I don't necessarily agree with that, active teens without a license rely entirely on others to get rides... do you really want your daughter stranded in the middle of nowhere without a way to call for help when her looser friends forget to pick her up?
I think you'd be best to make them pay for the phone service themselves, and if they don't want/can't afford it just make sure they keep a phone card in the wallet for emergency calls from a pay-phone (which seem to be getting pretty damn scarce since the widespread use of cell phones).
till genitals start showing up? I give about a week before someone's "poker face" mysteriously only has 1 eye...
Reading an early article about the Xbox Vision IIRC they have methods to detect wether or not what you took a picture of was your face or something else. They used the example that you couldn't take a picture of your hand because the system was unable to find your eyes, nose, mouth, etc and thus wouldn't let you use it.
I don't think any company doing this should be considered "evil" You'd have to be an idiot to admit to a price drop any more then 2 or 3 days in advance. Unless you want to loose sales while people wait for it. Pretty much every console company that has ever had a price drop (meaning ALL of them) has denied the price drop until it actually happened... it's business.
The only problem here is the idiot journalist who thinks they're going to get a straight answer about a price drop out of PR...
Because, believe it or not some companies today still use or still have to communicate with such archic data entry systems.
It also keeps things standarized in a single case, not to mention there are some corporate and government standards that require certain things to be in all caps.
I don't know, she might enjoy any of the following:
Astropop
Bankshot Billiards 2
Bejeweled 2
BOMBERMAN Act:Zero
Burnout Revenge
Cloning Clyde
Crystal Quest
DEAD OR ALIVE 4
Enchanted Arms
Everyparty
Feeding Frenzy
FINAL FANTASY XI
Frogger
GALAGA
Gauntlet
Geometry Wars Evolved
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Spades
Hexic HD
Jewel Quest
Joust
Just Cause
Kameo
King Kong
Marble Blast Ultra
Mutant Storm Reloaded
Oblivion
Outpost Kaloki X
PAC-MAN
Robotron: 2084
Rockstar Table Tennis
TGM ACE
Tomb Raider:Legend
Top Spin 2
UNO
Wik: Fable of Souls
Zuma
At least those are some of the Xbox 360 games that I've found to be appreciated by the fairer gender, including some other ones like Dead Rising depending on personality.
While I love online multiplayer, the unfortunet side effect is that developers seem to think that it's a substitute for local multiplayer or LAN multiplayer (where most gamers who care will tell you it's not). If Xbox Live is any indication the more games go online the less use you'll get out of your 3rd and 4th controllers, even less use out of that cross-over cable.
There are almost NO 4 player games for the Xbox 360, yet almost all of them COULD very well support it and DO support 12, 16, 32 players online... COD2, DOA4, PDZ, and Gauntlet in the Xbox Live Arcade are the only 4 player games that I can think of... none of the available racing games do, and most of the FPSs are only single player unless you go online. I just hope the Wii developers don't loose site of how fun local multiplayer can be, then again a lot of them are the same developers, groups like EA, Ubisoft, etc...
Yeah Nintendo is like the Michael Jackson of video games... on the exterior they pretend to care about children and everything they do is for the love of children... but really they just like to... well... you konw the rest...
How dare developers try to give away next to worthless items like icons for free...
I might actually considering BUYING those things if they added the super cool features to actually SEE what you buy on the console before you buy it. Maybe a 5 minute trial for themes instea of just buying it blindly for $2. If I'm going to spend money on something that's nothing more then a pretty picture, at least let me determine if the pretty picture is actually pretty.
I thought that paper money (at least in the US) was just a "note" that said you own X amount of the federal reserve. In other words just as worthless as the digital bits on a server simply filed in archaic paper form instead of on a server somewhere.
Last time I checked $100 would get you just the first disc with no box or manual... and badly scratched at that. You'd be lucky if you could even find a complete PD Saga game in good shape, nevermind the price you'd have to pay to make it yours.
It's pretty sad when it's unbelievably easier to aquire the game by alternative illegal methods.
There were 18 Xbox 360 launch day titles, if you were to include Xbox Live Arcade games there were 32 games total, and a handfull released over the next month. But MS was expecting as many as 45 games launch day and as many as 60 in the launch "window" (whatever that really means). Of course this didn't happen, developers had setbacks, testing wasn't as smooth as anticipated, games failed certification, etc. etc. etc.
I think it's great that Nintendo is planning on having 27 titles (if they do, it will be the best Nintendo launch in their history) though I'll believe it when I see it... for most consoles, I expect to see about 70% from what they origionally "plan" on delivering, to what actually gets delivered.
If the new Xbox Live has shown us anything it's that ANY game can benifit from online features even if it's nothing more then stats or activity tracking. Of course leaderboards can be used by more then just online games. Many of the classic games like Frogger and Pacman use the Leaderboards for that little extra value.
If you pick a career doing something you love then it's not that big a deal. I know many programers who go home and program little pet projects after hours. I'm a mechanical engineer and "engineer" and build quite a few things in my spare time unrelated to work.
well isn't it being published by Microsoft? I thought part of the reason it'd been in delopment for so long was because they had problems finding a publisher. I think that would make for a good reason why it was hitting the 360 instead of the Wii (or any other console)
You're damn right... who says I have to use the saw to cut wood.. what if I'm cutting up say.. dead bodies? I think they'll be cutting off a whole demographic of people who might otherwise buy their products. Maybe they'll have a switch to go between "wood" mode and "dead body" mode or something. I guess they just don't make 'em like they use to.
Or maybe it's to help recoup their losses on the 360 sales, while XP is profitable already.
If I had to pick one reason, that would be my guess... homebrew software on the Xbox 1 was pretty popular, we've been reading all sorts of articles about Bill Gates wanting to "engage" those people. Also the argument against the use of modchips for homebrew is that it breaks Microsoft's profit model where they loose money on the hardware and recoup it on the software and accessories. Obviously people useing free homebrew instead of buying official MS licensed games is only helping MS loose more money.
By charging a subscription fee you can have your cake and eat it too. Garage developers can make AND RUN their homebrew software for a fairly low cost $100 really isn't that much, and the subscription fee lets MS allow that kind of development without breaking their profit model, essentially making up the money they're "loosing" by not selling you games.
while it might be a bit more expensive then chipping your console a lot of people will opt for the legal route if available. Not to mention I can see a whole lot of non-developers signing up just to run the homebrew stuff made by the real developers. I'll tell you what, if they make an XBMC360 and it's availble on this thing, I'll pay the $100 a year to run that and other software, weather I'm developing my own software or not. I would imagine there will be a lot of other people in the same boat. MS basically found a way to allow homebrew software and turn a profit at the same time... crafty buggers.
Mod Parent up. Thats the best solution to the hardware problem I've ever read.
It certainly works well to help with your business plan because the hardware becomes more of a steady cost month to month as opposed to big chunks of money every year or two and riding the fine line of out of date hardware.
I'd also recomend splurging on a nice monitors... Most PC hardware goes out of date like crazy but monitors last for quite some time. Even if the PCs are slightly lower performers then what people have at home a nice 21" display could be worth it for them... maybe even a couple units with big 50" plasma screen that you could rent for an extra $1 or $2 an hour. PCs might need Processor and graphics updates ever 8months to a year but a good monitor will last you 4 or 5 years, usually that kind of hardware craps out before it becomes outdated.
It might be impossible for a full grown adult yes, but for someone who is in the process of growing it's definitly do-able in a years time... a full grown adult can put on 10 to 15lbs of muscle in a matter of months so why not a growing boy put on 35-40 lbs in the course of a year? Maybe not all muscle but certainly dramatic change.
You just have to level the playing field. I was picked on quite a bit for being a nerd when I was young. Picked last in gym class, called names, had people steal my books, notes, backpack, etc run down the hall and throw them the nasty cafeteria garbage. Interesting enough it was a New England Prep School.
One day my father suggested I start going to the gym with him to work out, it was a powerlifters gym, if you wanted aerobics you ran outside, everything inside was freeweights. I started lifting and advanced FAST, applying my studying habbits to learn proper techniques and eating habbits. I gained about 40lb of muscle over the course of my sophomore year. I had to get a new custom made school uniform because my sholders were so wide.
I was still a nerd, I still played card games with the other 2 or 3 nerdy kids in the cafe during our study halls, I was still a member of the chess club and the math team but after school I would go and lift weights. I even entered a few powerlifting competitions and took 1st place a couple of times. It really turned my life at school around. My junior year I remember early on one of the football players started picking on me and my friends so I stood up and he got in my face... soon realizing that while shorter I was much wider in the shoulders then he was. I told him I'd arm wrestle him and if I won he would have to appologize to my friends and leave us alone for the rest of the year. I put him down so fast he brused his knuckles when they hit the table. Needless to say none of us ever had any problems with the bullies in the school ever again. Despite the fact that I still enojyed doing all of my nerdy things I had earned a lot of respect from a whole lot of the people who used to pick on me.
Nerds are smart enough, get them on a training program, martial arts, weight lifting etc. Bullies pick on your weak spots and typically the week spot of a nerd is their lack of physical prowess... you fix that and the bullies will pick on someone else... or find something better to do.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, Except for the fact that Nintendo didn't make the powerglove... Mattel did.
I don't necessarily agree with that, active teens without a license rely entirely on others to get rides... do you really want your daughter stranded in the middle of nowhere without a way to call for help when her looser friends forget to pick her up?
I think you'd be best to make them pay for the phone service themselves, and if they don't want/can't afford it just make sure they keep a phone card in the wallet for emergency calls from a pay-phone (which seem to be getting pretty damn scarce since the widespread use of cell phones).
I don't think any company doing this should be considered "evil" You'd have to be an idiot to admit to a price drop any more then 2 or 3 days in advance. Unless you want to loose sales while people wait for it. Pretty much every console company that has ever had a price drop (meaning ALL of them) has denied the price drop until it actually happened... it's business.
The only problem here is the idiot journalist who thinks they're going to get a straight answer about a price drop out of PR...
Because, believe it or not some companies today still use or still have to communicate with such archic data entry systems.
It also keeps things standarized in a single case, not to mention there are some corporate and government standards that require certain things to be in all caps.
Same here, I work for a very large aerospace manufacturer and all the notes on the engineering documents are required to be in all caps.
Aparently the "War on Caps Lock" is spearheaded by someones who's entire computer world revolves around chatting with immature pre-teens online.
I don't know, she might enjoy any of the following:
Astropop
Bankshot Billiards 2
Bejeweled 2
BOMBERMAN Act:Zero
Burnout Revenge
Cloning Clyde
Crystal Quest
DEAD OR ALIVE 4
Enchanted Arms
Everyparty
Feeding Frenzy
FINAL FANTASY XI
Frogger
GALAGA
Gauntlet
Geometry Wars Evolved
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Spades
Hexic HD
Jewel Quest
Joust
Just Cause
Kameo
King Kong
Marble Blast Ultra
Mutant Storm Reloaded
Oblivion
Outpost Kaloki X
PAC-MAN
Robotron: 2084
Rockstar Table Tennis
TGM ACE
Tomb Raider:Legend
Top Spin 2
UNO
Wik: Fable of Souls
Zuma
At least those are some of the Xbox 360 games that I've found to be appreciated by the fairer gender, including some other ones like Dead Rising depending on personality.
While I love online multiplayer, the unfortunet side effect is that developers seem to think that it's a substitute for local multiplayer or LAN multiplayer (where most gamers who care will tell you it's not). If Xbox Live is any indication the more games go online the less use you'll get out of your 3rd and 4th controllers, even less use out of that cross-over cable.
There are almost NO 4 player games for the Xbox 360, yet almost all of them COULD very well support it and DO support 12, 16, 32 players online... COD2, DOA4, PDZ, and Gauntlet in the Xbox Live Arcade are the only 4 player games that I can think of... none of the available racing games do, and most of the FPSs are only single player unless you go online. I just hope the Wii developers don't loose site of how fun local multiplayer can be, then again a lot of them are the same developers, groups like EA, Ubisoft, etc...
Rare owns the rights to Goldeneye, rumor has it that it will be hitting the Xbox Live Arcade... so probably not a Wii near you.
Yeah Nintendo is like the Michael Jackson of video games... on the exterior they pretend to care about children and everything they do is for the love of children... but really they just like to... well... you konw the rest...
How dare developers try to give away next to worthless items like icons for free...
I might actually considering BUYING those things if they added the super cool features to actually SEE what you buy on the console before you buy it. Maybe a 5 minute trial for themes instea of just buying it blindly for $2. If I'm going to spend money on something that's nothing more then a pretty picture, at least let me determine if the pretty picture is actually pretty.
I thought that paper money (at least in the US) was just a "note" that said you own X amount of the federal reserve. In other words just as worthless as the digital bits on a server simply filed in archaic paper form instead of on a server somewhere.
Last time I checked $100 would get you just the first disc with no box or manual... and badly scratched at that. You'd be lucky if you could even find a complete PD Saga game in good shape, nevermind the price you'd have to pay to make it yours.
It's pretty sad when it's unbelievably easier to aquire the game by alternative illegal methods.
I just checked.. and yes the nunchuck does contain the same 3-axis motion and accel sensors as the wiimote: http://wii.nintendo.com/controller.html
There were 18 Xbox 360 launch day titles, if you were to include Xbox Live Arcade games there were 32 games total, and a handfull released over the next month. But MS was expecting as many as 45 games launch day and as many as 60 in the launch "window" (whatever that really means). Of course this didn't happen, developers had setbacks, testing wasn't as smooth as anticipated, games failed certification, etc. etc. etc.
I think it's great that Nintendo is planning on having 27 titles (if they do, it will be the best Nintendo launch in their history) though I'll believe it when I see it... for most consoles, I expect to see about 70% from what they origionally "plan" on delivering, to what actually gets delivered.
If the new Xbox Live has shown us anything it's that ANY game can benifit from online features even if it's nothing more then stats or activity tracking. Of course leaderboards can be used by more then just online games. Many of the classic games like Frogger and Pacman use the Leaderboards for that little extra value.
Even being able to see what offline achievements someone has earned it well worth it IMO.
Being "online" is more then just multiplayer.
you wouldn't need two controllers IIRC the nunchuck attachment has motion sensing capabilites as well.
If you pick a career doing something you love then it's not that big a deal. I know many programers who go home and program little pet projects after hours. I'm a mechanical engineer and "engineer" and build quite a few things in my spare time unrelated to work.
well isn't it being published by Microsoft? I thought part of the reason it'd been in delopment for so long was because they had problems finding a publisher. I think that would make for a good reason why it was hitting the 360 instead of the Wii (or any other console)
You're damn right... who says I have to use the saw to cut wood.. what if I'm cutting up say.. dead bodies? I think they'll be cutting off a whole demographic of people who might otherwise buy their products. Maybe they'll have a switch to go between "wood" mode and "dead body" mode or something. I guess they just don't make 'em like they use to.
If you're going to vote looser you might as well vote pirate...
By charging a subscription fee you can have your cake and eat it too. Garage developers can make AND RUN their homebrew software for a fairly low cost $100 really isn't that much, and the subscription fee lets MS allow that kind of development without breaking their profit model, essentially making up the money they're "loosing" by not selling you games.
while it might be a bit more expensive then chipping your console a lot of people will opt for the legal route if available. Not to mention I can see a whole lot of non-developers signing up just to run the homebrew stuff made by the real developers. I'll tell you what, if they make an XBMC360 and it's availble on this thing, I'll pay the $100 a year to run that and other software, weather I'm developing my own software or not. I would imagine there will be a lot of other people in the same boat. MS basically found a way to allow homebrew software and turn a profit at the same time... crafty buggers.
Mod Parent up. Thats the best solution to the hardware problem I've ever read. It certainly works well to help with your business plan because the hardware becomes more of a steady cost month to month as opposed to big chunks of money every year or two and riding the fine line of out of date hardware.
I'd also recomend splurging on a nice monitors... Most PC hardware goes out of date like crazy but monitors last for quite some time. Even if the PCs are slightly lower performers then what people have at home a nice 21" display could be worth it for them... maybe even a couple units with big 50" plasma screen that you could rent for an extra $1 or $2 an hour. PCs might need Processor and graphics updates ever 8months to a year but a good monitor will last you 4 or 5 years, usually that kind of hardware craps out before it becomes outdated.
It might be impossible for a full grown adult yes, but for someone who is in the process of growing it's definitly do-able in a years time... a full grown adult can put on 10 to 15lbs of muscle in a matter of months so why not a growing boy put on 35-40 lbs in the course of a year? Maybe not all muscle but certainly dramatic change.
You just have to level the playing field. I was picked on quite a bit for being a nerd when I was young. Picked last in gym class, called names, had people steal my books, notes, backpack, etc run down the hall and throw them the nasty cafeteria garbage. Interesting enough it was a New England Prep School.
One day my father suggested I start going to the gym with him to work out, it was a powerlifters gym, if you wanted aerobics you ran outside, everything inside was freeweights. I started lifting and advanced FAST, applying my studying habbits to learn proper techniques and eating habbits. I gained about 40lb of muscle over the course of my sophomore year. I had to get a new custom made school uniform because my sholders were so wide.
I was still a nerd, I still played card games with the other 2 or 3 nerdy kids in the cafe during our study halls, I was still a member of the chess club and the math team but after school I would go and lift weights. I even entered a few powerlifting competitions and took 1st place a couple of times. It really turned my life at school around. My junior year I remember early on one of the football players started picking on me and my friends so I stood up and he got in my face... soon realizing that while shorter I was much wider in the shoulders then he was. I told him I'd arm wrestle him and if I won he would have to appologize to my friends and leave us alone for the rest of the year. I put him down so fast he brused his knuckles when they hit the table. Needless to say none of us ever had any problems with the bullies in the school ever again. Despite the fact that I still enojyed doing all of my nerdy things I had earned a lot of respect from a whole lot of the people who used to pick on me.
Nerds are smart enough, get them on a training program, martial arts, weight lifting etc. Bullies pick on your weak spots and typically the week spot of a nerd is their lack of physical prowess... you fix that and the bullies will pick on someone else... or find something better to do.