers,
Fozzy
p.s. I work mostly with internet applications.
You're confusing money with power which are not the same, but do share similarities.
From the summary (I didn't RTFA), it sounds like he was more concerned about his influence than his paycheck. Which, as the GP pointed out, makes sense given the left a good paying job to start his own company. It sounds like he's also unhappy that the fact that, after being bought out, he had very little say in what happened to the games they make. Which, may or maybe have turned true, which is why he left. He didn't want to 'risk' loosing his voice as Vivandi wouldn't give him a direct answer.
While money is an important driving force of many people in the work place, it's not the only thing that is important. I could be making crap loads more money as a medical software programming monkey than the often ignored importance of a "web-master" but I also wouldn't be enjoying my job as much. Besides the much larger work load and wider range of needed knowledge of being a "web-master" (programmer(front-end and back-end), project-manager, usability expert, network administrator, marketing metrics analyzer, graphical designer, Database Manager, etc), it also allows you more control over the aspect of "your baby"(tm). And that's what a project is for some people. You don't want someone else dictating how to raise "your baby" at every turn. And if push comes to shove, you want the final say.
Some people simple want more power/control/influence than more money. So, no, it's not all about money. For a guy like Roper, he must have had a nice saving account by this time, otherwise, he probably wouldn't have risked starting his own business. I think it had to do with him feeling he lost his influence in the overall decision making (aka communication lines). Which is power, not money.
In the end, there are really only 3 things that dictate ones job choice. Money, Power, Work. 'Work' being what it is you actually do (job description). People are willing to take a pay/power cut for a job they love doing.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Funny, my cousin once told me this story. When he was young and new at downloading movies, he installed Kazaa or something and tried to see if he could download a film. I think he picked Austin Powers or something.
He "copied" a file from the internet to his computer that was labeled "Austin Powers" but when he played it, it wasn't Austin Powers at all. I believe it was either some obscure old film or a porn or something similar.
Eitherway, he got a call/letter from his cable company telling him the MPAA contacted them for illegal fire sharing of the film "Austin Powers" and that if they got another letter, he would have his service terminated. Needless to say, my cousin didn't really care much about the movie nor was he much interested in file share (other than wanting to see if it was possible) so he uninstaller his program.
It brings up a good question. If you download a file called "X" and you really get a file "Y", did you break copyright laws? What's there to be said about the intent to break the laws?
Cheers,
Fozzy
Only, I won't download Jack's amateur video.
I feel the same. This is an interesting subject for me. I know there are differences between Linux/Win/Mac OS's (winsock vs sockets) however, what's the big reason for games not being cross OS? DirectX? Is OpenGL just not good enough? Basically, anyone know any good books on this subject?
Cheers,
Fozzy
No kidding. New Mexico is soooo, yesterday. Kansas is where anybody who's anybody crashes.
hehe, I love PQ, but I'm a firm believer that the computer is a cheater! *WOOT* 150 HP and the computer only has 4 HP left! (computer goes) dmg buff, 4-combo, 5-combo skulls, 3-combo gold.. but gets a free turn, 5 combo skulls for 50 dmg!, 3-combo skulls fall down, bleh. I'm dead. =(
The thing I hate even more, after getting a combo, I cannot see the board because the "4-combo" words are still hanging over it. I'm playing a speed game I often miss that 4/5 combo because the words where covering it up when my eyes passed it's spot.
At which time a large audible *gasp* from the crowd, and sweeping pan of the aforementioned veiled area shows that, in-fact, the GPL has been STOLEN! An audible laughter is heard over the loud speakers...
In A.D. 2007, GPL3 was beginning.
....
Stallman: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the iPhone.
Operator: We get signal.
Stallman: What !
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Stallman: It's you !!
JOBS: How are you gentlemen !!
JOBS: All your publicity are belong to us.
JOBS: You are on the way to destruction.
Stallman: What you say !!
JOBS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
JOBS: Ha Ha Ha Ha
Operator: Stallman !! *
Stallman: Take off every 'Zig' !!
Stallman: You know what you doing.
Stallman: Move 'Zig'.
Stallman: For great justice.
I agree with that list.
Though, the only difference between R and NC-17 and M and AO (for me) is the "stricter enforcement" of the policies.
Technically, those ratings are the same for me. R = Adult, NC-17 = Adult, M = Adult, AO = Adult.
The whole thing can be thrown out if they just enforced the "R" and "M" ratings, properly.
I cannot say I disagree with your point of the PS1's important being the system the DID herold in more 'mature' games (read blood, violence, and all kinds of squishy and dark stuff). However, I would disagree that they where the 'first'. Though, I do speak from an American side of the coin, oppose to a European side, which may, indeed be different.
My argument is that Genesis was, in-fact, the first system to do so. At least here in the US, Sega was constantly pushing the "cool" marketing theme compared to the SNES. Ever hear of Mortal Kombat by Ed Boon and John Tobias? There my example of how the Genesis started ushering in the 'mature' audience and tried to be 'ahead of the curve'.
I remember when all the talk was about how the Genesis had all the "blood and fatalities" while the SNES version made the blood into 'sweat' by turning it grey and they replaced some of the more graphical fatalities (Kano's Heart rip was removed or change if I remember and I believe it was Sub-Zero's ripping the head from the body with spine intact was removed or changed as well). Here, I found more info on Wikipedia. This "family friendly" attitude for the SNES (despite the game being much more enjoyable in graphics and controls), really hurt Nintendo and by MKII, they didn't bother changing the game.
It was the Genesis and Mortal Kombat that started politicians calling for banning games and implementing a ratings system, as parents found their kids ripping the heads off of their opponents (who where probably the parents) and blood being "everywhere"(tm) and glorified killing of others. Sound familiar? WAY before the Playstation's time.
Though, as I said, that was the 'real' start of mature gaming on home consoles. The PS1 being available and there had a lot more impact as it was a lot of the things you described. The market was larger by the time the PS1 hit and it influenced more people. While one could say Mortal Kombat was an "isolated incident", any game on the PS1 would call for a state of emergancy.
Though, you'll have to recall, my original argument was not that the PS1/PS2 were not the generation defining systems(ie. the Atari generation, the Nintendo Generation, the Playstation Generation), but that they were not pivotal to the game industry. If Sony never jumped in, someone else would have. I give Sony the respect for having 'been there' and 'done that', and they definitely didn't put roadblocks of "family values" in the way of game designers, like Nintendo does (notices "does" and not "did", because they still do). But I won't say that Sony made the game industry 'mature'. Rather, the game industry was mature, like a hidden cache of oil, and Sony was smart enough to know where to drill.
This is different than my feelings towards the original NES, however. The NES was a major breakthrough. It fought it way through fears and stigmas left behind from the video game industry crash, and walked directly into the popular culture of American and other places in the world. It become so much of a pop-culture that Mario was more popular than Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald.
The Playstation (either of them) and even Sega has never been able to achieve that kind of success. Sega gave it a very strong go with Sonic, but ultimately failed. PS1 tried hard with Crash Bandicoot, but failed. Nintendo had already started the wave, Sega and Sony were merely able to do more with it once it started (as the Genesis was more popular than the SNES, despite being less powerful, which sounds vaguely familiar today. Though, the SNES came back real nicely since it could last longer as a system).
Likewise, I would credit Atari with star
Which is a better point than some might realize... "normal people" (oppose to tech-heads here on /.) might use iTunes on Windows and be like "god this is a POS! Their computers must be equally bad or much worse!" and never bother consider using a mac.
Cheers,
Fozzy
I've been calling "Diablo 3" by the name "Titan Quest".
Also available now (with an expansion). It's like a Greek Mythology mod for a never existent Diablo 3 game.
I agree to your point that Ken was an important icon to gaming simply because he DID do what he did. However, I disagree with the point that the PS1/PS2 where instrumental to the gaming culture. By the time the PS1/PS2 came along, the gaming industry was doing nothing but picking up steam since it's crash in the late 70's early 80's. With the NES, SNES/Gensis battle, Dreamcast, PC gaming on the rise, advances in technology, etc. the "gaming culture" would not have turned out much different, IMHO.
Simply put, the culture drove the companies/systems not the systems/companies driving the culture. If the PS2 didn't exist, then there would have been someone else, with a similar system. Nintendo probably wouldn't have changed, which means the door for the "mature" console (read violence) would be left open. Maybe the Dreamcast would have been much more popular and Sega would have made the "Dreamcast 2" to fill the historical gap. Maybe it would have been more on the PC? Who knows. I didn't happen. However, the PS2 didn't "change" the culture, but it did "define" it.
Much the way I feel the NES defined my generation and the Atari defined the one before me. Thinking in terms of T-shirts and the ones with the NES, Atari joystick. 10 years from now, that generation be wearing a "Know your roots" T-Shirt with the PS2 dual-shock controller and think it's "retro".
Cheers,
Fozzy
I cannot say that I'm excited. But it begs to ask, will we see "Diablo 3: the Movie" game?
*snickers* hehe, That's what I get for not having my coffee. =P Or maybe I've been too use to /duel. *dual it shall be. Once I did /dual and boy that was a mess!
I would say equally interesting. I think a rental giant will have more sway than a retailer as I believe the average consumer rents more than they buy. If I wanted to buy a HD format (well, I wouldn't because regular DVD is all I need, but IF I did, I would get a duel-player), if I had a choice of renting Blu-rays at any number of Blockbusters (I'm also a Blockbuster Online member) or having a hard time finding HD-DVD rentals, I would choose Blu-Ray.
Given the debatable nature of which one is 'better', I have a feeling duel-players will be the real winner here. The movie industry will be segmenting themselves.
I'm not interested in either. Regular DVD's are fine. But I also do not have the money to buy a nice flat-screen 1080p TV, own a PS3 or Xbox 360, and have a killer 7.1 speaker system. Hooking up a HD format to my current setup will give me the same result as a DVD.
Maybe 5 years from now, I'll have the disposable income and the prices will be much lower to actually have a killer setup. I'm interested in HD setups, as I like my "tech-toys", but I'm also a penny pincher and I can wait a few years and save $200 on a new player, that will probably be smaller and have more features.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Hehe, good joke. But in all seriousness, Pixar films (despite their historical connection and purchase by Disney) are ones that I will spend the $15-$20 for. Those films are WORTH buying. For both story and computer animation achievements.
I downloaded it a few times.
1- work computer
2- "main" computer
3- laptop computer
Cheers,
Fozzy
A good analogy. But I have to ask, isn't it actually legal to copy small portions of a whole product for 'reasonable' use? Like photocopying a page or writing notes of a book for research, report? But not photocopying the entire book, re-binding it and giving it away (or worse, making a profit from it)?
Cheers,
Fozzy
Last I remember, all /. book reviews had links to Barnes & Noble or some other such big-box book store. There's always a top level post in the comments that goes something like this "Why is there always a B&N link to the book? You can find it for $X.XX cheaper at Amazon [link to Amazon page]"
So, it's nice to see the Amazon link right in the article. Though, it's up to the critic to make it good or bad, 'reviews' are always a form of advertisement. It's usually common practice to give away samples as 'media kits' to get reviews in newspapers and magazines.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Yes, LOTRO is a fresh game for me as well. I can progress a character again, without repeating content and waiting (for groups). That pretty much sums up why I'm playing LOTRO now.
cheers,
Fozzy
Absolutely. You make a good point. Giving the 'keys' to the teenagers working for $7/hour at the big box retailers can be dangerous. But no more dangerous than being able to pick-up a DVD off the shelf and walk out the door with it, or to take the stack of $20 bills from the register or the hottest Wii or PS3 game out of the glass cabinet.
The question is still incentive. What incentive is there for said teenager to 'steal' from this machine oppose to the DVD's currently on the shelf? If they start mass-producing copies to hand out to friends, management will know about it. It would go without saying, that a worker id would be required to run the machine, much like it's required to run a register/till. If they wanted to get one disk, they would still need to take it home and copy it. They would still need to buy regular DVD media or DL DVD media which they're going to loose quality or profit margins to the point that the risk-vs-reward worth is debatable.
Simply put, the only way to get pirates to stop pirating is to make it more expensive (to cost per quality and time) to pirate, too risky for the reward, or remove their reason d'etre.
Technologically speaking, I really don't know how possible it'd be. Normal DVD burners can take 5-10mins to burn a DVD. I would assume, High quality, single purpose burners could do it in a matter of a couple mins. Storage, this day and age, isn't much of a problem. Bandwidth? For big box retailers, probably not a problem. Putting together the actual program? Probably the biggest problem. You'd never get the companies to agree to how to do it, let alone movie companies to agree to sell DVD movies for $5 a pop. They'll still (try to) sell them for $15-20 even if there was relatively little cost in distributing said films anymore. It's usually the case that the more savings they get the bigger profits they make and the most bigger raises they'll give themselves (and investments in other crappy bands), oppose to passing it on to the consumer.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Interesting point. However, what your point lacks is quantity/quality. If it's worth money, how much is it worth? Pirating isn't being done by the masses to give the F-You to the record company and "the man" just because they are a big company, but because they do not believe the product/service they supply is not worth the value they're presenting it at.
Simply put, if pirates could buy brand a new movie on a standard DL-DVD without a box (toss it in a paper slip) for $4-$5, pirates would probably buy it oppose to copying. However, $15-$25 for a new DVD film is not worth it for most people. They probably already paid $10 to see it in the theater or can pay $2-4 to rent it and watch it as many times as they want in the week they have it.
A long time ago, I mentioned this 'dream' of mine. Big box retails (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc) getting a high quality DVD burning machine. You walk up to the counter, ask the person for the film you want, they'll punch in the movie id into their computer and the machine plops out a fresh high-quality burned DVD with sticker art. The clerk tosses the DVD into a paper slip and charges you $4. Maybe you rested a DVD case, and he charges you an extra $2 and prints out the DVD case insert, pulls a plastic DVD case off the shelf and inserts the slip art.
The consumer walks out the door with a $6 DVD, the store doesn't need to bother about inventory space, besides the machine and computer containing the DVD image catalog. Movie houses don't need to spend the time and money running DVD making machines, paying truckers and shippers to drop it off at distribution centers, etc. All they do, is download it into their customers DVD Making machine computers on release day. They can even setup a distribution network (hello bit-torrent), so they only have to upload it into the central Big Box Store system and Big Box Store can be responsible for the band-width for uploading it into all it's stores.
The cost is still more than DIYers but low enough to entice those who might pirate to just buy instead. They don't have to go out and buy a stack of DVD media. They probably get better quality DVD since they're not compressing the image, or removing audio tracks to fit onto a non DL-DVD. They also get a nice fancy art-work sticker, instead of just scrawling the name on with a sharpie marker.
The only way to fight the pirates is to offer the service at the value that it's worth. I think that, in general, people feel the cost of watching a movie isn't what it use to be in a world where entertainment is at your finger tips anywhere you go, from portable video game players, to cell phones, to the internet.
Movie theaters are not the only place one can go to 'escape' reality, anymore. Since the prices continue to climb along with entertainment competition, it's only natural to see demand drop off. It goes for saying that I often won't see a film in the theater anymore (unless it's a blockbuster or I'm a fan) and even then, I make every effort to go the the cheaper matinée. It's now 'wait until DVD' because I can rent it for $1-3. The same philosophy probably goes to those who use to buy DVD's for their collection. However odd it is, that such a crime is fairly socially acceptable.
Cheers,
Fozzy
I agree with you 100% on that. I find it odd that they have this 'expanded memory' but it's pretty much pointless outside of a 'closet' to store stuff you're not using. I wanted to toss my saved games and VC games on it, but nope, Wii cannot read them. I see little point for it, unless 3rd parties can choose to use it for their games.