Lack of tolerance for commercials is what keeps me from watching TV... I've got a few grand into home theater equipment, a projector, piece-built surround sound system, etc. It's got no TV hookups to speak of, just video games, DVDs, and the occasional streamed PC media file. Every so often I wont feel like a movie or gaming and I'll pop on the TV... usually I'll barely make it 10 minutes before I get either: bored, frustrated, or ashamed with the pointlessly drawn out plots to resolve only following commercial breaks, commercial breaks that last so long I begin to forget what it was I was even watching, or the lack of intelligence in both the shows and the commercials.
There are a few shows I like but I've taken to simply waiting for the DVD to come out and then watching it on my own time at that point.
Honestly though, the Nielsen system sucks especially when you consider the level of technology today, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to get near 100% results as to who is watching what through digital cable. I think the vast discrepancy between DVD sales an Nielsen generated "ratings" is enough to make you question how accurate they really are. Not to mention I get the impression they target "typical American families" because they offer both adult and child demographics in the same household, yet this leaves out the single adults, college students, lonely geeks and other non-family groups that I'm sure make up a large portion of TV viewers.
I'm not sure how much iTunes will reduce the need for Nielsen but I think when IPTV arrives it will be a different story, when all shows are downloadable on-demand to your TV they'll simply be able to track downloads and be done with it.
Well I don't have any links, I speak from experience. Having looked at and worked with the files on both Xbox and PS2 discs I can tell you that for cross platform games the audio files on the Xbox are but a fraction of the size of their PS2 counterparts.
I don't know WHY exactly but I've been told by more then one person that the PS2 uses a hardware solution for audio compression which limits devleopers to codecs supported by the hardware, which means the tech is only as good as what was availble back when the PS2 was being developed... obviously audio compression techniques have comes quite a ways since then, and software solutions offer more flexability because they're upgradable.
I'd say those Burger King Xbox games might be worth a bit a few years down the road...
Also there was a limited Edition Xbox 1 version of Counterstrike availble only to people who pre-ordered... in about 10 years I bet it'd fetch a pretty penny.
IIRC the only multi disc PS2 titles were on two single layer DVD5 discs because early PS2 units had problems reading information on the 2nd layer of DVD9s. I can't think of any multi disc Xbox 1 games... and actually there were only 3 Xbox 1 games that required the 2nd layer after you got rid of game demos/videos and other unnecessary crap. Jade Empire, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, and Rally Sport Challange 2 all spilled over onto the 2nd layer. Jade empire and RSC2 only spilled over by less then a gig, and MGS2 Substance on the PS2 was 2 discs with the 2nd disc includeing specail feature and behind the seens stuff, for the Xbox Version they squeezed it all onto one disc but it could have easily been two single layer discs without any kind of disc swapping or removing from the gameplay.
There were only a small handful of GC games that used more then one disc, though I think it's important to note that the GC discs were ONLY single layer and held about 1.4GB of data... essentially 2 CDs. Meaning that the LARGEST of the GC games were about the same size as the largest PS1 and Saturn games.
Lets not forget that with new codecs for audio and video those elements are taking up a fraction of the space. Also there is new texture compression that apprently reduces texture sizes up to 70% without quality loss. It would be interesting to see how the disc size requirments would change for a game like Oblivion had that tech been availble when it was first released. Apparently it's being used on some upcoming XBLA games that are using the U3 engine for fully featured games under 50MB.
IIRC the PS2 used up a lot of space for audio because it had problems with audio compression, for instance GTA:SA filled almost a whole DVD on the PS2 while the PC and Xbox versions were almost small enough to fit on a CD.
Advertising CAN work in a Sci-Fi setting... Some movies have shown that like Minority Report, and I-Robot... The most difficult setting I think would be fantasy, trying to work modern product ads in would just be campy and probably ruin any serious moods the game was attempting to portray.
But I think ads COULD work beyond just 20th century scenarios, certainly products exist in nearly every form of human life and advertising has probably been around as long as products have. I agree that some games it would be difficult to make use of product placement; for instance I can't see how it would work in games like Oblivion, WoW, or Spore. But there are more Scenarios where I think it COULD work heck I could even see Mario wearing Carhearts or Sonic putting on some Nikes, maybe that new ship in EVE is made by Cadillac.
I think for other game types, like Oblivion or Wow, advertisers would have to stick to sponcership... for instance maybe there's an expansion pack that is "sponsored" by Burger King and you get it for half cost by looking at a "brought to you by" still frame when the game loads up.
I think if developers are making a game worth playing the first place, they're also bright enough to limit advertising to what's appropriate. It's a touchy subject and traditional advertising rules do not always apply. I think the best course for gamers is to accept that advertising is coming to the gaming world and the best thing to do is pay attention to reviews/previews and avoid titles where the adverts cross the line.
"Major Nelson" is moniker of Larry Hryb, he's the Xbox Live Director of Programming for MS.
What makes him so special is that whenever there is any confusion over some kind executive double-speak "The Major" is quick to ask the right people within MS and blog about what's really going on in plain English without any of the BS. Basically he puts all the hype and confusion into laymen terms. His blog is probably one of the best and most straight-forward sources of info for what's REALLY going on with Xbox stuff. The thing that makes it so special is that it's his PERSONAL blog, not part of his job description. The guy just loves working for the Xbox division and puts in the extra effort to make sure people get things straight. Of course he also announces up-coming Xbox Live stuff too but my guess is that's not what the article is talking about.
And since "Major Nelson" isn't his real name I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it really is referencing I Dream of Jeanie
Not that I've ever done anything with Broadcast TV but I would imagine for the best possible image you'd output your video through the VGA and use a standalone broadcast quality device to encode it to the necessary NTSC signal, AFAIK VGA is about as high quality as you can get for an analog signal (for all I know there is some OTHER standard used in the pro sector that I've never heard of) and it's certainly one of the best analog video signals you could get out of a PC. I would think that a VGA to whatever it is they need converter would be readily available, I wouldn't be surprised if they already had one.
I think my biggest concern with ANY computer based system would be reliability... judging by how often my own machine, or even the servers at my workplace (even the Linux ones) are down I would think that sort of thing would be unacceptable in the Broadcast TV space... If done right Linux can be a whole world better in that respect then the other available OSs but hardware is still a factor, things break, hard drives crash, network switches hiccup, video cards lock up, someone cuts a wire they shouldn't have, etc.. I suppose it's unavoidable no matter what you go with though.
It's a good place for them too, they get their fill of stupid people without worrying about wasting time with those of us who know better, and those of us who know better don't have to waste time dealing with malwareorists... it's a win-win-win (stupid people ALWAYS win, what with their blissful ignorance and all)
...I think part of retro popularity is that sometimes things have inherent value. It's the same way that William Shakespeare's plays don't go away after so many years...
I would tend to agree, some might feel nostalgia towards Shakespeare if they were introduced to his works as a child, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who remembers seeing those plays on opening night.
I think in some ways older games are still popular because the games are GOOD and they will always be GOOD, they aren't good because they're following a trend or a fad they are themselves and they are classic and original in their execution; they don't try to be things that they're not.
That's not to say that games today are all bad, certainly there are THOUSANDS of old games and we still only talk about a very very small number of them. I think every generation has titles that stand the test of time. Doom, Street Fighter II, Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII, etc. Those games will still be played for a long long time because they're original and timeless.
In other ways retro games like PacMan are popular because there aren't any modern alternatives, and in the rare instance that we DO get a modern alternative gamers jump on it like rabid wolves, just look at titles like Bejeweled, Geometry Wars, Lumines, Brain Age, etc. All of those games are incredibly simple rely very minimally on graphical glitz for their popularity and could probably be recreated in a short time with some dedication.
Basically, They're simple cheap and fun games, and the gaming industry seems to completely ignore this type of game... We keep hearing about the costs of development rising but that's only because they're pursuing the graphical envelope, if they just stopped and looked around they're realize that there is a giant gaping hole in the market for fun and innovative retro-style games, that are cheap to develop and offer infinite replayability. I love lots of older games but I don't really think I like them for nostalgic reasons (I'm too young to remember PacMan in the Arcade but I still love the game) it's just because they're good games, I also love Geometry wars and if they made more GOOD games in this simple style I'm sure I'd find a lot to like in them too.
Why does everything have to be 3D? Why does everything have to use the latest technological advances? Why can't new hardware advances be used to make new and innovative classic games (think of a PacMan era game but with the advantage of the wiimote). There's no reason except that the industry rarely ever thinks to make games like that. Hopefully we'll get some indy talent fixing this situation with things like Steam, XNA Express/XBLA, and the Virtual Console.
... I believe by saying "Bands" he was referring to Blink 187 and Disturbed seeing as Stratosfear, Dark Side of the Moon and 2112 are albums not bands...
I couldn't agree more... I personally don't hold very strong beliefs on this topic one way or another but I never understood why people could believe that a supreme being created a big bang, or that God created creatures that were capable of evolving.
I suppose most bible thumpers will bark that the bible says 7 days and Adam & Eve were like today's humans but I've always thought that taking any religious text LITERALLY was rather silly; if anything it simply servers as a moral standpoint by which to calibrate yourself and a standard method for displaying gratitude for your existence.
Is there an engineer in the house? Six axis implies movement along X Y and Z as well as rotation about X Y and Z. The "shock" in "dualshock" refereed to the rumble feedback, seeing as there is no-longer any rumble feedback it'd be silly to still use the shock title (hence why many journalists started calling it "dual shake". Also sixaxis has the marketing benefit of reading the same when spelled backward, which plays along with the symmetry Sony seems to feel is terribly important with their controller designs.
Naming conventions can be screwy... considering they might name it "One" "Two" Three" "Four" going by alphanumeric order wouldn't be very helpful when determining the next one in a series, instead you'd be better off going by the release date to determine the order, then prequels will appear in the proper place.
Besides any logical cataloging system would mark the SW prequels as a completely different series then the original.
Personally I think a good place to start is by director/writer... So if I liked Fight Club then maybe it could suggest Panic Room and The Game. Similarly if I liked Dogma then maybe it would suggest Clerks and Jersey Girl. This is usually how I find new stuff for myself, I've bought many DVDs without knowing anything about the movie simply because I like some of the other things that director has done 9 times out of 10 I am more then happy with my purchase. Most suggestion systems will find movies with similar genres/plots and that's useless IMO because that genre/plot will get tired after a while. Most directors will try to keep their movies fresh for the sake of their own boredom and I think most people are attracted to the style and soul of a film more so then the genre and plot type.
Of course I think the best thing to do would be to take a look at how the current system works and follow through looking at where it goes wrong and why.
If they're so adamant on using correlations for their arguments lets look at other corelations... the rate of murderous rampages per copy of GTA sold is minuscule compared to the rate of murderous rampages per child born from those parents... hmm...
Just look at the statistics: Millions of copies of GTA sold causing a few deaths (assuming it even did) = 00000000000001% chance of committing murder after buying the game... 1 child raised by those parents causing a few deaths = 100% chance that all children raised by those parents will commit murder.
STOP these parents from creating more offspring... wont someone think of the children!!!
I almost did the same thing, My brother and his friends are obsessed with the game they'd talk about it all the time but I was never over his place while they were playing, they're all musicians too so I figured it wouldn't be for me. I caught wind of a rumor it was coming to the 360 and figured I'd give it a try if it did. Later I saw it at Best Buy and decided to try it and I was HORRIBLE at it but it was stupid fun, and I imagine it was even more fun... I would have bought it right then and there but I decided to just wait for the 360 version... because playing over XBL, playing with possibly 4 people locally, and the potential for being able to download songs I figured would be worth the wait... and if I really have an itch I can head over to my brother's place.
I actually think a Wii release would work well, they could probably make the guitar a huge adapter that the wii-mote slides into (similar to how they're doing the Zapper)... it would certainly save some of the cost of the buying the guitars + wireless
Slashdot Mirror
Lack of tolerance for commercials is what keeps me from watching TV... I've got a few grand into home theater equipment, a projector, piece-built surround sound system, etc. It's got no TV hookups to speak of, just video games, DVDs, and the occasional streamed PC media file. Every so often I wont feel like a movie or gaming and I'll pop on the TV... usually I'll barely make it 10 minutes before I get either: bored, frustrated, or ashamed with the pointlessly drawn out plots to resolve only following commercial breaks, commercial breaks that last so long I begin to forget what it was I was even watching, or the lack of intelligence in both the shows and the commercials.
There are a few shows I like but I've taken to simply waiting for the DVD to come out and then watching it on my own time at that point.
Honestly though, the Nielsen system sucks especially when you consider the level of technology today, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to get near 100% results as to who is watching what through digital cable. I think the vast discrepancy between DVD sales an Nielsen generated "ratings" is enough to make you question how accurate they really are. Not to mention I get the impression they target "typical American families" because they offer both adult and child demographics in the same household, yet this leaves out the single adults, college students, lonely geeks and other non-family groups that I'm sure make up a large portion of TV viewers.
I'm not sure how much iTunes will reduce the need for Nielsen but I think when IPTV arrives it will be a different story, when all shows are downloadable on-demand to your TV they'll simply be able to track downloads and be done with it.
it takes all of a few seconds to "register a team" I did it a few days ago just to have a peek at the test data.
Yeah but can Superman properly identify a Kitten?
Well I don't have any links, I speak from experience. Having looked at and worked with the files on both Xbox and PS2 discs I can tell you that for cross platform games the audio files on the Xbox are but a fraction of the size of their PS2 counterparts.
I don't know WHY exactly but I've been told by more then one person that the PS2 uses a hardware solution for audio compression which limits devleopers to codecs supported by the hardware, which means the tech is only as good as what was availble back when the PS2 was being developed... obviously audio compression techniques have comes quite a ways since then, and software solutions offer more flexability because they're upgradable.
I'd say those Burger King Xbox games might be worth a bit a few years down the road...
Also there was a limited Edition Xbox 1 version of Counterstrike availble only to people who pre-ordered... in about 10 years I bet it'd fetch a pretty penny.
IIRC the only multi disc PS2 titles were on two single layer DVD5 discs because early PS2 units had problems reading information on the 2nd layer of DVD9s. I can't think of any multi disc Xbox 1 games... and actually there were only 3 Xbox 1 games that required the 2nd layer after you got rid of game demos/videos and other unnecessary crap. Jade Empire, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, and Rally Sport Challange 2 all spilled over onto the 2nd layer. Jade empire and RSC2 only spilled over by less then a gig, and MGS2 Substance on the PS2 was 2 discs with the 2nd disc includeing specail feature and behind the seens stuff, for the Xbox Version they squeezed it all onto one disc but it could have easily been two single layer discs without any kind of disc swapping or removing from the gameplay.
There were only a small handful of GC games that used more then one disc, though I think it's important to note that the GC discs were ONLY single layer and held about 1.4GB of data... essentially 2 CDs. Meaning that the LARGEST of the GC games were about the same size as the largest PS1 and Saturn games.
Lets not forget that with new codecs for audio and video those elements are taking up a fraction of the space. Also there is new texture compression that apprently reduces texture sizes up to 70% without quality loss. It would be interesting to see how the disc size requirments would change for a game like Oblivion had that tech been availble when it was first released. Apparently it's being used on some upcoming XBLA games that are using the U3 engine for fully featured games under 50MB.
IIRC the PS2 used up a lot of space for audio because it had problems with audio compression, for instance GTA:SA filled almost a whole DVD on the PS2 while the PC and Xbox versions were almost small enough to fit on a CD.
Advertising CAN work in a Sci-Fi setting... Some movies have shown that like Minority Report, and I-Robot... The most difficult setting I think would be fantasy, trying to work modern product ads in would just be campy and probably ruin any serious moods the game was attempting to portray.
But I think ads COULD work beyond just 20th century scenarios, certainly products exist in nearly every form of human life and advertising has probably been around as long as products have. I agree that some games it would be difficult to make use of product placement; for instance I can't see how it would work in games like Oblivion, WoW, or Spore. But there are more Scenarios where I think it COULD work heck I could even see Mario wearing Carhearts or Sonic putting on some Nikes, maybe that new ship in EVE is made by Cadillac.
I think for other game types, like Oblivion or Wow, advertisers would have to stick to sponcership... for instance maybe there's an expansion pack that is "sponsored" by Burger King and you get it for half cost by looking at a "brought to you by" still frame when the game loads up.
I think if developers are making a game worth playing the first place, they're also bright enough to limit advertising to what's appropriate. It's a touchy subject and traditional advertising rules do not always apply. I think the best course for gamers is to accept that advertising is coming to the gaming world and the best thing to do is pay attention to reviews/previews and avoid titles where the adverts cross the line.
don't forget the boob-job for the trophy wife... or the overpaid hair stylist for your "wind blown" blond locks.
"Major Nelson" is moniker of Larry Hryb, he's the Xbox Live Director of Programming for MS.
What makes him so special is that whenever there is any confusion over some kind executive double-speak "The Major" is quick to ask the right people within MS and blog about what's really going on in plain English without any of the BS. Basically he puts all the hype and confusion into laymen terms. His blog is probably one of the best and most straight-forward sources of info for what's REALLY going on with Xbox stuff. The thing that makes it so special is that it's his PERSONAL blog, not part of his job description. The guy just loves working for the Xbox division and puts in the extra effort to make sure people get things straight. Of course he also announces up-coming Xbox Live stuff too but my guess is that's not what the article is talking about.
And since "Major Nelson" isn't his real name I wouldn't be terribly surprised if it really is referencing I Dream of Jeanie
Not that I've ever done anything with Broadcast TV but I would imagine for the best possible image you'd output your video through the VGA and use a standalone broadcast quality device to encode it to the necessary NTSC signal, AFAIK VGA is about as high quality as you can get for an analog signal (for all I know there is some OTHER standard used in the pro sector that I've never heard of) and it's certainly one of the best analog video signals you could get out of a PC. I would think that a VGA to whatever it is they need converter would be readily available, I wouldn't be surprised if they already had one.
I think my biggest concern with ANY computer based system would be reliability... judging by how often my own machine, or even the servers at my workplace (even the Linux ones) are down I would think that sort of thing would be unacceptable in the Broadcast TV space... If done right Linux can be a whole world better in that respect then the other available OSs but hardware is still a factor, things break, hard drives crash, network switches hiccup, video cards lock up, someone cuts a wire they shouldn't have, etc.. I suppose it's unavoidable no matter what you go with though.
I would have sumerized it making reference to the e-penis (TM), but yours works too.
It's a good place for them too, they get their fill of stupid people without worrying about wasting time with those of us who know better, and those of us who know better don't have to waste time dealing with malwareorists... it's a win-win-win (stupid people ALWAYS win, what with their blissful ignorance and all)
I think in some ways older games are still popular because the games are GOOD and they will always be GOOD, they aren't good because they're following a trend or a fad they are themselves and they are classic and original in their execution; they don't try to be things that they're not.
That's not to say that games today are all bad, certainly there are THOUSANDS of old games and we still only talk about a very very small number of them. I think every generation has titles that stand the test of time. Doom, Street Fighter II, Mario 64, Final Fantasy VII, etc. Those games will still be played for a long long time because they're original and timeless.
In other ways retro games like PacMan are popular because there aren't any modern alternatives, and in the rare instance that we DO get a modern alternative gamers jump on it like rabid wolves, just look at titles like Bejeweled, Geometry Wars, Lumines, Brain Age, etc. All of those games are incredibly simple rely very minimally on graphical glitz for their popularity and could probably be recreated in a short time with some dedication.
Basically, They're simple cheap and fun games, and the gaming industry seems to completely ignore this type of game... We keep hearing about the costs of development rising but that's only because they're pursuing the graphical envelope, if they just stopped and looked around they're realize that there is a giant gaping hole in the market for fun and innovative retro-style games, that are cheap to develop and offer infinite replayability. I love lots of older games but I don't really think I like them for nostalgic reasons (I'm too young to remember PacMan in the Arcade but I still love the game) it's just because they're good games, I also love Geometry wars and if they made more GOOD games in this simple style I'm sure I'd find a lot to like in them too.
Why does everything have to be 3D? Why does everything have to use the latest technological advances? Why can't new hardware advances be used to make new and innovative classic games (think of a PacMan era game but with the advantage of the wiimote). There's no reason except that the industry rarely ever thinks to make games like that. Hopefully we'll get some indy talent fixing this situation with things like Steam, XNA Express/XBLA, and the Virtual Console.
... I believe by saying "Bands" he was referring to Blink 187 and Disturbed seeing as Stratosfear, Dark Side of the Moon and 2112 are albums not bands...
were those real-time or pre-rendered?
I couldn't agree more... I personally don't hold very strong beliefs on this topic one way or another but I never understood why people could believe that a supreme being created a big bang, or that God created creatures that were capable of evolving.
I suppose most bible thumpers will bark that the bible says 7 days and Adam & Eve were like today's humans but I've always thought that taking any religious text LITERALLY was rather silly; if anything it simply servers as a moral standpoint by which to calibrate yourself and a standard method for displaying gratitude for your existence.
Is there an engineer in the house? Six axis implies movement along X Y and Z as well as rotation about X Y and Z. The "shock" in "dualshock" refereed to the rumble feedback, seeing as there is no-longer any rumble feedback it'd be silly to still use the shock title (hence why many journalists started calling it "dual shake". Also sixaxis has the marketing benefit of reading the same when spelled backward, which plays along with the symmetry Sony seems to feel is terribly important with their controller designs.
I'm sure a power consumption analysis will be done... it's been done for the current consoles
Naming conventions can be screwy... considering they might name it "One" "Two" Three" "Four" going by alphanumeric order wouldn't be very helpful when determining the next one in a series, instead you'd be better off going by the release date to determine the order, then prequels will appear in the proper place.
Besides any logical cataloging system would mark the SW prequels as a completely different series then the original.
Personally I think a good place to start is by director/writer... So if I liked Fight Club then maybe it could suggest Panic Room and The Game. Similarly if I liked Dogma then maybe it would suggest Clerks and Jersey Girl. This is usually how I find new stuff for myself, I've bought many DVDs without knowing anything about the movie simply because I like some of the other things that director has done 9 times out of 10 I am more then happy with my purchase. Most suggestion systems will find movies with similar genres/plots and that's useless IMO because that genre/plot will get tired after a while. Most directors will try to keep their movies fresh for the sake of their own boredom and I think most people are attracted to the style and soul of a film more so then the genre and plot type.
Of course I think the best thing to do would be to take a look at how the current system works and follow through looking at where it goes wrong and why.
If they're so adamant on using correlations for their arguments lets look at other corelations... the rate of murderous rampages per copy of GTA sold is minuscule compared to the rate of murderous rampages per child born from those parents... hmm...
3) Jack Thompson sees this on the news and calls the family up telling them he knows where the blame "really" lies.
Also not a coincidence but IMO it's the most likely of scenarios.
Just look at the statistics: Millions of copies of GTA sold causing a few deaths (assuming it even did) = 00000000000001% chance of committing murder after buying the game... 1 child raised by those parents causing a few deaths = 100% chance that all children raised by those parents will commit murder.
STOP these parents from creating more offspring... wont someone think of the children!!!
I almost did the same thing, My brother and his friends are obsessed with the game they'd talk about it all the time but I was never over his place while they were playing, they're all musicians too so I figured it wouldn't be for me. I caught wind of a rumor it was coming to the 360 and figured I'd give it a try if it did. Later I saw it at Best Buy and decided to try it and I was HORRIBLE at it but it was stupid fun, and I imagine it was even more fun... I would have bought it right then and there but I decided to just wait for the 360 version... because playing over XBL, playing with possibly 4 people locally, and the potential for being able to download songs I figured would be worth the wait... and if I really have an itch I can head over to my brother's place.
I actually think a Wii release would work well, they could probably make the guitar a huge adapter that the wii-mote slides into (similar to how they're doing the Zapper)... it would certainly save some of the cost of the buying the guitars + wireless